Author stuff: I had a big anxiety spike yesterday. Not sure what was really going on - might be bc of the last of sleep, might be the anticipation of the bad weather we had - but I'm feeling a bit better today. Not 100% yet, but getting there.

There's only going to be two chapters out today. That's all I really feel like I'm be able to post.

Drawn From Stone

Chapter Six

First, Jim and Claire and the trolls left, then Dr. L. has a seizure, and now him? Out of everyone who could pick the worst timing…

"Barbie —" James said. Dr. L. cut him off.

"James," she said, practically spitting his name. It was toxic on her tongue, and the glare? Toby was sure even Angor Rot would have begged for forgiveness at the sight of it.

"I know that I have a lot of explaining to do —"

"You could explain to the Moon and back, and I still won't believe you."

James winced.

"I deserve that."

"And a whole lot more," Toby said under his breath.

"But there is a reasonable explanation. If we could just get a moment alone."

"You think we're going to leave Dr. Lake alone with you?" Darci said, crossing her arms. She didn't know the full extent of pain James Lake, Sr., had caused Jim and Dr. L., but she could read the situation like Mary did a fashion magazine. "Anything you can say in front of her, you can say in front of us."

The nurse who had let him in – a tall, black woman with her hair pulled back and sharp eyes – looked them and James over. Her frown deepened.

"If you're going to cause my patient, my friend, any distress," she said, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"The kids can stay, La'Wanda," Dr. L. said. "Him on the other hand…"

She nodded towards James and the nurse, La'Wanda, took that as her cue to take the man's arm. She started to pull him away.

"We can either have this conversation now," James said, grabbing onto the doorframe and holding himself there, "or we can have it later. But it needs to happen. You and I both know that."

"I thought that I knew you," Dr. L. said.

"And my patient needs to get ready for a CT scan," La'Wanda said, eventually tugging hard enough that James let go. Toby watched him disappear, glaring as ferociously as he could at the man.

"Thank you," Dr. L. said, lying back into the pillows in relief.

"We're happy to help, Dr. Lake," Darci said. "Do you want me to call my dad and see if he can get an officer or two to stand guard? For you, he'd be more than willing."

"No, thank you, dear. I appreciate it, though."

La'Wanda came back, visibly less tense.

"I handed him off to security," she said. Her face softened considerably. "You alright, Barbara?"

"I'm fine, La'Wanda. Thanks for… making James leave."

"Don't worry about it." La'Wanda looked at her and then the two of them. "Barbara, I scheduled a CT scan for you. Think you're up for it?"

The scans came back normal. And that… that worried him.

He'd stepped outside to try calling Jim, but he kept getting a busy signal. Maybe they were phone tagging one another? No. There was no notification or anything. Maybe he was talking to Strickler? Entirely possible. Though their ex-teacher changeling would know less than he did.

He wasn't sure who else his friend would be calling. Claire? But for three hours? Unless they got separated… Though he was certain that one of them would have contacted him if that was the case.

He was about to go back in when he was stopped by a hand. He was pushed forcefully back against a wall by one arm as another came up to cover his mouth.

Upon instinct, Toby withdrew his hammer from the holster on his belt. His Nana had made it for him. It matched his clothes. It extended, and he swung it at the person holding him down. He only realized too late who it was.

James Lake, Sr.

Not that the man didn't deserve it — he completely did — but he was human.

The hammer crunched through skin and bone of the skull and shoulder. He felt his stomach turn at the destruction. He didn't get a chance to lose his lunch, however.

The broken body of James Lake, Sr. started to repair itself. His fingers twitched against the floor. When his skull was mostly reformed, the man sat up straight.

"Well," James said, mouth having just come back. His eyes and brains were next. "Let's not do that again, eh?"

"What, what are you?"

"Tell me, how do you know my family? And where, on god's green earth, is my son?"

Jim was going to wear a hole in the carpet. He was going to wear it down by all the back and forth. Still, Claire didn't have the heart to stop him. She would have been doing the same thing if it had been anyone in her family.

But it had to stop.

"Can you sit down?" she said, scooting further into the fluff of the pillows resting against the headboard. "You're making my head hurt."

"What does my dad want?" Jim said, which were the first coherent things since his mumbling started up… an hour ago when he arrived. "Why would he come back? Why now?"

"Maybe he heard about the storm and the fight, and he got worried." Okay, that was a dumb suggestion.

"Worried? About what, the house? A year late?"

"Maybe." She watched as he continued to pace, an erratic and fearful creature. It didn't help that he was on all fours. She pushed herself off the pillows and walked on her knees to the end of the bed. "Jim, look, I don't know your dad. I don't know what he could want in Arcadia. It could be something completely unrelated to us. You said he works for the military, right?"

"Yeah…" He looked up at her, his face turned into a pout.

"Do you know what division?"

"Mom never said." His brow furrowed together as he thought for a moment. "I don't think she even knew."

"Well, think about what else has been going on."

There was a beat, then he groaned.

"You think Krel and Aja…?" he said. He tossed his hands in the air, almost making him lose his balance. "Gah! Just what we need, Steve and Eli and everybody being wrapped up in something too big for the U.S. to handle."

"And who knows, you're almost eighteen. So, he might have thought that, well, you two should get to know one another. Or something."

She offered up a little shrug and a tentative smile.

"Right, because he thinks I'll just get up and join the Army like he did at eighteen. Yeah, how about no."

"Jim, what —"

"Look," he said, getting up and joining her at the end of the bed "my dad and I… We, uhm, I don't even know how to explain it."

"You have a complicated relationship," she said, taking his hand. "I get it. I mean, I can't really understand everything, but I get that whatever's between you two isn't something that easy to, well, understand. It's not something that's tangible, but there's so much emotion that it almost is, I guess?"

He sighed, his face remaining startlingly neutral as he looked at her.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Do you want to cuddle for a while?"

Jim shrugged and gently tugged her back towards the headboard. He created something of a nest — well, she called it a nest and she thought Blinky would agree, but it could also be a pillow fort — out of the pillows. When he was satisfied with it, he gestured for her to settle in. Only when he was sure she was comfortable did he curl up against her, his head resting against her chest.

It had been awkward the first couple of times. Like, really awkward. She couldn't exactly place when she'd gotten comfortable with it. Probably when Jim whined and twitched in his sleep like a puppy. Yeah, that was probably it.

"I know that he left you and your mom," she said, her fingers stroking his hair. He curled further around her. "No one's ever told me why, though. You don't have to tell me. But, one day, I'd like to know."

Jim breathed in through his nose, staring down at their feet. At least, she thought he was staring at their feet. She didn't want to move too much to check and see.

"He was having an affair," Jim said after a moment. "Someone he knew through the military. It… It kept him away a lot, I remember that much. Said it was part of his job, but it, you know, it wasn't. He never introduced me to her, because it was an affair."

Claire waited for him to continue.

"But, but I saw her. The day he left. She was with him. Well, waiting by his car."

"What did she look like? Do you remember?"

He was silent while he thought.

"She was… white. Like, her hair and clothes were all white. And her clothes were kind of dated. Like 60s or 70s or something. I… I don't remember anything else."

"I can call Darci or Toby to see if a woman like that is lurking about. Want me to do that?"

"Why not? It can't hurt."