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Post by skybright on Jan 20, 2008 3:08:18 GMT -5
Marla smiled slightly as she turned the heat down under the bacon. "It was easy with Ruth." She murmured. "Easier than with just about anyone -- except Marcus, of course. Certainly easier than with any of my tutors." She shrugged. "I . . . I guess because she didn't have so many expectations of me getting in the way of what she was trying to teach me."
She glanced up abruptly, as if she'd said more than she'd meant to. "Sorry. Could you hand me the basil and that little jar of minced garlic, please?" She gestured to the items in question.
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 20, 2008 23:05:49 GMT -5
A little bemused, Nate handed Marla the requested ingredients, and presumed she would be more comfortable with another change of subject.
"We'll have to check out the room upstairs of the garage later. It's supposed to be a game room. Sid said something about a hot tub up there, too. That'd be a lot nicer than the beach this time of year."
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Post by skybright on Jan 20, 2008 23:30:19 GMT -5
Marla ducked her head. "That . . . does sound pretty nice, actually." She said, adding garlic to the frying pan. "Especially since the Atlantic is so much colder than the ocean in California."
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 21, 2008 21:27:36 GMT -5
"It's not bad most of the year. We used to go to Coney Island a lot during the summers when I was a kid." Nate shrugged and set down his knife. "There's the chicken. Is that cut small enough?"
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Post by skybright on Jan 22, 2008 0:38:31 GMT -5
Marla glanced over and nodded. "That's just right." She bit her lower lip thoughtfully and looked over at the rest of the ingredients. "Uhm . . . would you mind getting a big pot of water boiling for the linguine?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 22, 2008 23:04:46 GMT -5
"I think I can do that," Nate replied with a wry grin, and began looking through the cabinets for a suitable pot.
"Mom used to make me help with dinner sometimes when I was little," he recalled, and grunted slightly as he stretched to take down a pot from a high shelf. "I didn't care much, but Dad thought it was kind of embarrassing for a boy, and he put a stop to it by the time I was fourteen." He chuckled. "I think that was one of the only fights he ever won with my mother."
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Post by skybright on Jan 22, 2008 23:15:49 GMT -5
Marla laughed. "My family was the exact opposite. Dad thought it was a good idea for Marcus and I to learn a little about fending for ourselves. Mother . . ." She smiled wryly. "Mother never said it, but she wasn't particularly happy about us spending too much time with 'the help'."
She grinned as she added the chicken to the sizzling frying pan. "Come to think of it, that may have been the only fight my father won against my mother."
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 22, 2008 23:31:15 GMT -5
"I never did like it when the parents fought," Nate admitted. "Dad would try to keep his cool and be reasonable, but Mom used to get kinda... shrill. Then after Dad manifested..." He frowned. "He was hard to be with then. And Mom didn't help things any."
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Post by skybright on Jan 22, 2008 23:38:08 GMT -5
Marla winced in sympathy. "That does sound difficult." She stirred the chicken thoughtfully. "I never really thought about what that would be like . . . having one of your parents manifest, I mean."
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 22, 2008 23:54:51 GMT -5
Nate sighed. "Dad got a one-two punch. It happened in Iraq; the vehicle he was riding in hit an IED. He was hurt pretty bad--he lost the sight in one eye. And the rest of the guys in the truck were hurt or killed. Then the insurgents who planted the bomb moved in to finish them off."
He shook his head. "Well, Dad just reacted on instinct--he blew the bad guys away, mutant-style. And that news got back to headquarters. I don't think he could've gone on with his career anyway, with half his vision gone, but... he knew the real feelings behind his discharge. That about killed him. And things just went downhill from there."
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Post by skybright on Jan 23, 2008 0:01:26 GMT -5
Marla glanced at Nate, eyes widening. Even deliberately trying to keep out of his thoughts as she was, she could still feel the strong emotions that his father's experience stirred in him. "That's awful."
She frowned down at her frying pan. "People can be . . . so awful to one another."
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 23, 2008 22:19:18 GMT -5
"Yeah... I guess that's what Dad was trying to forget when he started drinking." Nate restlessly shuffled the cutlery on the counter in front of him. "Things... got pretty bad. Too bad for Mom to take. She gave up on him--but my sister didn't."
He drew a deep breath. "I should have stayed, too... maybe Deanna would be alive today if I had."
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Post by skybright on Jan 24, 2008 0:01:43 GMT -5
Marla let the spatula fall from her fingers and regarded him with a grieved, sympathetic silence. She didn't bother to protest his statement -- there was enough grieved uncertainty in his emotions that she knew it would be pointless.
As last she shook her head slightly. "I . . . couldn't begin to imagine losing Marcus." She murmured. "I - I'm sorry. And I . . ." She hesitated, then brushed two fingers against her temple. "I . . . I haven't been there but . . . I know what you feel."
She looked away abruptly, focusing her attention on the cooking chicken. It was true; the longer she was around Nate the easier it became to sense his emotions (if not his actual conscious thoughts) -- especially when the emotions were such strong ones.
Marla only hoped Nate wouldn't regard that as a dreadful breach of his privacy.
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 24, 2008 22:37:40 GMT -5
Nate glanced sideways at Marla, and after a moment he half-smiled, awkwardly and a little sadly. "I guess you would."
He shrugged restlessly and moved to the fridge, looking around for something to drink--more to preoccupy himself than anything. "There's no changing the past. All I can do is try to see justice done for Deanna... and I have Dad with me on that. At least what happened--saved him."
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Post by skybright on Jan 24, 2008 23:49:29 GMT -5
Marla nodded. "I . . . I hope you'll find that justice for her. Both of you."
She switched off the heat under the frying pan and glanced over her shoulder at Nate. "Um . . . sorry -- I got a little zealous putting things away and forgot I needed the eggs for this recipe. Could you hand me the carton?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 24, 2008 23:56:41 GMT -5
"Sure." Nate handed across the eggs, then picked a bottled lemonade out of the fridge. He opened it and took a sip. "Ooh--tart."
Then he leaned one shoulder against the wall and regarded Marla again. "So what interests you besides cooking?"
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Post by skybright on Jan 25, 2008 0:04:34 GMT -5
Marla smiled thoughtfully as she took down a glass bowl from the nearest cupboard and began cracking eggs into it. "Oh . . . I read a lot. And I'm interested in botany -- I, uh, I've actually taken some correspondence courses in it." Her smile turned somewhat forced and humorless. "I have a garden at home that I work in . . . when it's not an election year."
She ducked her head. "I'm not very interesting, I'm afraid. Except to paparazzi interested in James Cole's recluse sister."
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 25, 2008 0:07:25 GMT -5
Nate grimaced. "It must be hard staying out of their sight. I'm just learning how tough it is to live without getting found by people you don't want finding you."
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Post by skybright on Jan 25, 2008 0:22:42 GMT -5
Marla shrugged as she cracked a fourth egg and then started beating them. "It's not usually as bad as it was this year. Everyone Marcus was running against sent people to try and get photos or an interview. And not all of them were as worried about trespassing as the 'normal' ones are." She made an angry, disgusted face. "One of them trampled a whole bed of crocuses. I spent most of the year inside with the curtains drawn.
"I never thought I'd say this, but I hope now it'll go back to just one person driving around the edge of the estate every month or two, like it used to be. That was annoying -- but at least it was tolerable." She sighed faintly and shook her head. "I'm tired of being treated like Bigfoot."
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Post by Jordanna on Jan 25, 2008 23:24:57 GMT -5
"Wow." Nate shook his head. "I don't think I could take that. At least the way I'm hiding out, nobody knows where I am."
He smiled wanly. "Of course, the difference is, the people looking for me and my dad want to shoot us with guns--not cameras."
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