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Post by skybright on Apr 29, 2007 23:46:08 GMT -5
Daws pulled a wry face. "Yeah, I can just see tryin' to get Caleb to go to school without you. And you're right, too. You can't just hide away. Sooner or later, the world will find you -- and if you're not used to it, that just makes whatever you run into seem worse."
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Post by Jordanna on Apr 30, 2007 20:44:13 GMT -5
Tara nodded soberly. Vance smiled slightly at her.
"You're a tough kid--and you're doing the right thing. Just remember... you're really not alone." He grinned at Daws. "It took me long enough to learn that one for myself."
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Post by skybright on May 1, 2007 21:03:40 GMT -5
Daws grinned back at him. "Maybe you just needed the right teacher."
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Post by Jordanna on May 1, 2007 21:52:07 GMT -5
"I guess so," Vance murmured.
Then he abruptly cleared his throat and stirred his pot. "Might as well call Rog now. Handy, give me the phone."
Handy, who had been more preoccupied with his murmured conversation with Grace than peeling carrots, delved into his pocket with his lower right hand and produced a cellphone. This he handed over to his leader.
Vance rolled his eye at the others with patient humor.
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Post by skybright on May 1, 2007 22:07:24 GMT -5
Daws chuckled quietly and then glanced at Alex. "Well -- nothing's caught on fire or tried to take over the kitchen. I'd say that means this lesson's been a success so far, huh?"
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Post by Jordanna on May 1, 2007 22:25:48 GMT -5
"Uh..." Alex began hesitantly, then twitched when Sid nudged him. "Uh, yeah--I guess." He grinned wincingly.
Sid chuckled. "Don't worry, he'll give up on ya after a while. He's already given up on Consuela. She barely ever gets inta the kitchen anymore."
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Post by skybright on May 1, 2007 22:33:27 GMT -5
"I'm sure you all keep her busy anyway." Daws remarked with a smile. "Since to hear her tell it the place would fall down around your ears without her."
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Post by Jordanna on May 1, 2007 22:45:44 GMT -5
"It prob'ly would," Sid admitted.
"I've known drill sergeants that put me more at ease than that woman," Vance remarked. "The looks I got from her when I was recuperating at your place were somethin' else. She reserve that treatment for mutants?"
"Aw, it ain't that," Sid answered, shaking his head. "She's just kinda protective of the kids. Anybody she hasn't known since she started workin' fer us is a stranger ta her, an' she thinks they oughta be watched like a hawk."
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Post by skybright on May 1, 2007 22:49:58 GMT -5
Daws snickered. "Don't feel bad, Vance. She called me a 'devil cat' the first time I showed up at the house. I think she's warmed up to me some since then, though -- at least a little."
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Post by Jordanna on May 1, 2007 23:08:25 GMT -5
Sid looked slightly chagrined. "Well, uh... they're kinda stuperstitious where Connie comes from. Ever seen 'em celebrate that Day of the Dead thing in Mexico? Whatever church brought her up's got some even funnier ideas about that stuff."
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Post by skybright on May 1, 2007 23:17:24 GMT -5
Daws shrugged good-naturedly. "Hey, I don't hold it against her. I've been called a lot worse. Heck, Hubert called me a lot worse when we first me. Consuela's a good person, and she's good to you guys -- that's all I care about."
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Post by Jordanna on May 2, 2007 21:44:35 GMT -5
"Yeah, she is," Sid agreed thoughtfully. "I'm pretty used ta havin' her around--she has been since before any a' the kids were born. She was... well, I guess sort of a weddin' present from my father-in-law, paid up fer six months."
He grinned reminiscently. "Right then I was just a street punk tryin' ta start up this place, an' I didn't know how I was ever gonna keep her on after that. But the Paragon turned out ta be a hit."
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Post by skybright on May 2, 2007 22:43:59 GMT -5
"Well, of course it did." Daws smiled. "People know real class when they come across it."
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Post by Jordanna on May 3, 2007 20:26:28 GMT -5
"Well, it was kinda a gamble, tryin' ta do it 1930s style when all the clubs these days are doin' that rave stuff," Sid admitted. "But I always thought those crazy, glitzy, dressed-up places in the old movies were great. You said it--class. That's what I wanted. I guess maybe I was just tryin' ta get hold of somethin' I never had comin' up."
He ducked his head slightly. "I mean, nobody'd ever mistake me of havin' class, but at least I can serve it up ta folks."
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Post by skybright on May 3, 2007 22:16:57 GMT -5
Daws made a face at him. "Don't sell yourself short, my friend. You don't just have class, you've got character. That's worth its weight in gold anyday."
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Post by Jordanna on May 3, 2007 22:29:00 GMT -5
Sid grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. Well. Lucky fer me Foxy an' I thought alike on that stuff, 'cause before him it just didn't exactly work."
Alex made a comical face. "I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I'll bet I didn't see a dozen movies as a kid--and there was Sid, trying to tell me he wanted to do something like the New Year's Eve party in After the Thin Man." The entertainer pantomimed a wild gesture of desperate haplessness.
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Post by skybright on May 3, 2007 22:38:20 GMT -5
Daws snickered. "I can see how that might be a little on the unbalancing side, yeah."
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Post by Jordanna on May 3, 2007 22:46:03 GMT -5
Alex grinned wincingly. "Most of what I knew in life looked more like a circus."
"He learned fast when we set him up with a VCR an' a buncha movie rentals," Sid put in.
"And then I found out how far off I was with a lot of impressions I'd been doing," Alex recalled, putting a hand over his eyes. "It's amazing anybody hired me before Sid. My Cary Grant sounded like Edward G. Robinson."
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Post by skybright on May 3, 2007 22:58:49 GMT -5
"Yeah, but who'd your Edward G. Robinson sound like?" Daws shrugged philosophically. "Most people today have only heard of the really big stars anyway. They wouldn't know the names of half of the really good actors that used to be in pictures."
She ducked her head and stirred her soup pot. "I've got a soft spot for old movies, in case the trenchcoat didn't give it away. There was a rep theater down the block from where I grew up that used to run all the old black and whites, and it was pretty easy to sneak in the back. It was a good way to escape, when I was a kid."
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Post by Jordanna on May 3, 2007 23:08:13 GMT -5
"I never got to see them until Sid put me on my feet," Alex reflected. "I love all that stuff now."
Miriam grinned. "They're working on converting me now. It's all new to me--back when I worked at the M.E.'s office, I came home at night too tired to think, much less watch TV."
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