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Post by Jordanna on Jun 15, 2006 20:25:19 GMT -5
Already munching on his third marshmallow, Alex chuckled. "You let it dip down too close to the coals. Maybe you should try holding it just a smidge further away for a little longer."
"I haven't done this in years," Miriam remarked with a thoughtful smile, peeling one of the sugary blobs from her stick. "Reminds me of campfires and ghost stories with my parents."
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Post by skybright on Jun 15, 2006 22:57:07 GMT -5
Daws -- who was intently focused on keeping her marshmallow constantly turning (and away from the coals) -- spared a brief, quizzical glance at Miriam.
"Y'know, I'll admit I didn't meet 'em under anything like normal circumstances -- but your folks didn't quite seem like the ghost story type." Then, after a moment's thought, she added "Well, your Mom didn't, anyhow."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 15, 2006 23:51:33 GMT -5
Miriam chuckled. "Well, Mother wasn't, really. She just sat there listening and looking a little worried. My father told the stories."
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Post by skybright on Jun 15, 2006 23:58:32 GMT -5
Daws grinned and withdrew her marshmallow from the fire, carefully pulling it off the stick and (after letting it cool a moment) popping it in her mouth.
Her grin widened. "Hey, these are good!" She grabbed another from the bag at Tara's side and glanced at Miriam.
"So what kinda stories we talkin' about, Doc? I mean," She shrugged and held out her new marshmallow to the coals, "Me an' Alex an' Sid told our wacky stories. I guess that kinda makes it your turn."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 16, 2006 0:30:59 GMT -5
"Oh, I could never tell them as well as Dad did. They were all about the different ghosts in an old haunted hotel--and how they got to be ghosts. There was the aging actress who hung herself, the reporter who got bumped off by gangsters, the conniving businessman who fell down an elevator shaft..." Miriam chuckled softly. "Pretty morbid, I guess. But those stories all stopped after... after I found a body for real."
"Whoa," Caleb breathed, his marshmallow dipping precariously close to the coals. Sid murmured an admonition as he reached out to lift the boy's stick.
The children were not to be deterred, however. Wide-eyed, Holly asked, "You mean you really found a dead body?"
Miriam smiled sadly. "Yes, Holly, I did. I was just a couple years older than you are now. You see, there was a creek near my house, and a special secret place on the bank where I used to go to play by myself and make up stories. Well, one day... I found a woman there who had been killed. Nobody else knew it, but that was the day my mutation manifested."
She folded her arms over her knees with a rueful sigh. "I never did go back to that place by the creek."
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Post by skybright on Jun 16, 2006 0:42:34 GMT -5
Daws gave the other woman's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Rotten way to have to manifest, Doc -- I'm sorry." Then she asked quietly, "They ever find out who killed her?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 16, 2006 0:55:27 GMT -5
Miriam shook her head sadly. "No, they haven't. I kept checking up on it all these years, but the case is as cold as it gets." She shrugged. "I guess that was another part of why I chose to do what I did."
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Post by skybright on Jun 16, 2006 1:01:02 GMT -5
Daws winced and sighed. "Well, you never --" She broke off abruptly to pull her marshmallow back from the coals, then said again, "You never know. Sometimes somethin' new will turn up outta nowhere."
She pulled the marshmallow free with two claws and added softly "I keep hopin' somethin' will with Jack's case. You just never know."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 16, 2006 1:03:24 GMT -5
"He sounds like a great guy," Alex remarked. "What was he like?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 16, 2006 1:23:18 GMT -5
Daws smiled wistfully. "Jack? He was one-of-a-kind. Wouldn't take 'no' or 'I can't' for an answer -- stubborn didn't even describe it. If Jack Knight was after something, Jack Knight would get it or get arrested tryin'. He could be loud and pushy and grouchy, but underneath it he was the sweetest guy ever.
"He smoked bad cigars and always looked like he'd just rolled out of bed. His mutation messed up electric fields, so half the time the office lights'd be going haywire and the phone wouldn't work -- and every time he walked under a streetlight, it'd go out." She chuckled. "I gave him so much grief for that . . ." Her voice trailed off, and she shrugged.
"He took me in when I was thirteen and terrified and half-starved, and taught me how to fight and snoop and hold my own. I'd have died if it wasn't for him -- or turned into someone I wouldn't wanna know."
Daws traced an aimless pattern on the bench with one claw, looking somewhat embarrassed at the sudden outburst of memories. "He was more like a father than my dad ever was. I . . . still miss him."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 16, 2006 1:46:52 GMT -5
"Sounds like he helped you about the way Sid helped me," Alex said with a smile, glancing at his own friend and benefactor. Sid merely blushed and waved a hand.
Miriam gave Daws a sympathetic look. "I've sort of gathered Jack didn't--have a happy ending. If that's true... did they ever find out who it was with him?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 16, 2006 2:01:41 GMT -5
Daws flinched and shook her head. "No," she said quietly. "They just found 'im one night, under a broken streetlight. Gunshots." She looked at her hands.
"It wasn't any robbery -- they didn't take anythin'. He got too close to someone, or something. He pushed in the wrong place.
"That's actually how I met Sergeant Bell," She glanced at Alex and Sid. "He was one of the cops assigned to the case. Not that they helped. Not that I helped.
"That was seven years ago. I've been through the whole thing front, back, an' sideways -- every file he was lookin' at, every person he questioned. I've never figured out what it was he ran into."
Daws squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "Must've solved a couple hundred cases since then. But I never could do anything useful about Jack's."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 16, 2006 21:33:53 GMT -5
"I wish I could help," Miriam said softly. "If only I'd had a chance to... to do what I do, with him. Maybe I could have seen something."
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Post by skybright on Jun 16, 2006 22:02:43 GMT -5
Daws' eyes flew open and she glanced at Miriam, startled. "Doc, I . . ." She fell silent for a moment, shaking her head.
"I know what that does to ya, Doc." She said at last. "I wouldn't wish that on ya, even if it would work. But . . . thank you -- for offerin'. That . . . it means a lot."
Daws gazed into the fire, looking thoughtful. "I never really told anyone about any a' these things," she said quietly. "Heck, after Jack died I never really had anyone to tell." She glanced up at the assembled faces.
"Thank you -- all of you. Y'know." She shrugged and glanced down again. "For listening."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 16, 2006 22:27:37 GMT -5
Sid leaned forward. "It's like I said, Daws--you're family." He looked around the group with a smile. "We're family."
A moment of solemnity descended. Naturally, it was the children who tired of it first--and it was Holly who took the initiative to break it, suddenly launching herself up from her seat and into Alex's lap. He mock-gasped and made an exaggerated face at the impact of her small, solid body, putting his supporting arms around her.
"How about a song, Alex?" the girl chirped, wrapping her arms around his neck. "We always sing around the fire."
Alex chuckled and patted her arm, looking around at the others with long-suffering humor. "I guess it is kind of a tradition." He grinned. "Anybody got any requests?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 17, 2006 0:20:31 GMT -5
Daws grinned. "You wouldn't happen to know 'New York, New York', wouldja?" She asked, adding somewhat sheepishly "I'm a sucker for Sinatra."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 17, 2006 0:45:07 GMT -5
Alex broke into a grin. "Bless you, Daws, you're a woman after my own heart. Some nights at the Paragon, I feel like I'm gonna go postal if I get one more request for Clay Aiken or Gavin DeGraw. I'm getting too old for that stuff!"
He shifted Holly from his lap, cleared his throat, then paused with a grin. "You want it from Sinatra, or just plain ol' Foxy?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 17, 2006 0:49:51 GMT -5
Daws smiled. "Y'know, I've heard Sinatra do it. I think I'd like ta know what Foxy Malone sounds like."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 17, 2006 0:57:19 GMT -5
With a pleased smile, Alex cleared his throat again and started to sing.
"Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today..."
However, Alex--in typical Foxy Malone fashion--proved himself once again entirely unable to sit still while performing. It was only a few moments before he leaped up from his seat, skittering off across the deck in an animated, impromptu Broadway dance that left his audience in hysterics--especially since he was still barefoot in his swim trunks and a T-shirt.
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Post by skybright on Jun 17, 2006 1:07:41 GMT -5
Daws laughed as loud as anyone at Alex's performance -- and applauded heartily when the song ended.
"Foxy, no wonder the Paragon's such a popular place." She grinned, "People'd be nuts to miss a show like that."
She glanced over at Caleb -- who had momentarily lost interest in Alex and was staring in fascination at Daws' twitching tailtip. She used the appendage to lightly tickle the boy's arm and grinned. "You're lucky to have this guy, you know that?"
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