glacial_queen | Sidra, Glacia, Sometime in THE FUTURE and a universe over, Sunday Evening, Fandom Time

Karla had a feeling this talk was not going to go well...

Warren	"Your only option." It was over. It was. They were home again, Warren and his wife were free, they didn't have to worry about any wicked spawn of Trigon trying to snatch their daughter away from them. It was over. Warren should have been happy. "Your only option?" Instead, he was in his study, attempting to reason with a much younger, far more headstrong Karla than the one he was proud to call his wife, because although the ends were nothing short of a miracle, he didn't entirely feel that they justified the means. "Do you know what else would have worked? Somebody getting a nice, clean shot, and ripping the bitch's head off her shoulders." No, using their little girl as bait to get Raven's attention didn't sit well with him at all.
Karla	"Maybe that was our backup plan!" Karla protested. This felt rather surreal. This felt a lot like any of the times she got called into Saetan's study to receive a dressing down, except the male behind the desk was an older version of her boyfriend. An older, angrier, way more scarily competent version of her boyfriend. "...Which we totally had!"
Warren	"No. You didn't." Warren said that as though he knew. He said it was though he was 100% positive, without fail, that he was right about this, and that they had run into Raven's playground with his daughter in tow, saving the day in mind and little else. Because Warren had been that age once, and he'd run into so many similar situations alongside them, not knowing what to expect once they got there, that it had seemed like some sort of insane rush of pure shit to the brain the first time they stopped before running into the end of the world and asked, 'Shouldn't we have a Plan B?'
Karla	"We did too!" And a brilliant plan it had been. They called it 'running.' "Ish!" Karla had a sinking feeling this was an argument she was going to lose. Part of that was because they'd agreed this was a lousy plan going in. In fact, they'd had a conversation about how stupid it was while they'd been waiting for Raven's creatures to show up and take them up on it. A horrible plan, but one they were going to go with because they didn't have a better one. Well, besides running. "How do you know? You don't even know me!" You know, that was perhaps the dumbest argument she'd made yet. At least her expression suggested she realized that.
Warren	And his expression echoed that sentiment completely. "I married you. And we have been married. For years." In fact, if you wanted to really get into it with Warren, Karla, he would probably argue that he knew what you were capable of better than you did, by this point.
Karla	"That's a totally different me!" Karla snapped. "You knew a different Karla, married a different Karla. Your wife and I are not the same person!"
Warren	"Fundamentally, you're right. You aren't my Karla." Warren's arms crossed over his chest. What passed for his wings twitched slightly at his back, as though by some reflex he was trying to spread them, to look a little bigger in the face of that argument. Needless to say, it didn't work. "She wasn't always so different, though. When you mention things like the pants rule to me, I know exactly what you mean. We did the same things, once. We were the same people, to a point. But she grew up, Karla. Something you still have to do a lot of."
Karla	Karla rocked backwards a bit. That was a verbal slap she hadn't been expecting. She had a feeling that the differences between this Warren and hers went a lot deeper than the ones between herself and her counterpart. Drawing herself up as straight as she could, pointy chin tilted up in defiance, she retorted, "Of course I do! What do you expect? I'm seventeen. I'm not a mother, not a tactician! Hell's fire, I'm barely a Queen! So don't you take me to task for experience that I haven't had yet. Maybe what we did was stupid--" and by 'maybe,' she meant 'It was, completely.' "--but Rook asked for our help and we weren't just going to ignore her! Maybe that was the smart thing, the wise thing, the grown-up thing, but I wasn't going to look into that little girl's eyes and tell her to just give up, that it wasn't worth it! She got enough of that already from Jaenelle!" Hi, bitterness. Welcome to the party.
Warren	Warren's eyebrow raised just slightly. Jaenelle? This was about Jaenelle? "And do you have any idea why she got that from Jaenelle?" He would hear her out. Calmly, even. Not all of his patience had been destroyed over the past several years, after all.
Karla	No! It was totally not about Jaenelle! It was about Rook! "Because she said so!" Karla cried, hands clenching into fists. "Raven's creepy messenger showed up with your wife's Jewel and Jaenelle just left her there. She's wearing a Jewel that's somehow darker than Black and yet she can't be assed to go and rescue the girl that's been her best friend since they were six! I believed in her! Trusted her beyond anyone in any dimension!" Tears sprang to her eyes but she ignored them and would thank you to do the same, Warren. "And she just let her rot. Just let me rot. The equivalent of thirteen Black Jewels or more and she can't even be bothered to try to rescue her best friend." Okay, maybe it was a little bit about Jaenelle.
Warren	No. He didn't think so. Not about Rook at all. Warren inhaled. He held it for a moment. He exhaled again. She was stepping knee-deep into it, and she had no idea, did she? "She left you because she knew that you loved your daughter more than life itself." Yes, he was going to put it that way. If she was going to make this about herself while his wife had been the one suffering, then so help him, he would be the one to put reason to what in the world would make abandoning her worth it. "You never would have forgiven her if she'd done anything to put Rook at risk. I'm certain it killed Jaenelle to leave it be." No. She really didn't have any idea how deeply she was stepping in it at all.
Karla	"She is the Queen of Ebon Askavi," Karla said through clenched teeth. "I know I swore some kind of fealty to her when she became Queen, I know it. Damn your eyes, she owed me a rescue. A Queen takes care of her Court, dammit!" It was a bargain. Her Court signed a contract to serve the Queen and she promised to protect them to the best of her ability, not to leave them to rot. "You honestly think she needed to put Rook in any kind of danger to go get me back? That she couldn't have left Rook safe and secure at the Keep, protected by Saetan and Lucivar and whoever this 'Uncle Daemon' is while she waltzed in and freed you both? She has more power than I can even imagine--you saw what she did in Agio and she was just a girl then! She deliberately chose to let me--to let your wife stay in that prison because she couldn't be bothered to come and get m--her!"
Warren	Personal. It was all too personal, and she was speaking as though she had no idea who the hell she was speaking to, anymore. She still had a good deal more growing up to do. It was painfully obvious to him, at just that moment. Warren looked at her, suddenly so very much more tired than he'd been letting himself look since his own rescue. It didn't show in his posture. He didn't dare let his shoulders fall, or his jaw lower. But his eyes... "Then who couldn't be bothered to get me, Karla?"
Karla	"You think I haven't thought about that?" Karla asked, voice barely a whisper as she slumped against the wall. "From the moment Rook showed up in Fandom, clinging to my Warren because she hadn't seen her stepfather in who knows how long...you think I haven't sat and wondered how she could do that? Do you know how glad I am that my Warren's not here with us know? Because I don't want him to know there was a me in any universe who could make that choice!"
Warren	Entirely in spite of his efforts to remain composed, Warren felt himself absolutely bristling. She'd dragged his daughter recklessly into danger, and she had the gall to compare herself to his wife? She had the nerve to judge her? "You have no fucking clue what we've been through. Don't you dare judge my wife for the choices she's made." He couldn't spread his wings, but so help him, he could ball his hands into fists and speak through tightly grit teeth. "I don't hold her at fault for it. I'm glad she didn't. Every minute Raven spent pulling me apart was a minute not spent chasing after Rook. What was she supposed to do? Swan in and go head-on against that demon?" He raised his chin, looking at Karla with a sort of cold defiance that he never would have been able to manage, back in his high school days. "And don't tell me you could have killed Raven, if it came to that. You had a hand in taking her life once, already."
Karla	Well, she wasn't crying anymore, that was a plus. "And don't you dare judge me for mine," Karla said, voice low and dangerous. "I didn't ask to come here. I met Rook, once, and heard horror stories about what she had to deal with. And then we woke up here to find a Court in shambles, my older self taken, Rook distraught, and everyone else sitting on their fucking thumbs." Yeah. She wasn't going to be able to get past that part for a long time. "We haven't had ten years to get to the point of anger and just this...despair. We made the best choices with what we had because we had no idea what else to do! But it was that or just ignore everything and I'm not as old or tired or bitter enough to do that yet!
Warren	She didn't get it. She didn't get what it was that she was trying to justify, here. That she was making these huge decisions, putting people in danger needlessly, because that was the quickest route to getting the task done. She had no clue that she was cutting him wide open all over again. And all he could do was run his hands through his hair, the look in his eyes edging into something damn near wild, angry and desperate and haunted by so many missteps, so many taunts, an entire lifetime that consisted of one sort of helplessness after another. "What if something had gone wrong?! What the hell is there, if there isn't our daughter!?" He caught himself, then. Closed his eyes. Shook his head. He was yelling. Yelling wasn't going to make his point. Not against this little girl.
Karla	No, Karla didn't have a clue. Didn't realize just how close this was to her decision in January. She looked at Rook and saw another nine year old girl who'd lost her parents, saw a shadow of herself, willing to do anything, risk anything to get those parents back again. Saw someone that maybe she could help, could save. She just couldn't see past that, not yet. Couldn't understand how the risk of getting those parents back might not be worth it. Couldn't get past a child's grief to comprehend a parent's fear. "And doesn't your daughter deserve a chance to grow up out from Raven's shadow?" she asked. "She's forced to ignore half her heritage out of fear that it would give Raven a way to get at her again! She couldn't play outside, couldn't explore, couldn't make friends because no matter what, the spectre of Raven was there, lurking around every corner! So, what? You'd consign her to a life with no parents, no friends, no nothing? Lock her in a tower for the rest of her life to keep her safe? Until when? She was fifteen? Thirty? A hundred? Doesn't Rook deserve the chance to have a real life? With her real parents? As a family, together, not locked up in separate cells to wither and die!" She turned away, hunching over while she clutched her elbows. "I lost my parents, Warren, when I was Rook's age. I know the kind of hole it leaves in a little girl's life. I couldn't just sit and do nothing in the face of that."
Warren	Her real parents. Karla kept churning up bile in Warren's throat every time she opened her mouth, it seemed. "As a family." He'd always been a half-step to the side, in this one. "With her real parents." No matter how many years went by, he never quite managed to get any closer. "So. Karla and Raven." As much as he'd always wished she could be, Rook wasn't his. It was Karla who got called Maman, and Raven who was Mother in spite of a lifetime spent being absolutely anything but. And Warren was the stepfather.
Karla	"What?!" Now Karla was utterly bewildered. "No! With you and Karla! Mother Night, Warren, you've been her father since before she was born! Everything about this situation has been insane and bizarre, but that's the one thing that's never been in doubt." Hasn't it?
Warren	That just earned Karla a long, tired look. He didn't offer any explanation. He didn't confirm or deny anything. This was just one more point to add to the pile that proved that she had no idea what she was talking about, here. "Better dead than without parents? Is that what it all boils down to, in the end? It must have be an easy decision to make, for a scared little girl."
Karla	"I didn't say that," Karla growled. There were so many dangerous undercurrents to this conversation, she felt like she couldn't keep up--like she was just barely keeping her head above water. And sharks lurked not very far below. "But I do think she deserved a chance! A chance to help get her parents back! A chance to live life without fear! A chance to be a normal little girl for a change! A chance to have something approximating a happy life." Didn't he understand that? That maybe Rook wanted--no, deserved--that opportunity? That there was even more at stake than just the lives of her parents? "Because you know what? You know what I think? I'm willing to bet anything you ask that Rook was just a few weeks away from making a deal of her own. Yes, she was scared! You know what? She was scared when we got there! She was scared and lonely and upset because the people she loved best of all were getting hurt because of her. You think you're the only one in this family that knows how to be a sacrifice?
Warren	Warren felt the muscles in his jaw clamp shut. Hard. His fists tightened so much that his knuckles went white. His breathing took on a slow, deliberate bent. He wasn't going to yell. He wasn't going to throttle Karla into next week. And when he spoke, his words came out slow, and careful, with just a hint of ice and razors dancing underneath. "I'm not saying she didn't deserve a chance. Darkness help me, I would never say something like that. I know what the Hell it's like, hiding away because of a parent who thinks that the world wants nothing more than to pull me apart. And in my case, it was never anything so literal." Did he really have to remind her of as much? "But just... bringing her along, using her as bait... I can't pretend for a second that I think that's okay." That he wasn't absolutely livid about it.
Karla	Damn it. There he was with that point again. And no matter how much she wanted to dance around the subject, no matter what else she could argue, there was no escaping that simple truth. Karla hung her head. "It wasn't. And, for whatever it's worth, I'm sorry. But we couldn't think of any other way to get to her--to you. And I know you say it's not worth it, and maybe to you it isn't. And if Rook died, maybe I'd even agree. But it was worth it to me. Rescuing you and getting rid of Raven, it was worth it to me. To all of us, including Rook." How could he not understand?
Warren	He understood. He wished that he didn't. It would be so much easier if all there was to consider was the black and white of it all. The wrong, the right, with nothing in between. But damn everything, he understood. And for a moment, he struggled to keep that tiredness in his eyes from showing in the rest of him. It was a very short moment, and then he hung his head, shut his eyes, and spoke. "I don't even know how to tell her how proud of her I am. I keep wanting to... to ground her for life, and scream at the walls, and pull out my hair and hide somewhere dark and take a running leap from the roof and beat the living shit out of something with my bare hands, and I don't know if any of it was worth it, except that Rook doesn't have anything to be afraid of, anymore." He had no idea what any of that said about him. Mostly, he didn't want to know, either.
Karla	In that moment, that moment of uncertainty and vulnerability, for the first time since she'd pulled him from that cage, Karla caught a glimpse of her Warren, there beneath the surface. And even as his words clawed at her heart, her first thought was to offer him comfort. Comfort she wasn't sure if he was even willing to accept from her. She raised her hand to touch him, then dropped it back to her side. Darkness, that felt eerily familiar. It felt like all the times she'd gone to touch Warren, back in the uneasy weeks of February and March. "Before you decide whether or not it was worth it," Karla said quietly, "go into that little girl's room and look at her face when she sees you come in. Just look how happy she is, how grateful she is just to have you back. See how much she loves you. Then take your wife into your arms and kiss her. And if you're still not sure after all that..." She shrugged, trying to seem more nonchalant than she really was. "Then come back and tell me. Because if it's not, I...I don't know if my Warren and I have a chance."
Warren	It took him a moment to react to Karla's words, as if he was taking the time to pick out the meaning behind each and every one, chew on it, run it through some sort of filter before any sense could be made of it at all, before he could slap them all together into some sort of coherent phrase that would register in his mind. She didn't want to risk this happening to her and the boy he used to be. But she was right about one thing. He was in the wrong room right now, speaking to the wrong Karla. He opened his mouth, looked up only about as far as her knees, and then shook his head, turned, and walked from the room, leaving her with the sight of ruined feathers and slumped shoulders, struggling to pull himself into something proud and tall all over again. And not a single word.
Karla	She watched him leave, watched him just turn and walk out the door. It felt so familiar, watching him turn his back on her and walk away. "Warren..." It was too late. She couldn't get his name out until the study door was already swinging closed. It shut behind him with a finality that reverberated through her entire body. What had she done?

Warren	Willpower and duct tape. Warren needed to take some time outside of Rook's room just to compose himself. Just to be certain that he wasn't an absolute mess when he finally nerved himself up to make his presence known. He'd let himself nearly crack, back there. Raven had broken him too many times to count, before he'd been freed. And now that he was out, there was nothing trying to break him, there was only the opportunity to fix something that hadn't really existed in ages, and he was standing on the edge of cracking all over again. He straightened his shoulders. Lifted his chin. Pulled in a deep breath. And as he knocked, he did his damnedest to pull himself together again. Willpower and duct tape. Something.
Karla, Queen of Glacia	Karla was back in her wheeled chair; as much as she'd hated it in the Keep, it had been elevated to a point of fond remembrance while she'd been dragging herself around Raven's cells. Even now, home, she was between Rook and the door. Some instincts died hard. When the knock on the door sounded, an Ebon-gray shield flickered into life around them, without her missing a word in Unicorn to the Rescue. She verified the identity of the person beyond the door. She didn't say come in, but the door unlocked under Warren's hand.
Warren	Warren glanced down at the doorknob as the lock clicked. Nodded a little, and took a deep breath as he tried to pull his posture up into something a little more presentable. When he opened the door and stepped into the room, he even managed something that resembled a smile. A very weak one, but a smile all the same. "Hey, guys." He pulled the door shut behind himself. Locked it as he did so. Some habits died hard.
Rook	"Stepfather!" Rook's face lit up when she saw him, tossing her covers back and leaping out of bed. She flew towards the door before her Maman could do more than adjust herself in her chair. "You came to say goodnight!" She beamed up at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging as tightly as she could.
Karla	Karla's heart tugged and she smiled even as she cautioned, "Rook, darling be careful. Stepfather's...been through a lot."
Rook	"I know, Maman, but--" Rook clung like a clinging thing anyway, refusing to let go.
Warren	That tiny smile of Warren's became just a little more genuine as he stooped down to wrap his arms around her. He wasn't going to break down and cry on her, or anything. Breakdowns were something he saved for when nobody else was watching. And besides, he wasn't made of glass. "Hey, princess." He leaned in and gave Rook a quick kiss on the cheek, not in any great hurry to let her go. "Keeping good company for your Maman?"
Rook	"I am trying, but I think--" Rook gave him a shy smile, leaning in to whisper, "--I think she'll be happier with both of us keeping her company." She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, so so tight.
Warren	In the face of a hug like that, Warren found that he couldn't quite breathe, and the squeezes hurt like hell, but he'd learned enough about shielding over the years to keep both of those facts from carrying through, and he wouldn't ever want to dissuade her from hugging like this. He would heal. He always did. So, instead, he whispered back. "Is that so? Then I think maybe we're on the wrong side of the room, aren't we?" And with that, he was standing up, scooping her into his arms with no effort at all before heading over to join Karla.
Karla	As soon as he got close enough, as soon as it became obvious he wasn't just here to see Rook, Karla pushed herself out of the chair with Craft and attempted to stand. It also hurt like hell, but she wanted to greet her husband standing up and by the Darkness she was going to do so. "Any hugs in there for me?" she asked. Her smile wobbled and wavered, her eyes shone, and her breath hitched in her throat. It was obvious she was crying from the way her shoulders were shaking, but she refused admit it. So she just stood there and ate that image up with her eyes so that she would always, always remember it.
Warren	Karla was breaking Warren's heart all over again was he watched his wife stand, seeing the way that she was struggling against tears. It made him step up to her all the more quickly, making a spirited attempt at wearing his old, crooked smile. It seemed like something that she needed to see, just as much as it was something that he needed to do. "I think we might have some room for one more. What do you think, Rook?" He was already setting Rook down so that he could wrap his arms around Karla. Absolutely.
Rook	"Oh yes," Rook said, trotting after him. "There is always room for Maman!"
Karla	Karla just kind of...sank into his arms, half out of relief and half because even with Craft, her legs simply couldn't hold her long. She exhaled a shaky breath into the side of his neck and hoped he wouldn't notice his shirt was getting a little damp. "You're a sight for sore eyes, my love," she murmured, lips just brushing his skin. "I've forgotten what it's like to be this happy." 'Happy' is perhaps pushing it, just a bit. But with Warren holding her and Rook wrapping her arms around them both, it seems to fit better than anything else.
Warren	Compared to the time of it that he'd been having earlier trying to carry Karla around, she was practically feather-light, now. The one good thing that Warren could say about his physiology, even after it had dragged him through torture that would have killed most other men, was that with some rest and something to eat, he was almost as strong as he ever was. "I could definitely say the same." Now seemed like a good time to steal a kiss. A relatively chaste one, considering about a thousand factors including but not limited to a large amount of fresh trauma, and the fact that they were being hugged by a small child. But a kiss all the same. Meanwhile, though he had no craft of his own, he at least had a bead on thinking 'loudly' enough to be heard by those who can listen, courtesy of their psychic threads. He'd been living in Kaeleer for most of his adult life. You picked up on a thing or two, over the years. How are you holding up?
Karla	Better now that you're here. I'm always better when you're with me. You? Karla was clinging to him now, and this time it had nothing to do with how weak she was. Twice, now, in her life, she'd sacrificed him. There would not be a third time. Not ever. Not for anything or anyone. Lifting up a hand to brush his hair away from his face, she said aloud, "You're a much better sight than I am, I dare say. As handsome as ever." Granted, his wings were still a ruin that pulled on her heart every time she saw him, but they would heal too. But he was here, back home, back in her arms. Even if he hadn't healed, even if he wore every mark that Raven had left on him, Karla would still consider his face to be the most wonderful thing she'd ever seen in her entire life.
Warren	Still catching myself half-terrified that I'll wake up again. Which, if nothing else, was an honest enough assessment. But better. So, so much better. Better, of course, didn't necessarily mean okay. There were a lot of broken pieces to pick up, after all. His near-breakdown in the company of Karla's younger counterpart was blatant evidence of that. "Oh, don't say that. You're beautiful, Karla." He paused, chewing his lip thoughtfully while he tried to pick out what else to say. There had to be something. "My hair is way too long, now." Which happened, after so long spent in a prison cell. Oddly enough.
Karla	You and me both. I am terrified that I will roll over in the right and find your side cold and empty again. Or that when I roll over, I won't be on my bed, but in a cell, locked away for who knows how long. I still...can't believe it's over. I'm not sure what to do next. Granted, there was a war on, their country was being invaded, members of her own Court had poisoned her, and she still needed to catch Warren up on all of those developments, but...but that was for later. Right now, she wasn't a Queen. She was simply a wife and a mother and a little out of practice being either. "You do need a haircut, I'll give you that. Perhaps I'll trim it later tonight?" She was no hairdresser, but she's wasn't going to blame Warren for not wanting strangers near him with sharp things.
Warren	Really, Warren didn't particularly want anybody near him until his wings looked... more like wings, and less like the mess that they were in now. Family, of course was the one exception. He couldn't handle looks of pity, after all that. Me too. I just know that I'm not going anywhere. So help me, nobody is ever pulling me from my family again. And in spite of the serious conversation, the confessions that they were making mind-to-mind, he managed to keep his smile. "I'm going to have to take you up on that, I think. What do you think, Rook? A haircut, so I look less like a crazy hippie?"
Rook	Rook giggled at him, the trauma of the day receding in the warmth of her parents' love. "What is a crazy hippie, Stepfather?" she asked, climbing back into her bed. "I think you look more like a shaggy Sceltie pup, to be honest."
Karla	And I am never letting you go again. I swear by my Jewels, Warren, nothing can make me let you go. Karla knew all about pitying looks. They were why she'd insisted she didn't need help in the bath anymore and sent the servants away. She'd been lying, but it didn't matter; she couldn't bear to see them looking at her legs. But those were later thoughts. Biting back a smile, she chided, "Rook, that is hardly a favorable comparison." And then dimpled. "Accurate, but hardly favorable." She leaned in to brush her lips across his cheek and add, "I love you. No matter how long your hair gets."
Warren	"I love you too. Both of you. Even when you're telling me that I have dog hair." Which, really, he totally did. He needed something to tie it back with, at least, but hadn't really been paying it much attention until just now. He'd had far more pressing worries on the go. Hair was just kind of... hair.
Karla	"Shaggy dog hair," Karla corrected. "Many of the Scelties are very well-groomed, you know."
Rook	Giggling, Rook tucked the blankets around her and lay back against her pillow. "Are you here to read me a story, Stepfather? Maman's voice was getting a little scratchy."
Karla	Karla called in a hair tie and began to gently fingerbrush Warren's hair back into a ponytail. "Even if he does, only a few stories," she warned her daughter. "And then it's bedtime. You've had a very long day." And so have they. We...need to talk, I think, once she's asleep. Karla's face was studiously blank as she fiddled with his hair.
Warren	We do. Desperately so. Warren was well aware of how much there was for him to get used to. He could barely begin to imagine just how much there was for Karla to, in the wake of all of that. Especially since he'd been gone for so much. There had been events in Karla's life that he knew about only because Raven had taken a perverse pleasure in taunting him about how he wasn't there for his wife. Whatever would Karla do, without her pet birdie to pick her up now that everything else was falling down around her? And yet, Warren managed to keep his smile from faltering as he led Karla to Rook's bedside, taking a faint, faraway sort of comfort in the feel of her fingers in his hair. It was familiar, even if it had been quite some time, and his hair was taking the place of feathers that he used to complain about. He couldn't imagine, now, what there had ever been to bother him about them so much, molting and featherdust aside. "I think I can handle a story or two before bed. Did you have any in mind, Rook?"
Rook	That was a silly question, Stepfather! "Sceltie Saves the Day!" Yes, by nine it was kind of a baby book, but Rook loved it anyway. Everything worked out happily in the end, and no one was sad or scared or crying. That meant a lot to Rook.
Karla	Just know that no matter what we say tonight, I love you. That has never and will never change, no matter what else in our lives do. Not that love or the lack of it has ever been their problem. Karla knew that only too well. But there was so much between them that needed to be fixed and mended. So much within them that needed the same. And even with Raven gone, that didn't mean their lives could just go back to how it had been, those blissful days before the wedding. "Try not to be shocked, love," she said, with a smile. He hadn't really expected Rook to ask for something else, had he?
Warren	Warren was all smiles. The smiley stepfather, reaching for the book, one arm still around Karla's waist. Steadfastly ignoring that there was anything the matter with the world at all. "You know, I don't know why I even bother picking up the book anymore." For the illustrations, of course. The illustrations of the Sceltie that was far more well-groomed than he currently was. I love you, too. As much as I always have. We have a lot of adjusting to do, but... that's what we've been doing all along. Isn't it?
Karla	Scelties were just awesome like that. And if Warren had forgotten, Ladvarian would be happy to come by and remind him. For the time it took Warren to read the short story, there was nothing wrong with the world. Karla laced her fingers with his and rested her head on his shoulder while he read, sometimes providing voices at need--also without looking at the book. She could feel the rhythm of his heart, feel his steady breathing and the warmth of his skin and that was enough for the moment. In the small ring of light cast by Rook's lamp, she watched her daughter's eyelids slowly close, lashes dark on pale skin that, for once, didn't carry shadows beneath them. For this small span of time everything was just perfect. It is. But we do. And not just with one another. She ruthlessly stomped on any vestiges of self-pity. She wasn't the only person in the room who had suffered. Whatever it takes, belovedest.
Rook	More than three-quarters asleep, Rook smiled as the final words were read. "One more time, Papa? Please?" she murmured through a yawn, blinking sleepily up at him. "Just one more?"
Warren	... And that was about the moment that the world seemed to grind to a halt around Warren. Rook spoke. And when she spoke, the words that left her mouth left him a little stunned, not quite able to keep a bewildered expression from crossing his face. Papa. Papa. "One more time...." It was a miracle that he managed to find his voice again. But he did. She asked for that story, she was going to get it. And he was going to make it the best damn recalling of the exploits of the brave Sceltie that she'd ever heard. It will be worth it. He had a vague memory of something from nearly a lifetime ago, barely a notion of a glimpse ahead that had seen him giving her legs back, month by month, if only temporarily. They had their family back. They all had so much healing to do, beyond just their bodies. Their spirits had been spat upon and the whole damn universe seemed like one big, bleak, oppressing force that existed to press down on the lot of them. We'll make it worth it. In spite of everything, maybe they could.
Karla	Papa. Karla gasped, almost startling herself off of her husband's lap. She raised her head to look at him, not entirely sure how he'll take it. She'd never been quite sure how to handle the fact that the only child they've ever had was not his by blood. "I--She--" Words wouldn't come, just a broken whisper and some gaping. She took a deep breath and tried again. "She's always loved you so much. Perhaps now with Raven gone..."
Warren	He was smiling. He couldn't help but smile, though he was doing his damnedest to keep the tears from his eyes at least until Rook had fallen asleep. That wasn't working out for him so well. He needed a moment to look the other way, to swipe the back of his arm against his eyes. "I love her, too." She wasn't Kayla, she wasn't Nommy. But she was still his daughter, damn it. Blood or no.
Karla	Words lie. Blood doesn't. Yet another of society's aphorisms. But here? Here that was so, so wrong. They were a family, bound together by joy and love, pain and celebration. It didn't matter whose blood flowed through the little girl's veins--Rook was his. "I love you both."
Warren	Warren smiled, leaning over to steal another quick kiss from his wife. "That was going to be the next thing I said." It was. But if she was going to beat him to the punch, he would have to manage, somehow. It would be difficult, truly, but Warren was nothing if not resourceful. They had a list of things that they had to discuss. Important things they had to discuss. The state of Glacia, what remained of Karla's court, a vague whisper of a suggestion regarding the healing capacities of his blood. A whole world of discussion topics that were huge and important and perhaps a little terrifying. But first, he was going to recite Sceltie Saves The Day, with the help of his wife, for the enjoyment of their mostly asleep daughter. His family.