Fathers: Laurie and Yvette - Friday evening

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Laurie is nervous about her meeting with her father tomorrow. Yvette gives her a fresh perspective, and a glimpse into her own history.



Laurie paced, and looked at the clock, and looked at the clock and paced. She thought as she paced that there should be less hours in the day, or at least less night time hours so that those worried about certain things happening in a tomorrow sense wouldn't have to wait quite so long for them to happen. Of course, that would mean less time to sleep, and lead to all sorts of strangeness with sleep deprivation, but would going insane really be so bad?

Yvette looked up from where she was practicing her origami with the paper and book Mr. Haller had left her. It was good for calming her, and after that meeting with Jay, she needed calm. The problem was, it was hard to concentrate when your roomie was leaking nerves at you. "Laurie," she said mildly. "If you keep doing the pacing, you will wear the hole in the floor. And then Mr. Marko will be making the growling noises at you."

"Sorry," she said, making a face and flopping down backwards onto her bed. "I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight, I just wish it were lunchtime tomorrow already."

"It is too bad your powers do not work on you," Yvette replied with a small smile. "Then you could be making yourself to go to sleep." She folded over a corner, concentrating on getting a sharp edge without slicing into the paper. It was going to be a box, made from a pretty pattern of cherry blossoms, for the new girl in the suite.

Laurie nodded, idly looking at the roof where she'd stuck several glow in the dark stars. If you were going to look at a roof, you might as well look at an interesting one, she thought.

"I told him I hated him, and now I'm so nervous and excited about really getting to sit down and talk to him... I don't understand at all," Laurie admitted, kicking her feet as something to do.

"He helped your mother to become well, yes? So he is not all bad like you thought when you went to see him, or like your mother is telling you. This is why you are nervous - he might not be so bad, and then you might have the father." There was something a little off in Yvette's voice, and she lay the origami down, realising her hands were starting to harden again. "I think perhaps you should have the open mind, to see for yourself what he is like."

Laurie turned over, giving Yvette a concerned look as she noted the change in Yvette's voice. It was slight, something someone who wasn't close to her wouldn't notice but Laurie had lived with her for months now, long enough. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Yvette said, but the sudden sharpening of her fingers and the cut that appeared in the paper under her hand belied that. She said something softly under her breath in Albanian, a word her mother would have been shocked she knew. "I will never know my father," she admitted at last. "So it is important that you take this chance, when you have it."

Laurie rolled off her bed and quickly moved to sit in front of Yvette, offering her hand to the other girl for comfort as she gave her a searching look, "What happened? To your Dad, I mean."

At the movement, Yvette reached for her gloves, pulling them on quickly. No need to risk accidents. "I... do not know," she said softly, the glow of her eyes dimming slightly with shame. "My mother does not know who he is."

Laurie's eyebrows raised in surprise, from what she knew of Yvette's mother, she didn't seem the type to be in a situation where she wouldn't be able to tell who the father of her child had been. "Um...did she say why?" she finally asked, wrinkling her nose at the awkwardness of the question.

"It was during the war." if Yvette could blush, she'd be bright red, well, redder by now. "My mother, she was young, not so much older than you. The soldiers, they came and took her father, her brother. And they..." She trailled off, not wanting to finish the sentence. "One of them was my father."

"Oh," Laurie said, biting her bottom lip as she tried to sort out what to say. It wasn't something she had experience with...dear God, how must Yvette feel? And here she was blathering away about how nervous she was meeting her father. "Oh Yvette, I'm so sorry. I didn't know, I just...I feel like such an ass for going on like that."

"No!" The word was sharp, sharper than any the girl had used to Laurie, and she almost glared at her roommate. "I did not tell you this to make you feel bad. Only to say that you have this chance, and you should take it. I do not want you to think you are a bad person for not knowing what I did not tell you, for having the father when I do not." Yvette spoke almost fiercely. "My father was a bad man. I wish this was not so, but this is how it is. It is a good thing I do not know who he is."

Laurie had flinched back at the sharpness of Yvette's response but hadn't let go of the other girl's hand, now she looked at her with something akin to surprise, and a small smile. "You know, I think that's the first time I've seen you be so definite about something."

"You did not hear me talking to my mother at Parent's Day when she wanted to take me home." Yvette squeezed Laurie's hand, eyes brightening. "So, you will not feel bad?"

"No, I won't feel bad," Laurie confirmed, grinning. "So, how do you feel about going to raid the kitchen? I'm not going to sleep for awhile yet, so I see no problem with having something to eat instead."

"I think Monet and Jan made cookies?" Yvette suggested. "We can have some with milk, so it is almost healthy, yes?"

"Very healthy, Lorna would approve," Laurie replied solemnly and then ruined it all by grinning widely. "And even if she didn't, I'm sure Mr Haller would. He seems terribly fond of cookies, for some reason."

"Who is not?" Yvette asked, with an answering grin.