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Saturday afternoon, Angelo and Lorna meet in the laundry room. Angelo airs dirty laundry and Lorna irons. (Puns...I was going to say unintended but who am I kidding? *ducks flying objects aimed at her head*)




Angelo wandered down towards the laundry room, a small pile of clothes in his arms. He didn't really need to do his washing yet, but it was something to do, and with less risk of running into Amanda than the rec room. He wasn't ready to face her yet...

Lorna yanked her clothes out of the dryer and dumped them in her laundry basket then began transferring the dark clothes in the washing machine over. With the door closed, the room remained nicely heated. The small room was one of the few places in the house that wasn't too cold for Lorna these days. She'd discarded her sweatshirt in favor of just wearing a thin black t-shirt and has tossed the sweatshirt in with her laundry. Snapping the doors shut, she set the timer on the dryer and shoved the laundry basket toward the ironing board in the corner of the room.

Angelo walked in at that moment, stopping in the doorway when he saw her. "Hey, Lorna", he called softly, not wanting to startle her since she was facing away from him.

The air from the hallway made her shiver as she turned. Facing him, he could see how her collarbones and ribs stood out in sharp relief against too pale skin. "Hi, Angelo." She waved him in and motioned for him to close the door. "Washing machine is free."

Angelo walked further into the room and over to the washing machine, kicking the door closed behind him. "Thanks. How's it goin'?"

"Better, thank god. Alex is back" She smiled brilliantly, obviously delighted. "How are you feeling? You've had it pretty rough recently yourself." She picked up a pair of slacks out of her basket and started to iron them.

Angelo shoved his clothes into the washing machine and set it going before he turned to answer. "Oh, I'm okay. Good as can be expected."

She nodded, "That's good. This place could use a little healing. And better weather. It's 70 degrees back home, you know." She was simply chatting, no agenda.

Angelo nodded. "Roll on summer, huh? An', yeah, we could all do with some quiet time."

"I'll bet Santa Monica Pier is already crawling with people," Lorna sighed somewhat wistfully. California seemed light years away. "Quiet time is definitely what's needed. Get a chance to sort out everything. Hopefully that England trip will give some people a chance to wind down." She folded the slacks over a hanger and started ironing a white blouse instead. "Were you going on that?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Mom can't make it out to NYC yet, so I might as well."

"Well, have a good time." Lorna smiled, "I know you'd rather have your mother out here. I got to meet her. She's wonderful."

Angelo smiled back. "She liked you too. An' she'll be out here sooner or later, it just takes some organisin'."

"Thanks." Lorna paused in her ironing to shove her hair out of her face. The sudden movement emphasized the stick-like appearance of her arms. She didn't appear to notice. "It's actually quite cool to have parent-types here. They're a nice reminder of the real world."

Angelo glances at her too-thin arms, frowning momentarily, then shrugs it off. After all, if there was a problem with that, someone who knew her better than him would be doing something about it, right? "Yeah, it would. We should have visiting days, for the kids whose parents know they're here."

"Too bad so many of them are all scattered around the country." The blouse went the way of the slacks and another one took it's place. "Otherwise it could be cool."

Angelo nodded. "Might take some doin', but I think it'd be possible, with a bit of plannin'", he said thoughtfully.

"We should plan it. I'll take it to the staff and see what they say. It's not a bad idea." Lorna pondered it and decided it was far from a bad idea. There were lots of kids here who needed to see their families more often if only because they were in danger of detaching from the rest of the world otherwise.

Angelo grinned. "Cool. Hope they can get it sorted out."

Lorna grinned back, "Of course, I'm going to tell them it was your idea and that you volunteered to organize it."

Angelo blinked, then laughed. "Fair enough. I'll help, at least."

"Excellent." Lorna ironed meditatively for a moment, "Summer is probably better so we don't have parents tripping over midterms."

Angelo nodded. "Summer works. Gives us more time to arrange things, too."

"Not just a hat-rack." Lorna grinned and tapped her temple with a finger. "Also much warmer which will make my parents happy. We're all true Californians in my family. This snow stuff is for the birds."

Angelo chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not that keen on the snow, either. Jamie an' Kitty seem to be determined to get me outside every time it snows, though."

"I have the same problem. What's wrong with these people? They're, like, all suffering some sort of mass delusion where snow is a nifty thing." Lorna shook her head, in mock woe, "We should have them talk to Samson about it."

Angelo grinned and asked lightly, "He got you too, then?"

"Him and that evil blonde woman." Lorna's eyes narrowed, still angry with Alison. "I was hurled into a snowbank. I still haven't exacted proper revenge for it."

Angelo blinked. "A snowbank? Why?"

"I think it was convenient." Lorna shrugged, "First snow and all that. It's not like they'd have gotten me outside any other way."

Angelo grinned. "Yeah, Jamie an' Kitty dragged me out. An' Jamie has an unfair advantage."

She laughed, "Never a chance to go one on one with him, is there?"

"Not likely", he answered, still smiling, before remembering something and going off on a sudden tangent. "How's Alex doin', by the way?"

Her smile faltered and worry flickered across her face. "He's...it's going to get better. But right now, he...well, I'm sure you saw his post. It's like that." She sighed and bit her lip. "But it will get better. He's home now."

Angelo saw the worry on her face and frowned. "Yeah, an' I'm glad he is. Best place he could be."

She nodded, her face grim. "It's a matter of making him believe that."

Angelo shrugged. "He'll come to believe it, in time. All we can do is keep remindin' him."

"I know. It just makes me mad is all. There is no way this should have happened." Lorna gave up on ironing and just started folding clothes instead.

Angelo smiled bitterly. "Could say that about a lot of things."

"Most of those things, I didn't have the ability to stop," Lorna said. She winced, not having intended to say that.

Angelo blinked, and replied carefully, "You... didn't have the ability to stop this either, Lorna. You know that, right? Way I remember it, you couldn't do much of anythin' at the time..."

She shook her head. "I could have not told him I didn't want him near me and to go away. That would have helped." Her voice was flat.

Angelo took a moment to process that. "You weren't yourself", he told her bluntly. "You'd been hurt, bad, an' you were scared - an' probably on morphine too, right? You can't blame yourself for that, Lorna."

She threw the sweater she was folding down, "Who was I then, Angelo? Even hopped up on morphine, what the hell kind of person says something like that to their boyfriend?"

He looked at her levelly. "Someone scared to death, however much they don't want to be. Someone in pain. If Alex'd been thinkin' straight, he'd've understood that - but he was scared an' in pain too."

"He left because of me. There is no way around that, no matter how you try to explain it away." She took a deep breath and picked up the sweater again, folding it with meticulous care as she drew herself in.

Angelo sighed. "No. Lorna, he left because of him. What you said was maybe the last straw, but he might well've left with or without that."

"We'll never know, will we?" she jerked a shoulder, half shrugging. "And all the arguments in the world can't overcome the guilt of a Catholic." She tried to smile and make a joke of it.

Angelo smiled back, wryly. "You're tellin' me."

"No better time for it than right now, too. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Lent?" Relieved to be leaving the subject of why Alex left, she spoke somewhat too rapidly, her usually mild Valley-girl accent more pronounced.

Angelo grimaced. "Me too. What you givin' up?"

"Lent," she managed a half-laugh, "I haven't decided actually. Usually I give up shopping but I'm not quite the mallrat I was back home so it seems kinda pointless."

Angelo nodded. "I'm not sure, either. Got a little while to think about it, yet."

"Does it count if you just think about giving up stuff the whole time?" Lorna tilted her head to the side, "Cus that I can totally do."

Angelo chuckled. "Think you're s'posed to actually go through with it, really. Kinda the point."

"Oh, well, that's no fun." Lorna sighed, "Right, chocolate it is then. I do solemnly swear to give up chocolate."

Angelo considered. "Hm. Think I might have to do the same. Not sure I could do without my cigs."

Lorna had long ago given up chocolate and carbs and sodium and fried food so this Lent would be easy enough. "We'll have to be together in our non-chocolate solidarity and stand firm against those who would tempt us with cocoa-y goodness."

Angelo grinned. "I'm in if you are."

"It's a deal. For glory, God and gold, or whatever." She held out her hand to shake on it.

Angelo shook her hand firmly. "It's a deal."

Lorna glanced down at her watch and acked quietly. "Drat, I've got to go get ready. There's that show tonight." A sharp movement of one hand yanked the iron's plug out of the wall and collapsed the board. She gathered up her various clothes and cast a glance at the dryer. "If I'm not back by the time that's done, just go ahead and dump the stuff into a basket."

Angelo nodded. "Okay. Have fun at the show."

"Thanks. I'll see you later, Angelo. It's good talking to you." She lifted her basket, which was reinforced by a thin metal band around the handles, making it light enough for her to carry. "Have a good night."

Angelo smiled. "Will do. Talk to you later."

Lorna flicked open the door and shivered when the cooler air of the hallway hit her. She went out anyway, giving Angelo a little wave. She hurried away so she could get a jacket.