Moira and Amanda on Muir

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

When Amanda gets lost in the castle, she stumbles upon some old pictures of Moira looking rather different than what she had in mind. Moira finds her and they talk about her past, relationship, dresses and vacations.





Muir was every inch as beautiful and peaceful (when you discounted that prat Campbell, any way) as Nate had said. The castle was also very big, and very confusing to wander around in. Amanda had been wandering for quite some time, and had finally succumbed to frustration and was using a spell to guide her, despite said spell's rather spotty track record. This time wasn't proving much better, as it seemed to be just as confused by the countless rooms and halls as Amanda was.

"Bugger it," she muttered, as yet again the little green firefly led her into a room that seemed to be used largely for storage - it was piled with dusty-looking boxes. With an impatient gesture she cancelled the spell, and turned to go. Unfortunately her elbow caught one of the topmost boxes and sent it tumbling to the floor, spilling its contents. Muttering darkly in ancient Greek under her breath, Amanda knelt and began scooping up what seemed to be old photographs back into the box. Then one caught her eye, and she sat back on her heels, holding it up to the rather dim light and examining it more closely. It was a woman - well, a girl, really, about her age - with unruly red hair, dressed in motorcycle leathers and scowling at the camera from the back of what could only be described as a chopper.

"Wicked," Amanda murmured approvingly, looking down at the pile of photos and finding more of the same – the girl, wild and defiant at a concert, at various pubs, hanging off the arm of a young man who was definitely not every mother's idea of their daughter's boyfriend... She snapped her fingers, conjuring her werelight and sat on the floor Indian-style to go through the pictures more carefully. You couldn't always tell a person from looking at them, she realized.

Moira peered in through the doorway and arched an eyebrow at the young witch sitting next to an open box. She'd actually come looking for Amanda, figuring with the time she'd been gone, she'd managed to get herself lost. Castles were wonderful that way.

For a moment, she simply watched, slightly bemused at the astonished look on Amanda's face. She knew immediately which boxes these were, she'd packed them up and stuffed them in here herself.

Fate seemed determined to gleefully toss some of her teen years back in her face, Moira decided and walked into the room. "'avin' fun?" she asked, grinning a little.

"Gah!" Amanda dropped the handful of photos she was leafing through as if she'd been burnt and looked up at Moira guiltily. "I weren't snoopin', least, not right away. I knocked the box over an' was cleanin' up when they sort of caught me eye." Her expression turned curious. "These are all you? You didn't have an evil twin sister or nothin'?"

Moira snickered slightly and scooped up the fallen pictures. "Aye, these are all...good Lord, tha' 'air o' mine. Remind me ta avoid perms. But aye, all me. Only child, so nay a twin ta be found."

She glanced over, still amused at Amanda's slightly guilty, more curious now though, look. "Dinnae worry 'bout it, Amanda, I dinnae mind ye findin' these. In fact..."

With a small grimace, Moira reached over and gently tipped the box over and pictures tumbled out. "Lord, I forgot 'bout those pants," she muttered, staring at a picture that had her at some back water club in London one year. Cropped top, tight leather pants and her 'dance partner' from that evening leaning a little too close. "Ye look surprised?"

"Well, yeah. I kind of had you pegged a bit like Kitty when you were younger - all brains, no fun, that sort of thing. This..." Amanda shook her head in disbelief at another picture of Moira and the same 'dance partner', his hand plastered firmly on her arse and her not minding one bit. "You were a right raver, weren't you?"

"I -still- remember th' names ta most o' th' clubs tha' looked th' other way at IDs." Moira eyerolled in amusement at the hopeful look. "Most o' them were in th' Scottish cities an' they're probably all gone now."

She tapped another picture, her on the edge of a mosh pit it looked like, a nearly empty bottle of Guiness in her hand. "Nay, full in th' swin' o' teenage rebellion, I was. Wit' mum several years gone, me goin' ta Uni at yer age an' 'avin' ta go 'ome on th' weekends... I'm amazed I dinnae do anythin' more stupid than wha' I did." Which was, to her mind, more than enough.

"How stupid are we talkin' here?" Amanda just couldn't reconcile her image of the woman beside her with the evidence in her hands and spread out on the floor before them. Then she realized she probably being rude, something she was working on, perhaps not entirely successfully. "Um, you don't have t' tell me if yer don't want t' talk about it. 'M just bein' nosey now."

"Nay bein' rude, I'd tell ye if ye were." Moira looked down at the assortment of pictures at their feet and lowered herself down completely to sit next to Amanda. "I'm talkin' verra stupid," she murmured, flipping through the pictures.

"An' I cannae remember most o' their names," she said, bluntly enough to catch Amanda a little off-guard. "Tha's when me drinkin' startin' ta get worse. Sixteen or so. Stopped when me son was born, but after...och, ye know."

She flipped over another picture to show a young her, arm looped over a tall, dark hair man's neck as he bent down to grin at the camera. Leather pants again and not much more than bra material on top. He was dressed very similar.

A ring on her left hand could be clearly seen.

"That's... pretty stupid," Amanda said, unthinking. "How old were you?"

"Lord, let me think..." Mentally, Moira ran through the figures quickly. "Eighteen when Joe asked me ta marry 'im an' I dinnae really 'ave much choice. Thought I was pregnant." Her face fell a little. "Me da nearly stopped talkin' ta me then, marryin' Joe was pretty much th' only way ta save th' situation. Dinnae actually get pregnant until later, 'ad Kevin when I was nineteen."

"Yer dad was a bit of a traditionalist, then? Shotgun weddin's an' all that?" Amanda peered at the young man in the picture, not entirely liking what she saw. "This Joe - he looks... mean. I take it he was?"

"In any way tha' mattered, aye, 'e was." Moira's eyes darkened. "Nay really tha' first year o' marriage, still a lot o' partyin' goin' on. But 'e wasnae 'avin' sex ta please me, let me tell ye tha'. Colder than Bobby's temperature drops. Never physical, trust me I would never 'ave put up wit' tha' mess. Nay verra emotionally 'ealthy, especially when I became pregnant."

"Fucker." Amanda said it matter-of-factly. "Blokes like him are a penny a pound, more's the pity." Her tone implied she'd met more than a few of the type. "What happened to him? Hope you dropped him off one of these cliffs or somethin'."

Moira laughed. "Nathan wants t', tha's fer sure. Joe's sportin' a crooked nose thanks ta Rory, though. 'e's in Parliment, believe it or not, but nay for verra lon'. Scandal, dinnae ye know."

She shifted her glance back to Amanda and grinned. "Still 'avin' trouble belivin' tha' was me?"

"Nate knows 'bout him an' he's still walkin' an' breathin'? Dom's right, he is gettin' soft. Then again, I s'pose you can't top members of Parliament without it gettin' awkward." Amanda scooped up the photos and lay them carefully back in the box. "Yer enjoyin' this, ain't you? Messin' with me head, turnin' me opinions upside down..." she said, poking her tongue out at Moira with a grin. "Still, it makes some things a bit clearer 'bout you. The temper, for a start."

"I am Scottish," Moira pointed out dryly. "But aye, it 'tis a wee bit fun. I regret a lot o' this but some o' it was fun. As fer Joe...Nathan's asked, many times, but I'm probably th' only reason 'e's left alive." Her face tightened. "Nay wort' it, trust me. As much shit as 'e's put me through, 'e did give me Kevin, as short a time as I 'ad wit' 'im."

Amanda shifted uncomfortably, hearing the pain in Moira's voice and not knowing what to do about it. Gingerly she reached out and touched Moira's arm gently. "'M sorry," she said awkwardly. "Didn't mean t' dredge up the past for you."

Quietly, Moira reached up and squeezed Amanda's hand with her own. "'Twas dredged up quite a bit this week, gloamin'..." She paused as Amanda looked confused. "Tha' was...odd." There was a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

"Not so odd - people seem t' be as compelled t' give me nicknames as they are t' put me in bloody dresses," Amanda said wryly, then tilted her head curiously. "What's it mean?"

"Means twilight," Moira responded. She grinned a little sheepishly. "I think it fits...yer on th' verge o' a lot o' thin's, Amanda, much like twilight. Me family 'as this bloody bad 'abit o' givin' each other odd nicknames...dinnae realize..."

There were places Moira didn't let herself go at times. Admitting someone who wasn't family but was pretty damned close was one of them. Too many losses already but, well, the dice was already thrown for this one.

"Looks like Rom's got herself some competition, then," Amanda said with a small grin, but her eyes had softened. She looked very young in the greenish light cast by the werelight bobbing above their heads. "'Gloamin'... I like it."

Moira relaxed and smiled. "Oh good..." The pictures caught her eye again and she shook her head ruefully. "Nathan's never seen these..."

With a wicked grin, Amanda suggested: "Maybe he should? 'Cause showin' old embarrassin' photos t' new boyfriends is a time-honoured tradition, or so Shinobi tells me..."

She chuckled. "I'd say it'd cause 'im ta 'ave a 'eart attack but...well, ye saw th' picture 'e posted ta 'is journal." Moira took a second to roll her eyes, she hadn't expected him to take the picture or post it. Though the results had been hysterical.


"It was a bit hard t' miss," Amanda replied with a grin. She carefully avoided mentioning the discussion that had come out of it with Doug. "You scrub up pretty well, Doc."

"Thanks." She couldn't help a smirk. "Sounds like ye will ta...dinnae manage ta sink th' Armada this time, aye?"

The noise that escaped Amanda was almost a whimper. "Don't bloody remind me," she said, covering her face with her hands in embarrassment. "I ain't sure which is worse - losin', or losin' t' Manny. Even when he says he ain't gloatin', there's definitely gloatin' comin' down the link. An' fuck knows what he's goin' t' come up with as far as this bet goes."

Laughing a little, Moira reached over and patted her on the shoulder. "It willnae be tha' bad, jus' watch," she told her, grinning. "An' there are thin's tha' wearin' a dress will let ye get away wit'..."

"I dunno, he said somethin' 'bout a masquerade, which don't sound like my thing at all," Amanda muttered darkly. "Still, I don't welch on a bet, so I'll just have t' take whatever he throws at me an' hope I don't make a right fool of meself." Then she grinned. "As for gettin' away with stuff, yer talkin' t' the expert here."

At that, Moira wrinkled her nose. "Okay, masquerades...ugh, ye 'ave me sympathy." The rest of what Amanda said made her shake her head in amusement. "Oh, aye, I dinnae think I'd forget tha' easily," she teased. "But, watch, 'tis amazin' wha' puttin' on a dress will do." Though she knew the conversation she had had with Nathan that night of the white dress had nothing to do with her garb, she still smiled a little at the memory.

"Yer've got that look. The one that says yer bein' all mushy," the girl said, looking at Moira with amusement. "That dress of yers that good, was it?"

"I'd deny it if'n it wasnae true." She thought for a second and then decided on something. "We 'ad a nice lon' talk..." Moira caught Amanda's look and laughed. "Amon' other thin's...but first we talked. Nathan asked wha' I would do if'n 'e asked me ta, well, marry 'im."

Amanda inhaled so suddenly she started coughing. "You wot?" she asked, once she was able. "What did you say? I mean, are you an' he...?" Then she realised what she sounded like. "Not that it's a bad thing, just, well, it's sort of out of the blue, ain't it?"

She laughed and patted the younger girl on the back. "Aye, 'twas a wee bit out o' th' blue. An' nay, nay now...'e jus' wanted ta see wha' I would say, I think. I told 'im me answer would be 'aye' an' now 'e's off plannin' somethin'." A look of amused worry crossed her face. "God only knows wha' it'll be." Moira thought a little more. "'Tis kind o' out o' th' blue but we've been in love wit' each other longer than we've been together. Bloody stupid an' stubborn, th' bot' o' us."

"That's just... um. I dunno what t' say. Congrats, I s'pose." Amanda was honestly floored. Well, more floored, since they were already sitting on the floor. "'S good, that you two're happy, I mean. You both need t' be." She couldn't help being a little envious, as foreign as the whole concepts of marriage and monogamy were to her. Happy was good.

Moira smiled a little. "Thanks. Ye okay? For a second, ye looked...I dinnae know, jus' want ta make sure yer okay."

"What? Yeah, 'm fine. Just... startled, is all. I didn't realize..." Amanda groped for the words to explain without it turning into another reassurance session. "'S just a bit of a shock, is all. Marryin' someone, that's... sort of permanent. Not somethin' I'm use to, is all."

"I can see tha'," she said quietly but then smiled. "I'm only used ta it through me parents marriage. Even after me mum died, da...'e was still married ta 'er, if tha' makes sense. So it'll be new, when it 'appens...won't be for a while..."

Amanda nodded, still a bit in shock at the whole development, but covering t as well as she could. "An' knowin' Nate, it'll be some horribly romantic gesture when he does ask you properly."

"Lord 'elp me," she sighed, laughing. "'e's goin' ta probably 'urt 'imself makin' a 'uge production out o' th' whole thin'."

"Fuck, yeah." Amanda snorted. "An' he can fix himself if that's the case. Still, it'd be fun t' watch."

"'ighly entertainin'." Moira rubbed the back of her neck. "Lookin' forward ta th' rest o' yer vacation?" she asked, changing the conversation after getting the feeling that the topic of marriage bewildered Amanda slightly.

"Amsterdam, yeah. Seein' Dom an' Theo an' GW will be good, an' the Pack'll be a laugh. I'm tryin' not t' think 'bout meeting Manny's dad too much. I ain't exactly what he'll be expectin', an' I get the feelin' Manny's lookin' forward t' shockin' him." Amanda bit her lip a little at the thought that followed, that pissing off his father was the reason he was with her in the first place. Angrily, she shoved the thought away - the stupid link was turning her into a sentimental idiot sometimes.

She watched Amanda for a second. "Sometimes ye 'ave ta ignore wha' other people say when ye really want somethin'," Moira replied. "Most o' th' time, people cannae see beyond wha' they know an' they miss out on a whole lot."

Amanda shrugged a little. "It'd help if I knew what I really wanted," she said with a wry twist of her mouth. "An' yeah, I know all about people missin' stuff they don't wanna see. Magic ain't exactly what people wanna know, no matter how many Harry Potter books they read."

"Ye'll figure it out. As much as I 'ate ta say it, yer youn' Amanda, an' ye've got so much time in front o' ye. An' now ye've got a pretty good base ta start from an' friends who'll catch ye if somethin' 'appens."

"I know. 'M good, really. Just a whole lot of stuff happenin' all at once." Amanda wrinkled her nose at Moira. "An' you keep up that sage advice thing, an' I might forget you used t' be a motorbike-ridin' hellcat an' decide yer an old fuddy-duddy after all."

Moira snorted and held up her hands. "I'll put th' wise old sage back in th' closet," she teased, reaching down to scoop the pictures back up. "An' ye'd be surprised at th' amount o' wisdom ye get by ridin' on a motorbike.