Lola Hawkes
Since all of the excitement of the
weekend, Lola was more than willing to treat the rest of the week as
easily as she could manage. She returned to routine, craving that like a
wolf craves its turf after being away too long. There were things she
needed to do on her list -- visiting Erich was at the top of it. However, Lola wasn't going to be idiot enough to make the same error two
times in a row. She was waiting until next week, when the moon would
turn to a curved slice in the sky and it would be easier on both of
them. His Rage would be less provoked, and her hackles would be less on
edge for it.
They'd gone out to meet Phoebe two nights ago to
honor Hector's first scar, and Lola found that to be a treat to her
heart because she got to feel Fog for the first time since
once-upon-a-time-ago when Willow had summoned It on the Homestead's
lands for some reason or another.
Today it was back to normal.
Lola didn't go out on her typical patrol today, not for fear of the
stark cold but simply because Eddie Luske had swung by earlier in the
morning while Hector had only been asleep for about two hours or so to
share a coffee with the Kinswoman on the porch and tell her to take a
goddamn day off for once in her life, and that he'd bite a blood blister
onto both asscheeks if she didn't abide because he was walking this
side of the Bawn today. They'd bantered and she'd shoved him off the
porch to make him leave, but the suggestion was taken to heart.
This
isn't to say she was inactive, though. Sometime around ten thirty in
the morning Lola was out in the shed, dressed in a few layers of snug
shirts rather than loose bulky clothing because she had been practicing
punches and strikes on one of those rubber dummy torsos. When sweating
started to become a concern against the chill in the shed she took a
break and decided this would be the best time to place a phone call
instead.
Her phone was retrieved from where she left it on top of her work bench, and Corey's number was selected and dialed out.
Corey Seger
Two-maybe-three
years ago during one of Celduin's infrequent trips back to the
Homestead Corey had gotten into a slap fight with Hector because Hector
accused him of being a trust fund baby. Corey had thought the accusation
was hilarious and the fight that ensued was even more hilarious because
neither of them were trying to hurt each other but Corey still ended up
knocking over half the stools at the kitchen island when he pitched
Hector through them. Maria dragged them both outside by the scruffs of
their necks because god help them if she had to wax the goddamn floors
again.
Corey is not a trust fund baby. His mother is an Athro of
their tribe and his father does something so mired in modern technology
that half of what he says makes no sense to him. After the first 48
hours of his First Change Corey went not to work for his father or to
help out around the sept but to go north for no real apparent reason.
Now that he's back in Houston he does work for his father. Half his time
is spent on the computer and he's alright with that.
Means when Lola calls him at 11:30 Central time he's not doing anything so terribly important he can't ignore it.
"Hello," he says and then clears his throat. "Lola. Hey. How's it going?"
Lola Hawkes
"Hey," is her greeting. It's usually rough and simple and casual, but Corey and everyone else who knows her expects that.
Lola
doens't sit down because sitting is how you lose your momentum, and
momentum was what was keeping her warm and comfortable out here. Sure,
the roof and the walls kept the shed from nipping at her toes and
fingertips like the air outside would, but it wasn't near so warm and
comfortable as the house. Instead, she bumped a hip back into one of
several old charred barrels that she used to burn 'evidence' in and
stood comfortably there for the time being.
"It's alright. Better now than it was before. I'm callin' to touch base, like I said I would."
No
pleasantries today. There's a sense of business to her tone of voice,
it was easy to tell she was calling with a purpose. Though the fight
had occurred close to a full week ago, Lola was still raw and tense when
she put herself inside that memory. In the moment when Hector roared
at her accusingly and then tried to walk away and how it was so terrible
it made her sick. She wanted to be prompt with this-- something about
just talking with Corey felt slightly like going behind her man's back.
"I told Hector."
Corey Seger
Lola
isn't the only one who felt sick after that night. Hector does not have
an innately powerful memory but he has the Galliard's gift of recalling
anything he cares to dredge up out of his halls. He'd refused to heal
himself Sunday night when they got home and it took until Tuesday
morning to concede that he needed to rest in one of his regenerative
forms.
Tuesday morning and Lola putting her hand on his back where
she knows the wound was not yet healed. If she thought he was punishing
himself for bellowing at her like some kind of wild animal that night
that wouldn't have been a baseless thought.
The thought that these
interactions are akin to going behind Hector's back isn't baseless
either. This is twice now she's spoken to Corey while Hector has been
asleep alone in the bed they share and she never technically copped to a
conversation with Corey being the trigger that fired the fear that the
baby might not be her man's.
If Lola sounds like this is all
business then Corey definitely sounds as if they're doing something they
ought not be doing. The world around him is quiet and he is alone but
he still keeps his voice low.
"Alright," Corey says. "And he didn't take the moonbridge out here to try and kick my ass. That's... good?"
Lola Hawkes
Lola
makes a noise into the receiver that sounds like a mix between a scoff
and an animal huff, a rush of skeptical air that creates a bit of static
and disturbance, but only for a moment. "Good for you, at least." The
words match the tone that the noise had set.
It would be far more
comfortable reminding her body how to hit hard and where to strike if
she were practicing up in the open space of the loft, which is where she
had taken to working on her skills with a knife. Hector carried one
hunting knife, but Lola wanted to be comfortable carrying around two and
double-wielding if she was going to be using them at all. It seemed
that much more impressive, and if there's one thing that Lola utilized
it was her own swagger and ability to fill a room.
"It was rough as fuck. He went off and fucking died
throwing himself against a Bane. Snapped back, though, but he's still
working on healing from the last of what it did to him. He wasn't
reasonable but I don't think I can be mad at him for that fact."
Corey Seger
"Whoa whoa whoa, wait."
Both
males have stated to her in their own ways that they still loved each
other. Both males tend to be honest but for his Rage burning as hot as
it does Corey is much more assured of himself and his place in the
Nation and he can identify his own emotions even if he seems to default
to angry or annoyed or hungry or horny. Hector can't even manage that much some days. He hasn't even admitted that he still cares about Corey.
The
most she's gotten out of Hector was that he would have followed Corey
if he decided to come back and he hated him for leaving.
Corey
isn't coming back. Tamsin said it best: they were not waiting for him
and there was nothing for him to which he could return. This is not
Middle Earth and Corey is not Aragorn.
"He threw himself at a Bane? I thought you said it was better than it was before."
Lola Hawkes
To
serve as the ghost of a line between two good friends so harshly,
aggressively split from one another was an odd sensation for Lola.
She's never been a mediator before-- she wasn't brought up a Philodox
after all. Maria had once or twice had to push her and Ivan away from
one another, because sometimes a Ragabash's lessened burden of Rage and
penchant for looking at situations outside of the box made them decent
neutral parties, but never before had Lola tried to bring two heated
heads back down to cool.
The closest she's gotten to that is
taking over the fight in situations where the odds were drastically
tipped in a favor that she didn't like. There had been a Lupus cub
once, Lola couldn't remember what the Wolves called her, but she did
remember a young Garou close to their Rite of Passage harassing her
unfairly. Lola had cracked that young offender in the back of the skull
with a tree branch and kicked them in the belly. Her methods were far
from good, but at least her intentions were.
"They are, now. It
was back on Sunday that this all happened." She tipped her head to one
side and scrubbed at the underside of her jaw, then distractedly glanced
to the tarp under which her four-wheeler was still hibernating. She'd
have to start busting that out sooner than later.
"He knew
something was wrong. We were in a spat about something unrelated and it
got brought up and he had to go off and spend himself before we could
talk. My dumb ass decided that the night of the full moon would be the
best time for everything to happen." She sounded aggravated with
herself, and for some reason Corey was the only person she was letting
hear this. She sure hadn't told Tamsin or Hector or Eddie that she
thought her own actions were stupid.
He can almost hear her waving
her hand dismissively. "Fact of the matter being-- we had at it, but
calmed things back down. I don't think we're gonna talk about it again,
though. Just gonna have to... find out."
Corey Seger
Last
time they talked about this Corey had told her telling Hector was a
great fuckin' idea. Sarcasm translates just fine through the phone. She
cannot see his facial expression or his body language but she picks up
before he even opens his mouth that that's the gist of his response.
"You'd
let him raise someone else's kid?" he asks. "Whoa! hang on: you think
if it's mine it's just gonna pop out all Caucasian and be in your face
about it? It could get all your genes and you'd never know it wasn't
his. I'd feel a lot fuckin' better if you'd just let me pay for the
goddamn test and went and had it done and then we'd know instead of..."
Lola Hawkes
"Okay, fist of fucking all...."
Corey
can tell that he's touched on a nerve, one that's exposed not unlike a
tooth much in need of a root canal. There's heat in her voice that has
always tried to contend with the heat that he carried in his breast but could never quite find the gusto.
"Have
you seen Hector and I? Second of all, have you ever seen what a
half-white baby looks like? They wind up lighter regardless-- skin or
hair, and almost always in the eyes. We'd know.
"And third of all, and this might be the most important part so you listen close: Regardless of what happens, this is our
baby." When she says 'our', there should be little doubt that she's
referring to herself and Hector. There's too much weight and emotion
and outright territorialness to the way she says it for there to be any
doubt.
"Besides, that's a shit-ton of money for a goddamn test. And I know from my own past that tests tell lies too."
Corey Seger
"Okay,
some half-blind seer telling you you were going to turn into a fuckin'
werewolf one day isn't the same as a fuckin' paternity test, Hawkes. One
of those things is called science and the other one is--"
He has
no stake in this. It really is in his best interests to encourage Lola
to just carry on with his life like this baby is as she says it is.
And
they both know Hector. Even if the baby has pale skin or blue eyes when
she finally opens them he won't just put her facedown in the dirt and
walk away. It's not exactly heartening for Corey to hear that Hector
hurled himself at a Bane less than a week ago with the only
precipitating factor being she was trying to tell Hector she'd spoken to
his ex-alpha though.
That's what caused everything that went down
in Winnipeg. Maria and Hector tried to talk Corey out of engaging a duo
of Banes in a fight. They couldn't handle it. They ended up being
right. The thought of him willingly going one-on-one with one of the
creatures that destroyed his pack doesn't seem to him like anything
other than a suicide attempt but Corey doesn't say that.
"Fuck. I'm sorry. You know him better than I do."
Lola Hawkes
Whatever
might be in Corey's best interests weren't historically what he wound
up abiding by anyways. Corey was supposed to come across as a rational
thing-- don't confuse that for level, but he liked his facts and his
science and his blacks and whites. Yet, while he may know that
something was better for him to just leave the fuck alone, or dust his
hands and walk away from, a thread of something else entirely (duty?
caring? who knows) would keep him there snorting and scowling and pissed
off but present none the less.
It took a hell of a fight to rift
him away from his pack, and though his name took a heavy hit for it he
was able to put himself back on his feet and work to regain his rank
once more in less than half a year's time.
In Lola's opinion, that alone was worth considering.
Still,
her tone is cautious after a moment's pause when she says: "I can't
tell if you're being snarky at me or not. But I don't wanna go and take
this test and then explain to Hector how and why I did. I'm tired of
this walking on mines bullshit, man, it wears me out."
Corey Seger
He
can be snarky. That's one of the many reasons he and Hector got along
so well. Though Hector only employs sarcasm as a defense mechanism when
he's fighting an uphill battle against talking about his feelings Corey
was adept at shit-talk and Hector can talk fast when he wants to.
The
dynamic the six members of Celduin had with each other was a stable if
nebulous thing. That Corey could be abrasive and angry at his brothers
and sisters and they would either ignore him or snark right back or goad
him into fighting until he'd gotten it out of his system was a
testament to the love and respect they carried.
Even when they
were wrong. Even when they were acting the ass. And each of them was
wrong or acted the ass at one point or another. Only Willow managed to
be sage and stoic at all times. Willow's death was the beginning of the
end but it took them six moons to realize it.
And Lola is tired of walking on mines all the time.
"I
hate to break it to you, babe, but if you keep trying to hide shit
from..." He laughs. "Jesus. The irony. Hawkes, how is it a shock that
you're hiding shit from him and he gets pissed off when he finds out? Do
you wanna take the fuckin' test or do you not wanna take the fuckin'
test? If you take the fuckin' test you'd be better off fuckin' tell him
first."
Lola Hawkes
Corey's answer is a heavy sigh
on the other end of the line. He can practically see her lifting a
hand to rub at her face roughly, brush her hair from her eyes and then
pinch at the inner most corners of them with thumb and middle finger.
She
pushed away from the barrels that she was leaning against through her
hip and started walking about the rectangular space of the building's
interior. Movement kept blood flowing, which kept her warmer, and feet
that paced eased her just a little more than stiff standing.
"Nah.
Corey, man, he's not over what happened. He doesn't like hearin' your
name still. If I were to say 'Hey, Corey's gonna throw us a thousand
bones to go find out if I'm having his baby or not', how the hell do you
think that'd go down, huh?
"There's a rift that I can't mend for
you guys, and I'm tired of trying. I did that once and the results
'bout broke our fucking hearts for a minute there, man. Still could
maybe. I'm not saying that I don't want to hear from you anymore. I
don't lie when I say that I miss you so goddamn much. There's
so little of what used to be left-- it's just Hector and Tamsin anymore,
they've added two new members to the pack but between Willow and Glen
and Maria? I don't want you to be dead silence too."
Corey Seger
The
blast of his laughing exhalation hits the microphone as hard as a gust
of wind but she can hear the dry beleaguered humanity underneath it.
If
he did have something to lose this exchange could have pissed him off.
Neither Hector nor Tamsin reached out to him after he left them and the
understanding they had reached without ever reaching each other was that
it was just as well that they moved on with their lives and never spoke
to each other again.
"I don't know what you want me to tell you,"
he says. "That rift ain't going anywhere. If I were him I wouldn't want
to talk to me ever again either, but I offered, and you said you didn't
think it was a good idea. Alright. It wasn't a good idea. But neither
is this. You gotta stop sneaking the fuck around if you wanna
talk to me, man. Because I don't wanna fuck you two up. I'm over here
minding my own business and you keep fuckin' calling me."
Lola Hawkes
The
Kinfolk swallows back a combination of slapdash words of anger, a spasm
of guilt, and a sting of what someone who was more in tune with their
own emotions would identify as regret. For Lola, all she knows is that
it's an emotional kind of discomfort in her breastbone and a trembling
in her shoulders and upper arms with which she responds to what Corey
has to say.
"Fine," she says. Nevermind then. Fuck you too. I don't care how you're doing anymore then either.
Her
tone tightened up, though, from lamenting about how she missed the old
pack and having everyone, including him, around, to the same curt and
business-like manner that she began with in the first place.
"I
told you I'd let you know what happened, what was decided. I suppose
the next time you'll hear from me is if the baby has your ugly square
head."
Corey Seger
Emotional manipulation is a
bitch. He claimed he missed her. She knows Hector misses him. They can't
go back to the life they used to have though. He's rebuilding his own
in Houston and he has a strong-hearted kinswoman who is not afraid of
him even his Rage could kill the plants in their apartment.
The
universe has a rotten sense of humor. Corey's mate is pregnant and does
not know it yet. They will have no doubt as to the paternity of the
father. They have been together since June and she, at least, does not
stray.
Lola's anger serves a purpose. It means the wounds all of
them sustained when Glen and Maria died and Corey nearly killed Hector
will start to heal. In his own way he's right. Their bones won't set at
this rate.
"If you just want to text me a picture of the kid wearing a turban so I know it's his, that'd be fine too."
Lola Hawkes
"Don't
be a dick," she tells him, even though she had just informed him that
he was square-headed and ugly to boot. There isn't much heart to the
warning, though. She knows that it's a jest.
There's another sigh, a bit quieter. That hard business tone softened back down some.
"Take care, Corey."
And
with that she disconnects the call, not waiting to hear a goodbye from
him. Some part of her felt like it was easier this way. The odd
melancholy desire for reunion would be easier to ignore if she didn't
have to know whether it would be echoed in any way when he bade her
farewell too.
She didn't even feel like punching the rubber torso
anymore. Instead, because Eddie promised her sharp teeth if she went
out to walk her mind clear, Lola would return to the house and strip
down to a T-shirt and leave her jeans on the floor, and slip into the
warm bed with her mate for a mid-day rest.
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