MHA #4; Wednesday Morning [09/07].

[somethingwithturquoise]

Was half the reason Summer invited Liz over for a little impromptu (and oh-so-handwavey) girls' night in just to make sure the woman actually slept last night? Yes, yes it was. Just like how she was definitely making breakfast right now, too, just to make sure Liz actually ate something. Which, you know, she thought was fairly ridiculous to be doing for a grown ass woman who continued to mildly terrify her with the idea that this was a person who was going to be responsible for another tiny human at some point, but, well....

Either way, after pampering and virgin margs, Liz had managed to fall asleep on the couch, so Summer was trying to be quiet in the kitchen while she put together some breakfast in between getting started on preparing some of her shots for her bar shift that evening. Try being the operative word, because she had both Pancakes and Rain seemingly very interested in what she was doing and making frequent complaints about the fact that what she was doing was apparently not paying enough attention to them.

"God," said Summer to the cats, Pancakes particularly, who seemed to be leading this charge, "you're such divas."

Now, where could she have possibly picked that up from?

[[ mostly for the houseguest, but can certainly be open for other things too! ]]

Comments

[flamesburned]

Yesterday had been exhausting but it had been nice spending the evening with Summer and getting pampered, even if she did feel a bit bad that she hadn’t turned up her class yesterday.

She started to stir and it took a few moments to remember that she was on Summer’s couch, before she sat up and began to make her way over to the kitchen.

“Hi,” she said softly, “what are you making?” she asked curiously.

She still didn't look entirely great but the sleep had helped.

[somethingwithturquoise]

She might not look great, but at least her toenails were fabulous.

"Breakfast," Summer answered, nice and vague, with a wave of her spatula at the collection of eggs and bacon and pancakes in progress among the various elements of jello shot prep that had been happening in between. "Which you," her spatula swiveled pointedly toward Liz, "are eating even if I have to funnel it down your throat."

She turned to the stove to flip a pancake.

"Did you sleep okay?" she asked, knowing full well that the fact that Liz had slept at all was groundbreaking, apparently!

[flamesburned]

They were very fabulous toenails indeed.

“Okay, I’ll … I’ll eat breakfast,” Liz said softly and then as if on cue her stomach started growling, she had only really had the cake and scones yesterday.

Liz shifted a bit, looking a bit sheepish but she did nod at Summer’s question, “ … I think it’s the longest I’ve slept in a couple of days,” she admitted, which was probably not the thing to reveal, “yesterday was the hardest day to get through,” she said quietly, even though she knew it would take her a while to get back to some form of normalcy … at least something that was normal for her.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Yeah, well," said Summer, drawing in a breath as her attention shifted to the other pan with the eggs, "you got through it, so...you know. No more excuses. Or, at any rate, the next excuse you come up with is probably going to be a real doozy to top this one..."

She had been planning to wait until at least Liz got some food in her before digging into that, but if you were just going to lead her right to it, Liz...

Eggs now flipped, the spatula waved toward the coffee maker. "There's coffee, too," she offered. "Don't worry, it's decaf. Mugs are in the cabinet above it."

[flamesburned]

“I’ll … I’ll try and do better,” Liz said softly, shifting a glance downwards at at her stomach and the little bump and she placed a hand on it, “I’ll … I’ll try and not let it get that bad again,”

She knew she couldn’t promise that it wouldn’t happen again but she knew she could do a lot more to stay on top of it and focus on making sure she was looking after her daughter as well as herself.

"Coffee does sound good, I don't tend to have a lot of it these days, even decaf," she said as she went to the cabinet to get the mugs down.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Well," Summer pointed out, because now she wasn't so sure if Liz was even aware of this, "you shouldn't have a lot of it these days, so.....you know..."

She hesitated a moment, flipping the bacon.

"And honestly," she then said, "now that you're over this hump? Trying isn't good enough."

The fact that Liz had just woken up was the only thing saving her from a massive rant right now.

[flamesburned]

“Dr. Lecter did say that my coffee intake had to be reduced, a little was okay but it couldn’t be all the time,” Liz said softly, “especially not strong coffee,” which ruled out the normal coffee that she liked to take.

Liz bit her lip and nodded, managing to not break down crying, which was probably a first but she had cried a lot these past couple of weeks, “I … “ she stopped and then started, not realising what she was going to say.

“I’ll …I’m going to do better,” she said quietly instead, staring down at her hands.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Louder," Summer insisted, not about to let Liz get away with this meek shit in her kitchen, "for the people in the back."

[flamesburned]

“I’m going to do better,” Liz repeated, forcing herself to look up at Summer and managing to get through it without stammering.

It wasn’t extremely loud but it was definitely an improvement

[somethingwithturquoise]

And Summer was just going to hold that look with Liz while she had it, a firm and pregnant (haaaaa) pause to let her know that, while that was still a whole lot better, it was not quite ideal, but...for now...she'll allow it. She nodded, and started to get around to finishing everything up. "Good," she said, and, with the range off, she reached for a plate. "We don't need to be adding a new tragic anniversary in the upcoming months just because you couldn't get your shit together over the last one."

[flamesburned]

Liz trembled slightly but held Summer’s gaze as she absorbed that and nodded as she knew she did have a lot of work to do to get better, She took a deep breath and stared down at the mug of coffee she had poured herself. “I - I know I have a lot of work to do to start making it better,”

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer was almost tempted to ask do you?, because she had doubts, but she didn't, she just started piling some food onto a plate.

"And you're kind of running out of time for it," she said instead. "You have got to start taking better care of yourself, Liz, and your kid. You're going to be a mother, you shouldn't have people reminding you," it was here that she pointedly held the full plate out for Liz, "that food is important, actually."

[flamesburned]

Liz winced slightly, she put down her coffee and she took the plate and before she could do anything to talk herself out of it, she started to eat the food, “it’s - lately I feel like the pregnancy is the only thing keeping me going,” she admitted, “I’m … I'm just so tired and I - I don't how to fix it,” she said quietly as she managed to take another few mouthfuls of food.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I have a suggestion," said Summer, who always did.

"It's called sleep."

REVOLUTIONARY.

"Which," she added, before Liz could argue that she was having trouble sleeping, "would probably come a lot easier if you were eating and taking care of yourself properly. They kind of feed into each other."

[flamesburned]

Liz bit her lip and stared down at her plate of food where she was slowly making progress eating her way round the plate. It was the most she’d eaten in a couple of days.

“It’s - hard sometimes, to eat, to even get out of bed sometimes,” Liz admitted, “I just …I just …” she faltered, trying to put into words how she felt, “it’s - it’s not an excuse I know …I …” her voice trailed off uncertainly and she went in for another bite of food.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer considered waiting, after Liz had trailed off, to see if she'd pick up that thought where she'd tried to leave it, but she sighed a little bit and started to get her own plate together.

"A lot of things are hard, Liz," she stated. "But we do them anyway. Because they're important. And, look, I know what happened to you was horrible. It sucks. But, Liz....that was fourteen years ago. That trauma's old enough to go to high school. You gotta start letting it go at some point..."

[flamesburned]

“I’m afraid to,” Liz admitted softly, “that I’ll be dishonouring them if I …if I move on,”

She stared back down at her plate, “when it was …it was my fault they died,”

She had been told repeatedly that it wasn’t her fault that day but Liz was still tired from a lack of sleep, that she was having trouble processing her thoughts after how tiring the last couple of weeks had been.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"So afraid," said Summer, as she turned back toward Liz, leaning a little on her counter as she speared a fork into piece of egg, "that you'll risk hurting yourself like this? Or your daughter? Seems to me like it dishonors them way more to just let that fear completely control your life, Liz. Especially when, don't know if you noticed, but..."

She waved her fork toward Liz's midsection.

"Not exactly just yours right now, either.

"Besides," she added, now around a bite of food. "What are they going to do about it anyway? Haunt you? Whatever, it's Fandom, can't be that hard to find a good exorcist around here, and, anyway, if they were going to do that, I'd think they'd have started way before now."

[flamesburned]

Liz stared down in the direction of her midsection, at that little bump.

“They …I…” Liz took a deep breath as she tried, “they wouldn’t be happy but only because I’m having a baby and I’m not married,” she admitted, “my …my brother I think he would be worried about me,” she had always been closer to him than to her parents.

She forced herself to eat another few mouthfuls of food.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"And do you think he'd like to see you," Summer asked, finding it more than easy to lean into the brother in all of this, "tearing yourself up this much over something you couldn't even control?"

[flamesburned]

“No,” Liz said quietly, forcing herself to look back up at Summer, “he …he wouldn’t,”

She hesitated, “he always used to look out for me, even though he was younger than me …he …he wouldn’t like how I am now, not looking after myself,” she admitted.