Ravens and Crows 1/3 by Dryad
dryad
Title: Ravens and Crows
Author: Dryad
Rating: PG13, MS/UST, M for Melancholy
Spoilers: 'A Christmas Carol', 'Emily', 'Demons', 'Wetwired'
Archive: Yes please. A note where would be nice.
Summary: Bill sticks his oar in - not without just cause
Feedback: Be brutal. You know you want to.
'Some say Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena, the virgin Goddess.
They say he dropped his seed along her leg as she escaped, whereupon
she wiped it off and threw it on the ground. From the seed which fell,
Erichthonius was created. But Creusa, granddaughter of Erichthonius,
told her son Ion, when he asked if Athena took Erichthonius up from
the earth, she said, "Into her virgin hands - she was not his
mother."'
Part One: Hugin - raven of thought, bringing news to Odin
Badb - member of The Morrigan, water-God of Knowledge
'Unknown to the other Gods, Athena hid the child in a chest, which she
then gave to the daughters of King Cecrops to guard. But the girls
opened the chest, and a crow gave the secret away, and the sisters,
driven mad by Athena, threw themselves into the sea.'
Maggie hummed tunelessly as she basted the turkey one last time,
leaving the large fowl unfoiled in order to brown before pushing it
back into the oven.
Ah, this was the life. She was happy, mostly. It was Thanksgiving and
everyone was home, Charlie excepted. Of course it hurt, not having
seen her youngest baby for years, but it was his choice. She couldn't
force him to do something he wasn't willing to do. '"Above all,
patience"' had been her mother's sage advice at Bill's birth. God knew
she'd tried.
After filling a bowl with cold water, she opened the bag of
cranberries and poured them in. A few floated to the top, and she
picked them out, wrinkling her nose in disgust at their semi-rotted
state. She drained the rest, peeled two oranges and removed as much of
the bitter white membrane as she could before roughly chopping them.
Into the food processor along with the cranberries, a brief blitz to
reach the right consistency, and then promptly into an unglazed black
bowl Bill had sent from Japan. In went a pinch of salt and barely
enough sugar to lessen the acidity of the cranberries and the relish
was done. She popped it into the fridge, sighed and added a little
cream to her now lukewarm coffee.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Bill asked, grabbing a beer from the
cooler. He popped the top and leaned against the counter.
"Hmm? Oh," Maggie shook her head. "just thinking about nothing. How's
Matty doing?"
"He's trying to convince me that he can play Army men, color, and
watch cartoons without disturbing Auntie Dana."
"Is she still asleep on the couch?"
He nodded. "I told her half an hour ago to go upstairs if she wanted
to nap, but you know what she's like."
"As stubborn as you," Tara called, rattling around in the pantry.
Maggie hid a smile behind her cup. Dana and Bill had far more in
common than either of them realized, yet neither one understood the
other. Par for the course, she supposed. "Leave your sister alone, she
made an effort to be here."
"Effort, shmeffort," Bill said with a snort. He sipped his beer. "I'm
sure she had an excuse not to come all ready. I mean, come on, Mom,
you had to pick her up from the airport."
"She came directly from a case, Bill. She didn't even have a chance to
wash her face or bring her bags upstairs before Matty dragged her into
the living room. What else do you want from her, blood? She's
exhausted," Maggie said, catching Tara's embarrassed, apologetic
glance when she closed the pantry door. "And she's had a hard few
months."
"So?" Bill shrugged. "When hasn't she? What gives her the right to
miss birthdays and holidays? Jesus, she wasn't even there when Missy
died! She's more loyal to that partner of hers than she is to any of
us. She had cancer, for God's sake, and did she tell you herself? No -
"
Maggie held up one hand in an attempt to halt the tirade. "Bill, now
is not the time. Fox will be showing up any moment, and I don't want
dinner to descend into bickering and infighting."
"And why do you always defend her? Why do you defend him?"
Tara laid one hand on Bill's forearm. "Hon, I think your Mom's right."
"Why not?" He jerked his arm away. "Why isn't this the time? We're all
family, we've got nothing to hide, unlike her, unlike that ass."
Oh God, she didn't want to do this today. While she didn't understand
the ins and outs of her daughter's life, she had come to realize that
it was Dana's strength of character, her integrity and tenacious
search for justice, which kept her with the FBI. As for her
relationship with Fox, well, some things mothers weren't meant to
know. She didn't want to know. As long as her soul was still saved,
what Dana did with her life was her business. "Look, can't we just
have a nice meal and leave all of this nonsense? It's her life, she
can do with it what she will."
"Damn it, Mom, can't you see what she's doing to herself? And to us?"
Maggie had no answer for him. There was always a price to be paid for
Justice, no
matter who you were. She turned towards the coffee pot to freshen her
cup and noticed Matty standing wide-eyed in the doorway. He clutched
his green blankie to his chest with one hand, thumb firmly stuck in
his mouth, something he hadn't done since he was two. He looked very
solemn. "Matty? Sweetie?"
Bill stepped forward and crouched in front of his child. "What's
wrong, son?"
Matty unplugged and said, "Auntie Dana's mad at me."
"She is?"
"Uh hunh. She yelled," he tucked his chin further into his blankie.
"and got her gun out."
Maggie forgot to breathe. It couldn't be true. He had to be lying.
Dana simply wouldn't do that. After a second she gasped out, "He
probably got confused watching the cartoons."
"Matty," Bill very calmly said, grasping his son by the shoulders. "I
want you to stay in here while I talk to your Auntie, okay? You stay
right here."
Maggie was one step behind him as he strode to the living room. And
with one look, saw that Matty had told the truth. Dana sat on the
couch, elbows on knees, one shaking hand covering her face, the other
gripping the holstered gun so hard her knuckles were white. Maggie
couldn't go to her, even though she kept telling herself if was the
right thing to do, the supportive, motherly thing to do.
A gun.
A child.
She had pulled a gun on her own nephew.
Bill stood before Dana, hands on his hips. "Did you point your weapon
at my son?"
Uncalled for, the image of Matty lying on the floor, life's blood
forever staining her Grandmother's Turkish rug, flitted through
Maggie's mind. And another, more heard than seen, of Tara's wail and
Bill's hopeless cries. Maggie rubbed her mouth to keep herself from
screaming.
"Answer me, damnit."
"I - " Dana murmured, glancing everywhere except them. She rose to her
feet unsteadily, looking drained and ill.
"Answer me!" Bill shouted.
Movement from the corner of her eye caught Maggie's attention. Tara,
Matty tucked behind her, absorbing the scene and keeping a safe
distance away. Maggie didn't blame her, she didn't particularly want
to be in the room either, but she couldn't leave Bill and Dana alone
together. She distantly heard the doorbell ring, yet made no move
towards the front door.
"I had a dream - a nightmare - "
"You almost kill my boy because of a goddamned dream? What the hell is
wrong with you?"
Yes, God, what's wrong with her? In the kitchen Bill had accused
Maggie of defending Dana, and as much as she wanted to defend her now,
she couldn't. Because pointing a gun at a child was indefensible. She
jumped as Bill roared again.
Dana briefly closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I can't explain - "
The doorbell rang again, and still she ignored it. Tara spoke quietly
to Matty and headed towards the foyer. Not knowing wasn't a good
enough excuse. Lord in Heaven why had she let their father teach them
how to use weapons in the first place? At the time he'd said it was
something every boy deserved to know, and God help her, she'd
swallowed her reservations and let him do as he wanted, because he was
so far away for so many months and God knew the boys had needed their
father. And of course the girls had wanted to learn too, and Bill was
too much of a softy to say no to them despite her very vocal
objections.
And what had it gotten them? Bill had followed in his father's
footsteps. Melissa had struck her own irresponsible path. Dana too had
forged her own way, paying higher coin than anyone but Maggie
realized. Charlie. . .Charlie was lost in the wilds of life, and
whether or not he could find his way home was not something she could
help him with. She'd done her best, yet it hadn't been enough.
What was worse, what made her a failure as a mother for Dana, was that
as hard as she tried, every now and then she still blamed her for
Missy's death. In her darkest moments, she wondered if her infertility
wasn't God's judgement. A life for a life. Intellectually she knew
that it wasn't Dana's fault, and that she would still be standing in
her own house at Thanksgiving with only one daughter alive regardless
of her children's familiarity with weapons. Yet - and yet.
Maggie snapped back into the moment when Tara led Fox into the living
room. He must have come straight from the office, for he was still
dressed in trenchcoat, dark suit and tie, hardly suitable for the
snowy conditions outside. She gave him a weak smile, barely able to be
polite with Bill continuing to rant, albeit more softly now. Fox, in
the middle of giving her a guarded, polite glance back, stopped just
inside the doorway, face turning to stone save for a muscle jumping in
his cheek. What? She reviewed what Bill had said.
Oh dear God.
He didn't know.
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to keep on my toes."
Sgt. Det. Lt. Frank Drebin, Police Squad!
http://www.puritycontrol.co.uk - The Grove, XF rec's, updated 1/1/02
--
"Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to keep on my toes."
Sgt. Det. Lt. Frank Drebin, Police Squad!
http://www.puritycontrol.co.uk - The Grove, XF rec's, updated 1/1/02