trans_9 | See How My Garden Grows [Very Open]

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See How My Garden Grows [Very Open]

He hadn't done much laying around as a teenager. He'd always been too busy, one social event to another.

After the Yeerks...well, Temrash had less love for being lazy than Iniss did, but neither of them were really set on protracted periods of inactivity. And there was always something Sharing related, or feeding related, or just...something. Rank play had been a major time suck in his youth, and needing to be somewhere every three days made planning anything else a bit of a suck.

He'd flopped down on the hill next to the garden he had spent so much time losing time in, one hand gripping Bobby's leash to keep the dog from running off, but eyes closed and body relaxed.

Too much stuff was happening, lately. He wasn't used to keeping up with it anymore. Jake was back and Sam was dating Xander and Dean and Kaylee had broken up. He wasn't even sure how to handle half of that, much less all of it at once.

No wonder the garden looked so well tended, the neat rows gave him something to do, something to think about, something that made perfect sense because plants needed like...two things, water and weeding, and they weren't much on demanding an emotional investment beyond that.

Bobby shifted, licking his hand and resting his head on his shoulder, watching the chickens and their chicks poke around nearby.

Why couldn't life just be this simple?

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"Yeah, they have a bad habit of not doing so well if we don't." He shifted a little to look at her, not rising from his sprawl. "I don't have as many flowers as you do. Thought it might be nice to do something useful..."

Bobby wagged his tail, head still resting on Tom's shoulder. This was their place and it was obvious they both knew it. A little corner of the world away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the ship where Tom could pretend to be normal.

"My hands are all roughed up now. Guess that's sorta cool. I think the Tomatoes are getting ripe, the book said this was a good climate for them."

She's glad to see Tom sprawling. It's such different body language than the first time she saw him on the ship, saw him and not Iniss, when he'd been curled up almost fetal against the bulkhead, watching the stars.

"Well, flowers are infinitely less useful than vegetables. I may have to coax you into giving me something to cook. You remember my soups, right?" Tom doesn't seem to mind her here, so she wanders in, examining the plants.

"I remember. We're a bit short of meat, though." Bobby wagged his tail, but didn't move from Tom's side to investigate the chickens scattering at Eva's approach or the woman exploring the garden. Tom didn't seem to mind, and so Bobby didn't mind either. "And you can have whatever you want. It's not like we can eat all of it. Besides, you helped me shop for most of my plants."

It was easier to relax, easier to sleep when he was so tired he couldn't think.

"I could make vegetarian meals. They don't feel as hearty, but they're still better than the slop." She sits down next to him, reaching a hand out for Bobby to sniff. She knows better than to touch an animal uninvited. Every creature deserves the right to decline such an imposition. "Any of them not growing well? Some of the plants in my garden are trying their hardest to discourage me entirely. You should see what I did to those japanese maples."

"That might be nice, and hey once the potatoes are ready it'll taste pretty good too."

He shook his head. "The corn took a bit to decide to grow, but everything seems to be doing fine. I think Stacy might be helping me or something. Cause the most I've done is weed mom's marigolds."

Bobby licked her hand after a brief sniff, tail wagging again. He was an excitable dog, but Tom was calm and there was nothing for his still somewhat puppyish brain to get distracted by, and so he stayed.

"If only the crew on Galilee could have picked up some butter and salt for us," she says with a laugh. "We could do corn on the cob, like they do at the Del Mar fair. The fire-roasted kind with the big skewers."

She pets Bobby's ears. Good for Tm to have a companion. Sometimes she thinks she needs one too.

"Sounds like they were stealing everything else. Why not send them on a milk run too?" He smiled, quiet, burrowing his fingers in Bobby's fur.

"I miss doing things like that, it feels like it's been halfway to forever since I have. We used to go out and mom would buy all those little homemade jams and stuff and Jake and I would get sick on Cotton Candy and popcorn and waste all our pocket money on those games. Never could win them, Dad could sometimes. We came home with this giant elephant one time, it was purple. I think he gave it to Sara and Jordan."

Bobby licked her fingers, tail still wagging.

"And eggs! Do your chickens lay eggs? I have some spices squirreled away at home. I could make us some omelets."

She grins, rolling over onto her side and resting her chin on her fist. "I used to get those big stuffed animals for free at the end of every season. I worked there over the summers, in college. They paid really well to have a cute college girl showing off the fake rifles at the kid's shooting gallery."

Such a long time ago. Back before she was Eva the survivor, Eva the mother, the wife. When she was just dark-haired, bad-tempered Eva with her beat-up Pinto loaded with foil-wrapped roasted corn and giant stuffed cartoon characters, working sixty hours a week to save up for college classes she excelled in. It doesn't even seem like the same person.

How long ago was that, twenty-five years? More?

"Yeah they do. Some of them have hatched already. A couple of the ducks are sitting on nests, but no baby ducks yet. I didn't realize how prolific chickens were. We'll be up to our noses in them pretty quick at this rate. I guess we can eat them then, right?" He smiled. "The only problem with eggs is they're pretty good at hiding them. I thought I'd lost a hen and then out she came, twelve little chicks following her like shadows. It was pretty neat. They know I feed them, so they'll typically come if I make a noise with the bucket."

He grinned, an honest effort this time. "That sounds like fun, at least it was always different."

He'd never had a part time job, unless the Sharing counted (He didn't count it). But it might be fun, if he ever got home. Maybe he'd go work on one of those fruit farms for no money at all. Gardening was soothing.

"You could probably trade the eggs away, or make gifts of them. I'm sure there are plenty of people onboard who'd love some tasty protein." She smiles over at the chickens. "So which ones are the mommies?"

"What would I trade them for?" He blinked, honestly confused. He hadn't had much say in buying things for years, and when he did, all he'd bought were plants and animals.

"Those five. See the five bigger ones? The mid sized ones were all chicks when I bought them, they're growing, and the little fuzzy ones are the ones that have hatched. The big guy with the funny tail is the only adult rooster I bought. I thought having a few adults sounded smart, but mostly I bought chicks."

"I don't know. Maybe the Chancellor's ice cream, or some of the clothing on the ship. Maybe just every time the amorphous Christmas week rolls around, we could make those little decorated eggshells and hang them from the Beer Tree."

It's strange, trying to approximate a normal life again in the throes of an abnormal situation, with abnormal histories. It feels more like playing a role than anything, but she doesn't know what else to do with herself.

"They look like quite the little posse. Does the boy get confused with Stacy's weather?"

"Yeah I guess, I'll talk to Kaylee about it, maybe. She's always good about thinking of those things. Or Sam."

He shifted, staring up at the artificial sky and sighing quietly.

"He was pretty confused for a little while. Kept like....shouting on the hour. He came within a few more times of becoming fried chicken, but then I guess he figured it out. The girls are pretty calm about the entire thing."

She suspects the Winchesters are careful not to do anything that'd upset Tom too much, and that includes killing and devouring his pets, but she doesn't say anything on that. "Girls always are. We're the level-headed ones to deal with all your manly emotions."

He bought the animals for food, it might have bugged him a little, considering he went out of his way to keep the six big ones out of trouble. But he'd have gotten over it.

"Hey." He didn't really sound offended by the comment, more like he knew he was supposed to protest. He rolled, resting his head on Bobby's side and watching her. "Are you on one of the ships now?"

Sam and Dean were well connected on the ship, so there wasn't much that Tom didn't end up finding out just due to them talking about it.

"The Quarter. They thought it was a stellar idea to let a woman with anger issues shoot things, but I'm doing pretty well, I'd like to think. It's a different sort of job than the ones I've had in the past, except not really. All reflexes and quick thinking determining people's lives. I guess ultimately it's no different." She shrugs. "Has Sam been taking you flying?"

"It sounds exciting. I guess they thought your anger issues might make you less hesitant on the trigger, huh?" He nodded, one hand petting Bobby. "He's been busy lately, him and Dean both, but we've still been practicing. I'd like to get out there for real, someday."

He paused, face screwed up, attention mostly on the dog. "I saw Jake."

"I...might not have exactly mentioned my happy triggerfinger when applying." But it hadn't hurt them yet, at least. "You mean in combat or just to see things?"

She pauses too, ceasing petting Bobby just momentarily. "Are you alright?"

"So it's an unknown bonus for them?" He laughed, more of a giggle, really and shrugged. "I wouldn't mind being helpful. But I just...I've seen it from the window, or Iniss has flown. Temrash didn't know how, but Iniss flew some. I wanna do it myself, I wanna see it. I wanna be in it..not just watching."

He curled a little, half hiding his face in dog fur and tried to remember to shrug. What was he supposed to say?

"..s'ok."

She nods, curling her lip up under her teeth, and gently puts a hand on his shoulder. "Okay isn't bad."

Strange that some days, that's the best they can hope for. The enemy isn't strangers - the enemy is your loved ones and yourself, all the people who remember you as you were, not as you are.

Edited 2011-08-02 04:13 (UTC)

"Better than it could be. Nobody attacked. Guess that's a step in the right direction, right?"

He sighed, chewing on his lower lip.

"I miss my mom, Eva. I know that's stupid and it's been years...but, I still miss her." Everything had gotten tossed around, screwed up until the form his life took was...completely unrecognizable.

She lets a long breath out her nose, then pulls Tom towards her - gently, not in a restraining way, always giving him the option to resist her. "Of course you do. I don't think Marco ever stopped missing me, and I was gone even longer."

She strokes hair from his forehead. "But I don't think you always will. She'll arrive, soon enough. Plenty of people have."

He turned, quietly resting his cheek on her shoulder and closing his eyes. He's starting to get used to this again, people touching him. He knew he couldn't handle it all the time, or strangers in his space.

But Sam and Dean and Eva and Kaylee can touch him and he doesn't jump anymore like he wasn't expecting to feel it.

"I just feel like I should..." He trailed off, he was supposed to be the older brother, the tough one, the one that protected. But he didn't even feel like he could protect his garden if someone was particularly devoted to ripping it out of the ground.

"Jake's older than me now."

She nods, careful not to shift too much under his head. She knows from feeling like she has to protect Marco, knowing she can't and couldn't. Knowing Peter doesn't need her the same way anymore, knowing she couldn't be there for him even if he did.

"There is no 'should', honey. We are what we are now. If that means you're the younger brother, then that's how it is." She lets out a deep breath, not a sigh but a sound of consideration. "There isn't a single reason out there that you shouldn't miss your mother."

There's a certain strange comfort to be found in blocking one ear off. But then he has a habit of sleeping with a pillow jammed over his head.

Paranoia, right? But then he'd spent six weeks dazed and out of it tied to a hospital bed and high as a kite on pain medicine while Iniss fed. He was fairly certain that that alone had come dangerous close to driving him mad.

The Yeerks crawl in, the Yeerks crawl out, the Yeerks play darts with crazy.

"There are a lot of shoulds." He signed, keeping his eyes closed. "There are a lot of...expectations. I've pretty much failed all of them. And they're going to start a fight with Kang, Marco will." He made a tiny, miserable noise.

"Make a choice, but if you don't make the one we want you to, we're going to cause trouble about it forever. Is that how it's supposed to work? I didn't like what Iniss did, but it was my choice."

See How My Garden Grows [Very Open]

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