Logs:Break A Few Eggs

Break A Few Eggs
Dramatis Personae DJ, Polaris
In Absentia	2020-12-09 "But you're here now. And we can do better than that. And we will."
Location <GA> Across the Rift - Holland Farm - Hiawassee
One of many such family farms -- though fewer all the time -- in this little Appalachian town, the Hollands' 160-some rolling acres are divided about evenly between peach orchards and yearly rotations of crops. A burbling creek winds along one edge of the property, which extends up past the arable portions into steep, wooded mountainside. There are several acres of vegetable gardens nearest to the farmhouse, producing enough food to feed the family and often with excess to sell locally. The barn and pasture adjoining this are likewise mainly for the family's own use, with just a couple of dairy cows, a pair of horses, and plenty of chickens. The farmhouse itself is a big rambling white affair with a generous wraparound porch, full of rustic charm even in its no-nonsense practicality. The furniture is sturdy and plain and well-cared for, the walls adorned with handmade crafts, children's artwork, and some of Jackson Holland's more whimsical original paintings. The kitchen is vast and airy and superbly organized, always redolent of rich home cooking and of the herbs hanging in bundles to dry. In addition to the main house there are two smaller outbuildings, used in the past to house farm hands during the harvest, though these days they mainly host the steady stream of mutant refugees passing through the farm on their way to an uncertain hope of safety beyond the borders. Winter comes on fast up here in the mountains, but the night has not yet grown too bitterly cold. The farm is quiet now, the animals back inside and bedded down and most of the humans, as well. Polaris is returning from one of the outbuildings, making haste against the cold, though she's visibly too weary for much haste. She's not quite dressed warmly enough for the chill and certainly not for the wind, her shoulders hunched beneath the black flannel-lined car coat and her arms crossed over her chest, her green yoked skirt fluttering enough in the wind to show heavy work boots and long stripey purple socks underneath. There's a flutter of movement through the darkness, at first just a distant shifting -- but at the speeds DJ moves it isn't long at all before it's close enough to feel familiar, to be familiar, a highly recognizable figure flitting down to alight beside Polaris. DJ looks -- exhausted, even moreso than when he'd last been at the farm and he was already not setting a high bar. He's in the same heavy jeans and boots he left in, though his thick fleece-lined flannel and heavy canvas jacket are new, the left sleeves pinned against his side. As he stops beside Polaris he opens his mouth, starts to speak -- doesn't, just reaching his arm for her instead. Polaris stops and turns toward DJ well before he is visible, her head tipped back to track his progress down through the wintry air. There's a moment when she's frozen in place, her eyes searching him frantically as though for signs of further injury, her lips parted and trembling, but it's a very brief moment. When he reaches for her she throws her arms around him with reckless abandon. Her breath rushes from her lungs with a sound that might well have been intended as speech but comes out wholly incoherent and in any case quickly truncated when she kisses, passionate and deep and also quickly truncated when she has to pull back for breath. DJ's arm curls tight around Polaris's waist, and whatever else he may have been through there's no diminished strength in it when he pulls her close against him. His answering kiss is deep, too, and even when she pulls away he doesn't go far, forehead dropping to rest against hers. "I missed you," he whispers low and fierce, and after that, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what's happening. That thing -- that portal. Pulled me back in." Polaris melts into her husband's embrace, tension palpably easing from her body even if she's starting to shiver now. She doesn't seem to notice or care. "Oh, my sweet love! I missed you, too." One of her hands caresses his back, kneading gently. The other she lifts to his cheek, icy fingers tracing his jawline. "It's okay. It's okay, you're back now, thank God." She kisses him again, not nearly so breathless this time, though no less urgent. "Frak the portal. Let the scientists--" Though here she cuts off, alarmed. "You've come from New York again, then?" She starts tugging him ineffectually toward the house, but seems unwilling to pull away far enough to lead him properly. "You must be starving! And freezing!" "Again," DJ agrees softly, curling his gloved hand against Polaris's icy one. "I wanted to just -- just come back to you, but I..." His hand squeezes hers. "He was there." This comes out heavier, his shoulder tense. He isn't particularly easy to tug at first, but a moment later he seems to remember his wife's shivering, sweeping Polaris up in a dizzying whirl that ends in the quiet warmth of their bedroom. "Mostly tired. It's been such a -- strange week." "'He'?" Polaris echoes, but then almost immediately, through gritted teeth, "Stark." She tucks herself tighter against him when the world shifts around them, well used to his strobing, flickering movement. Once they are inside and stationary again she finally pulls away, if only to shuck her coat and the cold air lingering on it, the soft if uneven gray sweater underneath it her own handiwork from last winter. "You were on the--other side, this whole time?" Her hazel eyes have gone even wider than usual as she returns to him, reluctant to stray far as if for fear he might vanish again. "I can't imagine--" She reconsiders this at once with a faint furrow of green brows. "--can, but only because I'm a giant nerd." Her eyes stay on him even when she sinks down to sit on the edge of their bed. "You can tell us all about it tomorrow, if you like." "I was. They thought maybe the portal was -- I don't know, connected to me somehow like. The chances of it sucking the same person back in again --" DJ shrugs, small. "But I think it's all kind of guesswork, this is new territory for all of them, too." He slumps down by a wall so that he can take his glove off, start taking his boots off -- slow and a little awkward of a process to unlace them with one hand. "But he's working on it, on our side, and the whole area up there is locked down like --" His jaw clenches hard. "I mean, you saw. So getting back through --" He gets one boot off. Sinks back against the wall with the other forgotten, tilting his head back to watch Polaris. "It's so good to be home." Polaris, at least, has gotten both of her boots off--they tuck themselves neatly under the bed as she looks back up at her husband. "Well, they can guess at it without you now," this is cavalier though not unkind, until she adds, "except him. He can go to--" She bites back whatever was about to come out of her mouth, grimacing. "Just...if they slam that dimensional door with him on the other side, it'd be a blessing. Though I guess maybe not for them." But just then DJ looks at her again and all the vitriol leaves her in a single soft exhalation. "I don't know how you got through, sweetheart, but I'm so thankful you made it back safe." Her next breath is slow and deliberate, her eyes bright and her words tight with emotion, "Back to me." "By -- asking." DJ sounds just a little confounded by this, his head shaking slow. "They're about to try and shut that gate again and Steve -- the other Steve. Asked him to let me go home." He stays put against the wall, hand dropped to his knee, just drinking her in. "Don't think they're going to shut him over there. But I'm here. With you. And that..." His eyes haven't left Polaris. "I was so scared. Everything was such a mess, with Lily and then -- I thought you'd think I just..." His fingers clench down, his breath shakier. Polaris's eyebrows shoot up. "Just--asked him." Her head shakes slowly, her next words soft and a little wistful, "I don't suppose they might accidentally leave him on this side, either." She pushes to her feet again and rushes to him, laying one hand on his chest as if to stay herself from just embracing him again. "Hey. I thought a lot of things, after that first day. I got scared and mad and scared all over again, but--" Her lips compress. "I never thought you would have stayed away if you had a choice, even if we didn't handle things so well." Her eyes dart to his empty left sleeve, her hand pressing harder as she leans close. "But you're here now. And we can do better than that. And we will." "Should've asked him." This comes out a little bit wry. DJ leans back into Polaris's touch, lifting his arm to wrap back around her again. He's still tense, muscles clenched tight at his side. "But what if I can't? Do better? There's so much to juggle and so much at stake and I --" His eyes close, hand dropping and his fingertips playing lightly against the uneven knit of her sweater. "You're my everything. How do I take care of you if I can't even make the eggs?" Polaris gives a soft, contented hum when DJ's arm curls around her, eyes drifting shut for a moment. "Oh, darling..." Her eyes blink back open, wide and wondering. Her other hand lifts to caress her husband's neatly trimmed beard. "I'm sure you can make the eggs if we let you, but if you can't?" She trails her fingers down over his chest and around his side, kneading hard into the clenched muscles there. "Then I'll make the darned eggs and you can do any of the other myriad things that always need doing." She rises up onto her toes and kisses him. "You might need to do them differently, but you are the most competent man I have ever had the pleasure to know and I cannot imagine that changing for anything." "I'm glad one of us is sure. Feels like there's so much to -- relearn." When DJ returns this kiss this time it's soft, lingering and lacking some of his initial urgency. Under her kneading touch he eases, much of the tension melting out of him. "But I'm so glad I'm relearning them with you, love." Polaris curls an arm up around DJ's neck, her other hand still rubbing slow and steady down his side. "I'm more sure of you than I am of anyone in any world," she murmurs against his lips, his cheek, his jaw, his neck, her breath coming quicker now. "It does not hurt that you are such a good student." Her faint smile skews just a touch mischievous . "Come to bed. We can figure out eggs in the morning."