ic And Then a Step to the Right (IC)

[Gizmo]

Recognizing the look on Mara's downcast face, Ellie was scrambling to her feet while the words were still hanging in the air. Rushing over she wrapped one arm around her girlfriend's shoulders and placed on hand gently on her cheek. "Okay, stay with us, niña. So far so good, yeah?" she murmured softly before turning back around to Josephine. "Okay, so, yes, that is admittedly a lot to take in. But let's focus on the positive for a minute, right? Your daughter has grown up to be an amazing woman who bent time and space over her knee and made it squeal to save your life. That's pretty spectacular!" Doing her best to maintain a shaky smile of encouragement she whispered to Mara, "This would be a good time to give her a hug, maybe?"

[Fox]

Despite herself and the situation, the corner of Mara's mouth tried to tug itself into a proud grin at the praise over her supposed mastery over time and space. It caught her mother's notice, too, as perhaps the only thing she'd heard in the last minute that wasn't terrifying. Josephine pulled herself up to her feet, looking around the warehouse workshop. It was two years' work and a lot of unfinished projects to Mara, and a pile of mostly meaningless junk to most, but Josephine wasn't most. She wasn't a tenth the engineer her daughter was, but she had her talents....

Lights danced behind the woman's eyes - a waltz, perhaps, relative to Mara's more energetic version - but the significance was much the same. "Oh! Oh, ma louveteau. They sing."

It was enough to get her center and calm back. She opened her arms for a hug and with Ellie's prompting Mara finally had the presence of mind to meet them for a hug - an awkward one, and she suddenly felt very young and small, but it was enough.

"....so," Josephine said, turning her attention toward Ellie to fill the silence when neither of them found any particular reason to let go, "you are Mara's...friend?"

[Gizmo]

The warm, relieved smile that had spread across Ellie's face froze for a moment at the question and its precise phrasing and she straightened abruptly as she regained her composure. She found herself wishing her own clothes were a little less bloodstained themselves as she nervously wrapped a lock of hair around one finger. "W-well...! Remember the part where I dug three bullets out of you and you more of less have to like me?" she asked, one corner of her mouth pulling upward at the absurdity of it all as a deep well of self-assured confidence began to win out over momentary doubt.

[Fox]

Josephine spent a long moment looking Ellie over with a critical eye trained by experience to find faults in both vault doors and people, but she ultimately shrugged and offered the medic a warm, tired smile. "Well," she said, rather graciously, "I do suppose that you are owed that much, no? A shame about not getting any grandchildren, perhaps...."

"Now," she added, gently pulling Mara away and resting a hand on the young woman's shoulder, "Mara and I are going to need to have a very long conversation very soon, I think, but parts if it will be very unpleasant and teary I'm sure, and now is a time for happiness - and I already have her creations singing her praises into my ears, which will have to do. In the meantime, I believe I have some motherly prying to catch up on." There was a gleam in her eye as she looked at Ellie - a terrible, horrible, parental gleam. "Tell me about yourself."

[Gizmo]

Ellie really hadn't been expecting to be the center of attention and questioning but she could understand where Josephine was coming from. Even besides a parent's normal desire to know more about whomever their child brought home to the proverbial dinner, it was a relatively sane, normal thing to focus on for the time being. Understanding that didn't make falling on that sword any less daunting, however.

"You're much too young to be a grandmother anyway," she managed to reply smoothly, stepping a little closer to the mother and daughter pair now that there was less need to give them space. The line was much truer for Josephine than when she used it on her own mother. "Not to get too far ahead of things. My name is Ellie. Well, Eliza, but Ellie is fine. I'm studying pre-med and Mara and I have been together for almost three years now." The last part was said with a bit more of an unstated challenge than she'd really intended and she covered it with a light clearing of her throat. "What else did you want to know?"

[Fox]

Josephine had only an appreciative smile in response to Ellie's verbal jab, but her choice of higher education got a raised eyebrow and an appreciative whistle. "A medical student, ma louveteau. A doctor, maybe! Oh, well done. Though, you do, ah, you do have your own support, I hope? Education takes a long time, and-"

Mara snorted, still emotionally off-balance but not off-balance enough to miss the only half-feigned concern. "Own a company in the city - technology consultants. It's...pretty successful."

Her mother's expression brightened again. "Well!" she said, smiling. "That is that, then. What else shall I pry into, then....do you live together yet?"

[Gizmo]

Casually dropping her chosen field into the conversation had been a bit of a calculated ploy on Ellie's part and she was pleased to find Mara's mother suitably appreciative as opposed to unimpressed by a calling somewhat more traditional than 'cat burglar'. The conversation about hopping from rooftop to rooftop with other intentions could most certainly wait for another day. "More than just 'pretty'," she corrected glibly, "like its boss. As for living together, you'd think so from how many nights I'm at her apartment, but no." There was not denying that that had been phrased a little more provocatively than was strictly necessary, but then so had the question and given the choice between erring on the side of humour or intimidation Ellie's preference was clear. She hadn't missed Josephine's look of appraisal and she got the impression how she answered the older woman's probing inquiries mattered more in the analysis than the answers themselves. "I live with my mother. She's a retired police officer."

[Fox]

Mara turned a little red at the mention of Ellie sleeping at her apartment, but Josephine cut off whatever she was going to say with a quick poke to the shoulder. "It's fine, dear! I'm happy for you, and a single mother really does not have room to judge, no? But a police officer, you say?"

She made a show of shrugging, but her expression was more personal amusement than reproach; Mara's turned a little sour. "Ellie's mom is a great woman. She raised great kids. ...don't tell Erik I said that, though."

"There is nothing wrong with the police!" Josephine insisted, and it seemed a largely honest sentiment. "They serve an important function. It is only that sometimes you run into one - or one of their children - who has no sense of humor and an overdeveloped sense of justice."

[Gizmo]

"I'll just say you meant Yolanda," Ellie suggested to Mara before addressing Josephine and deadpanning, "Fair. I am known for being a totalitarian pillar of grim literalism and having a dour outlook toward fun of all sorts." Leaning against a workbench slightly she allowed her lips to quirk up in a dryly amused expression. "I'm not exactly tripping over myself to toss alleged Parisian second-storey women in the stockade on general principle. Mara has a nice sofa set but it's not that nice." Considering for a moment, she added, "As for mi mama, there was that time she got Talya Browning bailed out but that may have been more of a one-time thing."

Straightening again, she folded her arms under her chest as her expression sobered. "If you're worried about my priorities, though... Nobody hurts the people I care about while I'm staging. Nobody." There was an iron in that last repeated word that replaced for a moment the naturally lyrical tenor of the young woman's voice.

[Fox]

There was a flicker of surprise on Josephine's face, but as quickly as it was there it disappeared behind a smile again. "Emphasis on 'alleged', I think," she pointed out, the very picture of innocence. "But I believe I understand your point. No more games, no?"

She was serious now, giving Ellie another appraising look - but a satisfied one. "I think that I like you," she said. "You are confident, sharp, and perhaps a little rude. It suits you. But most importantly you were more interested in being honest and challenging me than trying to get me to like you. I like her, Mara - she is not afraid to stand up for what is important to her. You have a very good eye!"

Mara clearly wasn't sure what to say to that, issuing a mildly confused, exasperated noise, but eventually had to decide was a compliment. "Ellie's...yes. Okay. Glad you approve. Mine, though; would have kept her even if you didn't...no offense."

"As it should be, dear!" Josephine was all smiles again - somehow more genuine, now - and she reached out to ruffle Mara's hair. "You must stand up for yourself too, no? I shall still lament my lack of grandchildren, however, too young or not. One must plan for the future."

[Gizmo]

Ellie let out a silent breath of relief at Josephine's approval. She hadn't doubted Mara's sentiment for a moment but she also hadn't relished the thought of the situation with her girlfriend's mother being any more strained than it already had to be. Her confrontational stance had been a bit of a gamble but it sounded like she'd judged her audience well, honesty being the best policy once again. "I wouldn't get too hung up over the grandchildren thing, with the way we pick up strays. Immortals, dimensional refugees, time-travelers..." Her expression softened as she looked between the two blonde women. "That out of the way, though, you two really do need to have a talk, I think. I'll give you some privacy, but I won't be far, at least until we're sure you're going to stay in one piece, Josie. Fair enough?" The last was directed at Mara, whom she gave a reassuring smile.

[Fox]

"Fair enough." Mara smiled, but it was short-lived, she took a deep breath, set her shoulders, and ran a hand back through her hair to get a few stray strands out of her face. "Okay, yes. Need to catch you up. Bad talk time. Bad things, lots of crying. Upstairs."

Josephine, rather amused, let herself be pushed toward the spiral staircase to the second story. "Yes, dear, I suppose we should have that talk now. You do have tissues ready, I hope?"

"Yes. And...thank you, Ellie." She'd turned her head to the side, giving Ellie the Ellie Smile. "I...coouldn't have done this without you. Any of it. Couldn't ever repay you."

"I would start with dinner," 'Josie' cheerfully chimed in, leaning over the staircase rail. "I know that it has been a while, but there was a simply fantastic French restaurant near the city center; very expensive, of course, but all the best things are...."

Mara had a reply to that, but her grumbling was muffled somewhat as she ushered her mother further up and they became separated from Ellie by the loft floor.