a mother's love knows no bounds

( pulled from her table, caught with a stack   of plates in one hand, myrtle stops, gives   the woman a good once over. her lips thin. )

This is my son, Joshua.

[ With deceitfully steady fingers, Ana slides a photo--worn, scuffed, and curled around the edges from its life in her wallet--to the edge of the chipped, aluminum rimmed table. She focuses on his smile in the photo, wide and bright and so full of life; she can almost hear his laugh just looking at it. ]

He’s about eighteen here. But... He’d be twenty-two by now.

[ Her heart skips, then makes up for lost time by hammering against her ribs, double-time, for a handful of beats. Swallowing to regain her composure, she tries not to think about all the years lost. ]

Teen Wolf Color Palettes 5/?  → Melissa McCall

I still hate this plan. I mean this is pretty significantly terrifyingly.

NURSE MCCALL for FIREFLIES

  as if she’s been punched right in the gut, is immediate.   seated across from ana, in full view of her scrutiny and   judgement, josephine finds herself unable to meet the   other woman’s gaze. she doesn’t even know where to   begin. )

       I’m sorry. 

( it’s the first thing that comes stumbling out. she doesn’t   even know what it is she’s apologizing for. she hasn’t    done anything wrong. she hasn’t. )

       I didn’t — I thought maybe —

( she stops, swallows, smooths her hands over her thighs. )

[ Her own gaze dropping, unable to watch the guilt dancing across Josephine's face; guilt for simply being there for her sons when they needed her. If anything, Ana should be thanking her for that. And for putting up with them at all; she knows the way they are, and how they can be together. ]

I should be thanking you. I didn't mean to sound so-- Accusing.

[ Just Ricky. Not Josh. ]

--not Josh?

[ Ana swallows thickly as an inherent maternal paranoia seeps in under her skin, chilling her. Because Josh hasn't been back at Westchester for months now, and unless he'd just left Josephine's today...

She clasps her hands together to keep them from shaking as worrisome thoughts from the past rush in like the tide. ]

[It comes out with a lot more heat than it probably deserves, but if she knows anyone who’ll be on her side in this, it’s Ana. 

(She can’t go talk to her daddy, because he’ll just look at her and ask her if she thinks he’s as stupid as he looks. He refuses to get involved in hers and Josh’s little spats; said he spent too many years married and fighting to fall for that old trick again.)

She crosses her arms, tapping her fingers against her elbows, and raises an eyebrow.]

Just heads on out without so much as a “bye, darlin’, I’ll be back in one piece, don’t you worry” and then has the gall to give me a call today and act like it’s no big thing —

[She sucks in a breath, glancing at Ana imploringly.]

I always tell him when I’m goin’ off on a mission.

[ Ana loves him to death, really she does, but if that boy ain't one of the dumbest, rockheaded--pun intended--fools she's ever laid eyes on sometimes, she's not sure who is. He must get it from his father.

Exasperated, she sighs, lifting her fingertips to her temple to fend off a headache's incoming assault. ]

A mission?

[ He eyes go wide with motherly concern, and it's like she's been taken back in time to the hours after he'd first left Sedona. ]