#featuring lawrence

LAWRENCE: The Flynn-Fletcher household had been filled to the brim with events— though they may not have been as eye catching as the near award winning blooms of their neighbor across the way and to the left or as exciting as the new baby and all those going to visit them in the house behind them, they were events. 

Phineas had gotten a new job! As much as delivering pizza may not have seemed to suit that larger-than-life personality of his, it had made Lawrence proud to see him take on something steady. 

Ferb had joined a new club! Mock Trial, he had finger spelled before explaining what exactly that was (as Lawrence had never really heard of it) before adding, My friends are in it and Dr. Drakken, which had been good enough for Lawrence.

Linda had obtained an old cookbook. 

Lawrence himself had recently gotten a new desk chair that was doing wonders for his back problems. 

And Candace—! Well, he didn’t really know. Linda would inform him and Candace herself would give him an answer should he have asked but it was not like the boys. She didn’t sit across from him during tea and go into detail about her life, her friends, her interests, and whatever else she shared with her mother or even her brother. 

Tonight Candace was home for dinner. Ferb was, too, but he usually was. (That window of times was slowly closing, though, and Lawrence was not thinking on it too hard.) It was the weekend, he and Linda had prepped it, and he had called dibs on telling the children dinner was ready. Ferb had been reading and easy to rouse, his figure disappearing down the stairs to go help set the table while Lawrence ventured closer to Candace’s door, which was slightly ajar. 

He knocked gently. “Candace?” 

After a few seconds passed and with no answer, he pushed the door open a little more to find her sitting at her computer, headphones in. 

Lawrence hadn’t meant to snoop, but her computer’s screen was facing him and he had seen the NASA logo as clear as day. It seemed odd to him that a girl in the arts would be on their website, no? Maybe she was doing schoolwork. 

He remained in the doorway and knocked again, trying for louder this time. 

CANDACE: Every year since she was a little girl, Candace stalked the NASA website, looking at their internship programs and summer programs. She knew which programs were popular, how many people were taken by each one, which ones were paid and which ones weren’t, the deadlines to all of them. She wasn’t sure why she tortured herself with the but it felt…impossible not to. Like magnets, drawn together. 

Maybe there was a piece of her that was still waiting for “next year, we’ll sign you up next year” and the promise that had never been fulfilled. 

And now, Gabriella had put the worm in her brain. She felt like the internship was closer than ever. Candace wanted to change her major (she probably wouldn’t, because she was a coward and she only had a year left, why would she change?) Still, she thought about it, all the time. Turning it over and over, like something flung far out into space with no gravity to stop its spinning. 

She was listening to Across the Stars when she heard a knocking. At first, she thought it was part of the music, but then, she realized, someone was knocking on the door. 

Candace jumped, her headphones knocking off her head as the cord caught around her arm. They clattered to the ground, almost taking the keyboard to her desktop with it. She caught it just on the edge of the desk and pushed it back into place. Her face was bright red and she moved her mouse up to quickly click out of the NASA website. 

It was just Lawrence…he probably hadn’t noticed. 

She cleared her throat and smoothed back some of her hair that had gotten yanked out of her messy bun when the headphones nosedived.

“Shit! I mean--er, sorry,” Candace said, feeling weird cursing in front of her stepdad. “Uh, did you--need something? I had the music up way too loud, obviously.”  

LAWRENCE: Lawrence’s eyebrows pinched together, hand lifted like he could help to catch the headphones before they hit or to settle Candace from all the way over there. When he had done neither, the headphones lying there and startled profanities coming from Candace’s mouth, the hand fell back down to his side. 

“No need to apologize! It’s quite alright. I was just coming up to tell you that dinner was almost ready.” He threw a thumb over his shoulder, indicating that it was expected of them to eat it downstairs together rather than some nights where everyone broke apart to eat on their own or in various groupings, depending on who needed to finish their work or if someone had gotten in later than the rest. 

That should have been the end of it. Lawrence knew he was supposed to give a smile, nod, and head back down to tell Linda that Candace would be right behind him. His job was done. 

It was just that he didn’t want it to be done quite yet. (He had felt this way about the Flynn children ever since Linda had introduced him to them, ever since she had asked if he would like to meet them, probably ever since she had shown him their pictures and described them in that exasperated yet fond tone she had taken on.) There were only so many moments where he had a chance to speak with Candace one on one, let alone where he had a prompt to go off of! Figuring that there was still time before their absence would be noticed enough for action to be taken, he stepped an inch further into the room, finger pointing toward her computer’s screen. 

“Are you— working on something for school?” His eyebrows lifted, curious more than expectant of an answer. “I didn’t know you were taking anything science related. Or is it research?” 

CANDACE: “Oh, uh--thanks.” Candace gave Lawrence an awkward, close-lipped sort of smile. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t like Lawrence. She actually did. The longer she’d been in England, the more time she’d spent around the Fletchers, the more she liked them. Ferb was sweet--impossible to dislike, really. The whole Andrea thing had put her on edge. She knew something was weird about it and…she felt really similarly to when Phineas was making his stupid mistakes or someone was taking advantage of his sweet, dumb (smart) brain. Jury was still out on if that was because she liked him, separately, or because Phineas was also being used by Andrea. 

Lawrence…was more of an enigma to her. She’d never had any adult men in her life, so she wasn’t exactly sure where he was supposed to fit, or what that relationship was supposed to look like. But, he always seemed steady, in the way that Linda had always felt flighty and changeable. He had his routines and he stuck to them. She knew that most evenings, if he wasn’t in the living room watching TV with the family, he was in his study with the door slightly ajar. And he was often the one, now, that he met eyes with when Phineas said something ridiculous at dinner. She didn’t know when that had started, or why she did it, but he always smiled at her and she--felt seen in a way that she never had in her own family.

And now he was asking about the stupid NASA website, because he always saw her. If it had been her mother in his place, she wouldn’t have even noticed. Already flitting off to the next thing. But Lawrence always noticed. It was annoying. It was kind of nice.

“Oh, uhm, well--I am taking an astronomy course, just for, uhm fun. I like science. Well, astronomy. Well, technically astrophysics.” This wasn’t--a complete secret in her family. After all, when she was a kid, it was all she had talked about. It just--wasn’t something that was brought up often, because Phineas was the smart one and she did art.

“I just--was looking at some…stuff. They are doing a launch soon…Artemis I.” 

LAWRENCE: Candace was an enigma to Lawrence, too. Phineas, while a completely different puzzle he knew he would spend the rest of his life figuring out, had at least been somewhat familiar. He had also been much more— welcoming may not have been the word. Willing, maybe? Willing to give Lawrence a chance? That may have been due to being younger, but he wasn’t that much younger than his sister. A year and a month shy. (Then again, a whole lot could happen in a year and a month.) 

She seemed personable like her brother and mother, yet she did not take to either him or his son. She seemed nice, personality bright like a star, and yet she dimmed when in his presence. Lawrence knew he was coming in at a disadvantage, Linda’s warnings coming every time he was to see Candace, but that was why he had wanted Candace to like him all the more! As if getting her approval would be the final thing he needed for him and Linda’s relationship to proceed to the next step. 

They had been married without it. Linda and Phineas had moved without it. Lawrence had felt guilty for being so happy. 

Then, with some time, Lawrence realized he did not need Candace to like him, actually. That part didn’t matter— he just wanted her to trust him. He never had any dreams of becoming a stand in for her father or anything of the like because he was not that man. Lawrence would never have abandoned his family, for any reason, and despite what Candace may have thought she was his family. 

“Ah! Ferb mentioned something about that one.” Now that she had given him a foothold Lawrence intended to stay put for as long as possible, see how much he could get away with before her walls came up. “What’s it for?” 

CANDACE: Candace didn’t say anything for a few seconds. She wasn’t sure what she should say. How much to divulge. What would be the average amount of information that someone who didn’t spend late nights curled in bed with her laptop, reading mission reports and updates and who didn’t check the Hubble telescope’s daily picture on a tab on her phone every morning when she woke up? 

“It’s going to the moon…” Candace started but then winced a bit, because she knew that wasn’t right and she really--hated spreading misinformation. Even if it was harmless. (Though, Lawrence would probably talk to Ferb about this and Candace didn’t want Ferb to think she was stupid.) 

“Well, sort of. It’s orbiting the moon about 62 miles from its surface for part of the mission, but it’s actually an unmanned spacecraft that has the capabilities to have a crew on board. They’re testing it out to see how it does in deep space. It is the furthest a spaceship meant for humans has ever gone and it’ll be the longest mission to go without docking at a space station. If it works, then it’ll be the start of sending people on deep space missions. Maybe.” 

There was a beat, where Candace realized okay maybe that was a little too much for someone who claimed a passing interest. 

“I think,” Candace finished lamely, her cheeks pink.

LAWRENCE: He nodded, hoping it was encouraging— it was going to the moon and…?

And Candace continued. Did Lawrence know what any of that meant? No. Then again, he rarely knew what Ferb described to him whenever Lawrence would ask what he was doing. Phineas, too. All that app and business talk he went on about went directly over Lawrence’s head most of the time. Even Linda’s topics of celebrities and music and her various hobbies were hard to keep up with. That never stopped him from trying, never stopped him from listening, never stopped him from learning. 

At first Lawrence was very happy to hear Candace talking about something like this. A full rundown! Only then she said, Maybe. I think, and it confused him because it sure sounded as if she knew more than to contradict herself or downplay her own knowledge of something. 

“That all seems— rather exciting!” He wasn’t sure, though. Maybe she would shrug it off as simply having read all that for her assignment. “I don’t know that I could ever do something like that. Go to space, I mean. Could you?” 

CANDACE: “Oh, yeah! Totally!” Candace said at once, her face brightening, unable to help it. 

It wasn’t very often that people asked a question like that, so Candace rarely had to answer it, but it was right there. On the tip of her tongue, all the time. When she was little, she used to play astronaut and queen of Mars, where she’d make Phineas either be her minion or her subject, depending on her mood. (He always wanted to be an alien invader. Occasionally, Candace allowed it.) 

“You have to go through tons of training and they make sure everything is super safe, that’s why they’re doing this test mission and not just sending people up, you know? So when they do it, they know it’ll work.” 

Yeah, it was still a risk, but wasn’t everything in life? That may sound strange from someone who was anxious about everything but…it was space! If she died in a fiery explosion on the way to Mars would that be worth it? Well, maybe not because a fiery explosion would mean she hadn’t even made it out of the atmosphere but…you get the point. 

Candace, once again, having caught up with herself—realizing that answer might’ve been a little too enthusiastic. 

“I mean, who doesn’t want to go to space?” She shrugged a shoulder.

LAWRENCE: That had probably been the most lively Lawrence had ever seen Candace— in a positive way, that was. Sometimes the Flynn’s could get a bit testy with one another but they never seemed to be malicious. Just different in the way they interacted with one another as opposed to the Fletchers. But, yes, that was different! It had been like the sun poking out, brief but blinding. 

He wondered where this Candace had been hiding all that time. She had been so conspicuous that Lawrence hadn’t even noticed! He had just assumed she would be like her brother and mother, emotions out for all to see and yet hidden from him, explicitly, because she didn’t like him or didn’t want to share them so fully with him. 

It never occurred to him that she would be like Ferb. Quiet, hiding to keep from being noticed. Being the father of that child had trained him in being able to see when things like this happened— when pieces of them slipped through to the surface. 

“I think you’d be surprised.” Lawrence pressed his lips together as he weighed his options. Did he say something? Did he ask? 

Of course he did. How would he ever know if he didn’t? What was the worst that could happen? She could become upset with him, but he could make up for that. He couldn’t make up for lost time. 

“I take it you like it then? This class of yours?” He gestured up, toward the ceiling— meaning farther that way. “Space travel and all of that?” 

CANDACE: Candace didn’t know how to answer that.

Well, she did. The answer was yes. Candace did like all of that. Space travel. The astronomy class. She didn’t just like it, she loved it. She composed songs in odes to the stars in secret all the time. The only time her expensive music lessons and vocal coaches felt like they were really paying off was when she posted her songs on CaNDy PoP 101. 

She wanted to say that: I have a blog, a secret identity. I post my music. It’s good. I have over a million followers. My shark week song got retweeted by National Geographic. 

But, even though Candace had told Gabriella about it, this was different. 

Lawrence--whether she liked it or not--was her family. And he could tell her mom. And then her mom would laugh at her. Or roll her eyes at her. Or shake her head and tell her to stop being silly. To focus.

The last person she had told about her wish…had been her dad.

Next year, he had promised. Next year we will talk to her--together. 

There hadn’t been a next year. Fred Flynn had disappeared into the dark. Swallowed by a black hole. 

Candace glanced at her laptop again. She had closed out of NASA’s website, but the ghost of it always haunted her. Maybe even more than her father’s abandonment. (Or maybe the two were tied together, bonded like hydrogen and oxygen.) 

“Yeah,” she said, resting her chin on a bony knee. “It’s cool. Everyone likes space.” 

LAWRENCE: She hadn’t said no. She hadn’t shut down and left, using the dinner that was awaiting them downstairs for the escape route that it was. That seemed promising! Enough to let him think continuing wasn’t going to make them start going backwards when it felt like they’d been having forward momentum the past few months— slow as it was. That didn’t matter to him, though, as anything was progress.  

It just was not the easy answer. That was alright, he didn’t expect it to be. When it came to the Fletcher’s (even onwards through his parents, siblings, and their children), things were never written on the wall. There was always some sort of finageling involved to get to the bottom of a situation, everyone being too polite to be the first one to break and bring it up.

Lawrence was going to have to suck it up this time. That was alright, too, because this he did expect. Parenting, for him, involved that a lot. Having to be willing to put himself (both emotionally and physically) on the line for the sake of his child. It was probably why he was far less aware of other people’s opinions than he had been as a teenager and young adult. 

“Maybe, but it seems to me as though you might like it a little more than everyone else?” He hummed a little, one eye narrowing. “I don’t mean to pry it’s just— I never knew! Has this always been an interest or did this class bring it on?” 

CANDACE: Although Candace had her chin on her knee, her hair curtaining around her face, she was watching Lawrence closely. The way a cornered animal watches others in the glen, looking to see if something was an enemy or an ally. 

When she’d first come to England, the answer had been easy: Lawrence was an enemy because he wasn’t family. And he was too nice. Her dad had been nice too. She only ever remembered that he was nice. That he had a great laugh and he never raised his voice. He was carefree, he always made their mom loosen up. Whenever he was around, any memory she had of him, it was a good one. 

He’d left anyway. Not so nice in the end. 

She had figured Lawrence would be the same, but it had been almost two years now and he was just as he always was. Steady. And he looked at Candace in a way that she couldn’t describe. Like he was peering through a telescope. Like she was a bright star, a distant planet that he wanted to study. 

Candace didn’t know what to do about that. She had been shining for so long, waiting for someone to notice…

“I’ve…always liked space. I dunno.” She didn’t know, actually, when it had started, really. “I used to watch Star Wars and Star Trek a lot as a kid…and I just…wondered if it was possible. To go to space. And then I learned about all the other stuff and I just…I dunno. It’s cool.” She blushed and glanced at him before her gaze darted away again. She looked down at her painted toenails. 

“It’s just, like, a hobby. I guess.” She lifted her chin, then, looking up at him. “Do you like it? Space, I mean.”

LAWRENCE: He nodded a long, slight bobs of his head to show that he knew what she meant— he’d been a kid when those things were coming out but had never really sat down to watch them until Ferb came along. (He was more of a historical film and television viewer himself.) This had translated into Ferb’s fascination with space, too, progressing into his son pulling him into the backyard to show him how he had turned the RC car his grandparents had gotten him for Christmas into something that looked like the little robot they’d sent to the red planet. 

It sounded very much like Candace had been influenced by these things in the same way. That she cared about it more than just a casual interest— a hobby as she put it. And while, yes, Lawrence himself was enthusiastic and passionate about his own hobbies, it tied into what he had pursued everyday since he had gone to university. 

“I wouldn’t say like is the right word for it. I acknowledge it and appreciate it when things like ah— I don’t know the term for it, but when the moons gone all red?” He put his hands up and they made the wax on wax off motion, as if he could project the image in his mind up for her to see, too. They dropped a moment later. “And the like, but I’ve never gone out of my way to learn about it for my own.” Lawrence paused. “Have you ever— considered it as more than just a hobby?” 

CANDACE: Candace looked up again and snorted, just a little, in amusement at Lawrence’s…impression of an eclipse. At least, that’s what she thought he was talking about. It was more than just the eclipse. It turned red specifically because of the light waves from the sun being stretched out around the moon, but she figured he didn’t need that explanation. 

The question caught her off guard anyway.

“Me? Oh, uh, no? Not really. I mean--when I was a kid I wanted to go to space camp but lots of little kids want to go to space camp.” She didn’t know why she said it, admitted to it. Candace hadn’t really talked about any of this since she was a little kid. Then again, no one had ever asked her outright and Candace was a horrible liar. 

She thought about what Atta had said: opportunities. Her stomach felt scooped out, like someone had reached in and carved her hollow. Her toes curled over the edge of her office chair. 

“We didn’t have the money,” she lied. “So I did acting camp and stuff. Which I liked too.”

LAWRENCE: “I hadn’t the faintest idea there was such a thing as space camp.” The last thing he’d had to worry about was Ferb leaving home for any longer than the school day required, and if he did go it was to Lawrence’s parents or one of his sibling’s home. Never left in the care of anyone he wasn’t related to— like a camp counselor. 

Another thing about parenting that he had learned was that it was very give and take— but mostly, it was about giving. So, he figured, this was much like that. If he wanted a little bit of Candace he was going to have to give a whole lot of himself over in return. 

“Did you know I wanted to be a fisherman when I was a child?” He paused then nodded, not waiting for an answer but pretending as though Candace had looked at him like he’d said rockstar. “Yes, I did. My father took me fishing quite often. He used to help at the family’s fish and chip shop, so he passed it down to me. I loved it. From top to bottom! Even when we’d come home with nothing to show for the hours spent in that boat. My father was over the moon to hear me say it. I’d always liked learning about history. Watching documentaries and going to museums— then in school we started to get into it more than just the basics. We’d talk about art and governments and fashion, all these little things that I hadn’t even thought about before! That’s when I really started to enjoy it and learn more about it and kept thinking to myself I’d like to spend the rest of my life just learning about what people used to do. 

“But I could never tell my father that. I’d been doing competitions for fishing by this point and he would always be so proud, no matter where I’d place. I didn’t want to disappoint him by telling him I’d changed my mind. It’s not that I didn’t like being a fisherman, but it wasn’t something I wanted to spend everyday on anymore. Then I turned seventeen. That was the year I caught Big Mouth Ramon!” He smiled at this, victory in his voice. He took in a breath, but then looked at Candace. Right. Lawrence cleared his throat, hand waving. “Story for another time— anyway. After I’d caught the big fella I finally told my father that I didn’t want to be a fisherman, I wanted to be a historian. And do you know what he said? Well so long as we can still go on the waters during the weekend, I don’t see what’s so wrong about that, my boy.” 

A chuckle escaped him, thinking of that day and how his father had kept sipping his tea like it was nothing while Lawrence felt a huge weight being lifted from his shoulders. (Only then to realize he had a lot of work to do as far as applying to universities went.) 

“My point is—” Because there was a point! As long and drawn out as Lawrence liked to be, there usually was one. “— it’s never too late. Now, this space camp, there’s probably one for people your age, isn’t there? I’m sure we’ve the funds!”  

CANDACE: Candace’s eyebrows rose and then rose higher as Lawrence started to talk. She knew what he was doing. It was pretty obvious. It was such a cliche. She knew it was a cliche. People made fun of the trope in movies all the time. How people did things because their parents wanted them to, but it wasn’t what they really wanted. Usually, she knew it was the opposite to her: people wanted to be actors, but their parents wanted them in a “real” career. 

And maybe it was Cnadace’s fault, but she’d never felt like she’d had a choice. Since she was a little kid, her mom had signed her up for dance lessons and singing lessons. She couldn’t remember anything else. It just…was what it was. And when she’d tried to do something differently, her dad had disappeared. Those two things weren’t actually related, but to Candace, they felt like they were. Sometimes, hse thought if she could just become famous enough to show up on all the billboards in all the towns, all over the world, there would be a possibility her dad would see one…and miss her. 

She appreciated what Lawrence was trying to do, though, in his very long-winded way. There was even a part of her that wanted to ask about Big Mouth Ramon, but she didn’t. She stayed very quiet and when he was finished, she knew what would be coming. She had to be prepared for it. 

Candace shrugged. “There is. I mean…not camp. They have internships. It isn’t about the money.” Not any more. “I am too behind at this point. And we definitely don’t have the money for me to go to school for another two years. Or three or--whatever. I don’t think I’d be good at it anyway.” She shrugged. “I don’t have any of the qualifications  either. Why would they take me and not some person who's been studying chemistry or something?” 

There was a small part of Candace, her gangly, ten year old self, who didn’t believe any of that. Who was still reaching up and up, towards the stars. 

LAWRENCE: Children were so odd in their interests. Some of them needed everything under the sun in order to be entertained while others simply needed a pair of socks and they would be distracted for hours. Getting them to have an interest in something seemed next to impossible— spending days and years on tennis lessons or piano lessons, letting them watch while you cooked with the hope that they would want to join, taking them to the library in the hopes they’d pick something out for themselves to enjoy to give you some indication of where they were at. 

It seemed like such a shame to let something like that go to waste! 

He was sure there was some way they could make it happen. Lawrence could sell the car or something! Start another job. Actually start filling out those surveys when he went to the larger, name brand stores that they told you to take for a chance to win a bunch of money. 

“Candace, you’re brilliant, and I’m sure that if you believed that half as much as I do, that whoever was reading your application would know it, too.” He gave a little sigh. Then he widened his stance a touch, hands coming up to wipe the slate of the conversation clean. “Alright, just, tell me this— if none of that mattered. The money, the qualifications, the time, any of it. Would you want to go to something like that?” 

CANDACE: “But--” Candace started to protest, because those things did matter. 

The money, the qualifications, the time. 

That's what she told herself. Every time. Those things mattered. They mattered because they always mattered. That had been the reason she hadn’t gone the first time. That was the reason she was going to be a movie star or a pop star instead. Because money mattered. Experience mattered. Time mattered. And Candace had poured herself into theater. Into dance. Into music. She could play six instruments! She could dance basically any genre. 

What kind of scientist could do ballet? 

And yet--

“Yes,” Candace said, her voice cracking somewhat and there were suddenly tears in her eyes. She felt so sick of lying. Of pretending. That was what had happened at the Glass Menagerie. She had lied and lied and lied until she couldn’t stop and all those lies came crashing down on top of her. She had almost lost all of her friends. She had let so many people down. 

“Yeah, I-I’d want to go.”

LAWRENCE: That was all Lawrence needed to know. 

“Then I don’t see why you shouldn’t!“ He smiled, warm. Excitement had taken root inside him at the mere thought that Candace, dear Candace who’d been having such a tough time ever since she’d moved here— be it the rolled ankle, getting attacked by something in the waters of the lake, to whatever had happened at that play if hers, that she may get to do something that she wanted to do. That would make her happy!  

Because, really, that was all a parent wanted for their child. For them to be happy. At least, to a parent like Lawrence. His parents had been the same way, though, so maybe that’s why this was his impression of what a parent should be. 

“Like I said, Candace, it’s never too late to start now! And then you’ll know— if it’s something more than just a hobby, yes?” Then he settled himself back down a bit, not wanting to get too ahead of himself now. “If you would really like to go then I will do everything in my power to make sure you get there, but only if that’s something you want.”

CANDACE: Candace did not know what to say at first. She just stared at Lawrence and his wide-smile enthusiasm. Not sure about it. Still wondering if this was some trick or--

No. Lawrence wouldn’t do that. Candace was still unsure about her stepfather in many ways, but she was sure about that. He wouldn’t do something cruel. If he was saying this, it was because he meant it. He wanted to help her. He wanted her…to apply to the space program. 

Something warm unfurled inside of Candace, like a solar flare. She didn’t know what it was: gratitude or real, genuine, happiness, but she let herself smile. Small at first, but growing bigger as she thought…maybe she could do it. What she’d said had been a bit of a lie anyway. After all, she had CaNDy PoP 101. That was credentials. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but it showed that she was dedicated. She had started that blog five years ago, though it had really only exploded in the last three. 

And she had taken classes. And, well, at this point, she figured she probably had a damn good essay. 

Please, she wanted to beg, just give me a chance. 

“Okay,” Candace said, showing her teeth. “Okay…I’ll--I’ll apply. I mean…there is nothing you have to do or…or whatever though…maybe you can read my essay?” she asked, with uncharacteristic shyness. 

“And, uhm--don’t…tell Mom? I don’t…” she sighed. “I don’t want to have that conversation unless I have to…” 

LAWRENCE: That sort of made his heart sink a little because Lawrence did want to tell Linda. He wanted to tell her that he and Candace were making progress, that her daughter was going to be fulfilling a childhood dream and that Lawrence was going to be helping her to do so— but if Candace didn’t want Linda to know (and, unfortunately, he could imagine why. He did love his wife, but sometimes she had a way of making things a bigger deal than they were meant to be.) Giving it some more thought, he figured he didn’t mind having something that would be just theirs for now. 

He didn’t enjoy keeping things from Linda but he figured it would only be for a short while. It would come out when (not if!) Candace got in, anyway, now wouldn’t it? Not as if they could hide her being away for a few weeks from the rest of the family! 

And this was the one thing she was asking of him— the least he could do was abide by her wishes when he was the one who had seemingly talked her into this. He didn’t want to betray her trust when he had only just been handed it. 

“You have my word.” Lawrence gave a single firm nod and smiled, placing a hand on his chest. “And I would be delighted to help you on your essay! You’ll have to help me with all the space jargon, though, so that I’m not completely out of the loop.”

CANDACE: Candace brightened again when Lawrence promised not to tell her mom. 

Right, so--this was happening. She was applying to NASA! Her fingers tingled with the anticipation of it, itching to get back on her laptop right now, but she had a little time. Applications weren’t due for another two weeks. She was going to have to somehow wrangle her professors into giving her last minute recommendations…she hoped that they would. She had made herself known in those classes, asking so many questions, been so eager…but it still had been a year since she’d had one of them. They probably didn’t even remember her. Even though it was a small school, she knew they mostly prioritized their own students. She couldn’t blame them…but she could hope.

And she was going to have to craft an entrance essay. 

She was going to have to submit a paper. Hopefully, the one she’d written on black holes for her class this semester would count. (She had already finished it.) It didn’t say anything particularly interesting about them, but it did talk about the possibility of mapping their sound onto a scale and turning it into proper music. Not exactly scientific but--creative. 

Her brain was buzzing but it was almost dinner time. She heard her mom call them both from down the stairs. The application would have to wait, at least until after dinner. 

Candace got up from her desk reluctantly and looked back over at her stepdad. “Maybe, uhm, after dinner we can go over the application together,” she said, perched forwards as if she was going to move towards him. She kind of wanted to give him a hug. She didn’t, but she did smile.