#hiethen

she’s sitting on the ground in front of pyper  -  helping her stack blocks  ,  grinning as their daughter babbles.  “  what  ?  no way.  ”  a glance up  ,  watching her husband come down the stairs.  “  hey.  d-d--d--did we wake y-you up  ?  ”

DAMN  -  how’d she get in here.  luckily  ,  winter isn’t violent.  well.  not with jude.  never really  WAS  ,  was she.   “  hey  ,  puppy.  been a hot minute.  ”  how rude.  she has her feet up on the coffee table and everything.  “  heard you got a soul.  can i see it  ?  c’mon  ,  let aunt winnie take a look.  ”  

here she is.  crawling in the bed  ,  pressing her chest against his back  -  arms wrapping around his middle.  her cheek against the back of his neck.  “  wanna talk or  -  or you wanna just.  BE  HERE.  ”

it’s never really that pleasant when someone runs into you.  it’s especially not pleasant today  -  because that makes her drop the three of her vases that marianne gracefully gave her.  it’s  ESPECIALLY  not pleasant because on impulse  ,  she reaches out to catch one of them  ,  and it lodges glass in her hand.  “  oh.  hm.  ”  sounds oddly calm  ,  doesn’t she  ?  solveig opens her palm  ,  wonders idly if she should take out the glass.  looks more curious than anything else.  maybe she’s too calm for this  ,  considering the amount of blood flowing from her palm  ,  out of her  SHAKING  HAND.   adrenaline or exhaustion  ,  take a guess.  “  ouch.  ”  a beat  ,  finally looks up at him.  “  do you have a bandage.  should i take this out.  what if i--what if it’s a dutch boy.  ” 

“  i heard what your DAD did to your plaything.  ”  a vague gesture across her throat.  yikes.  first time seeing him in years  ,  and that’s the way winter greets him.  never was one for being warm and fuzzy  ,  after all.  “  very dramatic  ,  if you ask me.  did you have to clean up all that blood.  ”