#ira: thread

"I don’t know what happened to Marion’s possessions so I thought I would make something with what I could find.” A soft smile appeared on Ira’s face as he motioned to the small photo album sitting on his bed. He had assembled various pictures of Charlotte into something that passed as a family photo album. There were photos of Charlotte as a newborn (with a measuring tape, of course, for scientific reasons), being held by Marion, getting her first leg brace, losing her first tooth, playing the piano, and interacting with Leekie. There were also some photos of Marion at official events- though none of them showed her true personality. The last photo before the blank pages was his favorite. It showed him and Charlotte smiling at the kitchen table with a mess of art supplies between them.

“What? Ira! What do you mean?” They might not be on the best of terms or see eye to eye about…well, most things, but when she see’s her clone-brother tending to a rather nasty looking laceration the scientist rushes forward. Her grip is gentle as she takes the alcohol swab from Ira’s hand and looks up at him with a kinder expression than she’d ever been able to show anyone associated with DYAD or Neolution, aside from Delphine.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

"I th-thought Charlotte accidentally let the cat out so I went to look and th-there was something- something in the woods. It was- it was human-sized. It started chasing me so I ran a-and I fell.” Ira’s voice shakes and he sniffles a few times, trying to stop himself from crying. Earlier the panic had taken hold of him and he had been on the verge of outright bawling in the middle of the woods. He glances down, hiding his wobbly bottom lip. So much for being in charge of the house while Susan was gone. 

“Just my hands.” He lets her start to tend to gash on the side of his left arm and he reveals his palms, scraped and slightly bloodied from hitting the forest floor. “It w-was stupid of me. I shouldn’t ha-have gone out there.”

“While my sister may be...incredibly difficult to live with, I think people are making her out to be much more villainous than she really is.” Ira pursed his lips, unsure of how to go about protecting his sister when he didn’t really want to. He couldn’t have someone trying to hunt her down when she was tucked away in his basement and was unlikely to leave any time soon. She was a valuable asset- and his sister, even though she was a thoroughly irritating person, constantly criticizing his actions. Now he could stand a bit of bullying but seeing her be so unkind to their littlest sister, who was only eight, was something else. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and clasped his hands in front of him. “What exactly as she done to anger you?”

"Oh, this is lovely! Thank you, Helena.” Ira wasn’t entirely sure what a babka cake was, but he figured he’d have a little taste later and then decide whether or not to let it sit and dry up before throwing it away. Or maybe he could let Charlotte and Susan eat it, though the little girl was just a picky as him. Though he wasn’t entirely sure about this gift, it was more acceptable than Sarah’s ‘motha cuppa’ mug that was hidden behind some other mugs and glasses in the cupboard.

“I just had dinner so I will have to save it for later.” He grinned down at the cake and turned away, placing it on the counter in the corner next to the fridge. Part of him wondered if Helena knew the basic handwashing technique, the oven would probably kill all the germs... "Or should I hide it from Susan and Charlotte? Is the cake just for me or am I allowed to share with them?”

This party was one where he was just a plus one and not an actual invited guest, this made it much easier to slip away without worrying about offending the host. What made it even better was that the host, whoever they may be, had quite a library which he found without any trouble. He left the throng of guests and disappeared into the library, a dark and spacious room. It was the ideal place to hang out before going home with Susan and hiding under the covers to continue to be antisocial for a little while longer.

He switched on a table lamp and started scanning the rows of books, there was no discernible organizational pattern. Who would do that? Eventually he found a copy of Grey’s Anatomy, a book he had heard so much about but never actually read. It had a red cloth cover with the title embossed on the front, quite old but still in beautiful condition. Before he knew it, a noise behind him sent his head snapping towards the person and he clutched the book against his chest.

"Oh jeez- you scared me.” He let out a sigh of relief seeing the woman standing there. Somehow he thought the person would be much scarier or that Susan would’ve caught him being rude by slipping away.

“I-I always have a habit of investigating people’s libraries... H-Have you read this?” He asked, holding up the book for her to see.

"I d-didn’t think anyone would try looking for me.” Ira mumbled from the corner of his new room in Westmoreland’s house. He sat on the floor with his knees against his chest and his figure was partially hidden from the doorway by a large armoire filled with antique China plates.

He reached up and used the back of his hand to wipe the tears off his face, then hid his trembling lips in the heel of his palm. His eyes never met theirs’. A moment of silence passed before he snuffled and pulled his hand away from his mouth, it quickly went back to holding his knees against his chest.

“I d-don’t want her- I don’t want Coady to find me. I don’t w-want to talk to her again. Wh-When will all this stop?”

"That was ssooooo much fun.” Ira said as he belly flopped onto the bed and buried his red face into a pillow. After lying there for a moment, he rolled onto his back and grinned up at the ceiling. Drink after drink had gone down the hatch, it was his once a year binge drinking session. He’d pay for it in the morning and even in this drunken state he knew that. “Let’s keep talkin, I’m nah tired. That last one ha espresso. It was ssooooo good. Good espressssooooo. Espresssooo.”

"It’s very... nice. Thank you, Sarah.” Ira wasn’t used to casual birthday presents. The ones from Susan (and a few from the now dead and irrelevant PT) were always very expensive and given with beautiful notecards with sentiments written in calligraphy. He held up the mug and reread it a few times, trying to figure out what else to say. He also wasn’t used to getting gifts that he didn’t like.

“Not entirely appropriate for morning breakfasts with Charlotte- unless she’s learned that word already. Has she?” A smirk appeared on his face and he playfully narrowed his eyes at Sarah, knowing full well that any curse words his little sister would learn would come from Sarah and/or Felix. “Perhaps I could put a post-it note over it so I can use it more.”