you have a lifetime before you, I'll adore you, come what may

[intheruins]

The child is a boy, just as Serena told George from the start, small but stubborn as his mother and determined to live.

She names him for his father – the father he's unlikely to ever meet – and gives him her maiden name as his middle. She figures it's the last chance she has for her family's name to live on, long after the rest of them were lost to her.

A week or so after she delivers him she's told she can leave the hospital but he's not ready, yet, and that's a reality she doesn't easily accept. If she were back in North Carolina instead of this strange, forward place, she might have more sway in bringing him back to the apartment that she's been assigned, but neither the doctors nor nurses will hear any of it.

So she leaves the hospital without her son – a day after Mother's Day, of all days – watching him through glass before she heads on. She'll be back in the evening, she tells them, although once she's outside she's not sure where she'll find the strength. She has two scars, now. The one burned in her back and one on her belly, each telling a story of survival against all odds.

Nothing to her name except a few clothes the nurses had given her and an envelope that has cash, a key and the strangest phone she's ever seen, she lingers outside the hospital for a few minutes before asking for help hailing a cab. Someone tells her it's 2017 (a fact she's still struggling to believe) and to use something called an app.

For the first time since she was a young girl, covered in ash, Serena feels totally at a loss.

[Dated Monday, May 15. Find Serena either outside the hospital or arriving at Chelsea Cloisters.]

Comments

[doeinbloom]

Even though Lily now lives in the country, she finds that she still Apparates to the city on an almost daily basis. Groceries, stuff for the house, stuff for the garden she's planning in their backyard - most of what she needs is to be found in the city of Darrow itself.

She also likes walking around the city, aimless, and with a cup of tea in hand, just taking in the sights. There's something romantic to be said for feeling so small and surrounded by concrete; she'd felt the same way about London.

She's passing the hospital on one of her walks today when she catches sight of a young woman outside of it, looking a bit lost, she thinks.

"Hello," Lily says, having no qualms about walking right up to a stranger who might need help. "Are you alright?"

[bryanzilla]

In just about a month from now, Bryan and David will be leaving the hospital with their daughter and Sawyer's new baby sister with them. Unlike today, where Bryan has to leave alone while David heads back to work right after their surrogate's more recent prenatal appointment. The only thing he's carrying is a terrible cup of vending machine coffee that finds its way into the nearest garbage can once he's outside.

Sliding his sunglasses on, he reaches into his pocket for his car keys. Noticing the woman standing nearby, Bryan almost disregards her completely until he does a double take and realizes it's freaking Jennifer Lawrence. Or someone that looks like her, anyway, because he's been in Darrow long enough to know how that whole thing works.

"Hi," he says with a friendly smile after becoming painfully aware that he's maybe stared silently a bit too long to not say something. It's then that he notices the envelope. That, combined with the fact that she looks a bit in over her head, makes him think there's a good chance that she's new. "Sorry, are you... Do you need help finding something?"

[a_littlefaith]

It's been exhausting lately, with everything Beth has to do, but she still finds the time and the energy to stay at the hospital as long as she can before receiving word Serena and her son are both going to be okay. Beth isn't family and she thinks the nurse who tells her could get into trouble for it, but she knows Beth is the one who'd come in with her and so she murmurs the information in undertones, which comes as a relief to Beth.

She leaves, but comes back every few days, wondering if she should stop by the train station to pick up Serena's envelope. The same nurse tells her she already has it and Beth somehow manages to show up every time she's sleeping, but eventually, about a week later, she finds herself with a day off and she's determined to actually see her. She brings a sandwich from her favourite shop and some clothes, because she doesn't know what Serena will have when she finally gets to leave.

It's a surprise to find Serena just outside the hospital and Beth hurries over to her, clutching her bags. "I almost missed you," she says breathlessly. "I didn't know how much longer they were gonna keep you."