[For Elvis]

[intheruins]

Grief, as always, comes in waves. Not long after Edith's funeral, the newspapers stop talking about the Purge on the front page and slowly life seeps back into something like normality. At least, as close as anything can get to normality in a place like Darrow.

Serena settles back into her routine of working on bringing the house up to modern standards and teaching lessons at the stable, marvelling every day at the progress George is making. Before long, she's sure he'll be walking and talking, and all at once she fears the change and is desperate for it to happen. She doesn't know if she'll ever have a child again and lives with an awareness everything might be the first time for the last time, but she also wants to see everything the child she and Pemberton created is capable of.

Today, though, he's been with a sitter while Serena's been at the stables showing a young girl the basics of dressage. She picks him up afterward, still wearing her jodhpurs and a sweaty complexion despite the growing cold. Balancing a job and parenthood is more difficult than she ever imagined but also deeply gratifying, a reminder that she is more than one thing and always has been.

There aren't often visitors by the house nearby theirs so Serena's surprised to see a young man when she gets off the bus with George in her arms. Curiosity gets the better of her and she lifts her hand into a wordless wave. 

Comments

[wasblindbefore]

Though he much prefers it to the city itself, Elvis doesn't typically spend a lot of time out in the country. There's no real reason for him to, nor is there time; though things have slowed down over the past few weeks, following the influx of business after the Purge, he still keeps busy, too much so to drive out here with no reason. As he sometimes does, though, today, he's stopped by to see Effy, and is in the process of pausing to light a cigarette, seeing no reason not to take his time on his way back to where he's parked his hearse, when a woman gets off the bus and waves.

He waves back, thinking that he might as well. As quiet as it is out here, he wouldn't have expected to run into anyone else, and he can't help but wonder if the same is true for her, too.

"Afternoon."