flamesburned | Liz's Room - Hannibal's House, Tuesday Evening

The day was nearly coming to a close, Liz knew that it would take a few more days before she felt even close to okay but she was trying to get through the day one step at a time, which she knew was all she could really do.

Early that evening, she decided to ring Marc. It had been a very long day but she didn’t have long now to get through, even though she knew this week would always be a hard one to get through, she just hoped next year there wouldn’t be emotional baggage and fake fire everywhere.

She wanted next year to be different, especially since next year her daughter would be here, which was still something that she couldn’t quite believe.

She had considered going to class that evening but she found she didn’t have much energy and thought no one would mind if she missed one class considering the circumstances.

She also figured that she was going to be going over to Summer’s later to stay the night with her but she was trying to get as much rest as she could before then.

Rain was curled up next to her, for the most part she was trying to get in a comfortable position on her bed before she had to leave to go over to Summer’s.

[Liz is expecting a visitor but the post is definitely open!]

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"Okay," Liz said quietly, she felt confident she could manage some water, "um, the kitchen's this way," she told him as she began to to head over towards the kitchen.

Marc followed along behind her, taking the place in as he went. "What'd you do after Steven left?"

"I - I went back to work," Liz told him quietly as they got to the kitchen, "I - I was able to get some of the work finished that I hadn't the last couple of weeks, Nell came round to visit while I was there," she added, "that's how she gave me the cake,"

"Nell's good like that," Marc said. He didn't mention the part about Nell leaving. That was for Nell to say and besides he didn't want to add to what Liz was going through already. Instead he looked around the kitchen. "Fuck it's elaborate."

Bearing in mind Marc didn't cook so anything more than the basics was elaborate to him.

"She is, I've really liked the teas she's made me," Liz hesitated, "I'm ... I'm sorry that she's going to be going home, that I didn't have more time to get to know her," it had been hard to hear that news yesterday.

"I leave the cooking to Dr. Lecter," she admitted, "the kitchen's bigger than most of my apartment it feels like"

"Bigger than most places I've lived," Marc agreed. He rubbed his face at the mention of Nell. "Yeah. Sucks but nothing we can do about it. Lots I'd like to do, believe me. But it's her life."

“She - she mentioned that she had to go back to her husband,” Liz said after a while, “I - it does sound like she misses home,” she paused, “it will be different without her here,” she said softly.

"She has family there," Marc said. He gave Liz a look to indicate she could understand the draw of that, not that Liz had any context to know why Marc would too. "Sisters."

"Oh," Liz said quietly, "she mentioned she was looking forward to seeing her plants and dogs, I didn't realise she had siblings," Liz tried to recall if Nell had told her about her family aside from the fact that she was married, "she must miss really miss them if she hasn't seen them in four years," she said, remembering Nell mentioning that it had been four years since she had been home.

"Yeah, and who the hell knows what's happened to them?" Marc said. Though of course based on what he knew of Nell's life he had some theories. "I'd go back too."

"I - I hope she can stay in touch," Liz said quietly, "I - she said she might not be able to return to Fandom," she paused and then, "how - how are you holding up with her going back?" she asked softly, remembering that Nell was one of Marc's first friends that he had made in Fandom.

Marc shrugged. He leaned against one of the counters to make himself comfortable. "Knew it was coming. The version of her I met at the reunion laid it out. Which was good because it's the only thing keeping Steven in check. You know how he gets when he thinks somebody's in a bad spot. Especially a kid like Nell."

A kid who was 18 years old but still.

Liz now wondered if her possible older self had said anything to Marc, she was very tempted to ask but then maybe he had been warned not to say anything to her, “oh,” she said quietly, “so it works out for her, that she’s going home?” she finally settled on.

Even though if it had helped made Steven worry less, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for her when she went home.

There were a lot of bad parts along the way for that version of Nell - parts Marc knew any version of Nell would go through given her situation - but Liz could use some good news so Marc went with the truth, which was, "Yeah, she was happy with how it all turned out."

Liz did relax a bit at that, pleased to hear that it would be okay for Nell, “oh that’s good at least, I’m … at least she will be happy,” she said softly.

"So were you," Marc reminded her, long as they were on the topic of their future selves. "Not saying you gotta bust out a song and dance right now. But you've got the stones to get through this. You'll be okay."

Liz had nearly forgotten that, how content her other self was, how much stronger and happier she had been, “I don’t suppose she told you how I got through this?” she said quietly.

"Wish I could tell you," Marc said. Then, in case Liz thought he meant he'd been sworn to secrecy or something, he added, "It didn't come up. If I had to guess you toughed it out. Went through Hell, came out the other side."

Either that or in her other self's timeline they invented a way for pregnant people to safely get drunk.

Liz bit her lip, “I …I guess I need to remember that it…that it can better,” she said softly, “if it did for her …that I can …it will get better for me,” she hoped.

"Can't get worse?" Marc said. There was some wry humor there.

Liz's Room - Hannibal's House, Tuesday Evening

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