9-11 | Mace

[seeyousoonthen]

At the end of the day all she really wanted to do was relax. Her ankles were swollen and her back was stiff and she generally had paint and glitter beneath her nails. Oh, but it was a good sort of tired. It was the tired that came after a day well spent. And this evening, after parents had had dinner and had collected their kids, Savannah got some

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[youlosetrack]

It's only the second time, but Mace is getting tired of walking into the rec room to find Savannah in some state of distress. She seems to deal with it well enough when he tries to help (in his own fucked up way, of course), but he doesn't go straight to her this time.

He vaguely remembers learning about this in school as a kid; one of those events that took place half a century ago, far enough in time that he has no concept of it. The most he gets is that the human race's instinct for cruelty to each other is the same no matter what time or universe you're in.

Mouth set into an angry line, Mace walks over to the projector, wincing with every other step he takes as he puts weight on his leg. He leans the crutch up against the projector, and quietly glances over it. The technology is so old he doesn't recognize much of it (same as most everything here), but it only takes a minute of looking it over to figure out how to turn it off and pull the reel.

The quiet is almost as loud as the inane chatter that filled the room only moments

[seeyousoonthen]

It was the sudden silence that made her pull her hand from her eyes. She looked at Mace with pure gratitude, though the lack of the video did little to stop her thoughts.

"Thank you," she said, her gratitude tinged with fatigue. So much fatigue; she was so tired of the constant struggle to keep her past buried. She had a chance at a fresh start here and yet it seemed everywhere she turned she was confronted with bits and pieces that chipped at her cheerful facade. How she missed Chapel hill where people took a person at face value and didn't dig deeper. Here, in this place of fresh starts and blank slates it was a constant struggle to dodge what she had been and try only to be what other people perceived her to be.

"Thank you," she said again. Mace. For Mace she could be light- on any other day. Her light didn't shine at the moment, though. For now she had nothing to give but herself, a myriad of flaws and selfish thoughts.

[youlosetrack]

He walks over -- shuffles, kind of, still working on getting used to just one crutch as a cane, and sits down next to her. There's so much he doesn't know, the disaster he's grown up with too big and encompassing to understand how something like that affected others in the past. But Mace just has to look at Savannah to know.

"That was way before my time," he says, stretching his leg out until he can prop it up on a coffee table, feeling the burn in his muscles.

[seeyousoonthen]

"It was just a bit before I got here," she replied. "It's so easy not to think of it here. Strange things happen, but they're just strange and things go back to normal. That day changed everything for me." She paused. "Us, I mean. America."

For me, she thought. That really was what she meant but it had slipped out. Savannah hadn't meant to mention that it had in any way directly affected her- though it did. John's recommittment to the service in the wake of that day had a profound effect.