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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 29, 2010 3:56:45 GMT -5
"Always good to hear," Casey beamed, setting four glasses on the table and a decorated glass bottle of homemade sparkling grape and elderflower water, which tasted amazing, even if she did say so herself.
Cutlery came next. "There's vegetable stir fry, spring rolls, and fried bread, everyone can just help themselves, there's enough there to feed ten, let alone four."
Darcy looked back at Hugo with a smile and opened her mouth to speak when Casey answered for her. "Tonnes."
She chuckled, shaking her head. "What my human mouthpiece said. How was the zoo? Did Lisa bother you incessantly about all the animals like a good little girl should?"
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 13:29:27 GMT -5
"OH the zoo was great! We saw giraffes and zebras and then we went to this BIG elephant and the elephant almost blew Dad over cause he was all like 'RRRREERARAAAAA'" Hugo stayed silent as Lisa continued her story, the young father setting their things down near the table(he would figure out where they would be staying later) and putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder, laughing slightly as he said:
"Wash your hands kiddo. We're going to be eating soon."
"Yes siiiiir." She walked to the restroom, Hugo now asking Casey:
"Why the interest in cooking for life? Didn't want to follow your mother's footsteps?" He said the last part in jest, knowing that Darcy's job wasn't exactly the most desirable.
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 14:01:28 GMT -5
Casey giggled from the kitchen as Lisa spoke, managing to quell it into a smile when Hugo actually spoke to her. "Are you kidding? I'd much rather chop up vegetables than brains any day," she said, poking her tongue out at Dee. "Really, it was something my biological mother used to do all the time. The house always used to smell so good." She grinned, coming over to sit at the table. She'd dealt with her parents' deaths a long time ago, plus, Dee was enough to make up for the both of them.
Darcy seated herself down beside Casey, giving her hand a quick squeeze under the table.
"Somehow, I can't see Lisa following in your footsteps either," she said, "by the sounds of it, she'd be better suited to be a zoologist."
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 14:30:12 GMT -5
"No, no. I don't think she would want to be in my line of work. She's seen enough of what it does family life." Hugo watched as Lisa walked back into the room, taking a seat and then grabbing one of the baskets.
"Honey..." Lisa looked up at Hugo with a slightly embarrassed face, cheeks blushing as she withdrew her hands.
"Thank you. You know how to do it." Lisa looked over at Casey and politely asked:
"May I please have the bread?" Hugo sat down himself, kissing Lisa on the head as a gesture of gratefulness. If there was one thing that Lisa did well, it was listen.
"Daaaaaad!" Hugo chuckled, then addressed the two ladies across from him:
"So how did you two meet?" He had a vague idea from their time in memory world, but he didn't want that experience to be the sole way Hugo would know how this mother-daughter bond was formed.
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 14:40:29 GMT -5
Casey raised her eyebrows suggestively at Darcy as they both watched Hugo kiss Lisa on the forehead. She almost got a stiletto heel wedged in her shin.
"Of course, help yourself," Casey nodded.
Darcy went for the spring rolls - they were her favourite - and looked up at Hugo as he asked.
"He makes it sound like we're a couple," Casey grinned, nudging the stir fry towards him, seeing as it was the only bowl not taken and he was the guest.
Darcy chuckled, "it was at the hospital not long after the accident. I was her attending physician, and the one that dealt with the head trauma. Once she was conscious and stable, I was the one who talked her through everything."
"She babied me, basically," Casey nodded, snagging a spring roll, "visited me 24/7 to check that I was okay, when she wasn't with other patients of course. When it came time for me to leave, I didn't want to go anywhere, and she didn't want me to either."
"I sorted out all the papers and stuff while Casey stayed in an orphanage for a few days, then she moved in with me."
"And we've been almost inseparable ever since."
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 14:59:07 GMT -5
Hugo listened intently as he took a few things from the revolving plates(boy this looked good), laughing at Casey's comment about babying. Darcy would do something like that, even if it was someone she couldn't stand. He bit into the spring roll, chewing and swallowing as Casey finished.
"Quite a story. I've heard of a few cases like that back home." He looked over at Casey and filled in detail on where "home" was:
"I lived in Los Angeles for most of my life. That's where I conducted most of my work until I was transferred to Boston. Have you ever been down to L.A.? It's a great place if you know where you're going." Lisa happily ate her food, content to tune out the old people.
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 15:17:37 GMT -5
"Oh cool," Casey said, "I haven't actually. Me and some friends were supposed to road trip down there at some point, tackle the city together. I couldn't imagine going there alone."
"We didn't used to do the states much when we came back to Earth to travel," Darcy mused, she didn't know why really.
They all tucked into the food, polishing pretty much all of it off. Darcy felt fit to burst, she didn't know how Casey fit so much food into that tiny frame of hers. Darcy did the washing up while Casey chatted with Lisa and Hugo some more, then they sorted out where people were sleeping; Hugo and Lisa in the spare room, Darcy in Casey's double with her. Both Darcy and Casey got a goodnight from Lisa, which was adorable, then they went to bed themselves.
Darcy awoke in the morning sprawled across the bed with the covers bunched up around her waist, the smell of pancakes in the air. Following her nose, she pulled her hair back and blearily made her way out into the dining area, still in her pyjamas. Tripping over the door frame, she hopped into the room, almost losing her balance in her slippy socks, then when she steadied herself, she realised everyone was staring at her.
"Um, hi."
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 15:32:10 GMT -5
Hugo had been awake since four in the morning, allowing Lisa to sleep as he quietly performed a morning ritual he had not had time to do since he had been on the Venia: yoga. It was a strange thing to see a detective(from the LAPD no less) doing yoga poses, but that's what kept him so flexible and precise in his line of work. After about an hour or so, he gave in to his body, who protested very loudly about doing such hard work in the early morning hours. He was losing his touch, that's for sure.
Yoga was then supplanted by a shower(nice shower for a dorm room), a change, and then back to his room. Something was bothering him big time. He took out his portable computer console, activating the machine and then sifting through a few data files that he had gathered about R4. That splinter group couldn't have been the first...
Bingo.
He knew that there had to be more dissidents than just that loon on New Earth and here was a list of five known instigators within R4. He recognized the meathead that had captured them, but there were four others, their coordinates unknown. There would be chaos if he couldn't...
"Dad...I'm hungry." Lisa was now awake.
"Go get changed and we can eat, ok?" Lisa complied.
Hugo walked into the kitchen, where he saw Casey faithfully flipping pancakes like no one's business. He smiled, saying:
"You don't have to cook for us, you know. I wasn't even expec.."
And in came Darcy.
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 15:39:35 GMT -5
Casey had been about tell Hugo that it was no problem, after all, her life was all about cooking, when Darcy stumbled in. Obviously she'd forgotten that they had company. The smell of her pancakes tended to make the poor woman nonsensical. The tripping wasn't her fault, however. Darcy turned a deep shade of pink, pretty much matching one of the colours on her vibrant socks. Her first instinct was to run back into the bedroom, but that would be undignified... more so than forgetting to get changed in the first place. The second was to just breathe, grab a jacket - she seized one from the back of the sofa, pulling it over her pyjama top - and sit down at the table while trying to turn her face back to it's normal pale colour. "The, uh, pancakes smell great." |
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 15:45:05 GMT -5
Hugo watched the sequence of events with a wide grin, knowing that this would be an event he would give her grief about sometime later down the road.
"Yeah, they do smell great. Remind me of home. You know, when I used to wear pajamas to breakfast and not care about who saw me in said clothing. But I mean, that was a long time ago. I would never do anything like that. Would you Casey?" He was holding back laughter, wondering what Darcy's reaction would be. After all, she had been embarrassed enough...
But it couldn't hurt to lay it on a little bit more.
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 15:56:57 GMT -5
Pink turned to red. So red, in fact, that Darcy looked like her face was burning. He was so mean. It was all in good humour of course, but she was so embarrassed anyway, and now he was making it worse!
Casey began dishing out the food, "no pancakes for you," she said teasingly, pulling the pan away from Hugo's plate, dishing extra onto Darcy's instead. "Lisa, you want some of your Dad's pancakes too?" She placed one small extra pancake on Lisa's plate, "make sure to enjoy it, let him know exactly how tasty it is."
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 16:08:06 GMT -5
"Uh huuuh!" Lisa bit into the pancake and her eyes brightened, looking over at her father after swallowing and saying:
"Daaaaad, these are sooooooooo good! They're so fluffy and nice and they're so sweet!" She happily chewed away, Hugo laughing at his daughter's zealous behavior. She was certainly a foodie. Hopefully she stayed fit at some level, otherwise her appetite could carry her down a terrible road.
"It doesn't help that I'm the only man in the house, does it?" He laughed again before going back to his room, strapping on his belt, which contained multiple pockets for handy devices such as the one he had used yesterday to isolate DNA trails. Hugo never left anywhere without it. Just in case.
He holstered his pistol, then walked out again, sitting next to Darcy and getting a whiff of what smelled like fantastic perfume. Oh that smelled good. The intoxication of the aroma caused Hugo to remember:
He had wanted to ask her out.
He leaned in close to Darcy and said quietly:
"You want to ditch the youngsters and go out tonight?"
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 16:18:35 GMT -5
Casey grinned a wicked grin, she had a funny feeling she was going to grow to adore Lisa, if she didn't already. When Hugo was out of the room, she put the remaining pancakes on his plate, chuckling a little. She cast a glance at Dee as she sat down, "focus, think of only pale, white things."
"I'm bright red, aren't I?"
"Like a tomato, but it's fading."
"Grrrrrrrrrreat."
Chewing on her copious pancakes would distract her, so she began slicing and dicing, not noticing Hugo until he was right next to her. She managed not to jump.
Turning her head slightly, she eyed him for a moment. What had brought that on? Was he trying to make up for the whole pyjamas thing? Or was he just being sincere?
"Okay, yes," she said quietly back, a smile creeping across her face, "I know somewhere we can go." That had food to rival even Casey's cooking. "You'd better eat your pancakes before they go cold." She nudged him gently with her shoulder, unable to wipe the smile from her face as she began eating.
Pale again, phew. Even with Casey watching surreptitiously from the other side of the table.
She already knew she'd be babysitting tonight.
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Post by hugodouglass on Oct 31, 2010 16:28:04 GMT -5
"I guess I should. Lisa may devour them if I don't get a chance to eat them." Lisa looked over at her father with a grin, then continued her onslaught on the stack of pancakes set before her. He would have to make sure that she didn't eat too many of these things or else she would become hyper. A hyper Lisa is not something he did not want to deal with, nor should any human being have to deal with.
"Hey Dad?"
"Yes?"
"What are we gonna do today?"
"I don't know baby. We'll figure something out. In the meantime, go wash your plate."
"Yes siiiir." He looked over at Casey with an easy smile, saying:
"Don't worry about doing her dish. She's learned how to do things on her own." Hugo leaned back in his chair, eating his breakfast with relish. It had been quite a long time since he had such good home cooking and he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could. His eyes did catch Darcy's continued smile, which caused him to smile a little inside. She was still gorgeous, even if she was in pajamas.
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Post by darcyneumann on Oct 31, 2010 16:42:40 GMT -5
Finishing her own stack, Darcy rose from her seat, grabbing everyone else's plates, placing them out of the way on the side before grabbing the step for Lisa, so she could actually reach the sink. Casey had been known to use it when people weren't watching.
"I will go change from my scandalous pyjamas," she smirked, "and save you the trouble of poking fun at me some more." She could also take a shower as well, which she wished she'd done before emerging from the bedroom. "Casey can fill you in on any plans for the day."
"All righty," Casey grinned as Darcy disappeared to go freshen up, "campus is pretty cool, and close. I figured we can see the sights before maybe heading into the city. There's a festival downtown, celebrating all sorts of cultures, should be good fun." Crazy, but fun. "Then, Lisa and I can have a pizza making session later, do some dough tossing, play with different toppings, what do you say?" She looked over at the little girl blowing soap suds into the air, chuckling.
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