Room 406, afternoon

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel returned from the clinic intent on finding Janet and seeing what else she could do to help. She stopped by her room to drop of her jacket and pick up the books she needed to return. The phone started ringing just as she closed the door.

“Hello?” she said, as she dropped her jacket on her bed.

“Mom? What’s wrong?” Isabel stopped suddenly, alarmed by the tears in her mother’s voice.

“Mom! Just tell me.” Something had to have happened to Max. No, Michael. He found some clue and went off and did something stupid.

And then it felt like her heart stopped, “NO! He’s not, he can’t be.” Shocked, she sat down on the bed.

“How?” she asked quietly. “What happened?”

“I see. I want to come home,” she said, her voice trembling. “For the funeral.”

“You have? Tonight?” It was hard to think, her mind in too much turmoil to actually process more then the bare facts. “Okay, I’ll be there.”

She hung up the phone and sat silently, tears streaming down her face.

[locked to soldtoarmenians]

Comments

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Exactly." She looked around the room, not able to handle the sympathy she could see in Xander's face. "But it is, isn't it?"

[soldtoarmenians]

In this town, that wasn't always an easy question to answer, not when the next face you saw walking around the corner might be one you saw a casket lid closing over years ago. But even seeing Ms. Calendar here now didn't take back what happened before, did it.

"Yeah, it usually is." He rested his arms on his knees. "Which... sucks." Ah, Xander of the golden tongue. Possibly there was a reason none of them ever talked about this stuff.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

It wasn't really a smile, Isabel didn't think she'd be up to smiling for a long time, but her lips quirked the tiniest bit at Xander's frank honesty. "Yeah, it does," she agreed.

With a sigh she got to her feet and went to the closet. She pulled out her bag and then stopped, staring blindly into the closet. "I think you would have liked Alex," she said suddenly. "Actually you remind me a lot of him. That's part of the reason I didn't freak out when I found out I was rooming with you."

[soldtoarmenians]

"Ah, so you're used to living among the dorktastic, then," Xander guessed, and winced when he heard it out loud. It had sounded less like he was trying to make her laugh in a situation where that wasn't ever gonna happen, in his head.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"He wasn't a dork," Isabel said as she finally reached into the closet and started to pull out clothes. "Well, maybe he was. But he was my friend. And I guess that's all that matters." She paused and then said very quietly, "Mattered..."

[soldtoarmenians]

"And for my next trick, I swallow my other foot," Xander said stealing a line from another fandom. "See, my name's Xander Harris, and my superpower is the use of inappropriate humor to distract you from your problems by focusing on what a dillweed I am."

He stood and walked over to her closet. "Of course it matters. It's always gonna matter."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

And it's hard to tell if she's laughing or crying or some incredibly bizarre combination of both. All she knows is that she wants it to be last week when the worst thing she had to worry about was whether or not the bouncing was ever going to wear off. But that's not an option, no matter how much she'd wants it to be.

But Xander's there and he's her friend. And right now all she wants is a hug and someone to tell her it's going to be okay even if it will take time. Blindly she turned to him and hugged him, hanging on tight.

[soldtoarmenians]

This, he knew how to do, because this, they did, Xander and his friends that made a better family than the original option. Every so often when they pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to notice each other. He held on to Isabel, and smoothed her hair out of her face and back over her shoulder.

"Never gets easier?" he said quietly. "But it does get better."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Promise?" she asked quietly. Still holding on because just for a moment it was easier to let someone else be strong.

But moments can't last forever so she let go and stepped back. "Thanks, I needed that."

[soldtoarmenians]

"Any time. I can definitely promise that part."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to take you up on that. You do realize that?"

Isabel started pulling clothes out of the closet again, dumping them on her bed. A quick trip to the bathroom for her make-up and hair stuff, and then everything got carefully packed in her bag.

"I'm not sure when I'll be back. But I'll see you then?"

[soldtoarmenians]

"Not planning on going anywhere." Xander smiled. "You need anything, or just want to talk, call me."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I will." Isabel grabbed her bag and headed towards the door, stopping for just a moment to kiss Xander's cheek and give him one more quick hug. "Thank you."

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander watched her leave, and stood still for a moment after the door closed behind her, still watching, though he couldn't tell you what. Then he walked over to his desk and dropped some food in the frog tank. For another moment, he stared at the picture of Buffy and Mr. Yuk Angel, before rolling his eyes. "Fine," Xander muttered in Jeremiah's direction, like the frog had said anything at all, and he peeled the sticker off Angel's face.

Then he reached for the picture pinned to the corkboard at the back. He sat on the edge of his bed looking at it for a long time, before he finally left.