[ chuck nods her assent, because she doesn't trust herself not to start sobbing loudly again if she opens her mouth. but she can wait fifteen minutes, curled on the bathroom floor and steadfastly refusing to explain the source of her grief to raleigh. she begrudges every tear, shudder, and mournful wail that threatens to overtake her, and eventually buries her head in her arms to wait for dominique. and they may not have the report that stepmothers and stepdaughters have in most old fairytales — her father's wife is not a monster, not particularly unkind; smokes a lot, but remembers chuck only eats strawberry jam on her sandwiches — but that doesn't mean she gets along with dominique any better than she gets along with her kids. still, when she finally gets home and kicks raleigh out of the bathroom so she can kneel down and try to assess what's wrong, if chuck closes her eyes and uses her imagination, it's almost like she's her mom, rubbing small circles between her shoulder blades like angela used to do when chuck was a baby and was sick.
she let's chuck cry, and even when she can feel the full grown woman clam up beside her when she finally gets the words out, finally explains, dominique let's her cry without making it all about her own loss. for that chuck respects her. and it's good, because she doesn't cry again for a good long while.
it takes three weeks to hold the funeral, and when they do, there's sandbags in the casket. there's technically been no body recovered, and no one can tell any of them exactly why. they don't even know how, when, or where he died, as apparently whatever mission he was running was top secret. the only thing the family can know is that it somehow involved flying over the pacific ocean. her uncle scott is a wreck when they talk, because he was supposed to be flying as herc's copilot and had been grounded earlier that week for disciplinary reasons. now he had the worse case of survivors guilt, and no more real information than they. chuck's considering writing stacker pentecost, who she doesn't really know, but knows he knew her dad, and knows he has many strings at his disposal for pulling. but first she needs to find a fucking black dress for the occasion.
and it itches. so after the lackluster funeral in the cold, wet, nasty alaskan weather, she peels out of it in the living room and sits around in the leggings and tank top she'd had underneath it, nevermind how cold it is. at some point during the evening raleigh joins her, and they put on an action movie with the volume down low. but chuck's more fidgeting, and within the first ten minutes is bored and casting him sidelong looks. ]
not as good as the first time i wrote it ;__;
she let's chuck cry, and even when she can feel the full grown woman clam up beside her when she finally gets the words out, finally explains, dominique let's her cry without making it all about her own loss. for that chuck respects her. and it's good, because she doesn't cry again for a good long while.
it takes three weeks to hold the funeral, and when they do, there's sandbags in the casket. there's technically been no body recovered, and no one can tell any of them exactly why. they don't even know how, when, or where he died, as apparently whatever mission he was running was top secret. the only thing the family can know is that it somehow involved flying over the pacific ocean. her uncle scott is a wreck when they talk, because he was supposed to be flying as herc's copilot and had been grounded earlier that week for disciplinary reasons. now he had the worse case of survivors guilt, and no more real information than they. chuck's considering writing stacker pentecost, who she doesn't really know, but knows he knew her dad, and knows he has many strings at his disposal for pulling. but first she needs to find a fucking black dress for the occasion.
and it itches. so after the lackluster funeral in the cold, wet, nasty alaskan weather, she peels out of it in the living room and sits around in the leggings and tank top she'd had underneath it, nevermind how cold it is. at some point during the evening raleigh joins her, and they put on an action movie with the volume down low. but chuck's more fidgeting, and within the first ten minutes is bored and casting him sidelong looks. ]
Can we do something else?