A FIREFLY IN FLIGHT || Quil Ateara

two; desk and chair.

Upon entering the home, Harry's two kids were sent up to their rooms. His wife, Sue, had them all sit at the kitchen table where they could have the conversation somewhere inside. She made herself and the men a pot of coffee, and then offered Rosemary hot chocolate or tea which she declined. A mug of warm water was slid in front of her anyway, and she used it to warm her hands.

Rosemary did her best to explain everything again to Sue, and tried to make more sense to the men now that she was somewhat calmer. Chief Swan promised he wouldn't send her anywhere until they figured out what was going on. For at least tonight, she would be safe.

Sue Clearwater had a good poker face as a nurse, but she didn't as a mother. The woman covered her mouth twice in shock — once at the bloody necklace, and again at the break in — and grabbed her a blanket from the couch a few feet into the other room. "You must be in shock," she said gently, kneeling down so she was on the floor in front of her.

Rosemary nodded slowly. "I think so," she admitted. "I've been really freaked out these last few days and now I'm just..."

She had put all the photos on the table for them to look at, which Harry had been doing since they'd sat down. "What did you say her last name was?" He asked, eyes narrowing.

"Eyton."

Harry frowned again. "Is that her name after getting married or before?"

"After," Rosemary answered. "I don't remember her last name from before...I think it was some kind of bird? She only told me once and my mom never talks about it much but I remember thinking it was cool to have an animal in your name."

At that, his head snapped up. "Mallard?"

Yes.

Diane Mallard.

"Yeah," Rosemary nodded immediately, "my great auntie, her older sister, always called her—"

"—Ducky," Harry finished for her.

After a moment he got out of his chair and walked down the hall.

"She said she hated it growing up," Rosemary admitted. "She told me about it when I was...I think I was 9 or 10, and my mom wouldn't stop calling me Rosie Posie." A rueful smile crossed her face. "It always made me feel like a baby."

Even now, being taken care of in the way she was, Rosemary felt like a child.

"You sound like my daughter," Chief Swan muttered through a short laugh.

That made her smile.

Harry came back with a small box in hand, and set it on the table in front of her. Inside were dozens of Peter Clearwater's photos through his entire life. His own baby pictures. Him as a teen out consistently with two friends. Only two women were in the collection. Diane Eyton...or maybe she should call her Diane Mallard?

If she was so unhappy with Gramps, why did she keep his last name when he died?

Rosemary decided she would, as though the two of them belonged to the same body, they were very different people. Diane Mallard became Diane Eyton and had had apparently spent the better part of her life hating it.

"I knew it was a long shot, coming here, and I'm so sorry for barging in on your life like this but...I really didn't know where else to go."

"We'll do what we can, Hunny," Sue told her quietly, glancing down at a photo her husband was holding. "I'm just not sure how much we can do."

In an absent-minded action, the woman set a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. It had been a long time since Rosemary's own mother had shown her much affection, not since before the divorce six years earlier.