The Teacher

Home Is Where...

Gloria sat across from her and Finn nodded absently. "Did you and Louise figure out whatever you were working on?"

"Sort of. I said there would be a minimum of ten minutes travel time if we needed to move the house, and you do sleep with a fairly regular time so we just decided to schedule everything to your day."

Finn blinked. "Are you saying I'm now my very own time zone?"

Gloria blinked back. "Umm, yes I suppose I am saying that."

"Right. That does seem like the simplest solution." Finn nodded acceptance as she tucked back into her stew.

"So where to next?"

"You're parents house." Finn answered and was quite surprised when Gloria only stopped eating to stare at her. She had been expecting the girl to jump up or react loudly. Obviously she still had some learning to do about the girl.

"Why?" She asked quietly.

"To get your shit." Finn answered flatly, keeping her suspicion and anger out of her voice.

"What if they say no?"

"Then you have nothing but what we already have here, and we move on from that point. But we don't assume bridges are burned unless we set the fire and watch them collapse ourselves."

Gloria gave a startled chuckle and  blinked. "Did you just -" Gloria stopped and circled one hand in the air as she searched for the word.

"Sometimes the only way to save yourself is to cut people out of your life, one way or another." Finn stood to wash her dishes as she spoke. "I'd like to say that I would never cut ties with family, but then again, my brother did something that I would also have thought he would never do so. Maybe if I'd been fast enough then, or strong enough, or just more in whatever direction I lacked then, maybe I still would have cut him out of my life. I'll never know, so I can't say if you need to cut your family out of your life. But I will say that whether you do or you don't, it has to be a choice you make. And a choice you stand by." Finn sat back down and watched Gloria as she continued to speak. "I haven't asked you how you ended up with Elizabeth, she does tend to pick up strays so there's that." Finn blinked at her mistake. "She did. That's still strange to me." She waved off the thought that was building up. "I also haven't asked if you left or were forced out of your family home. As far as I'm concerned those answers are in the stories that are yours and yours alone to share. But I will treat you as my own family now, you're the closest thing I have to family since you are the Chronicler and our jobs at least are paired so strongly. So, I stand with you, whatever you decide, but if we can get anything that you see as yours then that's a bonus for you, right?"

"Why don't you like Elizabeth?"

Finn blinked at the topic change. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I don't know, and maybe I'm wrong, but it seemed like there was some drama between you two."

"Oh." Finn said and looked at the table a moment.

"Well, you'd have to read her chronicle for her side to the story, but for me it started when she was about four. I was babysitting her, and she tried to blow me off a balcony.Now, there was likely no malice in what she was doing, we were playing pretty rough in the snow. But I had told her and her siblings that we could either play with, or without, magic. They chose without. So when she broke the rules I didn't just let it pass. I redirected the wind gust and then called off the game. I don't think i did anything wrong, but when her parents came home she started wailing that I wasn't letting her use her magic because I said it was evil."

Gloria choked on her stew and held up her hand to request a pause in the story. When she had finished her choke and was breathing normally again she gave a thumbs up and Finn carried on.

"Her parents knew it was hogwash so she got punished. Best I can figure that's when she started blaming me for every time she got in trouble." Finn frowned. "She was usually in trouble because she was trying to get me in trouble as I recall."

"So you're older than her?"

"Yup."  Finn picked up the dishes that Gloria had pushed away and went to wash them. "Go get your armour on. When I"m done washing this we go to your parent's house."

"Armour?"

"Regardless of material, anything we wear or carry to protect us is armour. A necklace, a favourite sweater. Lucky socks." Finn waved one sud covered hand in the air. "Whatever."

Finn washed the dishes, including the pot and spoon for the stew, and then went to wait in the living room outside of Glorias room. She was hoping that the girl had had enough time to come to terms with going to her parent's home, she'd been saying they needed to go for over a week now, but there was always the chance Gloria would choose the option of hiding again.

Gloria emerged a  moment later, her backpack hanging empty over one shoulder. She wouldn't - or couldn't - look up at Finn and Finn didn't try to force the issue.

"I'm going to set us up to come out your old church. We will bus and then walk to your parents, alright?" Gloria nodded and Finn shoved the house into position. "Now, here's some ground  rules for you." Finn said as they left the house to the church parking lot.

"First of all, do not be alone in a room with any of them. Keep me close so if we need to leave immediately we can." Finn waited for Gloria to acknowledge the rule, eventually turning to see Gloria nodding.

"Second, if you have to hook the house up to your bedroom so we can just throw stuff through that's fine." They were at the bus stop waiting, so this time Finn saw Gloria nod her head. Across the street someone waved and Finn nudged Gloria to get her attention. Gloria nodded back with a weak smile, and their bus showed up to prevent the person from coming over to speak to them.

"Finally, you need to understand that your dad has been lying to you your whole life about something very specific." Gloria looked at Finn's face in concern. "If I have to tell you I will, but as with your stories his are his own, and I won't force anything unless I have to."

Finn reached into her pocket and pulled out a small smooth rock, handing it to Gloria.

"That's a worry stone."

"What does it do?"

"Nothing, but you can rub it a lot longer than you can wring your shirt." Gloria blinked when she realized she had been twisting the cuff of her sleeve in worry. She rubbed the stone.