Reflections of Light

Dining room

The day previous, Maddie and Evelyn had turned up at the run-down hotel inhabited by the other former residents of Evelyn's mansion.

Evelyn had immediately been welcomed with open arms, as if she were a symbol of hope to this small community of people, to whom she was benefactress.

Maddie had been thoroughly welcomed too, although some seemed less comfortable around her, which she supposed was understandable, being that she was a strange Shadowhunter in their living space.

Immediately, Evelyn had arranged rooms for both of them, and Maddie had enjoyed, for the first time in quite a while, sleeping in an actual bed.

Evelyn was at a loss as to what to do with Maddie.
She could hardly send her home to her parents, much as she'd like to, since technically Maddie was still in a coma.
It would guarantee a lot of unwanted questions.

She couldn't exactly expect Nyx's family to take care of her, that wouldn't be fair on them, they already had enough on their plate taking care of Rachel, without looking after an injured Maddie too.

So there was no other option. Evelyn had taken responsibility for looking after her, at least until she could come up with something better.
Or at least worked out what had happened.

Besides, Maddie needed someone to take a decent look at that leg, as soon as possible.

Evelyn came downstairs, heading towards the dinning room, her pointed heels tapping rhythmically against the wood laminate floor.

The wall of sound hit her as she entered the dining room from the calmly quiet hallway, almost knocking her back. She winced a little at the volume, but steeled herself and strode in.

A pink-silk clad arm waved frantically from the other side of the din.
"Evelyn! Evelyn!"

Evelyn walked over to the table, where the pink-shirted woman, Vivian, greeted her with gusto, air-kissing her cheeks.
"Evelyn! Darling! So glad you're here! I was so worried about you in that place, we all were! Weren't we, Steven? Steven?"

Vivian's husband, Steven, murmured in agreement, clearly not listening, his eyes scanning crowd with a worried look on his face.

Vivian sighed, giving Evelyn a knowing look. "Men. Can't understand them, sometimes.
But not you, eh, Jakey?" She said, leaning across the table and ruffling her teenage stepson's hair fondly. "We get along like a house on fire, don't we?"

Jake flushed slightly, mumbling a non-commital reply and suddenly becoming very interested in his pasta.

Next to him, his stepsister, Candace, chuckled. "Muuum, you're messing up his emo hair! Leave 'im alone!"

"Where's Wesley?" Steven said, turning back to his wife, eyebrows furrowed.
"She and Billy should have joined us by now."

"Oh, they're over there." Vivian said, pointing across the dinning room. "They wanted to sit on a separate table with their friends."

"What, alone? With no adult supervision? And you let them?"

Vivian clucked her tongue. "Calm down, it'll be fine. They're quite responsible, in a way. If we just give them a little trust..."

"Oh, they're responsible alright. Responsible for custard-pieing the ballroom, responsible for my missing cufflinks, responsible for what happened at the children's farm..."

"You can't be a helicopter parent all the time.
I've told them I'm trusting them to be grown up about this, so they will be."

Steven blew out a sigh. "I'm not a- a helicopter parent... more of a jump-jet parent. I like to be able to leap in and sort things out when they get hairy."

"Well they're not going to get hairy. I know what I'm doing. Mumsnet says..."

"Uh, dad? Viv? Wesley and Rigsy are trying to bite each other."

"Oh shit!" At his sons words, Steven was up in a flash, racing across the room.
"It's alright, Vicar, I've got them!"

"Oh good lord, she bit the Vicar." Vivian said, hands going to her temples.

Evelyn couldn't help but smile. You couldn't help but love the life in this family.

Phew, that's long! Ah well, it's to make up for all the days I missed publishing in the last few weeks.
Anyway... Introducing Wesley's family!