Not-yet-titled sequel

5.12

After a little more fun on the back lot archery range, the ladies returned everything to the shed. On the way, Rebecca stopped by to tell her mother she was going to go clean up, and would come find her afterwards.

Now inside, she finished drying her face and hands on the towel she'd been using and carried it into the bedroom to drape near the stove. Sam was sitting at the end of the bed poking at her fingertips — they were a little raw, but Rebecca had assured her they would be okay the next day if she took it easy. She glanced up as Rebecca faced her again after hanging the towel. "Hey you."

"Hi, Rosie. Sorry about your fingers, but you had fun?"

"Yeah. This is nothing compared to soldering burns. Speaking of, if I can't finesse an iron after this because I get callouses, I'm blaming you."

Rebecca put her hands on the table across from Sam and leaned back against it. "They'd fade before long, mine did by the time school started every summer that we came up for a few weeks."

"Mmm, okay." Sam sighed, lowered her hand, and looked at Rebecca speculatively. "Penny?"

Rebecca smiled and looked down at the floor between them, tilting her head to one side. "That was good. It's nice to have something that consumes your focus when you're trying to decompress, you know?"

"Oh yeah. Rock climbing was great for that. Hard to dwell on drama when you're forty feet up."

"Hah. Simulated imminent danger is a good way to control what your brain is worrying about at the time, I suppose." She paused and looked out the windows for several seconds. "I... feel a like a bit of an ungrateful ass, being mad at my mom." She looked back to Sam after another moment's silence. "Especially when you..."

"Can't even do that?"

"Yeah."

Sam's lips shifted around in an expression of discomfort and she went back to looking and picking at her fingertips again — including the cuticles around nails on her left hand, Rebecca noticed, which wouldn't have been beaten up by archery. Her voice was particularly quiet when she spoke after a sigh. "Yeah. Thanks for pointing it out."

Rebecca felt a tug and tightening in her chest. "Oh, Sam. I'm sorry. I was just trying to, I don't know. Not be ignorant of how you might see it."

Sam just nodded, and wiped at one eye briefly with a knuckle. "This is stupid. She's been gone for ages and I had even almost assumed that was the case."

"I hope that last part doesn't make you feel worse about it."

"Why shouldn't it, Remy?" Sam looked up at met Rebecca's eyes, a slight spark in hers.

Rebecca sank to the floor in front of Sam and reached a hand out to rest on her knee. "Because if you hadn't, you'd have driven yourself mad, and never been able to stop thinking about it. I remember what you told me one day about having to keep moving and— shit." She frowned downwards and shook her head.

"What?"

She waved her other hand in brief gesture of frustration and then dropped it back to her lap. "You had to keep moving so you didn't stop to think about things. And that's what you were doing outside, and I just derailed you."

Sam shrugged, and put her hand on top of Rebecca's where it rest on her leg. "It's okay. I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's not like it isn't on my mind already anyway. 'Not talking about it doesn't make it go away', and all."

Rebecca rubbed her thumb against Sam's hand. "I guess. But this whole afternoon was me not talking about something until I was ready."

"Heh." Sam grinned wryly. "I don't need to tell you that some topics aren't so cooperative like that."

Rebecca sighed. "Truth."