Chapter Text
Nymeria had already finished her fries by the time that they pulled into Rose’s driveway.
She followed Rose into the bungalow.
“So… how do we break this to mom?” Nym asked, taking a swallow of her sprite.
“First thing’s first, I need to find a phone.” Rose sighed.
“I have mine.” Nym grinned. “I grabbed it off your desk when we were leaving.”
“Only you would remember to do that.” Rose scoffed. “Fine, give her a call.”
“Maybe it would be best if you did.” Nym prompted.
“You’re her favorite, you do it.” Rose said firmly, and in the mirror, Nym saw Karl smirk.
She glanced at Tony, and mouthed ‘wish me luck.’ Before she dialed her mother’s number, and tried to think of how to explain.
“Nymeria?” Her mother’s voice was very tense.
“Yes?”
“Oh thank God! I have been so worried about you!”
“What?”
“The Hostile Takeover. A nice officer from the LAPD called me. Sergeant Powell.” Anita cut her off.
“Al.” Nym agreed.
“What?”
“Sergeant Al Powell. He helped get us through the night. When did he call you.”
“Around thirty minutes ago, to tell me about the situation, and that you’d gotten out safely. He says you and a NYPD cop are heroes.”
“Um…”
“How’s Rose?” Anita rushed on.
“Rose is fine. She’s right here.” Nym said, and handed over the phone.
“Hello mother.” Rose said. “Yes. I’m perfectly fine. Nym’s got a few scrapes and bruises, but- No mother, she doesn’t have a head injury. Yes, I’m positive.”
Nym watched the conversation as Tony came up beside her. “Your mother seems very concerned about you.”
“She worries a lot.”
“It means she loves you.”
“Yeah.” Nym agreed.
After a moment, Rose handed the phone back to Nym.
“No. I promise we’re both fine, Mother.” Nymeria was saying into the phone. “Yes. I can arrange to come home on Boxing Day. Yes, Rose is going to come. Also, can we bring two friends?”
She listened for the answer, smiling slightly as she looked over at Tony.
“Okay, thanks mom. Yes, I love you too. I’ll call you tomorrow. Okay, bye.” She hung up the phone, and looked at Tony.
“So, you and Karl are officially invited to join us when we go to my mom’s place. In Ottawa.”
“Your mother is okay with that?”
“Yeah. She said she was.” Nym replied, unwrapping her burger.
“So you said that there are twenty-eight horses on the farm you live at. What are they like?” Tony asked, sitting on the sofa beside her.
“They’re all very distinct personalities.” Nym explained, opening her photo gallery, and going into the folder titled ‘horses’.
“This is my horse, Foxfire.” Nym said, showing Tony the photo of her buckskin warmblood.
“He’s beautiful.” Tony noted.
“I agree, and he certainly thinks so.” Nym said with a soft laugh. She swiped through a few other pictures.
“This is Lizzy. She’s got serious attitude problems.” Next picture. “Oh. This is Beetle. He doesn’t have a single thought behind those eyes.”
Tony laughed.
“Not the brightest?”
“I think Beetle may be the dumbest horse I’ve ever encountered. But he makes up for it in his sweet temper. You can meet him, all of them actually, when we go to the farm.”
“Do you share the same fondness of horses as your sister?” Karl asked, sitting next to Rosemary.
“I haven’t ridden a horse in twenty years. It scares me everytime I watch her do it.”
“Really? Is there a reason for that?”
“One of my friends got into a bad riding accident when we were young. It scared the hell out of me. I never rode a horse again. And Nym’s horse, Foxfire… he’s a big boy. He’s 18 hands… which is around six feet at his shoulders. And she takes him over jumps that are taller than she is.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.”
“No. I guess after tonight, it seems pretty tame too.”
“I hear she knocked Franco over.” Karl said.
“She has a forceful left-hook.”
“She’s left handed?”
“Yeah. Southpaw, I used to call her.”
“Did she have nicknames for you?”
“Yes. But most of them were offensive.” Rose said with a slight laugh. “I called her short when she was 9. She said that she wasn’t short, and that I was just an off-brand Ent.”
“Ent?”
“From Lord of the Rings? The walking trees.”
Karl looked over at the young woman, sitting on the couch next to his brother, laughing as she showed him something on her phone.”
“So she was always a smart-ass?”
“You have no idea.” Rosemary laughed. “I don’t think that there’s been a day in her life that she hasn’t woken up with an attitude.”
Karl snorted a laugh.
“Tony’s like that too. A smart-ass.”
“No wonder they get along so well.” Rosemary noted.
After finishing her burger, Nym had gone to take a shower.
She felt like a new woman when she emerged.
She’d properly cleaned and put sterile bandages on the various cuts she had collected over the night.
Once she’d finished, she went back to her spot on the couch, while Rose took her place in the shower.
Eventually, after all of them had gotten cleaned up, Nym helped Rose dig out her camping gear, before switching on the TV, and searching for a movie online.
“This one looks good.” Nym said, grinning as she read the description about a monster in a forest.
“It’s Christmas Eve, Nym, why would you want to watch a horror movie?”
“You know, in some places, they read ghost stories on Christmas Eve.”
“And of course, you love that tradition, don’t you. Why not watch one of the hallmark movies.”
“Because I like horror movies.” Nym replied.
Rose just sighed, and nodded in resignation, as Nym sat down next to Tony, and pressed play.