LAX Portalocity Terminal [Saturday Morning]

[fh-tourguide.livejournal.com]

The Portalocity Terminal was ready for the influx of former Fandomites it was about to receive. There were banners saying 'Welcome Fandom High', tables of refreshments for folks to enjoy while they waited for the shuttle to the hotel...

... and a lot of children in various degrees of confusion about why exactly they were there.



[no ocd! feel free to meet up with your kids in this post! Disney post #1 will go up in a bit]

Comments

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah narrowed her eyes at the Eel, but, admittedly, there was little actual fire behind it as she looked over at him. Some. But not much. "You touch this chair," she warned him, "I'll amputate your hand. With a rusted scalpel."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"So, I guess asking for a ride's out of the question?" he joked, looking over his shoulder at the mess of kids and frowning. "This place is insane today."

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"A hot Portal destination, I guess," Adah said with a slightly twisted expression. "I'll be working the children's ward at the clinic next semester, but at least those kids are sick. They don't run around or make as much noise."

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

Or, in Anna's case, step up behind Lee and stare quietly at the two of them as if she was waiting to be noticed and invited into the conversation.

Such a polite one! Where those manners came from was a mystery.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps it was just the perception of good manners, as there was something familiar in that silence. So familiar, that it was uncanny how the silent staring was being returned back at the girl from the wheelchair. Eventually, Adah also quirked an eyebrow.

"Eel," she said, and nodded to the child, as if not wanting to risk acknowledging it any more than just that.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee turned at her nod and then got a small surprise at seeing who was standing behind him.

"Anna," he said once he'd pulled the name from his memory. "You're...here?"

He didn't mean to sound confused about that but...well, he was.

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

"The portal came," she said and took that as an invitation to step forward and closer to them. "And I followed it."

Duh.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"Anna through the Portal Hole," Adah muttered dryly, taking one moment to look up at the Eel, then over at the girl, and instantly finding herself unable to deny even the most basic genetic similarities.

Her eyes then considered the other kids running and shouting around the place. "And where one follows, so doth the flock."

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

"That's a big chair," Anna remarked as she came closer, eyes studying it. "Hello, Mama. I didn't get to see you last time."

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"You didn't," Adah agreed, but found it difficult to really say much else. It was hard to really wrap her half-brain around what the little dark haired girl standing there was supposed to symbolize, even with it staring her right in the face.

It was infinitely easier when it was the twins and the father was unknown.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"But you get to see her now, I guess," Lee said, trying to help the conversation along. "It's good to see you, Anna. If I'd had known you were coming, I'd brought a book or two."

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

"That's all right," he said, still looking at Adah with something akin to awe. "Are you okay, Mama?"

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah considered a moment how to answer that.

"Do you remember much about when you were little, Anna," as if she wasn't little now, "and you had to learn how to walk? Well, when I was little, they thought I couldn't walk, but I wanted to walk anyway. But I did I wrong, and so now I'm trying to go back and learn how to do it right, but I can't for probably another few months or so."

It was mostly for the Eel's sake that she didn't add the hopefully that she wanted to at the end of that explanation.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Until then, she's got this awesome ride that we can decorate with stickers," Lee said, giving Adah no choice in the matter. He didn't know if Anna would go for it since she was such a serious youngster but he could try.

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

"Stickers?" she repeated, clearly thinking about it as she looked at the chair. "I can color it. I do that in my book sometimes."

When she realized what she'd said, she looked up at Adah apologetically.

"Not actual books, I promise. Coloring books."

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

And now? For the stickers idea? Adah was regretting having cut the hopefully for his statement.

"This is university property, you know," she warned him with a look, but, when she glanced toward Anna and her little look of apology as if her supposed mother wasn't a culprit of filling books with more ink than what they came with, she found herself saying, almost unbidden, "So only a few stickers. At the most."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee was...surprised that Anna had been able to make someone as strong as Adah give in that quickly even if it wasn't all the way in.

"A few's better than none at all," he said, grinning broadly.

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

Anna moved closer to Adah's sided, standing on her tiptoes even though it didn't let her reach all the way to Adah's ear. She cupped one hand near her mouth and said, "I won't let him buy dumb ones."

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah had to grin a little at that, especially since she was thinking that the reason she might have given in had to do with the fact that at least, if Anna really did share half her chromosomes, she wouldn't be picking out anything sparkly or princessy. She just nodded a little, with an agreeing glance, because her half chromosomes might not pick dumb ones, but she wasn't so sure about the other half.

"Well," she said, "this is to be an unexpected little...family outing, then, I guess."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I guess," Lee agreed, hefting his bag and standing up. Anna stayed close to the side of the wheelchair.

"Is it all right to hold your hand?" she asked, almost shy. "It won't hurt you, right?"

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"...No, it won't hurt," Adah said, carefully, after a moment, "but I need both my hands to move the wheelchair. Why don't you hold..." Definitely easier when the paternity was unknown and therefor nonexistent, "...your father's hand instead?"

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"You can hold Mom's hand later," Lee said, already reaching for Anna's hand. "When she needs a break from zooming all over the place. Good?"

Anna still looked a little reluctant but she accepted the deal with little argument.

[no worries! mmm, sleep!]

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

After a moment, feeling the need to at least set up some sort of retribution for the stickers, Adah offered, "Maybe Daddy'll even let you ride on his shoulders. Not that it'd be that much of a view."

[tinykidbigbrain.livejournal.com]

"He's short," Anna agreed, placated by both offers. "But, okay."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," he said, making a face at both of them. "I'll make sure to carry you on some of the rides now, Adah."

He could payback too.