A Little TLC (Gwen/Solange)

[Lets_Eat_Paste]

Gwendoline Fontaine

The warm steam of the soup pot provided Gwen with an impromptu facial to relax away the stress of the past several weeks that had wound her up like a little spring, ready to jump. She closed her eyes as the steam floated up to her face, smelling the sweet leeks and beef broth that bubbled beneath her.

Torben wasn’t talking to her, her pregnancy had been a false one—her womb felt more barren than ever, a dry, dump of a scabland , not designed to grow life—and to top it all off, she had gained six pounds in a month. But today was not about her, which she relished in. With doctor appointments and bills and rocky conversations with her boyfriend, it was nice to have a day that didn’t focus around some tragedy with her as the fulcrum. Solange had just gotten out of the hospital and with the debacle at the funeral home, Solange needed the TLC more than Gwen. So she reduced the heat on the soup and ladled it into three Tupperware dishes.

The door opened with a whoosh and a slam and Leopold barreled in, followed by a tired-looking Torben, who called after him about not wearing a hat because it was hot outside. But Leopold yelled how he didn’t care as he trampled up the stairs to fetch his hat. Gwen avoided Torben’s eye and she could feel him do the same from across the room. She bit her cheeks for fear of saying something wrong and caught Leopold as he flung himself off the stairs mid-step and into her arms, hat flopping over his big brown eyes. She scooped him up without a so much as a breath in Torben’s direction and biked him off to Solange’s apartment, the soup gurgling and splashing as it sloshed up the sides of the Tupperware with each small pump along the way.

She finally reached the apartment and trekked, bike and child in tow up the stairs to where Solange lived. She jiggled the doorknob, thankful it was unlocked. She didn’t want Solange getting up to answer the door.

“Lange!” Leopold yelled excitedly, running into the apartment and wrapping his small arms around her.

“Careful!” Gwen called out after him. “Solange is sore. Don’t hurt her.”

“No hurting. Kisses make better.”

“Hello, dearie. How are you feeling? I brought you soup…”

[blueeyeddevil]

Solange de Grace

This certainly hadn't been the homecoming she'd been dreaming about. Tristan had been right to keep this whole situation from her as long as he had. He knew her well enough to know that she'd obsess over constantly. Which is exactly what she'd been doing as she lay there on the couch. It didn't make sense. She knew how careful Tristan was when it came to things like dealing with the jewelry from the deceased. It made sense that perhaps one of the interns hadn't been so careful and had misplaced the ring, but then why hadn't it turned up yet? She felt sure that if she thought about this much longer she'd be back in the hospital with a stomach ulcer this time.

The door to her apartment suddenly flew open and she suddenly felt tiny arms surround her as an excited voice shouted “Lange!” A smiled spread across her face, placing a kiss to the boy's mop of hair.

"Hello, Leo! Its so good to see you, sweetie," she said, giving the boy a warm hug.

“Careful!” Gwen called, coming in after him, weighed down with tubberware. “Solange is sore. Don’t hurt her.”

“No hurting. Kisses make better.” Leopold insisted. Solange laughed and pointed to her cheek. The boy grinned and gave a slightly sloppy kiss that made Solange giggle. Of course that did make a tad sore. Leopold became more interested in Lilly the cat who was now sniffing at him.

“Hello, dearie. How are you feeling? I brought you soup…” Gwen said.

Solange smiled. "Oh Gwen, you didn't need to do that. You are very sweet," she sighed, carefully moving to sit up. She motioned for Gwen set the soup aside for a moment and have a seat. "I'm doing pretty well, actually. Taking it easy for another day before going back to work. That will be...quite a challenge," she mused. "How are you and yours?"

Last she'd heard, Gwen was pregnant but she didn't want to give away that Tristan had told her secret.

[Lets_Eat_Paste]

OoC: Short, but... ya know... Whatever. BiC:

Gwendoline Fontaine

Leopold drifted away when his eyes locked on the grey slinky fur of Solange’s cat. He clamored over to the feline and pulled her into him as he chanted the words “Chat. Ami.” soothingly into her head. The cat looked murderous, but did nothing.

Solange motioned for Gwen to sit and she did so, hoping the soup wouldn’t congeal and lose heat like the last meal she brought her had. "I'm doing pretty well, actually. Taking it easy for another day before going back to work. That will be...quite a challenge," Solange said and Gwen nodded in agreement. She knew the ache and turmoil of staying home from work for too long. It made everything itch in ways that wouldn’t be satisfied save for attending work once more. Gwen knew the feeling, but couldn’t help but think that tomorrow was too soon to get back to work for Solange. "How are you and yours?”

Gwen forced a smile. “Great. We’re great,” she lied. If ‘great’ meant finding out her dream pregnancy was a false alarm, having relationship issues, and feeling consistently sick and sore, she was definitely doing fantastic. “How did the surgery go? Tell me what happened, again?”

[blueeyeddevil]

Solange de Grace

Honestly Solange didn't want to think about all of the awful things going on at work right now. She much preferred the heartwarming site of little Leopold hugging Lilly to him. She much preferred a warm conversation with Gwen about how her family was doing. The Fontaine-Blau family was quickly like her own family in her heart and honestly couldn't imagine a more genuine, welcoming group of people.

“Great. We’re great,” Gwen said with an oddly tight seeming smile. She quickly moved on. “How did the surgery go? Tell me what happened, again?”

Solange sighed, a little embarrassed now that she thought about it more. "The surgery went perfectly fine. I probably would have been home the next day if I wasn't being such an idiot." She sighed again and ran a hand through her slightly messy hair. "It was just a routine case of appendicitis. But I was being stubborn and kept working right up until my appendix burst. Tristan kind of freaked out when he found me curled up on the floor in pain and demanded that I let him take me to the hospital."

She smiled now. "I'm doing much better now though. I'll be going back to work first thing tomorrow. We've got a lot to do," she explained. "But it's very good to see you Gwen! You're so sweet to come over like this."

[Lets_Eat_Paste]

Gwendoline Fontaine

‘The surgery went perfectly fine,” Solange explained. ”I probably would have been home the next day if I wasn’t being such an idiot.” She ran a hopeless hand through her fly-away hair. Really, Gwen saw no need to brush hair to begin with. It was just hair and wasn’t indicative to what kind of person you were, and it was mostly just a nuisance. But Leopold seemed to feel differently as his attention diverged from the cat to Solange’s hair. He climbed onto the armrest and ran his small, sticky hands through her brown locks tenderly, clumsily. “Leo brushes ‘Lange now. ‘Lange is pretty. Happy.” Gwen wasn’t sure if this meant that Solange was pretty happy or if Leopold was happy to be brushing Solange’s hair. But either way, it put a faint smile on her lips. But though she smiled and listened with obligation, she never felt so empty as she did now.

Solange continued with her story. ”It was just a routine case of appendicitis, But I was being stubborn and kept working right up until me appendix burst. Tristan kind of freaked when he found me curled up on the floor in pain and demanded that let him take me to the hospital.”

Gwen listened intensely, envisioning poor Solange doubled over on the floor from pain and frantic, panicked Tristan orbiting her like a helicopter boyfriend. She frowned and shook her head in concern. “I’m doing much better now though!” Solange assured Gwendoline as if her words were the only proof Gwen would ever need. “I’ll be going back to work first thing tomorrow. We’ve got a lot to do,” she said and Gwen’s frowned deepened, aware of the damage done to the business. “But it’s very good to see you, Gwen! You’re so sweet to come over like this.”

“Oh of course!” Gwen said happily. “I’m happy to do it! I want you to feel better and I needed to get Leo and me out of the house.” She thought about the tension between her and Torben and the awful manifestation of guilt that festered in the spaces in their heart that usually loved unconditionally. She didn’t want Leopold to know about it. She wanted to shield him from the horrors of fighting and the pressures of relationships. And she knew, though she didn’t want to admit it, that Torben felt the same way. “So what better way to spend the day than by coming to see you?”