Finally Home

[Madeline Speare]

I shake my head after a moment, sitting upright, putting my head in my hands.
"Just make the room stop spinning," I mumble softly, pushing my hair back off my forehead.

[Ian Hunt]

I grimace ever so slightly at that, not sure how I'm supposed to reply, let alone carry out what she's asked me to.
"Do you need Mungo's?"
I don't know if it'd be an overreaction to get her checked over or not, but she's not well.

[Madeline Speare]

"No," I murmur softly, shaking my head."No Mungo's I'll be okay."
Hopefully.
I force myself to look up at him, smiling weakly,"I'm just glad to be home. I missed you a lot,"

[Ian Hunt]

"I missed you too," I mutter, trying and failing to force a smile back.
It's incredibly frustrating to not be able to do anything to help, but that's how it was when she was gone, and that's how it still is now and I wish that it wasn't.

[Madeline Speare]

I gently reach for his hand, running my thumb over his knuckles. His skin feels a lot warmer then mine. Then again, I can bet the freezer is warmer then me.
Moving into a slightly more comfortable sitting postion, I drop his hand after a moment, pushing my hair back off my forehead.
"It's going to be different, isn't it?"

[Ian Hunt]

I sink down next to her once she's let go of my hand.
"Yeah, it's going to be different," I nod stiffly.
It always is. It's how we work. Everything was fine, so briefly, right after the war ended. Then I fucked it up, and it still hasn't got better from that, and now it's been fucked up all over again. It's just going to get worse.

[Madeline Speare]

Pulling my legs up to my chest, I mumble softly into my knees."I don't want things to get fucked up again."
I know it will though. That's just the pattern that we've always followed. Things still aren't completley back to normal from the time he left. I doubt it'll ever be okay.
"I just want things to be okay again,"

[Ian Hunt]

"They'll get better again," I respond, albeit a little more doubtfully than I would have liked.
I'm still waiting for things to get better from last year, and they're still not. We're going to fight, the kids will fight, someone will walk away or run out, or someone will try and off themselves or something. It's always something.
"This is no one's fault," I add with just a little bit more conviction, "So it has to get better."

[Madeline Speare]

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," I murmur softly.
I don't know where this negative attitude came from, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be hard to shake. It's just another hurdle we're going to have to face.
The midnight screaming is probably going to be another thing that we'll need to over come...again.

[Ian Hunt]

I catch myself from asking her where her optimism is now, on the grounds that I really can't afford to risk upsetting her and I don't know what will at the moment.
So I just shrug, picking idly at a loose thread in the knee of my jeans, "Probably so."

[Madeline Speare]

I want to get off this depressing topic, but I don't know how.
I feel so out of place, and in my own home nonetheless.
It all looks the same, I can't figure out why it doesn't feel the same. Drawing my arms closer around myself, I glance around, trying to think of what else I can say.

[Ian Hunt]

"Will you go and lie down now?" I ask quietly after a moment.
I don't like her being up, when she should definitely be resting if she's going to spontaneously faint like that.

[Madeline Speare]

"I'm fine," I mutter, but stop half way through my agruement due to the look on his face.
He's been worrying about a lot the past month, this is the least I could do."Okay," I nod weakly.

[Ian Hunt]

"Okay, come on," I murmur, getting to my feet and holding out a hand to her.
Once I'm satisfied that Maddie is resting, then I can sort the kids out and make sure they haven't killed each other, and then things can start being ordered again.

[Madeline Speare]

I open my mouth to make a half hearted agruement that I can stand myself, but I'm pretty sure I can't. Grudgingly, I take his hand, rising to my feet.

[Ian Hunt]

"You going of your own volition or...?" I leave the question hanging.
I know her too well, and there is probably a high possibility of her not listening to me at all and sneaking out or something. She used to, she probably will now.
I don't really care because there's nothing I can do. There never is.

[Madeline Speare]

I'm obviously not as strong as I use to be seeing as the most trivial thing like standing up knocks the air out of me.
Gripping his hand slightly, I murmur,"Maybe I can just stay here?"

[Ian Hunt]

"Yeah," I say after a moment when it's clear she probably can't move without exerting herself, "Just stay here. Are you sure there's nothing I can do?"

[Madeline Speare]

"I'll be fine," I mutter reassuringly, sitting back down,"Don't need you worrying about me, I'll be okay."

[Ian Hunt]

"Of course I'm going to worry about you," I murmur, hovering sort of anxiously beside her, "I missed you. I love you."

[Madeline Speare]

"And what?" I murmur, catching his hand and pulling him down next to me, kissing him softly."I don't work without you, remember?" I gently link my fingers with his, "Just relax, it's going to be okay. I'm home now,"

[Ian Hunt]

"Okay," I mumble, breaking the kiss almost immediately for half-hearted fear that I'm going to hurt her somehow just by kissing her back.

[Madeline Speare]

I bury my head gently into his shoulder,"I love you Tiger,"

[Ian Hunt]

"I love you too," I mumble, wrapping my arms loosely round her.

[Madeline Speare]

"I'm guessing Alex hasn't been behaving lately?" I ask softly burying my head deeper into his shoulder. It's so good to be home again.