simplestgift | Seventeen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

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Seventeen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

On July the 4th, 1776, one Horatio Hornblower was born in Kent. If you see him, bid him many happy returns. He will most likely grump about it all day and act ungrateful, but don't allow it to discourage you. He does appreciate it, he simply does not know it.

[For most of the day, Archie will be running around trying to furnish a bedroom in the house for a new housemate. He'll end up in the library, Good Spirits, the grocery store, then finally the Battle Dome, mostly staring in bewilderment at the controls before deciding this is too scary and leaving. At some point, he'll also take a walk in the woods, rain or no rain, in shirtsleeves and waistcoat but no coat. After a while, he'll get back on the journals.]

[Filtered away from Grell, 44%]

If you wanted to surprise someone dear to you, to cheer her up when she returned from being kidnapped, what would you do for her?

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I want my friend.

[she doesn't expect the same thing from him that she'd expect from Geordie. The same way she wouldn't expect the same thing from Geordie that she would from Angel.

She's already walked this path of coming to terms. Exposing herself to a world that didn't know her past was difficult...terrifying at its best... but it was a terror she was already familiar with.

Archie was facing something else entirely. She could lean on him and she knew he'd hold her up, but she didn't want that from him. She'd already learned to stand]

You have him. Always. [He's deeply touched and blinking, and his throat is having a hard time not closing. He takes the hand he is holding and kisses it suddenly, a chaste sign of gratitude and friendship.]

[it's surprisingly similar to what Jack had done, once she'd finished, and even knowing the feeling behind it is very different, she can't help but flush a little.

The only reaction, of course, is to let a bit of her normal, light tone slip back, teasing] Careful, Mr. Kennedy. You haven't known me that long. You might regret that promise.

[A soft chuckle. He clears his throat and continues unsteadily, slightly businesslike.]

Dawn knows. No one else. Besides Horatio, of course.

[there's a pause, and then she sighs]

Jack. He knows. The whole of it, too.

[releasing Archie's hand, she runs her fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face] It was that damned Valentines experiment.

[Archie nods.] It isn't any wonder he's so protective, then.

[softly] He's a good man.

[she could never doubt that, now]

Dawn...knows about what Simpson did, she does not know about my capture or what followed. [But he's going to be taking this relationship seriously now, so she might learn.] She...do you remember in March, after Jack died? She didn't understand why she couldn't cheer me up. It...it was around that time they put me in the hole in the earth, Jilly, and I remember it every year. I never explained it to her.

It's not a formula. There's no easy way to let someone know.

You'll tell her if and when you need to.

[A deep breath; he's bucking up.] Of course.

It's not an obligation, you know.

[she doesn't say "she'll understand." Jilly hasn't exactly had the best of luck in that department. But she hopes she will]

I haven't decided anything. But I don't want to keep secrets from her when we have so little time. If she asks, I want to tell her.

Maybe it won't be such a little time.

We don't know. [it's a double edged sword. She wants Archie to be able to stay...but she feels like she's abandoning people back home at the prospect for herself]

No. I suppose, though, that we might hope.

[He glances at her. Yeah, he believes in hope.]

[a smile] We can certainly do that.

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Seventeen Bells: [WRITTEN/ACTION]

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