August 2005

LUNA DALEY WAKES UP TO AN ABSOLUTELY UNHOLY MIX OF BEASTIE BOYS AND HER BABY CRYING. "Shit," she hisses as she grapples for her clock. The alarm was set to be the radio—stupid, stupid, stupid. She feels around for the button, but half-sleep makes her mind all foggy, so she instead just unplugs the whole thing.

Hyacinth continues to cry, obviously conscious because of that stupid clock. Luna reminds herself to throw that fucking thing out her window. She falls out of her bed and half-crawls to the cradle. She picks up her baby and rests her back against her bed, moving Hyacinth around until both are comfortable. The child stares up at her mother with tears in her eyes, obviously betrayed.

"Sorry, sorry, in my defense, how was I supposed to know that my alarm clock wouldn't actually alarm?" Hyacinth gurgles in agreement. Luna huffs out a laugh. "At least I'll get to say bye to you, right? Maybe you could wish me good luck."

Hyacinth wiggles, looking as if she's shaking her head no. Luna's jaw drops in an exaggerated manner. "Rude."

Luna had come into the possession of a child almost a year prior by the usual means—got knocked up, chose to keep the baby, had the baby, continued to care for the baby. Hyacinth came as a surprise, but it was a surprise Luna was willing to take.

She gets both of them ready for the day—changed clothes, changed diaper (only for Hyacinth, of course,) and food in their bellies (eggs and bananas to share.) Luna is just about done brushing her hair—a constant rat's nest since the day she was born—when the lock jiggles. She peeks out of the bathroom to see the door open.

Mandy Martin stands in the hallway, hair recently bleached blonde and sweatpants adorned with hair dye stains.

"Hey there, Mama," Mandy says, giving Luna a wave, before picking up Hyacinth. "We're going to have so much fun while she's away—finally."

"Ha ha."

"I'm thinking we could go clubbing, meet some cute guys—or girls—then catch one of those rated r movies that your mom is too much of a chicken to watch with me!"

"If I wanted to be scared, I would look at the rate carbon emissions are affecting day to day life," Luna counters.

"Just say you're a scaredy cat, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Mandy turns to face Hyacinth. "Y'know, Cinthy, in the summer of '97, your Mama was so scared of Men In Black that she had to leave the theater!"

Luna wrinkles her nose, memories washing over her in embarrassing succession. "Mandy, I thought we agreed to never discuss summer of '97."

"Sorry, sorry."

Luna returns to the mirror, the warm bathroom light washing over her, a stark contrast to the sun flooding her hallways. Blue eyes stare back at her. For a moment, she seems eight years younger, hair in two poorly done braids, blue flannel replacing her white shirt as six words reverberate through her skull.

"I can't be with you anymore."

But then Luna blinks and she's back to the present, the murmurs of a one-sided conversation filling her ears. She resumes her process, setting down her hair brush and picking up her lipstick. She bites the inside of her cheek. She hadn't thought of '97 in years. She hopes to never think about it again. That's the problem with going through something shitty when you're a teenager: the wound never heals, the pain of past youth keeping it forever raw.

Luna puts in her earrings as she walks out of the bathroom, making her way past Mandy and Hyacinth to her coat rack. She slides on her tweed coat—a new buy, since her old one, a pale pink puffer jacket, was just a rag at that point—and picks up her lanyard, dropping it over her head, the plastic ID swinging down onto her chest. She could do this in her sleep at this point.

Luna presses a kiss to the top of Hyacinth's head, wrapping an arm around Mandy in an awkward side hug. "Thanks again, I owe you my life."

"Already have a better one, sorry," Mandy jokes, earning a slap on the shoulder.

∆

When Luna was a teenager, going to Johns Hopkins was never on the radar. She was all for going to the East Coast, she just hadn't expected to be accepted into Johns Hopkins.

Luna walks into her lab with the courage that could kill a mediocre man, giving a wave to darling Daniela Davis, who sits at her post like a dutiful soldier.

"Gooood morning, Luna," Daniela says with her usual "pep in her step" attitude. Her smiles are always so wide, so genuine. On her worst days, that optimism made Luna sick. Now, it only makes her slightly queasy. She loves her enough to work the lab hours together, though.

"Right back at you."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Fine, until my clock decided to play Sabotage by Beastie Boys. Do you know that song? It's pretty good—until it wakes up both you and the baby."

Daniela gives Luna a sympathetic look. "Poor Hyacinth."

"Poor me, because I'm certain that she can hold a grudge. You'd think that a baby with little to no object permanence would be easily to slip past, childhood trauma speaking, but no! Once, I forgot her toy back home when we were supposed to go to a park, and I swear this girl glared daggers at me from the backseat. I could see it through the mirror, in her eyes: Cinthy was pissed."

Daniela lets out a soft laugh, before clearing her throat—she's all about business now. "Okay, so, we're not actually going to use evidence today—but we got a new microscope!"

Now, perhaps a normal human being wouldn't jump for joy at the thought of a brand new microscope—but Luna truly does not care, because she does, in fact, jump for joy. "What sort of microscope?"

"Electron."

"Oh my God, are you kidding? We've been asking for one of those for years. Who did you bribe?" Luna exclaims, causing Daniela to laugh.

"No one, I swear! Someone just donated a ton. I was waiting for you so we could try it out together. I haven't even taken it out of the box."

Luna grabs Daniela's face and gives her a quick kiss on the cheek. "You are the love of my life. I'll get the sample, you get the microscope out."

Luna skids across the lab, excitement spiking her heartbeat. She had been waiting to freely use an electron microscope for an embarrassing amount of time. She reaches to open the sample compartments. "What are we thinking, bugs or—?"

Boom!

Luna's vision whites out completely and the only thing she can feel is pain.

author's note!

dun dun DUNNN

i love sprinkling in little spencer mentions even though we haven't seen him in the actual fic yet lol

ghost readers aren't fun! comments and votes are always appreciated <33