Honeysuckle Smile For Two-Penny Tin [complete]

[Tycho Auriville]

The problem came in two parts, the first being that she'd told him he was welcome anytime. Where Tycho came from, that wasn't something people said lightly. New Mexico was an old country where legends were honest-to-God history and spirits roamed the coyote flatlands in droves, where you didn't say much because words were heavy and came at a cost and where it was perfectly acceptable to cock a shotgun at someone if you didn't like them and they hadn't caught your drift the first time around. Giving someone free permission to drop by was issuing an oath, then.

The second half (and the more legitimate reason) was that he'd noticed the roof of Redencion was probably a good ten years past it's last go-over and in sore need of some new cover, if the thinning, dark-patches of asphalt shingles were any indication. Which they were. Ty hadn't worked construction for the last decade without picking up a thing or two.

As he pulled his newly-acquired Tacoma - an Auto Trader find that was in pretty good condition, though it tended to pull to the left a bit - up to the curb, Ty was glad that at least this time he didn't look like a total mess. The first time he'd met Anna Fernandez he'd been hungover and the second time he'd been coated in grime and sweat after a long workday. Third time was the charm and though it wasn't anything to get fussed over, it helped to have clean jeans.

With a natural-born steadiness, Ty got out of his truck and ambled across the lawn to the front door. It was open, the screen door providing just a hint of privacy to the interior of the house, and he leaned forward just a bit.

"Anybody home?" he rumbled, knuckles rattling against the doorframe.

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna gave the spaghetti sauce another stir, and then yelled, "Someone's at the door!" She heard Ronnie rouse himself from the couch in the front room, and a short conversation at the door while she checked her jars that were sterilizing.

She was lifting the jars from the boiling water when Ty walked into the kitchen, catching her by surprise. Anna carefully placed a hot jar on the dish towel laid out for that purpose, and wiped her hands on her apron. "Ty! It is good to see you again! I was afraid after last time you would never come back," she laughed.

[Tycho Auriville]

"After that meal? You'd have to pay me to stay away," Ty grinned and crossed the kitchen to give Anna a hug, grey Henley pulling tight across his shoulders. "Been busy getting settled, s'all."

Like he had been the first time he'd stood in the room, Tycho was struck by the deeply rooted feeling of homeyness contained within it's walls. It must have been a female thing because he had lived in plenty of places, filled them wall-to-wall with sentimental artifacts and photos and never had he managed to shake that paper-plate bachelor feel for something more permanent.

He released Anna and looked over her head at the bubbling red sauce. "Mm. That smells like two generations worth of Italian secrets. You planning on putting Prego out of business?"

[Anna Fernandez]

"Prego!" Anna tsked, and Ronnie made a cut-throat leave-it-alone gesture before disappearing up the stairs. "I would, if they deserved to be in business in the first place. Prego," she muttered, pulling the wooden spoon from the stock pot and blowing on the sauce lightly.

"Here, taste that." She held the spoon out to him, smiling. "And what brings you back into our neck of the woods?"

[Tycho Auriville]

"Hey, lay off, that's my favourite sauce," Tycho liked a little danger. He winked and then took the spoon, giving it a habitual blow before slurping at the thick reduction coating it. A tang of sweet garden goodness burst over his tongue, heavy with peppery oregano and hint of something spicier, a chili that whispered it's heat rather than screamed it.

Tongue chasing the taste as he swallowed, Ty corrected himself. "My second favourite, I mean."

Something thumped upstairs and he glanced up at the floorboards, curiously.

"Uh," there had been a question after she'd plied him with delicious cookery. Ah, right. "Well, I was in the neighborhood and we had a lotta supplies leftover from a roofing job in Altadena. It was either toss 'em or put 'em to good use so I figured I'd put 'em to good use."

[Anna Fernandez]

It took a moment for her to register what he was offering, as she put the spoon in the sink and fished out a ladle from a drawer. "Oh! Well," Anna placed the utensil on the counter and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "I'm not so proud as to say the roof doesn't need the help.

"Dios sabe que lo hace!" She looked up as there was more thumping upstairs, and shook her head. "Just a moment."

Anna unconsciously rubbed a hand over her belly as she walked to the base of the stairs just outside the kitchen. "Stop rough-housing! Ronnie! No jumping in the house."

[Tycho Auriville]

"I'm not!" came the defensive retort. There was a distinct sound of someone straining in a headlock and Ty smothered a smile with a hand. How many times had Wes pinned him just like that as a kid? It was a rite of passage, a prime expression of manly communication between the ages of 13 and oh, 30 or so.

Anna rolled her eyes but apparently decided there were only so many battles she was willing to fight.

Tycho shrugged. "It's a guy thing. Chicks do makeovers, dudes punch each other and give wedgies. Natural order of things, Santa Anna."

[Anna Fernandez]

"Tell me about it," Anna said, returning to the sink to retrieve the last of the sterilized jars. "I have six brothers, and had to share a room with two of them until I was thirteen." She dipped her tongs into the hot water again, pulling out the lids.

"Do you want anything to drink?" She turned her head to look at Ty, smiling, and added, "We have some lemonade, I think."

[Tycho Auriville]

"Maybe later," Ty didn't know if drinking was a good idea. Choking wasn't polite, after all.

He blinked. "Six brothers? You must be tougher than I gave you credit for, I barely survived one."

[Anna Fernandez]

"Oh, that's me. Tough." She mock-flexed her bicep, and then put her hand on her hip. "I am Papa's little Princesa, but my hermanos kept me from getting spoiled.

"I am the third oldest, so it was not too bad. I am sure the younger ones have lots of 'horrible older sister' stories about me." Anna grinned, and paused with the ladle poised over the sauce. "I'm going to start canning this - is there anything I can help you with? We have a couple ladders in the garage out back. The boys can show you."

[Tycho Auriville]

He shook his head, already running through the preliminary steps of the project in his mind.

"Nah, I think we got it. They can help me unload my truck. Might get a bit noisy while I'm up there, sorry." Ty wasn't, really, but it was something that you said before you completely tore apart a person's roof, in the name of good manners. Emily Post would have heartily approved.

With the help of Ronnie and Scott - likely the duo who'd been duking it out if Scott's hurricane of a hairstyle were any indication - the supplies weighing the bed of his truck down were liberated to the backyard and a ladder rescued from the shed and placed against the house. Ty gave it a cursory shake to make sure it wasn't going to collapse on him and end the job before it started.

The thing about roofing was you couldn't really just do patch repairs. Well, you could, but it meant tearing off an entire section of tiles and by that point it was just easier to replace the whole shebang rather than piece it back together. Ty kept an eye out as he walked the length of the roof, boots scuffing on the aggregate coating of the shingles. Every few paces he'd pause and bounce a little, testing his weight and the give of the glittering material.

When he reached the highest slope, it wasn't so much a bounce as it was an ominous slump.

Shit. Ty bent down, fingers prodding at the roof. Black flakes of bitumen-soaked paper came away at his ministrations and he dug in, peeling back clumps of useless covering. The tar paper beneath was bubbled and damp with moisture and, as he expected, the wood beneath that had a spongy quality to it that meant his good Samaritan two-day endeavor had just inflated.

Ty scuffed his way to the edge of the roof. "Hey Anna?! We got a bit of a problem."

[Anna Fernandez]

After all the preparations had been completed and the spaghetti sauce made, the actual canning went quickly. Anna was poking the tops of the hot jars, waiting for the 'buttons' to suck in and seal the sauce for good when Ty called from outside.

She untied her apron and hung it on its peg before walking out into the backyard. Shading her eyes, she looked up at the roof, spotting Tycho easily. "A problem? That does not sound good."

[Tycho Auriville]

Ty gave a rueful smile and held up his hand, caked in black grime. He gestured with a jerk of his head at the upper section of the roof. "It's completely rotted through. I'm gonna have to tear it out."

[Anna Fernandez]

"Oh no." Anna moved slightly towards the ladder, as though she would climb up it and check for herself, but she stopped. "Is it a lot of work? Should I call a roofer?"

She paused, and added, "Another roofer. If its too much?"

[Tycho Auriville]

"No, I can handle it, it's just gonna take longer. Ripping that section out is a day of work in and of itself. I'll have to tarp it over and get some more bracing before we can even think about reshingling," Ty explained. He scratched the back of his head and glanced back at the broad expanse of vaulted roof, brow creasing.

"It's an attic, right? If you got anything valuable stored in there, you should probably move it, just in case."

[Anna Fernandez]

She laughed, "Oh, just my brother. Jake - you met him the other night." Anna scratched her head and added, "I'll go up and talk to him." She gave Ty a little wave, and headed back inside.

Ronnie and Scott were out front playing basketball in the street if the trash talking coming from outside was any indication, and Anna walked up the stairs, heading up to Jake's room. "Jacob! Are you awake?"

[Jacob Foley]

"...hell are you doing? ...like an earthquake... all over the bed... smells like shit!"

Jake's voice, muffled as it was, was loud enough to carry to the other side of his bedroom door. Inside, he ducked his head from the skylight window and climbed down from the chair. Upon hearing Anna's voice, he stormed across the room and threw open the door, with a face like thunder.

"I am now! What the hell's going on up there?"

[Anna Fernandez]

She was unperturbed by his thundercloud appearance, and replied calmly, "Tycho came over to replace the roof. Its very bad over your room, so he's going to have to tear it all up."

Anna peered into the room over his shoulder as best she could. "We'll need to move you down into one of the second floor bedrooms in the meantime." She smiled widely, "This means you won't have to take a bucket up here when it rains anymore!"

[Jacob Foley]

"Oh, that's great," he said, turning away to address the room at large, "That's just great! Now I gotta move all my shit, otherwise-"

He spun to face his sister, beckoned her inside, and began gesturing widly across the room:

"Have you seen my bed!? It's covered in... whatever the hell that black crap is, I don't know- I mean, you chose to tell me about this now?"

Clearly agitated by his rude awakening, Jake took a second to reconsider his tone, realising at last his reaction was, perhaps, a little out of proportion. He sighed and muttered miserably.

"That gypsy asshole knew what he was doing..."

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna had her hands on her hips, and then she rolled her eyes and pulled his comforter and sheets off his bed, carefully folding the 'black crap' into the center of the bundle. "He just came over and offered to replace the roof. I wouldn't read too much into it," she added, arms full of bedding.

She wrinkled her nose. "When was the last time you changed these? Never mind, don't tell me. I can send Ronnie and Scott up to help you move things, everyone else is out."

[Jacob Foley]

"Don't give me any of that talk," he scoffed, intercepting her escape route, "Reading too much into things - yes, I'm looking at you - sometimes, Anna, you just don't see what's in front of you. Another handyman walks into your life and he just wants to help out; odd jobs around the house... fixing the van... full of compliments... Sounds familiar? You know what I mean!"

There was a great deal of weight in that finger, pointed as it was, spearing the wafer thin facade of ignorance his sister wore around men. He dared her to challenge it but the faint flicker of pink in her cheeks shot any hope of a convincing rebuttal right out of the sky. Jaw-clenched, he stalked over to his guitar and snatched it up, casting the ceiling a suspicious glance. There was so much junk in his room.

"Give Tweedledum and Tweedledee a shout, will you? Shit. Where's Jim when you need him?"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna huffed at Jake's observations, but didn't dignify them with a response. Mostly because she was too embarrassed to come up with one. She descended the stairs as elegantly as possible, trying to tell herself that Tycho was nothing like Apollos. For one thing, his gaze was not as intense, and he didn't drive her crazy with off handed comments, or try to act like he was in charge.

Of course, this was only the third time she'd been around Ty, and anything was possible. And also, that was not what Jake had been referring to at all.

At the bottom of the stairs Anna took a right and yelled for Ronnie and Scott to help out Jake. She turned around and walked into the backyard, dumping the sheets on the lawn. She could hear the two boys grumbling and good-naturedly ribbing each other as they clomped into the house and up the stairs, and she yanked one of the sheets free from the pile of bedding, giving it a good snap to get rid of the black debris. There was no way she was putting that stuff in her washing machine.

Anna looked up and saw Ty on the roof, and wondered if he really did have ulterior motives.

[Tycho Auriville]

Mercifully the rest of the roof seemed okay - there were a few places where it was worse than others, but nothing that would necessitate the kind of overhaul that the attic portion needed. It was probably the skylight, Ty reasoned. They were a good way to add light and space to a room but it also meant additional seals that could (and would) split over time, opening a gate for moisture to creep on in and lay a foundation for rot.

Sure-footed, Ty paced the length of the roof to get an idea of how much material it was gonna take. First off, they needed tarps to lay inside to protect the floor and from the brief view he'd caught through the skylight, it wouldn't hurt to have an extra pair of hands helping shift Anna's brother's stuff.

Speaking of Anna: she kept glancing up at him with a weird look on her face. Ty tugged at his jeans, wondering if maybe he'd accidentally given her the impression that he was a plumber; they were a bit loose. Crap.

"Well, if this weather holds," he remarked as he clambered down the ladder, boots stamping on the grated rungs, "I should be able to get it done by Sunday. Framing oughtta be fine, so that saves you a headache. They need a hand in there?"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna looked up, awkwardly shaking out the comforter. "A hand? Actually, yes. Jake would love the help!" She grinned, bending down to gather up the sheets and take them in the house.

[Tycho Auriville]

"Alrighty," Ty gave her a thumbs up, completely oblivious to the fact that the gesture had lost it's cool sometime in the mid-nineties and headed into the house, belatedly kicking off his boots after stepping into the kitchen.

Add sweeping the floor to the list of cleanup, he noted with an inward cringe.

On the second flight of stairs he caught up with the boys . Ronnie and Sean... no, Scott thundered past him, joking easily, their arms filled with what Tycho presumed were some of Jake's necessities and he had to press against the wall to avoid being knocked off his feet.

"Sorry, dude!" Scott tossed over his shoulder, cracking up when Ronnie mumbled something too low to pick up. They disappeared around the corner in a fit of good humor that was so normal and matter of fact that it hurt. That was the way it was supposed to be when you were a teenager. Just smooth and boneheaded.

Ty took the last of the steps two at a time, coming to a halt at the open door to the attic suite. There was a lot of banging around in there. "Hey, Jake. Good to see you again."

[Jacob Foley]

"Hey," he replied, the feeling was not mutual.

Jake was very much a creature of habit, like a badger, and disturbing his cozy little den left him feeling disoriented and agitated. He turned helplessly on the spot, unsettled by the bald patches that had suddenly appeared around his room courtesy of Ronnie and Scott. Finally, he settled down next to a cardboard box and explored its contents.

"So, the whole thing's gotta go," he said absently, flicking through the faded pages of an old comic, "Guess that means you'll be sticking around, huh?"

Adopting an awkward squatting position over his collection of comics and sheet music, Jake then raised it up to his chest, stood, and just as suddenly froze, one leg cocked, bracing the underside of the box. A beat of silence, then he spoke out, not daring to move.

"Uh, I think the ass has gone on this thing. A little help?"

[Tycho Auriville]

A beat passed before Ty seemed to realize what was going on, propped against the doorway in angled repose as he squinted up at the ceiling to get a better mind on where to start. By that time, the bottom of the box had started to bow.

"What? Oh," pulling his hands out of his pockets, Ty scuffed over and grasped the lower corners, his forearms coming underneath to support the surrendering cardboard so that Jake could lower his leg and put an end to his flamingo impression. There was a bit of an awkward shuffle as they both tried to maintain their respective hold on the box. "Here, just... right over there..."

A chuff of air escaped as they bent and let the box drop onto the naked mattress. Ty scratched at the back of his neck, glancing around at the migrating world. "Shoot, man, I didn't mean to make it sound like you had to clear out the whole place. We can probably shove most of this off to one side and tarp it. That roof's only gonna take about a week of solid work."

[Anna Fernandez]

Getting her awkward bundle into the house was harder than it had been taking them out. Anna shuffled through the back door, dropping a pillowcase on the deck as she did, and then through the kitchen into the laundry room. The washer was full of someone's wet laundry - someone male. She dropped the bedding in a heap in the middle of the small room, and went to shift the wet clothes into the dryer.

And the dryer was, of course, full of dry clothes that had been in it long enough to get cold and wrinkle. Anna tsked, and turned on the dryer for another cycle, to heat up the clothes and banish the creases that had settled into the fabric. When she found out who'd left these they were going to get a piece of her mind.

She tripped over Jake's sheets on her way out of the laundry room, catching herself on the door frame with an out flung hand. "Tengo casi tenido suficiente!" she hissed, freeing her sandal from the elastic of the fitted sheet that had ensnared it, and taking a moment to try to calm down.

After a minute, she stalked out of the house, snatching a wide brimmed hat from a peg on the laundry room wall as she passed it. The garden needed tending to, and it was just what she needed to collect her thoughts and feel some serenity.

[Jacob Foley]

"The roof... right."

Jake turned his gaze to the heavens, above him the roof suddenly seemed so much more than just a roof; it was Tycho's treacherous conspirator. A tension, that was in no way related to heavy lifting, climbed up his spine and pulled at his shoulders and neck. He tossed him a sidelong glance and kept his voice as level as he could manage.

"And then what? The noisy plumming? The bathroom floor? You hit the jackpot with this place, huh?"

[Tycho Auriville]

"The... what?"

There was a disorientation that only two conversations at once could bring and Ty frowned, suddenly at a loss. He was clearly missing a vital piece of information. Either that or he'd misjudged Anna's brother and the guy just really, really thought home improvement was the be all, end all.

Hands returning to his pockets, Tycho studied Jake with a wide open gaze, the kind one might use to observe a horse galloping in a pasture too big to allow the full size and scope of things to make an impression. "Is there some kind of problem here, man?"

[Jacob Foley]

"Jesus!"

There was not an ounce of humour in Jake's laughter as he banked away from Tycho and took off on a small circuit of his room. When he strolled to a stop, he buried his hands in his jeans and surveyed him at length, teeth bared in an ugly incredulous smile.

"Fuck. You might have Anna blinkered with that good samaritan routine but, let's face it, she's a real sucker for a hard-luck case. Santa Anna? You got her well and truly sniffed out, man."

[Tycho Auriville]

A defensive stab of irritation lanced through Ty at the sneering implications on his character, his shoulders tightening in coiled offense. With a measured intake of breath he tried to let it go, chalk it up to familial loyalty. Hell, if he'd had a sister maybe the same suspicious contempt would have come easy to him, too.

"You think..." Ty nodded and then shook his head. "Jake. I'm here to nail a roof. Nothing else."

[Jacob Foley]

"Real witty, man," Jake blurted, impatiently rolling off the end of Tycho's denial, "Whatever you say."

It was nothing he hadn't seen from other lecherous handymen when they came to call. In the past, he weathered the brunt of their brazen advances on his sister with sour-faced condemnation, but now things were different. Anna was pregnant and vulnerable and there was no way he was going to allow her to be hurt by another sleazeball with a toolbox and an easy smile. There was no happy ending to be had from this conversation so he saw little reason in trying.

"You know what? I got this, man. So if you could just excuse yourself right about now that would be all kinds of fucking awesome."

[Tycho Auriville]

Right.

Clearly whatever heinous, skeevy intentions Jake was hell bent on pinning to him weren't going to be easily dislodged - a shitty rap, to be forced into a preconceived mold because of the notions of a cynical twenty-something that in no way reflected his actual person but whatever, it wasn't as though it were a foreign concept. Ty was all too familiar with the process.

He gave a short nod, jaw tight. "Great."

That settled that. As Tycho descended the stairs, rolling his shoulders back, he wondered again at his choice of profession. He'd always been a quiet kid who enjoyed working with hands, the act of bringing together something useful and solid out of bits of scrap and refuse, but perhaps there was more to it than that. After all, there was something to be said about a job where you got to hit things with impunity.

Outside in the open air, he felt the irritated burn in his muscles subside a bit. Space did that to a body, gave it room to expand and release. Anna looked up from the garden, face scrunching under her hat and oh, yeah, this didn't feel awkward at all now.

Ty shrugged and made for the ladder. "They got it covered up there."

[Anna Fernandez]

"Excellent," she said, smiling a little, and then sitting back on her heels to watch Tycho climb the ladder. Her smile grew a little, but she was busily attending the weeds by the time he might have looked down on her again.

Anna could hear him walking on the roof, doing things that needed doing, while she moved through the patch of corn that was getting taller every day. There weren't many weeds among them, and she continued to the lettuce, healthy green leaf that was -

- covered with holes. "No, no, no! Odio las babosas!" She threw up her hands, and then knelt by the ruined plants, trying to see if they could be saved. Some were untouched, but there were five heads of growing lettuce that were too far gone to use. Before she knew it there were tears welling up in her eyes and she was crying ridiculously while trying to uproot one of the plants, her hat fallen off her head and between the rows.

[Tycho Auriville]

It took four planks worth of prying clumps of dry-rot ridden shingles off, with perhaps a little more force than the weakened material required, before Ty felt settled. The thought that a good deal of debris had probably fallen into the attic helped things along.

Beginning to sweat, the man spun his hammer and holstered it in his toolbelt, taking a step back to survey his work. Where the tar paper had been sloughed away was naked wood, spongy and insubstantial with damage, it's grain stained a grimy brown colour that reminded Ty of the stinking waters he'd seen once in Maine, the coast stricken by red tide.

He was just getting ready to start anew from the top when distressed cries broke through the thick air.

"Anna? Everything okay?" Tycho called, shading his eyes with a hand. The cornstalks rustled and then came gasping breaths. He moved instinctively, side-stepping down the slope of the roof and slinging off his toolbelt before his boots rattled the ladder. The crying only got louder as he reached the ground and as Ty shuffled across the yard, he lifted his hand above his shoulder in a one-fingered salute, in case the noise had drawn Jake's attention and he jumped to the conclusion that Tycho was somehow going to twist Anna's obvious upset into some kind of kinky garden remake of Children of the Corn.

"Hey what - oh," Ty came to a sudden stop, hair falling into his eyes. Anna wasn't just crying she was... well, weeping in the dirt, a mangled head of... lettuce? in her hands. "Uh... I heard crying and..."

[Anna Fernandez]

She heard him approaching, but was powerless to do anything but cry - now shuddering sobs as she tried to get herself under control. "I - I - the slugs," Anna threw up her hands, shaking the bedraggled and offending lettuce. "They're ruined...oh, ohhh...!"

Somewhere beyond herself Anna was fully aware how ridiculous she was being, but the tears wouldn't stop and she tore raggedly at another slug-ravaged plant as though that would make her feel better. It didn't. She gave up and hid her face in her dirty gloves, shoulders shaking.

[Tycho Auriville]

"Hey, hey..." At a loss, Tycho reached out and gave Anna's trembling shoulder a pat. "You know, it's just... lettuce. And it's not your fault? I mean, look at the rest of the..."

He trailed off, catching sight of a wilting basil plant.

"Uh. What matters is that I'm sure they had a great life and - and hey, the slugs got a good meal!"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna hiccupped and shook her head, crumpling down further until she was basically sitting in the soft dirt as she sobbed. "I - I'm sorr-ree..." she sniffed, and wiped at her face, creating muddy streaks. "I can't stop... cryiiing..."

[Tycho Auriville]

In his years of rambling, Ty had met a lot of women. He'd always found them easier to talk to, their view on the world tempered with a quiet wisdom that defied age and pulled him back to simpler times when faith was an abundant commodity. He'd been raised by a single mother and Tilly had been his introduction to the broad world of personal connection, coloured everything that followed after with her peculiar blend of exotic beliefs.

So Ty knew women. He'd seen a lot of tears for a lot of reasons - broken hearts, righteous anger, the swell of pride and the sting of bitter hurt. But this was a different sort of beast and it flummoxed him.

"What have you got to be sorry for?" Ty said, dropping to crouch beside Anna. She looked so lost, hands stained with dirt and face a mask of misery. Shit.

Ty rubbed slow circles on her shoulder and gingerly leaned forward, offering her the option of a hug. "It's okay."

[Anna Fernandez]

He was tenetively putting an arm around her, comforting her as best he could without overstepping the bounds of acquaintance. Instead of making her feel better, however, the friendly gesture caused a fresh burst of tears. Anna tugged at her gardening gloves, pulling one of them off as she cried.

The reason she'd started didn't even matter anymore, as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Her crying felt like she'd tapped into a deep, cleansing well of emotion, and the only thing left to do was to let it all out until there was nothing left.

[Tycho Auriville]

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Anna sagged against him and Ty got comfortable in the dirt, wrapped his arms around her gently and just let her go to town. He didn't try to say anything - mostly because he wasn't sure what to say, unversed as he was in the strange world of produce grief, but also because a desperate fear had begun to grow in the back of his mind that if he did anything other than let Anna's tears soak into his shirt, it would grow exponentially worse and then he would not only be the guy that Jake thought was trying to seduce her, he would also be the douchebag who had made her cry.

[Anna Fernandez]

Eventually the well ran dry, and Anna realized she was clutching at a near stranger in the middle of her garden. She slowly released his arm, sitting up a little straighter as the last tears still dripped down her face.

Her puffy, red-eyed face. Anna wiped at her cheeks to dry them, resorting to the neckline of her v-neck tee shirt to clean up as best she could. "I am sorry, I do not know...what came over me." She sniffed hard, running a shaking hand through her hair.

[Tycho Auriville]

"It happens."

Tycho offered her a wan smile, then plunged a hand into the depths of his pockets. After a bit of digging he came up with a crumpled fast food napkin. It was better than nothing, would at least stop her from ruining her shirt.

"Here," he said, and reached up to dab at the drying rivers on her cheeks. It hit him, all of a sudden, what he was doing and he laughed awkwardly, relinquishing the twisted bit of paper cloth. "Guess you can do that, huh?"

[Anna Fernandez]

She smiled, and laughed with him, accepting the napkin and saluting Ty with it. "I am suffering from extreme hormonas, I apologize that you had to see that."

As she cleaned up, Anna caught sight of the lettuce again, and sighed. "I do hate slugs, however."

[Tycho Auriville]

"Try beer," Ty suggested. It was only when Anna stared at him that he realized how that must have sounded. Oh, Jesus. "For the slugs! I meant for the slugs, not the hormones."

He laughed, looking down at his toes. "Although, I guess it's sound advice for both."

[Anna Fernandez]

She sat back, rubbing a hand over her expanding waistline. "Ah, but no beer for the hormones, not until January." Anna sighed again, looking to her left at the corn stalks that were now towering over them.

"I'll see if Jake or Aidan have any. We don't generally keep alcohol in the house..." She pushed up from the ground, but ended up needing Ty's help getting to her feet. "Ach, look at me, I am a mess."

[Tycho Auriville]

Ty did look at her and had to concede that she was in a state. Covered in dirt and tear tracks, her eyes swollen - and yet it wasn't so bad as she seemed to think.

"Nah, you look fine. A little cold water'll wash everything away," He steadied her with a broad hand across her back before politely allowing a little space to fill between them.

Tycho cleared his throat and scratched at the back of his neck. "No beer 'til January. Is that a religious thing... I thought Lent was in the spring?"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna's mouth fell open, and she blurted, "Lent! No, no, no - I'm pregnant!"

She looked up at him, a hand settling on her hip. "I hope you don't think I'm always this fat!"

[Tycho Auriville]

"Pregnant?" Ty repeated blankly. Realization spilled slowly across his face. "Jesus, no wonder your brother was so keyed up. I`m surprised he didn`t deck me!"

[Anna Fernandez]

"Oh no, what did he say?" Anna forgot her indignation instantly, her hand going to her slightly grubby face. "He.. He is outspoken sometimes, but he means well. Usually."

Oh no, was it going to start again? She breathed slowly and deeply, willing herself not to start crying for the second time for absolutely no reason.

[Tycho Auriville]

Crap. Crap. This was why he shouldn`t have even opened his mouth. Ty was so much better with his hands.

... God, not like that.

"He`s just a little worried about you." Ty reassured Anna. And he thinks I`m trying to plane your planks, but hey. "It`s okay, it wasn`t anything. He seems like a good guy, good brother."

[Anna Fernandez]

"He likes to think he is my older brother," she said, a little indignantly, managing to swallow the lump in her throat. "I appreciate his protectiveness, to a point. It's just..."

Anna shrugged, at a loss for words, and slowly picked her way out of the rows of plants toward the lawn.

[Tycho Auriville]

The grass folded with a muted crunch beneath his boots as he kept pace with Anna.

"Better than the alternative, I guess," Ty shrugged. Anna's family was impressively numbered but the man was willing to bank a gold sovereign on the fact that his half-brother was worth all of them and then some for trouble. Wes was as far from Ty as the rising of the sun from it's setting and they'd never been close. There were just too many differences for them to reconcile, nothing solid to cobble together. They sent cards on Christmas and birthdays when they remembered, but that was the sum total of their fraternal bond.

"Listen, Anna," Ty said as they came up on the house. He squinted as the sun caught his face. "I don't want you to think... well, me fixing the roof is not... uh. I'm not expecting... you know, anything. The food is great and I appreciate it but please don't feel obligated. That's not why I'm doing it. It's important to me that you know that."

[Anna Fernandez]

She looked at him thoughtfully. Jake was telepathic, and if he had been rough with Ty, perhaps it was not without reason. But if he actually had anything concrete to go on, Ty would no longer be on the property. No, he was just being over protective, that was all. "I understand. But there is always food around, and so giving it to you..."

She shrugged, "It is nothing special. We give food to all wandering strangers." Anna looked at him with a straight face, and then dropped her left eyelid in a slow wink.

[Tycho Auriville]

"Pretty awesome policy," Ty grinned. "All you get is weak coffee at Motel 6."

He watched her ply the limp edges of the napkin around and then cleared his throat.

"Well, I better get back to work. You gonna be okay?"

[Anna Fernandez]

"Yes," she nodded. "Thank you... for that." Anna's cheeks colored slightly under the dirt, but she ducked into the house before the conversation could stretch on any longer.

After a few moments she heard him climbing the ladder. Walking away from the kitchen sink she made her way into the hall bathroom to inspect what her crying fit had done to her face. "Oh my goodness," she said, quickly running tepid water to wash off the grime that was streaked down her cheeks. Once she'd cleaned up she stared at herself in the mirror, examining the structure of her face.

Stepping back, Anna placed her hands on her stomach, gently rubbing the bump where her baby was growing, her eyes taking in the changes her body was going through. She blinked, feeling emotions bubbling up behind her eyes once again. Cómo voy a hacer esto por sí solo?

[Tycho Auriville]

Even as he scaled up the grooved slats of the ladder, soil from the garden scattering off the soles of his battered Timberlands, Ty kept an ear open. It wasn't because he didn't think Anna capable of taking care of herself. She was, more than even she probably realized, if the broad expanse of the house beneath him and the inner workings which unfolded within each day bore testament to the woman's strength.

But sometimes it wasn't about that, about how much you were capable of carrying. Sometimes it was about the letting go, the easing off of the stones you'd decided to pack along the way. Even without the hormonas (and he smiled remembering, because the way the word rolled off her tongue was a gentle tickling trill of sound) that was an unpredictable pressure valve - one minute you were standing tall, surveying the horizon and the next you were knee-deep in dirt, weeping because you hadn't predicted a biological invasion of your garden and it suddenly seemed like the most important thing in the world.

Well... okay, that part might have been more hormones than anything. But it seemed to Ty as he dug at a particularly stubborn nail head with the teeth of his hammer - he whistled (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGd6CdtOqEE) lowly now - that it didn't matter what flipped the switch and let the steam out: sometimes all a body needed was someone else to hear them.