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"I'm not supposed to have solid food." Jada was mournful. "Not until I get formal approval, because I was in and out for a couple of days." the young woman smiled over at Fallon. "Great, you're leaving, and my little 'convalescence' is just starting. Who knows if my next roommate will be so tolerant?" she aimed a mock pout at both her friends. Audrey leaned forward, moving to pat both Jada herself and Fallon, and Jada tried to bend to reach Audrey's hand with her own. It made her lower back tug and she gave a small noise, face twisting. "Anyway, how do you know you're in better shape than me?" A warning glance at Fallon, as surreptitiously as she could. "My leg isn't broken, and I can still walk around. And Fallon will be able to as well. You, on the other hand..." Jada clucked her tongue, then lifted her nose into the air. "I'm already hallucinating pizza." That would surely never be permitted in a hospital!

Jada's voice was still slow, she could hear it, but for the most part, she sounded like she was in control of herself. "You know Fallon, I never asked if anyone came by while I was napping." she gave the dark-haired girl a smile. "I'm so happy that I woke up in time for Audrey's visit." Was now the best time for Fallon to let slip that Jada hadn't been unconscious due to injury, but because she was a crazed mess when they tried to let her sleep naturally? Probably not.

When a masculine came from the doorway area, Jada abruptly remembered what it was that was supposed to have been so important about this Saturday. "Marlo!" she smiled on instinct, started to push up. The sharp pain abruptly reminded her why she was supposed to move slowly, and the smile dropped off her face to instead be a white-lipped grimace as her blistered back stretched. Well, it was fine that she wouldn't get to sit up, she reassured herself as she pushed the little black button Fallon had pointed out to her. She wasn't dressed for company anyway. Her little hospital gown left her bare-assed, and was anything but flattering. "I don't mind if you come in. Fallon, do you remember Marlo Xanis?" purple eyes went to Audrey. "Elzo's little brother. Marlo, you remember Fallon. My friend in the chair," she gestured at the bluenette. "is Audrey."

The strain around her eyes was visible. "I'm really sorry I forgot." A sheepish apology. "My excuse is that I lost my entire phone this time, so I don't have anyone's phone numbers." she hadn't been hallucinating pizza.

Would Fallon be weirded out if Jada asked to sniff the pizza?

Of all the people Fallon expected to enter the hospital, Marlo was not high on the list. She didn't even know his last name, just that he was a giving guy with an above average cooking ability. He made her rescind some of the harsh words she'd said about 'homecooks' after sampling a dish he'd made at a charity event. Fallon tended to err on the side of complicated dishes, but from her experience, Marlo liked to take simple dishes and make them right.

So it was no surprise that he had come bearing pizza, drawing a grateful smile across Fallon's lips. "Marlo," she said, sitting up in her bed. At first when he referenced riding, Fallon thought he might be talking to her. Her eyes flickered to Jada. "Oh, oh." Realization. "Oh, this is your Marlo, the one who helped you." It had taken her until this point to put two and two together. All the visitors started showing up once Jada joined her in the hospital. This did not pass Fallon's notice, a small chip cropping up on her shoulder.

Wait... did that mean that Elzo, Audrey's Elzo, was Marlo's brother? A part of the two brothers who saved Jada? "Wow, small world," she mused, tucking her hair behind one ear. She knew she didn't look up to snuff. The nurse yelled at her the day before for borrowing her mother's make-up to dress up.

Fallon waved her hand at the pizza box. "It smells delicious, I'm sure it is, but I can't have any of it. It's Seder so the only bread I can eat is matza. More for everyone else." Her mother was currently attempting to persuade the hospital kitchen to allow her to make her own. She'd been gone for several hours so either they were letting her or she had been arrested for disorderly conduct.

"Drew's sister?" Jada blinked at Audrey. "Weird. I know an Andrew Collins. He's been teaching me to hit stuff." Jada gave a little punch. "I didn't know he had a little sister. Though, with over half a million people in this city, it could be a different Andrew." she pondered. Had Audrey mentioned an older brother? No, it had to be a different Andrew. She gave Audrey a smile when the younger woman squeezed her hand. "I like the idea of a fan club." A blink at Fallon, cheeks going pink. "Not my Marlo, but you have the right idea. My Mall hero." He moved closer to the bed, offering the gift to Fallon.

Fallon turned it down. Jada's stomach gave a loud grumble that made her cheeks flush even hotter. How mortifying, to have her stomach make a noise like that. She gave her girlfriends a helpless look, glad Marlo's back was to her.

If there were any questions, she'd blame Audrey.

The noise that her belly had made seemed to bring Marlo's attention to her, and she quailed under his sudden.... masculine attitude. "It wasn't... no, Marlo. It was... wow." she laughed, wryly. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." she reached out for him, trying to pat his arm. "I haven't seen him since he bro-" she stopped.

Fallon knew her room had been ruined. Audrey didn't. Marlo didn't.

"So, can I sniff the pizza?" she tried to gloss over her verbal misstep. "Maybe I can get a calorie or two off the delicious smell."

Fallon could understand why a girl might like Marlo. He was polite, composed, a cook, and complimentary without being creepy. If only he was also female. A light sigh escaped from her lips, hands ticking over the tiny bit of needlework resting in her lap. She picked it up as if to resume where she left off, but left the needle hanging like a miniature Sword of Damocles.

When Marlo crossed to her, full of promises and compliments, Fallon could only smile and shake her head. "If my mother didn't have a nose like a bloodhound, I'd have a piece. I'm sure it is wonderful. But I know she'd smell the blasphemy on me from down the hall. She's like a shark," she mused, leaving his trail of compliments uncommented. Fallon liked hearing she was a good chef, but she never felt quite good enough. No reason to stroke her ego when she was trying to improve her skills. Once she had the best restaurant in all of DC? Well... then she would accept the praise.

Marlo's attention turned to Jada, and Fallon's with it, pausing only to raise her eyebrows and smile conspiratorially with Audrey. She mouthed: You have a brother? All the energy was quickly sucked back to Jada, drawn by the anger behind Marlo's words. A sudden desire to help diffuse the situation overcame Fallon, and she said, "She was attacked on the subway by things of the... non-human variety?" Fallon met eyes with Jada. "Right?" Too much anxiety in one room made the cinnamon-haired girl anxious.

Unconsciously, she resumed her needlework. Audrey offered a quiet reprieve when she begged for pizza. Well, sort of begged. Fallon moved one eye to her. "Just sit close to Jada and me when you eat it. So we can live vicariously, you know." Her eyes dropped back to the tiny flower she painstakingly stitched.

Marlo Xanis... was adorable. Jada was mildly surprised she even thought about it. But he was just blushing all over the place. He must be embarrassed about something? Idly, she wondered if he had a crush on Fallon. He'd made her pizza, come to visit her when he'd heard she'd been hurt... she gave her dark-skinned friend a coy look for a moment before remembering something important.

Fallon was into girls.

s**t, poor Marlo.

He held out the pizza to Audrey and Jada leaned forward; she wondered if her face looked as helplessly pitiful as it was. "Well, that explains some things. I wonder if we both know the same Andrew." she leaned forward; felt her lower beck stretch and abruptly remembered she was bare-assed; Jada sat back with a sulky face, staring at the pizza box. "My kingdom for a doctor to say that I can have a slice of that."

"Not a chance." a male voice piped from the door. "Jayj, you're awake!" a small boy of ten leaped through the door, bouncing across the floor. he went to the opposite side of the bed, waving at Fallon. "I'll eat the pizza for you."

Jada leaned over to give her brother a hug, not thinking about the fact that her blistered back would be exposed to the rest of the room, intent on giving her little brother a hug. "Lucas, you could eat enough pizza for anyone."

"I know." he sounded proud. "Mother and the twins are downstairs, helping her mom with bags." he pointed at Fallon. How the two older women had met? Who knows.

"Mother is helping with the bags?" The red, blistered skin was still exposed to Marlo and Audrey; Jada abruptly remembered and paled, moving back against the pillows.

"Well, no, nanny is. But mother is dictating to the nurses?" Lucas clambered into his sisters lap, staring at Audrey and Marlo before scooting over Jada's bed and moving for Fallon's. "Hello, pretty lady." He was trying to be suave, he was; his voice cracked halfway through the word 'lady.'

Fallon paused in her needlework to glance up to Marlo. How did she multitask so well? Hm, 'a stifling medical condition' didn't seem like the most upbeat thing in the world to say. So she smiled and said, "Practice," before resuming her work. The conversation ballooned around her. For all his nervousness, Marlo certainly could work a room.

Her ears pricked when Elzo came up again. She tried to watch Audrey out of the corner of her eye, suppressing a shudder when a box of wine came up. Watching her eat the pizza sent another prickle. Fallon liked to be the head chef. She liked Marlo. She knew he was a good cook. It didn't help stifle her urge to leap from the bed, rip the IV from her arm, and declare COOKING WARS SHALL COMMENCE for the entire hospital ward to hear.

Fallon just kept knitting, even when a little male face bobbed into view. She eyed him with mild curiosity, cracking a smile when his voice cracked too. Despite her mother's efforts, Fallon was the only Novette-Naim child, sandwiched on either side in her parents' memory by terrible miscarriages. It wasn't something that the family discussed.

Sitting up in bed, she threw an amused glance to Jada and then looked back at her brother. "Hi, Lucas. Thank you for the compliment. It's good to be polite, girls love it. I hope my mother doesn't show up with too much. The doctor only gave her permission for matzah... and maybe grape juice." These words were aimed to the rest of the room.

Audrey piped up and Fallon turned to look at her, tugging the needle through the little patch with quick, practiced movements. Wait -- was Audrey saying that it was impossible to make Jada less pretty, but with Fallon it was possible? Her smile didn't waver, but a spark of jealous confusion flamed in her eyes. Audrey didn't mean it, she didn't think, but it didn't stop the prickles of annoyance. Maybe it was the bright lighting in the hospital?

Before Fallon could answer Audrey, her question answered itself. Halfway down the hallway, Fallon could already hear the sound of her mother's heels and nagging voice. She sounded embarrassed, a little annoyed. The door opened, and two figures burst into the room. Mrs. Novette-Naim bustled in after the nanny, cheeks flushed and leaning forward. She was reaching for the bags and saying, "No, really, you don't have to, I swear I can manage it, don't go out of your way."

It took her a moment to realize the extra bodies in the room. She immediately straightened. "Oh, Fallon, honey, you didn't tell me you were throwing a Seder party," she said, leaving the nanny with the bags and sweeping past Audrey to kiss her daughter on the forehead. Fallon hated when she did this; it showed in her face.

For all of Fallon's pristine meticulousness, her mother looked like she had been through a windstorm. Her dress was fashionable and age-appropriate, a pale blue skirt fluttering around her knees, but there was something unkempt about her. She had on makeup, but it looked rushed. Her hair was done up in a french twist, but it was sloppy. Bits and pieces hung loose. All in all, Mrs. Novette-Naim looked like a woman who didn't belong in the expensive jewelry and nice clothes that she was wearing.

To another rich family it could mean only one thing: new money.

Fallon began to cross-stitch faster. Her mother always had that effect on her. "Mom, this is Audrey and Marlo," she said, gesturing to both of them before moving her hand toward the other hospital bed, "and this is--"

"The famous Miss Jada, I know!" Her mother exclaimed, clearly pleased to be in-the-loop on her daughter's social life. "I would recognize that gorgeous mane of hair from your photos anywhere. Curly hair is really so lovely on young girls." Fallon had straight hair. Very straight. She blow dried it straighter after showers.

Yep, her mother was definitely in full form. And she wasn't done. Sweeping past her daughter, she moved to Jada's bed, clasping the girl's hand in hers. "I had the pleasure of bumping into your mother in the lobby. We were both headed here, what a happy coincidence, and we just got to talking -- she's lovely, you know, so composed -- and we both decided we would cheer you girls up today." Mrs. Novette-Naim turned to the rest of the room. "Looks like someone already beat us to it, you know you are both glowing now that your friends are here, how nice."

Mrs. Novette-Naim shot her daughter a smile. Fallon looked uncomfortable.

"My sister looks like a rag right now." A girl in pretty blonde ringlets and a lacy, almost antiquated dress moved in the door behind the nanny, brushing past Audrey and Marlo with a polite little smile. A redheaded girl in ripped jeans and a halter top followed her, her straight shaggy hair chopped around her chin. "I think, Ma'am, you may want to get your eyes checked." Kayley looked her sister over critically before clucking and pulling out a tube of clear lipgloss from her small purse. "Hold still, I'll put a band-aid on it."

"Back off." the redhead snapped. "You'd look like a murloc if you'd been asleep for three days."

"Jayj can't have makeup!" Lucas protested.

"Oh, family." Jada's voice was a happy sigh. She smiled up at Mrs. Novette-Naim, shaking her hand. "I hope my mother wasn't detained..."

A droll voice came from the door, making Jada's lips pinch together. "Unfortunately for you, I wasn't." Szelem Chamberlyn moved through the door, head to toe in Chanel, a single strand of pearls around her neck. "Something in this room smells positively provincial." her nose gave a delicate twitch, and Lucas hopped off of Fallon's bed, almost guiltily. "Kayley, put that gloss away. Zora, stop slouching."

Marlo was given a look that clearly said, 'You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.' Audrey was the recipient of the same measured look before something that said 'I found my source of provincial' was passed her way; lime green eyes were chill, looking out from a face that could be Jada in another thirty years. "You, my dear, should sit up straight. You're in the hospital, not the morgue. And there is company present. Fallon, darling, lovely to see you again." She didn't ask for introductions. Szelem Chamberlyn didn't care for introductions. A small book was pulled from a black reticule, and the older woman tossed it onto the end of Jada's bed. "Read it. memorize it." A few pictures fell out of the book, including one of a white dress. "Your new dress is in there. We'll be having to remeasure you. Nanny brought the tape measure, I hope?" The blonde woman nodded. Eerie, how she never said a word in Szelem's presence.

Jada glanced between the force of nature that was her mother, and her friends. "Mother, Lucas, Zora and Kayley, meet Audrey Collins and Marlo Xanis." Szelem's eyes narrowed, almost thoughtfully, glancing between Audrey and the young man before she gave a brief, barely perceptible nod. "Zora is the redhead, Kayley is the blonde."

"We can introduce ourselves." Zora said dryly. Kayley sniffed, extending her hand with acid courtesy to Marlo. A kiss to her hand was obviously the expected response, judging by the angle at which the girl presented it. Zora rolled her eyes, offering hers to Audrey. "'Sup. You are the WoW girl, right?"

"I think we found the provincial, mother." Kayley snapped in Zora's direction. "Zora."

Squabbling was about to ensue, it was visible in their shoulders until Lucas broke in by going, "So, we're having a party? Something about Cedar? Like, a party about a tree?"

It was Jada's turn to look uncomfortable.

(Hrm. Have we decided how to end this? I could always have Fallon's mom start getting Seder stuff ready and we could fade to black saying everyone participated? Or did you guys want to actually go through the motions of the little mini-meal?)




Fallon appreciated Marlo, even if he was laying it on a little thick. It probably worked for him, she surmised, with most girls. He was nice and sweet and knew the things that a nice boy should say. And it wasn't like Fallon would ever get tired of compliments. She glanced at Marlo and shook her head, grinning.

When it came to the other Novette-Naim woman in the room, charming always worked. Iva patted Jada's hand once more and then switched gears to the boy hurling compliments her way. She shot Fallon an approving grin, and then touched at her chest. "Fallon, your Marlo is so polite. I hope you are spending plenty of time with him. Good boys are so rare these days." Fallon ignored her mother, but managed to let her eyes stray to Jada. It seemed to say, Your mother might be trying to set you up with everyone under the sun, but my mother is determined to set me up with another gender. (Clearly Fallon was capable of giving very expressive looks.)

Then Jada's mother entered, and the dynamic switched. It wasn't to say that the dynamic became hostile or unpleasant, just different. It had changed when Fallon's mom entered the room too, but in a fight for mood-changing dominance, it was clear that Szelem held the crown. No matter how much Szelem could drive Jada crazy, Fallon was not going to be rude. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Chamberlyn. I love your pearls." Iva was practically tripping over herself to perch gracefully at the foot of her daughter's bed. Women like Szelem put Iva off-kilter. She wanted to be part of the privileged tea party, but she was still trying to memorize the customs.

When Lucas piped up, Iva did too. "Not Cedar, Seder. It's a Jewish custom that happens right before Passover. My darling girl," she patted Fallon's hand, "was going to come home to France for a few days, but then..." She waved her hand around to indicate their current predicament. Iva had never been good about talking about unpleasantness. It was why she never addressed the dissolution of her marriage with Fallon and why they insisted on staying together when it was clear they no longer loved each other.

"Hospital or not, I will bring Seder to you all!" she announced, throwing both hands upward. Her eyes moved back to Szelem. "Oh, Fallon, dear," she said, touching the girl's leg, but not quite looking at her. "Szelem was telling me all about Jada's upcoming ball, and I know you must be so excited. I told her that we almost put you in a ball yourself, but you opted for that beautiful bat mitzvah in the south of France instead." Iva craned backwards to shoot her daughter a smile. Fallon smiled weakly back. This story was not being repeated for her; Fallon knew it. Szelem knew it too. This was Fallon's mother trying to maintain her own airs of privilege.

"I was telling Szelem that I might stick around while you prepare your things here." Fallon's smile fell. It would seem her mother hadn't given up on the idea of taking her daughter back to France to keep her safe. "She was kind enough to invite me to the ball, wasn't that so nice of her?" Iva swatted her daughter playfully on the leg, the grin in her eyes conveying much more than happiness.

The nanny was still holding the bags, but Iva made no move to take them. She was socializing! Fallon noticed that Audrey had fallen silent, but in the hubbub of the room, it seemed like hardly the time to call her out for it.