hits close to home

Who: Billy and Maddie
When: Late morning
Where: Their house

Last minute preparations were being made for the wedding tomorrow. It was only going to be small - a mere handful of people. Neither the bride nor the groom wanted a big show, just a small, intimate ceremony at their place. Billy had spent the morning in town and come back with a truck full of food, flowers and cake. Small though the ceremony and celebration was going to be, and limited though their budget was, they still wanted to do things properly.

Maddie was in the dining room, making little flower arrangements. Sure, there didn't need to be many or anything, but she wanted flowers to carry, and she thought she'd make some for Sophie and Thia as well, just in case they wanted something to dry and remember the day by. She kind of hoped they wanted something like that, anyhow, a florist Maddie was not. Plus, she couldn't make something without weaving in a little spell that was meant to spread good will. It was subtle, but there. No one could really fault her for putting in something like that, right? Who didn't like good feelings?

That was her story and she was sticking to it. As she heard the truck pull up, she put the flowers she'd been working on and walked over to prop the inner door open, and then moved to go prop the screen door on the porch for Billy. "Anything light enough for me to carry?" she called. She was happy to see him. Of course she was always happy to see him when he came back, but well. She'd been making flowers for their wedding, she was feeling sappy.

"You can have flowers, food or cake," Billy suggested, opening the passenger door and looking for something light for her. "I'd suggest flowers, he said, handing over a bow with a garland in it. It wasn't huge, but it had been all he could afford at the florist and he knew Maddie had been concentrating on arrangements for the girls, so he'd got what he could.

She walked down and took them, smiling as she leaned over to smooch his cheek. "Flowers it is." she said. "How was everything in town? It's not falling apart again is it?" she asked. The apocalypse had better not fucking ruin her day. It could be raining fucking fire and she'd go through with the ceremony tomorrow.

"Everything in town was fine - I went and talked to the officiant who's going to do everything tomorrow and - I hope you don't mind, but I explained things and he's going to bring along his assistant, who can sign. I was thinking - with Thia not having hearing aids right now and everything - I don't want her to miss out..." He didn't think Maddie would mind, but he hadn't checked it with her beforehand - he hadn't thought about it beforehand, he'd just gone in to confirm everything and there'd been a notice about the service on the board, so he'd brought it up.

"Oh, good idea." Maddie said immediately, thinking that that was a damn good call there, and one she would have entirely forgotten about. She knew the girl was having trouble at the moment, and she'd been one hell of a lot less talkative when she was round the house without the hearing aids. Maddie had even tried looking for something that might help her but there really wasn't anything for something that permenant. Magic had limits. She couldn't cure deafness. About all she did find was ways to stimulate better communication with nature and shite, but she didn't figure that was what would help out so much. Of course she also hadn't mentioned she'd done any of that. "I'm sure she'll appreciate it. I want everyone to be involved." she said firmly. She also grabbed a plastic bag by the handles. It looked light enough that she could take the flowers and that.

"Yeah, I do too - I want this to be special for everyone," he agreed with her, giving his soon-to-be-wife a broad smile as he piled up as many boxes as he could carry and started carefully across the driveway. He'd cleared it of snow yesterday, and no more had fallen overnight, but that didn't mean that there wasn't the risk of ice around and he didn't want to go throwing food and wedding cake everywhere. They couldn't afford the time or money to replace things now.

She followed him, just as carefully. She didn't want to fall while being all pregnant and such, so she took her time. The doors were propped open still so she followed Billy inside. "And the wolf knows when to be here, and everything else is all set? You're going out tonight, yes?" she asked. "Is it just going to be you and the wolf? Are you taking the boy along?"

"Dean? He's only sixteen - no, it's just going to be me and Oz," Billy told her, laughing at the concept of taking Dean along. That would just be, well, a little weird. And he wanted some time with his oldest friend - he hadn't seen enough of the guy lately. Given that Billy had stopped dreamwalking, well, he'd never been too good at in-person social calls. He waited by the door until Maddie had got inside, then closed the cold out and led the way to the kitchen to drop everything off.

"So? --bloody drinking ages." Maddie started to question then answered herself. She headed in to put things on the counter in the kitchen, opening up the fridge to start putting things away. "And alright. So just you and the wolf. You'd better not have strippers. I've seen enough television." she warned, though she was teasing. Even if Billy was the type--which he really just kinda wasn't--in this town? Unlikely. The closest thing would be trying to find a college party and watching the drunken sorority girls decide it was too hot in the room.

"We're just going out for a few quiet beers, dear. No wild parties, no strippers. And I promise I'll be there tomorrow and all my skin will be the right colour and everything," he teased. He wasn't particularly wild at heart, never had been. "Nothing's going to spoil your day - I swear."

She laughed, giving him a little smirk. "You'd best keep that promise." she said, knowing he would. Hell. It wasn't just 'her' day. She knew he was just as happy for this as she was. Just as excited. Like he was for their daughter. She also sighed. "Got somethin to tell you though. A girl came in today, talking about spirit issues." she said, not really wanting to go into it but knowing she had to. "She wanted to do some spell...pretty sure she dug it up someplace and didn't know a thing about what she was even looking at. Somethin about a coffin for a baby, something that's meant to make spirits uncontrollable or...y'know, I've no idea what she was honestly on about and I don't think she knew the half of what she was even getting into. I think it was a spirit bind. Trouble is, I guess the spirit she wants to 'protect'," she made air quotes and everything "is a baby. An that's just not right."

Billy frowned at that, distracted from their previous topic immediately. "Hold on, wait - what?" he asked her, not sure what part of that he wanted to latch onto first. Billy knew a lot about spirits. Much more than your average handyman in a small town would ever be expected to know. And when it came to bound spirits, and binding spirits, he was actually a subject authority. oh, he couldn't actually do it - he didn't have a single bit of magic anywhere in his body, but he knew the theory, the ways and means, how things worked. It was the kind of thing you learned when you spent three years trying to rebind your spirit girlfriend to a place that wasn't in a drowned town at the bottom of a lake after a major disaster. "She wants to bind a spirit into a coffin?" he asked, going with that, staring slightly.

Maddie made a face which articulated quite well how she felt on the subject. "Aye, that's what it looked like to me." she said. She got out a container to put water in for the flowers. "She had these old plans for one...like I said, fairly certain the lass didn't know a thing about what she was talking about. But I told her that you might know better what happened. I think her problem's this baby's around. Babies don't generally become spirits. They're not exactly chock full've unfinished business."

"Well, no - which usually means there's a really good reason they're here in the first place. This baby already bound or something?" Billy asked, thinking that was the most obvious choice. Usually spirits needed a reason to stay around rather than moving on after their death, but bound spirits were different - their only reason was that they were bound here. They didn't need an overarching purpose. They didn't get a choice in the matter, and the causes of binding were wide and varied, Billy knew that.

"I have no idea. I don't think Mary Sunshine would know it even if that were the case." Maddie said, leaning her hip against the counter as she focused her attention on Billy. "I'm wondering if the baby's around because someone else can't let go. Some strong bond or...somethin. I'm a little at a loss, I confess, which was why I wanted her to talk to you." Since Billy did in fact know more than probably anyone around here. She'd been a spirit, that didn't make her an expert any more than being human made someone a genetic scientist.

"Sure, I'll talk to her. You realise that the strong bond might be the girl herself, right? I mean, forgive me for being paranoid, but any chance the whole thing could have been an act and she could have done something to make sure the baby's spirit didn't move on, and is now trying to imprison it further? You look into the spell she wants done, make sure that it actually does what she seems to think it does?" he suggested, for once actually not taking things at face value. He had a tendency to jump into the things he did without looking, but that didn't mean to say he wasn't capable of rational thought, and he'd seen enough in his life to know (when he actually bothered to stop and think about it) that not everybody was above board. "Is this her baby? i mean, are we dealing with a mother who's lost her kid and can't let go?" he asked, feeling a pang at that thought as he looked at his pregnant fiancée.

"If that's the case, she didn't seem it, but odder things've happened." Maddie said. "As for the spell, no, I don't think it does what she thinks it does, but then again I don't think she was really looking at what it did in the first place. The spell required condemned men's sweat. That sort of shite in a spell never spells anything good." she explained. "That's black magic territory at the very least. And no, I don't think the baby's hers. She said brother, though she might've been covering, I suppose. Don't know why she would."

Billy took this in, nodding slightly. "Well, I'll talk to her. Though, putting a spirit, even a baby, in a box for the rest of eternity? Why would you do that?" he asked. Billy was much more aware than most that spirits had feelings too. They might not have corporeal bodies, but that didn't mean they couldn't think, couldn't feel. Not physically feel, but emotionally they could. At least, in Billy's experience, they could. His experience had generally been with fully formed, thinking spirits, rather than the wraith-like beings that some ghosts could be, and, as such, it had left him highly sensitive to their needs and treatment.

Maddie was quiet for a moment. "I imagine people who don't know anything about spirits would think that it meant it was putting someone at rest, or protecting them." she mused. "Y'know, people who don't think spirits have a mentality, or feelings, like they're just residual type things and not going to be driven bloody stark ravin mad by that." She shook her head. "I told the girl that it'd be torture to do somethin like that."

"And what did she say to that?" Billy asked. He couldn't help but think back to what Maddie was like when he'd first managed to rebind her. Three years she'd been alone. Three years since their town had been flooded. Billy had gotten out - had left at her insistence before the damn they lived downstream from had been destroyed, taking the town with it. But Maddie had been a spirit already, bound to that place. There had been no escape for her. And so he'd had to leave her, bound to a town that was now at the bottom of a lake. Before she'd met him, there'd been few, if any, people who could see her, who she could talk to - but at lest there'd been people she could watch. She'd never been totally alone.

By the time he'd managed to find out that rebinding was possible - and then by the time he'd found someone with the skill in magic to actually perform the ritual needed, she'd been entirely alone for three years. And to say she'd lost it a bit was putting it mildly. The isolation had not been good for her. She hadn't believed that Billy was real, treated him as another illusion. It had been a long road back from there, and it had been painful to watch. If this girl wanted to do that to a spirit, he was going to make damn sure she fully appreciated what she was doing. he'd seen the fliers around town - calling for rights for ghosts. Billy didn't know where he stood on that subject, and he wasn't getting involved in anything political, but he did know that people needed to be educated, they needed to know, they needed to appreciate that spirits weren't toys, or pets, or playthings. They were here, and they deserved to have their own existence.

"She didn't like that idea. Basically, I didn't really finish getting her ingredients, and I've directed her to you. I gave her your number, and took hers. It's on a card in the shop." she told him. She also crossed towards him, putting her arms around his neck to give him a hug, and she kissed his cheek. "I know this subject bothers you." she said. Bothered her too. But her boy was a bit more sensitive than she could be at times, and she'd heard his tone.

"Well, it's kinda close to home, isn't it?" he asked her, hugging her back, taking a moment to enjoy being able to do that, since it was really on his mind just how long he'd been unable to touch her for. How many years he'd never thought he'd have what he had now.

She nodded, staying in close as well. "I know." she said, tone a little softer than usual. "I told her we were gettin married tomorrow, so it might be a little bit before you got back to her. I didn't know if you were going to want to talk to her right away or think on things before you did. I still don't even really have much of an idea what could be holding an infant around, and don't really like the idea of it." It bothered her.

"Well, I'll wait for her to call, and if she hasn't called by sometime in the week, I'll give her a call myself," Billy said, knowing that this was going to bug him. He didn't want it to bug him - he didn't want anything to take the gloss off this weekend, but he wasn't going to mention that. He could keep that all to himself for now.

Maddie was quiet for a moment, considering that, and she shifted so she could look him in the eyes. Reaching up, she drifted her fingers through his hair, getting it out of his face entirely, and she drew in a breath, and let it out slowly. "If it's going to bother you--an this is me saying I think it will--call her tonight. Just to get it out of the way then you'll know and we can deal with it head on." she said. Billy and she were not people who dealt that spectacularly well when something was bugging. It tended to distract attention.

"Yeah, maybe," Billy gave her. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with it, but maybe it would be best to get it out of the way. or maybe that would just make things worse. He didn't know. "I'll give it some thought. Might call her before I go out to meet Oz."

She nodded. "Whatever you think's best, dear." she told him, giving him a proper hug and letting herself hold for a few long moments. Then she stepped back. "Guess I should finish putting groceries away." she said. Being they weren't going to put themselves away, and she still had things to make for tomorrow. Little spells to put in place...all sorts of odds and ends. For a small wedding, she was sure starting to get butterflies over it.

"You want a hand?" he asked her, knowing he was going to be hovering again. He'd been doing that a lot lately, trying to be there to make sure that she didn't need anything. It was a balancing act though, since he was still trying to get in as much work as possible, to keep the money coming in, and he had several projects around the house, trying to perfect it before the baby came. it generally worked out okay though, since there was only so much hovering he was allowed to do before she shooed him off to get out from under her feet.

Maddie made a show of thinking about it. "Hm...ya know, I'm pretty sure I can handle putting them away all on my own." she said, smiling at him. It was a much softer expression than anything she directed anyone else's way. "I'll call if there's an emergency with trying to put the frozen vegetables in the freezer." she assured him, giving his cheek a little affectionate pinch.

He chuckled a little at that, and playfully pulled his cheek away. "Well, if you're sure..." he teased. "Then I'm gonna go do some work on the room for a bit, make sure it's as ready as it's going to be," he said. He'd been tweaking at the room they'd set aside for the ceremony for days now.

"Go for it." she told him. "I'll be in to sit by and give irritating directions and point out spots you missed in a bit." she promised, giving him an impish grin as she gave him a quick kiss. "Then there'll be dinner, and snuggling of some description. Sound good?" she asked.

"Sounds great," he told her with a smile, letting her go after the kiss. "I'm meeting Oz at 7, if that's okay with you?" he checked, knowing that if there was dinner to be had, she was cooking it. Billy could burn water and had been banned from the kitchen a while back. Maddie didn't want him burning down the house.

Maddie glanced at the clock. "It's fine. Might just have to skip out on some annoying you time." she amended. "Unless I get it done quick. Go, off with you. Make things pretty." she said, shooing him with her hands. "I've got womenfolk work to do and all." she teased, since she wasn't really a woman who took to that kind of stereotyping. She hadn't even when she was alive.

Billy raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, just looked her up and down. "yes, ma'am," he teased right back, then turned and headed out, to work on things and think about what he was going to do.