Pick Your Poison, Friday

[joan_of_bark]

It had been a week. Pam was still ticked off, and the space underneath her ribs hurt even worse, and-- she was channeling all of it into her work. Because that was the healthy way to do it, wasn't it?

Eventually, blood draw exhaustion kicked in again. And again, she had to take herself downstairs, though her side really stung and she found herself clinging to the railing on the way down.

But Pam was nothing if not stubborn.

She held her chin up high, poured herself a glass of water in the back room, flipped the 'open' sign, and then dragged herself to the sofa.

It would pass. It always did.

(And then by afternoon, Harley-her-Harley would call, and she'd be out of here like a shot. Not yet, though.)

[[ open. Harley thread NFB ]]

Comments

[totalwildcard]

This Harley was not at her store. But she was in town - finally, for the first time since that whole thing at the bakery. Or, guess technically she'd been in town all this time, just up in her still kind of fucked up apartment, staring at a wall and waiting for her ears to stop ringing.

Mostly figuratively.

Anyway, she was out now. And this first stop was obvious.

"Pam?" she called, slipping in through the door.

[joan_of_bark]

"Harley?" Pam called back from the sofa, glancing past the shelf, towards the door. "I'm here."

[totalwildcard]

It didn't take longer than a beat for Harley to poke her head past the shelf. And then the rest of her.

"Hiya."

No exclamation point, no. The vibe of her was... steady, but subdued - even the little wave that accompanied the greeting was a much smaller gesture than usual.

[joan_of_bark]

Yeah. There went Pam's eyebrows.

She sat forward - carefully. "What's the matter, Harls?"

[totalwildcard]

Something forced a rough, strained chuckle out of Harley's throat. "That obvious?"

Honey, look at your entire energy.

"Marc and me talked," she added, with a wan smile. "Like, the talk. We're donezo. Like done-done. Like, 'can't talk or blow job my way outta this one' done."

She'd spent a couple of days essentially accepting that. Hence why she could get it out without copious amounts of tears and snot, now.

[joan_of_bark]

"Well," Pam said, crossing her arms in her lap. "At least you have closure?"

[totalwildcard]

Well, that seemed to be a little bit funny (in a very wry way) to Harley, for... non-obvious window reasons.

"Yeah," she said, "I guess so."

She was slinking over to the sofa, now.

[joan_of_bark]

Pam patted the seat next to her, just in case she needed the invitation. "Want to talk about it?"

[totalwildcard]

Harley slumped right into the offered seat, with a big but less theatrical than usual sigh.

"He doesn't think it'd be good for me or him to keep it goin'," she said. "And, yanno what? What's fucked up? I don't think I can blame him."

A lot of people might've considered that something other than 'fucked up'.

[joan_of_bark]

"I could, if you need someone to pick up the slack," Pam said.

But she'd save her story about meeting the asshole for later.

"I'm not sure that's technically fucked up, though. I think that's a grown adult thing."

[totalwildcard]

Harley huffed, slumping a little further down.

"I don't like it."

Awful when you couldn't just yell and scream and cry your way through things.

[joan_of_bark]

"Don't I know it," Pam said dryly. "My life is always more fun when I can maim my way through a problem."

[totalwildcard]

"Maybe it's 'cause this ain't Gotham --" An early contender for the understatement of the day. "-- and ya gotta do things different."

General 'you', Harley 'you', who knew?

[joan_of_bark]

"I can't technically go maiming people in Gotham, either," Pam muttered. "Not without the Bat getting overbearing."

She looked at Harley, though. "But I think in this case, it's good to just... let it go and go forward."

[totalwildcard]

Harley was looking forward. You know, in a literal, physical way.

She lifted her hand, made a little so-so gesture with it.

[joan_of_bark]

"Not ready to yet?" Pam guessed.

[totalwildcard]

"He said we could try it without all the bumpin' uglies," Harley said. Carefully.

No reason.

[joan_of_bark]

"He said he still wanted to be friends," Pam translated.

Very, very dryly.

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah?" Harley confirmed, with a shifty glance over at Pam, without moving her head.

And then, defensively, "I do too."

Well, it was a little more complicated than that.

[joan_of_bark]

Yeah, Pam suspected what Harley wanted was to go back to being something more than friends.

But she held her mouth shut on that score.

"It's a cliche for a reason, Harls."

[totalwildcard]

Meanwhile Marc hadn't even actually called it being friends, so... Checkmate!

Right?

Harley made a face, all scrunched up. "What's the cliché? I'm just bein' me."

(Derogatory.)

[joan_of_bark]

"The cliche is that everyone always says they want to stay friends with their ex, but almost no one succeeds," Pam said lightly. "You either drift apart or fall back together."

[totalwildcard]

The scrunching stayed, but lessened. Became a little more... uncertain.

"Well, maybe we're different," Harley muttered. "We ain't technically even exes."

[joan_of_bark]

That's what everybody thinks, Pam thought, but what came out of her mouth was, "Maybe."

[totalwildcard]

Harley responded with a big sigh, anyway, leaning further back.

"Or maybe I'm just deludin' myself 'cause it's the first time anyone's even offered to try."

You didn't see Mr. J doing that.