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[lightsinthewater]

That gut instinct of his told him that a storm was coming, and yet he was still surprised to find his wife scrubbing the floor of the hallway closet at two in the morning. He really shouldn't have been so alarmed by it, but he wasn't used to having other people share in his restlessness when a storm approached. He had years to get used to it: to find other ways of calming the rising panic, to cope with the fact that no one seemed to share his feelings of anxiety, to not seem so expectant when that next big hurricane finally was announced.

And there Mariel was, scrubbing the floors and talking about rainy days, and Tom suddenly felt validated for all that time he spent insisting on things like shatterproof, storm windows and a reenforced roof.

He walked into the kitchen, grabbed a few dishrags, and returned to the hallway closet. "Here," he said, kneeling down beside her. "Let me help."

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[not_a_butterfly]

She was tempted to refuse his help, to assure him that she could do it alone, to urge him to go back to bed, but she didn't. Instead, she gave him a grateful little nod and moved over a little, continuing to scrub the floor.

"I didn't mean to wake you up," she told him after a moment of silence.

[lightsinthewater]

Truth was he was glad she had woken him, even if it was accidental. If Mariel was anxious then he wanted to know about it.

Tom picked up a rag and started scrubbing right along with her. "Rainy day?" He reached for the bucket and dunked the rag in.

[not_a_butterfly]

"Yeah." She scrubbed at a spot under one of the shelves. An area that had been sorely neglected. "You never know. And there's so much room in here that we could be using. You're the one who has always wanted to be prepared." She sat back, letting her arms rest for a while.

[lightsinthewater]

He wrung out the rag and went back to idly tracing circles in the floor. He had to admit that this was a little disconcerting. "Prepared," he repeated, shaking his head. She kept saying that word, leaving images of work camps and hybrid legions inside his head.

"What sort of supplies?"

[not_a_butterfly]

She looked over to him when he repeated the word, though she assumed he was just confirming what she had told him. Once her arms had a moment to relax, she dipped the brush back into the water and started scrubbing again.

"I was thinking of going to the store and picking up some water. Extra batteries for the flashlights and radio. I might move some of the canned food from the pantry into here, too. Just to have it all in one place."

[lightsinthewater]

Water, extra batteries, canned food? Tom stopped cleaning for a moment and sat back on his heels, taking a brief look around the closet space.

Mariel was cleaning the entire closet. How much space did she need for a few extra storm supplies?

"That's not a bad idea." Though it was still strange to him. He'd felt approaching storms before, but he'd never had the urge to clean out a closet at two in the morning.

[not_a_butterfly]

"It can't hurt," she told him, feeling very much awake, despite the hour. She was restless and couldn't sleep, but being productive helped. She was calm and focused, and preparing for a storm, no matter how crazy it seemed, was very soothing for her. She actually smiled a little as she moved on. "And maybe Kira can help me with it tomorrow afternoon. After school." She didn't have much hope for that, but it was a thought that kept her happy, at least.

[lightsinthewater]

Tom could handle just about everything but the smile. Did Mariel even know what she was preparing for? If she was feeling anxious enough to get out of bed and start making plans to convert the closet at two in the morning, it wasn't just going to be some hypothetical storm.

"Yeah, maybe," he murmured, shrugging off his own feeling of unease. He leaned forward and starting cleaning the floor again.

[not_a_butterfly]

She noticed that he didn't quite feel the same as her about it, but she didn't mind it. It was such a long time since they had done something normal. At least relatively normal. And cleaning a closet together at two am was about as normal as she was going to get, she supposed.

Taking another break, she rubbed at her arms, glancing at the soapy water in the bucket, distracted.

"I just don't want what happened with Eve to happen again," she started, trying not to think too long about why she was even trying to justify it. Her own reasoning just sounded hollow. "Not here. Russ' house might not last through another storm and I want the kids to be able to have a place to stay. Like they did before."

[lightsinthewater]

He should have stopped her, told her that she didn't have to justify her actions, but once again Tom said absolutely nothing. Acknowledging that he knew why they were both on the floor of his storage closet at two am would break the established normalcy. Admitting that he knew about this meant admitting that he knew about other things as well.

"Eve caught us all by surprise," he agreed, tossing the rag into the bucket. He reached for a new one. "I think the whole town will be more cautious the next time a big storm set to strike."

He paused, then started scrubbing vigorously. "And our house will hold. It'll always hold. I made sure of that when I had it built."

[not_a_butterfly]

She nodded, believing him as she usually did. She didn't question his foresight, especially when it came to the house. She didn't fear for anything, at least physically, while she was in the house. Not during a hurricane.

"I hope so," she told him. "I mean about the town. So many people could be hurt if we were hit with something that big again soon." But that made her nervous, so she went back to scrubbing.

[lightsinthewater]

If, not when. If a big hurricane hit again. "Don't worry," he said, still scrubbing the floor like he was trying to make it shine. "We'll be ready for it if it happens again. We know what to do this time."

It was strange to Tom, dealing in ifs like Mariel's gut instinct was just some passing thought or notion.

"We'll get through it. The community's strong."

[not_a_butterfly]

"We knew what to do last time. We live in Florida, for Christ's sake. It's not like these are some new weather phenomenon," she told him. She paused in her work, but didn't sit up. Instead, she waited there, lightly brushing her thumb across the bristles of the brush. "Tom. What happened before isn't going to happen again, is it? If another hurricane hits?" She meant about the people going into the water. "Survivors" emerging. But that was a different thought. It didn't come from some deep, halfway buried center in her brain that was telling her what to do. No, rather it was the logical part of her mind that was always there.

[lightsinthewater]

It'd been nine years after the crash and Tom had experienced a hell of a lot of storms and hurricanes in that span of time. He felt a pull each time, a nagging in the back of his brain that told him the rain and the wind were coming, but nothing like what he'd felt when Eve was approaching. It'd almost been exhilarating, the kind of rush he felt when the clouds were gathering. He'd never felt that way before, but then again, Eve had been a special case. Eve had brought the lights back.

If Mariel this way, then yes, the next hurricane would more of them. Hell, he could feel it too.

He paused for a moment, scrubbing a little halfheartedly before giving it up altogether. "I'll get more rags."

[not_a_butterfly]

She was used to not getting answers from him, but this almost seemed different. She wanted to know, but this compulsion to clean didn't go away. It was almost like she was pregnant again, rearranging the blankets for the fifth time on the bed she shared with Russ.

This came from the same place, that deeper part where she wasn't just Mariel. And that frightened her. She frowned a little and just tried to get back to work.

[lightsinthewater]

He stood in the kitchen for a while, taking some time to think while he 'searched' for more cleaning supplies. Yes, more people were going to be taken, but Szura could handle them -- he could handle them. They'd been planning for this for a long, long time, and Tom was sure he had a firm grasp on the situation. Things were going to be okay.

Tom stood in the doorway of the hallway closet, watching her clean for a moment before he got back down on his knees beside her.

"A hurricane always brings change, Mar."

[not_a_butterfly]

She stopped when he knelt beside her. That wasn't right. She didn't understand why it had to change. And why she felt so certain that something was happening.

"I'm still not used to the changes that Eve brought," she told him honestly and then glanced upstairs. "And I'm worried about the kids."

[lightsinthewater]

His jaw tightened as he followed her gaze. He'd been so sure he could take care of his family, but Kira's trip into the water had frightened him, and Jesse had been downright cold towards his mother lately.

Tom tossed the rags into the bucket and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I know, honey. I am too."

But he still had the work camp in the Keys, and he still had the support group at the church, and despite all the hangups and unexpected kinks in his plans he was still in control of this. They would be okay.

[not_a_butterfly]

She leaned against him, letting him comfort her for just a short moment. "But nothing will happen." It felt good to say it, even if she didn't quite agree. "So there's no point in worrying. Just preparing."

[lightsinthewater]

No, she was wrong, something was bound to happen. The next storm would bring more lights, more...hybrids, as Dave and Russ called them now. He couldn't agree with her, but he also couldn't take that small bit of comfort away from her right now.

"We'll get through this, Mar. Together." He rubbed her shoulder and kissed her head, then let go of her to grab one of the rags from where it had been soaking.

[not_a_butterfly]

That response just got a nod from her as she returned to her work. It was easy to see that her mind really wasn't in the conversation, and she had nothing to really hold on to. Except him...and she didn't know if she could rely on him right now.

[lightsinthewater]

He went back to silently scrubbing the floor beside her, thinking that he should probably try to get in touch with Szura tomorrow. Well...today, but at a reasonable hour. Maybe the others were feeling anxious too.

His first thought when he heard the doorbell ring was that maybe he was the only one in the entire town that didn't have insomnia. He tossed the rag back into the bucket and got to his feet. "Who the hell could that be," he muttered.