[ There are only a handful of people on the planet who can compliment her on her work and have her take their words at face value - none of them are in her industry, all of them she considers family.
That Raleigh is looking at her with admiration in his eyes. It makes her smile, shyly - dammit isn't the tea done yet - because the way she functions in journalism is just the way she is. It's not so much breathing as picking out what clothes to wear for the day. She enjoys it, she lives it, and she's a little stunned when people tell her sometimes that for someone who has gone through the gauntlet with the bigwigs, it's incredible how she's held onto her ideal of keeping what they do classy. Of using their tools for good.
And then he says that. And it's not about her work. It's about her. And she's not dumb or blind, not stupid. She's caught the way Raleigh's looked at her sometimes and once or twice she's wondered about it and what it meant. And in the last year he's been such a part of their lives, she can't imagine her little girl not having him to talk to or brag about or say Mom, Mom. Look what Uncle Raleigh sent. Post cards and pictures and e-mails - he's just so great with her it sometimes hurts to look.
But doesn't he have Mako?
There's a moment when her eyes do fall to his mouth, the thought I wonder if... snapping her back to reality. She turns away and grasps for something to focus on because over-steeped tea is no good and dammit, why are her hands are shaking.
She's attracted to Raleigh Becket. Cares about his involvement in their lives and oh fuck, what is this a take two of what never happened nearly a decade ago? The teaspoon in her hand actually slips and she tries to catch it before it clatters to the floor and fails and then her hands are covering her face. Oh god, she must be so red.
Get it together Sokolov. You're not sixteen for pete's sake. ]
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That Raleigh is looking at her with admiration in his eyes. It makes her smile, shyly - dammit isn't the tea done yet - because the way she functions in journalism is just the way she is. It's not so much breathing as picking out what clothes to wear for the day. She enjoys it, she lives it, and she's a little stunned when people tell her sometimes that for someone who has gone through the gauntlet with the bigwigs, it's incredible how she's held onto her ideal of keeping what they do classy. Of using their tools for good.
And then he says that. And it's not about her work. It's about her. And she's not dumb or blind, not stupid. She's caught the way Raleigh's looked at her sometimes and once or twice she's wondered about it and what it meant. And in the last year he's been such a part of their lives, she can't imagine her little girl not having him to talk to or brag about or say Mom, Mom. Look what Uncle Raleigh sent. Post cards and pictures and e-mails - he's just so great with her it sometimes hurts to look.
But doesn't he have Mako?
There's a moment when her eyes do fall to his mouth, the thought I wonder if... snapping her back to reality. She turns away and grasps for something to focus on because over-steeped tea is no good and dammit, why are her hands are shaking.
She's attracted to Raleigh Becket. Cares about his involvement in their lives and oh fuck, what is this a take two of what never happened nearly a decade ago? The teaspoon in her hand actually slips and she tries to catch it before it clatters to the floor and fails and then her hands are covering her face. Oh god, she must be so red.
Get it together Sokolov. You're not sixteen for pete's sake. ]