“Whiskey,” John answers, faster perhaps than is polite. He offers her a somewhat sheepish smile — with both eyes, yes, thank heavens for that — before adding, “If you please. I think we could both use a proper drink.”
Being in this place… It may not truly be Lallybroch, but it’s likely as close as John will ever get, and the thought of it fills him with many mixed emotions. Having a whiskey to help him get through them all would not be unwelcome, all things considered.
“It has been some time since I set foot in Scotland,” he says, trying to make light conversation to ease the light churning of his insides.
Claire pours a double triple for both of them, then invites him to sit in front of the banked hearth. Drinks poured, she sits beside him so that they can talk properly and holds up her glass to his.
"To Scotland, then. Or at least my very small and likely inaccurate rendering of it." She smiles highly before taking a healthy sip, knowing when they leave the Horizon, they won't feel the effects of the alcohol at all.
"You know, I couldn't go back, before? When I was in my time and I didn't know Jamie'd lived. I avoided Scotland as though it might strike and take away the one piece of Jamie I had left if I dared to go." A very quiet and unspoken superstition. But she'd made her way back, otherwise, she and John truly would be strangers.
"Silly, to think a place could hurt you. And yet, Abraxas seems to be pushing the limits of what I believe."
"But you chose this place for yourself here, now…?" John points out, a gentle question in his voice, though he is not without kindness. He misses Jamie too — had missed him, under different circumstances, both before, and then more recently, when he too thought he had been dead. And then… Then the man has reappeared and John had been fool enough to tell him the truth.
"You did choose this place for yourself now," he points out. Was it to have something of him here with her, he wonders? His expression softens. She had said she thought they both might have died in that storm, and knowing that, knowing that she chose Lallybroch knowing that.
He fights the urge to reach out and take her hand. The pair of them do not know each other well enough, in her mind, for such informalities.
Claire's quiet for a long while, first tracing the rim of her glass with her thumb, then looking at the home in front of her, thinking about the man who built it, brick by brick, at the love that went into Lallybroch.
"I'm very likely never going to see it again." When she looks at John, there's a touch of sadness but not as melancholy as it could be, since she knows both she and Jamie are alive. "Perhaps it's rubbing salt in the wound, but it's where we were happiest when we were younger. We never had a home before Culloden, it was supposed to be this after we changed things. I was supposed to raise a family here."
Taking a long pull from her glass, she savors the burn before speaking again. "Even though those days are long behind me, it's an old dream I've never let go of. I suppose I could have come up with anything else, and yet nothing has ever come to mind."
For her part, a comforting touch wouldn't be unwelcome, It wouldn't even necessarily be surprising, given he knows her. It would, however, cause all her questions to begin swirling in her mind again, about who they are now to one another.
"Have you given any thought as to what your space will resemble?"
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Being in this place… It may not truly be Lallybroch, but it’s likely as close as John will ever get, and the thought of it fills him with many mixed emotions. Having a whiskey to help him get through them all would not be unwelcome, all things considered.
“It has been some time since I set foot in Scotland,” he says, trying to make light conversation to ease the light churning of his insides.
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doubletriple for both of them, then invites him to sit in front of the banked hearth. Drinks poured, she sits beside him so that they can talk properly and holds up her glass to his."To Scotland, then. Or at least my very small and likely inaccurate rendering of it." She smiles highly before taking a healthy sip, knowing when they leave the Horizon, they won't feel the effects of the alcohol at all.
"You know, I couldn't go back, before? When I was in my time and I didn't know Jamie'd lived. I avoided Scotland as though it might strike and take away the one piece of Jamie I had left if I dared to go." A very quiet and unspoken superstition. But she'd made her way back, otherwise, she and John truly would be strangers.
"Silly, to think a place could hurt you. And yet, Abraxas seems to be pushing the limits of what I believe."
no subject
"You did choose this place for yourself now," he points out. Was it to have something of him here with her, he wonders? His expression softens. She had said she thought they both might have died in that storm, and knowing that, knowing that she chose Lallybroch knowing that.
He fights the urge to reach out and take her hand. The pair of them do not know each other well enough, in her mind, for such informalities.
no subject
"I'm very likely never going to see it again." When she looks at John, there's a touch of sadness but not as melancholy as it could be, since she knows both she and Jamie are alive. "Perhaps it's rubbing salt in the wound, but it's where we were happiest when we were younger. We never had a home before Culloden, it was supposed to be this after we changed things. I was supposed to raise a family here."
Taking a long pull from her glass, she savors the burn before speaking again. "Even though those days are long behind me, it's an old dream I've never let go of. I suppose I could have come up with anything else, and yet nothing has ever come to mind."
For her part, a comforting touch wouldn't be unwelcome, It wouldn't even necessarily be surprising, given he knows her. It would, however, cause all her questions to begin swirling in her mind again, about who they are now to one another.
"Have you given any thought as to what your space will resemble?"