Chapter Text
The car Dana had arranged was a standard family liaison vehicle, grey and anonymous. Robby watched them pull up from the living room window like he hadn't been waiting, watching the road for the last twenty minutes. Jack was behind him, leaning in the kitchen doorway with his coffee, and he didn't say anything about the watching.
"They're here," Robby said.
"I can see that," Jack said, “Ready?”
Robby didn't move for a second, no chance of response. He just watched the car pull in and then went to the door.
—
The first thing he noticed was that they didn't come out together, not like when Frank had arrived and was desperate to get out of the car.
Dana got out first and opened the back door. He could see her crouch down slightly at the back door and speak for a moment before Trinity got out. The little girl stood small and nervous behind the car door but didn’t move from there, watched someone out of view instead. There was more of a pause, and then Elizabeth got out. Like she needed a moment before she could make herself do it. She stood on the pavement with a small bin bag held against her chest and looked at the house.
Trinity followed Dana towards the front door once she had her bag and was already a few steps ahead when she stopped realising Elizabeth wasn't with her. She turned with ease and came back to the car without looking like she'd made a decision to do it, just reversed course, stood next to her. Not touching, not telling her to move. Just there.
Robby held the door open but kept his distance when they finally got to the front of the house, trying not to fill the frame.
"Hey. Come on in."
Trinity looked at him. Really looked. It was an assessing look, the kind of look that was trying to work out something specific and knew she needed to be on the lookout for any potential threat. She had a sports bag over one shoulder, scuffed trainers, and her hair pulled back tight. A bruise, faded yellow, on the side of her jaw, which Robby clocked and didn’t yet react to.
Elizabeth was in a dress that went down past her knees, with long sleeves and her hair pulled into two very neat matching braids, a small plain cross on a thin chain at her throat. She looked younger than seven, somehow, or maybe just.. smaller. Her eyes were enormous. She was looking into the house, scoping out the environment, looking ahead for any surprises, her eyes dropped down to the floor again.
"I'm Robby," he said. "This is Jack. Come in, it’s just us here the others are at school."
—
He gave them the tour, taking it slow and introducing them to the space. It felt slightly absurd, saying ‘this is the kitchen, this is the living room,’ to two children who were clearly doing their own cataloguing of everything regardless of what he said. But he knew it was important to show them that basically no room was off limits, that this was their home to explore too now, that this is where the snacks were kept that they had free access too whenever, that this was how the bathroom locked from the inside so no one would come in. Trinity walked half a step ahead that Elizabeth, taking it in with her chin slightly up through her eyes weren’t as confident as her body language tried to show. Elizabeth followed, and her eyes went everywhere, the photos on the wall, the coats on the hooks by the door, the printed schedule on the fridge with its velcro symbols. That caught her eye.
She stopped at the fridge.
Robby stopped with her, giving her a second in the quiet to see if she would ask anything, before filling the silence with an explination anyway.
"That's our house schedule," he said. "It's up there because routine helps us all know what's happening. It's got lots of different symbols here we can swap in, so when we have breakfast time, when we go to school, when we have free time, we can even add these ones for if we want to go out for dinner, or if we have doctors apointments. If something's changing, we move the symbols around the day before so everyone knows. It was initially Mel’s doing, you’ll meet her later, but I think its handy for everyone most days”
Elizabeth looked at it for a long time. She didn't say anything. But looking across the pictures did seem to soften a bit of tension behind her eyes.
"The symbols are velcro," Jack said, from behind them, crouching down the the little girls height with a spare card in his hands offering it up to her. "So they can move with us. If there's something you want to add, an activity you like to do or somewhere you need to go, we can make a symbol for it. Like look here, these ones are for Trinity, we were told she has gynmanstics practices so here she can move these to when she needs to go."
Elizabeth's hand came up very slightly, like she was going to touch the symbol, and then went back down to her side. So close to a breakthrough so soon but she knew how dangerous reaching out could be and she wanted more time to get a feel of the house first.
Trinity had come back and was standing just behind Elizabeth's left shoulder. She glanced at the schedule and then at Robby.
"What are the rules," she asked.
Direct. No preamble. Robby had the impression she'd learned that asking straight out was faster than waiting for the version they wanted to give you.
"I'll go through them properly in a minute, don’t worry theres not many." he said. "Let me show you your rooms first."
The rooms were at the end of the hall. They'd been up until nearly one double and tripple checking they were sorted. Jack had made up the beds in the dark while Robby made sure the little welcome packs were stocked. Made sure they had new toiletaries and a couple items of clothes, a stuffed toy each and snacks for their room. They'd put a plant in Elizabeth's because Robby had read in the file that she'd had lived on a farm at one point and it seemed like it might mean something, he wasn't sure, it might be completely wrong, but it was there, some form of connection to the outside again.
Trinity looked at her room and simply said "okay" and put her bag down on the bed.
Elizabeth stood in the doorway of hers and looked in, not seeimg all that confident. The plant was on the windowsill, a small potted thing, green and unremarkable. Her eyes went to it and stayed there, but complelty avoided the pink wall and bedding laid out for her.
"You don't have to keep it," Robby said. "If you don't want it."
She shook her head, very small. He thought that meant she did want it. He hoped it meant that. But when she didn’t move for a moment away from the doorway, Trinity came to investigate.
It didnt take long, as soon as the older girl saw Elizabthes face and looked around the room she knew something wasn’t right. She pulled the younger one into her own green room and put herself inbetween her and the dads, muttering out of ear shot for a few minutes before the two rejoined the group.
Trinity spoke for both of them, “Can I have that room and can Eli have the green room… with her plant… if that’s okay”
While Elizabeth stood small behind her, eyes firmly locked on the floor.
“Yeah, we can make that work,” Robby said. “Green room’s yours if you want it.” He glanced over. “That sound okay, Elizabeth?”
She nodded small, but her shoulders lifted ever so genlty
"Take some time to get yourselves sorted," Abbot said. "Both of you. Your stuff is yours, your rooms are yours. No one comes in without knocking. That goes for us as well. Unless there's an emergency, this is your private space so do what you need to make it feel like yours."
Trinity looked at him. Something shifted slightly in her face, almost imperceptible. "That's actually a rule?"
"That's actually a rule," Abbot confirmed.
She didn't say anything to that, just nodded once, and went into her room and didn't quite close the door all the way, which Robby suspected was intentional, keeping it slightly open so she could hear Elizabeth's room.
—
Downstairs Dana had was at the kitchen table with a folder and a coffee that Abbot had put in front of her on autopilot. . The house was quiet except for the soft sounds of movement from upstairs.
"How do they seem," Dana said.
"Elizabeth didn't say anything, but I think thats too be expected. She seems a skittish thing" Robby said. "Trinity’s more outspoken which is good asked about the rules before anything and seem’s to like to know what’s going on."
Dana nodded like this was consistent with what she knew. "Trinity's been in enough placements to know that rules are the thing that change most. We’ve unfortunatly had to remove her from homes abusing the system before so she might take some time to warm up to you. She's not difficult, I want to be clear about that, she's not going to make your life hard deliberately. She's just, she’s been through a lot and needs to have some caring figures around."
"What happened in the last placement," Abbot said. "The file is thin on that."
"The carer's mother had a stroke. She had to go and be with her family. It genuinely wasn't anything to do with the girls." Dana turned a page. "Before that was six months with another family. That ended because of endangerment to the kids, we still haven’t had the full story from Trinity but we’re not pushing at the moment." She paused. "She was close to the carer's daughter. She doesn't show things like that but she took it hard."
Robby thought about the chin up, the flat assessing look, the question about rules. All consistent with someone trying to hide how much she’d been through so she wouldnt feel vulnerable again.
"Elizabeth," Jack said.
Dana's expression shifted slightly, became more careful. "Elizabeth's file is longer than her age should probably allow." She looked at them both. "The community she was raised in… we've been working with safeguarding on this for some time. The practices were, they were severely harmful. Multiple children have been removed. Elizabeth was one of the last because the family had managed to keep her quite contained out of the public eye. The school she'd been attending was connected to the community. Limited outside contact. From what we know, it was akin to a Sunday school instead of actual grades. She still need’s assesment to see just what stage she is at." A pause. "There was abuse. Physical, well it's documented, seemed to be some salvation type thing. The religious element is significant, the beliefs have been very deeply instilled from birth, and they were used as a mechanism of control. We're still working out the shape of what that means for her."
Robby was looking at the table.
"She may have views that seem… unusual," Dana continued. "Beliefs she's been taught that aren't… that are harmful. The guidance is not to challenge them head-on. She needs to arrive at her own understanding on her own timeline. Cassie, the therapist I mentioned, she has a lot experience with trauma and has been found to be very helpful with religous trauma specifically. She's already agreed to take Elizabeth on when she’s settled."
"She doesn't speak," Robby said.
"She can. She does, occasionally. She's not non-verbal. But she shuts down in unfamiliar environments and around people she doesn't trust, and she hasn't had many reasons to trust quickly." Dana looked at him. "She's going to need time. More time than feels comfortable probably. She needs to see that the household is consistent. That the rules don't change. That what you say is what you mean."
"Okay," Robby said.
"Trinity will advocate for her," Dana said. "More than she probably should for a nine year old. Keep an eye on that. Trinity tends to take on too much, she makes herself responsible for people. She’s protective and it can cost her."
Abbot nodded.
"School for Trinity… she's transferring to the school up the road, they're expecting her Thursday as long as she’s ready, any issues just call and I’ll sort it. She's got gymnastics and cheer, those are important to her, we need to keep those in place. I've got the club contacts. Gynastics is after school on a Monday so she’ll start again next week. Cheer she does during school so pick up won’t be effected." Dana slid a sheet across the table. "Elizabeth won't start school until we've done the transition planning. That process should involve her, she needs to have some input. She responds better when she's had time to prepare for something."
"We can do this," Abbot said. "We've done similar before."
Dana smiled slightly. "I know you have." She closed the folder. "Is there anything you need from me right now."
"Not right now," Robby said.
"I'll check in Thursday. Call me before that if anything comes up." She stood. "Can you get them down? I want to say goodbye properly."
—
They came down without fuss when Robby knocked on Trinity's door and asked. Elizabeth, appearing in her doorway a second after Trinity appeared in hers, she’d been listening for Trinity's door, which meant whatever was between them was already well established.
Dana said goodbye to them both, addressed them by name, made eye contact. She said she'd see them soon, made sure they had her number, and reassured that this was a good house. Trinity received this politely. Elizabeth looked at Dana and then at the floor and then at the plant on the kitchen windowsill that was visible from the hall, not the same plant as the one upstairs but there was a one down here as well, and Robby made a note of that, the way her eyes found it.
Dana took them both aside and made sure to talk them through any last concerns they had. Only once she was sure Elizabeth was calm enough and that Trinity wasn’t going to burst into a panic the moment she left. Then Dana was gone, and it was just the four of them.
Robby had told them they could just… settle in, unpack if they wanted, come down when they felt like it. No rush. Nothing planned until dinner. Trinity been upstairs and he’d half expected that to be it for a while, at least until he called them down again, but maybe twenty minutes later she showed up in the kitchen doorway.
She had stood in the doorway for a long moment before she’d spoken. She’d meant to just come down at get this over with but she’d frozen at the first step in. She needed to know what would happen, needed to know how much of a threat this home could be this soon. She’d heard one of the dad’s alone in the kitchen and gone to check it out. She did feel mildly safer after Dana had told her it was too gay dads, but still being in a house with two adult males was still enough to make her uneasy.
"Can I have something to eat," she said, voice restrained, seeming like she was almost testing something
"Of course," Robby said immediately. "Help yourself, the fruit bowl's on the counter, and there’s a snack cabinate I can show you, or if you want I can help you make something?"
She followed him. That was fine. She kept track of the doorway without meaning to, the way she always did, the distance and whether anything was in the way. It was automatic now, she barely noticed she was doing it anymore. The kitchen was bright, at least. Wide. The back window let a lot of light in.
He led her over to a cabinet in the kitchen, crouching down because it was clearly made to be at kid level. Opening it up it was split into two, the top was filled with packets of snacks, crisps, chocolate bars, protein bars, crackers, fruit snacks, and more. The bottom was made into a mini fridge which he opened up to show portioned out fruit and veggies, drinks, yoghurt cups and cheese strings. Everything you could want as a nine year old and more.
"This is always available for you or Elizabeth to access. The older kids who can reach a little higher just tend to use the main fridge and cupboards. Jack and I ask if you do take any food from here you bring any containers or packaging down to the bin just to avoid any bugs. And if anything runs out or there's something specific you want we can get those, they just go on the list on the fridge."
He was crouched down and she was standing and that was somehow worse, it meant she couldn't see his face properly without looking directly at him. She focused on the cabinet. It was a lot of food. She'd been in houses where they showed you things like this on the first day and then it turned out there were rules around it that you only found out about by breaking them. She needed to know before she touched anything.
She was already looking in the cupboard. She took a cheese string hesitantly and held it for a second. "Is there anything I'm not allowed?"
"No. It's food, it's there for everyone."
She pealed a little bit back and leaned against the counter. Her pulse was racing under her skin and she couldn’t make it stop, even when nothing was happening. He’d stood back up again now and she was close enough this time that she couldn’t stop the images flashing through her mind before she registered that she had chosen this, she had come down to find out, so find out.
She looked out the back window instead to try and distract herself, which had a view of the garden. It looked fun enough, stretching long with a grassy lawn and the edge sprouting wildflowers. There was a little pond near an old swing set. She could picture herself playing with Elizabeth there one day like she used to with kids at other placements, well she could if Elizabeth knew how to play, Trinity had learned that Elizabeth didn't know a lot apparently.
"Elizabeth hasn't unpacked," she said.
"That's okay. She doesn’t have to. No rush on any of that. Sometimes, it can take a little while to feel like you can stay."
Trinity looked out to the garden, avoiding any eye contact. "She has this thing where she thinks if she puts her stuff down somewhere, it means she's staying, and then it's worse when she has to go."
Robby didn’t answer straight away. “Yeah,” he said after a second. “That… yeah. That makes sense.”
"It doesn't matter," Trinity said, which was clearly not what she meant. "I just thought you should know."
"Thank you for telling me."
She looked at him sideways, a brief glance, checking something. He was just standing there. Not closer than before. She looked back at the garden. She was still holding the half-eaten cheese string. Her sleeves were pushed up slightly at the right wrist not on purpose, long-sleeved despite the heating being on, and at the edge of the sleeve on her left arm, where it sat against the counter, there were pale marks that weren't bruises. He didn't look. He made a specific point of not looking.
"You can stay down here if you’d like," he said. "You don't have to go back up, the kitchen and living rooms are all communal and free reign."
"I want to check on her in a bit."
"Okay."
She didn’t say anything else, simply slunk out of the kitchen and back upstairs leaving Robby alone again. On the way up she let out a long slow breath. It didn't mean anything yet. One time didn't mean anything. But she'd stayed the whole time and nothing had happened, and she filed that away without letting herself think too much about it. Maybe it was just too soon to tell, maybe he was trying to win her trust so she wouldn’t tell. Maybe, maybe, this was a problem to remeber later, not right now.
—
Elizabeth came down on her own at about three. Robby was in the living room going through some of the forms that needed to get done and Jack had taken over in the kitchen. She appeared in the hallway very quietly, holding the small cross around her throat out of habit, rubbing her thumb across the smooth cool metal. She didn't come all the way in, instead opting to stay just at the thershold not quite sure her place here yet.
Robby knew first hand what entering a new strange home could be like, he assumed it was even harder when you had such expectations drilled into you so young. The living room was lived in, soft lights, the TV off, pictures and paintings on the walls and an array of books and textbooks all over the shelves. There was soft music coming from somewhere that filled thr ground floor of the house and Robby sat in the middle of it on the sofa.
Robby looked up. "Hey," he said softly. "You okay?"
She looked at him. She had very dark eyes, this kid. She just watched things. So he didn’t try to push, just went back to his forms without any sort of expectation of what came next. She didn’t fidget much more from where she stood, stayed perfectly still and brought her hands to be clasped in front of her. Robby watched in his periphery as she stood unsure and still, none of her teachings quite lining up to this experience. It was like she was waiting to be told what to do, waiting for instruction or action that didn’t come.
Eventually after their standoff, she very carefully made her way inside the room. She looked at the different seating arrangements for a moment before sliding to the floor to sit where Robbys legs were, back straight and hands in her lap.
Robby looked down at her for a second. "You can sit up here if you want," he said, patting the sofa cushion next to him. “It’s more comfortable than the floor”
But she didn’t look up, only slightly shook her head and stayed where she was sat. Jack came in a few moments later, having watched the scene play out from the kitchen. He brought with him a glass of water that he laid on the coffee table, low enough for Elizabeth to be able to reach it. Something crossed her face which was hard to read but she was still uncertain and her hands stayed in her lap until Jack spoke again,
“For you kid, you can drink if you’re thirsty”, which she took as a rule, an order. Small hands holding the glass and both staying on the cup as she drank small mouthfulls.
Not too long later Trinity appeared in the doorway, looking for the younger girl. She froze at the scene, panic taking over any rational thought seeing the girl she’d become protective over, kneeling beside their new foster dad. She didn’t wait for an explanation, simply walked over and pulled the little girl with her to sit on the floor by the opposite sofe. Neither said anything but being further away had Trinities breaths slowing back down while Elizabeth went to touch the end of a rug but in feeling the fibers under her fingers pulled back like it had burned.
—
The front door went at twenty past three.
Frank came in with the uneven rhythm of him, today better than this morning — he'd gone back up for his stick at some point, probably after he'd left but it must have helped because he was moving more steadily. He came through the hall and stopped in the living room doorway and looked at the two girls.
Trinity looked back. Elizabeth's eyes came up briefly and then dropped.
Frank was seventeen and not small and Robby watched Trinity's hands come into her lap, not quite tensed but ready. Frank must have noticed too bevcause he stayed by the doorway rather than coming closer too soon. He leaned against the frame, comfortable, like that was just where he'd been planning to stand.
"Hi," he said. "I'm Frank. I live here." He said it simply, no performance. "You all right?"
Trinity looked at him for a long silent moment before muttering a small “yeah”
Meanwhile Elizabeth kept her head and eyes down with her mouth shut.
“So you must be Trinity, and this must be Elizabeth? Does she talk?”
“Not to strangers” Trinity replied a little too quickly with a slight edge, setting down a boundry that Elizabeth was not to be tested around her
“Fair enough, Mel was non-verbal when she first came here too” Frank didn’t push it, knowing by now when to back off.
He took his bag and walked towards the kitchen when Jack was starting on after school snacks and dinner. Choosing to stay out of the way of the new two girls, keeping them involved but not getting too close.
The front door went again at three twenty-seven.
Mel always used her key, always. The sound of it was specific, key in lock, pause, handle down, door opening the exact amount she needed to get through without having to push it far. Robby heard it from the living room, and Elizabeth's head came up sharply not expecting someone else to come in too soon.
"That's Mel," Robby said. "She lives here. She's fifteen."
Elizabeth looked up at the door briefly to see who’d come in. Mel dropped her bag in its spot, and headed for the kitchen without acknowledging anyone, headphones on tight. She didn’t pause in her path as she headed to the counter where her snack was alreadyset out, Jack had done it the moment he had confirmation Mel was on the bus home.
Trinity was watching the doorway. "Is she…"
"She has her after-school routine," Robby said quietly. "She'll come and say hello when she's done. Mel likes to stick to her schedule, like the one you saw on the fridge that was set up for her, it helps her stay calm and know whats happening.."
Trinity absorbed this. She looked at Elizabeth, who was watching the kitchen with something that might have been recognition, the idea of a thing you needed to do the same way every time, the comfort of a fixed sequence, blocking out excess noise, flapping her hands without getting punished. She watched the older girl go by with more eye contact than she had shown all day
—
Mel finished her snack at three fifty-three exactly. She put her plate in the sink, rinsed it, dried it, put it back in the cupboard. Then she took her headphones off finally and set them on the counter. Standing for a moment in the kitchen, which was where Frank now was, eating toast directly over the sink the way Jack hated but was ignoring for now.
"There are two new people in the living room," Mel said.
"I know," Frank said. "I met them."
"You met Trinity. You didn't meet the little one."
"She didn't say anything."
"That doesn't mean you met her." Mel thought about this. "Did you introduce yourself to her."
Frank looked at her. "I said my name."
"That's not the same as introducing yourself." She picked up her headphones, then put them back down just to have something to do with her hands. She was working something out. Then she went to the living room doorway, stood there and looked at the sofa. Trinity looked back. Elizabeth looked at Mel and then at the floor.
"I'm Mel," Mel began, wanting to introduce herself properly. "I live here. I've lived here for about a year but I’m a foster kid still. The schedule on the fridge is partly because of me because I find it hard when I don't know what's happening during the day. I'm autistic. I'm telling you that because it's relevant and I don't like explaining my behaviour without context." She looked at Elizabeth directly. "You don't have to say anything. I understand that talking isn't always something people can do all the time very easily. I don't always want to talk either."
Elizabeth looked up at her with enormous watchful eyes.
Then Mel turned and stepped towards her favourite spot on the sofa, because that was apparently the introduction she had prepared, and it was done.
Trinity turned and looked at Elizabeth. Elizabeth was still looking at the doorway where Mel had been. There was something in her face that was hard to name. Not quite a smile. Softer than that.
—
Silence settled again, not uncomfortable but a little cautious. Elizabeth had finally let herself half look at the TV, watching the pictures flash of whatever Frank had put on but was staying present in the room and listening out. Frank shifted on the sofa and caught Trinity’s eyes who turned the moment she heard noise she couldn’t see, shoulders up and tracking movmenets. He noticed and made a point to look away and settle obviously so she knew he wasn’t a threat letting Trinity relax again.
Only when he got up to walk to the kitchen, this time grabbing a small cane that had been tucked in the side of the room to support himself did Trinity allow herself to ask Mel some questions.
After a moment: "How old is he."
"Seventeen," Mel said. "He has a bad back. That's what the stick's for."
Trinity said nothing. She was doing the thing where you file information away without letting on that you're filing it.
"Has he been here long," she said, after a bit.
"About a year."
"Before you?"
"Yes."
Another beat.
"Is he." Trinity stopped. Started again, quieter. "Is he all right."
Mel considered this genuinely. "Yes," she said. "He's loud sometimes but it's not the bad kind of loud."
Elizabeth's hands had unclaped in her lap. She'd put them flat on her knees instead, which wasn't much, but it was something.
"Do you do gymnastics? " Trinity asked, lower, like she was asking something she didn't want to care about.
"I don't, do you do much?" Mel asked in return
"Yeah, I got a scholarship to a gym, I get to do extra practices when I don’t have cheer at school" A pause. "I do both. Did. At my old school."
Mel looked at her. "Will you get to keep doing it."
"Dana said the new school has a cheer squad. And I think my old gym isn’t too far from here." She said it the way you say something when you're not letting yourself believe it yet. "So probably."
"That's good."
Neither noticed when Frank had walked back in with a glass of water, sitting back down and catching the end part of their conversation.
"The sports hall at that school's actually decent, I went there before I moved to the high school. They've got a proper sprung floor and everything."
Trinity looked at him. He didn't look back, just kept watching the screen. Her expression did something complicated, something that was almost curiosity but not ready to be curiosity yet.
"How do you know what a sprung floor is," she said, flat.
"My mate does judo. Went to watch him once."
A beat.
"Judo's not the same as gymnastics," she said.
"No, but the floor's the floor isn't it."
She didn't answer that. But she also didn't look away from him immediately, which was different from before.
Elizabeth had turned her head, just slightly, toward the conversation. Not joining it. Just listening.
Mel said, to no one really, "I don't know what a sprung floor is."
"It bounces," Trinity said. "Normal floors don't. It's better for landing."
"Oh." Mel thought about this. "That makes sense."
Silence.
Frank said, to the television, "Dinner'll be soon. It's pasta Tuesday."
"You have pasta every Tuesday?" Trinity said.
"Mel likes it. So yeah."
"What if you don't like pasta."
"Do you not like pasta?"
A beat.
"No, I like pasta," Trinity said, slighlty defensively, like she wasn’t sure if saying she didn’t meant she wouldn’t get food.
"Right then." He shifted, reaching for his stick. "It's good pasta as well, not just like. Jar sauce."
Trinity looked at him. He looked back this time, just for a second, and it wasn't a challenge, just a look, and he looked away again first.
She said nothing. But her feet came down off the sofa cushion. Just a little. Just enough.
At ten to six Mel stood up, automatic, the way all of Mel's time was automatic.
"I set the table," she said, not requiring acknowledgement, just saying it so it was known to the two younger girls where she was going, and went out to the kitchen. There was the sound of the drawer, the placemats, the familiar small rhythm of her beginning.
Trinity watched where she'd gone. Then looked back at the room, at Frank still on the sofa, at Elizabeth on the floor.
"Do we just." She stopped. "Do we wait?"
"Yeah," Frank said. "Dad'll shout when it's ready."
Trinity looked at Elizabeth, who was looking at the doorway Mel had gone through. There was something on her face that wasn't a question exactly, but was similar to the shape of one.
Trinity's hand found the back of her sleeve again. Light. Just there.
From the kitchen, the warm smell of it coming through the whole downstairs, Jack's voice: "All right, everyone in."