Chapter Text
There's an Earthquake. An actual, real, dangerous earthquake. Not just little tremors, but big quakes that throw things to the ground.
Frankie squeeze her eyes shut tight, trying to pretend it's all a nightmare. Her hands press against her ears and she hopes, she hopes, that soon enough she'll wake up and all will be fine.
The nightstand next to her fall over, the glass lamp on top of it shattering into a million pieces around her bare hands and feet.The pieces are sharp, cutting up her hands and feet as she crawled across them on her way out into the middle of the room. The tremors are stronger, there, but the amount of things that could fall down on her are fewer and for a few moments, it feels safer.
"Sol!"
She calls out without thinking, and the moment after she realizes her mistake. There was no Sol, not for her.
Another name burns on her lips, but she holds it in this time. That name wasn't hers to claim, either, because it had been claimed by someone else. Snatched away and leaving her sitting in the sand without a meaning to her existence no more.
Frankie was all alone.
Grace awoke with a starle, the tremors running through the bed beneath her enough to send her entire being into a frenzy.
She jumps out of the bed faster than should be possible, only to be left standing on the vibrating wooden floors and looking around Nick's bedroom with panic in her eyes. After a few moments, she finally understand she's not at the beach house anymore.
"Grace? Are you okay?" A warm hand touch her shoulder, and when she turn around Nick's concerned gaze meet hers. "It's okay, baby. It's just an earthquake." The alarm clock on the nightstand behind them falls off the edge with a loud crash, and Nick bite his lip. "Okay, it's a serious Earthquake. We should probably go to the basement." He suggest, gently steering her towards the door.
Grace follows willingly, but meanwhile her brain is working double-time trying to figure out what it is that feels so wrong, what it is she is so sure she has forgotten...until it suddenly hit her and she nearly scream. "Frankie!"
The look that Nick gives her is strange, and sad. "Cuckoo can handle herself" He says, and his voice lack all the humour he normally dedicate to his wife's clingy roommate.
"She's a seismophobe" Grace tries, even though she doesn't know what she expects Nick to say or do. "Earthquakes terrify her."
Nick just sigh. "We'll check in when it's over" He squeeze her hand, silently continuing to lead her on down the stairs towards the basement.
Grace just nod.
There is nothing she can do.
"Sol hurry!" Robert nearly scream, impatiently gesturing towards the door to the cellar. Normally, he did not care much about the catastrophes that has been such a natural part of life after living in California for so long, but these tremors were already knocking things over and he wasn't taking any chances.
"She's not answering!" Sol shake his phone uselessly, his heart racing as he failed to get an answer from Frankie's mobile phone.
He had tried very hard to give Frankie more space, because he knew she needed it. He had tried to give her time to heal and be herself without him. But that didn't mean he would abandon her, and after assuring that Buddha and Coyote had both found shelter, he'd called her phone.
"Well, there's nothing to be done about it!" Robert doesn't mean to be harsh - he know Frankie is a class A seismophobe, and he knew that meant his partner worried about her wellbeing more than one should for their ex wifes.
At least, he told himself it was about the seismophobia.
"But" Sol feels torn, shifting his gaze from the phone to the trembling landscape outside their windows, flinching as their fruit bowl slid off the table, spreading apples and oranges everywhere. "Fine" He doesn't want to fold like that, wants to do something more, but knows it's all beyond his powers now.
The gods had thrown the dice, and he rolled with the punches.
Robert sigh once more, laying a hand on his husbands shoulders. "We'll drive over there when it's over" He promises, knowing it will do little to comfort but being out of other options to offer.