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"Morgan? You home?"
"I’m in the kitchen," Morgan calls out, taking a sip from her wine.
Glenn appears moments later, leans against the doorway, curious but trying not to show it. "Hey, babe."
"Hey yourself," Morgan says, walking over to Glenn and dropping a kiss on his cheek. "I haven’t seen you all day. Where’d you go this morning?"
Glenn returns her affection with a peck of his own. "Sorry ‘bout that, babe. Just needed some time to myself. You know how it is, right?"
Morgan raises an eyebrow. "At three in the morning?"
"You know how it is," Glenn repeats, and Morgan snorts.
"Sure. I get it. How was work?"
"It was fine. Had some cancellations, ended up pretty slow, so I called it a day," Glenn pauses. "Where’s Nick?"
"Out with his little friends. Mercedes’ boys, Samantha’s, the Wilsons’," Morgan says, taking another sip from her wine glass before returning her attention to the stove. She moves the pot from the back and places it on one of the front burners. "He’s been spending so much time by himself lately, so when he asked if he could stay late after school, I couldn’t say no. But they’re good kids; I trust them to be careful."
"Makes sense. Glad to see him out and about," Glenn says. He looks relieved, and Morgan doesn’t have time to ask before he’s turning his attention to her. "And what have you been up to? You didn’t have work today?"
"No," Morgan says, finally turning on the front burner to heat the pot sitting on the stove. "It’s my day off. Didn’t do much, just tidied up the house. Ran some errands." Morgan smiles. "Made your favorite for dinner," she says coyly.
To Morgan’s surprise and annoyance, Glenn laughs. "What? You? In the kitchen? That’s good, Freeman. Nice one."
Morgan’s smile fades, and she glares. "Wow, really? I try to do something nice for you and you laugh in my face?
"Damn, sorry! Sorry! It’s just…" Glenn wraps his arm around Morgan in a loose hug, still snickering quietly. "You just… surprised me. I know how much you don’t like cooking. I’m just teasing, babe. I didn’t think you’d take it like that. You usually don’t."
Morgan lets herself be held, just for a moment, before she shrugs off Glenn’s arm around her. She turns back to the stove, partly to adjust the heat but also partly to hide the childish pout on her lips. "I know I’m not great at it, but somebody has to do it! And I know you’re usually so busy, I feel like it has to be me." Morgan shakes her head, frustrated, swirling the wine around in her wine glass. "You’ve been so… out of it lately, sweetheart. I wanted to do something nice for you. I just figured I could use this day off from the pharmacy to—"
Morgan stops, the cold shock of dread freezing and shattering the words in her throat. She turns back to look at Glenn, sees her stunned silence mirrored in the look on his face.
"…Congrats on the secret med school?" Glenn’s voice is thin, weak, barely-there, the ghost of his laughter etched in the still upturned corner of his lips.
"Oh my God," Morgan raises a horrified hand over her mouth. "Oh my God. Oh my God, Close, what the fuck? "
"Morgan—"
"Don’t touch me! I need a minute," Morgan says, reaching behind her to turn off the stove.
Glenn nods, too quickly. "Sure! Sure, babe! Take all the time you need! You want me to take care of the—?"
Morgan ignores Glenn’s ineffectual gestures of placation, just grabs the pot by the handles and dumps it into the sink—then, sweeps her wine glass into the sink, too, as hard as she possibly can, feeling a grim, twisted sense of satisfaction when it shatters and spills red everywhere. She can’t seem to walk fast enough as she beelines her way out of the kitchen, brushing past Glenn as she does so.
"Or you can do that, that’s cool, too. Cool. Cool. Cool. Super cool."
— — —
"Do you even like chicken curry, Glenn," Morgan asks, when she hears rather than sees Glenn approach and sit down next to her on the stoop an unspecified amount of time later—a long amount of time, long enough for Morgan to watch the dusk turn into darkness and the street lights stir from their slumber.
"I don’t… not like it," Glenn says after a moment, laughing weakly. Morgan doesn’t laugh. "Do you," Glenn asks.
"Do I what?"
"Do you like it?"
Morgan says nothing for a while, just stares out into the empty street. "I hate it," she says finally.
Glenn exhales, and Morgan tries not to think too hard at how it sounds like relief. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"About what," Morgan says crossly.
Glenn shrugs helplessly. "About anything?" He shoves his hands in his pockets and he hunches his shoulders, like he's trying to make himself as unassuming as possible. It unnerves her, pisses her off, even, and she's about to say so, when Glenn speaks again. "I guess I just…"
"Just what , Glenn?"
"It's good to hear your voice," Glenn says quietly, and it doesn't matter that his thread of the conversation doesn't match up with hers—it never really matters, because the quiet earnestness of his declaration softens and quells her anger. Glenn only allows himself to sound like that with her , and it unravels Morgan, it always fucking does, every fucking time, and it should infuriate her, but it never does, and Morgan finds that she does , in fact, want to talk. She sighs.
"I’m really glad Nick wasn’t here to see this," Morgan says hoarsely, covering her eyes with her hand. "He’s already been through too much. If he knew that I was falling apart like this…"
"He’d find it reassuring," Glenn says quietly, and Morgan stops, stares at Glenn in surprise. "Not because seeing you so upset makes him happy, but because he’d know that he’s not alone in feeling like this—and neither are you. You’re his mom , Freeman. Shit’s gonna happen—shit has happened— and things change but… not that. Never that."
Glenn looks away. "You’re strong— both of you. You’ll get through this together."
"… we’ll get through this together, magpie. All three of us," Morgan says, finally. She smiles, and, after a moment, Glenn smiles back, and this time Morgan’s glad that he looks relieved.
Glenn puts a tentative hand on Morgan’s back, and Morgan lets him. She takes Glenn’s other hand and squeezes it tightly. Glenn hesitates, just for a moment, before returning Morgan’s hold with equal intensity, closing his eyes as he leans his head on her shoulder.
They sit together, side by side.
They don't let go.