Work Text:
Elizabeth MacMillan didn't cry on the Fishers' last day in Australia. Phryne was the one being forced to abandon her home, her friends, her search for Janey... All that was difficult enough. She didn't need to bear the weight of Mac's pain too. And in Mac’s experience, crying rarely helped a situation anyway.
Sure, that time they were caught breaking into Mr Fisher’s liquor cabinet, and Mac tearfully declared to Mrs Fisher that she was just practicing sanitizing wounds so she could become a doctor… crying had helped then.
And when they snuck out to go to Bobby Callis's party in Carlton, crying had absolutely helped. Janey's crying, specifically. Phryne had bribed her little sister to kick up enough of a fuss to sidetrack any grown-ups that came near the bedroom. Janey had put on her best performance and successfully kept the adults distracted until Phryne returned home.
But crying now wouldn't prevent her best friend from moving to England, so Elizabeth MacMillan didn’t cry.
What she did do was squeeze her so hard that Phryne let out a pained grunt, but Phryne's arms were wrapped around Mac just as tightly. It wasn't enough, but it was all they had.