but oh what a year

[patrols]

Comments

[braveandstupid]

Yeah. Sounds good.

[And with that she will lead the way out to where Miranda is helping Carol with the food, and she looks up and blinks when she sees her daughter. "Merry Christmas." Her tone is a bit flat, but Elena tries not to let it get to her.]

Merry Christmas. I have a gift for you and Dad.

["Oh." She glances over her shoulder and gestures towards a spare room nearby. "Will in here work?"]

Sure. Yeah that works.

[founderscouncil]

We'll be right back.

( He tells Carol that before letting his wife and Elena enter the room first, before following behind. He gestures for them to sit and so they do on a shared sofa. )

[braveandstupid]

[Elena leads them over to a bench nearby, before passing the wrapped box over to them.

Inside, once they open it, is a photo album.]

I know we've been overloading you guys with a lot of the bad things that happened, and ... there was a lot of bad. But there was some good too.

[And inside the album is pictures of every major life event that they missed. Graduations, gallery openings, first days at work. She even included pages from her diary - avoiding the more scandalous details, but keeping the good feelings.]

So I wanted you to have that, even if Jer and I lose track of it sometimes.

[founderscouncil]

( Grayson and Miranda share the photo album, flipping through slowly. )

Is this a page from your diary?

( He looks up and then to his wife. )

We - we know there have been good things. Thank you.

[braveandstupid]

Nothing too personal, but ... I don't know. I wanted to add some of what I was feeling. So it could have been like you were there.

[Miranda brushes her thumb over the picture of her and Jeremy at Elena's college graduation and she nods. "Thank you, Elena."

She nods with a small smile.]

I know I've been fumbling a lot and I was going to tell you about Isobel. I just wasn't even sure how I really felt about it yet.

[founderscouncil]

There's a lot to feel. And she didn't get in touch with you directly.

( Did she? )

[braveandstupid]

That would be a nice change of pace if she had. But no. She never does. She just shows up and lights everything on fire in her wake.

[She exhales slowly, letting her shoulders slump.]

Isobel has always been hard to talk about on a good day, and the past few have been pretty crazy.

[founderscouncil]

I know. ( Days? Try months. ) If you ever want to talk about her, your mom and I are here.

[braveandstupid]

[Elena nods with a small smile.]

Maybe. But not tonight. We are at a party and I don't want to talk about sad things.