putting things back together

Who: Mickey and Shoshannah
When: Afternoon
Where: Sea and Sky Gallery of Fine Arts

Shoshannah was still dragging. The chance to sit down, sleep a little, and rest for a while had made it even harder for her to tap into that reserve of energy and adrenaline from before. It had depleted somewhat during the downtime of her day and now it was fighting her, making her feel even more tired than before as she stepped out of the cab and just stood on the sidewalk in front of her gallery for a moment.

The sight of her gallery there before her, wounded, was almost more than she could take. The floor to ceiling windows were busted, shattered and smashed. Angelo’s paintings at the front of the gallery in their permanent place on display had been disrespected by the attack; scattered along the floor, some of them hurt just like her gallery. It stung worse than almost anything else, seeing Angelo’s paintings there and knowing that while they had been the reason for all of it, they had also been the first things to get hurt in this process.

But there was something different. There were boards on a few of the broken windows and there seemed to be a rhythmic pounding sound coming from just inside the gallery, like a hammer hitting a nail over and over. That sound was enough for her to break away from the sight of Angelo’s paintings and carefully walk inside the gallery, searching for the source of the sound. “Mickey?”

He’d left Feo and gone straight to the gallery to start working on it. By the time Shoshannah had arrived he’d already cleaned up a good chunk of glass and started into boarding up windows. There was still plenty of work to be done, but he’d stacked what he could of the paintings around, making small progress. It looked a lot better than when he’d arrived, though he’d hoped she’d not come by today. Hearing his name, he slowed the hammer, looking up at her and brushing curls out of his eyes. “Hey,” he answered, not sure what else to say.

For a long moment, Shoshannah watched him, giving him not exactly a smile but a look of appreciation. Mickey was here, doing something he had no need to be doing. Doing something like this for her out of the kindness of his heart. Then she stepped towards him and took a look at what he was doing. "You don't have to do this, you know? You're supposed to be resting just as much as I am. You did get hit in the head, remember?"

Mickey eyed her for a moment, not sure of the look she was giving him. After a moment he shrugged one shoulder and went back to righting up another board over a window. “I’m alright. Head feels fine,” he said. That was somewhat of a lie, but the small throb wasn’t anything he couldn’t ignore. “How are you feeling?” he asked suddenly feeling nervous around her.

"Feeling like I should be the one boarding up the windows and not you," Shoshannah answered instantly. She looked up at the board above her head, wanting to hold it in place at least for Mickey but knowing that if she stretched to do that she would just hurt herself again, not to mention that she was already so short that it was hard to reach the board anyway. "Feeling like there's no amount of dinners I could owe you that would say thank you for what you're doing here."

“I’m pretty sure I’m more qualified for boarding up windows,” Mickey pointed out as he hammered it into place. He was feeling really nervous, very nervous, which had him focusing on his work instead of her. “You don’t owe me dinner Miss Hagel.” It sounded so formal but he couldn’t help it. He was anxious and unsure.

Shoshannah shook her head a little. "I think I do, Mr. Hemmingway," She retorted. "You know it's Shoshannah, Mickey." Glancing at him, Shannah gave it a moment but then looked back up at the boards. "Then what can I do?" She knew what she really wanted to do first. She really wanted to gather the paintings, assess all the damage done to them and go from there, but that might not be what was needed first. It was just what she felt like was needed first.

He had to fight off the blush, looking down at the floor for a moment so his hair fell in his face again. “I know it is. We just...well I know you through Elle.” That he’d been crushing on her for months didn’t make them any closer. It left him wanting to be polite rather than slipping into the closer attitude he’d found when she was hurt. “Whatever you want, though I’m sure you should be resting shouldn’t you?” He glanced back at her, finally looking at her for the first time. “What did the doctors say?”

"But you know me, Mickey. It doesn't matter who you know me through or how we met, but still know me. Please call me Shoshannah..or Shannah. Anything but Miss Hagel or I'm just going to keep calling you Mr. Hemmingway." Giving him a little smile, Shoshannah looked back at the window when he asked her that. "That I should rest, but the doctor was my father so he's overprotective enough anyway. I need to be here."

“Shannah? Like your friends do?” he asked, still not feeling comfortable even though he’d used the nickname before. “If you’re supposed to rest, rest. There’s a chair over there for you to sit in. I’ve got this. If you need to be here, then I won’t send you home, but you you’re still going to rest.” Maybe he was just as overprotective as her father.

"Yes, like my friends do. You're my friend, Mickey," Shoshannah said with that same little smile. Lifting an eyebrow at him, she just kept that smile there as she thought about something. Roy wanted her to rest, Elle wanted her to rest, and now Mickey wanted her to rest too. "I'll rest when I need to. Right now, I need to do something to help. This is my gallery, it was attacked and it's not your obligation to clean it up and fix it, especially not all of it." Looking around, Shoshannah could feel the sting in her again. It was nicer than before thanks to Mickey, but it was still hurt, still wounded, still attacked. "I need to do something," She restated, knowing that she needed to be hands on in this. She needed to fix something so that she knew she could. So that she could start to feel like her gallery was her own again and not at the mercy of masked assailants.

Mickey let go of the work finally moving towards her. “Shannah, I’m doing this for you. So you don’t have to. It’s not an obligation, but something I wanted to do. I was hoping...I was hoping you wouldn’t be by today.” And it would be done she saw it.

Looking up at him, Shoshannah softened a bit. At least he'd called her by her name and not her last name, not so formal. "Mickey, I appreciate this more than you could know," She started gently. "You being here and helping and doing all this work is..it's so kind of you. I just need to do something." She gave a little frown when he said that though. "That I wouldn't be here? Why?"

Kind. That was what she saw not the grand gesture he’d been going for. She saw the sweet boy with the limp who helped others rather than the white knight who cleaned up messes before she had to see them. How selfish of him to even try to make a gesture of devotion out of her plight, but he’d done it anyway. “I was just trying to help, make it easier on you,” he said giving up his gallant attempt to woo her for the moment. “I thought you’d be resting or not...ready to see it.”

Shoshannah took a moment to watch him then looked back at the gallery. There was an instance where something changed. Where the gallery with all its wounds and all the heartache she felt when she saw it shifted. Mickey was here when he should have been resting himself, but instead he was cleaning up a mess that should have fallen to her. He was boarding up windows she should have been doing and yet, he was happy to do so. He was saying he wanted to do this. And in this moment, she wanted to hug him and sob both at the same time. She tried her best not to do the latter, thinking it would frighten him and make him think he'd done something wrong when it was exactly the opposite. Instead, she walked closer to him and hugged him, taking a moment to just stand there. They didn't know each other that well, but they were friends and he'd been there last night just like he was here for her now. "Mickey, thank you," She said softly.

When she went quiet he expected her to say something, anything, but she didn’t. He’d waited, wanting to know what she was thinking because in that moment he couldn’t read her very well. What he hadn’t expected was the hug and for an awkward instant he just stood there with her holding on to him, completely unsure of how to react. It passed and he found himself wrapping his arms around her protectively, cursing himself for enjoying the attention as much as he did. “It was nothing,” he answered just as softly.

Closing her eyes, Shoshannah worked to keep her breathing even. She didn't want to cry. Mickey didn't need to see that. No one but Elle needed to see her cry and even then, she wasn't sure she wanted Elle to see it either because she was afraid it would distress her friend too much. Swallowing hard to keep herself in check, Shoshannah shook her head. "It's something. It's a lot of something, Mickey." This place was her life and it meant so much to know, to see someone wanting to help despite her stubborn need to do it herself. "Thank you," She said again, just as gently.

He’d had sisters at one point and a variety of female friends so he was able to pick up on the fact that she was holding back tears, forcing herself to stay calm. Reaching out he touched her cheek gently, just like he might with Elle or his sisters, ignoring how intimate of a gesture it probably was. “You’re worth it,” he admitted softly.

Taking a moment to just breath, Shoshannah ended up with a little smile on her lips. She hadn't expected him to say something like that, but it was selfishly nice to hear especially after all that had happened. But it left her wondering about something, because it sounded like something you said to someone who was more than a friend. At least that's what it sounded like to her. For now, though, the pull of the gallery and its need to be fixed was too much for her to keep considering the nuisances of Mickey's words. "Thank you," She said softly, pulling back finally to right her hair and straighten her back. Presenting the best front she had, Shoshannah looked back at the wall. "I guess we should get back to work now, huh?"

Mickey let her pull away, cursing his own awkwardness. Looking back at where he’d been working he tried to think of something for her to do. “I stacked the paintings I could over there. Don’t go moving the around, not the big ones at least, but you can see what we need to hang on to?” he suggested before lumbering back towards the windows he was boarding up. “I can finish this up.”

His words hit her hard and she turned to look at the paintings. "We're keeping them all," She said definitively. "I'll try to fix as many as I can but we're keeping them all." Especially Angelo's. She hated to think that certain art or artist's works were considered higher in her opinion, but Angelo's works were special to her and she couldn't stand the thought of getting rid of them at all. "How bad do they look?"

“Right, sorry,” Mickey corrected himself. “I’m not the guy to ask. Some have seen better days though.” He stilled with his hammer, looking at her, not sure if she should be looking at the paintings.

Shoshannah looked back at Mickey. "No, I'm sorry. It's not your fault. I shouldn't snap at you." Turning back towards the paintings, she just stood there for a moment. Part of her was afraid to see them. The ones she'd seen already hurt her beyond explanation, but seeing them all there like that, stacked up and wounded, really hurt. "You sure you don't need help with the windows?"

Mickey watched her eyes for a moment then nodded. “I could use someone handing me nails. Bending over is getting old,” he offered nodding towards his tool box next to him. It wasn’t much but it would delay that painful moment when she had to sort through what was left of her gallery.

"I can do that." It could give her time to collect herself, time she needed to get herself ready to deal with the paintings. Mickey had gotten them inside, it was fine for her to take her time with them. She needed to do this at a pace she could handle and right now, she could handle handing him nails. At least it meant she was helping. Carefully, she picked up the nails and tried not to wince, but held it out for him at a somewhat reasonable height. "How's this? I'm shorter than you..."

“You’re brave to put those pretty hands in the way of my hammer,” Mickey teased taking the nail from her fingers and holding it where he needed it before driving it in with a few sharp blows. “And most people are shorter than me. I’m not exactly a small person.” He held out his hand for another nail but gave her a small smile.”

"Hands can be pretty? I thought hands were just hands..." Shoshannah clung to the diversion of conversation, needing something else to talk about if only for a little while. "Just because you're tall doesn't mean I'm not short. You should see me without my heels on. A bug could squish me, I'm so small."

Mickey held his calloused worker’s hands next to Shoshannah’s for comparison. “I’m fairly certain yours are prettier than mine,” he pointed out. “You’re petite. It fits you. And you’re still bigger than a bug. A rat though, that might be a problem.” He was joking and that gentle charm that helped him fit into any crowd was starting to show as he pulled another nail from her fingers and pounded it in.

Shoshannah couldn’t help but smile a little. At least now they were on joking terms, at least she could let herself focus on teasing Mickey instead of everything else she needed to focus on. “A rat? I think I could take a rat...” She picked up another nail and held it out. “And besides, your hands aren’t ugly. You’ve done good, honest work in your life. That’s not ugly at all.”

"Maybe no one of those huge ones that they grow down in the sprawl. I think I saw one take out a cat once." Mickey smiled, taking the offered nail and hammering it into place. "I'm afraid they might be ugly but it's good to know you appreciate it." Few people did these days.

She repeated the process, holding the nail out again. “They aren’t ugly,” She said, trying to sound definitive and final when she did so. “You know a lot of things I could never hope to know. Like this right here, boarding up windows? No way I could do that.”

Mickey glanced at her with a smirk and took the nail. "Alright, but only because you insist." He finished up with the current board the shifted to the next lining it up. "I couldn't begin to know what you know about art though. And you could do this but you'd need a stool."

“I’d need a ladder,” She corrected. “And everyone knows at least something about art. You at least know what you like and don’t like and from there, you can learn more. You know more than you think you do.” She shrugged a little. “It’s not so much about knowing things, in my opinion. It’s about feeling them. What a piece of art makes you feel, makes you think. That’s the important stuff.”

Mickey chuckled and shook his head. "I'll make sure I bring one," he said about the ladder. Her statement made him smile, appreciating the passion it brought out in her. "I still don't know if I've got the right mind for it. I like green and blue and that's about as far as I get." Pausing for a moment, he rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing the rose tattoo on his arm. Once they were out of he way he went back to work, taking another nail and driving it into the board.

“You would have enjoyed Stella’s paintings then,” She said gently as she looked over her shoulder at the works in a stack. When she looked back, she caught the tattoo on his arm and smiled. “You have a tattoo,” she said then smiled at herself. “I mean, of course you know you have a tattoo. It’s lovely. Like walking artwork.”

"I remember liking some of the paintings. It was likely those," Mickey said. At her comment he grinned. "I do have one and I was aware. I'm glad you like it though. Hate to have to cover it up around you." He didn't offer anything about what it meant or whom it was for. Things like that he played close to the chest no matter how much he liked Shoshannah

He didn't offer and Shoshannah didn't pry. Things like tattoos, she'd found in her limited experience with them, belonged to the people that sported them. It wasn't her place to demand information about his tattoo from him. "I'd hate for you to have to cover it up too. It's lovely, it should see the light of day more."

"It's not the thing that most people approve of," Mickey pointed out. He was truly glad she liked it though. It made him like her even more.

Shoshannah shrugged. "It's still a part of you. The people who don't approve of it are missing something. They just might not understand." Holding out another nail for him, Shoshannah watched as steadily they boarded up one wall. It left her with a range of emotions she was trying not to touch on. Her gallery needed to be fixed but having it shut down had never really been in her plan. And what if the attack came again; an attack she still didn't understand? How could she prevent it from happening if she wanted to keep the gallery as open to everyone as she used to.

Mickey wondered if she knew what it meant. Elle had to know even if they didn't talk about it. It was easy enough to infer if someone knew his youngest sister's name. Maybe she had explained it to Shoshannah at some point. "I like to think that too," he agreed. Once he'd finished with the wall he pause slowing to catch his breath. It was steady work but not exactly easy work. "You alright?" he asked Shoshannah, wondering what she was thinking.

“What? Oh...yes, I’m fine. Just trying to make sense out of something senseless.” Shoshannah ran a hand through her hair and gave him the best effort at a smile she had. “You really don’t have to do all this, Mickey. You’ve done so much, if you want to call it a day please don’t stay on my account. I’ll...be here for a while.” Shoshannah didn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Not until she’d catalogued the damages, the losses, and the remains of what she had in this gallery.

"Best not to try and do that. You will run yourself in circles." Mickey gave her an understanding smile. He wished he had answers for her, a reason for what had happened. "I'll stay as long as you are. Don't mind the work." And he didn't want her there alone. It didn't feel safe.

"If you're putting in the time, then at least let me treat you to a meal. There's a good cafe down the street that has the best sandwiches around for whenever you're hungry." She also wasn't hungry. She hadn't been hungry since before the attack and even though she'd eaten the cookies Elle had given her, she didn't want anything more.

Mickey looked as he though he might protest, but he wound up giving. He'd only been teasing anyway. "Alright. I know better than to turn down a meal with a lovely woman." He gave her a bright smile and went back to the wall.

She gave him a little smile again and then went to holding out nails again. For now, she could do this. For now, holding nails was just what she needed to be doing. The rest could wait.