x- nearby, at the new haven shore -x

[catherine dtardis]

it was winter. with the stout crashing waves of the ocean cold enough to chill through even the best wetsuit, one could only imagine the drop in temperature when one dove deep below. so if anyone was looking, the sight of the redhead in her dark blue, athletic grade two-piece bathing suit carrying her twenty-month-old son who was happily bare as the day he was born, well maybe that sight would be a little unexpected. there would also be the curious shock of 'where did they come from?' because there wasn't a soul on the water's surface a moment before. but if the onlooker peered hard enough at the woman wading her and her baby through the breaking waves, their eyes would not be deceiving them if they noticed the deep green scales of the baby's lower half, fashioned much like a fishtail. that one little detail could probably help with a lot of that shock.

treading through the sand, once they reached the diaper and beach bags which she'd left there to await their return, catherine wasted no time dropping gracefully to her knees so that her free hand could duck into the diaper bag and pull out her son's thick warm blanket. on this mild but still february's day, she took great care to wrap the blanket nice and snugly around the baby, knowing that once he shifted back to his land legs his resilience to the chill was going to be much less. the happy but sleepy baby had other concerns, however. as he squirmed to find the most comfortable spot in the soft warmth of the blanket, he made his main concern knowing with a single firm word. "baba."

"yes baby, you told me. it's why we're back on the sand, remember?" the words catherine spoke were soft and her smile gently playful as she answered her most precious boy. a dip of her hand into the right pocket, and she came back out with a bottle. popping off the cap with a nudge of her thumb, she shifted to sit indian style on the sand. even though it was peppering her skin with gooseflesh, catherine was actually enjoying the cold. the chill made her feel very present in this moment, and that was a nice thing to feel.

as for the baby, she lowered him in his blanket-bundled glory to rest in her lap, handing the bottle over. there were no complaints from the usually talkative killian as the boy popped the bottle in his mouth, holding onto it with one hand. the other, as it often did when he was gearing up for a nap, reached to grasp a handful of catherine's hair. his mother's very thick red hair was also very long, and at the moment it hung free, the already dried tips of it brushing against the sand. fastened in it with care here and there were small beaded gems, ones that her husband had gotten for her. the late afternoon sun made them glint just a little. catherine, as most of her kind did, took great pride and joy in her hair.

as she stared out at the ocean, watching a distant boat slowly pass, she slowly inhaled and then let out the very long breath. things seemed very calm today, and it was a wonderful thing to feel. this time of year was hard for her, close to the day she'd lost her brother two years ago. if one asked the ache she still felt sometimes inside, the distant loss could still feel very fresh, and raw. it never warned her, the ache, about when it would twist her up terribly inside. sometimes all it had to take was her beautiful son. killian looked like the two most important men in her life. of course his father, but there were features of her boy that were unmistakably parker as well. some of the faces he made, how he was always so very clear about what he wanted, even the way he laughed like nothing terrible could ever ever touch him - all of those things were her older brother parker.

as she thought of him, catherine's hand reached down to stroke through the baby's hair. it was the exact same shade as his father's, a rich brown. and oddly, like hers it was already dry. with surprise in her sienna eyes catherine glanced down at her son, who had been watching her as he tugged lightly on the handful of her hair still in his chubby grasp. "did daddy teach you that you could do that?" catherine certainly hadn't taught her son that he could pull the moisture on his skin and hair into his body much like a sponge, which was how catherine had dried so quickly herself. she was very reluctant about teaching him the tricks of their lineage so early. the only answer killian gave to his mother's bewilderment was a beaming grin around the nub of his bottle, which made a stream of milk dribble down. "uh huh," she said with a little shake of her head, pursing her lips at him as she wiped his cheek clean. "well i'm just going to have to have a talk with daddy later then, hm?"

"heh heh." when he laughed like that, it was obvious the baby knew daddy was in trouble. catherine simply smiled a rueful smile, continuing to brush the baby's hair lightly with her fingers as she looked out at the ocean again. that laugh, that was one of her brother's laughs. it was so very strange to hear it from the baby, when killian was born well after parker was gone. "your uncle would have loved you, baby," catherine whispered to him as she forced herself to concentrate harder on the crashing waves to ignore the tearing of her eyes, "very much."

today...today was a mostly calming day.