Reunited; or, Meeting the In-Laws [Harry, Judy, Johnny, Christian]

[angie-palace.livejournal.com]

[Takes place the day after Harry tells Johnny Aunt Judy's here and shortly after Christian and Caeline get engaged.]

The colonel headed across the plaza to Palace as soon as she was finished with breakfast. She'd had a horrible night, her subconscious teasing her with imagined images of Johnny. Hearing from Mr. Sinclair -- from Harry -- what was real and what wasn't had helped, but only somewhat. The truth was bad enough and she felt a stabbing guilt that she should've done something else, something more, to try to find him four years ago. Objectively she knew she'd done all she could and had nothing to be ashamed of, but there you go, the brain says one thing and the gut says another and all one could do was stand in the middle and hang on.

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Comments

[angie-palace.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, hon. And again, thanks for commenting!

The colonel is mainly concerned about Johnny. She lost track of him once before, and look what happened. :/ She'd love to just scoop him up and take him home with her, but she knows that wouldn't work. He's an adult now, even if in Palaceverse terms he's just barely so, and he has a place where he's happy with good friends like Harry and someone who loves him. But although we know what he and Christian have been through (and you will too as soon as you catch up) and how they got together, she doesn't. She's heard the basic story from Johnny, but that's really not the same, you know? It doesn't feel as real to her because she didn't live through it, and she's only had a little over a day to absorb the story of the entire four years Johnny was gone.

This is hard to explain, but a child she loves very much has been through hell without her and she's feeling this wave of over-protectiveness. She'll get over it, but for right now the thing foremost in her mind is to do whatever she can to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again. If you think about it, people get together and break up all the time -- she has no reason to know or believe that Johnny'll be with Christian for the next few decades. She's just doing what she can to make sure that if they do break up, Johnny'll be OK and have a place to go and someone to take care of him.

Which is something else to keep in mind -- she still sees Johnny as the kid she knew four years ago. He's grown up a lot in that time, but she hasn't seen it yet. She lost a little boy (or at least, to her he was a little boy) and now that she's found him again she hasn't quite grasped that he's a man, albeit a young one, and doesn't need to be taken care of any more. She'll settle down eventually. :)

Angie

[ladooshka.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Angie, for explanation I will keep it in mind. You are certainly right about her feelings. I overreacted but it's because Chris and Johnny is one of my favorite pairs in Palace Universe.

Thanks again a lot for your time to reply!:-)