milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[ooc: "Okay. Let's go see Uncle Charlie."]

The front door opens to a wee girl who's been to the bar many times before . . . and a woman who has not.

"See, Mummy?" Megan Pace says gleefully, as Karen Pace looks about in wonder and confusion.

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It opens again, shortly afterwards, from a Sydney street.

And Liam Pace stops in his tracks.

"...Karen?"

Karen picks up Megan and goes to her husband, not looking . . . terribly pleased to see him. "Liam," she says. "What is this place?"

"I... um." He rubs the back of his neck. "It's called Milliways. You might wanna sit down."

"Megan said Charlie's here," Karen says, not sitting. "Not like when she said he was living in the playhouse, apparently."

"...he is", Liam says after a moment. He'd known this day might come, but... "Karen, he's alive. But he can't come home, not yet."

Now she does sit, holding Megan very tight. "Liam," she says patiently, "I would like very much to know what's going on."

"I know. And I'm trying... what door brought you here?"

"Through the closet. Megan showed me."

"Megan...?" He blinks at the little girl, who blinks back innocently, before getting back on track. "This place is... not what you'd call usual."

"For one thing, it's in the closet."

"Well, yes. And for me, it's in what I assume is a warehouse downtown, even if I've never actually seen what the building really is. And for Charlie... it's in the roots of a tree on the island where his plane crashed."

"So it's a place called Milliways with a lot of doors," Karen says and shakes her head.

"Well, that's the short version. People come here from all over - different places, different times. Not all of them are from Earth. And some of them... you might recognise as fictional."

There is much blinking and frowning, and she squeezes her daughter so tight Megan whines and squirms. "Too hard, Mummy."

"Sorry, baby," Karen whispers and looks again at Liam. "I don't understand."

"I know it's hard, when you first get here. I would have told you, but I could never figure out how to even start..."

"How long have you been coming here?"

"...quite a while. But what would you've thought if I'd told you Charlie was alive and I was visiting him in a bar at the end of the universe?"

His voice is apologetic.

She plays with Megan's hair. "I'd have thought grief had driven you mad.

"Is that what this place is? A bar at the end of the universe?"

"Exactly. And that's what they tell me."

He doesn't point her towards the window yet, easing her in.

"How is this possible?"

"That part, I never understood. The closest I've got to an explanation is 'magic'."

Megan nods eagerly.

"Magic," Karen echoes. "Of course."

So the two of you really been visiting Charlie. And Sunny and Darien and those other people she's mentioned--they're not imaginary friends. They're people she actually knows."

"Yes. Sunny's a girl about her age. You should meet them."

"Yes, I should." She rests her lips on top of Megan's head, and then starts laughing quietly.

"Liam . . . I'll try to think of something to say to Charlie other than 'I'm glad you're not dead,'" she says and gives Liam a sidelong look.

All is forgiven.