thunder and lightning pt. 2
Janet shut the door and locked it tightly behind Clara as soon as the other woman came inside. Clara stood still just inside of the door frame, pressing her arms together in front of her frilly white blouse, water dripping into little puddles on the floor. “I don’t want to get the rest of your house wet,” she said, staring at Janet. “Do you have a towel or something I can—”
“Don’t.” Janet rubbed a hand across her forehead and then gestured with one hand for Clara to follow her. “Hot shower first. You’re shivering. Towel off after that.” She led Clara to her bathroom. “Clothes here.” She pointed to a little shoot she’d had added to the bathroom – Clara’s soaking wet clothes would make their way from the bathroom directly into the washer. Fortunately, Janet hadn’t started it yet; she needed to get her own soaking wet clothes cleaned, too, if she wanted to wear them again any time soon. “I’ll get you a towel and clothes.” She gave Clara another once over. “I should have something that fits.”
Clara nodded once, staring at her. “Thank you,” she murmured, brushing a hand through her hair and pulling it back dripping. She shivered. “I didn’t realize how cold I was getting.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Janet wasn’t like normal people. Of course, she wasn’t like normal people. She had lightning powers that would electrocute anyone who she touched – in varying degrees, depending on a lot of variables that we don’t have time to get into right now – without warning and without care until such a time as she was given grounding rings, which didn’t stop the electricity that ran under and through and along her skin but simply made it easier for her to control it – and by control it, we mean stop it.
But that’s not what I want to mention when I say that Janet wasn’t like normal people.
Perhaps it is better to show you.
Janet waited until she heard Clara’s shower start before she got the towel and added it to the pile of clothes in her arms. She’d taken the time to look through her clothes first – there were a few left over from her time with Rose that she’d kept. Mostly she’d stolen them because they felt like they were more important to her than they would ever be to Luisa, and when Rose hadn’t called or tried to contact her to get them back, it didn’t seem like a good idea to do anything other than keep them.
Especially after Rose…well.
Luisa probably had what was left of her clothes now, if she hadn’t sold it all off. Then again, Luisa didn’t seem like the sort of her person who would be able to get rid of any of Rose’s things so easily after her sudden death. She probably had them in piles or bins or an entire other separate room just dedicated to her – Janet would never have gone that far, but a few things…there were a few things she would have kept.
Which she had, in fact, mostly stolen when she left. That was the point of leaving when Rose and Luisa were out of the house, when Whitney was busy in her lab, and when the only one who would see her was Emma, who understood, who didn’t care, who nodded once and lifted her mug of coffee and said that she hoped Janet would find a life that was better suited for her.
It wasn’t about the sex was what she wanted to say. But she hadn’t said it. She didn’t think Emma would believe her.
Truth be told, Janet, deep down, didn’t believe herself.
Janet took a few of the clothes that used to be Rose’s – and that still, after all these years, smelled of her, all lavender with a hint of strawberries – and a black towel (because all of her towels were black or gray or, occasionally, a startling blue, although those weren’t for guests and sometimes she wasn’t sure why she even had those) and moved into the bathroom while Clara was still in the shower.
Now, of note, Janet’s shower curtain wasn’t particularly thick. It did what it needed to do – which was keep the water from getting outside of the shower all over the floor, which would be even more detrimental to her than to most people, as she didn’t shower with her grounding rings on and a standing pool of water would be a health hazard, given that her particular charge would return shortly after her shower and standing in a puddle with nothing to keep it from coming out would end up shocking her—
Which was really to say that Janet’s shower curtain didn’t leave much to the imagination where Clara was concerned.
You would perhaps expect Janet to stand and glance and think about this, to take advantage of the moment to look at form much more specifically.
But she didn’t.
In fact, the thought didn’t even cross Janet’s mind. If anything, she didn’t even notice that she could tell anything at all, instead just taking the clothes and the towel and setting them on the counter and leaving without a second thought. The steam felt nice. Good thing the hot water had returned enough from her own shower. Etc.
Then she went into the kitchen and started the hot chocolate she’d been meaning to make before Clara arrived. Of course, Janet did make more than she originally meant to make because as much as she could be rude and not offer any to Clara…they did work together. And she didn’t hate her. Most of the time.
And also if word got back to Rhea that she’d been rude to her daughter, then she could expect a little bit of familial…retribution. And as much as Janet did not always like Clara, she owed Rhea. As far as Janet was concerned, the woman saved her life. She wouldn’t call it that (and Rhea, although knowing it, wouldn’t either unless she absolutely had to do so), but it was still true.
So she had to be passably nice to Clara most of the time.
Not all of the time.
But it certainly meant that when Clara got out of the shower in clothes that made her look like a blonde version of Rose – albeit thinner, more angled, and of course there was that height thing that no one could really do anything about – Janet couldn’t look at her and think Rose, she had to look at her and play nice for long enough that looking away didn’t seem rude.
Clara was not a fan of rude.