Sleep, and I Shall Soothe You

Emmett

As Phoebe spoke Emmett sighed and looked down at the floor of the kitchen, listening but wrapped up too in his own conusing and exhausting feelings. When she delivered her...well, it wasn't quite an ultimatum, but it was close...he hugged himself. She was right. If they wanted this to work, they had to talk through their issues.

But for a moment he hesitated, because he didn't know if he did want it to work. They had been together roughly two seasons and already had had two major arguments, had things they didn't talk about for fear of further fights...it felt like fighting a losing battle. That perhaps he had been so desperate for love he'd ignored their incompatibilities.

He looked at the door. Imagined opening it, just walking away. Not seeing Phoebe for a while until they inevitably awkwardly passed on the street and didn't look at each other, missing her but going his own way.

Then he looked back to her, and decided to try again. It was hard to deny himself, the pulling in his chest when he saw her profile across the room, the way she sat with Pim, her gentle intelligent speech (that made his feel so crude, so common). If it didn't work, the door wasn't going anywhere, anyway. Emmett steadied himself and walked over, sat in a chair by Phoebe and clasped his hands together, elbows on his knees, while he tried to formulate what he wanted to say.

"...Alright, yeah. Let's talk it out." He agreed, though he wasn't sure what a compromise here would look like. "I know...I know you come from a different place n you're gonna have different opinions on this stuff. But I haven', and I don' like it. And a lotta us have very legitimate reasons to not like it. I just feel like I gotta stand up for what's right. It's...what my family always did, especially Pa...and I'm the man of the family now. I gotta carry on his example. And not just that, I believe in it." His voice was low, non-confrontational, but steady. Words considered and planned. "You're askin' me t'do a lot by signing up to this army."

All you broken boys and girls,
With your tattered flags unfurled:

Fix yourselves then fix the fisher king.
Won't you fix yourselves to fix the fisher king?