The Thing About Timing (The Becoming of Elliott Goode)

Chapter 18:

The four of them took forever to eat dinner, Max laying at Elliott's feet the whole time surprisingly. They probably would have finished much quicker if any of them could stop talking, the room buzzing with excitement and jokes, most of them picking on Elliott, which David facilitated. He loved teasing her and making her mad. They were all finishing up when David made one last jab. "I will fling this noodle at you, don't test me David." Elliott said seriously as everyone else laughed.

"No throwing food, don't make me separate you two." Cordelia said jokingly, causing both David and Elliott to giggle.

"She wouldn't throw food anyways; she loves me too much." David quipped.

"Bet." Elliott said, placing the noodle on her fork and pretending to take aim.

"Stop it you two. I don't want to pick noodles up off the floor." Cordelia laughed.

"You wouldn't have to; Max would eat it." Elliott said, tapping the dog with her foot, causing him to look up at Cordelia, getting a chuckle out of the older woman.

After the plates were clear Elliott offered to do the dishes since the housekeeper wouldn't be in until Monday, telling David to go find the first Harry Potter film on Cordelia's laptop, to which the older woman tried to object, but eventually conceded, the other three heading to the living room. Elliott began rinsing the dishes and was about halfway through when she felt a tap on her shoulder, and expecting it to be Cordelia she said "I told you it's fine, you won't go to jail for stealing ONE movie." She flipped around to face the woman and was shocked when she saw it was Spalding. "Oh, hi. I thought you were Cordelia. What are you doing here so late?"

"Oh, I'm always around, somewhere. You run along, I can finish this. It's my job after all, cleaning up people's messes." Spalding replied in a monotone voice.

"Oh it's ok, I told them I would do it. You go home, watch a movie or something. Relax." Elliott responded, trying to seem like she wasn't at all freaked out, but the pitch of her voice gave her away. It was the same voice she used when talking to her foster parents when they were on the verge of a blowup, Spalding might not have noticed it, but Elliott sure did.

"No, you're celebrating. It's my job, and I like to work. Run along my doll." Spalding said with a wave of his hand, dismissing the girl.

Elliott wasn't going to argue, the guy already gave her the heebie jeebies. She wasn't quite sure why Cordelia would keep him around if she didn't like him, although he didn't seem to be around too much. She politely thanked him and headed for the living room where the others were, diving in between David and Cordelia, who was looking over David's shoulder as he searched for the movie. "Relax, he's not going to infect your laptop with some crazy virus or get you in trouble with the FBI Cordelia, just let him do his thing."

Cordelia rolled her eyes and nudged the girl "Oh look, someone's done with the dishes." She paused for a moment, "Elle? I think you left the water running."

Elliott looked at her and laughed "No, Spalding said he'd finish it and sent me out here."

Cordelia paused, the color slowly draining from her face as Misty looked over at Elliott, both woman questioning if they had heard right. "Who?" Cordelia asked carefully.

Elliott looked at them like they were crazy, "Spalding? The groundskeeper? Can I just say it's pretty weird that he would rather be doing dishes on a Friday night instead of like going on a date or something?"

Cordelia's face went completely pale and she looked over her shoulder towards the kitchen, where the water was still running. Misty grabbed her hand gently and squeezed. "You saw Spalding?" Misty asked, trying to keep her face and her voice casual. She didn't want to scare the girl, not with David with them.