Giving Thanks (IC)

[Electra]

Erin put her napkin in her lap and passed the food around, filling her plate while Mark's dad cut the turkey. Everything looked and smelled really good, better than most of the stuff at school, that was for sure. It was a lucky coincidence that someone who loved to cook was also apparently very good at it. "That's an interesting knife," she said curiously, "is there a story with it?" It didn't exactly look like the sort of thing you bought at the store, or off a late-night commercial.

[Avenger Assembled]

"This? Why, I'm glad you noticed," said Rick cheerfully, carefully wiping the knife down. "It's the Hittite Knife of Separating, so sharp it can cut through anything, even the very fabric of reality itself." He slid the blade back in its case, then set it back on the tray. "I got it back when I helped Daedalus fight the Dolorite Man back in 1967. It's very good at cutting turkey." The turkey turned out to be just as good as everything else, rubbed in some delicious spice that Erin couldn't place.

"Maybe before you leave, I'll take you upstairs and show you the family museum," offered Mark with a grin. "Granddad, Dad, and I've got a big collection up there. I kept one of the heads from the baseball robots, and that jacket I picked up back on Erde."

[Electra]

"Sounds like fun," Erin replied, pouring gravy over her mashed potatoes. She wasn't sure why Mark would want a memento of the baseball robot debacle, but then, he'd come out of that one pretty well. She also wasn't sure that something capable of slicing open the fabric of reality was appropriate for table service. It didn't seem to bother anyone else. "I don't think I've heard of the Dolorite Man before." The resulting story gave her a chance to enjoy the excellent food, and not have to worry about fielding much conversation. She decided she liked Mark's family.

[Avenger Assembled]

Everyone ate until they were stuffed, Mark and Rick in particular eating Martha's rich food like trenchermen. It was a lucky thing Mark had a good metabolism, really. After the meal, Mark and his dad helped the ladies clean up before they adjourned to the living room for that promised game of Jenga. The football game ran in the background, but it was mostly just another holiday layer amid all the small talk and easy relaxation. The Lucas' were all very cheerful, much to Mark's relief; the better to help Erin be more relaxed! His mother steered them away from talking about super-topics, and instead they discussed the parts of school that weren't about wearing costumes and punching bad guys.

[Electra]

The dinner was great, and even if everyone gathering around the table to play Jenga seemed a little weird to Erin, it was kind of fun. It was different enough from holidays she remembered that it didn't feel bad, and that was nice. And she was exceptionally good at Jenga, so that helped too. Mark, of course, was also extremely good at the game, managing to pull off some exceedingly risky draws without toppling the tower. Eventually his folks withdrew from the game entirely, leaving the two of them to build a tower that rose several tottering feet from the table before Mark's golden retriever tipped the whole thing over with a careless swish of the tail. They called it a draw.

[Avenger Assembled]

After the game, they settled in to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, a show Mark obviously very much enjoyed. With Rick and Lucas sitting together on the couch and Mark stretched out on the floor, Erin had the comfort of the big overstuffed recliner to stretch out in. As she watched the movie, her attention wandered to a picture hanging on the wall near the television, one that was odd enough that she had to get up to look more closely in the commercial. The picture was of two men standing together in front of Freedom Stadium, from their clothes and hairstyles a good forty years earlier at least. The younger of the men, in a loud suit with slicked back hair, was recognizable as a much younger Rick Lucas. The other man, just as Erin had thought, was recognizable too: she'd never seen Duncan Summers smiling like that before.

Mark caught her interest, and walked up behind her. "Wild, huh?" he murmured to her, the ghost of a smile on his own lips. "He still comes over for the big 4th of July barbecue sometimes. Came over more often when I was a little kid. Doesn't translate into much favoritism at school, though."

[Electra]

"Wow, that seems like it would be really uncomfortable," Erin said under her breath, so his parents wouldn't hear. "He's got enough of a presence at school, don't you wind up feeling like he's going to put you in detention for something even in the middle of summer?" She looked up at the picture again, finding it hard to reconcile that smiling figure with the chilly headmaster, then grinned a little herself. "I guess you probably don't need to worry about it that much. Have you ever even been in detention?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Never," said Mark, shaking his head. "I mean, even when I blew things up early on, everyone at school knew it was an accident. And I always helped clean up afterwards." Left unspoken was his elementary and middle school record, or lack thereof. "He's been pretty approachable most of my life, but he's backed off a little lately. I guess that's fair, since I'm a powered student at school now." He smiled a little, studying the picture. "My parents didn't have an extended family, but I had a lot of aunts and uncles growing up. "

Eventually, after they'd all watched part of the football game, the evening began winding down. There were plenty of leftovers, and Martha Lucas seemed interested in pressing as many as possible on Erin. "Well at least take some pie and turkey," she suggested as she pressed several sealed casserole dishes on Erin. "You should have something good to eat at that school, so you're not stuck eating at the cafeteria all the time."