luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
[personal profile] luzula
Title: Comfort
Characters: Stella Kowalski, Barbara Kowalski
Rating: G
Length: 300 words
Prompt: laundry
Summary: Stella gets a phone call after "Strange Bedfellows."
Notes: Just a quick little Sunday-night snippet. I couldn't recall any fic about Stella and Barbara, even though they're canonically close, so I had to write one...

Stella had just gotten home from work and sunk into the couch with a sigh when the phone rang. For a moment, she considered just letting it ring. It had been a long day, and that was on top of Orsini, Ray, the bomb...and she should get something to eat, and the laundry needed doing. God.

But she dragged herself up with a groan. "Stella here."

She could think of several people she emphatically did not want to talk with.

"Hi, dear."

Stella let out her breath in relief. "Barb, hi. I'm so glad you're not--well, it doesn't matter."

"Did you have a hard day?"

"Yeah. Well, work isn't so bad, I suppose, but..."

"Things not going well with that new man you're seeing?"

"Oh God. Yeah." Stella poured her heart out to Barbara the way she'd never been able to with her own mom. She remembered sitting in the Kowalski's kitchen in junior high, doing homework with Ray, with Barbara feeding them both pierogies. It had been a living, bustling home the way her own childhood mansion never had been.

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry," Barbara said when she'd finished.

"Thanks. Honestly, I should've seen it--I'm not usually such a bad judge of character."

"Maybe you're still on the rebound? It can't be easy."

Stella sighed. "Yeah, I think so. And Ray--I know he really annoys me sometimes, but I know he cares. It's just that--"

"You don't have to justify yourself to me," Barbara said gently. She had never taken Ray's side in the divorce, nor Stella's, either, and Stella was so grateful for that.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks. So, tell me what's going on with you?" Stella leaned back into the couch, listening to the comforting stream of Barbara's voice in her ear.
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