Hiding in Plain Sight (rp for sand_andwater)

[thehorseman]

Takes place a couple of days after this post.

"So ... how is she holding up?" Anraí leaned against Tumbling Dice's stall door and watched as Cait stroked Jagger's nose. The gelding's placid acceptance of his sister's attentions had caused plenty of amazed comments from Flint Creek's hands, but right now neither Cait nor Jagger were Anraí's main concern.

"Pippa is coping," Cait replied, not needing to ask whom her brother was asking after. "Yes, she's stressed, and yes she's had some nightmares, but she's coming out of herself." Sighing softly, she gave Jagger a last pat and walked to stand by her oldest brother. "Of course she'd cope even better if she'd stop beating herself up for things that are in no way her fault. Not entirely unlike someone else I could mention." The look she gave him was pointed enough to make him fidget.

Not his fault, no. Not his fault for looking so much like Pippa's abductor that she flinched away from him without meaning to. Not her fault either, but that didn't change the fact that she was hurting. Anraí raked fingers through his dark hair in frustration. "It's not beating myself up, really. It's just ..." He let his words trail off into a sigh of his own.

"You want to make things easier for her, and you don't know how." Cait tucked her hand into his and squeezed. "Believe me, biggest brother, I understand. But you--" Swinging around in front of him, she offered an infectious grin. "--have enough on your plate with getting married. We'll make sure Pippa has a good time at this hen night Margene's cooked up, while you relax with the boys."

Anraí smiled back and dropped a peck onto his little sister's cheek. "When did you get to be so smart, a stor?"

"When you weren't looking, of course," she chuckled. As she headed for the barn door, she looked back over one shoulder. "Are you coming up to the house?"

"In a few minutes. I've got a chore or two to finish down here first."

He could have easily delegated the handful of tasks to any of the men, but Anraí found it easiest to work out nerves by working with his hands. Not that he had the slightest of doubts about marrying Laine, he didn't. But God help him, everything involved with getting to that point ... well, he felt entitled to hang out with the horses for a little while.

He'd just finished fixing the latch on the stall intended for the new Morgan when he heard someone come in through the tack room. Laine? No, not her footstep. His eyes widened as another familiar female voice reached him. Pippa, greeting Shithead the barn cat.

He reacted instinctively, quietly closing the stall door and letting his body shift and flow into his horse form. He didn't want to hide from Pippa, but neither did he want to scare the poor lass by popping up unexpectedly.

Comments

[sand-andwater.livejournal.com]

"Well, you aren't the friendliest thing are you?" Pippa half-laughed at the cat with it's fury back arched and tail twitching in warning. "Go back to whatever you were doing, kitty kitty. I came down here to see the horses anyway."

And she had. Pippa was also somewhat hiding from people and their constant concern about her well-being. She was feeling more than a little smothered up at the house and really didn't want to be a bother what with the more important happenings that should be everyone's focus.

She'd taken Rory's leather jacket and muttered something about going for a walk before slipping out of the house and down to the barn. The dark, soft leather was ill-fitting on her smaller frame, but it made her happy with its long sleeves that came down to hide her hands from view.

Leaving the cat in the tack room (Western, all of it and familiar enough to her while still feeling foreign to her English trained self), Pippa entered the barn proper, smiling at the sight of so many of the gorgeous animals. It had been a very long time since she'd spent any time in a stable like this.

Jagger snorted, tossed his head. When there wasn't a welcoming nicker that followed, Pippa wisely moved past the large male, having the sense not to tempt fate with a strange animal. Instead, she came to stop at the stall of a cloud grey beast and leaned on the door, hand playing at the latch as she leaned to the side to see if there was a nameplate on the stall. There wasn't. "Hello, you...are you nicer than that grumpy cat in the tack room?"

[thehorseman.livejournal.com]

Anraí kept a careful eye on Jagger, prepared to forcefully warn him off of biting or taking any other unfriendly action toward Pippa if the girl went any closer. Fortunately Pippa was smarter than that and stayed out of Jagger's reach as she walked past. Anraí relaxed, only to blink surprised dark eyes as, out of all the horses in the barn, she decided to greet him first.

Well, and don't you look like a proper idiot now? Laine would probably laugh if she could see him. Or maybe not, she at least would know why he'd wound up in this situation.

All he could think of was to play along until a better idea came to him. Nickering gently, he stepped up to the door and extended his nose toward the redhead in a gracious equine request for a pat.

[sand-andwater.livejournal.com]

Pippa grinned, the soft nickering one of her favorite horse-related noises and the apparent proof that this one was a bit of an attention seeker delighted her. She ran the back of her right hand slowly along the horse's muzzle, turning it palm down once she slid her fingers high enough to rub between his ears. "Aren't you a handsome fellow?"

She was, of course, guessing on the animal's gender, far too polite to open the stall and check. Pippa's easy affection towards him continued as she looked around the barn, at the other stalled horses, up towards the loft and back to the tack room.

"I had a pony a long time ago, he liked that too...yes, he did." Pippa's hand had found its way under the horse's head, fingers massaging the strong equine jaw as she rambled. "I don't suppose you have much else in common--what use does a work horse have for dressage training, hmm? Probably think it's as silly as Laine does. I used to like dancing with my pony, we did the prettiest pirouettes."

[thehorseman.livejournal.com]

A soft chuff of contentment slipped out, a normal equine reaction to being scratched in hard-to-reach places by deft human fingers. As Pippa continued to rub his jaw, Anraí's eyes blinked, the lids remaining half-closed.

A hint of púca mischief suggested that he respond to Pippa's talk of dressage with a piaffe or levade, but he stifled the impulse. Such a trick would surely cue her in to the fact that he was not the horse he appeared to be, and from there it wouldn't take her long to figure out who he was. She looked relaxed here, with a smile of enjoyment on her face, and he didn't want to disturb that unless he had to.

[sand-andwater.livejournal.com]

Since the horse seemed to enjoy her attention, Pippa made the decision to unlatch the stall door and let herself inside. Withdrawing her hand with a last good pat, she slid the wooden door to the side just enough to allow her to pass through, not wanting the animal to get the idea that she was letting him out instead.

"Hi..." She offered the greeting again, softly, as she stood at his withers, hands lifting to comb fingers through the long gray mane. "Hmm...they don't have your tack box in here, do they?"

Pippa answered the question herself as she looked around the otherwise empty stall, frowning. No tack box, no hay...poor baby, why hadn't they made his stall homey for him? "I'd give you a good brush down if they did. I guess you'll just have to settle for my company, such as it is."

She sighed then, hand pressed against the horse's neck. "I'm really not the best company these days, I'm sorry." Pippa stopped talking then, focused instead on the way her fingers fanned against the downy winter fur, wondering if the horse noticed the oddly short span of her left hand with its missing digit. It still looked and felt so alien to her, it had to appear that way to others. "You don't mind do you? You won't give me odd looks or stare, at least."

[thehorseman.livejournal.com]

No, no tack box, no tack ... not for him. Anraí wondered if Pippa might yet put the details together and figure out the truth. She was certainly sharp enough, and he hoped she wouldn't be angry if she did.

He noticed the feel of the missing digit, but more, he heard the melancholy in her voice. Damn, what she'd been through. Was still going through. He nickered again and lightly bumped her shoulder with his nose.

[sand-andwater.livejournal.com]

"Hey now, don't get pushy." She chided softly, giving his neck another pat before running her hand along the length of his nose. "I can go back up to the house if I want to be knocked around, you know."

Pippa sighed. "Not that they mean too, of course. Everyone's just being high spirited and I don't blame them. They have a lot to be happy about. A wedding, a baby people actually want...maybe I'm just jealous. Their lives are so full of great things and mine just keeps falling further apart."

The longer she talked, the softer her voice became though her hands never stopped their fluttering caresses and loving strokes. The horse was a nice distraction while she rambled, vented the things she could not quite bring herself to say to the people celebrating a few hundred yards away.

[thehorseman.livejournal.com]

Oh Pippa. Talk to us. Talk to Rory. We all care and want to help ...

He couldn't say it, of course, not as he was. You want to make things easier for her, and you don't know how. Cait's words whispered through his mind.

Maybe there was no easier. Sometimes the only way out was through, but ... damn. A soft equine sigh gusted against Pippa's shoulder.

[sand-andwater.livejournal.com]

Pippa shook her head as the horse sighed. "Great. See? I manage to depress a horse, just imagine what a joy I am in actual social situations. Gee, Pippa, what's new with you?" She asked the last question in a mocking tone before continuing on in answer, her soft voice full of bitter sarcasm, "Hmm...well, do you want to hear about the way I wake up screaming because of nightmares where some sick freak keeps cutting off my fingers or shall I tell you about the glass sculpture I hurled at my boyfriend for suggesting I needed a shrink? How about the fact that I smashed the wedding gift I had been making for Laine and Anrai because I couldn't finish the thing? Oh, wait...I know, even better: I can't even look at one of the men who saved my life without wanting to throw up, scream, burst into tears because he looks like the one who was trying to kill me in the first place? How horrible is that? I'm sure your know how wonderfully kind he is and people must think I'm crazy for being scared of him."

She wiped at her cheeks with the back of one hand, stomping her foot in frustration at crying again. "I am officially pathetic. I don't even know why I'm here...they can't possibly want me to be. I should just stay right here and hang out with you, you're probably thrilled with that."

[thehorseman.livejournal.com]

Anraí stood, feeling torn in two. He shouldn't listen to Pippa's outpouring of emotion under what amounted to false pretenses, and yet he couldn't help but think she needed to unload on someone, even if she thought that someone was a horse. Perhaps especially if she thought that someone was a horse, given her reluctance to open up to anyone with two legs.

Enough. If she figured it out, she figured it out, and he'd weather whatever came after. He couldn't do anything that smacked of pushing her away. Instead he extended his neck to carefully press the end of his nose against her forehead, thinking We do want you here, lass. We don't want you anywhere else.

[sand-andwater.livejournal.com]

Pippa gave a strangled laugh at what she took for a sympathetic 'kiss' from the horse. Pity from the people in her life was hard enough to swallow but this...this bordered on the absurd. And it was just sad. Giving the animal's muzzle another pat, she bit back more laughter then sank to the floor of the stall, leaning back against the partially open door. "Pity, party of two. Is that how's it's going to be, hmm?"

The redhead looked up at the grayish stallion, her new vantage point confirmed that much at least, and sniffed back more tears. "It's not just the way he looks, you know. It's what they did that frightens me. What Ro--oh, listen to me...like you care. You're probably just wondering why I didn't bring any treats with me, aren't you?"