This is amazing, the tension and the emotions of Nate's PTSD -- Nate holding himself apart from Linus after the airport was almost literally physically painful -- and of the two of them figuring out how all their relationships with everyone are now changed and cast into new light, and all the tiny right details like finding yourself partway through a baby routine and having no idea how you got there, or the thud of dirty diapers into the trash. And then Ray being hilarious and getting to see Linus as an older baby not just an adorable but essentially non-interactive lump, hooray.
(Do you have any idea how Nate and Cory's Christmas revisiting went? I'm guessing that the epilogue is before then based on Linus having three teeth, but that's just a guess. I had some trouble at first imagining a situation where things went so bad with Cory that he wasn't allowed to even know her phone number, but that she was still okay with him having full custody, until Nate clarified that it was basically him being a complete asshole in terms of not actually loving her, not being creepy and/or unsafe. I don't know if nine months is too soon, but I'd like to think that as they both healed that they could be cordial and she could visit at least.)
I'm pretty optimistic about Nate and Cory getting along, long-term, once they get to an equilibrium where Cory doesn't feel like she has to be pushing back against what Nate wants from her. I don't think Cory--twenty-three and in law school--had any intention of going through with the pregnancy before Nate launched a concerted campaign to keep her and the baby, and, when push came to shove, that was really about the baby. So now that Cory's away from Nate and not going to get stuck with Linus in a permanently totally life-disrupting way, I think she's happy to have a visitation relationship with Linus. Brad's presence actually helps a lot, because Cory is more inclined to see him as a reassurance that Nate is never going to try to get back together with her than The Man Who Stole Her Man or whatever.
Also I think when Cory and Brad first meet they kind of look each other up and down, give Nate a mutual side-eye and then crack up, because Nate seriously knocked up the closest person he could find to the girl version of Brad, and that is instantly visibly obvious to both Cory and Brad, so they kind of bond over being entertained by how totally fucking obvious he is/was.
Thanks! I am really enjoying imagining Cory's future as a casual part-time mom who's busy having a fabulous career most of the time and is kind of buds with Nate and Brad. *g*
Comment on Don't You Shake Alone
susan_voight Thu 05 Jul 2012 07:43PM UTC
Comment Actions
Dira Sudis (dsudis) Fri 13 Jul 2012 01:24PM UTC
Comment Actions
susan_voight Sat 14 Jul 2012 02:09AM UTC
Comment Actions
Dira Sudis (dsudis) Tue 17 Jul 2012 01:41AM UTC
Comment Actions