[rhymes with demon]

[porcupineliz]

Liz is standing at the bar, reading a brief note over and over.

Anyone wanting to talk to her may have to put in a little extra effort to get her attention.

Comments

[dr_j]

"Hey." Jordie's got both arms around her now. "Hey. It's okay. You're okay." Smoothing a hand down her back.

[porcupineliz]

Her breath is coming short and choppy; she tries holding each breath for a count of two, forcing herself to slow down.

(She can feel his heartbeat. It's soothing.)

"I'm okay," she echoes after a moment, and swallows again.

[dr_j]

Murmured: "We can sit. We can stay like this. We can do something else."

[porcupineliz]

"Can we sit? Sitting would be good."

She's starting, just starting, to calm down. She hasn't yet hit the point of feeling ridiculous.

[dr_j]

"Sure." He runs a hand over her hair. "Are you the kind of person who wants a stiff drink in times of emergency?"

[porcupineliz]

"Oh god yes." Fervently.

[dr_j]

A quiet laugh, mostly a rumble. Gently: "Hey, bar? Two of whatever she's drinking?"

[porcupineliz]

"Whiskey," she says, "whatever you've got that's good."

Two glasses appear on the bartop; she lets out a sigh and reaches for one.

[dr_j]

He still keeps an arm around her as he picks up the other. "Let's find an empty booth? -- do you want to talk about it?"

[porcupineliz]

"Yeah." Very low. "I ... yeah. In a minute."

[dr_j]

"Sure." Jordie tightens his hold on her. "Whenever you want. Like after the drink."

[porcupineliz]

"After the drink," she agrees.

They've reached the booth. She disengages, reluctantly, to sit down.

[dr_j]

Rather than sitting across from her, he eases onto the bench next to her. "Is this okay?"

[porcupineliz]

She looks up at him, with a small unsteady smile. "Yeah. Thanks."

[dr_j]

"Hey." Gently. "Did you or did you not waste the better part of a day talking me out of a hunger strike for no good reason? I can sit next to you and get you drinks."

[porcupineliz]

A long shaky sigh, with what might be a stillborn laugh in there somewhere. "Okay, yeah, fair."

She lifts her glass and takes a determined swallow of the whiskey.

[dr_j]

Jordie eases his arm around her again. "Is this okay?"

[porcupineliz]

"Better than okay." She leans against him, her eyes half-closing.

It helps; so does the whiskey. The shaking's almost gone.

[dr_j]

"Good." He picks up his own glass. "I think it's pretty okay, too."

[porcupineliz]

"Good to know."

Another swallow. Her breathing has slowed back down.



"Well," she says after a moment, and rubs her face with her free hand.

[dr_j]

"Well." Soft. "You're back down here. Do you want to talk?"

[porcupineliz]

She nods without looking up.





It's several seconds before she says anything. "I don't know if I just did something really smart or really stupid. Or both. Maybe both."

[dr_j]

Gently: "Why don't you start off with what you did, and we'll save the value judgments for later?"

[porcupineliz]

"The demon sent me a note." Tiredly. "Saying something like 'it's about time we talk'."

Beat.

"So I strapped on a bunch of silver and went up to talk to it."

[dr_j]

Jordie stiffens. He can't stop himself.

But his tone is quiet. "What did it have to say?"