Priestly and Jen's place, Santa Cruz, Tuesday morning

[lovemykilt]

Priestly lay flopped across his bed as the sun made its way slowly across the room. Not sleeping, no, he still hadn't done any of that since waking up in Fandom, but just lying there, chin buried in his pillow, staring at the wall.

The talk with Tish . . . had not gone well. He'd known it wouldn't, but he couldn't help but hope. . . .

There was a knock at the door. It wouldn't be Tish, she'd gone home, so Priestly ignored it. The person knocked again.

"Priestly?" Jen called.

"I'm not home," Priestly muttered into the pillow.

Another knock. "You know I can hear you, right? I want to talk."

Priestly groaned, rolling over enough to glare at the door. "You talked to Tish." It wasn't a question.

"She's worried about you."

"She thinks I'm crazy."

"That's why she's worried about you."

Priestly groaned again and stuck his head under his pillow. Shutting out light and sound didn't shut down his brain, though, and it made it a little hard to breathe, which only encouraged memories of the things he didn't want to think about any more, so he finally rolled off the bed and went to open the door.

Jen stood on the other side, hand poised to knock again. She looked up at him, her face a perfect picture of thoughtful concern.

"Do you think I'm crazy?" Priestly asked.

"I don't know what to think."

Priestly rolled his eyes and went back to sit on his bed again. Jen followed him in.

"I've known you longer than just about anyone else in Santa Cruz," she said. "But I don't really know you better. You're not around that much. You were always off at school or running around Asia or. . . ." She sighed, sitting down next to him. "This wasn't the first time you mysteriously disappeared."

Priestly frowned, looking over. "What? Yes it was." She'd vanished before he had with the Nothing. There was no way she could remember --

"Are you Audrey?" she asked. Priestly's jaw dropped.

"Uh. Yes."

Jen nodded. "I thought so. You're not exactly good at hiding that stuff, you know. Especially not when you're five."

Priestly smiled softly, remembering Dinah's visit that happened to correspond with one of the more fun of "those weekends". "That's Dinah's fault. She's a bad influence when we're that age."

"Or when you forget you're supposed to be going by a different name," Jen pointed out.

"Yeah, that one would be all me, huh." Priestly shook his head. "I don't know what to do, Jen. Tish hates me."

Jen smacked his arm. "Don't be dense. She's scared. Give her time, and she'll put it together, too. Tish is a lot smarter than anyone gives her credit for."

Priestly studied her for a moment. She always did this, more than any of his other friends. Jen was always the first to be there to just talk, the first to point out the obvious that you were just refusing to see. He did his best to be that same thing for her. "You are, too, you know."

She blushed, looking down. "Come on. Everyone knows I'm a genius." She looked back up at him, face going serious again. "She said you thought you'd died."

Priestly swallowed, turning his eyes back to the wall.

"Oh Priestly."

"I, uh." He threaded his fingers together, staring down at his purple nails. They'd been his first indication everything was okay again. He had a feeling his nails would be purple for awhile. "I kinda had a whole porcupine imitation going on there, yeah." He gestured vaguely towards his back. "Arrows."

And then Jen was hugging him.

"I think that's what scared her the most. You're not actually allowed to die on us, you know."

"So I've been told." Priestly turned his head, pressing a soft kiss into Jen's hair, letting the hug linger for a moment before he pulled away. "Does Piper --"

"Think you're as crazy as Tish does?" Jen asked. "She's working on it. She kinda only just met you."

"But it explains Karla."

"From what I've heard, nothing actually explains Karla."

Priestly snorted. "Hey. I forgave her, you know. Momoko, too. Especially Momo."

"Do I want to know?"

"That I died because I was head over heels for Momoko and kissed her in public?"

Jen frowned. "You didn't tell Tish that part."

"I did," Priestly protested. "Sort of. I'm working up to it."

"Priestly --"

"I'll tell her. I will. I said I'd tell her everything, and I meant it. Just . . . not all at once. That's not fair to either of us. It's all a little too . . . real. Just now."

And Jen was hugging him again. "Don't wait too long, okay? It'll only make it worse."

Priestly nodded. "I know. I do. But how do you tell the girl you love that you spent a week in another universe, in love with another girl?"

"I'd start with the part where you love Tish."

Priestly blinked. "Shit."

"Just figured that bit out, huh?"

"Uh. Kinda."

"It's hard to tell -- she's way more closed off about this stuff than you are -- but I'm pretty sure it's mutual." Jen tilted her head. "If it wasn't, she'd've just dumped you."

"I'm . . . not dumped?"

"Sometimes needing space just means needing a day. She's not giving up on you yet." Another smack in the arm. "So don't screw it up, okay? And as for the crazy. . . . Trucker knows, doesn't he? About the universes and stuff?"

"Sort of. It was kind of hard to miss the magic at my graduation. That's why he helped cover for me with the Audrey thing."

"Then he can help. And so can Zo, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Dinah's already volunteered, too."

Priestly smiled softly. "Yeah. She has."

Jen nodded, then started pushing on Priestly's arm, nudging him over towards his pillow. "So get some sleep. Let us take care of things for a little bit, and then you can try talking to Tish again when you wake up."

Priestly had been leaning pillow-ward, but then jerked back upright when Jen mentioned sleep. "No. No, I can't, Jen, I can't, I'm going to dream and it'll be bad and --"

"Shut it." Jen gave him her best stern look -- which wasn't actually that stern -- and pushed him towards the pillow again. "You're wiped, Priestly. And yeah, it sounds like things were really, really bad, so nightmares are kind of a gimme, but that doesn't mean you can just skip sleeping forever."

"Being horizontal is nice," Priestly admitted grudgingly.

"Do you want me to stay here? Keep an eye on you?"

"You don't have to." Mostly because he had no intention of sleeping. He wasn't sure just when she'd managed to get him actually sideways, head on the pillow, blanket over top of him. He might have skipped a minute or two in there. She rubbed his back like he was a toddler in a preschool.

"Shush. I want to. Maybe it's dumb, but I don't want you disappearing, again."

"Usually can't help it," Priestly muttered. He'd forgotten how nice his pillows could be. "'Snot like we get warning signs."

"Stop talking," Jen said, her hand still rubbing circles from his shoulder blades to his lower back and back up again. "I'll be here when you wake up."

"There's a song about that," Priestly said.

"Don't make me gag you."

Priestly slowly, grudgingly allowed his eyes to close. He smiled faintly. "Love you, Jen."

"Yeah, Priestly. Shut up and go to sleep."

[ooc: Establishy again, though Priestly will be available for phone calls later in his day.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Somewhere, Priestly's phone is playing that blonde girl's song again.

Blonde. Not Bond.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly really had managed to fall asleep, apparently, because now he was waking up to Dinah's ringtone. For just a moment, he wasn't thinking about any of the world's crappiest crazy AU time, or anything that had come after. He was just home, and his best friend was calling.

Jen smiled from his desk chair, then slipped out of the room. Priestly blinked after her, then widened his eyes when he remembered why she'd been there.

"So," he said, answering the phone. "Jen's one of the best people ever."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Of course she is. Wait. Is there more extra evidence now?"

Hiya, Priestly.

Dinah stared out over New Gotham from the edge of the Clocktower, so damn glad to be home to have miles and miles to roam in, and able to hear Priestly's voice. Alive alive alive voice.

[lovemykilt]

"Nah. She and Zo are just being extra specially awesome." He looked at the clock. He'd managed to sleep for hours. Had Jen been there the whole time?

. . . He was suddenly tempted to check the browser history on his computer.

"You all home and safe, now?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeeeeah. Good thing, too. Barbara was going nuts, like I thought. Not getting anywhere, but. Trying damn hard." Yet one more reason Barbara was made of Awesome. "Helena's not letting me out of her sight yet... and I can see all of New Gotham from here, and I can't stand being in a room without windows."

Which was less of a blurt, than a teeth-gritted statement of something she was going to have to fix.

"Zo's being specially awesome too? Yaaaay. Trucker as well, I'm guessing." She bit her lip. "How are the others?" Tish, especially.

[lovemykilt]

"Well duh, that's what Barbara and Helena do." Priestly winced sympathetically at the talk of windows. "Well, good news is, you don't have to be in one if you don't want to, right? You can go and do whatever you want to." And anyone who tried to tell her otherwise would get Priestly's fist in their face. "Yeah, Trucker is his usual chill Trucker self. And Tish thinks I'm a crazy person." He said this with a fair amount of incredibly false cheer. "Like, actually certifiable, should probably be medicated and locked away for my own good."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I'm gonna sleep in Helena's bed tonight. I couldn't sleep last night." It was gonna fade. It was. It just annoyed her that she couldn't already be over it.

"Oh. Well, crap. That's... yeah." Dinah sat down, folding her legs under herself. "Damnit. How much of it did you tell her?"

[lovemykilt]

"I wish I could sleep in Helena's bed tonight," Priestly said, mostly for form's sake. "Um. Almost everything. The magic, the alternate universes, the weird weekends . . . the dying. . . ."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Priestly wants to sleep in your bed tonight!" Dinah called out.

"Tell him to bring his pajamas!" Helena called back.

"Yeah, she's cool with it," Dinah said, entirely straight-faced.

Then she double-facepalmed. "That-- the dying part? Might've been an overload, there. Overshare. Whatever. You think?"

[lovemykilt]

"Tell Helena I don't have pajamas." That was a lie. But it was more fun to think about than the rest of it.

"I promised her full disclosure." And then hadn't actually entirely delivered, what with leaving out some of the key Momoko details. "I just -- I got started and it kinda tumbled out. So, you know, I fucked it up as usual."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hunh. She doesn't either. Probably why she wanted you to bring some," Dinah said, giggles lurking under her voice. There. Enjoy that image, Priestly. Now you know how much Dinah loved you.

"I... agh. You didn't fuck it up. The situation is fucked up." Dinah sighed. "And crazy, and sideways, and-- telling her about Fandom was never going to be easy. So. It's not on you."

But yes, he should've told Tish something sooner. Dinah was not going to say that, though.

[lovemykilt]

Easy for Dinah to say. Her world had metas.

"Jen says she'll come around. That she'll figure out all the little clues and stuff and I just need to give her some space to process it all." And, see? Jen was amazing. "I don't know what to do if she doesn't. I can't prove any of this stuff, not around here."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Not easy. But she was, in fact, used to having to brace herself for other people's reactions.

"I can go there, be part of the proof," Dinah offered, then the rest of what he said caught up with her brain. "Jen believes all of this now? You told her too? And she's good with it?"

[lovemykilt]

"She says you're a bad influence on me when we're five," Priestly said, smiling. "And actually, Tish told her. I was going to talk to her and Piper today." Another look at the clock. "But, uh. I think I mostly slept through today, so. . . ."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah laughed, and pulled one leg up, hugging it. "She's a good babysitter. Maybe I can pay her back now." She shook her head, then more softly, "I'm glad you've got her there to look out for you. And you needed to sleep. They'll understand."

Welll.... "I hope."

[lovemykilt]

"Definitely helps to have someone there when you do it." Which was why, joking aside, he was all for Dinah crashing with Helena tonight. "Maybe. Jen seems to think so. Well, Tish, anyway. Piper's still kind of new, you know? She might grab Noah and Julia and flee while the getting's good."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I hope not. She seemed cool and all." Dinah considered. "What did Tish say, exactly? I mean. Maybe it was just her first response, you know?"

[lovemykilt]

"She said it sounded crazy. And I said I know, but I wasn't lying and she said that she knew that, but she couldn't handle crazy right now and she needed space and then she left."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Okay, good. She knew you weren't messing with her. Or trying to hide anything."

See? Dinah could always find the bright side!

"She just got a little... spazzed. Which, I mean, Kyle did that when I first told him I was a meta," she said, her voice stronger. "She might be okay with all this, if you give her a day or two?"

[lovemykilt]

Yeah, but then Kyle had been kind of a dick about it, at least from Priestly's perspective.

"That's what Jen said. I just need to be patient."

He wasn't very good at patient, right now.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which was understandable, given the last week or so, really. All that being quiet and patient, and then breaking out, and then....

"It sucks. It does. But you've done all you can," Dinah said, her voice softening. "Tish is awesome, right? And she thinks you're awesome. She's not going to bail without warning, even if she thinks you need medication. Just-- let her get her head around it." A bit more wryly, she said, "I mean, even at the welcome picnic, they didn't introduce the gremlins right away."

[lovemykilt]

"Well, unless one of them's enrolled as a student, or something."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Or teaching a class," Dinah agreed. She looked out over the city. "I can be there next weekend, if she needs more proof? I mean, it's one thing if she doesn't believe it and thinks you're crazy. It's another thing if she can't handle it."

[lovemykilt]

"I don't know. Maybe hold off until Trucker and Zo's thing? It's the weekend after next. Then, if she hasn't . . . well, it won't look like we're ambushing her or something."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I think you're right. Makes sense." Dinah let out a slow sigh. "How're you doing otherwise? Did Jen feed you? Did you fix anything yet?"

Cooking: How to take Priestly's temperature of whether he was okay.

[lovemykilt]

"Zo made soup." Priestly's stomach grumbled, reminding him that it had been hours since said soup. "I actually haven't cooked anything in --" he frowned. "Kind of forever, geez."

At least since a few days before he died? That couldn't be right, could it?

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Dude. Food." Wow, that was another depressing thought, that it had been a while. "I mean, I know your internal clock is all kinds of messed up from the loooong nap, but still. Any time is food time. I've been gorging on so much good food, you have no idea."

[lovemykilt]

"I don't even know what we have in the house." Not that that would stop him from making something with whatever it was. He was like a walking game of Stump the Cook.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"If there's not enough to make, there's pizza or hey, going to the Diner. If Tish isn't there right now," Dinah added. "...and now I want to order in takeout. I should really learn to cook at some point."

Someone should, besides Alfred.

[lovemykilt]

"How have I not taught you to cook at least something, yet?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I think I just keep asking you for food, and making pathetic faces so you feed me as fast as possible." Dinah laughed. "And you know, you should teach me! Darnit. I'm moving into an apartment with Gabby next month, I'm gonna need to be able to feed myself."

[lovemykilt]

"You're getting an apartment? How did I not know this?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"'Cause it was pretty recent we decided to do it, and I was going to tell you, but then hello, the Island happened to us." Dinah leaned back and grinned upward. "It's a place in this old converted mansion near the campus, there's about ten people living in it, we soooo lucked out, we've got our own entrance and a separate door, communal kitchen. It's really cool, although I guess it needs some upgrades to the electrical and stuff. So now you won't be the only one living a grown-up life."

[lovemykilt]

"And it's a legal old mansion, right? 'Cause squatting is super cool, but it doesn't really sound like your style."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"No, no, completely legal," Dinah promised. "And now I won't have to worry about Campus security watching me go in and out of the dorms all the time. There's about six other students there, too, so that part'll be cool." She hugged herself. "I'm getting enough shifts at Garden of Eden to save up for the deposit and the first couple month's rent. I want to see if I can do this. Maybe get another job, or, you know. Something." She was quiet a moment. "Only another two years 'til I graduate."

[lovemykilt]

"You can totally do it," Priestly assured her. "It's not too hard, so long as you have a good roommate."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"And Gabby is. We both lucked out there, you know that?" Dinah grinned wistfully. "At least our roomies are cool about our weird, weird lives. We really ought to drag Gabby to Santa Cruz at some point. Or Jen to New Gotham."

[lovemykilt]

"Or both! Jen would get a kick out of Barbara's equipment."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's so true!" Dinah was liking this idea more and more. "Okay. Plan. Next time you come visit, bring Jen, you teach me to cook something, and we'll introduce her to the Delphi Circuit in all its wonderfulness." She grinned. "And Tish, later, when things are better. Yeah?"

[lovemykilt]

"I think we have a deal. I should go see what we have in the fridge, make sure Jen hasn't stocked it all the way to the top with string cheese and rice pudding."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Seriously?" Dinah grinned. "Is she on a white diet?... Okay, but call me soonish. Or e-mail me. I wanna know how things go from here."

And that he was recovering from everything.

[lovemykilt]

"I will. Same to you, you know. I know you think you're old hat at all this, and all, but that doesn't mean it's not hurting you."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which was probably proven by the tears that welled up there at him being kind. Dinah's defenses weren't what they usually were. "Yeah. I know. I mean. Helena and Barbara and Alfred are great, but... I know you get it better." She let out a shaky breath. "Thanks, Priestly. Stay safe, 'kay?"

[lovemykilt]

"I promise not to haul off and punch any douchebags," Priestly swore. "Well, unless they're really really douchey."

Being home was bringing back all his inappropriate humor. It was a good sign.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Grrrrr," Dinah growled. "Look, you promise not to punch anyone without back-up and I... promise the same thing. That work?"

[lovemykilt]

"Deal. I'll talk to you later. Any time. Not concerned with time zones or . . . world-zones or whatever here."