Voicemail

[lovemykilt]

Hey, you've reached Priestly. Aren't you lucky! I'm not around to take your call, but you probably know what to do.

*beep*

Comments

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Hmmm. Something was definitely up. But she seemed to just want to do small talk, and Priestly was nothing if not willing to give a woman what she wanted.

"Dunno what Dean had," he said, shifting the phone to his other ear and stretching out on his bed, glass of whisky close at hand. "I did a quesedilla with grilled chicken, brie, granny smith apples, and some mango salsa." It was pretty much the very soul of CalMex, yes. "Think I might try a south of the border type theme, this week."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"We were gonna bring our crew to your place," Dinah blurted. Small talk, small talk, small talk. Try to make it that. "We told them so. After--I can't remember after what. Maybe after we won?" She swallowed. "Could still be a while. But that sounds-- that sounds awesome."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Something happened to the crew? Dammit, he shouldn't be trying to read between her lines. When she needed to tell him, she'd tell him.

"How many people we talking here? I can make sure we're stocked up on fresh apples."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Seven," Dinah said automatically, then flinched. "I mean.. six. Wait. Maybe seven, the new girl..." She ran out of words, and rolled her eyes at herself. So much for small talk.

Ignore the wetness on her face, okay?

"...might come along. Maybe."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

She'd tell him if the missing -- dead? -- seventh was someone he knew. She wouldn't dance around that. Also, she'd possibly be crying a lot more.

"I'll plan for an even ten, how's that? Then you can invite any extras along, too."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"That sounds good." Dinah's voice was flat, but she tried to put more energy into it. "Mark and Kirt, they try, and we've venison stew a lot. I'm pretty sick of it." She paused. "Which is a stupid thing to complain about. I mean. There are people a lot worse off, you know?" No her voice was not cracking shut up Priestly!

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

"There are," Priestly agreed. "But, you know, that doesn't mean you don't get to be tired of eating the same thing all the time."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Yeah. Which was why we promised--" She cleared her throat. "They're a really great bunch. You'd really like them. Mark and Kirt are brothers, and Samantha's a mom of teenagers, so sometimes she treats them and Ulrich like they're her kids..." She paused, and then just said, "Denys. Would flirt with her. And she'd, she'd just laugh." Her eyes filled, and she whispered, "Not so funny now. That he's gone."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Ah. There it was.

"I'm sorry," Priestly said softly. And had absolutely no idea what to say after that.

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeaaaah," Dinah said, drawing it out. Trying to get some equilibrium. "Me too." She was silent for several seconds. "He rushed in. He should've waited. But I can't even really be mad, 'cause I would've done the same thing, if I'd been the one to get there first." She let out a shaky breath. "He helped save a girl. Him dying was an accident, she thought he was going to hurt her..."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck. What the hell were you supposed to say in this situation? Pull some Galaxy Quest crap like "at least he died with honor"?

"The girl's okay?"

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Enh." Trying to keep it casual, Dinah's voice got even more shaky. "She is. Yeah. The others-- um." She closed her eyes. "Two other young women were kidnapped the same day. They were-- pretty hurt. And one girl died." Another shaky breath. "I just... I don't..."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

"Hey, hey." Priestly really really wished she was there to hug. "You don't have to. We can talk about whatever you want." Hell, he'd recap Doctor Sexy episodes if that was what she needed.

Goddammit, what she needed was a hug. Why hadn't Fandom at least gotten on top of transmitting those over wireless signals?

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I don't want to think about it, but I keep thinking about it," Dinah explained. "In bits and pieces, of... Denys, and those girls, and -- I accidentally killed a guy. I didn't even notice." She gulped for breath. "And we didn't notice Denys..." No, damnit, she did not want to think about this. More sniffling before she had herself under control. "Are you-- is Dean, are you guys hunting stuff? You're safe?" Please. Be safe.

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Priestly didn't know how to help with this. He didn't even know any soldiers, back home, not current ones, not ones that were still dealing with this sort of -- immediacy. Bad breakups, he could do. Hell, he was getting pretty good at "so you remember dying in an alternate timeline". But war?

He'd known this was coming, too. That was the worst part. He should have prepared better. He should know what to say.

"We're safe. Things are all quiet on the Fandom front, I promise." He could do a change of subject, would that help? "Believe it or not, Dean's pretty much thrown himself into being a teacher. Well, you know, as much as Dean throws himself into anything not directly ghost- or Sam-related."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" Dinah's voice had turned hopeful, grateful for more distraction, and the assurance that he wasn't getting into trouble without her there. God bless Dean. Yay. "What's he teaching? Ghost-hunting? And, how's Sam? I should... visit him or something." Because Sam was at Columbia, and that was a world away from where she was.

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

Well, technically, Sam was at Fandom, right now. Give him a couple weeks, though.

"He and Sam are, yeah. He plays it all gruff and shit, but I'm pretty sure the kids have actually kinda grown on him. Of course, tomorrow's his last class of the summer, so who knows what he'll do, next. I'm not sure even Fandom's ready for him to teach a full semester class."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"He could teach.. .um. Weapons. That's always useful." Dinah was suddenly hit by a pang of wistfulness. "Man. I'd like to see that. Or be there teaching something. I could-- I could teach self-defense pretty well, right?" She shivered, and slid down the tree trunk, hugging her knees to her chest. "I mean. Now that I know better than to tackle."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

"You'd be an amazing teacher," Priestly said. "You could teach detective . . . ing. Or, I dunno, do a whole gym class based on rapeling." In the Danger Shop, they could fall off all the buildings and trains they wanted without getting hurt. "Hell, you've been teaching me, and I haven't died in, like, a whole year, now."

Why did he just say that? Dammit, now was not the time to bring up dying. Seriously.

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

A choked giggle-squeak-not-a-sob there. "You're really improving. And, and, maybe I can do that next summer. If I can't find a job, that's -- something, right?" A long inhalation, as Dinah put her head on her knees.

"Priestly? I wanna go home."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

. . . He was going to need more whisky.

Priestly squeezed his eyes shut, then downed his glass in one shot. "I want you to, too." It came out gruff, thanks to the liquor.

Yeah, just the liquor. Sure.

He took a deep breath, pulling his knees up to his chest, and rubbed his hand down his face. He really didn't want to say what he was going to say next.

"But you'd regret it." He knew her. He knew she would. "If anything happened to the others because you weren't there, you'd never forgive yourself and I don't -- I can't --" Fuck. "You do whatever you need to do and you know I'll back you up, 100%, fuck, you rob a bank and I'll drive the fucking van, but Dinah. If you don't see this through, you're going to hate it."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah leaned her head back against the tree, just listening to his voice, not trying to stop crying. She was nodding, but unable to speak yet. Because he was right. She just missed him, and her family, and being able to walk away when she wanted to.

"I know you're right. I do." She coughed, then sighed. "I want to rob a bank with you now." Slightly hysterical giggles followed this. "I did rob a stagecoach. Sort of."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

"Well, that's basically the medieval-type-world equivalent of a bank." It really wasn't. "Was Momoko driving your getaway carriage?"

It was nicer to picture Dinah and Momoko as highway bandits just now, yes.

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah actually giggled, then sniffed. "Kinda? It was a set-up. We were planting dye-packs on the real highway robbers. Then I set them off when they were down the road, near the villagers and the nearest Queen's Court. So they'd get caught. It was like... World Wrestling Federation."

Re: Sometime after Arundal...

[lovemykilt]

"Oh man," Priestly said. "You guys have dye."

Because that was clearly the important part of that whole story.