2019-06-02 - Not All Sunshine and Rainbows

The walk home was brief from Aidan's trailer to Bennie's, their path leading them to the older part of the park where trailers are less 'mobile' and more a fixture. Hers is a dilapidated tan on brown vinyl siding number with lattice work skirting and crooked concrete steps leading up to the door.

Oddly enough, Bennie's trailer is unlocked when they arrive, but as soon as they step inside, she clicks a series of locks and a deadbolt out of habit.

"Can I get you a beer?" The question is asked as she stands, dripping, on the little square of linoleum by the door, stripping off all her cheap rings and bracelets and dropping them with the same care as if they were silver and gold into a little bowl on the table.

Her trailer is the family model, with bedrooms on opposite sides though it appears as if what would be called the Master is blocked off by a stack of boxes with different labels on them like 'donate' and 'M&D' and 'Judd'. The place is absolutely devoid of anything of value. There is no TV, no computer, and the stack of sewing on the kitchen table looks as if it's done by hand as there is no proper machine. The carpet is a beige threadbare shag and the furniture is what could only be described as 70's chic.

The wet muddy slosh through the trailer park is about as cheery as it sounds, though Easton's so thoroughly soaked at this point it hardly matters. He is about to say goodnight at the door, figuring that this night needs to just end and maybe try again for round 3. He is surprised when she lets him in and he stands kind of awkwardly on the linoleum.

Her question about the beer causes him to laugh, "Really? If you'd rather tell me to hit the road, that's okay." He winces and clarifies, "I mean, I'd love a drink. But I also just put you in a real shitty situation and I seem to keep doing that." He runs a hand through his wet hair causing it to stand up but getting it to drip a little less in his face.

Eyeing the trailer and it's sparse-ness doesn't bring any reaction to his face. He tries to lean around to see her face as he asks, "Really, are you okay?"

"I think I'd rather not be alone?" What should be a statement bubbles out as a question as Bennie gathers her damp hair on top of her head and secures it with a pair of take-out wooden chopsticks she's dressed up with rose gold glitter. Her smile is back to its genuine self, even if it's not quite as bright as normal.

"I'm fine." Bennie assures again as she steps into him, hands raised to undo the top button of his poor soggy flannel shirt. "I volunteered. So what if our dates aren't conventional? Conventional is overrated."

"Then let me grab you a beer.." he's about to move toward the kitchen, when she's there, reaching for his shirt buttons. He stops and says, "Or, we could get out of our wet muddy clothes." He just stands and lets her unbutton his shirt, tilting his head down to watch her hands. He lifts a hand to brush some wet hair back from her face and look at her. "Conventional is boring. Though I think we should avoid having heavily wounded selves or friends at least occasionally to keep things interesting."

Bennie's seen him without his shirt twice now, but each button is undone almost reverently until she reaches the last one and moves to push it off his shoulders with a skim of her palms, mindful of the one he recently injured. She lifts her gaze to meet his again as he fingers back a lock of her wet hair that's tumbled out of the loose bun. "Well. I guess there's no harm in changing it up a little. Maybe next time I'll make you take me dancing." Her head tilts and she steals a light kiss that doesn't seem to be a prelude to anything while they're still soaked to the bone, fingers hooking into a belt loop to give him a tug towards the kitchen.

Slowly leaning his head against hers as she unbuttons his his shirt. He finds his breath getting a bit ragged as he lets his hands slide down her arms. But then she speaks and it breaks whatever that moment almost was and he laughs, "Dancing sounds fun, but unfortunately I have to warn you, I have no left feet." Yes, that is obviously a line that he's used before. No, he doesn't seem abashed to trot it out again. He seems content to return the light kiss and then be lead by his belt loops.

He pulls open the fridge and looks back up at her with a scrunched up squint on one side of his face. He shakes his head and says, "I think you're fresh out." But then he holds up a hand, "But I can fix this. Just give me like 5 minutes?" And with that he heads for the door, not bothering with his shirt, "Seriously, five minutes. Tops." And without waiting to see if she actually cares about having a drink, he's out the door, running in the rain and mud for Geoff's. With little more than a knock, he enters Geoff's slaps down some cash on the counter and grabs a few beers from the fridge and is back out the door without even bothering to check if Geoff was home. And within 3 minutes he's back, holding four cans of beer with one arm against his wet chest.

"Okay, I under estimated how cold these were going to feel..." He shakes off the extra rain and finds a place to set the beers before retrieving his shirt for a very unceremonious towelling off.

"Good thing you can only feel when I step on one of them?" Bennie answers good naturedly about dancing when he pops open the refrigerator door. The contents are a little lacking, even in the absence of beer, various casseroles in missed matched dishes as if from different sources and all the condiments look purloined from different restaurants down to the fast food ketchup packets in a plastic cup.

He promises beer, and leaves to deliver, which leaves her enough time to shimmy out of her wet clothes and dig something out for him to change into.

"In here!" Bennie calls from the secondary bedroom. The majority of the space is taken up by a set of bunk beds, the bottom of which has been turned into a bohemian blanket cave of vibrant fabrics draped around the full sized mattress and strings of fairy lights. It's there that she's sitting in a short night gown whose floral pattern looks as if it was once a full fledged mumu but has been altered to have ribbons for straps and a bit of lace added to the bottom hem. Another Bennie original.

As he sets the beers on the dresser, she's throwing a pair of purple drawstring pajama pants at him and a PE t-shirt emblazoned with the T.H.S. high school logo on it and the name J. Oakes sharpied on it. Obviously it's a garment that's still in Bennie's rotation, because it smells freshly laundered.

"Did the clubhouse add a liquor store inside that I'm not aware of?" She says with a laugh in her voice as he remarks about their temperature.

Entering back into the empty living area causes him to raise his eyebrows. But it also gives him time to remove his shoes which can be a bit more involved with the artificial leg. Her call though causes him to hurry that up and head into the bedroom. Even with his extreme composure it's still pretty clear this is not what he was expecting. He stops in the doorway and sees the bunkbeds and then he sees her and he looks a bit frightened. He starts to ask, "Wait, ho-.." And then thankfully he remembers that she was drinking at a bar. Okay. He didn't almost sleep with a high school girl. Good. Wait he's still talking and needs to says something.

"Sorry, I should have asked. Do you live alone?"

He sets down the beers in time to catch the tossed clothes, which he is thankful for. He shucks off his jeans, again not the first time she's seen him in his skivvies and puts on the pants before pulling on the tee-shirt. He knows it must be her brothers but he has nothing he can possibly say about that at this point without getting too close to issues he knows he can't face.

"Nah, I raided Geoff's fridge." He clarifies, "I left money to cover it, but it's fine."

Bennie laughs freely, wiggling herself into a cross legged position as she watches him change. "What, not what you were expecting? Life's too short to sleep in a boring bed." Her hand lifts to bat at a dream catcher, but if the nightmare about the Demon Bunnies is any indication, the thing of string and beads is clearly broken. "Yes, I live alone. This was the house I was raised in. I couldn't stomach moving into the master after I lost my mom and dad, so..." She shrugs unapologetically. "If it makes you more comfortable, you can have the top bunk."

A gimme hand is made for one of the beers, "Geoffrey Turner? The lime green trailer? We went to school together." Though apparently that's where most of the familiarity ends. They must've run in different circles despite both coming from this side of the proverbial track.

Easton's face breaks out into a smile when she explains that this is just part of her free-spirited nature, and not that he's in some sixteen year old girls bedroom with her parents down the hall and a possible sibling sleeping on the top bunk. Look, it maybe brought back some memories that he wasn't keen on reliving at twenty-eight.

But then she mentions losing her mom and dad and his face falls again. He takes in that she's lost her parents AND her brother and lives here alone and he realizes he's doing a very poor job of hiding the look on his face that can't imagine how the hell she's still standing.

He forces himself to smile and toss her a beer, opening his and taking a big drink. He will come back to her past at some point, just like he'll come back to the part where she's terrified for her life about some past debts, but for now that's not important. He walks over and takes a seat next to her and says, "I c'n sleep anywhere, but I can't imagine choosing not to sleep next to you." He offers to tap beers in a slight cheers before answering "Uh, yea. Geoff." He doesn't know Geoff's full name, never been important. "Tattoo artist?" He considers describing parts of Geoff's anatomy that for some reason he's now far more familiar with than most, but decides against it. Maybe later, but for now it's probably best not to introduce just how close he and Geoff are. Yet.

Bennie catches the beer in a cradle of hands, tapping a nail on the tab top to kill some of the carbonation before she cracks it open. It still foams a bit and she hurries to slurp from it. "I don't even care if that was a line or not." Bennie moves a pillow out of the way to make room for him, but thankfully the bunk is devoid of things like stuffed animals or baby dolls to truly give him proper flashbacks.

She knocks cans against his. "Yeah, that's the one. I always admired his ink. Do you have any?" Sure she's seen him practically naked, but it's still nice to /ask/.

Sitting down on the bed, right next to her, he nudges her with his shoulder and says "That was absolutely a line. But seriously I'd sleep outside in the rain with you if you asked." He's slept in worse conditions before, so why not. He takes another gulp of beer and then nods very solemnly at the question about tats. "Yuup. I got a big C on my shoulder, which was my first and dumbest one. Stupid pledge thing. And then a pineapple on my side and finally he pulls his shirt up a bit and shows her what looks to be a stack of money with wings. "This. For Banks." He looks at her as if trying to remember if he's mentioned this. "A marine buddy of mine. He died." He looks for a moment if he might have more to say about it, but just takes a big ol' sip of beer and then turns to her, "You? Any embarrassing and hopefully very private tattoos you want to show me?"

A marine buddy who died. Bennie drops a kiss to the same shoulder that nudged her, but like him with her family, now's probably not the time to press such subjects. At the reciprocal question, she pops a bare leg across his lap, turning her knee slightly towards his stomach to show the outside of her ankle where there is a little four leaf shamrock. "Just the 'I just turned eighteen' flash art tattoo that screams 'Basic White Girl'. I'd get it covered up, but it's just part of my story now. Look, I know we should probably talk about ...whatever we are but can we just..." She curls her leg trying to nudge him to come closer.

Silently Easton accepts the kiss on his shoulder and is thankful that she can's see his face grimace just slightly. He is thankful for the distraction of her leg propped up on his lap. He oohs appropriately and laughs as she calls it Basic White Girl, "At least it's not a tramp stamp." His hand instinctively rubs her leg, only straying as high as her knee, the other still holding his beer.

<<No talking>> Easton smiles as he leans in closer. He of course breaks that rule almost immediately though to respond to her question, "Yea. We can." Because it's not super important what the end of that sentence was in her mind.

It's weird having someone else's words echo in her mind without being spoken. Clearly, he's the first person to try and communicate with her in that manner. Instead of being shocked by it this time, she finds it oddly comforting. It helps that he's agreeing with her.

Reaching over, Bennie props her beer can on the ladder leading up to the top bunk after one more drink. The ladder something she uses more like a shelf for her library books and alarm clock more than access to above now.

Following the line of her leg, she just slides over into his lap, one hand above to keep track of the low clearance and the other splaying a palm out against his bearded cheek and fingers loosely curled just beyond his ear. Her smile softens into something slightly more intimate and meant just for him rather than beaming it out at the world in general and she gives a light, teasing press of her lips to his as if testing the waters.

Easton follows suit with taking a last gulp of beer and placing it gently on the shelf. He tries not to think about the precarious nature of small shelves, beer cans and where things are headed. His far too practical line of thinking is thankfully cut short by her sliding across his lap. He places his hands on her sides as if to steady her and lets them slide down the nightgown to her hips, holding her firmly in place.

Her light kiss is apparently enough of signal for him. He kisses her back urgently and hard. These are not the coy brushing of lips from earlier in the evening. He keeps one hand on her hip and runs the other back up her body to the back of her head, his fingers entwined in her hair as he presses her to him.

They must have been more tired than they thought, because one moment they're making out and the next, the sun is spilling through the aluminum blinds right into Easton's face where he lays sprawled out on the pillows. Bennie's not next to him on the mattress in her little adult sized blanket fort, but there is the smell of bacon frying coming from the main house and the sound of laughter echoing down the hallway. She must have gone out for groceries, because there is no way those heavenly scents came from the meager offerings of her fridge. And she invited guests, because there are other voices joining in with hers in the low murmur of conversation.

The sunshine on his face causes him to squeeze his eyes tighter as if that will allow Easton to go back to sleep. But he knows he's up, particularly when he smells breakfast cooking. His eyes pop open and he looks around, horribly confused about where he is or why he's there. He leans his head out from behind the tapestry and it starts to come back to him. He looks down at his artificial leg and is confused to find it still attached. Wow, he must have been exhausted to sleep with that on all night.

He wanders out into the living room, wondering who the other voices could be...

There is a family sitting at the table, and the entire room looks wrong. Well, not so much wrong as it looks as if it had been completely refurbished overnight. The furniture looks relatively new, microsuede with decorative pillows, a TV where it should be in the cabinet that was bare yesterday, and music is playing on the stereo system hooked up to a turntable currently spinning a Rolling Stone's album. "Please allow me to introduce myself..." coming out at a low volume to entertain those in the room but not wake the sleeping Easton.

"Easton!" Bennie greets from the table, still dressed in her night gown from the day before. "You're up. Come have breakfast!" There is a dusty blonde guy sitting there with her, the familial resemblance strong enough to easily place him as Bennie's brother, Judd. "I made orange juice!" Bennie chirps, immediately getting playfully swatted from across the table.

"I was the one who squeezed it, dip shit." Judd smirks and then gives Easton an upnod of greeting.

"Language!" A woman's voice comes from the kitchen, Bennie's mother armed with a spatula and a frying pan. "Easton, how do you like your eggs?"

Bennie mouths at Easton, 'Isn't this great?!'

Standing there, Easton looks at the family and the state of the trailer and takes it all in for a minute. Is this right? His brain struggles to fit what he's seeing with his memories of last night, but it was late and .. this does look nice. He looks down at the clothes her brother lent him because his were soaked. That's right, Judd lent him the shirt and the mens plaid pants he's now wearing. His memories 'fill-in' helpfully how the events of last night went.

He smiles at the family and says, "Hey, thanks for uhh letting me sleep?" He tries to remember what kind of relationship they have. Has he done this before? Does he do this often? They know him...

Something about her mother asking how he takes his egg rubs him the wrong way though and he can't quite figure out why. He replies "Over easy ma'am." in a distracted tone before remembering that's gone. Bennie lost her. Lost her, dead? Lost her ... she went away? They don't look dead.

Easton stops walking toward the table and rubs at his head while it tries to sort these 'memories' out.

Bennie nudges out a chair with her foot, "Judd's on leave before they get deployed, and mom actually took the day off." She stage whispers to Easton as to why her brother and mom are here, though there is no mention of her father nor place set for a fifth to join them.

She was as surprised as he was to wake up to the family, but some part of her inner longing for this to be real made it easy enough for her to believe, like sliding into a pair of your favorite broken in sneakers. It's comfortable.

Judd slaps Easton on the shoulder heartily, "Bennie tells me you're in the marines." Present tense. "Don't worry, I won't hold it against you."

"Oh please, call me Betty." Bennie's mom breezes in, scooping eggs onto Easton's plate while that were fried in the bacon grease as Bennie loads him down with bacon and toast and pours him a glass of juice.

Easton walks a little dazed to the chair and he sits down, offering only a weak smile to Bennie and Judd as he mentally tries to play catch up. He snaps back to as Judd slaps him on the shoulder. He corrects, "Was. In the marines, and I appreciate that. I'd hate to have punch her brother in the face."

Saying it outloud causes something to drop in Easton's stomach. And just like that, he knows. He knows what this is. He can only watch in mild horror as very much alive-looking version of her mother slides eggs onto his plate. He looks at Judd and tries to keep his breathing steady and calm. He doesn't look at Bennie yet. He can't. What do you do? Just pretend everything is normal? Are they going to try and kill him and Bennie? That seems to be a theme, but maybe that's just his dreams. Maybe hers are really beautiful and full of loved ones who have passed?

"Thanks for breakfast, Betty." He forces the words out of his mouth with as much cheerful happiness as he can muster, but the pained look that he gives Bennie is clearly one of distress.

What if they die again right in front of her?

Judd gives a hearty laugh at the punch comment, which sounds like a deeper, more husky version of Bennie's own musical one that joins in. Betty just shakes her head with a smile and moves to the kitchen to start working on the dishes.

As Easton gives her that look, Bennie just gives him a reassuring squeeze to his thigh beneath the table. Meeting the family for the first time is always hard. She has sympathy.

Just as Mick Jagger is telling them to guess his name, there is the loud roar of motorcycles driving through Huckleberry Park. The frying pan clatters in the sink, and Betty is hurriedly drying her hands off on her apron.

"They're here! Quick, Judd, hide the record player. Bennie, close the TV cabinet." Betty scurries to the front door, edging up on her tiptoes to look out of the peep holes. Bennie definitely did not get her height from her mom's side. "Easton, be a dear and empty your pockets onto the coffee table."

It's as if the 'kids' know the routine, and they're popping up from the table to hide the valuables. Bennie pulls a smaller purse out of her large satchel and tosses it down where Betty told Easton to leave his things.

The squeeze of his thigh under the table causes him to smile. As he looks at Bennie the thought strikes him that if somehow Banks walked through that door alive, even if Easton knew he was dead, he would just be so damn glad to see him. To grab him and hug the shit out of him. It causes him to recover an actual smile. He can do this. It's fine.

The roar of the motorcycles reads as ominous even to Easton who has mostly good connotations for it. He watches as the family starts to move things around and he's told to empty his pockets, so he stands and does so, looking questioningly at the activity. They owe money. Someone's coming to collect. Ah, so maybe here's where people try to kill them. Easton is tempted to lift the leg of his pants to check for his KA-Bar knife but then he remembers that he can 'sense' it just as easily. The smallest quirk of smiles comes to his face when he realizes it's still there in the holder in his leg as it should be.

"How many are there?" He looks to Judd, wondering why he didn't do something about this in life maybe. He steps forward so he's closer to the door than Bennie or Betty.

"I don't know, three? Four?" Judd shrugs helplessly as he tosses his wallet onto the table.

"He brought the whole Chapter!" Betty squeaks helplessly as she steps back from the door and behind Easton, gripping Bennie's arms with both hands. "It'll be okay. We'll just give them what he owes, and they'll leave." She reassures her daughter.

Just then, a man opens the door and slips inside. He doesn't look like he belongs to a motorcycle gang, as he lacks any leather vest, but he clearly came with the others. He's just in jeans and a dirty t-shirt from some marathon in 2002 according to the logo.

"John!" Betty cries, and suddenly it becomes apparent in Easton's mind that this is Bennie's father. He only gives Easton a baleful glance and then looks past him to his family. "You know the drill. And Betty, I'm going to need the car keys."

Outside there is whooping and hollering, and all of a sudden the entire trailer starts to SHAKE as if being rocked back and forth, but an entire mob shouldn't be able to move the pre-fab building.

Easton looks at Judd, a little confused as to why he's not ready to fight here or concerned about the odds. But he knows this is some weird mix of memory and whatever the heck slipping or Dreaming means.

At Bennie's father's entrance, Easton just shakes his head and tries not to look too disgusted. He forces himself to just bite his lip when talk of handing over the car keys comes. He glances back to Bennie and tries to reassure her, sending a wave of resolve. It's not calming, it's not anger, it's simply resolve to do what needs be done.

The shaking of the trailer causes him to shake his head and walk for the door. He is not about to just let this happen, even though he knows it's not real, it still just irks him too much to let slide.

Bennie gives a slight nod to Easton, her chin lifting slightly as if she gleans some courage from the former Marine. "It's going to be alright, momma." She disentangles herself from her mother's embrace. "John." Bennie addresses her dad by his first name instead of anything more tender, shouldering past him to join Easton at the door.

As soon as it's flung open, the pair is met with the sound of a shot gun cocking and a blast pock marking the concrete stairs in front of their feet. "That's far enough, pretty boy." The leader of the MC tells them.

The shotgun blast is certainly effective at keeping Easton from going any farther. He stops on the steps and glances back as Bennie follows him to the door. He calls out, "Woah, I don't want trouble. Just trying to see what the shakin's all about" The count of 10ish bikes to only 5 people doesn't bode well. He knew he should have brought his gun ... where did he come from? When was that? Oh well, no time now.

Easton slowly raises his hands, keeping them in plain sight, the first tug with his mind causes some confusion but Easton grits his teeth and pulls again, this time the shotgun comes free but doesn't immediately come to his hand like he had hoped. No it skids into the dirt.
The next bit of action happens in his pants. Heh. The leg of his left pajama pants splits at the cuff and his knife goes flying blade first at one of the bikers. The gun was a little subtle, this is not.

There is a bit of a yelp from Bennie at the first shot gun blast, the woman cowering back into the doorway a step. The blade of Easton's k-bar imbeds itself in the shoulder of one of the bikers, the man giving an animalistic howl of pain as he falls back into his motorcycle and knocks it to the ground with his flailing body flopping on top.

Inside, the noises of a verbal fight begin, John's voice and Betty's combining into a cacophony of swear words and mean spirited epithets. "They're shooting at your daughter!" "She should have done as she was told! Now give me the keys." "I need the car for work!" "You won't be able to work if they crack in our skulls." And no where is the voice of Judd in there, nor does he come to the door to help Bennie and Easton.

A shaking hand extends past Easton, Bennie clinging to his shoulder with the other. Her fingers outstretch in a five pointed empty grasp that then closes on thin air into the twist of a fist. Simultaneously, three of the other men fall to the ground, a sound like twigs snapping is actually their femurs.

Easton is about to jump from the porch when he feels Bennie's hand on his shoulder and so he stays where he is. He is focused on seeing where the next attack is going to come from and is utterly surprised by the sickening snap, crackle, pop of leg bones. His eyes go wide, and his head slowly turns to Bennie. "whatthefuck...?" Is quietly asked before he snaps his head back into the action. Yanking the shotgun up to his hand as he intended the first time, he racks it and fires in a beautifully smooth motion that makes short work of the last remaining member in sight.

He turns to Bennie and says, "Listen to me. Go inside. Hug your mom. Hug your brother. I'll take care of this... just." He stops for a second, not sure how to do this without breaking the illusion of it for her. "It's going to be okay, but go see them." And punch your numb-nuts of a father in face is left off. At least for now. But really killing imaginary bikers is something he can do, maybe not as efficiently as her but again, he knows that as fucked up as this is, there's also an opportunity for her.

Bennie looks a bit cowed when Easton ask her WTF was up with that. It's something she's only done before, only by accident, and to use it intentionally has made her look ghostly pale at inflicting pain on another 'human'. Especially for someone who has sworn to heal. It's not like EMT's take the same oath as a doctor, but it still goes against the whole premise. "O-okay." She stammers, and slinks back just as a blue sedan comes bouncing around the corner of the trailer with John behind the wheel. There is a celebratory Whoop! from the bikers, both fallen and those up on the roof, and they all begin to hop down or crawl for their bikes despite injuries. Behind Easton, there's a scream. A distinctly Bennie flavored scream.

The car bouncing down the driveway gets a shotgun aimed at it but then there's a scream and that definitely trumps anything going on outside. He points the gun down and moves inside quickly.

"Bennie!" <<Don't look>> He doesn't mean to send that, but he's still not great at it and the thought is so strong. He wants to spare her from whatever fucked up scene is there.

"It's not real!"

Don't look.

Bennie is turning right back into Easton, blindly bumping into his chest and burying her face into the material of his borrowed shirt with a wring of her hands. It's too late not to look, and it'd be impossible for Easton to not at least get a glimpse of the scene she was greeted with inside the trailer.

The back door is open, banging against the side of the trailer as it's buffeted by wind, but the squeak is coming from the rope that's tied around Betty's neck. She's hanging from the light fixture in the center of the living room, a kicked over kitchen chair that Easton was just sitting in moments ago by her lifeless feet. Her weight has nearly pulled the fixture from the ceiling, held in place by just two of the remaining bolts. Slumped just beyond, like he went back to enjoying his freshly squeezed OJ, Judd is sitting at the table. He's now some how in his army fatigues, but the complete left side of his body is obliterated. Her brother would be almost unrecognizable if it weren't for the half of his face that's still smiling sunnily just as Bennie does. Even in death.

Easton's seen more than his fair share of dead people, though hanging is a gruesome beast of it's own. He takes in the macabre tableau that is the interior of the trailer while holding Bennie close to his chest. He can't look over her head due to the height difference, but he can see over her shoulder. He just holds her and tries his best to comfort her with one arm. He would normally be cussing up a storm, but he holds his tongue, to focus on using it for other words.

"This all happened a long time ago. I'm sorry you're seeing it, but it's not real."

He forces himself to check the entrances, because who knows if he's still going to have to murder more people.

"Soon we'll be back..." He doesn't add the 'I hope' in there and tries to keep that thought well inside his own head this time.

It all happened a long time ago. And no doubt all the memories are being mashed together and out of sequence, but the Dark Men are certainly getting their fill tonight, especially from Bennie who is weeping quietly into Easton's shirt. It might not be real, but the dampness of her tears certainly feels like it is. And some where: bacon is burning.

At the promise that 'soon they'll be back', the blonde turns away from him and makes a mad dash towards the bedroom, disappearing not only around the corner, but dissolving from the dream all together.

The veil is shifting, lifting, dissipating. And Easton is safely back in the bottom bunk of Bennie's bedroom, the blonde appearing in the doorway and sleepily rubbing her eyes. "Sorry, I had a horrible dream and couldn't go back to sleep." She tells the room, still dim in the clawing light of dawn. "I tried to make breakfast but...charcoal, round two. If you want to come to work with me at the diner, I'll get you fed but my shift starts in twenty."

The only thing worse than waking up, is having to do it twice. Easton's eyes crack open, but he doesn't have any problem actually getting up. He sits up in the bed and this time is able to remember much quicker where he is and why.

Shifting the curtain out of the way, he smiles at her though that falters a bit at the mention of a horrible dream. He nods and says, "That's fine. I can do that.." He looks around and realizes his clothes are still a sopping muddy heap. He grabs the beer from last night and takes a gulp (mhhmmm old warm beer). "I can be ready in 5. I'll drive."

Strapping on his artificial leg takes a few minutes but in no time, he's up and dressed and walking out into the living room. He pauses to give her a good morning kiss on the cheek, there's no way his mouth is in any shape for actual kissing. "Hey. Sorry ... about your dream." Because he has a sinking suspicion that he knows exactly what it was...