2019-07-01 - Where Do We Stand?

Penny had been a wreck since Lucian came back. Not to mention she'd been in a few altercations off the clock. She showed the signs when she came into work and it got worse when she wasn't sleeping already. She'd called Lucian and asked him if he would come to her house, it was on Elm (Naturally). It was early July so the woman had fixed a dinner that wasn't too heavy, but smelled DELICIOUS. She's dressed in one of those flowy summer dresses in a lilac color and her hair is pinned back from her neck and shoulders. She's sitting on the front steps at the moment. Just waiting for him.

Lucian isnt driving yet - still renting a room until he finds a place to settle, and skipping a car purchase until he gets THAT settled, so when he approaches Elm, its on foot, clad in casual jeans and a dark blue Izod-type short-sleeve shirt, which betrays that some of thise scars creep down his left arm. In the distance, he can be seen eyeing house fronts, checking the numbers, but then he sees Penny out on the front porch and speeds up a little. When he turns to approach the porch, he slows down and offers a small smile, almost as if he's cautious about actually stepping ON the porch, "Whatever you made, I can smell it out here. You probably didn't need to tell me which place was yours, after all."

Penny stands when she sees him coming and there's a soft smile, "Hello there." she greets him. Then there's a chuckle, "Cooking is not something I get to do often, so I figured it would be nice." she admits in her quiet tone. "And I may as well make sure you're fed if you're going to have to listen to me prattle on." she states. "Please come in. I know it's not cold out, but I don't think anything that we are going to talk about needs to be done outside." she admits.

Lucian glances down for just a moment, then back up to her face while he listens. The explanation fades some of the smile off of his face into a look that's a little more serious, and as a result, he simply nods his head agreeably and steps up onto the porch to follow with a lower, "Of course." He takes a step forward to reach for the door to pull it open for her and waits, letting that small smile resurface for a few moments.

Penny gives a bit of a smile to him, "I didn't mean to make it so dire." she admits. Then she holds the door to the house and lets him inside. "I'm just wanting to let you know what's been going on around here lately." she states to him. "And...I just want to see you for a bit as well." she smiles to him. "I'm still trying to realize that you're actually here. That it's not a dream or illusion." she states.

Lucian clears his throat softly at the comment and lets go of the door when she takes it, "Sorry. I suppose I'm just adjusting to things, still. I question myself a lot, asking if there's something I've forgotten, and starting to think I should make note cards, as dysfunctional as that sounds." When she holds the door open, he ducks his head a little and steps inside, panning his gaze around and stepping aside to make room for her before he makes his way any further.

Penny closes the door behind them and she gives a look to him, "Thank you for coming, by the way." she tells him as she reaches out to hold his hand for a moment. She holds it for a few moments, "We'll make things better." she whispers to him. "If you want my help in things?" she looks to him. She was unsure of that. "Come and sit, I don't usually get to use the dining room." she chuckles. "And what would you like to drink? Beer, wine? Something else?" she asks him.

Lucian gives her hand a warm squeeze that lingers for a few seconds before he finally let go. He looks like he might respond to that offer, but stops himself and instead nods to the invitation to come sit down, approaching the table while looking it over, "Whatever you're having would be good. I would like to fill in the holes and remind myself of the things you like." He lingers for a moment with a hand on a chair back, and watches her, "Thank you...for this."

Penny gives a warm smile to him, "I just grilled some chicken and vegetables with rice. I hope that's alright for dinner?" she tells him as she takes a seat. She gives a look to him and there's a smile, "I...was reading a book on how to deal with amnesia and they said that familiarity was a good way to try to help. So I figured dinners would be good. Maybe talking about past times." she smiles to him.

Lucian settles down into the chair and nods once at the comment, but keeps his voice down, "I've sort of noticed that the things I can't remember tend to be supposedly happy things. My team mates told me about a return home party I went to, and supposedly was the life of, and drank too much at, and I don't recall it at all, even any anticipation leading up to it. Its like the event got...deleted from my brain." He shakes his head, "Even if they don't come back, I don't want to lose all my time trying to get them back and have no new memories to show for it. So...while I want to remember...I would like to enjoy the time with you and see what I can relearn?"

"Sometimes when there is trauma it can repress the traumatic memories. In this case it seems like your happy memories are the ones that have been repressed or damaged." Penny states quietly with a frown. "It's odd is all." she admits. "And we can relearn things, yes. I have a hope that you can." she nods to that. "I don't want to overwhelm you with things either." she adds as she gets him a plate.

Lucian mmms softly and nods, "Not getting overwhelmed is good. They haveme on provisional duty for the next month at the firehouse, then I go through an evaluation to be considered on full duty. I've been warned that, well, off the record, that 'strange shit' goes on here, so they even included part of the training for 'in case something happens that does not make sense'." He chuckles and clears his throat when she takes a plate, "And sorry, yes, that sounds wonderful..."

"It's going to be weird working in the same building as you. But hey, get to see you in uniform at least." Penny states with a warm smile to that. She picks her phone up off of the table and tosses it into the other room, "Jesus..." she mutters. It had been buzzing. It was someone about work. "Oh you have no idea the strange shit that goes on here my love. You have a small clue...but...yeah." she shakes her head. "I just don't want you hurt." she whispers.

Lucian eyes the phone with a lifted brow, as if not sure if she's suddenly going to get called away, but smiles a little more when she tosses the phone away, and clears his throat. When she talks about him getting hurt, he shakes his head lightly and lifts his arm, wiggling the scarred skin, "Too late for that. I can take it. And if I've forgotten this much about you and I, then you're worth risking a few things." He waits for a moment until she's settled back down, and glances down at her hands, "So. I've seen weird shit. And I can...do a few strange things, but...remind me not to piss you off?" He tries to smile a little more at that.

Penny gives a look to him, "Please promise me that if you are in danger you won't do something silly?" she looks a bit pleading here. "I know that you can take care of yourself, but being here is like being at ground zero. No lives are uneffected by things unless there's some miracle. And things have been getting /worse/." she admits. Then there's a chuckle, "I try to keep my powers in check. Sometimes we have to use them though." she whispers. "I wouldn't hurt you. I promise." she adds.

Lucian shakes his head slowly, "I didn't have any plans to go flaunting any bizarre abilities. If you're telling me there are strange things going on here, well, it just means I need to be even more careful." He takes a deep breath and lets it go, reaching for the glass to take a sip, licking his lips before turning his attention back to her. His voice gets quieter, "So you moved back here and got a job as the Coroner and you've been...waiting. All this time?"

"Well, that's good. You can be a big damn hero at work and stuff." she grins to him. Penny is about to take a drink of her wine when there's a THUNK underneath the table and it shakes it. "Oh no..." she whispers. "Well, I was going to wait to introduce you to the other man in my life...but now is as good a time." she muses as she reaches under the table and picks up a bulldog that's still mostly puppy. "This is Brutus." she grins. Then she sobers a bit as she settles the animal in her lap and he tries to gobble food from her plate. "I did move back here and I've been waiting, yes. Sounds...stupid doesn't it?" she asks him. "I called a few people and they told me I couldn't get information because I wasn't family or spouse." she whispers.

Lucian jumps a little in surprise at the thunk and tries to look under the table, but looks up when she drags the dog onto her lap, and relaxes, chuckling under his breath. He's still listening, but his gaze fixates on Brutus while he listens, only looking up at her when she asks him if that was stupid, lightly shaking his head in the negative. He waits until she's spoken completely before he offers, "No. Not stupid at all. I wish...someone had said something to me. Even if it was just 'hey, this crazy woman keeps trying to call about you' and maybe I would have been able to connect a few dots and reached out a long time ago. I'm sorry they let you hit a brick wall."

"Brutus, this is Lucian. He's going to be around for a bit...or we hope he is." Penny states to the dog with a smile. Then she looks to Lucian and she gives him a big smile, "A lot of your classmates and squad brothers did not think we were going to last. A few of them even called you stupid for proposing before deployment. My aunt thinks you're a figment of my imagination and I've not told her you've shown up in town either." she admits. "Trying to just focus on you...us...if you wanted that?" she asks him. "I also completely understand if you want to just have time to settle in and not worrying about some of the past." she admits. "I can understand you need time to deal with things." she adds.

Lucian smiles a little more as she introduces Brutus, confessing, "I was wondering where the pound was, so I could go see what dogs were waiting on adoption, so at least I know we both like dogs, right?" He scrunches his nose a little at that and takes a deep breath, reaching for his glass to take another sip to wet his mouth, "No. I mean...you're why I came here in the first place. If I had completely forgotten you, I would have just gotten a job at one of the firehouses close to the base I came back Stateside at. You're why I'm here. And...I'm sorry that this ended up being painful. I didn't know it would be. But I want to try and...well, fix is not the right word. You can't really fix something like this. But we could make it better?"

Brutus is put down and he immediately goes over to grunt sniff Lucian's legs and feet. INTRUDER! Penny just watches and then she looks up to Lucian with a smile, "We do both love dogs, kind of hard to have them when you were on base and things. And I didn't want one until I owned my own place...so here we are." she chuckles. "Did you want to watch a movie or something? I've got dessert in the kitchen but I wasn't sure where to go after that really. I'm glad things have gone this well so far." she chuckles. Then she reaches across and takes his hands, "I would love to try to make things better. I'm in it if you are." she smiles to him.

Lucian bends down when the dog lumbers over, offering his hands for the obligatory snuffling, offering ear rubbings once Brutus seems satisfied that Lucian is not here to attack Mommy. He straightens back up a little after that and closes his fingers around her hands when she takes them, rubbing those big thumbs across the backs of her hands, and nods, "I would like that. I havent had a lot of time to watch movies for the last...six years, so I'm sure I've missed most of the fun ones lately." He pauses and tilts his head, "I mean, as long as Im not going to be keeping you up late, or from work...do they actually have 'coroner emergencies'? I guess not. I mean, not to be morbid, but your clients arent going anywhere, huh?"

Penny watches his interaction with the dog and she smiles at them. Then she looks to Lucian as he gets done, "I think watching movies will be nice." she smiles to that. "And no, I took a vacation day. Just in case of things." she grins. Smart girl. "So I'll get things ready and then we'll get all settled in if that's alright with you?" she asks. "And no, my clients won't be going anywhere." she muses darkly.

Lucian nods slowly and smiles, "Sure..." He slowly rises to his feet and offers to help clean up after dinner while she gets movie things ready, distracted several times by kneeling down to play with Brutus, who's probably trying to mooch bites of chicken out of the newcomer since he knows better than to beg from Mommy. Lucian may or may not be weak to Big Puppy Eyes Begging, so there might indeed be a couple of bites of chicken that get lost to Dog Pity by the time he finally makes it over to join her on the couch for the movie watching. Clearly someone's going to notice how Lucian MIGHT get happily remembered by said Puppy in the future...