2019-09-06 - Gohl Strikes Again?

Beep. Beep. Beep. That incessant beeping that happens in a hospital room and never goes away. Erin is in the bed but they've roused her finally. She's already had her surgeries, it took a few and for a little iffy there at one point. She's had pain medicine though and her blinks are somewhat long. Her face and neck weren't marred and she looked absolutely horrible in the hospital issued gown but at least she was in a private room. Where she had tried to fend off the attacks her hands are bandaged and a particularly deep cut on one arm among those on her torso that are bandaged beneath her gown. She doesn't look so very alert, but she's awake and by God she's alive!

Byron Thorne is not family, so it takes a while for the hospital staff to alert him that Miss Addington was out of the OR and was recovering in one of the patient rooms. After offering his thanks to the alerting nurse, he quietly steps in, his eyes scanning the room on his entrance, not wanting to intrude in the case that the Addington family were allowed access to her first. He's dressed in a dark gray sweater and a pair of jeans, his work having been completed before this whole mess even occurred.

Lingering near her bed, his hands laced before him, he remains standing there in silence for a moment, before he says in a quiet tone, "Erin?"

There's a breath or two before that long blink is given up when she hears the voice. For a moment there's fear in her eyes until she sees Byron there. Reaction had her stiffening until she realized it was a friendly not a hostile this time. Her tongue darts out to try and wet her lips. Anesthesia just made your mouth so dry! "Byron." Her voice cracks and she blames it on the medicine. More likely it was from the screams. She sure didn't want to think about that! Why was she so weak? Turning her head towards him she attempts a smile but it wobbles and her dark eyes blink as she grits her teeth and opens her eyes again. "I'm sorry."

There's some sense of relief that washes over Byron to learn that Erin was not only awake but capable of speaking. Still, she didn't look like she was in the best of shape and as he draws closer, his eyes scan what he can see of her, what is uncovered, in the hopes to learn what the hell happened there. He won't mention about what some of the tenants may be discussing now, what they'd heard coming from her room. Instead, he tries to show her a warm face, only the smallest hint of a smile at his lips. "There's nothing to be sorry about it, Erin." His words don't match the reassuring expression, coming out stern.

Pulling up a chair beside her bed, he settles himself down, "Can I.." He starts, eyes looking down at arm, the one where the IV is attached to. "I won't ask what happened no matter how much I want to know." A pause, "Things are going to be alright, you understand?" Though he's not so sure. He can see the bandaging all over her.

"No, there is. I was trying to get away." It was a bad place to stop in her explanation but Erin needed the breaths and so she takes them. "From your apartments. I am trying." Her dark eyes plead for patience even while she continues on. "To move out. I don't have a truck." There, maybe he'll understand she's sorry it happened at his place. Again. "You can ask. But you already know I think." Closing her eyes she squeezes them tightly shut trying not to let anything escape them. She wouldn't cry. When she feels brave enough she opens them again. "Nothing will ever be the same. Not now."

There's a brisk report of boot heels from the corridor. A murmur of voices; one of them hushed and soft, and the other brisk and commanding. Moments later, the door is shouldered open and a cranky looking Mexican prowls in. Well, cranky might be an understatement; he looks shaken, and if the nurse in the hall hadn't told him where Erin Addington was rooming, he'd probably just have started busting down doors until he found her. A look is shot to Byron on his way in, and then his gaze comes to rest on the woman in the bed as he draws to a halt a few feet away. He's dressed casual: dark tee shirt, cargo pants, leather jacket thrown over top. Damp hair, since it's raining outside. He doesn't say a word for the time being.

"I was.. caught up in something earlier." Byron murmurs, this look of frustration on his face, "I should have been there to help you move. Then we would've gotten you as far the fuck away from the apartments." When he hears the door open on Ruiz' entrance, he turns in the Captain's direction, before turning to Erin, "Your family, did they know that you bought the new place?" Nevermind that it didn't matter now. Until she's up and moving, they would know that she was /here/.

Still not completely certain on what her condition is like, he asks something that he's very hesitant to do, "Do you want me to call Lilith over?" I mean, Erin already had the surgery, but perhaps a healer could help to quicken the process of actually healing. "She's not comfortable with healing people, but she'd want your consent if it's necessary."

Her hair was probably a mess and Erin was all sorts of a fool for even caring about that right now. But she did. She can't smooth it though, not with both her hands bandaged. "Don't blame yourself. You can't do that." Lowering her eyes, her lashes brush her cheeks briefly before she opens them again and shoot towards the door to see Ruiz standing there. Was he on duty? How much time had passed? She wasn't exactly sure, so she couldn't count the hours. Her eyes meet his and her own look desolate. Her guard wasn't in place at the moment. Byron was safer somehow so she tries to answer his questions. "Yes, my grandmother knew. She visited me already." Again, her voice is raspy but it cracks when she mentions her grandmother had come. "If Lilith can help without getting involved, I wouldn't say no. But I don't want her in jeopardy too. I don't want anyone in danger. Anyone."

Ruiz loiters there a while, dark eyes raking over Erin with her bandaged hands and god knows what else. He slides a look to Byron briefly, then catches the back of another visitor chair and drags it closer. His bulky frame is eased in slowly; the scent of leather and ozone hangs about him, and his eyes look a little bloodshot. "Erin." He breathes out steadily. "Lo siento." That doesn't quite seem to cover it. He was supposed to be protecting her. He watches her for a moment or two, then nudges his chair closer so he can help her with her hair. It's drawn out of her face, at the very least, and tucked behind her ear. Not much more that can be done without a brush. "How are you feeling?"

Byron knows that there were so many things that they could have done. Maybe should have done, even if he doesn't come out and say this to her right now. He doesn't nod when she tries to reassure him, though there's this glint in his eyes that tells her that he's listening, that he understands what she's trying to say. Once she brings up her grandmother, the quirk in his lips already hints that he wants to say something about that. Ask her something, perhaps. Yet, he doesn't. "Lilith is already involved." A pause, "After my own attack, believing that it was Gohl..." Though from what he can tell, what Alexander had said may hold some truth, "Anyway, she's here to help us even though we may be looking at two," Not killers. His attacker wasn't trying to kill him, "different people. I can't be sure."

Once Ruiz moves in close, pulling his own chair, Byron will give him this time to speak to Erin. He doesn't shy away from any eye contact that the police Captain might give him. He has his own ideas about what must be racing through Ruiz's mind, similar to his own.

If Erin notices his bloodshot eyes she doesn't immediately mention it to him but she watches as he approaches and pulls the seat closer. "No, Javier. No. No es tu culpa." Again she tries to wet her lips. "It's my fault. I knew it could happen. I shouldn't have..." Erin cannot finish it. She's fully capable but she won't. When his hand reaches out she closes her eyes, again squeezing them tight. "I don't know." The answer comes honestly as she opens her eyes again. "Everything hurts everywhere." She manages a smile. "And this hospital gown. So thirty years ago." Trying for a moment of levity. Her head turns to Byron. "Was it? When you got hurt, was it my uncle?" Not even bothering to say Gohl this time.

Ruiz withdraws his hand after a moment, and pushes to his feet briefly to track down a pitcher of water and a cup. Which might take some wrangling of a nurse, but so be it. Once he settles back in, the paper cup is held out to Erin. "I'm sure you'll be back in your designer clothes soon enough," doesn't come out quite as encouraging as he'd probably hoped. He glances back to Byron, and studies the younger man for a moment or two. "Will you see about having her come down? I could let Bennie know, as well." He starts reaching for his phone.

"I don't know, Erin." Byron states, his voice uncertain. "If it were Gohl, then I probably wouldn't be here right now. He plays for keeps. My broken ribcage? That was someone toying with me." Painfully so. If it wasn't Gohl or Addington, however, that means there was someone else lurking around out there.

He'll smile slightly when Erin is lucid enough and not in so much pain or self-loathing to make a joke. "I might need to up my donation to the hospital. Make sure that they upgrade their patient gowns." Then at Ruiz's request he nods, "I've sent for her. She's on her way down here right now."

Erin swivels her gaze back to Ruiz when he gets to his feet, fairly sure he was leaving. There's an instant when she might have protested until she notices what it was he was doing. The bed is sitting her up at a slope, not straight up and not flat back, but somewhere in between. It's when the paper cup is offered out that she extends both hands to try and get it. Both are bandaged from trying to defend herself and there's a bandage on her arm also. At her first attempt she almost teeters the cup dangerously before she manages to balance it between her two hands. "Thank you." she says, trying to lean forward and draw the cup backwards towards her mouth. There's a flinch and a harsh suck in of her breath before she manages to take a sip of the water. The cup is balanced there, she can't place it anywhere so she holds it as she looks back to Byron. This time when she talks she at least isn't croaking.

"So you don't think it was my uncle who tried to kill me?" Really wondering at his thoughts. "New gowns. Or just go get me one. I hope to never be in here again."

"Could it have been Margaret?" ventures the captain, voice low, edges sanded off and a little raw. Like he'd been recently yelling, perhaps. Seeing Erin struggling with the cup, he reaches to take it from her gently. Another sip is offered, then it's collected into his lap where he sits next to Byron. The cop is dressed in a very un-cop-like manner at the moment: a dark tee shirt, cargo pants pushed into combat boots. His usual leather jacket, a little roughed up and rain-spattered at the moment. His dark hair is askew, and his eyes are a touch bloodshot. A nod goes to Byron when he mentions Lilith's on her way, and though his cell phone comes out, he doesn't yet make to contact Bennie.

Walk like a duck, quack like a duck, and flap your feathers? Lo and behold, people might think you're a duck. Lilith Winslow doesn't look like a Winslow right now, by any stretch and she didn't say it, but she was already on the way just in case. She's wearing tall shiny black heels that are eating the hospital floor with click and stride while the brunette is wearing them, all legs in a high-waist smoked pencil skirt with a tucked in sapphire blue blouse. Her hair has been twisted into elegant sweep and knot and she has some pretty fancy jewelry on to compliment, cosmetics done to elegant tee. Going toward the direct room number of an Addington looking like that really seems legit on glance, especially since she's not slowing by the nurse station.

But it's not quite hitchless, she gets a "...ma'am, Miss Addington already has two--" And past that point Lilith turns to look at the nurse like she's offended to be stopped, informing before turning to walk again, "One of which is my husband, we count as one. Now, excuse me." Kind of technically not a lie, they've had a pretend wedding or two at some point years and years ago and never had a pretend divorce. Considering the nurse knows who else is in company in there, maybe she just figures if the woman's not supposed to be there, the policeman is on it, but either way, Lilith is striding straight the hell in with the facade, adjusting a designer handbag on her shoulder with a "don't stop me" air.

When the door is closed, she draws up a little short and puts her back against it to look between people. She lays eyes on Byron first, of course, and twitches a little smile before looking at Ruiz with a tiny forward tip of a nod in respectful, sober fashion. Then she looks at Erin. And when she does that, she takes a beat to look at the other woman in the room physically before her eyes haze some with shift, like she's looking through or into the woman and that time persists at length, voice at distant, eventual drift of greeting while she does so, "... hello." A pause, her mascara'd lashes batting a few times as her gaze naturalizes, the next word out of her breathed, "Jeez."

Waiting for Ruiz to return with the water, just to help relieve Erin of her dry, scratchy throat, Byron looks at her point blank at the question she now poses to him. "It wasn't your uncle, no. Or..." His lips purse into a tight line, before starting again, "It was Gohl through your uncle, if that's how Gohl has been carrying out his murders. When I said that Gohl played for keeps," He pauses, considering his words, "You almost died, Erin. And from what I know about the other murders, from what Clayton had told me, Gohl, through your uncle, " Another pause as he shakes his head, "What happened to you tonight, fits their MO. The brutality of it. This was meant to kill you." His voice quiets here, "Which is why I'm concerned now that they might finish the job, knowing that you're here." When he says they, he really means Gohl.

When Margaret's name comes up, Byron thinks on this, "I don't know what Margaret Addington is capable of aside from which abilities she shares with," He knows that de la Vega has a similar powerset to his own, he can sense it, but he still ends with, "Me."

That's when he hears some kind of commotion coming from the hall. He checks his phone, expecting Lilith to message him if she's having any problems getting in, but from the look of things, she can manage herself. He blinks once then twice, slowly rising to his feet, "Lily. Thanks for coming."

"It wasn't grandmother." Erin says flatly. "Not directly anyway." There's so much she wants to say but again she stops and holds it in. As Ruiz takes the cup she looks grateful then leans in for another sip, then one more. She'd wanted more but couldn't manage. "Thanks," she whispers softly studying him. It's then she notices his eyes and roughed up appearance as well as his hair. It brings a frown to mar her brow, silent questions in her dark eyes. Ohhh how she wanted to ask. She doesn't. The boundaries were there.

Erin is drawn to Byron's guessing but to look at Erin, she looks as if she knows an answer to the question regarding herself but for some reason isn't sharing it. The guessing ends when the door opens though and she turns again with that fear in her eyes, not knowing who to expect. Breathing out a trembling sigh of relief, she studies her. "It's bad isn't it? It feels bad. Here and here and here and here," not indicating her hands or arm, but places on her torso. "And.. several more. Is it really bad?"

It occurs to Ruiz at some point that, "I didn't have an opportunity to come and see you, Thorne, after you were attacked. You're recovering well?" He sounds a little contrite at that. But then, the two men have never claimed to be friends. Incidental accomplices in this whole Gohl business, perhaps. But friends, no. His dark eyes flit to the door at the sound of voices and movement in the hall, and tension knits through his frame; for a moment there, it's a willingness to do harm that's scrawled all over his brutish features. For about .25 seconds, until he clues in to who's at the door. "Miss Winslow," is greeted in a stilted manner befitting the fact that the sum total of their interaction has been him questioning her in this very hospital following the bridge hangings.

"Neither do I," he explains to Byron. "Though I do gather she's quite powerful. I'm still trying to understand the part she plays in all of this." Erin's forearm is given a gentle squeeze, and he gazes at the cup of water while the others talk. "No es tan malo." He scrapes fingers through his scruffy beard, dark eyes sliding back to Erin's. "Estarás bien. Vas a estar bien."

"Yes. You... yes." Lilith tells Erin, deciding blunt and simple is the best way to convey 'girl, how you alive?' just by the tone of her voice. She doesn't give any comforting details, precisely, but obviously the OR did the stabilizing and knitting to set her up to bodily mend as due, but she knows the damage even knit together and what road naturally healing her way out of it will take. You can put stitches in, but the way she's seeing Erin is different than a lot of medical professionals might see, unless she lucked into a special doctor on rotation. This time, it didn't seem that it happened, so it gives Lilith a pretty clear view of damages.

After pushing her tongue against one of her eyeteeth, she smiles a little at Byron again with his rise and thanks, then she lapses into thought for a long moment before pushing her back away from the door to click her way in heels to Erin's bedside. After a bit of a dire look at the captain, she probably can take a gander at who they're talking about because... well, reasons.

Then she beckons for Byron to come bedside too, reaching for his hands after looking pointedly at Erin's bandaged ones, like a starting point, "Erin. I can usually only do this for people I know in some way, at least comfortably, even though I'm plenty capable. Byron is here, though, and I'm accustomed to him-- I can use that to center myself. I just need to hear that you want it and it's okay for me to come into your body."

"What did your grandmother say, Erin? Will she be able to protect you in case Gohl wants to finish what he started?" Byron will come out and ask that much, "Can she keep you safe even then they and your uncle know your current whereabouts? And if not, does she have any ideas on how to do just that? You... don't have to answer these questions now, but please let us know what we can do to help you." These similar words are an echo of what he remembers was said to Thomas Addington, though it was a question that the elder Addingtons seemingly refused to answer.

Letting Lilith and Erin converse just so that Winslow gets a better idea on all that was wrong with Erin, this gives Byron some time to converse with Ruiz even if their gaze hardly meets, both most likely focused on the Addington girl. "Thanks to Lilith, yes. Thank you for asking." He almost leaves it at that, but he comes out to say, "If it's found that Gohl didn't do this to me, I wouldn't even know where to start looking for a culprit nor do I know why I was even targeted. And who else could be a target."

Just at that moment, Lilith beckons him to step in close and Thorne does so, allowing her to grab onto his hand. He gives it a little squeeze. "I'm here for you. The both of you." However, he can't help but crack open a smile at what Lilith last says, though it looks like he's trying to hold back from laughing.

"No. Grandmother won't be able to protect me." The words sound more certain than anything she had said since their arrival. "Have you ever had enemies or someone who slighted you in some way that you jokingly wanted them permanently out of your life?" Erin's question is rhetorical but she continues as if someone had answered in the affirmative. "I wonder what we would do." There's only so much fight she has left and she doesn't continue, there's more a bland, hopeless look.

Lilith very effectively takes every bit of her attention at the confirmation. To be honest, Erin was a healer. Just not when it came to herself. It felt really, really bad. Dangerously. Watching her with Byron, she somehow just knew it was a life or death decision and her eyes brush over to Ruiz momentarily before dropping them back on Lilith. "Please. Yes. You have my permission.""

Ruiz's cell phone goes off right about then, and he meets Erin's eyes for a moment as he picks up. "De la Vega. Yes. Yes." There's a long pause, and his tonguetip dragged across his lower lip, where it meets beard. Then a low, scratchy sounding grumble from the captain. "Yes, I understand." He checks his watch. "Twenty minutes. Yes, I said I'd fucking be there." He hangs up without so much as a goodbye, and closes his hand over Erin's shoulder, leaning in to kiss her forehead gently. Maybe it'll be missed by the other two, maybe it won't. He seems not to give much of a shit either way. "I've got to go. Thorne, please let me know if anything changes. I'll be back as soon as I can." A look is shot to Lilith, like, you'd better pull this off. And then he pushes to his feet and prowls for the door.

Lilith side-eyes the Captain for a moment after she feels the look shot her way on his exit. It makes her draw in a sharp, tiny breath through her nose in almost pissy fashion before... oh, Byron. She's somewhat distracted and didn't quite realize her phrasing as snap to quick as she would any other time, especially since Erin is giving permission and Byron's hand is squeezing down on hers.

"... shut up, you're going to make me snort. Ass." Lilith is put back on track by the breathed out accusation at the man she's using as touch stone, tinged with humor despite herself.

The woman then lapses into focus after those breathed words, turning the hand over to trace a line first at his palm with her eyes closed, using the tactile prompt of his body while focusing on where Erin is actually damaged, piece by piece. He's a familiar and sturdy reminder of the way things should be in the body, just standing there, unwittingly serving as a bit of conduit for her focus and adjustments she takes to planning beforehand.

Something about that moment and him serving like this has her anxiety back-burnered-- she can force some intangible will into the air around herself and Erin with a tiny flash exert of power about herself before she sets to tracing the line of Byron's hand again, doing the same with the other next. Then gently, she releases them to lay to his sides at natural rest one by one when finished, and... each time she kind of draws close on what she's miming out blindly with Byron, it starts to react on Erin beneath the bandaging with the odd acceleration of kickstarting the tiny mechanisms inside the body. Her hands go to his torso next, hands fanning over his chest with drag and another going around his ribcage, then lower on his stomach to drag in opposite.

'''Grandmother won't be able to protect me.''' That wasn't something what Byron had hoped to hear, though it's his fault for putting any faith in what the Addingtons could or would do for Erin now. To her question, however, there's a brief moment where he decides how he'd go about answering it. "I think anyone who said no to your question would be lying." Though when Erin follows this up with a question? A suggested plan of action? He falls silent once more. "We do what needs to be done." It's vague, mysterious.

When Ruiz announces his departure, Thorne nods in the other man's direction, "Will do, Captain." Though he can't help but trail his gaze after the man, knowing of all the things they had discussed over the phone and how it relates to this now.

Lilith and Erin needed him now, however, so he'll offer all the support that he can for them. An innocent look is given to Lilith when she calls him an ass, In silence, he'll watch as Lilith works her magic through him. It's an odd thing, but he'll look between the women all the same.

The sound of the phone ringing startles her but Erin doesn't jump but she squints at the Captain. He had to go, she realizes this and she tries to give him a smile, "Drive safely, you're not looking all together well yourself." The words fall on his parting back but the smile remains a little longer than it should.

Then she's closing her eyes and just focusing on whatever it is Lilith is doing. It feels mostly uncomfortable. Not totally unpleasant but mostly. Her body was healing itself the inside was connecting, it was the weirdest thing she'd ever felt before. And it leaves her exhausted. Her eyes want to open but for the first time she feels like she can find sleep without so much pain. The fear was still there though, the fear of the attacker remaining. "So sleepy.." she says thickly. "Thank you," the words a mere sleepy whisper while she can still be coherent. Before long though, she's completely out in a healing and relaxin sleep.

Lilith blows out a long breath of air and keeps her palms flatted against two different places on Byron's shirt when finished. And it's not quite until she hears Erin's woozy thanks and recognizes the fatigue and relief all mingled together there in the tone of voice... then she finally opens her eyes. After looking over at the other woman for an assessing moment, she drifts her hands off of Byron and smiles just a touch with her painted lips at slant, "You're welcome. Get some rest."

Then after a sharp pull of breath through her nose again, she blinks a few times after standing still a lingering moment, considering one thing or another while she watches Erin drift off. After a glance at the door where the Captain left prior, she looks up at Byron, finally, instead of touching all around him, "... you should send some of your security over here, maybe. At least one. That guy that sat at the shop with me?" What the guy would do is anyone's guess were the attack the same, but sometimes just eyes and presence can be a deterrent and alarm source, maybe even quick staunching hands in a pinch.

Unlike with the Addingtons, Byron had faith in Lilith. He knew that Erin would be safe now-- would be healed now. Until Gohl was dead, no one would be safe in his mind, even if he primarily targets certain individuals. He watches as Lilith helps to sooth away some of the aches and pains, working to close those wounds better than stitches ever could. It's a fascinating process, one which is difficult for him to discern, for those wounds were already hidden beneath bandages, but from what he knows of the process, soon enough, any traces of each and every gash would be gone.

When it's all over, he'll watch over Erin, hearing the exhaustion in her voice. "Yeah, get some rest, Erin." But how can any of them get rest now?

Once it seems as if Addington has finally drifted off to sleep, he'll confer with Lilith in private and away from the sleeping patient. "I'll call them up, though I'm sure that the hospital might try to give me hell about it. I also have a feeling that de la Vega will post actual police officers to this room in a far more official capacity than I can muster. But for now, that sounds like a good idea." Bringing his phone to his ear after he dialed up the head of his security team, he smiles fondly over at Lilith as he awaits the other guy to pick up, "You are absolutely amazing. I can't physically tell if anything that you did work, but emotionally, she's feeling much better now."

"It... probably wouldn't have been as effective or possible, maybe, if you weren't here to... stand there and get fondled." Lilith admits to Byron with just a hinting creep of pride and hell, is that a tinge of a blush at the edges of her ears with her hair pulled back as such to make it more apparent? Maybe so. She realizes too what it probably looked like while she was working on a completely different patient than him while using him to focus-- touchy strange, probably. But she used what works for her, so that part, more or less, she internalizes into a lot of 'eh'.

After looking down with cast of her lashes toward her heels, she looks back up at Byron, suddenly, with a press of her lips into flat line to smother sudden start of a smile, voice kept quiet in their wandered placement away from the bed. After waiting for him to finish the call and looking at him, she mentions, "I said we were married before coming in. Kind of true on technicality. But then again, just because we never pretend divorced doesn't mean you can't claim estrangement as an automatic filing." Then she breathes out a soft sigh to herself, looking toward the bed again, "... she's holding something back she doesn't want to say aloud, or maybe even believe herself, I think."

His head of security is soon on the other line, "Frank, I'm at the Addington Memorial, I want you to send two of your men over here." After the attack, the security team were already alerted that the victim was Erin Addington, someone they'd been watching for a while now. "I expect GHPD officers to be posted here at some point, but until then, I need more eyes on Miss Addington. Thanks."

Once the call is over, he'll say in a light tone, "I didn't want to say out loud, but I'm pretty sure that you would've gotten us kicked out of here if one of the nurses or doctors showed up when you were... doing what you were doing." Despite Erin being laid up in bed with rest, Byron begins to wear that ever present smile bordering between amused and playful. "Erin and I are nothing alike, not even physically, if not for the fact that everyone's organs and body parts are basically in the same areas. I was impressed by it all." His tone turns thoughtful, "Now I wonder what else I could accomplish thinking outside the box like you do."

She can try and suppress her own smiles all she wants, Byron will continue to wear his, even if this time it's slightly more subdued when he says, "With how we used to argue, are you sure there was never a time where we pretended to divorce out of spite?" He's sure that they didn't. "In the end, we'd usually kiss and make up anyway." More in a 'making nice again' way, especially in their younger years.

His gaze then lowers before flickering over back towards Erin on the bed, "I got that impression too. If she's not forthcoming with information or her thoughts on the matter, I may attempt to get a read on her, but I'm hoping that she'll be more open about her feelings and her intentions." Then there's this moment of quiet, "I probably shouldn't leave her, but I have things that I'll need to tend to. I've already sent word to Clayton, Izzy and several others... including Geoff so that they can come and help watch over her while I'm gone. I mean, I'll wait for my security team to come, but." He then comes out and says, "I was pulled into another dream today. One of Easton Marshall's nightmares. I'm exhausted, but I just feel like I need to be here."

"We could find an empty room like an adventurous married couple and really get kicked out then when they wheel someone in. Bonus points if we only think the room is empty and there's a person in there asleep or watching, preferably a senior citizen." Lilith quips deadpan to Byron with a reaching hand tugging at his sweater hem at one of the hips for punctuation before she squints to try and recall, "... but mhm, think you're kind of fake wedding stuck with me for fakesies, sucks to be you. And I swear if you yell DIVORCE in the middle of an argument now, that's just cheating to make me laugh."

"But you know... maybe she just needs more time for things to sink in and become a little clearer or... she'll realize the importance of what one small detail she's forthcoming about could possibly do when we're flying so hard in the dark here." The woman makes supposition more seriously after the teasing, with remembering to lower her voice as she follows eyes to the bed, then she's looking at Byron with sudden delayed alarm and widened eyes. Obviously, she knows he's not hurt, but...

"Wait, Easton Marshall? How the... are you okay?"

"You're really trying your hardest to make me lose my upstanding citizen status." Byron says jokingly, his eyes studying Lilith, taking in her face, his posture and just her image as a whole, before resettling his eyes to meet with her own before he feels the tug on his sweater, pulling in him close. "You know I'm going to have to do that now." He says about the divorce. "Why are you all dressed up today? Planning on going out this evening?" Though her attire wasn't exactly night club or barhopping dress. "I like it, but you look good in anything."

One of his own hands reaches out to graze along the length of her free arm, not the one that's tugging onto his shirt. He then stops, knowing exactly where they are right now, so his hand slowly withdraws.

"I'll give her time. I believe Bella's on her way over right now. Most likely with Clayton. They can look after her."

The dream may have been Marshall's but something about it still has Byron feeling more than a little disturbed. He does his best not to show it. "I'll tell you about it later. He has his own demons regarding his time in the military and I got to experience some of that first hand."

"Okay. You'll tell me about it later." Lilith tells Byron with a bit of an echo of agreement and a bit of a non-brokerage semblance of tone like it's something she'll damn well poke him over because it really doesn't matter who's fears they were facing, she knows firsthand what danger her own bad shadow dream put him into just recently. That and there's... almost always a way to feel about these things and a need to put them somewhere, somehow. His touch on her arm in drag brings a brief wash of goosebumps after her little tug, despite the now sober eyes she's casting up his way with concern.

The woman doesn't press, though, because they are where they are and that's pretty much that as far as certain talking points go. Then she glances down at herself, explaining to Byron, "... I knew I was coming to visit an Addington and I didn't know if they'd let me in or start enforcing room limits, so I dressed the part while you were waiting on updates and I was killing time. Seemed tactical. And I... feel more powerful in heels sometimes when I'm anxious, which is insane, but whatever. Old job throwback association, probably."

Then she takes to nodding to Byron with eyes finally moving away to the bed again after she's grazed her bottom lip with her teeth, "Okay. Do you want me to at least sit with you until your man or the others show? Can have a lie down at my place if you want, after, if you don't want to go home. Also did you get the delivery?"

He'd told her that he would tell her later, but Byron has a small amount of regret about it now. A tiny bit. "It was something incredibly personal to him. I'm pretty sure he's unhappy that I know about any of it. Talk about the ghosts from your past." He believes he can trust Lilith though, so perhaps it didn't matter if he shared Easton's dream filled with regrets and perhaps guilt.

"So... you dressed up all fancy and then told the nurses at the station that you were meeting up with your husband just to get in here unmolested?" That last word is most likely said intentionally. Byron's all smiles. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you have all of these set up. Outfits, dialogue on what to say in certain situation. Like you're a spy of some sort." He then corrects himself with, "Then again, it might be a throwback to your job. Needing to be able to think on your feet." He gives her a more open once over, "I approve."

To this last bit, he nods, "If you're not exhausted as it is, then I could use the company and as much as it's tempting to crash at your place, I feel tenants to look after." He has his phone on vibrate and its been vibrating like crazy. "With the ambulance and the GHPD showing up at my complex again, everyone's getting worried again. I've been monitoring the surface emotions of my tenants as of late. Not all the time but every so often, in case there's something I'd missed, some emotional distress. Or a sense of pain and agony. And yet when one of my tenants needed my attention, I wasn't there to give it." He was in a dream at that time! "it's going to take a bit for me to listen to their concerns and try to diffuse their every growing sense of panic."

That smile returns, "Yes, I got the orchids. I should've messaged you on their arrival, but I was behind schedule. I read your note and followed it to a T. I gotta admit, this is one attractive potential alarm system. Thanks."

"Woefully unmolested. And I am a spy, I just needed a cover job." Lilith clicks her tongue at Byron once before tugging him over to a seat to settle down next to him with one leg crossing decisively over the other, gesturing for him to get his phone and start the damage control where he can in text or email or whatever fashion before getting out of the room to full conversation levels for the rest, "I do wish I could... kind of put some proof in it other than my own tendencies, but it's better than nothing and... they're pretty and imported and they suit your place, aside from being deliberately the most sensitive flower to keep. I planned, see. For myself, initially, but then I realized when I picked up what it might do for you."

While Byron reads or communicates on his phone with business and tenants while waiting on change of guard in Erin's room, Lilith is quiet and just there, turning up a small, but absolutely lovely calibur of genuine smile that glows a bit his way. She does rub at some of the tension in the line of his near shoulder where it leads to the neck, though, for a spell. Little things are nice when everything else seems on fire. Lilith knows that firsthand too. Stuff just tends to be a fire these days.