2019-10-11 - Okay

After the excitement of earlier things at the Murder!Motel have calmed down considerably. Easton is currently dressed in actual clothes, sweat pants and an incredibly worn through tee shirt that is mottled with holes. The left lower leg of his sweat pants is pinned up and his foot is bare. He sits on the bed with his hands zip tied in front of him. It's not all that bad though, he's watching some TV, doped up on percocet and has a bendy straw stuck in a plastic water bottle that's obviously been half-filled with some dark liquor, in this case whiskey. Aidan and Baylee have both stepped out for a minute, with assurances that either of them will break more bones if he tries anything again. But thankfully for them he's come to see reason, that the plan was a terrible idea and he needs to just stay put. And drink.

It wasn't terribly hard to find out which room he's in, nor was it to get a key because she wants to surprise her boyfriend! How sweet! With Bennie's naturally sunny disposition, she just amped up the charm a little bit more and greased the wheel with one of those Benjamins that Baylee advanced her. Sure, that's not what the money was intended for, but it sure has come in handy since Bennie's decided to go down this route.

She's already stopped by to get the rest of her 'supplies' from Sutton, and her purse is heavy with the weight of it. Now just a little more preparation while she waits for her opening, knowing that slipping in under Baylee and Aidan's radar isn't exactly the nicest things to do to friends, but necessary. So as soon as the van rumbles off, there's Bennie with a straw stuck in a little plastic baggie like some coked up Capri Sun, snorting up the the powdered puddle of Nose Courage before she heads up the stairs to the second level of the motel room. Adderall just wasn't going to cut it tonight. Not tonight.

After a brief rattle of the doorknob as she works in the key, Bennie twists the handle and then kicks in the door the rest of the way, perhaps really getting into her chosen roll. She's dressed as she was when she left Greg's and then her earlier meeting with Sutton, a grey sweater dress with a turtle neck high up to her chin and black boots that nearly come up to her knees with an overly large pair of sunglasses over her eyes conveniently hiding her pupils that have blown wide with dialation.

"Don't move. Don't fucking blink."

Hearing the key in the lock causes Easton's brow to wrinkle. He is about to call out and ask if Baylee and Aidan forgot something when the door is kicked in. Easton's first thought is that he's unarmed and this is someone meaning to attack another room that he's about to murder with a bendy straw. But he doesn't move, or react. He's confident enough that so long as they didn't start by shooting through the door he's going to be able to handle this. But then he gets a look at the figure in the doorway and his furrowed brow pinches upward in confusion as Bennie commands him not to move or blink and she just swore.

"Okay?"

Easton is very, very confused right now. He sits, perfectly still and waits, watching her with upturned eyebrows.

This scenario somehow was not in any of his plans for how he might see Bennie next. Go figure.

"Woo! Okay. Oookay. Good,"

Well, so far so good, right?

Bennie at least has the presence of mind to close the door behind her without really taking her eyes off Easton - or that's the presumed angle of her gaze behind those sunglasses - before she rubs the curl of her fist underneath her nose. God, that stings.

"Okay. So." The Blonde starts pacing energetically in front of the TV, back and forth, "This is how it's going to go. We're going to have a conversation. A real conversation. No bullshit. And your little stowaway is going to stay in his box. You hear that, Billy? You motherfucker? If I so much as feel a Spidey tingle of glimmer going on or you make any sudden movements, I'll start breaking bones. There are 206 bones in the Human body and not only can I name them all, I can snap them all like twigs. And I have creativity in SPADES, mister. If you EVER want to rest in peace, you'll keep yourself fucking stowed, because there is a goddamn calvary of back up just waiting to call the cops at the word 'go'. So if you hear sirens, just know I'm going to press charges for domestic abuse and at the very least you'll spend the weekend in jail and miss the funeral and you'll be possessed for goddamn ever and so will the rest of your little Scooby Gang if you blow it by so much as sneezing at the wrong time."

Whooo, where did all those words come from. "Oh." She digs in her bag and comes up with handcuffs. "I have these. I'm supposed to use these. Stick out your hands, babe."

Easton watches Bennie like he's suddenly tuned in to a foreign language channel and there's a soap opera playing out that he can only understand in broad strokes but the actual details themselves make no sense. Why is that one fifty something year old dude dressed like a little kid?

And then she launches into a speech, one she has obviously thought a lot about and which Easton is trying to follow. He doesn't interrupt though because she's on a roll and has her 'very serious' face on. But he didn't exactly miss the nose sniff and he's done enough coke to take a guess that he might know what's gotten into her, in the literal sense. The 'threats' about snapping his bones force Easton to not look skeptical. She couldn't stand the thought of using her powers to hurt the men who dragged her by her hair out of her trailer and beat the shit out of her, he highly doubts she has it in her to snap his pinky toe let alone any of the other 205.

The handcuffs are pulled out and Easton just nods, "Sutton?" He can't help but ask as he raises his hands to submit to being cuffed. She obviously is desperate to feel in control of the situation and he's going to do his best to make sure that she does.

"Oh yeah, totally Sutton." Bennie says casually before she remembers she's supposed to be stern. Stern Bennie.

"You're an ex Marine, if you didn't know half a dozen ways to get out of zip ties - hell, I can even name two right now - I'd be sorely disappointed." Bennie's voice raises. "So you get handcuffs." Damn, she should totally cuff him behind his back, or make him get into the bathroom. But there's the issue of having to cut off the zip ties first, and then the whole currently only having one leg thing. UGH. This shit is complicated. "Hold still." She warns again, and then very carefully tries to clamp on the cuffs with as little contact as possible.

Easton forces himself not to smile when a peak of Bennie's bright bubbliness peaks through, only a tiny tick up at the edges of his mouth betrays him. He also doesn't argue when she tells him he knows how to get out of zip ties, this is true. He could easily break them over his knee if he wanted to, but they are there to make others feel safe and show that he's being good. He doesn't argue about the handcuffs either just lets her click them down tight over his hands. The only problem is that she has to get close to do it. He forces himself to closer his eyes and not look at her lips, or search for bruises on her neck or think about just touching her again. He instead closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and oh fuck how does she smell so good? He clears his throat and waits.

"Whatever you need me to do."

If only there was something he could do. Anything.

So close.

So close that she could just crawl in his lap, feel the rasp of his beard in her hair as she nuzzles underneath his chin. Fall into his warmth and security of his arms, squeeze her eyes shut and pretend like none of this happened. Is happening.

Shit, this is still happening.

Bennie didn't realize she was holding her breath until she finally steps back and her lungs remember they have to function. The Blonde retreats to the safety of dresser, leaning back against it and grabbing its edge behind her as if to keep her on her feet.

Fifteen minutes. She only has a fifteen minute window to get all this out, including her anger. Her knuckles whiten in their grip.

"So you had no problem telling half the town you almost killed me, but yet when it comes to telling me about anything, you somehow left out so many fucking details about this Gohl shit, that I have to find out from August that you have to make a goddamn sacrifice at the funeral. Tomorrow."

As she withdraws Easton sucks in air hungrily, wanting to get just one more breath of her before she's gone again. That will have to do, for now, maybe for longer.

He reopens his eyes now that she is not right against him. He lets himself look over her until she starts talking and they obediently snap back up to her face to show that he's paying attention.

"I needed people to know so they could check on you. I only told people I trust, that care." It wasn't half the town. He stops himself though. Now is not the time to really split hairs or try and defend himself. God this would be easier if she would just be willing to beat the crap out of him, maybe snap some bones.

"And so what if I told you? It wouldn't change shit. And .." He's not angry. He's resolved. But he still hasn't admitted it to her. "I'm giving up some of Tom's things. The last stuff I have of him." He slows down. He could leave it there. She doesn't need extra things to think about or worry about. But that's why she's here, isn't it? Because he didn't tell her things in the first place.

"I don't know how it works, but I'm trying to sever my connection with Tom's ghost. To sacrifice that." He stops for a moment before admitting. "To give him up."

The whole time he forces himself not to look away. To let her see how much anguish and determination have gone into this decision instead of trying to play it off or keep it tucked away. For once.

"I didn't want anyone checking up on me." Bennie slides her glasses down her nose and off, dangling the arm in a crook of her index finger as she grinds the heel of her palm into one eye that's gone red and bloodshot from the drugs. "At zero point you thought I'd want to know this. Have some say in it, or at the very least help you talk through whether or not you yourself could handle - could live through - losing him again. You're severing the last thread you have to Tom, who is in my fucking life too now, and you get to just make these decisions on your own. So what? I get left to pick up the pieces, probably expected sit around and watch you drink yourself to death after all this is over and not even know why?"

"I know."

Easton looks at her with a pained expression. "But I couldn't do it and I needed to know you were okay and .." And okay fine, it was selfish. He trails off there.

And then she raises some very salient points about his making a unilateral decision. He grits his teeth and says, "Stop. You don't get to tell me how to deal with losing my dead best friend." There's a definite edge to his voice that he doesn't want to be there but he also can't really help. "I get it. I'm not good at talking about shit. But now is really not the time to come poking at my lack of communication skills. Or the drinking. Because frankly, what? You get to blow sunshine up my ass about how fucking fine you are when you are barely holding it together, hundreds of thousands in debt to people who drag you out of your home in the middle of the night and then try and tell me the adderall is just for ADD? Bullshit. I told you. We're both liars. I just usually do it by omission."

And while there may be an edge to his voice, there's no real heat or anger. He remains perfectly still, not wanting to even give a hint that this might turn violent. Not because he thinks she will actually break his bones, but because he doesn't want her to run away. He doesn't want her to be afraid of him. He's not sure he can ever get that back though.

"The only thing I'm telling you Easton, is that you should have told me." Bennie goes to rub her eyes again, only ending up jabbing herself in the eye with her sunglasses that she flings away out of irritation and a, "Fuck." Then, "Because when it comes down to it, I still come to you, don't I. When I need help. When I'm in over my head...look. I just wanted to make sure you weren't doing something monumentally stupid tomorrow, and unlike your little web of spies, none of them knew or would tell me what your sacrifice was. So I had to come find out for myself. Now I know."

She turns to her purse to dig out the key to the handcuffs, slapping it down on the dresser. "Think for half a second, as torn up as you were worrying about how I was doing...think about how I felt knowing you're going out there. Giving up something that really means something to you, and I don't even get to know what it is until it's already gone. If even then."

Bennie shakes her head, looking up at the ceiling, "I think I've already forgotten half of what I wanted to say. It doesn't matter anyways." She thumbs at the corner of her eye, takes a sniffle. "Do you need me to heal you or anything before tomorrow? So you're going out there a hundred percent."

"Fine" Easton admits about the fact that he should have told her. He winces as she jabs herself in the eye and then gives her a skeptical look. "Web of spies? Bennie, those are my friends. Who I trusted to help you, because I fucked up. And yes, no one knew what my sacrifice was because I didn't want to hear everyone's opinions about my shit okay? Tom is not something people get to comment on. I don't.." He bites off the statement and clenches his jaw before saying, "I am not doing great with it. Still. I don't like talking about it. Still." It's only been a year and half or so and Easton has barely said a handful of words about it for the most part and even then mostly to just cover the basics and move on.

"Bennie. I didn't want you worrying. Or trying to change my mind. Or .. I don't know. I told you I'm not good at this." He's weirdly secretive for a whole host of reasons he probably couldn't verablize. "I'm sorry." He says it, specifically in regards to not telling her, and forces himself to stop there.

"No." He is glad he's not in the state he was earlier. "Aidan healed me." Oof, that's a very shortened version of that story. He winces and says, "... because I attacked them and tried to leave and he had to break my leg to stop me." If she hadn't just called him out for not telling her things there is no way he would have admitted that.

The whole of Bennie's emotions are etched out on her face, but her eyes flash when he apologizes, like she's on the verge of telling him exactly what he can do with any apologies. Instead, to all of it, even the bit about Aidan needing to break his leg, the Blonde just says: "Okay."

"Don't get up to get that," Bennie gives a little nod to the key, "- or summon it over with your juju - until I'm gone."

And Easton watches her. He sees her eyes flash at the apology. He knows there are no goddamn words he can say or even exist for what he did to her so he doesn't try any more. Okay She says and he echoes back, "Okay." A detente at least.

"I'm not taking them off. Like you said, I could have broken those zipties anytime I wanted to."

And for a moment he looks at her and lets himself feel how deeply he misses her and wants to try to explain or apologize or something but it's not the time for that. His face returns to it's neutral state as he prepares to watch her go. To wish her well and try to do what she needs to get through this instead of what he needs.

Bennie is about to go, but just as she's turning, she pauses. "If you...if you see him one last time. Tell him I said goodbye, okay?" It doesn't really occur to her that Tom is likely just a piece of Easton, some manifestation out of the man's own memories and not the actual man. "And Easton? Close your eyes."

Maybe someday Easton will be able to explain to Bennie that it's not actually Tom. That he knows for a fact that it's not actually Tom. Because if it were actually Tom then he would be able to tell him one simple thing. He would be able to tell Easton what he was yelling at him after the crash. When Easton's ears were so damaged from the blast that he couldn't hear a single thing, let alone what Tom was desperately trying to tell him as he lay dying on the side of that road. Easton himself still hasn't put together that that's the reason Tom's voice doesn't work most of the time. Because the memory of Tom desperately trying to tell Easton his last words is so vividly imprinted on him that it has become a near defining characteristic of the ghost of Tom "Banks" Richmond. And so Easton knows it's just his memories in a Tom shaped ghost. But often times he would like to forget that and so he understands that Bennie wants to say goodbye.

"Sure."

Close your eyes.

He knows that she likely means for the moment. So he doesn't have to see Tom actually pulled away if such a thing even works. But he still obeys now and closes his eyes as she goes.

If only Bennie were being so poetic. No, she just didn't want to risk seeing that look in his eyes as she slips out the door. It's bad enough the click as she closes it behind her is deafening.