2019-10-23 - Coffee Capers

Bennie invited Magnolia out for coffee on a particularly drizzly afternoon. Life is slowly getting back to normal, the Blonde EMT returning to her shifts at both the Station and the diner as well as getting into the swing of returning as Baylee's aide. Couple that with attempting to repair her relationship and trust of Easton, a slice of time stolen for coffee with a friend is the best that can be hoped for. But Bennie needed to make the time.

The Blonde has already found a table near the window, a steaming cup of mocha in front of her that she's waiting for it too cool enough to drink. Her purple polka dot raincoat is draped over the back of the chair, and she's in a grey pair of cowboy boots, jeans, and an overly large sweater that dips off one shoulder.

That slice of summer is gone, and by late October, the Pacific Northwest has gone back to dreary and drizzle. Magnolia still boasts her colorful Converse sneakers with bright neon laces chosen by Lark for the week. To offset the polkadots, the PI wears a bland-colored secondhand REI rain jacket that gives a dreary matching with her simple jeans. She steps into the coffee shop, eyes sweeping past the barista and the other patrons to find Bennie. Once spotted, the blonde heads toward her with a little smile easing into place before it blooms higher into her cheeks once she's at the table. "Hey, you." She unshoulders her messenger bag -- old, leather, and with her dad's initials on the flap. "Give me a sec, I'm gonna go grab some coffee." She grabs her wallet and retreats back to the counter to get herself a cup for drip, and once coffee has been filled, she is heading back to slump into a seat.

"Hey Magpie!" Bennie chirps as Magnolia comes in to set down her bag, giving a nod as the PI ducks over to the counter to order some coffee. Bennie's wavy blonde hair is braided back from her face at the temples, locked together at the back in a lose knot and secured by an elastic. She's no longer hiding the swoop of her neck. It seems her affinity to scarves was a passing fad. "Thanks for meeting me!" She beams a smile as her friend returns with her cuppa. "Sorry it wasn't sooner."

No more scarves. That's a good sign that Magnolia takes in without comment. She settles into her seat across from Bennie, and folds her hands around the cup of coffee that warms her palms. She looks up toward Bennie with an easy smile. "You know I'll always take a chance to get away from... anything... particularly with you, Benz." She takes a sip of her coffee. "Feels like these days I need to go through the Gray Harbor checklist..."

"I'm not possessed, this is not a Dream and you have to tell me what Lark is going to be for Halloween." Those seem to be the most important items on Bennie's checklist, it seems. Instead of raising her over full mug to her mouth, the EMT bends over and sips from the lip of the mug from where it sits, eyes flicking up expectantly.

"Glad we've got that covered," Magnolia muses over the edge of her coffee mug. She takes a sip, and then she settles into an easier laugh. "She wants to go as a Ghostbuster. I felt like that was too on the nose, but I'm not about to explain to her why. So, I've been looking at DIY websites to figure out how to make a... backpack thingie with the hose thingie." All technical terms. She gestures at her back dramatically like Bennie should be able to picture the backpack thingie with the hose thingie.

"Cardboard, tin foil and some flexible ducting from the hardware store. Oh Mags, you have to let me help. Halloween is like one of my all time favorite holidays of EVER. Dressing up, getting to play make believe, and no one looks twice at you if your purse is filled with miniature versions of candy bars." But is that any real surprise when it comes to Bennie?

Magnolia starts to laugh at Bennie's beginning tutorial, and she holds up her hands. "Hey, you want to help, you should... because all I can swing right now is an orange jumpsuit." She hesitates. "It's supposed to be orange, right?" Khaki. But maybe no one will notice that she missed that detail. "Besides, she wants me to go as a ghost, and I figure that's just a sheet with holes, right?"

"I guess it's too much to ask to make you green and slimy? Sweetie, have you even seen the movie?" Bennie waves a hand. "No matter. I'm sure we can pull something off. But anyways, it's not really why I wanted to have coffee with you. I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Um." Magnolia looks sheepishly at Bennie. "Dad really wasn't into monster movies, or ghost movies, and so... we never watched them. And I thought about going to see the remake, but..." She dances around the question before she settles for a despondent, "No. I've never seen Ghostbusters. Don't tell Kevin. I've been pretending I actually understand his Zuul jokes." But then they are getting past the fact that Magnolia is an awful girlfriend to something else. She straightens up a bit, and then her frown settles in. "Benz, I... why are you apologizing, hon?"

"When I came to see you and Kevin after the flu thing, I know the both of you were just trying to help. Which," Her hands stretch out on the table like a cat in the sunshine, ending with her fingers drumming on the table. "I know I need to start letting people in. You know what was under that scarf, but maybe not the who or the why of it. And I felt...telling you. Would be..." She exhales. Honesty is hard. "I mean, how could I tell you that the bruises were from Easton, when I...you with Edgar.."

Magnolia breathes out a sharp exhale, and she sinks her hands around her mug with her forearms resting along the table. "Did he do it because it was him, or because this is Gray-forking-Harbor?" Yes, she just said forking. She stretches out a hand to grasp gently at Bennie's arm. "Edgar was a bastard. He was a bastard since day one, I just didn't see it. There was no Weird behind why he was a bastard. But I like Easton and I don't think he's a bastard, so I'm thinking this had to be because something got to him." She at least is using her PI smarts here. She squeezes Bennie's wrist. "I just... wanted you to want me to help. I would have helped both of you."

Magnolia's attempt not to swear is admirable, no doubt born out of having a child-sized shadow who wants to immolate everything her mother does, and so Bennie finds a sliver of a smile when the PI forks Gray Harbor. "He would never hurt me on purpose, not physically. The jury is still out on whether or not Easton will try some other bullshit to push me away if he feels he needs to, like if it were out of some misguided need to protect me, but oddly enough, I'm feeling better about us as a couple after this happened. That doesn't stop my gut clenching reaction at silly things like ...sudden loud noises around him. Or catching movement out of the corner of my eye. But, time, right? Give it time?" Bennie gives a little helpless shrug. "That's sort of a hard wired thing for me Mags. Not wanting help. I'm sorry if you take that personally. I mean. How could anyone not take that personally."

It really is admirable. Her smile is the same uncertain little sliver, and then she sighs out a breath as her hands roll through her hair, elbows still perched on the table. "I know." Her eyes drift down. "I was like that, too... with Edgar. Ollie -- " Magnolia's twin brother. " -- always hated seeing me flinch. That's when he figured it out." She looks at Bennie now, trying to make sense of her through those studious blue eyes. "Bennie, as long as you're sure this is because of Gray Harbor, and not something that might -- " She stops then, folding her lips together. "If this was some Gray Harbor shirt, then yeah... give it time. It happens again? You tell me, and we will figure out what to do." Then she gives a little shrug, and she wraps her hands back around her paper cup again. "You're here now, so we're good, Benz." Then she rubs slightly at the back of her neck. "And since we're good, think I can talk to you about something?"

Bennie's hand reaches underneath the table, briefly resting her hand on her friend's knee. "I'm sure. And the minute I'm not, you'll be the first person I call to help load up a truck so I can get the fuck out, okay?" She leans back in her chair, hooking her fingers into the handle of her mug and lifting it to her lips for a sip. "Sure! Shoot, I'm all ears, Missy." The blonde EMT wiggles in her seat, happy to have the focus off of her where it's more comfortable.

Bennie's promise drains some of the tension out of her shoulders. Her smile holds gratitude in it -- a thanks that she can make sure that nothing happens to those she cares about, nothing that isn't apart of this messed up place they live. "Okay, good. And we can set his couch on fire for good measure." She takes a sip of her coffee, and too joins the shift of topic with some relief. But only some. "Kevin and I are in some trouble... and I'm not sure what to do. There was this ring, and it did terrible thing to people -- bad luck, obsession... possession... and that Collector who wanted Billy Gohl wants us to find it." Now Magnolia rubs at her knuckles. "But, and here's the kicker... I kind of tossed it into the pond before I knew that we would need to get it back... and now I can't find it."

"Oh." Bennie says quietly, as if quickly shouldering the burden of her friend's conundrum in that instant and her face falls. And then suddenly brightens. "Oh!" This is where excitement takes over, as Bennie suddenly is bubbling with it so much she can barely contain her energy. "Easton!" She chirps. "Your answer is Easton. He can..." Her voice lowers as she suddenly remembers they're in public. "...he has this ability. He can find lost things! And he can even...well, if you need to go over there...that too! I mean, talk about out of the frying pan and right back into the fire though, right? But I can ask him!"

"And... you think that he would be good helping?" That's the real question, isn't it? Magnolia does grimace a bit. "He does owe me." But she's not sure that she wants to make this a tit-for-tat exchange. So, instead she frowns thoughtfully. "I just know what this ring does to people, Benz. Byron Thorne -- he went nuts. Like, obsessed nuts. So did Lilith Winslow. It was bad. It's called the Lover's Jewel, and that isn't because it's nice to those who have affections for each other." She rubs at the back of her head. "I don't want to stir everything back up, but I'm feeling lost here... and worried..." And for a rare moment, Magnolia actually loses some of her razor edge for soft, earnest concern.

"Magpie, I know Easton. If I asked him? He'd do it. Willingly. And not because he'd be afraid of never getting laid by me again, he'd do it because it's the Right Thing. May need a little prep, and a few friends. But we'll figure out how to control it or at least contain it properly before we even try to retrieve it. But the real question here," And the one that has Bennie's face scrunching up with concern. "Is what happens if you refuse?"

"Good," is all Magnolia says, nodding her head at the reassurance that Easton will help. Now, Bennie isn't the first one to ask what happens if they don't get this done, if they leave it there, if they refuse. She looks down into her coffee cup for a long moment before she looks up with a tight, but full smile. "Well, pretty sure that my bones go into the Collector's precious collection. I'll probably make a pretty good skeleton... I got some good bone structure." Then she tightens her lips. "I've been dragging my feet for weeks on this... thought it would go away, but it isn't. I need to find where it is, and get it back where it belongs before someone gets hurt, and before Kevin and I end up on display."

"Never gonna happen. And not just because I'm a fantastic aunt, but I'd be a SHIT godparent if I had to take over custody of Lark. We gotcha boo. I'll talk to Easton straight away and we'll come up with a game plan. So rest a little easier tonight, alright? We'll find the One Ring to bind them before this Collector guy goes all My Precioussss." Bennie tips up her mug, draining the last of her little chocolate flavored caffeine boost. "Alright, I gotta get to the Station. You good?"

"You should have forking thought of that before I put you down as her godmother, because now you're stuck with her if she ends up orphaned. Don't worry, though, I got Byron on to make sure she gets through college. He never reads the fine print of our client agreement." The flippant nature is a good defense mechanism. Then Magnolia is casting Bennie a silent, thankful smile. When Bennie drains the rest of her coffee, the blonde smiles with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I mean, we didn't paint each other's nails or braid our hair, but I think I'll forgive you." She pushes out of her chair, stepping around the table to give Bennie a fierce hug. "I'm good."