2019-11-15 - Running Nowhere Fast

(TXT to Byron) Lilith: We need to talk. Finish work and I'll come over when you call.
(TXT to Lilith) Byron: Don't drink the soup.
(TXT to Lilith) Byron: But she's alright then?
(TXT to Lilith) Byron: Sorry, got a page about someone drinking the mystery soup. And sure, you can stop by or I'll drop by later.
(TXT to Byron) Lilith: Okay. Just let me know when you're done with work.
(TXT to Byron) Lilith: Did you get your mail yet? Please don't. Just wait til I get there.
(TXT to Byron) Lilith: I need to swim laps or something, if you get a second, tell your guy I'll be using the pool.
(TXT to Lilith) Byron: If you want to run, I should be off of this phone call for a bit. Otherwise, sure, I'll let Frank know.
(TXT to Byron) Lilith: I do want to run, but felt like it'd be a bad idea alone to do that on the woods trail given trend lately.
(TXT to Lilith) Byron: It's a date then. I'll meet you at the trailers. We'll take that route.
(TXT to Byron) Lilith: Good plan.

It's daylight sometime, but in the shroud of the woods, time kind of loses angles, especially when the weather is gray. And this is Gray Harbor in autumn, so that's very much a weather thing today. It's tolerable enough for outdoors, though, if chilly, but when you're trying to burn the blood and adrenaline and breath, sometimes chilly is good. And good gracious if that's not exactly what Lilith is trying to do once her and Byron start, a burst of agitated quiet speed and energy that literally has her running instead of recreational jogging. It's not like he can't keep up with longer legs, athleticism, and speed of his own, but clearly, there's some issue.

Byron probably picked up on the matter of there being some issue before they took off from where they parked at the trailers and took the old path that led them into the familiar woods and the course they tend to take for these things when they go running. See, ever since Lilith was missing, she went straight to the hospital when found, and when her days were up there, she spent the next couple of days off of work and loitering around Byron's place after sleepover in clingy fashion. It's a novelty for her to be able to do that, for one thing, since she hated the idea of even going near the place while he lived with someone else. On top of that, she just doesn't want to be alone after her disappearance alone at length. She knows what could have happened very well, she knows she could still be alone or dead right now and maybe should be given how long she was pulled into a Dream, given what they know about the Lost people of Gray Harbor.

It's not like she was underfoot or anything, though, Byron and her already know how to coexist while doing normal things in separate or shared spaces in the same area. The cling is a little subtle with proximity security-- she doesn't want to seem scared or like a latch on, even though she's being one. She lets him play catch up with calls, meetings, and work. She occupies with Isabella, she goes to run errands too when she's not around, then today she decided she needed to take a day and play catch up herself with something she'd been meaning to do before fully returning to work and home. Her and Byron haven't even really had time or circumstance to talk since her hospital release beyond the small or passing or general commentaries. And they were ripped into another Dream together against a virus during sleep one of their nights, mending prior to that, so they haven't even really been able to be intimate with each other since her return, either.

Lilith is pent up and angsty and posture agitated when he sees her get out of the car and setup to get running on the trail. It has the detachment air of shutdown for cope instead of cling now. There's not even any dallying or grabbing hug of swing into affection and natural kiss. She just wants to run. There's a lot of things she's suddenly worried and pissed about that are kicking around in the woman and it's triggering new agitations and imaginings and even some worry and resentment, though she's not so much focused on the latter at the moment or is much conscious of it. Everything else is bigger than being butthurt and pissy over things being hidden from her that everyone ELSE seems to know while she's left out of the loop with the person closest to her.

Honestly, it's probably a good thing there's dire circumstances keeping those secret seeds of bitter hurt from festering into other things. God she just wants to run. But eventually, breath runs out and she needs a drink, leaned against a tree. Swallowing water and catching breath, she wonders of Byron, "Who touched the soup?" It's benign compared to the other things eating her, seems fine to ask.

The last time a girl told him that they needed to talk, Vivian was on her way out after their lengthy and somewhat ire-filled discussion. So much had happened then too-- things that altered his relationships with certain people. After receiving basically those same words from Lilith, Byron knows enough that they aren't soothing words. Women like to use the 'We need to talk' a lot because they are upset about something. She didn't even leave any hints at the time she'd sent the message. Only later, does she bring up the mail, so right, he figures that's what's on her mind.

Even after he pulled up in the rental, already dressed in moisture in an UnderArmor long sleeved shirt beneath a warm hoodie and sweat pants, he could sense some sort of tension coming from her. He didn't even get a chance to ask about the letter, before she takes off. It's rather annoying really, but he supposes if she doesn't want to talk about it right now, he won't push it. Running is a part of life for him, something that he's been doing almost daily for years now. With his hood pulled up and drawn over his head, besides the late start, he keeps up good speed to at least catch up with her through the jungle that is the forest floor. The chill across his face is invigorating, though the weather is getting colder, which will make the frigid burn of the wind and the air all the more painful as the days go on. For now, he just breathes in that fresh clean air.

He has things on his mind as well, though with Byron at the moment, despite the agitation of someone asking to talk and then not really talking, he keeps all of that inward and instead enjoys the view and the quiet. That is until Lilith finally comes to a stop, but he's just getting started. He'll slow in time with her, reaching for his own bottle of water for a small sip. No use drink heavily while running. Then she finally asks a question mid-drink. After swallowing, he responds, "Isabella. Clayton told me about it." He's about to take another sip, though there's a question of sorts on his mind. "When did you receive the mail?" He found out that she received it through Alexander and not Lilith.

She hasn't been pacing herself, she's just been bodily abusing herself, more or less, for the high of the running, so Lilith seems to actually need that stop for water and air and she doesn't quite run as much as Byron does anyway. While standing there against the tree, when Byron answers that it's Isabella who tried mystery soup from a crazy source, she just kind of stares at him like 'what' for a long moment. Then she sighs at length, heavily and lifts the bottle again for another drink while considering the idea that her and Isabella might be friends now because they're both idiots that jump off cliffs here and there just to see what the bottom's like, "Okay. I assume she's not dead yet, probably just cursed to eternity and back." Because why wouldn't someone be after eating VEIL FOOD? These things always try to kill them, even the ones in City Hall that talk and send them on goddamn quests and adventures to get results or questions answered. Death by quest proxy. It still counts.

Then he mentions the letter and she makes a bit of a 'goddamnit' face, jaw setting, "Like... not that long ago, it was in my pile at home. That's why I wanted to talk after you were done with work and check the mail with you. Ran into August while out running errands and he told me about his and I ran home to check. Then I was thinking if you had one, maybe if you didn't open it to read and explode, it wouldn't summon you or whatever, like a missed read receipt." Lilith pauses and eyes Byron with a hint of dread, "Reminds me of what happened when I... but they definitely didn't send a letter like tax summons, so." Pause again, "Did you get one? And did you open it?"

And yeah, uh huh, errands in brief, not the bit about going to have her car checked for a tracker. She can hide things to handle her goddamn self dangerously alone too! Then she kind of starts to mentally waver on that stubborn some because revenge-yanking him off the Grant-management front could leave him blind to endangerment from the man, for one, and for two, it just feels squicky to hide it. Plus the Captain knows now and might be asking or mentioning things to Byron with his own damn curiosity and that'd be awkward. Maybe she'll tell him in a moment. Her muscles and lungs are still burning.

Running through the woods, some of it uphill, isn't entirely cakewalk for him, but Byron's used to it, so his breathing, while somewhat heavy for the moment is more even and he takes a shorter time to recover. "Seemed like she caught something during the last Dream." Byron was feeling fine through most of it, but at the very end, maybe due to breathing in all that Lysol or some other sort of contamination, he's been having some chest discomfort. Hoping that it was due to stress and strain, in his mind, the run might help warm and loosen some of that up. "The soup seemed to have helped with that. Even so, I can't say that I trust anything from the other side." Murmuring this last part, "Trial experimentation or not. But as Clayton said, Isabella is gonna Isabella." Which is /why/ Byron messaged Lilith immediately, believing that she'd do something spontaneous and possibly dangerous like drinking random soup!

"Alexander Clayton and supposedly, Isabella, got one too." He decides to mention, "So how many of us is that?" When she brings up her hopes that he didn't open the letter, he says with a wry smile, "It's hard not to open it. When I got it, I immediately thought of you, because you always mention that you feel hunted or haunted and I can't say I feel the same way... despite some of these dreams. Though, I'm pretty sure whether you opened and read it or not, it won't matter. Anyway, we need to prepare ourselves for the inevitable."

Isabella is definitely going to Isabella, just like she's going to Lilith around and explode things here and there or mount up with a whole fire of fury, stubborn, and passive aggression or self-damages time to time. Convinced the woman probably isn't dying yet given what Byron explains with no given consequences as yet, she makes a mental note to text her later and nosy about it, though, because now she's actually curious herself. Not enough to eat it. Hell no. Lilith likes to eat food, not uncertain adventures with the unknown and death. She kind of wants to give it to someone else, though, because she's kind of a dick sometimes, but urges like that just happen, okay.

"Well, don't... try to mindbang it or anything to see what it's from, I'll kill you myself. It might break your brain. In fact, c'mere and kiss me before we take off so I can put my hand at your throat and throttle you moderately, I might feel better about some things. Tactics. And just so you know, we're sleeping together at your place or mine every single bed time until we know what the hell it's about. Also you're pretty." If Lilith is deep down passive aggressive about some matters concerning Byron right now, even kind of unconsciously, it melts off temporarily when Byron twists up the wry smile about the mail and confirms his own isn't opened yet, though she hates to hear he does, in fact, have one.

But there's relief in it too, in a terrible guilty way because this time, whatever happens, she probably won't be alone, which is a little selfish for her brand of affection when it comes to him and keeping him whole and safe. Then again, she just spent a lot of time alone in a Dream with the Darkness and What It Sows and is still secretly PTSD reeling about it in tiny ways, despite her gratitude about being alive and being with him again keeping most of it managed. She tinkers with telling him about the tracker mentally again, but stalls more. Maybe it's stubborn, maybe it's her just not wanting to ruin her kiss and requested light-chokeout reprieve, "I'll jog from now on so we can actually breathe to talk, too. My body hates me when I run like I'm on the lamb, which is why I do it that way, probably."

"There's nothing to read." Byron states to make things clear, "The mail burnt up into nothing. Like those spy memos that tell the receiver to burn after reading. Though this time, it doesn't give us a choice." He says this, though now he's wondering, "Unless yours didn't burn up the way mine did." Though, he honestly did want to read it, but there are times where he's cautious about his own gift. Not cautious about its overuse, but more along the lines of, wary about what his readings will show him.

Then Lilith lays it all out, telling him exactly what she wanted him to do and the very fact that until who knows when, neither of them will be sleeping alone until this blows over. While his brow might quirk, there's this quiet smile that he wears as well. "Let's start with the kiss first." Though it doesn't seem as if he'd protest the rest, something which he murmurs against her lips as he holds her within his arms, the shape of his water bottle pressing gently against her back and side, "Sleeping together? I mean, if we must." The edges of his lips quirk into a smile before pressing into a deep, heated kiss out in the cold.

He'll let that last a moment, before they both are ready to continue on their run. "Running's not the best exercise to do if one wants to talk, jogging or otherwise. That's what speed walking is for." He teases her before taking in a deep breath, before being the one to lead the way along the trail. "Anyway, I told Clayton to keep an eye on Isabella, in case the soup comes with side effects."

"It did after I opened and read, yeah. And mm. Is that your water bottle or did you grow up into a very big boy after breakfast today and just miss me unfathomably?" Granted, it's more on her side and back given how he's holding her, which makes it a pretty inefficient boner joke, but the roots are there for it just fine for him to get it. And Lilith wasn't kidding about the handhold placement, because as soon as Byron is close enough and dipping his head to catch her lips with his own, her hand splays up to curl at his throat with pulsing squeeze, though it's admittedly more rough implied possessive and of Lilith branded 'mine' gesture than actual choking.

Making an 'mm' noise into his mouth and falling into the heat of the kiss and all the distraction and soothing in the face of incoming 'wrong' in their lives for the future. Lilith had been agitated, he knew that, he saw it in her demeanor and posture, and now he's feeling it start to melt away in her body with his arms at hold. If she was tense and about to pop her mouth off to pick a fight (she might have, might still later), well, that moment has passed. Honestly, the fact that they weren't doing much kiss balming before when things got rough probably explains why they were prone to little blowouts more without the key to distracting each other out of it by other affectionate means.

"Mmhm. We must." Her fingers splayed at his throat and neck drag down to rub over his attire and collarbone at one side before stopping with pressure above the beat of his heart, finally breaking to breathe and look up at him, "But I forgot my fanny pack for speed walking. We'll just space it out and think about what to say or do real hard during the parts where we need air instead of words." She takes his lead when they separate and definitely gets a more moderate heart-pump of pace going this time around, commenting, "If I ate mystical packages of soup to see what they did, you wouldn't just keep an eye on me, you'd drown me in the toilet trying to get me to choke on water and throw it up and lecture me for eight months straight. Then you'd get me an Apple watch to app monitor my vitals just in case I eat anything weird or fall off the map."

Not that she wanted to eat the soup, but also, it's probably why she wouldn't eat the soup even if she wanted to. She'd stab him for it, not 'keep an eye' on him. While they're going, she spaces three separate things out like a list, saving the worst for last. Because she can't NOT tell him now after that kiss, what if his or her brake lines get cut or something as the next vehicle tampering step? She still needs to contact a security expert for seeing how people with no limited means could track-ping phones, she doubts it some hacker app. He's probably got a damn personal satellite when he wants to check people's positioning, which is maybe impossible, but also Turner is impossible too.

"Thanksgiving soon. What are we doing?" Breath, consideration, mental planning, breath, "Christmas too. I've never had the full traditional works, you know. The decorating. The stockings and fireplace. The tree. Are you a Grinch as a grown man?" Breath, consideration, mental planning, present planning (omg presents), breath and eye shift, "There was a tracker on my car."

If anything, Byron expected the slightly juvenile and playful arousal joke, he even grins broadly once it's spoken. There's no denying that feeling that squeeze at his throat was kind of hot, especially when he's staring deeply into Lilith's eyes on feeling the sensation. She can feel his breath caught up in his chest on initial contact, then his pulse beating beneath her fingertips along his flesh. It lights a fire within him, reminding him of their time in Seattle.

When they pick up where they'd left off, this time keeping at a semi-conversational pace along the way, he has to think of what she has to say, "I don't know if I would've gone that far, though I probably would've found someone like you, a Healer, to take a look in case... something was wrong." The last part is drawn out as if just realizing this. "I'm sure it already came to Clayton's mind, but I'll send him a message just in case something weird can be detected in her system."

She brings up the holidays and he'll make chit-chat while focusing on not tripping over a thick root while running, "I'd asked my mother if she wanted to have Thanksgiving Dinner with us. Well, I didn't really specify who all would be there, though I'm sure she'd expect it to be a few of my friends. Now, I don't know if she'll take me up on that offer or not and it probably won't matter." He then laughs, "I usually spend Thanksgiving with Tobin if we're both not too busy." The bachelor life.

That's when his steps falter once she brings up that there was a tracker on her car. "A tracker?" He doesn't need to see Turner's name, but she should be pretty sure that it's the first name that came to mind. "Was it taken care of then?"

Lilith doesn't really think of herself as a healer, even though she's astoundingly capable of adjusting the body for better or worse. Diseases and illnesses and poisons and disturbances in the body, she can see, but she thinks August would be more familiar and better suited for cue in when it comes to looking for something like that. He's probably more familiar and knows more of what to look for and define, which might be important given they don't KNOW what they're looking for in regards to Creepy Soup Consequences.

"I'm sure your mother will love seeing the boisterous little white trash trailer girl that might drag you down again." Honestly, it's not that Mary Thorne was ever mean to Lilith, she was just kind of that way she is that Lilith finds particularly empty and cold. She also knows that the woman was turning a deliberate blind eye to what happened in the Thorne house with his father as a child, the things unspoken, the confessional confirming that later in life one night over drinks while Lilith sat with her own baggage to give him in the form of a binding cord.

But is there maybe the idea of sticking it to the woman with a very look-at-me-now sense? Yes. Same as Byron, to a degree, the point where she gets to say look at me, alive and well and gorgeous and fucking your son and making him happier than you or any other woman probably ever has in his entire life. She wants to show off to the woman in an odd way, not so much for her own ego, but for Byron's. And not to give the woman the pretty picture image of a woman he's with for appearance and accomplishment and suitability sake, no, but to give her the distinct impression of how very loved he is to the flawed core because she never did it right at all. But Lilith doesn't say that. She just says, "I'll dress pretty and be good if we feed your mother. I think between the two of us, we're decent enough to manage things palateable and it would be an experience. I've honestly never made a turkey, how hard can it be?"

"It was removed. I have it." She might set him up to come find her with it and pull some shit, honestly, if it's still even working after Ruiz dicked with it, whatever he did, but she doesn't say that part. She just details her other rational next steps, "I'm going to talk to someone about phone tracking and possibly just get a new device too, doubt it was just my car." But at the end of the day, do either of those 'fixes' really matter? He'll just go at it again when he wants to know where she is at any time and you can only spend time doing so much against such things, "I love you. He knows that now. It's not good for him to know you aren't just a 'man' in my life. But I might need to handle him playing escalation soon in some way. Just need to think about it first." Her eyes cut to him as she hops a tree root in her black and pink running shoes worn with her tight leggings and pullover teal athletic hoodie, hair bobbing in the ponytail like it's not a big deal to 'handle' anything with Grant.

"What do you want for Christmas?"

Byron decides to remind, though it's of no real importance and he does so with good humor, "My mother was a waitress at the Grizzly Den and sold our house to live at the trailer park until my return. I'm pretty sure she isn't averse to white trash." She had to work over-time when Stephen died just so they didn't lose the house, even if she had to sell several years after her son's graduation.

Despite what animosity is held between him and his mother, Byron likes to play the normal family life game. Despite years of neglect from her, that was always better than those moments when she decided to take action. He'll give her that much. "I helped with a turkey a few times back in L.A." Probably with Vivian and her family, "But... if we asked, I'm sure my mother wouldn't mind lending a hand. She's a pretty good cook, I mean, she worked at the diner for so long. She was bound to pick up some skills." It's pretty odd how he can defend her at times, but he usually, unless he's being incredibly annoyed or overly-stressed, doesn't speak up about her in the way that he probably could or should. "I'm sure she'll be interested in seeing you. It's been a while."

His pace picks up some after taking the time to catch his breath and continue on. "You're not handling Turner alone." He says, turning in her direction, He already has Magnolia on the case, so he's waiting on that report. "If he tries anything, we're taking him down together." Taking him down could mean many things from something more final to just putting an end to his harassment.

"Christmas, I can't say I thought all that much ahead. Setting up a tree would be ideal." A pause, "Why? What do you want to do?"

Byron does the things in regards to his mother despite resentment that Lilith used to do for Hank, she gets that. Though, when it comes to comparing parentals, Byron no doubt thinks Hank was much worse with his neglect that left Lilith alone and unattended and unfathered and literally unfed with no mother, and he picked up that slack very young and has room to bitch about it. That said, Lilith finds Mary's form of neglect and downright abetting abuse in her eyes to be the bigger offense given the cold nature of it. Lilith is kind of a fuck up as habit, she can understand her own father just being a fuck up much better even though it's part of what made her a fuck up. She doesn't understand how a mother couldn't want to protect Lil's precious Byron and love him like a mother should, though. It's kind of out of her fathomable range since her affection runs so deeply and variably for who he is and why.

"Maybe she knows a thing or two, sure. Not to mention, I can entirely see us looking up recipes and trying to get fancy and getting in way over our heads when we realize what's happening all at once in the kitchen. But yeah. It's been a while." Lilith just rolls with it, her feelings about Mary Thorne don't matter, Byron's sentiments and reasonings do and as a child of dysfunction, she just respects the space for dysfunction and doesn't prod or harp on it. Her breathing starts to accelerate as the man picks up the pace with a new wind and her legs, while quite long and lovely, they aren't his solid long legs propelling her along, so she kind of has to hoof it to keep them even.

But that's fine. Lilith can just use the excuse to breathe and run for a while with lulling. She doesn't know what to say about his firm response of opinion on how Grant Turner will be handled, in whatever fashion. She does, however, resist the urge to bring up his old house and woman issue that others know about, having some light shed on it recently via old texts on her phone and a coffee conversation. First she's tempted to call him on the double standard there with a whole lot of WHY THE HELL NOT? YOU DO IT! Then she's tempted to back that up and barter with an offer to blow up the house into flames as a cleanser in return for letting him go blow up Turner or whatever/however she manages to get rid of him from her life. Teamwork and trust goes both ways, goddamnit!

But. But. But. She also knows Byron probably thinks he's protecting her in some dumb way or keeping her from flying off the chain and it's not about trust at all. It makes her more grumbly internally than actually pissed, but overall, the concern and blindspot of details and inclusion, it makes her anxious. Eventually she says, "Probably isn't going to try anything anyway, just bluster and tantrum."

Christmas is much nicer to talk about, "I do want a tree. I want a wreath. I want them at your place. I want them at my place. I want presents to wrap and unwrap. I want a stocking even though I don't know what goes in one. I just want to see it with my name on it hanging. I want to be so grossly Christmas kitschy this year even though it's not really my style because I damn well can. It's the first one I'm not spending alone as an adult."

Well, that's fucking sad, imagining Lilith alone over X-mas for YEARS, but she's pretty off the cuff about it because she's more attuned to the idea she CAN have those things and not be alone for it, now.

"Is that why I don't have a dog, are you putting a Christmas hat on one so he can pop a squat under the tree?"

From this part of the trail, they can see the markers for where the tiny homes are to be set up. Perhaps some are already built by now. Still, it's an interesting location to have them built and Byron has taken some interest in them if only to learn more about whether that sort of endeavor is lucrative or not. "I heard that there'd be open houses for these lots. I gotta say that my curiosity is piqued, though I'm not sure if I could live in a tiny space." He then adds in, though in quieter words, "This close to the forest as well."

His mind goes only briefly to Thanksgiving, though in truth, they really should be making preparations. It was just around the corner and there was a lot of shopping to do. "Failing the cooking part, we could also always order take-out." He's kidding, though it's something he probably did in the past.

Something comes to mind though, thus his pace slows when he notices her just a few steps behind, "How did you find the tracker? " She could very well have just looked, but he can't help but wonder. "And I don't know, Lil. I mean, he put a tracker on your car.." He, however, does't want to cause her to be alarmed, so he won't say too much more regarding Turner.

Passing from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Byron looks curiously at her, "You didn't go to Christmas parties down in Miami? I mean, if you want to subject me to terrible Christmas over-decorating," He laughs a little at that, "I'd say sure. "As long as it's not too tacky anyway." He then considers, "Right, we can chop down a tree, pick up a wreath and do all of the Christmas decorations. That said, I need to order some trees for each of the three buildings. Thanks for reminding me." These will probably be larger tree to fill the lobbies with.

That smile remains when she brings up the dog and he returns to what he'd told her before, "I already got you a dog."

"Could do takeout, not too proud. Or skip eating altogether and get gluttonous full on lust for ridiculous hours of playtime, I'm versatile. But also I'm hungry. So right now turkey sounds amazing. Probably not more amazing, though." Lilith tells Byron with a slip of her eyes his way with the suggestion, lips twitching some with threat of smile before she flashes one in breathless full on teasing end contemplation of turkey vs sexmarathonkinkery. Her eyes shift to where they are, though, and she suddenly comments, "I think I could do a cute tiny Ikea-style space for a while, maybe, but not... like out here? Forest is nice, but... mm." Kids know the woods surrounding Gray Harbor are haunted sometimes, and damned if they don't have an adjusted viewpoint on that now as adults, and not for the better.

When Byron slows to let her catch up and eye her with the tracker question and Turner concern, Lilith just makes a kind of grunt noise in her throat, but it's not dismissive, it's more frustrated acceptance that yes, he's possibly batshit and batshit is not good. She explains then, head ducking a low broken branch so she doesn't have to cut around and mess up their running alignment for conversation sake again, "First I watched youtube videos. Then I looked. Then I got pissed. Then I looked more. Then I sighed and took it to Steelhead for Itzhak to search. Then I kept the tracker instead of blowing it up because I thought we might be able to use it in a pinch or clever moment. But maybe I should still blow it up, if it's not already. Anyway, the Captain overheard and saw the tracker when he stopped by, offered me FBI buddy help but I said nah."

His Christmas past question has her looking sober instead of wary or frustration-tinged as she was in regards to haunted forest homes and Grant things, but suddenly, she blossoms right back into smile for him (while avoiding the question with a tiny shrug, that's apparently a landmind to save for later), "I won't be too tacky. We won't do the stupid horrible sweaters. I look far too good in a red dress for all that. But yes, you should get on your building decorating plans too, look at me helping out."

There's a huff of laughter then for her dog. Dog. He did get her Dog. But then she suddenly gets suspicious, "You're going to get a tiny shit yapper to put in a stocking, aren't you?"

"Failing making a palatable Thanksgiving Dinner," Byron adds emphasis to this, "we order takeout." But then Lilith has to go and mention what they could be doing instead of struggling in the kitchen, cooking. He catches that smile, his eyes lowering then lifting as he drinks in her image, more than likely imagining her close to being naked in his lap right now. It's freakin' distracting. "You actually made a good case there. It's something to consider..."

These forest trails make running all the more exciting with its low hanging branches and deadly roots. On top of that, this is the haunted woods. There's a lot of brushing branches away and placing one's feet carefully between roots as they continue the trail.

So Rosenkrantz knows. While Byron's not so sure about the guy, barely knowing him, Joey seems to put trust in him. However, when she mentions the Captain, there's this subtle narrowing of his eyes, "Oh? de la Vega too?" How inconvenient. Now if anything happened to Turner... "So when you told him 'nah', did he lose interest?" While that might be nice, just the fact that he knows about it is something to be careful about.

She then jokes about a stocking pup, "Why would you ever think that?" Besides the fact that he constantly sends her pictures of chihauahuas. He will say, however, "After what happened to you and learning that Turner's been tracking you, a dog is a good idea in my opinion. And those ankle biters are the most vicious."

Oh, Lilith notices those dark eyes drinking her in and that's freaking distracting too for a few moments, because now she's seriously considering a holiday celebration could entirely consist of that, why not? Not to mention what they'd both get to think or say when friends asked what they ended up doing for Thanksgiving! Actually, Lilith would probably say exactly what happened in terms of celebrating if asked to see the reaction. Then she has to pay attention to not trip while running and her breath is starting to heave with the continued exertion, flush at her skin, and she's thinking maybe she'll just jump him in one of the parked cars before he has to go to another call or meeting. But that's distracting too.

"Mm, el Capitan did not lose interest, no. Having a tracker on my car is somewhat extreme, don't think I was going to avoid the curiosity. I gave him Grant's name, but told him that he wasn't local, and not to call his bud. He seemed insistent and I thought maybe he'd just try and mindbang it 'cause he was holding the tracker. I wanted to get the tracker back when it ended up in his hand so that..." Suddenly, though, while Lilith doesn't think much about Itzhak knowing she has a stalker since he's pals with Joey, she bats her lashes a few times and stops running mid-sentence once she realizes a thing or two. She had been agitated and distracted at the time given the talk about the mail, which made her stalker seem so much less.

"Byron? It's in my purse in the car. I thought he zapped it to keep me safe, but maybe he got something off of it because right before I left, he asked me who someone named Collins was. And I have no idea, save for assuming he belongs to Turner employ. Do you want to try to look at it?" And by look, she clearly doesn't mean with the eyeballs. Her path changes course when she resumes pace, "Let's turn it, go back to the cars. You can look or not look. But either way, I'll fuck you in my back seat while parked before we take off. Stress relief finale." Then while she's off along on that leg of the turned run now with Byron, she's focused on breathing and thinking about two very conflicting things: How to get rid of Grant Turner before he does something dangerous... and her legs straddling Byron's lap while they smother each other with breath and kisses and frustrated desperation .

Of course, Ruiz didn't lose interest. "He's nosy about everything and gets annoyed when he finds things out after the fact." Byron will make sure to point out, sounding annoyed himself. In his mind, he's weighing the pros and cons of having the actual police involved. There'd be more eyes looking out for Lilith, but that means playing by the book. Perhaps, it's his own selfishness, after having witnessed and experienced some of the things which Lilith had at the hands of this man, but for Byron, it all became personal.

Once Lilith comes to a stop, Byron slows down as well, eventually stopping and circling around back to her, "You are carrying it around? Why? Why not put it on another car? Or throw up in the trash bin so that if he wants to find you, they can go to the city dump?" Now when he hears that Ruiz may have gotten a read on it, he shakes his head slowly, his mood tinged with annoyance, "God damnit." If Ruiz catches whiff of anything, he'll continue to badger. "Why don't I just ask the Captain to see what he says?" This is said wryly, but in a slightly harsher tone.

When she mentions fucking him in the back of the car, his eyes narrow slightly. She's taking this really lightly. Far too lightly in his mind. He makes no response to that and starts on his way back to the car in time with her. "I want to see what the Captain might have seen." Is all he'll say to that.

"Oh, calm down, he's just being a man more than a cop, I think it just rubbed him wrong. Men doing stuff like this tends to set other semi-decent men off with offense in general. I can't see why he'd go digging on some dude elsewhere for being a rich and spoiled manchild creeper or think much about it unless I turn up missing again." Lilith really is probably taking all of this too lightly, she's been stalked this whole time and nothing has happened but nasty annoyances, truth be told. She's not actually thinking of covering up murdering Turner to make him leave her alone because it's not a normal thought process, even when you want to set the man on fire at the same time. She was thinking more along the lines of scaring him or actually making him see some kind of reason and rhyme to the futility of everything he's doing.

She says things and gets frustrated and all, but... it's complicated. She's seen Grant Turner acting like an actual person before everything went wrong and other parts of him started coming out. He had sentiments and charm and feelings and wit, he's more than just a threat or a concept to snuff out for being at hover. Not to say she wouldn't kill him for laying a finger on Byron, or that she'd shed tears if he ended up dead, but she's just not thinking along the lines of really having to cover tracks. She's far more worried about dying at any time because of spooky mail or losing Byron to other things she can't even control or do anything about.

"Anyway, you know what he did when I accidentally attacked Katy and she almost bled out and he walked into the call for an ambulance at the shop? Nothing. He should have. I deserved it. I'm a damned danger to society when I lose control, Byron. He just wanted to know what the hell happened and accepted it as it was. I don't know why, maybe it was the Dream of saving each other's asses and keeping our sixes together." Lilith is breathing heavily during this last leg and pensive, and there's spells between her thinking on this, and while she knows Byron is getting agitated on her behalf with protective flare up, as expected, she's thinking in terms of fallback, not detriment. What would the Captain care if she had to whack a creep that came here for her in self-defense? Not like the guy is on the level or anything, she's picked up on that.

Eventually, they get to the car so she can pull keys from hoodie pocket and unlock with chirp to get at her purse and the tracker for presentation to Byron. Once she's chugged some water and leans forward to catch the rest of her breath when he has the tracker in hand there at the open car door, she explains, "And I kept it on me temporarily out of the pawn because I want them to see the natural movement of me going somewhere, for right now, if it's still working. Nothing's stopping them from coming to stick another on after calling that one dead. Assuming it's not dead and they don't already know it's dead. Not to mention, if I want to appear as if I'm one place for a reason, I'll have it to plant to attract him. I could bust it and almost did with tissy, but I thought maybe it'd be clever to use it, if possible." Pause, "I still can bust it if you want me to."

Byron's pace doesn't slow down as they continue back to the car. His mind is churning, making plans and plotting. He'll listen to some of what she has to say, but his mind is always ON and he likes to be several many steps ahead of the rest if anything were to happen. Lilith can try to explain the protectiveness of men all she wants. Ruiz was still a cop. So if something happened to Turner anywhere near here... Maybe she's not thinking that far ahead, but Byron's been expecting Turner's arrival for a while now. He has a guy planting trackers on her car. Another person that needs to be dealt with.

He shoots Lilith a watchful glance from out of the corner of his eyes when she brings up the Dream she had with Ruiz, but that's short-lived and he continues on in relative silence. He has to think. Who knows when Turner will act out. Or when he'll take notice that something was awry with the tracker. Who knows /where/ Turner's guy was now. Byron needed to focus.

"I would've destroyed it by now." Byron says in a flat tone once they've stopped and Lilith continues on. He tilts his head back and chugs down a good portion of water, letting some splash onto his face and wet the front of his hoodie, even though with the weather being this chilly, he's already feeling the cold. "If he wants to put another one on your car. Let him come. We'd be waiting." But not if de la Vega catches wind of it. This is on his mind, but nothing that he will say out loud. Not if Lilith believes she has a handle on this and Byron knows for certain that she doesn't. Maybe he'll just have to do it in Seattle... or make the trip to Miami.

He could feel his heart racing in his chest and the muscles in his body tightening with this newly begotten tension. He hardly said a word this whole time as Lilith prattled on. He turns his back to her now, walking towards the forest trail again, but he needs this space to do what he does. It wasn't a comfortable thing to perform. Having set his water bottle down on the ground, he breathes in deeply before trying to tap into the memories that linger on this tracker.

Lilith sighs a little to herself and wanders away a few steps to peel out of one of her outer layers to the wicking Under Armor shirt for running to match she has underneath, despite the chill in the air. She's hot from all the running and she was all hot and bothered thinking about getting the rest of all this fear and tension out in the car with Byron too. And she was hot and bothered in a different way over so much damn Turner-Talk. Maybe she should have just left the damn thing on there, Itzhak didn't ask questions in suitable fashion, but who knew the damn Captain was going to show up right about then?

And honestly, she didn't want there to be a tracker on there with her spending time over at Byron's with new permissions of late for Turner to KNOW she was at Byron's for any extended time. Not that he can't assume they're duh, together a lot, but it's the principle of him knowing when and how long and getting potentially triggered over it. He walked out of that cocktail lounge in Seattle pretty damn triggered, now that she's thinking about it more clearly and not all starry-eyed over Byron being smooth and verbally manhandling the other man while notating her as chosen and his with words and small marking claim kisses.

"When you're done with it, I'll bust it. And you can take it when it's broken to see if you get anything else later, maybe." Lilith says to Byron quietly, only looking at him while doing those other things near the car so he can focus and shake off whatever brain-contagion of emotion or energy or whatever he gets when he does these things.

Doing reads on objects and sometimes people is best done when you're sitting down. If something disturbing or a powerful emotion comes up, at least you're more stabilized than when you're standing. The memory, itself, isn't a frightening one, though he can feel his heart racing within his chest in this anxious nervousness as he views this man named Collins, who is experiencing the exact same emotions. He takes a quick breath, then another. His eyes absently shift as he continues to stare out into the forest of nothingness.

Then after a moment, she'll see him leaning his neck to one side, to hear and feel that satisfying crack, before doing the same with the other. The tension that this Collins felt, that tension was tightening every muscle in his body-- his neck, his shoulders especially. He got a name and a face. Now what are you going to do with that information?

His hand clutches tightly on the tracker. Of everyone, he trusts Joey the most when it comes to matters such as this. "I'll hold onto this. Have it looked at, I mean.. if you don't mind." He has the information that he needs, well, the information that Ruiz has as well. However, at this point, the Captain already had time to do something with that info. He should be making a call right now. The deed done, he seems just a wee bit more relaxed even as his mind races.

Taking a few steps in Lilith's direction, the tracker already slipped into his pants pocket, he wraps an arm around her waist, leaning against her as he noses through her hair. "I could've sworn you mentioned something about the backseat." He was paying attention.

"Mmhm. What did you..." Lilith starts to make inquiry with curiosity as to what Byron got off of the thing, if anything, after clarifying whether or not he wants the tracker cracked to nonfunction, but then she remembers he can short the thing himself, which is what she though the Captain did, now she's not sure because those kinds of breaks are different than a busted wire she can see and restore. She also decides, feeling the man's arm wrap around her and the breath that flutters with the nuzzling nose through her hair... she decides she doesn't want to ask or know right now, particularly, what does it matter for the next little while?

"Actually. I'll ask later." Lilith steps in against Byron's lean and closes her eyes for a moment before reaching to lace her fingers through his other hand. There's a bit of a turn and rise on her toes to angle herself for kissing him hard and fast, the heady rush of it a little different than what's natural with affection. It almost feels violent with want and need. It's not overlong, though, they have a backseat to open up and get into, and the tint on the windows and out of the way parking probably doesn't hide at all what's soon going on inside that vehicle with her straddled over his lap, riding him, not riding the car. And she likes it that way, for people to know.

It's no love-soaked thrill ride this time during their public sex jaunt, the thrill is in the more subtle risk and exhibition to a degree, sure. But more than that, Lilith is gritty, raw, and highly rough and physical with her hands and motion moved by a desperate need to shut everything off and just feel Byron for a while. Their luck might run out one day soon., especially with that mail issue kicked out on the table. Lilith takes the moments of pleasure she can get with him because she bloody well deserves it and can. It's far better than the waiting paranoia.

Besides. He's gorgeous all flushed and sweaty from exertion and smelling like clean sweat and man.