2020-03-10 - Fiddle(r) Repair

Itzhak needs help. He needs a healer and of course his friends will heed that call, after they stop for coffee and hot chocolate. The large styrofoam cups steam up the inside of the jeep which never got a proper chance to warm up on the short drive over. Easton crawls through the dirt roads between the cabins, trying to find which one is which. "I'm telling you, we should just find an empty one and start squatting..." Their rustic charm is definitely not lost on Easton. Finally finding the right one, or what he thinks is the right one he pulls up and parks. He grabs his black coffee and an extra hot chocolate for the patient and hops out of the jeep. The cold air whips through the trees but Easton barely seems to notice in a hole-worn Cornell hoodie, camo cargo pants and boots.

Bennie is familiar with the these parts of the woods, marking the turn off to August's cabin with a smudge of her finger on the fogged up window, ending up drawing the dot into a smiley face as they bounce towards Ruiz' cabin. "There's certainly more land out here for Gunner to run instead of the A-frames..." But the blonde doesn't wanna press the subject too far beyond that helpful observation, as the whole living together thing again is still a touchy subject. Especially after Easton's recent set back that led to morning runs that led to Bennie assuring she totally did not throw up on the side of the road, she was just regurgitating breakfast a little into her mouth. Totally different.

She hops out of the Jeep when it's parked, walking around to the hatch to haul her EMT kit out of the back.

Lively fiddle music sings out from Ruiz's A-frame. At least, some of it's lively, played smooth and fast. Then it hits rough spots, jittering around, falling quiet. Itzhak's cursing can't be heard quite as clearly, but oh it's there. Within, when he hears the vehicle pull up outside, he looks around, sets his bow fiddle down, and reaches for his crutch to lever himself to his feet.

Watching Bennie pull the kit out of the trunk Easton smiles quietly to himself and tilts his head sideways. He quirks an eyebrow and says, "Is this not a fancy magic hands kind of visit? I kind of assumed it was more that kind of a thing, but it's probably better if you can keep it more EMT-Bennie vs Magic-Healer-Bennie?" He balances the two cups to knock, but seeing as there's music coming from within he assumes that they won't be heard. He opens the door and takes a step in to call out, "Rosencratz? You here?" There could possible be another fiddle player sawing away at the cabin but it's unlikely. Easton holds the door for Bennie giving her a quick peck on the cheek on her way by, apparently in a better mood. Possibly because of her 'totally not throwing up' on the run this morning.

Bennie beams a smile at Easton as she throws the heavy bag over her shoulder. "The bag is all a ruse, this is actually where I keep my snacks." She drags her blonde fringe of hair out from beneath the black webbing strap and starts trudging up to the door, "Or, I just thought it would be good cover? Medic walks in, and suddenly Itzhak can tap dance again. In case there are any nosy..." Well, no neighbors. "Chipmunks." Ducking in the door and happily running the cheek kiss gauntlet, "Where's that tall, sexy hunk of big-spoon Jew?"

Itzhak hears that, and snorts in reluctant amusement as he opens the door. He's in a soft, snug ribbed tank top and soft flannel pants and a full leg brace on his left leg. Nothing else, but he's accessorized with the crutch he's leaning on. He's got a lot of ink, which Easton knows, but Bennie perhaps not so much. "Hey. Bennie, right?" He jerks his chin in an upnod at Easton. "Marshall."

He looks tired, in the way someone with a serious injury will look tired, but simultaneously he manages to be tense, full of energy that has noplace to go. "C'mon in, youse."

"Fucking chipmunks, always getting in your business and getting in to mischief." Yes, that's a reference to Alvin, Simon and Theodore, no he's not embarrassed. "Itzil." Easton nods and brushes by the taller man, setting down the hot chocolate for him on the first available surface, pointing at it and mouthing yours before leaning against a counter or piece of furniture. Easton is a little subdued, not quite as loud and boisterous but at least he's also not as twitchy and grouchy as he has been. Getting to somewhat more of an even state.

"Have you two really not officially met? Like.. " He racks his brain for all the terrible times he's gotten stuck in Dreams with one or the other. "Holy shit."

Bennie gives a little laugh that sounds suspiciously like a giggle to Easton swearing about animated cartoon characters, but if she'd ever be accused of such, she'd whole heartedly deny it. "That's me!" She chirps happily, greeting Itzhak with an incoming blonde bomb of affection in the form of a hug and a cheek smooch, though her exuberance is toned down to she doesn't topple the be-crutched man. "I mean, we never really spent time together. There was one time on the dock eons ago and the Resolution bonfire, but it's not like, we, you know..." Her fingers jam together, fingers interlacing. "Bonded." In case that hand gesture wasn't as innocently perceived as she meant it. "Where should I set this down?" Thump. There is good.

Itzhak really didn't expect to be full on hug-smooched by a curvy and exuberant blonde, and when she lays one on his cheek he blushes brilliantly. "Uh...hi! Ain't you friendly." He grins lopsided at her, uncertain and suddenly bashful. "I, uh, look, my facial recognition isn't so hot. Eventually I'll figure out who you are. Took me forever with Marshall." Who he thumps on the shoulder as he limps past him. "Sure. There is good." Regarding where to put that. "I don't actually live here." For some reason that's making him blush, too. Easton brought him hot chocolate? Easton is the best. "How's by ya?" he asks him, picking up the cup.

The finger movements from Bennie get a grimace and a questioning eyebrow but the remarks about her friendliness get a meaningful look and nod from Easton. He smirks and says, "It helps if he sleeps with you." in regards to the facial recognition part, and yes he's making that sound awkward on purpose. "But maybe let him heal up first?" He smirks when Itzhak blushes about not living here "Yea, yea we're in the den of the ornery beast known as De La La, got it." As for how he is he takes a sip of his coffee and shrugs, "Sober." His lip curling ever so slightly at that, though he at least says it like it's a good thing for once.

De la Vega's Charger wasn't parked outside when Easton and Bennie showed up, but the distinctive snarl of the cruiser's 8 cylinders is pretty unmistakeable as it crests the drive. It rumbles throatily for a moment or two before the engine's cut, followed by a jangle of keys and crunch of boots in gravel as the cop trudges a few steps, pauses. Then completes the journey to the front door. It's shoved open right as Easton's both mangling his name and calling him an ornery beast; the younger man gets a long, unsmiling look, and then the door's shut again and locked. "Hola," is his cautious greeting, because fuck if he's checked his messages (if there is one) and has any goddamn clue why these people are in his house.

Oh, and he's very much in full uniform and duty rig, the black on black of the GHPD with a jacket reading GRAY HARBOR POLICE on the back.

"Oh, that's okay. I also answer to 'hey you', 'Tits McGee' and 'Where's my GeeDee coffee'. Uh..by customers and patients, not Easton." Bennie folds herself on the floor near the couch and her bright red EMT kit with the right cross on the side, throwing open the velcro flap and unzipping a compartment, pulling out...a bag of Cheez-Its. Seems she wasn't joking about that snack thing. "Well come on, sit down, I'm not going to bite." Unless it's that cracker she's shoving in her mouth, but hey, she lost her breakfast and she's making up for lost calories, still on the thin side form her own recent detox. Her hands thrust over her head in a triumphant vee as Javier enters, "Now it's a party!"

An awkward party. A really, really awkward party. Itzhak looks at Ruiz a little helplessly, eyebrows up, standing in the middle of the living room leaning on his crutch, paper cup in his free hand. His music stand and violin are on the coffee table, he'd been practicing before Bennie and Easton showed up. "Uh, Bennie here wants to fix me up," he says to him. "So uhhh here she is. And she brought Marshall. And you're home now too. Obviously!" Then he smiles crooked and in an adoring flash at him. It's just a flash, blink and you miss it, but there it is.

His audio processing catches up with what Easton said and he squints at him. "De La La?? Thought you said you were sober."

Smiling at Ruiz and nodding up at him when he enters Easton doesn't seem perturbed in the least to have been 'caught' talking about Ruiz like that, nor does he find it awkward that he and Bennie are there. "Gunny." Is the only greeting he offers.

Bennie's list of aliases causes him to grin, deep creases in his dimples. And he's not surprised in the least that she's pulling out a snack.

The response from Itz though does get him to quirk an eyebrow. He laughs at being called out on the nickname though, "Yup. It's a term of endearment, Bennie's specifically. And I'm dead sober." That time he sounds slightly less happy about it, but it's not quite a complaint yet.

An 'endearment' that makes Javier wince every time he hears it. But he's not going to be the one to point out that he can't stand it, and Itzhak's flickerflash little smile seems to improve his mood a tetch, besides. He tosses his keys on the kitchen counter and starts shrugging out of his jacket, dark eyes flitting from Easton to Bennie, and back again. "Hey, Cap," he greets, a low-key murmur that drips with exhaustion. "I'll stay out of your hair," he promises them, with a twitch of a smile before he goes to fetch himself a drink from the fridge.

Bennie's arms come down from their exalting raise slowly, her bottom lip suddenly tucked between her teeth as she looks down to her crackers like she's suddenly feeling she's not exactly as welcome as she might have thought. "Actually, Javier, your interference might be required if the patient doesn't sit his hiney down." Munch munch. She can actually confirm Easton's sobriety, but that would mean she'd have to admit to scanning him when he was distracted.

Itzhak's gaze trails after Ruiz. That's a complicated expression he gets, a dozen emotions tangled up into a big ball of tsuris. Then his eyes snap to Bennie, his mouth twisting into a scowl. "What? No. I'm fucking sick of sitting down. Fuck sitting down." Oh, all that repressed angry energy is finding a way out and it's through griping.

Easton is very good at masking things when he wants to, like when his not so stealthy girlfriend double checks to see if he has anything in his system that shouldn't be there. But he's fine with it. Eventually that might not be the case, but right now, it's a good thing, at least in his mind. He smirks at Bennie asking for help sitting Itzhak's hiney down until Itzhak gets all snarly about it. He pushes himself up off the counter and says, "Itz. You asked her for help. Let her fuckin' help. You really don't want her fuckin' up your leg worse." He glances over at Ruiz as if expecting some backup here, but doesn't necessarily wait for it. "Sit your ass down like the nice perky blond lady asked."

Javier's busy grabbing a beer from the fridge, god damn it. He pops the cap with his thumb, and seems to only belatedly realise he's drinking in front of Easton. Who's supposed to be on (or off) the wagon right now. Prowling back over, he takes a slug from the bottle, wipes his knuckles across his mouth, and steps in close to the taller musician to mutter something in his ear. His free hand's curved briefly around the back of the man's head, and he's grinning wolfishly when he pulls away.

Bennie doesn't try to intervene beyond asking for Ruiz' help, even after Itzhak gripes and Easton rises to the occasion. Her knees just bounce happily as she enjoys her crackers, as if unaffected by the adamant response from the lanky, injured man. She'll leave the boys to do the dirty work, getting enough of ornery patients during (one of) her day jobs.

Itzhak is not being a very gracious patient right now, when Bennie is going out of her way and everything. In fact, he's being a right asshole. He narrows his eyes at both Easton and Ruiz, prepared to start a big stupid argument over literally nothing. But Ruiz pulls his head down to murmur in his ear, and that plus that wolfish grin work magic. Itzhak's eyebrows lift up from his scowl, his face transforming, then shoots Ruiz a look. "Hmph." He sits down. "Okay. I'm being a prick, what else is new."

Seeing Ruiz walk over Easton is already relaxing. He doesn't blame Itzhak for reacting poorly, he's probably in pain and going a little stir crazy. He's still glad to see though that whatever Ruiz says seems to work and he takes a seat. "Eh, besides the lovely Miss Oakes, we're all kinda dicks, so, no worries." He hasn't so much as taken notice of Ruiz's drink of choice, had he poured himself a whiskey sure, but a beer? Barely even registers. Easton leans back against the counter and asks, "So is Roen actually getting married? J-money was saying something about a veil induced spat of marriage proposals at Hya's birthday, wasn't real clear on if that included Eleanor and Roen." J-Money in this case being Justin, not that it's entirely clear.

Ruiz himself goes to take a lean somewhere nearby Easton, once he's stoked the wood stove a little. He sips his beer and watches Itzhak mostly, corners of his eyes crinkling a little if the lanky musician looks his way. How the hell a rough, tattooed New Yorker manages to smooth away a few of his edges is anyone's guess. He has nothing to say about August getting married, but does cut his eyes toward Easton in order to scoff, "J-Money? What are you, thirteen?"

"Yup! I'm used to it. And that's all right, sugar bear, growl all you want but after I'm done you won't have to sit down again ever for the length of never if you don't want to!" Bennie pipes back up, merry as ever as she scoots closer, wiping crumbs off her fingers on to her pants. "So I'm just going to touch you, get a sense of the damage, then presto-chango, you can dance to your own jig again. I'm sure you know the drill." She shows him her hands, and then lowers him to either side of his calve, taking a deep breath and muttering, "Bippity-Bopity....boo!" The warmth isn't felt just by Itzhak as it spreads through his leg - maybe it's from Ruiz stoking the fire - or maybe it's emanating from the blonde herself, like the physical temperature increase that her smile embodies as it's beamed at Itzhak. Bennie's grown stronger since she last flexed her glimmer muscle in front of Easton. A lot stronger.

"Roen's getting married," Itzhak says to Easton, and can't help a curl of a grin. "Yeah, somethin' weird was going down, but he's been thinking about proposing to Ellie forever. Worked out. ...Who the fuck is J-Money?" Bennie chirps happily away at him and he squints at her. "Did you just call me sugar bear? Marshall, did your girlfriend just call me sugar bear?"

But in fact, he knows the drill pretty damn good at this point. He likes to think of himself as a tank. A tank needs a lot of healing. "Okay," he says to her, and takes a deep breath in mirror of her. His eyebrows are getting anxious.

Healing is intimate, always surprisingly so. The warmth of health and blood flow returning to his leg makes him gasp, tipping his head back, flushing all the way down his neck. His eyes sink closed. "Fuck." The curse is muttered low, involuntary. "Ah, God."

"I think we met at like twelve actually." Easton 'clarifies' as to why he calls Justin that. Most people probably would have stopped, not so much Easton. He glances at Itzhak and says, "Justin. Cooper. The super pretty actor guy? Runs a gaming company?" As to whether or not Bennie just called him Sugar Bear Easton just shrugs, "Yea, that- that happened."

Easton's face goes flat when Bennie starts healing Itzhak. It's different. Noticeably different. His immediate thought is that with the drugs out of her system she's far more powerful. He's distracted by Ithak's verbal exclamations. He smirks and looks to Ruiz, muttering, "Alright we get it, she has magic hands. Easy there."

The name doesn't ring a bell, but super pretty actor guy seems to seal the deal. Ruiz gets an ohh look on his face, downs some more of his beer.. and is duly distracted by what's transpiring between Bennie and Itzhak over there. Rosencrantz with his full-body blush, and damn if the blonde isn't putting out more voltage than he remembers last. Easton just gets a sidelong look and a twitch of his lips in amusement.

"Whoopsie! Might have gone a little overboard." It almost sounds apologetic to Itzhak's reaction, if Bennie wasn't adding a little pat to Itzhak's knee and further commenting. "Don't worry, it happens to all men." Then she's rolling away to the side, pivoting so her back is to the couch and she can lean against a spare part of it as her smile fades away from her features and her eyes close with a crinkle of a wince, head tipping back.

The back of Itzhak's thigh was torn out, not that it's visible underneath his clothes but Bennie can sense it juuuust fine. Stitched and glued, but torn the hell out. He also had a pretty good gouge on the back of his shoulder, which explains why his fiddling was off. Bennie's power pours through him, filling in the gaps in his muscle, rebuilding his Achilles' tendon, and making him do that full-body blush and make that face. He's breathing a little fast by the time she's done with him, broken out in a fine sweat.

"Jesus you're strong," he says to her, finally opening his eyes to look at her admiringly. He smirks, embarrassed, at Easton and Ruiz. "...What?"

When Bennie leans back, losing her smile, Itzhak dips in to hug her, wrapping long arms around her without hesitation. He's moving with his normal grace, now, and all that broke the ice pretty nicely. "Hey. Thanks. You okay?"

Easton watches Bennie with concern as she finishes up the healing. He misses the look from Itzhak altogether, assuming that the question was for Ruiz alone. He doesn't quite get to taking an action before Itzhak is wrapping her up in his arms. He has a lot of questions he'd like to ask, but Itzhak covers the major one. The ones about when she got that strong and why that seemed to take it out of her like that will be filed away for later.

"What other snacks you got in the bag babe? You might need to bump your blood sugar..?" He's not sure it's actually tied to that, but a granola bar isn't going to hurt either. He moves for the bag to grab something for her, in case.

Bennie is all too happy to be hugged up, "Sorry you were hurt so bad." A small hummed sound of contentment as she raises an arm to return it and soak up that physical comfort. "Just a little headache." She assures. A little headache like her brain became jello and is now oozing out of her ears, but who's counting? She gives Itzhak a new found fond little squeeze, but is disentangling herself when Easton mentions snacks. "Oooh, red vines." She flops forward onto her stomach and elbow crawls in that direction.

"Yeah. Eat something." Itzhak even kisses Bennie on the tousled blonde head, a big-brotherly sort of affection like he might give his own little sister. Then he stands up, streeeeeetches all that long body of his up towards the ceiling. Pop goes something in his back, and he grimaces happily. He unstraps the leg brace, steps out of it--and actually whoops. "Hell yeah!" And does a ridiculous little shimmy of pure delight.

The packet of red vines is found and handed over to Bennie, with maybe just a bit of an extra glance in the bag. Hey, she scanned him! He can check the bag. But he doesn't see anything out of place. He shakes his head at Itzhak, "Oh fuck, ya broke him Benz. What is that?" He points at the shimy as if it were some terrible sign that something had gone horribly wrong.

Looking between the Itzhak and Ruiz, Easton checks his watch and says, "Welp. We should probably be headed out?" He doesn't say so that the two men can have some physically vigorous alone time but he probably doesn't have to?

"I think he's having a seizure." Bennie grins slightly as she rips open the package and takes one of the twisted pieces of licorice in her teeth before she glances over at Easton and seems to smell what he's laying down. "Oh. Right. Yeah, I totally need a nap anyways." She's gathering herself slowly up, asking silently with a look if Easton will take care of the kit.

Ruiz is on his second bottle of beer, while he skims through messages on his phone and tries not to grin at something he's reading. Though he does look up once Itzhak whoops, and can't quite conceal his relief at the brace being tossed aside. "Thanks," he tells Bennie quietly, and gives her arm a squeeze. "Both of you." He's talking to Easton, too. "I appreciate it." And not just because of the physically vigorous alone time, okay?

Itzhak inflicts a hug on Easton, too. Nobody is escaping without hugs today. "Marshall, ya girl is a fuckin' hero." He smooches him on the cheek. Also apparently nobody is escaping without smooches. Beware the happy Itzil! This is why it's a good thing for everyone that he's crabby most of the time. He struts on over to Ruiz to plant one on his mouth, utterly shameless.

The hug from Itzhak is unexpected but returned happily enough. "Don't I fuckin' know it." He readily agrees to Bennie's hero status, though possibly not for the reason that Itzhak intends. Hefting up the med bag with one arm, Easton switches his coffee to that hand to offer Bennie an arm. He nods to the two "Gunny. Sugar Bear" and doesn't even so much as crack a smile at calling Itzhak this, despite the fact it is hilarious. He smirks as Itzhak goes to plant one on Ruiz and stage-whispers urgently to Bennie, "Go! Just go! Don't look back, it's already started."

After such heart warming good byes and flattery from the boys, Bennie is out the door at the warning from Easton, her words echoing back, "OH GOD MY EEEEEEEYES."