2020-05-31 - Paternal Spirits

Byron's hear was still beating frantically within his chest to the point where it's so painful that he can imagine it breaking through his ribs and flesh to tear on out of there. Despite being through the security gate, that fact does nothing to make him feel safe. Turning his engine off after powering the driver's side window back up, he unbuckles his seat belt and just lays low in wait of the police charger which tried to drive him off the road. It takes a good few minutes of dreadful anticipation and luckily for him, nothing comes of it. Maybe they were deterred by the gate or his security team. But... that wasn't real was it?

After several long moments, his mind reaching out all around him to try to sense any sort of panic coming from anyone, especially the guards at the entrance. Nothing. Or nothing to be alarmed about. If there's any sense of panic or worry, that was due to Byron scaring the shit out of them, more than likely. He nearly crashed through the gate in his need to get inside.

His breathing is slow to regulate, he can feel his body trembling nervously, making him reluctant to open the car door. He doesn't notice it at first, but Lilith's car was missing which meant that she hadn't made it home yet. A few tense seconds longer and his gaze will soon come across that very fact. Often, she gets home before he does and despite his already having eaten dinner with his associates tonight, she usually has something cooking by the time he gets back.

Maybe he missed her message during that chase. Fumbling for his phone, he checks. Nothing yet. It's still too early for him to let his guard down and despite not wanting to do so, his eyes lift towards the mirror, to check the backseat just in case. It was empty. Pulling up her contact icon, he presses dial, lifting the phone to his ear as he finally allows him to lean back heavily to rest against his comfortable car seat.

Lilith is passed smooth out in her loft above the shop when Byron calls, which probably accounts for her not answering the text to say she'd be a little behind him tonight. She wasn't sure she should be driving so she made herself coffee, which she promptly forgot about because vodka and went to be on the couch instead. This afternoon had been most unpleasant with her view of dead men on the Hanging Bridge (including her father) and while downstairs in the office, she did far more bottle swigging while on the computer than she anticipated actually doing. When the numbers start to blur on the screen, she goes upstairs to try and mitigate that, and well, passing out is maybe a valid tactic as much as food and coffee.

When Byron calls that evening from the parking garage, Lilith is a little slow to answer the phone, but she does, voice thick with being pulled from sleep. Smashing a hand at one of her eyes and not particularly feeling amazing while laid out there, she forces herself to sit up after she's said her hello.

"Heeeeey, baby." Lilith squints at the windows after putting the phone on speaker and standing to go pour from the over-warmed and burnt coffee pot because why the hell not, "I'm okay. You beat me home, didn't you? Mmm, what time is it?"

After having been chased by a phantom police charger once driven by your deceased father, an empty parking garage is one of the last places anyone would want to be. Obviously, it's not completely empty. Byron has security patrolling the grounds, but not as many as he had during the serial murders last summer. The Gohl murders. For now, he has no desire to step foot outside of his vehicle, still rattled by the experience.

While his own anxiety is riding high right now, his concern over what has Lilith delayed has him refraining from rambling on about what just happened to him and instead, he listens with an attentive ear. In truth, he's still too shaken to really say much, thus he listens after the initial hello. "I was worried about you when I didn't see your car parked in the garage. And when I didn't get a message for most of the day." Yes, he'd checked, but he was kept busy, himself.

When he speaks, he's able to keep the nervous edge out of his voice, sound rather calm, despite his concerns over her. Looking down at the time on his dashboard, he murmurs, "Almost eight thirty." Some of that drink shines through in her tone, something which he catches hints of by just listening to her. "Everything okay, you sound... tired? Are you still at the loft?" A pause, "Did you eat yet?"

"The loft, yeah. I made it up here from the office for coffee and food, then fell asleep with a bag of trail mix in my arms while waiting on the coffee. It's the kind with little M&Ms in it." Lilith tells Byron, which really means no, she probably hasn't had real food since lunch, assuming she actually stopped work to do that properly. Leaning against the counter to drink long from her coffee cup of stout black stuff, she eyes the phone for a moment, "I had a pretty stupid day, but it's... whatever now, I'm okay. I'll eat when I get home, I knew you probably had a dinner or drinks with face to face time while working."

Then, wandering back to the phone, she takes it off of speaker to pick up and put to her ear so the conversation is more intimate and takes the echo off of her own tone of voice. "I'd ask why you sound so worried, but then I remember where we live and that we're both being stalked, soooo..." Instead of saying what made her day stupid right away, or why she passed out so hard and long, she wonders, "How was your day?"

Listening to Lilith talk about her trail mix with M&M's helps to relieve a little bit of Byron's tension at least. It brings out a quiet smile which she will never see. He almost foolishly lets his guard down, but he's reminded by her question turned back to him on top of her mentioning being stalked that he becomes vigilant once more, allowing his gaze to sweep nervously around the parking garage around him. It's the sight of two of his security team (He made sure that they traveled in pairs) that finally sets his mind at ease in full.

"It was fine. I think I convinced a couple of them to pencil Gray Harbor in whenever they stop by the coast. If not the Apartments then we've got places for them to stay at the casino too." He'll start off with casual conversation as he silently assesses Lilith's situation from what little she's willing to tell him, he asks, "Is Smog with you? If not, I'll head upstairs and grab him. Then grab dinner, or at least, dessert and swing by your place." From what he know from her voice alone, she should not be driving. "Is..." He tries to think of their names, "Harrison and Floyd outside?" Her security detail.

Lilith wanders to the window with her phone and bumps into the counter edge, making her hiss and cuss under her breath, rubbing sorely at a hip on the way to go look out and see, "Should be, they were there when I got back from my run." She pauses and leaves out the part where she kind of snuck out for a run because guys tailing her in a car during that would be weird, "Yeah, they're out there, see both of them in the car parked near me, probably expecting I'll leave soon. You want to come over here bearing gifts and have a slummmmber party?"

There's definite suggestion on the 'slumber' part that indicates she's not talking about slumber! But maybe she is, sleep is still sounding a little amazing right now because coordination is bullshit and she's about to have a tiny bruise on her hip later to show for that, "Are you sure everything is okay? You seem a little jumpy. But it's possible my brain is slow motion right now."

It wouldn't do for him to be stuck here in his car for longer than is necessary and Byron knows this. With his security guys in his field of view, he finally swings open those suicide doors to step outside. Once his door is shut, that's when he notices that despite being rammed by this car that was chasing him down the road, he took no damage whatsoever. With his phone still to his ear, he makes his way towards the tail end of the vehicle, to check the backside which also took a hit or two from the police charger.

"Good." He says of the pair of body guards he has on her.

No damage at the rear either.

Looking down at his watch to recheck the time, he informs her, "I'll let Frank know that I'm rotating those guys out and putting fresh eyes in. Since I'll be there with you, I'm giving my own tail a rest for the evening." Here she might be able to hear the smile in his tone. "I'm definitely picking up pastries." But if all she's had was booze, though she hadn't said, coffee and trail mix, he'll most likely pick up real food as well. "Whatever else I come bearing, we'll see."

There's an echo in his phone as he walks through the garage to the elevator. "I'll tell you later, alright. Heading up into the elevator right now, so we'll lose connection. I'll see you in a few."

Only after they'd hung does he call up Harrison and Floyd to check what the non-glimmerers have to say about Lilith's whereabouts for the day and if anything out of the ordinary had happened. On his team he had a mix of glimmer sorts and non-glimmers. He doesn't really sort them out nor does he make their schedules. Maybe he should look into that.

From there, he puts Smog into his carrier and drives first to the boardwalk to pick up some baby shrimp and fish and chips. He'd already called ahead to Vyv's bakery, so he swings by to pick up a box of pastries and tarts as well as coffee. All the while, he keeps an eye on the road. Not just ahead of him, but behind him as well. Whatever happened earlier, the danger seems to have passed.

He arrives before Harrison and Floyd's replacements do, but he lets them know that they'll be off duty soon, all before he brandishes his own set of keys to allow him entrance, doing a balancing act of carrying food containers, drinks and a yowling cat container.

"I anticipate being inundated with man and food and cat. I think I'm even excited. Be careful and see you soon." Lilith says, making a little kiss noise into the device before actually hanging up with Byron. Her brows are knit into a bare frown while she thinks about one thing or another that could be wrong for telling later, but admittedly, she has her little thing she didn't want to really bring up on the phone so much as tell while getting cuddles. She pretty well vodka-soaked it all out of her system emotionally, and while she's functioning mostly sober now, her coordination is still sluggish and off-kilter, detoxing slower than her actual mind.

She goes in to brush her teeth and pulls her hair down from ponytail to brush and arrange before changing out of running gear (delayed) and into the strappy v-neck navy blue pantsuit she had on as a lazy, but stylish one piece, heels kicked off by the front door where her wrapping sweater to go around it hangs with her purse. After putting on some tinted lip gloss, she decides she looks normal enough and starts on a second cup of coffee before she hears the pissed off cat outside the door. Standing to go help the man in with open of the door, she tells the carrier, "I know, I know, you're here now, everyone cries about having to come back to Elm. You aren't special in this." She also takes the coffees out of hand while tiptoeing a barefoot kiss up onto him and kicking the door closed after.

"Whatever you've just brought in smells good already, I love it when you bring the good stuff. Just think if we were yuppies that only ate things without gluten and lauded kale and quinoa? I'd hate us." Byron can hear Lilith mostly acting and operating fine, but when she goes navigating to the bar, she about trips over a bump in the rug for very little reason at all, steps lazing drags that trip her up on the padded piece. She catches herself and looks at the rug like it moved on her or something.

Byron already has extra clothes stashed away at the loft, so he doesn't need to bring any of his own from his place. When he arrives, he's still dressed for work, though by now, his tie is already loosened and hanging over his shoulders, while the top two buttons on his shirt are also undone. He's all smiles when Lilith helps him by opening the door, then grabbing for the carrier with the coffee. Leaning in slightly in anticipation of her kiss, that smile brightens considerably. "If you prefer, we could make him into a proper store cat. He can be here full time. Just make sure that your employees set food out for him before they leave for the night."

The cat carrier is set down, but he doesn't immediately release the beast. Instead, he sets the box of pastries and the container of shrimp and fish and chips down on the kitchen counter. "Got some of your (our) favorites from the Fish Shack." They /could/ eat straight out of the containers, but he sets out plates to put the food on all good and proper. "This is the food of champions. Maybe if we were both born in Seattle... or some parts of Oregon for that matter, we'd be all about the kale life. In Gray Harbor? we eat seafood right at the seashore."

Even as he's sorting their meal out, his own hunger returning though he'd just recently eaten, he keeps a wary gaze on Lilith, watching her as she moves about the space. Then she nearly trips and he's quick to ask, "You alright? Just have a seat. Relax." With those words, he carries the plates over to the couch and coffee table, "Dinner is served, Mademoiselle. " He'll look Lilith over first, the let the cat out after filling his bowl proper with food before settling out to nibble on shrimp and some chips probably.

"Something to test and consider, perhaps..." Lilith says to Byron while detouring to the couch and coffetable to put drinks down. Sure, sure, he can get the plates, the more she walks around, the more telltale leftovers of sloshed she is. After sitting cross-legged and leaning forward to investigate what he brings over, she's immediately on the baby shrimps with a little lopsided grin of fondness for Byron.

After wiggling some while chewing, apparently happy to be eating real food that will finish stabilizing her and maybe really process to make her sober, she tells Byron, "I have something I was saving to explain in person too, even though I really am fine. But there's a particular level of 'stupid' about today that wasn't... naturally stupid. Supernaturally stupid instead? I mean, like I said, I'm fine, it..."

Her eyes squint while looking at Byron, quite ass-draggy about saying the things she needs to say in favor of letting him bring things up, "What were you going to tell me when you got here?"

Byron's seen all that he needed to and is quite relieved when Lilith settles down and starts to eat. He'll wear his easy smile to hide away his concerns. He didn't even come out and ask her directly to tell him why she'd been drinking so heavily. Since he'd spoken to her tail, he already has some ideas. With the coffee and dinner all set, he returns to the kitchen to scoop out some of the cat food onto a plate unceremoniously, before serving this, too, right before releasing the feline, who is all too happy to be out of that cage.

"I heard that you went jogging on the stone bridge." He'll bring that much up, making his way to the couch to seat himself beside Lilith. Wearing something more akin to a look of curiosity and slight surprise, there's nothing overly concerning that can be seen in his expression.

Hell, he keeps that same facade, when he leans forward to grab a couple of those shrimp for himself, biting down on one just so he can say with his mouth partially 'full', "Nearly got into an accident on the way home. I thought I saw someone. Recognized the car, but... I might have been overworked or a bit tipsy with cocktails at the time." He'll start it off like that.

Lilith thinks about how to explain that jog and sight, knowing who he 'heard' from which probably means she wasn't as sneaky as she thought. Then again, they're used to her doing stuff like that and probably have a plan that has both exits covered no matter where they're parked, those security guys. She nods and starts to explain finally, but then does a double take to look Byron over once he says he nearly wrecked. He looks fine, though, so she saves her questions til she's made her explanation between bites of food.

"I ran one of the old paths I used to take from here without really thinking because I was in an afternoon slump and... you'll make fun of me if I can't at least pretend I'm keeping up with you. Trying to get the old form back little by little, my ass is getting bigger, I think. I heard that happens when you turn thirty and my day comes soon enough." Lilith grabs for a napkin to wipe her fingers before brushing some hair back away from her face. After another few popped in shrimps squeezed over with lemon, she explains with a sigh, "So I stopped to walk once I realized I was at the bridge. And I heard creaking and I wasn't sure if it was just me but... I looked off of the edge of the bridge."

The woman stops chewing and stares at her plate a bit uncomfortably all of a sudden while recalling, "Both Jack Michael Jr and Sr were there hanging with Hank. Then more hanging men appeared and it got all loud and they started talking, then talked to me and I ran. So I don't know if ghosts just like that bridge or if I had a post-traumatic vision, honestly either are possible, the way I've been burying it all to be 'fine' because there's nothing else to be done about any of it." She pauses, "Then I drank from the bottle in my office while working. And I did it a lot more than I meant to. Soooo, I came up to coffee and food it off and away, but... slept some of it off instead. I was rattled and depressed, but honestly, I'm fine now."

Favoring the man instead of food, suddenly with concern of her own, she slants off to one side against him to kiss up at his cheek and jaw, "How'd you get into an almost-accident and who'd you think you saw?"

Chewing away at the shrimp between his teeth, Byron is no longer mumbling with food in his mouth. He's quiet as he listens to Lilith's explanation, even reaching for a second one, along with a handful of fries that he starts grazing on. He's very attentive to her when she talks, giving her enough focal attention, though drifting his gaze from her the way he does, so as not to make her feel uncomfortable. Instead, he sometimes looks like he's zoning out, staring off at nothing, as he processes everything said.

When she mentions getting back into shape, then bringing up her age, that at least elicits a brief smile. "You can't be serious about that?" With an overly exaggerated look and crane of his neck, he comes back with, "Your ass looks and feels fine. But you know that I'm all for a good run."

Then she gets to the serious part of her retelling, letting him know what she came across when passing the stone bridge. Here, his eyes linger on hers, but they don't stare into hers directly. Or, at least, they don't hold her gaze for overly long. He's studying every aspect of her now, her expression, body language, all to get a better picture of what she's feeling. He could mentally reach out to her and tap into her emotions, but this will have to do for now.

"Rumor has it that a lot of people hung themselves there. We were witness to a few of that." He won't come out and mention her father just yet, even if she brings Hank up by name. "Were they threatening you in any way?" Finishing up the remainder of greasy goods that were in his hand, he reaches out to wipe all of that on a napkin, before he leans in to give her a hug as he politely chews. Swallowing, he whispers, "I'm so sorry, Lilith. That was just.. that was messed up. At the bridge." That night. "Seems like a lot of activity of that sort going around now. I think." Leaning back, he chases the greasy food with a sip of coffee.

"As for me, I... I think I encountered my father on the road." Byron decides to come out with that much, just as he's chewing on a fry to ease the tension. "He wasn't in his car that was parked outside of the house." The Thorne House. "He was in his police cruiser. First, when I didn't realize who it was, I'd stopped because his sirens were on. This was after he'd already rammed into the back of my car, so I thought maybe, you know, he'd want to discuss the accident."

His brow furrows deeply now as he recalls what happened next, "But when the driver got out of his car, when he got closer, I... I could be wrong, but it looked my father. So I just hightailed it out of there and he immediately started chasing me. This was all going on down Bayside Drive. I lost him when I turned into the Apartment entrance. For all I know, it could've been an actual cop and I panicked for no reason. I'm sure they got my license plate number, so if I hear anything from the GHPD, I'll know that my mind was playing tricks on me." His brows lift at the end of his tale, gaze settled in one the piece of batter fried cod nestled in with those fries.

Lilith can't help but smile when Byron comments on the state of her ass before all the serious talk goes back and forth. But when he asks if they threatened in any way, her head shakes small and brisk, brows furrowing down as she gradually loses that smile. She's bothered mentally recalling the sound or moment quite outwardly there for a few beats, despite the fact of seeming overall fine. But after a time, she just shrugs a little bit in that can't-be-helped Lilith kind of way about fucked up practicality. When he puts on the hug, she nuzzles into it and his quiet words, making a soft, "Mmhmm."

When he settles back to drink his coffee, and explain his own issue of the day, the woman leans in against his chest after grabbing her own coffee to drink from and nurse while listening. Initially, she's just absorbing what it is he's saying with a thoughtful expression, but the more he goes on, the more she starts to blink and draw subtle frown. By the time he's done, she shifts some to see Byron's face, though Lilith hadn't been watching him while telling, "... baby. I'd love to tell you that your mind is just playing tricks on you and that some woo-woo from cocktails with the good ol' business boys had you seeing funny. I honestly would. But we know where we live and we both know exactly how much you drink when you drink."

Head shaking slow, she settles back against the man's chest after putting her coffee aside, this time wrapping one arm around Byron's midsection in very 'mine' fashion, "That said, I don't know what the fuck. I'm glad you're okay and I'm sorry your day was a spooky shitheap too." Wetting her lips, she suddenly wonders, "Was your car actually damaged or... okay, remember when I got hit with a ghost shovel and it didn't actually hurt me? Was it like that or..."

With Lilith's head resting against his chest, the arm closest to her wraps around her, petting at her back, along the length of her hair. The other still holds his cup of coffee, though he doesn't swoop in for another sip. Instead, he's looking thoughtful with a touch of uneasiness. "You don't think it really was my father's spirit, do you? He's been long dead and I've never encountered him before. Until now... if that phantom car really was him." It's not that he's never encountered the ghost of other people's fathers before, just never his own. Or not something that was Dream produced.

Lilith bringing up the fact that she was hit by a ghost shovel has him nodding slowly in some sort of understanding. "Yeah, I checked for damages. There was none, but I still might drop the car off for an inspection. Probably Itzhak's shop..." His brow starts to furrow, "I wonder if he was able to fix that place up yet or what."

So the ghosts on the bridge didn't threaten Lilith in any way, yet he can still sense some sort of negative emotions coming from her. There were a lot of reasons for her to not want to think about that place, that night on the bridge. The stroking hand doesn't stop in his giving of a semblance of comfort, "Let's just hope that this is all a passing thing and nothing more permanent. Else, we wouldn't be able to go anywhere in town without being harassed by the dead."

"An inspection would be good. His actual spirit, though? I don't know. Yes and no? I guess I don't always think of most ghosts as a single entity so much as... I mean, I bet they're all different. The reasons and ways and hows of manifesting, if you logically think about it. Not all hauntings are the same." Lilith tilts her head more in against Byron, relishing the stroke down through her hair and over her back in perpetual soothing motion, "And you're logically right in saying that this should be a passing thing because yes, some permanent spook invasion, every day? It'd be like that scene in Ghostbusters -- hell breaking loose with ghosts all over town."

Lilith twists her lips briefly to one side while trying to think and rationalize with irrational at the same time, "We don't know any baseline for what's normal around here, we just don't. Ghosts and all the other things happen. We know that. But... we just saw our dead fathers on the same day. And other people in town might have been seeing things too, given those odds, you know? Based on trends we know from living here, coincidence isn't always just so."

The woman pauses and then carries on with her palm flatted in rub up and down Byron's ribcage, tossing her legs and bare feet with curling over his lap to draw herself more and more around him in winding 'mine' fashion while couch snuggling, turned sideways and just barely not sitting on his lap, "You know how Mexican culture has a Day of the Dead? Supposedly the dead walk with the living while some life and death line is 'thin' blahblah. Same idea with Samhain which Halloween was derived from. So what if there's... I don't know, moon cycles that just make spirits and their imprints and their emotions or whatever poltergeists we make... more prevalent?"

After all that theory, even Lilith looks a little overwhelmed hearing herself try to connect dots. Because who can seriously textbook explain or answer any of this, even as an expert? Therefore, when she's finished speaking and posing that 'what if' of comparison trying to shed some light on their situations, she stares at Byron a moment, then gives him a bit of a rueful, lopsided smile and an abrupt burst of kiss, "... classic Lilith answer, huh."

Unlike the other ghosts which Byron had encountered, none of them were trying to kill him. Or anyone-- Well, except for Billy Gohl. That fact, in itself, felt troubling, since whatever was chasing him down the road seemed to have that goal in mind. Or maybe he's mistaken.

"I'm not even sure if /this/ was my father." He's doing his best to deny the thought. "I thought it was, because we'd been to the House recently and... his car was parked outside of the place when we were leaving. The car chasing me was not that car." But the voice... it really did sound like his Detective Thorne. And what did the guy say to him?

Though Lilith uses him as her rock, clinging onto him, he leans into her as well, moving to steal a kiss from her lips as he bends forward to set his cup down on the coffee table. "Nothing wrong with a classic Lilith answer." He says with a smile spread across those lips after the kiss, yet he hovers closely.

"Alexander said that we should pack up and leave. You know, the same thing we randomly tell countless others?" He then adds with a laugh, "I'm sure if we did, he'd miss us."

"Heh. I never really tell other people that. Then they'll ask why I stay, and... well." Lilith sighs a little and lifts her other hand to Byron's cheek, holding with cupping pressure there at his skin and bristled jaw. The pad of her thumb brushes the corner of residual smile still left at the man's lips from the light laugh, words quiet and reflective, "I should tell you to go and let me be stuck here with this criminal duty and debt. Rationally, I should chase you away to keep you safe all over again. I should, if it keeps you alive. This place damn near killed both of us a few times over, already. And I don't want to hold you back."

"But..." Lilith softly nudges her nose in against Byron's before easing back again so she can look at his eyes, "I don't have the heart to do it again. And it's like we agreed on New Year's Eve, it's the way things always were or should have been..." There's a pause before the woman continues, hand on the man's cheek spanning downward with dragging until it rests at one side of his throat, at the pulse, "You and me against the world. We'll go when we need to. We'll know when it's time. Maybe we'll have a dog and a bunch of beautiful babies, maybe we'll just have each other and a lot of everything else instead. Maybe we don't work outside of here and fall apart. But the point is, we'll get there and figure it out together."

Normally, Lilith would come in for a kiss or some solid assuring weight behind what she says, but this time, after her words, she looks at Byron intently and waits to make sure she's not off base. The phrase 'us' never really works if it isn't made of two people, afterall.

The touch at his jaw brings Byron's gaze to settle on Lilith's, the pair of them seated face to face. His own expression looks thoughtful, yet despite his gregarious personality, there's always this serious glint in Byron's eyes. Even with the smiles and laughter when in the company of others, there's always something that he's looking for, or thinking on outside of the mundane conversation. "We can discuss the debt. I know that you didn't want me to pay it off, but you know that I can. I can even negotiate if you like, though it might be a good idea to speak to Katherine, her being a lawyer and everything. Good to have all of our bases covered." He uses the word our instead of your.

If anything, that should tell her where Byron stands on the matter of everything in their lives. "I just worry that even if we left, it won't be over. Or... we stay away from all of these thin points, which means no taking any trips to Italy because I happened upon one there. I don't know if it was all of Italy, Palermo, or just the Catacombs." Despite the subject matter, he affords a small smile, "One day, we'll leave. Whether this wipes my memory of weirdness of the town, forgetting that I have what some would call superpowers or not, I guess we'll see. Eventually." And he makes sure to add that last part. Not today. Maybe not even this year. But some day.

Does it tell her much anything? Maybe. But... Lilith blinks twice at Byron, then looks at him like he's lost his damn mind when he suggests bringing in a stranger and lawyer after her little heartfelt spiel. After a moment, she draws her legs off of the man and slips her hands into her lap while looking at the abandoned plates of food. Then she lifts them to rub against her face before a rake back through her hair for agitated tousling, "That isn't..."

Starting to lean forward, she picks up the plates, "Lawyers don't take classes on how to keep people out of the bottom of Gray's Pond, not sure what the relevance is there. But no, I'm not going to run to your little paperwork pal or whatever the fuck when I've told literally no one but you I'm a goddamn criminal. She's not even from here." The woman is starting to get agitated just speaking about it, but after exhaling and rising to start cleaning up, she explains further, tempering her voice.

"Even you don't know the full extent of how much cash I wash and turn over or what it is in full that I do that is so profitable for him. The issue is that I don't work for myself, I work for that man, and I'm pretty sure him knowing my net value over time in terms of usefulness where I am is the actual problem." Head shaking a little bit, she sighs and moves to step around the couch through the loft toward the kitchen with plates, "It doesn't matter. I'll figure something out when it's time to figure something out. Like you said, it's not as if we're going anytime soon. Are you full? Dessert?"

Byron knows far more about Katherine Kennedy than Lilith does and perhaps he almost let that slip. However, he didn't expect her to get so bent out of shape about his offer. If she only knew, he figures. But it's not something that he feels about letting on at the moment. If ever. So when she unlatches herself from him, Byron's gaze trails behind her as she starts to do busy body work for no good reason.

"My mistake." He starts with, rising to help with the cleaning so as to keep his own mind busy and not to raise his own ire on how irrational he believes she's acting right now. It /must/ be that thing in her head, he figures. "Speaking to a lawyer is usually a good idea in my books. They know how to work on a lot and need to keep client information as confidential. But c'mon, you owe money. Once that's paid off, no matter how useful you might be, a deal is a deal." He even stops to look at her when he says this, but goes on to do whatever.

"I'll have a bite of whatever you're having." He says of dessert, bringing the coffee cups to the kitchen, feeling that he need something stronger than just caffeine. "Remember, there's the Sitka grand opening tomorrow. Something which I'll be bringing my associates to witness. One of them even wants to be a crime writer, so meeting with an actual author should have him eating right out of my hands."

He looks as if he's about to pour a couple of glasses of wine to go with the pastry, He even smiles a touch, "If you like, I can help you pick out what to wear..."

It was hard to say those things to Byron, the deep things she needs to believe to get by and not feel guilt or act out and push him away like she did so long ago for the sake of keeping him safe. The fact that he response jumped right to debt and consulting a lawyer who is a stranger to her over the one thing she won't even let him touch due to pride and worry and general shame privacy about being a criminal was upsetting. And she doesn't have the context he does because she doesn't know certain things about Byron or that lawyer so the whole thing sounds off to her, ego aside. She threw an ungodly piss fit about Isabella and Magnolia coming in to help with a curse once upon a time, much the same way.

But if it's the thing in her head, she's keeping it quiet for now. As he goes on about the benefits of a lawyer, she doesn't say anything, she just side-eyes him and rinses the plates after tossing remains into the trash. And it might be the thing in her head telling her to pick a fight because now she feels like he doesn't trust her to pick what to wear in front of his associates. After mindlessly picking out a couple of random pastries from the provided box to put on a plate, she definitely doesn't argue with the wine, "I have it narrowed down to three dresses in the closet, they're even hung separately because I couldn't decide. But you'll have to wait to narrow it down to one at the Penthouse."

After picking up the pastry plate, she goes back to the couch and turns on the television, ticking her head that way while fiddling with the DVR to try and pick a movie to distract them, because honestly, the stresses of the day might make conversation further a bit of a minefield, "I have the remote and sweets. You bring the wine. We're due to lie here and zone out and turn off for a while."

Katherine

When Byron's mind turns to Katherine, all he can think about is Easton. His thoughts drift off while he's filling both glasses up with a nice dark wine. Nevermind, that he was trying his best to soothe his own growing agitation, but this was worrying. Bennie had handed him the Missing Person's flyer, Lilith must have seen it just lying around the apartment. Easton's disappearance leads to so many other thoughts now. His was just the most recent.

They were discussing her dress and he turns with a light smile as he's putting the cork back on the bottle, "I can't wait to see what you have in mind." With both glasses in his hand, he makes his way past a fed cat, just sitting there, upright, in the middle of the floor, to settle down beside Lilith on the couch, turning to hand her her glass. Their lives are something that not even a movie or a streaming show could hope to distract. There is a distraction, yes, but for Byron, these moments are brief and fleeting. His thoughts go back to the House, the incident on the road, his father... and now Easton. He tries not to let any one of those issues bother him overly much, not wanting to ruin Lilith's evening further. So for now, he'll settle in, one arm draped over Lilith's shoulder while the other nurses a much needed glass of wine. He'll bring it up later.