2020-12-12 - A Normal Night

If there is ever such thing as a normal day in Gray Harbor, this certainly qualifies. The crowd at the TIBS is down to regulars, nothing exciting is happening besides a couple of women showing off the presents they've bought today in a Christmas shopping spree. It might leave some restless and on edge, but Bennie? She's just content, curled up in a chair at one of the tables eating a plate of loaded tots and drinking a beer as she reads a medical based magazine, dressed in her blue Asian Kimono that's likely actually meant to be a robe over a tank and pair of jeans.

Alexander likes normal. He sees it so rarely, and certainly doesn't fit into it very well, but he still LIKES it. Maybe it's the novelty. Either way, here he is, coming in the doors and looking around with that suspicious air he often has. Which, admittedly, lightens when he sees Bennie. He heads in that direction without hesitation, not even bothering to order before tapping the table lightly in front of her, and moving to sit down across. "Hey. How's?" Thanks to her healing, his bruises are fading, and his face looks almost normal again, except for green and yellow ghosts here and there. His bad hand is kept in his pocket.

Bennie beams a beatific smile at Alexander over the rim of her magazine, flipping the cover shut and tossing it to the table now that she has company. "Pretty sure I'm pretty okay. How's your twiddle fingers?" Sure, she could give him a quick scan-eroo, it's certainly not beneath her, but she goes the old fashioned route of just asking about his hand instead.

Alexander pulls the hand out and lays it on the table. He's been good about wearing the splint. "It's healing well. Thanks, again. I think I won't get much more than a twinge on the occasional damp day." He smiles, warmly. "I'm feeling pretty good, all things considered. Trying to do Christmas shopping. I'm bad at shopping for people." A pause. "What do you want, for Christmas?"

"Is a vacation on a sunny beach somewhere too greedy? I'm totally missing my epic tan." Bennie's smile turns into more of a smirk as she stabs at a tot with a fork and admires the string of cheese it leaves in the wake of it being lofted. "I usually make people things for presents? But I think I totally blew my creative wad with August and Eleanor's wedding gift."

"Might be a little out of my price range," Alexander admits, sheepishly, "but I'll see what I can do." He eyes the tots. Two fingers sneak towards a tot on the edge, clearly planning to sneak it away. "I still love the crosstitch you gave me. Anyone would be happy to get something you made, but if you don't wanna, then get something else. It's no big deal; you spread love all the time."

Bennie makes a little motion with her fork granting permission for the tot theft, "I'd settle for a mental vacation. Just make me think I have a great tan and my toes in the sand. I mean, I've never been, but I'm positive it would be amazing to see blue water." She makes a little nose wrinkle, "Not sure about the love spreading. I mean, I try? But this whole thing with my Dad still being alive and breathing and willfully putting through hell for a decade has left me a little grey in that department. Are you and de la Vega talking yet?"

Alexander takes a tot and pops it in his mouth. "I don't know what you guys put in these tots, but I think they might be illegal," he claims, once he's swallowed. Then he orders a serving of his own, because friendship only goes so far, and rampant tot theft is probably over the line. His expression twists - for a moment a flash of dangerously hot anger before he wrestles it back down. "Understandable. Whatever you want to do about that, just let me know. Just forgetting about him is probably the best option, but...just, whatever." He smiles at her. "Um. He texted me, asked if I was still alive. I said yes. I can't figure out if he wants to still be friends or not. I'm bad at asking and he's bad at telling." He shrugs. "I wouldn't blame him if he didn't. But." He sits back, watches her. "If you want a mental vacation, I could do that. An illusion. If you want."

"See? Your Christmas shopping is already done for me! And it costs you nothing besides some unwanted attention from the Dark Men." Bennie toasts to that with a raise of her glass. "And I want you to find the bastard for me. Forgetting is not on option, unless you want to add a mind wipe in with my gift." Him shying away from the topic of Ruiz is honored for the time being. The pair are sitting at a table, having a normal night and enjoying the heck out of it.

Vic comes out of the back room. She took the early shift today, as she'd been doing for a couple of days now. She hasn't admitted to anyone it's to keep an eye on Alexander's place at night, but it's what she's been doing. No one really wants to know the enforcer has been perched upstairs in her still being remodeled house with a sniper rifle and binoculars, making sure no one beats up Clayton again.

She rounds the bar with loaded tots on a plate, and a bottled beer in her hand, and heads towards Bennie and Alexander. "Mind if I join? Just wanted to scarf some tots before I head out for the night," she says with a faint smile. She looks tired. She's in a white tank under a blue chambray workshirt and jeans, with her usual boots, and her hair in a low tail.

"We'll call that an even exchange because of the hand, and all the other times you've patched me up," Alexander says, before adding dryly, "Even when I didn't ask you to. Just tell me when you want to put some time aside for it, because you're gonna relax before and after. Not gonna ruin my hard work with a tense audience." The request doesn't surprise him. He just nods. "Done." And then his tots are arriving, with special delivery. He turns a warm smile on Vic. "Miss Grey. Hello. I don't mind." But his face falls comically when she says scarf some tots. "Oh. I thought those were mine." WOE.

Luckily, his are coming right behind her, and his disposition lightens once more. "How are you?"

"If I set aside time then it will be a real vacation, and I can make Easton be my cabana boy and fetch me drinks while I lounge around the house in my post mental holiday glow." Bennie can't help but smile at Vic with the full force of the expression, unable to get out of her head Easton's admiration that she has two of the gruffest people in town as protectors. "Hi Vic!"

Vic puts a hand over her tots protectively when Alexander says he thought her tots were his. "My precious..." she hisses, then chuckles and sits, about to offer to share until the PI's tots arrive as well. "I'm good, you're looking better, thank fucking Christ."

"Hey Bennie, you look cheerful, must be a day ending in 'y'," she quips. "Thinking of a vacation? Man, I haven't had one in a long time myself."

"It should be a real vacation, at least a little. You deserve it. And if Easton wants to, sure. I have no authority over what you can make Easton do, but I'm sure it's a fair amount," Alexander says, with a low chuckle. It turns into louder laughter at Vic's hoarding. "See. I was just telling Bennie that I don't know what this place puts into the tots to make them so addictive, but they clearly are supplementing the recipe." He takes one of his own tots and pops it into his mouth. Once he's swallowed, he nods. "I told you I'd heal. It's nothing to worry about." His expression softens. "But thank you. For worrying."

"And this time I didn't even have to ambush him!" Bennie pipes up with no shortage of pride in her voice that Alexander asked for the help, instead of her having to dupe him into having his /last/ broken bone healed. "Oh, it'll just be a mental vacation and some lounging around the house in a bikini. Which, come to think, my help with that Easton convincing."

"I don't like it when my friends get hurt, so sue me," Vic notes with a grin and a shrug. She's been in much better spirits since her dad's visit. Who knows how long the happy high of reunited family will last though, so cherish it while it's here. She eyes Bennie up and down and snorts. "Pretty sure you in a bikini can get Easton to do literally anything."

Alexander rolls his eyes at Bennie. "I only require ambushing when I know things will heal perfectly well on their own, and you don't need to light yourself up to hurry the process," he claims in return, and makes a face at the EMT. "I'm trying to protect you." Another tot goes into his mouth, and he tries not to look shyly pleased when Vic call him a friend, and fails miserably. He ducks his head. "I won't sue you. And," he laughs again, "you're not wrong, I bet, about Easton."

"Well he did miss out on bikini season this year..." Bennie's plan seems to be formulating right before their eyes. "I could make some paper mache palm trees, some leis...Oh! Vic, Easton was thinking about doing a Christmas movie night out on the deck. Can you help him with that?"

Vic pops a tot in her mouth and winks at Alexander. Normally she'd ruffle someone's hair, but she is good about his dislike of touching. Either that or she spends so much time with Abildgaard it's just her default now. She blinks at Bennie's words. "We'd need some of those outdoor standing space heaters but I don't see why we couldn't swing that. Would probably be nice. We could play Die Hard." Which is clearly her favorite Christmas movie.

"See? This is coming together well," Alexander says, with satisfaction. "It'll make a nice holiday." He eats another tot, eyes flicking from one to the other, with a little amused twinkle at the wink in his direction. "Die Hard and It's a Wonderful Life?" he muses, thoughtfully. "And Christmas carols, of course. Sounds good to me." A pause. "Isolde, Seth, and I got ambushed by a labor dispute between Santa and his elves the other day, so be careful downtown. Beware of sudden snow or suspicious trees." The kind of warning you only get in Gray Harbor.

"Yeah, Die Hard can be the second movie, after the hour we no longer allow kids in the bar. So their can be family time, and then we can bust out the Rated R for language version of the siege on Nakatomi Plaza. And S'mores!" But Alexander puts a damper on the holly jolly, and Bennie makes a face complete with tongue sticking out.

"Ambushed. By. Elves." Vic sighs and shakes her head. "Christmas is going to be interesting isn't it? Is Seth ok?" She seems to prefer to call him by his first name, rather than his surname. "What exactly would make a tree, uh, suspicious?" She exchanges a look with Bennie, as if to ask if he's kidding or not about all this.

Alexander wrinkles his nose at Bennie. "Don't stick your tongue out at me. I'm warning you for your own good. We didn't have to kill anything, though. Isolde got the two sides to the negotiating table, and then we ran away." He doesn't seem to be kidding; his expression and tone are completely serious. "Christmas is always interesting. And Seth's fine. I think. I didn't specifically ask, but he seems fine?" His brow furrows. "Should I specifically ask?"

Maybe talking about Seth is Bennie's cue to leave, because the Blonde slips her magazine off the table and snags her beer. "I. Have a lot of online shopping to do. And to figure out what size coconuts are going to fit these coconuts." A glance down at her chest and Bennie shrugs. "Be good. Love you, friends."

"Nah," Vic reassures Alexander. "Pretty sure if he was hurt he'd let you and everyone in a three block radius know," she teases. She sips her beer and pops another tot into her mouth. Bennie's coconut talk has Vic nearly choking on the morsel before she swallows it down. "Those would need to be pretty big coconuts," she murmurs. "Be safe," she calls after the blonde.

"I dunno. He doesn't seem like a crier. Maybe you know something I don't, though." Alexander smiles, although it falters when Bennie takes her leave. "Don't die," he murmurs, watching her go with his brow furrowed just a little. He sighs, shakes his head, then refocuses on Vic. "But other than that, how are you? How goes the renovation of the monster house?"

Vic sips more beer at the very mention of her house. "Got the bathroom in, so I'm staying there now, but still haven't touched the kitchen. So I can cook if I am desperate and keep a fire extinguisher nearby, until I can get that ripped out. You're welcome to drop by an help if you feel like it."

Alexander bobs his head. "Yeah. Sure. I like doing that kind of stuff. It's calming. Putting something that's wrong right, and all of that. I'll bring some materials. Probably want to focus on the kitchen - I'd worry a little about the gas lines and electric wiring, myself." He seems like he's already putting a list together in his head. "You gonna get all new appliances, or try to hit up some of the second-hand sources?"

"Haven't even thought that far. Need to demo it first, then get the pros in for electrical and plumbing and stuff. I mean, the bathroom at the moment has the fixtures and that's it. I don't even have flooring down," she chuckles. Vic is used to living out of a hotel room or a tiny RV.

Alexander munches on tots. In between swallows, he says, "Sounds good. You need a bathroom, even more than kitchen. Can order in, but ordering...out, for that, is difficult." He snickers under his breath. "Are you happy with it, though? Being out of the trailer? It's nice to have four walls that aren't made of metal, sometimes."

"Yeah, it's really growing on me, having more space. I might even start a poker game in the basement at some point," Vic notes with a grin. "You have a standing invite of course."

Alexander's lips quirk. "You sure you wanna invite a psychic to your poker nights?" he teases, lightly. "But...yeah. That sounds fun. I like poker. I'll come, if it's okay. I don't want to, um, interrupt anything." An eyebrow quirks upwards to make it clear what he means by anything. Or maybe anyone.

"How about, I'll tell you the guest list ahead of time, and you can decide if you wanna be at that session or not?" Vic offers with a small smile. Lord she's actually almost chummy after seeing her dad.

Alexander considers that, then bends his head. "I think that's best. For everyone else's comfort as well as my own. But poker sounds fun, and I look forward to it." He breaks a tot in half, and just stares into the steaming material for a long moment, then pops it in his mouth. After chewing, he says, "What do you want for Christmas?"

And then, after a beat, "Also, your father wants me to bug your house. So, we should discuss where those cameras should go."

Vic pauses with her beer halfway to her mouth. "He does, does he." She snorts. "I guess turnabout is fair play. You're bad at the whole secret camera installation thing though, Clayton." She shakes her head. "As for Christmas, I dunno. I haven't really celebrated it in a while. What about you?"

Alexander snorts. "I saw what happened when Ravn snuck up on you. I don't actually want to die. And," he shrugs, "I don't want to put the cameras anywhere your father might see something he doesn't need to, or that might share things you don't want to share with him. I'm not very good at secrets. But I don't want to hurt a friend if I don't have to." He looks surprised to be asked in return. "Um. I like books? Nonfiction. Textbooks about criminal behavior, or forensics, or police procedure. History books. Poetry. The usual."

"Somewhere to cover the front of the house I'd think, then, nothing inside. He'll just want to see people approaching. And maybe behind the back yard, to see people approaching the fence," Vic offers. She nods at his list of books. "Good taste, I had a whole library of forensics books at one point."

Alexander nods. "I can do that. Starting to get good at the actual installing. I have a great career as a stalker ahead of me," he deadpans. He finally gets around to ordering a beer to drink with the salty tots. "Mm. I like trying to stay current. As current as I can, without any sort of official designation." He shrugs.

"Some reason you never decided to get the PI license?" Vic asks, curiously. "I mean, we live in a place where magic exists, or whatever you want to call it, why not dream big?"

Alexander blinks, then turns a shade of red. He doesn't answer immediately, not until he's got a beer in his hand, and has taken a swallow. "The law. I can't...take the test. Um. You can't apply for a license or take the test unless you're actually working for a licensed PI. And I don't work well with others. No one likes an employee who's likely to have a screaming fit, or literally disappear and show back up hours later with injuries he can't explain."

"Huh," Vic murmurs. "Yeah, I guess that would go about as smooth as me trying to get back on a police force. Fuck dreams, who needs them anyway." She smirks.

Alexander nods. "Yeah. So, that's not likely to happen." He smiles. "But I actually get clients, now? I mean, since the Revisionist put out that second thing about me, people actually don't mind coming in and talking to me." A pause. "They don't actually come in. I do things more online. It's easier to deal with people online," he admits. He considers her seriously. "Were you kicked off, or did you quit? I haven't looked it up." A peculiarly sincere reassurance from a notoriously nosy person.

"I resigned, but it wouldn't take much digging to find it was due to bribery accusations," Vic says in a dull tone. "Shit I'd even go back to foot patrol if I had half a chance. But it's not going to happen. Not unless someone else decides they need me in there for their less than honorable purposes."

Alexander continues to stare at her. He's got that look in his eyes, again; the look that suggests that if he thought he could get away with it, he'd pry open her skull and inspect the brain inside for the data he wants. "Were they true? The accusations?" There's no condemnation in his tone; if anything, it's detached, like he's talking about something that happened a hundred years ago - a curiosity, not a crime.

"Yeah, they were true. I was under the thumb of the leader of a drug cartel cell. The one who threatened my father. Felix was the one who got me out of that situation, got me out of Portland, got a truce set up. But it was a long year of doing Ojeda's dirty work from inside Narcotics." Vic doesn't look proud of it. She looks like what she is, trapped. Good intentions twisted by bad people. People who seem somehow to stay out of the reach of the law.

Alexander thinks about it, then nods. "So, you would have to clear up your Ojeda problem. And your local problem. Then handle the damage." His eyes go a little far away. "Difficult. Not impossible. But difficult." He considers Vic. "Do you want to? I can't...promise it'd be successful. But if I can help, I will. I like making criminals sad."

Vic blinks. "Do you have a deathwish? I mean Felix is bad enough, Ojeda makes him look like a buddist monk. He makes Reyes look like a 12 year old trying to play at being a gangster."

Alexander thinks about that. "Mm. Arguable. But no. If I wanted to die, I'd be dead." Alexander and rhetorical questions are only sometimes friends. "But you're a small part of a big operation. A part that isn't really bringing him any profit. Or not much. A successful organized crime head doesn't get ahead by dumping money, time, or people down holes that don't bring back a return. I understand such people are proud and vengeful, which is a problem. Might not work. But he's proven willing to negotiate before. It's possible, if something could be found that would make it a better deal to lay off?" He shrugs. "He might. And you're mostly working for Kelly, now, right? I think he'd be willing to deal if you really wanted out and Felix wasn't actually against it. Maybe."

There's another swallow from his beer. "I'm not saying I can fix anything. You're smart. If there were an easy fix, you'd have found it way before me. But I'm very good at finding things out. If you want me to poke around in it, I will."

Vic has to think about that long and hard. She shakes her head. "I don't want you to get hurt, Alexander. You've had enough of that lately." It's not a direct yes or no, but it's implied. "I gotta head out. Good to see you again, call when you need to install the cameras." She gets up and heads for the door.

"I don't mind. If it's for a friend," Alexander says, softly. But that's the only protest that he makes. He nods his head. "Don't die, Miss Grey." Then he slumps down in his chair, clearly mentally kicking himself as he nurses his bottle.