Log: Piers and Lorna, Wednesday

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As the Pack arrives, Lorna gets a visit from an old friend and learns for the first time about Bridge.



Lili broke off her latest attack on Crush's tail and ran yapping for the door seconds before the knock sounded in the suite. Lorna frowned and wiped her hands on a towel, Crush tripping at her heels. Attempts to keep the puppies out of the kitchen had failed miserably thus far in the face of puppy pouts. Lorna considered herself weak. Alex was just amused.

"Lili, hush," she scolded and nudged the little dog out of her way with a gentle toe-push, opening the door a crack to see who was knocking and to prevent escapees. She blinked up at her visitor. "Ian! What are you doing here?" Lili gave another bark and leapt forward. Lorna bent and scooped her up quickly. "Sorry. Um, come on it, won't you?"

Piers eyed the little dog for a moment, suspiciously, and then stepped in. He looked, if it was possible, worse - more exhausted, more haggard - than he had at Mick and Tim's funeral, while he was still recovering from injuries that should have killed him. "There are dogs," he said tiredly. "Little dogs." Lili barked at him, scrabbling in Lorna's arms, and Ian raised an eyebrow wearily at her. "Yes, little dog, I am a big cat-man. Please don't find it necessary to explore the ancient rivalry just now." He looked back at Lorna, mustering a wan smile. "I'm a little tired. Ignore me. Hi."

It didn't take Doug's mutation to read the pain in Piers' body language. "I'll put them in the bedroom. They're mostly harmless." She gave him a soft smile and stepped back bending again to catch Crush's collar before he could leap on the feral. "Why don’t you sit down and I'll be right back."

When she came back out, Ian was sitting on her couch, so slouched that a few more inches and he'd be sliding off entirely. "You don't know," he said, staring up at the ceiling. "I could tell as soon as you opened the door that you didn't."

Lorna shook her head and went to sit down, "I'm sorry. No, I don't. What's wrong?" She curled up, facing him.

"We torched the Tunis safehouse. Everyone's here." Ian was silent for a long, pensive moment. "Bridge is dead."

Lorna's eyes went wide and she shifted, just slightly, ready to reach out to him at the least invitation. "Ian, I'm sorry. I had no idea. When? How?"

"Yesterday. Here. You know Nate's uncle? The psychotic one?" Ian shook his head, looking away. "I wish my friends would stop dying," he said more quietly, his voice all the more alarming for how even it was.

Lorna bit her lip and reached out to touch his shoulder, not really certain what to say. "I...is there anything I can do?"

Ian shook his head again. "I don't think there's anything anyone can do." His eyes flickered. "He used Nate's powers to do it."

"Oh..." Lorna covered her mouth, "Oh God, that's sick." She hugged herself, horrified by the idea, the resonance hitting close to home thanks to Malice. "What are you going to do? He has to be stopped."

Ian looked at her, really looked for the first time since he'd walked in, and even in his fatigued state it was pretty obvious that there was a little something extra to the reaction. "Right now, bury GW, I guess. Afterwards we'll all have to talk." This time, he was the one to reach out, laying a hand tentatively on her arm. "Didn't mean to come in here and... okay, so that's lying through my teeth, I did. But Ani won't talk to me." It came out a lot more woeful-sounding than he'd intended.

Lorna offered him a sympathetic smile and turned her wrist to grip his arm. "It's all right, Ian. I'm not really good for much else but being an ear and a shoulder these days. I'd be a poor friend if I didn't offer at least that much."

"Don't say that," he said automatically. She'd told him a few things over email. Nate had told him a few other things. "I don't like it when my friends run themselves down. Although, it's good you're here to run yourself down. I like that part." He gave a slightly cracked-sounding laugh. "I wouldn't complain."

She half-smiled and shook her head, "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Just that I'm not on the team to help out. I'm only a civilian these days." She tugged lightly on his arm, offering him--tentatively--a hug.

Ian, just as tentatively, leaned towards her. "So not fair," he said heavily as she hugged him. "We'd just taken out another camp. Another sixteen kids. We were doing so much good, and now he's dead and we don't have any idea what we're doing now..."

Lorna held on and sighed. "You'll pull through this, Ian. Bridge was a good man but he's not the only person on the team. You're still going to do good things." She didn't tell him that life wasn't fair because it wasn't really the point and it certainly wasn't anything that he didn't know. "It's just going to suck for a while."

Ian sighed raggedly. "I want my friends to stop dying," he muttered weakly, blinking rapidly as his eyes stung. "They just keep dying... that wasn't supposed to be happening anymore. Ani won't talk to me and I think she broke her hands hitting the wall in the guest room."

"I'm sorry, Ian." Lorna said again, because there wasn't anything else to say. She could do nothing but agree. But supposed to be was never what happened around here.

"... I've got to pull myself together," Ian said roughly, drawing back finally. "I'm not any good to anyone if I'm falling apart. Although it's not like we're doing much at the moment anyway... Nate said that if any of us try to go after Gideon he's going to hospitalize us and apologize later."

She let him pull back but caught his hand and squeezed it to make sure that he knew that it wasn't the end of her support. "Now is the time to fall apart. You shouldn't bottle grief. Especially not when you don't have to. And you don't, there are plenty of people here who can be strong if it comes to it."

He squeezed her hand back, but there was something wintry in his eyes for a moment, something that wasn't at all feral, but cold and determined, a flash of the old Spartan showing through. "Not going to bottle it," he said grimly. "Not sure what I'm going to do with it, yet. But something." He released her hand with obvious reluctance.

Her hand curled closed and she drew it back to her side. "Wait for it. Let yourself mourn first before you take any revenge or anything. Bridge deserves it and so do you."

Ian started to say something, then tilted his head at the renewed yipping from the bedroom. "The puppies are getting agitated. Why are there puppies, by the way? I didn't think you liked furry things." It was a definite subject change, but surely she'd let him get away with it.

"It's...well, it's a story. Do you mind if I let them out? I can't guarantee that Lili won't attack but she's got more enthusiasm than teeth so it's mostly the drool factor that you have to worry about." Lorna smiled, though her eyes remained concerned.

"I'm sure I can handle a couple of puppies," Ian said with a certain amount of weary amusement. "I am after all much bigger than they are."

Lorna shook her head, "Yeah, that's what I thought." She waved her hand at the bedroom door, the gesture habit though perfectly useless. It pushed itself open, indignant yapping revealing the location of the puppies seconds before they gambolled out, tripping over their own paws and tumbling over each other. "That's Crush and this one is Lilioukalani. Lili for short. Lili was a Christmas present."

"Ah. The cute blond surfer boyfriend," Ian said, and then stared, very levelly, at Lili as she bounded towards him. The puppy froze.

Lorna giggled as Lili eventually whimpered and turned away, then attacked Crush's ear like that had been her mission all along. "Fiancé, actually. He tied the ring around Lili's neck. That's really awesome, can you teach me to do that?"

"Probably not. I think it's a pheromone thing." Ian actually mustered up another smile. "Fiancé, huh? That's great, Lorna. Really glad for both of you. I'll have to congratulate him in person and tell him he'd better treat you right and all that. That's generally the thing that you do, no?"

"My father likes to threaten him with a shotgun, actually. It's got a certain old world charm to it, I think." She held out her left hand to show off her ring. "And thank you. I was going to mention it in my next email."

"Shiny," was Ian's observation, broken by a stifled yawn. "I'm tired," he said, tilting a bit alarmingly to one side. "Bad couple of days."

Lorna got up, "Do you have a room here yet or are you still getting sorted?"

"They kind of had to pack us in. We won't be here for long. Just tonight, maybe tomorrow... I don't know." Ian heaved himself up off the couch, wobbling a little. "I should go check on Ani. Shouldn't have let her chase me away. Not like I wouldn't have healed up fast if I'd let her pummel me instead of the wall."

Lorna caught his hand and pushed him back down on to the couch. "Lie down. I'll take the puppies out for a bit and you get some rest. There's plenty to eat in the kitchen when you wake up." There was a certain finality in Lorna's voice that meant that arguing would do precisely no good.

"Managing woman," Ian muttered as he sank back down. The puppies both eyed him, and he bared his teeth somewhat apathetically at them. "Go. Do your little doggie business, or whatever... just don't let her train you to be her canine minions. I think she'd be even scarier with minions." The words were coming out slower, even slurred as he sprawled back against the cushions.

"Aw, my prewcious widdle wuvs are perfectly sweet." Lorna crooned at them, winking. She waited until his eyes slid closed then gathered up the puppies, clipped their leashes on and took them out of the suite. First thing to do was fist Alex and tell him about their guest. The second was to deal with everything else.