Morningstar Manor

The weather as cooling off quickly and many of the Manor tenants were stopping in the Mocha in the evenings for coffee not only for the ritual of it but for the warmth as well. Tonight for instance it seemed rather busy.

JJ was flipping through a magazine Deacon had let him borrow.

Jack was looking through some proofs of his latest batch of head shots.

Gabe was preparing the spa's next supply order and had decided that doing it in the Mocha - with coffee - was far better than doing it in the spa itself.

Max - dressed for once in jeans and a form fitting t-shirt instead of a suit - sat in one of the over stuffed chairs with an iPad in his lap as he sipped his coffee. But he wasn't doing work. He was playing Angry Birds.

Loki had another overstuffed chair, his coffee, and another old and battered book. Not Poe this time. No this one was the works of de Sade. And it was autographed.

Kara had worked two long shifts and was - thank GOD - done for a solid twenty four hours. She could get coffee at the Lamb of course but she had been craving a Mocha Latte all day and now she waited in line to get one.

Fall had finally come and the evenings were beginning to get cool. Which meant even more people than usual decided that a coffee in the evening was a nice idea.

Jack had just come from a long shift at the Lamb and was in desperate need of a coffee. So he got in line and sent a text to Declan.

Must have coffee. Want one?

***

JJ was already sitting at a table, sipping his coffee and looking through a car magazine. He'd had a long day at work, then a nice long practice with the band where he'd had that interesting encounter with the new bookstore owner. Now he had no more plans for the night and coffee and a magazine in the Mocha seemed as good as any.

***

Kara was headed to the Lamb but was also trying to fight off the cold that seemed to be going around. She'd taken a nap thanks to some cold meds and now needed a strong coffee to perk herself back up so was standing in the line for the counter.

***

Ruprecht stepped from the men's restroom and put a sign in front of the door that said Out of Order. He looked over the crowd of people and sneered a bit.

Gabe was in the spa cleaning up. It was nearly closing time and he was ready to head back to the apartment for some food and rest. He made a mental note to call Sarah too. He'd had to take a rain check on their night out due to an omgemergency hair issue with a very high end client.

***

JJ hadn't had a chance to hang out in the Mocha since he'd moved in and tonight - since after the band try out he didn't have anything else planned - he decided to give it a shot. He sat in one of the overstuffed chairs, sipping surprisingly good coffee and playing with his iPad.

***

Jason was technically off duty - and out of uniform - but he was still strolling the Manor grounds. Out in the gardens he paused to light up a cigarette and take a sip from the bottle of beer he held in his other hand. He looked up at the night sky, unable to really see any stars due to the city lights. But still - it was a nice night.

***

At the Lamb Kara wiped down the bar and smiled at the regulars. Tuesday nights were slow but that was okay. After a busy Labor Day she could use an easy night. She looked at the clock and then caught Jack's eye, giving him a nod.

Jack grinned at her and cleaned up the last table. His shift was over so once he put this in the kitchen he could go home.

Gabe was finally feeling more human and not like death had warmed over and so had gotten dressed in jeans and a soft blue t-shirt and headed down to the Mocha. He was now curled in one of the armchairs, sipping a huge sugary coffee and checking email on his phone, only the occassional sniff any sign that the cold still hadn't left completely.

***

Jason sat at his usual table - where he could see all - and took the time to enjoy his coffee and bagel before he had to head to the front desk.


***

There was a shipment coming in this morning and Kara needed to be at the Lamb to receive it but she had a bit of time for coffee and one of the Mocha's huge chocolate chip muffins first and was enjoying that at a table near the window.

***

Max had a meeting at ten - which meant there was time for coffee first. He sat at a table looking through the paper while Micah stood in line to get their drinks.

***

Just outside the Mocha, in the gardens, Loki prowled - annoyed. Dressed in tight black jeans, combat boots, and a black singlet his pale skin seemed to glow against the dark ink of his various Nordic tattoos and the sunlight made his hair look like angry fire - matching his mood.

"...think your brothers will burn the place down if I don't go in this morning?" Conn asked from his comfortable spot on Kara's couch, feet up, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants and rumpled hair. "Because I've a mind to stay here all. Day. Long."

They'd driven straight through from Boston to the City. Well, Seamus had driven. Dermot had gotten his license taken away so he was playing Miss Daisy for twenty-four hours while Seamus drove like a mad man.

But, they were in the City now, at the Lamb where their sister and relative safety was bound to be. Seamus crawled out of the car and walked into the Lamb with his brother, taking his sunglasses off when he entered the darkness of the pub.

"Well. Ain't this some shit?"

He'd picked her up at her door, with flowers, and wearing a suit, of all things. It was a date, a real one, and they had a good reason to celebrate. The paperwork had gone through.

Connor Bradley was now officially an unmarried man.

"You look gorgeous, have I told you that enough tonight?" He said to Kara as he offered her his arm before they went inside.

"The Slaughtered Lamb," Callan said as he walked in and smiled at the pretty redhead working the tables immediately.  "This sounds like a good place to get nice and fucking stupid."

"No place is a good place to get nice and fucking stupid. No fighting."

"Right," Callan said, but smiled the entire time. "Do they have something on tap besides Guiness? Holy shit," he said as he and Declan took a seat at the bar. "They do!"

Connor liked being behind the bar far better than being in the office, and it showed on his face as he chatted with customers, served drinks, argued with Cook. It was a good day, here in the Lamb, with daily specials galore and drinks freely flowing.

Big doings over at the Manor had made the crowd here a little...hell, a LOT more interesting over the past few days. Pretty people came and went, eating Cook's food and drinking. Always drinking. Conn watched from the bar, wondering what on earth was going on over at Morningstar.

Whistling, Connor put out a bunch of Valentine's day decorations on the table and studied them, considering the efforts of hanging little pink hearts all over his pub and wondering if it would be worth the effort, or just look stupid. On the other hand, he'd found them all in a box in the storage closet and he figured now was as good a time as any to start getting rid of junk like that, or at least organizing it.

One bunch assorted wildflowers tied with a red ribbon, card accompanying to read:

I usually send flowers when I've screwed up, so I figure I'll get started now so maybe when I do, you'll already be in the mood to forgive me. xo, Conn

He'd asked her to help him carry some things from the office downstairs to his place upstairs so he could sort through ancient files that had been there since his uncle had owned the place, but that wasn't really the only reason. Connor wanted to talk to her. Maybe not talk. Maybe just...try to feel her out about what had gone on, what WAS going on. Or not. Because too much had passed between them before for him to screw this up again, ever, and lose her all over. If just friends was what it was going to be, he could handle that. But just friends didn't feel about each other the way he felt about her.

Molly had fussed over her the moment she walked in, insisting she should go back home and rest. Cook had apologized over and over for going home early and nearly crushed her in a hug and Kara was pretty sure she'd seen tears in his eyes. She'd endured their fussing and assured them she was fine and would take it easy then took her place behind the bar.

A lot of the customers wanted to know what had happened, if she was okay, and she found herself explaining things more than she wanted.

"But should you really be here?" one of the old timers asked and Kara smiled at him.

"Ah, love, it'll take a lot more than a couple bastards getting over excited to keep me away," she said and a couple of the guys cheered and let her get on with things.

And she did good - mostly. She only got startled a few times and nearly dropped something.

How did you thank someone for possibly saving your life? And for sure saving you from one of womens's worst fears? Hell if Kara knew. But she called Niles anyway.

( Voicemail for Niles )

That call done she called Connor, knowing he was likely at the Lamb and getting his voicemail.

( Voicemail for Connor )

After much pushing from Connor Kara had agreed to go to the doctor this morning and get thoroughly check over. She had a slight concussion, laceration on her head in the hairline above her left eye, right side of her jaw was a lovely shade of black and blue. The muscles in her back and shoulders were a bit strained as well from being thrown around. All in all she was technically ok but she felt like hell.

But Kara was nothing if not stubborn and so she'd taken the pain pills the doctor had given her - though a bit less than he'd said because she didn't want to feel groggy - and had done her best to cover the bruise up with make up. It was still visible though, still there for all to see, but it didn't stop her from going down to the Mocha to get some coffee and a muffin. Her jaw was to sore to chew much more than that.

Ignoring Joy's looks and the whispers she found a table and sat, sipping the coffee.

The nice thing about the Lamb being right next door to the Manor was that Kara wasn't nervous about locking up on her own. After all she only had to walk a few yards and she was in one of the safest buildings in the city. Even still Cook usually hung around to see her out and on her way - a sweet gesture, even if he usually was cussing at her to hurry up the whole time - and now that Connor was back he often helped lock up too.

Tonight though Cook had had to leave right away - family emergency - and Conn had needed to run a few errands and then make a few phone calls so had gone on to his flat above the pub, and that left Kara in the pup on her own. Despite the time she was still fairly awake and so decided to get a bit of book keeping done before she left. She locked the front door, flipped off the lights, and headed to her office.

It was an hour later when Kara thought she heard something. She paused, the computer screen the only real light in the room and listened. Kara was used to some noises - usually from the basement. Maybe it had been her imagination... No - there it was again. Glasses clinking? Figuring it was just the - thing - in the basement Kara got up and quietly headed into the main room.
( The Lamb is robbed )

Connor had decided staying in his office might be the best thing for him to do, at least for awhile. That business with Kara had kept him up nights -- not in an unpleasant way, to be sure, but certainly in a way that wasn't particularly easy to deal with when he had to see her the next day.

Today, though, his little ones were with him, dropped off by their mother as she had some shopping to do, and though he knew his soon-to-be-ex disapproved of keeping the kids in the pub, at least it was the daytime and not at night when things got "rowdy."

"Daisy," Conn said, "shall I have Cook make you and your brother some chocolate cake?"

Daisy, of course, said yes.

"Kara, d'ya have any clue what these are for?" Connor asked, utterly perplexed, holding out a cardboard box full of green glittery high heeled shoes -- miniature ones, not meant for feet. At least not any size feet he'd ever seen on a real person.

"Ahh, listen, gorgeous, could you slide me a pint down this way?" Connor said to Kara as he tipped the fella in front of him a grin. "This lad here's just gotten dumped by his fiance."