notyourleader (notyourleader) wrote in supernextdoor, @ 2012-06-21 16:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, 10.15.11, dante, elias, jayne, joshua, max, ophelia |
Family ties loosened.
Who: Dante, Josh, Elias, Max, Jayne and Ophelia (NPC)
What Breakfast with the brood
When: 10.15.11 - Saturday Morning
Where: The Stumble Inn
Warnings: Language
Dante had tried to talk to Ophelia the night before about his decision to rejoin the force. He'd been hasty to say the least in retiring in the first place and the decision was still so new that changes could be easily made. He fully intended to ask the boys if they'd be willing to take over the bar. Hiring a couple of more cooks and staff wouldn't be hard and he could help with that and continue helping fund the place and pick up the slack wherever he needed to. To him it wasn't that big of a deal. To Phee, however, it was a goddamned tragedy.
She'd been reaming him up one side and down the other since he'd told her. She was upset and he couldn't figure out why but the woman rarely needed a reason to be upset. He'd finally just gone to sleep on the damn couch since she wouldn't stop bitching long enough for him to sleep in the bed.
Now he was heading to the long table in the middle of the dining floor of the bar and grill with the last plate of food and praying to god that one of the boys would come in soon so that he could stop listening to her complain. "I told you, babe," he all but growled at her. "Decision is made. I'm going back." And there were just no two ways about it. He wanted to go back and he was going to. End of discussion.
Ophelia was tired of trying to get through to Dante. She couldn't believe he was going back to the police force. He had said he was done. He'd been so upset. And now he couldn't give it up? The hell? "How would you feel if I went back to hunting?" she snapped as she slammed the pile of plates on the table. Her brothers would be here soon and she did not want to deal with them during this.
"That's not the same fucking thing and you know it," Dante hissed at her, turning to look at the woman. "Hunting and being a detective are two totally different things. How can you even compare the two?" he asked her. He couldn't believe she'd actually said that out loud. "I don't want to talk about this anymore," he muttered, thankful when he heard the sound of the door being unlocked. Likely Max or Elias. Thank god.
Max had gotten volunteered to go in first. Okay, so he knew he was going to be the one to do it. Nobody else in the family had the balls to deal with Phee when she might freak out. So that meant it was his job. He opened the door and pasted on a smile. He squeezed Jayne's hand gently, knowing she was nervous about meeting Ophelia and Dante. "Hey," he said, greeting the older man and his sister. Who were apparently having an argument. "Smells good." This wasn't going to end well. Oh great.
Jayne squeezed his hand back. Yeah, this didn't look like it was going to be a good meet and greet when the big, tall, scary, dark-haired man looked about ready to rip someone's face off. And Ophelia didn't look happy either. She was scarier than Dante. Lovely. She was tempted to ask Max if it was too late to turn back. She knew she couldn't though, so she sucked it up and put on her best fake smile and waved with her free hand. "Morning," she murmured.
Elias didn't want to deal with Ophelia's rampage and he sure as shit didn't want to get in the crossfire between her and Josh. He glared silently over his shoulder as he came up behind Max. "You're like twice as wide as me," he reminded the oldest Lasko. "Stop being a pansy."
“Yeah, makes me twice as easy to hit,” Josh pointed out in a low mutter. Phee in a good mood, being surprised by her brother being back was bad enough. Ophelia obviously pissy? Yeah, that wasn’t going to go well. “Hey, Phee, Dante,” He pasted a smile on his face, trying to resist the urge and just run away to the nearest bar. That wasn’t this one. God, this was gonna end badly. He could just tell.
Dante winced a little. Josh was back. Which was great and all and he didn't have any real hard feelings for the guy but Phee? Yeah, this was going to be just peachy. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Morning," he replied to the four of them. "Hope you're hungry." Not that he thought anyone would get to eat as soon as Phee realized Josh was there. Yeah, today sucked already.
Of course, her brothers had to show up in the middle of their argument. She was shocked to see Josh with them. "When did you come back?" she demanded of her oldest brother. Last she'd heard, he'd cut out on them two weeks ago. Once again, the hell? She completely ignored the little girl simpering beside Max. That had to be Jayne. She didn't look as young as she was, but yeah, the little nervous wave said it all. "Hi," she said, then turned her attention back to her brothers. "Why didn't you tell me Josh was back?"
Elias was glad it was just demanding and not yelling. Yet. "He just got back," he told his sister as he moved to get a seat at the table. He was hungry and if everyone else wanted to complain and argue, that was too bad for him. He'd had enough bullshit for the rest of his damned life really in the last couple of days. Which was why he didn't want to look at Ophelia because she'd see the bruising still over his eyes and nose. "Don't ask," he said simply, glancing up at her. He was tempted to lie, but he would much rather just not talk about it.
His twin had answered that question, Max was saved from it. Time to try and salvage this a bit. "Jayne," he said. "This is my sister Ophelia. And that's Dante." Really, he wasn't usually so scary looking. Dante was pretty laid back, except when Phee was pissing him off. "This is Jayne." He headed over to the table and pull out a chair for Jayne, putting her between him and Elias out of sheer habit. That way if Phee went ballistic his twin could get her out of the way. Eli didn't need anymore bruises. He sat down next to her, taking her hand and squeezing it again. This might be rough.
Jayne nodded as Max introduced her to Dante and Ophelia and she smiled at each of them in turn. She was nervous, but not so much afraid really. And Dante wasn't really glaring at her so that made her feel better. "Nice to meet you," she said without any trace of her nerves in her voice, not that Ophelia would notice anyway, but still. "This does smell great," she added, eyes wandering over the table. Apparently Dante could cook. Nice.
Josh sat down next to Max, eyeing their sister warily. “Last night,” he said. Which was only kind of a lie. Yeah, ok, it was a total lie. But dealing with Phee had been something he wanted to work up to, and they’d all agreed it was a good idea not to let her know that she’d been kept out of the loop. “How you been, Phee?” He asked, sitting back in his chair, feigning casualness.
"And I couldn't get a text or a call from any of you about that?" Phee snapped angrily. She was starting to lose her patience with all of them. "What do you mean don't ask?" Elias looked like his nose had gotten broken. "What the hell happened?" She knew she'd been kind of distancing herself from her brothers, but she just lived across town. They could still tell her things, dammit.
Elias sighed. "I got my nose broken," he told her simply. "I'm fine and it's not a big deal." And to him it no longer was. He was already in a mood because he and Calli had called it quits and now he had to deal with Phee being concerned when she'd barely said two words to him in the last almost month? Yeah, that was going to happen. "Can't we all just eat and not start the second Civil War?"
"It was late," Max lied smoothly. Since he was far better at it than his brothers. "We all had to be up early for this, so we figured it could wait." As for Elias' nose, another lie wasn't going to hurt anything. "Eli's nose is my fault," he told her as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the table. "We were sparring and got carried away. We're both getting rusty. He got me back, so it's fair." He pulled Jayne's chair closer to his. "That smells awesome. Let's eat."
Dante agreed with everyone else. Laying the bullshit to rest was best for all involved. He slipped his arm around Phee's shoulder and leaned enough to kiss her temple. "Come on, Lia," he said. "Let's just lay it to bed and have some breakfast, yeah?"
Josh poured himself a cup once Max had finished with the carafe, waiting for Ophelia to explode. Thankfully, it seemed like Dante was calming her down. Or at least, wasn’t stupid enough to put more fuel on the fire by agreeing with her. “Yeah, c’mon. Haven’t had breakfast with all of you in weeks. Sit down, and you can tell me more about this place.” A peace offering, if Phee wanted to take it.
Max was good at lying. Which Jayne had figured but she'd never really seen him in action with it before and as she looked at him, it was likely clear on her face that she wasn't exactly sure how to react to that. They could talk about it later, however, because right now it was working enough to at least have people not jumping across the table at one another. She didn't say anything, glad to just remain quiet.
"Fine," Ophelia relented as she sat down. "Pass the damned coffee over, Max." When he did, she saw the huge silver ring on his ring finger. It had fucking flowers on it. The hell? "What is that?" she demanded, grabbing her older brother's hand. It looked like a wedding band. A lot like a wedding band. "Max, what did you do?" Okay, no wait. Not asking Max. He'd start the BS routine. Instead she looked between her other two brothers. "Let me guess, that happened last night too?" She let go of Max's hand and tried to be calm and rational. It wasn't working. He'd been living with Elias, who should know better. "Did you at least try to talk sense into him?" she demanded.
Jayne was about to explode. 'What did you do?' sounded a lot more like 'Are you that fucking stupid?' and that was pissing her off. So was the the next sentence that came out of her mouth, and the next. "No," she piped up, seething so much that she had to squeeze Max's thigh under the table to keep from wanting to punch his sister in the face. "It happened Monday night, actually." There was no need to lie and she was already tired of everyone walking on eggshells around Ophelia because she was easy to explode. "And he didn't need any sense talked into him. It's not like I held a gun to his head and made him marry me."
Yeah, the best poker face in the world didn't do a damned thing when Phee noticed his wedding ring. Max rolled his eyes at her unnecessary freakout. Especially since she tried to drag Elias into it. Then Jayne got in the act. "Jayne and I eloped Monday night," he clarified. "Elias didn't know, I didn't tell him until the next day. Josh only found out when he showed up. Jesus, chill out." He reached under the table and squeezed Jayne hand gently. They didn't need a catfight this morning.
Elias was getting tired of the bullshit as much as everyone else seemed to be. "It's his life," he commented. "We're getting out of the game and settling down. That's what you wanted after all. Can you really be pissed that he's doing exactly that?" It seemed pretty fucking crazy to him, honestly, but crazy went hand in hand with Phee for the most part.
It was definitely a 'Are you that fucking stupid?'. Max had known the girl less than a month. She was eighteen and still in high school, for Christ's sake. "I wasn't talking to you, princess," she snapped, using Max's nickname for Jayne for emphasis. She was a princess, spoiled and young and useless. She didn't know what her brother saw in the girl, but it didn't really matter. Elias was pushing it, too. "He's known her a month, if that," she shot back. "And she's still in high school. Are you as crazy as he is? How can you even delude yourself into thinking this is a good thing? You're all going nuts." First Dante wanted to rejoin the police force, now Max had gone off and eloped with a teenybopper. God. They were all going insane.
“Ophelia,” Josh growled warningly, glaring at his sister. “You need to calm down.” Yeah, he’d had it. Less than five minutes with his sister, and he was remembering why he found Elias and Max so much easier to deal with. “Yeah, it’s sudden. But considering you’ve moved in and set up a business with Dante - no offence, dude - after knowing him for less than two months, that’s a pretty fucking glass house you’re standing in.” He’d had it with the bickering. Jayne seemed like a good kid, and eloping aside, Max had the best judgement out of all of them, when it came to reading people.
Dante sighed. "This is ridiculous," he told all of them. "You guys are all family. All of you now. Why don't you start acting like it and stop fighting over something stupid?" he questioned. "It's not that big a deal. So they're married, not like that's the end of the damned world, Phee," he reminded his girlfriend. "Is it really so bad?" he asked her. "Can't we just put it all aside and have breakfast? It's getting cold."
Even Max was losing his patience with their sister. And he was the one who usually had the most patience in the family period. He glared at Ophelia when she dismissed Jayne and tried to talk like she wasn't there. Then started in on Elias like he was Max's keeper. "Phee, seriously, knock it off," he warned quietly. Dante wasn't helping here. 'Act like a family'? 'Something stupid'? He took a deep breath. It wasn't fair to snap at the wereleopard when he was trying to keep the peace. "We're happy," he told their sister. "That's all that matters." Not that he expected that would settle it, but he could try.
Jayne just glared at Ophelia like she wanted to rip her head off because that was basically what she wanted to do. The whole thing was starting to get on her nerves even more and she was honestly only glad that no weapons had been drawn. "Are we going to eat or keep talking about this?" she asked.
Elias was in agreement with Jayne and everyone else who wanted the conversation to just fucking stop. "I'm going to eat," he said and reached out to collect one of the plates. He was done talking and his stomach was grumbling. To hell with the bitching for no reason.
Ophelia couldn't believe them. Any of them. Especially since they wanted to just let it go. "Okay, first of all, Joshua, you don't get to talk about glass houses, considering you left for two weeks with zero warning. You're not the boss of me anymore. Shut up." Now for the next idiot at the table. "And Maximus," She knew how much Max disliked being addressed by his full name by his family. "What the hell were you thinking? She's a kid. What are you gonna do if we have to deal with something like Rufus again? She can't handle it." Now for Elias. "And you're just going to stick your head in a hole and pretend nothing's wrong, because that's what you do. And I'm not stupid. There is no way in hell Max broke your nose. Since when do you keep things from me, Elias?" As for her boyfriend. "Do not talk to me about family. Considering how dysfunctional yours is. How's your sister doing anyway?" Yeah, that had been uncalled for. But if he wanted to talk about her family that way, even when they were being idiots, she could do the same to him.
He hadn't touched on a sore spot purposely. He also hadn't said anything particularly negative about their family nor called them dysfunctional. He just wanted the arguing to be over. Ophelia, however, knew exactly how he felt about his sister and no matter how fucked up she was, she was still family. He still loved her. And he'd be damned if he'd deal with her talking shit or starting it. He slammed his hands on the table, nearly enough to shove them through it. The dishes rattled and he growled at Ophelia. "That's it," he all but hissed at her, eyes steeled as he shoved himself up from the table. "You and me? We're done. You wanna bring up my family? You wanna talk shit just because you're too much of a bitch to stop treating yours like they're lower class citizens in Pheeland? Fuck you, Ophelia." And with that, he headed out of the main area and back towards the office.
Ok, that was it. They were done pandering to Ophelia’s fucking moodswings. Josh stood, hands flat on the table, fighting the urge to reach for a weapon. Of any fucking kind. Hell at this point he’d be happy to fling his coffee cup at her head if he thought it would shut her up. “That’s enough, Phee!” He snarled, slamming his hands flat on the table for emphasis. “I’m done with you treating this family like shit.” He knew it was partly his own fault, knew they’d all spoiled her, pandered to her. “You don’t get to throw a fit just because you’re not the only girl around. Max is happy, that’s all that fucking matters, ok?” He sighed, looking down at his hands. “I broke Eli’s nose.” Yeah, he could lie about as well as Max, when it was important. He just usually chose not to. “We got into it when I showed up at the house.” He looked over at her, gaze steady, jaw tight with anger. “Now you got two choices. You go apologise to Dante, and we all sit down at the table and eat like a fucking normal family, or you walk. Right now.”
Jayne had flinched when Dante slammed his hands on the table and stormed off. Flinching again when Josh went ahead and did the same damn thing and started yelling at Ophelia who Jayne thought definitely deserved every word of what he was saying. Hearing all of them fighting, however, made her think about Rupert and she didn't want this family to end up like hers. "Look," she said, much less loudly than Josh or Dante had spoken. "You guys don't want to do this. Arguing and yelling at each other. It never ends well, believe me, I know."
Max had to put his own hands on the table to keep from going for a weapon himself when Dante snarled and got angry. It was trained in. Ophelia had gone way too far, but Jayne was right. They didn't want to do this. "Guys, just sit down and chill out," he said wearily. "Please, we went through this shit when we told Rupert and it's not worth it. Dante's right, it's not the end of the world. Please?" This was just getting worse and worse by the minute.
Elias sighed and leaned back in his chair, wanting to rub his hands down his face but knowing that wouldn't be a smart plan. "Just go apologize to Dante," he told his sister. "Then get him to come out here and we'll eat and then we can go about the day and get ready for tonight," he muttered. They still had a damned bar to open after all, fights or not.
Ophelia stared after Dante in shock. He was dumping her? Because she'd pointed his little sister was crazy and he had no room to talk about dysfunctional families? The hell? Then her brothers were on her case and Max's little girl- wife was whining that they should all play nice. Which was usually Max's tune and sure enough, he tried to make peace. Jayne's brother had taken it badly, huh? No surprise. "What's the matter, Maxy?" she snapped, venting out her hurt on the first target she could get. "Got mad at your cradle robbing?" Yeah, she'd have to apologize for that later, but she wanted him and his little bitch to stop whining. She glared at Josh, since Elias wouldn't do shit no matter how bad she behaved. "You don't get to tell me what to do anymore, Josh," she reminded him. "If anyone gets to take a walk for being out of line, it's you. This is partially my bar too. So shut the fuck up."
Elias was fed up. "Yeah, well it's partially my bar and partially Max's so how bout you shut the fuck up or walk?" he said to his sister. Too much crap had gone down the last few days for him to be willing to let Ophelia tramp all over them. "I'm sick of you acting like you run the goddamned show, Ophelia. Newsflash, you don't."
Josh was inches away from just decking his sister. This was just getting ridiculous. “Maybe if you start acting like a grownup instead of a spoilt little brat, Ophelia,” he snapped, “we’ll start treating you like one.” He sat down, removing the temptation to step round the table and just grab her, shake her, try and make her see sense. This argument had been a long time coming. If it hadn’t been about Max and Jayne, it would have been about something else. “Elias is right. The three of you bought this place together. It’s not your bar. So stop treating the rest of us like we’re your fucking idiot kids.”
Max was stunned into hurt silence. He hadn't attacked Phee at all and she'd sniped at him and taken a low blow. She knew it wasn't like that and to hear it from his own sister, who he'd always stood up for and dealt with when she was being too much of a bitch for anyone else to deal with just hurt. "Please, guys, stop," he tried again. Because this was getting way out of hand. Especially since Elias had gotten mad too. Eli didn't get mad and now they were about ready to vote Ophelia off the damned island. This just could not be happening.
Jayne could tell that all of this was getting to Max and she reached out to take his hand, lacing her fingers through his and giving them a squeeze. "Can't we all just bury the hatchet?" she said hopefully, glancing at Ophelia and then at Josh and Elias before looking at her husband. "We can get through breakfast and everyone can talk about this when we're more calm, okay?"
Ophelia stared at Elias like he'd grown another head. "Oh you are not kicking me out," she snapped. "Since when do you have any balls anyway?" Josh was just pissing her off. "Well, I guess I learned to do that from you, big brother," she shot back. "Since that's how you always treated us, isn't it?" God, Max and Jayne were STILL WHINING about making nice. "Why don't you stay out of this, princess?" she demanded. "This is family business. Just because Max got a guilt complex because he couldn't keep it in his pants, doesn't mean the rest of us have to approve."
"You've got some nerve," Elias said, glaring at his sister. "I've been the one doing every goddamned thing I can for you for how long now? Dealing with you bitching, listening to your stupid bullshit and protecting you. Sharing a fucking room with you on every damned hunt we went on and now you want to talk about how I don't have the balls?" She was real fucking bitchy to take that route. "And the more you talk about Jayne, the more I'm ashamed that you're my sister," he added. "What the fuck has she done to you?" he asked her. "She makes your brother happier than I've ever seen him in my whole fucking life and you really want to take that away from him? You're a bitch, Phee, and I'm sick of it."
"You're a real fucking piece of work," Jayne said as she released Max's hand and stood up, facing Ophelia. "You've got a whole family of guys, including Dante, who love you and want you to take a look at how you're treating them and all you're doing is making it worse. And fuck you for talking about my husband like that. I would have married him even if he never slept with me. I love him. Get the fuck over it. You're not the only fucking Lasko woman anymore, bitch."
Yeah, this had gone about as badly as it possibly could have. Josh was impressed that Jayne had stood up to Ophelia - there were guys twice her size who’d been too scared to do the same. “Phee,” he said warningly, hand out towards his sister. Because yeah, she wasn’t gonna take kindly to what Jayne had said, even if she was perfectly justified. “You’re not winning this. Just back the fuck off.” He was furious, still, but he wasn’t gonna lose his family. Not when he’d just found them again.
Ophelia was getting tired of this. Now the little bitch was getting in on it, trying to tell her who her brothers, her lover were. Elias had said he was ashamed of her. Yeah, because if she hadn't nagged and pushed for them to consider getting out, they'd have gotten out on their own? Right. "You don't know them," she told Jayne. "Don't even fucking start with me, bitch. Do you know what he's done? Did he tell you? Or did he just gloss it over and let you think he was some tragic antihero? We all know how good Max is at playing a part. Just like Josh probably still wants to kill you just because you're a witch. I was the one who made sure they didn't kill the kids. And they wanted to, Trust me. They were all monsters. So before you go telling me who my brothers are, maybe you better wake the fuck up and realized just who you married."
Jayne paled. But she didn't step back or step down. "Josh spent the whole night with me in the house and didn't so much as bat an eyelash the wrong way at me," she defended. "And he wouldn't because regardless of whether or not I'm a witch, I'm his brother's wife and that has a little more standing with him than it obviously does with you." What she said about the kids and how Max likely had wanted to kill them made her stomach churn uncomfortably. "I don't care what Max did in the past. It's the past. Fact of the matter is that he's not like that now. How shitty can you possibly be to even bring up something like that?"
Josh just stared at Ophelia. What she’d said was beyond the fucking pale. Yeah, it was true. But that wasn’t who they were now, any of them. “We were wrong,” he said hoarsely. “Is that what you want to hear, Ophelia? Yeah, we were fucking monsters.” He shook his head. “We didn’t know any better. Now we do.” He still didn’t trust witches, would still hunt the supernaturals who killed people. But Elias had been right. So had Ophelia, much as it killed him to admit it. “And don’t act like you’re the fucking martyr here. You’re not telling Jayne this out of the goodness of your heart.” It wasn’t out of concern - it was to hurt them. Hurt Max. She was purposefully trying to tear Max and Jayne apart. He stared at his sister disbelievingly, barely recognising the vindictive bitch looking back at them all.
Max was just staring at Ophelia in disbelief. He couldn't believe she'd said all of that. Yeah, she had to be hurting and on the defensive, but it hurt. Especially because every bit of it was true. Except what she was implying about his feelings for Jayne. He wanted to protest, rail back at her, but what good would it do? She'd already pointed out he could play any role he wanted to. The mention of the kids made him literally nauseous. Yeah, he never wanted to remember that, never wanted to think about how wrong they'd been and how glad he was they'd listened their sister. Unfortunately, that same sister had apparently gone completely insane. "Phee, stop it," he pleaded. "Please. Just go. Leave us alone if you hate us so much."
Elias was beyond pissed. For Max to be asking her to leave, he had obviously been cut deeply. There was a bond between the siblings, but Elias' bond with Max was stronger than even that. They'd shared a womb after all. "We're not those people anymore and you know it," he told his sister. "If we're really talking about who's the better person, you need to look at yourself. You were right there with all of us doing the same shit. Yeah, you kept it from getting worse than it was, but Dante is no different than Jayne. Course you've gone and fucked that up to, haven't you?" Which was a low blow, but he was sick of Ophelia being the only one to get to have any say in anything. "Max is right. If you hate us so much, just get out of here. I'll buy you out your bit of the bar. You're so much better than the rest of us, then go off on your own."
Ophelia had had enough. "Yeah, because you've all changed so much," she said. "You were all ready to kill Rufus instead of hand him over to the vampire who wanted him for his collection. You haven't changed." She glared at Jayne. "I feel sorry for you the most. You're living with three stone cold killers. And you can see how they are when they turn on you. Wait until they decide you did something to-"
"Shut up!" Max practically screamed as he stood up. "Shut the fuck up. And get out. Just get the fuck out." He'd never come so close to striking any of his siblings ever in his life as he was right now. "You were trying to run away before. When we first stopped here. That's why you shacked up with a fucking cop. Then Elias got hurt and you still wanted to run away. You avoided me and Josh. You have done nothing but push us away since we came here. Fine. You get what you want Ophelia. You can walk out that door right now and I can guarantee none of us will come looking." Okay, that wasn't completely true, Max might try to call her in a few days, but Elias and Josh definitely seemed done. He was defeated, which was just as good as done. Now he just hoped Jayne would ever trust him again after all of that.
Jayne had never seen Max as angry as he was right now. He'd never screamed at any of his siblings in front of her the way he was now. She sat down because that was easier than trying to think about all of this crap right now. She still trusted Max and Elias and even trusted Josh as little as she knew of him thus far. If there was any Lasko that she didn't trust, it was Ophelia. She looked down at the table and prayed silently that Ophelia would just leave quietly but she doubted that was possible.
“Max,” Josh said quietly. He didn’t need to say any more than that - the warning look Josh gave him was enough. “Ophelia, you need to leave now,” he continued firmly, pushing down his anger with a hell of a lot of effort. Josh didn’t yell and scream the way Ophelia did, the way Max just had. The time to start worrying was when Josh went through shouting and became calm, face expressionless. Like now. He sat, elbows on the table, hands clasped, chin resting against his fingers. “Before you dig a bigger hole for yourself.” His knuckles were white, the only outward sign of strain. He was furious at his sister, unable to believe the way she was acting.
Elias didn't say a word. He wanted her to get the hell out and it'd been repeatedly said for her to go. The ball was in her court now. He wasn't going to say anything else. He was just hoping she'd get the fuck up and get the hell out of the bar. He was hungry and the bar was set to open soon. He'd be damned if she ruined this for them.
Ophelia looked between her brothers and let out a disgusted sound. "Fine," she said, getting up out of her chair and pulling on her jacket. "Go to hell. All of you." Without even looking back, she walked out of the bar like she owned it still. If that's what they wanted...well, Max was right. She had been trying to distance herself from her brothers. Maybe this was for the best. She didn't need them anyway.
Max just collapsed into his chair when the door slammed behind their sister. He just felt numb, wrung out. Exposed. He couldn't even look at Jayne for fear what he'd see in her face. Josh was right, Ophelia had purposely said all of that to wreck their relationship. He couldn't understand why. He didn't want to. Burying his face in his hands, he just sat there trying to even fathom what the fuck had just happened.
Jayne was glad when Ophelia just fucking left. Finally. She sighed and looked over at her husband who looked about ready to fall apart. Well that just added to her intense blind fury for Ophelia. She moved over to him, settling herself in his lap and reaching up to pull his hands away from his face. She kissed his forehead and then slipped her arms around his neck, holding onto him in hopes that might make things at least fractionally better.
Josh slumped forward as Ophelia walked out, resting his forehead on his hands for a moment. Sighing, he stood up, chair scraping loudly across the floor. “Fuck this,” he muttered. “I need a fucking drink.” He walked over to the bar, leaning over it and grabbing a bottle of Jack Daniels and 5 glasses. “Eli?” He turned to his brother. “You wanna go tell Dante it’s safe to come out?” His voice was hoarse, a little numb, as he set the glasses down on the table and poured them all a measure of JD. He slid a glass across the table towards Max, handing Jayne hers more politely. And the fact that she was still there, still hugging Max? That said a lot.
“I’m not gonna say that what she said isn’t true,” he murmured, not letting go of the glass as he stood over her and Max. “But there were reasons for everything we did. And we thought they were good enough, then.” He sighed. “You wanna ask about it, you ask me. I made the calls on our jobs.” He didn’t want to burden Max with that responsibility. His brother deserved all the happiness he could get.
Dante had heard the whole mess and had been trying hard not to punch something. He came out of the office after he was sure that Ophelia wasn't coming back in. He was honestly surprised when he heard Josh ask Elias to go look for him. They were even better guys than he'd thought. He'd just broken up with their sister and they weren't ready to rip his throat out? Well, he wasn't going to argue. "I'm here," he said as he went back to the table and sat back down. "And I could definitely use a damn drink," he added, picking up one of the glasses and holding it up at Josh who had the bottle expectantly.
Elias sighed, just glad the bullshit was over. "I'm fucking hungry and I don't want to talk about any of this bullshit anymore today. We've got a bar to open, customers to handle and now we're a person short so we've got to suck it up even more and pick up the slack." They were businessmen now and had to take this blow and get up and go back to work like everyone else in the world. "If she cools down, she cools down. If not, well I'm sorry but I'm not dealing with the toxicity."
Max was surprised when Jayne settled in his lap and pulled his hands away. Okay, he was and he wasn't. It was the same way she'd been the day they met. Understanding and sweet, even when she should have been scared and running away. He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face against her neck. "I'm sorry, baby," he murmured. He wanted to protest Josh taking all the blame for the worst of their crimes. Yeah, he'd been calling the shots, but Max had always followed him blindly. That was on Max's head, although right now, it was really damned obvious why he'd trusted his oldest brother so much.
He took a deep breath. Having Jayne not freaking out helped him calm down. He nodded at Elias' words. They did need to suck it up and get to work. "Give us a minute, bro," he asked, since he still needed to talk to Jayne a minute before this went any further. "Can we use the office, Dante?" Yeah, he partially owned the place, but the office was vital and for all he knew, something needed to be done in there right now. Max didn't have a head for business. He left that to Elias.
Dante nodded. "Yeah, go ahead." he told Max. The guy didn't have to ask, but he certainly wasn't going to refuse him since he had. It was obvious that he and Jayne needed to talk a little more.
Jayne shook her head a little as her hand slid through Max's hair to try and comfort him. "You don't have to be sorry," she assured him. "You haven't done anything wrong." She didn't care about the past because aside from the incident with the gun, which she'd forgiven him for, Max hadn't done anything to hurt her. Quite the opposite, he'd been there for her when even her own family hadn't. Rupert had all but kicked her out and Max had taken her in. He was a good man, even if he doubted that sometimes. She gently pulled his head back enough that she could look at him. "I love you," she assured him. "And I'm not going anywhere. No matter what anyone says, okay?" He needed to know that.
Josh poured Dante a drink, downing his own, before sitting down and grabbing some food. It might be going cold, but it still tasted good. “You know you’ve got me to help out,” he told Elias. “Just tell me what you want me to do.” They were a family, they could do this. With, or without Ophelia. If she came round, great. If not, Dante and the four of them would manage just fine without her.