Darker London

Thomas would follow Peter anywhere, so it was little wonder that he trooped behind his best friend into the depths of the hospital, without question. It was a place he didn't recognise, dark and foreboding, but Peter must have a good reason to show it to him? "Haven't seen back here before," Thomas mentioned, as Peter led them into a holding cell down there. Did you just build this? Is it for Magnus if he wakes up?"

( It's not for Magnus )

For the long flight back to London, the survivors of the auctioneers had been sedated (by choice) so they could rest up. There was no need for them to be feeling trapped in a tiny plane for hours.

They were then transported to Peter's hospital and set up in four private rooms that were next door to each other. They could have their run of the place if they wanted, but privacy as well. Razvan, however, found that he didn't so much want to be alone after so long in that damn cage. Instead he left his room behind and made his way unsteadily into ALicia's room. Both Trent and Reggie were set up across from them. "Hey," he said gently. "How are you feeling? Do you want me to show you are? We could go get some food. I sort of want to eat every thing in the entire world."

There had been another potential buyer the previous day, and while they had been standing, Razvan had passed out and landed hard on the floor of the cage, his head slamming against the bars. That had earned him punishment by cattle prod, though after they had all been given the smallest amount of food.

Now the captors returned, and signalled for them all to stand again, and Razvan was seriously considering whether or not it was worth it to pretend to faint again. Sure he would be shocked painfully, but if they got more food afterwards- And then the captors said the words which flooded him with relief.

"Stand up again, you pieces of shit. Another buyer coming through." And then, when he was making his way back to the door he said over his shoulder, "this one's a priest. So fucking weird."

Razvan sagged against the bars in relief and he signalled to the others. "It's my friend," he whispered. "He's here, fucking finally. Gonna have to act like I hate him. Safer. But it's my friend. I'll get us out of this."

When Peter heard someone enter his office, he did not expect it to be Serenity Dawson standing there in his doorway. Not that it was an unpleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. "Serenity?" he said, standing to indicate she could sit in his chair if she wanted. "How can I help you?"

Serenity glanced around, and then instead of heading for his chair, she headed for his sofa and collapsed onto it. "Is Razvan here?" she asked, instead of saying hello.

"Razvan? I don't think so. I haven't seen him, at least. Let me check," he said, taking his seat again. After a few quick calls to Katia, Abby, Stuart and Joe, he was fairly sure Razvan was not at the hospital. "No one here has seen him. I can call Nova, but I didn't want to alarm her if someone else had seen him. Is he not home, Serenity?"

Serenity shook his head and chewed on her lip, "not for days. And he's always been a bit hit or miss and I get that, but he texts me. I mean. He texts the stupidest things because he's fucking terrible at it, but he stays in touch, you know? I think we should call Nova," she said thinly.

Peter sighed and keyed her number in.

OOC: Set after this but before Scarlett reaches out.

Thomas and Peter pulled up to the Kemp house just before Stephie arrived. Peter had gotten the message that Magnus was settled into a room and locked down, and now they could tell Tasha the news. Peter was paler than usual, and Thomas reached out for his best friend the second they were out of the car. "Hey. It's going to be okay."

Peter couldn't say anything, but he did mumble a little in the affirmative before they turned towards Stephie's arrival.

OOC: Originally posted by Lewis in 2009 but we forgot and wrote things as if Magnus was still about so reposting NOW!

Getting back to London with Magnus in tow was even more difficult than finding him in the first place. Allanah took the first opportunity she had to find a very large bin bag and stuff Magnus inside, which made things marginally easier. It took a few bags to accommodate his weight.

Despite the cold conditions, Allanah was soaked through with sweat and extremely tired by the time she reached the Robert Macgavillary Memorial Hospital. The weather was bad enough that cloaking wasn't as difficult a matter as on some days, but it still took effort. Effort was something quite high on Allanah's list of things to avoid right now.

So it was that she strode into the hospital with her prize and dumped it in front of the reception desk. "Someone else can deal with it," she declared. "Inconspicuously." It wouldn't do to have any of the normal people see her bringing a man into the hospital in a rubbish bag...

Thomas was not sure how this was going to go. He hadn't been in the basement to visit Amaris since getting locked into the hallway during the blackout. Now he was heading down there and Stephie was coming with him. He was carrying a bag of supplies with him, because no way was he getting stuck without food again, and he had a tight hold on Stephie's hand. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked her as the elevator opened to the basement. Both Svetlana and Peter were waiting for them down there, and waved in greeting.

Thomas was nervous as he entered Peter's office. Being back in RMMH after his locked in the basement ordeal wasn't his favourite thing ever. It hardly held a candle to the horror of seeing his best friend struggling with addiction and falling off the wagon. Stephie had helped him deal with stepping in to the hospital and she had given him courage, but the rest he had to do on his own.

Abby acknowledged Thomas' presence in Peter's office, but she sort of just ushered him into Peter's bathroom and beat a hasty retreat. There were so many other things she needed to be doing other than looking after her drunk boss.

( You're going to be okay )

The thing about being this happy is that Stephie truly wanted to believe nothing could break it. All day she'd been dizzyingly high, the excitement bubbling up in her chest, grinning, joking, not staying still while Lavinia fixed her hair. And all day she'd been aware that something might go wrong - someone might disappear, someone might attack.

But everyone was as safe and protected as Peter could manage and there was certainly nothing else Stephie could do to make it safer. All she could do was hold onto this feeling and cherish every moment of it.

( ... )

It was supposed to be a joke of course, laughing with Peter's friends on Thomas' journal. And Aly had tried to join in, going along with it. It was what she would have done before-

Before she had attacked him. Before the angelic spirit she used to have in her brain had taken over and assaulted her husband while she was a prisoner in her own body. Now everything was awkward and awful and even though she had let the angelic spirit of her brother go and she was entirely herself again, Peter rarely ever let Aly anywhere near him. Especially not when they were alone. He waited until the kids all fell asleep and he sneaked downstairs to sleep on the sofa and while she understood entirely, it hurt.

So when Peter had stated he was going to take a bath, even if it might have sounded like Peter's normal dry humour to everyone else, Aly knew it was something else. She gently closed her laptop and went to find which bathroom he had slunk off to. She heard the water running in their master bath, and let herself in to find Peter in the tub, almost completely concealed by bubbles yet somehow looking dour. And she very nearly laughed at the juxtaposition, and would have were she not worried about upsetting him further. "Oh, Peter," she said instead. "I'm so sorry."

The room Peter found himself in was dim, lit only by flickering candlelight. The chill bit at his skin, his fingers stiff and cold. The walls were carved stone, thick and unrelenting. The air in the cell was stained with damp, making it all the more heavy to breathe. He was sitting on a bed, if it could be called that. It was little more than some wooden slats and a thin mattress made of straw. On the floor in front of him, Thomas was stretched out, topless, his back against the cold concrete. He looked thinner than normal, something which pained Peter to see. Thomas' fingers spidered out across the skin of his chest, as if he was counting his own ribs. Then he pressed the palm of his hand flat against his stomach and groaned-

( Oh god )

It had taken far longer than anyone had anticipated - a week and a half - for Peter to be able to get out of his hospital bed. Whether it was all physical, or some of it was just not wanting to face the reality that something in his wife's head had made her beat the shit out of him though was up in the air really.

But he did have to face it.

( The agreement )

"If you keep looking like that, your face might freeze that way."

Peter looked up at the voice of his daughter, though the look she was referring to, dour and confused, faded away to a delighted grin. "Tasha! Please! Come save me from accounts!" He slammed his laptop shut and pushed his rolling chair away from the desk with a look of slight glee.

( Just a thing I forgot I was doinnngggg )

"Heads up!"

Amaris had looked up when she heard the door to her room unlock and open, but she certainly hadn't expected a Galaxy bar to come sailing through the air towards her as the door closed. The warning was enough, however, and she was able to catch it easily, the wrapper crinkling as her hand closed around it. "You brought me chocolate?" It was Thomas because of course it was. He was the only person besides staff members who came to see her.

( Confrontations )

Stephie was in a terrific mood as she ran through all the pre-flight checks, on the physical helicopter, on the equipment, on the weather outside and their route. She'd done Grimsby half a dozen times already and liked the flight, liked the fact that she could fly over Cambridge and wave down at Jude. Liked the lack of stress involved on this particular flight, too. Clark was pretty cool, she didn't get any danger vibes off him, even though most of the rest of the residents in the hospital called him Grim, which was partially where he came from, partially the fact that his werewolf form was massive and dark and shaggy, but mostly was on Joel. He only came up to the hospital for his change because he lived out on a farm and didn't want to scare the horses.

And she was excited because she got to take Thomas up into the sky with her. She'd loved the look on Flynn's face when he'd gone flying with her and couldn't wait to see it on Thomas's. Ground Control to Major Tom. We're all set here she sent him a text from the helicopter pad on the roof of the hospital, doing one more final loop around the helicopter as she waited for him to make his way up to her.

About a year ago to the day, Stephie had been making this same walk up the many, many stairs toward Peter’s office. She’d been nervous then and she was nervous now, although she could barely compare what she’d felt that day to how she felt this morning. Back then, Peter had walked in on her with Thomas in a very compromising position and hadn’t even known they were together. He’d been worried about them then (‘ages’, he’d said, ‘ages are different’) and he was worried about them now.

Or rather, he was worried about Thomas. And as much as it hurt, she couldn’t blame him. It was weird, being hurt by something but totally understanding why.

She fidgeted with the necklace Thomas had given her as she hesitated outside Peter’s door. The silver circular phoenix had pretty fucking quickly become a talisman and she never wanted to take it off, or let it go.

Peter’s door was slightly open, which she supposed was a good sign, or at least a sign that he wasn’t in the middle of something dreadful. She still knocked though, on the doorframe, hit all of a sudden by the thought that she should have bought something with her. Some offering. Something that would lay her heart out on the table and prove just how goddamn serious she was about not hurting Thomas. Stephie didn’t really think there was a cake big enough to represent that feeling, though. Didn't think anything could.

Peter had to go back to work.

It wasn't because he needed the money, or because he was bored and uninspired. It was simply because he was needed, and as much as he wanted to, he couldn't ignore that forever. It was slightly inconvenient that the day he finally decided enough was enough, his best friend was in a different city, but waiting for Thomas to return was just another excuse.

He could do this himself.

Right?

( Awwwww )

Peter never saw him coming. One moment he was in the living room heading towards the sofa with a book in his hand, and the next he heard the voice of his best friend shout, "watch your balls!" and then someone slammed into him and he was suddenly face down on the sofa, under said friend. Thomas had tackled him without Peter even knowing he was in the room.

"Oooosshhhgg!" Peter exclaimed and rather wished he hadn't. Then, to his consternation, Thomas wiggled around a little and then simply settled down on top of him. "You know I have a book under me, right?" he asked Thomas. "I'm pretty sure it's now a part of me."

( Cuties )

Peter was sitting at the desk in his bedroom, trying to focus on the budget documents Joe had sent him, because even if he couldn't be there in person to deal with the other things, surely he could look at accounting papers? Except they were so boring he kept nodding off and catching his head right before it slammed against his desk. He was startled out of his half-sleep by his seven year old nephew William coming in to see him. "Uncle Peter, can we talk?" William asked, hovering around the doorway because he clearly knew Peter was doing something important.

Or he was supposed to be.

( Awwww )

The moment Tasha arrived at the Kemp house for her night at home, she sought out Peter. And when she found him, standing randomly in the kitchen sniffing various teas, she made a beeline towards him and pushed him. It wasn't all that hard, but enough to convey her emotion behind it.

Peter, who hadn't even heard her come in, looked up at her, a box of tea in hand, a very hurt and confused look on his face. "Tasha?"

( You ain't going nowhere )