Just Dropping In (Part Three) WHO Rebecca Sullivan OT Zee Chavez, Anya Kaminsky WHAT Becca, Zee, and Anya figure out what to do with Ben. WHERE Zee & Becca's bungalow WHEN Friday, May 19th, 2017 (Mid-to-Late Morning)
Her words ripped a laugh from those very lips that hers ghosted before the sound abruptly halted, his ribs protesting the movement. A noise of pain replaced the laugh—Why did she have to make him laugh?!—yet a grin mixed with a pained expression still remained on his face.
"I'm going to hold you to that, Rug Rat," he quipped back as Ben painstakingly settled back upon the bed.
Winded slightly from the effort, he lay there a moment with his eyes closed and once again regretting the events that got him into this situation. Seeing Zee again, though, would never be among those regrets. Opening his eyes, they turned upon the weretiger when he caught his breath, his expression soft and a little anxious.
"Will you stay?" He murmured, "At least until I fall asleep again?"
"And let you run out on me? I don't think so."
She leaned in, pressing a soft kiss along his jaw before gingerly maneuvering herself alongside him, mindful that she wasn't putting any sort of actual pressure on him. Her cheek nestled softly against his shoulder as she breathed in his scent; like everything else about him, it was the same as she remembered and completely different. Rolled on her side, she let her free fingers wander a little, give soft caresses along his arm until her hand came to rest over his, fingers entwined. She was careful to bear the weight of her arm on herself, and closed her eyes as she let her breathing fall into sync with his, slower and slower until he was asleep.
When she was sure she could move without waking him, she careful slipped out of the bed and tiptoed to the hallway, closing the door softly behind her. Back in the living room, she flopped onto the couch, across from her mother who sat perched in the overstuffed armchair nearby. By the look of things, Anya had gone out for some additional supplies, which she was currently sorting through on the coffee table.
"Вы действительно взяли яйца Бенджи," she told her mother, quickly holding up a hand to stop any objections. "He knows why you did it. I know why you did it. But if you ever do it again, we're gonna have a problem. ¿Sále?"
Not bothering to catch Anya's response, Zee sank a little further into the couch with a sigh. "We're gonna have to figure out what to do with him long term, though. Pretty sure Bec's gonna want her bed back."
Another laugh laced with pain tumbled forth from his chest and he indicated to the left leg bandaged and splinted, "Where am I gonna go?" It didn't much matter at the moment if he could go anywhere or not because he didn't want to. Lying there on the bed with Zee curling up at his side was the safest he'd felt in the longest time he could remember. That feeling coupled with the reassuring touch of his best friend made it easy to relax and let sleep suck him under and roll over him. He barely registered the movement of Zee's exit when he quickly drifted off again, oblivious that he was the subject of conversation.
In an effort to give Zee and her friend some privacy, Becca had cleaned up the side of the yard as best she could and hopped in the shower when she was satisfied that it didn't look like someone had bled all over the grass. She was just emerging from her bedroom with fresh clothes on and toweling her hair dry when she stepped into the living room.
"And he's going to need clothes." She side-eyed her housemate before adding, "I don't know if you noticed, but he was kind buck naked when he landed in our yard." A hint of a smile ghosted her lips as she said this, wondering if Zee noticed because she was ready to tease the shit out of her friend over it. Not missing a beat, she continued while heading into the kitchen for tea.
"That leg is gonna take a month to heal completely. I don't mind giving up my room for a week or until he's ambulatory." She took the next available seat upon returning and once she was comfortable, finally asked the burning question.
"So, who is this guy? You've never mentioned him before." She looked curiously at Zee over the rim of her tea mug.
"Just an old friend," Zee told Becca. "We grew up together in Alaska."
It wasn't a part of her life she really discussed with anyone, save for her mother. When they'd first arrived in Havenwood, it had been for safety; they couldn't be sure who knew who, or what might get back to the village they'd left behind. Anya had feared that Zee would be pulled back there to stand trial - or worse, the animal justice of the pack Zee's victim had belonged to. Zee also wasn't keen about her new schoolmates knowing that she'd killed someone and had to flee for her life, losing her father in the process. At Crescent Hill, there might have been some understanding, some sympathy. But at Havenwood High it was especially dangerous, given how "normal" most of the students were.
By the time Zee had moved back to Havenwood as an adult, her life in Alaska was hardly relevant. Even her relationship with Ben had reached its bitter end again, or at least so she thought at the time. Telling people about her feelings, especially about Ben, was not something was keen on. It didn't track with the appearance she kept up, which had also been critical in the favor she'd been tasked with by Cavan. She couldn't afford to show she cared about anyone, really.
Now, she debated how much to tell her roommate. She didn't think Becca would be mixed up with people like the Taiga; but if they ever came to town, the less the werewolf knew, the safer she would be. Besides, outing Ben would probably lead to outing Anya's past, and as angry as she was with her mother at the moment, she would never betray her that way.
"We lost touch a long time ago," Zee added. "Never thought he'd just drop in like that, you know?"
Growing up with Zee, Becca had gotten used to the evasion regarding her friend's past. As a fellow shapeshifter, she knew and understood the importance of secrets. But the blood she had cleaned up, the injuries she'd seen were days old, not the fresh ones acquired from dropping out of the sky and landing on their roof, was another matter completely.
Setting her mug on the coffee table, she silently regarded her friend, choosing her words carefully.
"Is Ben going to be a problem?"
Despite the diplomacy of her roommate's question, Zee couldn't stop her eyes from narrowing. She knew that Becca was just looking out for her pack, and that if their positions were reversed, she would have asked the same thing. But after the way her mother had treated Ben, Zee found herself feeling a little more defensive. It was a feeling spurred on by the unconscious fear that Ben's ties to the Taiga would come back to bite them all in the ass.
"No, he won't be a problem," Zee snapped."Why can't anyone here just trust him?"
After a moment, she threw up her hands in exasperation. "Okay, I know why. But Jesus, you'd think you could have a little compassion."
She paused again before blowing out a frustrated sigh, pinching at the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry, it's just... Wherever he came from, he fought like hell to get out. Can't we at least give him the benefit of the doubt?"
Realizing the implications just as the question left her lips, Becca mentally kicked herself. Clearly her attempt to be diplomatic failed, judging from her housemates reaction. Reaching for her tea once again, she took a few sips from the mug to stave off the more biting remark she had to say about her compassion before returning the mug to the coffee table.
"Zee, if I had no compassion, I would've let your friend bleed out in the sideyard. As my friend, I trust you and your judgement. I trust that you believe Ben has good intentions and has your best interests in mind. What I don't trust are the people he's running from."
Once again reaching for the mug of tea, Becca settled back in her seat to sip from it before continuing.
"You don't shoot someone in the back over nothing. Whatever this guy did has serious consequences and RJ needs to know if those consequences are serious enough to bring those people here. Ben needs to talk to my brother as soon as possible and tell him whether or not these people are going to be a threat to the shifters RJ cares about. So if you're going to be that stubborn about this, that includes you and your mom, smartass." She tossed back to Zee with a half-smile and a pointed look before sipping more tea and looking to Anya curiously, trying to gauge her reaction and opinion about the current situation.
Anya finished sorting and arranging her supplies in silence as she listened to the two younger women talk. She was careful to keep her face neutral, decades of nursing helping her effortlessly maintaining a look of quiet calm that belied the turmoil within. Ben's sudden reappearance and his connection to the Taiga made her realize that she had grown somewhat complacent. Becca had a point - consequences would follow him soon enough, and they would not be lightly dealt with. If - when - the Taiga came to town, there would be blood in the streets.
"Ben will stay with me," Anya announced, cutting into the conversation. "Let him sleep for now, but when it is dark, I will move him. Then I will speak to your brother."
She raised a hand when Zee tried to protest. "Rebecca is right, he needs to know. Ben is in no shape to tell, so I will do it for him. Nobody knows it better than me."
Her gaze shifted to Becca, steady as steel and still eerily calm. "You are right not to trust the ones who will come for him. They are truly monsters."
Becca's first instinct was to protest. Ben had fallen on their roof, he was their responsibility, but a moment spent thinking further lead the conclusion that having Zee's friend stay with her mom was the better course of action; He'd have better access to any treatment he needed and Anya had more medical knowledge than basic first aid (which Becca only possessed). Becca conceded to that part of Anya's plan.
Technically, Ben was a shapeshifter and not a werewolf. Anya speaking on his behalf would not be considered an insult for not informing the Alpha he would be staying in pack territory. However, the circumstances and reason Ben was even in Havenwood complicated the situation, put the pack at risk and judging from the stare she was getting from Anya, there was an entire novel behind it. She stared back at the tiger over the rim of her mug because to not was unacceptable to her wolf. Upon setting her tea down again, she nodded in concedment but added a proviso.
"You can vouch for Ben, but given the circumstances, RJ will still need to see him when he's more mobile. I'm sorry, Anya, it's just the pack way."
Anya muttered something in Russian under her breath about wolves being so stubborn, which actually made Zee laugh considering it was hard to be more stubborn than a Russian weretiger.
"Alright, but first, you let him sleep," Anya insisted in English. "When he is okay to be out of bed, I will call. If RJ comes to my house before then, I will be very not happy."
She finished packing up her supplies and tucked them neatly under her arm as she moved to leave. "I will see you tonight. Call me if something happens."
"Okay, mama," Zee promised, escorting her mother to the door.
After a quick kiss on the cheek, she closed it behind Anya, leaning back against it with a heavy sigh. She ran her hands over her face and through her untamed hair, absently trying to comb through it with her fingers as the day caught up to her. The days following the news of Ben's death had been some of the worst of her life, and now she had to contend with the fact that it had all been for naught. Everything she had done out of grief and hurt had been for a lie, and now she wanted nothing more than blood as repayment. At the same time, she hoped it didn't come to that. From everything her mother had told her about the Taiga, it was better to have nothing to do with them at all than to try and challenge them.
"Sorry about all this," she told Becca as she returned to the living room, flopping down in an empty armchair. "But mom's right. Even if RJ talks to Ben, he's gonna need to talk to her too. Nobody knows more about this than her."
Even after all these years of having Zee as a friend and being in regular contact with Anya, Becca's Russian was still shit because her job at Sullivan Shipping Co. dealt more with Latin, French, and German exports more than Russian. The werewolf belatedly got the gist of the older weretigers muttering, her laughter echoing Zee just before she sipped from her mug again because the woman wasn't wrong in her observation. Werewolves could be damn stubborn, especially if they were of Irish descent like her family was. She agreed that Ben needed to rest before being moved, a feat that would best be done under the cover of darkness as the older woman already stated.
Becca shrugged in response to Zee's apology, knowing full well the secrets someone of their background had to keep to survive and protect their family. However, a thoughtful expression spread across her face as she got to her feet and she made her way to the kitchen, setting her mug in the sink before she opened the fridge and started pulling out breakfast ingredients. The werewolf paused long enough to look over the top of the door.
"Okay, so now that your mom is gone, I'm gonna repeat my earlier question: Who is this guy? Also, do you want pancakes or waffles?"