Morningstar Manor

He'd gotten used to sleeping in his bed. Or at least laying in it. Being with Bea made him wander less at night but he still sat up and watched her sleep instead of sleeping himself. Today, she was at her place and he was at his though. He'd just gotten back from a detail in Texas and his class A's were hanging off his closet door, where he'd put them when he got home. He'd managed to fall asleep somehow, but couldn't remember doing it.

The only thing Eli could remember was hearing shots being fired and feeling like he'd been pushed out of a plane. As the ground rushed up to meet him he shot up out of bed yelling "Hooah! Airborne! Rangers lead the way." in a cadence. His dog tags clinked together and he wiped sweat off his brow. A glance at his clock deemed it to be almost seven in the morning, on the eighth of November. Shaking his head as he headed for the shower, he was glad Bea wasn't with him last night.

Eli was sitting in the Mocha this afternoon, cup of coffee in hand and dressed rather sharply for a simple soldier. Yes, he'd gotten dressed up to go to church and sat through a two hour long service without falling asleep. He was a good Catholic boy, wasn't he?

Erin was bored and procrastinating. It didn't go well together, but she wanted to do something fun, not something she should be doing. Like laundry or tidying up around her apartment. She was wandering around instead.

~*~
Logan was out in the garden, pulling up all the plants that had died off because of the cold.

Chad sat on a bench in the sunlight, glasses over his eyes as he watched people pass by.

*~*
Travis was in the library, hunched over a table and doing some online shopping. Memphis's birthday was coming up and he needed to find something good after what he'd done.

~*~
In the garage, Memphis was cleaning out Lucy's interior. He hadn't noticed the scratch across the back bumper, but since it was getting cooler out he wasn't washing her as much.

*~*
Tristan was, as per usual on Thursday, dressed in his suit and winding his way through the lobby to head out to work. He hadn't buttoned his shirt fully, nor had he shaven since last Friday. It felt good to look a little less kept. Smiling to himself he decided a treat wouldn't be a bad idea and detoured into the Mocha.

*~*
Roxy had turned the treadmill on and set a distance for ten miles. Maybe by the time she was done with that some of her thoughts would be clearer.

~*~
Eli was sitting in the Mocha, pile of mail on the table in front of him. He sipped at his coffee as he read a rather long letter that contained a couple different style of handwriting on it. Family letters were always unpredictable and his brother had atrocious hand writing. He smiled still at the news of hometown football games and the fights that broke out as a result, then flipped the page over.

Bea had been working like a crazy person all week to complete the final edit on the second issue of Stiletto. She hadn't gotten the chance to see Eli since last Sunday, so when everything was done and ready to be mailed, she gave him a call and he invited her and Pippa down to spend the night.
Now, curled up against him on the couch with Pippa sleeping on her puppy bed on the floor next to them, exhaustion washed over her. Faintly in the distance she thought she heard thunder, and she was glad she was with Eli tonight.

Frustrated by a day in a lab with nothing new to report Icene had opted to work out in the gym tonight. Spending time on a cardio workout had been good, but now she was onto the weights machines, and contemplating finishing her evening off with a round of 'kill the punch bag'. She hadn't bothered with anything special, so the only sounds in the gym were the clank of the weights and the occasional heavy breath as she exerted herself. But for the most part she was working out in silence, so of course she heard the doors open and turned to see who it was that had come in.

Eli had been in and out of meetings today. It regarded a lot of nonsense that he didn't agree with, but he had to do because of his job. He just hoped that if deployments got handed down again, he would be sent before some of the other guys with families and girlfriends.

Feeling a little frustrated and slightly disappointed, he ducked into the Mocha for coffee remembering to remove his beret only after he'd stood in line for a minute. Class A's were one uniform he didn't like wearing all that much, but when in meetings they were sometimes required.

Bea had laid out her bikini to change into for the trek upstairs to the hot tub and felt her guts tighten in anticipation.
This was bound to be interesting. She hoped he didn't insist on keeping his pants on the whole time.

Roxy was sitting in the Mocha, playing with her new phone and loving the fact that it was a worldwide capable phone. That meant that the next time she and Spencer went on an extended trip... Well she wouldn't really be wanting to take her phone then either.

~_~
Travis was sporting a Save second base tee shirt he'd picked up from the mail room, and had another with him as he walked down the hall to apartment L-E. He hadn't seen Amarie in a few days, so he was taking a guess that she'd be home.

_~_
Eli was downstairs, in the gym. He had on a pair of Army sweat pants and a black tank top. Lifting weights helped him think about things that were going on and he was thinking about Bea a lot.

~*~
Memphis was in the lobby, juggling around the couple bags of groceries with Demon's leash. "Hold on dog, we'll get there and then I'll feed you." He grumbled lightly.

*~*
Chad was trying to take his Sunday easily, having been swamped at work with the recent activities at Rutherford. His phone buzzed and he opened it up, opening up the video message that'd been sent. Listening to it he wondered just what was going on with cops now.

^-^
Logan was outside in the garden, tossing a ball around with Lily and waiting for her to bring it back.

-^-
Erin was in the laundry room with a load of coloreds in one machine and a load of whites in another. Now the only thing to do was find something to occupy her time until they needed to be swapped to the dryer.

--
Tristan had moseyed his way upstairs, to the pool, and currently sat in the hot tub. It was a nice warm welcome to the contrasting temperatures soon to come, and he didn't really want to get out any time soon.

It was cold, dark, and storming, and Bea couldn't sleep. She'd tried to get to bed early, try attaining that mysterious "eight hours" that doctors seemed so gung ho about, but rarely ever happened. It didn't seem to be happening tonight either. When she'd fallen asleep she'd dreamed of when her dad died, and the time after. She didn't want to dream of her mother or her boyfriend, but she had. She couldn't stand to be alone.
Wrapping her snuggly blanket around her shoulders, covering the cream colored slip dress that she'd decided to sleep in and slipping flip flops onto her feet, she went down to Eli's apartment without thought.
She felt safe with him, and she hadn't been able to quit thinking about him.

Eli couldn't sleep, so he went wandering. He poked around in the mail room, got some coffee and very briefly played sugar packet hockey with a cat. It didn't go over too well and the lady at the counter gave him a dirty look, but he still picked up the sugar packets.

Feeling entirely discontent and somewhat cold, he found his way through the conservatory and in a long, dark hallway.

Erin was curled up on a couch in the Mocha, sipping on hot chocolate and contemplating the past couple days with Niles. She hadn't seen ghosts around here at all, even when others next to her swore there as one standing in front of her. Maybe she was the crazy one but then again she wondered if they existed to only those people believing in their existence.

*~*
Logan was siting in the Mocha as well, looking out into the garden. He didn't have anything productive to do today and that just made it seem longer of a day overall. He needed to find something to do before boredom took away his brain.

~*~
Chad was downstairs, working in the gym. He had the treadmill set at steady six miles per hour and was jogging along steadily.

*~*
Memphis was in the library, checking on some books about cooking. He wanted to find a recipe that was new and not one Jane had given him to try out next weekend.

~*~
Roxy was downstairs in the laundry room, tossing clothes into two of the machines. There had been a laundry facility at one of the hotels on their adventure, but it had been the one in the middle. Just meant they'd brought home a large amount of laundry, which she was doing now.

*~*
Travis was sitting in the lobby, notebook in hand jotting down random fact about the people who walked by. He was grinning, because this was actually homework he didn't mind doing.

~*~
Tristan had gone down to the Gallery 290, where Emma worked, to see if he could find something new he liked. Having gone with Anastasia last night, he picked up a piece but it was staying in his office. It didn't fit with the black and white prints already on his walls that seemed to be missing something. Maybe he could find it here.

*~*
Eli was up at the pool. His jello stain marks had come off now so he was willing to be out where people could see him. Wandering over to the edge he looked out on the City. This place sure had a good view, that was certain.

Eli had finally fallen asleep about an hour after the sun came up. Which was why he groaned at the knock on the door and answered it with a yawn. He still had red tinted spots on his head, arms, and the back of his hand.

Seeing Bea on the other side of his door, he wondered if he was still dreaming. Then he remembered that yesterday was Friday and today they were going shopping for furniture. "Morning sunshine." He said with a grin as he held the door open for her to come in.

They came in through the garage, hashing out the night's events between them.

Adam kept glancing over at Eli - specifically at the red smudges and stains on the other man's clothes and skin and his words kept getting twisted up with laughter. He even spotted a small, red globule in Eli's ear.

Snorting, he almost choked on a laugh.

"Dude, I warned you," he pointed out when Eli looked mutinous.

Stuck to the door of Eli's locker was a short note, written on a corner of a piece of paper ripped from a yellow legal pad.

Welcome to Wyvern.

The Elbow Room - 9pm.

First round's on me.

-Major McClaren

Eli was up at an ungodly hour this morning, dressed in camouflage greens that looked foreign to him after wearing the tan ones for so long. In his email was his daily dose of laughter, and skipping ahead he found one to print out, thinking Bea would appreciate it. He folded the paper in thirds, popped into an envelope and drew a couple stick figures on it. The one in the to looked close to her as a stick figure girl and the one where a return address would go was a boy one. In parentheses under the figures he wrote (Bea) and (Eli) then stuck it in her mailbox before heading out to work.

It was almost Friday and Logan couldn't be happier. He was tucked into a back corner of the Mocha, chemistry book propped up on the table and scribbling in a notebook as his cup of cocoa got cold.

~~~
Chad was walking through the lobby in his uniform, trying to figure out why Logan hadn't answered his phone call.

***
Memphis was outside playing fetch with Demon, since Travis had holed himself up in his room claiming he had "homework" to do. The boy, however, was in the garage trying to find Lucy's hidden spare key.

~~~
Tristan was climbing out of the pool, not looking forward to tonight at work and wondering if there would be any more fist fights like the one last night.

***
Eli was collecting yet more forwarded mail. Where it all came from he had not a single clue, but somehow every advertisement distributor knew his mail had been piling up and sent everything under the sun to clog the mail box.

~~~
Erin was down in the laundry room, sorting dark from lights and leaving her "delicates" in the basket at her feet.

Adam had slept like one dead for full nine hours before finally stirring and stumbling into the bathroom for a shower and a shave. As he walked into the kitchen afterward, in a glorious much missed pair of jeans and a t-shirt, he felt like a brand new man. He felt so good he spent several long minutes teasing Icene, stealing ingredients off plates and pans while she cooked just because he could.

When she threatened to beat him with a spoon he finally relented and settled for nibbling on her neck for awhile instead. When whatever it was she was cooking threatened to burn he pulled away with a grin and promised to be back by the time she was done. It might have only been his first day back, but there were still things he needed to do. Of which, stopping in to see his brother was one.

Joe looked a little thinner, and there seemed to be some new lines of strain around his eyes, but he was for all intents and purposes in one piece and for now Adam was content with that. He also picked up his mail and stopped in at his apartment, but neither of those held his attention for very long.

No, he was much happier in the gardens, standing barefoot in the grass and looking up at the dingy, cloud-covered sky.

"I'm home!" he shouted randomly at the clouds.

From a distance someone yelled back, "Nobody cares!"

Adam just laughed. He loved this place.

Bea sat behind a table that held several copies of her comic at a local convention hall, one of many comic book artists in attendance, signing away and talking to fans. She wore a black dress and a pair of rather awesome shoes that she'd already recieved a lot of compliments on already. She was starting to feel tired and her hand was starting to cramp. Comic Book fans were rather elitist and the ones that weren't a fan were slowly wearing on her nerves.

Eli had gotten in late last night and stayed on the base until a more reasonable time today. He'd checked with the security desk guy, gotten a key and a welcome packet to add with his forwarded mail from the base, and headed to the nearest table. That table happened to be in the Mocha, and he stuffed his olive drab green duffel under the table as he sorted though the stack of mail.

First things first, he opened the welcome packet and flipped through that. After looking through the pictures of things he moved on to the next envelope.