Who: Nina Clarke, Daniela Diaz, and Demi Rafferty When: Backdated to the evening of September 6, approx. 7:30PM What: Dani admits to eavesdropping on Nina and Theo's IMPORTANT CHAT. Then Demi shows up and turns the two of them into her new therapists. Once that's resolved, the wine comes out and the stories start!
Nina has never been one to live with others, but she's glad that her temporary co-habitation situation with Dani hadn't yet backfired. The two of them are similar enough to not be in each other's hair when the other was preoccupied with something else, and Dani hasn't yet proven herself to be extraordinarily messy. She's sure her guest would prefer her own bed rather than Nina's couch, but she's also sure that Dani'd prefer being alive to being dead.
"Do you remember when Friday nights actually meant something more than just another night?" she asks conversationally, looking up from a case she's reviewing. "I never thought I'd miss a movie theatre as much as I do now."
"I vaguely remember something like that,” Dani replies lightly, scribbling a note onto the top sheet in a stack of papers. There isn’t much in the way of lab work that she can do away from the hospital, but there’s always written reports to be filed. You would think, with paper and ink a lot rarer than it used to be, that the UMCB would have found a way to go paperless in the face of the apocalypse, but no. Somehow Dani is still writing things out by hand.
“I think the last movie I saw in the theater was …” Dani lays aside her pen, frowning slightly as she tries to recall. She doesn’t mind the interruption, and has actually come to appreciate having Nina’s company in the evenings. She’s fair more considerate than Daniela’s former roommates. “Something with Sofia Vergara. I think it involved a jewel theft or mobsters or something.”
"I think I saw that one. With Reese Witherspoon?" One of Nina's colleagues had suggested it as a diversion after a particularly difficult couple of months in which they'd all happened to lose their cases. The subject matter and the quality of the film hadn't done all that much to cheer the lawyers up. "It was... an interesting movie."
It’s unfortunate that, of all the films she might’ve drawn from her memory, Dani happens to choose one that involves criminals, reminding her of the snippets of Nina’s conversation with Detective Laberenz that she overheard the day before. At first it was a matter of discovering the bathroom wall to be much thinner than she’d anticipated, but then she -- to Dani’s current embarrassment -- gave into the impulse to eavesdrop, from the moment her ears picked up the moniker of the Dog King, along with Nina’s voice saying that the APD suspected her of being in touch with the leader of the supply-truck-raiding band of outlaws. Dani remained frozen in place until she heard Nina confirm for Laberenz that she had not, in fact, contacted this man called Rodeo, and then she slipped out of the bathroom. By the time Laberenz and Nina emerged from the adjacent bedroom, Dani was sitting on the sofa, and to all appearances she'd been there the whole time.
"I don't typically care for heist movies," she adds, shuffling the papers as a subconsciously nervous activity. “Anything that casts crooks in a sympathetic light just makes me unsettled; I spend the whole time waiting for law and order to reassert itself, and it rarely does.”
The statement catches Nina off guard. She pauses, mouth half open, as she wonders if this is a coincidence or a statement done with intention. The paranoia that's settled in over the last few weeks means she's inclined to take it as the latter, but jumping to conclusions has never helped her both in and out of the courtroom.
"You know how I feel about the law," she says lightly, once she's decided to play it safe to start. "One day they'll make a movie about a lawyer who wins the case and locks up the big crime kingpin for good. That always bothered me about the superhero movies, too; the bad guy always gets his way in the end." She's choosing her words with the precision of a lawyer who's good at her job, watching Dani's reaction carefully.
It isn’t Dani’s intention to be having two conversations right now, one overt and one not, while Nina is only participating in the former, but somehow that’s where she’s found herself. And she wants to get out. Thinking logically, there are two ways this can proceed: she can back off the subject of fictional thievery entirely and move on, or she can abandon her inadvertent pretense and simply ask about what she wants to know.
What does she want to know? Even with only a brief acquaintance, Dani can tell Nina is an honest lawyer, not a corrupt one, so that isn't the issue. And she could not have less of an interest in the infamous figure of the post-apocalyptic highway bandit called the Dog King, or his band of followers. Except. Everyone at the UMCB knows who raids the supply trucks, and if Nina can offer any insight into what drives these men to steal from a hospital, Dani wouldn't be adverse to that.
She glances at Nina, and there's something about the other woman’s measured expression that makes Dani think she’s not as unaware about the second conversation as previously thought.
"I swear to god I didn't bring this topic up on purpose," Dani says, pinching the bridge of her nose. "But I accidentally overheard part of your conversation with Detective Laberenz yesterday -- sound carries straight through the wall between your bathroom and your bedroom, by the way -- and so I guess I already had criminal activity on my mind when you mentioned movies."
She picks up her stack of papers, trying to shuffle them back into some semblance of order. “They raid the hospital’s supply trucks -- the Hellhounds, I mean.” The name of the biker gang is said with thinly veiled disapproval. Her next words hold no accusation, however, merely curiosity. “Do the APD really think you know their leader?”
Nina's used to questioning, interrogation, getting the answers she wants without making it all that obvious what she's after. Body language plays a bigger role in that than most laypeople think. So it's not entirely surprising to her when Dani launches right into what's on her mind -- the conversation she and Theo had privately the night before -- without any kind of preamble or attempt to carry on the conversation about Sofia Vergara. It sets her heart pounding faster, though, a telltale sign of tension and one she's felt too often lately.
"Good to know about the walls," she says, offering a smile that's tinged with reassurance. There's an invasion of privacy that concerns her, of course, but it wasn't as though she and Theo had been speaking in a soundproof room. (Not that there would have been any better place for them to speak, considering her concerns about the Capitol at large.) And given where Dani works, she can completely understand why talk of Hellhounds would catch her interest. Nina has the same concerns, too, thanks to her friendships with Cal and Karen. She doubts that she and James are ever going to see eye to eye on things like that. She also doubts that she has any other option -- at least, one that wouldn't entirely burn a bridge between her and Dani -- than tell the truth. An abridged version of the truth, but the truth nonetheless.
"They do think that. And I do know him. It's been a long time since I've seen him, but he and I have been acquainted for a long while." 2011, the year she'd moved back to Austin and took up James Hawkins' case, feels like another lifetime. "I represented him in a trial. It was my first case as a public defender here in Travis County. But I didn't know he was still alive until the APD came up to me about it."
Dani absorbs this information from Nina for a moment before replying. It's a perfectly respectable answer, not that she expected anything else. The APD must be eager for any information they can get on this Rodeo, and interviewing his public defender makes sense in that context. Nor is it much of a surprise her to hear that the Dog King had been in trouble with the law before the uprising. It takes a certain type of man to resort to becoming an outlaw, and a criminal fits the bill perfectly.
She wants to ask what the charges were, and whether Rodeo was convicted or exonerated. If it had been anyone else who had been his representation, Dani thinks she would have pressed for more without hesitation. However, she likes Nina, and can’t figure out a way to word this question that doesn’t make it sound like she’s either prying unnecessarily or questioning Nina’s past. It seems best to fall back on simplicity and hope for the best. She's already confessed to eavesdropping, what's a few more questions?
“What was he on trial for?” Dani says, raising her head again as she commits to the rest of this conversation. He might have been accused of anything, really, as far as she knows.
"It was a double homicide." Nina's eyes meet Dani's unflinchingly, holding her gaze as she assesses the reaction her words will, not if, elicit. She's never condoned what Rodeo had done to make their two paths cross and never will, but as his public defender it wasn't her place to deny him fair representation. Not everyone sees her duty, her upholding of her oath as a lawyer, in quite the same light.
She expects that Dani will share her distaste for the act -- how could she not, given how horrible it'd been? -- but she's waiting for the judgment call that's inevitably always directed at her for taking and working on his case.
"We lost," she adds simply. Her voice is steady despite the nerves she feels at the potential this conversation has for pushing this woman, someone who could truly be a friend, away. "That's when we lost touch, when he was sent to jail."
The admission of her client's crimes raises Dani's eyebrows, but not because she judges Nina's part in it. As far as she is concerned, Nina was simply doing her job. Some people might mistakenly believe that all defense attorneys enjoy helping the guilty escape justice, but Dani doesn't. The guilty walk, yes, but for many reasons. In this instance, though, it sounds like the system worked exactly the way it was supposed to. She holds Nina's gaze, but if the other woman is looking for some sign of reproach in her expression, nothing like that is there.
"I suppose a man who's suspected of being the Dog King wouldn't have exactly limited himself to jaywalking, would he," she says. Despite the phrasing, it's not really a question. Dani gestures with one hand, flipping it palm side up as if inviting Nina to continue. "And now that your client might have turned up at the head of this pack of raiders, the APD have come asking if he reached out to an old acquaintance?"
Though why on earth anyone would believe he'd do such a thing escapes Dani. The DOJ doesn't seem like the sort of thing a man like the Dog King would fear, so there would be no need for him to seek representation on the chance that the department might come down on him. The police are simply being thorough, she supposes, looking for any angle that might lead them closer to stopping the jacking of the supply trucks -- along with whatever other crimes can be laid at the Hellhounds' feet. But unless the APD have reason to suspect more of a connection between Nina and the man called Rodeo, which seems highly unlikely to exist, they must be grasping at straws.
"I'm not sure they were entirely convinced that they were the same man, at first," Nina admits. "That was the main thrust behind their asking if we'd been in contact. It'd serve a dual purpose for them, of course, knowing the man's alive and whether or not he had an acquaintance or accomplice within the Department of Justice."
She isn't even sure how she'd answer that last question if she was forced to. Would she help Rodeo if he ever came asking for it? It's something she's wondered, but she's always concluded to herself that she'll never know until the opportunity arises. She hopes, for her own sake, that it never does. "I've heard tell, though, that he's alive and well. I haven't seen him with my own eyes to confirm or deny that."
"It sounds like being under the APD's scrutiny would make life difficult for you. I haven't somehow made that worse by staying here, have I?" It's an odd leap of logic, since the Annihilator has nothing to do with the Hellhounds, and Dani hopes that she's wrong. But with Nina facing inquiry as the result of one crime, connecting her to another may only draw more attention her way.
"No. Definitely not." There wasn't any hesitation before Nina's answer and she adds a smile afterwards, hoping to set Dani at ease. "And no offense, but in your case, I think it's important for you to have some scrutiny. Better safe than sorry." After all, why gamble with your life? Still, though, she feels for the inconvenience of an uprooted life. "I hope it's all right, that I invited you to stay."
The expression that Dani gives Nina is slightly puzzled. "Of course it's all right. It's generous of you to open your home to someone who's, well, more or less a stranger, to be frank. Your invitation took me by surprise, but I'm grateful for it." Not that Laberenz had put her in a closet or something, but it was nice not to be completely alone in a strange place.
It only occurs to Dani then that perhaps Nina means something else, something about unwittingly drawing her into whatever the APD is looking into about the man who leads the Hellhounds, and whether he has any connection to Nina. As she ponders this, Dani puts the papers she had been working on away for the night. But no, she overheard Nina deny any contact from her former client, and so there isn't even a hint of concern in Dani's mind that she could be in any way adversely affected by the APD's suspicions.
"Let's just hope," she adds, with a tight smile, "that both our situations are rapidly resolved to our satisfaction."
"Let's hope so," Nina echoes, following suit and setting her own work aside, too. And then, almost as though fate was intervening, there was a knock on the door. She turns her head, a quizzical expression on her face. "I don't think I was expecting anyone," she adds, but she still gets up to answer nonetheless.
She's a woman who appreciates the truth -- how could she be anything but with a profession like hers? -- but she's still grateful to have an excuse to no longer be open for more questions about the Hellhounds. The conversation had gone better than expected, truthfully, but, well. If Nina had thought before, during her conversation with Theo, that she was in over her head? She's sure now that she's already become trapped in a web of her own making.
Nina's surprised to see Demi at the door, though her visit isn't unwelcome. "Hi Demi," she says, wondering mildly if she'd forgotten something. "Did we have plans?"
Texting should have been her first course of action, but by the time Demi remembers that part of her agreement with Nina, she's already standing at her friend's door. The pounding knock that accompanies her merely giving away the sense of urgency she feels.
Demi needs to talk, needs the listening ear of someone who knows the kind of guy she usually goes for and knows the kind of guy Isaac is. Both of which are nothing alike.
When the door opens, Demi is breezing past Nina unapologetically with a "Hey, Nina," of her own. Never once does she stop to think that Nina's house guest could be present.
"No, we didn't have plans," she answers while making a beeline for the couch, flopping down onto it once she's reached it. It's nothing Nina hasn't seen before, but this time -- now that she has company -- she finds herself wishing Demi had at least asked, first.
Only once she is settled does Demi notice the other woman in the room. "Oh, hi?" She offers a smile, and if she wasn't so self absorbed it might have even been sheepish in nature.
A visitor arriving to look for Nina isn’t so surprising. Her hostess undoubtedly knows a whole range of citizens living at the Capitol, unlike Dani herself. That the visitor is unannounced, just waltzes right inside without even waiting for an invitation to do so, and drops onto the sofa with a careless air of proprietorship? That makes Dani’s eyebrows raise slightly in response. Who is this person, exactly?
But this is not Dani’s home, and so she bites her tongue, exchanging her look of mild surprise for a polite, if somewhat tight, smile. “Hi,” she replies. Then she waves her hand, implying that the newcomer should by all means continue, if she chooses.
"Demi, this is Dani." Nina waves her hand back and forth, gesturing between the two women. She can't help the amused smile that flickers on her face as she says their names aloud together, but it dissipates quickly once she catches sight of Dani's expression. "Dani works in the lab at the UMCB. Demi…"
How did one even politely introduce Demi Rafferty?
"Demi is going out with one of my colleagues at the DoJ, Isaac Callahan," she says, hoping no one had noticed the hesitation. "She likes to drop by occasionally for chats."
Maybe if she weren’t so caught up in her own emotional turmoil -- Lita and Teagan having only been able to help marginally in sorting out her confused thoughts -- Demi would have picked up on the feeling in the room, one that clearly spoke to the fact that she was interrupting something.
Later it might dawn on her, and there was no doubt that Demi would be bugging Nina about what exactly was going on between her friend and the woman she was offering shelter to.
For right now though, she was living in the moment -- one in which she desperately needed to have someone help her sort out her jumbled feelings.
“Nice to meet you, Dani,” Demi offers a smile to the other woman, remembering her manners for a brief moment before she’s charging on again. “And what Nina isn’t saying is that it’s not chats, it’s usually me venting and using her as a cheap form of therapy,” she remarks with a laugh. “She is exceptionally good at listening to me complain, I think she might have missed her true calling to be honest.”
Nina can't help but laugh at that. Self-absorbed Demi may be, but the woman's also self-aware. Still, she's wondering if it would be better to ask her to leave or to come by again when Dani isn't around.
“Nice to meet you too,” Dani replies automatically. Her attention focuses on Nina for a moment, though, rather than Demi, because this is perhaps the first time she’s seen the other woman truly laugh. This says something favorable about Demi, she thinks, and when her eyes turn back to the newcomer, Dani’s smile relaxes into something more genuine.
"Were you looking to reminisce about the past again?" Nina asks, her words carefully chosen to mask the real question: Is this Hellhound-related? "Or is this about something in our present?"
It’s always unusual, from an outsider’s perspective, to find yourself in the middle of a comfortable interaction between two people who know each other better than they know you. This is especially true at the moment, with Demi entering on the heels of a scene that was, in its own way, also rather stiff. For a moment Dani considers whether she ought to make an excuse and step out, either for long enough that Nina and Demi can have some privacy, or for the whole night. She can’t return to the UMCB, but there are other quarters in the Capitol -- she stayed in some before taking up temporary residence on Nina’s sofa.
After brief consideration she decides to stay, at least for now, and though she doesn’t quite lean in when Nina asks what has brought on Demi’s visit, Dani is definitely listening to the answer.
Demi’s shaking her head ‘no’ even before Nina’s finished her question. This isn’t about the Hellhounds, not in their entirety anyway. What’s eating away at her is purely personal -- guy problems -- and all she needs is perspective, the listening ear of someone who knows both the man Demi’s was with in her past and the one she’s with in her present.
“Don’t worry I didn’t come to reminisce,” she answers, her smile going a little tight around the edges. “I came because I need someone to tell me I’m not going crazy or suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something.” Sure, both Lita and Teagan had told her she wasn’t, but until she get’s Nina’s opinion on the whole muddled situation Demi isn’t ruling it out.
“It’s guy problems,” she finally supplies, glancing from Nina to Dani. “You were there, you saw how jealous I was of Isaac meeting with that jailbait from Fox Grove, then I kissed him and now I’m just confused…” Demi trails off. “Isaac isn’t like anyone I’ve been with before. I mean you know Cal and James, they’re both, well, they’re both not like him.” She couldn’t explain exactly why in this moment she used Rodeo’s given name, maybe because deep down she had concerns that people in Austin might recognize the name Rodeo, and with Dani present she felt like James was a far more ambiguous name. While Cal was mentioned purely because he emphasised Demi’s type as well, even if they had been nothing more than a fling.
Nina gives a slight nod, hoping Demi had picked up on her code and that she hadn't just come off like an oddball, talking about reminiscing and nostalgia. Her eyes flicker over to Dani's, wondering if the woman will stay for the great emotional unloading that is a chat with Demi Rafferty. Dani's still there, though, and Nina can't help but take a seat opposite the couch, a curious expression on her face. She'd been there for that kiss between Demi and Isaac, of course, and they hadn't yet had a chance to really unpack that.
As much as Nina hates to admit it, she is nearly completely sure that Isaac is a morally good man at heart. She may dislike his lack of work ethic, his apparent disregard for other people's feelings, and his self-satisfied facial expressions, but sticking his neck out for Demi and pulling her out of La Quinta hadn't been something he could've done lightly. But she's still not fully sure that Isaac and Demi would be good together. She's witnessed firsthand just how volatile they can be.
"Well, what is it that attracts you to Isaac?" Nina asks, figuring it's as good a start as anything else. "Maybe it's the differences that are actually important, here."
The names that Demi lists are, for the most part, complete strangers to Dani. There's an Aizik at the hospital but no Isaac, and James is sufficiently bland that there are probably still a dozen of them, at least, left in Austin. Cal, though. There's a DoR agent who often visits the UMCB by the name of Cal, a sharp-witted smartass with dark blond hair. Dani studies the other woman, trying to picture her with the man she knows, and decides that, yes, she could see it.
That gives her some idea, at least, of what this conversation is about. If this Isaac isn't like Cal, he must be clean cut, not much of a joker, staid. Which is apparently a problem, though Dani isn't sure she understands why. Maybe that will become clear as the conversation continues; she doesn't even have a good idea of what Demi herself is like yet.
If only answering that question were simple. Demi would like to be able to rattle off a list of things that have drawn her to Isaac, clear and cut and without any of the muddle confusion she’s feeling in this moment. Sighing heavily, she kicks her legs up onto the couch and literally sprawls out like she’s sitting down with a therapist. In truth Nina has become her therapist, her confidant in this world that isn’t hers and will probably never be.
“Honestly?” Demi’s shifting, turning her head to look at the two women seated in chairs across from her. “At first I was just trying to get under his skin, make him actually live his goddamn life, instead of walking around like an automaton. Somewhere in there I guess I stopped caring about him as the man who saved my ass, and started caring about the man himself…” it’s clear in her tone that Demi’s confused about her feelings, chewing on her lower lip for a moment before adding. “He’s got a real sense of humor underneath that blaise demeanor, and he’s just good, like the kind of good I’m pretty sure I’m not worthy of thinking I deserve.” This isn’t said with self-pity, but with self-awareness. Demi isn’t the kind of girl you dress up and bring home to mom, she’s the kind of woman moms warn their son’s to stay away from. “And well, you’ve seen him. It’s not like he’s hard to look at.” That last part is said with a little smirk, like Demi knows just how superficial her last reason is.
Nina just barely resists the urge to roll her eyes. She does something productive, instead: look for an official, 'office' picture of Isaac in her email, then hand her phone over to Dani so she can be partially informed. "He's all right," she says, wrinkling her nose somewhat as she considers the appearance of her co-worker -- and, technically, supervisor. "His features are relatively symmetrical and when he's not making that smug facial expression, I could understand why you would like to look at that."
She knows that Demi's attraction to him is more than surface level, so she reluctantly directs her mind to ponder Isaac's positive qualities. Nina can understand why Demi chose those ones, too. So she states what she believes to be the obvious, saying, "It doesn't really sound like there's a problem, then, for you to be interested in him." A pause, then: "You know, all things considered. Any other previous relationships are kind of besides the point." Nina doubts Demi wants to get into the deeper intricacies of her and Isaac's relationship with Dani present, though.
Taking Nina’s phone -- though she’s not sure why it’s being handed to her -- Dani looks down at the screen while Nina counsels Demi. Oh, this must be Isaac. Light brown hair, green eyes, looks like he could use a shave. There’s nothing objectively wrong with his face, but Dani’s taste in men, unlike her taste in women, has always been sporadic and hard to pin down.
“He’s cute,” she says, passing the phone back. There’s a reserved, almost offhand tone to her voice, as though she’s merely reciting the expected response to seeing a photo of someone’s maybe-boyfriend. It does not escape her that Nina's opinion was also atypical, and Dani glances in the other woman's direction, wearing a thoughtful expression. Perhaps Nina just doesn't find Isaac physically attractive because she dislikes him. Perhaps it's something else.
"You defined what it is you like about Isaac as a person before you admitted to finding him attractive," she chimes in just as Nina shoots her a surreptitious glance of her own, sizing up lackluster reaction and finding it suspect as well. "That seems promising."
"Oh my god, Nina, could you be any more clinical in your assessment of him physically?" Demi's pulling a face of her own now, though she's fully aware that her friend might not be the best choice in fawning over Isaac's physical attributes. She made a mental note to look towards Lita when it came to gabbing about his attractiveness. "And I would say hot, but cute works." She adds, glancing over to Dani when the other woman chimes in with her opinion.
"Also, sweetheart, any man can be wrapped up in a pretty package, but if their insides are rotten they aren't worth the time," Demi remarks, as if that explains why she focused on character traits and not looks. "At least that's the school of thought I've always lived by." Handsome men were not an oddity in her life, which was why she always gravitated towards men that had something more than just good looks and charm going for them.
"So we at least know it's not a superficial attraction that's the sole motivating factor, here," Nina says. It may be obvious to Demi, but she and Dani, as outsiders, have to consider all the evidence accordingly before making their final judgment. After all, why not treat matters of the heart as seriously as one would treat any other aspect of one's life?
"Exactly," Dani agrees with an approving nod. "Not there's anything wrong with a relationship based purely on physical appeal, but it sounds like you want something else."
When the conversations shifts away from Isaac's looks, Demi finds herself reaching up to cover her face with her hands. Letting out a muffled sigh when Nina points out that there doesn't really seem to be a problem here -- she's thankful that the other woman doesn't try and delve into her past relationships. Still, Demi wants to exclaim that her problem is she doesn't know how to wade into uncharted water like this. That dealing with a man like Isaac makes her feel a little off kilter and out of control, and she's still uncertain about caring for Isaac while he's mourning his wife and wearing his wedding ring.
"We have a weird history, you know that," Demi finally blurts out, pulling her hands away from her face to stare up at a spot on the ceiling. "And he's still mourning his wife," Another sigh slips out as she shifts, moving to a sitting position so she can face her makeshift therapists better. "I mean that's a problem, right?"
Nina can't help but think that it's a good sign that Demi is more preoccupied with Isaac's late wife than his pulling her out of La Quinta. As complicated as that part is, and as much as Nina wants to dive deeper into that (and likely will another day, when it's just them), Demi's priorities show that she's trying to consider Isaac's feelings wholeheartedly. She still has her own doubts about whether Isaac would treat her with the same amount of concern, but at least she's beginning to better understand her friend's perspective.
"I don't know if I know enough to say whether it's a problem or not," she says slowly, wondering how best to phrase this. "Is it getting in the way of whatever feelings he may have for you, or is it interfering with your wanting more? Or both?" Nina can understand feeling as though you'll never live up to a previous love, even if she's not quite been in that role herself.
That’s the second time that this history between Demi and Isaac has come up, or possibly the third if that’s what Demi usually reminisces about with Nina. Without knowing the details -- aside from the fact that Isaac somehow saved Demi, which could be all too literal these days -- Dani isn’t completely certain she can accurately appraise the situation, but then it’s not really her advice that’s wanted here.
"Has he said anything or done anything that makes you believe it's a problem?" Dani asks, unsure what else she can possibly say. She shrugs slightly, lifting one shoulder to convey this uncertainty. "Depending on how recently she passed, it might mean he isn’t ready for a new relationship just yet, but only Isaac himself can really say. Though the fact that you’re concerned about it indicates that you’re giving due consideration to his emotional needs."
Needing to be up and moving, Demi pushes off of the couch and makes her way over to where she knows Nina keeps her wine. As per usual she behaves as if this is her own space, finding and retrieving a bottle of wine and three glasses, she hauls them back over to where Nina and Dani are seated. In truth Demi doesn’t need the wine so much as she needed the time to ponder what the two women had asked her. Was Isaac’s mourning getting in the way of something happening between them? She wanted to say no, but, having received his drunken texts from the night before she knows a part of him feels strange about moving on.
“He sent me a series of drunken text messages last night,” she begins, setting the wine bottle and the glasses on the coffee table before sitting back down on the couch. “And, from what I gathered from them he is struggling with the idea of moving on. Callie -- his wife, passed away two years ago, along with their daughter,” Demi still has no idea what it must be like to mourn a child, but she knows what it feels like to finally allow yourself to move on from a lost love. “You can’t rush a person through mourning, so I’m not going to push him. And anyway, I’m not even sure what I want yet. Still, at some point you have to start living again...” And in truth she wasn’t even sure she was ready for whatever was happening between them. Being here confiding in Nina and Dani was proof enough to that.
Nina leans forward to uncork the wine and pour them each a healthy serving while Demi continues to talk. She's quickly seeing that this is the kind of evening that calls for a little fortification, especially if they continue diving deeper into the situation between Demi and Isaac. And frankly, given what she and Dani had been talking about right before Demi had arrived, she's grateful for the drink.
She's getting a lot of information about Isaac that she'd never wanted, information she's sure he wouldn't want her to have. It helps her understand him a little more, though. It's easier to think about his flatness, the ever-present sarcasm, within this context. "I think it's okay to not know what you want," she says simply. "And that goes for both of you. Uncertainty can be scary, but it sounds like you have the best intentions in mind. I think if you keep your mind focused on that, you'll be able to make the right decisions for you and him once it's time to make those calls."
As she accepts one of the glasses of wine with a nod of thanks, Dani can’t help but grimace slightly in response to what Demi just revealed about Isaac’s wife. Two years ago would have been right around the time the infection reached Austin. With few exceptions, most deaths these days were attributable to the walkers, but that doesn't make them any easier.
Demi is right that you can't rush someone's mourning period, and Nina is right that it's ok to feel uncertain about you want. There's a sense sometimes, these days, that everything must be done now, or you risk not accomplishing it at all. Dani isn't immune to it herself, but finds her ends are all career-related, rather than centered on her personal relationships.
"I agree with Nina," she says, and glances over, a small smile curving her mouth. "I see why you come to her for advice."
In the back of her mind Demi is aware she's sharing things about Isaac that he may not want shared, but, she can't make sense of any of this or expect Nina to be able to help without sharing all the facts. Later she may end up feeling guilty over revealing Isaac's secrets, but right now in this moment all she's focused on is gaining some clarity. "I hope so," she sighs, fingers closing around the stem of the wine glass. "And I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, so I suggest a subject change."
Pulling her legs up to sit cross legged on the couch, she flashes a smile in Dani's direction in response to the other woman's remark. "Nina has been my lifeline here," she admits. "I'm fairly certain I would be crazy by now if not for her." There's a fondness to her tone that reveals just how Demi feels about the other woman and Nina gives her a smile in return that is just as fond. "But, like I said enough about me. What were you discussing before I barged in?"
"Oh, nothing!" Nina says it a tad too quickly, her eyes glancing back and forth between the two women as she takes a sip of wine. Logically, she knows there isn't much reason to not broach the subject with Demi, but she doesn't want to further involve Dani in the Hellhounds' tangled mess if she can help it. She'll fill in the other woman privately. "Catching up on our days. Somehow that led to talking about Sofia Vergara and movies."
It's as odd a topic now as it was then, but it sets the three of them off onto a new subject, just as Demi had suggested, and the change of pace is more than welcome. Nina's sure they're all glad for an opportunity to relax; they're few and far between these days, so when someone suggests another bottle of wine she eagerly gets up to retrieve another from her precious stock. "Take it easy with this one," she suggests, even as she pours them all a more-than-healthy serving. "Do you know how hard it is to trade for wine these days, even here?"
“Considering cost in trade for a single drink at the Chestnut? I can only imagine.” Dani smiles at Nina as her glass is topped off, the wine she’s already drunk responsible for the way her mood seems to have unwound in the company of the other two women. It’s easier to put out of her mind the fact that she’s sitting with a brand new acquaintance and a possible-friend, sharing stories like they’ve all known each other for longer than is the case.
Lifting her glass in a silent toast, Dani mentally resolves to sip this one slowly, as Nina suggested, not only because alcohol is dear, but because the last thing she wants is to go into the hospital tomorrow with a hangover. As refreshing as it is to let her guard down briefly, she can't afford to lose her head completely. "Baby sips, promise," Dani says, before taking one.
The peel of laughter that bubbles up out of Demi is a rare sound coming from her, or, at least a rare sound to those that have only known her since being released from La Quinta. “I can’t make that promise,” she gasps out through her laughter. “I was raised by an Irish daddy and he sure as hell taught me how to drink.” Her expression gets a little wistful as she thinks about her dad, wondering if he ever made it out of Ely or if he found his end there. Demi likes to believe that her dad did make it out and that he and his crew have fortified the Hoover Dam and are riding out this chaos there.
“Anyway, where was I?” Demi asks, remembering she had been in the middle of a story before Nina had interrupted. “Right, the shelf. So it’s our third date and we’ve made it all the way back to his place, and we’re getting hot and heavy on his couch when all of a sudden his fucking shelf comes off the wall and smacks him right in the head. We spent the next four hours in the E.R. and after all of that somehow I’m roped into keeping an eye on him for the next forty eight hours,” she pauses to take a breath before adding. “And that first night Cal still managed to sweet talk me into ending the night in his bed.” How they got on the topic of tragic dates Demi still doesn’t know, but it feels good -- almost normal to be retelling stories of dates gone wrong.
"Wait, that was with Cal?" It's all more than Nina had originally bargained for when she'd first agreed to 'story time' or whatever had happened to set them on this path. It may be better than thinking of Cal sitting alone in La Quinta, but she really never needed to know about him and Demi and a shelf falling onto them. And if it isn't about Cal, well. That doesn't necessarily make it any better.
Somehow, even though she and Cal aren't close by any stretch, it's not hard for Dani to picture the DoR agent getting in such a situation, or sweet talking his way into the best possible position in the aftermath. "Sounds like Cal, alright," she murmurs with a wry smile.
With a laugh and a nod, Demi replies. “You better believe that was with Cal. He and I had a, well, we had disastrous attempt at dating, let’s just put it that way.” Truthfully that was putting it lightly, in truth fate had been very persistent and clear that they were not two souls meant to spend the rest of forever together.
"Men are trouble, you know I'll always tell you that," Nina says, a self-satisfied expression settling onto her face. "Romantically speaking, at least." In Nina's personal opinion, though, they tend to be trouble in other settings, too. Just the thought of Rodeo's various messes confirms her theory; fond of him though she may be, there's no mistaking the fact that he's trouble. The men in her department aren't all that much to write home about, either. "Not that women don't have their moments, but I think it's something to do with knowing what it's like to have the deck stacked against you."
Nina's words bring a sharp glance from Dani, but she catches herself and redirects her attention back to her glass of wine as she takes another sip. Well, that seems to confirm what she'd wondered about earlier in the evening, after Nina's lackluster evaluation of Isaac's appearance. It isn't a surprise to find this is just another way in which they are similar, but it is something that, before tonight, had never crossed Dani's mind they might have in common.
"Maybe it has to do with my taste," she replies, "but I can't say I've found a shortage of romantic trouble on either side. Different kinds, though, I will say that." And it has always been her relationships with women that went wrong most dramatically, for some reason.
Nina’s remarks were not new ones, Demi was positive she had heard the other woman say that same exact thing at least once before. Still, her eyebrows rose when Dani seemed to agree with the other woman. Despite her best efforts her mind was already racing, trying to figure out a way to confirm her rising suspicions about her two companions.
“Well? I can’t be the only woman in this room with past relationship trouble, or horrifying dating stories. So come on, spill,” Demi pauses, glancing between the two women before she adds. “Unless you really want to hear about the time sex was attempted in a ball pit,” another pause as she shifts her attention entirely over to Nina as she adds. “Which, Nina, I think you really probably don’t want to hear about that, because it was with James and I think I’ve scarred you enough with my stories about Cal.”
Whoever James is -- and Nina seems to know him, from the look Demi gives her -- Dani has a strong desire not to hear about sex in a ball pit. Of course, she can’t help but wonder how that even sounds like a good idea in the first place, since it seems like such a breeding ground for bacteria. Children pee in those things.
"You're right. I really don't want to hear about it," Nina says, once she's registered the subtext that lies beneath what Dani has to say about her own experiences with romantic trouble. Nina files the information away for later just as Dani speaks up again.
“I have one,” Dani volunteers, perhaps a touch too hastily. “Or, at least, it’s a date gone bad. During my sophomore year at UT, a theater major I was interested in invited me come along to see a play, ‘Arms and the Man’. After the house lights went down, and when the production couldn’t have been more than five minutes in, I realized my date has fallen asleep. And was snoring. She slept through all three acts, and then actually asked me to summarize it afterward. The whole trip was for an assignment for one of her classes."
Grimacing slightly as she lifts her shoulders in a shrug, Dani adds, "I was so furious, it inspired me to make up an entire fake play on the spot. As you can probably guess, we never went out again."
"So she asked you on this date because she needed a reason to do her homework, then didn't even do her homework?" Nina isn't sure what's more offensive to her: the blatant rudeness or the disregard for academic responsibility. Either way, it counts as a 'horrifying dating story' even if it's much more tame in comparison to Demi's apparent antics.
Still, she doesn't do much to volunteer a story of her own. The truth of it is that Nina hadn't done all that much dating before she'd fallen in love with Gemma or after they'd broken up, and none of the Gemma-related memories that are coming to mind could quite be categorized as 'past relationship trouble' or a 'horrifying dating story' unless you had a loose definition of either negative word. Nina personally finds it horrifying how out of control she'd felt during the relationship, how lovesick she felt the whole time they were together, but she has a feeling neither Demi nor Dani will see things her way. So, fully intending to distract both of her drinking companions, she takes a long sip of wine and smiles brightly at them both.
"This is nice. We should do this more often. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it was to just… have a night to relax." She knows it's a privilege not afforded to those living in the other shelters, but given what Demi and Dani have recently experienced, could anyone blame them for taking advantage?
"Wait, wait, wait. Before we switch topics I want to know if Dani's date had planned to have her do her homework the whole time? Because if so she wins the worst date award." Demi might have had some wild dates, but never once had she encountered a date that was really just an excuse to get someone else to do their work for them. "And this is nice. So aren't you glad I lack the manners to call ahead?" She teases, a ghost of a smile turning up her mouth. "Because God knows what the two of you would have gotten up to without me," there's a moment of silence as a thought occurs to her, one Demi hadn't considered before because she didn't know exactly how Nina and Dani knew each other. Now though, she's almost horrified as she blurts out. "Oh my god, please tell me I didn't interrupt a date night or something."
Halfway through nodding to confirm for both Demi and Nina that, yes, her date had completely used her to get out of doing her own work, Dani freezes as Demi blurts out her question about 'date night'. Nina, for her part, sets her wine glass down a little too heavily on the coffee table, her eyes darting left and right before they finally settle onto Demi with a sharp glare.
Dani doesn't blush, thank goodness, but isn't able to catch the somewhat guilty look that she sends Nina's way. It wasn't anything like that, of course, but they'd been having a personal conversation nevertheless.
"Oh, no, don't worry about that," Dani replies, wary of protesting too strongly. Still, if there's the possibility that Demi's misperception might somehow come back to affect Nina's career... Who knows how conservative the Capitol's residents might be? For good measure, she adds, "We're friends, and nothing more."
"Exactly," Nina says, chiming in with a laugh that's a little too shrill. "I hadn't even known that Dani was interested in women." It's not something she herself talks about all that often, not outside of her small circle of friends and certainly not in her Department -- she isn't even sure if Isaac's aware, though he must be -- but it's also not a secret. "We were just, you know. Talking, getting to know each other better." She lets out another one of those nervous, uncomfortable laughs. "You and those manners of yours."
“Uh-uh, nope, you don’t get to deflect away from this topic by bringing up my manners,” Demi fires back, shaking her head while an amused smile settles on her face. Nina’s earlier glare has done nothing to deter her, neither has either women’s words. Attempting to match-make is a far more appealing activity than allowing her mind to settle back in on her own relationship troubles. “Talking and getting to know each other sounds an awful lot like the beginnings of something,” she begins, pausing only long enough to down half of the wine in her glass before continue on her new tirade. “And we are living in the apocalypse, or something very much like it, so why waste opportunity?”
Despite Nina’s earlier warning to slow it down on the drinking, Demi’s reaching for the wine bottle to top off her glass. She hadn’t been lying earlier when she told them she’d been raised by an Irishman who’d taught her how to drink. Plus, if she got tipsy enough she could spend the rest of the evening ignoring the very reason she had come to Nina in the first place. Her mind had a tendency to spinning out of control less when it was made hazy with alcohol. So, with that Demi leans back against the couch, gaze sliding from one woman to the other, prepared for the glares or possibly even death threats she might receive from one or both of them after her little speech.
"Says the woman who can't even sort out her own emotions," Dani replies, letting herself say what she's thinking for once. She's still ruffled by Demi's misreading of the situation, has barely had time to wrap her mind around the newfound knowledge that Nina is attracted to women, and Demi is already trying to set them up. Apocalypse or not, she doesn't appreciate her personal matters being poked into. Demi asked for advice. She didn't.
For a moment, Dani strongly considers excusing herself. She has the sudden desire to leave the conversation, even if only for few a moments. What keeps her in her seat isn't any concern about Demi's reaction to her walking out -- the other woman is, she suspects, not so easily offended -- but Nina's. Nina has opened her home to Dani. The least she can do is sit through the rest of this embarrassing conversation. Staying put, she takes another sip of her wine as Nina laughs again -- genuinely, this time.
Nina isn't sure how Demi will respond just yet, but if she's learned anything from observing her and Isaac's interactions over the last few months it's knowing that the woman can dish it out and take it, too. It actually seems to be her preferred method of talking, despite the fact that it's never been how Nina and Demi interact with each other. So she continues to not bother to hide her amusement. There's nothing false about what Dani said, anyway, and Nina's always liked the truth.
"She has a point," she says, an amused smile on her face. The tension she'd felt earlier has left her, too, and she wonders if she's nearly forgotten what it's like to see friends on a regular basis. Nina isn't entirely without connections here at the Capitol, but she tends to keep to herself. She wonders it she ought to change that.
The look that settles over Demi's features isn't one of anger or even offense, it's one of respect, clearly impressed with Dani's ability to speak her mind. There are few things that will her Demi's respect faster than a person who isn't afraid to say exactly what they're thinking. "True, I might not be able to sort them out, but at least I'm open to the possibilities," she fires back with a shrug. Truthfully she had no idea what was going on between Dani and Nina, it could be exactly like they say -- they're just friends. Still, Demi didn't know her friend to just invite anyone to stay with her. So, in her own opinion there had to be something here, even if it seems as if neither one had known that the other was attracted to women.
"How did you two meet anyway?" She's like a dog with a bone, determined to move the conversation away from her own love life again. It's messy and confusing, two things that if she hadn't been able to deal with before, she's really not able to deal with now that she's blissfully tipsy from the wine.
"On the Freenet," Nina says smoothly. It's not a lie, just a strategic avoidance of the rest of the truth. If Demi's getting ideas about setting the two of them up, she'll have a field day with the knowledge that they'd really met in a bar. Nina knows her friend won't be satisfied with just that answer, though, so she -- and the wine she'd consumed -- decides to offer her something else to focus on.
"Although I just remembered I do have a story I could've shared earlier. It's similar to yours, actually." It's dangerous, letting her mind wander into Gemma-related territory, and the story she's thinking of isn't a disastrous dating story, but it's the least she can do to save Dani from additional scrutiny. "My, um. My ex and I were having sex on the couch, this one particular time, and things were pretty -- vigorous. I don't remember who was, you know, on top." She gestures vaguely with one hand before setting it down, awkwardly, on her knee. "But somehow we ended up rolling off the couch and I hit my head pretty hard on the coffee table. So that kind of put a stop to things."
There’s an unmissable hitch in Nina’s voice when she mentions her ex. As much as Dani is grateful for the change in topic, she regrets that the price is Nina’s discomfort at having to delve into her personal life to attempt to distract Demi. In her place, Dani would have been much less willing to deflect, much more likely to snap defensively for the subject to be dropped. This is probably why she has no close girlfriends of her own.
The last of her wine lingers in her glass, and Dani drains it in one swallow as Nina finishes recounting her story. She doesn’t reach for more, holding to her resolve not to start tomorrow with a hangover. Instead, she leans forward to set her glass on the coffee table. “I imagine it would. If there’s one thing that I’m taking away from this conversation, it’s that, for you two, sex is a dangerous pastime filled with head injuries. It's a wonder you risk it at all."
There was a comment that Demi was prepared to make about the freenet being the new version of online dating, but Nina sets right into her story and the younger woman is effectively distracted. She’s never heard her friend talk about her ex before, beyond mentioning that she has one. So this new information is interesting enough to derail any matchmaking efforts, although it doesn’t mean Demi has shelved the idea. All it means is that for now she’ll happily focus on the change in conversation.
And she knows that’s what it is. Despite the generous amount of wine Demi has consumed, she’s still sober enough to recognize a distraction when she sees one. Though, admittedly all Nina’s done is make her very curious about this ex of hers. She has enough restraint though to stick to the conversation and not go prying into Nina’s past. Maybe someday when it’s just the two of them she might inquire about the mysterious ex, but, Demi is fully aware she’s made this evening uncomfortable enough, she isn’t about to subject her friend to more discomfort.
Instead Demi focuses on Dani’s remark, laughing softly before asking. “Tell me, what’s life without a little risk?”
There's a wry smile on Nina's face when she answers, despite the discomfort she's still feeling. She's not the biggest risk taker by any means, but when she thinks through all the ones she's taken she'd be hard-pressed to say she regrets any of them. Even the ones that led to heartbreak. "They say it's not worth living."