It had been so good to get Greer home. Hurt, yes, but safe - that was what mattered. She was safe and she was back home with her men. Dev was trying hard not to let his urges to be suffocating and overprotective overcome him, that was one sure fire way to lose Greer. Still, there was definitely a strong need in him to be with her all the time now, to never let her or Rost out of his sight. Those days in the fog had been hard and he knew they would have been so much easier if they hadn't been split up.
Then Saturday rolled around and... He had never seen Greer like this before. He'd never seen her in pain before either so he tried to tell himself that was all it was but she kept snapping at him and Rost while keeping busier than she should. They both gave up on telling her she should be resting because that just made her angry, so most of the day they both tried to help a little with whatever she was doing - keep her from doing the more strenuous parts of cleaning by beating her to them. It didn't really work as well as they wanted it to be attempts were made.
She'd finally fallen asleep shortly after an admittedly late dinner, sprawled out on their king sized bed that took up most of the small bedroom. Dev snuck in there to check up on her and cautiously snuck around the bed to close the curtains for her. It was not the perfect timing to discover yet another flaw with the place they were living in but he did anyway as the damn curtain rod came crashing down, banging into the window but luckily not breaking it. Dev froze, squeezing his eyes closed and grimacing. He expected Greer to wake up now and yell at him again but she didn't and for a second he breathed easier.
The days in the fog had been hell. That being said, Rost couldn’t have asked for better company ... he just could’ve asked for more company. It was a relief to have at least one of his people accounted for, but both of them couldn’t help but agonize over where Greer was and if she was okay. Rost had a couple of embarrassing-in-hindsight breakdowns, crying that he couldn’t lose another lover, that he was cursed, that they would have been better off without him. All of which Devlin refuted, of course. They comforted each other and somehow made it through, and then Greer was returned to them. Rost was glad she hadn’t been alone the entire time, but that scratch worried him.
And then Saturday had come, and it seemed like neither of them could do anything right. If Dev hadn’t been catching as much of Greer’s wrath as he was, Rost would’ve felt even worse about it, but her ire at least seemed universal. He tried to help, exchanging more and more concerned looks with his boyfriend as the day went on. He couldn’t even help defend Dev very much, everything Greer got upset about was just so irrational. The Irishman didn’t seem any better equipped to deal with these mood swings, which made it all even more disconcerting.
The noise from the bedroom made Rost cringe, and he abandoned what he was doing in the kitchen to quietly walk down the hall and peer into the bedroom. Dev was holding the collapsed curtains, but Greer didn’t seem to have stirred. Rost hurried forward to help him get the rod back into place. “Did it break?” he asked in a whisper.
Dev was still kind of frozen in the spot, clutching the curtain rod to his body, shoulders hunched and his face screwed up in a grimace. When Rost entered the room he gave him a pained little not-quite-smile and shook his head. "It's the bloody screw come loose I think," he whispered. "I thought for sure she'd wake up to that." He glanced at Greer's sleeping body and at least she looked peaceful, like he'd just imagined her sour mood all day. "Not sure how to get this up without waking her," he added, sucking in air through his teeth as he moved slowly to try to get a better look at what had gone wrong.
Rost was peering at the hardware in the wall too, and he thought Dev was probably right. It was dark out so they didn’t strictly need a curtain at the moment, but their window faced the rising sun, and he could just imagine the hell Greer would raise if it wasn’t there in the morning. Unless she woke up in a better mood. They could always hope. Rost still wanted to make her as comfortable as he could. He clucked his tongue a bit and glanced back at Greer again. “You have screwdriver anywhere?” he asked. Rost had brought a lot of stuff from his trailer at the cemetery, but not his tools. “Maybe we can just ... use thumbtacks?”
It felt vulnerable to sleep without curtains, especially knowing what was out there, so Dev was also worried about that. He arched his brows, widened his eyes and pointed triumphantly at Rost when he suggested thumb tacks because yes, that would definitely work! ...if they had any? He thought they did, it felt like a thing that should exist in every home but probably not this one so his joy was short lived. "I don't think we have those," he said, a little defeated. "But you know, fuck it. I can fix this, at least enough for it to stay up for the night." He glanced at Greer again, trying to gauge if she was closer to waking up or not. "Can you come here and help me hold it up?" he asked Rost then, shuffling sideways to make space for him.
Rost murmured an ‘of course’ and moved in where he could be useful, taking hold of the curtain rod to hold it in place. He should’ve asked if Dev had any tools, of course, but it hadn’t occurred to him. They hadn’t done any home improvements or repairs together yet, he had no idea how handy Dev actually was. Even though the rod kind of bumped and scraped against the wall, Greer still didn’t wake up. Rost kept giving her wary glances and distantly hoping she would wake up in a better mood.
Dev not so much fixed the curtain rod as he made it temporarily work to be dealt with later but that was all he really needed right now. They didn't have tools in the house, useless wandering millennials that they were, nor thumb tacks so those things had to be procured before he fixed anything properly. Once he had the curtain rod back in place, it held - so long as nobody yanked at the curtain - and that was god for now. He huffed quietly and looked at Greer again, a soft frown on his face when he realized she was still sleeping soundly. It felt like she should have at least stirred by now and his curiosity was overwhelming his relief that she was sleeping. He reached out for Rost - needing that physical contact that was always reassuring to him - and slipped his hand into his. "Thanks, love."
He made himself useful while Dev made it stay enough for the moment. This mobile home was nicely bigger than his trailer, it was true, but the little things that went wrong with it bugged him more than they did back in the cemetery. Maybe it was the presence of other people, like everything should be perfect for his dears. Rost followed Dev’s gaze to the soft landscape of their girlfriend under blankets, and he had to stare hard for a moment before he saw the movement from her breathing. Rost didn’t hesitate to twine their fingers together when he felt Dev’s hand. “She needs the rest,” he murmured, the tone making it almost a question. He would’ve expected Greer to wake up too, but she hadn’t.
Dev watched her too, taking comfort in the skin to skin contact with Rost for a while before he moved or spoke again. "Something feels... not right," he said softly and wondered if Rost felt it too. Maybe he shouldn't bring it up, Rost had already worried so much during the fog, he deserved a little reprieve but Dev was not the sort of guy who could keep things from his people. They were supposed to move as one, face everything together. That meant no secrets. "Do you feel it?" he whispered, turning his attention back to Rost. "Am I being a paranoid twat?"
Rost had been hoping a bit for some reassurance -- maybe Greer was just always very volatile when she was in pain and Rost just hadn’t seen that yet, like maybe it was a pattern Dev knew. That didn’t seem to be the case though. Something did feel off, he didn’t need any special powers to pick up on that. His empathy for his lovers was too high. “I am possible paranoid twat too ... but yes,” he answered, his brow furrowing fretfully as he looked back at Dev. “Something does seem wrong. You have never seen her this way?”
Dev shook his head then gingerly crawled up on the bed, stretching out next to Greer. He glanced back at Rost over his shoulder, as if looking for approval, then turned his attention back to their sleeping lover and touched her arm gently. He didn't often get visions just from touching people and he had never had it happen with Greer but now there felt like there was a little buzz between them and he thought he could hear wind howling somewhere far away. It was subtle but it did nothing to alleviate that feeling of wrongness. "What happened to you out there, love," he whispered, moving his hand to the bandages and lightly resting his palm against them. The sound of wind got louder and for a second he felt like he was looking through a window or a tunnel into something dark and too strange to put into words. It was so brief but it made him jerk his hand back as he frowned at Greer's sleeping face.
As much as he wanted to be on the bed with both of them, Rost didn’t want to get in the way of what was happening. He just stood back and watched, his expression worried as Dev lightly touched Greer. It was another thing he would’ve expected to wake her up, but it didn’t. Rost’s heart jumped when Dev jerked -- and Greer still slept on -- and he moved around the bed until he could see Dev’s face. “What?” he whispered with some urgency, not liking something in Devlin’s expression. “What did you see?”
"Something else," Dev said quietly, studying Greer's face with a worried frown. "It might just be her dream," he added but his heart felt heavy and he didn't believe that himself. "I can't really explain what I just saw, I don't have the words for it. It's a place or a feeling, something not here." He carefully touched his lover's face, expecting that to wake her up but at this point he didn't care if she woke, even if it meant she'd be grouchy. She didn't wake up and Dev looked at Rost, his worried expression making his eyebrows feel tight. Heavy. "Something's wrong, love. I don't know what to do."
That wasn’t a very helpful explanation on Rost’s end, but he knew that some things just didn’t have words. Some things you just had to experience, and he couldn’t on this one. Rost’s concern deepened sharply when Dev touched Greer’s face and she didn’t wake up. He moved to crawl onto the bed with the both of them, stretching out on Greer’s other side. Rost kissed her hair, then gently rubbed her back. She was still breathing, deep and seemingly peaceful, but now he worried that her mind was full of nightmares. “Darling,” he murmured, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “Greer, my love.” There was no response. Rost’s brow furrowed deeper and he gave Dev an unsure look. “Sweetheart, awaken,” he said, a bit louder this time.
Dev felt that little ball of anxiety in his chest get a little bigger and he frowned at Rost before lightly tapping Greer's cheek. "Did she take something?" he asked. He hadn't seen her do it but if she had been feeling out of sorts it wasn't impossible to think she might have needed something to help her fall asleep. He checked her pulse and found it strong and steady, she was breathing just fine, she even looked peaceful. Dev was pretty sure he'd need to watch her all night if she didn't wake up though and the thought of a hospital did cross his mind.
She just looked like she was asleep and sleeping well, which made the fact that she wasn’t waking up even more worrisome to Rost. It reminded him too much of princesses in stories falling into mysterious sleeps that lasted for years. That was silly, of course, but ... was it? In this place, who really knew? He gnawed uncertainly on his bottom lip and looked around them, hunting for pill bottles or a clue of any kind. “I do not believe,” he answered Dev’s rhetorical question. He gave Greer another squeeze and a little shake, then sat up and started pulling the blankets and sheets off of her. “We should check her wound,” he muttered, his brow furrowed.
Dev didn't think so either and the idea that Greer would hide something from them felt so outlandish to him. She wasn't a secretive sort of person, none of them were because they didn't' need to be. They didn't judge each other or try to parent each other, there was no need to hide things. So why would Greer not tell them if the doctor had given her sleeping aid or if she had procured something strong for the pain? It didn't make sense. He nodded weakly at Rost's suggestion, patting Greer's cheek once more in vain effort to get her to at least groggily open her eyes and acknowledge them. Like Rost, he thought she looked too peaceful. It didn't feel natural. He sat up and helped Rost with the bandages, not sure what they were hoping to find. It just looked like a wound healing, there was no strange coloring or obvious infection there, just angry flesh and fine stitches. "What do we do?" Dev whispered. He'd never been good at dealing with problems, not the physical real life problems at least. Emotional and spiritual? Those were a walk in the park, but injury and sickness always made him feel like a helpless child.
While Rost hadn’t been hoping for it exactly, something being wrong with Greer’s wound would at least have given them a direction. If it had gotten infected and sent her into a coma somehow, they could rush her to the hospital and get the help of professionals. But it looked fine, good even, like it was healing nicely. Rost carefully pressed the bandages back into place, noting that her skin didn’t even feel overly warm. Dev’s question hit him in the heart, and he felt helpless and useless because he had no idea what they should do. Rost had never been big on doctors, he’d been raised with mostly natural remedies for illnesses and injuries, but he had no experience with someone who wouldn’t wake up. “I do not know,” he admitted, looking at Dev with worry in his eyes. “Do you think we need doctors? I know some witches who do healing ...”
Dev's immediate desire was to call all the witches Rost knew. It sounded better than a hospital with all its paperwork and Dev generally preferred services under the table. In this case he also had more faith in witches than he did doctors. He quelled that silly urge, imagining Greer waking up with dozens of strangers looming over her - though that was probably an unrealistic number too - and wondering just what the hell was going on. "Can you call someone?" he asked instead. "Or should we wait?" This all made him wish he was a more powerful psychic, that he could peer into her mind and ask her what to do. Greer was so much better at making decisions than he was.
Rost felt kind of paralyzed with worry and anxiety. He didn’t know what to do. On one hand, he didn’t even know if all the witches he knew were alive and unhurt, so he didn’t know if they would be able to help. On the other hand, waiting seemed like a bad idea. What if Greer was dying and they didn’t know? She didn’t seem in any distress and her wound looked fine, but ... who knew what was going on? Or maybe they were freaking out over nothing, she was just getting the sleep her body demanded in order to heal. “I can try,” he told Dev. Giving Greer another fretful little pat, Rost moved to get up and find his phone. He would start with Zania and try to go from there.
As it turned out, nobody really wanted to come over tonight. Everyone was tired and frazzled from those two days of madness and the more Rost tried to explain what was wrong, the less they wanted to go out of their way to come over - the few that picked up the phone at least. 'She won't wake up' wasn't really a dire thing if she'd only been sleeping for an hour or two, they could start worrying if she didn't wake up after ten to twelve hours and then they could call again - or call the hospital. It was trauma, stress, exhaustion - leave her be.
Dev wasn't happy with those answers at all because he knew something was wrong, he just couldn't articulate what it was or why he knew it beyond 'something is wrong, I can feel it' and when he knew help wasn't coming immediately he started taking some of that urgency back. He could be wrong, maybe he too was just frazzled and exhausted. "We'll watch her," he told Rost, trying to assume the role of being comforting instead of making the situation worse. "We'll watch her closely all night and if anything - if she... if anything seems worse? We won't take no for an answer."
The lack of help was kind of upsetting to Rost. He knew he would’ve helped them if he could, but he tried to be understanding that everyone had been through hell for the past few days. And maybe they were right, maybe Greer was fine. It was just so worrisome, especially considering she’d been hurt by one of those things in the fog. He sighed as he tossed his phone onto the dresser and returned his attention to Dev. “Okay,” he said, because what else was there to say? He sat down on the edge of the bed again and ran a hand through his hair. It was still fairly early in the evening, but if they were going to watch her all night long, they would have to do it in shifts. “I can ... make us something to eat,” he offered, not sure what else to do with himself. “If you want to stay with her first.”
Dev's thoughts kept going in painful circles. He'd think that maybe they were overreacting, imagine Greer waking up and looking at them like they were lunatics. That thought calmed him down a little until another, more persistent thought crashed right in to tell him that might never happen, she might never wake up again and they were wasting important time. Around and around they went, his emotions like one big hurricane, or waves crashing in each different sized and different shape than the last. "Just stay with us for a little bit?" he asked, patting the empty spot behind Greer. "We can worry about food later." He didn't want to be alone with her yet, Rost was like a lifeline at the moment.
Staying was better than going, even if Rost felt full of nervous energy, so he stretched out on the other side of Greer again. He scooted in close to cuddle up to her, reaching his arm over her so he could touch Dev too. Maybe the loving power of both of them surrounding her would bring her around, or at least help her to sleep sound and restful. Rost settled in with a slow sigh, smooshing one of the pillows under his head and rubbing his thumb against Dev. “It will be all right,” he murmured, even if he didn’t know that for sure. There had definitely been times when things weren’t all right, they both knew that. But Greer was strong as hell, and she would be okay. He had to believe that.
It had been a while since Dev went into one of his dark moods. Things had been so light and fun with Greer and Rost, but he felt that familiar darkness washing over him and holding onto Rost was the only light he could see. "I don't know how I'd do this if you weren't here," he said quietly. "Not knowing if she was okay in the fog, now not knowing what this is." Because this was something, he could feel it in his bones and a pessimistic part of him kept whispering that Greer would never wake up. It hurt to look at Greer suddenly and he turned his gaze to Rost, moving his hand to stroke his face, thumbing his moustache. "She has to be okay."
Rost turned his face into the touch a bit, a faint smile crossing his lips. “You would manage,” he assured Dev, but it was still nice to feel like he was needed. Coming into this relationship as a late-entry third had sparked some insecurities in him here and there, which was probably normal, but his lovers always dispelled those worries quickly. Rost kissed Dev’s palm lightly while he could reach it. “She will be. And if she does not wake in the morning, we will find someone to help us make her okay. This will pass, my love.” It was easier to sound confident of that when he was comforting Dev; Rost just really hoped he was right. He couldn't lose another lover to tragedy, he wasn’t sure he would survive it.
It was hard to know what he might hypothetically do or not do if he was alone but Dev was sure he'd be going out of his mind if he was alone with Greer now. Having Rost there might not make him less afraid but it did do a lot to keep him calm and less alone. 'This is just the beginning' he kept thinking and he only just barely had the good sense to keep that to himself. They were trying to reassure each other, not make it worse. "If she's not awake by eight in the mornin' you go find some witches and bring them here even if you have to bully them into coming," he mumbled a bit petulantly. It wasn't wise to annoy witches but that was a risk he was willing to take for Greer's sake.
“I will, I promise,” Rost chuckled, trying to picture himself barging into Reagan’s house and dragging her out by the ear to come and help. He kind of felt like she owed that much to him, considering the trouble she’d started up at the cemetery. That thought led to more gratitude that the graveyard hadn’t sustained much damage in the fog. Gods knew whatever was restless there didn’t need anything stirring it up even further, and Rost would have a lot of work to do there in a couple of short days. There were many new graves to dig. He just hoped that Greer’s wouldn’t be one of them. Rost kissed her head and rubbed at Dev’s arm, gazing at him over Greer’s hair. He didn’t know what else to say that would be helpful, if there was anything. So he decided to change tack. “Tell me your favorite memory of you and her,” Rost murmured.
Picking one good memory was like trying to pick the prettiest flower in a field of thousands but Rost succeeded his true intent with the question because it really did distract Dev for a little while as he tried to think of a good one. "It's hard to choose," he said with a faint smile. "Every moment with her - and now you - has been so good for me. The first time we met she did what Greer always does, asked to read my palm. Or... She didn't so much ask as she did what Greer does and grabbed my hand not fully realizing until she held it that I had my gloves on. That look on her face." He let out a little chuckle. "Then she tugged on the gloves and it became a little tug-o-war. My favorite though is when I did let her take them off. That's always the most intimate thing I can do with a lover, let myself really touch them, find out what I see if anything." He didn't much love touching Greer with his palm right now, every time he did he felt what could only be described as a distant echo of somewhere else - something else.
Rost had to grin, very able to picture their first meeting in his mind, now that he knew them both as well as he did. He was very sure it had been love at first sight, just as it had been for him. Greer just had that aura about her, she was easy to fall in love with. And with the both of them combined? Rost hadn’t stood a chance. He was constantly grateful that circumstances had put him in Juniper Inn when they had. “You looked into each other. I love you both together,” he murmured to Dev, still gently stroking his skin. “I am so happy with you. Do you remember what she saw in your palm?”
"Vibrant life and strange events," Dev murmured with a little smile. Rost had managed to calm him even more with his words and now he felt like if they just felt good enough - if they radiated enough love - they could heal Greer between the two of them. "I remember the way she looked at me when she looked up from my palm, like she was seeing me for real. She looked-" he hesitated, furrowing his brows as he tried to think of how to describe it, how to do it justice. "Impressed? No, that's not really... Not awed. Intrigued isn't strong enough. I just- she saw me." He smiled again, huffing softly at the memory. "She looked at you the same way."
Rost was getting the same sense -- that they were helping Greer, just by staying close to her and speaking so lovingly. He vaguely believed in auras and energies and cosmic vibrations, and if anything would see Greer through whatever this was, it was the combined force of their adoration. Rost didn’t stop smiling all through what Devlin said, and it only broadened at the last part. “Yes, she saw me,” he agreed softly. That had been exactly what it felt like, in the dining area of Juniper, with a strange and beautiful woman who’d helped herself to his hand. “The awe was all on my side,” Rost added with a soft huff. She’d blown him away from the beginning, and the two of them together made him feel delighted to be alive every day, which was an incredible step up from where he’d been. “I love you both.” He kissed Greer’s head again, then blew one to Dev.
"And we love you," Dev murmured. "As much as we love each other." He knew not everyone was so lucky to be so certain they were really loved but he never doubted Greer's feelings for him. Just like now he didn't doubt Rost either. It was freeing and he always felt safe with them. "If we ever leave here, you know you're coming with us, right?" he murmured because talking about good things made him feel a little calmer and like maybe it was helping Greer too. He wasn't so sure they would ever leave but leaving Rost behind was not going to be an option, that was the one thing he was certain of now.
Rost got to see every day just how crazy Dev and Greer were about each other, so hearing that they loved him just as much always gave him a thrill. He still didn’t have completely confidence that was accurate, but he knew some of his own insecurities were always at play. They never treated him like a fifth wheel or dead weight or anything, and that was the important part. He smiled warmly again and gave a small nod. “I can not imagine any other way,” Rost murmured back. He did love Point Pleasant, even with all its dark issues, but he knew that if his people left, he would be right there with them. “You two are my life now, I will not let my life leave me behind.” He nudged Greer a tiny bit with his nose, as if to reinforce that to her. If she could even hear them.
Dev absolutely meant what he said. He loved Rost with the intensity he gave to everything in his life. His love of food, music, art and people. Rost and Greer got a different sort of love from others, they were his chosen ones, but that was how he approached everything in his life; hedonistically, eager to consume and enjoy just in case there was no tomorrow. Cheerful nihilism was a term he'd heard a while back and loved because yes, that was a good way to approach life in general. It was just hard to say nothing mattered when he had two people who mattered this much and hearing Rost wouldn't let them leave without him scratched some itch inside of him that needed scratching. He pressed a kiss on Greer's forehead, still holding onto Rost. "You hear that, love? He'll come with us if we leave." So you need to wake up. It was on the tip of his tongue but it sounded so desperate in his head, he didn't want to put that energy out into the room.
He smiled across Greer’s wild waves. He’d told Greer that before, but it was still nice to hear Dev tell her too. Maybe it would serve as a good reminder, in whatever dark place she was in. There was light to come back to. Rost laid quietly with the both of them for a while, just soaking in their presence and steady breathing -- the only reassuring sign in whatever was going on with Greer. He still worried, but some drowsy sense of peace eventually settled in deep. She was going to be okay, because they loved her and she loved them and Greer was a fighter and she would wake up from this. Almost without thinking about it, Rost started to hum, then to softly sing, a sweet Romani ballad about lovers lost and then returned that he’d heard a hundred times as a child. If Greer was listening, maybe it would help her find her way back.