Popping In Who: Riley and Ember Where: The ranch When: Morning
Ember had spent a considerable amount of time moping throughout the morning, her low even worse because of the incredible high she had experienced last night. The engagement ring that she had re-united with had proved to be some sort of energy source she could draw from, but she didn’t know how it worked. All she knew was one minute she was bumping into walls for the first time in ages then the seemingly next, she couldn’t even become visible if she wanted to. Did she break something? Was she forever doomed to live how she had when she was first introduced to her after life? Her endless woe-is-me party had her feet moving in no particular destination, though she recognized the surroundings when she glanced around to take note of where she was. The ranch. With that Riley guy who got all in a huff about her in his house. Why was she going to the places the people she didn’t really get along with resided? She almost turned around, but remembered the good that had happened from her lingering at Lance’s. She got her ring back. Although, now she was wondering if it was more a curse than a blessing. Still, she was curious to what the Australian cowboy was up to, so she marched forward with every intention of spying in her boring status. Little did she know, all her wishing, hoping, and focusing on being seen again had paid off since her previous consequence of becoming solid with her ring’s assistance had faded.
Riley groaned. The light in his eyes was so unwelcome and the fact that he was awake had him immediately grumpy. His head thudded dully and he regretted most of what he remembered and everything he didn't. He did remember telling off Micah. He did remember interacting with Lia. He groaned again at those memories feeling ashamed of himself and not the least bit frustrated with his own behavior. He definitely owed some apologies. He had gotten up to give his staff the day off and then fallen asleep again on the couch in the living room. His couch cushion was covered in drool. He sat up, wiped at his face, and looked around for his shirt. He froze when he saw Ember. "Oh, this is not happening," he moaned and closed his eyes for a moment. "What are you doing here again?"
Ember had meandered into Riley’s house the same way she had on her first visit, sighing to herself as she thought back to how simple things were then. Before she had gone and fucked Cody and before she had been greedy with her ring. Not that she was necessarily greedy in wanting her engagement ring back, but she supposed she may have abused the power that had apparently come with it now. It wasn’t long before she happened upon Riley in all his shirtless glory upon the couch, tilting her head to the side as she creepily stared with no reservations. She didn’t see a need to move when he awoke, assuming she was just going to continue in this hellishly boring existing. Until he froze and spoke to her, and she found herself looking around to see if he could have been addressing someone else in the room. When she confirmed it was just the two of them, she tried not to act surprised that he could see her. “I was lonely. I just wanted to come say hi.” She moved towards the couch to join him as if they were old friends.
Riley hadn't seen her wandering through his house but as soon as he saw her he was sure she had been. He wondered how long she'd been wandering through his place while he'd been dead asleep on the couch. It was a good thing neither Lia or their daughter were here at the moment. Riley pinched the bridge of his nose and rested his elbows on his knees which he'd moved off the couch. "You seriously came here because you were lonely?" he asked dryly. "Here. This is the place you wanted to be." This was like the last thing he wanted right now but he almost didn’t have the energy to run her off. Not to mention she hadn’t actually stuck around to cause trouble the last time. As far as he knew, and he’d asked his housekeeper and the boarders, Ember hadn’t been back until this moment. What in the world had really brought her in here?
Ember couldn’t give him an honest answer as to why exactly she was here because she wasn’t even sure herself. Then again, she probably wouldn’t have shared a real reason if she had one, either. She plopped down beside him, bringing her feet up to rest on the couch cushion and propped her back on the armrest. She had no shame knowing she was in a skirt. “We had such a fun time when I was here last.” She pushed aside the blonde bangs that had fallen into her eyes. Remembering her hair had changed since their last encounter. “I remember you having a thing for red heads. How do you feel about blondes?”
Riley hadn't even realized her hair had changed since he'd last seen her. He was so hungover. All he'd registered was the clothes and the unwanted presence. He glanced at her. "My wife is blonde. My daughter is blonde. Those are all the blondes I need." He couldn't help notice the way she sat in her skirt and he screwed up his mouth in annoyance that he'd even looked. How could he help it, that close beside him, but still. She'd been quick to toss anything he'd said to her about how she looked in to the sexual harassment category. "And this is your idea of fun? Hanging out where you've been asked not to be?"
“Oh, c’mon! You have room for one more.” Ember glanced around, arching a brow. “Really, you probably have room for about fifty more. How much would you love that?” She hugged her knees, resting her chin upon the top of them. Riley’s words didn’t affect her much, but she did her best to mimic a frown as if they did strike a chord with her. “You don’t understand what it’s like..” She looked away and rested her cheek against her knee tops now, because that’s what people did when they were upset.. right?
Riley groaned. "Are you kidding me? Do I look like I want a harem?" He couldn't barely handle having a wife, let alone more than one female over the age of consent. He immediately felt guilty for being so grumpy with her when she rested her cheek on her knees. But really, she came here when she was lonely. That had to be the world's suckiest existence. He almost felt worse for her than he did for himself in that moment. Except for the statement moments before about having room for fifty blondes and wouldn't he love that? Still, she looked upset and he didn't like that. "Hey, stick around I guess if it makes you feel better." He tried a sympathetic tone but it had a little bit of a hard edge because just talking was making his head hurt.
“Really? I can stick around?” Ember looked back up to Riley with the slickest smile known to the ghost world. At least, she liked to think so. “By the way, any man that looks this good without a shirt on deserves a harem.” And resorting back to creeper 101, her eyes obviously wandered back to his abs and chest, resting her cheek again on her knee tops but without looking away this time. She remained silent, only elevating the level of awkward; at least Riley didn’t really have to worry about being the sexual harassing one.
Riley realized he'd been had when she smiled at him like that. His nose wrinkled briefly and shot her a look then glanced down at himself, suddenly realizing he wasn't wearing a shirt still. He looked around for it and found it on the back of the couch. Quickly he tugged it on even though it made his head pound. "You're… was this appropriate behavior when you were alive or did you acquire your charm after death?" he asked, his voice a grumble.
“Hey!” Ember gasped, glaring as if he had done something wrong by putting his shirt on. It was an “I’m looking here!” sort of look she had given and it was clear she didn’t appreciate his discretion. “Maybe I should take my shirt off if you’re going to have yours on. It’s the only way to balance this situation. And! I kind of owe you for the show.” She nodded her head, leaning back from her cheek rest to lift the edge of her shirt. She glanced up at him with his question, pausing to think. “I don’t think I’ve ever been super appropriate..” And years of this existence seemed to do nothing short of exaggerating previous characteristics one held while alive.
Oh he had no patience for this. His head pounded and the light was still hurting his eyes, he’d made a complete ass out of himself to more than one person yesterday, and now here he was being sexually harassed by a ghost. Because this had to be his life. "Find someone else to look at," he grumped through his teeth though he wasn't making much of an effort to be hostile. He was just crabby. "If you take your shirt off I'm going to find a priest and have him perform an exorcism. I swear to god." One brow raised slowly when she said she had never been very appropriate. "You don't say. I would never have guessed."
“Can a priest do that? I’m not a demon.” She lifted her shirt a little higher to expose more pale skin and a little belly button, simply challenged at this point. “If you want me to stop, you really should be nicer to me.” She pointed the idea out to him, though doubted her words would have much effect. He seemed particularly grumpy compared to their first interaction pre-ghost exposure. Maybe he wasn’t a morning person, or maybe something else had him on edge. She held out her shirt as if she would drop it, her desire for gossip overpowering all else. “What has you on edge, mate? Besides me.” She had faked her best Australian accent for a little bit of an added distraction.
Riley sighed and stood up. She made his head spin. He was nice, she said naughty things. He was grumpy, she said naughty things. This girl was a naughty things dispenser smack dab in the middle of his shitstorm. What the hell? Was this karma? Was this how he had to pay for getting drunk and going off half-cocked at Micah? He guessed so and he knew that she wasn't going until she felt like it. He could tell from the look in her eyes he was stuck with her for the moment. "You are most certainly a demon," he grumbled though a hint of humor was breaking in. Maybe it was hysterical humor. Who knew but he suddenly wanted to laugh. Especially when she spoke like that. "I tell you and you keep your clothes on?" he bargained.
Ember was pleasantly surprised at this sudden deal they seemed on the brink of, hesitantly nodding her head. The last thing she had really planned on doing was getting topless, but seeing his reactions had entertained her too much not to run with it for a bit. “Deal. You keep talking and the clothes stay on. “ She paused before adding, “And no calling in priests on me. That’s just rude to threaten a girl.” She shamed him as if she were completely innocent in this situation, like she hadn’t busted into his house uninvited and bombarded him with all kinds of words and actions that could land him into trouble.
Riley rolled his eyes inwardly and groaned outwardly, shaking his head and sitting down again. What the hell was he getting himself into? Still, the last thing he needed was for Lia to walk in and see him sitting beside a topless girl. Or who knew what else she might take off in the interim. "My wife is a werewolf. I expect you either know about them because you've spied on them - considering they all woke up naked in cages after the full moon I'm sure you were right there - or because it makes sense that they'd exist." He almost launched right into an account of how the whole werewolf thing had recently gotten him to feeling like it had completely negated his chance at ever making their marriage work because she had Micah taking care of her like his family and to run to with questions and to, he had wrongly assumed, spill all of the stuff Riley did to make her unhappy. But, just like the day before when talking with Justin, he couldn't just tell someone else all of this and embarrass Lia. So he glanced at Ember to see her reaction to naked former werewolves instead.
Ember ignored the groan and listened intently, lifting a hand to point to Riley at his statement. “Of course I was there. Nothing that exciting happened, but I did win a bet that no one was getting out of their cages.” She tried not to think too much on the victory aftermath of that bet, instead choosing to focus back on his story. It felt like he was holding out something other than the fact his wife was a werewolf. A lot of other people seemed to have the same thing going on and the majority seemed to be enjoying themselves. “And for the record.. just because there’s a group of naked people all hanging out in one spot doesn’t mean I’m necessarily going to be there. I only have eyes for your abs. I think I’m going to call them the Rilettes.” She hugged her knees again, acting as if she didn’t say anything inappropriate. “Continue.”
Riley looked like he wasn't buying it that she wouldn't be all over it if there was nakedness or some form of sexual harrassment-worthy something or other. He practically glared at her whens he named his abs. "Yeah, because that's not objectifying in the least." He was so damned grumpy that he was almost amusing himself. Not quite though. He no longer felt like laughing either. "I'm not a werewolf. There's a lot of adjustment especially with a kid. And we haven't even told her she's my daughter yet. Nor has my wife actually moved in here either. She has her own house still." Had that all just really come out of his mouth? He shot her a look like he thought maybe she could compel him to talk somehow but he doubted it. What it really was is that he had no one to talk to about any of this except the people involved. And they'd already talked.
"Oh, women deal with it a lot more than you. Appreciate the fact you're not bombarded with it all the time." She supposed that had changed now that advertisements were a thing of the past, but she felt her point still stood. Ember's jaw dropped as Riley laid out all the information thay he did, her eyes lighting up like she had hit the jackpot at a gossip slot machine. She lifted both hands to indicate he needed to stop and back things up a little bit, questions forming on the foundation of some of his life chaos. "Why doesn't your daughter know she's yours yet? Were you both separated?" It would explain the separate houses, but the child piece was fascinating to her.
Riley snorted. "You'd personally deal with it a lot less if you weren't running around threatening to strip," he deadpanned. He was more than happy to stop talking when she put her hands up. That was about as much as anyone needed to know about his marital situation. Anyone who cared to listen to gossip or be observant would know at least that much. Except maybe about Sophia being unaware he was her father. He wouldn't have explained it to anyone else but he was on a roll now.
He got up to go to the coffee maker, got out a mug, and poured himself some of the stuff his housekeeper had left for him. "We were married just out of high school and then I went off to war. When I got back I was told that my wife and daughter had died. So full of grief and anger, I took off for another two tours. And when I was done, after the horrors I'd seen and my grief still fresh, I couldn't stay on at my family's ranch so I came here to the States. Which was pretty much the moment the zombies started rising. I had no occasion to run into Lia until I was walking by her house down near the bottom of the dome and she was outside. It's been somewhat chaotic ever since."
If Ember hadn't been so caught up in listening about the things happening between Riley and his family, she would have made a point that the objectification of women had throughout history been far worse than what he was experiencing now and that maybe her offering to strip was some type of ingrained result of that, which created a terrible cycle... but instead, she chose to focus her attention elsewhere. "Damn. So you moved to a whole new continent and you both were in the exact right area to be put into the same dome?" She turned her body so she could lay back fully on the couch, draping her legs off the side. She looked up to the ceiling, thinking over his story and still somehow stuck on their daughter. "So why has it taken so long for her to be like, 'oh by the way. Meet your dad' to your kid?"
Riley would have called bullshit on her argument in favor of her behavior if he'd heard it so it was just as well she kept it to herself. He nodded at her first question. "What are the chances? Right? I figure it was supposed to happen for some reason. Sophia has grown up not knowing me. Lia's feeling is that it should happen gradually so that she's not shocked. And I agree with that. The last thing the little girl needs is to have something that big sprung on her." He had more thoughts on that too but he held his tongue. He didn't need to share everything with this impish ghost girl.
Ember arched a brow and propped herself up on her elbows to look at him, or at least in his general direction. "You don't think that smells of bullshit?" She resumed her previous laying position, fingers twirling a piece of her hair. "How old is she? If it was me, I'd just want to know you were my dad. Well, not you. Then staring at the Rilettes would be super weird."
"A mother knows what's best for her child," he said, defending Lia because that's what you did with family. You closed ranks when someone outside of it started to poke at it. "I trust Lia to know when Sophia is ready. She's six, Sophia." Riley wondered what Ember’s past was that she was so fixated on him and his daughter. He was almost going to soften again when she mentioned the name she'd given his abs and he just rolled his eyes at her again. "Yeah, super weird."
Ember couldn't hide the hint of irritation that flashed across her delicate face at his reasoning for his wife's decision. "Or maybe the child knows best. She's old enough to make a decision like that." She moved her hands to rest in her lap, shaking her head lightly. "You have an opinion on that too, you know.. bur give the kid a chance to answer for herself." Her tone remained level as it typically did, but it was clear she held a passion for the topic.
Riley shrugged, sipped his coffee and came back to sit on the arm of the couch. "Sophia and I have been bonding. She really likes me. So I'm sure it won't be long." He hoped. Even if he and Lia didn't stay together, he wanted to be part of his child's life. "So tell me. Why are you this invested in my daughter and my relationship with her? What gives?"
Ember continued to find his answer irritating, but didn't push further with it. How much of a difference would she really make? When he flipped the questions on her, she was close to telling him that it was none of his business until she realized he had shared an awful lot. Besides, between being visible again and able to partake in conversation, she was a little chattier. "If my parents left the decision up to me, I'd still be alive. And probably wouldn't be here in your house." She stared at the ceiling. "So, you have them to thank for that."
Riley frowned at her answer. That sounded both complicated and sad. His mind was still a bit fuzzy from his hangover so maybe it wasn't as difficult to understand as he thought it was. Nevertheless, he was curious. "You never knew your father was your father and you ended up dead because of it?" he asked, though his tone was nonjudgmental and it wasn't incredulous either. He genuinely wanted to understand what had prompted her death and the resulting ghostly state.
"Oh, I knew my father." Ember confirmed, tapping her fingers against her stomach. "He and my mother decided that poisoning me, my 15 year old brother, and 9 and 5 year old sisters was better than trying to figure out a way to survive when things went to shit." She didn't talk about her siblings. Ever. It made things harder than just being dead on her own. She regretted it immediately after the story left her lips because she was quickly becoming distraught, though she still managed to mask her emotion well. "I was just saying if I was your daughter, I'd want to know you.. like right away. None of that waiting shit. But that's just me."
Riley's eyes darkened, his brows furrowing at the thought of a parent deciding to kill their children rather than try to survive. It almost reminded him of his own parents who had been the perpetuators of the lie that Lia and his daughter were dead when he'd come back from his tour in Iraq. If he'd been given the choice to know she had left things could have gone so differently. There'd be no wondering when to tell Sophia that Riley was her father because she would already know. "I can see your side of it," he admitted quietly. "Lia's been her mother for longer than I've been her father. I can't disrupt her parenting if I want my marriage to work." Which was a robotic response because he'd trained himself to say it over the past weeks. "I'm sorry about your parents' decision. Knowing what they did sort of makes you easier to understand."
Ember could hear the practiced speech, shaking her head though this was more noticeable. "You've been her father as long as she's been her mother." At the end of the day, however, she still believed it was Sophia's decision to make more than anybody else's. She shifted uncomfortably as Riley softened up, not sure what to do with the sympathy. No one had ever apologized for what her parents did, and she never really expected anyone to, so this situation was completely unexpected. She flopped over onto her stomach, bending her legs at the knees and kicking them lightly back and forth as she tried her best to force her siblings back out of her mind. She had ghosts of her own, after all. "And what is there about me to understand? Maybe I'm just a pain in the ass."
Physically, yes, he had been Sophia's father for as long but he hadn't raised the girl. Hadn't been the one to protect her during the zombie uprising and make sure she had 3 squares and no nightmares on top of it. He nodded but he let that go because they definitely didn't see eye to eye on it entirely. "I'm not head shrinker but I'd say you have all the makings of - what do the Americans call it? - an attention whore?" He said it with the first real smile he'd had since getting up. "You are a pain in the ass, yes. But I can't imagine you get much attention as a ghost. Not positive attention anyway." Which was something he was learning about now that he was being a father. That he couldn't respond to Sophia when she negatively asked for attention because it simply taught her to behave like a brat in order to get what she wanted. Not that she did it often or in anywhere near the same way as Ember did. Thank goodness. He couldn't imagine his six year old threatening to take off her clothes to get a cookie.
Ember rolled her eyes and pushed herself off the couch, feeling like with that unofficial diagnosis that she had just gone through some state of the art psychiatric therapy session. "Okay, I've had enough of being the ghost of fucking Christmas present for an eternity. I've got things to do," Lie. "Other people to harass." Sort of the truth. She stretched her arms and legs as much as she could, taking a few steps towards the door. She hesitated, turning back. "Do I get to say bye to the Rilettes?"
Riley watched her, heard the tone in her voice, and he knew he'd hit a nerve. Part of him felt bad if he'd actually made her feel bad. He wasn't sure that he had though. She was hard to read on purpose. She could project one thing when feeling another. He'd seen that earlier when she'd put her cheek to her knees. "I have a ranch hand who is particularly purposely bad at his job. You should go harass him. With my blessing," he said and shook his head slowly, giving her a dead expression. "My abs have nothing to say to you, girly." They belonged only to Lia.
“Maybe I’ll pay him a visit.” Ember spoke thoughtfully, borderline amused that she was suddenly given permission to haunt the premises. Then again, it was probably a one time, one person sort of thing. She frowned to Riley when he denied her the one thing she asked for. “I guess I’ll just have to sneak a peek some other time then. Maybe when you’re getting dressed or in the shower.” She lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers at him in a farewell, focusing her energy into fading from visibility. By choice this time! And she couldn’t help but linger to observe his expression, counting on the fact that her good-bye would probably unnerve him, at least a little bit.
Riley laughed a little at her thinking on harassing Tom. The man deserved it. He hoped he’d soon hear the lovely sound of screams or at least hear the tale of being tormented by a girl who kept threatening to take her clothes off at him. “I hope you won’t tell him I sent you,” he added dryly. His eyes turned even deader, his mouth twisting slightly. She was going to do what she wanted and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop her. “I guess enjoy that then,” he said, not taking the bait to get riled up over it again. When she disappeared this time it wasn’t as unsettling as it had the first time but it certainly was a little chilling. It was unnatural and it didn’t sit well with him. “Take care, pain in the ass.” There was almost affection in his tone.