Rorie O'Bannon (roriemccool) wrote in tiberiusswann, @ 2012-01-02 14:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | mal, rorie |
Friday March 20, 2009
Who: Rorie and Mal
What: Rorie moving out
Where: Garret's house
When: Mid-day
Rorie went to the front door. There were boxes of his stuff, his music equipment, and knick knacks lying in the floor. Opening it, he stood there for a moment with a sad smile before hugging Mal. "I'm sorry," he said, refusing to start crying. It was his own fault and he had to deal with the consequences.
Mal tucked his phone back into his jeans pocket and sighed, stepping inside and being glomped by his husband. That still felt weird to him. "You're lucky I don't haul you over to my place," he grumbled. Rorie and Garret were his humans. His responsibility. What sort of hound was he if his humans couldn't trust him to protect them?
"I'm surprised you haven't kidnapped me yet," Rorie said, chuckling slightly. "I've got kind of a hotel/apartment in Boston. It's pretty big so Pete can have his space," he sighed as he went to take his pictures down from the entertainment center. He'd already gotten the ones on the walls, they were all his as Garret hated having his picture taken the way Rorie did it. Just random candid shots snuck up on him. Putting the pictures wrapped in bubble wrap safely in a box, he closed it and taped it shut. "Just a few more things and I'll be gone."
"You're an adult and making your decisions. I'm not going to make them for you." Mal leaned against the wall, not offering to help Rorie pack. He may not go out of his way to make Rorie change his mind, but neither would he offer support to help him leave. "Explain to me one more time why you think it's a better idea to move out closer to him?"
"He didn't give me a choice to move out, Mal," Rorie said as he stacked two boxes and picked them up. "He threw me out and I just realized you were talking about Liam," he snorted. "I'm not terribly close. Besides, Garret's already made his choice and it didn't involve helping me figure out what to do, so why fight it anymore?"
Mal groaned softly. "And how many times has Garret thrown a hissy fit over something he didn't like and changed his mind two days later?" As for the mention of Liam, Mal's eyes flashed dangerously before he got it back under control. The only thing keeping that man's head attached to his neck was Rorie, as far as the hound was concerned. "Boston is closer to him than Danvers."
"Boston is also where he's paying for my place," Rorie sighed. "I'm his bitch now. I fucked up to the nth degree. Garret may get over it and want me to move back in, but. . . I can't. I'm on Liam's dime and time now. I gotta do what he wants or people will get hurt. He threatened Mandy and the Baby. I won't let him hurt them and I won't let her get hidden away from the world because she'll hate me and resent me for doing that to her. Besides, if Liam can't get to her, he'll go after anyone else he can get his claws into."
Closing his eyes, Mal breathed slowly. He'd pray for patience, but hellbeings like him didn't pray when you were damned by one god and abandoned by another. "I'm not angry, I'm trying to understand twisted human logic. When you were backed into a corner, rather than asking for help, you allowed yourself to become a murderer." Mal opened his eyes and watched Rorie carefully. "There are many of us here than can protect Mandy and your kid. This wasn't a choice you had to make."
"He had us followed in Greece," Rorie said, setting the boxes down. "He told me exactly where we'd been, what we'd done, and for how long. He's got eyes everywhere Mal. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how easy it would be to take Mandy or her father or her friends or my friends or someone else when they leave campus," Rorie said. "Everyone keeps telling me I didn't have to do this, but I don't hear how I could have done it differently," Rorie said getting mad now. "No one has told me a damn thing I could have done to avoid this when so far it's them I'm protecting and they haven't even touched this! What was I supposed to do!? Huh!? Go to you or Garret and figure out a plan while he killed someone? What if he'd gone after Max? What if he'd gone after a student or one of your friends while we were planning?"
As Rorie talked, vented and screamed, Mal stood stoically. Quietly. His eyes smoldered, shifting from soft blue-grey to a fiery red. "There would have been no plan. Just one less human," he growled. The implication was clear. Mal would kill without thought to protect what was his and there would be no body to find.
"While you were killing him though and he had men out to kill Mandy or Finn, would that be worth it?" Rorie asked. "He's not stupid Mal! If I said no, he'd be sending his goonsquad out and even you can't be in two places at once. It's never that easy," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Nothing is ever that easy."
"Max and Ziv are here. As are several other demons I'd trust with your safety." Liam wasn't stupid, but neither was Mal. He'd been doing assassinations for longer than the word had existed. "I never said it would be easy, but you wanted an option. I've told you one."
"That's just it, Mal," he sighed. "I'm safe, but nobody else is. Everyone's focused on keep me safe, but then that leaves everyone else wide open to die while I'm in my ivory tower. I won't let my friends die for me," Rorie said. "Just. . . I'm done arguing something that coulda woulda shoulda. I'm stuck and that's that."
Mal pushed off the wall, not bothering to hide his frustration, anger at the situation. "You're stuck because you want to be. You don't know what to do with the control you have, so you'll do nothing until you get sick of it." He wasn't turning his back on Rorie, merely stating the facts as he saw them. "And when you do, Garret and I will be there to pick up the pieces and help you take back your life."
"I'm stuck because I don't want to lose someone I love!" Rorie yelled, shoving Mal against the wall. Probably a bad move. "He will kill everyone I have ever met and not blink an eye! Mal, this isn't some foot soldier, there is a reason he's in charge. I am not taking a chance and losing someone!"
Mal let himself be shoved back against the wall, but he didn't stay there long before he shifted and pinned Rorie there, an arm across his throat. "And you're an idiot for forgetting who you have on your side," he said quite calmly, in spite of the rage making his body quiver. "You have more backing with three people than he could pull together with his humans. Or have your forgotten the hellhounds, vampires, demons and others who have promised to protect not just your hide but everyone's here?" Snorting, smoke twirling from his nostrils, Mal shoved back. "He's signed his death warrant. The only question now is when the devil will come to collect."
"That's the thing Mal, when someone like Liam dies, there's another to take his place. Usually that means a trusted friend or in this case, son. You kill him, yes he's gone, but then someone else takes over till it's my turn," Rorie said, after he was shoved. "I gotta finish packing," he said, moving away.
"The sons only take over if they want to take over. And even then, you could do more good than him in that position." Shaking his head, Mal clenched his fist, smoke starting to rise from his body. "When you need me, I'll be there." This wasn't the way he'd wanted to talk to Rorie, but it infuriated him that he was being asked to stand back and do nothing. Turning towards the front door, he spelled it open, rather than risk touching the handle and melting it. Although, that wouldn't be a bad idea to lock Rorie in. Mal scrapped that idea as soon as he had it, walking out into the cold.