InsaneJournal

“Yeah, yeah. Right.” Hennessy had said in return. She didn’t know if she wanted to reach out and make new friends, to Kumbaya it up to a bunch of strange fuckers that might know her. But they were handing out free money and keys to an apartment, and Hennessy wasn’t one to say no to that kind of stupidity.

Even if it could be a trap. It probably was a trap.

But she had no nightwash at the moment, and a sword grasped in her hand that they hadn’t been inclined to take from her as she hadn’t been inclined to stab anyone with it. Yet.

Hennessy could do a lot with $1000. Turning that into art supplies, figuring out the more seedy underground of the place and how to best turn that money around. It was a plan, only when she stepped out of the building, she had no fucking clue where she was going or where she should start. Annoyed, she squinted up at the sun to glare, as if this was somehow it’s fault. “Fuck.”

Ronan usually stopped by the DOA once a week or so, either to bug Gansey or to annoy someone else. The best thing about running a farm some days was just being able to fuck off and do whatever he wanted. Alright, not the best thing but it rated pretty high. Ronan Lynch was not into schedules. He had to put up with some, for the sake of the animals and the market, but he refused to be tied to them all day every day. That was a slow, tortuous death. He'd rather be set on fire.

And, less dramatically, he enjoyed being able to pack up the lunch Gansey had forgotten in his haste and drive it out to him at work. It was Gansey's last week at the DOA most likely, so he might as well do it while he had the chance. What he hadn't counted on was spotting a very familiar head of hair and the neck tattoo that went with it.

He couldn't be sure it was Hennessy just yet but that didn't stop him from acting sure.

"Well Jesus Mary," he drawled from a couple feet away. He had to shield his eyes from the same sun. "Look who finally decided to join the fucking party."

Hennessy’s head shot to the side, where the voice came from. Her eyes narrowed in a more purposeful squint at the familiar form she had just been standing next to a half hour before. She gripped FROM CHAOS in her hand a little tighter. “What the fuck, White Boy?” It was a rhetorical question, she didn’t actually expect an honest or forthright answer.

She looked around again. This was a far cry from where they’d been last, fucking obviously. But he also looked-- healthier? Happier? It was weird to realize that just on first glance, but it’d been a shit time for them all lately. “Half thought that you might’ve dreamt this place up, didn’t want to ask the button downs inside obviously, and it’s no fancy forest and I know how much you like them.” She left out the fact that Lindenmere had felt like something of a savior to her.

Ronan wasn't entirely sure how he missed the sword. It was a dream object and it didn't exactly blend in, but he blamed the sun in his eyes and the surprise of seeing her again after a whole damn year. It was weird as shit to realize he was really glad to see this girl he hardly knew.

As surrounded as he was by people who loved him these days, there would always be a part of him that longed for another dreamer in his life.

"None of this shit is me." Ronan preened a little that she thought he might be that powerful, but it only showed in the twitch of a smile. "My farm's here though. And my first forest." He stepped closer. She looked as worn out as the last time he'd seen her. "Look, it's complicated and I've been here a while. What's the last thing you remember?"

Hennessy couldn’t seem to stop squinting. It wasn’t just the sun, even if that was annoying enough without sunglasses, but just-- this. Everything. The world, the do-gooder she’d left behind in the office, the Dreamer next to her that looked a little too sure of himself, but had his farm and-- what? His big happy family? It was a jump, since he hadn’t confirmed that, but he looked refreshed and that was answer enough for Hennessy.

“Right, farmer boy.” It was an easy enough question, what she remembered last, but it still made her grip the sword a little tighter. The stars in it’s blade sparkled but that was barely visible under the cover of it’s scabbard. “Your hero man showed up and saved the day, we’d rode off on the hover board. Away from those prime arseholes, enough to--” She blew out a heavy breath. “Fuck, I don’t know, make a plan. Do some crime.”

Her eyes narrowed and she turned a question on him. “How long is a while?”

“Ok,” he nodded. “Good. That’s the last thing I remember from there too.” He glanced off down the road. Some small, stupid part of him couldn’t help but keep one eye peeled for a curly head of dark hair and an annoying bland suit. He turned back towards Hennessy with a scowl.

“That was fifteen months ago for me.” It almost surprised him, doing the math. He’d known it had been over a year, but fuck. It was wild staring it down with Hennessy right there, fresh from their escape. Bryde, Bryde, Bryde echoed like an alarm inside his head but he ignored it. The sidewalk suddenly felt exposed and he gestured back down the street. “I’m parked over here. You wanna talk in the car or just stand here and let everyone gawk at that sword?”

“Fuck.” Someday she’d stop saying that bloody word but right now wasn’t the time. Fifteen fucking months earned a loud swear in the middle of the sidewalk. “Bryde’s not there waiting to give me some pompous lecture, yeah?”

That wasn’t a no. And it didn’t mean she was going to run the other way. The strange white guy supposedly teaching them was moderately more interesting to her than a billion other boring business men with fat wallets had ever been. Even if she still didn’t trust his shady arse. “Right. Yeah.” She tucked the sword in at her side, but it wasn’t like she wildly stood out, as a bloke with horns just side-stepped them. Hennessy stared after him. “Don’t think others are the one doing the gawking. But lead the way.”

Ronan laughed at her gawking and lead her back towards the BMW. “Just wait.”

When he climbed into the driver seat, he unlocked the passenger door and tossed Gansey’s lunch into her seat. He’d feel bad about that later, but he was pretty sure Gansey would understand. He didn’t start the car, just thrummed his fingers against the wheel while he waited for her to climb inside. Some stuff wasn’t his to tell but he’d be damned if he let her wander off into Vallo without any support system. He knew she had shit to deal with. He knew he could help her. Whether she’d accept that help was anybody’s fucking guess but he had to try. He leaned over to peer at her through the open door.

“Hungry? It’s probably something annoyingly healthy, but sometimes Gansey surprises me.” He nodded towards the lunch bag in her seat. “Did you meet him in there? Turquoise polo. Hard to fucking miss.”

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d even eaten anything, but food didn’t sound appealing right now. Neither did his friend’s forgotten lunch. Hennessy moved it to the dashboard without bothering to poke around the white boy’s egg salad sandwich or whatever was there, and didn’t bother to put on her seat belt after closing the door behind her.

“No, thanks. Turquoise polo was yours? I saw him. He didn’t know who I was, don’t think.” Or if he did, he was good at hiding it. She kind of preferred that, as an uncomfortable weight settled in her gut. She wedged the sword in and nestled it against the door and seat. “Your lawyer boy here too? I get to see what he looks like besides just a dream drawing of hearts all over a blank face, yeah?”

Ronan frowned at her rejection of the food. He remembered when he'd first gotten here, he'd felt cavernous on the inside. Like no food would be enough. It hadn't lasted long - he wasn't even sure he'd eaten before it passed - but still. He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, trying to formulate a plan even though he knew damn well he was just going to follow his gut and her lead.

"Turquoise polo is mine--Is Gansey," he corrected. "I've talked about you. I just didn't tell any of them what you look like." Which felt a little dumb in retrospect but Ronan didn't tend to give a lot of details unless they were demanded of him. "But yeah, Adam is here too. A few people you should meet. And Opal."

A few people you should meet made her inwardly cringe. Was it going to be Jordan’s pale faced beau? Hard pass. Just Ronan Lynch having more than his few people was alarming enough, Dreamers were so often alone except for their creations or the superficial level she kept all others at except for the girls.

And even then, before it all went to shit…

“Right.” She wasn’t saying a lot, which was odd in Hennessy’s nervous rambling kind of way, but looking out the car door to the city that was both familiar when it came to architecture and busy streets, and unfamiliar when it came to brightly colored people or magic being shown so openly. It was an artist’s dream, in that sense.

She snapped back when Opal’s name was mentioned, looking back to him. Opal had been a help to her, a calming presence that had kept the Lace at bay. “Even the nugget’s here? Sounds like you’ve just got the prime setup, then. What’s the downside to all this? The Trick.”

His answer was just a shrug at first, while he rolled the question around in his head. What would Hennessy think was the Trick here? He didn't think he knew her well enough to know that yet. He knew she'd spent most of her life with very little control though.

"You can't leave. You can't decide who shows up here and who doesn't. And random magic shit happens every other week or so." He grabbed Gansey's lunch bag for himself and dug around inside until he found a sandwich. He unwrapped it and took a bite, talking around the mouthful without shame. "Also there's a fuckton of magic to pull from, not like ley lines at all. If you…" His gaze sliced sideways across the car and his chewing slowed. "if the Lace followed you here, it could give you more juice to shove it off for good."

She’d felt it. Not the Lace, even if that always felt like it was a part of her, but Vallo being juiced up, she could feel that. She’d never really pictured herself as being intune with the ley lines, she wasn’t a dreamer like Ronan was, not really. But that electric hum in the back of her mind was hard to ignore, and she’d had a lot of previous experience ignoring.

“Right sure,” She didn’t sound sure, the sarcasm slowly fell off the words with about as much as her apprehension was visible on her face. Ronan might’ve been the first time she actually thought she could fight off the Lace, but juiced up could just mean she was more likely to dream up another copy and another copy and another-- Hennessy blew out an annoyed huff and stared out the window some more. “So none of those Moderator fuckers here? Any other Dreamers?”

"None that have outed themselves. Or tried to kill me." Ronan watched her out of the side of his eye, still taking random bites of the sandwich and chewing like the cows he raised. He didn't want to call out that look on her face. But he did store it away, to remind himself later, if her pain in the ass attitude started to wear at his resolve. "I told everyone on the network I was a dreamer a long time ago. Almost a year now. And nothing."

Well, not nothing. He'd had his share of danger in that year but nothing that had seemed aimed at him for what he was. It felt good to realize that decision hadn't bitten him on the ass.

He sat the remains of the sandwich on the dashboard and reached for the keys in his pocket, still not looking her straight on. "You wanna see the farm?"

A year. A whole bloody year. Hennessy had played a careful game - Jordan played a careful game, as she was the smarter one, the one more apt to do things the right way and not fuck it all up. So she couldn’t say until the Mods had come around that Hennessy had been the most careful. The girls had been proof of that, even if that had been out of her control.

“Hard to believe they wouldn’t have been far up your arse already if it’s been a year.” Especially with as powerful as he was. It was on the tip of her tongue to say no- she wanted to go explore the city. But she liked that farm, as much as she hated to admit it. She wouldn’t want it, but spending that time in Lindenmere with the little nugget on her lap helping her, had been the most in-control Hennessy had ever felt.

It was like she needed another hit of it. But she had to force herself to sound casual. “Yeah, sure. You better go fast, though, none of this granny driving shit.”

Ronan rolled his eyes and pulled on his seatbelt. Three years ago, he'd never have bothered. But the last thing he wanted was his brother going to sleep because some dipshit cut him off. It was worth the risk Hennessy would give him more grief.

"Don't tell me to do shit I'm already gonna do. It just makes me want to do the opposite to piss you off." He reclaimed Gansey's sandwich and stuffed it into his mouth, not so much taking a bite as storing it there as he put the key in the ignition and turned it. The BMW rumbled pleasing to life. He grinned sharkishly around the sandwich and whipped out into traffic without another word.

It was a good chance to show her what a dream machine could really do.