Night's Omen

It was time for a 'night out'.  For Audrey, this meant that she'd been devoting all of her time to killing and being a 'normal' mom, and she'd reached a point where the two were starting to blend together, such as her wanting to kill snotty bitches in the grocery store and thinking about her son during hunts.

Neither were really good for her, even if they were sometimes satisfying, and that fact had prompted her need for a night devoted to relaxing.  Unfortunately, it left her sitting in the Guild's common area, shoeless and with her feet pulled up onto the couch as she lounged for awhile to watch some television.  It wasn't a common hobby of hers, and she was starting to remember why.

"Are all t.v. shows this brainless anymore?" she finally snapped, sighing in disgust and changing the channel yet again.  Maybe if she found a movie, she'd hate it less, though the commercials weren't helping her 'relaxation' time.  She wasn't feeling very relaxed, just bored.  Maybe there was a reason she didn't take time to herself anymore.  Depressing thought, since it basically meant she was boring.

Great, I'm brutal AND boring.

She could almost HEAR Matt agreeing with her, the asshole.   

Capricia was still on her leave of absence, but she'd allowed Connor to hoarde the baby for a few hours so she could have some time to herself. She wandered out into the massive 'living room' the Guild house held, bumming it in a pair of fuzzy track pants and a matching jacket. She still felt yucky even though it had been a few weeks. It was going to take a long time for her to get her self confidence back, and she hated it.

"Mind if I watch with you?" she asked, before gawking at the TV. "Tila Tequila? Oh my god, that looks like a twelve year old with bowling balls for boobs. What the hell is television coming to?" She asked, putting a hand on the couch to steady herself. She glanced down at Audrey, who she remembered seeing, but couldn't place a name to her. Mitchell still had her on a few random things - painkillers, sleep aids, anti-depressants. She was really living it up.

"...Audrey, right?" she asked, trying not to make it too obvious she wasn't sure.

Looking up at the sudden question, Audrey turned to glance at Capri before scooting over to give the other woman half of the couch.  "Yes, and you're Capri.  I've seen you around, how are things?" she asked.  She paid pretty good attention, and had heard plenty about the loud, flashy young woman, so it shouldn't have been too surprising that she recognized her. 

"You can feel free to join me, but the TV tonight really sucks," she warned, shaking her head.  She was just as disgusted with the images on the screen as Capri was, as was obvious by the other woman's gawking.  Audrey was ---> <---- that close to going out and renting a movie in pj pants and a pair of slippers.

"Anything you want to watch?"

Capricia flopped down on the couch, and shrugged a little to her question. She still felt sort of slow from all the crap she'd been pumped full of. She'd just taken some of the painkillers she was supposed to.. after meals. She'd done it without once, made her sick, so now, she wasn't taking any chances. "I'm.. " she trailed off, and stared at the television for a second, before shaking her head and blinking.

She looked at Audrey. "Coping," she said finally. "Connor has Anya right now, so I'm kind of just... I don't know what to do. Doc says rest, but I can't sleep anymore. I can't go anywhere, can't do anything. They just tell me to sit around," she said, voice somewhat flat as she complained. She was wiped. "If I had known it was going to be like this... " she trailed off.

"I don't know. Something else. I would have.. gone to college. Something."

Fortunately, Audrey knew enough about Capri's situation from talk around the guild (considering the father of the child was Crimson's leader, it was fairly big news in the guilds) that she wasn't left in the dust with Capri's talk.  She understood, having had a kid herself, though she didn't get incredibly depressed.  PPD just hadn't been part of her symptoms afterwards, though she had to admit that it hadn't been pleasant.

"Well, then the best thing you can do is relax on the couch with a good movie and a bowl of something sweet.  What kind of ice cream do you like?  I'll con Christian into going to the grocery store and the video rental," she explained, ready to get up and help Capri out with the simplest of her problems, through Christian, of course.  She'd seen him in his office not long ago, so she wasn't worried about disturbing him at home.  If not him, she was calling Adam or Andrew.  One of the men was going to do this, and any complaints would be directed to her crowbar.  Capri deserved some ice cream, and Audrey wasn't leaving her alone.

"You're going to be out of sorts for awhile, Capri.  Don't think about it all too much, or it's going to bother you.  He loves you, doesn't he?" she asked, making it sound more rhetoric than anything, but she wasn't going to assume she understood someone else's relationship without witnessing it.  She assumed they loved each other, but she wouldn't say it out loud in case something wasn't going well.

Andrew probably would have come if he'd known something was amiss with Capri - he'd been calling her, but she'd turned her phone off. Connor knew if he had any serious issues he could reach her through the Guild, and otherwise? She wanted to be left alone. Her parents and her brother both had blown her phone up nonstop - she couldn't understand what their problem was. They kept wanting to ask her a bajillion questions and hound her about this and that and... ugh. Listening to Audrey now was refreshing. Her voice was very clear, and easy to concentrate on.

"Eh, I don't really want any ice cream. I've been avoiding them like the plague - the guys, I mean. They keep treating me like I'm going to break in half. I spent a good chunk of my life working my way to the point where they wouldn't, and now it's been completely invalidated, by - " she stopped short. "Anyways.. a movie does sound nice. I think someone left Mean Girls over there on the DVD player. I saw it earlier today when I came through here on my daily shuffle."

She looked up at Audrey as she asked her if Connor loved her - she opened her mouth to answer, and then shut it again. She was sure he did... he had been spending a lot of time with Anya, though. She frowned. "I.. guess he does. I don't think he'd stick around if he didn't," she replied. She glanced up instinctively, waiting for him to pop out from behind the couch to say, 'AH-HA!'

If Audrey had ANY idea how much Andrew wanted to get in touch with her, and how much he'd have liked to know that there was something going on with her, she'd have called him.  That Capri had so many people, especially men, who cared that much about her made the other woman want to ensure that she didn't screw things up.  Audrey didn't have ANY men who gave a shit what happened to her, and she hated the ones she'd left behind her, so she really thought that Capri was pretty lucky.  Hopefully, Capri would realize sooner rather than later.

Connor actually did NOT end up popping up from behind the couch, but Audrey hopped up to check for the movie in question, and SHE said the 'AH-HA!' when she found it.  Did that work?  No?  Oh, well.

"Here it is.  I can't imagine who was watching it, but it was nice of them to leave it behind.  I'll bet it was Adam.  I always knew he liked the girly movies," she added with a playful laugh, winking at Capri.  They'd see what they could do about that mood of hers.  "I'm sure he does, and I wouldn't worry about the men treating you fragile.  They may forget that you can hurt them, but they'll remember when they mess up and you do.  The element of surprise is never bad."

Speaking of the element of surprise...

"Do you hear that?"

Felix ran into the main room completely out of no where laughing maniacally, clutching a pack of cigarettes in his right hand.  The carton CRUNCHED under his fist, the plastic covering creating the hollow, painful sound.  He seemed incredibly cheerful considering that he had a psychotic Spaniard on his tail.  A three-legged Spaniard, but still a completely crazy one.

What had he done now?

While he and Dom had been standing around, Felix decided to reach around him and pilfer his cigarettes.  Why?  Because he could.  And because it was hardly out of the ordinary, so Dom should have expected it.  The fact that they weren't even in their own guild house didn't seem to even faze him.

Someone was going to die today, and he was betting on Felix.  He'd gotten close a few times, but today would be the day, he thought.  Chasing the little bastard around with a cane and a gun was NOT helping his mood, and he was screaming curses in both Spanish and English, as well as putting in bits about the cigarettes.  He wanted them back NOW, and the little idiot had just RUN.

FOR NO REASON.

He'd just snagged them and taken off, and even though Dom's lungs were starting to get shitty and he had a cane (which he had to admit he wasn't using very much in running, therefore making the effort more painful and making him more angry), he was keeping up with the vampire.  He was also shooting at him.  Rather wildly (for him, which meant he was missing only my inches here and there because Felix was FAST), which was Felix's only saving grace at that point, though Dom knew when he hit.  It was obviously, and he shouted something suitably obscene involving the words 'pendejo' and 'GIVETHEMBACKNOW' in triumph.  Or at least, what passed for triumph. 

He really, really didn't care what guild it was.  He'd shot an actual Frost hunter in the face in this guildhouse, and gotten away with it, so it really wasn't a big deal to him to be shooting an Onyx guy right then.  Besides, Felix deserved it.  Anyone that stupid shouldn't be walking around.

This was exactly like the time he stole Dom's alcohol right out of his room while the man was sleeping.  Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure why he did it, but he knew it was fun.  The first few times it had been a little more scary and a little less like a game, but by now, it definitely was a game.  Pushing his limits; there was nothing more fun than that.

One of these days, Dom was going to kill him.  Until that day, he would let the bullets rain down upon him.

"NEVER!" he cackled in response to Dom's 'give them back now' singular word.  It sounded like one word, anyway.  Even after getting shot in the shoulder, which only just happened, Felix was still laughing.  He did shout out in pain and fell forward a bit due to his own momentum, but he managed to keep himself standing.

Bleeding, laughing, and otherwise looking insane, he ran past the Frost members on the couch and flashed them a wide, crazy grin.  "Hello, ladies," he shouted in greeting without stopping.  In fact, it was just about that time that he met his new opponent, the wall.

He leaped.  His feet connected with the plaster of the wall with a dull thud, and with that, he took off.  It was like a scene out of the Matrix; a guy being chased by another before defying gravity and running on a wall.  He shot across it in a blur of movement, taking a sharp turn into a slightly opened door.  His foot pushed it open and he jumped in, landing back down on the floor and disappearing inside of the new room all at once.

It was amazing that Felix was having so much fun with this, since Dom was really going to end up killing him.  If he could manage it, he was going to do it, end of story.  Of course, Felix was a hell of a lot faster than he was, and he was running on a bad leg.  That helped Felix's case a LOT.

Cursing, he didn't say anything to the two women they passed, though he easily recognized both of them.  He was more interested in Felix, and shooting him.  "STAY STILL, HIJO DE PUTA!  I CAN'T SHOOT YOU IF YOU BOUNCE AROUND LIKE THAT!"

Even better than the bouncing and running and weaving was that Felix pulled a movie-style wall run --- and disappeared through a doorway in the process.  Dom went right after him, though with a lot less style to it, and it would have been impossible to miss the sound of gunshots and things breaking from within.

Felix didn't question how he had managed to move so smoothly, but he was thrilled that he had.  The last thing he needed right now was to fa--

He rushed out of the room, arms raising to cover the top of his head as if he was literally experiencing rain.  Then, just as he managed to escape Dom's clutches, a bullet connected with his leg and he fell with a SMACK.

His laughing briefly stopped as he pulled himself up, glancing down at his leg in a 'you have failed me' sort of way.  However, despite the pain and blood (More blood!  His poor clothes!) he ran again, laughing and wincing as he did it.  He didn't want to stay still for long.  He limped a little but he still managed to move back towards the front door, ducking every now and then in an attempt to make himself a harder target to hit.  He already had two bullets in him; he really didn't need anymore at the moment.  He still seemed amused by the whole situation though, but he was a lunatic.

He rushed past the couch again, raising his hand and yelling, "Bye ladies!"  Then he boogied on out of the room.

"I can see Adam doing it if Hailee batted her lashes at him," she echoed with a little laugh - there it was, Capricia's humour. A little of it, anyways. "He's been gabbing about her a lot lately, I feel like cornering her and spilling all the details, but it's more fun to watch them squirm." She sat up on the couch a little and tried to situate herself into a comfortable position. She could still feel a numb sort of pain - not centralized, but all over. She didn't like it, but if she took any more painkillers, she'd just pass out. She had literally jumped when Audrey exclaimed 'AH HAH!', but quickly settled back down, looking as serene as ever.

"Hear what?" she asked, but her question was drown out as Felix ran into the room. She lifted a hand and waved fingers in response to his hurried greeting, and then watched in drugged out amazement as Domingos ran into the room after him, brandishing a weapon and demanding his cigarettes.

"You... might want to give those to him," she said to Felix, but she somehow doubted he'd take the advice. Capricia had certainly been vicious when she wanted her smokes and she couldn't find them. Ah, the beauty of being human - all the vices you could ever want.

When the room cleared out, she merely tilted her head at Audrey. "Is there a party I don't know about?" she asked, confused. "They aren't even in this Guild.. or did Lucien finally gain some sense and transfer Dom?"

SUCCESS!!! 

Felix was down with a bullet in his leg, and Dom put on a burst of speed (hey, he was getting older, doing way too much smoking, and on a bad leg...he was slowing down a little) to catch up and finish the job.  Unfortunately, Felix was only down for a moment before he was racing for the exit again, and Dom followed, loud as ever.

Again, he ignored the women, still yelling about his cigarettes, wasted bullets, and Felix moving too much with a liberal dose of cursing in there.  He was getting a little short of breath from all the yelling and running, but he'd gotten a little rest in the room Felix had turned around in, and he was still in the best shape possible (minus the leg and smoking) for his age.  Meaning, he was going to keep chasing until the idiot vampire gave his cigarettes back.

Seconds later, he'd taken off out of the room after the thief.

Their conversation temporarily forgotten, Audrey watched the entertainment with somewhat wide, surprised eyes, not believing what she was seeing.  Whose decision had it been to let those two anywhere near each other?  Even SHE knew better, and she didn't even work with either of them often enough to know them well.

It was amusing to watch, though.

She didn't know who she wanted to root for, in this case.  Dom was hauling ass and super pissed, which she had to give the older guy credit for, in his condition.  Felix sure looked like he was having a blast, which actually only made it more amusing.  He was laughing like a maniac, even after being shot.  Then, just as quickly as they'd come in, they were gone, and she was left staring after them for a moment as the sounds of Dom's cursing faded.

"If there is, I wasn't told about it," she replied, shaking her head.  "I highly doubt that Christian would TAKE Dom, even if Lucien finally decided to transfer him.  That would take some serious fast talk on the snake's part."

"No," Capricia said firmly.  "If you've ever talked to Christian for more than five minutes you know he can't be talked into or out of anything.  I don't know how his wife puts up with it."  She was obviously still bitter about the mandatory leave of absence, and showing her rebellion by remaining at the Guild house even when she was supposed to be at her apartment.  She should know, anyways.  She had a twenty-seven minute screaming match with him about her leave, and she hadn't closed the office door when she'd done it.  It only lasted twenty-seven minutes because that was how long it took for news to travel through the entire house and the doctor to come and stick her with the good shit.

She'd woken up in her own bed, and she'd been twice as pissed when it happened.  "I hope Connor hasn't dropped Anya on her head or anything.  I figure he'd have blown up the phone by now for.. whatever it is that you do.  I'm getting him used to working with diapers now,"  she explained, raising her gaze to Audrey.    "From what I've been told, it's a useful talent to have, and one I don't care to acquire, which means... he got roped into it."  Inwardly, she was willing to bet he did it only as an excuse to see Anya, not that he needed one.  Capricia hadn't though of kicking him out of the trio, yet anyways, so he had nothing to fear.