Life Insurance {Gabriel}

[Katherine Summers]

"Ah," she said, though she didn't change her position. She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then turned her head. "How much did you have to drink last night? Please, make me feel better about this," she said, laughing nervously, but slightly pleading with him not to say anything terribly stupid.

She moved cautiously to sit down on the couch next to him, though she kept a good bit of distance between them. Kat wanted to rip Gabriel's clothing off at any given point, sure, given, but she wasn't so sure now that she'd evidently done it how she felt. She thought that had been what she'd wanted, and it was... just not totally shitfaced.

"Sorry if I did anything really stupid, by the way," she offered. "I usually don't drink that much. I dunno what happened. It's like the drinks weren't hitting me fast enough, and when they did hit, they hit all at once."

[Gabriel Sullivan]

This was a mess that could explode in his face at any moment, but he was going to try to keep it from getting nasty while still telling as much of the truth as he could.  He didn't want her to hate him or feel bad about this whole situation.  Really, it was all his fault they were in this mess, but he really couldn't have left her once he'd caught wind of that other vampire.  If he'd left her and found out that something happened afterwards, he'd have never forgiven himself.  He just hoped staying didn't screw everything up in its own right.

"I'm not going to lie, I was pretty buzzed up when everything was said and done," he told her, and that was absolutely the truth.  Her blood alone had messed him up, and he'd thought it was pretty funny at the time, but it had.  "Hey, don't apologize.  Really, I should probably be apologizing.  You probably had friends who were wondering where you went, and I interrupted your night out."

Interrupted was one word for it.  He wondered if she and her friends would have gone on and been alright if he wouldn't have run into her when he needed to feed like he had. 

[Katherine Summers]

"Eh," she said, finally seeming to relax a little as she sank back into the couch. "They're harpies, anyways," she offered. "I'm almost surprised they didn't try and pick up on you," she added, and her voice had a little of her typical sarcasm to it. At least she didn't seem as upset as she had a few moments prior - that was good. Kat was usually pretty mellow, so it could just be chalked up to her brain slowly trying to put things back in order. Panic bad. Relax good.

"I totally feel like I'm in some sort of television drama right now, though," she said, a little laugh escaping her. She arched a brow at him, and reached out to give him a small shove. "I didn't entirely fuck our friendship up, did I? Because, Gabe, really, it's no secret - I like you. Obviously," she said, making a gesture at them both of them. "But, I mean... I don't know. What I'm trying to say is..."

She trailed off. She didn't really know what she was trying to say. 'Sorry for totally coming on to you?' Somehow that didn't quite cut it.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

Really, he wasn't surprised that her friends hadn't tried to pick him up.  There were plenty of 'interesting prospects' at that particular club, and he wasn't going to even think that he was one of the better ones.  He'd seen what some of those vampires were capable of, so he knew that if one of them wanted to play a game, he wasn't going to win out in the looks department.  He could certainly work miracles if he was given a chance to talk to his 'audience', but that wasn't always the case.  None of Kat's friends had taken the time to talk to him, and he wouldn't have wanted to charm them, anyway.

Kat was the one who had his attention, so she really shouldn't have worried.  He may not have WANTED her to have his attention and interest as she did, but he was making denying it difficult on himself. 

"You worry too much," he told her, not exactly being specific about the fact that he was referring to her friends, but he probably didn't need to be.  She gave him a shove and told him she liked him, which really wasn't good for her.  If she would have said she hated him, he could have left her alone and known that it was what she wanted, but no, that wasn't going to happen.  Did she really like him, or was it some subconscious sort of mind trick he was pulling on her?  "Relax, you didn't fuck anything up.  I was more worried that I had, honestly."

He smiled, trying to reassure her, and also tried to keep his mind off of her thoughts.  He had to refrain from telling her that she didn't have anything to apologize for, since he couldn't have known that.  She didn't have anything to apologize for, though.  That was the truth.  If anyone did, it was him.

[Katherine Summers]

"No," she said. She sighed, and then said it again, shaking her head. She looked over at him, a little smile on her face. "I guess I could just tell myself I was trying to get you drunk so I could take advantage of you," she offered, more joking covering her utter lack of belief that Gabriel could ever want anything to do with her. She was the girl who talked to the dead bodies, for crying out loud. That was not an endearing trait, she'd been told.

Of course, it'd been DeMortei who'd said it, so she didn't know how much his opinion really weighed into the matter, but if he'd been aiming to hurt her feelings, he'd accomplished it. She frowned again.

"Oh well. I feel like shit. I should probably go back and lay down before I try to puke anything else up," she said, freely volunteering the information. She could accept weird and politically incorrect. She wasn't ever going to change, so why bother trying to hide it? "You can stay, if you want," was the part that surprised her as she spoke it.

[Gabriel Sullivan]

He wanted more than anything right then to tell her that she shouldn't listen to anything DeMortei said, because he was an asshole and hiding something.  Gabriel and London DeMortei did NOT get along, and perhaps that was because they both knew that the other was hiding something about themselves.  Neither delved too deeply into the other's life, but Gabe had a pretty good idea that London would figure him out if he could.  He was refraining out of a desire to avoid more trouble than was necessary.  London was refraining probably out of a desire to keep his secrets hidden.

He couldn't comment on DeMortei without being suspicious, once again, so instead he laughed at her comment about taking advantage of him.  "I hate to say it, but it looks like we both did a little of that last night.  I haven't been that bad off in a long time," he informed her, and he wondered briefly if he shouldn't at least fake a little bit of a hangover.  Nah.  He was trying not to lie to her anymore than he had to.

"Can I get you anything?  Some Saltines?" he asked, ever the helpful Mr. Sullivan from Forensics.  The Nerd Cop, who sat around investigating blood stains like a 10 year old boy with a bug collection.  Being invited to stay was a little surprising.  "Do you want me to stay?"

[Katherine Summers]

"Saltines would be good, actually," she said, nodding her head. She sank back into the couch and gave him a funny look. "Yeah, Gabriel. Listen, it's kind of apparent that I like you. Why would I not want you to stay, even if I feel like shit? You make me feel better, at the risk of sounding... wussy," she said finally, frowning.

She kind of hoped he would stay, but a tiny part of her was begging to do the "I told you so" dance if he just left. She didn't know why she was so eager to see herself fail sometimes, as though it were the only way to prove a stupid point. She was sick of proving points to herself, because they were always bad points.