North of the Wall [Diamonds + Desmond]

[Chadwick Emerson]

The laughter was a little unexpected, but only so far as Chad didn't realize he was going to burst into laughter when he hadn't even said anything worth much of a response.  Most cases didn't have much to say to 'we're going to have a chat', but apparently, this was hysterical.  At least Gunnar's work was holding, since it wasn't the Smoke who had his work cut out, it was Chad.  Damn it.

Desmond seemed to realize that himself, which prompted some quiet cursing when Antoine called Chad 'Justinian', and it was the Triste's turn to chuckle a little and shake his head.  When he looked back at Antoine, there was no pity or sign of disturbance on his face, but it was hard to shake him.  He had expected impressive amounts of damage from Midnight Europe, but that Justinian was involved?  Welp.

"I'd like to avoid going into your head, Antoine, because there's absolutely nothing in there that I want to see," he pointed out.  If Rajz and Justinian had taken their cracks at him, he was honestly surprised that the man wasn't a totally raving lunatic - this lucidity was probably the result of sheer willpower, but to fix it?  He wasn't sure it was possible, short of a miracle.  He'd removed the metaphysical 'tumors' of trauma that caused some forms of insanity, but it was hard, nasty work, and there was no guarantee that the person wasn't subsisting entirely on that trauma and willpower.  He had to figure out how fractured the rest of the psyche was to determine if it had a chance of working, and that required going in.  He was still hoping to avoid that.  "I told you, my name is Chad.  I've never been to Midnight and I've never personally met Justinian, but if you have, I'm sorry."

It was a start, because that fucker left a mess in his wake.  He still didn't touch on the more pleasant auras, not when they were trying to encourage reality, but it was obvious that the man didn't believe that this was real.  "I don't need to you tell me anything, Antoine.  I'm telling you.  This is your brother, Desmond?  He's worried about you, and apparently, just got his ass kicked trying to keep the people you attacked from killing you."

At the name, Desmond put his hand over his face and rubbed, then looked like he was going to speak up, but Chad ignored him for the moment.  He knew that he wasn't wrong in the information he was given, but if there was something between the two, he didn't want to know it going in.  Antoine was thinking this was all a product either of his own mind or Justinian's, and Chad knowing key information wasn't going to do much to help that. 

[Antoine Sutherland]

 Antoine's bored attitude dropped pretty quickly when Justinian called James 'Desmond', mostly because who the fuck was Desmond? Justinian knew his brother's name, and he'd even been present when his brother had been killed, so what the fuck? He snapped his attention back to Justinian, and for a split second, the room changed and he was somewhere else with other people. Then it went back, and he shook his head a little.

His own mind, however beat to shit it was, was definitely turning some gears. Trying to rationalize. He couldn't be hallucinating, because he knew James' name, and so did everyone else. There had been a vampire attack and a hotel and he'd killed half of Onyx only a few years prior, so what... was he back in Midnight for? He wasn't, that's what it was. The Triste was tugging at an aura that caused him a mild and annoying buzzing pain in the back of his head, and it grounded him just long enough to get a good grip of scenery around him.

"James," he whispered, trying to get his attention. "Am I dead?" He looked from Chad to Gunnar, who were both handsome and blonde, and they could have been angels (or demons, he didn't really know). "Is this... are we in Purgatory?" he hissed.

Because that was his next logical assumption. At least Chad had been very right about not trying to heal his injured psyche - Antoine was only propped up on faults and cracks he'd filled in with the glue of his own will to hold them together. Fixing them would take away his edge, and probably his reason to live. Reason eleventy billion of why they never took people who'd been in Midnight for trainees - and the guilds were certainly re-detailing their policies now, to be sure.

[Desmond Stark]

Bingo.  Chad didn't know who 'James' was, but it didn't take a leap of logic when Antoine addressed Desmond as such and the changeling stood from his seat and seemed to stop himself just before hugging the human by squeezing his shoulder.  From body language alone, Chad was guessing it was an effort on Desmond's part, but he refrained just barely. 

"No, Twan, we're in Diamond and you're not dead or going to die, I promise," Desmond answered, and that was the end of his attempt at looking like he wasn't emotionally involved.  He was a wreck.  "I'm so sorry."

For what, he didn't specify, but between not manning up enough to confirm that his brother was dead, failing to save his family and then surviving all of them, he had a lot of guilt.  A lot of it wasn't even necessarily his fault, but that didn't affect guilt all that much.  Guilt didn't require someone else blaming you, it was all your own.

Without knowing the details from Desmond's end, Chad sure as hell wasn't going to comment on that, and fae had the weirdest magical auras to read through, but he was getting some of that negative emotion off of the other man.  As long as Desmond could anchor Antoine, they could deal with the changeling's issues later, but he didn't fail to notice them.  He was so charging if he had to deal with a fae psyche, though.

[Antoine Sutherland]

 Antoine was more than a little surprised when his brother approached him, and he just sort of sat there, totally dazed. Now it was all really coming back to him, but if they were in Diamond, then that meant the vampire must have apparated them there. Why? Was he a Diamond? Had Antoine really just stabbed a Diamond with his lucky knife?

"Shit," he muttered. "My knife."

He looked back at his brother, catching him by the arms, and narrowing his eyes. "Justinian has had me convinced, for a very large amount of time, that you were dead. I'm pretty sure I thought I watched you die, actually," he said, his voice low. "You can understand my skepticism for reality as I know it, as it clearly hasn't always been so stable," he added, a wry joke punctuating the very ugly truth that Antoine was always going to be super-PTSD man.

After a long, quiet pause, the inevitable question came. "Everyone else is actually dead, still, though, right?" Antoine didn't wince as he asked; really, he sort of leaned back a little and tilted his head, his brows raising as if he were trying to make it look like he'd just asked for the time. Like he was incapable of allowing himself the idea that his family was still alive. Hope,  contention, happiness - Chadwick had been right not to use those auras to get him to talk, because he really just didn't register them like a person should.

It had probably been a very good call on Noelani's part not to summon Corinne. Antoine may have tried to kill her much more violently than the others.

[Desmond Stark]

Desmond actually laughed a little, choking on it past all the horrible emotions to go with the slight bit of humor, but he nodded.  "Your knife.  Did a number on the Diamond vamp with it, but we'll get it back," he told Antoine, nodding a little.  It was a fae gift, and so it had to go back to its owner.  That was how it worked. 

The way his brother grabbed his arms caused him to stiffen slightly, but if Antoine had gone violent on him, he wouldn't have fought back nearly hard enough.  Fortunately, that's not where it went, but James made full-on eye contact with his brother through the information, and the more he heard, the worse he felt.  Antoine had watched him die, or at least, someone who looked exactly like him, and there was more guilt there.  Not that he'd survived, because that was more important to him than a stranger and always would be, but that it had been used against Antoine, and that the poor bastard had probably died nasty.  That was the one part he'd mostly been able to forget, or at least, shove to the back of his mind far enough not to think about it.  Once again, he nodded, squeezing Antoine's shoulder again.  "They tried for me, it just didn't take."

There, no details, no need to tell Antoine that while he was trapped in Midnight watching his family and James die horribly, his brother had actually been fleeing the country and then hunkering down to suffer through iron poisoning like he'd never before experienced and then the healing of his wounds.  He'd actually called Declan, Sam for help, not sure who else to ask, and Kes had come with him.  It was those two who kept him alive, and by the time he was back on his feet, the bodies had been found and James thought that he had to see.  He'd gone, and now he had those images in his head once again as Antoine asked him.

Something must have shown on his face, his usual ability to play any part, be any person, completely lost to him, and he glanced down as he swallowed thickly, then nodded again.  His voice was as thick as whatever he was trying to shove back down, but he still answered.  "Yes, Twanner, they're actually dead.  I thought you were, too," he admitted, and he didn't like the way Antoine had asked, that look about him, but the information was there, it had to be given.  He wouldn't lie to his brother.

[Taro Nakamura]

Taro was finally feeling well enough to talk, and re-emerged in the main hall where Murphy, Lani, Aaron and Isabelle stood. Eithne had just left to go and research her way to the truth, and Taro had something himself worth adding into the fold. He'd had to eat, first, though, which meant vanishing right after Gunnar had healed him. The Smoke knew his business, but Taro was still left with that angry need to gorge himself on the blood of someone who probably didn't deserve it, and so he had.

"Before you all start with questions, let me just say that at first, I didn't know who he was," he said, holding up his hands.

"So, when you did realize that he's a mass murderer, you took him here?" Belle asked, her brows raised.

"I said before you start!" Taro snapped, both stomping his foot and waving his arms at them. He straightened himself, wondering how best to explain what had gone through his head, and finally decided on the truth. "When the original event happened, I was curious enough to follow up on it on my own - we'd already closed the case, but I had contacts telling me that it wasn't the full story. So, naturally, when I actually find the guy who's supposed to be responsible for one of the biggest takedowns in guild history, I want to look inside his head for what really happened."

Isabelle snorted.

"I take it you tried to go in there, too. Guys, there's no way he's the mastermind they say he is. I mean, he is, because man can he fight, but he didn't just wake up one day and go postal. There's something dirty in the water they're trying to make us drink."

"A cover-up?" Lani asked. "From us?"

Isabelle scratched her eyebrow lightly and looked at Murphy. "I know you two are American - well, okay Lani you're American, but you have to understand that you can't possibly be all of the stereotypes at once. In the rest of the world, whenever your government does something underhanded and it's on Wikileaks and people are outraged, we're sort of not surprised. Do you think if the government goes out of their way to hide shit, that the people under you who don't want your scrutiny won't do the same amount of hiding? I worked at Onyx AU, and we didn't do anything dirty, but we certainly didn't want Diamond attention. Look at what happened in the US now - a guild leader sent people into Midnight without any pre-auth, then somehow managed to start a war - a war with Midnight almost behind out back?"

Taro pointed. "Bingo." He looked at Lani. "I hate to break it to you, sister, but I think we've all been lied to."

Lani, who didn't like being called an ignorant American, liked the idea that the people beneath her had pulled one over on her even less. "Let's see what Eithne and Nicolette dig up," she said, her voice icy and smooth. She crossed her arms slowly, and Murphy would know that they would probably be going to the UK really soon to simply oust management and re-assemble the guilds themselves. Probably painfully and with a lot of force.

[Murphy O'Shea]

Murphy snorted just at the back and forth between Belle and Taro, but otherwise remained silent so that he could absorb the information needed and then offer it up to Eithne and Nicolette.  There was another snort when Isabelle corrected herself in stating that Murphy was American, his New York Irish thing obviously not believed anymore, but she wasn't wrong.  He wasn't deluded into thinking the way that so many Americans did about the government, but he wasn't much of a fan of thinking that some of the other guilds had been doing shit that they didn't like.  It sounded very much like they needed to be putting in more plants, watching more closely.

After they went in and shook shit up, of course.

"Just the vacation I was looking for," he snarked, running a hand through his hair and glancing Taro over quickly, just in case.  Guy looked good, which probably meant that someone was dead, but Gunnar had also done a bang-up job.  Murphy knew Taro well enough to understand his habits.  "Based around what the girls dig up, we might want to take a stab at our changeling contact in there.  Stark knew enough to know about his brother's family, and think his brother was dead, and Stark himself is alive.  I'm betting he knows something."

No, Murphy wasn't just sore about Desmond coming at him, though that irritated him still.  He understood the man's reasons even if he wouldn't admit it, but he didn't like it.

[Antoine Sutherland]

 Antoine breathed a sigh, though whether it was relief or not, nobody, not even him, knew. "Me, dead? No. That would have been easy," he joked, though he physically blocked the thoughts of what happened in the place of him dying out of his head. He felt broken and cracked floodgates and barriers slamming down as he went back into 'normal mode', which was the state he existed in between bouts of vicious killing and total madness.

He looked at the close proximity of the Triste and the witch and then went back to James. "I'm fine, I'm not going to flip out again," he said, holding his hands up. He did wipe his hand over his face and add, "I have fucked up" in a low voice to himself. He had attacked a Diamond, then been brought to Diamond where he'd attacked more Diamonds. In his defense, he had no idea what was going on.

He didn't really know what else to say, which was why he was thankful when Noelani's voice cut in. "Yes, you have," she agreed. She looked at Stark, or James, or whoever he was, then back at his brother. "But not as much as someone else did. Des, Eithne needs to see you."

"And that's another thing," Antoine said, sitting up quickly enough that Noelani put a hand out, ready to push him back down in a second if she saw a reason. He looked at her hand, then at her, an expression that somehow made her doubt herself for a split-second before she remembered who she was.

"I hit a lot harder than they do," she advised him.

"She does," Gunnar added. He didn't sound like he was joking.

"I'll take that into consideration for future endeavours; right now I'd like to stand up, if that's okay with you." When she lowered her hand, but didn't move, he slowly swung his legs over the cot and stood to his full height (6'1). He glanced at Chad again, then to his brother. "I really just wanted to ask why they keep calling you Desmond, man," he said, a grin on his face.

"Nope," Noelani said, instantly stepping back from him and turning around. "Nope. Chad, Gunnar, come on. Nope," she said again, waving her hands in front of her in a time-out manner. "Des, you guys come out when you're done." She wasn't getting into any more family business when she already had to deal with all of the questions about Murphy and Eithne that were no doubt hurtling her way very soon. Besides, by the time they were done, Eithne would know a little more - and then Antoine could throw in his own input.

[Desmond Stark]

It wasn't like James appreciated the fact that dying would have truly been easier than surviving everything that his brother had, but he was okay with the fact that the man was functioning well enough to make even unpleasant jokes.  That didn't guarantee that he was going to stay 'normal', but then, James didn't exactly intend to leave him on his own anytime soon.  The assurance that Antoine wouldn't flip out again, the understanding that he'd fucked up, that seemed like a good start, though.  James glanced to Chad, who was apparently their resident expert, and the man looked pleasant enough when he smiled.  James wasn't fooled into thinking it was all better, but he'd take progress.

"You're not the only one," he admitted about the same time that Noelani cut in, and he was okay with that.  He wasn't okay with being ordered off to see Eithne, which explained his lack of movement immediately, and he sure as hell wasn't going anywhere once Antoine mentioned 'another thing' and sat up, prompting aggressive reactions.

James stiffened, prepared to jump in however was necessary to keep his brother safe and under control, and Antoine wasn't the only one wondering if she was bluffing when she said she hit harder than Gunnar and Chad (who he was assuming she was talking about).  He could see it, considering Gunnar was the medic, but he was also a witch, and they were damn strong usually, and he wasn't entirely sure what Chad was, but it was something supernatural despite his also apparently being some kind of shrink.  Antoine being polite sure as hell helped the situation, as far as he was concerned, and James released a relieved sigh as he also straightened. 

Apparently, he wasn't getting to Eithne just yet, since Antoine's question got a surprising reaction from Noelani.  The changeling stared after her a moment as she ushered Gunnar and Chad from the room, and the two of them exchanged a look of confusion on their own, but followed, which was interesting to James.  They probably had the infirmary fixed to prevent magical means of transportation, or something.  Why they would leave a known fae in their with a human 'captive' made little sense to him, unless there was some level of trust he hadn't expected.  It wasn't unfounded, since he wasn't in any hurry to take Antoine somewhere there might be danger if Diamond was willing to house them comfortably for now, but it was surprising.

"Ah, technically, I'm retired.  My whole team took on new identities to be able to relax and vacation some in less extreme occupations.  Might pick the real one back up sometime, but the slower pace is nice," he admitted, shrugging some.  "It's Desmond Stark, and from the sound of it, you might be needing a new one, too."

He was straight serious on that one, and it sucked that Antoine was human, since it wasn't like he could hide his face behind another if he ran into someone who suspected.  Not if he was alone, anyway.  James could help him hide, but then, Antoine didn't know that, and James wasn't volunteering just yet that the weird talents he'd had when they were growing up had blossomed into real power, because damn it, he just wanted time with his brother.

[Antoine Sutherland]

 Antoine frowned; James had been military, but he hadn't been so military he'd have to take a new name. Had he? "Retired?" he echoed, staring at him with a certain expression of disbelief, one that was definitely getting some work lately. When James suggested he might also need a new name, he merely made a laughing noise that caught in his throat. "I fucked up brother, but not with that. I'll take the notoriety, whether the record ever gets straightened out or not."

He cleared his throat, loosening up his arms and shoulder. "Desmond, though?" he asked, narrowing one eye a little.

He pivoted on his foot, happy to be able to walk around, and noticed that he felt better physically then he had in weeks. The Smoke had healed shit that Antoine had been just waiting out. "Your friends here really know how to stitch a guy up," he muttered. As soon as his back was to his brother, mouthing 'Desmond' again to himself and an eyeroll. James just wanted to be fancy.

"So, what exactly did you do in the time that I was gone that warranted a name change and made you friends with Diamonds, or do I want to know?" he said. His tone was light, but the question was a lot more serious than it sounded. "And why didn't anyone tell you I was alive?" More to the point.

[Desmond Stark]

Answer?  Yes, he'd been so military he had to take a new name if he wanted any peace, which he had.  The name that was real was the one with the notoriety of his own, so he didn't disagree with his brother on that one, but it was nice to enter a situation and not be known or affiliated with some impossible ventures.  James shrugged at Antoine's comment, but he winced at the name thing.  "It could've been worse.  You remember Liam?  He got Harvey."

He still didn't see this being the end of the name thing, but whatever.  He was just glad Antoine was alive to rib him, and actually, that shock hadn't worn off enough for him to truly absorb it.  It would probably hit later, when he was trying to sleep, or something.  "Wouldn't really call them 'friends', but they're some of the best at what they do, and as far as I know, Gunnar is the best at what he does," he pointed out, because credit where it was due.  He personally thought that his old team could give some of these guys a run for their money, but he wasn't going to advertise that like it was a challenge. 

"Couple high-profile jobs, one of my mates had marriage problems, we were all a bit burnt out on the whole deal.  Decided to take a break, do some smaller work to keep busy," he offered, not a lot of details, but then, that wasn't really what Antoine was asking.  He could have probably named a specific job that would have gotten more of a reaction out of his brother, but admitting you'd done some things just wasn't cool, and he didn't want to shatter his brother's image of him, whatever it was. 

Not the point.  The point came at the end, and the faux lightness to the conversation was demolished for James' very serious face.  Again, he looked very bothered despite being able to close down if he wanted.  "Don't know, maybe they thought I knew.  I'll be honest, I thought you were dead and after Lily and the children...I didn't want to see.  I was avoiding that part of the world awhile, got dragged back in when an old friend needed an extraction.  If I knew...you know I'd have been there."

[Antoine Sutherland]

 Antoine only snorted when he said Liam had 'won' Harvey. "Is he still around?" Antoine asked, wondering how everyone had held up. He'd have been interested to know that Emile was currently a trainer in Frost UK, mostly because that would have been someone who could have vouched for him. Or helped him with his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. He folded his arms and walked towards the door, though he was hesitant to go out there, yet.

His shoulders stiffened as James brought up his wife and kids, and he put his hand on the door. "I know," he said, his voice an octave low. He cleared his throat and turned around, furrowing his brows and forcing a smile. He had been waiting to go face the music, but after that emotional remark, he was pretty sure he needed to. "Let's go and handle this," he suggested.

There was nobody immediately outside, but he could hear voices. This place was literally a castle, he marveled. He'd heard rumours, but seeing it? As he rounded the corner, James hot on his heels, he spotted a female talking with the guy who'd left them earlier. She glanced over her shoulder, blinking large green-grey eyes at him and touching Chad on the arm.

"Sutherland?" she said, her mouth dropping open. She said something else in a different language, then left Chad's side, walking more and more rapidly until she was running at Antoine. At a time like this, it was easy to forget that he was prior military service - much like James had once had a normal military career. And - well, a few of them, actually.

She hugged him tightly, then punched him in the arm, her voice raising as she spoke in Farsi. Antoine looked totally stunned for all of this, mostly because he'd experienced a lot of head trauma over the years. It'd take some jogging of his memory to know that they'd served together, but he'd get there eventually. In the meantime, he practically carried her on his hip like a child, turning around to look at James.

"He doesn't know who I am, does he?" she asked James flatly. She looked at Antoine. "Antoine, put me down."

"I'll get there," he hissed.

"MI-6," Firuza jogged. "Syria. Project Dawn."

"It's so nice to see you, Ghassemi," he said in Farsi. Switching to English, he dropped her to the ground. "But right now, I need to handle something. I banged a few of you up earlier and I've got to deal with that." He winced a little as she stepped away from him, her face turning to shock.

"You were the one that got Taro?" she asked, full of disbelief.  She looked past him. "Des?"

[Desmond Stark]

Mentioning Liam was probably the best option, considering he was the biggest 'success story' for the group, and would remain such, even after being captured for two damn years, but that wasn't even an issue just yet.  "Course he is, too damn smart not to be, that man.  Married to a lovely lady, last I heard," he offered.  "The others are all keeping busy, too, spread out and causing trouble, I'm sure."

Emile probably would have helped with Antoine's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and actually, James and most of the team would have helped, on some level, but they'd have made sure that they could prove that the deaths were warranted, so that people didn't just attribute it to Antoine going postal.  They'd have also sought some sort of help for Antoine, even if it was just trying to keep him grounded when his reality was shaken.  Something.  Anything would have been better than this, and though James regretted mentioning Lily and the children immediately, he didn't know how else to do it.  He merely nodded when his brother said they should go handle it, because that was better than dwelling on the shit end of things, but he was not prepared for Firuza.

Apparently, Chad wasn't quite expecting Firuza to behave the way she did, either, since he shot James a look that might have qualified as 'puzzled', if it wasn't quite so guarded.  As it was, James was mostly guessing here.  Not that he had more than an instant to take in the details from the man (an instant was a lot of information sometimes) before Firuza called Antoine by name and prompted both of them glancing her way just based on the familiar surname, and then she was running towards them.  Not really all that familiar with her himself, James stiffened and prepared to knock her into next week if he had to, but she hugged his brother, and chattered at him in Farsi until she realized that he didn't remember her.

"Nope, not yet," he offered easily enough, in the same language.  Being who he was required languages, and he was good at them. 

There it was.  She mentioned a specific time, place and operation, and Antoine remembered just fine, which was encouraging.  Maybe his mind just needed the time to repair itself properly?  James could hope, since that was about all he had right then.  "Ah, right, yeah.  In Antoine's defense, though, I'm sure Taro did plenty to deserve it, somewhere along the line.  Gunnar fixed him up just fine."

Yes, he liked that his brother was dangerous and capable of taking care of himself, but he didn't prefer that they all know it, just in case.  He didn't want someone hitting harder and faster than Antoine could deal with, expecting worse out of him.

[Antoine Sutherland]

 It wasn't like Firuza to be disloyal, but perhaps having known Antoine before all of this made her a little wary as to the situation across the guild. She looked at Chad, and then back to Antoine, and she didn't have to say anything for him to understand that she was prepared to get in the way of something. Desmond might have actually appreciated that, since Firuza generally came across as very cold and professional. Or maybe that's how Taro explained her? No, Taro had worse to say.

Eithne chose that exact moment to emerge from the meeting area, surprised to see them all gathering in the hall. "What are you guys waiting for? I want to - oh," she interrupted herself, stopping as she spotted Antoine and Desmond. She looked at the proximity Firuza had with them, noticing that she'd placed herself between the brothers and the Triste, but said nothing about it.

"Desmond, I think I've found out something you'll want to hear. Well, actually, you won't want to hear it, but it sort of... has a lot to do with... things. Just come in here and sit down," she added. She gave Desmond a sharp look, one that plainly said that Antoine may not react well to any of the information that was about to come up.

Firuza didn't know of any trap being set, so she looked at the duo, then back to the Fae by the door (oh, she'd heard). She'd only gotten second-hand information on what had happened, since she'd been physically gone for the entire ordeal, and nobody had told her the rest so she was pretty far removed from the loop at the moment.

Antoine, not about to let Firuza try and absorb damage for himself, brushed past her. "It's fine," he said, even though his skin started to crawl as he hovered outside the room that housed several vampires. "Let's see what the news is." He seemed so unafraid, even though technically there was a call for his head across the airwaves (well, there had been, before Diamond had set things straight - there were already plans about who to send out to the UK guilds now). And he wasn't, not really - Antoine didn't feel fear like normal people did anymore. He wasn't afraid to die. Rajz had taken that, replacing it with other, worse things to be afraid of - things that wouldn't ever happen normally or naturally.

When he walked into the room, Firuza was right at his heels. "Over here," she said, directing him to the far side of the table where she normally sat. It was close to Lani and Murphy, which was good - but it was also close to Taro, which was not. She eyed him, daring him to say something to her, and she was a little surprised when he didn't.

[Desmond Stark]

Oh, make no mistake, James was noticing certain details in Firuza's behavior, things that didn't make sense after most of what he knew about her, and he was filing them away for later.  His little brother seemed to have a legitimate ally in this clusterfuck, and that was important.  That Chad seemed to have noticed it as well didn't bode well, but the man didn't make any indication that it was a problem.  If he was a good shrink, he'd stay impartial, but James wasn't into trusting others too well.

So far, he was liking Firuza more and more, though.  She'd always seemed cold and professional, but this was an entirely different side, and one that he approved of.  Her putting herself between Chad and the two of them seemed odd, and made him wonder about the danger level the seemingly harmless man presented (seemingly harmless and actually harmless were drastically different things, and he was sometimes proof of that), but unless he saw more, he had no way of knowing.  Any reaching he did was met with a blank slate, probably intentionally on the man's part.  That upped his power level in James' mind. 

"Coming, darling," he offered Eithne, not encouraged by her offer of information and especially not by that look she gave him, but he put a hand on his brother's shoulder to hopefully be encouraging even as the human pushed past his issues, and they joined the others despite any of their own reservations. 

Hopefully, Firuza ensured that there were two chairs open where she called Antoine to sit, since James wasn't leaving him on his own, though Chad went for whatever chair was open.  That put him closer to Aaron and Belle, which was just fine with him, and also gave him a good look at the others.  James did what he could to keep himself between Taro and Antoine, and that was that, wasn't it?  Now to hear this news, and hope that it wasn't anything that would put his brother off in front of all of these wonderfully dangerous hunters.  That would be lovely.