Clarifications

who: doc and syn
where: the kitchen
when: morning

Living two starkly different lives imparted strange insights to Doc almost daily. Balancing mundane things with the truly fantastic, bearing witness to so much he could never speak of... it made shopping a little unusual. There was something strangely static about the trip he'd just gotten back from, a clean, snug black shirt in tow. It wasn't too dressy and would hide his tattoos, but the experience had been odd in it's thorough normality. Still, it looked pretty good to Doc, standing in the downstairs bathroom as he tried it on. He would've had to flat-out lie to say he wasn't nervous or excited about his plans with Eva, but he was still hoping that the time between now and tomorrow would cool him off a bit.

Synnove was headed downstairs to go for a walk, she wanted to head down towards the lake and practice her gifts again...not to mention meditating to recharge herself. Lately she'd been using things so often with Eli it was getting draining. She just wasn't complaining about it. It gave her practice. Pausing as she'd passed the bathroom door, she backed up a step to gaze in at Doc. "That's new." she said, eyeing the shirt. "I didn't think you owned anything that wasn't a beat up band tshirt."

Doc glanced over, caught unaware by the sight of her. The twins had been fully immersed in their own troubles lately, likely with the psychic boy, Eli, but Doc had always kept his promise. He knew how difficult lives like theirs could be, and had made it clear at the start that he wouldn't barge in on their problems. But lately, he'd been missing them. It was good to catch a momentary overlap.

The momentary good sides were drowned out almost instantly as he caught sight of Syn's bruised cheek. Maybe you should've butted in, he chided himself, frowning at her. "That's new too," Doc said with a nod, quickly yanking off the new shirt to pull back on his ratty old tee. "Didn't think you'd been getting in scraps in a while now..."

"It looked nice." Syn said, referring to the shirt. She shrugged at his observation about her cheek, and she reached up absently to rub it faintly. "I didn't get into a scrap. It was an accident." she clarified for him. Well, she considered it an accident.

"What sort of accident?" Doc asked, masking the skepticism in his voice. Things rarely happened in this family that were coincidental, after all. Moving closer, Doc took a better look at the cheek. The bruising had faded a bit, which meant he'd missed something. Guilt crashed in almost instantly, chiding him for his time with Eva.

She sighed, letting him look even if she didn't particularly want to. "The sort where I got hit. It's not a big deal." she said. The rest of it was, but her being hit? Small in comparison. "There was something to take care of and deal with, it got dealt with. It'll fade."

"If it's not a big deal, what was to dull it by comparison?" Doc asked shrewdly, folding his new shirt and tucking it under his arm. He knew the bruise would fade, but Syn was so defensive of her brother and vice-versa that it's circumstances couldn'tve been casual. "You two in some trouble? Or your friend, Eli?"

She might have given him a look for automatically assuming Seph was involved too, but that would have been stupid. What didn't involve the both of them, especially something that was trouble? It was just him using very sound logic. "There were issues with Eli's mother." she said. "Some things happened, he was out of his head, I got too close." she explained. And we killed the bitch. Or more specifically, Seph did. I just dropped and became useless for a few minutes from the backlash.

Doc frowned, knowing she was leaving something out. 'Issues' and 'things happening' was a timeless code among people like them, a safe description when you didn't want to worry someone else. "Well, let me know if I should expect a crazed phonecall from her," he baited vaguely, letting her have her brief explanation as Doc moved from the bathroom to return to his seat in the kitchen.

"You won't." Syn said, a note of finality to her tone that would probably tell him what he needed to know about the subject. She walked to the sink and got herself a glass of water, gaze distant out the window above it. "Where've you been lately?" she asked. It wasn't in an accusational manner, more curious how he'd been spending his time. It felt to her like things had been distant lately, and while she didn't like that, she didn't see much help for it either. She'd said before that she wanted him to butt into things, she wanted him around and there, but so far he seemed like he'd been...gone.

"All over," Doc answered vaguely, expression darkening as he pieced together what must've happened. "Just... taking care of things, tidying up loose ends." breaking that promise I made, but for a good reason. Maybe he'd do better not telling her or Seph, keeping his secrets as they were both apparently inclined to do. But she was already suspicious, she and her brother both. "We need to sit down some night soon and have a talk, all three of us," he finished, lighting a new smoke and already misisng his eagerness when compared to this apprehension.

Looking back over her shoulder at him, she nodded. "Probably a good idea." she said. "You going to tell us where you've been?" she asked. It wasn't her asking him to tell her now. In fact, if he tried to she would have stopped him because it was a family discussion, not for just the two of them.

"You won't like it, but yeah,"he answered, slurping his cooling coffee and raising it's heat with a moment of focus. "I've had to keep quiet for a while, but it's not fair to be doing so much and unable to tell you why I'm here. I should be here... to help things like that shiner from happening if I can."

"I figured." Syn said with a sigh. Then she walked over to sit down at the table with him. "There were problems with Eli's mother. She had a weapon, things went downhill from there. She won't be an issue anymore, and no one'll hurt me. I know that." she tried to reassure him. Feeling Eli's mother die had hurt far worse than the backhanding.

He didn't need reassuring over a threat, Seph was a more than competent guardian of his sister. No, what worried him was killing in a town this small, killing people in a town this small. It was different in his day, cleansing demons and creatures all over the country. This had potential for blacklash, but he was in no mood for a lecture. "Not much I need to say then, is there?" he asked, slurping down some coffee. "Just let Seph know when you see him, Wednesday or Thursday we all need to chat."

Synnove nodded. She didn't say anything for a long moment, then leveled her eyes on him. "Do you just not care anymore?" she asked. It was a simple question, but it seemed to mean a whole lot to her.

"All I do is care," Doc answered softly in response, looking up at her. "But I try to give you advice, you tell me to leave it to you. I ask if you're okay, and you downplay killing someone, Syn." Doc stuffed a cigarette to his lips, looking at her evenly as he lit up. "Now, I may've fucked up lately, not being here, not telling you everything, but you didn' exactly invite me in either. And maybe I should've just pushed harder to find out, I can't say if that would've been better or worse." He sighed quietly, inhaling and shaking his head. "Your life isn't mine, I knew it wouldn't be for long. You and your brother are growing up, making choices I can't weigh in on... but I'm still here. Or I'm trying to be."

"But you're not here. I don't have any idea where you are? But it's not here. And yeah, you know what? We did off someone." Nevermind she showed up after the fact and hadn't had much to do with it. According to her she was in on it. "And you just blew that off. I don't know how me asking you to be around and butting in is cutting you off, or trying to shut you out. I said I had it handled, yeah, but did you forget the part where I said I wanted you around and poking your nose into things? Or did you just ignore it? You used to--" she stopped, looking away. "You used to make sure you knew what the fuck was going on with me. Now it seems like the only thing you do is pop in to make sure I'm still breathing, and even then you don't actually care what's been going on."

That stung, and it showed. Doc's face lined faintly as he looked down at his mug, hands curling around it. "I didn't ignore it... it's just hard, Syn. Balancing... I was never too good at it. And I want to be here, but it's not something I can explain. It's like I'm looking at two different lives; one where I had my shit together, where I was here when you needed me and nothing could get in the way. And one where all I do is miss my cues. I'm used to failing people, but I never wanted to with you. I guess I missed that one too." It was still a weak explanation, but he'd asked for the chance to tell both of them the truth.

"Would you have believed me, if I'd decided Eli was dangerous? Because if not, all I would've accomplished would be making things harder for you. And you don't deserve that, not after how I've let down you all in the past." Your mom died because I wasn't there, your brother got locked up because I was. Textbook definition of 'fucked'. "For the record, too. I never ignore a killing. I don't like yelling, but I don't ignore when it happens."

"I would have made my own decisions." Synnove said. "But that doesn't mean that I don't want your input. That doesn't mean that if we don't see eye to eye on shit, that I don't want to hear it. You know a hell of a lot more about the world than I do, might ever know, and you deciding to sit back and say nothing for...what? So we don't argue? That's bullshit. It's not like we're never going to figure anything out again, or that if I don't agree on something that it's going to be the end of the world or make things more difficult for me. My life isn't a cake walk as it is, it never has been. I'm used to things being difficult. I'm okay with that.

Just...if you do that at least I know you're here and you know what's up. And that you care what's happening either way. You didn't even ask what happened. Or where the body is." she said. The fact that this was distressing her was obvious as well.

"You didn't seem keen on sharing," Doc conceded, shaking his head. "If you give me two loose stories before 'we killed someone' comes up, I feel like you don't want my input, plain and simple. And no, this isn't so we don't argue. If I see something dangerous, I'm daling with it my way. I remember you saying you didn't want that." He left the rest unspoken, but it was plain. Keeping himself clear for her sake was a weak reason, but it had worked to keep Doc from tracking her down whenever he came home to an empty house. "you're protective as shit of this Eli kid, and it worries me, but last time I brought it up you more or less put your foot down. You're old enough that I should respect that, so I did. I would've loved a heads-up, and I already said I should've been there, but I want you to be able to come to me too. To call or leave a note or anything. All I do here is pay the bills, kiddo..."

"Whether or not I want to tell you about some things doesn't mean you should just...let me." Syn said, sighing. "it's not as if I've got the world's best judgment on everything, or know everything. And you know me, I don't talk easily about a lot of things, sometimes you might have to push. If you don't..." she looked away. It seems like you don't care enough to try. She didn't say it because she didn't know how he'd react. "I didn't have time to do anything when it happened. I wasn't there for when it started, I just...felt Seph, so I followed."

"Well, it sounds like we both had the wrong idea, if you ask me. Because I will always be here for you, Synnove. For both of you. I'll drop anything and everything to be there. But I've messed up on a lot of levels, and I've complicated things... I don't want to see you get mixed up in what I did. Okay? But some days it feels like you don't want that from me, so I just bite it all back and do what I need to. I keep my eyes open, and I wait and hope I can be there. But I wasn't, and words won't make that right."

"I'd rather you were there, and pushing." Syn said, finally looking back. "And yes, we likely both have misconceptions. But really...on this one, I didn't even know what was happening til it was almost over. After that it was pure damage control. I'm aware, however, that if I had been there, I don't think I would have stopped it either way."

"I believe you," Doc assured her, seeing no reason not to. "And I trust you to handle moments like those. I trust Seph too, but I doubt he'd believe me. If this was the right thing to do, I won't complain... I just hope you two thought of as much as you could after the fact." Teddybear was likely helping to cover tracks, but Doc still wished he'd found out sooner. By now, if there was a trail he couldn't do much to obscure it. "And if there's more to this, now's the time to say so... what even prompted it? Did this lady attack Seph or Eli?"

"Eli..." she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "She used to abuse him badly, to put it mildly. Locked him in the attic, had him convinced he was a monster, shit like that. She showed up, and I really have to say I think she was fucking nuts, and planned to do...worse to him." She said, only hesitating on wording for a moment. "I can't be sure, but I'm pretty solid on that. I kept him away from her for a few days, but he got away...she'd call him. Like, mentally? Try to lure him out. Sometimes he was in this state where he didn't quite know where he was or what was happening. Anyways, he was leaving to see her or something, Seph followed, things went downhill from there. I know she had a gun. I didn't get there until after Seph had saved the other two." Or that's how she saw it.

Nodding with each word, his expression didn't seem to flicker much as he listened. It sounded like Seph had acted on Eli's best interests, if this woman was as bad as Syn said. "Doesn't sound good, that's for certain, but I probably wouldn't have stopped Seph either, if this lady was really a piece of work. But... what now? What happened to her remains? What's the plan with Eli?"

"Eli was here but went out to help a friend. He sounds better. I think he'll be okay, he'll just need to continue getting help. As for her remains, Seph and I took care of it. Eli's cousin took care of any evidence at the scene. She's a witch. So that got taken care of too. As far as I know? No one knows anything ever happened." She'd been paying attention, too. But nothing.

He was satisfied to hear that; Doc hadn't explained as much yet but had understood early on that he couldn't interfere in every calamity that came up. And what was more, it was dangerous if he chose to. Star had been explicit about choosing his battles, trying to forsee far-reaching consequences. So if he could keep from involving himself until absolutely necessary, so much the better. "If I were you, I'd ask teddy to search the usual channels for a little while, but I'm sure it's already being done."

"It is." Syn said. "I don't want to lose him again, and I'm aware that if we're caught, that could be a possibility. But I think we did well...as much as you can be proud of being able to hide a body efficiently." She said. Because yes, she was as a matter of fact aware just how fucked up this was. Just because she'd done it and things had worked out in some fashion didn't mean her world view was that skewed. Yet.

Whereas Doc's had skewed so far that eventually it came back around again, and most things looked normal from his perspective. Except key ideas like 'is it always bad to have a body to dispose of?' and 'how real is reality?'. "Well, it sounds like you're down to just sitting on your hands for the time being, seeing if anyone does pick up a trace." Which could be maddening, spending weeks or months waiting for a situation to blow over, but she was young. Plenty of time to wait. Doc smiled bitterly, hearing those very words from his mentor, decades earlier, in a spot not so different from this.

"Pretty much. Life goes back to normal or whatever passing variation thereof. Eli goes back to getting lessons on how to keep himself under control, I go back to the gallery and school, Seph goes back to school too...Normal." Only with one less living person in the world. But Syn considered that woman a monster anyhow, so it was all good in her book.

"Mm. Normal," Doc echoed quietly, scratching his jaw and moving to refill his coffee cup. "He's making progress, then? Eli?" Doc asked, some other part of him wondering how Seph was doing with it all, with sharing his sister, but if he was already on bad ground he knew better than to ask.

"I'm not sure. I know the last few days have knocked him back." Syn said. "But then having the mentally abusive mother around who I'm pretty sure wanted more out of him than she should have isn't good for anyone's control. I've already talked to him about starting right back up with that today." She paused. "I've been working on my own as well."

"Working? Towards what?" Her gifts were strange, alien things to Doc; operating on a level he'd never had a firm grip upon. "Just refining every day? A little longer focus, that sort of thing?" Two-sided memories of teaching her in a moment so much like this one flashed behind Doc's eyes, and he was more than glad to have his back to Syn as he gripped the countertop for a moment, composed himself, and turned to move back to his seat.

"I've been concentrating on pulling spirits." Syn answered. "It's easy to get hold, that part I have down. I just can't quite get them to detach yet. What winds up happening is if I pull on a spirit, it sort of draws people towards me. I'm told that it makes them want to be physically close. Like with Eli, he couldn't walk away." she explained.

Doc wasn't so sure that was just her powers, but he bit back the parental feeling and nodded. "Why exactly would you want to detach someone's spirit, though?" It sounded ghastly to him, and he'd heard of something similar as a method of torture... but that didn't fit with Syn.

"I could tell them something, send a message that way." Syn said. "I'll be able to bind things if I can do that...not that I can really think of a reason to do that, but I could." There was a clear hesitation, as she wasn't sure whether or not to tell Doc the last bit.

"Go on." She wanted him to push? He could accommodate. Some powers were meant to be sparse, some gifts came with too much potential for abuse. It was one reason Doc had only ever encountered a handful of beings who could go down the path he hoped she wasn't eying. "...think you can stop Death, don't you," he murmured, staring Syn down. "Not 'hit by a bus' death, either. Capital d on that."

"I think so." Syn admitted, looking over at him even if she had the urge to look away again. She hadn't said anything before because she wasn't positive. And...well. She wasn't entirely sure Doc would be okay with that. Sort of at all.

"I had some friends once... long time ago, road stuff," Doc began, his throat surprisingly tight as he sat forward and settled his elbows on the table. "Hunter girl, and a guy like me... old-fucking-school, this guy. I've seen maybe two or three as bright as he was. But she was a human. Great pair of eyes on her, mind as sharp as a scalpel..." He took a slow drink of coffee, using the scalding heat to open his throat before going on.

"A good pair of eyes is worth a lifetime of fear in this job, Syn... and even that gets cut short when a vampire pulls your heart out as a practical joke. My buddy? He couldn't cope, and I didn't blame him, I was rough too. Drunk as Ireland on a Friday night, tearing the city apart looking for the leech. But him? He brought her back." Doc fell silent for a long moment, tucking a fresh cigarette in his lips and pressing his old one to the tip. "Her whole life after that was nothing but regret... because she couldn't ever live the same, knowing what was waiting for her. Knowing what she'd missed that can never come back."

Synnove listened, then looked away for a moment before looking back at him. "What if you can stop it before it happens in the first place? I'm not...I don't think I could bring anyone back." she tried to explain. It was still fuzzy for her too since she'd never done it and therefore had no idea if it would work how she thought it would anyhow. "But what if I could make it so he never left?" She'd meant to say 'they'. Really she had. Generalize it, but it didn't happen like that. She caught the slip, too, and she closed her eyes.

"Well, then it's a case of fate versus free will. But that's better left in a philosophy class. What it comes down to is you..." He set the mug down, reaching out to give her hand a momentary squeeze. "Think less of right and wrong, more of action and reaction. Think... five years down the road, because that's the point of this, right? For there to be five years down the road? Will you regret it if he has to suffer, but lives? Will he regret it? If he wants to let go, could you let him?" It was a flurry of questions even if Doc was slow and patient, and none of them was a simple one.

She put her head down on her arm, though squeezed his hand back. She didn't let go, either. The subject, the very thought of him not being there with her--it didn't compute. There wasn't a her without him. Sick to her stomach at the emotions brought up by his questions, she tried to slam a wall up so Seph didn't pick up on it all. "I don't know." she said, voice barely audible. Because in truth? She didn't. "I don't know if I could let him go. I can't--if he goes I go too. There isn't a future where there's only one of us. I wouldn't survive it." She said it with conviction, even if it was whispered. She knew she wouldn't survive it. As much as it always appeared as if Seph was the one who needed her so much...she needed him right back.

The answer wasn't a surprise; the two were hard-wired into each other's very existence. Unfortunately, a classical education like Doc's tended to show how rarely happy endings existed for rare sets like them; twins born with one foot in the strange side of the world. "Then it just becomes a decision of when you go together, and if it's worth enduring dark days to hold that time off for the both of you." He couldn't outright condone it; Doc was a man who'd been on death's brink too many times and unceremoniously yanked back, but neither would he condemn it. They were family, he'd go to war against the Mourning Star herself for them.

"What do you think?" Syn asked, turning her eyes up on his. "And don't...just tell me what you as a person think. Don't think about me or how I might take it, or the
implications, or anything like that. How do you feel about it?" Possibly about her, but she didn't put it like that. It wouldn't have been fair.

"I think everyone has a time," Doc rumbled. Giving the full truth was nowhere near easy, but he still felt like there was ground to make up. "I think... if you did that to me, I'd probably shoot you myself. No joke. But I also feel like I understand, because I'd do anything to keep the two of you safe. And despite what history shows, I like to believe good intentions go a long way."

Good intentions. Hm. And he threatened to shoot her. She hadn't ever thought there was anything that would have gotten a response like that from Doc. she supposed part of her understood it, but at the same time, it made her wonder. Was she one of the monsters because of what she could do? It suddenly seemed to her like there were lines that she hadn't even realized were there. At least, not nearly as close to her as she'd thought. It felt like she was falling, like the bottom had dropped out from beneath her. Through all this, she didn't say anything, and eventually she nodded since she understood that she needed to respond in some fashion. "Thank you for your honesty." she said quietly.

"You asked," he responded, giving her hand another squeeze. "That day'll never come Syn. I was talking about a hypothetical... but when it's my time to go? I will. You'll do what's right, I've never seen any less from you." Even when it didn't work out the way she wanted, she had a heart that just wouldn't give up on people. "You've always done me proud, don't ever think otherwise."

You seem to have more faith in me than I do. she thought. She also wasn't always sure her idea of right and wrong was spot on. She had, as a matter of fact, just taken part in murdering someone, and had barely batted an eye, now hadn't she? Maybe it was okay because the woman had been a filthy excuse for a person, but wasn't always so sure her judgment was the best. Quite suddenly everything felt too heavy. Would she make the right decision? Ever? Could she be trusted to? "I hope you're right." She squeezed his hand back too, shoving everything back down where it belonged.

"I know I am," Doc murmured, reaching out his other hand to lightly push her hair back as he managed a faint smile. "You trust me, right?" he asked abruptly, raising the hand he held in his own up off the table. This really should've waited until after the family talk, but was still better than his original plan to creep in as the twins slept.

She looked up, the question sort of startling her out of her own thoughts and stormswept feelings. Nodding, she sat up straighter. "Of course." she said. Of the people in the world she did trust, he was way up there on the list. It was a very short list.

Nodding, he turned Syn's hand with his own, keeping them up like they might be arm-wrestling. "I'd wanted to do this sooner, but like we already discussed... I haven't been around," Doc murmured, closing his other hand over hers and focusing intently. Sparks seemed to leap in his eyes for a moment as Doc felt a pulse of heat spread through his chest, bolting down both arms. He wrestled with it wordlessly, tamping the flow of power to bleed it into Synnove's hand slowly. There was no need to flat-out scare her, was there?

Watching him, her expression was unreadable. She felt...something. What, she had no idea. But she did feel something. Warmth? But something beyond that. It was definitely nothing she'd ever felt before, and there was a bit of fascination in her eyes as she let him do whatever it was he was doing.

He'd learned already, since his first attempt with Kurt. Doc was forming a channel with both hands, shaping the rune that would be invisible to much of the world. Gradually, the burn faded from his arms, but Doc kept his hands in place a moment longer to buy time for the demonic rune to largely fade. "No matter what you choose, or where you end up, ever... call my name and I'll come," he promised in a quiet rush, removing his hands.

She took her hand back, and looked down at it, though she didn't think she saw anything different. She'd just felt something, and she ran her fingertips over her palm. "Call your name and you'll come." she repeated. Then she looked back up again. She wanted to ask what he'd done, but she didn't, figuring that this was part of the big secret they'd be discussing at the family meeting. "I can do that. Thank you." she said, since just because she couldn't see anything didn't mean something wasn't there.

"I don't think you'll need it," Doc added with a faint smile, hands folding together on the table in front of him. "Because I'm gonna be here, whether there's a crisis or not." He'd lost ground on this life, failing to get something crucial here, but it wasn't too late. "Though I'm goin' out tomorrow night, but I don't think I'll be real late." Eva was fun, but no part of him envisioned their first date turning into an all-nighter of any kind. Doc had far too many issues for that.

"Going out?" Syn asked. "I'm assuming you mean going out in a slightly different way than you have been doing." she said. "Have you met someone?" this perked her interest. But then again, Synnove had always been one to push for Doc to get a life. She thought he needed one, really.

"I meet people all the time," Doc asserted, putting on his poker face. He did his best to act casual about it all, a nonchalant lull to his head as he sat, but eventually a small grin broke through at the corner of his mouth. "...yeah," he finally admitted. "kinda. I had coffee with them the other day, we're supposed to get dinner tomorrow." It sounded safe, neutral, and definitely not-weird.

"You know it's not very flattering to completely downplay someone who might be special." Syn pointed out. "But good. You should get out sometimes, and do things with people So have a good time." she finished firmly.

"We'll see," Doc bluffed, wishing he could tamp down that tug of a smile. "She's a professor at the university, so it'll at least be interesting." It never ceased to strike him as odd how parental Syn could be about the very things he neglected at times. Growing up too fast... as fast as she has to.

"Well, at least she's intelligent then." Syn said, with a little smile of her own. "Are we going to get to meet her sometime?" she asked. "Just curious, no pressure." she added, because she realized it could be very weird to do the intro to the kids. Even if they weren't technically his.

"I hope so," Doc answered firmly. "I think you'd like her, she's got quite the brain going." Drop-dead gorgeous to boot. "But if she doesn't get sick of me after tomorrow, let's plan on it. I wouldn't mind stunning your brother with her," he said with a slight wink across the table.

Syn laughed a little. "I won't mention her then." she said. "So, yeah. Alright. Have fun, but you have to be good, and you also have to tell me how it went later." Not like she expected to have a girly gushing session or anything, but she wanted to know! Especially if he had met someone who kept his interest long enough to actually set up a date. She was full of encouragement.

"After we all talk, okay?" Doc offered, reclining in his chair. "I think once we're done with that, we can dish about anything you like." Grinning easily at her across the table, Doc sighed faintly. "Go on, though. Go do something fun before this town's trapped in three feet of snow. Sun's already setting earlier."

Getting up, Syn smiled at him. "Yes sir." she said teasingly, then she paused and gave him a little hug. "Talk to you soon. And don't worry, I promise I'll figure out something fun to do." Which she didn't actually do that often, so she was going to have to make a point to do it. But now that he'd mentioned it, she would.