I Know You. You Died.

Who: Gabe, Lullaby, and Dean
Where: Babylon
When: Late Night

The night was going better than Gabe had expected. Kyle had been right; it was good for Gabe to get out on his own. He was capable of having a good time without Claire there, and if he missed her, then so what? Only two weeks ago, she hadn't been a part of his life at all. What he needed was some balance, and even if he was going to see her tomorrow, this was the first step in getting there. A dance with Skye, another with Isabelle, no more pregnancy scares or chicks with guns... Things were feeling normal again, and normal was just what Gabe needed.Mask in place, with a black cape and hat as his costume, Gabe headed up to the bar to get a drink. They weren't serving to minors, but that was okay. With all the dancing, what he wanted was water anyways.

Lullaby had wanted to get some water too. Not that she normally ate or drank anything, being she didn't have to, but it was hot in there, especially with her not able to take her mask off, and so she needed it. So, she got up to the bar, and got a little glass of water. Glancing around to see if anyone was looking, and not thinking they were, she lifted her mask up just a tiny bit so she could drink the water.

Standing at the bar with his own glass in hand, Gabe watched the people around him. Most everyone he knew, or had at least seen before, and as his eyes moved up to scan along the bar, his gaze came to a screeching halt. At first he just stared, his brain unable to register what he was seeing, but once recognition hit, so did a barrage of other emotions, the first of which was shock. There was a crash of glass as his eyes widened, but Gabe didn't even realize the glass had fallen from his fingers. He was focused on the girl drinking the water, a girl that could only be Lullaby Draven. Last he'd checked, Lullaby was dead.

She didn't hear the glass crashing. She saw the commotion out of the corner of her eye due to it. So she abruptly looked over, a little alarmed, then noticed someone was staring at her. Someone she thought she recognized from school. Oh god.... she thought, frozen to the spot. Did she have to leave now? Try and disappear herself into shadows or fade out completely, so he could think he'd seen a ghost? Her mask was back down immediately, and she just...looked at him, scared.

It wouldn't take fading into the shadows to convince Gabe he was looking at a ghost. He'd already come to that conclusion. It was the only way his brain could make sense of the situation, and still that was more than he could really accept. Shadow things he could write off, but he knew her. They might not have been close friends, but he'd seen Lullaby at parties. He'd been to her funeral. Fuck, he'd seen her body with a hole through the back of it! There was the noise of people around him, a waitress trying to clean up the glass, someone pulling at his arm, saying his name, but Gabe pulled away, disoriented. He blinked, but she was still there. Finally, Gabe pulled up his mask, wondering what to do next. If she was a ghost, was he supposed to run away? Her mask was back in place, so now it was hard to tell if he was seeing things or not. Gabe stepped over the waitress, murmuring an apology as he moved towards Lullaby. He had to be sure.

She fought the urge to shrink back. She did a little, but only so she was less at the bar and more near it, nearer the shadows, not quite in the middle of a lot of people. She glanced around for Dean, who wasn't ever far away tonight, and did spot him right away, but then she was looking back at Gabe. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she wondered if she could phase out and hold her concentration long enough if she had to, with this many distractions around.

"Lullaby?" he asked, though he wasn't sure the sound made it past his lips. He was looking straight at her, though, and if it was her, she'd recognize her own name. Gabe closed the distance between them, then reached out, but couldn't bring himself to touch her. What if she disappeared? What if she didn't? Maybe this was all a dream, except reality was too close, too recent, for that to make sense. Nothing did, not right now.

She still looked nervous, and she felt a little shakey, though that was hard to tell with her mask on. But she gave herself points for not entirely cutting and running. "Please don't say anything." she said to him, though wasn't sure how loud her voice was or how far it carried. "Please don't freak out." she added.

The whole not freaking out thing? So wasn't happening. Gabe flinched when she spoke, then shook his head, unable to accept that she'd actually responded to him. His fingers grazed her arm before he pulled away, stunned. She was solid, but colder than she should be. Maybe she'd just come in from outside, his brain argued, but that didn't explain away the fact that it was Lullaby. "You died," he whispered. "You died, and I saw your body, and you were broken and..." He shook his head, and took a step back. "H-How?" he asked. There was no one else there, the rest of the club completely faded from his consciousness. If he was making a scene, Gabe was unaware.

Lullaby was looking around, because she definitely wanted to avoid a scene. That would be the last thing she needed. So she drifted back some more, towards the wall, even though people had kind of not paid attention to Gabe or her. "I can't really explain very well...please don't say anything, okay, Gabe?" she asked, recalling his name and everything by now. "I'm not going to hurt you, or anyone else, or...or anything, you're not going to...I mean..." she didn't know how to ask if he planned on hurting her.

"Don't say anything?" he asked. What did that mean? How could he not say something to someone? Not that he was sure anyone would believe him. They'd have him committed! "Are you a ghost?" he asked, following her back towards the wall. "You can't be alive... Can anyone else see you?" For the first time, Gabe looked around, though no one seemed to be paying them attention anymore. The glass had been cleaned up and the dancing continued. He looked back at her, confused as ever before. "What are you?" Gabe asked.

God, what to say. It wasn't like she could explain she was a fade right here. No way in hell. It was complicated to explain in the first place, and she couldn't simplify it down for him either. "I'm just here. But...please don't say anything. I can't...bad things would probably happen to me." she said, hoping that got through to him. Because bad things happened to girls who were supposed to be dead but were still walking around. People thought 'undead' with that shit. And in the middle of a club party she really really could not in any way satisfactorily explain.

"Bad things?" Gabe asked, skeptical. She'd never explained what she was, seemed to be avoiding it in fact. And he was still having issues with her being there at all. "Are you, like, a zombie? Or a vampire? Claire said there were vampires..." Gabe just hadn't thought that the vampires were people he actually knew. But Lullaby had been dead longer than that. "You were shot," Gabe said, as if to emphasize the fact that there had been no bite wound on her neck. Or was there? Gabe was positive that hadn't been there when she'd been on the work table... which was creepy and he probably shouldn't talk about. But he would have remembered something like that! Maybe he wasn't being completely coherent, but he didn't know what to do with this knowledge, especially if he was supposed to keep it to himself.

She backed up again until her back hit the wall, and she felt very cornered. "I'm not...I'm not either of those things...look, Gabe, you might not have noticed but this is not the place to talk about this." she said, looking around again, not wanting to get caught. Not wanting people to hear what he was saying then look at her and piece things together. That...wouldn't be good at all. "I know I was, and...I really can't talk about it right now. Just...please, can you either keep it down, or...I don't know. But just don't tell anyone. Please." She was looking for Dean. She didn't really know what Gabe was going to do, but he was tossing words around like 'zombie' and 'vampire' and was asking if she was a ghost and everything...that was probably Bad.

Was there a place to talk about this? Gabe didn't think so. And he really didn't want to be alone with her either, since she was dead. He did stop, though, taking a step back because, once she was against the wall, she looked so small that it was hard to be scared of her, dead or not. "Who would believe me?" he asked, then shook his head. He was going crazy. He had to be. But she was so real that he wanted someone else to assure him of the fact. "I'm just supposed to-- to walk away? And pretend you're not real?" he asked, taking another step back. "I can't just... forget."

You might be surprised. Lullaby thought. God. Was this the end for her? Was he just going to shoot his mouth off and people would believe him. There were a lot of people around who knew about the supernatural in general, and they'd hear it and know. Or suspect. Or something. Oh god oh god oh god... "And no, I didn't say--" she started, but wasn't sure what to say now. "I didn't say forget either but there are a lot of people here, and--" she got he was probably in shock. She got that he was probably flailing right now. But they were in the middle of a crowded public place, could he not latch onto the concept that what he'd been saying right out loud where people could hear, and everything was not a good thing? She caught Dean's eye, and signed 'come here' to him. Maybe if she had a slight bit of help, this wouldn't become really awful really fast, even if she already felt like it had.

Gabe didn't understand what the people had to do with it. It didn't compute that he might be putting her in danger, because in his mind, she was dead. Even though she was standing there, she was dead. And there'd been no explanation from the dead girl, which he supposed made sense, except that didn't make it better. The logic was faulty because it was based on a reality that didn't compute. "Explain to me why I shouldn't be freaking the fuck out," he said as calmly and quietly as possible, though his voice had begun to shake. All he could think of was her dead body, blown to pieces, and the fact that she was there in front of him, and Gabe wondered just how many other corpses had walked out of his mother's mortuary besides her. Was she going to try and eat his brain?

Dean had kept his eye on Thia all night. And partially that was because he just really enjoyed looking at her. And then partly it was in case she did just what she just did - tell him she needed him. Which he was thinking classified as Not Good. He was over there in seconds, his angle of approach meaning he caught the words on the guy's lips - reading them if not hearing them. "Because there's nothing to freak out about, it's fine, but maybe stepping away from the crowd for bit would be a good idea," Dean said, calmly, stepping up behind Thia and putting a hand on her waist, stepping in closer than he normally would as a protective gesture and also because he knew she wouldn't know what he'd just said to this guy who he was assuming had recognised Thia. Nothing else made sense in the 'freaking out' stakes.

Lullaby felt a hell of a lot better when Dean arrived, and she leaned a little bit back towards him, hoping that he could help diffuse the situation. And say, not have everything get blurted out in the middle of a crowded club. That'd be key, really. But she didn't say anything, and mostly waited for Gabe to react in some manner.

Gabe didn't know who the guy was, but he knew a protective stance when he saw one. What he didn't quite get was why a dead girl needed protecting-- what could happen if she was already dead? And what did it mean if he was willing to protect her? He looked familiar and Gabe decided he'd seen him around school, but that didn't really help explain anything, unless he'd been the one to raise Lullaby from the dead. Did things like that really happen? Gabe took another step back, but then didn't know what to do. While he could run away, then he'd be left with the question of what he'd really seen in the first place. "I don't understand," he finally said, because that pretty much summed up everything.

Dean's gaze was fixed entirely on the other guy, so he didn't need to hear him to know what he said. "Course you don't, mate - how about we go outside and have a chat about it," he suggested, keeping his tone calm, casual, gesturing towards the exit. Really, he just wanted to get the guy out of here before he started screaming about dead girls. That was his number one priority here.

Lullaby was wondering just how Dean managed to keep calm there. He just sounded reasonable and everything. Reasonable, rational...that was usually her thing. But apparently just not tonight. Still. She nodded, hoping Gabe would go for it, and not continue freaking out and say, drawing more people into it.

Glancing towards the exit, Gabe considered his options. He could step outside with Lullaby and her friend and possibly get an explanation, or he could leave them and wonder for the rest of his life how he'd met a dead girl at a club. The only thing that bothered him about the first choice was that being alone with Lullaby might be dangerous. If she tried to attack him here, there were other people around to pull her off him. Then again... how could he be worried about Lullaby Draven attacking him? Dead or not, Gabe was pretty sure he could take her down if needed. "Okay," he said with a little nod. He moved towards the exit, never putting his back to her. Gabe wasn't comfortable with this solution, but it was the only one that was going to get him an answer.

Dean kept hold of Thia the entire way out, his arm around her waist as they walked slightly in front of Gabe. He tried to keep the other guy in his line of sight, not trusting him to not do anything stupid, ready to do... he didn't know what, but 'get Thia out of the way' was fairly high up there as they left the club area and headed towards the exit proper.

This was the thing she was always afraid of. Of people looking at her like they were scared of her. She hated it. Dean's presence helped a lot. Tons, even. And she was stupidly grateful he was there, since he was dealing with this better than she was. She got to the exit, and opened the door, though she still stuck close to Dean. Dean, her armed bloody escort. She turned to look back at Gabe, and had no clue what was going to be said. Fuck fuck fuck. At least with some of her other friends she knew they could be trusted with a secret. Gabe? Not so much.

The silence outside struck Gabe just as cold as the air did, sending a shiver down his back as he pulled his cape around him. The club had felt safe, whereas this felt distinctly not. Gabe kept his distance from the both of them, uncomfortable in his stance and skin as he shifted back on one foot. "How..." Gabe started, then licked his lips, rethinking his question. "What are you?" It seemed simple enough, but he'd never gotten an answer before.

Dean shifted, loosening his grip on her a little, easing himself slightly away from her side. It looked like he was just relaxing, but it meant that his left side wasn't so hard pressed into her. He was a paranoid bastard at times, when you got right down to it.

What. I'm not a thing. She thought. But then a lot of times she felt like one. It had just been a while since it was so blatant. "Nothing that's going to hurt you. Or anyone." Lullaby said. "I'm not...I'm not an...I'm not undead." She explained, tripping over her words. "But if you tell anyone about me, and word gets to the wrong sorts of people, then that means I could get hunted."

"But you were dead," Gabe argued. "How... how did you go from being dead to...? If you're not undead, are you alive?" It seemed like the correct conclusion, but it still didn't make sense. Maybe if Gabe had had more experience with the supernatural, but nothing like this had ever crossed his path. Shooting at shadows didn't prepare him for this. "What do you mean, hunted? Like... vampire hunters?" It seemed a bit silly to draw from science fiction, but that was all he really had to go off at the moment.

"No, not like vampire hunters, being that she's not a vampire," Dean said, speaking up. he dropped the signing because he didn't know the signs for words like 'vampire' and 'hunter', but it was quiet out here, and he was standing next to her, so hopefully she would be able to hear his voice enough. "It's complicated, but yes, she's alive, but... People don't understand and I know that a natural assumption is something bad, and scary, but she's just the girl you knew before. Just everyone knows she died," Dean said, hoping that by sounding rational, he might get listened to. That was important, now was not the time for panic.

Again, Lullaby was grateful for how Dean was doing, because she wasn't doing near as well. "What he said, basically." she offered. "I'm sorry that there aren't better answers. This was kinda....kinda done to me. I wasn't always like this. But..yeah. I really need you to be able to keep a secret."

Dean was right: people didn't understand, and Gabe was one of them. Even if Lullaby wasn't a threat, she'd still died, and basic common sense said that dead people didn't go to masquerade parties. If pinching himself would have woken him up from this dream, he'd have pinched himself bloody. "Does anyone else know?" he asked. "Besides..." His gaze turned to Dean, who he still didn't have a name for, but who he'd identified as 'Lullaby's protector'.

It's none of your business. was Lullaby's first thought. She wasn't sure what to say. Then, she went with the truth, even if it probably wasn't what Gabe was asking for. "Some do, but telling you who they are would put them in a really awkward position." she admitted. "...but generally speaking, not many."

Gabe gave a little nod, not sure why he'd wanted to know except that it might have given him someone to talk to. Because he still didn't feel any better about the fact that she was there and talking to him. While he supposed he should be excited that she wasn't dead, they hadn't been close and all he could picture was the bloody mess of an exit wound that had been her stomach. "Glad you're okay... I guess," Gabe said, running his fingers through his hair. He didn't know what to say at this point, and he honestly wasn't that glad to see her. But she was alive, which was better than being dead... it just wasn't the way life worked.

"What's your name?" Dean asked him, still eyeing the guy. He'd ask Thia again later - he was so incredibly, insanely crap with names it wasn't funny, but he wanted a start to get the guy focusing on him and not on Thia who was obviously making him flail by her very existence.

It was such a simple question, but it was the first one asked of him, and for a second Gabe just stared at Dean before blinking. Right. His name. "Gabe," he answered. "Gabe Winters. What's yours?" Because it would be good to know the name of the guy who wasn't the least bit concerned with the fact that Lullaby had been dead. Why was he the only one who seemed shocked by this concept? It was just not. normal.

"Dean Conway," Dean told him, reaching into his pocket for his phone and passing it over. "Put your number in, I'll call you, okay? We'll talk," he promised, looking down at Thia for her approval of this plan. It seemed like the best approach all round. And the safest for her.

Gabe took Dean's phone and entered his number in. He felt a touch better at the thought that he might get an explanation later, even if there wasn't an explanation that would make everything okay. Dead girls didn't just crawl out of their grave and resume life like nothing had happened. If they did, then there were others he had to wonder about, why Lullaby would come back and not everyone else. Gabe handed Dean's phone back, his eyes moving from Dean to Lullaby. He wasn't sure what to say. There were no answers, none that made sense to him, and he felt a bit like he should go on his way, except the party no longer interested him.

Lullaby nodded a slight bit to Dean, figuring that at least if Gabe had Dean's number, there could be...she didn't know. Tabs kept? Some explanation later that she couldn't really give right now? She didn't offer her own number or anything, considering how badly Gabe seemed to be taking her being around at all. The whole 'I guess' bit on the end of 'glad you're okay' really tipped that off, if his body language and everything else wasn't the first huge clue. She spoke before she thought about what she was saying. "....you don't have to worry...you probably won't see me again."

When Lullaby spoke, Gabe's attention turned back to her, though for a minute he was just silent, thoughts running through his head as he tried to decide what to say. "What does that mean?" he asked softly. "It's not your presence that bothers me. It's your existence. And I'm not saying that to be mean, but when I go home, I'll still know you're out there, and I still don't know why. It's the concept that has me questioning... well, everything. People die. And when they die, they stay dead. Except for you. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that. So it's good that you're not dead, but... it's hard for me to be... I dunno, happy, I guess." Gabe had the feeling that he was sounding heartless and selfish, relating this all to himself, but he didn't know what to do about it. He just needed to be alone. He needed to think, and then maybe he could figure out how to accept this. "I'm not worried. But... just cause I won't see you around... it doesn't mean I'll forget."

Dean's inner thoughts were running along the lines of 'okay, that's enough now' and he stepped forward, in front of Thia. "I'll call you," he told the other guy, firmly. "I promise. Now, in the meantime, would really appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. I know it's not easy and maybe we're asking a lot, but everyone else who knows so far has managed it, so it's possible. You have my number, you want to talk to anyone, you talk to me, we clear?" he asked in a tone that suggested that this wasn't an optional thing.

Lullaby didn't stop Dean from putting himself in front of her then. Really, it was a relief at that point. She didn't know how to deal with this, pretty much everything out of Gabe's mouth was kind of a blow to her, and she was trying not to scare him. While also not blabbing everything because who in a sane world would do that? She could see now that the lines around Dean were kicked up quite a bit. About as much as Gabe's were. So...obviously he was Not Happy either. She didn't add anything to what Dean said, because what could she add? If he was going to take that role she wasn't going to stop him. Not in this situation. Not when the first reaction she got was fear, and Gabe was still acting like he was in shock and everything. So her dealing with things...not the best plan. Plus she trusted Dean anyways he'd do everything right.

"Right," Gabe said, clearly catching the vibe Dean was giving off at this point. Plus, it wasn't like talking about this was going to make him feel better. "We're clear," he said, taking slow steps backwards. Eventually, he turned, heading away from Babylon, rather than back inside. He wasn't really of mind to enjoy a party at this point. It seemed as if he had a lot to think about, such as redefining his whole view of reality. Gabe had the feeling it was going to be a long night.

Dean watched him go, tense until the guy was out of sight. And even then with a twitch in his head that he should follow him, make sure that he understood. Except - he'd said he'd call and the way he was walking - it wasn't like he was going back instead to gossip to his mates now, was it. So, instead, he watched, and then he turned back to Thia. "You okay?" he asked, reaching out for her hand.

She laced her fingers through his, and looked up at him again from where she'd been watching Gabe walk off. She caught the last bit, the 'ay', but his body language, expression, and the fact that she knew him well filled in the blank for her. "I'm..." she started, frowning a little. "I don't know?" she suggested. "He was...he was scared of me." she said. Which bothered her.

Dean pulled her in to him for a hug, dropping his head down to rest atop hers. "He needn't be. I'll phone him tomorrow, I'll take care of it, I promise," he told her, wondering how that would go. From the look of the guy it'd be an uphill struggle - at least with Isaac the guy had had an open mind and some experience. And knew another fade. That was always a bonus.

Lullaby hugged him back and nodded. "Kay." she said. Then paused. "Thank you. I know you shouldn't have to be like...official public relations buffer for me or anything. But I really don't know what to do here." she said. It was different with people she'd been good friends with, but with Gabe, it was just kinda...she'd known him. He was okay and everything, she'd never had any bad experiences with the guy. But...they weren't exactly bestest buds either. So he didn't have any reason to keep her secret besides she'd asked.

"Hey, what are friends for," he told her, giving her a little smile. "It'll all be fine - don't let it worry you," he added, sounding a lot more positive than he felt - and he hoped that wasn't showing too much in the energy that she could see around him.

It was a little. But in the end, she looked back at Babylon, then back up at his eyes. She gave him a little smile. They'd had a great night so far, except for this. She didn't want to have everything be ruined now. So, she pushed it to the back of her mind. "You know...you still owe me a dance." she told him.

"I do," he observed. They hadn't really gotten round to it before, after all. "We should get to that," he added, growing rather aware that he was still holding her. He should probably be stepping back about now, given that they'd finished their hug and everything.

She smiled a little, kind of aware too that there was a little clinging going on, so she made herself step back, even if she clasped his hand again. "So c'mon." she said, leaning back to tug him forwards, back over towards the club.