Missing Pieces

Who: Brian and Hunt
Where: Babylon
When: Night

Hunt had called Brian earlier on, only to get some girl answering the phone and telling him that he'd gone out to a bar. Which had surprised the guy, especially considering the over-egged warnings about being out and about in town that his friend had been delivering over the past few days. Hunt had thanked the girl and hung up, going and picking up a book to read and settling in.

But, the issue was that he was bored. He'd hardly been out of the house for the past few days - Brian didn't need to warn him, Hunt rarely went out after dark as it was. But he got cabin fever as much as the next guy and, well, if Brian had gone out to a bar, how bad could it be? He mulled it over for a while, then set his book to one side and, grabbing his jacket and car kes, headed out into town to their usual bar.

A drive by revealled that it was shut. In fact, most of the bars in town seemed to be closed as Hunt cruised round trying to figure out where his friend might have gotten to. There was nobody on the street, a few sirens in the distance. Hunt was about to turn sensible and head home again when he saw the lights on the side of the street. A bar he'd never seen before: Babylon. He pulled over to the side of the road, figuring he may as well check inside. If Brian wasn't there, Hunt would stop looking and go home. Locking his car behind him, he headed into the bar.

And, of course, the last bar Hunt checked was the one Brian happened to be in. He was sitting at the bar itself, looking down at an empty shot glass rolling between his two hands. He'd already had a few of them. Tonight, he didn't feel all that worried-- he could just suddenly be home any time he chose, after all-- and he'd badly needed to stay out of the house. Getting miserably plastered in front of Marlowe would've been a very bad idea.

So there he was, not looking up as his friend entered, contemplating pretty much nothing at all. He wasn't totally drunk yet, given he wasn't planning on going home yet, but he was on his way there.

Bingo - just the guy he was looking for. Hunt walked up to the bar and leaned against it next to Hunt, catching the eye of the barman. "He'll have another one of those, plus one for me and a couple of beers," he ordered, before turning to Brian. "So - you're a hard guy to find, but since most of the bars seem to be closed, narrowing it down wasn't that bad. And since when do you live with some chick?" he asked.

Brian looked up at the familiar voice, and actually stared a long moment at Hunt before answering. Hunt-- normal, non-magical, incredibly skeptical Hunt-- had found Babylon. Brian knew about the bar's properties, that only certain people could find it, and seeing Hunt there would be like... like seeing Mya suddenly go ape-shit and attack somebody. It just didn't compute.

"That's Marlowe," he finally said, as the bartender-- a pretty-boy sort with a slightly scuffed-up face-- set the two whiskey shots down in front of him before getting to the beers. "She works at the diner, and she's just staying over for a few days until she heals up a bit." Which made plenty of sense. Really. He wasn't leaving out, oh, three-quarters of the story there, nope-- but he was really too confused, still, to fill in the blanks without prompting.

"Ahh, right," Hunt said, downing his shot and waiting for his beer. "Fair enough - I just wondered if there was something you weren't telling me," he grinned. "What happened to her - you said she got hurt?"

Oh, there were lots of things Brian wasn't telling him. Lots. Hey, Hunt, I can teleport us home! My boyfriend is a cougar-- I have a boyfriend! Those guys outside? They're vampires! God, he wished he could. He tossed back his own shot, and went straight for the beer when it was set before him. "Ran into the fuckers who've turned Marquette into a ghost town," he answered, prying the top off. "Her car died just outside town, they got to her, killed her brother, dragged her to this house out off the highway, and yeah. Had to go on rescue." Which he doubted Hunt would approve of, after being so adamant about not playing the vigilante.

Hunt blinked and took a pull on his own beer. "They killed her brother?" Hunt asked, aghast, for once not jumping straight onto disapproval - it wasn't far behind though. "Man, that sounds dangerous - what the fuck were you doing getting involved?"

And strung his guts around. God, that'd been horrible. Maybe he should've done something about it, buried him or burned him, but Marlowe had just been more important. And besides, it'd been raining. "It was dangerous." Brian shifted on his barstool, set the beer down untouched, and tugged his t-shirt neck aside a bit, showing off the bite marks on his shoulder. Hunt wouldn't know what they meant, unless he happened to want to believe there were really vampires, but it was the only still-physical sign he had left. Being soaking wet and more-than-feverish for a day was harder to show off when it was finally done with. "But the police were busy--" And ill-equipped for vampires. "--and somebody had to help her. I was not leaving Marlowe to them." Hunt could disapprove all he wanted, but Brian wasn't backing down on that one.

"Damn - that looks like one hell of a dog bite!" Hunt exclaimed, wondering if someone needed to call animal control. Then again, considering they were dealing with a murderer... "But she's okay? Has she given a statement? You called the police right after, right?" It never occurred to him that maybe Brian hadn't left enough behind for the police to be called too - right now he was assuming 'went in, got the girl, left'.

"That wasn't a dog, Hunt," Brian grumbled. "That was one of the people who had Marlowe. But no, we didn't involve the police. We got out of there as we could--" After burning a few of them to death and dismembering a couple others, anyway. But Hunt didn't need to know that. "--and haven't exactly had the chance yet. Police are busy, and all, and there's not much they'd probably do about something outside Marquette juris-- jur-- town line." Not that he had any intention of calling the police. Then he'd be sending innocent victims into that house. Even if the vampires had left, there'd be a lot more explaining to do.

"Jurisdiction," Hunt filled in, automatically, before taking another pull on his beer, leaning against the bar. "Fuck - and you were lecturing me on keeping safe," he admonished, ignoring the comment about the dog. As far as Hunt was concerned, that was a dog bite and selective deafness seemed to kick in to any suggstion to the contrary - the spell ensured that his mind simply didn't process the rest of the information. Hunt could be staring at something supernatural and obvious in the face and he just wouldn't see it, he would blatantly deny anything, find reasons round anything at all. Brian could be screaming vampires and Hunt wouldn't see it.

"Yeah, well, sometimes there are more important things than keeping safe," Brian answered, also ignoring the correction on the word he couldn't say. He didn't mind when Hunt did it, really, but it was a little embarrassing, like having attention drawn to it. "We came out all right. Domino's more banged up, though he won't admit to it, stupid kid." The insult was said fondly, though. "Marlowe's... Marlowe's got some troubles, but I'm thinking more of it's psych-- mental. Everything else she got is pretty surface, nothing that even needed stitches." All things considered, the girl'd gotten off pretty luckily.

"See, this is what the police are for... I know, I know - they were busy," Hunt sighed, but still couldn't let the admonition slide. "I'm just glad you're okay. That why you're here then? Drinking alone - if you'd've given me a ring, I would have come with you from the start, y'know."

"Didn't want you out." Didn't think he could've found Babylon-- Brian didn't know what happened when you took a non-gifted human directly to it. He'd never tried. Though now he was starting to wonder, a little, whether Hunt was as non-gifted as he seemed. He'd found the place on his own, after all.... "It's dangerous out, you know? But no, I'm actually drinking more cuz I managed to completely alien-- ali-- fuck!" He swigged a mouthful of beer before trying again. "Seriously pissed off and maybe lost a good friend." On top of everything else. He also had to tell Mya about Domino... and his birthday was the next day. Whoohoo. Perfect timing, all of it.

"Hey, look, calm down," Hunt told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But I'm here now - lost a good friend how?" he asked, frowning a little. He got the feeling that maybe he was missing something.

"It's a long and very complicated story," Brian sighed, then dropped his head onto his hand, bracing an elbow on the bartop. "Long and short of it is, her dad died. So did mine. They, uh, each kind of caused the other to die." In a very direct fashion, on the part of his father, and rather less direct on the part of hers.... "It's hard to explain. But she didn't know he was dead, and I didn't know the guy was her dad until today, and... yeah. She's pissed as hell at me."

Hunt looked at him, really not sure how to take that. There was a whole lot more 'death' in there than he was typically used to - basically being that there was any in there at all. "Er... who's 'she'?" he asked - being that that seemed to be the safest question.

Yeah, it was a weird story, and Brian knew it. It was weird even when you knew all the facts. "Olivia. Gal at work, new to town, so I doubt you know her. She's been having me teach her how to cook, we get along pretty well, even if she's a nosy sort of kid." He grinned a little, but it didn't last long. "Or, well, she did. I kind of think she's taking it personally, or... something." He didn't know what to think, except he had a feeling Olivia wasn't going to be getting along with him so well anymore. "Not that I blame her, I mean, I had to tell her, her dad's dead."

"Fuck," Hunt breathed, finishing off his beer and ordering another couple - not bothering to check whether Brian wanted or not. "That's... Fuck, yeah." No, there were no words that he could think of to put in there. It was kinda - this kind of thing didn't happen in Hunt's overtly normal life.

"That's a good way to put it," Brian said with a lop-sided smile. "So yeah. That's why I'm out here getting drunk when it's probably the stupidest thing to do on a night like this." With vampires out and about, and all. At least he knew he could get home safely. Hunt, though.... " ... what're you doing out?" he asked, eying him as he finished off the one beer and went to open the other when it was set in front of him. "You never go outside after dark anyway, do you?" He'd made such a fuss about Brian telling him not to, too.

"Looking for you," Hunt told him, starting on his next beer. "Cabin fever, mainly - in case it hadn't escaped your notice I do sometimes go out. I'm not a total lost cause. Anyway, I was bored, there's fuck all on TV. And with school not in session, I've hardly left the house for days. I rang your place - girlie told me that you'd gone drinking, so I figured I'd drive and join you at our usual. Which, by the way, is closed - like every other damn place in town 'cept, apparently, this one. Which isn't bad," he admitted, looking around appreciatively.

"Yeah, Babylon is... pretty different from your standard bar," Brian agreed, back, now, to wondering about Hunt and what made it possible for him to be here. It beat thinking about Olivia. Why else was he out here for, anyway, but to forget about that mess? He eyed Hunt curiously. "Pretty, uh, selective, actually." Which was one way of saying it, and probably the most subtle way of asking-- except this was Hunt. Surely he'd be less skeptical if there was something about him....

"Yeah?" Hunt asked, completely oblivious as he looked round the room at the other patrons - not that it was overly busy tonight. There was a dark haired woman in the corner giving him a rather assessing look, but his eyes went right over her, not really seeing. Hunt was good at not noticing things that wouldn't fit with the view of the world he'd crafted for himself.

Maybe Hunt was some kind of psychic who didn't know what he was. That happened sometimes, didn't it? Though in his thirties, he ought to have either figured it out by now or gone mad, shouldn't he? Hearing voices or acting on someone else's emotions.... Or maybe a low-level elemental-- though what kind, Brian hadn't the faintest idea. He really wasn't quite sober enough to come up with a suitable explanation. "You really don't... get stuff, sometimes," he said, though it was more of a confused and resigned statement than an accusative one.

Hunt frowned. "Shit - is this meant to be one of those 'membership only' places? Am I gonna get thrown out of here in a moment or something?" he asked, honestly puzzled, looking around as if any second he was going to get accosted by burly bouncers. That woman was still looking at him - he noticed more this time, though she didn't look like she was interested, just amused, calculating.

"No, Hunt. If you're in here, you're okay to be in here." He just didn't know why. He noticed the woman, too, now, and shot her a warning glare. He didn't know who or what she was, but unless she was just interested in fucking Hunt, he didn't want her anywhere near him. You never knew in this place, really. Even though vampires and werewolves were relatively new to his understanding, angels, demons, witches, and anything technically human was not. "Maybe we oughta go, though."

"Okay, if you say so," Hunt said - a response to both the comments. If Brian said he was okay to be here, Hunt would take him at his word. And if he thought they should go... Well, HUnt finished off his beer in one and set the empty bottle on the counter, reaching for his wallet and removing enough bills to pay the tab. "Let's go."

Though he wasn't as drunk as he'd have liked, he'd gotten some good drinking in, at least. Maybe he could go home and just go to bed. He could probably use the sleep, and the alcohol would hopefully have helped that. Brian stood up, taking his last beer with him, since he'd only had a sip or two. "You drive, or walk?"

"I drove, but I've had a few now, so..." Hunt trailed off with a shrug. He'd never been one for drinking and driving, safety conscious as he always was.

Well, shit. Walking home at night was not in Brian's plan. Maybe they'd be lucky and not run into anyone-- or anything. And if they did... Hunt would probably just have to deal with seeing things he'd rather not. "Walking it is, then." He made his way-- focusing hard on walking straight rather than weaving, and doing pretty well-- to the door to hold it for Hunt.

Hunt stepped out into the night, immediately on edge in the darkness, his entire being telling him that this was a Bad Idea. "Maybe I should call a taxi," he started, even as they began to walk down the street. He was always edgy when he was out after dark, even without the shit going on in town. And whilst he was sure that the police would get it under control, he really didn't want to run into a gang of youths up from the city armed with knifes, or guns, or whatever the hell gang types were carrying these days. This was insane.

"If you've got a phone on you." Brian had left his in his truck, which was still at the diner, because he really hadn't wanted to get any calls tonight. "And if any cab companies are working tonight." He wasn't really sure. If he owned a cab company, he wouldn't be letting his drivers out at night, but you had to make money somehow, and he'd been told before that he was an unusual boss. He wasn't exactly on edge but definitely wary, as much on alert as a slightly intoxicated man could be while Hunt decided whatever he was gonna decide.

"Right," Hunt agreed, pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialling his usual cab company. He put his phone to his ear and listened to it ring. And ring. And ring until he gave it up as a bad job. "No answer," he told his friend.

Maybe he wasn't as unusual as people liked to say, then. "Guys probably all skipped down. C'mon, man, the faster we get walking, the faster we get home," Brian said, and gave Hunt's elbow a little tug, starting off briskly, with a little limp each step, in the direction of Hunt's place. He wished he could just... be there, but yeah. Hunt wouldn't like that one, one bit. He also wished he'd brought his cane-- he hadn't planned on a long walk. And hey, instant weapon, if it came down to it.

Hunt quickened his step to keep up pace, not looking around, just walking through the night. "Never did like being out after dark," he muttered, thinking about Mutt. He'd never found her. The back of his mind still told him that she was dead, as much as he tried to deny it, shifting around that horrible feeling, those images that he was denying he had of blood and bones and spilled entrails. That was just an over-active imagination. He didn't even watch R-rated movies, he didn't do gore. Ever. He fainted at the sight of blood.

Brian did the looking around, for them, trying to fight the haziness back so he could focus properly. "Just stick close, a'ight? We'll get you home okay." Ridiculous that he was reassuring Hunt, he who probably didn't look the least bit threatening to a vampire-- or a human thug, which Hunt was probably imagining. "I've already dealt with these bastards once, remember?" He tried flashing Hunt a little smile, but it felt a bit flat, to him.

"Right," Hunt told him, seriously considering going back to his car and risking the over-the-limit drive home. What the fuck had he been thinking? Coming out in the first place, and then drinking too much and having to walk home? He wouldn't do that even on a normal night, especially not without his dog. And now there was shit going down in town and he was wandering straight through the fucking middle of it. "I'm insane," he muttered to himself.

"Yep," Brian answered absently, hardly hearing what Hunt said but agreeing, anyway. "You are."

Especially since yeah, they were being followed. Not caring if whoever it was noticed, Brian looked over his shoulder: a short and stocky woman and a ratty-looking man walking down the sideway behind them, whether having followed them from Babylon or watched them come out. "Shit," he growled under his breath.

Hunt looked round and saw the people behind them, feeling his heart starting to race, the urge to just run kicking in. "Faster - can you go faster?" he asked, realising that this was Bad. He knew his friend had a bad leg, but the urge to just abandon him and leg it was burning in his gut. He had to get out of here, every fibre of his being telling him that he should run, run away, run.

"Not a whole lot," Brian ground out. It wouldn't do any good, anyway. These guys were faster than he, or Hunt, could ever get. To hell with Hunt and his skepticism, he wasn't letting any vampires get to him or his friends again. He stopped and put a hand on Hunt's arm to stop him, too. "Let me handle this, okay?"

They were stopping - they couldn't be stopping, they had to keep going. He should run - leave Brian behind. The fool wanted to turn and face these guys, well he could do that - HUnt wasn't that stupid, he should just run, run, run. "Come on - we need to go," he said, pulling at his friend's arm. His gut instinct was that this was Bad, he needed to get out of here, it was highly imperative that he leave now.

There wasn't really anywhere for Hunt to go: the first pair was looking eager at the thought of a fight, though they didn't put on any of those bursts of speed Brian knew they could make-- thank god-- and a third came around the corner behind them, cutting off the history teacher's escape route. Brian didn't let go of his friend's arm, because bolting would do nothing except make them give chase-- and while he might not've had the strength in his legs that he used to have, his grip was plenty implacable. His other hand had his cane in it, now, even though it hadn't before-- Hunt probably wouldn't even notice, given the distracting vampires. "Don't watch," he instructed calmly, "Just close your eyes and don't watch, okay?" Hunt's disbelief would hurt more than the vampires.

The first of the vampires grinned pausing, stopping, taking her time as their prey didn't seem set to run. But they'd run soon enough - and then they'd scream. She watched as the bearded one, pale beneath the dark hair, shivering and shaking and looking very much like he'd bolt any minute - if he didn't die of a heart attack first, closed his eyes. Interesting - but fun. She'd leave him til last - take the other one first. She turned her eyes onto Brian and leapt.

Brian swatted at her with his cane and his will-- the cane gave a reason for sending her flying into the street, made it easier to believe, and thus easier to do. Besides, it felt so much better to actually hit something and feel it connect. Then he gave the ratty man who was charging on her heels a taste of what he'd given the vampires last night: the vampire quite suddenly burst into flames and, thrown off his stride, he stumbled, fell, and hit the pavement with a shriek. "Keep 'em closed, Hunt," Brian reiterated. The fire was harder to start, but it was hard to disbelieve pain, and it was just so more effective....

That left two, the second of which was running towards them, now.

Hunt felt the heat flare up before him, saw brightness against the inside of his eyes, but he knew that he couldn't open them, not for the life of him, not even if he'd wanted to. It seemed the most important thing in the world - that, right now, he Keep His Eyes Closed. And so he did, a hand still on Brian's arm as they stood in the street. He heard the running of feet, fast, impossibly fast feet, the sound of a cry that didn't die off. More and more, but he couldn't close his eyes.

The second vampire came at a dead run, trusting to speed to get him through as the final one hung back, cautious where its compatriots were reckless, learning from what she saw. There was a reason that this one was still alive. It'd let the running one deal first, then pick up the pieces.

Brian heard the running feet at the last minute-- barely; fire was loud, and the screaming was louder, though it was finally dying out-- but he couldn't get them both out of the way fast enough. So what he did was turn to face the attack and yank Hunt behind him. The fire on the ratty vampire wasn't going to go out on its own, now; it had fuel and air and he didn't have to watch it. He leveled his cane like a very blunt-ended spear and braced it with willpower, hoping that while vampires might've been fast, even they couldn't fight momentum. Though whether a cane through the chest would be effective at stopping a vampire, he had no idea.

If not, well. Escape might have to happen, whether Hunt liked it or not.

The vampire jumped, its momentum from the run launching it high into the air, intending to come down onto the two from above, fangs bared, fingers bent, nails like claws its sole intent to cause death and damage, to rp and render limb from limb, to drink the warm, rich, dark blood - it would be so sweet.

"Shit--" Brian didn't have time to do much more than shove Hunt aside again and give another mind-and-arm swat, lashing the cane up and knocking the vampire's aim off. He'd love to get him all the way over into that fire on his comrade, but he wasn't holding his breath for luck like that tonight.

Two seconds, just give him two seconds free to think and he'd get them out of there.

There was still the third vampire, though, who was still watching them... and now darting towards them-- specifically, to Hunt. She might've wanted to save him for last, but he wasn't the one fighting back. She wasn't one of her stupid, new-born packmates, and if she got rid of the lesser of the two, maybe that would throw the one who tossed around magic off his game. Brian didn't even see her.

She circled round behind them as her packmate was brushed aside, darting in and grabbing the lesser man's arm, pulling him with all her strength away from the other.

Hunt cried out, his eyes flying open against his will as suddenly he was dragged off into the night, the vampiress pulling him up and towards her, her fangs bared as she dove to rip out his throat in one swift movement. Hunt reacted on pure, unadulterated instinct, his hand coming up in a seemingly practised movement, breaking her nose in one fluid movement, sending the shards of bone up into her brain, making her scream as she dropped and he ran, not looking back, off into the night, not thinking beyond the panic, not thinking about where he was going, or what had just happened - he just had to get out of there.

"Hunt--!" At the shout-- and the scream not even a breath later-- Brian gave the second vampire one more shove away from him, this time entirely mental and this time purposefully into the remains of the first, letting the dying flames roar up at the prospect of a new meal and catch onto his clothes. The third vampire had fallen, her face bloody and nose obviously broken-- would that be enough to stop a vampire? And Hunt--

Hunt was bolting. Shit shit shit. There was no way Brian could catch him on foot. "Hunt!" he shouted, staring after him in a little panic of his own. He couldn't run, but he couldn't let Hunt run, either. There were more of these bastards out there.

So he tuned out the screaming vampire behind him and the gurgling vampire in front of him, focused on Hunt and where he was in the space of Marquette, and took a step.

And walked right into the running man.

God, he was going to pay for this as soon as it was over, he could feel it already. Domino would kill him for doing this all over again.

Hunt was going full pelt when he suddenly hit the wall that was Brian and rebounded, stumbling over his own feet and tumbling to the floor, hitting his head on the sidewalk. His vision blurred for a moment, then cleared as he looked up at his friend. "Fuck," he breathed. His panic had obviously made him run full circle. Which meant...

Hunt sat up, suddenly, looking around them, wide eyed, for their attackers, sure that someone was going to come out of the night at them.

Looking over, anyway. Brian landed flat on his ass, wincing as his knee twisted under him. "Calm down," he said, as soothingly as he could-- which wasn't very, since he hurt, he was starting to feel cold again, and he didn't have a lot more patience for Hunt's freaking out. "Calm down, they're gone, you outran 'em." And once he got his feet under him again, in a minute or two, he was taking Hunt home the only way he had left to him. No more of this walking home through the vampire-filled-streets crap.

Brian's words got through to the other man and his breathing started to slow. "You okay?" he asked, looking round. He'd run in a circle - he'd run in a circle and their attackers had fled, or something, been scared away in the meantime. It was dark, of course things would look different - he hadn't known where they were before. So, he didn't recognise that tree from before, so what - it didn't mean anything. Adrenaline, it did strange things to the system. Like making you run in a big-ass circle instead of away. "We should get out of here - can you walk?" Hunt asked, getting to his feet and reaching an arm down for Brian.

"Yeah... yeah." Not for very far, but that wasn't going to be an issue, now, was it? He got his cane in one hand to help lever himself up with, and Hunt's hand in the other for the same. "You? She didn't actually get you, did she?" All he'd had time to process was the Hunt had been pulled off him and then had run, but he could only assume the vampire was going for a bite, if not a kill.

"No, not at all," Hunt told him. He didn't really remember what had happened. It was all fuzzy. "She grabbed me and then - I guess she let me go or something," he said, sounding a little confused. "But it's okay now. Come on - let's get out of here," he said, moving to support Brian on one side.

"Actually, you smashed her nose," Brian reminded him. How the hell did you forget something like that? "Which was pretty damn effective, even if she was--" Already dead. Yeah. He shrugged a bit, taking the support since it was offered. "Better than I could do, anyway. I'm no fighter. You wanna close your eyes for me again, just for a couple steps?" He said it casually, hoping that maybe Hunt would trust him and do it if he didn't make a big deal out of it. And he didn't want to make a big deal out of it-- what he wanted was to get home. He was shivering again, which meant his temperature was going through the roof again. Fucking backlash, hitting even faster this time.

"Nah, I didn't do that. You know me, I can't even throw a punch," Hunt laughed, nervously. "I must have slipped or something and she let me go," he added, closing his eyes as asked. It seemed important that he did that.

"Hey, if you say so, man." Brian didn't believe Hunt quite so well this time, but he didn't press it for the moment. At least the guy was being quiet enough about following instructions. He just hoped he had another of those steps-across-a-mile things left in him before reality got to the further smackage he knew was coming. Feeling across space for the familiar house, he folded the distance up, just for them, so that their next step took them to Hunt's sidewalk. His leg went out from under him in the process, apparently not liking crossing so much distance at once, and he clung to Hunt and his cane to keep from falling.

Hunt stumbled as Brian did, not knowing until they were going down that his friend had fallen. He stretched a hand out to catch himself, still supporting Brian with his shoulder as his eyes blinked open. He looked up and forward, seeing his house in the darkness and for a moment looked confused. Then he blinked and stood up, the expression dropping from his face as he offered his arm to Brian. You okay, man?" he asked, his voice entirely normal. "You must have missed a step there."

More like a few hundred. "Yeah. Yeah, thanks, man." He got his feet under him again with Hunt's shoulder for balance, wincing and rubbing his knee with the cane-hand. God, that hurt. "I think I'm gonna just drop you off here, okay? You're home. I've got to get home, too, or Marlowe's gonna start freaking out or something." And he'd start getting fuzzy in the head, the way his temperature was going. Home was getting to be necessary. Dealing with fallout from Hunt would happen later.

"Sure - you take care, okay?" Hunt checked, deciding he'd had one too many. Yeah, alcohol - the only explanation for the craziness of tonight. "Damn, I'm gonna have one hell of a hang over in the morning," he breathed, wondering how much he'd actually had to drink. He didn't remember having that much - but then again, wasn't that a sure sign of too much? "I'll see you tomorrow," he promised his friend, heading towards his front door, pulling his keys out of his pocket as he went.

"Yeah, see you then," Brian said wearily. He waited on the sidewalk until he knew Hunt wold be getting inside safely, then he started off, himself. Rather than trying to jump it one more time, risking being seen and having things lash him in the face-- or wherever it decided to hit-- he just limped home with the air bent around him, instead. It hurt more... but it would hurt less, in the long run.