Hospice (Ace)

[Gleam]

Jacob had bundled Ace up in a blanket after all the commotion had finished; she'd fallen asleep in the bathtub, and that was no place to sleep. So he'd carried her to the couch and flipped the infomercials on, and then set to work.

There was a hell of a lot of cleaning to do, but a few noble souls left over had helped with the big pieces - by morning, all that was left was the dishes he had cooked everything in and the miscellaneous bits and pieces of paper that always wound up scattered about after any party. He could vacuum that up later, though. It was time for breakfast.

Jacob mixed the batter and poured out pancakes (it was a pancake morning, most definitely), then sat down and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long, long night.

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace found herself be totally consumed by the headache that just sprang up out of nowhere. Or maybe it was always there and she just didn't notice it before.

"Oh god..." She grabbed onto the sides of her head. "Where the fuck--" She looked around, coming to terms with her surroundings. She grumbled and tried to make herself more comfortable. Eventually she found that she just genuinely couldn't do anything for her comfort levels and rose herself from the couch.

She picked her way through the blankets to place her feet on the floor and grumbled. Her clothes smelt like dried sweat and regret. She made the walk of shame into the kitchen bar where she smelt the pancakes cooking. Ace was not looking forward to this conversation, and kept her eyes to the floor, grabbing a seat.

[Gleam]

"Morning." Jacob said quietly, and placed a tall glass of water in front of Ace. "Pancakes are almost done. Want anything to go with them?"

He bustled back into the kitchen and flipped the pancakes over, making sure they browned evenly, then bustled back over to the table, bare feet silent on the tiled floor.

Noticeably, he asked nothing about Rags. Or why Ace had run.

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace looking up towards the glass of water, if a little sheepishly. "..Morning..." She pulled her arms around her and just looked at the glass. It took a moment but she righted herself after a bit of thought.

"Yeah whatever. Nah, I think pancakes are good, honestly." Her tone was immediately bold, casual and somewhat distant. She grabbed a pack of cigarettes that had been left on the table and immediately sparked one up, hoping the headache would go away.

There was a pause of awkwardness as Ace tried to think of something to say but all that came to her mind was about the party and she wasn't sure she wanted to bring that up.

After a few moments of thought she turned her eyes to Jacob. "Stupid now I guess, but I appreciate your.. help yesterday. Er, this morning, early. Ya know.." She quickly stopped her talking by taking another drag as quickly as she could manage. Her tone saying those words had been soft and quick, as though to get them out of the way and if he hadn't heard them there would be no embarrassment after all.

[Gleam]

Jacob huffed and smiled as Ace fought through the awkwardness to apologize. "Do not mention it." He said wryly, leaning back in his chair. "We are friends. And I enjoyed myself very much for most of the night. I do not regret any of it."

The pancakes looked done, so he rose and sorted them out before plopping a fat trio on Ace's plate. "Eat up." he said with a faint smile. "It will help get that taste out of your mouth, and settle your stomach. I remember what a hangover feels like, after all."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace glanced over to the wall covered in popped balloons. She hadn't been there to experience over half of those. The host of the party cowering in a bathroom corner to avoid an ex best friend. How pathetic. "Lucky for some, eh?" She said after he mentioned not having regrets. It was obvious by her statement that she wished she could say the same.

She looked down at the pancakes and swallowed. She honestly would have said that she wasn't feeling that hungry and her stomach turned looking at food, but she pushed those thoughts aside. She did need to eat. She sliced it up by pulling at the knife, tearing chunks onto the plate. She didn't even put butter on them or anything.

She took a drag of her cigarette inbetween bites. She didn't care how wrong that was as a concept. She blew out streams of pancake scented smoke.

"... " She couldn't hold in the words for long. It seemed that she could help but want to know, "When did he leave?"

[Gleam]

"About twenty minutes after he showed up." Jacob said, unreasonably cheerful. "Rust got him to drink a beer. I dosed it with Rophynol. After he went down I carried him back outside and dumped him in the grass to sleep it off. Minus his pants and gun. You can never say it is a good party unless you are missing pants afterward."

He ate a pancake in two swift bites and swallowed them, pleased by his cooking. "He is likely still out there, should you want to retrieve him."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace's eyes went wide at his words. "You're joking. Rophynol? Fucking hell, Jack. ...Why do you have Rophynol?" She gave him a worried and quizzical look. "... Where's his gun?" She wondered, for some reason feeling a desire to look at it.

Guns make you popular.

Ace blinked away the memory of Will's words. He had only taught her how to shoot a gun because Rags stole one from his father. Will didn't think she could trust him very much, obviously. Needed Ace to defend herself.

She glanced up at him and furrowed her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me... Why would I possibly want to retrieve him? He needs to get off the island, he doesn't belong here. I really do not want to find out why he's come, I mean, obviously it involves me somehow..." She shook her head, "Should never have come here."

She continued cutting up her pancakes and downing them piece by piece.

[Gleam]

"It's available in the infirmary as a night-sleep aid for chronic insomniacs." Jacob replied, unbothered. "I spent a great deal of time ferrying people back and forth from there, so I have taken the initiative to grant myself a number of chemical options."

He retrieved the pistol as he spoke, pulling it from his pocket and laying it on the table - or, rather, the disassembled pieces of it, stock, slide and barrel all seperate. "It is a tool for extreme duress only, do not worry." Jacob murmured. "And a man coming to search for you in your flat, unnannounced, with a loaded pistol on him is duress indeed."

He shrugged and leaned back into his chair then. "If you wanted to beat his head in with a stove poker, for example. If he is truly dangerous, I have another trip to make after breakfast to dispose of him."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace became wary with the way that he was talking. Her shoulders tensed slightly. It was a bit too casual and familiar, what he insinuated. Chemical options? "... A number... So you stole drugs from the infirmary?" She wouldn't have thought him the type. She glanced him over as though assessing the situation, before he brought the gun to the table.

She was surprised that he was keeping it in his pocket. Ace quickly picked it up and assembled it, looking down it's spine and side, looking at the worn handle. She almost felt like she recognized it, but surely this one wasn't so old. Surely.

His words floated around in her head. "Why would I worry?" She said, although her tone suggested that there was reason to have. "Dispose of him? What the fuck are you talking about, Jack?" Her eyebrows furrowed and she seemed offended at the idea. "Why the fuck would I beat his head in? The fuck."

She shook her head, put the gun on the table and stuffed another fork of pancake into her gob.

[Gleam]

Jacob shrugged and smiled. It was a bleak expression. "I know nothing of your acquaintance save that he has followed an underage child to a private location without her assent, and barged into her flat unnannounced. And that she is terrified of him. If this boy is a child predator he will not survive the night."

Jacob glanced back to his pancakes. "Yes, essentially." he answered. "Though mainly because I keep finding injured children just - left - on the grounds: Hurt, bleeding. I have done my best to see to their health. Two so far, this week. It is a disturbing trend and I will see an end put to it."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace laughed aloud at his words. "HAH, Seriously? Okay one, I'm not actually under-age. And that doesn't really matter ." She corrected, "And you know he's only like a year or two older than me... I don't think child predator makes sense, Jack..." She gave him a look like he was getting way ahead of himself, "You're being stupid." She informed him.

The next part of what he said she withdrew slightly to herself. "I'm not... terrified of him. I mean, I don't think we have bad blood... Least, I hope not..." She shook her head, "Look, him and me were friends. Good friends. I didn't even leave, stuff happened, and I had to go. I had to... I couldn't go back there. It's too difficult to explain."

Her voice was rough and callous, because she knew as well as he that she not going to go into further detail. It was bordering some dangerous territory, that. Rags was too close to all those things she wanted to forget about. "He's just a stupid kid." She said finally.

She furrowed her eyebrows at his story though. "What? No, I don't think that Rags has anything to do with that. I mean, he's violent but... I can't imagine him doing anything that bad..." She considered it further, "Not needlessly... Not unless he was seriously pissed... "

"Look, don't do anything now, just wait, ask him yourself. Seriously, don't hurt the guy without proof... "

[Gleam]

Jacob took a slow breath. "Perhaps." he allowed. "Probably, in fact. I may have been - hasty, in my instinctual response."

He shook his head and leaned back in his chair as Ace . . . sort of explained. He didn't ask any more questions, as their friendship was based on the lack of that. Well. Mostly. Ace had stuck her nose into his business repeatedly so far.

"Fair enough." Jacob said neutrally, and took a sip of coffee, pouring a mug for Ace as well. "I will inform the next boat that he was a stowaway and have him hauled back to shore. Until that time I will keep him - restrained. You may ignore him at your leisure."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace squinted when she looked at him. "Yeah you seem pretty fucking stressed out actually, don't mind me saying. On edge eh? I mean, normally people don't immediately think of murder as an option unless some fucked up shit's in their heads for a while." She observed.

She frowned, taking a cup of coffee with a nod of appreciation at the gesture. "Keep him restrained... Where?" She wondered nervously. She wasn't sure she liked where this was going.

Her expression fell dark the more she thought about him leaving again however. Why was she so scared to talk to him? Did she really worry that he would try to hurt her? For what? No, you hid because you're a coward.

"Maybe... " She tried to force the words out. "Maybe I should talk to him." She swallowed after the words, having a foul taste in her mouth, despite the pancakes. She decided to take another drag of her cigarette.

"By the way, you can probably win the kid over with your infirmary shit. He likes his meds." She told him, finishing the pancakes and pulling herself from the stool with the plate in one hand and her cigarette in the other. She left her coffee steaming on the table for the moment as she made her way to the sink.

[Gleam]

"I found out afterward from Rust that the same boy had gotten in a fight with him over insulting comments over his mother." Jacob replied, equanimous as ever. "There is no jail on this island, and he does not seem to be interested in restraining himself. My options in dealing with the boy are therefore limited." He took a sip of coffee. "It is pragmatic."

Jacob rose then, taking ahold of his dishes and moved to the sink. He indicated for Ace to set hers to the side, washed one, and handed it to her to dry. "Either the infirmary cellar, for they have special cots for violent or uncontrollable patients there, or the water purification plant, which is suitably abandoned."

A shrug, then. "If you choose to speak with him he will likely be unpleasant. That is your choice - I will not prevent you from it. This said, I have no desire to win the boy over, save that it may cause your reunion to go somewhat easier if he is high on marijuana at the time."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace blinked, "How... I mean, what all you got in stock." She wondered, knowing well that medical weed was stronger. She wouldn't have any... She just found herself asking is all. Just asking.

"Yeah Rust told me the same thing whenever I learned he was on the island a week ago." She shrugged, although really couldn't remember the thing about the mother only that Rust had met him.

She began to dry the dishes as she was given the cloth. She had lived with Jacob for long enough to, well, be at least a little house trained. Though she half-dropped them into the drying rack so that the sound of china hitting china was loud and somewhat terrifying. It kind of gave Ace a buzz more than anything.

"Really though... You're not going to kill Rags." She repeated, to clarify. She didn't know what pragmatic meant.

[Gleam]

Jacob blinked slowly. "I think I enable your addictions quite enough at this point as it is." He said, wry. "But in answer to your question, mostly a Hindu Kush harvest. From what I recall it is quite potent."

A moment of silence as he continues to wash dishes. "I promise to not kill Rags." Jacob answered eventually. "He does not . . . radiate safety. And I believe I am allowing my protective impulses to take over in regards to him. So you may deal with him as you wish, or leave him to me to dump him on an outbound boat soon."

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace glowered at him when he mentioned he enabled her addictions, "What does that mean?" She wondered at him while smoking and drying her hands at the same time, before returning to her cup of caffeinated java. "Nah, you don't really."

"Wait, protective impulses?" She raised her eyebrow at him, giving him a look that silently called him ridiculous. She paused and then sighed, "Look fine. I don't trust you dealing with him so I'll do it. ... I didn't want to have to. Wish he would just go of his own accord..."

She finished her cigarette and put it out against the table before tossing the butt into the burnt out drawer on the floor beside the futon. "88%!" She called like an announcer , using her power pettily to have the butt land in the distant ashtray. "Bullseye." She said with a half-grin, amused by her own made-up game. It was a grand distraction. Ace had a talent for ignoring what was important.

"Hey you want a shot?" She grabbed a stray pen from the table and offered it to him, glancing at the 'basket'.

[Gleam]

"I suppose I shall take your word for it." Jacob said mildly, as Ace stubbed a cigarette out against the table and then threw it across the room into a burnt-out drawer full of its fellows. He dipped his hands beneath the tap water and splashed his face, leaning on his elbows against the sink. Jacob's mouth opened for a moment - and he shut it, shaking his head, and extracted a tiny brass key from his pocket, tossing it over to Ace.

"Infirmary cellar, check the closet and look for the trapdoor beneath the back cabinet." Jacob said, and took the pen from his roommate absently. It spun rapidly between his fingers, before he raised it to an ear and flicked it across the room, where it smacked into the wall hard enough to stick. Jacob blinked once and smiled, bemused. "I suppose it has been awhile since I have tried that. "

['Ace' Julia Dale]

Ace glanced over as the key was tossed to her and looked it it curiously in her hand. She wondered how he got it but knew better than to ask stupid questions. He was either given it like a good little boy or stole it because no one would care or notice. She shrugged at his words. Infirmary cellar, trapdoor beneath cabinet. Right. She pocketed the key.

"You... did say that he was on the grass outside, right? I mean... that's what you said earlier, so he still needs to be taken there." She said, worried that he had dragged Rags to that location already.

She watched his failed attempt at throwing the pen into the drawer. She hopped off the stool again and went to pick it up, throwing it back to him. "You have to practice your aim, dude, that was shit." She said with a half-grin, "Go on," She glanced between him and his target once more, taking a sip of the coffee from the mug.

[Gleam]

"He is still outside, yes." Jacob replied, as he took back the pen and spun it again momentarily. "I gave you the key so that, should you decide to speak to him, you can ensure his good mood. Please do not abuse the medical stocks."

It probably wasn't a good idea, but he'd spent the whole night up and he was tired. Another toss of the pen smacked it into the front of the box, where it fell off instead of sticking again. "At least I hit the target this time."

Jacob shook his head, bemused, and rose to chase down the pen - it was his turn to do so, he supposed. "I think I should avoid sports. I have, historically, little talent for them, since most of them seem to include throwing round objects at a distance."