The Decision (Part 2)

[Mandy]

*******

It felt as though hours had passed by the time Mandy finally crossed the thresh hold of her \'home sweet home\' and shut the door behind her, flopping back wearily upon the comforting keep of her plush sofa. Did she say hours...more like a life time. Imagine her surprise to discover that only 45 minutes had gone by in the time it had taken her to speak with an officer and have Barry motor her home. Ah, but that was all behind her now.

 She glanced stiffly across the room at an alarm clock resting on her night stand. Hmm, nearly 2am, though truly, it seemed a great deal later. After such a terrifying roller coaster ride of emotions, feeling thin was understandable...expected really. But sadly, this only served to flatten her already floundering spirits even more. Perhaps it was too late to call Kerr now? Midnight, she could have seen but 2 in the morning...that made her double guess a little. What if he was out or had already gone to sleep?

A diminutive meow issued from the base of her sofa, and a small set of golden eyes appeared just over the lip of one of the cushions.

   "Artemis! she chimed with a rush of joy and scooped the kitten up into her hands. "Oh, the evening I`ve had! It was terrifying and you...you were nearly orphaned!" The kitten cocked it`s head to the side and sat itself upon the rounded peeks of Mandy`s breasts, fascinated by the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She gave an exasperated sigh and ruffled her finger tips through the kittens mane, wincing faintly as a mild cramp of pain rippled through her abdomen. "Not that you care. I suppose your hungry then?" He stood to attention, recognising her sudden change of tone and leaped down to the floor.

Well, at least someone was having a good evening now.

   She followed the tiny, bobbing creature into the small nook of her kitchenette and pulled open one of the food cupboards above her stove. There, countless cans of wet kitten food were stacked one on top of the other awaiting use. She selected one (without preference) and leaned the small of her back against the opposite counter, attempting to grasp the stubborn ring on the lid to pop it free. She went through the motions, but her mind was a hundred miles away.

Should she call him tonight?

   Her attentions drifted (against her willing) toward the pad of paper with Kerr`s number on it, sitting next to the cordless handset. It had been placed there specifically for when her mind (at last) had been made, her decision finalised. Funny how she struggled now with the prospect of contacting him, and all thanks to the simple lateness of the hour. She shook her head furiously and emptied the kitten food into Artemis`s dish. What was she thinking? It had to be her nerves still running high and wild from her brush with death not even an hour back....for why else would she debate now on something so obvious?

"I won\'t pretend that I\'m not excessively interested in the outcome and would welcome hearing from you immediately..." Those had been Kerr`s exact words to her..."immediately" he`d said so himself! As far as she was concerned, that meant any time - day or night! That in mind, there should be no guilt or hesitation in calling him up.

   She reached out across the small of her counter and snatched up the phone from the cradle in which it slept, clutching it closely to her chest. She could feel her heart hammering against it as though encouraging her to follow through...call him. "Alright." she utterly loudly, the battle within won by one side or another and she collected the note pad in her free hand.

"Hopefully he`s as much of a night owl as I am..."

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr reached groggily up to pat his breast pocket - where he normally kept his sleek mobile phone - and realised he wasn\'t wearing a coat. He was tipped off to the fact when he contacted a face instead of his own body. He frowned, opening his droopy eyelids to better gauge the situation. The ringing was becoming annoying. He was laying sprawled along the suede-covered couch in his formal lounge, and Ben was sprawled along him, his head resting on Kerr\'s firm chest. He\'d encouraged the mortal to sit between his legs, with his back to him, for better access to his throat. He\'d only just finished feeding. It didn\'t even occur to him to wonder who was ringing, or what the hour was.

After a few moments, lucidity began to filter in and he realised that the phone was in his back pocket. That would explain the muffled sound to it, and why his ass was vibrating. Naturally, to make it even more awkward, he was wearing jeans to go with his plain white T-shirt. He lifted his hips, giggling a little at his thoughts and the fact that he was thrusting Ben upwards as well, and managed to drag the phone out of his pocket. He fell back as he flipped it open and held it to his ear, relieved to be able to return to his indolent position. "\'lo?" he mumbled, unaware that he sounded half asleep, rather than blissfully sated.

[Trillian]

Ben was moved but didn\'t really come awake - he remained dozing, but made a weak sound of questioning. The toll of being drunk from thrice in five days was now coming into effect, and so he couldn\'t recover as quickly as the first. Even as Kerr spoke into the phone, Ben\'s thoughts swam in his dreams, and he tucked himself firmly against the vampire.

[Mandy]

Her heart leaped as a male voice came over the phone, only.....who ever it was, sounded half asleep.

   "K...Kerr? Is that you?" she asked into the handset, suddenly beginning to regret her decision now to call. If she`d woken him...she`d feel guilty for sure. But...he`d want to know, about everything....wouldn`t he?

  Mandy crossed the room and plopped down on her bed, switching her clock radio on as a matter of habit (background noise was something of a necessity when one lived alone) and listened patiently into the phone. "I....I wanted to let you know....I finally decided. You know, about what we talked over before..."

[Existentially Odd]

The urge to sit up was stifled by the weight of another man pressing upon him, but his eyelids lifted in surprise and the sensation of lethargy drained away swiftly. His cheeks flushed and he felt, for some odd reason, embarrassed. Probably because she\'d caught him at the end of yet another intimate encounter with his friend. Part of him wondered if Mandy would ever permit... then his own thoughts interrupted that day dream with a pressing reminder of her words. She\'d decided.

"Mandy! I... it\'s great to hear from you," he exclaimed, then lowered his voice. The forced cheer would only make her realise that something was up. "I\'ve been wondering when you\'d call," he said in a deeper, more intimate tone, warmed by the fact that he spoke the truth. "How have you been?"

He wanted to ask her what the decision was, but found he was suddenly too nervous.  What if she didn\'t want to know? And here he lay, fresh from a feed like a plump mosquito, and she damned his way of life by telling him that she preferred blissful ignorance. It would be... humiliating, a concept he\'d not contemplated until that very moment. No, best to get some polite pleasantries in first.

[Mandy]

"How have you been?"

   "I`ve...well, I`ve been busy." she began slowly, not exactly sure what she should say to him or how. Start off slow, that would be best. "I....I got called into work tonight. One of the girls landed herself on bed rest and well, I`m the only one who knows how to do the census so..."

  Should she tell him now, or wait until after he`d arrived...about the gunman that is? She fully intended to hold off on the matter of her decision until a time when they could sit together face to face but, her ordeal? Mandy fidgeted with the hem of her scrubs (the slight sting of tears beginning to burn at the corners of her eyes) as she delegated her thoughts. Something not so easily accomplished now what with the radio crackling in the background. How very comical, considering that she had turned the blasted thing on of her own accord to begin with.

  She leaned over to switch it off for the time being, finding herself suddenly listening to a news cast....a news cast outlining the events of her terrifying tribulation that night! She froze.

   "Have....have you listened to the news at all tonight, maybe within the last hour or so?" she asked cryptically, hoping that if Kerr had not, he might in fact switch it on now out of curiosity at her words.

[Existentially Odd]

He raised his eyebrows (even though she couldn\'t see him) and spoke more slowly into the phone, getting the idea from her wobbly voice and the fiddling she was doing in the background that something serious was up.

"Nooo... why?  What would I have heard?" he asked cautiously.

[Mandy]

Mandy hesitated.

   "Well...something happened tonight, while I was at work..." she opened weakly, fighting to keep her emotions in check. If she were to break down now, with Kerr here on the phone, he would no doubt be spurred into unnecessary concern for her. Unnecessary, because she was home now, and safe...and that removed any need for such emotions as worry or concern...didn`t it?

She swallowed, biting lightly at the edge of her lip.

   "There was a man - " Should she say it? "He came into the emergency room, and had...he had a gun..."

[Existentially Odd]

A gun?  Why would anyone take a gun into a hospital?

Kerr was unable to immediately process the image of someone with a gun entering the hospital, and when he did, he still couldn\'t fathom why or what that even meant with regard to Mandy... such was the slow workings of his mind at that moment.  Still, just the from the halting way she spoke, he felt nervous.

"What for?  What happened?" he pressed, his voice tight with concern.  Perhaps she was trying to tell him she\'d been shot... they had phones at the hospital didn\'t they?  She could be calling from a bed.  She\'d said something about going to work, had she said anything about coming home?  He couldn\'t think straight, his worry only escalating his confusion.

[Mandy]

Despite herself, a stray tear managed to loose from her right eye and slide slowly down her cheek. She wiped fiercely at it, angered by the sudden congested tone her voice took as a result. She couldn`t let him know that she was crying.

   "He was an addict...a drug abuser. We see them in the ER every day, but.....this man was having some form of withdrawal...." she paused, wondering if he was in fact totally awake and absorbing what it was she was trying to tell him. "Kerr...."

 Don`t cry.....

  "He jumped the counter - "

   Stop it...you\'re only going to make things worse.....

   "And he held the gun to my head, demanding we give him the drugs! Oh God, Kerr...I was so afraid...."

[Existentially Odd]

"Hold on, I\'ll be right there," he said through gritted teeth, unable to resist the desperate fear in her voice, or the images her words so succinctly conjured. He closed his phone with a snap and sat up, lifting his mortal weight as gently as he could. It wasn\'t that he couldn\'t move him, he simply wasn\'t sure he wanted to disturb him in his weakened state. Unfortunately, by the time he\'d extricated his leg from where it was wedged between Ben and the couch and got out from under him, those bright blue eyes were open and directed questioningly at him as he attempted to gently lay the blonde head upon a cushion.

"Uh... I have to go," he said awkwardly, gnawing at his tongue stud as he straightened and slipped his phone into his back pocket again. Both hands remained there, his fingers in the pockets in what was obviously a sheepish gesture, the white of his cotton shirt straining across his broad chest. He felt bad - almost like he was neglecting Ben - but it couldn\'t be helped. Mandy needed his help, his comfort, he had to get to her.

"My... uh-" he stammered, wanting to explain but not sure what to call her. What label fit? He couldn\'t decide! In his anxiety over this new hurdle, he rambled out anything that came to him. "My friend needs some help. She works at a hospital and apparently a man came there tonight and held her at gunpoint. I want to tell her about me, but she doesn\'t know vampires are real, so I\'ve been letting her decide whether she wants to know or not and she says she\'s decided but I think... " he trailed off, frowning at the rapid torrent spilling from between his lips

Jesus, shut up, just shut the fuck up!  Ben doesn\'t need to know, he doesn\'t care, just get him settled, man!

"I think she needs some comfort. Now. Uh... d\'you want to... uh..." He broke off, going from one extreme to the other; one second telling everything, the next unable to complete a coherent sentence. He was obviously shaken. He ran a distracted hand through his hair as he actively sought out options for dealing with Ben - belatedly registering that the mortal was speaking before he got a chance to say anything more.

[Trillian]

Ben had awakened into a situation that he\'d thought was part of his dream. He was being bodily moved by Kerr, placed like a ragdoll that needed the utmost care.
 
When words came rushing out of Kerr\'s mouth, Ben found it immensely hard to keep up. Something about a gun, a friend, not knowing something and rushing away. He frowned, trying to piece it together but it simply wasn\'t coming. He hadn\'t really heard the sentences, only the keywords had persisted in his sleep-addled mind.
 
"What?" he queried, his voice thick.
 
He realised Kerr was expecting him to answer a question that hadn\'t been properly voiced. After waking up a little more, Ben\'s status on current events didn\'t change much, as he asked again (only with a little less confusion and a lot more curiosity and dread); "What?"

[Existentially Odd]

Instead of answering, Kerr strode out of the lounge and into the kitchen, whereupon he removed one of the juice bottles and sample packs of biscuits he had stored in there for Ben. Telling himself that he was being utterly unfair to his poor donor, he walked back into the lounge and sat on the coffee table, holding out the objects that would help bring necessary clarity back to the mortal, resting them on his chest and expecting them to be taken any second. Unfortunately, he was too worried to hold his tongue and wait \'til Ben had consumed something, before he started speaking again. This time he said it a lot slower, however, pressing both food objects into the one hand so that his other could cradle the blonde\'s cheek - in both affection and an effort to keep his eyes focussed in the same direction.

"Ben, I have to go to Mandy. She was held at gunpoint tonight. She\'s upset. Do you want me to take you home? Do you want me to take you upstairs to a bed? Do you want me to take you with me?" He was pretty sure that had covered all the options he\'d come up with on the trip to the kitchen and back.

[Mandy]

****

A second wash of tears over-powered Mandy as the urgent timbre of Kerr`s concerning voice assured her he would soon be there by her side, then hung up in her ear. She despised worrying him so, but she was simply unable to disguise how traumatic the final moments of her shift had been. That would be like expecting her to place the bulk of her emotions up on the proverbial shelf, to disregard the very thing which made her who she was. Tonight however, she couldn`t help but wonder if the theatrics weren`t warranted.
 
She pushed the "end call" button on the handset and rested the device gently upon her night stand...the radio continued to spout off the order of the evening\'s action-filled events. Upon the mention of her name, Mandy couldn`t help but emit a faint little laugh mixed in bracingly with sobs of release. Come now, try to calm down a little bit before Kerr arrives. You don`t want to look all splotchy faced and puffy-eyed the first time you see him in nearly four days. She most certainly did not.
 
 Getting to her feet, Mandy strode across the span of her tiny studio suite to the bathroom near the front door. Since Kerr lived so close by, (well, close enough) there would be no time for a quick shower now, but she could at least make herself look a little more presentable. She made a grab for the toilet paper, tearing a sizable amount from the roll and used it to dab beneath her eyes, satisfied at the amount of running mascara she was able to remove. Perhaps a little more foundation to even out the red? With a groan, she pulled her make-up bag from under the counter, sifting weakly through it. That was when she noticed the dark patch of skin near her hair line.
 
 Mandy Lynn narrowed her eyes and turned her face, delicately probing the discolored area with her finger tips. It was about the size of a quarter and felt remarkably tender to the touch. A bruise? From the gun? Yes of course, from where the stranger had pressed the barrel to her temple. Must have pushed slightly harder than she first thought. Suddenly curious, she titled her head in order to expose her neck and glanced once more into the mirror. There too...another tiny purple and black bruise, only this one was maybe the size of a nickle. She sighed, dropping her chin to stare blankly at the reflection looking miserably back. "It could have been worse," she told herself. "He could have killed you...."

****

[Trillian]

Ben felt like he\'d woken up and seriously missed a lot of what was going on.  When Kerr returned he\'d sat up most of the way on the sofa and took what was offered him, while his gaze fixed on Kerr\'s face at the prompt of the vampire\'s soft touch.
 
"Uh," he didn\'t really know how to answer the questions, but made a decision spontaneously that as soon as he spoke it out loud he regretted.  "Bed?"
 
He still felt dopey and sleepy, and even though the word had been spoken he wanted to reel it in like some form of bad cast of a fishing line.  If only words were as simple.  He wanted to change the decision to going along with Kerr, but didn\'t want to impose himself.
 
The decision made, he waited for Kerr to do something about it.