[reverse darkest timeline] if i'm not beyond repair

[stilljustandrew]

Composing the note takes him the better part of an hour, and a great deal of cross-outs and scribbling.

Brix,

I was wondering if y
It's been a
How hav
You said if There's been some stuff and I wanted to

If you have some time to talk could you let me know? I'm doing I think I'm still doing better but something happened and I'm not I wanted to tell you about it.

Thanks,
Andrew

He writes out two clean copies of the note, leaves one at the Security desk and one with Bar.

Comments

[stilljustandrew]

"I've sort of been ... working on being comfortable out of the cell? It's, it's been getting easier."

He's trying, very hard, not to hope for her approval.

[gothamsheiress]

"Excellent." She smiles. "Then shall we go out to the bar?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah, let's." He smiles back.

She may or may not notice, as they head for the bar, that he's carrying a pocket-sized notepad in one hand, with a pen stuck through its spiral binding.

[gothamsheiress]

She does! As they find seats at a table, she nods to the notepad.

"Are you keeping notes on something?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Oh --" He sets it down, fingers still curled about it lightly. "Not, like, something in particular? Just, I used to keep a notebook all the time. Write down stuff I wanted to remember, or stuff I was trying to figure out. And I, I thought maybe ... it might be worth trying to do that again."

[gothamsheiress]

"Have you found it helpful? Have you used it much?"

[stilljustandrew]

He hunches his shoulders a little, oddly apologetic. "Not a lot yet? But, I mean, I only just started a couple days ago, and then ... a bunch of stuff happened. Which, some of that's what I wanted to tell you about."

A beat.

"... d'you maybe want to order drinks or something, as long as we're out here?"

[gothamsheiress]

"Certainly." She waves down a waitrat and orders her usual mint tea.

"What is it that's happened?"

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew orders a ginger ale and some goldfish crackers. "-- They aren't made with goldfish," he hastens to explain to Brix, "they're just shaped like goldfish. They're cheese-flavored."

And as the waitrat scurries off, he sobers a little to address the question. To the tabletop, apparently.

"So, um. Some ... some people from here went to -- to Lucifer's world. To look for something, I think? And, uh -- Matt was one of them, you know him. And I don't know if you know Nita? Nita Callahan? She's a friend of m, of his."

[gothamsheiress]

Her focus sharpens noticeably -- perhaps unnervingly.

"The Security officer, yes."

[stilljustandrew]

He nods, swallows.

"While they were there. She got ... possessed by a demon. They, I don't know how fast they figured it out, but they brought her back here -- I didn't know about any of this until then. They brought her to the cells. I, I saw them coming in."

[gothamsheiress]

Quiet: "This was a few days ago?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah. -- She's okay now," he adds hastily, "I mean, I don't know if okay is ... she's not possessed anymore is what I mean, the demon's gone."

[gothamsheiress]

"I'm glad to hear that. It must have been terrible for her."

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah." Half a whisper. "It said ... it threatened to hurt her if we tried to pull it out of her."

[gothamsheiress]

Her jaw tightens, very slightly.

"That sounds very upsetting."

[stilljustandrew]

"And it wasn't bluffing, I asked it later when Matt cast the truth spell --"

He rubs a hand over his face.

"Sorry. I, I'm telling this all out of order."

[gothamsheiress]

"Tell it however you need to tell it," she says. "Take your time."

[stilljustandrew]

"Okay," he says, and draws a long breath.

Which comes out in a quick "Oh -- thank you," as the waitrat returns with their order on a tray.

[gothamsheiress]

Brix gives the waitrat a polite smile. "Thank you."

She takes the time to pour herself a cup, letting Andrew settle in with his own food.

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew takes his drink, and puts the little bowl of crackers where they can both reach it, just in case she wants any.

"I saw them coming in with her because I was coming out," he says, low. "To the bar. I've been ... keeping to a routine, with that? At least once every other day, even if I don't really feel like it. Even if it's just to, like, take a walk up and down the hallway and call that good."

He swallows some ginger ale, picks up a couple of crackers but doesn't eat them yet.

"So I saw them, and it's like -- there's Kali, and she knows who I am, and she's carrying Nita and she's unconscious, and -- and there's Matt, and he's just staring at me like --"

He does his best to imitate Matt's tense, shocked-looking stare.

"And I mean of course he is, I don't blame him, it's the first time he's seen me since ... I think since that same day."

[gothamsheiress]

"Since he spoke to you in the cells?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah." A pause; he studies the crackers he's holding. "So, since I told him I wasn't sorry I'd drugged him and tried to kidnap him for Lucifer, basically."

He tosses the crackers into his mouth like they're a couple of pills, and chews.

[gothamsheiress]

Evenly: "A great deal has changed for you since then."

[stilljustandrew]

He finishes chewing, swallows. "Yeah, but like ... he didn't know about any of that. So he was maybe a little freaked out? And I mean, I was too, for a whole bunch of different reasons, and ... Ava said I should give them the space until they got things settled, so I went back to my room."

There's condensation on the outside of his glass, forming tiny beads of moisture. He traces a finger through it.

"And she came by later, and told me what was going on. That it was a demon. And I thought -- what if it was one of His, what if it came here to find me."