RP:He Did Not Take Care Of It

Part of the The Dust Up In Cenril Arc

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Summary: Alvina is getting settled into their new home in Larket while Hudson is out at work (at the nail salon). Pilar drops by to visit but they are attacked by some men from a Rival Larket branch of organized crime. Alvina is successfully knocked out, but Pilar makes quick work of one of the goons by snapping his neck and killing him instantly. Their neighors send for Hudson while guards swarm through the house making luke warm promises of finding the culprit of this robbery. Pilar stays the night in the heated environment where no one is comfortable. In the morning, they eat breakfast in a haze and Pilar goes home to Cassy, leaving Alvina and Hudson plenty of room to fight in. Hudson swore he'd take care of this back when they were approached in the restaurant. This attack is proof that he did not. Alvina, in a tizzy, tells Hudson she is taking the girls and leaving until he gets the whole mess cleaned up. Hudson literally flips some tables, wolf rages around the house breaking all manner of things, and storming off to the bedroom. Alvina, Luna, and Harper are gone when he reappears.

Landon Household, Larket

Alvina had sent out a letter to Pilar, inviting her to come visit the girls now that they are moved into their new home in Larket. It’s larger than their last house, made of banisters and adornments. Windows for days. A porch consumes the left half of the house, wrapping around to the back. It’s two stories, with a small tower-like section to the right most side. Likely has a basement, impossible to tell from the front porch. Alvina’s on the porch, with Luna and Harper. They are crawling around on a large blanket, fluffy and covered in soft toys for them to chew. The large stuffed animals that Pilar and Cassy brought them are acting as the fences for their play area, because they are too large to crawl over. Her hair is back, braided and wrapped in a bun. She’s wearing a thin, summer dress. It’s unseasonably warm today, even the birds are confused, with their chirping and merry making. Spring isn’t too far off now.

Pilar arrived in short order, wearing a dark blue halter dress that showed off the graveyard tattoo on her back, and white sandals that showed off her leg. In one hand was her guitar case. She'd been practicing and wanted a professional's opinion. In the other hand was a small bag. She waved to the little family on the porch with that hand. Her smile was faint. Strained. It was still hard, sometimes. But today was a good day. "Hello, Alvina! And Lunita and Harpita. They're so cute." Pilar set her guitar case on the floor of the porch and embraced Alvina. "It's do nice to see you. I brought some polvorones. They are like little almond cookies, from my homeland. I hope you like them." She offered the bag to Alvina.

"It's just women," a man observes to another, in the tone of someone who thinks he's got nothing to fear. He pulls a knitted face mask over his face, muffling what he says next: "Been here awhile. He's not home. I saw him leave earlier today. You have everything?" He checks his waistband for knives.

"He's at the nail salon," the other man's voice has the texture of gravel. A beat, while he too pulls his face mask on. He unslings a crossbow from his shoulder, checks that it's loaded. He tentatively aligns the sight over Pilar's chest, and then realizes that children are in the picture. "This guy has kids."

"Yeah."

"Let's just take everyone quietly. Just women. No one's out on the street. Yep. Let's go, Will," he echos the first man's words and hops down from his post inside the caravan, the exterior canvas marked RENTAL FURNISHINGS CO. It had seemed innocuous, idling along the street adjacent to Alvina's home for the afternoon. The man with the crossbow keeps it up, trained on the porch. He'd be visible immediately to the weapon. "Don't even think about screaming. Stay nice and quiet. That's right. Nobody needs to get hurt, we just need you to come with us. My friend here..." He means 'Will,' who is shorter, and has two knives visible in his waistband. He's skulking behind. "...my friend here will be right with you, and you just need to sit tight. And shut your pretty little faces."

Alvina stands to greet Pilar, who is walking without her crutch now. It may have been too long, since the last time they saw each other." You have a guitar! " She called, cheerfully, waving the vampire over to keep them company. " How cute! " comes her reply about these little nicknames. The bard is about to ask if she can try one of these mysterious sweets when a man in a dark mask, armed with a shotty looking crossbow came into view. Instinctively, she tried to pull Pilar behind her while calling out to the man in a low voice. "What do you want?" She tries to growl. Maybe they didn't know anything about her, maybe she could get away with pretending to be a werewolf too? Too much of a stretch. Maybe, she thinks, they won't see the children crawling about on the porch, now covered with stuffed animals and blocked by the banisters. Alvina puts her hands up, exposing her palms and shooting Pilar silent glances. "You're never going to hear the end of this.." She warns him, as if she might know how boss or any other proper channel to lodge a formal complaint.

Pilar's response died in her throat when the masked men arrived. She didn't budge when Alvina tried to move her. The one day... The One. Day. she didn't have her knife on her. She followed Alvina's lead, showing her hands as empty, and took heart from the bard's defiance. "L-leave, now." Not exactly the fearless demand she'd been aiming for.

"No chit chat, ladies," says the man with the crossbow, as his friend with the knives steals onto the porch. Drawing one of the knives, he approaches and moves behind Alvina, holding the blade to her neck while his friend keeps the crossbow bolt trained on Pilar, approaching slowly so as to not lose his mark.

"Easy, sweetheart," says the man behind Alvina. "Easy," he repeats as she shifts, the edge of his knife cutting into the fragile skin of her neck just enough. He's quick after that, draws a wet rag out of a pouch at his belt and forces it against her mouth. "Inhale, come on," he commands her, his arm locked around her chest to hold her still against the point of the knife. The rag itself has a chemical sweet smell, is doused in a very powerful anesthetic.

"Don't look at them," growls the man aiming the cross bow at Pilar.

Alvina swallows, her eyes close as soon as the cold steel stings her skin. It's Desparrow all over again. It's Desparrow all over again. She can feel herself panic, repeating the phrase in her mind. Imagining a cold dark room and chains, and that was if she was lucky. They used people like her to send messages to people like Hudson. Her body was just going to be a message, and that might be the best outcome she could hope for. "Pila-" Alvina tries to turn towards her friend but her mouth is covered by a rag and everything becomes foggy. It smells like a bundle of flowers, lillies and daisies. She envisions herself in front of a flowerstall, shopping basket resting in the groove of her elbow. Her knees buckle, and she falls forward into the man's arms as he pulls the knife away from her throat to carry her. He doesn't look back to see if Pilar is coming along quietly. She'd been so timid in her refusal. What could go wrong?

Pilar's eyes widened. Blood, there was blood, and screaming, the babies were screaming, and she wasn't in Larket anymore. She was in Granceval, and there was her sister, pleading for mercy for her little boy as they were beaten to death. And then something inside Pilar snapped. The shaking ceased, and Pilar's hands came to rest on either side of the man's head. With a twist, she could snap his neck easily. And with no further hesitation, she would do just that.

As anticipated, Alvina's body becomes pliable and heavy like a rag doll in the arms of "Will" but he doesn't get a chance to lay her against the side of the house and perform the same function for Pilar. There's a shout from his companion: "Stop right there! Hey you!" and the sound of a crossbow bolt whizzing close to his ear, the sensation of cold hands on his neck, and ................ what had Tony Soprano said, about how it feels when you die?

The shot from the crossbow had missed Pilar, her proximity to his fellow, now-fallen soldier had bungled the whole thing. The woman had been more trouble than he'd anticipated, and it'll take another thirty seconds if not more to load up another bolt. The job's become messy, they've lost control of it; it had been a job for two and by himself everything takes longer, and Pilar's a wild card. There's something about the woman that gives him pause, in his professional judgment the best course of action is to retreat. Not to mention this is happening in the waning hours of the afternoon, someone could come upon them at any moment, even if he assumes success in dealing with the unexpectedly ferocious Pilar. Reloading, he backs away carefully, distancing himself from the vampire and the now-crumpled form of Alvina. He keeps the bow on Pilar, mounts the caravan without looking down and thrashes the whip. "Yah!" he cries, before the horse surges into action and carries them away.

Just as the men are pulling away, a woman in bright clothing comes jogging up to Pilar with a frantic look on her face. Her hair is pulled up in a messy blonde bun and she’s easily 50 years old but spry. “Oh dear…” She mutters, calling for her husband to shuffle across the street to help them. They call the local guard, while Ms. Haverford helps Pilar get Alvina and the Children back inside. People are starting to stare, it’s rude. They just moved in. An hour or so passes before Alvina comes too, but when she does, she stands upright and starts flailing her arms about. Her mind was still wired in fight or flight. When she sees that she is indeed not bound and gagged (or dead, somehow) she frantically looks around for the children. Mrs. Hatherford is holding Luna, Harper is chewing on Pilar’s guitar case. Mr. Haverford is out on the lawn, waiting for Hudson who was sent for at the nail salon. He’ll greet Hudson in the typical male way; of clasping his large old hand on Hudson’s shoulder to reassure him everything is all right. The crossbow had dented the side of the house. The body was carted off by the guards for inspection. They promised to get to the bottom of this, as they always did, even though they gossiped amongst themselves that it was just a random burglary attempt. This couple was new, someone saw them move end. Case closed. Alvina is weeping, with Luna and Harper now fidgeting in her motherly wingspan, pressing their ungrateful baby faces against hers and sobbing all over them. It was her right. “Where’s Pilar?!” She asked Mrs. Haverford, panic repainting her face anew.

Pilar barely processed what she'd done when suddenly the neighbor lady was there. She easily lifted Alvina into her arms and brought her inside while Mrs. Haverford took the kids. Pilar placed Alvina on the couch and and excused herself. She found her way to the kitchen and sat down. There, she wept for a solid 10 minutes. She had been so scared, and then she... she... she killed a man. In front of the children! After her sobbing passed, she sat there, staring out the window until she heard Alvina frantically asking for her. She returned to the living room quickly. "I'm here, Alvina. Are you alright? I-I-I'm so sorry, the girls, they saw..."

Hudson is supervising a plumbing installation that's taking place in the lab in the upstairs of the nail salon. It's one of the final things that needs to happen. The lab's getting to be almost ready for use, he's starting to get excited about the new digs. Setting aside the little misunderstanding with the 'locals' - he'd sent some feelers out on that, so that'll be resolved shortly - he has every reason to think that the move to Larket's been a good one. That proud feeling promptly sinks into the periphery when Joanie runs up the stairs to tell him something's happened at home. "What do you mean something's happened? Is everyone OK?" asks Hudson, blanching at the news and not using his most inside of voices. "I think so. I don't know anything else, the man said you need to please go home!" exclaims the witch, plainly discomfited to be the bearer of bad news. This event doesn't suit the kindly hippie demeanor that characterizes the older witch. She follows Hudson as he makes a beeline for downstairs. "Well who came by?" he's asking her as their footsteps thud down the twisting staircase. "I don't know, maybe a neighbor. Does that matter?" "Not really. If anyone asks for me, stall," he yanks his jacket on, turning the collar up as he strides past the rows of women doing nails. "Okaaay! Hudson, I hope everything's alright!" calls out Joanie, clattering after him in stubby heels all the while attempting to beam reassuringly at their clients.

Hudson runs home. Really making use of that athleisure getup. It's not that far, but he's breaking a sweat when he comes up on Mr. Haverford. He remembers this guy, from moving in. The greeting, while somewhat comforting, doesn't exactly slake his present thirst for information. "There was some kind of altercation... a burglary gone wrong, one of the burglars..." the man is telling him, and Hudson's gaze is whipping around the yard, half-tuning the guy out. The GUARDS are here, wrapping up a body. Who called the GUARDS, surely not Alvina, she'd know better; he's a partner in a significant criminal enterprise. Out of really an abundance of caution/best efforts at their jobs, the guards try to stop him from entering his own home, but he looks ready to tear the guy's throat out and is very quickly identified as probable husband (confirmed by Mr. Haverford) so fine to let him through, his wife and children and her friend are over -- he can see for himself, he jogs across the room. "Oh my gods, Alvina," is all he can say, as he drops to a crouch before the sofa. He hugs her to him, pulling back only to kiss the girls in turn. "Hi Pilar," he exhales in her direction once that's done. He is touching Alvina's arms, and then his children's arms, feeling and looking for injuries, bluntly addressing a question to the group: "What the actual," ___ "happened?"

Alvina reaches for Pilar, she didn't know what happened. No one knew, but the vampire. Even the neighbors didn't see much! Just the carriage drive off, and the body. " What's wrong? What did they see?" She wants to know what those men did to her children, and waves her friend over beside her. Before Pilar can make it to Alvina, Hudson bursts through the door." Oh thank the Gods... " and she bursts into tears. Why wasn't he here when it happened?? Why was he never here when this stuff happened?? She wants to tell him, it's that guy from the restaurant but Mrs. Haverford starts in the same way her husband had; there was a robbery gone wrong, but everyone was alright. Alvina looks to Pilar, to fill in all the parts she missed but Pilar looks paler than usual. "Pilar?" She asks while Luna and Harper squirm away to freedom and a pile of toys that had been brought in from the porch. They do not detect foul play.

Pilar went to her friend's side, but stayed back when Hudson rushed in. She took a steadying breath. "Two-two men, in masks, they... They tried to, to take us, one of them... He put a knife to her neck, then knocked her out with, with, I don't know, then I... I..." She looked at her hands. "... I killed him..." she whispered. "I broke his neck, and they, they saw, those poor girls saw..." The "poor girls" were now fighting over a stuffed rabbit, tugging back and forth on its arms.

"It's OK, babe, everyone's OK," Hudson wraps his arms around Alvina again, as she cries into his shirt. Over her shoulder he turns a strained smile at Mrs. Haverford, who is jumping in with details that don't seem all that right to him, given that the house looks the same and Alvina's still blinged out in the diamond jewelry he bought her. Maybe he's also rightfully paranoid given the strain his business is having with the local organized crime syndicate. Alvina is collecting herself enough to look nervously to Pilar, evidently not on board with Mrs. Haverford's version of events either but still tearful and not offering much in the way of detail herself. This neighbor lady needs to get gone. "I'm sorry, she's a little overwhelmed," he tells Mrs. Haverford, "Can we have a second." Of course they can. He moves to sit on the couch with Alvina, putting an arm around her and with the other holding Harper on his lap. She's chewing on her stuffed rabbit and saying Bababababababa in various rising and falling cadences to no one in particular like nothing happened. Pilar's version of events raise the hair on Hudson's forearms, and he goes pale beside Alvina. The girls start screeching at each other over the rabbit, the peace had apparently been a fragile one. Hudson ignores his screaming children, he is very still and says nothing right away. He's containing a violent impulse. He doesn't dare scratch his forearms, though he knows both he and Alvina are present of his desire to. When he manages to talk, he does so in a controlled and monotone manner, addressing Pilar but looking at the guards, who are collecting 'evidence' from their kitchen (...): "Thank the gods that you were here, Pilar. Rest assured I am sure you were more merciful than I would have been. Have you told all of this to the guards?"

Alvina immediately needs to tell Pilar she's a hero. She saved them. " Huds.. " She whispers, too low for Pilar to hear. "The man from the restaurant was here..." Judging by the way Hudson tensed at Pilar's version of the story, she could read his anger on his face. Mrs. HAVERFORD goes back outside with her husband to answer more questions that the guards have. If they saw them move in, did they have a lot of flashy possessions, etc. Luna is now wobbling around on the floor where she can't reach Harper or her toys. Her babbling turns to a thin screech that dies down with Alvina tries to pull Pilar against her in a hug. "We owe you everything. If not for you, who knows what they would have done..." She whispers this, to her female friend, to keep Hudson from flipping out completely. He already looked near the edge of combustion, to have the guards all over the house. Thank the gods there was nothing here for them to find... Or so she hoped. She's trying to breathlessly reassure everyone but she's still fuzzy, trying to shake this impossible fog around her mind.

Pilar had no idea that Hudson was a criminal. If she knew half of what he was up to, what he'd done, she would have been trying to convince Alvina to leave his sorry ass like her narrator's been doing this whole time. When asked about the guards, she shook her head. "No, I... I haven't talked to anyone. I've been... I've been trying to calm myself."

Alvina's whispered observation confirms the theory Hudson had been holding himself. His face falls briefly, then turns carefully blank as he struggles to keep his need for retribution from etching itself in his features for everyone to see. Alvina is hugging Pilar, she plainly can tell that Hudson is close to the precipice, even though it hadn't happened to him, it had happened to her. (...Ah, but that makes it worse.) "Yes, thank you," he repeats slowly, with measured tone, at Pilar. He hands Harper to Alvina, as if in a daze, and then rises from the couch. "Why don't you focus on calming your nerves, let me take care of this," he means the people gathered in their house, really just poking around in their things and gossiping about crime in Larket generally rather than actively investigating anything. He decides to make himself useful to cage the wolf better. He introduces himself to a group of guards in their kitchen, makes the rather authoritative-man-of-the-house suggestion that everyone move to the outside and start wrapping it up, unless there's anything further that they need. The Haverfords are collected. He's not really in the mood to tack on any polite flourishes, nor does anybody expect him to given the circumstance, but everyone is thanked, earnest representations are made to him about 'getting to the bottom of this' and 'ensuring that [his] beautiful family remains safe.' Outside, to the guards, who are all men, he corroborates the Haverfords' version of events, and the groups agree that 'the women' should not be disturbed any further, Hudson's statement will do. They disperse, with promises to call on their witnesses to gather further evidence after the stress of the events has retreated. He smokes, it's hardly helpful, he has the sensation of being barely afloat in a roiling ocean of rage. He makes an effort before returning to Alvina and Pilar to reign it in, to better represent the part of him that's a worried partner and friend, and more importantly to downplay the part of him that's already, several times now, played a bloody payback out in his mind, which is to say a brutal fantasy in which he takes that guy's skull to the curb until it cracks open like an egg. "Someone's going to watch the street tonight," he says. He picks up Luna, kisses her on the crown of her head, holds her in the crook of his elbow. He marvels at her. His perfect child, she feels so fragile. He wants to dismember anybody who even ever thought about hurting her, or her sister, or her mother. It scares him to think such savage thoughts, and yet also feels deeply satisfying, like he's touched the root of something. He swings his gaze back to Pilar. "If you're anxious... did you want to stay, we can have a message sent to Cassy?"

Alvina uses the time Hudson isn't in the room to console Pilar. She tells her that some man in a restaurant had tried to mug Hudson. She hates to lie...but there's no safe way for her to tell Pilar that Hudson is involved in drug making. Most of the time, Alvina doesn't want to think about what he does. In her mind, he just owns a strip club and now a nail salon and that's his job. It's easier for her to pretend it's legal and not dangerous. No one ever died from owning a nail salon, unless she imagined, they inhaled too many fumes. Silently, she prays to the gods that Pilar will understand if she ever finds out the truth. It doesn't feel fair; to not tell her when she'd just bloodied her own hands to save them. Alvina makes a note to try and find a way to tell her so that no one gets put in any more danger but...she doesn't think that's feasible. "You saved us..." She reminds Pilar, who Alvina thinks keeps looking at her hands like there's still some stain there. From what the bard can see there isn't. The lady of the house doesn't have time to cry her eyes out, as much as she wants too. She's too busy rubbing Pilar's back and trying to console her. The signs were all there; Pilar was having some sort of emotional flash back / trauma because of what happened. Alvina can only assume it's based on her kidnapped. That had been her own flashbacks, so it only makes sense. A type of victim PTSD. Harper squirms off her mom's lap and goes to plop down on Luna, who protests until she falls asleep because her sister is warm. Harper likewise falls asleep and they stay like this until Hudson comes back in to scoop up Luna. Harper immediately crawls to dad and swats at his pant leg. She hates the division of attention. "Yes, Pilar, please stay. This'll be the safest place tonight." If Alvina had been in Pilar's shoes, she'd want to rush home and hold her loved ones so she wouldn't be heartbroken if her friend departed. In the panic, Alvina didn't even have a chance to ask Pilar how her leg was doing. She'd walked up just fine as you please. It made Alvina smile on the porch, before the madness had started.

Pilar held Alvina as Hudson went about his task of getting everyone the hell out of his house. This was so backwards, she should have been consoling Alvina. She was the one with a cut on her throat and chemicals in her bloodstream. The offer to stay was much appreciated. "Thank you. I... I think I would like to stay. I, I'll try not to be a bother..."

"You're not a bother, we've a guest room and you'll be the first person officially using it..." Hudson attempts a weak smile with that offer of hospitality. He shifts Luna, swings a glance at the window to see if the guards are still loitering in the yard. They're dispersing, slowly but surely. He needs to be out of the house. "Why don't you guys make yourselves comfortable, I'm going to ... pick up some dinner real fast. OK?" He deposits Luna in some sort of mesh baby cage ("playpen"), bends over the couch to kiss Alvina on the side of the head, and grabs his keys from an end table. He picks up take out, more than is necessary really but he's halfway paying attention and doesn't want to get it wrong. Awkward: he has forgotten, in the mad rush of events, that Pilar is a vampire. Going out helps some, but what he wants to do is be a wolf, and there's no polite way to kick Pilar out after this turn of events (indeed the polite thing to do is to house her until she's comfortable going home). Dinner passes, somewhat stiltedly. There's a strange, false cheerfulness that fails to actually buoy the mood. The girls are fussier than usual, of course they would pick up on the strangeness, it takes ages to put them down to bed. Of course you can't really argue in front of children, much less a friend of the family, but Hudson can still feel the anger beginning to vibrate off of Alvina, like a harp string that's been plucked. Alone in the nursery, without Pilar, they don't talk. Now that she's getting her bearings, some distance between what had happened, he knows there'll be some sort of Conversation to follow. He dreads it. He feels like a husk of a man, consumed with his own anger he can't properly put down. Harper sleeps first. He leaves her to deal with Luna and checks on Pilar in the guest room. "If you want to shower tomorrow morning," he says, holding her a pile of towels. "You have everything?"

Alvina doesn't say much through dinner. She's forcing all her effort into simply existing. She can't be expected to be a mother, a decent friend, a giving wife and a normal person following the reignition of her terrible fear of being kidnapped / murdered. Hudson had reassured her over and over again since he started in this business that it was safe and everything was taken care of. It would never leak back to her and the children. She didn't even care about herself, she thinks, pushing the take out around on her plate with disinterest. It's the girls. They were in danger, even if they don't know it. And now Pilar! She'd been roped in to the mess just for standing by. Once they are in the nursery, turning down the cribs for bed time, Alvina is fuming. Livid. Beyond words. If she'd had a chance to talk it out with Hudson now, they'd both just implode and destroy the house, leaving Pilar the sole surviving adult to care for their superhero children who wouldn't even wake up from the blast. It's these dumb thoughts that are swirling through her head when Hudson comes back to the bedroom, without the towel he'd taken to Pilar. She'd wanted to go say goodnight to the vampire but she's just emotionally drained. Alvina hates herself for it, thinks it's selfish of her...but she knows if she doesn't sleep their daughters don't eat. Her stress bled into them and the last thing their family needs is more tension and hostility. Of course they can't have the Conversation now. Pilar is in the other room. What if Hudson werewolf hulks out and breaks through their new dry wall? What if the girls wake up because of the screaming? Alvina imagines there will be significant amounts of screaming. When Hudson walks in, she is already rolled over in bed, pretending to be asleep as far to her side of the bed as possible so they don't touch. The time for celebrating the fact they survived is over. Now comes the aftermath.

In the morning, Alvina wakes up to find Hudson not in bed. The shower isn't running yet and nothing is cooking. How can it be? They haven't even properly unpacked everything. Alvina tiptoes into the nursery to find the girls fast asleep. She constructs a couple bottles in the kitchen and tries to make toast. It burns. The bard stares at the plate, still boiling over with ten shades of feelings she can't quite articulate and cries onto the toast. Hopefully her motherly tears will save them all. Probably they won't do anything but make the bread soggy and burnt.

Pilar accepted the dinner graciously. She'd already fed, so she was good on that front. At least she could still eat solid food, even as a vampire. And it was tasty! Still, she was quiet and despondent through the meal. She thanked them for letting her stay the night and retired to the room. There, she composed a letter for Cassy, telling her what had happened and that she would be home the next day. After that was sent off, she sat on the bed and pulled out her guitar. Maybe playing would help soothe her. Well, it was less "playing" and more practicing. She could do a couple chords, but that was about it. She attempted to play an old lullaby, but she kept hitting wrong notes and generally making a lot of unpleasant noise. She put the guitar away and lied down. When Hudson arrived, she forced herself up and took the towel gratefully. She put it aside once he was gone and went back to the bed, curling up under the covers to sleep.

Her rest was anything but restful. Nightmares plagued her sleeping mind, and she woke up several times throughout the night. Once, she even got up to check the babies. They were fine. She checked the couple's room. They were fine. She checked the perimeter of the house. Everything was fine. She went back to bed and lied awake the rest of the night. In the wee hours, she heard someone get up. She didn't check to see who it was. When she heard a second person moving around, she decided it was time to get up. She found Alvina in the kitchen, sobbing into burnt toast, and quietly walked over to her. She wrapped her arms around the bard's shoulders and hugged her tight. "I'm so sorry, Alvina..."

Hudson knows Alvina's furious with him but perversely tries to cuddle her in the bed anyway. It's the sort of tactic that either achieves nothing (the woman remains angry) or it melts the weaker of resolves and (sometimes) leads to more productive ways to dissolve tension. Pretty clear how it played out here. Like Pilar, he can't sleep, he's too plagued by violence. He goes through the bedside table and, for the first time in many months, doses himself with Lycanthria, a product of Valrae's invention that had helped him control his rage when he was a newer werewolf. It helps in that it knocks him unconscious for a time. He's burned it all off several hours later, close to morning. And he wakes with the feeling that he's got to go out. The itch to go wolf is becoming debilitating, and possibly unsafe. He leaves a note for Alvina on the end table. Like Pilar, he slinks around the perimeter of the house. He shouldn't have - he's not altogether got it under control when he's gone wolf, but he's like a drunk man trying to drive right now, he only knows what he wants to do not whether it's a great idea. What little grasp on self control he has falters as he ranges further away, into the forest. He forgets language there, and, for a time, that he's a person at all.

He's back in the early morning, and, having unlocked the door with great stealth, is surprised to encounter Alvina and Pilar in the kitchen. He'd taken his shoes off, at least, Alvina's trained him to behave in a reasonably civilized manner, but his clothes are dirty. He'd counted on showering and changing before having to play host or daddy or even boyfriend. Alvina is crying, Pilar has put her arms around her. He watches this for a second and then drops his keys in the basket on the end table, intentionally making a sound to attract their attention. "I was out. I had a look around. It's fine," he says, aware of how rough around the edges he looks and feeling the need to explain his excursion in a way that doesn't sound like he literally had to get out before he became a danger to everyone in his way. It smells like burned toast here. Considering the situation, he rakes a hand along his jawline. "I can go back out and pick up breakfast," he suggests, realizing as he's said the words that he feels like an intruder in his own home.

Alvina tries to hide her face as soon as she hears Pilar shifting around the next morning. Her eyes are red and puffy, a plastic smile tugs on her lips but Pilar saw straight through her. Now it's Pilar who is comforting her, when they both should be comforted by the werewolf who can't seem too straight this morning or last night due to anger related issues. If Alvina had taken the time to think, she'd have understood. Even women like her do not have a wellspring of patience for enduring dangerous situations. Hudson made her quit being the Frostmaw Blacksmith (okay he didn't MAKE her but insisted she didn't work at the fort because it was too dangerous). How can he even say that or get upset when his line of business was bringing thugs in left and right? He'd had to quit. Find a legit job that didn't endanger their friends. This is what she's thinking when Hudson gruffly tracks mud into the mud room. Its call that for a reason, why is she even mad? "You have nothing to be sorry for!" Alvina reassures her. I'm the one who should be sorry Pilar. You came to visit us and then this happened," A sniffle, while she moves to throw the burnt toast away. It's cooled to the point of not igniting the garbage bin. It clatters to the bottom like a brick, starting the chain reaction that always leads to baby crying. At first it's just a soft whimper but Alvina can feel the wave of implosion rise and fall with this additional stressor. She loves her daughters, but damn. Can't a woman grieve her almost death? The thin knife cut on her neck has scabbed cleanly. Looks more like a wrinkle in the shadow of her chin, in the right light. It makes her look older, more world weary. She's carrying all that weight in her face and shoulders.

Alvina hugs Pilar as she comes back from the waste basket. Just holds her. Silently apologizing a thousand times over for all the things she couldn't tell her. She continues to lie and tell herself it's to keep everyone safe but that's not entirely true. It's also so she doesn't have to face the embarrassment of admitting the father of your children is in some deep mafia business because he couldn't get a normal steady job and work like everyone else. Well, he could. He had before. But he wanted more money, for the girls he said, and for Alvina. The bard just wanted safe children. A safe home. All this money hadn't been able to protect them from that. Had in fact caused it. "We shouldn't eat take out twice in a row..." Her tone is low, the way parents address each other in front of Children or Guests when fighting. "I'll cook something; just give me a minute to warm up some bottles for the girls. Pilar, take a seat Hun. We'll eat before you go. It's the least we can do. I don't know what we would have done without you there." This last statement is said while she glares at Hudson, all the undertones of 'you should have been here and done something instead of making this girl MURDER some goon on your behalf. You better buy her the nicest apology present; do something good with all that blood money.' Alvina grabs the bottles from the ice box and starts off to the nursery. The piecing cry of the babies’ hits a pitch as the door opens, muting when she closes it behind her.

Pilar shook her heaf at Alvina's apology. "You have nothing to be sorry for either." She winced as the babies started wailing, but ignored it in favor of holding Alvina. The kids could wait, just a little longer. Hudson was glanced at as he came in. Pilar could sense the tension in the air, but chalked it up to nerves from the day before. There was no reason for her hosts to be fighting, no reason to suspect they were (or rather, that Hudson was) into some shady stuff. At the offer of more food, she said, "Thank you... I'll help. I insist." After Alvina left, she looked at Hudson. He looked a mess... What had he really been doing out there? "Um... I'm sorry. I... I should have stopped him before he got to her... Should have chased them off, or stopped the other man... I..." She sighed. "I'm glad I was here, though... I'm glad I was able to help. Even if I..." She looked at her hands and balled them into fists. "It's... not the first time I've killed... or helped to kill, a bad person. But it... I hope I never get used to it, you know?" She looked back up at Hudson. "I... Do you need to talk? I'm sorry, I'm rambling about myself. You and Alvina were the ones wronged."

"No takeout then," says Hudson, in the false note of cooperation. He's just trying to be helpful, apparently now she's going to fight him on everything. He would offer to make something but Alvina already has, and appears to be martyring herself by also volunteering to take care of their children. He catches the look she sends his way and reacts by pretending he hadn't noticed. He smiles grimly at Pilar, in the manner of all new dads who tacitly acknowledge the difficulties that children create. She is diffusing the tension by making conversation, he appreciates her right now. What's seriously with women and apologizing for everything under the sun, though. He sighs at her, goes into the cupboards to start making coffee. "You don't need to apologize for anything, Pilar, I'm so grateful you were there," he says evenly. He starts the water on the stove, because this cruel world does not have coffee machines and he must do it all the old fashioned way. Fortunately the use of magic does speed the process up somewhat, the water heats faster than it normally would. "Sometimes good people have to do bad things, doesn't mean they're bad people," he says, carefully, glancing at her. "I don't need to talk, thank you, though. It's hard, being a werewolf and this sort of thing happening, that's why I was out." He feels the need to explain what must appear to be unusual behavior. He gestures at his muddied clothes. "I got wolf needs." He leans back against the counter, considering Pilar. "Seriously thank you for being there. You're a hero. I want to do something to thank you, I don't know where to begin but you know, if there's anything you ever need, Pilar..." He reaches for the hot water, begins to pour it into the press over the grounds. "Just say the word."

Alvina stays in the nursery longer than she needs to. She’s trying to get Luna to take the bottle but she refuses. Harper, for once, takes her without complaint and falls asleep shortly after being burped and put back in her crib. Luna whimpers for unseen reasons. Alvina tries to talk to her, but it’s a no go. This kid isn’t eating, wants to be held and only to be held. Does she have a fever? No…she looks fine too. Maybe it was something werewolf related, should she ask Hudson? Decidedly not. Luna eventually eats, and Alvina eventually surfaces with two empty bottles to start breakfast. Whatever Hudson and Pilar are talking about, she excuses herself from the conversation and moves around them in the kitchen. Pilar had offered to help but Alvina asks her to only sit and enjoy some coffee. She looks tired. They all do. It’s not a complicated meal. It’s just eggs and toast (that isn’t burnt) with OJ and coffee. She even dug out some kind of jam like substance that you spread on toast. How quaint! There’s a small mountain of bacon, more than three adults need, placed on the table as well. The clink of silverware on plates eventually grates her nerves too much and she has to clear her plate without eating anything just to start moving around again. She dresses, puts Luna and Harper in the play pen (in the living room so they can be exposed to the day light like normal children) and makes idle chatter with Hudson and Pilar as she roams around, feeling very much like a ghost that haunts this home instead of one of it’s residents.

Pilar understood Hudson' plight. Sort of. She had to feed after all, and sometimes she didn't have a donated bottle on hand. She didn't like to hunt any more than she imagined he liked to wolf out. She blushed at being called a hero. She didn't feel like one. Weren't heroes brave? "Thank you... I'll keep the offer in mind." She would probably never call it in, though. Saving Alvina was its own reward. Speaking of, she had returned. Reluctantly, Pilar followed directions and sat. She ate breakfast slowly, being sure to compliment how good everything was. Alvina's lack of eating did not go unnoticed, and again, Pilar understood. She was only eating to be polite, herself. Around mid-morning, Pilar finally thought it was time for her to leave. She didn't want to leave Alvina or Hudson like this, but Cassy would worry. At the door, she hugged Alvina and Hudson in turn, and kissed the girls' heads. "Thank you for letting me stay. I'll come visit again soon." Picking up her guitar case, she headed down the walk, down the street, and out of sight.

Hudson is serving coffee by the time Alvina's back. They're the dining dead again. He tries to make small talk with Pilar, asking about Cassy, and what Cassy does for a living, turning the conversation on her rather than letting things float back to himself and Alvina and the events of yesterday afternoon. Alvina hardly participates in the conversation, he can feel her anger toward him. She's like a hot kettle that's giving off steam. He can hear her silent accusation as she excuses herself to attend to their daughters: I'm a good mother, only I make sure my children are happy and fed and safe. He wants to intercept her and make her look at him and tell her that he's going to handle the situation, Please Just Stop, but they've a guest, and since she's obviously moody it's on him to pretend that everything's normal and this is just how they operate. Why yes, Alvina always does everything related to the children, it's not unusual at all that she's left the table... She's in another room, and he calls for her, when Pilar announces that she's got to be leaving. He hugs the woman with feeling enough, after all he is grateful. He thanks her again, retrieves and angles Harper for Pilar to kiss the child goodbye too. And then she's gone, and it's just him and Alvina and their girls and the now very ice cold atmosphere of their home. Harper is wriggling, and he shifts her to the other side of his body, since what she probably wants is to look at her mother. Evidently their unease with each other is palpable to even the children. Hudson, for his part, is done to a point with pretending that everything's fine. "I'm going to take care of it," he says to Alvina, in a low tone. "Don't think for a second that these people can just come here and mess with my family, OK? They're done."

Alvina stands like a chilled monument to his continued failure to keep that very promise. "That's what you said when we left the restaurant." She hisses through her teeth, the uncomfortable wiggling of their daughters goes unnoticed. "You said they would be your best friends...and they could have killed all of us if Pilar didn't step in. What would I have done without her? And gods forbid if Marge was here instead of me! Every day you say this job isn't that dangerous, that you don't deal and you don't mess with people directly. Whoever is against you does work directly!" She is not screaming at him, but there's a lot of pressuring behind her hissing. "You made me quit my job in Frostmaw because it got too dangerous. I hope you understand that you'll be doing the same, effective immediately. I don't care what we have to do, but I'm done with this drug business Hudson. Done." She leans over to take Harper as if it's the most natural thing in the world but Harper doesn't want to go. The child makes a soft 'no' like sound without saying anything and Alvina continues to stare daggers into Hudson. It's not a discussion. He's quitting or there will be some kind of undisclosed consequence.

"Alvina," Hudson tries and fails to stop Alvina before she gets going with her criticism of how he's handled his unpleasant business with the local organized crime folks. Harper is making little quaking whimpers in his arms, but he can hardly tend to her, Alvina's still going, and it's not going to get any better. "I can't just quit, Alvina, I said I'd handle it," he hisses back at her immediately. She is trying to take Harper, who is shrinking away from her and hiding her face against his dirty shirt. "I can't just quit," he reiterates, after looking down at his daughter. "I'm too deep in it, OK, this is what I do now, whether you like it and whether I like it." Said with precision. He widens his eyes to look at her in a challenging manner, and then he sets his jaw and continues, "And you were more than happy to live the high life and spend the money while it was going good, Alvina, so I'd like a little faith right now that I can set us back on the right track and things will be fine again. I'll have someone watch the house until this stuff with these people is over. And it will be over."

Alvina turns around to stare at Hudson. "I was not content to live the high life. I told you as soon as I found out it was a drug ring and not a pharmacy company that I didn't like it. I wanted you to funnel money into rehab centers. I was perfectly happy just working for the Eyrie and living in our little house." Mostly true. "You told me it would be fine. Having a man die on our doorstep is not fine. This is just lie after lie after lie, Hudson I am so tired of fighting you on this. You have to leave this organized crime ring. There's no choice in this. If you don't, you will be crying over my dead body, promising your daughters everything will be fine. Do you not realize how close we came to being killed? To becoming a message in another restaurant? Doesn't that sink in? They would have put their scum bag hands on our daughters." Alvina clutches her hands in front of his face, just in case he doesn't get the visual right away.

"They weren't. Going. To kill. You," says Hudson, through his teeth. His head is pounding. Of course it is. He puts Harper down in her play pen, whereupon she commences making wailing sounds, her little face turning pink. Hudson ignores her, straightening to face Alvina. "They just wanted to snatch you for leverage. That's how these people work. You're not valuable dead. And now that they've messed it up, I'm going to go after them hard now. I will. Take care. Of the problem. And our family." He rakes a hand up his forearm, the skin is itching dreadfully, he doesn't care how it looks. "We're not negotiating this," he tells Alvina, as she opens her mouth to speak again. "I love you, and our girls, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that nobody ever touches any of you ever again." His hand cuts the air conclusively. "This fight is OVER."

Alvina looks at Hudson in complete disbelief. This was the tipping point? Not when they were openly approached in a restaurant not two blocks from their house but now? Now when Alvina had been knocked out and forced to relieve every traumatic kidnapping flashback that had ever existed. Last time she was in a mental hospital for a MONTH. What the hell did he think this was? An idle threat? "I'd hate to see what it's like when they get serious." She snarkily replied, "I'm sure sitting around to be someone's leverage is just lovely. Little couches, snacks, beds for the children. Just a mini vacation." He talking, she opens her mouth with some other smart retort but he cuts off her. Says the fight is over and he'll take care of it. "No." She says simply. "No. It's not over. What's over is you putting all of us in danger." Cryptic. He lets her continue, furrowing a brow and scratching hard at his forearms. "We're going to stay somewhere else for a while, while you get all this shit under control." She's not negotiating. She's telling him how this goes now and she's not backing down. This was the same Alvina that told him he could ship out or shape up during their last really nasty fight. "At least when I was working, only -I- was in danger. Everything single thing you are doing is putting Everyone of us in danger. How can you justify our daughters being kidnapped, held in chains somewhere like....like Desparrow's lackeys had me? Is it okay in your mind if it happens to your GIRLFRIEND but not your daughters? Can you think of something better that they might do to us because they won't be serving tea." Tea boils over in a steamy hiss, the word dripping off her lips, scolding hot. "I am packing a bag. I am taking the girls. You are going to get this under control and IF AND WHEN you are able to accomplish this foolhardy goal we will renegotiate the terms. You will not come near us, you will get your shit together Hudson Landon or I swear to the gods you will never see any of us ever again, do you hear me?" A pause, while she stares him down, now moving to put herself between him and the children in the play pen. They are both full on screaming now but the adults have bigger things to discuss. Alvina pushes her palms into the play pen and mumbles a few rushes verses to make them drowsy. Their volume lowers and the slump, sleepy and useless into the padded floor of the pen. "This fight is now OVER. And so are we."

Hudson's expression grows more stony by the second as Alvina hisses in his face about how she's done with this and going to leave him and take their children. His head feels like it's been cleaved in two. The screaming baby situation is not helping, and he refrains from talking to Alvina while she addresses it, out of respect for their children, as collateral damage to this argument. When she straightens to tell him it's done, he looks at her with such violence he's embarrassed to think about it later. His nostrils flare. Seconds bleed out between them. He tries to turn over the heft of her words in his mind, to feel their import. Something bad is happening, his mind is an angry hive. (But is she right about the danger...) He ranges away from her in the living room, picks up Harper's giraffe from the coffee table, and pitches it hard against the farthest wall. It emits a squeak (and leaves a mark!). That's not enough, he releases a stream of cursing and kicks the coffee table, twice, it sends shooting pain up his leg. Dissatisfied with even that, he picks it up and heaves it against the nearest bookcase, which of course then tips over, spewing books everywhere. Maybe he should talk instead of wrecking everything, more like maybe he should sequester himself, how he's still online and not unconscious is beyond him. A growl rises in his throat, and when he turns to look at Alvina it's the wolf's eyes looking at her. "Hear you loud and," ahem, "clear," he spits out the words and strides past her to the stairs. He ascends them to the second story, stopping once to punch a fist-sized hole through the wall about midway through. He slams their bedroom door so hard a nearby picture falls off the wall, the glass shattering.

Alvina shattered on the carpet, crying into her hands until her head throbs. The girls sleep. She packs all their bags and when Hudson emerges from the bedroom, all three women are gone.