RP:Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty

Part of the Through A Glass, Darkly Arc

Summary: Fresh off of yelling at Mayor Uma following his wife Alvina's arrest, Hudson pays a visit to Meri, the person whom Alvina had inadvertently Turned into a werewolf, the circumstances of which formed the basis of the charges against her. It takes a second for tensions to dissipate, but Meri confirms that neither she nor her friends were behind the predicament presently facing Alvina. This is frustrating to Hudson, whose family - and Alvina in particular - continues to be on the receiving end of strange attacks, confrontations, and now this, none of it traceable to any obvious aggressor. Hudson apologizes for going scorched earth on Meri when she and Khitti had tried to confront himself and Alvina. Meri agrees to help testify that she had consented to be made a werewolf in order to scuttle the charges against Alvina.

Meri's Art Gallery and Home, Cenril

It's still the day Alvina's been arrested. Hudson's next act after shouting at the Mayor is finding Meri. He goes to the Cenril address for the art gallery associated with her latest business endeavor. He heads there with only one of his men, Milo, who normally shadows his wife, in tow. Lest there be any confusion, he also keeps the day's paper under his arm, with the headline that reads, "Socialite Alvina Landon Arrested for Spreading Lycanthropy." Meri's probably already read it -- and no doubt expecting this visit. The door's unlocked, and there's a coffee cup with warm coffee in it, evidencing that someone is about, but Meri's nowhere to be seen. Likely in a back room somewhere. Hudson is disinclined to go looking and doesn't have the patience for it this second. "Meri!" bellows Hudson, throwing the paper down, headline up, on the reception table. "What are you doing in here?" he demands of Milo, who is loitering somewhat futilely nearby and has never seen his boss like this. "Don't let anyone in until I say."

"You got it, boss," Milo is tripping over his words.

Hudson doesn't watch him go. He paces like a chained animal in the foyer of the gallery. "Meri!" he shouts. "I need to talk to you!"

The words bounce dully around the place.

Hudson braces himself against the desk and grunts. "Meri!" he calls out again, dragging her name out. "They almost took her in front of my kids, you know." He grimaces and shakes his head slowly, remembering it. So, he'll just shout to himself until she surfaces. "I don't want to believe it was you, Meri, you know I could really use your help right now."

The gallery that Hudson enters is not a tiny one. Meri has opted to go with the industrial feel for this business venture and has purchased some warehouse property which has been spruced up to give the building more of an artsy feel. Typically Meri does not typically take her coffee in the foyer of the gallery, normally she'd lounge around in the privacy of the flat above them..but today was different. Today Meri stepped out to go run a quick errand but was greeted with a surprisingly headline in the newspapers. She knew that this meant she'd get a visit of some sort, the nature of this visit was questionable though. It's because Meri could not trust Hudson to handle this with any amount of chill (not that she entirely faults him for that either), that Meri had attempted to send word to the gal she typically uses as her babysitter. Would she be able to take Fleur out for the day? Meri is unsuccessful is procuring an answer before Hudson appears, which is why he is unable to find her immediately despite the signs that someone is present. It's usually frowned upon for a mom to leave their child unattended for extended periods of time, so she had stepped out of the room to check on her child. A child that was sleeping up until Hudson decided that hollering around the gallery was the best way to get Meri's attention. Fleur's cries can be heard from the flat above the gallery.

Meri emerges from said flat with a heavy frown on her lips, leaving Fleur in her crib. She's far from pleased with the fact that her child who was sleeping is now crying. Meri doesn't usually take the 'leave them to cry it out approach' with her daughter, but today she does. That tattooed woman might have some empathy for why Hudson is behaving the way he is, but that does not mean she is going to hide her annoyance and frustration with his actions at present. Her expression and tone of voice convey much about her thoughts on this scene, "I have no appreciation for this." She points to Milo, who Meri have met before and been fine with then, but now he is preventing people from entering, which could include the babysitter that Meri has attempted to summon at some point. "This is my frakkin' business. This is my damn home." That now contains a wailing child, and probably a stressed mother. "Things are tense enough between us, Hudson. If I barged into your home and attempted to put it in lock down, demanding answers and making accusations....Well, I think you would tolerate it far less than I am tolerating it right now." For now.

Given the layout of the warehouse, with the entrance of the establishment opening immediately to a catwalk that T's off in two directions, one direction leading to Hudson and the other leading to the flat where Meri's child currently is? Well Milo is somewhere in between them, and so Meri is not very inclined to go join Hudson. She opts to stand right in front of the door of her flat. This decision is made not out of fear of joining Hudson on the gallery floor, but out of a protective instinct if things go south.

"You shouldn't believe that I ratted Alvina out. You should be well aware that I would take a far more direct approach were I pissed off enough to want to send a message. Involving papers and jail though? So that you can turn around and report some of the crimes that I have done? We've both got enough history with one another than slinging dirt on the other is just not an avenue either of us would find a wise one to take. I'll help, but I would appreciate it if you would tone down your behavior."

Busted via crying baby. Hudson's gaze lifts to the ceiling. He straightens his posture and leans against the desk, listening to the sound of footfalls, waiting. At long last Meri surfaces, jabbing her finger at Milo and shouting at him. Well and good: now everyone's pissed. Hudson feels a frisson of rage bubble to the surface in response. Like a ping, really, he's been feeling those all day, ever since this morning. Maybe later in the far-off future he can reflect on how good his self-control's gotten.

His mind may be jumbled fury, but he's listening very carefully to what Meri's saying. This is why he'd come, to play lie detector in person. Meri's truth creates another little ping of rage, even if it's what he had expected. Even if it's the best-case scenario. It's not Meri: it's the situation. Hudson flexes and unflexes his fists, feeling the wolf snap its jaws inside of him. To be sure, he is still beside himself. Because it happened. Because he couldn't stop it from happening. Because he's lost control.

He can't just steam about it and skulk about on Meri's property indefinitely, though. Hudson grinds his teeth, growls low in his throat. "Milo!" he snarls. "Leave us, or whatever."

"Yes, boss." Milo much prefers accompanying Alvina. He dips his head politely to Meri -- he's caught in the crossfire presently -- and makes his way back toward Hudson. Milo's footsteps and Fleur's crying punctuate a short but tense pause.

"I'm just here with Milo, Meri, and he's leaving now," Hudson sounds like a man still getting a handle on himself. The subtext: he'd have brought more guys if he thought Meri had been the snitch. He doesn't blame her for staying put between himself and Fleur. He'd do the same. Parent instinct. "For the record, I believe you. I really need to talk to you, though, today, Meri. I won't make you do it around the baby. I get it. Let me know the where, you choose, I don't care."

Meri is silent but her gaze remains fixed hard on Hudson. When Milo makes his way closer to Hudson, so does Meri. She does not actually defend the stairway to fully approach the two men. “No. As long as you can keep it toned down then I really don’t care to send you off and have you come back just because Fleur is here.” She motions for the both of them to come up, to join her in the flat that she is making her way toward. “Come on up. Have a seat in the living room. Plenty of room.” On couches that are far less sketchy than anything Meri was offered during her visits in the Office. They are also a lovely shade of turquoise, these couches. Perhaps not the bougiest piece of furntiture Mr. Money Bags has seen, but it’s nothing to scoff at. The door is left open to show the sincerity of her invitation. By the time they make it inside, if they do not decline, Meri will have retrieved the fussy baby. The upside to this is by the time she makes it into her momma’s arms, she has calmed. And being placed on a blanket on the living room floor for some tummy time only seems to make her happier. Once everyone has found a spot in whatever couch or cushioned chair they prefer, “I do not know how much help I can offer outside of a testimony that what is being printed in the papers is nothing but fake news. There was not malicious spreading of lycanthropy for I asked for it.” She didn’t, but Meri has no issue lying. “Also, since when is Cenril no better than Larket? Witch hunt. Wolf hunt. Shameful.”

Hudson gestures in the direction from which the baby crying continues to emanate. "Yes, well, I'm sorry I upset the baby, I know firsthand how annoying that is," he says, punctuating the apology with the short, bitter laugh of frustration. He gestures that Milo go back up the stairs and then follows, the two finding themselves in Meri's rather cheerful living area. They are seated on the couches. Milo picks at a fraying hem on his shirt while Hudson seeks to ground himself in the room. He can smell the distant smell of baby powder. He can taste the salty tang of the Cenril air. Wooden floorboards are beneath his feet. She returns from the other room with Fleur, the crying baby who has evidently cheered right up and is deposited in the center of the room for her daily exercise. Milo exchanges an uncertain look with Hudson.

"She's fine," says Hudson, who interprets the look as a criticism of baby attendance in confidential criminal conspiracies. Fleur seems cheerful and utterly oblivious to the serious nature of this meeting. Cute kid. They're very portable and containable at this age. These ruminations on the life-altering nature of children take a pause as Meri begins to speak. Hudson lifts his gaze. He likes what Meri has to say and finds himself nodding slowly, relief permeating his entire being. It will be fine.

"Thank you." He releases the breath he doesn't realize he'd been holding. "That's exactly what I was hoping for," he says. He licks his lips. "That or, you say it wasn't a white wolf. I don't care." He pauses, his gaze dipping briefly to settle on Fleur. "You know," his brow furrows. He is talking at the baby, but he's really addressing Meri, "Hindsight is twenty twenty, Meri. I hope you don't blame Alvina at all, for our misunderstanding. That was on me. I hope you understand now why I did it, but nonetheless I am sorry." Since the dust up between himself, Alvina, Meri, and Khitti, an important event had happened: Meri had hatched. Perhaps it came with a slight shift in perspective, perhaps not. "And I had meant to approach you after we had left things. Obviously not under these circumstances."

Meri gives a shrug, it's not to rudely dismiss Hudson's apology for waking the baby...but more of a 'don't worry about it' shrug. The uncertain look that Milo gives Hudson does not escape Meri's attention. How could it when Hudson responds to it verbally? Meri smirks. "I mean it's not like we're planning on murdering someone in front of her...." But honestly, with Meri as the sole influencer in Fleur's life? She's probably not going to grow up a saint. At least there is hope with Hudson's children....because of Alvina.

Beyond the apology, Meri is not sure which issue to tackle first. The woman furrows her brows together and falls silent. For at least a minute, the only chatter coming from the Boyce side of things is from Fleur...and she's not really chatting, just babbling. "No, I don't have any issue with Alvina. In fact. I would say that it should be Alvina's call, but it's probably kind of hard to seek out her input on this matter right now." Fleur attempts to scoot her way off the blanket Meri has placed her on so that she can grab at Milo's shoelaces. Meri prevents this by snatching the kiddo up off the ground and pulling Fleur into her lap. "If she does not have any major objections to owning up to the story, that yes...she bit me, but at my own request? I would prefer to see it unfold that way. My concern with stating that the wolf was a different color, is that they might turn the hunt elsewhere." A pointed brow is lifted. "For example, what color is your wolf, Hudson? Should I go with that color?" She wouldn't, she's just trying to drive her point home.

"More concerning though, is how this came to be. I can count the number of people on one hand that know I was bitten by a white wolf." Meri holds up five fingers, putting them down as she names off the people. "Some chick named Meri. Callum. Lionel, maybe. I might not have really told him. Khitti. Aira." A beat. "And as for who might know that it is Alvina specifically?" Well now Meri is holding up two fingers. One is probably that Meri chick, because imagine that. The other is Khitti. "And you know it was neither of us." Well hopefully Hudson knows, or else Meri is bound to get angry again, this time in defense of her sister. "Got any ideas?"

Milo, not having children at home and therefore not resigned to their infiltrating and casually messing up anything within reach, moves his feet away. Luckily Meri is there to rescue him. Fleur doesn't seem all that put out being denied, lucky for Meri. It could have very easily gone another way, Hudson knows all too well.

Hudson can see Meri's point, and holds up a hand to stop her with where she's going. "You're right, I guess law enforcement might be motivated to make a point, even though I pay them." He snorts, still salty about that. "And for the record, I'm more of a reddish brown. Milo's black though."

Milo gestures at his chest. "I got a white patch about here, actually. It's shaped like a pentagon."

"Thank you, for sharing, Milo," says Hudson, in a certain tone. Taking the hint, Milo slumps back comfortably into his side of the couch.

Hudson considers Meri's itemized list of people 'in the know.' He is not particularly fond of Khitti, if their last interaction was any indication, but he doesn't think she snitched either. "Well, I'm pretty sure it's someone outside of that group, but I don't know who," he responds. "For one, it just isn't anybody in that circle's MO. Especially because it's Alvina, people have their views about me, but my wife is, you know, a very kind and caring person, which makes what happened all the more heartbreaking, frankly." This is as close as he'd like to get to admitting that the incident happened (which it did). "For two, the rumor's sort of been on the street in the shadows for a while now. Probably," he grimaces, "at least in part due to me causing a manhunt before I knew it was you. Anyway, I know people were talking because Eleanor was trying to intimidate Alvina about it, but she still seemed sketchy on the details." Hudson rubs his face. "But Eleanor is same as you and me ... she's not going to do a dirty thing and go informant. I have a bad feeling ... there's been a lot of weird stuff and poking around with me and Alvina of late that doesn't trace back to organized crime, that I can tell, and I don't think it's coincidental. Like there's this, which I appreciate your help cleaning up, and like stopping her in the street to ask her for a comment on me and Valrae. There was also some weird fake summons to take the kids away, and a really amateur homemade bomb. It's all on a certain level, you know?"

Meri does not dwell on the obvious salt that Hudson is exuding over his paid law enforcement going rogue on him and arresting his wife. Part of the reason that she does not dwell too much on this statement is because of Milo's commentary. The blonde's gaze slowly shifts from Hudson to the other male present, brow lifting. She has no words, thankfully Hudson does. Red lips are pressed together and brows furrow together in thought, trying to process the details that Hudson is throwing at her. Meri's not aware of enough to really offer up any brilliant insights of her own. All she can manage to muster up is, "Well, you guys have really pissed someone off then...The sort of slander and tactics we used for Sterling. Minus the homemade bomb. But all the other dirt?" Mer gives a slight shake of her head, for what a mess the Landon's were in and what solution did they have at their disposal? Nothing permanent at the moment, just an idea for how to perhaps get Alvina a 'get out of jail free' card. "Well. Just let me know what you need me to do? When you need me to do it? Do you just want me to waltz into office of our resident law enforcement agents and say they've got it all wrong?" Meri points to the paper that is...well it's not -exactly- slander...since it did happen, but ..."Getting them to understand might not be enough to clear her in the eyes of the public."

Hudson rubs his face thoughtfully as Meri draws the obvious parallel to the way they'd sandbagged Mayor Uma's former rival, Sterling Townsend. Technically, Sterling had been the rival of her husband, Fitz Johnson, but Fitz had died in the horrible election night attack by the evil warlord Kahran. "Yeah, it's uh..." his statement never gets finished. He realizes that he hadn't thought about Sterling Townsend in a long time. The wheels are visibly turning inside his head, so to speak. He squints at Meri, wondering if she can see what he couldn't, simply because she wasn't at the epicenter. "You know, I forgot about good old Sterling, I wonder what he's up to these days," says Hudson, his tone suggesting that perhaps Sterling Townsend might be receiving a visit sometime soon.

Milo can take a hint but has a bit of the captain obvious in him. "Boss, I can go find out," he offers.

"Yep," agrees Hudson, his attention returning to Meri. She's right about the complexity of the issue. Informed consent and the beloved nature of his wife aside, some people of a certain political persuasion had a negative view werewolves, just like they had a negative view about witches. It wasn't that long ago that Desparrow had terrorized the city, that Larket had burned Valrae at the stake and accused witches of plotting the city's downfall. Celebrate diversity all Mayor Uma might, the harms caused by the view caused a prejudice against the many. And it wasn't contained to Larket.

And really: ...were they completely wrong? After all, the city was still very much in thrall to werewolves and magic users. If you asked Hudson, he'd say that Cenril's criminal overlords have the citizens' best interests at heart, that they've created order out of chaos, etc., but that's not how some people see it. Maybe that's not how Sterling Townsend sees it.

"Let's see," Hudson tries to mull over the next logical course of action. "There's a bail hearing later this week. Hopefully they let her out with an ankle bracelet, or whatever. I saw Uma before I came here, she fired whomever at the guard gave the order. So," he gestures helplessly. "If we were worried about things not seeming like collusion, I think probably .. it's a bit late for that. Anyway, I think once Alvina is out we can all three go give a statement to whomever is replacing the guy. And hopefully the prosecution gets dropped." He licks his lips, considering the paper. "You know, usually the press doesn't print stuff that we don't like," he continues, his brow furrowing. "It's these agitators, I guess. I swear to the gods the stuff spread from Larket, too. This isn't Cenril at all, this anti-witch, anti-wolf stuff."

Meri had not really given much thought to Sterling being the actual culprit behind Hudson's recent troubles. It was just an off the cuff observation. Hudson's reaction has Meri lifting a brow. Evidently he had not been putting much thought into Sterling either, which could very well have been a mistake on his part. Milo's offer to go find him is encouraged with a nod. Figuring out what he might be up to, if anything, was probably a good plan of action. "Yeah, if you guys haven't paid him a visit in awhile, well...I'm sure he's awful mad about his loss."

Fleur has been a pretty well behaved child up until this point, initial crying fit aside. That's not going to last. See, Fleur was crying when Hudson first awoke because she was startled out of his nap, which means she has not slept nearly long enough. She's really just a ticking time bomb. One who has already been denied Milo's shoelaces. So what does she want now? Oh she just wants to check out her mother's hair, and attempts to accomplish this by taking a fistful of it within her grasp. Which Meri of course denies. Another fit ensues, and Fleur has definitely found her lungs at an early age. Meri cringes and looses a sigh, half tempted to just let Fleur pull and yank upon her hair just to make sure stop. Yet she knows this is not what parents are supposed to do.

A look is cast toward Hudson, "Well just send me word when you guys are ready, I'll show up wherever you need me to show up." Hopefully her attempts will help clear Alvina's name. "But if you don't mind? I am going to see if I can't convince her to go back to sleep." Spoiler: Fleur will not be going back to sleep. Meri is not that lucky.

Hudson knows a little something about irritable babies that need either food or sleep, and he can see this episode happening in slow motion. The reach for a fistful of hair, the inevitable denial, the pinched expression yielding to the toothless maw stretched wide, the screeching defeat ...

"Magic boob or nap?" guesses Hudson, immediately inspiring a strange look from Milo, who has physically recoiled from the piercing sound emitted from Fleur on a seemingly and rather impressively continuous basis.

"How the-"

"What, you think she just got Bingo? Come on, man, it's not that complicated." Hudson spares Meri a knowing grin. Nap it is: he was right. "Yeah, we'll get out of your hair. You'll hear from us soon. Thank you for accepting the meeting, really, thank you. I apologize for my behavior." There's warmth and relief in his tone. No doubt about it, it had been very far from ideal that Alvina had been arrested, but now he feels considerably calmed by Meri's agreeing to help. How much can change in the course of several hours. He rises, Milo following course. "Good luck with her," are his parting words.