White Rock Lake
A reservoir, White Rock Lake covers 1,254 acres and was once used for a portion of Dallas' drinking water supply. Now that it's use as a water source has been supplanted, the area has become one of the favored recreational locations in the city. The forested shoreline is dotted with numerous small cabins, fishing piers, and sailboat docks.
The lake is surrounded by White Rock Lake Park, which is home to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. Running through the park is a 9 mile trail designed for hiking, running or cycling.
Though swimming was banned here back in the '50's, it is still a popular location for area teens who generally enjoy the more deserted areas, using the beautiful backdrop as a makeout spot.
With school out the lake has become a hangout for high schoolers and college kids — and partiers alike. There are currently about four or five bonfires raging, each spaced apart from each other. Moderate to large groups of people are gathering around them. There's alcohol a plenty and different music blares from around each area — rap, rock, pop, etcetera. Allison can be found sitting in a plastic lawn chair near one of the bonfires, gnawing on a shishkabob that's just come off a grill. The party she's come with isn't that large and their voices can be easily picked out in their general area. The woman luckily hasn't gone wrong in her choice of clothing today; red tank top, black jeans, black boots. Any other day her clothing choices might have blinded the rest of the party goers.
Born here, but only back in town a short time, Jesse is out of touch with the regulars. He's not here with any particular group, he's just… here. Currently he's carved himself out a space near the water's edge and is passing the time skipping rocks across its surface. The small cooler he has nearby is filled with rootbeer rather than the real deal. He bends to pick up a rock and stops about half way there to press one hand to his forehead above his right eye. Just a twinge, a flash of a face, but it's a face he's seen many many times in his mind's eye through the years. The little twinge has him straightening and turning to look… look and look some more, as he has often in the past, for that familiar, yet unknown face. The darkness coupled with the crowds makes spotting any one person difficult, but give the boy an A for effort, he's trying.
He headn't intended to find a party, in fact if he'd known it was here Michael would likely have gone to one of the other parks, but he's here now, and to make it even harder for him to avoid he's bumped into a young man who seems to have decided it's his place to greet new arrivals, so with a beer thrust into his hands and more than a few overly cheerful words Michael's made a part of the group. He considers just leaving, but since no one seems to have pointed out that he's old much older than the rest of the crowd (how true that is none of the guests are likely to know) Michaels decided to mingle. It might actually be a new experience for the ancient vampire, there are few enough of them after all. He does however give a disapproving glance towards the speakers, the rap especially doesn't sit well with Michael.
If something is even the slightest bit afoot, Allison doesn't seem to notice. She has a veggie & beef mixed skewer in her hand and life is mostly A-OK. The lone figure in the short distance with the cooler gives her pause, and when one of her friends juts a beer into an older gentleman's hand, she stands up and makes her way over to her rather inebriated pal. "You had enough to drink yet tonight?" She asks him. When he nods his ascent and starts to look a little green around the gills, she starts to steer her friend off toward where Jesse is. She glances to Michael somewhat apologetically in the meantime. "I'm sorry, mister. You know how it gets when…there's alcohol involved." Allison too isn't without the smell of alcohol on her breath, though it's nowhere near as strong as it is with Smitty there. She leads her friend over to the edge of the lake wherein he becomes quite sick. Realizing that this is probably awkward for the lone figure with the cooler, Allison clears her throat and speaks up loudly: "Nice night, eh?"
Son of a bitch, there she is. Jesse's gaze falls on the young woman in the red tank top when she speaks. His expression of Eureka! is easy to read, but he remains frozen in place uncertain what to do with her now that she's actually right there in the flesh. So man times he's seen her and the horrible thing that happened to her. He doesn't, however, have much time consider his options before he's getting hit by much more than just a twinge. "Uh.." is all he manages to get out in response to Allison before he takes a staggering step backwards. He presses the heel of his palm to the right side of his forehead again. He manages to stay on his feet, but barely. "Son of a bitch," he mutters the previously though words under his breath, his voice strained. Blood, metallic and sweet in the air, trickles from his nose. He wipes it away on the back of one hand when the 'spell' passes. His gaze falls on Michael, his eyes narrow slightly. Barely able to still stand on his own two feet, he takes a staggering step and then one more to insert himself between the girl and this mysterious stranger that just triggered one mother of a migraine in the poor clairvoyant.
Michael's not really making much effort to hide what he is, it's not like he can think of any reason to feel threatened by the group of youths, yet he's not shouting it either. The words from Allison meet with a wide grin and a shake of the head. "No reason to apologise, it's not often I get given a free beer and invited to join a random party." He does however take the first chance he sees to put down the beer, he doesn't drink after all. He then watches as Jesse has his attack of clairvoyance. He doesn't recognise it for what it is, but he does recognise the scent of blood on the air, if he were younger or less controlled he'd likely be having a hard time with that. Instead however he steps towards Jesse with the look of concern that so easily fits the role he's been playing since coming to Dallas. "Are you ok? That looks pretty nasty… headaches with nosebleeds are generally a good reason to see a doctor."
Allison's friend stumbles off to go get his second wind. Which means opening another brewsky. She's left alone staring confusedly and worriedly between Michael and Jesse, first moving over to Jesse. She keeps her distance since he is after all a stranger. The sight of blood makes Allison pale a little bit before she takes in a deep breath. "Are you alright? Do you need me to call someone for you or…?" Her question trails off as Michael approaches and poses a few more questions in the same vein to Jesse. She wrings her hands on the belt loop holes of her jeans as she watches Jesse, a corner of her lip bitten with her canine tooth.
He's learned through the years not to just start blabbing about what he's seen, so Jesse tries to cover it up with a quick, "I'm fine." He does, however, do his best to keep himself between Allison and Michael. What he saw, it confused him along with leaving him feeling a little like his brains are leaking from his ears. He's not taking any chances. Maybe later he'll consider why he was so quick to jump to the defense and protection of a complete stranger, pretty girl or not. The truth of the matter is that he looks anything but fine. The blood trickling from his nose has come to a stop, but he's still a little green around the gills and trembling. "And you are?" he asks, pointedly and directly, of Michael. His gaze flickers quickly to his cooler, almost as if he's calculating the odds, figuring out how fast he can get to it and something inside it.
There's a smile as Michael studies Jesse. "I'll take it that your poor health's reason for bad manners. You should have begun by introducing yourself… then I'd have told you that I'm Michael Isonzo." He nods first to Allison and then to Jesse. "I'm going to take a guess that you've noticed that I don't quite fit in here." He notices the glance to the cooler and smiles shaking his head a little. "I wouldn't try it kid, I can promise you; you're not quick enough, and I don't want any trouble."
The protection vibe is one that Allison definitely gleans from Jesse. She doesn't profess to understand it and she certainly feels strange about her next actions. Al moves a little closer to the bleeding man and furrows her brows somewhat. Her arms come to wrap around her abdomen. Yet, Allison still manages to laugh politely at Michael's quip about him not fitting in here. "Well, the thought had occured to me, but living in Dallas you see plenty stranger, mister. Err, Mister Isonzo." Whether or not it's dawned on Allison that the man is a vampire is debatable — but she does know that he's an elder and she should be respectful to him! Michael's last comment about not trying anything makes her brows furrow even more. "Err…" She manages to say.
"Yeah, I noticed," Jesse mutters, still wary, still on guard and still determined to play the tough guy. "I wouldn't underestimate my ability to improvise, right?" he offers. He spares a glance for Allison and makes with his 'instistent face'. "Could you maybe grab me beer?" He's obviously trying to put distance between her and Michael and he doesn't let his attention stray from the latter for longer than a second. If the man is what Jesse thinks and if the man's as OLD as Jesse 'saw', he has to be dangerous, right? Notice, the's still being a rude little bastich and has not offered his name! Kids these days!
Michael nods his smile still not slipping, he's enjoying this, or at the very least he's doing a good job of seeming to. "Kid, if I wanted trouble do you really think I'd have given you time to stop me?" He shrugs a shoulder. "I was just taking a walk, it was pure chance I ended up here." He flashes a wide cheerful grin. "As for improvising, you don't get to my age without being pretty good at improvising. Like I said there's no need; I'm not looking for trouble." He turns away from the pair with a sigh, he finds somewhere to sit down, looking for all the world as though he's not a care. "Ask yourself this, why'd I want trouble here when I can go to a bar and find what I'm after so much easier?"
Of course the insistant face doesn't sit too well with Allison. She frowns at the stranger before eventually sighing. The last thing they need is another argument cropping up on the horizon of trouble. "Fine, yeah. Be back in a jiff!" Allison says sa she heads off, looking over her shoulder briefly.
"Come into my parlor, isn't that how it begins?" Jesse asks of Michael once Allison is safely over THERE and not standing right here. Even when the ancient vampire settles in, Jesse doesn't relax… much. He keeps himself poised and ready in such a way that makes it clear that he wouldn't go down without a fight. Have to give him kudos for the size of his nads, or maybe for the depths of his stupidity? He looks around at the drunkenness around him and asks, "How's this any different than a bar. And look.. how convenient, a big body of water for body disposal, right?" His bravado, however, is slipping a little in the face of Michael seeming so normal. After the initial brain assault, the man doesn't /seem/ incredibly creepy or monstrous.
Laughing Michael studies Jesse over his shoulder for a moment. "Is that how we do it? Eat and get rid of the bodies?" He shakes his head with a sigh. "If we did that people wouldn't have learnt about us centuries ago. No. I don't kill, never saw the point in killing. See look at it this way kid, if I were looking to feed I'd take a /little/ from a few people here, and leave them all thinking they'd had a great night." He shrugs. "Then if in a month if I want I can eat again… lets take out the fact that I /like/ people. It's not smart, it's all about /renewable/ resources… and this isn't as good as a bar, I go to the right bar I've got people lining up to let me take a bite."
Something Michael says has Jesse bristling just a little more when he thought maybe he could let his guard down just a moment ago. He glances again at the cooler, a quickie again, weighing his options. "Yeah, you like people enough to mess with their heads," he offers in a tone that's laced with just the smallest edge of disgust. "We're not cattle," he continues. "Or toys here for your entertainment." He shoves one hand into the pocket of the jacket he's wearing despite the heat and keeps it there. Rather makes a person, alive or undead, wonder what's in that there pocket. As his emotions roll up and down, his limited control over his 'abilities' slips. He presses his free hand to his head again and squints as if the lights were too bright even this late in the evening. All he really wants to do is close his eyes against it, but he stubbornly refuses to do so. "Fuck, how /old/ are you?" he can't help but to ask when the images of the passing centuries bombard him once more. At least there's no bleeding this time.
Shrugging Michael sighs. "It's about survival kid. Survival and nature, I either kill you, trick your or find a way to live with you. The first I avoid where possible, which means the second's necessary, I take a few moments of your life and a little of your blood so that I might live, I fail to see how that really makes me a monster… as opposed to someone who'd seek to kill me just for being what I am." He seems to wave away the last question. "I'm over fourteen hundred years old kid." Suddenly he's standing with a foot resting on the top of the much looked at cooler, it happens far too fast for a human to follow. "If I meant to hurt you or anyone here I'd have done it before you could see me boy. And if I see you remove anything I don't like from that pocket… I can't be sure I'd have much patience left."
It's only then that Allison reemerges with a beer for Jesse, as requested. She has mercifully missed all of the prior conversation as she offers Jesse his beer. "We're just about out. I had to really pry them away from Smitty… God knows the man loves a drink." She lets out a quiet sigh before she moves a little closer to Jesse, quirking her brows between the two men. "So, is everyone squared away then? You two stop hissin' at each other like a couple of alley cats in heat?" Allison asks with an amused tone before she reaches into her pocket and produces a napkin for Jesse. "Managed to get that for you too, in case you wanted to clean up your face a bit. You've got a spot right under your nose."
"If I wanted to kill you just because you are what you are, you'd be dead already." Give the boy another A for the size of his nads, he seems like he means that and believes it. To his credit, he doesn't flinch when Michael is suddenly at point B when he was at point A only a blink ago. That shows something, he's not unfamiliar with vampires or what they're capable of. In fact it might lend to the notion that he's more than just a little familiar with it all. "There's nothing in the cooler," he points out as he removes his hand from his pocket ever so slowly to reveal the butt end of the high caliber side arm he had tucked in it. "Old or not, I know that a direct head shot will slow you down a little." The announcement is offered matter of fact, not at all threatening. "…and I got you to move far enough from me that I might have a chance of getting it out and fired before you see it." Again, matter of fact, proving a little point. "Just don't fuck with the girl and we're…" and there she is! As if on cue. His hand leaves the gun behind in his pocket and he takes the beer with it. "Thanks," he offers up. "All square, yeah," he replies as he, once again, puts himself between Michael and Allison. He waves off the napkin and just wipes with the back of his hand. "It's the dry weather here," he explains apologetically.
Nodding Michael grins his expression still amused. "True, but you're presuming I'm not fast enough to dodge bullets. If you're a hunter you've never dealt with anything my age." He shrugs "I advise you forget your notions of doing more than defending yourself against my kind. You may think yourself good, you may even be good, but you're in no position to threaten me boy." He chuckles as he looks at Jesse. "Fortunately for you I just consider your petty opinions beneath me." He turns his attention to Allison offering the slightest bow of his head. "I think I'll say good evening, I can only do so much to talk sense into fools."
"Mmmmkaaaaay," is Allison's response to what she's walked into. She quirks a brow as Jesse once again steps between she and Michael, rolling her eyes before she begrudgingly allows this protection. To Michael, she nods a little bit. "Yeah, seems for the best, I'd say. Tensions seem to be running a little high." With that, she puts her hand on Jesse's arm — someone is clearly going to get a stern talking-to once Michael be-bops off. "Nice to meet you, mister. Safe travels." The girl waves at Michael while spinning on Jesse to give him a slightly 'WTF' look.
"No, it would be a fool that let his guard down around someone that's faster, stronger, and thinks of him as food," Jesse points out to the contrary. "That would be a little like going into a lion's den unarmed and unprepared." He stands his ground and that ground is still between the vampire and Allison. "I don't hunt until the human body count starts rising," he explains, or is that warns? Hard to say. He offers a mock salute and a toothy grin in Michael's direction and doesn't take his eyes off the man until he's long gone. Even after the 'long gone' takes place, Jesse is still tense and on guard, his attention only half on Allison. He does spare a 'wut? I didn't do nuffin'' look in response to her WTFness.
Allison's nostrils flare almost comically. The young woman frowns a little bit before releasing Jesse's arm and putting her hands on her hips. "Alright, what the Hell was that all about? I can accept that you're…chivalrous or something, but… that whole thing was just a little strange. Even for Dallas." Allison looks back over her shoulder. The party that she came with is dispersing, people are starting to pack up and get in their vehicles. She waves to a few of them before turning back to Jesse. "What, so you hate vamps or somethin'? I don't know, that guy was pretty weird… I didn't think he was gonna drain me dry in front of all these witnesses though." Allison furrows her brows for a long moment as she considers the situation. There's a niggling feeling inside of her that's like deja vu although she can't quite get a grasp on it.
"No, my mother's a vampire," Jesse replies without even thinking about it. "She was turned when I was about two," he continues, mouth running without him even being aware of the fact. "Just… stay way from him, yeah," he continues. His attention is still all over the place, on the shadows, as if he's expecting the vampire to pop back out again like the boogey man. It isn't until all the images bombarding his brain fade to nothing and he's sure the old timer is out of the area that he finally relaxes. He hands the beer back to Allison. "I don't drink." So it was just a ploy to get the girl out of the way! Ha! Crisis averted, threat gone, adrenaline fading with it. He's pale and trembling ever so slightly and squinting like he's on the beach at noon against the stabbing pain in his head.
"Oh." Allison says to the bit about Jesse's mom being a vampire. That certainly took away some of her steam, yep. She takes in a breath and shrugs her shoulders for a moment. She moves over to Jesse's cooler and peeks inside. Root beer? Seriously? This makes her frown a bit. "That's a shame, you're pretty cute. I was gonna getcha all liquored up." The girl despondently kicks at some of the rocks by the shore before she notices how much Jesse has shrivelled. She moves over to him and gently puts a hand on his back, turning quite concerned. "Hey, hey. Are you alright, really? I don't want you passing out on me. I'm pretty brute but I don't think I could lift ya. My pick up is over there…"
Root beer and a stake the size of the bottom of the cooler. So he was lying about there not being anything in it! Sounded like he was telling the truth. "Just a headache," he assures her. He's not overly convincing. Finally, for the first time since that first moment of Eureka! Jesse turns all of the attention he can muster in the face of his splitting head onto Allison. "Who /are/ you?" It seems an odd question, a strange way to ask such a thing. Not 'what's your name', but who /are/ you. "I've seen you before," he continues brusquely, certainly covering his initial question and the abruptness and oddity of it.
This brings a long pause from Allison. The stake AND the question. "Uh, well… if you have kids, I work at a daycare center? Otherwise… I mean, Dallas is a pretty big place. You coulda seen someone that looked like me or somethin' like that." She takes her hand off of Jesse's back and moves to sit down on his cooler, although he's probably the one that should be sitting down. "My name is Allison Lancaster. I'm really not sure where you could know me from, unless it just so happens that you're from Montana too. Which would be pretty crazy." She reaches up to run her fingers through her hair before standing up once more and tilting her head at Jesse. "I don't buy that you just have a headache, you know. Maybe a root beer would help. Sometimes caffeine does the trick."
It's always hard to say what's going to trigger them. Sometimes it's contact, this time it seems to be the lack there of. A second or two after Allison removes her hand from Jesse's back, he's on his knees with the heels of his palms pressed into his eyes like he might just squish them out of their sockets to stave off the pain. "Son of a bitch," is muttered once again through clenched teeth. The nose bleed starts anew. It's all he can do not to just lie down and curl up in a fetal position. When it starts to let up he asks, "When did it happen? …and why the fuck am I seeing it? Why have I been seeing it for years?" Seems all discretion is tossed right out the window when he's being slugged in the brainpan by visions of /her/ and a big brown wolf. He finally lowers the hand from his left eye, keeping the right in place. "You look like her, at the end, every single time, you look like her. My mom." He's babbling. He knows he's babbling, he knows he should shut his mouth before it gets him in trouble, but damnit… after all these years, he needs answers.
More napkins come out of Allison's pocket as she widens her eyes. She offers them to Jesse and moves to his side, kneeling next to him as she starts to rub his back a little bit. For some strange reason she suddenly feels like crying, but pushes aside her own emotions. "When did what happen?" She asks, frowning. "…I look like your mom? Is this some kind of Oedipal thing?" Al asks, not moving away from him, though at this point it's hard to say whether she's more freaked out by their previous meeting with Michael or this. "I'm sorry, I don't… I don't really know if I can help you."
"The wolf," Jesse manages to get out between clenched teeth. Blood drips from his nose, runs down his chin, drips onto his shirt, he seems oblivious to it. He lowers his right hand and falls back to sit on his ass, those long legs of his all stretched out in front of himself. "I'm sorry. I know.. it sounds… but.. I see things. I see things in my head, things that have happened, things that might happen. For years now I've seen you, alone, in the dark, attacked by a wolf and right at the end you always sort of… fuck, I dunno, you just… morph into my mother." He stumbles and stammers through the explanation as if he fully expects her to get up and walk away from him after, writing him off as crazy. Normally, he wouldn't be this forthcoming, but so many years, so many visions and no answers and now the answers could be right here in front of him.
The talk of Allison morphing into Jesse's mother makes her nostrils flare once more. But more than that? She's creeped out. The girl shudders all over at Jesse's knowledge of the wolf attack. She just sits quietly for a moment as she tries to get a grip on her thoughts. "I don't know. Almost six years ago now. I was walkin' home alone from a basketball game. Next thing I know, this wolf is chewing on me like I'm it's ragdoll. I passed out after about half an hour." Yeah, he was chewing on her for that long. There are still tell-tale remnants of former scarring on her arms, and one on the side of her neck. "Some guys thought I was a dead body by the side of the road… but then I started coughin' up blood, so they took me to the ER." Her first inclination was to walk away — and Al has no idea why she's sharing this with him. "Don't recall morphin' into your mother though."
The puking is pretty much ignored. Either Al isn't too awfully squeamish around the puking or she's so caught up with what she's hearing that she can't be bothered to care about the stomach contents being emptied on the ground. "Archer?" Allison suddenly asks, her brows quirking. She purses her lips for a long moment. "Damnit, why does that name sound so familiar?" She asks rather rhetorically. And rather sarcastically, and not too thrilled at all, she jokingly asks: "You wouldn't happen to be related to a Rachelle Archer, wouldja?" Allison tries to push on Jesse's shoulders gently to keep him sitting down. She doesn't want him to dry heave if he attempts to stand back up.
"……." Silence, that's all the question gets for a long few moments. Finally Jesse answers, "She's my mother," in a barely there voice. The hands on his shoulders are enough, in his current state, to keep him down. It's probably a good thing with the way his head is still spinning and all the poor guy has to show for it is some root beer, didn't even have the fun of getting drunk. How unfair is that? "Why.. I mean how do you know her name?"
"Are you fuckin' with me right now?" Allison thinks to ask, her look turning into one of disgust. The more she stops to think about it, the more she realizes that he probably isn't after all and narrows her eyes at him. "If that's true, then you and I got some history, boy. Your mom slept with my dad. Or so he tells me. Dunno why the man would lie about somethin' like that, especially to his own daughter." She pauses, reaching over to the cooler to take out one of the root beers and press it against Jesse's head for a moment. "Your family rolled through Montana when I was just a baby. My dad met your mom. And the rest is history. Some pretty nasty history. Parents almost got divorced over that one."
"No," Jesse replies in a slightly indignant tone. "What? Wait…" His battered brain just really isn't processing that information all that well! He shoves himself to his feet and regrets it a moment later. He sways, he staggers, he fights back the urge to puke again. "No, my mom wouldn't have…" Or would she have? All those lonely nights while dad was out hunting 'monsters'? It makes sense. The rest of what it could mean hasn't sunk in yet.
Luckily for Jesse, Allison can be just as indignant if not more so. "My dad wouldn't lie to me about something that major. It happened." She stands up when he does and keeps the root beer handy. There's no way she's going to let him drink it, predicting that he's going to barf it back up. "Besides… no one is perfect. I thought my dad was — 'til he told me about your mom. …Who is now apparently a vampire." Yeah, dad'll love that the next time she gives him a phone call. Al shakes her head and looks at Jesse, a strange idea cropping up in her mind. "How old are you?"
Wait why is she asking.. The reason for the question takes a minute or two to filter through his brain. Jesse shakes his head and takes a step back even as he answers, "Twenty-two. I'll be twenty-three in October." Another step back. If she knew…. if she knew how close he was to his father. If she knew that it had been only him and his dad all his life until very recently, maybe she'd understand the fear in his eyes. Fear that what she's implying with her question might be true. That fear is quickly followed by welling tears that he blinks away quickly. He takes another step back and those long legs of his get all tangled up in a fallen branch. The little dance he does to regain his balance and stay on his feet is comical, or would be in any other circumstance, but he doens't fall. It makes sense. The visions. They're connected, that's why he's seen her all these years.
"Well, I'm twenty four now. I was two when your mom and dad showed up." Allison is surprised that he's having this reaction — she was mostly curious as to the man who is apparently linked with her in such a tremendous way. She moves over to him and trails behind him rather incessantly. His absurd balance dance would be enough to make her laugh normally but now? Things certainly just got real. "I was just… I was just curious. I mean, this has already been really surreal, you know. I don't think that it's possible that we're…" Allison sucks in a deep breath after that as she considers it. Could they really be?
For all this lanky length and the way he stood his ground with Michael, Jesse seems incredibly small and vulnerable right now. "That would mean…" That he's not really my father. He can't even bring himself to say the words out loud. The poor guy feels a little like his whole world was just turned upside down. In a way, it has been if it's true. If it's true, he's not who he thought he was all his life. He's not Bradley Archer's son. He can't cry, damnit, he's not going to cry. He's stronger than that, dad raised him to be… But was it all a lie? He looks away, out over the water and murmurs, "My head hurts," as he raises his hand to press his thumb and index finger into the corners of his eyes.
Now Allison just feels bad. She's just told her apparent kid brother that his dad? Ain't his dad. Something which she only just realizes the severity of now, getting an acute 'oh shit' look on her face when she's realized what she's done. Allison reaches up to rub the back of her head when she comes to understand the error of judgment she's just made. "You got anywhere to go, Jesse?" She asks tenderly. "I can take you home tonight so you've got a place to rest. I'd hate for you to be alone right now, especially since you seem to be in so much pain."
His head really does hurt, but the main function of the fingers pressed into the corners of his eyes was to keep those damned tears from falling. When Jesse's pretty certain he's not going to start blubbering like a damned toddler that fell and scuffed his knee, he lowers his hand. "Devon's out of town picking up…." ..a new shotgun with silver buckshot. He cuts himself off, figuring that's probably not the best of things to announce. "It's always just been dad and me…" Since his mother was turned, just the two of them, it's all the family he had. "We had this huge fight. I've been staying with my best friend." He's babbling, but he's doing so in a soft voice, the voice of someone that's trying really hard to process an emotional shock. He still looks a little lost. "I'm not sure… what to do now," he admits.
The babbling doesn't seem to phase Allison in the least. Even if Jesse did turn into a blubbering toddler, she seems like she'd be prepared for that, considering that she works with them and all. Slowly she wraps an arm around him and picks up his cooler. "I'm sorry to hear that." Allison says quietly. "But I think you should come home with me tonight so that you're not alone. If your headache gets worse, I want you to tell me so that we can go to the emergency room. And in the morning, I want to talk some more about this. Obviously even if we're not… you know, related… there's something going on here." Why else would he have visions about her — visions about the most intimate time in her life, too.
It's all a little much to process. At least she's know for years that her father had an affair, little more time to deal and she's still who she thought she was. Jesse moves like he's on autopilot to follow her where ever she leads him. His pounding head makes it tough for him to think straight about normal things, let alone thinking about the fact that he might not really be who he though he was all his life. Unable to consider it and dissect it any further, he murmurs, "Stay way from that Michael character until I know more about him, yeah? He's /really/ freakin' old, like really really old and that means he's really freakin' powerful." What better distraction than to turn the conversation toward her safety.
"What are the chances of running into him again?" Allison asks, though it seems a touch ironic considering the events of the night. She steers him to the car and opens the passenger door for him while putting his cooler in the bed of the truck and making her way around to the driver's side. "But whatever you say, Jesse. I just don't want you to start thinkin' I'm one of those damsels in distress types. I can kick some ass and take some names fairly easily, you know." Okay, so she's never fought a fourteen hundred year old vampire, but… first (and last) time for everything? "Just close your eyes, okay?"
As soon as the door's closed, Jesse leans his head against the passenger side window. Once she's in the driver's seat he mumbles, "My Jeep." It's a little scary to think that he drives considering the way his visions hit him. But the Jeep, it'll have to wait, 'cause close his eyes he does. Finally doing so provides him with enough relief that he lets out a soft little sigh of a sound. Shortly after, very shortly after, he's sleeping. His brain? It's just had enough for one night. He might think to apologize for the drool on the window, but it's not likely. At least he's cute when he's sleeping, even if it's likely inappropriate for Allison to think about getting him smashed and taking advantage now. How long will it take it to dawn!? The fact that she was thinking about and he's very likely her baby…. ewwww!
Unfortunately Allison is coherent enough for these thoughts to dawn on her. If he's her brother and she wanted to…holy shit. The girl makes a horrid face of recognition for what she was about to do to him and shudders all over, making a dry heaving noise before she starts up the pick up. They'll go and pick the Jeep up tomorrow after she's cooked him a proper meal and all. Tonight has certainly been a taxing night for the both of them and she makes no time getting him safely to her apartment.
