wickerpark | My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth....

The last two weeks were tied with the two weeks spent dodging Iranian soldiers in the mountains as the worst two weeks of his life, and that was, Ollie often thought, a true accomplishment. He'd had a lot of terrible fortnights in his time. The competition was stiff. But then, it was only his life that could have been lost in the mountains. If Tyler Kagan didn't wake up, he was taking Ollie's heart.

He didn't remember when Sebastian Novak - and Ty's cousin had been the one tasked with dealing with the stubbornly immovable group that surrounded Ty - had stopped trying to force he and Hadyn out of the room. A week or so ago, perhaps, when he'd left it to Hadyn and Ollie to force each other to take breaks. And wasn't that just ironic? The two of them. Ollie had assumed the two of them would never see eye to eye on a damn thing.

As it happened, they saw eye to eye on quite a few things, lately.

It was his night, though, to stay, and Ollie had settled into the chair next to Ty and expected that he wouldn't sleep much; he hardly ever did. He barely slept even the nights he wasn't there, and the night owls of the Deck had often seen Oliver Byrd running through the streets, or heard piano music coming from his apartment at all hours. Eventually that all had to catch up with him, of course, and he'd looked hollow-eyed when he'd pushed Hadyn out of the room. It hadn't taken him long to pass out in the chair.

All of which was why he didn't wake, not until he heard Ty's voice, and then he stared. "You're awake," he breathed out. There had been a part of him, a large, secret part that he never acknowledged, who had feared that Ty never would.

'You're awake' did not quite answer is question, nor did the tired and worried look about Ollie. He could only stare at the other man for a while, frowning as he tried to convey some need for explanation. It was, however, no more successful.

"Why.....am I here?" He asked, looking at Ollie pointedly. He didn't know why the man looked ragged and torn, but he need a fucking explanation. In his mind- he should have just woken up in a bed. His bed, actually. Not here, and not with Ollie looking at him as if the world was finally right again. "Why can't you just....tell me what is going on? Why? Wh-why am I here?" There was an anxiousness in him that was growing, and the heart monitor seemed to slowly follow suit with as his heart started to beat a little faster.

A part of him had hoped that Ty would wake and be...himself, Ollie thought as he rubbed a hand over his face. Another part wished one of Ty's parents were here. Though they would be, soon enough. "There was an explosion," he said. "At a house outside town. You were there." With Jenkins, who'd already been dead, at least. "I found you there, and brought you home."

It sounded so stark and simple in those terms, Ollie thought as he wet his lips. "You've been...out, for two weeks."

It would have too much to ask for him to be whole and unaffected by the injury he'd sustained. But Ollie's explanation did not really help either, though he supposed it was probably a good thing that he recalled having agreed with Ollie to date- or something. He wasn't sure if the man was his boyfriend, but his being in this room did make sense. "Two weeks...." he repeated, looking around the room again before he noticed his phone. Reaching out he touched it to bring up the time and date...and stared.

"Two weeks?" He repeated, though he felt it more like he was missing a month of time- two whole weeks worth of memories gone. What the hell? "I don't....I don't remember any of that. I...I remember going to bed." He said, sounding utterly confused. He did not doubt Ollie, but it was still something difficult to wrap his mind around.

Two weeks in a coma, and another two weeks just...erased.

"Why was someone...trying to kill me?"

Another time, perhaps, he'd be a bit shocked, a bit incredulous that he'd fallen so fast and hard for Ty Kagan. That they'd only really actually been dating for two weeks before this had happened. That losing two weeks of time meant losing almost all of them.

Now, he pressed his lips together and wished that Hadyn was here instead. And that, he thought with a bit of dark amusement, was something Ty would find shocking even if he remembered more. He should get the doctor, he thought, and let someone else explain all this. But then, if it were him - he'd want to know as much as he could first thing. Ollie hid the flinch that the look on Ty's face had given him under the mask that Diamonds were all so good at.

"You're the King of Clubs' son," he said. "You're a highly capable Ten, a man who honed himself into a weapon. If someone wanted to take your father's position, aren't you the first one they'd want out of the way?"

"...No? You've met Hadyn, right? I mean, I doubt he has desires for Kingship, but that man is far more dangerous and devious than me." He'd over heard conversations with Hadyn and Jordan before, when he'd still be young and playing with Bas. The brother's would often discuss light topics, before getting into more...difficult terrain. Hadyn had once suggested a method of dealing with Jordan's problem that had been cold, calculated and without a doubt the most bloodthirsty thing Ty had ever heard come out of his father's mouth. The fact that Jordan had merely agreed it would be effective in a casual tone have made him reel even more- because it implied that Hadyn had suggested such ruthlessness before.

And in truth, a part of Ty had started to suspect Hadyn's hand was deeper in the politics of the suit than most people suspected. As he'd gotten older, he'd noted more than a few high ranked members of the suit treated him almost as though he were a Face Card himself.

"But I get your point," he said after a moment, shaking his head as a nurse suddenly walked in and smiled brightly at him. She said it was good to see he was awake, and that she'd fetch the doctor before leaving the two alone again.

"You don't look like you've slept in a while." He commented, finally, as he looked at Ollie closely.

Ollie had spent a lot of time around Hadyn and Elisha the last few weeks - and he had no doubt that there must have been some obstacle keeping him from challenging for Jack, because Elani was utterly useless. A nice enough lady, he supposed, though he'd spent a bit too much time listening to her Very Polite criticisms of his music choices to be completely positive on her, but completely useless as a Jack. Especially a Jack in the Clubs; she was the only one who didn't fit the slightly sharp, certainly devious mold that shaped the rest of the Faces.

He slumped a bit in his chair as the nurse checked Ty's vitals, and glanced over at him again when he spoke. "I think you'll find that there's a lot of people who haven't slept in a while," he said, and paused. "You don't remember me much, do you?"

"Oliver, I'm missing a little bit, I...um, I very confused. And I feel like a conversation we had in a cabin outside of town. And I remember a date. Everything after that, well." But at least the date had been worth it. And he assumed it had gone well, all things considering. He didn't imagine Ollie would have been sitting in his room otherwise.

"You could...just catch me up on things, or....kiss me." Something, something other than slumping in his chair looking like a whipped dog. Though, this did bring up one extra point- "someone has been feeding my cat, right?"

He'd protest the notion that he looked like a whipped dog. It was more like he looked like an exhausted man, one who'd kept a vigil, only to have it end by Ty waking up and not remembering anything other than a long, meandering dinner followed by long, meandering kisses - and oddly, both of them going to their own apartments. Though celibacy had been brief.

Ollie smiled a bit, though. "Now, that sounds more like you," he said. "Can't decide if you want intel, or me naked. Alas, I feel like the doctor would object to option two." He did, though, lean forward and give Ty a soft kiss. "We've had a whirlwind, you and I," he murmured as he leaned back. "Two very quick weeks. I'm sure your parents worried about me getting my claws in you, or some such thing."

Though with Carlos and Gael, and Sarah getting more distant as both her twin and her best friend got themselves entangled - Ollie also imagined that Hadyn and Elisha might have already had their hands too full to worry about Ty getting tangled up with him. At least he was mostly on an even keel.

"I've got a key, actually, which is how I can tell you that the General has accepted me as a person worthy of opening his cans. Not worth much else, I'm afraid, but he hasn't starved." His smile slipped a bit. "You headed out to check something two weeks ago. It was supposed to be your day off, and I'd spent the night. I came looking for you because you never called."

"Why can't I want both? It is the default setting for most men in my position." He said, taking that soft kiss with a bit of a smile as he Ollie settle back again. The man seemed to be in a little better spirits. "So....you're going to give me a tell tale later, then? I knew I was attracted to you for a very good reason."

It was weird, really, to discuss his relationship with such a casual acceptance despite having no memory of it. It was almost like he was in a play, or watching a movie...It was bizarre and made little sense. But also, it seemed very plausible based on what he already knew about Ollie and himself.

"Oh, right.....The General is a picky fellow. If he's accepted you for food, it is only a matter of time before your head is his personal pillow." He said with a slight smile until Ollie mentioned what had happened. Ah, he thought, that was....strange. He should have been felt sense of unease about something like that, and taken Carlos with him. "Wait.....I went alone? Why the fuck wasn't Carlos there?"

"I'll tell you every detail," Ollie promised. It would keep him from bolting, a tendency he was well aware he had a tendency towards, he thought. Especially faced with something like this - where he knew Ty was playing along.

His smile faded a bit, though, as Ty mentioned Carlos. Far too much had happened in the last month, he thought. "Carlos is recovering from injuries. He challenged to Nine in swords and it didn't go exactly according to plan." He had a very Outside point of view there, he thought, that he would just ignore for right now. "He got stabbed, in the right thigh. That's fine now, the stitches came out before all of this. But he dislocated his shoulder too. I think you thought it was better to check it on your own, considering."

Well, he was certainly going to need Ollie to tell him every detail at the rate they were going. He almost wondered if he needed to ask if Sarah was hurt too, or any other number of things. He used to think that 'missing time' wasn't that big of a deal- he was wrong.

"Huh." He said, turning his head to look out the window before looking back at Ollie and chewing his bottom lip just a little. "Right. This is weird, so fucking weird." And he was wearing a hospital gown which kept him from immediately standing up, even though he shifted on the bed to move his legs around to the side.

"Ah, Mr. Kagan, you are awake." The doctor said, coming into the room with a smile. He looked Ty over, checking his vitals, nodding a little at the missing memory- it was expected that he'd miss time, but pointed out that they were lucky it was only a few weeks. Typically people lost months, sometimes years. Still, he said all in all- Ty seemed to be fine. A rare, but welcome outcome for someone who just came out of a coma.

"However, and this is very important for you both- Mr. Kagan, Brain Injuries are a tricky thing. There is a very high probability that you will have....seizures. I cannot tell you what sort, or when, or even if it will happen. But the chance exist."

Well- he supposed it was too much to ask to walk up without something completely wrong.

If he'd known - scratch that, the doctor had told them all it was a strong possibility. If he'd accepted that memory loss was a possibility, maybe he would have written down notes. Then again, it could have been months or years, in which case Ty wouldn't have had any idea who he was.

"I might have been here too much," Ollie said as the doctor left. "I think he just cast me as your husband." Next there'd be instructions for care going to Ollie rather than Ty's parents. He looked over at Ty, though, with a bit of a smile.

"I suspect it doesn't really help to say it could have been a lot worse." It could have, though. Ty could have died. He could have had a leg blown off. He could have had total amnesia. Ollie'd had plenty of time to think about what could have happened in the last few weeks.

"He's a good man," Ty said, getting to his feet gingerly as he tried to stand...only to realize his legs were not up to supporting him quite yet. It was probably a good thing that he was able to just sit right back down. Even as he grunted to himself, for the failed attempt to stand.

"I....right. Could have have been worse." He said, in agreement, before looking at Ollie with the first hints of his personal frustrations. "I guess I know why they didn't take the cath out. There will be no walking to the bathroom whenever I feel like it." Which just chafed. He liked his personal feeling of freedom. "I assume my parents are promising death for someone..."

He'd have to ask the doctor about when Ty could be expected to be able to walk, but he didn't think it'd be too long. "It's probably mostly because you've been stuck in a bed for two weeks," he said. "I'd give it a day or two, and it'll start getting better. You've missed Carlos with a cane, by the way," he said, his lips twitching a little. "It's been a terrifying experience for your guards, I think. Somehow being able to hear him coming just increases the terror."

And...likely Carlos would still be directing Security, he realized. At least for the time being. Even with Ty awake, probably he couldn't immediately take the reins back. "Hadyn has been extra bloodthirsty," he said. "Really, it's been a tie between him and Sarah as to who can come up with the most murderous vengeance. Elisha is...calm. Mostly." Not exactly in a comforting way, however.

"Makes sense," he agreed, though with a frown. He looked up and tried to not be a jerk about it. He had just woke up, and apparently he was going to have seizures, and was missing a months worth of time. It was perfectly rational that he couldn't walk to the bathroom and it still managed to piss him off, it frustrated him to no end.

The last thing he remembered, after all, was that he could walk just fucking fine.

But before he could say anything, he saw Hadyn and then Elisha coming into the room. Hadyn's smile seemed genuinely relieved to see him awake, and Elisha's was a little more guarded- mostly how the two had always been as he'd grown up. "Hey," he said, waving a little at them. "I'm awake....apparently that is a new thing."

"It hasn't been in evidence the last little bit," Elisha said as he and Hadyn came up to the bed. He leaned down and brushed Ty's curls off his forehead, standing between Ty and Ollie. It gave Ollie the opportunity to stand up and slip out of the hospital room virtually unnoticed - at least by Ty's parents.

He wasn't angry at Ty; what reason did he have to be angry at Ty? He asked himself as he went down a quiet hall and paused. He turned and leaned his head against the wall for a moment, closing his eyes. He was tired, he thought. Very tired, and he just wasn't being rational about it. He'd give Ty some time with his actual family, and they'd...figure it out.

"How many times have you tried to get out of bed so far?" Elisha asked in the makeshift hospital room with a faint twitch to his lips. He could say that he knew his son, but it was more fair to say that he knew himself, and he knew that this happened to be a way his children were like him.

Ty saw Ollie leave, and it bothered him almost as much as everything else. It felt, really, as if he'd done something wrong and he just couldn't figure out why or how. But he had, hadn't he?

Still, he pulled his legs back onto the bed and smiled a little at his father as he pushed his hair back from his eyes. He even barely noticed when Hadyn turned to look back at where Oliver had gone with a slight frown on his lips. His parents, really, looked hardly better off than Oliver had. For better or worse.

"Just the one time so far," he said to Elisha, looking down at his fingers as he gripped them together in frustration. "I....I'm sorry. I don't, I don't even remember what happened- but I've been told." He shouldn't have gone alone- though if he hadn't, others could have been hurt as well. So it was really a catch-22.

Well, Oliver had thought he could leave with no one noticing, certainly, but Elisha had felt him slip out, and if he hadn't - there was the bewildered look Ty gave the door, and the slight frown Hadyn sent in that direction.

"I'm sure your father could share some words about emulating me in unnecessary ways," Elisha said a bit gravely. They hadn't seen the doctor yet, but he had been in the army - and he'd seen brain injuries before. The time Ty had lost might be recovered - and might be gone forever. "You went alone, Oliver said. Probably you should have taken him along at minimum." He'd been aware Oliver Byrd could handle himself before the music director had clashed with Hadyn the first time; he'd been aware within months of the man coming to Diamond Castle. And for all that Ollie's military past had been spent in aircraft rather than on ground, one didn't survive the crash he'd survived without some steel and a strong survival instinct.

He shook his head though, looking over at Hadyn before speaking again. "What do you last remember?"

"More than a few, really." Hadyn said, looking back at the two other men in the room as he spoke. "To be fair, he could do the same." He shrugged a little, reaching up to rest a hand on Elisha's shoulder as he smiled warmly at their son.

"Well," Ty started, as if he were going to defend an action that he can't very well remember, before he thought better of it. "I'm sure I had a good reason...or, something." Honestly, it had to be. Ty was the Head of Security, and generally not prone to high risk behavior outside of the necessary. Which, granted, his job did involve high-risk behavior. But it was a moot point. "I probably should have, but then both of us could be in the hospital right now...or dead. I guess."

He sighed though, shaking his head. "Last thing I remember?" He asked, considering it carefully. "Going on a date, then going home...going to bed. Waking up here. It is a little weird...to apparently have lost a month." Weird was one way of putting it. Frankly it was down right disconcerting. If he thought about it another, he imagined it would bother him more...but in the last 20 minutes of being awake, he'd resolved to just not think about it.

Well, Elisha thought, that explained a bit about why Oliver had slipped from the room like a ghost. It was no one's fault - no one except who'd done this, at least - but Ty didn't remember what was, honestly, one of the most dramatically emotional months in their family since he'd left his forties. "Your brain's protecting you from the Deck dramatics," he said with a bit of a smile as he reached out to take Ty's hand. Carlos and Sarah had been torn up over Gael Shaw's spiral downward, and then Carlos' challenge to Nine hadn't gone as flawlessly as they might have hoped. He suspected that his son's relationship with Oliver Byrd had progressed as quickly as it had because they were both calms in the emotional storm. Neither one of them had, particularly, been going through hell.

Which was likely to change now, no matter how much he might like to force it to be otherwise.

"That...does not sound very welcoming." Ty admitted as he looked from one parent to the other. "Doctor says...I'll be fine, you know. Just, uh, a chance for seizures, really. And um, missing memories. But other than that..." He shrugged, looking back at the door with just the smallest of frowns on his face. He supposed he understood why Oliver had left, but still. It did hurt a little.

"He needs his own time," Hadyn's voice cut in through his thoughts unexpectedly, causing him to look up at his father with a bit of surprise. Carlos always swore Hadyn was the one full of sage advice, and Ty believed that for the most part. He also knew most of that advice probably came from, well, dealing with himself.

"I know," Ty said, shrugging again. "I get it...I'd feel the same in his place." He said, looking away from Hadyn and his concerned gaze. He didn't want the man to see more, he didn't want Hadyn's mind to play a game with him- make his father believe this was all his fault. And while it seemed ridiculous that he would, Tyler had seen first hand what the chaos of Hadyn's mind could do to the otherwise rational, calm, and caring man.

Elisha flicked a bit of a bland look between his son and his partner. He was fairly sure his family was convinced he had a convenient blind spot when it came to interpersonal relations, but it wasn't true. He knew the undercurrents here as well as he knew the undercurrents almost everywhere in the Deck. Ty was trying to be the parent, but sometimes he needed to be the child.

"Hadyn," he said though. "Would you mind if I had a minute with Ty?" His lips twitched. "You can go smoke and we'll pretend we don't know."

He waited until Hadyn was gone before he leaned his elbows on his knees. "I can practically sense you trying to protect us from what's going on in your head," he said. "You don't have to, you know. You can be upset and pissed off and we can take it, son."

"There isn't anything to protect you from- I literally feel like I just woke up....only I'm in a hospital room and I can't seem to walk. Oh, and I'll probably have seizures. What's to protect you- him from?" Ty said, looking at his hands for a moment as he sighed. He didn't, in truth, know what he was trying to protect Hadyn from, either. He was a grown man, capable man. All of those things.

"When I was nine, I can remember him bursting into our apartments....and moving so...bizarrely. When I called out to him, at first he just ignored me, and then....looked at me as if he had no idea who the hell I was. The whole time, just...going on and on in a babbling triad that made no sense to me." Ty said, looking up at Elisha. "You know he stabbed himself, trying to claw something out of him? He did....and never once seemed to realize I was standing there, crying....and on the phone with Uncle Jordan."

He paused then, looking back at the door. He and Hadyn had never had a strong relationship after that- one part fear of upsetting Hadyn, one part a boy being angry that his father would do something like that. Even as an adult, Ty still found himself dealing with those raw feelings as if they were something he could deal with.

"I...know he's better, before you say it. I know that, but medication on does so much. And...well..." He didn't want to be the reason something broke in Hadyn's semblance of peace of mind. "He doesn't look like he's slept any more than Oliver....or you."

"I've never really told you about your grandmother," Elisha said after listening to Ty wind down. "The one we named Sarah after. She raised me by herself, in a manner of speaking, in Tel Aviv, before she died in a car accident when I was sixteen." That was exactly how much he'd told the twins about Reina Kagan. Oh, a few more details, perhaps. She'd had curly auburn hair and the same brown eyes as Sarah. She'd been an artist who'd taught him to paint. Living with her was full of adventure. The harmless things.

"She was sick too," he said. "Sometimes she'd come in like that, and there was no understanding what was going through her head. And sometimes she'd crash, and want to end it all, too. So, I do understand, Ty. I know where you're coming from." He hadn't wanted to be what broke his mother, either. The difference between Hadyn and Reina was - Hadyn had done something about it. Reina had, at some point along the line, embraced her disorder as artistic temperment. He shook his head a bit, though; getting mired in past 50 years old wasn't worth it.

"You can only protect so much," he said. "And at some point you've got to remember that fighting against something like bipolar takes emotional strength. Your grandmother didn't have that strength, but your papa does. He has more than I do, really." And sometimes Ty needed to be the kid.

"I think you'll find most people who love you haven't been sleeping much," he said, though. "Sarah's running on rage and coffee fumes and Carlos is just powering through it. You can't expect less from Hadyn."

They had never really put a name to it, Ty thought. His grandmother, Hadyn...no one wanted to discuss what the demon in the room was, but there it was- laid out and bare. Bipolar. Of all the disorders Ty vaguely remembered learning from Eileen, that one had struck him as the scariest, perhaps because he'd seen it and in his face.

"He...." He wanted to argue that Hadyn wasn't strong, but rather tied down to it. Ty suspected that the only way Elisha and Hadyn stayed together was that Hadyn stayed on his medication; Ty had gathered that much from over heard conversations when he was supposed to be asleep. He was supposed to be the child, but he had never felt that way with Hadyn. Despite, perhaps, Hadyn's best efforts. "Would you stay, really....if he wasn't on enough medication to tranq a horse?" Ty asked, looking up at Elisha.

"I get it, he's been worried- everyone has. He is strong enough to deal. He's blah, blah...blah." He sighed a softly, a little unsure where the irritation in his voice was coming from. "But he's not like the rest of us, and you know it. There are days, you know...that I hope he dies before you do. Because I don't think I can deal with his whirlwind...."

There were days, Elisha thought, where Hadyn hoped the same. He didn't; he was fairly sure losing Hadyn Novak at this stage would break him, and for all that their children thought of him as the rock, Elisha wasn't sure they wanted to see the truth of it. He wasn't so sure he was the strong one, or even the sane one, as much as he was the one with a less showy version of fucked up.

"It would take a lot more medicine than he's on to tranq a horse, Tyler," he said. And it made him wonder if Ty had ever bothered to peek at Elisha's own medicine cabinet, which was home to its own cocktail. Probably not. "But I did leave him once, a few years before you and Sarah were born. It didn't stick. It...would have even less chance of sticking now, I think."

"I...didn't say you should leave him," Ty said, sighing as he looked down at his fingers. He just didn't know what to do about....them. There was, after all, no going back to a moody and angry teenager screaming 'I hate you, you aren't my father' at the a man's face after he'd done and sacrificed a lot help raise you to be the best person you could be. Ty felt he could still see the disappointment in Hadyn's face from time to time.

"I just, I wish...." He didn't even know what he wished, really. Maybe he never would. "I just don't think I can deal with him, Dad. I love him, he is my father....but I don't think there is repairing what has happened to us. And I don't know that there is any starting over either. So....I don't know."

There had been a certain irony, really. When Eileen had been the moody teenager - and she'd had plenty of moods that Elisha felt ill-equipped to deal with, especially around the time when Argine had finally succumbed - Hadyn had constantly been telling him not to be so hard on her. But when they'd had their own children...

Well, it was different when it was your own, he supposed. Eileen was his; Ty and Sarah and Carlos were theirs.

"There aren't any easy answers," he said. He wondered what his own relationship as an adult with Reina would have been. As it was...as it was, he'd not been able to forgive her for years after her death. And that had been when he was seventeen. "I'm not telling you that you have to be close. I wish you were, but I understand that you can't. I just want you to know that he does love you, and he will worry about you, and if you go get yourself in an explosion in an abandoned house...he's going to sit up by your bed on any nights when Oliver can't push him out and I can't force him to come to bed. That's going to happen whether you think he should or not. He's your father."

"How do you do it?" He asked, frowning as he looked up at Elisha. "How do you.....handle it all? Being with Hadyn, raising a family, being King..... Being someone's target as king." He asked, unsure of how he felt now that his life had been purposefully attacked in a way it had never been before.

"I mean...." He looked away, toward a wall as he tried to figure out what he was trying to say, trying to ask. "I thought....I could do it all, I could take your place- but now...heh. I'm scared, and I don't even know why."

Not the easiest thing to answer, Elisha thought. Not even something he thought about, strictly speaking, because it was an everpresent part of daily life for him. Maybe the kids never realized - he hoped they hadn't. And maybe, before now, few had dared, because most who might have remembered the about-face that had led to an artistic Six rising to a very sharp Ten in three months time.

"Well, for one, I'm always a little bit scared. It's what keeps me sharp." Though he could have stood for a little more fear, a little less confidence, he thought. It might have prepared him for this possibility. "The trick isn't not being scared. It's not letting the fear have command. There are things that have to be done, and they have to be done whether I'm afraid or not."

"That.....sucks," Ty breathed out, laughing just a little as he rubbed at his face. But then, they had grown up on stories of tragic events- murders of kings and queens, jacks plotting against Aces, one unhappy ending after another. He rather hoped this peace he'd grown up in was the norm and not the exception. He was, apparently, wrong.

"Don't suppose you'd let me go back to work this week...So I could find out who tried to kill me?" He asked, even through he leaned just a little closer to he father. Despite it all, Elisha was still the one that was the rock...and his guide. It didn't take someone long to piece together a reason why taking Ty out was important.

That was life, Elisha thought. Life on the Deck, at any rate, and life Outside...had it's own tragic quirks, just less likely to involve poison and blades and spies sneaking away in the night. More likely to involve explosions, honestly, and it was one of the many times he cursed this place and it's tendency to pretend that only the good parts of the Outside world could come in.

"That's adorable," he said out loud. "No. You need to take time to recover. For one, Sebastian would be so sad that he didn't get to force you to sit still for medical examinations. For another..." He smiled a bit slyly. "You have a boyfriend who'd probably drag you out of your office bodily if you tried."

"My boyfriend, as you say, has bolted and had been trying to do so since I woke up, so I don't know what I would count him in the 'drag you home' bracket at the moment." Ty said, frowning as he glanced at the chair Ollie had been in. He didn't understand why it bothered him so much, but it did. It hurt a little that the man just ran away, and didn't even give Ty a chance to do much in the way of stopping him.

"Personally, I would just prefer going back to work, you know. Solve a mystery or two. Give Carlos a break from the paperwork he so loves." He also just needed something to do, and sitting still was not one of those things he was good at. He never had been good at it, and Ty suspected he never would be.

"Not his finest moment, probably," Elisha said with a shrug. He understood the need for air, of course, and it was exactly as Hadyn had said. Ollie'd about burned himself out, and with Ty not remembering enough to even know why - Elisha couldn't blame him.

But Ty was hurt by it, so he did blame him, a little.

"I'd rather you not go after your own would be murderer," he said evenly. "I understand wanting to, but I'd rather you didn't." Still, he'd go stir-crazy himself, so he leaned back a bit. "But maybe you'd like to take some of my work off my hands."

There was something utterly suspicious about Elisha offering up some of his work in order to keep Ty out of his own office. On the one hand he could hear his father's argument for it- you need to learn, responsibility, more to ruling than knowing how to fight. On the other hand, he was enough of his father's son to see a ploy to get out of certain jobs for what it was.

"I don't suppose we get to discuss which items of interest I would be taking off your hands in advance, either. Because if we did that...." Well, Elisha did so hate some of these meetings, and Ty was starting to suspect he was going to get a first hand taste of them and why they were hated so much.

"You're thinking I'm going to drop the budget committee on you," Elisha said with a sage nod. "Hadn't crossed my mind." The entertainment committee, though. The winter party season was coming up, and with it a gaggle of eveningwear obsessed planners agitating for a ball. The only joy he got out of it was coming up with alternatives to disappoint the people wanting to get into a hundred yards of purple tulle.

"But we can, I suppose, discuss. Your father's likely to frown at me otherwise." It was fair to say Hadyn had his number even better, after all, than Ty.

"Oh, he would frown....he would most certainly frown." Ty said, smiling just a little. If nothing else, one would always trust in Hadyn's 'disapproving dad' face to help bend Elisha's opinions on some things. He and Sarah had used it enough to their advantage as kids.

"But fine....if you insist." Since he wasn't going back to his job, he might as well get to do something. Anything. Because otherwise his wall was going to make for excellent target practice.

My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth....

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