[for James] a Bracha upon seeing a person of unusual features

[st_alksthroughwalls]

Baruch Atta Hashem Meshaneh HaBriyot was probably the appropriate Bracha for either a woman streaming through a wall or a tall man of very pale complexion, but Kitty didn't know it. For all the Hebrew she did know and the customs she'd learned or was painstakingly relearning from a chunk of Talmud that had somehow ended up in Illyana's library, Kitty honestly didn't know very much about prayers and Jewish theology except the things she did know.

Like wrestling with angels, which was what she was still doing after her bar shift ended and no one was awake to spar. She changed into a t-shirt and boy shorts, both hotel branded, and went for a midnight windwalk around the property. She noted which lights were on -- no one she wanted to talk to, and which weren't -- anyone she might have, and returned to her own room, no less tired, but smelling slightly more like sage and scrub brush for her efforts.

She poured herself a drink, and then another, and threw up her hands and went walkabout again. It wasn't anything particular on her mind tonight as opposed to any other night. Mostly she was bored, a little lonely, and less interested in swearing Russians after midnight that her regular 'barge in in the middle of the night' options allowed for.

Kitty told herself that Hathaway would still be awake, strumming his guitar, drinking Scotch, brooding melancholically over Proust or Goethe or something equally impenetrable and Germanic. She elected not to question whether she believed it as she slid herself through the walls into his room, and owing to what must clearly have been a miscalculation (not at all) ended up exactly where she needed to be to settle--or better drop herself with a small bounce across the end of his bed, to rest comfortably on her stomach.

"Hiya," she said to the darkness.

Comments

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Girlfriends? Colleagues?" He was so laconic. It made her want to know even more about him. She sank back down into the pillows. "It's strange, but family doesn't seem to happen very often. Unless you're a Winchester and then it happens twice."

[st_james]

"Colleagues. Chief pathologist and Chief Superintendent. So I suppose technically Innocent is my boss." Strange to think about Innocent that way, she WAS his boss and certainly he considered her his boss but he didn't THINK of her as his boss anymore than he considered Lewis to be his boss. And technically he was as well.

"What about you?"

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Girlfriend and boyfriend both disappeared from here, but neither was from home," Kitty answered, trying to keep her touch on those feelings light. She'd been thinking about Lara too much already lately. "I doubt they'll be back, but Lara might...her necklace and recordings showed up and they say she's looking for me."

Kitty shrugged and pushed past it. "My best friend, Illyana, and her brother who is like my brother, Piotr Rapsutin, are both here. There are a bunch of people from my world, or versions of my world. I wouldn't know where to start with all the people who aren't."

[st_james]

"If I meet a woman named Lara I'll be sure to find you," because that was the one that stood out to him, the way she spoke of the woman. She'd been important the way Lewis was or would be if he arrived.

There was an offer in his tone if she wanted to talk about Lara, or not if she just wanted to ask him more uncomfortable questions.

[st_alksthroughwalls]

At that, Kitty laughed and reached out to pat his shoulder. "If you meet a woman named Lara and she stopped long enough to tell you that, she's either already found me, or she's not my Lara."

Lara probably wouldn't...no, she would. She would understand what she was doing here with Hathaway, because she'd always understood Kitty. And that was only part of why she missed her.

She felt the invitation, but decided not to take him up on it for now. Sleep was starting to grow on her, and talking about L was a sure way to make sure it didn't happen. Instead, she said, "You're a good guy, James Hathaway. Even if you want to pretend to be a sourpuss."

[st_james]

"I'm not pretending," and being a good guy and a sourpuss weren't really mutually exclusive.

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Well, then you're just doing a really bad job of it." With her, anyway.