10077/Five Months and Nine Days

Five Months and Nine Days
Date of Scene:	17 November 2019
Location:	Elegant Brownstone, Upper West Hill
Synopsis:	Jason and Steph watch Casablanca and talk about addiction and murder.
Cast of Characters:	Red Hood, Spoiler

---

Red Hood has posed:
Jason was actually back at the Brownstone, ending 5 months and 1 day of self-imposed exile, though as he was often fond of telling people about his stays at the manse, it was only temporary. He was just here cleaning up the place while he decided what to do with it and moved what personal effects he kept there to the room he was setting up in the Cave.

Not that there was anything wrong with the place, it was still... palatial, the fault was with Jason, the brownstone belonged to a time when he was a better person, or at least, let himself believe he was, but now that he knew the truth living here felt wrong and so here he was getting himself ready to move from the bright and airy comfort of the brownstone to the relative cold and dark of the Red Cave.

Though as he packed things away a couple of BluRays caught his eye and he smiled, pulling out his phone and fires off a mesage to Steph:

Jason >> Can you drop by? Got things you might want. @the brownstone.

Then he goes back to his sorting and packing, his mood just a little bit better for the discovery.

Spoiler has posed:
The reply comes back before very long: "Sure, a little diversion would be perfect." It's about 25 minutes then before Stephanie's car pulls up into the brownstone's driveway, parking behind Jason's car. Stephanie opens the door and climbs out, rather than vaulting out of the convertible over the closed door as she usually would.

She walks up the stairs a little heavy-legged, a bag from Big Belly Burger in hand, along with a drink carrier with a pair of cups in it. She reaches the landing and hits the buzzer for the door. Stephanie visibly looks tired, though she'll manage a bit of a smile when the door opens, just the same.

Red Hood has posed:
When Steph has arrives Jason has finished with his BluRays and is facing a truly deadly enemy, the milk he left in the fridge when he left to go wandering...

The reek is bad enough that it almost bring tears to his eyes, and a moment after Steph knockes, Jason emerges rushing to the curb with a garbage bag held at arms length dropping it into one of the street side bins rather than keeping it the house a moment longer.

"Thank god," he says when it's done and he steps back towards the house catching sight of Steph though, his expression dims a little to see how dragged out she looks, despite that smile. Though he too puts on a braver face, "Sorry about that," he says of the whole milk business, "Wouldn't do to run over someone who brought me Big Belly Burger," he says as he mounts the final step back up to the door and holds out a hand to offer to take the drinks. "C'mon in, now that the milk demon is slain I think it's safe."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie Brown is wearing a pair of jeans and a dark grey t-shirt with faded lettering that indicates she goes to Gotham U, and has a brown jacket overtop. It looks like the same thing she was wearing the night before at the Batcave.

Stephanie glances up in surprise as Jason rushes out to the curb with the bag. Apparently enough of the smell reaches Stephanie to be noticed. "If that's your laundry, you really should wash your clothes a little more often," she cracks, though more subdued than her normal tone would be.

The blond passes the drinks over when Jason offers to take them. "You sure that wasn't Momma?" she asks of the demon milk and glancing back at the curve. She gladly moves inside the relative warmth of the brownstone once the door is opened though. "I always liked this place," she says. "Think it's only my third time here. Third? Fourth? No, third, I think," she decides as she moves into the room to make way for Jason.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason, shockingly, is in jeans and a t-shirt, the shirt patterned with a raised grey fist with the words: Rage Against the Machine, written inside of it. Once he's through the door, in a display of dexterity he kicks off his combat boots without dropping drinks all over the floor.

"Might be," he says of the 'demon' he just dispatched. "Certainly evil enough," he smiles back at her.

Leading the way inside Jason sets down the drinks on the coffee table and nods, looking around the place, "It's nice," he agrees with a little reservation in his tone. "But it's not really me right now. Too big, too empty, but setting up a place in the Red Cave, and I've got standing invitations to crash at Kate's, the Clocktower and the mansion, so I'll do okay." He says it all a little too breezily.

"Buut, in my packing I did find these," he says moving to the mantel to pick up the two BluRays he put there, "Figured I'd see if you wanted them and you know, chat and be social, whatever you normal folks do," he says as he picks up the BluRays and shows them to her, naturally they're 'Sound of Music' and 'Casablanca'.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie joins Jason in his perusal of the brownstone. "Hmm. It's definitely big," she says. "Seems like it also kind of would help keep someone from focusing too much on wearing the mask. I've noticed that seems to sometimes be an issue for a certainly family line," Stephanie comments in a quite gentle tone that likely avoids sounding very critical. More concern than criticism.

Stephanie sets down the bag on the table, opening it up and pulling out a pair of burgers and fries, then leaving them there as she moves over to see what Blu rays that Jason has for her. "Oh, that's nice," she says, and a bit of light makes it through the tired expression as she takes them. "You realize if these pass into my control, it means I get to show up and make you watch them," she teases gently.

"You can add a grubby little college apartment across from the university to your crash space list if you like. I mean, if you get tired of the spaces with the hot tubs, the lap pools, the gorgeous views of the city in every direction and-" she realizes she has no idea what Kate's place is like. But then she has money, so some of the above probably applies. "But there's always fixings for grilled cheese, or ramen. Well, almost always," she says.

Red Hood has posed:
"Huge more like, six rooms, really too big for one guy to be in on his own," Jason explains. "I swear I feel like that Pablo Escobar meme sometimes," he says (ooc reference: ) but the point about the mask is taken. "Yeah, well Dick's the one living the mask right now," though it had been encouraging to see him as himself the night before. "And hey, the mask is all I've got going on right now, so might as well minimize."

Jason smiles, and gives Steph a nod as he lets go of the BluRays passing them into her control, "I am willing to take that risk," he replies easily, giving her shoulder a nudge before heading to flop down on the couch across from the food and drinks, "The TV equipment's staying so if you want to inflict one on us now, I suppose I could survive the ordeal."

"Yeah?" Jason asks as Steph offers up her pad as a place to crash. "-in suite bat cave," he supplies about Kate's place. "And the occasional bra on the door handle if Kate's got a guest." He chuckles before saying, "Sounds like where I grew up. So, tell you what if I take you up on it, I'll bring the ramen or grilled cheese fixings, I mean you did bring me Big Belly burger, so, I sort of owe you."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie glances around the nicely furnished brownstone again before following Jason over towards the couch. "It was good seeing him out of it," she agrees about Dick. "We've all been through a lot. And he knows it and is trying to shelter us at his own expense," she says with a little shake of her head.

Stephanie's Economics book was still left uncracked from the night before, the studying for her Economics final first put aside to help Nightwing with his patrols. Trying to help him deal with having to fill Bruce's shoes.

After, other reasons kept her from opening the school book.

The blond eyes the two movies and then places one in the player. Casablanca. She plops down into the couch, sinking back into it, then leaning forward long enough to snatch up her burger before leaning back again. "Glad you called," she says. Though it was a text, it counts just the same. She opens up the greasy burger and takes a bite of it, then relaxes back and lets out a tired, contented sigh.

Red Hood has posed:
"No comment," Jason says seeing Dick out of the Batsuit, which was a confirmation in Jason-speak since he found it almost physically impossible for him say something nice about Dick. "Yeah, he's trying to be Bruce, carry the whole world on his shoulders," he agrees with a little frown. "Idiot," he says of Dick. "Especially since it seems like it's going to be awhile before Bruce is back to himself."

There's less grumble to that than there would have been before his talk with Babs, so maybe Jason couldn't entirely begrudge Bruce a little time for himself. "Though it's not like we don't have our own things going on either, I mean you've got school, I've got you know a life that's not here..." he shakes his head, turning to watch the movie.

"Good choice there, Rick, the dialogue in this movie is great," he says of the choice of movie as the titles flash across the screen.

He snatches up his burger too, looking over at Steph, "Yeah, figured you needed a break, you looked tired last night," and today was the unspoken addendum to that statement, "How's your mom doing?" he asks. He'd been thinking of Mrs. Brown himself lately, not in a 'Stacy's Mom' sort of way, but because his talk with Steph about her relapse had stuck with him for reasons he didn't fully understand.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie takes a big enough bite of her burger that she has to chew for a bit before she can answer Jason about Dick trying to be Bruce. "Yeah, someone trying to do it all himself rather than behave like he's got a whole team there to help him out. Wherever have I see that before?" Stephanie says, her tone light-hearted, but with a look towards Jason to let him know she wasn't talking about Bruce or Dick there.

Stephanie smiles over at him though and says, "Yeah, this movie is so timeless. I think I pick up something new from it each time I see it." She gets her soda and takes a sip through the straw before setting it down again.

The girl's blue eyes focus down on her burger. "Mom had a bad spell last night," she says quietly. "Stayed up with her. She was finally asleep about when you texted," Stephanie adds in a soft tone. "She's back dealing with the physical withdrawal again."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason is likewise busy chewing, had he forgotten breakfast again? Likely, and damn he needed the grease that you could only get from a Big Belly burger right now. His mouth is full when Steph's blue-eyed look is directed his way so he has to take a gulp of his soda before he can speak. "Who could you possibly meean?" he says with a smug smirk on his lips before he says, "Like I said, all I've got is the mask right now, just figured I do my part so you guys could do school and have lives and things, you know, normal people stuff." He shrugs.

"Totally timeless," he says before grinning as he remembers, "I pitched a fit when Alfred made me watch it the first time, all 'it's black and white' that's so lame, can't I just watch Star Wars?'" he snorts. "Anyhow the dialogue sold me that and Rick being cool as hell," he says. "And yeah, there's always something new to catch, last time I watched it, that whole talk between the girl considering Louie's offer and Rick really stuck with me. Making the hard choice for the people you care about, even if they'll hate you for it, that sort of thing."

There's sympathy written on Jason's face as he takes in the situation with Steph's mom. "Yeah, the DT's are brutal," he says. "I remember the week my step mom tried to quit, she was a mess, throwing up everywhere. I thought she was going to die," he says, then realizing that little memory probably doesn't help things, "She's lucky you've got her back" he says shifting the direction a little. "Gotta be hard, getting back on the wagon not knowing if you'll fall off again."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie turns over to sit more on her side, facing towards Jason with one denim-clad leg up on the couch between them, knee bent. She stops eating for the moment as she listens to him. "I don't think I'm good with that, Jason. I wasn't good with Dick taking everything on himself. I'm not good with you turning yourself into just Red Hood. Not for us, or the people of Gotham either."

The tired blue eyes take on a little more of a piercing look. "I don't know what all you've been through lately," she says. Stephanie no doubt knows about the breakup, even if she only met Kitty one time out in the driveway of the manor. "But I'm not going to let you withdraw into your mask like that," Stephanie tells him. She waggles a finger. "I'll totally kick your ass if you even try," she warns with a lopsided grin.

Jason's talk of his own mother gets a sympathetic nod from Stephanie. "Yeah. I think if she can make it back through the physical, she has a chance to stay straight again. Though she's having trouble doing that." Jason would know about when her first relapse was. If she's still dealing with physical withdrawal then obviously she's either kept using, or relapsed more than once since that first time he heard of it.

Red Hood has posed:
"Heh, right the people of Gotham," Jason remarks, dryly. His crusade had always been a personal thing, vengence over justice, the people he cared about over the faceless masses of the city. Not that he'd admit to the last one. He sighs, "I dunno, not sure it was anything that happened to me, at least recently," he says. "I mean yeah I broke up with Kitty, bu that was more of a symptom than a cause, I mean she's moved on, I've moved on, she's got a good life, I am just trying to figure out what mine looks like, and I'm not sure 'normal'," he does the air quotes. "Is part of it, maybe before I died, but now that I'm back it feels like being the Hood is the only life that really fits."

There's a tired smile from Jason at the threat, "Not sure it'll help," he says "But it'd be fun to see you try," he teases her lightly, an attempt to take the conversation out of the dark places it had turned towards.

He follows it up by blowing out a breath, and rolling his head on his shoulders., "Sorry, I shouldn't be getting all dark when you've got enough of that at home," he says the math clicking as she mentions her mother having problems staying straight. "Shit, didn't see it when you mentioned, but she used again, huh?" he asks her turning on the couch himself, leg crooked up towards her. "I can't remember if you ever told me what her thing was, pills, H, something else."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie grins over at Jason and reaches over to poke his chest. "You're totally on. We're going a couple of rounds," she tells him. She also knows there probably little chance she could take him even in a sparring match. But then such activities are good stress relievers. Far better than the tumbles that happen on the street.

"Yeah, she did use again. Twice now. Both when the physical stuff started kicking in," Stephanie says. "It's opioids. Prescription stuff normally. She's a nurse, and so, she has more access to that stuff than is good. And not like she can be completely removed from it, even if they have her on other duties that won't have her around them as much. Thankfully she hasn't taken any from work, that I know of. Not lost her job. Though I'm pretty sure her manager knows. Understanding woman," she says quietly.

Stephanie, sitting sideways on the couch, rests her head on the couch back. Her eyes study Jason thoughtfully. "I didn't really get to be around you two together much. But I liked the Jason that I saw then. I got the feeling you liked that Jason too. I don't think you need her to be him. If my confusing pronoun use isn't confusing. I should have added a 'we', 'they' and 'them' and got them all, right?"

Red Hood has posed:
Jason smirks as his chest is poked. "Deal," he says. It had been ages since he sparred with anyone, which itself was a little shocking, he really had been keeping himself apart from everyone.

Besides he hadn't fougth against Steph... well ever, as far as he could remember, and he was curious to see what she could do.

"Haven't fought a Batgirl in ages," he quips.

There's a frown for the situation with her mother, "Yikes, that stuff can get bad, it's so easy, right? No scoring from a dealer, no needles, just down a couple of pills with water..." he makes a face, though it quickly shifts to surprise, "Wow, her manager is awesome, I know people working way less important jobs fired for less, glad she's still got her job," he says but considering where her job was at, "Might be a good idea for her to take some vacation though, I don't know a ton about addiction, but I know changing up her enviroment for a bit should make it harder to fall into old habits, I'd offer to front the bill if all she can get is unpaid time but you know my money isn't exactly clean, but maybe Bruce, if you asked him."

"I did, but I dunno, I feel like a lot of that guy was just wishful thinking on my part," he says, before shaking his head, "And no, I don't need Kitty to be that guy, she made it easier sure, but I was on that road before I met her," a smirk. "You think my old gloomy ass was going to win her over?" he says chuckling at the pronouns thing. "Think you're still on the right track."

He grows serious again, "Anyhow, what killed the new me and me and Kitty was the same thing, I fucked up, made me realize the new me wasn't much more than a cover I was wearing over the Red Hood, the /old/ Red Hood," the killer. "And figured I'd need to get away for a bit, focus on what I'm good at."

And because Jason can't put even that much truth like that out there without a little humour as cover, "Pretty damn emo, right?"

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie finishes her burger and sets the wrapper aside, though her attention is mainly on Jason. She nods at what he has to say about her mother. "I don't know. She's kind of resistant to acknowledging her problem. I can try, but it might be a tough sell for her," Stephanie says. She doesn't comment on the offer of the money, though there was a definitely grateful look when the offer was made.

Stephanie rests her head back on the couch cushion, eyes studying Jason quietly. The movie keeps playing. Ilsa is in the cantina, and having Sam play As Time Goes By, with Rick about to hear the song and come out to yell at Sam for it.

Stephanie hesitates a moment before asking about what Jason mentioned. She gives him a grin at the emo comment, letting him have that moment of comfort before she asks, "Jason, what happened? How did you fuck up?" she asks him. Her voice isn't judgmental, and if anything one might suspect she's ready to take issue with the description, but asks the details first at least.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason nods, "I know, it's always a pain in the ass to get people that need help to admit they need help," he says. "I wish I knew what you could tell her that'd make her see, but if she comes around I'll do what I can," he says. "Hell you and her can hole up here if you want, not going to be using it myself for a bit, and well..." he says gesturing at the place. "It's a pretty great spot to go through some hard times."

He glances at the screen smiling at the scene for a moment before turning back, the smile continuing about the emo comment, before that question stops him cold. He's not surprised by it, it's the next natural thing to ask, but at the same time he's totally unprepared to answer it.

"I just fucked up, that's all you need to know," he says not willing to say it, speak the words 'I killed somebody'. He frowns though realizing how he sounded. "Didn't mean it like that," he says. "Just you're a good person, and you've got enough on your plate, with your mom and Ivy, and all of that, you don't need my shit bringing you down too. I need to carry it myself."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie's expression only changes to show concern for Jason. Not horror, or anything else that others, 'normal' John Public sorts, might at hearing this. "I think you're a good person too. And I never have too much time on my plant for you, Jason Todd," she tells him.

Stephanie scoops up her soda cup from Big Belly Burger, and takes a little sip from it while looking over the rim of the cup at Jason. "Come on, tell me about it?" she asks softly. "I'm not such a wimp that I can't be here for my friend and help him carry a bit of his burden. Especially after he's made me all sorts of offer to help me, to help my mother."

Stephanie turns her expression intentionally into a glare. "What, do you want to make me look bad? Being all thoughtful towards me while denying me the chance to do the same?" she says, all accusatory. She'd put her hands on her hips for the delivery, but she's too comfy snuggled up on the couch.

Red Hood has posed:
Yeah, the hands on the hip thing doesn't work while snuggled up against the couch like that, Jason, snorts lightly and shakes his head.

Her other words do reach him too, but for the moment he's just focused on his drink, letting his mind turn over the possible ways to respond, how to get out of this, or how to just go ahead and spill his guts.

In the end he chooses the latter, "Killed someone, didn't mean to do it, but it wasn't an accident either," it wasn't more than the bare bones of the story. But it was more than he'd told anyone besides Damian.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie's posture becomes more relaxed after delivering her little sharing ultimatum. Ok, not an ultimatum, but giving Jason enough guff he could tell himself he's just giving in to it, rather than maybe have to focus on deciding if it's something he wishes or needs to tell.

The girl's blue eyes stay focused on the taller man as he tells her. When Stephanie replies it's a quiet, gentle tone, without any judgment in it. "Who was it? How did it happen?" she asks him quietly.

She stays there, body relaxed, but there's the sense of Jason having her full attention. Someone who is listening to him and not judging him on what he says. Supportive.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason hesitates, before he realizes he's gone this far, and they were Bats, secrets never stayed secrets for long when one of them got into their head to start digging.

"The guy who sold my step-mom the hot dose that killed her, he got locked up for some other stuff and then got out of jail this summer," he licks his lips and has a drink of soda. "... before that I had a shot at Joker, had a bead right at the back of his head, didn't pull the trigger..." he looks over at her. "I had the Joker, the guy who killed me and I let him go," he says making sure the magnitude of it sinks in. "So, I was feeling good about myself and the track I was on, so when this guy got out, I figured I'd just get him sent back to jail, prove to myself, I've really changed, that I didn't need to kill, except when the time came to work the guy, to set him up, like flipping a switch I decided to off him," he frowns sipping his drink to the bottom. "This wasn't in the heat of passion, we weren't fighting, I just decided to kill him," he doesn't go into the rest, how he'd methodically played the guy down to the river and all the rest, what he said was enough.

"And I did. A week later, I wrapped up and left town."

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie sits up a bit more, though it's to slip her tennis shoes off and then turn to face Jason fully. Her legs are drawn up and she sits cross-legged, hands resting on her thighs down by her knees as she listens.

"I can only imagine how I'd feel about someone who did that to my Mom," Stephanie says. The blond looks down, hands gathering in her lap, fingers fidgeting.

She looks back up slowly. "It's not easy to deal with that kind of anger. The desire for vengeance," she says quietly. "You know, what you said, kind of makes me think of my Mom. I mean, not... that part. But her addiction. Every day she has to decide if she's going to use. Not just every day. Every time the urge is on her. You had to face that with Joker. You've had to face that with others we've faced. And this time... this time it got you," she says quietly, watching Jason's reaction to the comparison.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason's lips pull into a sardonic twist at the comparison to her mom, he knew where she was going with it, and in a way it scared him, so of course he had to joke: "Never reminded anyone of their mom before, their dad, sure, but not their mom."

Though he goes quiet at the rest turning it over in his head, looking at his empty soda cup rattling the ice at the bottom.

"I am not sure the idea I'm a murder junkie is exactly helping my confidence," he says, dryly, though as much as he tried to play it off as a joke it was true. "What kills me, is I don't know when or where the next time is going to be, who it will be, it's been five months and nine days since I killed that son of a bitch, how much longer until the next one. Hell, I shouldn't even be here, I only came back because Bruce..." he lets that trail off, they knew all that came with that. "The plan was to stay away, so when it happened again it wouldn't be here, so that it wouldn't come back on the Family."

Spoiler has posed:
Understanding dawns in Stephanie's eyes. She'd been focused on Jason and how it was impacting him, she hadn't thought through how it had driven his subsequent actions. Another thing it might have drawn occurs to her, but Stephanie decides against asking about that.

Stephanie is quiet for a moment. She looks down at her hands, fingers holding each other in her lap. "You could do that. I mean, you could stay away from them. But then again... you know, it's painful to find my Mom in the state she was tonight. It's painful for me. Painful for her. But you know... I know that my being there is good for her. I mean, there's times I know she hasn't used, and it wasn't just because she was doing it for herself. And, ultimately she has to find the strength. Right? But that doesn't mean she can't find a strength from others in her life."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason notes that look of understanding and turns away, he felt naked, this was more than he'd given away about himsefl... in about five months and nine days...

"Heh," he says about how that worked out, as he peels the lid off his drink to knock a little ice in his mouth to crunch between his teeth.

When Stephanie speaks, Jason turns his head but doesn't meet her eyes, at least not at first, before he makes himself do it, no fear, just like Bruce taught them.

"It's painful sure, but consider this Steph, say I snap and kill a guy again, well I've been seen around with you guys right? Hell, I wear a bat on my chest now," he'd have to do something about that. Deniability... he'd deal with it later. "So, what do you think the press is going to say about that? Or the Commish? I got lucky with the last one, I took him down to the river before I did him, threw his body in when I was done. Just another dealer turning up dead. The Red Hood shoots a guy, that's front page news, and bad news for our family."

He lets out a breath. "Yeah, I should probably get out of town," he says. "I'm playing with fire here, for what? Dick can handle my sectors or Damian..." He gets up and begins to pace.

Spoiler has posed:
Jason is able to pace away from Stephanie once, but when he paces back, she reaches out and takes hold of his hand to keep him from walking away again. She rises and shakes her head. "No, running away from us is the last thing you should do, Jason," she tells him.

"I'm the poster child for making public mistakes. Interview with April O'Neil and Harley, remember?" Stephanie says. Just the memory of it is enough to color Stephanie's cheeks. "Jason, you're family. Family takes care of their own. And sometimes that means letting your family be there for you."

Stephanie reaches a hand out to rest it above Jason's heart. "I know the person you are inside matters to you. You've indicated it a few times already. So let us help you with that? I can say please, or I can say, if you don't I'll have to kick your butt. Just assume I said whichever is the most effective, please," She asks, and gives Jason a cheeky grin.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason looks down at his hand when it's taken, then lifts his eyes to Steph, a questioning look in his eyes, "It's worked pretty well so far," he says, though how true is that? His happiest memories were right here in Gotham, though all of them felt so far away, divided from now by a gulf of trauma and pain.

There's a faint smirk about the interview, he'd forgotten about that. "Different kind of mistake Steph," he says, pulling his hand away. "And I'm trying to be there for all of you by not being here. Not bringing my shit down on all of you."

He doesn't stop her when she places her hand over his heart but he doesn't answer on his preference for threats or please, "Help me how?" he asks. "Want me to call everyone together and say, 'hi, I'm Jason it's been five months and nine days since I murdered someone'?"

He sighs, "Sorry, I know you're trying to help..."

Spoiler has posed:
"So, butt-kicking for goodness it is then," Stephanie tells Jason with a look that is a mix of humor and frustration. "Seriously, Jason, I'm not going to tell others about what you did. And you don't either unless you want to. But we can be here for you. If you're feeling that way and need someone to talk you down, I'm here. But maybe being here with your family, that won't be something you'll have to deal with."

Stephanie taps her fingers on his chest over his heart for a moment and then pulls her hand back. "I know how it must feel," Stephanie says quietly, her voice become a little tight. "Something like that affects you. But you don't have to go through it alone."

She swallows and looks down, her fingers tugging at each other in front of her. "Besides, who will I watch Casablanca with? And what happens to Rick if Louis isn't there to have the police round up the usual suspects? I mean, it's not going to go very well for Rick," she tells him.

Red Hood has posed:
"Do you ever stop being cheerful?" Jason asks her with a look of disgust that he doesn't quite sell.

After the touch to his heart, he moves and flops down on the couch again, sprawling.

"The thing of it is, the killing, it doesn't really affect me, I'm glad the guy's dead, I'm just angry that when I did it, I wasn't in control... it was something else, I thought it was the Pit," did he mention he'd been ressurected by Damian's other family? Likely not. "But Squirt says no. They don't make you crazy like people say. So," he lifts his hand. "It had to be me... right? Some messed up part of me needs this like your mom needs those pills."

"I wonder if it's the same for her, does she wake up thinking, I'm going to stay clean, then some point later, a little switch flips and she's suddenly scoring some pills, knowing that wasn't what she wanted but she can't stop herself?"

He looks up at Steph at the Casablanca reference, "Well I can stay to the end of the movie, if I'm even going anywhere," yes he missed that she meant than more tonight though he didn't miss the part about how it must feel, it just took awhile to cut through the layers of angst.

"Huh? Know how it feels how?" he asks, because honestly if you asked which Bat he associated the word killer with Steph would be at the bottom.

Spoiler has posed:
Stephanie's gaze drifts off across the room at the question about how it goes for her mother. Her eyes settle on the TV. Ilsa trying to talk Rick out of the travel papers. "I don't know if it's a switch flipping," she says. "I think she wakes up that way, but... a moment she loses faith or control or just, stops wanting to fight it?" Stephanie says somberly.

After Jason reclines on the couch, Stephanie takes a seat along the edge of the cushion, sitting up beside him as she looks over at the dark-haired young man. "You need to stay longer than just the movie, ok? Rick ends up interrogated by the Gestapo otherwise," she says, blue eyes rolling for a moment.

The question catches Stephanie off guard. She hadn't intended to touch on certain matters. "I can imagine how I'd feel," she tries to explain, looking away from him. "Even if you felt it was necessary, that doesn't ever make it feel ok. I could... could imagine how that would be."

Red Hood has posed:
For all that he's in a mood, Jason does listen. "Just a failure of will?" he asks it was an interesting perspective. Less a switch and more running out of fucks to give about staying clean "Huh," he says with all the expression and openness one might expect of Bruce.

As Steph persists, Jason can't help but smile a little, "This is how you got Bruce to let you keep fighting crime isn't it? I'm living that right now." He breathes a sigh that sounds something like a laugh. "I can see why he caved, you're relentless."

The reaction to the question is unexpected, and Jason's brows raise, "You okay, Steph?" he asks her shifting on the couch to look at her more closely. "It probably would have felt like that when I was Robin, yeah," he says, not touching on after he died, or now. "But we can stop talking about this if its bothering you, but, y'know I'm here if you want to talk. Only fair right?"

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Stephanie draws a breath and looks back to Jason. "Yeah, I'm ok," she says with a little nod of her head. "We've just all been through a lot lately," she says quietly. "And I'm ok talking about this if you are. But Jason? Please don't leave us, ok?" she asks him quietly. "Besides you are engaged to Carrie after all. Still have to have Thanksgiving with the parents," she reminds him.

Stephanie looks down at Jason and then lets herself slide off the couch cushion, body sliding down to a sitting position in front of the couch, leaning back against it. "I think I may end up falling asleep on you before long," she says quietly. "Which, does not reflect on your conversational skills I assure you. More on the... whole not sleeping since... ah... what day is it?"

Red Hood has posed:
Jason nods, studying Stephanie for a long moment before he nods, after all a lot has happened and he could buy that was all there was to it. As for her request that he stay, he nods, "Sure," he says. "I'll stay and work something out."

There is a grin for the business with Carrie, "I feel bad about all that, honestly, but there's a part of me that can't stop finding it funny. And yeah, I was tempted to miss Thanksgiving, but damn if they're going, I can't really miss it."

It felt good to laugh, though when Steph asks what day it was, he finds he comes up blank. "One that ends in Y?" he offers oh-so-helpfully. "I haven't slept in..." he searches for some frame of reference. "Awhile." As for her passing out on him, he grabs a pillow and hands it to her, "For comfort and to catch drool," he tells her turning his eyes back to the movie.

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"I do not drool when I- ok yeah I totally drool," Stephanie confirms. She takes the pillow, fluffing it and then positioning it to hold her head. "Sounds like you need to as well then," she tells him.

Stephanie rests her head on the pillow. "It really is a nice house," she comments, looking around it before letting her eyes drift closed. Stephanie reaches a hand over, finding Jason's chest and giving it a small pat. "Here's looking at you, kid," she says. Though her eyes are closed. So she's not actually looking at him. Though the thought is there.