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Alyson glanced over at Nate, not wanting to give into him since he had yet to apologize to Ty, but not being able to resist a coffee either. Putting away her phone, she took the cup with a grateful smile.

"Thanks," she said, moving her thumbs around to stretch them after all that texting. Before she could ask if he was ready yet to apologize, the teen himself entered the waiting room.

Ty came into the room, his face stormy. He stopped short when he saw Nate and then he walked up stiffly.

"She's awake if you want to see her," he said tightly, not looking at Nate but instead the wall behind Alyson. "Though she's not in the bests of moods, just to warn you."

With that he headed toward the doors.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

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At first Nate did not know how to react to the sequence of events that happened. He was still trying to move past the argument he and Alyson had, even though he hadn't started doing so yet, so when Ty very suddenly appeared, Nate was torn between two trails of thought. His first trail, obviously, was his peace plan with Alyson. The second trail was the two-sentenced information Ty plopped down at this feet, which branched off into many tiny paths that baffled Nate's sense of direction. When did Dotty wake up? Why wasn't he informed of this? Did she say anything about the beating? Did she ask for him? How the heck did Ty get past security in order to see her?

He had to stop himself from going any further or he would have lost himself completely. Nate frowned as Ty left, and even though he wasn't at first inclined to, he moved forward to stop the teen.

"Wait--" He reached out to halt Ty by grabbing his arm, releasing it immediately once he got the desired outcome. Nate looked unsettlingly between the teen and the ICU doors. "Is she OK?" he asked, treading lightly on the subject as he was torn between wanting and not wanting to know how bad she was. "I mean, did she look all right?"

~~~~~~

It was almost a week and a half after the accident before Mary Jane dared to visit the Sutcliffs' to see how Chase was doing. She had to remind herself over and over again as she walked over to their condo that it wasn't her fault that she couldn't visit sooner. The little pep talk didn't help, though, for the guilt had settled deep after a few days of not seeing Chase. She could only hope that the present she was bringing might help soften the blow of her unplanned arrival. Maybe if she crossed her fingers and toes...

Arriving at the door, Mary Jane settled her awkwardly wrap present under her arm as she rapped on the door. She blew out a long winded breath as she waited, hoping for the sake of avoiding the questions that no one was home.

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"She looked like she was jumped by a thug who took out all his childhood anger issues on her," Ty said tightly. "So no, she's not 'okay.'" A muscle in his jaw jumped slightly as he clenched his teeth.

----

Jenna was the one to open the door, and she looked at Mary Jane with quiet blue eyes, taking in the girl with one look before stepping back and opening the door wider.

"Chase is in the living room," she said softly, before turning and returning to the kitchen where she resumed cutting up vegetables. Other than the sound of the TV, the house was still, which was odd for the Sutcliff house.

"Jen?" Chase called from his place on the couch, his broken arm in a sling around his neck. "Who was at the door?" His eyes remained on the football game in front of him.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

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Walter walked to work, wondering if it was abnormally freezing for the time of year or whether it was just him. He opened the door of the store and hurried inside, glad to find that Travis had the place more than sufficiently warm due to his cold nature.

"Walter, I hate to keep bringing it up...but you're late again." Travis said, sighing as he stepped out of his small office in the back.

"I know, I got stopped in foot traffic. Total gridlock on the crosswalk." Walter said, shaking his head helplessly. Travis gave him a disparaging frown and disappeared back into his office where he hid so that they very rarely ever saw him. Walter took off his hoodie and tossed it under the counter, satisfied that his employer had bought his lame excuse.

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"I don't know why he keeps giving in to you," Elena complained, coming around from the back of the store wielding a feather duster. "Your excuses get lamer all the time."

She flicked the duster at some antiques and gave Walter her signature frown over her shoulder.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

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"Morning Elena." Walter said with less-than-entirely-genuine politeness. He placed his hat on the counter and wondered how in the world Elena managed to always be cleaning something all the time.

"I can't help it that I'm always late. While the reasons I give are usually a load of crap, I assure you that I always have perfectly valid reasons that are real...I just keep them to myself." He said, striking his pose of leaning against the counter that he would probably spend most of the day in.

"Besides, what do you or he care? It's stupid boring in here. We really don't need two of us wandering around aimlessly with feather dusters fighting over any dust mites we might be able to find in this place." He said, staring out the storefront windows with a distracted frown.

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"Then why don't you quit already?" Elena asked, rolling her eyes. "Seriously. You're always late, you never work, you might as well be sitting at your place in a Lay-Z Boy chair watching television all day drinking yourself silly."

She swiped at an old clock lightly, doing her best not to knock off the exposed hands that seemed to fall off at least once a day.

P.S."Brooklyn!'

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"Don't be stupid. Money is essential...even the stupid bit that we get paid to be here." Walter snapped irritably, his attempts at a decent mood falling entirely flat.

The truth of the matter was he hadn't slept properly or showered in two days since Cadence had thrown him out of their apartment. While this was enough to make any man a little touchy, the fact that he more than deserved being thrown out made it that much more irritating since he couldn't even really feel very sorry for himself. Naturally he planned on keeping this latest development concerning his less-than-perfect marriage to the girl of his dreams a secret from Elena.

"I wish I was drinking myself silly just now." He grumbled grumpily, checking his cell phone to see if any time at all had passed since his arrival.

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Elena rolled her eyes. "Why don't you give another lame excuse to Travis and get an insanely early lunch break. I'm sure you'd be able to pull it off, seeing as you seem to be able to get away with anything anywhere." She shook her head in annoyance. Ever since her cousin had come to mooch off of her, she had had to actually work hard to keep enough money coming in to support both of them. Especially since Thomas seemed more interested in playing his guitar and writing songs then going out and getting a job himself.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

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"I am hungry." Walter conceded, his temper and tone softening a little at the prospect of food in the near future.

"I think Travis should keep food stocked for us here, especially considering the crappy wages he pays us. It would be a boost to moral in these horrible economic times." He explained loudly, hoping their boss would hear him from his office in the back. Walter leaned back against the counter, satisfied that he'd done his best towards promoting free food for the workforce of the store.

"You hungry?" He asked, wondering if Elena really needed to eat at all. He was convinced that she couldn't be quite human, as it seemed no human being that hadn't given birth to children and been forced to be a mother could possibly be so a**l about life in general.

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Elena hesitated briefly. "Maybe," she conceded shortly before turning away. "But unlike some people, I can wait until our lunch break to eat so I can get some work done in the meantime." Somehow she figured that eventually Travis would someday realize that she actually worked hard to earn the money he gave her and would offer her a raise. She did not care if he had to cut Walter's pay in half if he had to, she needed the money.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

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"What work?" Walter scoffed. He carefully noted the utter lack of any customers in the store and even the absence of any curious looks from people passing by the window. The demand for antiques in the city on a weekday morning was clearly at an all time low.

"There's nobody here." He said slowly, hoping she'd pay attention.

"And you've dusted everything to the point where I think you're aging all this crap beyond its actual years. So really, it's not that I'm neglecting work as much as work is neglecting m." He said, a sarcastic smile forcing its way past his irritable mood.

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"You know, you'd think Travis would go bankrupt already, considering we do seem to never have any costumers," Elena thought aloud. "I wonder if he's set up a private business in his office. He spends enough time in there." She set the feather duster down and went to pick up her coat from behind the counter.

Putting it on, she headed toward the doors. "Grabbing some food, you want any Travis?" she called back toward the office.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

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"Nope, I'm good. I packed a lunch." Travis said, ever the representative of conservative living. "Thanks though." He added thoughtfully.

Walter grabbed his hoodie and pulled it on before grabbing his hat and heading for the door, clearly planning on following Elena to find food.

"Where are we going?" He asked eagerly, entirely unaware that he was unleashing the crushing loneliness that he'd been suffering from the past two days on his rather unlikeable coworker.

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Elena glanced over at the eager Walter and wondered why he seemed so up to going somewhere with her.

"We are not going anywhere," she said slowly. "I am going to Metro to get a sandwich." She stepped off the curb and started for the new sub place that was not far from the antique store. She wondered briefly if she should call and check in with Thomas, but then she figured that if the boy could not fend for himself at this age he was a completely lost cause.

P.S."Brooklyn!"