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Kaleb got patched up in the medbay. He was in there a while and consented to blood work being done and was given a sedative to help deal with the side effects he was having. In the end after a rest and after an ardent try he decided just leaving the school was the best option.
He sat outside, away from the house as he good in the front garden waiting for the car to come. Hishair was disheveled and in his face a bit as he sat there hunched forward, elbows on kneesand fingers laced together between his knees observing the insects as he listened to them stomp around.
Lorna had had a rough time of it. After waking up in her bed, her real honest to god bed, in her room… she'd stayed there. For most of the day she'd been quiet and spent it avoiding conversation about what she'd gone through. She hadn't taken that shower that Malice had demanded. Hadn't so much as combed her hair. She wore a grey pair of shorts and a tank top.. but that was it.
Her bare feet skuffed against the pavement as she wandered around the grounds. Her expression drawn and distant. Though the red around her eyes and nose suggested that she'd been crying a good idea.
Kaleb flinched as the rock ground against rock. It didn't used to be like this, not for the young man that ignored the world. FInally he flinched enough that a hand came up to deaden the sound that carried too close. He took a deep breath nodding slowly, but didn't pick his head up.
It took a shocking amount of time for Lorna to register that the boy she was trying to avoid and was dead set against talking to was in front of her. And in pain. She stopped short, brows furrowing as she looked over him. A mess. Just as she was. A tightening in her chest followed and the green haired mutant sank down to the ground before him. Her arms looping around her knees as she crouched, watching him.
But she didn't say anything. Didn't offer anything. She left a good few feet between them and didn't look too sure about even that.
Kaleb's jaw was set. Lorna would know that expression as: I am thinking of too many things and trying not to think of any. His fingers slowly relented the squeeze on soundwaves around him as Lorna stopped moving on the gravel. His eyes were still bloodshot. He didn't look at her though. Quietly words picked themselves out and carried over to her speaking no louder than he would were she sitting in his lap. Sound had a way to go where it put it. It would see that's starting to work a bit again. "Look, I know. We don't… have to do this part." He looked up though to see if the ride was here, fingers pushing the hair out of his face that hung there like he was Kellan.
Lorna flinched as if he had spoken loudly, as if he'd been in her personal space as he spoke. But otherwise she kept quiet. She kept still. A war of emotions tred over her features. Her brows pinched, a crease of her forehead and a trembling of her lower lip followed. She clapped her hand over her lips to halt any further sound, even as she settled back to sit properly on the gravel. Still in her Pjs, her hair a mess, and bare foot. She looked lost. She looked heart broken.
Her eyes closed as she sat there, her heart thumping hard in her chest and loudly in her ears. Yet she didn't speak. Couldn't speak, or perhaps would not.
Wrong place, wrong time? Right place, right time? So hard to say. But out comes Xi'an, out of the mansion, seeming to just be wandering. She's in a loose fitting skirt that falls to about her knees, in yellow, and white top. Casual attire. Likely she's just planning to have a walk about the grounds. But then she spots Kaleb, and her brows go up. The dark-haired woman approaches, looking just a bit curious. "Bonjour… is… all well?" she asks. Might be apparent that all is not well.
Kaleb wondered why everytime he tried to be alone he increased his 'people gravity'. His hands laced back togehter and there was a faint nod. He confirmed with her quietly, "Seizures stopped. They um… they said I checked out and can go home." He'd only confessed this in hopes Xi'an wasn't here to tell him he couldn't leave. His eyes darted around the yard out of reflext chasing the sounds that should be inaudible but were quite prominant to him, and back to Lorna briefly. Yup, her running into him was not intended it seemed. Quietly he said in a more resonant tone than prior, "I was told someone would be by with a car."
Lorna didn't say anything to Xi'an as the other woman approached. She kept quiet. She kept her eyes on Kaleb, red rimmed from crying earlier as they were. She curled her toes against the gravel of the driveway. Sitting there much like a child would. Her arms looped around her knees as she listened and watched. It didn't seem as if she cared what happened around her. Much less could stand to speak to the young man before her.
A faint frown presses across Xi'an's lips as she observes the pair. No, this does not look good. She watches Lorna for a moment, then looks up to Kaleb. "I admit I've not been paying the best of attention," the French-speaking woman says, her accent as delightfully present as it always is. "But… perhaps one of you could tell me what I've missed?" she asks. Because, well. Obviously it's something!
Kaleb was quiet for a long, long moment. It was no secret that the both went MIA for two weeks so he'd assumed she meant something else. He'd said his peace once and it did more damage so now he just sat silently. for a long moment with the fight out of him for the day. He wasn't going to be rude to Xi'an though; not in this. He shrugged and shook his head. Everything was too… loud. He spoke and flinched faintly and restarted, "Which par-… Which part did you mean?"
Lorna curled her hands around her knees, picking at the skin along her nails that flaked off in hang nails. She didn't respond. Didn't even seem to give Xi'an a moment's consideration. The green haired mutant had been quite a topic of concern since her rescue and return. And it didn't seem that whatever she'd gone through, had left without any kind of scars. Though it appeared they were entirely left on her mind.
Her gaze lifted from the ground toward Kaleb as he spoke, as he flinched and struggled to speak through the pain every sound created. But she didn't speak. Didn't offer to speak either.
That frown on Xi'an's lips grows just a touch as she glances between the two. There's definitely a desire to step back. To let it go. To walk away. It's only respectful, to give people their privacy! But then comes a deep sigh. "You do not have the look about you of one that is planning… to spend a week back home, Kaleb," she finally says. "I can't help but… worry… you are thinking it will be easier away from here." For now, Xi'an's going to leave Lorna to her silence.
Kaleb furrowed his brow and held a hand out until the sound of the crickets was drown out into silence again. Fewer waves to track. He was too tired to be around anything like a kitchen or a medlab full of flying metal. Apparently Karma hit that nail. "It's going to get worse. Before it gets better. I came back too… soon… but I wanted to see for myself… so I tried coming home." He looked up to Karma making eye contact to see if that all went through. His eyes shift back to Lorna and locked on for a moment. He murmured, "I was…am… sorry."
Lorna's expression crumbled some what under Xi'an's words, her gaze lingering on Kaleb. But she wasn't spurred into speech until the sonic mutant turned his gaze to her and her breathing halted. She froze as he murmured an apology. She could only stare for some measure of time, the seconds ticking by as she stared at him. Seeming frozen in that moment that his voice had eached her.
Then she flinched again. Her eyes screwed shut and she exhaled a shuddering breath.
"It wasn't me." She mumbled.
Karma slowly looks from Kaleb, to Lorna. She considers the young woman for a moment, then her gaze shifts right back to Kaleb. "What are you sorry for, Kaleb?" she asks, in a quiet voice. And as Xi'an watches him, well… she concentrates some.
Kaleb cracked a rueful smirk, "More than we got time for, Karma." Bloodshot blue eyes slid to her giving the telepath a knowing look and then back to Lorna. He nodded "Yeah. I didn't know. I'm sorry okay? I can't …fix… any of this." His eyes flinched as his voice split octaves making him sound more like an agitated harmonica and less a man on a bench.
Lorna's mind was a chaotic mess of frazzled emotions, all rioting for dominance across her features. Blame, self loathing, guilt, mixed along with anger and hurt. Xi'an's words had her grimacing, as she broke her gaze off Kaleb. Her throat tightened and her heart thumped painfully in her ears.
"It's okay," She mumbled, and she was back to shutting down. Her voice weak and her emotions died. She detached mentally, as if it was just too much to consider. What she'd said and what Kaleb had seemed too much for the young mutant to focus on.
So she fell silent again, dropping her gaze to the gravel at her bare feet.
Xi'an isn't exactly the world's best telepath. It takes her a lot of focus to read thoughts… you know, when she's not totally subverting another's mind and forcing her control upon them. Which means she might have missed something there. She blinks a few times, as she comes back to reality, as she continues to stare at Kaleb. "Who… who is … her?" she asks, with a glance back to Lorna. And as she waits for a response, she steps forward, to Kaleb. She carefully reaches out, with the faintest of smiles on her lips, and lays a hand ever so gently on his shoulder. "I've a lot of time, you know?" she offers, her voice so very faint.
Kaleb just felt… defeated. Lorna's words bit into him and the look of tiredness just curled up into anger. He just shook his head and bit his words. Rhetoric? Mutant rights? Yes he could argue those all damn day. Feelings? His thoughts? Less so. Those were in a small fort. As his opinion was decided for him he stopped all conversation on it all together.
Instead he tried to find words to sum up for Xi'an what was up. "The, um, people how grabbed us. Did things. Like warren… different. They made changes to us. We didn't get a say." His feelings betrayed him taking his neutral expression in a wince. "They did things and we dunno what. But she had something inside her called Malice and THey did things to my DNA with some… chemical drug. Elixir had a hard time with that one. Now my own power is trying to fucking kill me and I had to go to this..place for a while and it might be best if I go back… I dunno. I dunno." He hated feeling utterly lost. He looked back up to Karma with a bit of a grateful look, and quietly added back to one voice instead of split tone, "Thanks. More than most got."
Lorna swallowed hard as she crossed her arms, her gaze flickering toward the Xi'an and then down. Her hands trembled faintly. "I .. I was awake.. the whole time." She broke off her words dying on her lips. She seemed to turn off again, before her gaze swung back toward Kaleb. She swallowed a hard lump. It had been so much easier to talk to Remy about what had happened to her. Even if she hadn't told him everything.
".. it was like a televison.." She breathed, unable to meet Kaleb's gaze as she spoke. Her voice breathlessly in tone and on the verge of another break down in the very near future.
Xi'an is trying to keep up. No one passed the finer details of this situation on to her! She watches Kaleb, as he speaks. Then Lorna speaks up, and she turns to look upon the younger woman. Oh, oh, look at the look on Karma's face. Is that a touch of guilt? She can't help it, really! She swallows, and then looks down for a moment. Deep breath! In, out. "I don't-…" she starts, and then her eyes raise, to focus on Lorna. "I have… lived through it," she says, in a quiet voice. "Not… chemicals," she explains, with a glance to Kaleb. "But to lose my body…" Nevermind how she's taken other people's bodies! "But… what other place, Kaleb?" she asks. "There… there is no better place than here… to recover. To learn. To handle this all…"
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 5
Kaleb had enough of an emotional response that the distant sonic formed expression and it wasn't happy. It was back to Lorna though and he tried so hard not to say anything, but nope. too much and the sonic just snapped. Thankfully he was of a mind not to yell but he nearly made an exception. His voice dropped and his words were quiet and sharp. "Lorna I'm so goddamned tired of being everyone's bad guy. I Never-meant-to fucking-hurt you and thought I'd never fucking see you again while I was unable to move. I thought about you and my brother. Do you honestly think any of this was deliberate?"
Tears of rage stung his eyes as his teeth pressed together. "I thought it was you okay?. Did I sleep with her? You? No." The look was just furious. And with that he took a step back from her and looked entirely overwhelmed as pitch started to escape him His hand curled into a tight fist and pressed to his lips to keep himself silent for a moment. He took a deep breath and shook his head and just shook it.
"Anytime someone gets fucking hurt I get blamed. Everytime something happens to a woman? I get blamed. I'm trying to do right by you and take responsibility for my actions, but don't you put that on me and don't you decide my opinion or intent for me. Everyone else out that has done that. I thought you'd at least be able to trust me even just a little to give me the benefit of the doubt. Not… you too." It was quite factually the most he's said since his captivity. It really was all or nothing with him.
Lorna flinched at Kaleb's words, but she didn't say anything. Didn't attempt to argue or defend herself. She merely curled up all the more on the gravel drive way. Her arms wrapping tightly around her knees and her head burrowing out of sight into her arms. She rocked gently, and to anyone else, likley couldn't be heard. But considering it was Kaleb and Xi'an? The mutterings were soft, jagged and broken. Mournful cries that made little to no sense.
She carried on a conversation that wasn't there. As if she were back inside her mind and trapped. Unable to or perhaps, now, unwilling to remain in her present. None of her mutterings made any sense. Even to those that could hear her.
Xi'an's eyes lock on Kaleb as he starts to get upset. She prepares, instinctively, to shut the poor boy down if he starts to get real loud. It's not exactly something she'd want to do, but years of training have taught her to do just that. Better a catatonic Kaleb than injured Xi'an and Lorna! But… the boy is just ranting. Upset, at wits end, beside himself, of course, but not destroying chunks of the mansion nor his friends. So it's all groovy. Ish. Relatively speaking.
Xi'an steps forward again, to reach out, to bring up both hands to Kaleb's head, to lay on either side of the man's head, to stare directly into his yes. "Kaleb. Look at me," she says, her tone wholly insistent. Not loud, but firm. "It is not your fault that men did this to you, or to Lorna," she says. "And if you cannot bear the noise in your head right now, you tell me. Together, we can," she tells him. "Do you need that right now, Kaleb?" she asks. And, well, Lorna is forgotten again. Because Karma's just not got in her head that cars could go flying just as easily as windows exploded.
Kaleb was a sonic shorting out, not yet done recovering, and injured. In short there was a lot of static on the signal. She told him to focus and he…did. Did she push him? He didn't even know but he found himself complying. His eyes snapped to hers and he was too damn exhausted to argue or push back. He fell quiet and flinched still hearing every disjointed utterance Lornamade. How was somehow a remarkable thing, but he had. The sound was there and he couldn't help but be aware of it.
"I'm tired. There's so damn much of…everything…" He took a deep breath and nodded to her. "Just shut it off. Shut it… all off. " His eyes squint shut, "They decided for us who we're going to be. Why didn't we ever get a say?" His eyes looked back to Lorna, still hurt but at least not having words bite into her. "I fucked up okay? I wanted the world to get better for you. I did what I could. I might just be the monster everyone tells me I am but I fucking tried. Remember that next time you want to insinuate that I'm a cad here. I never took you up on that offer cause it wasn't you."
He looked back to Karma and said "Just please, make the static stop."
In any other situation it was entirely possible that Lorna would be ripping up cars to make a nice little ball of metal to hide in. That or tearing them to pieces in her torrent of emotions. But she'd spent a little over two weeks not in control of her body. Out of touch of her emotions and her connection to her powers. She hadn't been in control. So even while she whimpered and mumbled and cried into her arms… nothing happened.
Lorna was desperately trying to claw her way back into that empty shell she had been. It was easier. Easier to just let Malice have control and keep muttering to herself instead of listening. Instead of fighting back. She had tried when she'd first awoken in the medbay. When she'd first seen Kaleb.. but Malice had ultimately won that battle of wills.
Yet now there was no other mind there to play driver. Just Lorna. Alone with her thoughts and the broken torrent of emotions that were too near. Kaleb's words earned her clutching her hands over her ears as she rocked back and forth. Muttering.
Things are getting worse before they're getting better! So Xi'an does what she does. She stares at Kaleb, right in the eyes. It's so much easier with eye contact, with physical contact, with proximity. She stares at the man, even as he shuts his eyes. And then, her powers flash. Not a real flash, of course. There's nothing to be seen. There's really nothing to be felt, either. It just comes rather suddenly, and the bit of Kaleb's mind that's hearing that static, those noises, that's so overwhelmed… it's just put to sleep. Dreamless sleep, like that of someone knocked out by surgery drugs. Not his whole mind, of course, just that bit… and, well, it's bound to make him a little foggy-headed and distracted. Karma's powers are more a baseball bat than a scalpel.
Soon as she engages that, she turns to look back at Lorna. She doesn't need to eye contact to keep it up, so that's not a problem!
Kaleb just stood there fatigued and angry and jsut for all the world wishing to be alone in the heart of that mountain where nothing could hurt him and he could just stop doing damage to the world around him by dragging ruin around like a dead body. Weirly it was sort of the same bum deal Lorna struck with Maximus. Just, take it all. You'd think he'd learned. He stood still adnd his brain was shot…numb? No deaf. And there was, for a moment, just peace again. Max was right. The ease of it was addicting and he was going to need to rehone that skill. It also threw off his equilibrium so he sat. He went to speak and thought better of it. This was not some soundproof room and things could get broken and people he gave a damn could be hurt… further… because of him. He looked to Lorna and it broke what little there was of his heart; that sliver that gave a shit about something specific rather than sweeping causes he could throw rage or money at.It completely affirmed why he never discusses himself with her. His hand reached out to Karma's arma nad gave it a squeeze. Thank you. He pointed to Lorna though as if trying to ahve her help her.
Xi'an gives one look back to Kaleb, as the man goes to sit. She flashes him a smile, and then, with a touch of concentration, her voice resonates in his mind. "I'm here if you need me," she whispers in thoughts. "Just concentrate and I'll hear you," she adds. Because denying the man any way of saying 'please god give me back my ears!' would just be cruel. And Karma tries very hard not to bed.
Then, she turns, and steps over to Lorna. She squats down in front of the young woman, quite prim and proper as she does. She is, afterall, in a skirt! "Lorna? Cherie?" she asks. "May I sit next to you?" she asks. Because sometimes simple questions are enough to draw a mind back to the present.
Lorna remained bunched up as she had been but her rocking slowed as Xi'an approached and spoke gently to her. Perhaps it was the french that got through to her. After all, Remy often used it and she trusted the young mutant as a friend. He'd been the first and only person that she'd tried to speak to about what had happened. And while there had been tears she hadn't crumbled into the rocking ball she was now.
Her hands remained clapped over her ears, unaware of what had happened to make Kaleb suddenly silent, but perhaps unwilling to risk it for all the good it would do her.
Slowly, her muttering broke off, trailing into silence. It was several minutes of Xi'an having to sit there before slowly, with an aching hesitance.. Lorna's figure started to uncurl from the protective huddle she'd wound herself into.
Kaleb could not emphasize how very bad he was with people. He was terrible at communication and life was easier when he didn't have to care about anything. He needed a walk and frankly right now he was bad at that too so he went back to what he was doing when everyone walked in. He went back to resting his elbows on his knees and watched bugs do bug stuff. He reached through the mental like used to Kellan's, *Thanks. I still dunno if any of this is a good idea, but… thanks*
Xi'an looks back, every so often, to check in with Kaleb. Just make sure he's not looking worse, as he lives the deaf life. She flashes him a small smile, one that's not wholly confident. Yeah, she's not sure it's a good idea, either. But it's done, and no one's screaming, so. Improvement!
But the most of Xi'an's attention is on Lorna. She stays squated. She waits. She has tremendous patience. Mind over matter is a very real thing and besides, she's rather fit. When Lorna finally starts to react, to uncurl, Xi'an shifts. She leans to the side, and then pivots, and ends up dropping her rear onto the gravel beside Lorna. "Would it be alright if I touch your hair, mon ami? The green is so delightful," she says.
Finally Lorna's hands drop back to her sides. The quiet of the summer's afternoon settling around her. Even as she keeps her gaze steadily lowered away from Kaleb. As Xi'an speaks though, it took a beat, two and a third before the green haired girl turned her focus wholly onto the other woman. Finally she nodded, a slight crease tugging at her eyebrows. The thought, the feeling of confusion written clear on her features. No one ever asked to play with her hair when it was green. She usually had to deal with people touching it without her permission or insulting it..
"..Yeah.. I guess.." She whispered.
Kaleb was here first. He wasn't fit to wander off. He was still healing from being assailed by the med lab. He wanted a nap and for the day to be over. He was hurt, he was still angry and it wasn't even at something he could put the hurt on. He was entirely comfortable to hold the world accountable for creating this situation to begin with.
So.
Much.
Anger.
No wonder why Malice adored him. He, however, was not happy about that entire encounter. It wasn't who Lorna was. It wasn't why he ever liked her. He even said as much and no matter what he tried to tell people it fell on deaf ears which struck him as wildly ironic.
He gave up trying to care or understand right now and just got up and wandered down the gravel. The crunch for all the world made no noise when he walked on it.
Xi'an's hand comes up, only when given permission, and she trails her fingers down through the other woman's hair. She's careful and gentle, not tugging any knocks, not pulling. Soon as she reaches Lorna's back, she raises her hand again and repeats. Of course the action is meant to be soothing. That's what all of this is about! After a few passes down those green tresses, Xi'an speaks again. "Do you want Kaleb to stay here, cherie?" she asks. There's a pause, and she glances up to the young man that wanders. "He cannot hear us," she clarifies, if that was still a question in the younger woman's mind.
Lorna hadn't brushed her hair. She hadn't showered. Hell she hadn't bothered to get out of her pajamas that Charles had set out for her. The young woman hadn't even eaten. Not under watchful, worried eyes, or concerned looks. She was spiraling into a depressive state and it didn't seem likely to halt anytime soon. Of course, she was in a house with several telepaths and doctors that could help with that.
She was likely in the best place in the world to deal with the mental trauma of having someone else drive your body around like a sedan for two weeks.
So it was really a testiment to Xi'ans skills that the woman managed to avoid knots and tangles as well as she did. Lorna's frame slowly relaxed with each movement, and then.. well, she spoke. And Lorna's shoulders tensed again and she screwed her eyes up once more.
"…He doesn't want me around.. she liked him better.. was better for him. He liked her better. She told me…" Again and again and again while Malice had toyed with the young man and mocked Lorna mentally with each touch and heated kiss.
Kaleb thought out loud to Karma musing to someone. She offered to listen *I never tried to force her to do anything, Xi'an. I never… used… my ability like that, and not on her I know she doesn't fucking believe me. It doesn't goddamned matter. She needs someone to be pissed at? Fine. I'll be it, but that I didn't do. Just … help her be her. This isn't okay. * Just furious. His jaw was set and he'd resigned the nihilistic idea that trying to make anything better while the broken pieces still jagged into the world was a waste of time. It was making a cake with the eggshells still in it and hoping they'd just burn off. It wasn't reason, and it wasn't how the world nor cooking worked.
"Normally, cherie," Xi'an murmurs out, her voice still quiet, even if Kaleb can't hear. She's closer enough to Lorna. There's no need to speak in anything but a tiny voice, just above a whisper. "I would tell you that you do not get to decide that. That only Kaleb can decide who Kaleb wants around," she says. As she speaks, she continues to careful run fingers through that hair. Okay, maybe she hits a few knots! But she's still gentle. Xi'an sure seems to like playing with hair. Could be she's doing it for herself as much as for Lorna? Surely, she needs a physical distraction, as she tries to hold two conversation at once. "But in this very special case, I happens that I know what the young man wants. I can feel his mind… right now…" she explains, as she turns to stare at Lorna's profile. "I can feel it. He cares for you. You. Not Malice," Xi'an says, to Lorna.
And as she speaks aloud, so too she speaks in the young man in question's mind. <Calm, Kaleb,> she urges. Not just words, but also the emotion itself, sent across that telepathic link. <She cares for you. She's confused and upset and frightened… just as you are… if you both could listen, and feel… you can see how similar you are right now.>
Xi'an's words brought fresh tears to Lorna's eyes and the young woman began to crumble again. The gentle touch, the soft words and the promises that Kaleb cared about her and not Malice was all too much for her to process. To handle. To logically push through all the memories of taunts and scarred damage that the psonic mutant had done to her was simply too difficult for her at the moment.
Instead she sat there crying, gasping for air and coughing to the point it was clear she was on the way to making herself sick.
Kaleb looked back to Karma and Lorna. They were talking. He didn't know about what, but it was whatever was going on with Lorna. Good. She needed the emotional support, he just needed a significant amount less audible input until he could get home and find some quieter way to cope with this. He left the mountain too soon, but there were things to be done. The world wasn't going to wait on him for that.
He was able to comfortably write off the world. He didn't lie to Malice about any of that. An eyebrow arched. *Yeah. We're broken. I could have caught it, and I didn't. All we can do now is try to fix this if it can be fixed and this? Trust me, this will get worse if I stay. I feel bad for Malice though. I don't think she's ever got fair opportunity to be herself and not someone's puppet either. Feel bad for her. She's kinda as much a pawn in this as we were. Still wish I knew why… ride's here. * The car finally pulled up and he watched them, disappointed and hurt which really might pass as any other judgmental look he's ever had. The differences were slight if there were any. He tapped his ears knowing he may need them later, sadly. There was a nod to them and got int he car.
Well, that didn't go exactly as planned! The problems Xi'an is used to working through are usually a little less complicated than this, and she at least knows she out of her league. So, when Lorna breaks down again, Karma just turns and hugs her. Both arms around her, squeezing her. "Shhh… shhhh. I am here, cherie…" she says, aiming for as comforting as she can.
Of course, Kaleb's mental words echo through their shared link, and Xi'an tenses. Did she really just hear that? She doesn't look up. She doesn't turn her attention to the younger man. She merely sends across that link, <Please, be safe>. And then she lets her influence drop. He'll gain back his hearing, and Karma will be out of his head.
"I'm here, cherie," she says again. "Deep breaths…" she urges. Her attention will stay here, as she lets Kaleb get into that car… Even if she might think shutting off both their minds would be the best idea right now.
Kaleb goes home.