MCA #0 [Thursday Afternoon]

[bridge_carson]

Sure, Angelus may be off the streets, but for now Bridge is still sticking around at Xander's. Which at the moment involves laying sprawled out on the couch in the den, his left ankle propped up by a bunch of pillows, as he flips aimlessly through the channels.

Comments

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica returns to the apartment after visiting with Angelus and talking to Piper on the phone. She hopes that Logan doesn't get too mad that she went to see him.

"Hey, Bridge, how are you feeling?" she asks.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I'm good," Bridge says. It's true... if you ignore the part where he's worried about his friends. And the fact that making the trip to the school and back probably wasn't the greatest idea with a twisted ankle. "Wanna watch... well, okay, actually I've got no idea what it is I'm watching," he admits.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Sounds perfect," Veronica says, sitting down with a sigh. "I doubt I could concentrate on anything anyway."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge gives her a look. "That's understandable. Things have been pretty crazy," he says carefully.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica nods. "That's... one way to describe it, yeah."

After a moment of hesitation, she admits, "I went to the jail this morning."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge's eyes go wide at that. "Why?" he asks quietly, not adding the "on Earth would you even DO that?" because he's pretty sure that wouldn't actually help.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I had to," Veronica says simply. "I had to face him where I had the upper hand."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Okay, he could sort of understand that. "But did it help?" he asks. He's pretty sure of what the answer is.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Not so much," she admits, knowing that it's pointless to lie to Bridge.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"He doesn't need to get physical to hurt people," Bridge says understandingly. "I'm sorry."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I know I shouldn't let him get to me," Veronica says. "I know that he's a manipulative bastard and he's trying to hurt me. But... some of the stuff he said... struck a little too close."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Too close how?" Bridge says, not wanting to pry too much but at the same time wanting to let her talk if she needed to.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica shrugs. "He knew exactly what buttons to push to trigger my guilt."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge frowns. "Why would you be feeling guilty?"

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I... me and Logan..." she shrugs. "It's... complicated."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"You and L- oh," Bridge blinks, understanding what she means.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica looks embarrassed. "Yeah... it... well..."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

You can only stay awake out of worry and tension for so long, and then when you finally fall asleep the semi-coma is a bitch . . . especially when you wake up and find out that the people you're supposed to be keeping an eye on have snuck off.

Which is why, after a brief but fruitless (because he was too worked up to think about checking out the jail) search, Anders is pounding on the front door, looking very, very annoyed with himself.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Just a minute!" Bridge calls out. And okay, it actually takes longer than a minute for him to hop to the door and open it. "Hey, dude." See? He's being good at this no-inviting thing, even though the current threat is contained.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

It's hopefully at least a little bit to Anders's credit that he instantly gets a guilty look on his face upon realizing that it's Bridge at the door, because hi, kind of there for the whole ankle-injury incident.

"Sorry, dude," he says with a grimace. "You haven't seen Bel and Phoebe in the past couple of hours, have you?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"No," Bridge shakes his head. "I got back from the library and I was the only one here." He had noticed the fact that the belongings they'd brought with them were no longer there, though.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

A fact that Anders notices a moment or two later, just before facepalming mightily.

"How'm I supposed to keep an eye on them when I fall asleep and then they disappear on me?" he asks with a mixture of affection and exasperation.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge can't help but smile a little at the facepalming. "Knowing Phoebe, she probably felt she was imposing on Xander or something staying here," he says.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"And knowing Phoebe, she'd have wanted to go after fang-boy, too, for frakking with us," Anders says, chewing his lip. "No way she wouldn't have noticed that both me and Bel were pretty upset when we went to get her, even if we were trying not to say too much . . . that's what worries me. But priorities, right? If it was just that, they wouldn't have packed up their stuff first."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge makes a face. "I'm really not sure why everyone seems to think visiting the guy is the Best Idea Ever," he grumbles, unceremoniously flopping back down on to the couch.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders sits down on the arm of the couch, near him. "What I'd like to do to him wouldn't go down well in front of the troopers," he mutters agitatedly.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"The line forms behind Peter- uh, Pevensie- and Xander, I think," Bridge says. "And it's getting pretty long. Maybe I need to make another take-a-number machine," he tries, attempting to make a joke.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders can't help laughing a little bit, because let's be honest, they could both use it. "Oh, the take-a-number machine. Those were the days, huh?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"One of our earlier forays into pranking," Bridge grins. "It holds a special place in my heart."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Always." Anders actually does put a hand over his heart, the big dork, and pretends to swoon for a second. "It was simple, but it had style, I thought."

[fh_jackass]

Having nothing better to do to keep his mind off... everything, Logan joined Bridge in the den. He flopped down on the couch (being careful of Bridge's injured ankle). "What's on?"

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Where'd you sneak off to this morning?" Veronica asked.

Not like she didn't know, since she'd very carefully waited until Logan left the jail to make her own visit.

[fh_jackass]

Logan shrugged. "Just needed to get out."

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Run into anyone interesting while you were out?" Veronica asked.

[fh_jackass]

"Something you want to know, just ask," Logan said.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Just making conversation," Veronica said.

[fh_jackass]

"What about you?" Logan asked. "Talk to anyone interesting today?"

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

The look on Veronica's face answered Logan's question before she even tried to lie and she knew it.

"I went to the jail," she admitted quietly. "I waited until you left."

[fh_jackass]

"How'd that go?" Logan asked.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica shrugged. "How'd yours go?"

[fh_jackass]

"Delightful," Logan said. "You?"

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"Angelus was his usual, charming self," Veronica replied.

[fh_jackass]

"Kinda sucked, huh?" Logan said.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica nodded.

"He knew," she said quietly.

[fh_jackass]

Logan examined the scars on his knuckles. "I know," he said.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry," Veronica said. She wasn't exactly sure what she was apologizing for, but the situation seemed to warrant an apology.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Christmas specials," Bridge can't help but roll his eyes a little.

[fh_jackass]

"Oh, goody," Logan said. "You guys got a game system of some kind around here?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I think so?" Bridge says. Not that he's ever actually used any of the old-fashioned game consoles from this time.