Room 301, Tuesday Afternoon

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle was tired and weary, still, but a few days in Idris had done her some good. Even if everyone was still more than a little shell-shocked. Even if everyone was still in mourning for something or someone, and there had been a Council meeting to determine the place of the Seelie Court among them after their betrayal.

Even if the Hall of Accords had been draped with the blue banners of victory, a golden rune of triumph on each one.

It all felt very far away now that Isabelle was back on Fandom. Her room looked the same. Glitter and clothes spilled everywhere. Nothing here suggested the occupant had quite literally been to hell and back not too many days ago.

Isabelle sent out a single text to Flick – I'm here, and nothing else – and dropped her phone on her bed. And sighed.

[ooc: Open door, open post.]

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[seveninchmotto]

"I don't know, Jon," she said. "I don't know. We've been erased. Maybe he's better off."

[flickofthewrist]

"I don't believe that," Flick told her, shaking his head. "And I doubt you do either. If you guys can't be around him anymore, then I'll do it."

[seveninchmotto]

"Jon, I don't want to talk about him right now!"

She was surprised by how anxiously that came out. She even pulled back a little to see him. Her eyes were shiny with tears.

"I just... can't."

[flickofthewrist]

Flick almost said that she'd actually brought him up but held back. He nodded.

"All right, fine," he murmured. "I'm sorry. We don't have to talk about him."

[seveninchmotto]

She had. But now she was calling for an abrupt ending to the subject, and she was glad he was going with it.

"Sorry," she said anyway. "It was –– it's hard. He saved my life."

In hell.

[flickofthewrist]

"I'm sorry it's hard," he told her, closing his eyes. "I wish I could have been there to help."

To do something.

"I owe him."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle's eyebrows knitted together.

"Why?"

[flickofthewrist]

"Because he saved you," Flick told her emphatically. "Because he made it so you could come back and I wouldn't have to mourn you. I couldn't have dealt with that. I know I couldn't have."

[seveninchmotto]

"Oh."

By the Angel, she was tearing up again. That's what he got for caring.

[flickofthewrist]

"Don't cry," he murmured, rubbing the corners of her eyes with his fingers and sighing. "It's okay. You're going to be okay."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle couldn't really help looking a little shaken. She was trying, though. Really trying. She didn't want to feel like this.

"We went to hell, baby," she told him quietly. "Well, a hell. A demon dimension."

[flickofthewrist]

"And you came back," he pointed out, pressing his lips to her forehead again. "You saved a lot of people and you came back. It'll take him to heal all the way for you. I know."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle's eyes were shut tight.

"We had to kill a lot of people." Her tone got a little flat there. "Or at least they used to be people. They were poisoned into... not."

[flickofthewrist]

"You did what you had to do," he murmured, sighing quietly. "I know that might not help but think of all the people you saved, Isabelle. Think of the people who didn't even know this was happening that you saved."

[seveninchmotto]

"That helped in the moment," Isabelle mumbled glumly. "It doesn't really help now."

[flickofthewrist]

"I'm sorry," he said, quiet and slow. "You're going to have to forgive yourself. And I know that's hard, believe me. But you did what you had to do. You literally went to some hell dimension and did so much good. Just don't forget that."

He rubbed her back slowly, smoothly.

"I wish I could help you."

[seveninchmotto]

"You waited."

Her voice sounded broken, even though that was a good thing. That he'd waited.

She was just so tired.

[flickofthewrist]

"You need to lay down and sleep," he told her in response to that. "Right now."

[seveninchmotto]

"I've been sleeping," Isabelle replied, managing some mild indignance even with her eyes closed and holding back tears. "It doesn't help."

She had a lot of nightmares.

[flickofthewrist]

Flick sighed, at a loss. He didn't know what to say to that so he just held her and rubbed her back and said nothing for the moment.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle didn't say anything either. But she wrapped her arms around him a little more tightly.

Sorry about the pressure on his ribs.

[flickofthewrist]

He could take the pressure. He was fine. He kissed the top of her head and breathed in her scent again.

"I've got your necklace," he murmured eventually, reaching down and finding her hand. He pressed it over where the necklace lay underneath his shirt. "You should have it back."

[seveninchmotto]

"Oh." She inhaled a shuddering breath. "Thank you for keeping it safe."

Because yes, the safety of the necklace was what had been questionable for the last few weeks.

[flickofthewrist]

"It was almost the only thing of yours I had left," he said quietly, closing his eyes. "I wasn't going to let anything happen to it. Ever."

[seveninchmotto]

"I took your hoodie to Edom," Isabelle replied, her fingers closing around the ruby pendant through the fabric of his shirt. "The hell dimension. We're even."