Searching for oblivion (open)

[Jade Coswell]

Jade simply grinned and continued eating when Percie confessed that she was anything but a housewife. She was glad the woman had enjoyed the food. A few dollars worth of supplied and a little time might seem like a small thing, but a stomach full of food that wouldn't leave you regretting you'd eaten it.. that might actually power you properly.. it could do wonders for a person's mood and outlook.. and holy crap could it help with a hangover.

Jade politely ignored the compliments and listened as she focused between Percie and her food. This was a very different woman than the one Jade had helped guide home last night. This Percie - even hungover - was.. well, she seemed full of energy. The way she spoke seemed to be that of a woman that was used to a life of fighting and having to force her way to equality in a male-dominated society... Or perhaps Jade was simply reading too far into the little she'd seen of Percie's sense of humor and how she seemed to speak in exclamations. Still, it was a relief. If a person could joke after a night like last night.. they weren't going to die from their hangover and they had that much better chance of recovering. Both of those things were good.

Jade set her fork down and took Percie's extended hand gently, giving it an easy shake. "Jadelyn Coswell.. Jade. If you like the sound of fate I'm willing to call it that. Otherwise, just two girls who happened to be having a bad night on the same night. Misery loves company, after all. It's good to meet you, Percie. I'm glad that I could be of assistance." Assuming the shake was completed, Jade would ease back into the couch and cross her right leg over her left.

"Forgive me if I'm over any lines here.. but you didn't react in any way badly to curling up with another girl to sleep. That's something that one often has to be careful about.. Did you just need the companionship, or was it something more familiar?" A lot of people Jade could take one look at and figure out their sexuality fairly easily.. Percie wasn't one of those people. Perhaps it had been her time with the police, perhaps it was her current job, but she was a bit.. shielded. If it took an entire bottle of Jack to get her to the point where she could open up to someone about her condition, that only supported the diagnosis.

[Percie Hobbes]

Percie blinked at Jade for a moment (that was a pretty name and she liked it a lot); then she laughed. "Actually I tend to identify as bisexual. I had a girlfriend up until a few years ago," she admitted. "So to answer your question you could say it was definitely something familiar," she chuckled. "But I was in a pretty low place so needing that companionship wouldn't be far from the mark either," she admitted. She lounged in silence for a moment. She didn't want to pry but the detective in her won out as did her natural curiosity and she could remember bits and pieces about last night. "So I remember spilling my burden to you but...you'll have to forgive me I don't think you shared...unless you meant that in general you were having a bad night and we gravitated to each other. I'm in a much betting position to be sympathetic if you'd like to talk it out?" Percie asked as she leaned one arm against the side of her couch and balanced her head in her hand.

She knew that she’d been lucky in terms of finding someone willing to take care of her and not rob her blind, or worse. The least Percie could really do was lend a sympathetic ear to whatever was causing the other woman pain or hardship. She might even be able to help in some small way.

[Jade Coswell]

"Oh, sweetheart, two girls having a normal bad night finding each other would be coincidence, not fate. I'm surprised you don't remember.. You seem to remember everything else. We have the same problem.. But I don't need sympathy. Never do a good deed, never help a person expecting something in return. No, us finding each other was perhaps fate because either of us are capable of bearing children. I've had years to come to terms with my situation, though. Your wounds are still fresh.. and I may not know you well enough to make assumptions, but.. I would ask that you don't.. bottle things up or blow them off. I'm sure you have friends.. And it's quite possible that you don't need any more, present company included. I wouldn't be offended. I would just ask that you remember that you can lean on the friends you do have."

She stood, reaching over her head with her back to Percie, and casually pulled up her shirt until her back was exposed and Percie could see the graffiti-style mural to Gaia.. with vines that trailed onto her sides and down her shoulders and arms all the way to her wrists. "Myself.. I turned to Gaia when my only real friend left Pilot Ridge. I chose to seek purpose in mother earth.. where I'd already found so much of it. So I'm a walking, talking, infertile mural to the goddess of fertility."

She dropped her shirt to cover back up and sat back down, crossing her legs again.. her face readable as either neutral or stoic, depending on how Percie chose to see it. "If you work as hard as you drink.. maybe consider taking a break to let things really sink in.. It's not easy news and it's not something that one night of getting intimately familiar with Mr. Daniels is going to fix or make alright. Be strong, don't be stupid..." Jade sighed and shook her head. "Apologies. Don't mind me and my preaching. In my line of work I come across a number of people who are... likely less prepared to deal with hardships than someone in your position. I'm sure I'm not your only outlet and you don't need my shoulder to cry on. Or, you don't today, at least."

[Percie Hobbes]

Percie looked troubled for a moment after Jade's apology. She knew that what the woman said was true. She should take a break but she'd always stubbornly worked through most of her issues, plus she had some cases that needed to be wrapped up before she could realistically take a break. Maybe a month at the most it might take her since one was a surveillance case. After that...after that she could stop. She still had to tell her parents somehow, her family. She'd always been close with her brother and her sister so sharing with them would be necessary at some point. When she thought about telling a future partner that she couldn't have children she started getting overwhelmed again. Suddenly if felt like she couldn't breathe and before she knew it she was crying again, sobbing, in fact...hands pressed tightly against her face.

At once she was embarrassed and apathetic to the picture she presented. Jade was right, the wounds were still fresh, still so painfully, obviously, irreversibly fresh that she couldn't help but feel the guilt, shame, anger and hurt consume her again. No wonder she had drunk herself silly last night. She pulled her hands away and tried to cover her mouth, nose desperately breathing in so she didn’t embarrass herself further as she reached for a wad of tissue from the box on the coffee table. She blew her nose but couldn’t stop crying. “Oh God…what am I going to do? How am I going to tell my family?” she asked Jade, not necessarily expecting an answer but needing to ask nonetheless because Jade was there and Percie needed someone there.