For nine_ofswords

[the_hermit]

Summary: In which Merritt fails his will save Merritt makes a stupid decision... In which this thread ends badly.

--

Merritt goes still, something about him calming, and the smile that crosses his face is humorless. "That little 'stunt' was easy," he begins seriously, his tone becoming carefully measured.

"The Horsemen are my family, and leaving that man a drooling idiot was the very least I would do to protect them."

He's not close enough to actually, physically reach Ben, but he doesn't need to be. He swings, mentally, lashing out with a burst of magic designed to cripple.

Comments

[the_hermit]

Merritt sighs again, following Dylan out into the lobby proper. "Guess he didn't think anybody else was coming in."

He means to mean that as Ben thinking too much of himself, that the Horsemen wouldn't have managed to find a way in - and a beat later, he shakes off the literal echo of what he could have meant - that no one was even going to try.

"Sorry," he mutters, reaching up reflexively to adjust a hat he's not wearing, knowing Dylan's likely to have heard. "Didn't mean to go there."

[onebehind]

Dylan glances back at him, something not so much angry as intense in his eyes, and then turns to face him entirely. "Yeah, well. Guess he didn't know us as well as he thought." A beat. "We already covered this, but ... "

But while the sense that they will always come for him is very real, unmistakable as this is Merritt's mind, he forces himself to say it aloud, anyway. Or maybe someone else currently sharing headspace with him forces him to say it, considering it comes out in a tone not entirely his own, again.

"We'll always come for you."

[the_hermit]

Merritt takes another steadying breath and nods. "I know. And the same goes for the rest of you."

Just in case anyone else needs to hear it. He figures it can't hurt, anyway.

He pauses a beat and then clears his throat, looking to the bars and security grate over the door. "Anybody got the gate key?"

[onebehind]

"We know," Dylan echoes, his voice still more.

Clearing his own throat, he glances to the bars, too, and then turns looking back at the front desk. A nod in that direction follows. "Places like this usually have a keypad, somewhere, that controls this shit." There might actually be a real key for the doors, considering the metaphorical nature of dreams, but in reality, they'd be looking for something like the pad he mentioned.

[the_hermit]

"Most of their security measures weren't put there by a psycho, though," he returns as he heads for the desk - and then on past it and around the corner out of view as he tries to find out how to get behind the desk.

[onebehind]

"If you'd ever seen the blueprints for some of these places, you might rethink that statement," Dylan shoots back as he follows Merritt to the desk. He watches Merritt continue on, aware that he's looking for a door, and after an impatient moment once he's disappeared, decides they don't have time for this, takes a few steps back and vaults over the thing.

It's likely he'll have found the keypad before Merritt finds the door.

[the_hermit]

"Did you just..." Merritt begins, literally walking backwards into view again. "Of course you did, because you've got the kid in here," he complains, and it's probably a good sign. Even he recognizes it's the most like himself he's sounded since all this started.

He moves back to stand in front of the desk, leaning over, now. "See anything?"

[onebehind]

"We got bored," Dylan answers simply, shrugging. He takes a half-step back out of the way, letting Merritt get a look at what he found. "But yeah, here."

It's a standard numerical keypad, though hell if Dylan or the Horsemen beyond him know what the code might be. Worse comes to worst, between the four of them, they might have some ideas, but he figures Merritt can take a crack at it, first. It's his head, after all; maybe that counts for something, as far as the code goes.

[the_hermit]

Merritt peers over the top of the desk at it, thinking for a moment, focusing on it - and then smiling almost wistfully. "Try the date we met you in the park."

He sounds sure, too.

[onebehind]

Dylan makes a small, pleased sound, despite the fact that, directly after it and as he punches the date in, he mutters, "One of us should have thought of that."

That done, the gate in front of the doors slides back up into its place in the ceiling, the bars beyond it flicking into the unlocked position a beat later and with a satisfying thunk. Dylan glances up, satisfied, and moves to climb back over the desk.

When his feet are back on solid ground, he nods to the doors. "Let's get out of here."

[the_hermit]

Merritt can't help but snort at the comment, hearing Daniel behind it, and takes a step back as Dylan makes to climb back over the desk.

"God, yes," he agrees immediately, and then, like the other times they've escaped from something like this, reaches out to rest a hand on Dylan's shoulder, to keep them in contact with each other as they head towards and then through the hotel's doors.

[onebehind]

They step out of the hotel and there's a sudden shift as Merritt finds himself on his back, in bed, again, the Horsemen circled around him, with Dylan's hand on him rather than the other way around. He keeps it there, even as he sucks in a sharp breath as his lungs come awake with the rest of him, and on the breath out, murmurs, "Don't move just yet."

The suggestion has less to do with the fact that sitting up suddenly might be bad for Merritt, considering the mental trauma (though that certainly factors into it) and more to do with the fact that he doesn't want to break his connection with the kids all at once. It'll be better for them, if he can take a moment to disentangle them all one at a time, the same way he brought them in. It'll be better for him, his head already pounding and for more than just the hangover he would have been nursing if not for how he woke up.

[the_hermit]

Merritt, too, sucks in a deep breath, eyes blinking open. It takes him a moment to focus, for a kind of haze to fade from his vision as he blinks at the ceiling. The soreness he felt in his head remains - and more besides, his whole body feeling like he's taken a beating. He aches enough that Dylan's warning comes before he even tries to move, and he relaxes again, just humming an acknowledgement of that.

There's still the faint feeling of Ben's magic in the air - but stronger, drowning it out, is the four of them, and if he wasn't theirs and they weren't his, it might be overwhelming. It still almost is, in fact, though not in any negative way.

[onebehind]

It's hard to tell whether Dylan can feel him relax or if he gets a sense of his acquiescence through their still connective state, but either way, he hums.

Silence and stillness follows, the former growing more absolute still as he breaks off his connection with Merritt, first, pulling the hand on his chest back into his lap. He lets Daniel go a beat later, and with an intake of breath of his part as he comes back to life, Daniel pulls his hand off of Dylan's shoulder. Dylan makes a small, vaguely pained noise as that loss of connection takes some of his defense against the strain of that connection with it, but keeps going, guiding Henley's thoughts away as he lets go of her hand, then Jack's. When everything is said and done, his head hurts so badly that he's sure, for an instant, he's going to be sick. Apparently, being four people at the same time isn't good for you.

To his credit, however, he manages to fight through it, and finally, finally opens his own eyes, squinting into the light of the room as he looks from one face to the other, each in turn. When he settles finally on Merritt, he offers him a thin smile and a "Welcome back."

[the_hermit]

The loss of the connection leaves Merritt feeling a bit bereft, and Merritt sighs, reaching up with the hand that had been broken both to make sure it's whole again - which it is - and to scrub at his own forehead, at his own piercing headache.

He drops his hand as the last of the connection fades, as Jack comes back, and Merritt looks at Dylan. "Thanks," he says - and then, looking to each of them, with as much sincerity as he can manage. "Thank you."

Jack reaches out, dropping a hand to Merritt's shoulder and squeezing before he pulls it away again.

[the_lovers]

Henley, too, reaches for Merritt, lacing their fingers together wordlessly. Dylan, on the other hand, offers him a sharp, serious nod and a brief, warmer smile. Daniel, meanwhile, in spectacular Daniel fashion, looks over at the other Horsemen, and asks, "So, is this the part where we tell him that, if he tries that again, we'll kill him?"

He's glad you're back, Merritt.

[the_hermit]

Merritt squeezes Henley's hand - and then barks out a startled laugh as he shoots Daniel a grin. "Believe me, once was enough."

He looks back to Dylan. "You've got..." he begins, reaching up to touch his own face by way of indication - and then startles a little when he finds wetness on his own face. "And so do I, apparently."

Now that he's thinking about it, he can taste it, too, and he makes a face. "Okay, I need to..." He doesn't let go of Henley's hand but gestures with the other, too. He needs to not be flat on his back, but he's going to need a hand.

[onebehind]

Now aware of the taste of blood in his mouth, Dylan swipes the backs of his knuckles over his nose. They come away bloody and he finds, even without the warning beforehand, he's not particularly surprised. Not with the headache he's nursing. "Yeah, apparently the whole Voice of Legion thing wasn't my best idea."

Never mind the fact that he'd do it again in a heartbeat, if he had to go back.

"I'm gonna go ... " Go clean up. He gestures back over his shoulder, in the direction of the door, the bathroom beyond it, and pulls himself to his feet slowly. Rather than immediately duck out, however, he holds his non-bloodied hand out to Merritt, to help him up, and oddly, despite the fact that they're no longer connected, in time with Daniel and Henley moving to help, too. Seems something of them, all of them together, is lingering.

[the_hermit]

Jack, for his part, shifts a little to rest a hand on Merritt's back as he starts to sit up, to make sure he doesn't fall back again. It's all likely needed, considering how Merritt's head swims as he sits up, and his grip on the others tightens slightly and abruptly as his headache intensifies, as his eyes blur again briefly.

"We got you," Jack murmurs, again, in the same tone as they did before if without the echo, and Merritt nods a little as he regains his equilibrium.

"Okay," he says, after another moment as he turns to sit sideways. He has to let go with one hand to do it, but he holds on with the other - and then, after a pause, starts to get to his feet. It goes well enough, even if he still needs the support, but finally, there's another nod, and he loosens his grip. "Okay," he echoes. "I'm good."

[onebehind]

"We got you," Henley agrees solemnly, not quite in time with Jack but close enough that Dylan has a moment of quiet worry, hoping this isn't a sign of damage as much as they all probably need this closeness, right now.

Filing it away for later, when his head doesn't feel like it's going to pop off his shoulders, he moves in to put an arm around Merritt, supporting him as the other Horsemen draw back. "You headed for the bathroom, too? Or should I drop you somewhere else?"

[the_hermit]

Merritt's not particularly concerned, considering the aftershocks of magic just starting to dissipate. If it's still an issue after they've all had some sleep, he'll see what he can do about it.

For now, he just leans into Dylan's arm. "Bathroom first," he agrees, "and I could do with a drink. Of water, for now."

As much as he could do with some alcohol, it's probably not the best idea considering the current literally delicate state of his brain.

"I got it," Jack tells them as he finally stands, moving to follow them out of Merritt's room.

[onebehind]

"Thanks," Dylan calls back to him as he leads Merritt carefully, slowly towards the bathroom. When they reach it, he guides him over to the toilet, leaning away only briefly to put the lid down before he eases Merritt onto it.

"Sit," he orders belatedly, already moving to grab a couple of washcloths out of the linen closet. He runs one under the tap, warm water soaking into it, wrings it out, and passes it to Merritt. He repeats the process with the second and presses it under his own nose, mopping at the smear of blood there.

[the_hermit]

Merritt's already heading that direction, bracing himself with a hand on the counter. "Thanks," he says as he takes the washcloth, wiping at his face, too, and where more had started to run into the crease above his lip while he was laying on his back.

It's unsettling all over again, how close he came to losing that fight, and he takes a breath as he finishes, as he lays the cloth back on the sink.

"When we're all less scrambled," he begins, quietly, "we need to talk about that guy. We might not have seen the last of him."

[onebehind]

"No argument," Dylan agrees, peeling the cloth back away from his face. He drops it on top of Merritt's, does a quick once-over of himself in the mirror, and then turns to face him, leaning back against the counter as he does so. "And we should really actually get together, work on shoring up the defenses, rather than just talking about it."

He gestures between the two of them.

[the_hermit]

"Again, no argument," he agrees, reaching out for a hand getting back up again.

There's the sound of uncoiling springs followed by a dull, vaguely metallic clunk followed by a softer fwump from the living room, followed a moment later by Jack's voice. "Sorry! That was loud."

"Your son's up to something," Merritt tells Dylan, bemused.