Damn. What did my face look like?
“Mac,” Lara called. “Coffee?”
“Ungh,” Mac said agreeably, without looking back. An old wooden sign hanging up behind the bar read, in plain lettering,Tips Appreciated. It was an artifact I’d stolen from the vault of Lord Hades himself. The working of its power was so subtle that I would never have felt it if I hadn’t known what to look for, but it was doing its job. Things would be peaceful here.
“You look like hell,” Lara said frankly.
“No,” I said. “I’ve been there. Looks different than this.”
“Worse?” she said. “Or better?”
“Oh, way better,” I said, and told the corners of my mouth to turn up a little.
She studied my face carefully. “You haven’t been sleeping, have you?”
“It’s all been so exciting,” I said in a dull tone.
“It must be difficult to be in Chicago,” she said. “Have you considered leaving for a while?”
I arched an eyebrow at her.
Her mouth quirked at the corner again. “No. Of course not.”
“A lot of people got a lot more hurt than I did,” I said. “I’m looking out for some of them.”
“Are you?” Lara asked. She put her hands flat on the table and chose her words carefully. “I know you want to. You’re a protector. That’s who you are. But you clearly aren’t your usual self.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Harry,” she said. “I know that when you see people with empty cups, it’s your instinct to fill them.” She studied my face. “Can you do that if your own cup is empty?”
I was quiet for a long moment.
“Coffee up,” Mac said from across the room.
I pushed myself slowly to my feet, walked across the room, got the two cups, and carried them, and fixings, back to Lara.
I put my cup down in front of me and set hers gently in front of her. I sat down, took the cup in both hands, lifted it to my mouth, and inhaled. Glorious. Plain old coffee-flavored coffee.
“I have to try,” I said.
“No, you don’t,” Lara said. “There are plenty of people who aren’t trying.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s why I have to try.”
She added cream to her coffee, and broke and emptied a plastic stick of honey into it. She stirred it gently, without clinking. Every movement was precise and orderly and controlled and beautiful. It would have been very, very easy to watch her and not think about anything else.
“Let me help you,” she said.
“Help me with what?”
“Let me help you protect them,” she said. “What do your people need?”
I sipped my coffee slowly and set it back down just as carefully.
In my experience, you always have to get really, really careful when the monsters offer to help.
I wanted to tell her to go jump in the lake. That was my first, angry reaction.
