You can run on for a long time...
Romana is... not quite hunting. Because hunting implies that she intends to kill something (at least, when it's Romana). She is, however, stalking through the basement like some great predatory cat, searching for one person in particular. She knows who fixed the elevator in the first place, when it was destroyed. Therefore, she has a pretty good
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So here comes the big man (in theory) himself, pushing past the crowd of archangels and hurling expletives and occasionally threats and everyone who dares get in his way.
He finally makes it into the lobby, accesses the situation, and hauls ass over to Mat and grabs him by the collar to pull him away, lest Romana break his arm.
"Why does this shit always happen when I'm not in the room," he mutters, more to himself than to anyone. "I am too old to be damage control."
He keeps a firm grip on Mat's shirt (this is more for Mat's own protection than to keep him from Romana) and turns to Romana and his expression softens a bit, his voice lowered to a calming whisper. "Romana, it would be very nice if you could calm down and please not maim anyone in the general vincinity."
He gives the rest of the room a sweeping glare. "As for the rest of you turkeys, no one move and maybe it won't have to get physical again and we work through this like rational friggin' adults."
He turns back to Romana, giving her his best 'please don't kill me' expression. "Whatever the situation is, I'm sure it doesn't have to involve bloodshed of any kind."
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Her hackles have risen now, her fangs, metaphorically speaking, bared, and she doesn't relax when Vincent speaks to her, looking like she's still contemplating lunging forward and killing Mat, or Sam, or Gwen, or whoever else happens to get in her way.
"Sooner or later, Vincent," she growls softly, "I'm going to have to start questioning your loyalty here. They put the basement under quarantine while Taylor Barnam is upstairs." Taylor is one of her adopted angel kids. Vincent should know how protective she gets of her kids. He was one of them.
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"I'm fine," Sam says with a grimace, reaching up to touch the back of his head. "Looks worse than it is."
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"Fuck," Mat whispers, and suddenly, he's scared little Mattie again, trying not to freak out. "Shit. Shit. Um... I can get you to the medical room, I want someone to, I dunno... does he need stitches, d'you think?"
Not panicking. Really.
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"It's because I'm loyal to you that I keep doin' this," he says slowly, doing an impressive job of not sounding defiant, but still sounding like he knows what he's talking about. "The last thing anyone needs here is an all-out war because feelings were hurt and people got killed."
He doesn't honestly believe a bunch of humans can stand up to a First and a bunch of Archangels, but if Mat's any indication... Well, he'd rather not let Romana's reign go the way of the Romanov's, and that's precisely where it'll be headed if she keeps lashing out. Not that he blames her- it's her nature to do that, but it's also his nature not to shed blood that didn't deserve to be shed.
He turns back towards the rest of the group, directing his attentions at Gwen, because she looks nice and official-looking and a level-headed sort of woman who might understand even if she is currently occupied with... Well, shit that's just nice. It just had to come to bloodshed, didn't it?
"So what are we meant to do about that?" He asks her, indicating the ceiling with his head so that she knows he's talking about Tay and her situation. "You guys have all the answers, obviously. If we can't get to Tay and she can't get down here, who's going to be responsible for getting her to safety?"
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"There's a secondary quarantine area being organized upstairs, or she can go to a clinic where they're prepared to deal with this. She can go to either of those places and be just as safe as she would be down here, but we can't send anyone upstairs or let anyone new down."
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"We got anyone on the outside? Someone who can take care of her until it's over?"
It's not that he doesn't trust humans with her. He does, but considering her birthday's coming up and this might not be over before then, he knows they'd both would be more comfortable if she was around another angel. Sure, that angel won't be her and that's bound to make her pissy, but it's better than handing her off to some crackpot who'd freak out the second she starts growing wings.
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"Not to my knowledge. One or two local angels, but I don't know any of them beyond one conversation." She spoke at least briefly with most of the angels in town after Brando died, and Robin would have a list, but she doesn't want Taylor with strangers and she doesn't want her upstairs, she wants her here, with her. As if she's going to be able to do anything to protect Taylor from a plague.
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Placating Romana is hard, especially when it comes down to the fact that if it wouldn't compromise everyone, he'd be more than willing to shimmy his ass up that elevator shaft and grab her. Well, it works in the movies.
"We'll figure something out," he adds hastily. "Hopefully, in ways that don't involve anyone else gettin' bloodied up tonight."
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Get out of this room before she kills someone. "You know where to find me," she mutters before sweeping out of the room and down the hall, past Gwen, Sam and Mat without so much as a glance, and toward her room. Gwen watches her as she goes like she's considering lunging for her throat, but she has much better self control than certain two thousand year old angels, and stays put.
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And when that's over, he heaves the sigh of a more than slightly defeated captain and looks over at the Torchwood lot for a moment, particularly Mat.
"You've got stones, kid, but if you do that again, I'm gonna to let her break your arm."
He's out before Mat can retort to that, because he doesn't have time to concern himself with the affairs of guardians and their wards. He's got to... Find Robin, make some calls, and do something about this and hopefully once again keep Romana from killing someone.
Oh the wonders of damage control. At least it's better than paperwork.
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She turns to Mat, rising slowly to her feet. "Get him to the medical room. There should be at least one of the doctors there, and if there's not, I'll get Owen or JD."
"I don't need-" Sam begins, and Gwen turns to give him a quelling glare.
"Do I look like I care whether you need it?" Apparently when angry, Gwen is aggressively concerned about her team members. Sam decides to accept this and not argue any further.
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