It's not like every devastating end brings a new beginning...

[torchwoodsheart]

A cab pulls up in front of the Main Gauche, rather slowly and reluctantly as it gets close enough to see the twisted wreckage of the gates, a few scorch marks on the buildings and grounds... Gwen hands the driver a few bills and slides out of the back seat, eying the gates uncertainly for a second before she starts inside. She can deal with this.

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[nothingsodivine]

Des was at his building (which is starting to look more like a building and less like something vaguely building-shaped) when he got the message from Grace and... Well, sometimes Des just forgets to respond to things in his haste to get to a place.

He actually still has his cardkey to get into the basement and intended to use it when he sees Grace almost as soon as he walks in. He's expecting to be stopped by management considering he's walking into a fancy hotel in dusty teans and a dirty T-shirt (he's been working- fear his raw masculinity!), but he doesn't much care.

"Grace, what the hell happened?" Not that he didn't get the skinny from the backdated entries in his journal on the cab ride over, but he might as well hear it from her too.

[2ndchanceacharm]

Grace untangles herself from the little ball she'd been curled into almost as soon as she sees him and tumbles out of the chair to throw her arms around him, ignoring or at least not seeming to notice the dirt and dust for the time being.

"Sorry. I worried, and I know it's stupid because if you were hurt I'd know." Grace worries anyway. Often. It's Des and she has cause to. "The archangels attacked the demons and Romana fell and died and I've been taking care of the archangels that came back... I should probably still be down there, it's just... I don't know."

[nothingsodivine]

Des staggers a little- more in shock than anything, because Grace is tiny and she didn't quite lunge at him anyway. He wastes no time wrapping his arms back around her, however, and holding her and shooting some dark looks at a group of fancy-dressed people who apparently seem to take offense that he looks like a workman.

"Jesus Christ," he swears. "Well, the apocalypse is over anyway." Not that that means a damn thing as far as Grace is concerned- Romana brought her in. "I'm sorry about Romana."

For her sake. He didn't have much of an opinion of her until she started targeting the Doctor and planning assassination attempts on his friend and making the basement a not-fun place to be.

"If you need to go back down there, I can stick around. Moral support and all that. It's been awhile since I've been in the basement."

[2ndchanceacharm]

"Thank you," she murmurs into his chest, arms still wrapped around him. Des is warm and solid and safe, never mind that he's somewhat dirty. "I know you probably didn't like her much - I mean, not a lot of wanderers do - but she was... She found me." Grace still wouldn't even know what she was if it weren't for Romana. Wouldn't have found Des, wouldn't be here, and God knows where she'd be instead.

"I think..." She considers going back into the basement again. They don't have many other doctors down there, but no one's seriously injures, and just thinking about it makes her a little queasy. It's not the injuries that bother her, it's the emptiness, and the feeling of having lost a war. "I think I'd rather just be with you. Wherever you need to be. If that's alright."

[nothingsodivine]

"Hey, not very many people like Mathias and he's my best friend." This is only partially true as more people back home liked Mathias more than they ever liked him, but Mathias cheats. "Hell if I'm going to judge."

He twists his face up into a puzzled expression that quickly shifts into a grin. "Well, if you don't mind hanging out in a building that lost all hope of passing building codes sometime last century while I try to turn into something that passably resembles an office, I don't mind if you come."

It does occur to him that going home might be a good idea, especially considering he was out when the Casa was 'attacked,' but Des occasionally has a single-minded determination and right now that's focused on getting his building up to snuff.

[2ndchanceacharm]

"A building that... what? What were you even doing before you came here? I was all prepared to ignore the dirt, but if something's going to fall on your head and kill you, I think I'd better be there." She pauses. "Not that me being there will really help it if kills you, but you know what I mean."

[nothingsodivine]

This is the part where Des remembers that occasionally telling people things like 'Oh hey, I just recently acquired a building that hasn't been rennovated since the sixties from what could possibly be the mafia' might be a good idea. You'd think after all the time he's spent here, the journal system might be a good thing to get used to.

He backs away from her just a bit, scratching his neck. "The ceiling is intact, thank whoever." The floor is another story altogether and there might be rats. "Anyway, I got a building to turn into a proper PI firm. Give me something to do, you know? I just have to... Fix it up."

Yeah, because being a PI is a perfectly safe job and will not cause his guardian angel to beat her head against the wall.

[2ndchanceacharm]

Grace stares up at him for a moment, mouth slightly open, head tilted to one side. "A PI firm. Because... y'know... I've read all the notes you gave me. That job didn't go so well for you with the... staying alive thing, which may not have been a problem before, when you couldn't really die, but now I can see it being sort of, kind of... a big problem."

[nothingsodivine]

Des makes an extremely sulky face. "It's not like I died on every case."

Well, it's rather hard to die on the painfully minor ones... Or rather it would just be embarassing if he did.

"And, anyway, it's different here. I couldn't go a week without getting killed in my world half the time if I was on a case, and there was a hell of a lot less constant doom there." Perish the thought. "I've went, what... Eight months here now without dying on-"

He stops short, closes his eyes for a moment, and makes a face as he mouths a swearword that probably shouldn't be said out loud in the lobby of a fancy hotel. "Mostly."

[2ndchanceacharm]

"You died on a lot of them!" Grace points out, trying hard not to flail at him. "And you got shot! By a mugger!" There are people staring at them now. She winces and presses her lips together for a second, like she didn't just shout about him dying in the lobby of a hotel. "...Maybe we should go somewhere else."

[nothingsodivine]

"Like Canada," he says, teasingly, grinning a little. "I'm sure they didn't hear you there."

Yes, he's joking to ignore the fact that he is prone to death and not have to comment on it. He gestures toward the door and starts walking towards it, talking over his shoulder as he does so, not really caring if people hear him. Tact is for other people.

"I'm not going to die and if all else fails, Mathias used to be my partner. He can do it again and be my meatshield if all else fails."

Just when you think Des is a perfectly reasonable- no, never mind. There are a lot of things that Des is, but a perfectly reasonable ward is not one of them.

[2ndchanceacharm]

Grace trots along after him - Des is a good deal taller than her, she has to move fairly quickly just to keep up. Damn him and his stupid long legs. It's not that she can't keep up, it's just that she looks a little ridiculous.

"I'm your guardian angel. I think technically, I'm supposed to be your meatshield. Which is a really unpleasant word, by the way, so I'm going to pretend I didn't just refer to myself that way."

[nothingsodivine]

He looks down at her when she catches up, grinning a little. "Yeah, but Mathias is indestructible, and you're a tiny thing." Yes, because her being tiny is exactly why she can't be his meatshield... That is an unpleasant word, come to think of it.

It's a miracle he manages to keep the mocking quality in his voice, because the thought of Grace putting herself between him and something irks him. Never mind it's her job. They just have to protect each other and not die in the process.

[2ndchanceacharm]

Grace glares up at him, and considers hitting him, but that would be mean. Also (and mostly), it would hurt her. "Fine, whatever. Just try not to get killed for now, and we can go deal with your possibly falling apart office." She is such a loving guardian angel.

[nothingsodivine]

"It's only slightly falling apart," Des corrects, as he steps out of the building and hails a cab. It's far enough away that walking is an issue, but apparently not so far away that Grace feels it.

"And I am not going to die again," he adds, sounding oh so sure of himself when it comes to that fact. A cab pulls up to the curb and he opens the door for her without hesitation. "I've learned a valuable lesson about dying permanently, even if it was only briefly." And thus not permanently, but who wants to argue with Des's logic? "And that can be expressed with the following popular internet cliche: DO NOT WANT."

[2ndchanceacharm]

Gwen slides into the cab, still staring at Des with a slightly bemused look. "You really don't think about the words that come out of your mouth, do you?" She's one to talk, but she generally says them at such a rapid pace that people don't really have time to stop and think about them if they don't make sense. "But I'll act like that's reassuring instead of just... really dorky."