two } VIDEO

[nosferotofu]

[ This is obvious accidentally posted, as Ed is talking across the room-- one never_very_good . What shows up in the camera is a not-as-pale Ed, dressed in one of Frankie's t-shirts and a pair of jeans, shuffling through a pile papers at the kitchen table. ]

I organized and completed all your files for the Raven. Balance sheets, budgets, et cetera. You should be

Comments

action / prooobably still on tape? fffft

[never_very_good]

Don't call 'em that.

[The eyeroll is entirely fond, though.]

And you can do better than administrative crap.

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[nosferotofu]

I'm calling it what I see.

[ His grin is hidden from Frankie and exposed to the camera. ]

I'll get something better once I get settled. It's temporary.

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[never_very_good]

Go for something worth doin' to begin with.

[Big talk from a bartender? Maybe. But Frankie's always gonna think Ed deserves better.]

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[nosferotofu]

[ Ed notices the funny light on his communicator, picks it up to examine it and finally notices it turned on. He turns it off hastily. ]

Any way to lock the device? [ Hesitate. ] And you're going to tell me no.

Frankie, I spent ten years as a researcher for a vampire pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately, I don't think those skills apply here. [What Ed just said = bullshit. ]

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[never_very_good]

Shutting it up in a drawer works. Sometimes. Things have a mind of their own.

[Frankie frowns, not willing to be sidetracked.]

Go ask the hospital how many vampire specialists they got. [That's a gruff sort of joke, though, and he shakes his head.] You were a doctor first. I don't buy you forgetting all that in ten years.

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[nosferotofu]

[ He's quiet for a second, staring at the papers in front of him without actually reading. It's quick to pass. ]

Following death, brain cells are the first to go. Three to seven minutes, give or take. How long has it been? Ten years?

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[never_very_good]

Don't bullshit me, Ed. Not the same thing at all.

[Frankie frowns, taking a few steps and going nowhere, just an outlet of anxious energy.]

Thought you'd be thrilled to get back to human patients.

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[nosferotofu]

I'm only learning again what it's like to be human. You think I can treat them?

[ He almost certainly can. ]

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[never_very_good]

[Frankie just answers that with a look. Yes, he does think so.]

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[nosferotofu]

I'll work something out. Don't worry about it, Frankie.

[ Meaning, in Dalton Bros language, let's drop this subject. ]

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[never_very_good]

Fine.

[Meaning, in Daltonese, like hell he's not going to worry.]

You settling in otherwise?

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[nosferotofu]

Got through my first curse, and I'm now in the process of finding my own place. I'd say I'm doing fine.

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[never_very_good]

Sure.

[He means something more than that, something a little more meaningful, something about being alive after long years dead. But maybe it's too soon.]

Should probably get yourself some stuff, too, I'm not doing your laundry forever.

[That's followed by a grin, he's trying to lighten the mood.]

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[nosferotofu]

[ Too soon for him to pick words that could even encompass what he feels. The fact that Ed wakes up at the crack of dawn every morning to see the sun rise should suggest as much. ]

How many times have I done yours? Consider it payback.

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[never_very_good]

Not how it works.

[He leans back, easing himself against the wall. Making jokes, chatting and bickering-- it's something they haven't been able to do in a long time, it's like stretching an unused muscle. Like squinting against the sun after a decade.]

Big brothers don't get to mooch.

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[nosferotofu]

Who made up that rule?

[ They've certainly bickered across the past ten years, but never the kind of bickering that would leave either of them amused, no less content. ]

That's a double standard.