(Untitled)

[the_lure]

In all honesty, Stacie's not entirely sure how she winds up below Meredith's tree house. It's because there's nowhere else she can think of to go, maybe, or just that it's where her feet take her; everything's still moving too fast, enough to make her head feel like it's spinning. She hardly managed to grab clothes on her way out of the hut, but

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[drownondryland]

There wasn't a lot to do in the evenings in the treehouse, not when they didn't have electricity. Meredith had grabbed one of the flashlights from the storage room, but reading by that felt too much like being a kid (or the image of one. With Ellis' long nights at the hospital, there hadn't been many occasions for Meredith to turn off the lights when she still wanted to be awake). It seemed like a bad plan to use one of them up, anyway, when they only had so many and there was always the chance of some kind of freaky emergency. She'd struck a compromise by keeping the flashlight and not really using it. It left her with little to do when she finally came back at night but be alone or sleep or read by the moonlight

[the_lure]

Managing a smile when she hears Meredith's voice, Stacie lifts the bag up, the glass bottles inside it clinking together. "Drinks?" she suggests, and though the bright tone in her voice doesn't sound as natural as she'd like it to, it's worth it, she thinks, for the effort.

She's cautious ascending the ladder in the dark, since she's in heels and can hardly see, but she makes it up all right, and sets the bag down. "Actually, um, I was wondering if I could stay here. Just for a while."

[drownondryland]

Meredith wasn't one to turn down drinks. Even if the last few weeks haven't been any harder than most spent here, they were still spent here and that was enough to make anyone want to drink. The request once Sarah made it to the top was surprising, though, and she nodded before she had even processed it. "Um, sure," she said slowly, drawing out the word. "Why - what's going on? Is everything okay?"

[the_lure]

Stacie nods instinctively, then shakes her hear, and finally, after pausing, shrugs, combing one hand back through her hair. "I don't even know," she admits, looking half-helpless for it. Here, now, keeping up the act doesn't seem to matter so much; for all she knows, it's over anyway. "But I think to start telling you, we need to start drinking."