Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Excuse me." Hero's voice was crisp, and he could hear her covering up her cellphone to talk to her roomie: "It's a private call. I'll go." Whatever Miriam Jacobs was going to say in response was lost to the mists of time and cellphone reception, but he could hear Hero moving through her dorm, through the rooms, until she at last apparently came upon somewhere that suited her. Jude could hear the door shut behind her, the klik of a lock, and the scrape of a chair as she sat herself down.

"Hi."

She sounded a little awkward. Businesslike. Obviously she had not done this a lot before. It definitely wasn't 'hey, baby'. But she was all work at first, and he could hear her, terse, voice low: "Is it Zodiac business? Do you need the team? If you tell me your location I'll come to you -- " He was already protesting, equally awkwardly, and she said, "Ah. No. Well."

Pause.

Awkward pause.

"Hello."

Hero wasn't particularly good at this.

"Is something up?"

Or romantic.

"Mr. Lawson." The interrupting chill of her voice had dropped somewhere to 'icecream' level, and Jude began to realise the depths of what he had gotten himself into: well, maybe he had realised it before. Hero Barrett could be extraordinarily cold. She kept her voice even. "I have no idea what kind of -- grapevine -- is busily discussing the nature of the -- disagreement between myself and Miss Thorne." Of course she did. He'd said as much. It was called 'Serenade Soriano.' "I am hardly fighting with her over you."

Except that was a distinct lie.

He could tell that Hero was tired.

"Jude, I'm your Captain. I am your leader. I hardly get into petty catfights over -- over you! What on earth would be the reason?" He could rattle her off a bunch. "There's hardly even a disagreement. No. It's a -- debate, over morality issues. A genteel debate. A gentlewoman's debate. No. Aurelia Thorne and I are Perfectly. Fine."

And there was the temper --

"Did you really call me up to remind me of the nature of friendship, Jude? I'll give you grace points for patrolling with Grayson -- " you know, 'patrolling' -- "but for God's sake, you don't need to give me a parable about the joy of friendship. Miss Thorne is being a small-minded, immovable..."

...

Thus came the point where they both realised that she'd revealed too much.

Hero sighed over the line. She was rubbing at her temples. Her voice was curt. "Gentleman's disagreement. They happen. I'm charmed that you rang about it. Sentimentality's your vice, Jude, and so's guilt -- are you certain you're not Catholic?"

They both suffered from the same tragedy; not letting the other get a word in edgeways most of the time. He had expected this.

There was silence over the line for long moments. They both listened to each other's breathing. He was either going to get a Hero toes the party line answer, or she was going to break down and confess and be true. The line buzzed a little.

Too bad. Party line.

"Any of us could die." Her voice was clipped. "We are the Zodiac Guard. We seem to make a practice of it. If taking each day as it comes means I have to live with Miss Thorne wringing her hands over a few marks that could have entirely been battle scars -- "

She drew herself up short again, breathing a little harder. He could translate that too: 'Aurelia Thorne saw my hickeys. We had an argument.'

"Jude, for God's sake don't get so overemotional. I'm sorry Marcel is dead. You need to control yourself." As though he were a hysterical woman. "I am absolutely certain I have died before with things unsaid and things undone, and I most likely will again."

Jude and Hero: a lovesong of manic depressives.

"Until that day, I do not have to have the entire world sit and eat peanuts watching Miss Thorne and I have a disagreement." Beat. "Debate." Beat. "Do you want me to use you as an emotional punching bag? Take this one: you dwell on the past so thoroughly you should look into being a historian."

Now she was frustrated. Now she was angrier. "You're lecturing me because I'm not as sentimental as you are, as forgiving. My God, Miss Thorne dying tomorrow -- how could she -- I'm much too light on all of your training, my God -- "

A Catholic and an Anglican. They could possibly just kill each other now.

There was another long silence over the phone. Eventually, she sighed. "Blackmail." A long pause. "You are, Mr. Lawson, inutterably versed in emotional blackmail; you are one hell of a nag of a wife, you are a -- "

She made another short, brisk sound. "I love you." Hero sounded depressed. He hadn't known her to ever sound this depressed. "I love you. This won't come to any good, you know. Aurelia and I -- well." He could hear the chair lean back as she obviously stopped posture and creaked it backwards, into the wall. "Miss Thorne and I have known each other since childhood. We grew up on the same street. My parents found it convenient for myself to be around her family, and her parents found it convenient for us to go to the same nursery -- Jude." A little urgent. "She is not about to forgive me for what she sees as an irreparable sin: taking up with the first man who offered for me."

Hero's voice was filled with scorn. "You're appealling, Jude, but you're not exactly a vile seducer. No, she doesn't blame you in this -- she thinks I'm suddenly a manic slut."

"Of course you're going to suck at it." She sounded professional, brisk. "Lawson, the relationship between Miss Thorne and I -- is -- complex. She thinks I've sinned against her; in the parameters of our relationship, perhaps I have. When you share your entire life with another person, it is... not unreasonable, sometimes... to be shocked at that kind of secret. It's true she's rooming with Giselle." She sounded irritated. "That was hardly my fault, I got landed with Miriam Jacobs. -- No, it's the sin of omission, Jude."

At least she thought so.

There was a lot of other stuff to it, which prompted --

Awkward silence.

Long, awkward silence.

It gave birth to tinier, awkwarder silences.

Eventually, she said: "Jude." Quiet. "Marcel probably knew. I won't presume to say -- anything else."

Instead of giving him any useful reply whatsoever, she said: "Has the cat had kittens yet? The vet said that he wasn't sure of the due date, but they can't wean properly for eight weeks, though we can start at five." The phone was swapped to the other ear. "I've found some Crystal girls who are interested if I take cellphone pics, which I will once they no longer look like mice. You have no idea the amount of girls who will do anything for a kitten sob story -- "

Hero: flawlessly switched the topic.

Well, this was a ******** a pause she said: "All right. I'll have someone cover for you." For his duties. Where he was going, she didn't ask. It could have been anywhere. If he wanted to tell her, he'd tell her; if he didn't, he didn't; she could cope with that, because she was his Captain. And all she would cope with was the absence of Sagittarius. Damnit, he'd miss Saturday. "Whatever you think about, don't think about it too hard."

Was that a little wry?

"You need your brain to function."