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After her physical therapy appointment, Tallulah stopped by the diner near DCU. It was a total whim - nothing could make you crave pancakes more than two hours with a therapist who resembled an animated Barbie doll in a lab coat and was far too enthusiastic about hand weights, and she had time, so what the hell.

Slipping off her coat, Tallulah started to slide onto a seat at the counter. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar brunette sitting at a booth. Tallulah slid back off the chair and picked up her coat. "Erika?" she called, crossing the diner. "Hey," she said, pointing to the bench opposite the girl. "Can I sit? I didn't know you were back in town. When did you get here?"

"I've been back since a bit before Thanksgiving," she added, while she waited for Erica to make up her mind as to whether she could sit or not. "I guess we've got a lot to catch up on, huh?"

Tallulah slid into the booth, setting her coat on the seat beside her. "Well, my dad would have liked it if they'd kept me a few more months," she shrugged, "But I'm out of the woods, so I rallied to be sent home. I'm far enough behind on school as it is." If she really hustled with winter classes, she could make up a semester - and with her senshi activities on hold for the time being, she had plenty of time to study.

"Back to Saint Mags? Or somewhere else?" she asked, pulling a menu out from behind the napkin dispenser. She'd been craving pancakes, but thought it might be awkward to sit here and eat a whole meal when Erika was only having juice. Should she offer to get something for Erika as well? Or would that be more awkward? She decided to go for it.

"I just, um, I just came from physical therapy and I'm starving. Do you want anything?" she offered, smiling at Erika. She'd always meant to be more hands-on helping Sailor Callisto and her civilian counterpart, but time got in the way. "I'll treat. It's good to see you."

Well, Tallulah couldn't blame Erika for being less than thrilled to return to Saint Mag's. It was, after all, a reformatory school, and Erika didn't need any reforming. Plus, the whole brother issue, which didn't really need any narrative rehashing because all parties present understood it well enough, so moving on. "Just toast?" she asked with a frown. "I mean, I don't mind you getting actual food..."

Perhaps it was best not to push Erika, she decided, and ordered pancakes for herself and toast for the other girl when the waitress came around. "If you decide you want something else, let me know," she offered, and that was the last she was going to say on the topic, for better or for worse.

Dropping her voice, she changed the subject to more serious matters. "I guess I should just put it out there that I'm nowhere near strong enough to get back to patrolling," she said quietly, hoping that between her reduced tone and their distance from other diners, they wouldn't be overheard. "I've been in touch with a few people, but mostly I'm just trying to keep a low profile so no one accuses me of slacking off."

As if anyone who knew how sick she'd been would do that! But Tallulah didn't want to risk it. She was willing to guess that if Erika was still unpacking, she probably hadn't had a chance to henshin up yet. "If you want someone more experienced to go with you - when you're ready, of course - I could give you a few phone numbers to try." Which, she hoped, was not pushing too hard. Callisto had never been the most willing senshi, but Tallulah hoped she wasn't making Erika wish she'd never come back to Destiny City with this line of inquiry.

Tallulah suspected she knew what sort of rationale was behind Erika turning down her offer of more food, but she wasn't going to argue and make things more awkward. Moving forward, she could see she needed to reassure the uncertain younger senshi that the team hadn't completely dissolved in their absence.

"No," said Tallulah reassuringly. "Everyone's not gone. I mean, I don't know what's going on any better than you do." She'd been trying to keep her head low, dating a civilian and playing at being a civilian, because knowing the state of things would only make her want to get back in the game too quickly. And if she was almost passing out after swimming a few laps too many, then she definitely wasn't ready to patrol.

"But people are still in town. Ganymede - and I assume Valhalla, they're kind of a matched set. I think Babylon just got back, and Pasiphae, I think... and there was another knight..." She didn't really know the status on everyone else - part of keeping her nose down meant that she couldn't exactly get a full report on the Jovians.

"If you want, I'll give you Paris's cell number. She's got a better idea of what's going on," Tallulah said, reaching into her bag preemptively for a notepad. Quietly, she continued, "Ganymede, I mean. She's pretty much as experienced as I am at this point. More, probably, because she hasn't taken a year and a half off."

Tallulah shrugged, not exactly trying to be dismissive of Erika's concerns, but at least trying to downplay them. "We all start somewhere," she said, "And plenty of us started without the kind of support system you have." Which, she realized, sounded like she was trying to guilt the younger girl into patrolling again - and maybe she was.

Anyway, she could drop the senshi talk for as long as it took for the waitress to come by and drop off their orders. Tallulah drizzled syrup onto her pancakes, considering. She didn't want Erika to come out of this conversation feeling overly pressured, or worse, hating her... she just wanted to give the younger girl what she considered a much-needed boost of confidence!

Smiling as she smoothed a napkin over her lap, Tallulah said, "The only way that any of us ever got to be any good was by practicing. Me and Ganymede and every other eternal scout - we all started out uncertain and untrained, same as you. And then we kept at it and kept at it until we got better."

She was sure that Erika would have some kind of counter to that, but at least she had tried. And, like punctuation on the statement, Tallulah popped a slice of pancake thoughtfully into her mouth.

Tallulah understood needing time - she was, herself, taking a rather long while to recuperate and get back into the swing of things. And while Erika hadn't been ill, a war was a rather lot to mentally prepare for, not something you just jumped into feet first. (Which was probably why so many rookie senshi seemed so shell-shocked, she reflected. The cats didn't exactly give you much preparation before you had to go fight for your life.)

"Of course," she said finally. "It's a lot to take in all at once."

"You've still got my cell number, right?" she asked, cutting up more of her pancakes. It didn't seem very logical to her, now that she really considered it, to give Erika Paris's number without making sure the younger girl also had hers. Short-sighted, was what that would be.

"Take as long as you need, and if you ever need anything - even if it's got nothing to do with senshi stuff, call me or call Paris, okay?" She really hoped that Erika would take her up on the offer - Tallulah lived to be helpful, and she didn't feel like she was helping anyone by being sickly and useless.

"Nope!" Tallulah assured Erika brightly. "Same as always." She might have been away for a year and a half, but she'd had her cell phone number since freshman year of high school and hell and high water couldn't take that away from her. And barring civilian modes of communication, senshi phones were totally a thing. Although if Erika was holding back on rejoining, then she might not answer that...

Best not to overthink it, Tallulah decided. She'd just do her best to keep things low-pressure and make it clear to the younger girl that no matter what she decided or what pace she did things at, she had at least one true friend in Destiny City.

"Great," Tallulah confirmed, although she had to think that Erika sounded a little less than convinced. Had she come on too strong? Oh, now she was worried... Should she tone it down a little? Huh.

"It's really great to see you, Erika," she reiterated. "Seriously. I'm glad you're doing okay."

Would she keep getting better? Well, there was always the odd chance of going into kidney failure, but she'd been assured that it was a very slim possibility. "Yeah," Tallulah said, smiling, "As far as I know, I'm out of the woods and I'm going to keep getting better." She had no plans to wind up back in the hospital any time soon!

"So," she added softly, "You don't need to be scared for me anymore." She felt a faint twinge of - of something, selfishness, maybe, at Erika's admission, though. Which probably just meant that she was a horrible person.

She'd finished her pancakes, mostly, and at some point the waitress had dropped her check onto the table. Tallulah picked it up, gave it a quick look, and then dug a few bills out of her bag and put them on the table.

"I should probably get going," she sighed, offering Erika and apologetic smile. Although she didn't say so, since she didn't want to make Erika feel rushed, the lunch crowd would probably be in soon and they'd want the table. "Good luck on the job search - and please don't be a stranger! You can text me about literally anything."