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"This hospital is ineffective."

It seemed to be Dimitri's hope that if he complained loudly and constantly enough, it would somehow expedite the process from sitting in a tiny waiting room with sheets no better than paper and somehow rougher than that: an emergency processing area.

"They are utterly incompetent."

They had been waiting there for some time already, and generally speaking, being loud and vocal tended to help one get their way. At least in a retail setting. He dealt with it often enough in his own practice. Those were the people he usually jabbed extra hard with the drill, but still - he was Dimitri and not these doctors, and this was not an aggravating entitled patient but Lia. Who was significant and fun to begin with, true, and he'd always liked her, but tonight had fairly complicated things. He didn't hold her hand on principle, because he'd never really felt much of a compulsion to hold someone's hand before.

"This is beyond ridiculous."

He wanted to, though. He really didn't know whether it was hilarious or not.

"Mason, is there not another hospital? Any other hospital? I'm a damned dentist and I could do better than these idiots."

The magic should have been gone. The illusion wasn't making his vision all skewed now, but it didn't actually feel over. He could still remember standing with her in a meadow knocking apples off her head clear as day, sharing them with her as they laughed. It was still there. Fascinating? Funny? Frustrating?

His body ached, wounded and tired. Of course he was tired. He was Dimitri, not Penikisite. Maybe a night of rest would help, but that would not come without knowing that Lia would be okay - the fact that he needed to know that was something in itself. He generally needed no one, nothing. This was not him, but it also was?

He pushed his face into his hands and groaned, loudly.

The doors swung open as Lia ambled back out into the emergency waiting room area. She approached her two companions, throwing up her hands into two peace signs. "Deuces boys---I'm cleared for take off." The woman's wild mane of hair was currently flattened against her head because it was wet. The wound she had gotten had been shallow, but before they put liquid stitches on it, she had asked if they'd wash her hair out. They'd been nice and done so. Good bye hair gel! While it'd take some time for all of it to dry, strands were already starting to poof up. She didn't want to deal with showering when she got home, so it was a win win.

"Head wound was shallow---just bled a lot---and the verdict is concussion." She grinned. "Not the first time I've had one, and won't be the last either~ So they give me some stuff for the swelling and pain, and then it's just R n R after that." Lia was considerably in a better mood and state than when they had arrived. She was more coherent now, and able to string her thoughts together again with the passage of time. Meds helped, too.

She still felt a little dizzy and nauseous at times, still had a dull splitting pain in her head, and a little slow on the uptake, too, but she knew she'd feel tons better after a night of sleep herself. "Thanks for waiting, you guys. Sorry the night had to end up here."

"Well he wasn't the one to do this, per se." Mason was adjusting his glasses because there was a raging headache. If he knew that Demi was being any more affectionate then his counter part, he didn't mention it. There was a lot of memories and feelings about the pair he didn't quite comprehend. They messed with the memories of his biological family, and with his relations with Nora.

"General's been MIA since the first circus coup. Report has him detailed as deceased, but who knows what the case is..." He ran a hand through hair now as Lia came out, more right then rain. The nega tablet disappeared into the pen, stowing in his pokets before coming over to her like Demi did.

"I could do with a drink." Mason smirked at the pair, his own contribution to the joke. "or a Milkshake. I can feel you in on some details Lia...or we can go to the HQ for our team. Just don't wanna be out too late since Nora wants me to spend the night with her. She's still shook about getting yeeted into Lion taming."

Dimitri accepted the affectionate gesture, still thrown off that it did anything for him. He'd never really been a very... touchy feely person, to put it lightly. That it felt nice was nice, clearly, but it was unnatural, if interesting. Worn out, and they'd reached the point in some lifetime where she could read him, not that he'd hid much to begin with, but - he shut his eyes and gave a non-committal grunt that confirmed more than he thought it did.

A drink. He kept his eyes shut but laughed, harder still when Mason amended it to a milkshake instead. "Seconding the milkshake - do you think that stuff you gave me would go well in it, Lia?" he asked, finally cracking one eye open to peer at her.

They'd stay over, he'd already decided without consulting them. Or at least Lia would. Mason might have his own agenda with his woman, but he'd try and coerce him to stay. There was ample space for guests he never had. "Just try not to hit the self-destruct button. It is a lease, after all."

Lia's expression shifted to perplexed at the question as they left the emergency room and headed out into the lot. What had she given him? Suddenly two memories were competing. One an exchange of practical services---liquor for a cleaning. One an anniversary gifting for the day they had ran away from home to join the circus. It'd been quite a few years and---

The woman's eyes clenched shut as she stopped next to Dimitri's leased Mercedes. One hand came up to rub her temple and then her eyes snapped open. "Yes...!" She said, as she finally caught onto the right thought. "Yes---actually, if you mix some vanilla extract or caramel into the milkshake with the bourbon as well, it's really good."

When she was allowed to get in, the woman carelessly tossed her shoes onto the car floor, and then crawled into the back. It felt so good to be lying down. She laid on her back across the back seat, legs pulled up at the knees since she obviously couldn't lay out flat. She rested her knees against the seat backing, and quite honestly did not care if she was flashing Dimitri or Mason her underwear as her dress pooled around her hips. Zero cares.

She put a tanned arm across her eyes, and snorted, softly.

"Now who's a mooch, Mason?" She asked, teasing.

Mason had two seconds to look in the backseat, see something he didn't want OR need too before a coat was thrown over personal legs and private lingere. He felt nothing special.

"Like how they frequently attack each other? It's not the first report that a team in the negaverse has targeted everyone, including their own coworkers." Mason settled back in his seat, as heat flooded from his butt up. Heated seats were a nice perk of a fancy car, he assumed.

"I had a terrible time and apparently money was important to my frugal clown self." He could feel it coming out, "Besides..." Mason smirked, "You guys are the adults, not me. Isn't that an adults job Lia? To take care of the child?" Mason would never refer to himself as the child, but he wanted a burger and if they were getting milkshakes, they deserved it.

"So." He waited, "We gonna talk about the weird memories?"

Dimitri didn’t acknowledge their banter verbally, but he did kind of smile, a fond chord struck in him. False, or real? Either way, the way and forth was familiar. Comfortable. He could remember enjoying it night after night over shared dinners, where it’d always been he and Lia before they’d taken Mason in.

No. Not real. That was not real.

When Mason bought it up, the false life, the shadows in Dimitri’s face seemed to grow deeper. It would have been nice not to address it, but here they were, and so - “I don’t know what to do with this.” He was never really anything but honest to the point of brutality with them, and especially Lia. “Whether or not they are real, I have been compromised by them.” Even he was aware of how clinical that sounded, but there was no other word to encompass it. “Not that I ever disliked either of you, but this is...”

He didn’t entirely have the words for it, because frankly, raw affection was kind of uncharted territory. Especially the extent of it.

Dimitri's reply made her smile. Here was a Spock moment if she ever heard one. Compromised by emotion. Lia didn't move from her resting position though, and arm stayed across her eyes as she listened to the boys up front. There wasn't much more she felt she could say to the man right at this moment. Between her critical thinking skills feeling like mush and knowing that, to a degree, it was something they all needed to work on, processing on their own, there wasn't a whole lot to say.

"...We're a team." She said after a moment. "Is it a bad thing, Di?" To Mason, she replied, "Sounds like a future us problem."

Her frame lightly shook as their little star asked if they were there yet, and Lia curled more against the seat back. "It's all you guys when we get there---whether you go in or get drive through---I'm staying here. M'not hungry." Which really was the most telling sign she wasn't feeling 100%. When she turned down food.