Who: Herbert and Sammy
Where: Helen's place
When: Late afternoon

The instant Herbert got Sammy's text that he was okay to visit, Herbert was out the door. Thankfully, it was after Charlie had gone home again. He got there in record time, this time not bothering to bring anything, since he'd mostly brought everything he could think of the day before, and leaving Elda behind. After her meeting with Charlie, he figured he'd let her sleep.

He slowed and hopped off his bicycle in front of the house, looking around immediately for Sammy, half-expecting him to be waiting there on the porch, the way Geo had. After not getting to see him the day before, he was even more anxious to do so today.

Sammy was indeed on the porch much like Geo had been the day before. Not that it was much of a porch - it was more like a couple of stairs leading up to a slab of cement than anything. He glanced behind him as Herbert headed up, then turned back around once he'd made sure that the heavy door was shut. There were two reasons for that: one being that he just preferred knowing no one was looking out, and second being that there wasn't any screen in front of it.

Yup, there he was, waiting for him; Herbert waved with one hand as he came up the walk and leaned his bicycle against the wall of the house, then came the rest of the way to the porch stairs. Rather as he'd done with Geo the day before, the first thing Herbert did upon climbing the stairs was catch Sammy up into a hug. This time, unlike the brief "I'm glad you're still alive" hug from before, there was nothing tentative about it, though he didn't make it linger terribly long if Sammy didn't seem to want him to. This was still very much an "I'm glad you're still alive" hug, only it was a bit more fervent than last time.

The desire to not talk about what had happened was as present now as it had been when he’d met Linn earlier at the grocery store. But the hug – like Linn’s hug – was welcome, and he returned it before patting Herbert on the shoulder; the were-bear could let go now, the sentiment was appreciated but hug-time was over and stuff. He had never been one for long hugs, really. Like, ever. Short ones however were fine. Yes, it was a bit weird, but people usually dealt and it was all fine. Sammy reached back behind himself, fumbling for the stolen-notebook, which as far as he knew Marek still didn’t know was missing.

Herbert was pretty good at taking silent cues, and he let Sammy go from the hug when he patted and let go, himself. Not entirely, because he still held him in place for a good sniff-over, like he had the last time he'd been worried that the raven-boy was somehow not in one piece, but it wasn't the clinging, enveloping bear-hug it had been, just a pair of hands on his shoulders and a nose prodding and snuffling at his hair and face for a moment. "It's good to see you," he said finally, actually letting him go after another moment. "Better," he added with half a grin, "to smell you."

Sammy nodded in agreement to that statement, scooting over on the steps to make room for Herbert if he wanted to sit. Which he hoped he did, because it was just that much easier to ‘talk’ to the other were that way. “Know what you mean,” He finally said, kicking at his own heels, looking down the road. Helen was out right now, on her way to pick up Nana. “Smelling lets you know if someone is alright – mostly alright – better than just looking.” Right now he smelled like smoke…and blood. But the blood smell was clearly not his. "Again. Totally know what you mean. How are you today?” Because if he asked that, he could hopefully escape questions directed at him.

The scents on him made Herbert frown again once they registered, and he sat down with him to read, hovering a little. "Was worried, since I hadn't smelled you since the fire-- now I still am. Why do you smell like blood?" Yes, he could tell it wasn't Sammy's-- but that didn't make it any less disturbing. The smoke made sense, in the way his tasting blood made sense. The blood-smell didn't, and he didn't like it.

That was a sort of okay question. He could definitely answer that question with no problem. "Marek smells like blood." Yes, it was gross, and it was also the honest truth. "Don't know why, but he reeks of it. Like it part of his natural scent." He also smelled like salt...and dirt. "Since wearing his shirt," He looked down at the insignia for whatever Slavic band it was, then back at Herbert, "I smell like blood, too."

Herbert made a growly-looking face. He even growled a bit, for good measure. "Vampires smell like blood," he said flatly. "So do demons, or some of them. And half-demons, some of them." Well, Caleb had, on top of the sulfur-smell. "I know I've smelled more blood-smelling people around here...." None of them, though, were terribly reassuring sorts of people, and now he was worried about Sammy and Geo being here with a blood-smelling person.

"Not vampire." Sammy cocked his head to the side, considering Marek in his mind's eye. "Seen him out and about in the sun. Don't they crispy-fy?" He was pretty sure they did. If not so much to poof, then enough to look like a lobster, definitely. "And not demon either. No bad egg smell." Yes, technically he meant sulfur, but it was easier to classify it as 'bad egg smell'. Since it worked and all. "Smells like salt, dirt - clean dirt - too. Odd." The stilted way he was writing was pretty much a carryover from the way he felt. Kind of hazy and not-all-there.

The werebear relaxed a little as he read that. "Well, suppose that's something, then. I still don't like it," he added, "but at least he's not something like that...." He shook his head heavily and looked back up at Sammy himself. "Are you doing okay here? Even if it stinks?"

"Doing fine. Helen's at airport picking up my Nana. Have two buffers then. Nana holds up better." She did, always, and should now especially well what with Geo being a wreck, and Sammy a wreck. So was their Nana, too, probably, but a bit less of one considering she'd been a bit detached from the situation by not being in the state. "Go up. Sit on roof when it gets bad. Out my bedroom window. Saw you yesterday."

Herbert nodded some. "Missed you yesterday. I know you needed space...." But that didn't mean he didn't miss him, didn't worry. Spirits bless, he was such a worry-wort lately, but at least he had plenty of reason. Talking about yesterday, though, made him remember: "Have you gone to get the ducklings yet?" He stood by his guess that having them around would really, really help. Just having Elda sitting in his lap, dozing, seemed to have done Geo worlds of good.

Sammy shook his head at that question, leaving off worrying at a loose thread in his t-shirt. "Have not." His lip found its way between his teeth again. "Have not told Helen yet." His eyes ticked towards the road as if writing her name would bring her around. "Don't know what she...do not know her reaction to them. Worried."

The shortness of Sammy's writing was starting to get a little disturbing. His friend was usually eloquent, good at sounding on paper the way he ought to aloud. Did his shortness mean he would sound all curt if he were talking, too? Herbert didn't know; he was so bad at these sorts of things. He couldn't even figure himself out, much less Sammy. "You really ought to... they probably miss you. You're their ma, after all, eh? If your sister has a problem with them, that's not your problem. They're yours." It simply made no sense for anyone to want to hurt a baby duck. They were too cute and helpless, right?

As if sensing the ill-at-ease feelings coming from Herbert, Sammy leaned up against him, resting his head on his shoulder. Totally comfortable with it, too, having spent enough time with the were-bear the past few weeks. "I want them." He admitted. "But don't want them here." He hoped that made sense, and if it didn't Herbert would say so. "Not till I understand blood smell from Marek."

Herbert turned, as naturally as breathing, to rest his head on Sammy's. He could still see the paper and writing, so it worked all around. "Rrrm. I wish I knew, too... I've only met a few people who smelled like blood. Vampires, and a boy from school." He'd assumed it was connected to the demon-smell coming off him, honestly. "I don't know what all the things we smell mean, not until people tell me what they are and I can put it together." He sighed a little. "Will the vet keep them that long?"

"Hope -" That was a nice emotion - hope... "- Hope so. If not, might ask Nana what to do." Sammy squinted his eyes a little, watching the crack-shapes in the sidewalk. "She knows. Always does. You will meet her." It wasn't so much a query as a statement. In Sammy's opinion, everyone had to meet his Nana. "Maybe not today. Maybe Wednesday?"

Wednesday seemed like a long way away, just then, but Herbert nodded against Sammy's hair. He didn't want to interrupt family-time, and maybe he ought to work on homework and things some this weekend.... "I can plan on it," he said. "Wednesday, then. I can walk you home from school and she'll be here, right?" Not that Herbert didn't plan to walk him home from school as much as he could, for a while. Until they were all feeling more comfortable.

"Yes. Be here." He nodded at that, eyes following the line of a crack that seemed to look kind of like a mouse chasing a dog just a bit. "Doesn't have other places to go. Probably wish she did. I wish I did. Spend whole day away."

"You could always come visit me," Herbert suggested, lifting his head again at Sammy's nod. "Or we could go out someplace, like the forest or the lake or something." If it would help Sammy feel better, he'd offer his apartment for sleepovers every night. He certainly wouldn't mind the company. "Olivia knows, and she's totally fine with you coming to visit whenever. You and Geo, both."

"We'll know soon how long we have to stay. Hope." The sooner the better, and hopefully they wouldn't have to stay with Helen for a long time. "Will being read Friday. Know then, I think. Should be in there." The worst thing would be if they found out that Helen made out the best in everything. Just because.

Herbert leaned his head down a little again to nuzzle Sammy's hair, animal-like and in an attempt to be comforting. "Maybe you and Geo can get a place," he suggested. "With whatever you get from it." He had no idea what kind of money the Williams family had, other than "more than me" or, given the size of the house, more than his pa. "Will you be okay then? When's the funeral?" He assumed there ought to be one. Even if, er, they didn't get bodies because it'd burned so badly.... ... Bad thought.

"Thursday." If there had been bodies, it would have been much sooner, since their mother had been Jewish, and Jews didn't embalm their dead. But, as it was, there were no bodies, and so the funeral was being held Thursday. It would give everyone time to arrive from the various parts of the country, and a couple out of country locations. "Morning. 10:30." He wished he could speak - he wanted to speak at the funeral - but...well, he'd tried, earlier, to make himself, and still hadn't been able to. "Would like if you were there."

It would mean ditching school-- or talking the teachers or principal into letting him go-- but Herbert nodded firmly. He'd figure out a way. "Just tell me where, and I'm there," he promised. He'd avoided Lullaby's funeral-- he didn't really know her that well, the open casket thing made him terribly nervous, and he really didn't think he could've dealt with the death. But this was for Sammy, and for Geo, and he'd do just about anything for them. Besides, he figured he might know death a little better now, anyway.

"Tell you soon, then." Sammy promised, leaning against Herbert once more, the were-bear's bulk comforting and familiar. "Now we just sit? No more talk?" That's what he wanted right now. Someone by him, but not talking. Just...there.

"Sure," Herbert nodded, and tucked an arm around Sammy's shoulders. That felt like it might be okay, just then. "Whatever you want is fine by me." At least he knew his friend was all right. That's definitely what mattered.