Who: Brian and Mya
Where: The diner
When: A little after 8AM

Brian showed up a couple minutes late for his shift at eight, after cursing himself sleepily the whole way for being up so late the night before, for not wanting to get out of bed, for staying the night because it was so late and thus requiring him to deal with Domino at an ungodly hour of the morning when he couldn't resist.... But there was still a bit of the vague, satisfied air of a man who'd gotten laid recently, and had, at the very least, enjoyed it. Though at least he didn't smell like it. Showers were wonderful things. Especially when they had Domino in them, too.

Not thinking about that while at work, dammit. Think about being a lecherous old man who was going straight to hell for fucking an eighteen-year-old man, instead. Yeah, that'd work. Really.

He made it into the diner with a sheepish smile, a wave for the servers on duty, and apologies for the current cook before he shooed her off and grabbed his own apron. Then he made a bee-line for the coffee pot. Nothing mattered until he had a good, strong cup of coffee. Until then, he just plain wasn't awake.

Mya had heard Brian come in, she'd arrived about ten minutes earlier and had been told he'd arranged to come in late that morning, so she camped out in her office waiting for him. Cupping her coffee cup she stepped out of her office and looked down the counter to Brian, giving him a little wave. "Hey." She said, approaching him. "I take it the fact that you didn't reply means you didn't get my message..."

"Message?" Brian repeated blankly over the rim of his own cup. "No... sorry, overslept and didn't even check my phone on the way out. Everything okay?" Mya wasn't supposed to work this morning... right? If she was here, that meant there was a problem, right? He felt too fuzzy and confused and relaxed and still-asleep to deal with a problem.... The coffee would help, though. It'd better help, or he'd be in trouble.

Mya nodded. "It's alright, I understand, wanted to talk to you in person anyhow." She smiled softly. "My office?"

That was definitely not an "everything's okay" sort of answer. Given the only thing he knew of that'd happened to make her need to talk to him was Domino, Brian nodded and followed her in, coffee in hand and after another apology to Jennifer since she had to stay on even longer, with the sinking feeling that somehow Mya knew. And that she did not approve, or wanted him to consider the ramifications, at least-- which he did, and had summarily disregarded because he'd wanted so bad-- or... something bad. The remaining lassitude from that shared shower was rather quickly turning into dread. Once inside, he kicked the door gently shut behind him, and, trying not to look nervous, asked, "What's up?"

"Did you read the paper this morning?" Mya asked, lifting it and then setting it down on the desk so he could see the headline. "Another killing." She looked worried.

The brief flood of relief, that oh thank god it's not me feeling, was very, incredibly wrong and inappropriate and guiltily self-centered, but Brian felt it anyway. He slumped back against the door to stare blankly at the paper. Then it actually sunk in, what Mya had said and what was on that front page. "No, I didn't. Seriously? Another one?" He pushed up again, a little more awake now, to come the two steps to her desk and pick up the paper, himself. "What the hell." This kind of shit wasn't supposed to happen in Marquette.

"I'm thinking... maybe..." Mya was biting her lip, clearly she'd been thinking about this a while. "Maybe we should change the hours of the diner." With a sigh she took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of her desk. "Especially after the attack on the diner, we now know it might not be as safe as we'd hoped. I mean the girl was shot on the way back from the carnival. I'm just thinking, for the saftey of our employees... maybe we should close at 9 during the week.. and 10 on the weekends... and not open at all on Monday." She looked from the floor up to Brian, her eyes filled with a seriousness she only got when doing her 'job'.

After scanning the first couple paragraphs of the article, confirming what Mya said, Brian set the paper down. And the coffee. It made sense, Mya's idea. If you were a normal business-owner, anyway, and not an angel and a willworker. "There are things we can probably do to keep our employees safe, if it came down to that. You and me. But I don't know if that will make you happy." He sighed, running a hand through his still-damp hair. "Can we afford to take the diner's hours down? And still keep it running?"

"I thought about hiring security at first." She said, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "But when I crunched the numbers I realize -that- would lose us money." Mya pulled at a loose string as she talked. "We make more money in the mornings at breakfast, the nights don't really bring in profit at all, actually we probably lose more than make, what with the electricity and wages. And yea we'd suffer with no Mondays... but it's not about the money... we'll still be making enough to stay open- or should. It's about the saftey of the people working here." Mya finally snapped off that string. "And I've been fortunate, nothing too bad's happened yet since we opened... that one false alarm gas leak, but I don't want to push my luck anymore by staying open on a Monday... we know by the gas thing that I don't have to -be- here for something to happen, and sooner or later something will... I don't want anyone in the building when it does."

Whenever Mya started talking that much, taking that few breaths as she did it, and started destroying her own clothing-- in small, nervous ways, anyway-- Brian knew she was really disturbed by what was going on. He came over, started to crouch in front of her, changed his mind with a wince and dragged the other chair in front of her and sat in it, instead, and put his hands on her knees, both comfortingly and to direct her attention to him and not her hemline.

"Mya, that gas leak alarm thing was not you," he reminded her, which was his staunch opinion. In his mind, Mya's bad luck was hers, not the diner's. "It happens to any building, anywhere. Is that really what's bothering you? Mondays and random shootings?" He rubbed her knees gently. "Because Mondays I don't think are a problem, and you know between you and me we could keep our employees safe. A blessing and a spell each and they won't even trip on the sidewalk." In other words, he thought she might need to talk about something else.

What could she tell him? Part of her worry was in fact just that- worry. She hated to go home and worry that something was going to happen to the night crew. That she wanted to be able to not worry as much so maybe, just maybe she could try to have a normal life of her own without having to silently stress about what's going on at the diner? That she's been close to the edge on this decision anyhow and her walk in the rain just went far enough to solidify it all. "I just need us to do this." She said, looking him in the eyes. "Just for a little while at least... until things calm down... From the crucifixtion, to the cat thing... the kids at the school, the flyers, the missing people, and now this shooting... it's only been a couple months! I don't want to worry about the diner when I'm trying to get sleep at night anymore."

"You and your worrying," Brian said with a fond, sad little smile when she finally stopped the... hell, the tirade, almost. This was an unhappy Mya. He reached up to cup her face with one hand, brushing her cheek with a thumb reassuringly. Even after Domino-- even after every little fling or even serious relationship he'd had since he met her-- Mya was still special, and the last thing he ever wanted to see was her upset or unhappy. "All right, Mya. If you need to do this, then we'll do this. We'll see what we can do about the scheduling, get the word out to the other employees, reorganize things. Want me to start working on it today, so we can be ready to close this Monday?" In... fuck, two days? He could do it. Really, he could.

"We'll keep the graveyard shift for tonight, but not tomorrow... I'll call everyone and talk to them tonight as well- try and get them on day shifts. I'll call around and reschedule Monday's group too. I'll take care of it." She told him, knowing it was her mess she was making and she'd make sure it wouldn't explode all over him. "Thank you."

"I can at least help," Brian told her firmly, taking his hand from her face to take hers. He was going to have to insist, here. And he didn't know if she'd think about the fact that they needed to change shift times around instead of just removing one altogether-- they got business before 6AM and the morning shift-change that would be very put out if they were forced to move elsewhere. "And would it make you feel better if I started working on some protection somethings for the employees?" As far as he knew, that's all Mya was concerned about, and if he could help alieviate that, he would.

Mya nodded slowly. "I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to bless the place." She shook her head slightly, she'd never blessed it before because she knew that not all those who shunned blessed places were bad... Mya looked down at her hands in Brians' and took in a deep breath. "Ok, I'll come in a bit early so we can do this today... to get it ready..." She said, looking back up at him. "Thank you for this." Sliding off the chair she leaned in- and over- to hug him. He had to be a good friend to putting up with her right now. And he smelled funny, different... too bad it didn't click as something wrong (because she could tell he wasn't upset about anything), so she didn't even pay it any mind.

"Hey, gorgeous, anything for you, right?" He never could resist her hugs, and he gathered her up for a proper one, resting his cheek on her shoulder for a long moment. It felt a little like the world had flipped on its head, as every strange and difficult thing of the past few weeks ran mercilessly through his head. Mya, stressed and wanting to shorten the diner's hours; people dying outside, for no reason he could discern; the missing kids; the photos all over town; Manhattan, a hunter; the possibility of Olivia being related to a hunter, a specific hunter; his dad, gone and leaving behind a horrible demon-cat. And last, but certainly not least: himself, who had just slept with a fucking eighteen-year-old man. The afterglow had worn off quick there.

In that moment, he didn't want to even face the rest of the day. What else could happen to toss him on his ear?

"I should go home." She mumbled into his shoulder after a moment. "I didn't sleep well last night." The last thing she needed was another stress induced migrane this close to the last one.

"Wish I could come," Brian laughed a little. "But I bet Jenn's fuming at me for taking even this long." That didn't mean he was letting her go just yet, though, or lifting his head again. "You and me, we've still gotta plan to hang out. Soon. Okay?"

She nodded as best she could. "Yea, most assuredly."

"Good." And because he did know Jennifer was out there and angry, and Mya just said she was exhausted, Brian finally let go, standing her up off his lap and getting up, too. "So I'll see you later, at least, for work shit?"

Mya nodded and kissed his cheek before moving out of his way so he could go relieve Jenn and she could grab her sweater off the back of her chair. "See ya later tonight."

Tonight. He had something planned for tonight. What... oh, hell. "You got an earlier time than evening?" he winced a little. "I'm supposed to meet Hunt at eight. Haven't seen the guy yet since I got back."

Mya laughed. "Sweetie... I'm closing..." She replied, it was just a little laughter, but it did feel good.

"Shit." He'd forgotten what time she was working. That was so unlike him. Scrubbing a hand across his face and trying to think, he came up with a hopeful, but doubtful, "Tomorrow afternoon?" He really, really didn't want to reschedule on Hunt-- but if he had to, so be it. Fuck if he knew what excuse to give, though. "I'm going to be putting spells on my diner" wouldn't go over at all.

"We'll find time." She said, coming up beside him and kissing his shoulder. "Don't worry." Mya smiled slightly as if to say 'I just made a funny' and walked out of her office. "I'm going to try and get some sleep." She called back after him as she headed to the door.

Relieved and grateful-- saved from having to use the same old "work came up" excuse and really, when could he reschedule for? the guy had work on Monday morning, so they couldn't well get drunk on Sunday-- Brian gave her shoulders a hug before she slipped away, then waved after her. "You do that. See you at shift-change."