The End of the Road

Who: Billy, Maddie, Oz and Lullaby
Where: Billy's house
When: Late evening/ night

Maddie was sort of half hovering by the window, watching down into the drive. Not that she could see a lot, even if they'd turned the porch lights on. It was bloody dark. But she was watching anyhow. She also wasn't fantastically enamored with her evening with Billy being interrupted, but she supposed, those things happened. She was leaned against the wall, and she glanced over at her boy. "...still not sure what this is all really about." she said, frowning. "I also don't remember you lot bein this punchy, but maybe I'm romanticizin my memories of it all." she added. That had a little touch of a half smile on the end of it.

Billy had been enjoying his evening with her, to the extent of which he hadn't actually picked up the phone when it rang. But when the answering machine had clicked in and Dean's voice had sounded out telling them that Thia was on the way and they needed to call him now, and then when the teen had hung up and promptly rung Billy's cell phone, the dreamwalker had got the message and picked up. And that had been the end of the nice romantic evening. Now they were just waiting. "That'd make two of us, sweetheart," he sighed, leaning back against the wall by the window. "And, really, all I know is that Dean said that Thia was probably heading this way to talk to you, and that she probably wants you to do a location spell to find her father. And that Oz is tracking her. And we're not 'punchy' - what's that supposed to mean?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She chuckled lightly, and moved over to give him a soft kiss. "I said I didn't think you lot were--Nevermind, love." she said. "Dean was here earlier anyhow, an I'm just thinking that they're...jumpy. A little eager to do things or take action're somethin. I do know that little wisp of a girl probably shouldn't be out wandering around after dark, so it's a good thing your wolf is lookin after her. All seems terribly dramatic, if you ask me. Now I understand the concern involved, what with him obviously being good at what he does and all, but not sure it requires dramatic gestures like walkin this far in from town, at night, to demand locations." She gave him another little kiss before she drew back. "Some people have other things to be tending to."

Billy smiled and pulled her in, bypassing the little kisses to kiss her properly and deeply. "Well, it's a long walk from there to here," he drawled, nuzzling her cheek as he broke the kiss. "And it's not like we have to go looking for her, what with Oz being with her and everything..."

Maddie laughed, a pleased sound as she hooked her arms around his neck and immediately started sifting them through his hair. She had a thing for his hair. She'd always liked it and she got to play with it now! So goddamnit she was doing that. "You know you're right 'bout that. It's a long walk. And the wolf would have things covered." Plus, if he didn't, it wasn't like they'd know about it until they started to worry in about three hours time. However every once in a while Maddie employed a little tact. So she didn't say it. "Did you have something in mind to pass the time, Mr. Gardiner?" she asked.

He leaned down and kissed her again, taking his time and savouring her as he did so. He'd slowed down a lot with that kind of thing in the past few days, enjoying the fact that they weren't pressured any more, that he could down everything properly without some clock ticking somewhere. So, he took his time before he broke off the kiss. "Hmm, I can think of one or two things," he told her, his voice deep and rich with promise.

"You know, I'll just bet you can." she said, after looking like she was contemplating that. "And I'm inclined to let you have leeway on this, to show me what it is you're on about." she continued. "Call me curious." Maddie for one had been enjoying...almost everything. And she liked getting to take her time with him. And possibly have at him more than once a day, and do silly things like take showers with him or wake him up in the middle of the night with kisses and such. It was really only during the day when he was gone that she was bored to death, but he made up for it when he got back to her.

They had time. Dean had sounded worried on the phone, but Billy couldn't bring himself to take that too seriously. He knew how the teen felt about the girl, he'd felt it in his dreams. Dean would overplay everything, there probably wasn't that much of an emergency. And Oz was with her - she'd be fine. The worst that would happen would be that she'd have blisters and be wishing she'd called a cab by the time she'd walked the five miles out here. So, he had no problems putting the girl out of his mind and concentrating on the one in front of him, because curiosity was a damn good thing in his book and she wasn't the only one who had it. He was still exploring her, experiencing things with her, enjoying every moment of it, save for when he had to leave her to go to work. But that wasn't now, as he pulled her away from the windows and into his arms.

About an hour and forty-five minutes later, there was a wolf walking up the drive. It was the strangest thing to be padding alongside a girl you couldn't see. Who just...wasn't there. Or when she was? She was only sort of partially there. Ghostly. Only she was there because he could still hear her and smell her and yeah. There was a trippy factor.

Lullaby had spent about twenty minutes trying to tell him to go back home, that she wasn't her concern, all sorts of things. She'd even picked up a rock like she might throw it at him, but hadn't had the heart to do that, and had instead drifted her fingers through the fur on this head, and given up on getting him to go away. It was actually Oz who cued her in on which driveway they were heading up, and she'd followed him. Actually, it was a good thing he'd followed her, she might have gone right by and not known it. It wasn't like she'd been there before. She faded back into full sight when she was in the porch light, and she looked at the door. Well. The porch light being on, and Oz's presence told her they probably knew she was coming. She hadn't worked up the courage to knock yet however, when she heard scratching on the door. She shot a Look at Oz. "I was going to knock!" she hissed at the wolf, though she did have to admit it might have taken her a few minutes.

It was a few minutes before the door was actually answered, but when it was a smiling, contented-looking, and above all dressed Billy answered it, looking supremely unsurprised to see them standing there. "You got here at last then - come in," he said, beckoning them inside. He looked at Oz. "I left the spare bedroom door ajar, you know where the clothes are," he told the wolf.

And the wolf was off into the house, after looking up at Billy for a second and snorting to clear his sinuses out, and Lullaby didn't even want to know what that was about. Maybe wolves just did that. It was also strange but kind of neat in a distant part of her brain to see Billy and Oz interact when one of them wasn't even a person at the time. She looked up at Billy and kind of gave him a half smile that didn't quite make it, and didn't stay. "...Dean called." she said, not really a question. "I'll be gone as soon as I can get the location spell done, if Maddie'll do it for me. I...is it okay?" she asked. Because now that she was here, exhausted and emotionally drained, she still felt like she was intruding, and there wasn't anything that was going to remove that from her personality.

"Yeah, Dean called - few hours ago now, actually," Billy told her, leading the way through to the kitchen and pulling out a can of soda, offering it to her. "You must be thirsty after your walk. So, what's the rush anyhow?" he asked her, curiously.

She took the offered soda, looking incredibly unsure of herself. She was still an emotional whirlwind. She'd kind of talked to Oz while she'd walked. It was easier what with him being a wolf and not saying anything back, she could almost pretend she was talking to herself. But she wasn't sure if anything she'd said before made sense, or if anything would now. "Thank you." she said quietly. Then she tried to explain. "My dad. He's the one who..." she made a vague gesture at herself. "He did this. And things lately...and I think he might try to come after me, and if he does, if he's already a murderer and the awful thing in the dark and everything I don't want him to hurt anyone and I don't want him to even find anyone that might mean something to me where he could hurt them and I just...if I find him first, maybe..." she trailed off. Yeah. She and sense weren't friends right now. And she was so tired. "I'm sorry. Can Maddie do the spell? Dean said something about needing something of his, I've got something he gave me and.."

"Woah, slow down, okay?" Billy said, holding his hands up as she spoke at him. "One thing at a time. And yes, I'm sure Maddie can help you, but no rush, okay? Just have a seat, get your breath back first." He was fairly sure that there was no real urgency about this one. Oz wouldn't have gone to change if there was - he'd wouldn't even have set foot inside the house. No, if there was a real problem, Oz would be very firmly on guard right now. So, Billy was cool and calm and relaxed and he wasn't going to rush anything.

She looked pained for a moment. "Sorry." she said, knowing she'd done that before, the whole too much information in one go thing. She was bad about that. She also sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, and remembered she should probably open her soda if she planned to drink it. With that thought came the knowledge that her throat was dry and scratchy so she should. Even if it was the only thing she'd had since the water Dean had gotten her earlier. And...yeah okay it was the first thing that had actual content to it since she'd died. "And I want to get it done as soon as I can, so I can...get moving." she explained, not quite looking at Billy as she spoke, but she looked back when she'd finished. "You're not going to try and stop me...are you?" she asked.

"Not my place to tell you what you can and can't do," Billy pointed out. "But, out of curiosity, where are you planning on going? Just... Find out where he is and then that's your goal?" he asked, musingly. "Because, you know, he's probably not going to be at that spot by the time you get there," he pointed out.

"If he's still in town, he might be." Lullaby said. "And if he's still in town, then I'm out of here in about two seconds." she added. That had a firmness behind it that she couldn't quite back off. She also realized what he was doing. He was being reasonable, and casting doubt on things, just in a really calm, nice manner. She took a long drink from her soda, and thought about what else to say. "If he's not...I'm not sure yet. But I'll figure it out." She remembered belatedly to shrug her backpack off of her shoulders. That was a relief. A few things didn't feel heavy until you'd carried them for five miles. She looked out into the hall, trying to spot Maddie, but she hadn't yet. Oz hadn't made a reappearance yet either, and she was a little suspicious there. What were they doing?

"True, true," Billy agreed, thinking that if the guy was in town, he might just arrange a little meeting. Nothing fancy, maybe bump into him in a bar and buy the guy a drink. He didn't need much of an in. "And what then? If he's in town?" he asked, deciding that he could do with something himself and grabbing a second soda from the fridge, popping it open and taking a drink.

"I find him. If I go to him first? Then he won't be coming after me. After that..." she shook her head. She didn't have a good answer for him. She didn't have any answer for him because she didn't know. She knew there would be a lot of badness. That she was well, well aware of, but as long as it didn't touch the people she cared about? She'd take it. She looked over at Billy and had to look away. He was so nice. He and Oz and Sophie and she didn't know Maddie well yet and she was kind of scary but she'd seen the woman smiling a little bit at people when they weren't looking at her. Usually after she'd snapped at them, but that wasn't the point. They were all really good people. And it made her worry for them all the more. "Doesn't matter." she finished in a mumble. And god damnit, she almost felt like she was going to tear up again, it was all so overwhelming and insane and awful. But she didn't. She just curled in a little farther on herself, and drank a little more soda.

"No, you see, I'd say that's the most important thing," Billy told her, gesturing lightly with his soda. "I mean, are you going to go to him to stay with him? After all, he is your father. But then again, I got the feeling from you that you weren't exactly his biggest fan. Still, what's the plan? Are you giving yourself up? Are you thinking that if he's going to come after you, maybe hurt people who stand in his way, if you go to him and do what he wants, that won't have to happen? And that you'll just... Give in? Do whatever he wants you to, whenever he wants it? For the rest of his life? Course, you're going to live longer than he will, so it won't be forever," Billy pointed out, keeping a light, conversation tone. "Or did you have something else planned? Are you going to try and stop him, somehow? This guy you seem to think will find you? Who you know has killed. Who you think will harm your friends to get to you? Are you planning on stopping him? And if so - how are you going to do that?" he asked, his final question slightly more pointed as he looked at her. he knew Maddie would laugh if she'd heard him say all of that. Because that sounded amazingly like forward thinking - something Billy was notoriously bad at doing. But he could recognise the need for it in others and he could see when it wasn't there. And it wasn't here - no, here there was just a frightened girl. And he liked her, he didn't want to see any harm come to her.

At that point, Lullaby's face did pinch up, and tears welled. She set her soda down and immediately put her hands over her face to cover it, trying to push them back farther, again, but it was difficult. It wasn't like the questions he'd just asked her hadn't been plaguing her. They had. She still didn't know. She was leaning towards stopping him. She didn't know how she'd do that, and she understood that she might have to 'play nice' for a while to get the opportunity--but she was more willing to do that than let her father go through people. When she wiped at her eyes, and looked back at Billy, there was a determination in her big brown eyes, even if they were red rimmed and still tearing. "Probably both." she said. "Because I'm sure I'll have to play nice for a little while, but eventually I'll have to have an opportunity." she finished. Her voice was hoarse, and she knew it, and hoped he could understand her. She knew when she was upset she got harder to understand at all. She wiped more at her eyes and looked away for a minute and then back. "Wouldn't you? If it was to protect people? Maddie? Oz and Sophie? I don't know what else to do, and with what he could be capable of..." she shook her head. "It's too big a risk for me and I'm not letting anyone put themselves in that position. Can't."

Billy pushed off the side and walked to take a seat next to her at the table, setting the drink down before him as he turned to her. "Course I would," he said. "And I know all about playing nice - I'm a dreamwalker, I need to meet the people I can affect. And, really, in the waking world, I'm kinda weedy, mostly useless. So, yeah, I know all about playing nice and waiting for my moment. But I also know about not getting myself killed. Not that I'm suggesting that we're talking that, but... Look, I'm a shitty person to talk to about this, but think about what you're doing before you do it. And you're not on your own."

"Wouldn't matter if I did get myself killed, remember?" she asked quietly. Unconsciously, she started to reach up to rub at her neck, where the choker she'd made was covering the scar, but she hesitated and put her hand back down when she caught herself. "It's you guys I'm worried about. And Dean...he--" she shook her head. "He wants to protect me, and I'm so worried all he's going to do is get himself killed and I can't live with that. I couldn't live with any of you guys getting hurt over this and I just...I should go. And whatever happens happens, but it'll mean no one else has to get hurt or worse because they're too nice and martyr like to send me on my way when they should." She looked again back at the hallway. This was taking too long. Something else popped up in her brain again and she looked back at Billy. "I don't want you to tell Dean. Where he is, or where I am." She wasn't necessarily asking for the information to be withheld, but she made her wishes clear. "He'll just come after me."

Billy smiled a little sadly. "I can't make that promise," he told her. "Anyway, if Dean's determined to come after you, he'll come after you anyway. I'm sure Maddie's not the only person in town capable of doing a location spell. But, I won't tell him unless he asks," he offered, which was as far as he was willing to go.

She nodded, not really asking for him to promise her. "...kay. Thanks anyways." she said. Because Dean would ask. She knew he'd ask. He'd told her he couldn't let her go, and she believed him. Even if she also was still stinging about the words he'd said before she'd left. She shoved all of that out of her mind, however.

"Ow, I didn't say anything!" Oz insisted as he finally made an appearance, and he was rubbing the back of his head and looking back as Maddie trailed after him.

"You didn't have t'say anything, there was a look! You keep your mouth shut, wolf, I'm warnin you." she said, pointing her finger at him. Then she turned her eyes on Billy and Thia, putting her hands on her hips. "You two discussin this insanity then?"

Billy looked over at them, then back at Thia. "Sorry - she's got no tact at all. And isn't very good at keeping her opinions to herself," he apologised, before turning back to Maddie and Oz. "Yeah, we've been talking about what's going on. Thia would like a location spell."

"Aye, I know, I was settin one up." she said. "You girl, need to go back with the wolf." she added, not particularly apologetic about her lack of tact or tone. "We've all dealt with this kinda thing before, it's not new, it's fine. It'll be fine, and the only way it'll not be fine is if you go runnin off on your own." No, Maddie wasn't especially good at sugar coating. "That'll just worry us all, give the boy a heart attack, an who needs that?"

Oz leaned against the counter in front of the sink and winced slightly, eyeing Maddie, then looking back to Billy and Lullaby. "...she's pretty right." he put in--loud enough that she should be able to hear since she wasn't looking at him. He would have said it a whole lot differently. Possibly without that 'you're being an idiot' tone.

Lullaby looked back at Billy, who was quite abruptly and very firmly her safe haven in this little mess. She actually didn't say anything because she was a little afraid to just now, but she wanted his say too. She listened to people. Didn't mean she'd take any advice, but she listened.

Billy held out his hands a little. "You've heard what I have to say on this one. You want me to add to that?" he asked her, lightly.

In the end, Lullaby sighed and she took another drink, then she looked back at Maddie. "...the spell, please." she said politely, but clearly. She wiped at the last of the moisture on her cheeks, and stood up, bending to grab her backpack. If Maddie said no, she'd be on her way. Where the hell she was going to go, she had no idea, but she would be going somewhere.

Maddie sighed heavily. "Fine." she said, then waved for the girl to follow her where she'd set things up in the living room with the help of the wolf. She stepped over into the circle that had been created, and started the rather simple spell after Lullaby handed over the anklet. She'd put out the maps required, local, especially, and there was an atlas that she'd set up with the pages fanned out, just in case it was someplace less than local. That was personally her hope. What she wasn't saying was that if the man had enough paranoia going for him, he could not be found at all, or he could know that he'd been located. Something that would tip him off and all. However, she just wasn't adding to whatever foolhearty logic was going on in that girl's undead brain. She murmured the words for the actual spell, and waited.

The intended result was that a small hole burned into the map surface. What wasn't supposed to happen was it set itself on fire. But up it went in a flash, as well as the book she'd set out just in case.

"Shit!" Oz yipped in surprise, grabbing the nearest pillow to push down onto what was left of the map, to attempt to put that out--an automatic reaction. Thia squeaked and shrank back, and Maddie was grabbing for the chalice of water she had for the spell to throw at the book.

It seemed that Billy was the only one without an immediate reaction - he wasn't given to that, the instinct to flinch when surprised had been beaten out of him years before and instead, he just watched, moving a second after would have been natural for anyone else, pulling Thia back a little, out of the way and holding her there. He waited until the fire had been put out, then looked to Maddie. "Okay, so I'm assuming that means something then?" he asked. He'd seen a few location spells in his time, helped set a couple up - they didn't generally look like that.

Lullaby let herself be pulled back because she was far too 'omygodthatjusthappenedFIRE' to really protest. Which meant she was sort of standing there, staring wide eyed. That didn't look like it was meant to happen. Sort of at all. Shit.

Maddie looked over, coughing a little and waving at the smoke that was still wafting up from the book and she dumped the rest of the water on it, and looked over to make sure Oz had snuffed out the rest of other fire. Then she looked back at Billy and Thia. "That wasn't meant to happen. He can't be bloody everywhere in the world at once. And if he were dead, then we wouldn't have gotten a location at all, or would have possibly or his spirit if he were one and even that's sketchy, an anyways--sorry, but something is seriously messin with the spell." she shook her head then shot a scowl at the burnt book again. "Stupid bloody..." she trailed off into a string of muttered swears, casting back into her youth for some nice potent sounding ones.

Oz coughed as well, and stood up, arm over his nose, and he went to open up a window immediately, fanning some of the smoke out of it. His eyes were watering--smoke and heightened senses weren't mixy things.

Billy loosened his hold on Lullaby and looked at her. "I think what my beloved is trying to say is that we can't find you father," he told her, managing not to betray his relief at that - he hadn't been a fan of her rushing off to do.... Whatever it was she hadn't worked out yet. He liked the girl, she was sweet.

She nodded, and looked down. "...I'm sorry about the mess-up." she said. she hadn't meant for things to start a fire. Even if it was brief. And right now, she didn't know what to do. She felt like the world was tilting, and she wanted off now. "I didn't mean--I'm sorry."

"Don't you worry about that." Maddie said, trying to be loud enough for Lullaby to hear. She was just annoyed at the result. What was this, anyhow? Locations were supposed to be simple. Easy little things you could pull off and nothing stupid happened. And yet last time there was the mirror thing and now this...the universe was messing with her, and she wasn't happy about it. Then she looked at Oz. "Oh for chrissakes, wolf, go outside." she said, shooing him. She then grabbed up the charred remains of the book and map, to put them in the sink in the kitchen to douse them more, perhaps out of spite to the stupid things that had decided to combust instead of telling her what she needed to know.

Oz took the cue gratefully and did in fact turn to head outside--but not before looking over at Billy and Thia. Though weirdly, Billy seemed to kind of have it covered, so he wasn't going to go impose on that. "I'll just be--" he broke into coughs again, and headed out.

"Come on, sit down," Billy told Thia as the other two headed out, leaving him alone to cope with the girl - how'd he been left with that one, anyhow? He didn't know how to deal with teenage girls. He'd never known how to deal with teenage girls. And he was dating one. But he led Thia to the couch and sat her down, taking a seat by her. "So, I guess that's that," he suggested.

She sat, more or less completely directable in that sense right now. She stared at the floor for a few long moments, seeing her anklet in the middle there. She didn't go to retrieve it, however. "I don't know what to do now." she said honestly, in a small voice. The one thing she really hadn't thought through on her journey over was what if he flat out wasn't found at all. So she was lost, and she looked it.

"At least you know he's not just round the corner," Billy suggested, knowing that that might not be the case. He was fairly sure that what they'd just seen was the reaction of someone who didn't want to be found. Which meant the guy could be anywhere. "Look, I realise this is probably a stupid question, but - do you have a number for him?" Billy asked.

"Not really. Apparently he could be anywhere." Lullaby said, echoing Billy's thoughts without realizing it. "I did before." she said, frowning. "But it's not on this phone. Mine's...well, I died." she said. "Didn't get my phone back when Dean and I went to get some of my stuff, the one I have he gave me." she explained. "I don't remember what it was, I only texted him once." When she'd been trying to start a relationship of some description with him. Then there'd been the time they were supposed to get together but hadn't. Then there was the dead thing.

Billy nodded at this - he hadn't expected that that would come to anything. It would have been the obvious move, but he figured it was worth at least checking. "What's his name? What do you know about him? I can try and track him down for you, ask around. I don't know that many people, but it'd be something, right?" he asked, still thinking that if he found the guy, he'd be best placed to end this.

"Cyril Draven. I don't know his middle name. And not a lot. I never even knew what he looked like til he showed up that one night." she said. She paused. "He had an accent. He wasn't from here...maybe England? Though his accent's different than Sophie's or Dean's." Lullaby wracked her brain for anything else she knew about him, hunching over a she rubbed her temples and shut her eyes. "I'd always been told that I wasn't allowed to see him and my mom left him because he was into 'bad things'. I always thought it was drugs or something but apparently not. He always wrote me letters throughout my life, never like...forgot about me or anything, gee, can't imagine why." she said and the bitterness in her tone was biting and immediate.

Billy thought about that, then turned to her more fully. "Thia - I want to come into your dreams. Tonight, if I can. It'll let me get a better picture, I can know what he looks like that way. And if there's anything else that you know about him, maybe things you've forgotten you knew, I can get that as well. I won't hurt you, or do anything like that. I promise. Would you trust me and let me do that?" he asked her, even though he knew he didn't actually need her permission.

Her eyes widened, and she blinked at him, hands dropping down to her sides. "No...I mean--I trust you, it's not that, but I--" she shook her head again. "You said it could be dangerous and I have--" nightmares. "I don't want you to get hurt." she said, that concept really not okay with her at all, and she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't dream about the vampires again, and what if he saw that?

Billy chuckled a little. "Thia, I'll be fine - I'm good at this," he assured her. "Sure, it can be dangerous, but I know what I'm doing and it's been a while since I've been really hurt." He paused and considered her. "You have nightmares, don't you," he said - and it wasn't a question.

She looked unsure and bit at her lower lip, watching his eyes. She didn't confirm it, because he hadn't actually asked, but she didn't deny it either. There was that whole bad at lying thing she didn't figure she'd manage to get good at now. But then again, it didn't quite occur to her to even attempt until after she'd probably already done enough to confirm it for him anyways. "I just...you said it could be dangerous."

"So could leaving home and walking five miles in the dark, especially round here," he reminded her. "As could going up against a guy who's good enough to resurrect someone. There's lots of things in life that can be dangerous, Thia. Deciding what's worth it is just a matter of judgment."

"I had a werewolf with me." Lullaby mumbled, but knew that wasn't a very good defense, considering she'd not actually asked said werewolf to go along with her in the first place, and had even tried to get him to leave. "And anyways I disappear in the dark." But still not the point. "I don't want anyone to have to go up against him." she insisted. "That's what this is about, I just...I don't want anyone hurt, and I know you're all trying to help me, but..." She stopped because she'd said this all already.

Standing back in the doorframe to the room, not making herself overly noticeable, Maddie spoke softly, far too softly for Thia to hear, and she knew she was behind the girl anyhow. "Tell the girl to go back with your wolf. I'll go there tonight if she needs me to and put every protection spell on the place I can do, and when I get the rest of my things I'll do even better ones. Or if she's that upset about stayin there, she can stay here. But she shouldn't be leaving to take off alone." There was a gentleness to her tone that really, Billy only got to hear for the most part. "And tell her that you've got back up in dreams...I can wake you if anything happens." Which wasn't necessarily true, but the girl didn't know that, and as far as Maddie was concerned, she didn't need to.

Billy didn't even look in Maddie's direction as she spoke, though he heard her. It was just obvious from the get go that she didn't want Thia to know she was there, so, Billy didn't give it away. "Choose your battles," he told the girl, seriously. "Play to your strengths, use what you have. Look at what you're dealing with - tell me that you could do what you need to, but I don't think you can. Let me find him. I work on a whole other level and Maddie watches over me while I sleep. If anything goes wrong for me, she'll wake me up. She protects me, in every sense of the word. Go home, Thia. Go back with Oz," he told her, gently. "We'll all go - Maddie will put every spell she knows on that house, tonight. It'll be like Fort Knox, nothing'll get in. And we'll take it from there."

Lullaby looked like she was wavering, and that was because she was. "Can I be hidden?" she asked. "Can I...so if someone was trying to find me they can't? Like what happened here? Can I have that?" If she could, and that could be done, say, tonight, she'd go. Because at least she'd feel slightly better and it would buy her a little bit of time, or what felt like it. Then, because it was really bothering her--"You promise nothing'll happen to you if you do the dream thing? That you'll be okay? She can really wake you up?"

Behind her, Maddie looked like she was contemplating. She knew the spell could be done, but she didn't have it with her. Which meant she could do it sometime soon but not necessarily tonight. "I can do that soon, but she has to be around for me to do it. Therefore she can't be taking off to gallivant around doing whatever. I think it's a very good idea to do for her though. Tell her to give me a few days so I can 'prepare'." Really she just needed her goddamn trunk to find it's way back to her, and then she'd be good to go.

"Yeah, that can be done," Billy told Thia, again, not looking at Maddie. He was more than used to having conversations where he didn't actually outwardly acknowledge her to other people. "It'll take some time though - and you'll need to stay around. She'll need to prepare. Not all magic's instantaneous," he told her. "And yeah, don't worry about the dream stuff - I've been doing this for years. I can go in, do what I need - and I'll even take care of your nightmares," he promised with a hell of a lot more confidence that he should have had. "Is there anything in particular you'd prefer to dream about?"

She still looked unsure. "...I don't know. Something that doesn't have to do with vampires." she said, very quietly. She didn't know how to orchestrate a dream, or know what to ask for. He was the dreamwalker. As long as she wasn't having nightmares about vampires? She'd be good. She'd be fine with white static just as long as she didn't have to die again in her dreams. "You don't have to do anything else, and how long? I don't want to stay around too long anywhere if...I don't know." she was back to circles in her head and she felt so exhausted. Just emotionally gutted out, and she was feeling that long walk she'd taken and...yeah. But what was definitely happening was her resolve was weakening.

"Three days," Billy told her. "Three days and no more dreams about vampires. Or death-" That was a guess, but he figured it was a pretty damn obvious one. "Go home, Thia - go back with Oz and get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning. I promise. That's what I do," he assured her, knowing that tonight was going to be a long night for him. They'd need him to drive them back, he was the only one who could. Then he'd need to walk. And he had work tomorrow as well. So, he'd just have to be exhausted for a few days. He thought of the numbers Corwin had given him. Of other dreamwalkers in town. He'd been really looking forward to contacting them, but that was just going to have to wait. THis was more immediate, more important.

That was the second time she'd been told to go home. Home, like she lived there. Like that's where she was supposed to be. She looked down, then finally nodded. "...kay." she said, very very quietly. Almost inaudible. "I don't...I don't sleep much at night, I'll try, but...when should I be asleep by?" she asked, wondering if she was going to have to dose herself with sleeping medication. Probably. Her schedule she had noted was a little more on par with what Oz's seemed to be.

"Well, considering that I'll be driving you home, I figure Maddie and I will just stay over tonight, so don't worry about it - I'll just be in the room upstairs and I'll find you when you fall asleep," he promsied, again making it sound just that easy. But he figured she was looking for reasons to turn him down, so he wasn't going to give her them.

She hadn't been, she'd really just not wanted to inconvenience him in any way if she could help it. So she nodded. "Kay. I'll still try to go to bed earlier than usual." Which honestly, probably wasn't going to be that much of a problem. If she dosed herself with something, she might be out pretty fast, considering how she was feeling. She was a little too all over the place. Because there was the other side of her mind that was saying she was too emotionally distraught to sleep.

"You do that," he told her, standing. "Okay - you stay here, I'm gonna round up the troops and we'll leave soon."

She nodded, and she glanced around for things she needed, then she remembered the anklet. She got up and went to collect it. She held it in her hand, and almost went to put it back on, but in the end she didn't. She put it into her pocket instead. He'd hear it, it would warn him, and she didn't even know if she was prepared to see him right now. Of course, that was ignoring the other part of her that wanted to get back immediately and find him. Probably to cling. But it went into her pocket anyhow, then she grabbed her bag, and shouldered it, sitting back down to wait. Her mind was back in the eye of the storm again, where there was so much swirling around it, she couldn't pick any of it out, and all was quiet.