As soon as Kole shadow jumped, Keera rushed to the man who was writhing on the ground. Tibias and Royal stood behind the crouched angel, trying to help, but being no practical use, were waved away by the red head.
Keera gently placed a hand on either side of the aged man's head and held him steady. She calmly cooed sounds of comfort quietly into his ears, pointed, she noticed. When his thrashing came to a stop, she seemed to snap out of a trance. She turned to Tibias, but did not meet his gaze.
"Get Liddy in here?" she asked, referring to a woman who worked in the office above their own. Tibias nodded silently and left the room, grabbing the cane for no other reason than habit from the past few days. He no longer needed it, but it came in handy when he needed to threaten Royal with physical pain. It was rather good for blunt trauma.
Tibias walked further down the musty hall and turned up a staircase. The wood squeaked and groaned with the weight of his walking, but they held, like they did each and every day, much to the surprise of the resident workers.
He quickly walked to the second door on the left, this one painted an ungodly shade of green, and rapped on the door with his cane. Bloody useful, the thing.
The door opened to reveal a woman in her late fifties. Her hair was shockingly white and stood about her head as if it were trying to escape her scalp, her electric blue eyes stared at Tibias with a look that was completed by her mouth, which was scowling.
"What do yer want now?" she cackled, the shifted her many shawls and various drapery she wore, Tibias bet it could all be sewn together and make a nice tent, and continued before Tibias could speak, "Got one of yer fellers down now? Eh? Well, spit it out, doncha?" Tibias resisted the urge to hit the old Bostonian upside the head.
"We require your services downstairs, yes," he told her in a flat tone. She held out her arm, and with only the slightest hint of hesitation, Tibias weaved his own arm through, already knowing the pain his ears would be in for if he had refused.
The woman, Liddy, stomped her way down the stairs and to the open door of the office.
"Well, what do we have here?" she asked, Royal opened his mouth to speak, but Tibias silenced him with a look. Liddy bent, with protesting knees, and shooed Keera's slender hands with a small but painful slap, "Away girl," she turned the man's head to face her and inhaled quickly, "Sharpe, do you know who this is?"
"No idea Mrs. Le'Beoux, he was attacked by Kole," Tibias said dryly, hating every moment Liddy was in his office. She was one woman he could not stand, the resident healer for Boston. She usually spent her days in the office above, making salves and amulets. She hated men, especially Tibias and Kole.
"Of course you wouldn't you stupid man," Tibias let it slide, knowing that arguing would be useless, "This is Mr. McBride!"
"Oh, Mr. McBride!" Royal said with mock recognition, and Liddy looked up from Mr. McBride sharply.
"Just when I thought this office couldn't get any worse," she mumbled, then took a small bottle out from under one of the many layers of clothing she wore and unstopped it. She took a swig of it herself before trickling it into the partially open lips of Mr. McBride. He coughed and opened one eye briefly before closing it again.
"You may want to call an ambulance," Liddy said, slowly standing up.
A few hours later, and Kole was still not back and McBride was in the hospital. Tibias had made three kettles of tea. Keera had watched him out of the corner of her eye. Nothing seemed off, he went about his day as usual. The thought that Royal had planted in her mind the day before grew and grew and pushed at the walls of her head. She looked over to Royal's desk, to see him smugly smiling into his newspaper. When Tibias had left to brew yet another kettle, Keera leaned over her desk and poked Royal.
"Were you serious about Tibias and The Shield?" she asked, whispering even though there was no reason to. Shera looked up from her self imposed isolation, not hearing the news before.
"Problem?" Royal simply asked, making his face a mask of innocence, "It was years in the past, I doubt they still..." he trailed off, then looked at her, "Well, they still write," he shrugged, "It's not like he's skyping her every night and getting treated to a virtual lap dance or anything," Royal smiled broadly at Keera, who growled at him and sat back down behind her desk.
The office door opened and Tibias came back inside, holding a steaming cup of tea. He smiled at Keera.
"Thank the lord Mr. Tarrant is not here, or all this tea would be cold," he gestured to the tea, "You know how he has that chill about him?" Keera returned his smile, laughing at his attempt to lighten the mood.
"So," everyone turned to Shera, who had been silent enough to be forgotten, "I saw you cozying up to The Shield," she smirked at Tibias, wanting to help Keera get to the bottom of Royal's obvious lies, "What's up with that?"
Tibias looked surprised, "What? Madelina?" he laughed at the notion, "I never, I mean, Madelina?" he stumbled over his words, turning a lovely shade of red, further deepening Keera's paranoia. Tibias turned and looked at Royal, "Mr. Holligan?" he asked seriously, no hint of embarrassment in his voice.
"Yup?"
"Come with me now," Tibias ordered, then waited two seconds before adding, "The definition of now is: this precise moment in time!" he pounded his cane on the floor to further emphasize his order. Royal jumped from his chair like it had been set on fire and followed Tibias a bit down the hall. Bloody useful thing, that cane.
"If you told Ms. Trean or Ms. Kinsley that I was seeing Madelina tell me now," he said quietly, "We cannot have this type of lip gibbering tom foolery going around our office, it is dangerous and can cause rifts." Royal opened his mouth to speak but Tibias cut him off with an upraised hand, "I am not informing Mr. Tarrent of this simply for my own reasons, not as a favor. Do you understand me?" Royal nodded his head. "Good, then, shall we go back into the office?" Tibias turned and entered the pink door.
"I assure you that I never 'saw' or dated Madelina Effels," Tibias whispered into Keera's ear, and not caring that either Shera or Royal could see, he kissed the top of her head.
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