Going Harder, Getting Better

"You didn't freeze up," Rory said with no small amount of pride. "That's the first step. Need a small break?"

Rory released Zora's hair and stepped back to give her some space. "So, you practice with someone else?" And it was the kind of question a detective asked, one they knew the answer to.

Lorelai ran a finger down the side of her own face. "I saw Broen's face the other day. So either you were attacked or you were the attacker. Which was it? Am I going to have to kick someone's ass?"

"Nice." Rory nodded, trying hard not to grin too wide about the fact. "I, uh, didn't know he was working for you. Shit, well." She sat down on the nearby couch, debating something.

"Okay. Back to business. Personally, I suggest you keep a good deal of mundane weapons somewhere in your vicinity at all times. I never had to worry about anyone breaking into my house, but that's what I would do. Not knives, but... do you have a fire poker? Blunt objects you can use well? You want to make sure things look natural."

"Er, yeah I know he does. I've been there a few times." Which felt like an odd thing to say. "He's a friend from my home dimension." Which was as close to the truth as Rory felt she could get without going into a long explanation.

"He is... very skilled at whatever he sets his mind to, yeah. He's a cocky fucker, but he has good reason to be."

Rory nodded. "Knitting needles work. An umbrella could...work. They're not very strong, but almost anything can be a weapon. Things to throw. To hit someone when they don't expect it. Anything that gives you even a second of time to get out or call for help."

"Oh, yeah. I think we're thinking of the same Shale. The Gargoyle, right? I met him in the community center." She rubbed the back of her head. "Actually, that's what tuned me into your conversation originally. I don't think he mentioned being from another dimension, but there's a good chance I missed it or forgot."

Rory understood the general question, what she was struggling to figure out is, which friend meant that she wasn't sleeping with Broen? "Friend-friends?" she said without much confidence before deciding to come out with it. "I'm not sleeping with him. I'm just..." Well watching over him felt like the wrong thing to say and if it ever got back to him she was sure he'd roll his eyes, at the very least. "I'm just hanging out with him, is all."

Lorelai was not about to admit that she paid Broen to talk to her. That was embarrassing and giving up her pride was manageable when it washer team who knew, but she wasn't about to run around telling everyone.

She snapped her fingers and pointed at Zora. "Those could work, sure. Like I said, anything works so long as it doesn't take you too long to grab. You don't want to be struggling to hold something when you're fighting back. HOw's your security system here?"

Family. Family was good. Rory missed family, but she still had her team. She took the water and thanked Zora before taking a swig of it. "It's all foreign to me. We didn't have things like Gargoyles and Vampires back where I was from. But Shale does seem nice, so you can imagine why I was a little worried when I heard his name. I figured if some shit was going down..." She shrugged without completing her sentence, but the words hung silently anyway. 'I'd have hurt someone.'

She nodded. Friend sounded about right. Not completely. But enough. Lorelai was not about to get into why being friends with Broen was a real shafted deal or how she and her team had managed to fail him before meeting him. Those things were better left dying in the sun.

"Okay," she said as she stood and stretched at an odd angle no human could manage. "Back to the grind, then. Sit on the couch or the ground. It doesn't matter which."