not a good end to the night

Who: Jesse, Jessie, and Lily
When: Jan. 23, night.
Where: The James' residence.

For Jessie, the hours between when Lily showed up and now had been fairly muddled. She didn't have the faintest clue of what time it was and she was torn between wanting to find out and staying where she was, with her head resting on Lily's lap, teeth worrying her lower lip. She'd been stuck in a world of worries about when and what state her father would return to her in and while it had helped immensely having Lily there with her, it couldn't alleviate the worries altogether. So instead of sit in silence, Jessie decided that she'd pass the time with a half-hearted round of I Spy. "Hey, Lily...I spy something with my little eye that is.....white." She could have said orange, but she figured it was far too easy a color to spot in her house, especially since Leo was basically the only orange thing in the room. But from where she was lying, she could see Dinah and Leo clearly, the two of them perched on the armrest at the end of the couch, observing the entire apartment intently, but specifically watching the two women.

Lily didn't mind sitting there. There was something relaxing about it, sifting her fingers through Jessie's hair as they both just sort of sat there in the quiet, the smell of cherry pie sifting through the apartment. Technically, the pies should've finished a little while ago, but Lily had told Jessie about the slow-baking. Still, the pies would need to be taken out soon.

"White, huh?" she asked, turning her head to look at the cats who were watching them in a very un-kittenlike manner. it was rather amusing. "Is it... the light?"

Jesse was pretty drunk. He was maybe slightly better than when he'd left the Round, but that was only because he'd walked home, and the cold and crappy weather had sobered him a little. Just y'know, not totally, because cold didn't actually take away a blood alcohol level. He made it up the steps even if he wasn't actually all that enamored with climbing them, then got to his place, and started to dig out his keys. They dropped to the floor before they hit the lock, and he crouched down to grab them, a little wave of unsteadyness hitting him then and he reached out to prop his shoulder against the doorframe as he took a second to breathe. It was then that he noticed that maybe it wasn't entirely silent in his home, when it really, really should have been.

"Yes, white! But it's not the light." Jessie kept her eyes on the kittens, watching as Leo swished his tail idly. But she was more than surprised to see Leo perk up at a sudden sound from the hallway. Jessie immediately followed the kitten's actions, shooting up out of Lily's lap and running straight for the door, coming to a sliding halt (because of her socks) at the door itself. She flung it open, caught sight of her father there, and instantly dove for his middle, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. With eyes squeezed shut, Jessie promised herself she was not going to cry... but she didn't need to promise for long. There was something more pressing than crying in relief that he was alive. A smell wafting from him. "You smell awful! What is that?"

It was pretty damn clear that Jesse was drunk and she hid her grimace with some quick intervention. "How about you let your dad get in the door, hmm?" she suggested lightly, coming over to the pair. Yeah, she knew that look, it was one she didn't like but that wasn't for now. The apartment smelled heavenly, of baking cherry pie.

And quite abruptly, he was getting hugged by his daughter, who wasn't supposed to be home, even, and hearing Lily, who definitely wasn't supposed to be there. He didn't know who'd set up this little vigil, but he was distinctly unhappy about it. Which didn't mean he didn't hug Jessie back, but he didn't look happy, that was for damn sure. "Thought I asked you to go to your grandparent's house tonight." he said, starting to head into the apartment.

Jessie stepped aside when she could, but frowned when she heard the tone that Jesse had. She didn't like it, not one bit. "...I didn't go because I didn't know where you went. I was worried." She said as if he should have known that already. She gave him a quick once-over, trying to see if there were any visible wounds on him. "Are you okay?" Even if her tone had an edge to it, the sentiment was still the same. The most important thing was finding out whether or not he was hurt...again.

Lily moved away from the two of them, knowing that this was between the two of them and skirted around them and to the kitchen, where she turned the oven off and sort of stayed there. Now that Jesse was home, she could leave, but... Jesse was drunk so that sort of made things difficult because she wasn't entirely sure she liked the idea of leaving Jessie home with her drunk dad. Not that she thought Jesse would hurt Jessie, but it still made her uncomfortable.

"I'm fine." he told her. Or, well, he wasn't, but physically he was, which was what he figured she meant. He scrubbed one hand over his face, whole worlds of not happy with this whole situation. "There was a reason I told you to go to your grandparent's house." he told her. "When I ask you to do something, and I don't very often, Jessie, I do expect you to mind me." It wasn't overly harsh, he never was with his daughter, but yes. He wasn't happy. He could appreciate she was worried, but he hadn't wanted her home when he got home in this condition, and he'd needed a night to do this. To deal in his way, to just take a breather, to let off a little steam.

And he couldn't do that, if he was coming home to his baby girl, who he loved dearly, but she already had one parent who was a chemical dependent, she didn't need to even see him in this condition. He just needed one night. He'd given no indication anything would be wrong, hadn't he? He'd left the note in the morning, even, left her money, so that it didn't seem like anything had suddenly come up, anything that she might have to worry about. He shut the door behind himself, and stayed there, still looking worlds of not at all okay with this. Like he wasn't okay with Lily being here. Clearly she had to know what was going on. And as the adult, possibly she should have told Jessie to listen to her parent. "I'm sorry you were worried, but I didn't really give you a reason to be. I just--nevermind. Go to your room." he said. He still wasn't yelling or anything, but there was very definitely a 'I'm displeased with your behavior' tone. Usually, between them, that worked. He wasn't a yelling kind of parent. And she was generally a girl who listened well, and didn't get into trouble that warranted any yelling.

But Jessie didn't want to go to her room yet. She stood there and stared at him for another long moment, completely in shock. He'd not given her a reason to worry? He didn't tell her where he was going! That was reason enough for her to worry! Money on the table and a note to go to her grandparents' didn't mean anything if she didn't have an inclination of where he had gone. And then there was that whole her dad being drunk thing to deal with. She never saw him like this and she knew there was a good reason for it, she knew that it was because of Veronica, who ruined everything, that he couldn't just go out and enjoy a few drinks by himself without her freaking out over it. But it didn't change the fact that her dad was drunk. So when Jessie spoke, her voice mirrored that very same 'I'm displeased with your behavior' tone that he'd had. "Why didn't you tell me what you were doing? Had I known, I probably would have gone to their house..." Honestly, she wasn't sure she would have anyway, but she would have been less inclined to freak out during the day and call Lily over just to make sure she stayed on the sane side of things.

Lily was feeling super uncomfortable at what was going on. She wholly agreed that if she was asked, Jessie should've gone to her grandparents' house, but Jesse didn't see how distraught the teenager was in his absence and honestly, it probably would've been worse had she left in that state.

"I have left you notes before, when I've had things I've had to do. You never deliberately defied me then, and I was fine. And it's possible I didn't know exactly what I was doing tonight, just that I was going to spend my night trying to figure some shit out. You go to your room and shut the door and listen to music when you need time away from me, when you're figuring your own things out, or you go to you grandparent's house. I don't have that. I needed some time to do some things, and to not worry about you being here alone, or basically, seeing me like this, if that was where I ended up. Now one of us is the parent here, and one of us is the kid, and you really need to remember right now which one that is. I do not steer you wrong, I don't know why you decided tonight was the night to stop trusting in me. Go. To your room." Jesse told her. "We'll talk about it in the morning."

"Not trusting you and worrying about you are two different things! And what's to say you can't go to grandma's house if you wanted to..." She had the sinking feeling that this might not have been the first time Jesse had gone out on one of these nights alone and come back drunk. There were a lot of things Jessie wanted to say at this point. That she was only worried about him, that she didn't want him to get hurt again, that she didn't like him being drunk or knowing that he drank at all. Honestly, what was the point of drinking? She just didn't get it! Why would he want to be like that? Especially after Veronica...But all the words she wanted to say stayed locked behind the mixture of sadness and disappointment in her eyes. So she turned, scooped up Leo, and walked toward the kitchen to peek her head inside. "Lily, I'm really sorry...I didn't know...you know. But I really appreciate you staying with me. Thank you so much." She gave Lily a sad look then started toward her room, closing the door mostly but making sure to leave it cracked open. If her father didn't like that, she'd say it was because Leo's litter box was in the bathroom...but really she wanted to eavesdrop. She was worried about Jesse, worried about Lily...She basically just had a bad, bad feeling about this.

Lily watched Jessie go into her room, feeling even more uncomfortable now that she was alone with Jesse. Awkward awkward awkward. "She called me early this afternoon. She was upset and asked me to come by. And I tried to get her to go to her grandparents' place but she wasn't going to budge and I wasn't going to leave her by herself in the state she was in." She said this all softly, like speaking any louder would send everything spiraling and shattering across the floor, making an even bigger mess than things seem to be in.

Jesse turned a dark look on Lily, one that quite clearly stated just how pissed he was. "I don't want to hear it." he said, tone low. Quiet. But quiet in that way that was almost worse than if someone was shouting. "There's a bat by the coat rack. I got it for you. Take it and get the fuck out." he said, then walked past her to the bathroom, not quite slamming the door but shutting it a little harder than was strictly necessary.

Jessie, who had been listening intently from behind her door, cringed a bit from behind the door. While she'd heard him cuss before, she wasn't so keen on the context. She made a decision then and there to call Lily tomorrow and talk to her about the events of the night, to apologize for pulling her into this situation. But for now, she stayed in her room, Leo in her lap, stroking his head carefully.

Lily was surprised to find herself not as upset as she probably should have been, considering that she had stayed with the his daughter and kept her from going off and searching for him. But he was drunk and Lily found herself really... not caring. Her eyes moved over to the baseball bat. While it was nice, it was still a little... annoying that Jesse seemed to think of her like a delicate flower. It was sweet, in a somewhat annoying way. So she grabbed it, putting her mewling kitten in her pocket and grabbed the bag she brought over with her. With a final look at Jessie's door and the bathroom door that Jesse had slammed behind him, she couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was... oddly domestic.

And it was because of that she let the door close a little harder than needed behind her.