unpacking.

Who: Evelyn and Jesse
Where: His house
When: Late Afternoon

Evelyn kept her eyes focused straight ahead as she walked to her brother's, grateful it was a much shorter walk now. It was too short to drive, but this wasn't weather for a new driver to be driving. It also wasn't really weather to be walking in, but some paranoid part of her couldn't help thinking that at least it wasn't weather for anyone else to be walking in either. So she had decided to take an umbrella and brave the elements and leave her parents' house for her brother's. She had been in some kind of limbo back home for the past week; not working, not really doing anything beside help a bit around the house and work up the nerve to come clean to her family, then finally confess on the Drake to her family, and then stick around the general 'We love you, but we're disappointed' aftermath. It had been at atmosphere that made her both antsy and relieved: the truth was out there, finally, but it was an unpleasant truth that certainly changed how the people she loved most looked at her. That clear-headed, responsible, and trustworthy reputation just didn't remain in tact after months and months of lying.

She had told them about the Drake, but there were still a lot of things they didn't know. She hadn't gone so much into the details leading up to the Drake outside the general idea that things weren't working out at the old office in a way significant enough for her to leave. She didn't know how much her family knew about Becky's situation. They weren't idiots; it wasn't as if Becky suddenly moving back and then in with her brother was a normal set-up. Her family had likely managed to figure out there had been trouble, and Jesse had helped out, and they really hadn't been the type to try to push and pry the details out of Evelyn. And she just wasn't going to divulge any details that Becky didn't want or wasn't ready to share. Nor, for similar reasons, did she mention Jesse finding out about the Drake some weeks earlier. The issue had been her lying for the past months, it hadn't been Jesse. And for completely different reasons she hadn't mentioned the attack a couple weeks ago, even though she suspected her family had picked up on her being tense at times where she normally wouldn't have been. ...But that wasn't exactly voluntary decision to be secretive: it was an issue she wasn't dealing with as well as she tried to kid herself she was. Though sometimes she told herself it was a case of not wanting to talk about it instead of just being unable.

When she got to the house she stopped and rang the doorbell and couldn't help thinking on how odd that scenario hit her: Jesse having a doorbell, one that was connected to a proper house, after nearly fifteen years living in that pretty cramped apartment. She also realized this was the first time it was just herself visiting. She had been to see it of course, but with the kind of excitement that surrounds a move -- especially one closer to home -- there had always been at least a sister or parent in tow.

Jesse had been true to his word earlier, about trying to put the house together in some semblance of order so they didn't have boxes laying around all over the damn place. It was helping him keep his mind off of the sort of awkward moment this morning with Becky, and on top of that his mind was preoccupied a whole lot with his daughter and everything that Becky had told him about that. About teenage girls and the inability to always talk to their dad about things. He didn't like that. There were whole worlds of not liking that going on. He wanted to change that but wasn't sure how to go about it, or even if it was possible. Not that the idea of something being impossible had ever stopped him before, but that wasn't the point.

When the doorbell rang, he sort of went through the same thing he did these days. I have a doorbell? Then he headed towards the front door, swiping an arm across his forehead to get the sweat off before he opened the door, seeing Evie standing there. He looked at her for a long moment, then stepped back, holding the door for her.

She stepped in, not feeling any urge to stand out in the rain with or without an umbrella. Granted, with storms like today the umbrella had only really managed to keep her head mostly dry, but it had done little else. She shook it out a little before closing it and leaving it by the door. "Hey," she greeted, eyes set onto Jesse, unsure how to take the greeting -- or lack of; she was even more unsure of what to start with -- how was he settling in? how were Baby J and Becky doing? Mention confessing to their parents or sisters? Or, if he was alone, start in on the concerns that had been eating at her with his purchase of the house? The possibilities ticked through her mind in all of a second, and she simply started with, "How are you?"

"Tired." Jesse said, nodding for her to follow him as he headed towards the kitchen. He figured he could get them both a glass of water or something. "Vaguely hungover, but that's fading, if you don't count the headache." he confessed. "What about you?" he asked, holding back on the asking where she'd been. He'd seen her. But he was more wondering why she hadn't been by to really talk, either to himself or to Becky. More Becky, though. The girl was going through a lot, having her best friend around would probably work out well, but instead he thought he'd done more to be there for Becky than his sister had.

"Hungover?" She echoed, following. "Anything in particular go into that?" Because sometimes that was the case with him. And sometimes it wasn't. As to how she was Evelyn shrugged slightly, unsure how to answer that. Not good, certainly: she couldn't honestly tell whether she felt better or worse now than she had in the previous weeks. She didn't want to make a big deal of it either way. She was about to just leave that for her answer, but then she caught herself -- because it really wasn't an answer at all, was it? "I've been better," she admitted. "But I've also been worse." She glanced around, taking in the details of the new kitchen, what had been done and what was yet to be finished, and also taking in how quiet the house was. "Is Becky here?" Her eyes came back to her brother, herself keenly aware of not really being around outside dropping in since her and Becky last talked.

"She's either upstairs, or she left to go get a dog." Jesse said. He'd kind of lost track of her during the course of the day, which was much easier to do in a place that wasn't like a four room apartment. "And not really. I couldn't sleep last night, so I went to sleep on the couch. Becky couldn't sleep either, so we had a glass of wine, which sort of almost turned into a bottle, and so it was a little excessive." He got them both a glass of water, holding hers out to her. "She I think could use a little you-time."

Though it was news she didn't comment about the dog, that hadn't been his point in the conversation. She took the glass, but didn't drink from it immediately, instead turning it over in her hand, glancing down at it. It was hard for her to really quantify what she was feeling or thinking in that moment. "Yeah," she agreed, though her voice was heavy with the fact that she wasn't looking forward to it. Hell, if she was honest with herself, a part of her dreaded facing her friend again. The last real conversation she had with Becky, and about Kowalski, and how things had been much worse than Evelyn had any idea about... it still left her with a sick pit in her stomach. It was a sentiment she knew better than to listen to; a sentiment she normally wouldn't have listened to... but, this time, she had. And she knew she had to deal with that. It just wasn't a pleasant thought for her.

Jesse just kept his eyes on her for a long moment, then sighed. "Evie, just--sit down and get off your chest whatever it is that's weighing you down." he said. "Don't just stand there, saying as little as possible staring at your water glass. It's disconcerting." he went on, moving to pull out a chair at the kitchen table, and he pointed at it. "Sit." he said, doing the same thing himself as he took a drink of his own water, then waited for her to get herself together.

Her eyes ticked from the glass back to him as he sat, but she didn't sit down immediately, and it looked as if she was considering whether she really wanted to. She wasn't sure why. He was her brother. She loved him, she trusted him. She couldn't say whether it was guilt, or weariness, or if sitting down would make her feel somehow more vulnerable, or what nonsense reason was going on in her head... or maybe she just didn't feel like opening that particular floodgate. Or, not quite yet. She wasn't sure. But she did walk over, and took the seat across from him, and suddenly came out with something she hadn't exactly planned on bringing up so abruptly, "It's not that I mean to change the subject like this, but--" she watched him for a brief moment, her voice steadier now if concerned, "--Jess, don't you think somebody's going to notice you affording a house?" Especially if somebody -- or some people -- perfectly capable of offing a father and daughter was looking for the money that her brother had pointed out could be traced back to him?

"I think you do mean to change the subject." Jesse said. But her concern wasn't invalid, so he addressed it either way. "Since we talked about it last, things have changed." he told her. "The people who would be looking for it, even if they knew where to look...they're not out there anymore." That was something he'd taken into account. The O'Malleys? Yeah, they'd gone down in flames, to the point where people didn't even really know if they were out there anymore. Like at all. some of their lower ranks were still there, but they'd been absorbed into other Syndicate organizations, and no one was high enough to even know the money was gone, or ever had been, or anything of the kind. "It's still not great to run around talking about how I robbed a bank--what with the prison sentence that'll go along with that--but it's not quite the same situation as before."

Her worries weren't really eased with the explanation, and it showed. She hadn't known the details, he hadn't really been willing to share the details when she found out, but even if she had some part of her would still worry. That imagery of him and Jessie's mutilated bodies showing up in the river hadn't gone away. Of course she knew that -- just because of that possibility -- Jesse would be damn sure to do all he could to make sure no harm came to Baby J. But Evelyn also knew her brother, and that -- sharp though he was -- he didn't always think things through, that he took risks and gambled on chance, and that half the time those decisions didn't turn out the way he had hoped. So she was still worried, and a bit more skeptical about everything being fine, and those sentiments were only wiped by surprise when he mentioned the bank. "A bank?" she echoed, clearly not expecting that, not that she really had enough information to piece together what to expect. But a bank? She supposed it made sense, there weren't many other places that had such money lying around in one spot. But... still. "Wha--when? How did you end up robbing a bank?" Her voice hadn't gotten any louder. Instead it had lowered, but was spoken in a hissing whisper that was a bit too taken aback by this new information to start conveying any exact thoughts or emotions on the matter yet.

Wincing, Jesse had forgotten that he hadn't told Evie the specifics. So, shit. but he'd done it now, and she had questions, so he sighed, dragging his hand over his hair before he answered. "It wasn't my idea. My old friend...you remember Eddie, right?" he asked, knowing Eddie had been around before. "He was in trouble. Big trouble, even. It was pretty much his only way out. I didn't want to do it, I don't do jobs like that, but in the end he convinced me." Or more his woman had convinced him, but he didn't say that. "Things went wrong. And I've been laying low since, but I was careful, Evie. Even kicked in a little extra so the house isn't exactly in my name." he added. "Never left a forwarding address for the apartment, either."

Evelyn had no idea what to say to that, and just stared at her brother for a long moment. It wasn't as if 'Oh, well, that's okay' was any kind of response to finding out that somebody robbed a bank -- that her brother robbed a bank. In fact, 'that's okay' wasn't anywhere at all in the mix of emotions and thoughts she was churning... because it wasn't. Nothing about that was at all okay in the slightest. But she had been listening, and Jesse had mentioned more than just the bank, and her mind was churning all the while. "Eddie..." She started, sounding like she remembered the face to the name, taking the information Jesse had given her just now and lining up the pieces with what he had told her back in the apartment. Back then though, Jesse had only said 'friend' instead of gave her a name. "He's the same friend you talked about in the apartment?" Her tone didn't have any emotion or judgment yet, it was just the tone of somebody audibly working things out. For now. But then there was a pause, and her eyes re-focused onto Jesse with an unpleasant realization. "He's the friend that... passed away?"

Nodding, Jesse looked away. He always did that when he was really thinking about Eddie. He still didn't know what happened to him, even if Helena was convinced that he'd been murdered. He might have been, but then again, he might have just succumbed to his wounds, too. He wasn't a doctor, and Eddie hadn't ever been brought to one in the first place, so...yeah. Who the fuck knew. But either way he'd been careful. Very careful. And these days, if there were any O'Malley's out there at all, they probably had far bigger problems and vendettas to tend to than to actually single him out.

She watched him, not so much staring at him this time. "I'm sorry," she murmured, seeing how that was affecting him. She hated seeing that. She glanced away for a brief moment to stare at the wall just behind the stove and consider something before coming back to him. Her hand gave another absent twirl of the untouched glass, briefly observing her brother before pressing further, gentle yet in a way that wouldn't easily drop the subject, "Jesse, what happened?" She knew some pieces now, and some major holes had definitely been filled in, but there was a also a lot stuff that hadn't been; she probably didn't even know how many of those holes there were, and she really wanted to. Because this was her brother, and it was incredibly serious, and it affected him so, so... yeah, she wanted to know.

He shrugged one shoulder. "Things went wrong." he said. "I don't even really know what, to be honest. Like I said, it wasn't what I ever did normally. It was the one and only time I hit anything like that. But...things went really wrong. You know I was shot. So was he. I made it, he didn't. So whatever it was he was into, whatever trouble we were trying to get him out of..." he trailed off.

She didn't ask him to finish that last thought, she could piece its general ending on her own. She also didn't ask for any more details. She had the story, and if there any major gaps she needed filled she wasn't aware of them. She knew that there some blanks, and there would undoubtedly be questions that would hit her mind later, but right now she thought she had the important points. And those bits were already a handful to think over -- like the fact that was how Jesse had gotten shot, and she had never had a clue to the story there before -- that she just didn't need the smaller extra details right now. More importantly she didn't think Jesse needed to be reliving those extra details right now. So she didn't say anything further then, letting her gaze slip into some space, right now her gears obviously taking a moment to think all of this through.

He gave her a few moments, and then took another drink of water before he sighed. "So...now that you've got that out of me, what's going on with you?" he asked. "since you looked like you had a lot going on before, and then skipped to me-things. What's going on?" he asked.

The initial reluctance about divulging, or trying to put to words the craziness going on her head, had ebbed some. It was possibly due to some sense of obligation; after all, she didn't get to press her brother on such a matter and then just refuse to open up about anything. At least, Evelyn didn't think so. She still didn't answer immediately, but now it was clear it was more due to sorting out her thoughts than anything else. She honestly didn't know where to begin. There was Becky, yes, but trying to understand the mess of emotions that stirred up... It was the most difficult subject of all to articulate. She didn't really know how to handle it, and thought she might handle it better if she went to at least handling other things first... or, well, that was the theory. She didn't think it had worked out so much in practice, but went with it for the conversation anyway. "They know about the Drake -- Mom, Dad; Ruby and Virginia and Dorothy... all of them, now. Well, except for Lucy and Baby J," she amended, voice a bit soft. "I told them, a couple days ago." She didn't add immediately anything onto that, just watched her brother for his reaction.

He nodded, vaguely wondering if she'd mentioned to everyone that he'd known for a while, but he didn't ask. He actually figured if that was the case their mother would have been by to cuss him out for it so maybe she'd neglected to mention it during her confession sessions. "What do they say?" he asked.

"I've been lying to them for months so... it didn't go well," she admitted, falling into a short silence. "But, considering I've been lying to them for months... it could have gone worse." A fabulously uninformative answer, she knew. "Ruby's been the most vocal, of course. Since then she's been calling me an idiot and a dummy and a dumbass and every equivalent she can think of, and she'll keep at it at least once a day until I--" She paused, recollecting the exact language. "--'Have the damn sense knocked back into me.' Her words, of course." A touch of a wry smile flickered across Evelyn's mouth expressing some appreciation for the phrasing there, or at least for the sentiment behind it. She hadn't expected any kind of warm and fuzzy reaction to follow her confession, and with a bombshell like hers she hadn't gotten it, so she'd take her sister being vocal and calling her out on her stupidity.

Jesse definitely smiled at that. "Sounds like her." he said. "But, good. Maybe you'll remember that next time you decide to go off on your own and do ridiculous things." he continued. "That all that's bothering you?" he asked. "Or is it something else?"

"...I should have seen Becky sooner," she admitted after a moment, gaze dropping back off to some middle distance. She shifted a bit uncomfortably in her chair, aware it wasn't because of the wood she was sitting on. "I don't have any reason for not doing that..." The words drifted off, as she felt herself grasping at how to put things coherently when they were so incredibly muddled and fucked up in her head right now. "And I know checking on her should have been more important -- is more important than everything else, with how bad Kowalski was, and she's my friend..." What the hell was she trying to get to, here? "And... I didn't, until now. I don't know why." It wasn't a good reason. It wasn't even a reason. She hadn't. She didn't. She couldn't? Except she could have. It wasn't like it hadn't crossed her mind, and it wasn't like she hadn't almost come over, so many times; by herself, even. Times when she was just about to go out the door, but then stopped to see if anyone else would like to come, knowing they would say yes. She wasn't one to leave a friend she knew to be in such need, and yet she had. Badly. And she had no explanation to give herself other than just... not knowing why. Which just sounded to her like some kind of fucked cop-out.

"Yeah, you should have." Jesse said, though it wasn't pointed. He just sighed. "Make time now. See her today. Spend time with her. And for fucks sake, don't ditch her again. And whatever bullshit you have going on that's holding you back, curb it, or you're going to lose a friend. It's the same shit that you've been pulling, Evie, and it's not gotten you anywhere. All it's doing is making it look like you're just flat out not a very good person. I know you are. So, start acting like it."

She had tried to curb it, deal with it, and go. She hadn't succeeded until now. She didn't voice that though, knowing that it sounded like an excuse... because it probably was one. It was something she had heard before and hadn't bought from others', so she was going to buy it from herself. For all the shit she had been going through and dealing with, Evelyn should have been able to push that aside for something more important. Evelyn nodded slightly, processing his words a bit more but ultimately didn't speak on it further. She didn't have anything to add that wasn't a bunch of excuses to her own mind and wasn't beating a dead horse. And Evelyn wasn't up for going in redundant circles. "How's Baby J?" she finally asked, seeing how she had already inquired about the other two in the household.

"I don't know, really." Jesse said. "She's been just...different, lately, I guess. Becky says it's because she's growing up and apparently there comes a point in a girl's life where she can't confide in her father anymore and we're at it. She's seemed really reserved, and upset. So, I don't know." he admitted, and it was clear that he hated all of this.

Evelyn didn't need to see how he looked to understand how deeply this disturbed him. From the second he said he didn't know as to how his daughter was doing she already knew he hated that. The line in her brow deepened as he continued, because the concept of Jessie just suddenly not confiding in her father anymore flew in the face of everything Evelyn had seen and known about their relationship for the past fifteen years. Up until now her father had always topped the list of people JJ would confide in, and Jesse himself had always made it a point to do a lot more open talking to his daughter than most parents did, so Evelyn had a lot of trouble reconciling an image of some switch suddenly going off at a certain point that threw a young lifetime of open communication out the window. Granted, the idea of Jesse not knowing what was going on with his daughter was also a monumental departure from the norm, so Evelyn didn't know. "Did Becky get that from talking to JJ?" she finally asked after a period of trying to work things out and realizing she needed that point clarified first before she could continue.

"No, she got that from being a girl, I guess." Jesse said, sighing again. "She said she'd talk to her, it's just...distressing." he said, which was putting it extremely mildly. "And I don't quite know what to do, so Becky said she'd try and see if she was okay, at least. Let me know if there was anything huge I really needed to be worried about."

Evelyn was quiet for a moment, thinking things over. "I don't think I would chalk it up to her being a girl just yet," she finally started, being careful about how she articulated her thoughts since the issue was such an important one. She was also still thinking things through as she was talking, and didn't want half-formed thoughts and incomplete tangents mucking up the point she was still working through. "I can't contradict that, for a lot of girls, their father's aren't the first people to confide in. But I don't think that -- when that happens -- it happens at some point like some switch is just switched to 'off' -- even though it probably seems that way. I feel safe saying that most people, barring some sudden drastic upheaval, evolve into their decisions -- there's some precedent or trait there that leads them to that point. I mean," Evelyn winced a little at what she was about to admit, "I've always been a bit reticent about certain things, so it's not monumentally surprising that devolved to include everything.

"But with Jessie... I just don't see it. Her precedent has been you absolutely topping the list of her confidants. And you've kept it your priority to do a hell of a lot more open talking to your daughter than most parents do. And the situation you have with you and Jessie is already out of the norm, so I don't think the generalization of what happens with most girls will work for it. Most girls have two parents, and have probably set the precedent of being more open with their mothers on some things than they would their fathers; or -- if they don't have two parents -- then have already shown who they usually go talk to first: a friend or a sibling or someone else. But with your daughter it's always been you." She paused for moment, watching Jesse before finishing, "I don't know what's going on; I just don't think her being a girl and this being something that just happens to girls at a certain point is the thing to look at first. Honestly? Going off the past fifteen years with you and Baby J, I'd say you're the one with the best chance of being told what's going on if you talked to her. And, considering the whole precedent of your daughter being able to see through you?, be upfront about worrying she can't confide in you."

That was a lot more what he wanted to hear than what Becky had said to him. But he couldn't tell if he just wanted to go with that because it was what he wanted to hear or if it sounded reasonable. He was pretty sure his own judgment was jaded at best on this particular topic. Becky had made sense too, now Evie was. Shit. He didn't know. "Mostly I'm just--she seems so different. Not the little girl I raised. She's reserved...she never used to be like that, right? That's not in my head that I had a much happier, much more care free kid?"

Evelyn thought before answering. Unfortunately she couldn't say much as to how Jessie currently was -- being emotionally and physically absent made that difficult. "I've always thought of her as a happy, care-free kid," she conceded. "She was when I moved." She thought some more. "I can't say much about how she is right now -- the last real heart-to-heart was telling her about Dodge, and she was definitely bothered about that..." Evelyn's brow bunched together in further thought, recollecting the details. "But she also perked up a bit at the end, and we started talking about the garage and her wanting to stop by and -- shit, I need to get back to Dutch on that --" With Becky and staying with her family and working on airing out her secrets, that had fallen by the wayside. So had the fact that she hadn't actually mentioned the job offer to Jesse -- it just hadn't seemed too important, considering everything else. Like how she didn't find it important to expand on right now, with them talking about Baby J, "I just don't know, Jess. You know your daughter best of all, and the fact that you say you don't know how she's doing definitely shows that there's something going on with you two on somebody's end. I just don't think her being a girl is your answer."

She thought back to the things she knew had gone on recently, "I know you said she was close to Lily, and there was what happened to Dodge, and you told me about her finding the locket, and I haven't been around enough to know if there's anything else. But stuff like that... it might be a lot to deal with. Even for a girl as normally clear-headed and strong as Jessie. Enough stuff gets piled on? Even the steadiest person can fray about the edges. You raised Jessie to be strong, and she is strong, and you've shown her how to keep her head up when things get overwhelming... but has she had to deal with so much in such a short period before? It's possible that your daughter reached a point with things that even she can't handle as well as she normally would." Evelyn couldn't imagine he'd like that idea much, she didn't think it sounded any more pleasant than Jessie just being a girl and drifting away from him because it was what girls did. At least Jessie being a teenage girl was a possibility that suggested this was normal and his daughter was fine. Evelyn's suggestion put his daughter in a more mentally iffy state, and that would undoubtedly be just as distressing. "But, again, I don't know. I just think that could be a possibility. Either way... first talk to your daughter. I think that's your best bet at getting a solid idea on things. And if you want to know if it's a teenage girl thing? Well..." She smiled a little. "At least talk to the two people you know who've raised five teenagers -- and four of them girls."

"What about Dutch and the garage?" he asked, picking up on that. But then he kept listening to her on everything else, not feeling any better at all. Shit. "And yeah, yeah, Becky said I need to talk to dad too." Jesse said, sighing. "And I will. Promise. I just have a lot to get done around here first, and things haven't exactly been calm for me lately either." he pointed out. "But, point taken, I'll keep everything you said in mind. Thank you."

"No problem," she replied, and after a moment of consideration added: "I just... I don't want you going off the deep end on this yet, or at least wait until you have a solid idea of what is or isn't going on, and if it's major or minor -- I really mean that." Because she was definitely worried that he would, figuratively speaking, go off some emotional deep end. Actually, in that moment it was a pretty serious concern of hers after observing and listening to him. This was different than him just being worried about his daughter, she could see this was also him being worried about his relationship with his daughter -- which was new in a way she just didn't like. That solid bond with Baby J was the most significant foundation in his life: it had been his moral compass, and kept him grounded when he could have seriously gone off the reservation. Evelyn had a suscpicion, or maybe just an unspoken certainty, that for all the stupid shit her brother had pulled in his lifetime? he could have done much, much stupider. So she was definitely worried where his mindset would go if he already felt or feared that foundation cracking.

As to Dutch, it took her a second to catch up on the fact that no, she had not told Jesse about the new job offer. "Dutch offered me a job at the garage, before a lot of this--" she made a general gesture of 'all of this' "--hit the fan. I mentioned it to Baby J after we had moved the subject off of Dodge. She liked the idea -- was pretty enthusiastic actually -- and mentioned the idea of her, and also you, visiting sometime if I took it." She smiled at Jesse there, "She didn't even need to think about it, there wasn't any doubt about when she included you. And she also mentioned the idea of us going out for a drive once I mentioned the car -- and again, your daughter included you in that scenario without a second thought." It was the truth, and Evelyn was especially emphasizing it now to give her brother some perspective on the opposite end of 'your daughter is pushing you out of her life'... which she thought he probably needed, considering.

Even if he was unaware of the assessment his sister had of him, she was right. His daughter was the element in his life that kept him grounded and kept him from doing anything too stupid. He was certainly capable of huge amounts of stupidity. Truly impressive amounts of it, even. And if he lost that, then he had the potential to careen off the rails. Easily. He nodded as she tried to encourage him and give him something good to latch onto, and he smiled, even if it didn't quite do the trick. Still, he appreciated her efforts and that was clear. "So you're going to take the job then? I'd approve of that." he said. Not that she needed his approval, but he gave it anyway.

"Well I would have taken it without your approval anyway," she replied, smirking a little, "but it's duly noted, and appreciated." The words were true, but the tone was undoubtedly teasing. A part of her was aware that his spirits weren't entirely back on the level, but she'd done what she could. Nothing else would progress until he talked to his daughter, and maybe to their parents. But Evelyn had already told him about that, and he had a perfectly good brain and set of ears that had heard and understood her, so there was no need to repeat it. "Anything beside the move and worrying about Baby J keeping you busy?" There wasn't anything pointed or hinting in her tone, she just hadn't forgotten him saying how things hadn't been calm for him. She could have assumed it was just the move, but she wasn't nearly comfortable enough making that assumption without asking.

Jesse shrugged. "Just little things. Nothing worth bringing up." he said. The only thing he could think of that he could bring up wasn't something he wanted to bring up. Which was the sort of weirdness with Becky that he figured needed addressing, but so far they were both kind of just avoiding the topic. Though he'd got the hint earlier. He wasn't meant to flirt. Even if it was pretty light flirting at best. Man he needed to get out of the goddamn house more.

Evelyn nodded, not having any reason to doubt the answer. He had already divulged some pretty heavy topics during their conversation; it would be ridiculous for her to think that he'd start hiding anything important now. Not to mention, out of the two of them?, she was the one more likely to be close-lipped on things. At least that was the case on unpleasant, vulnerable things. The good things she had no problem being open about (well, assuming she wasn't lying about a huge chunk of her life). "How's having your own bedroom? And... a doorbell?" Because a part of her was definitely wondering about that, and how he was settling into all of that after fifteen years of couch-in-cramped-one-bedroom-apartment. She knew the idea was taking time for her to get used to, and she wasn't even the one having to live it.

Jesse shrugged. "So far I can't sleep." he said. "Having a bed is really weird for me, and the place is big, and there are noises to get used to. And not neighbor noises either, which would likely be easier to deal with, but whatever. It's new. I'll settle in eventually." he said. "And there's still a room open, just in case." he added.

"I'll keep that in mind." It wasn't much of an answer, but the tone was too sincere for a brush-off. She meant it about keeping it in mind. Especially considering her best friend was living here, that had definitely resulted in her giving the other another think-over. But she also knew that part of what came into play there was guilt and an extra pressure -- even though nobody but herself was putting it there -- that she kinda had to say yes borne from a little voice pointing out 'your best friend is living with your niece and brother and you still aren't?'. It made things more difficult, and confusing; and if Evelyn was going to agree? It was going to be for a hell of a better reason than guilt and obligation. Nothing should be done just for those reasons, after all. "But, if the room has a bed already, I'd definitely stay for tonight." She had to talk to Becky, and maybe she could get a better grasp on the situation with Jesse and Baby J, and it was raining really really hard.

"There's a bed." Jesse said, giving her a light smile. "And a lot of unpacking to do, want to help?" he asked, standing up and stretching a little. "I could use the help. Then the house can technically be in order and I can see what the hell else I need to buy to fill the damn thing up, because let me tell you--there's far more space here than we had before and we didn't have nearly enough shit to actually fill it up with."

"Jess, I think some closets have more space than you had before." An exaggeration. Mostly. There were some rich with incredibly spacious closets. "And 'want' might be a strong word for it, but I'll help." She surveyed the work to be done, her gaze automatically ticking from the boxes to the walls and windows and guestimates of the room dimensions. "First things on the list if you don't have them? You'll definitely need more screws, and a drill, and measuring tape."

Jesse thought about that. "I think I have those things." he said. "In the dining room, I think." he said, heading out the door, shaking his head. "...since I have one of those now." Which he hadn't had before. The whole thing was odd. But, he was glad Evie was there, and hopefully she'd talk to Becky soon. Get that cleared up at the very least. It was a start.