Reid just barely resisted slumping over onto his knees as he made it outside. There was too much to process. It was all just too much. He managed a deep breath, trying to be mindful of the sunlight streaming past the small lip that the roof created. A light twinge on his face told him he wasn't entirely successful. He took another gasp of air and when it came out a slightly hysterical laugh accompanied it. Another one followed shortly after, he couldn't help himself, this was just all too much for him to take in. Now that there was no longer the pressing rush of just trying to survive from one moment to the next and it had time to sink in. He had faced down a veritable god, spoken to legends and just barely managed to talk down a woman from taking her own life. He'd only just managed to pull himself away some time later when he was certain that Lady Ashbury was asleep and wasn't going to throw herself into the flames at the next available opportunity.

The doctor took a moment to look out at the plains that surrounded the ruined keep, there was no one and nothing for miles and miles, probably intentionally so, it wasn't as though they needed to run out to town for supplies was it? He just barely restrained a yawn, his body trying to fight him into sleep but he wasn't ready just yet, he needed some time to sit and process what had happened. He checked the pocket watch that he'd fixed one of the nights that he just needed something to do with his hands while his mind had whirred through the possibilities. It was barely past seven in the morning. The light glinted off the surface of the glass and he winced as it caught his eye.

"So much for rational thinking…" he muttered before turning to head back indoors, it was getting too risky out here, and as much as he felt overwhelmed he wasn't keen on catching fire. The inside of the keep was dark and smelled of dust and dry rot. If he concentrated hard enough he was certain he could make out the Lady's presence and perhaps even the drying blood of her Maker on the ground. He had done his best to clear it up but without cleaning supplies there was only so much that could be done. Reid nearly started when he rounded a corner to find Lady Ashbury staring blankly at a blank canvas, a brush gripped loosely in her fingers.

"Forgive me, you startled me." he said, a hand held over his chest. He paused when she didn't respond.

"Lady Ashbury?" he asked gently, reaching a hand in her direction. She started and then turned to him, red marking the tear tracks on her face.

"Oh! My apologies Dr. Reid, I was lost in thought." she said, wiping delicately at her cheeks with a handkerchief. Jonathan knew it wasn't truly polite but he'd just watched this woman behead a man earlier, decorum could be damned, he sat down across from her and took her hand between his own and met her gaze.

"Elizabeth, you're allowed to grieve, you certainly won't find anyone here who would begrudge you that." he gave the ghost of a smile. She sniffed slightly, but no more tears fell.

"You know…" she said, turning back to the canvas, watching as the firelight sent shadows dancing across it. "He held on for so long but we both knew it was coming, someday it would be too much, someday I would have the will to do it. I…" she paused and he could hear her swallow stiffly "I considered it so many times. It's… it's awful to say but it's practically a relief."

"It's not awful." Jonathan said, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. "It's hard to watch your loved ones waste away in front of you. I've seen the horrors of disease waste their way through too many families, what you feel now is no different, there is no shame in feeling some relief in the end. I didn't know him well but I'm certain that he wouldn't fault you for that."

Lady Ashbury looked down at the folds of her nightgown and clenched them a little harder in her free hand and gave a laugh that sounded more than a little watery. Jonathan rubbed her knuckles again and that was when the first sob finally broke through. He pulled her into a hug and ran a hand up and down her back, feeling her smaller frame shake in his arms as she finally let it out.

Eventually the sobs turned to sniffles and she slowly but firmly started to push him away, wiping her face on the already ruined handkerchief.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that." she said between sniffs. Jonathan just shook his head

"There's no need to apologize, it's the very least I can do, comfort is easy to give."

"I should attempt to sleep." she said, looking down at the floor, or perhaps she was gazing through it at the bloodstains below them, Jonathan thought.

"It doesn't have to be alone." he said before he could think about it. Her head snapped up to look at him in surprise.

"I- I just meant that you don't need to be alone in the room, I can sleep on the floor, it would be far from the least comfortable place I'd slept." he said quickly, trying to cover his tracks. If he had the blood he was certain that he would be blushing. Elizabeth gave a small laugh and it was good to hear after what she'd just been letting out.

"The bed is plenty big enough for both of us Jonathan, you needn't worry about it. I'm exactly in a state to ravage you in your sleep." she said, a hint of the teasing light back in her eye.

"I'm sorry." he said hanging his head and trying to fight off embarrassment.

She laughed again and rubbed a hand over his shoulder as she stood

"It's alright, the distraction is much appreciated." she wandered away, tossing the handkerchief into the fire as she went. The urge to contain all of their blood was something that Jonathan had learned the hard way, seeing his own blood on the ground was still something that made his stomach turn despite the way that it smelled. After a moment of pause he followed after her.

-Face your Fears-

The next evening is easier, the pair of them both rose, and Elizabeth wrapped herself in a bathrobe that wasn't as moth-eaten as some of the others and pulled it over her shoulders.

"I think this as far as I'll make it today." she said, wrapping her hands around the teacup that Jonathan offered her.

"I think we can manage a day just lounging around the keep." he said, taking a seat across from her and taking a long inhale from the smoke above the tea. It was quiet around them for a long, long time. Jonathan had noticed that it was harder to tell time without the sun and London's winters weren't known for their clear skies. He only knew when the sun rose and set but minutes and hours both dragged and flew by. The tea was cold by the time they both set the cups down, staring into the fire like it held all the answers. Reid looked up at one point to see tears rolling down Lady Ashbury's face while she watched the flickering flames. He stood abruptly and held a hand out to her. She started and then followed his hand up his arm to his face.

"Let's take a walk." he said.

"Now? In the cold?" she asked, tilting her head at him curiously. He nodded

"Why not? Unless we have some weakness to the cold that you have yet to inform me of?" he asked, she gave a light huff and started to get to her feet, dabbing at her eyes and smoothing the bathrobe.

"No, but I should put on something that is meant for strolling instead of lounging." she smiled gently at Jonathan and started back toward the room that they'd slept in.

Dr. Reid waited by the entryway of the manor, able to feel the cold wind as it snuck in through a broken window. He wondered, not for the first time, how old this place was. The first time he'd wondered he'd been rather distracted trying to chase down Lady Ashbury to really give any credence to the question but now, while waiting for her to join him and staring at the crumbling stone it really made him wonder. And how long of that time had Lady Ashbury been a part of the manor? Always? Before it had even been built? So many things he wanted to ask her, but he didn't want to press, she seemed fragile after having put a sword to her Maker's neck. It was a strange thought, the woman whom he had seen impale a Skal on a blunt piece of lumber seeming frail but grief did strange things. He found himself thinking of his sister and the madness that had taken her at the end and had to tamp down on the longing that tried to claw its way up his throat. He'd been avoiding thinking of Mary in the midst of all of the goings on but now that there was no looming threat hanging over his head it wasn't as easy to pass off. He looked out the window instead, hearing the Lady approach as he slowly got a handle on himself.

"Still think this is a good idea?" she asked, appearing in his periphery to look out the window. She'd donned a simple dress as well as a muffler for her hands, her hair pulled back into a simple braid behind her head.

"No, but I'm not going to back down now. I'm feeling the urge to see the sky." he said, he held out his arm so she could tuck her own through his elbow. It was comforting to feel the contact of another person. Jonathan had never been a very touchy person but it hadn't escaped his notice how much people pulled away from him now. He wondered if they somehow sensed how other he was, that he was a predator to some back part of their mind that they couldn't quite consciously recognize… It made the act of someone else willingly touching him feel… special somehow, even if it was only to be polite.

It was just as cold outside as the wind coming through the broken glass had suggested, but the wind was much reduced once they got out of the crumbling stone of the manor. Jonathan had had a moment of worry when they'd first stepped out that they'd have to shout at one another to hear their own words but it was simply cold, even their cool breath fogging in the night air. The sky was, at least, blissfully clear, a myriad of stars shining down at them and both Ekons paused on one of the grassy hills to look up and wonder. Reid found himself marveling at them, he hadn't been able to look up at the sky like this since his turn and his new eyes saw the world differently than he had when he was mortal. When he looked back down he noticed that Lady Ashbury was watching him, she was smiling softly, it was still tinged with sadness but he was glad that she had it in her to smile still.

"There are so many more than I remember…" he said, looking back to the sky with wonder.

"I can hardly remember what it looked like to mortal eyes." Elizabeth said from beside him. They just stayed that way for some time, staring up at the swirling, twinkling patterns in the sky, at least until Jonathan was certain he could no longer feel his fingers and toes, a fact he was not thrilled to realize came with him into immortality. When he voiced this to Elizabeth she just laughed.

"We're still able to feel the cold, even if it doesn't hurt us the way it does the living." she explained as they picked their way over the rubble back to the indoors. Jonathan just barely restrained a sigh as the warmth from inside swept back over him. It certainly wasn't warm in the ruin, it wasn't closed well enough and they didn't have enough firewood for that, but it was far, far warmer than the outside.

"Well, it would've been nice to have an additional upside to this whole ordeal." he said, holding his hands out to the fire. Lady Ashbury just shook her head and placed her muffler on the table. As they settled back around the fire Jonathan took a deep breath to broach the topic he'd been thinking of.

"I think we should go back to London." he said, meeting Elizabeth's perplexed look.

"But I thought-" she started

"I know." he said

"Then why?" she asked, there wasn't denial, just plain curiosity. Reid took that as a good sign.

"Staying here isn't going to fix anything, I could do research but collaboration with other minds will help the most in leading to a breakthrough to how to cure the Blood of Hate and potentially even our condition in the future. We won't solve anything hiding away from the world here. There are too many loose ends that I left when I picked up and came out here…" he trailed off. She traced a pattern in her skirt

"When?"

"As soon as we can."

Lady Ashbury paused, looked around herself and the ruins of the estate and sighed heavily.

"Tomorrow night, there's nothing left but old ghosts here…"