The three of them stood around the bedroom, feeling as though it was just the three of them against the entire world, no one made any move to look through or even at anything more around the room- except for Lisa, who just stared up at that faded Batman poster above the bed, thinking back to their conversation several nights ago, and felt herself tearing up at the sight of it; it was faded, used, and forgotten- much like Greg. It held a childhood boy's dreams of becoming more, or different, than the broken man sitting in front of her. That boy who had been desperate to become someone other than who he was today. It was an abstract thought she knew, but just the sight of it brought her to tears and she wanted to collapse to her knees and cry- but knew that doing that would help no one.
"I suppose we better go downstairs and… socialise with the family," Greg finally sighed, standing up from the low bed with an effort, grabbed his cane and headed out of the room, James followed him, and Lisa took one final look up at the poster, sniffled, and walked out after them.
They entered into the dining room, where there were only about five people standing around; James and Lisa recognised Greg's parents; John and Blythe, and the old man Henry of course, as well as the old woman, Sarah, who had greeted the three of them at the door. They had a spread across a giant, extravagant, dining room table. Lisa immediately poured herself an extra-large helping of wine, thinking that alcohol and being perpetually and permanently at least slightly drunk throughout this entire visit was the only way that she could think to get through it, James had the same idea it seemed, grabbing a bottle of beer and immediately sculled it, before grabbing for another one; while Greg watched them both with an eagle eye precision, ensuring that neither one of them said anything; he could remember what he was always told don't you tell anyone about any of this, ever, Greg.
The three of them kind of stayed in a corner of the room, Greg sat down on one of the luxurious couches in the adjourning living room, with Lisa perched next to him, and James standing up, facing them with his back to everyone else; essentially guarding and gating them in, protecting them from everyone in the party- he didn't know who was safe, and who wasn't safe; nor who the third man was.
"Greg, I'm so glad you could make it!" Blythe walked over, staggering slightly as she did so, clearly, she was finding solace in the same method that Lisa and James were. James and Lisa both knew that Blythe was a victim of this family just as much as Greg was, only in a different way.
"Hey mom," Greg smiled, as he stood up and gave her a hug, "how have you been?"
"We're doing pretty well honey," she smiled back, her eyes slightly glazed from the alcohol; "we flew in last night. And from what I've heard, you three drove here? That's a massive journey, why didn't you just fly?"
"It's a long story, mom," Greg chuckled quietly, not wanting to tell his mother about his story over getting placed on a no fly list because of what was essentially a more extreme version of yelling "bomb!" on an airplane, only a few months post 9-11.
"James, it's great to see you too," Blythe smiled, and gave James a quick hug, which he gently reciprocated as he thought to himself, it's okay. Blythe isn't the enemy here.
"And you must be… I'm so sorry dear, I know that I've met you briefly before, but I'm having a bit of trouble placing your name," she turned to Lisa.
"Lisa," she smiled back, "Lisa Cuddy, I work with Greg and James; Greg and I went to college together back in Michigan," she added, "they're probably two of my closest friends. We fight like cats and dogs, but they are both actually really special to me," she shot a comforting smile down at Greg, who smiled and nodded back to her, "don't tell them though, their heads are big enough as it is," she joked, and Blythe laughed along.
After she'd wandered back to her husband; both James and Lisa looked over, scanning the room, which felt somewhat oddly underwhelming. This wasn't some big, raucous party; instead, they were just sat there with a bunch of elderly people who aside from Blythe, and annoyingly; the progressively drunk Henry, were showing as little interest in them as they did back.
"There will be more people coming tomorrow and the next few days after that," Henry came over once again to the trio sitting alone, "it will be more fun once there's more people here," Henry then wrapped his arm around James' shoulders, "you know," he slurred, "you have the most beautiful brown eyes,"
James pushed his arm off from himself and dodged any further touch, "thanks," he muttered under his breath, clearly struggling to restrain his anger in.
"Don't let this antisocial bastard stop you two from socialising and having fun," Henry continued, glancing over at Lisa and looking her up and down. Lisa gulped and looked away, that would be creepy if I didn't know all this bastard's dirty little secrets but knowing them and then having him eye me up and down like I'm merely a piece of meat is just… gross. "Greg has always been an antisocial, no fun little bitch, ever since he was a little kid, he'd always have rather been by himself, doing his own boring little things than having fun," Henry slurred, as James bristled and side eyed him, Lisa's eyes caught his left hand clenching and unclenching while he glared at Henry, hate only filling his eyes, so this is what Greg meant by 'keeping an eye' on James; at this rate, I don't know if he's going to make it the rest of the day without physically launching himself at Henry or John and viciously attacking them.
"Come on, come with me," Henry grabbed Lisa by the wrist and tried pulling her away towards the other partygoers and away from James and Greg.
James snatched viciously onto his wrist and glared darkly into Henry's eyes, "let her go," he growled, his voice a clear and dark warning; "don't make me ask again," he snarled, his lips visibly curling and baring his teeth, "this is a warning shot," holding his eye contact James went on, "you're not the strong one anymore, you're the one who's going to lose in a fight nowadays," James' eyes flashed back, and he shoved Henry back, stepping forward and staring him down nose to nose.
"What's Greg been telling you, little boy?" Henry asked, glaring deeply back into James' furious eyes, "because sometimes little Greggy boy needs to learn how to keep his dirty, filthy, fucking mouth clamped shut,"
James stepped around Henry and stared down, his body so close that his chest and nose were pressed against Henry's, "if you cross me, that's a mountain I doubt you want to climb, this is my last warning shot," James hissed.
"I think you're forgetting whose home you're in, I'm about to have to ask you to leave James," Henry growled.
Lisa extended her arm and pulled James back, the last thing she or Greg needed was James attacking the old man and having her and Greg stuck here alone; James was essentially their bodyguard.
"Yeah, walk away, you coward," Henry sneered.
James spun around and uttered words that caused Greg's face to drain of all colour; "call my bluff and I'll release everything I've got," James snarled, as Henry's face went blank and silent for a moment, before he turned around and walked away.
"Cool it," Greg hissed at James in restrained fury, "the last thing we need is to lose you here,"
The three of them stayed on the couch, talking about nothing in particular, but keeping it light and easy, come dinner time, James muttered that he wasn't really hungry, so just picked at the food on his plate, before Greg announced that the three of them were all very exhausted and wanted to go get some rest; that the exhaustion from travelling was causing them to all feel off and easily aggravated, so headed off to bed by about 10pm. James wasn't happy about Greg sleeping alone in his childhood bed, but by the same point, wasn't satisfied that Lisa would necessarily be safe either if she slept in Greg's old bed either; especially not with how much 'attention' that Henry had been putting onto her. He and Lisa were both fairly tipsy at least by this point though and James fell asleep without too much trouble.
Lisa was still half awake, with James' snoring and the creaks and groans of the ancient mansion continually waking her up and preventing her from falling asleep; she tossed and turned, until she heard the door creak open maybe an hour after going to bed, and was sure for a moment when she noticed a dark, tall, slim figure standing in the doorway that it was Henry or John, here to hurt one of them. All logic that they were both now old men and surely wouldn't be able to hurt Lisa, and certainly not James, went out the window; she stifled and muted an instinctive scream, until she heard the slight and familiar thumping of Greg's cane; "Greg, what are you doing in here?" she whispered as he closed the door and walked in.
She heard a sniffle that broke her heart and his broken voice of "I can't sleep in there, Lisa, I'm so sorry," he mumbled, his head hung down low.
"Okay, well, what can we do about that?" she questioned, and Greg sighed in defeat.
"Would it… would it be okay if I slept in here?" his voice quivered in vulnerability and terror, and Lisa felt her heart pang that this no longer seemed like Greg at all, it felt much more like that of a terrified young child; begging to sleep in bed with his parents because of a bad dream, or monsters in his closet. And as far as that room is concerned for Greg, there absolutely were and always have been monsters in that closet- quite literally. And certainly not the kind of monsters that can be scared away by showing him the empty closet and promising him that he was safe. He knows no sense of safety here.
"Of course," she mumbled, "but it's going to be a tight fit," as she pulled back the covers and shoved the passed out, heavily snoring James slightly further towards the side of the bed, but he was already rather close to the edge as it was; lying on his stomach, one arm tucked underneath his body and the other dangling over the edge of the bed. Greg gratefully and shyly climbed in, keeping himself as small and unintrusive as possible, as though if he were to relax then he would be kicked out to again lay in the bed of terror.
Three adults sleeping in a double bed was as uncomfortable as it sounded; and Lisa soon learned once Greg finally dozed off that while James snored, Greg kicked and rolled himself in the blankets, effectively stealing them, to which James then tugged back with all his might, still deep in sleep, and Lisa felt like she was in the middle of a tug of war; this was clearly something that happened all the time, probably every night between the two of them.
Lisa didn't really get anymore sleep that night; every time she began to doze off from the heat radiating off both James and Greg sleeping next to her; James would snore or snort particularly loudly, or Greg would kick her; and he kicked quite hard especially for a man with a crippled leg, and automatically she would snap back to consciousness. Lisa wriggled about a little but was pretty well stuck between the two of them- barely enough room to take in a deep breath, let alone roll over or stretch out at all, with James fast asleep and passed out from his alcohol intake earlier that day, and Greg finally dozing off, knowing that he was now safe with the two people he loved more than anything in the world.
However, in saying that, she hadn't felt safer since arriving at this house than she did sleeping between the two of them, knowing that if anything or anyone were to interrupt them, that they'd both be on the attack within an instant. Sighing and relaxing back, she tried, and eventually succeeded, in dozing off and letting the night pass on by; her body waiting for the sunlight to again rise through the window to just do it all again tomorrow.