[Mousen]

Solomon nodded, taking her hand and standing up slowly. "Are you all right?" she asked. "You'll have to let me come back and ward everything and-- and all the other crap to make sure nothing like this happens again." She took a glance around the room. Furniture was tipped over, some plaster had fallen off the wall, there were some small streaks of blood across the floor. Just like Akkia's life, it'd take some time before the house was back to normal.

She allowed herself to be lead downstairs and into the kitchen. She grabbed a couple of things from her bag, including a clean cloth. She wetted it in the sink and sat down on the kitchen floor to clean it. The scratches were a little messy, but nothing life threatening.

"Can I grab some paracetamol and something cold, a bag of peas or something? I hit my head pretty hard when the damn thing flung me. I can get them myself if you tell me where they are," she looked over at Akkia in concern. "Do you need anything?"

[MythicDusk]

Akkia wanted to tell Solomon to not bother cleaning the floors, she would get around to it in time. When she asked for paracetamol and something frozen, Akkia nodddd to a cupboard. "I keep all the painkillers and mediactions in there. Keeps them out of Innie's hands and an easy enough place to reach." She decided not to mention that the main reason they were in a kitchen cupboard was because of the number of times she thought she had seen him while cooking and nearly cut her finger off in shock.

She flexed her scarred fingers at that thought, curling them into tight fists. "Theres a bag of frozen peas in the bottom of the freezer. We keep them for swelling. Everyone hates them." She let out a mirthless chuckle at that, at the memory of wrapping the bag of peas around Innie's beesting, and innie being petrified of having to eat them after.

At Solomon's offer, Akkia actually barked a laugh, tears spiking in the corners of her eyes. All the adrenaline, the anger, the fear, beginning to drain from her. Leaving just an empty shell of a woman, which her demons were trying to claw their way back into.

"A stiff drink?"

[Mousen]

"Thanks." Solomon found the peas first, pressing them to the bruise on the back of her skull. The relief was wonderful. She moved around the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of water and taking a couple of paracetamol. Rather than moving a kitchen chair to sit down, she let herself slide to the floor, kitchen cupboards against her back. "I think I've got some whisky in a flask in this coat somewhere if you want it." It was good for burning things, and besides, the demons liked to have a sip of it now and again.

She closed her eyes for a second or two, and then remembered that she hadn't really checked on her two little friends. Solomon reached out to them in her mind, following along the old trails of feeling that bound them together. Delos, like the feeling of accidentally dropping a box of pushpins, like laughter at someone else's expense, and Nostos, like a sadness for something long gone and irreplaceable, like the moment a ship meets the fine horizon and vanishes from view.

They came back in the affirmative. Delos was a little scratched, but it was nothing serious.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia laughed, low and mirthless. Her lips pulled back from her teeth. She wanted to snap, wanted to curl her fingers into fists. Eventually, she felt the tension leave her and she ran her fingers down her face slowly, her breathing growing labored.

The shadows had slipped in, and she could feel them worming up her spine and clamping her lungs. Of course it would be now, of course it would be when she had no way of getting out of it. She focused on the table, tried to keep herself in the present, tried to calm her hiccuping breath.

Eventually, it got too much. With a single blink, the room had changed, her fingers tangled in her hair and her body beginning to tremble.

[Mousen]

Solomon watched the woman begin to tremble, concern across her features. "Akkia?" she said softly, and when that got no response, she called her name again. "Akkia?" She took a breath and then stood up slowly. She was a bit more beaten up than she'd have liked, but it was nothing a few easy days wouldn't fix. This was more important. She went over to the her, putting her hand between her shoulder blades.

It wasn't the first time she'd seen clients go to pieces after she'd removed something from their homes. Often it was when they had someone else to go to pieces in front of, their husband or partner. Or else, she could see it in their eyes as she left, they just wanted her gone so they could re-assess. But this was more serious, she could feel it.

"Akkia, honey," she said softly. "Can you hear me?"

[MythicDusk]

She could hear Solomon's voice, she knew it wasn't real. She nodded her head slowly, a trembling thing as she pressed the heels of her hands harder against her eyes, a dull ache flourishing from them.

Something creaked upstairs and she flinched. Perhaps it was just the house coming to a rest, the old floorboards moulding back into the way they had been for so long. All she could hear was the thudding footsteps coming for her.

She felt her heart pick up speed as she pulled her hands away from her eyes, as she blinked blearily. She shuddered with fright and upset. Flashbacks were the only time she could see out of both eyes.

[Mousen]

She moved her hand in small, comforting circles across her back. "Okay, that's good. Focus on the sound of my voice, okay? Can you speak? Can you tell me what I can do to help?" Her greying hair fell in front of her face as she sat beside Akkia. She wasn't even old enough to grey, really. A hazard of the job, she supposed.

Solomon moved slightly, as Akkia opened her eyes. "Akkia?" she tried again, keeping her voice soft. This wasn't her field of expertise, even less so when she'd just got the stuffing knocked out of her by a two-bit demonic entity, but she was going to try to help.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia shuddered against the touch, her jaw clenched and her eyes distant. She buried her face in her hands, her body tensing instinctivley as she could have sworn she felt life move inside of her. She could feel the heaviness of her stomach, could feel the exhaustion that plagued her.

She clinged to Solomon's voice like a rope as she tried to climb from the welk of the flashback. She could see the dark eyes, accusatory and angry. She could feel the rough hands around her wrists as they dragged her hands from her face. She felt a sharp intake in preparation for the shocking, singing pain of the fist to follow.

When it didn't come, she opened her eyes carefully, saw Solomon sitting beside her. She gave a weak smile, skowly adverting her eyes in shame.

[Mousen]

Solomon watched as Akkia flinched away, and she kept murmuring things, anything that might help the woman in front of her. She watched as Akkia came to, and met her eyes. She sighed in relief. "Akkia, hey," she said softly, catching her expression. "It's okay. I'm here to help, remember? Just let me know what I can do."

She paused, trying to find the right words. "I'm not an expert in mental health stuff, but I've had my share of bad days. Don't be upset on my account."

She could feel the adrenaline wearing off and she leaned her back against the leg of the table. She let her eyes flicker shut for a moment and then looked at Akkia. "Please."

[MythicDusk]

Akkia swallowed slightly. There was no way to help, there was no way to stop her mind going into immediate fight or slight, to stop her eyes glazing over and a scream stick in her throat. She wished there was. She wished she was able to brush it off, brush it away, as if it was nothing. As if it didn't make her feel anything. She could still see the golden eyes of the son she left.

Slowly, her throat working as she swallowed, she opened her mouth, her voice a croak as she spoke. "Thank you, but there's nothing that can be done." She could remember the heady, light feeling of what she used to do to control them, could still feel the marks of the needles in her arm if she searched across the black lines enough.

She shook her head, finally turning to look at Solomon. "Are you okay?"

[Mousen]

Solomon nodded, opening her eyes. "I understand. Anything I can do for you, though? Glass of water? Something else?" There were some things she couldn't even begin to fix, but she could always try to help. There was always something to be done, somewhere, even if it was just being there to listen.

It must have seemed ridiculous, to be sat on the floor of her apartment looking like she'd just had the shit kicked out of her and still trying to look after her. "I'll be fine. The shoulder doesn't need stitches, and I've got one hell of a headache but I'm pretty sure I've avoided a concussion. A little embarrassed I let that damn thing get the drop on me, but I'm sure my pride will make it through," she offered Akkia a small smile.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia let a croak of a laugh echo from her throat. It was enough. This was enough, to spark a mote of trust. She tilted her head slightly, resting the side of her head on her knuckles as she rested her elbow on the tabletop. "We're both a mess, huh?" She flashed a grin. A flighty, scared thing before she let it fall away into a quirk of the lips, an ever so slight smile.

"Would you like to stay for dinner, Miss Solomon?" It was the least she could do, realistically. In her heart of hearts, she wanted Innie to meet the woman who had made her home safe again.

[Mousen]

Solomon realised that she had't seen Akkia smile before this, or at least not properly. This was one of the reasons she enjoyed her job, the weight it took off people's shoulders, now that they were safe in their own homes. She supposed the sense of humour probably helped too.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I don't want to intrude." Although, if she had some time to gather herself Solomon could probably work on the wards today, and she wouldn't be leaving the house with any vulnerabilities. Also, it'd be nice to stay and make sure Akkia was okay. "And you can just call me Sol, if you like. Most people do."

[MythicDusk]

Akkia almost laughed, slowly standing on shaking knees before she huffed and stomped her feet slightly, to get rid of the jelly in her legs. [color=#804000"You just cleared my house of- whatever it was, for free nontheless, and you don't want to impose."[/color] She snorted in morth again as she walked to the fridge, opening the door to peer in to see what she could make that was vaguely healthy and what Innie would eat with the least resistance. She couldn't deal with turkey dinosaurs again. Especially not when Innie would only eat the stegosaurus because, in her words, 'they were b-words'.

Akkia ran her hand down her face slightly with a sigh, pulling out a few vegetables from the fridge and staring at them like they had offended her. "Sol, hm? Like sun. You'll have to excuse me if I call you Solly." She grinned, digging through cupboards to find the right pans.

[Mousen]

Solomon smiled. "I guess that is kinda silly, what can I say, I try to be a good house guest. It normally makes up for the massive amounts of property damage I bring with me." There hadn't been much this time around, in terms of broken windows or splintered floorboards but it definitely happened more than Solomon would like to admit. "Occupational hazard, I guess."

Eventually, she'd get home and meditate, bless and anoint her tools and take some time to see how bad Delos' scratch from the other demon was. She knew it wasn't much more than a surface wound, but she wanted to sort it out nonetheless. Until then, she was happy to stay and eat dinner with Akkia.

"Hah. Well, everyone knows me as Solomon and I guess Ernestine is a bit of a mouthful. People used to call me Tina, growing up, but it didn't stick." It wasn't particularly surprising, Solomon was five foot ten, broad-shouldered and had a nose that showed signs of bring broken at least once. Tina sounded like a sweet next-door neighbour type, not an armed-to-the-teeth exorcist.