Which is, of course, when Pete wanders out carrying - /count/ them - four
Cokes, a box of cookies, cheese sticks, some big fries and some little
fries, and a really really disgustingly drippy-looking delicious Big Mac.
Screw the fish filet. We want Big Beef Blasphemy. This all gets plunked on
the table, and Pete glances up. "Seishi! Coke? Got an extra. Must've known
you were coming."

Whisper reaches for a Coke, looking up at Seishi and lifting her eyebrows.
"Oh." That's it, because she has *some* self-control, but her voice is
sour and her lips pinch together.

Celliers flicks another of thsoe gauging looks between Whisper and Seishi,
before suddenly coming out in his most saccharine voice with, "Birds in
their little nests agree," Better they both be irritated with him, than
with each other.

Seishi pauses when Jack calls her name, half-turning to look towards her
friends, brows lifting curiously. She hesitates further when she sees
Whisper, expression faltering and drawing closed--not tightening or
hardening so much as going carefully blank. Pete's following greeting
calls up something like a smile; the corner of her mouth turns up, but not
a lot else. "Not vanilla, is it?" she wonders mildly in Pete's direction,
sounding for a moment faintly wistful. "No?" She doesn't look at Whisper
again, not yet. Jack, however, does get an even look. Don't make me regret
not being allowed to hit people out of hand.

Kitty blinks at Celliers mildly - okay, her turn to look at /him/ like
he's just meandered out of the madhouse. She reaches without a word to
distribute foodstuffs, however. Whisper, cookies. Herself, cheese sticks,
plus the /small/ dose of fries. The Cokes she's not touching, because for
all she knows, one of them /might/ be vanilla.

Whisper is distracted for a moment by looking at Jack as if he were a
penguin. "Birds? What birds? Where? What do they agree on?" A half-glare
toward Pete, "Did you put something in his Coke? And they don't. Birds are
very territorial."

Celliers assumes an aggrieved expression, as he reaches for his Coke. "It
was meant metaphorically," he sighs. Times like this, if it weren't for
Kate, one'd wonder.

Giving Jack an amused look - he's going to die, isn't he? He's going to
die messily - aww, Whisper didn't kill him. Just as well. She might
actually have. No, just kidding - Pete slides the larger fries over to
himself and confiscates his big mac. "No, sorry. No vanilla, yet. They
haven't even got Cherry, and that's been around for years. And years. And
years. I did /nothing/ reprehensible, Barbara. /You're/ the one eating
cookies."

Seishi moves off the place where she was standing to edge between Pete and
Jack, and take one of the cups of Coke for herself. For now, she keeps
quiet, looking from one person to the next and trying to get an idea of
what's got them congregating out here just now.. aside, clearly, from junk
food.

Kitty passes one of the remaining Cokes to Whisper, which leaves one
between her and Pete. Fair enough. "I looked in on Ray, Seishi," she adds
casually. "He suggested he might know somebody who could help with the
whole situation." Yes, it's /that/. Oh dear. "And he's doing fine enough
to be mad at Atlanta over the Cubs game today, so - all good on that
front."

Celliers stifles a yawn behind a long hand, before sipping at his Coke,
idly. He edges over a bit, the better to kick out the nearest empty chair
for Seishi's benefit.

Whisper snorts, "It's not a terrific metaphor, then," and turns her
attention to her Coke. For a second. "Situation?"

Giving Seishi an eyebrows-raised look - yeah it's that, but we've got
things under control, it's all right - Pete munches some fries. Because
no, Kitty, that Coke is for you. 'No martyrs' has nothing to do with cola,
dammit. Once he's not got a mouthful of fry - which is fairly quick - he
addresses Barbara, "Situation. Yes. You know, the whole situation? All of
it? With people and other people and missing nurses and danger to Sera and
Ray and a lot of other people? The situation." His tone isn't snarky, just
expository. Which might be worse.

Seishi sips her Coke slowly through the straw before saying, in that mild
and even tone, "Yes. That." Still not looking at Whisper. Looking from
Pete to Kitty, and back. "Anything new in the past," she pauses mid-query
to glance down at her wristwatch, "twenty-two hours?"

Whisper nods once to Pete, also carefully not looking at Seishi, her mouth
twisting. "Yes. I'm aware of it."

Celliers casts his eyes heavenward, appealingly, for a moment, before
looking down at Kitty. Watch Jack pointedly ignore the tension.

"Ray doesn't think the car hitting him was an accident," Kitty replies. "I
don't think it matters - even if it wasn't, Ballantine's got the idea now;
fortunately, Ray's on the alert, and armed. Sera we've still got to be
careful for. I updated him on Ballantine's capabilities, and on the fact
that he's not working alone. Ray thinks he can probably get Ballantine
arrested, if that'd be useful. Also, he thinks he knows someone that might
be able to cancel out what Ballantine can do." The English language needs
more pronouns. "And he asked me to look in on his ex-wife, make sure she's
okay."

Whisper jerks her straw up and down through the plastic so that it makes
little screeching noises. ""Isn't working alone?" That catches her
attention.

"Should bloody well hope so, we've only been talking about it since the
detergent bit," says Pete cheerfully, then takes an enormous bite of
burger to forestall any further things might get him in trouble. He gives
Kitty an innocent look, then gestures, chewing still, at Kitty to Seishi.
She's the one with any news. Not me. Her. Definitely her. This is a good
burger, know that? It's dripping on the table. Then Kitty explains, which
is fantastic, but then Pete's done chewing, so he has to butt in again.
"Intern. Blithe, his name is, innit?" Glance at Kitty, look back at
Whisper. "Called the good doctor in when Kowalski and Seravina were there,
but she'd just signed him out."

Out of all of that, Seishi focuses on one word, brows rising with faint
incredulity. "If? Unless we have some reason to believe that Melanie would
be endangered by it, putting Ballantine in jail is exactly what we
*need.*" She bites down, hard, on a thread of frustration, and forges
ahead. "If they can keep him in a cell even for a couple of days it leaves
us free to investigate several dozen possibilities without having to worry
about his reaction or what he's doing in the meantime."

Celliers glares at Whisper, the kind of stare designed to stop a
recalcitrant Private at fifty yards.. She's making That Noise. And she
needs to stop, now. "How is Constable Kowalski involved?" he wonders.

Kitty shifts awkwardly in her seat at the discussion, but half-nods toward
Seishi. "Ray's talking to his lieutenant about it. I'll get in touch with
Ray - if there's timing that would suit best, let me know, and I'll pass
it on. Once he's got it set up on his end, he says he can handle it any
time." She has that faintly-stressed tone in her voice again, but it's not
slowing her down any. "Ray's dating Seravina," she sums up for Celliers.
"And knows what Ballantine did to her. They aren't exactly on friendly
terms. Actually, we're pretty sure the doctor would kind of like him
dead."

Celliers pauses to do an imitation of a landed trout, before hastily
snatching up his coke, and taking a rather too-hearty drink. He's
obviously missed that bit.

Whisper looks up and over at Kitty, "So," she starts, "what exactly are we
going to do? And when exactly are we going to do it?"

Ahem. Now would be a wonderful time to eat more burger. Kitty's got this
well in hand, see. Except - he really oughtn't leave all the explaining to
her. Giving his fiancee a wistful look, burger in hand, Pete asks without
asking.

Kitty glances aside to Pete, and makes a face. "Eat your stupid food," she
tells him. So loving, she is. "We're setting up with Ray to get Ballantine
arrested. Seishi, if we can coordinate this with Sigerson's plan to /keep/
him in jail, that's worth doing - if we can iron out all the problems fast
enough; if not, we'll have to live with what we get. Ray thinks he knows
someone who might be able to cancel out Ballantine's powers, but the
police might need backup anyhow. That'll need sneaky types - if you're
willing, Whisper, you'd be best. We'll know the exact timing of the arrest
after we've set up with Ray. If there's any way we can put some time into
quietly following Ballantine around in the mean time -" her eyes flick
between Whisper and Jack - "that /might/ give us some more idea of what
happened to Melanie, or might not. But it's worth a try, particularly
since Melanie was last seen in the hospital and it's an amazingly bad idea
to try getting information around there with Ballantine still around.
Also, following him might give us a better place to handle the arrest than
the hospital - there are /way/ too many innocent bystanders around there
for my taste - or knocking on the door of his house, where things are
likely to be skewed more in his favor than I like. I'm not sure what we
can do about Blithe, but Constantine's watching him for now. Pete, can you
get in touch with him? And did I miss anything immediate, anyone?"

Whisper nods quickly, setting down her cup, "I can do that, and I can
probably move to neutralize him before he can do anything to the police.
Like I said, I'm not even sure I *have* a nervous system when I'm like
that."

Celliers nods, solemnly. "Indeed. How does he generally go from work to
home, or the reverse? Has he a car?"

Actually about half of Wisdom's Big Mac is gone now, wow. He sets it down,
stealing a napkin from the middle of the table and making himself a little
less messy, then glances up at Kitty at the last. "Ah - yeah. Yeah, can.
Really isn't as difficult as all that. Can do a rain-dance if you like,
it'll rain Constantines instead of frogs. And Barbara, /do/ be careful,
even if you're confident you won't be hurt." He glances up at Seishi,
reminded by Whisper's verbal evidence of sneakiness. "Oh - Sei, there was
the other thing." He glances at Whisper, then back at Seishi - expecting
communication is clearly too much. "Barbara said he talks to himself. And
a picture on the wall, which he calls Claire. Tells her he's proud of her
- wasn't it?" Looking at Whisper again. Burger now in pool of
peach-colored goo.

Seishi's face has gone back to carefully expressionless focus, and she
nods slowly. "Holmes-sama has everything we know except this latest, and I
wouldn't be too sure about that either. He's working with it. I'll pass
this along." And that's all she says about that. Pete's last has her
cocking her head a little to the side. "Mmm. That's... I'd like to look
into that. It's significant. If we have the chance, around the more
important things..." She lets it trail off, and says nothing else.

So he didn't want to go out to a real restaurant just now--couldn't be
bothered. And, being John Constantine, he's certainly not going to do any
cooking. He considered ordering pizza, but the McDonald's isn't that far
away, after all, and it's not like he really *needs* real food all that
badly. Health is not exactly his primary concern. John approaches the
McDonald's, pausing not far away to flick his cigarette to the ground and
step on it. He doesn't yet notice the others gathered at the outdoor
table.

Kitty is very carefully not looking in Pete's direction. This is letting
her not abandon her fries /entirely/ - that is, she hasn't thrown them out
yet. She nods to Barbara instead. "Great. With any luck we won't have to
get involved, but we ought to be ready to. Jack - I haven't the faintest
idea, quite honestly." Another flick of eyes to Barbara: does she know?
She's been watching. "Significant, Sei? How d'you think?" It's not a
challenge, or a negation - one can agree and still be asking for details.

Whisper gets to her feet, "I think I need to get going, if there's nothing
else we have to talk about."

Celliers opens his mouth to make some comment, while trying to light a
clove, and nearly succeeds in searing himself in the eye with his butane
jet lighter - which is promptly set down. He's noted Constantine, of
course....but it's a few moments, before he can summon the ccivility to
greet John. And even then his lack of enthusiasm is notable.
"Constantine."

...so not even going to comment. Not going to comment. Not going to-- too
late. "I know a place to get eyepatches cheap, Celliers," says Pete,
deadpan, then eats some more fries. Because otherwise death. Glances up,
then, waves a cheerful goodbye to Whisper and an equally disgustingly
cheery hello to John. A-heh. Look, I have a gooey burger and Kitty's not
making me explain anything.

"It's a thread," Seishi muses distractedly in answer to Kitty's inquiry,
inclining her head politely to Whisper and saying nothing to the redhead
as she leaves. "It could lead us to *why.* I want to know. It's
important." A pause, and she shakes her head, sips her Coke, and adds, "If
nothing else, it's a weak point we may be able to exploit."

Constantine pauses in his saunter toward the door. He turns around and
blinks. "Celliers," he says levelly. Look how very excited he is, really.
He does wave to Pete, though, and make his way over to the table, nodding
to Whisper as she passes by on her way out. "A thread of what?" he asks,
picking up on Seishi's words, although he already has some suspicions as
to what's being discussed.

Celliers replies, without even glancing at Wisdom, "Don't make me have to
burn out your other eye, Peter. You'd make a terrible Oedipus."

Kitty eyes Celliers, not quite alarmed. "Look. I know I'm always on about
how smoking is a terrible habit, but that's just /ridiculous/. Besides,
I'm the only one allowed to maim him." About which prospect she could get
to sounding downright cheerful tonight. But! Not just now. Though she will
collect the Coke she's been leaving alone thus far. Eyepatches. Cheap.
Sigh. "Good night, Whisper. Take care." Those last two words are /quite/
serious - and then she nods to Seishi. "'Kay. That's what I was thinking -
especially since Jack suggested Ballantine might be confusing Claire and
Sera..." At which point she lets out a breath and looks up. "On which
note: hi, John."

"Not chuffing me mum, for one," mutters Pete, giving Jack the Evil Eye and
eating a /lot/ of fries, now. "'Nd--" muffled by fry, "--'s Pete. Na'
Peter. D'mmit." Who's maiming. There are /books/ to study at home.

"Hi, John," Seishi echoes Kitty with a bit less energy, glancing toward
Constantine. She takes a moment to eye Pete and Jack balefully for a
moment, then sighs, and turns back to Kitty. "If there's not anything
else, I should get moving. It's getting late, and there's still a lot to
do. I'll try to harass my roommate into cooperating with what plans we've
put together, all right?"

Celliers meets Seishi's gazee with an utterly innocent look. "Oh, Good
evening Seishi," he replies, before favoring Kitty with the most roguish
of grins.

"I thought that was the topic," Constantine says wearily. "Might be? Hah.
I asked Sera if he'd ever called her Claire and she collapsed--nearly went
into convulsions." The muscles in his jaw have gone tight at the memory,
and anger does a slow burn in the blue intensity of his gaze. "Any more
ideas come up on what to do with Ballantine until we can kill him?" The
question is quite casual, really.

True. There /are/ books. Which may be why Kitty has not been committing
casual abuse on Pete's person through the conversation. "We have a plan,"
she says aloud, leaning her head back to look up at Constantine. "It
involves getting Ballantine thrown into jail. Which will at least keep him
out of circulation temporarily, and possibly permanently if we can get
things lined up right. And it does not involve any of us getting brought
up on murder charges, which is a definite plus." She glances down and
aside to Seishi, and adds, "Sounds good. You've got my number - give a
yell if you need anything, okay?"

Seishi had been gathering up her Coke and turning to go, but Constantine's
last comment stops her cold, and she rounds on him fiercely. "We are *not*
going to *kill* him," she says tightly. "Not unless there's no other
*choice.* If you don't like it, fuck off. I'm not helping anyone get
revenge."