What's Normal?

Sid
The day before Thanksgiving means the roads are clear and the grocery stores are packed and some homes are filled the smells of baked and baking foods.  For Sid, this day means a break from classes and early release from work.  Even though she has much more to be grateful for this year than in the several prior, Sid has no plans for the holiday of gratitude and thankfulness.  Well, nothing beyond a little study followed by maybe watching a movie.  She has no shopping that she needs to take care of, so when her office in the campus library shut down for the afternoon, rather than climbing into her truck and making her way back home she broke out her skateboard to make her way downtown.
The city is not quiet today.  There are small pockets of tourists, family members from far off places in town to visit locals who wish to show them the sites and sights of Denver.  Sid navigates around them easily enough, hands in the pockets of her plain hoody, red hair trailing behind her like a sail.

[awareness]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Lena Reilly
Holiday times are basically here, and that means merriment and goodwill toward man and all that stuff.  To be honest, Lena isn't a fan of the last couple of months of the year even when she's at her best.  Normally it's all downhill after Halloween and considering how her Halloween went, one can hope that at least this year it'll be different.  Because it's difficult to understand how much worse it can get from Halloween and still be breathing.
But breathing she is.  It's been nearly a month since Hydra has been out of her system and she's fully recovered in a physical capacity.  There are deep scars of course, but none of them on her corporeal self; they're the invisible scars.  The kind that you don't see unless you look into someone's eyes.  They've all had different reactions to what happened to them.  Grace is afraid of just about everything now; Sera has shut down.  Sid has changed too, of course, in her own ways.  And Lena...
Well, Lena has moved on.  Or at least, she likes to think so.
It's not particularly cold today, but she's still dresing warmly because...well, it's not summer.  The DJ makes her way down the street in a turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans (both newly-purchased since she moved out of her apartment, like most of her clothes).  A laptop case rests over one shoulder and a cigarette burns in her left hand.  She isn't skittish of the people on the street today, at least openly.  She moves to avoid contact of course, but she's not acting like an attack may come from any one of them at any moment.  She has many of the smaller signs that Kalen or Shoshannah or Connor may have seen a week ago: the hollows around her eyes that indicates she's getting very little sleep (even for her, who can susbsist on just a few hours a night), the lost weight.  The wired/tired combination she gives off.  The way she's not listening to music as she walks, the way she normally does.  And, of course, the way that the sixth sense most Awakened develop, once so strong, has been shut down.
And thus she turns a corner, completely oblivious to the fact that she's about to run into someone she hasn't seen since the night she was rescued from certain, horrifying death.

Sid
Sid has fared a little better than the others in this past month, which isn't to say she's fared well.  Her experience with the Hydra virus was different.  She sought help early, got herself protected, and then she focused on one task and one task alone for weeks until it was completed.  In that time, Grace stayed on her own with a young Euthanatos, and Lena and Sera...Sid hasn't talked to any of them about their experiences, but she knows that they were worst for the two Ecstatics.
Sid hasn't spoken to any of the other women who shared that horrible fate with her, in fact has gone out of her way to make sure they don't run into each other.  There have been no calls, no texts, no attempts at reaching out, at seeing how anyone is doing.  Sid has her own demons to deal with these days, demons which are tied to the events of that night when she and Grace found their lost friends.  She's dealing, not as well as she perhaps could be, but still.  She was doing better a week ago, had started getting rested, and Jim even managed to get her to eat more than a few bitefuls of food before she put her fork down.
Then the dream happened, and things got bad all over again.
The woman rolling along the sidewalk is stronger than she was when her belief that Denver was devoid of Awakened individuals was shattered, not that anyone could tell looking at her.  She's thinner, the roundness of her cheeks diminished, and clothes that were purchased to fit an athletic figure more comfortably have become loose, visible today only in the extra folds of her once-skinny jeans.  There are shadows beneath her eyes, but those eyes are bright, alert.  Her complexion is not quite so terrifyingly pale.  As much as she would prefer to go her whole life without a minute of sleep, until she has the knowledge the perform that sort of magic she's stuck with needing rest from time to time.
She senses something as she makes her quick progress down the street and so she slows, slows, comes to a stop and kicks her board up to catch the edge all in one motion.  Then she sees someone she hasn't seen for weeks and all sorts of conflicted emotions war inside of her.  For the first time in what feels like ages Sid has the sudden urge to do an about face and make her way quickly away.  She doesn't, though.
Instead she says, "Lena," and she looks at the woman, the one she once watched dance her way down the 16th Street Mall, with a tightened expression.

Lena Reilly
Lena.  The sound of Sid's voice, resonating in Lena's ears, makes the woman's head snap upward.  When Lena and Sid first met, Lena was the first to make contact between them and Sid's response was a painfully shy, defensive wariness.  They've come full circle now, after a fashion.  Now it's Sid who says the first words and the expression that hits Lena's face is that of skittishness, almost like she might flee.
It's not exactly the same though, of course.  Lena in that first street corner encounter was open and friendly and Sid was shy.  In this new iteration, Sid is not open and friendly in that same way, because she's been through so much.  And Lena is less shy and wary than she is...afraid, perhaps?  Not of Sid necessarily, but there is a definite sense of fear and a little bit of something deeper, more pained and hollow.
Lena stops dead in her tracks on seeing Sid and for a moment, there's a look as if she might turn around and start walking in the opposite direction.  She doesn't though.  Instead, her lips press tightly together and she reaches up self-consciously to run a hand through her hair.  The cigarette in her other hand is starting to turn into one long trail of ash, and she nods a little to the other woman.  There's a flicker of her lips in what might be considered a miserably failed attempt to smile.
"Hey, Sid."  Her attention shifts left and right a moment, then back to her.  "You're ah...you're looking better."

Kalen Holliday
[Nightmares]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 3, 3, 6, 9) ( success x 1 )

Kalen Holliday
Turning to flee would have sent Lena practically running into Kalen; though, short of using magic to stop her, there is precious little the hobbled Flambeau is going to manage in the way of stopping anyone.  Assuming he would even try.
He moves toward them, raising the hand free of his cane to wave once he gets closer.  It's a process, Kalen getting anywhere.  There is practically time to stop and get coffee and discuss getting out of his way before he really closes on speaking distance, particularly for anyone that senses his Resonance before they spot him.
They are not greeted until he is close enough not to have to raise his voice, but once he is they get a calm, "Hello."

Sid
The corners of Sid's mouth flicker and twitch, like maybe there's a smile there, but it's still far too far below the horizon to give off any light.
"You, too," she replies.  The last time Sid saw Lena she was sitting in a technically stolen car and wearing Sid's long since destroyed hoody.  Sid looks away again, but this time with a purpose.  There's a storm slowly rolling in, arriving in the form of a young Hermetic with a cane.  Sid leans a little to the side, looking past Lena to the figure making his slow way toward them.  "Kalen," she says, low and quiet so that only Lena can hear.  Because of all the people that Lena knows in this city and all the ones within that small circle who have in them a fear, Sid is the one who understands the most how Lena might feel about someone coming up behind her unexpectedly.
She returns that wave with an upward tip of her chin before returning her attention to her friend.  And she frowns.
"I'm sorry I haven't called, I..." she trails, because what can she say, really?  The truth?  Not hardly.

Lena Reilly
There's a moment, when Sid leans toward the side, where Lena is briefly confused.  That moment is brief and passes as soon as the Cultist realizes that she's looking at someone else, and then Sid says exactly who.  Lena snaps her head around to look at the approaching Flambeau, regarding him with a little bit of wariness.  Perhaps oddly, there isn't much more than she usually had.  Kalen, she never really let get all that close to her and there isn't much in the way of vulnerability she showed there.  And besides, they've had a moment since.  And while she took a chance there, she's gotten over that.  At least, in her conscious mind.
And so she nods a little to Kalen as she shifts her position, turning so that she's able to face the both of them (or perhaps more specifically, not give up her back).  The three of them--Orphan, Cultist and Hermetic--make a little triangle once Kalen comes up and completes it.  Even if Lena doesn't freak out at Kalen's approach Sid gets a little look that, while emotionally dead, has the semblence of gratitude.  It's something.
She shakes her head when Sid says I'm sorry, even before she gets to the why.  The reason for her apology just gives her the opportunity to vocalize a response.  "No, it's fine, I..."  She takes a drag off of her cigarette, a bit compulsively, and flicks the long trail of ash away.  "You're dealing.  I get it, believe me."  Her eyes don't quite hit Sid's face.  Kalen's either, really, though she is focused on the woman at the moment.  "It was rough for all of us.  How are..."
She pauses there, chews on her lip a little bit.  How are all the mages in the city?  How are you?  How are...what?  She lets it go there, and changes topic.
"I haven't been around either.  It isn't your fault."

Kalen Holliday
"I don't think it has been an easy few months for anyone," Kalen says quietly.  "I think it may be wise to simply accept that and move on from there without quite so many apologies.  People heal how they do, I don't think any of us are strangers to that fact.  It may be that we need to remember that more than we need to apologize.
"On a not entirely unrelated note, would the two of you prefer I leave you in peace?"

Lena Reilly
There's a part of Lena that instinctively wants to rear up at Kalen when he suggests that it hasn't been an easy few months for anyone.  It's the selfish part of her, that takes offense to the idea that living her absolute worst nightmare over the month of October (particularly that last week) could possibly be equated with what other mages might have undergone.  And there is that brief flash in her eyes, but it's gone quickly and even when it's there, it's dulled and blurry, like the corpse wrapped in plastic and thrown down a well looks when the first flashlight of a rescue searcher shines over it.
Because really, it is selfish, and if there's one thing that Lena has lost, it's pretenses about her own importance.  Another part of it is the fact that her emotionally shorted-out state takes so much to get any sort of reaction from her.  So she just looks at Kalen after that little flash of light fades, and shrugs lightly.
"You can stay," she says with a glance between the two.  "We should probably get out of the sidewalk though.  We're gonna start holding up traffic."
Not that she's making suggestions of where to go.  That would imply she has somewhere to go to at the moment.

Kalen Holliday
"I wasn't suggesting that we've all had the same experience.  I was suggesting that we know what it's like to go through Hell of one kind or another.  Not because it doesn't matter what just happened, but because I think you should understand how unnecessary it is to feel like you should owe anyone any apology or explanation for not being around."
He glances around.  "I don't know what's here.  There's an aquarium.  Places to get coffee.  Food.  Are you hungry?"

Lena Reilly
Kalen explains himself further and Lena is listening to the words, to be perfectly fair.  But there's something in her vaguely hollow expression which suggests that the words don't quite reach her, at least as much as Kalen might hope.
And so instead she adjusts the strap of her laptop case, looking around when Kalen does.  "I'm not hungry, no.  I could go for some coffee, though."  Yeah, there's the least surprising sentence of the month.  "Wherever you guys wanna go works for me, I guess."

Sid
"I didn't say it was," Sid says quietly to Lena, who says that something - Sid wouldn't know what - isn't her fault.  The words, her tone, they're gentle.  She tilts her head to look at Kalen, and for a moment Lena isn't the only one who wants to bristle up a bit at his words.  For Sid, though, the reasons are entirely different, and the urge falls away more naturally.  He even gets the barest whisper of a smile from the Orphan, a ghost of amusement that fades away before it's even fully there, much less noticeable.
"It was one apology, Kalen.  I'm not hungry, either," she says, with an understanding, sidelong appraisal of Lena.  Chances are neither of them are eating well these days.  She looks between the two of them.  "I'd prefer beer," she says quietly and succinctly.  "Or bourbon."  Never mind the hour.  Leaning to the side, Sid bends to pick up her skateboard and tuck it under her arm.  "But coffee's fine."

Kalen Holliday
"It isn't just that one.  There is a general trend of..." He frowns.  Because he's seen all of them.  And almost all of them have tried to apologize to someone about their responses.  And then, perhaps surprizing since he was actually being something like human, his guard snaps up.  And his face and his eyes, are just distant and empty.
"I have learned not to say no to whiskey.  Or coffee.  Whiskey combined with coffee...."  Kalen smiles faintly, but it isn't a real smile.  It might fool people who had never met him, never spent time with him, but Sid and Lena both know what his real expressions look like by now, and he isn't even really trying.

Sid
[percept+subt (hidden emotions)]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Lena Reilly
Lena lets the two debate over the prevalence of apologies among the Awakened, or at least among the Hydra survivors.  Her forehead creases as she furrows up her eyebrows, lets her attention drift to look up and down the street.  There's a bit of distance that she puts between herself and the topic because in truth, it isn't just her absence that was being apologized for.  In truth, even she doesn't know exactly the reason for her apology; she just knows that she felt like she needed to say it.
While the two hash it out a bit, she reaches absently up to curl a few locks of hair behind her ear.  Her shoulders hunch up a little bit and she looks back finally when they're back to talking about where to go and what to get.  "I'm good with finding a place for a drink," she says with a little shrug.  "Whatever works best, I suppose."  The truth is that she feels a bit exposed here in the open, among these two.  Getting somewhere with some privacy and anonimity would be good; the exact where is inconsequential, really.

Sid
Sid sees that guard go up for Kalen, and when she sees her brows clench toward each other above those warm dark eyes of hers.  For her, it has been only one apology, hers to Lena, at least when it comes to this, to being a friend to the ones she cares about and pretty much failing at it.  The only other apology she recalls making recently was to him when she botched her attempt at an effect and made a crowd of people usher them to a darkened hallway.  That had been in a dream, though, or a kind of dream, so Sid knows it was likely less a failure and a sign of her lack of skill and more what the person who forced that dream on them wanted to have happen.
But she is not Kalen, and Kalen is the one who says It isn't just that one...  So, Sid realizes, it's been one time for her, but who knows how many for him?  Lena turns away from them to look out over the sidewalk, leaving the quiet Orphan who has shied away from human contact for so long and the reserved Hermetic who just isn't very good at these things to try and hash things out.  On the surface it would appear that it goes just as well as one would expect given their history.
There's been that new event in the chain, though, and for Sid that changes things dramatically.  In her experience one doesn't go through a shared horror like the one she and Kalen faced together and not come out of it with a different attitude toward that unwitting partner.
This is not the place to openly talk to him about what's been going on with him, not with Lena so obviously struggling, but there is something that she can do.  Without a word, Sid shifts to stand beside Kalen, moving her board to hang beneath her other arm.  Then she takes her now empthy hand, and she slips it into Kalen's free hand.  Hers is warm, as though they've done nothing all day but soak up the sun's warmth, giving Sid something to pass on to others in moments just like this.  There is a look, silent and brief, of quiet empathy.  If he thinks she's going to let go of him then he is absolutely wrong.  Giving his hand a quick and gentle squeeze, Sid looks away from him and down the street.
"We can walk for a bit, see what we find.  There are a hundred bars downtown.  Or," and finally there is a flicker of a real smile, "we can stop at Starbucks and then hit up a liquor store and make our own coffee in the park."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen does not fight against contact.  He seems surprised, but in no way displeased when Sid grabs his hand.  Openly talking to Kalen under any circumstances is a Thing, and Sid is correct that these aren't the conditions to try that under.  She gets only a very brief, but at least not empty, smile.
"We could do that."
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )

Lena Reilly
Lena isn't paying as much attention, but she does pick up that motion by Sid to stand next to Kalen, the taking of the Hermetic's hand.  Her gaze lingers there for a moment, and in that moment there is a look of two very different emotions.  There's envy there, for that level of contact.  But there is relief as well, that Sid chose to offer Kalen the support and not herself.  Those contradicting notions don't even make sense in her head, but like many of her Tradition Lena is a creature of her Passions.  And emotion doesn't need to make sense to be legitimate.
"Yeah, that works."  She flicks the cigarette away, crosses her arms as if warding off a chill.  She flickers an attempt at a smile and nods forward.  "Lead the way."

Sid
If both of Sid's hands were freed...well, they're not, so there's not much sense wandering down that road, but suffice to say things would be different.  It's Kalen that finds Sid's warm hand in his, and who thus receives what comfort she's able to offer these days.
If she picks up on Lena's internal conflict, however, Sid makes no sign of it.  Lena has always been distant, and she's dealing with the ordeals of the last few months in a way that makes sense for her.  Like with Kalen, Sid knows this is not the place to try and cross that boundary.
Neither younger Mage seems willing to make a definite decision on what to do with their day, so when it comes back around to Sid she tips her head in the direction of the nearest Starbucks.  They can start in that direction, anyway, and see if once they get there if they'd really like to find someplace else for a second stop.  The go at a pace that's comfortable for Kalen, with Sid keeping her long-legged gait easy and slow and her gaze on the buildings around them.
"Do either of you have plans for tomorrow?"

Kalen Holliday
There is a second where Kalen looks at Sid in confusion before he remembers.
Thanksgiving.  He can still, barely remember Thanksgiving when he still had something like a family, mostly the last one, when in some odd attempt at a family moment there had been a whole turkey.  He can remember eating takeout with Jack and Kharisma in a tiny apartment.  Formal dinner in a chantry that is nothing but ashes now.
"No.  Garrett will probably call me until I come over or something, like I should be somewhere."

Grace Evans
[Nightmares!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 3, 4, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace Evans
[Perception + Awareness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Lena Reilly
Kalen takes a moment to remember, and he's not the only one.  Lena has barely been keeping track of what day of the week it is, much less what date is coming up.  She starts to walk with Sid, hands slipping into her pockets as they walk and her brows furrow in concentration.
And then she remembers, much like the Hermetic does.  She has her own Thanksgiving-related ashes, albeit of a more metaphorical sense.  The memories are more distant than her recent trauma but deeper-seeded and, in a very indirect way, related.  And so she shrugs.  "Take-out and some Netflix, probably."  She shrugs it off.  "It's not really one of my favorite holidays, I'm afraid."

Grace Evans
When the trio comes across her, Grace is standing on the sidewalk, quite still, looking up at the offending coffee shop's sign, with its annoying de-breasted mermaid in green. They had to make it family friendly after all. Stupid fucking place. The last time she was in one...
She turns around and starts walking the other way, purposefully going to avoid that God-awful memory, thank you very much.
It's almost a shock when she notices them all, not with her eyes, which are focused more at the ground than the people around her. But there's another memory wrapped around her now. One of laboratories and clinics.
Lena? Sid?

Sid
Lena isn't the only one who has an issue with the holidays, but that wouldn't be surprising.  They are solitary creatures, these Mages, and these family and friend togetherness holidays are bound to be a problem for at least half of them.
Sid looks over at Kalen, and then to Lena.  It's the Ecstatic's idea of a holiday tradition that resonates the most with her.  "That's my plan, too.  They just got Farscape, I was planning to marathon it.  If you want," and she looks now from Lena to Kalen, "if you need an excuse to be somewhere else, we can watch things at my place.  I have a big couch and my roommate went home."
Before either can answer her, however, Sid releases Kalen's hand to retrieve her phone.  She frowns at the screen a moment, then looks up.  "I have to pass on coffee," she says quietly, and though she doesn't say it aloud, they can hear apology in her tone.  "I'll call you later."  This is mostly for Lena, though if she's gotten Kalen's number by now it includes him as well.  They're still far enough away from the coffee place that Sid hasn't noticed Grace, and then she's turning off to go a different direction altogether.

[and that alas is it for me!  thank you for the scene!]

Kalen Holliday
Sid leaves, and Kalen glances around, then at Lena.  He was perfectly comfortable with Lena being present, but now that Sid isn't there to sort of tie them together he seems less sure about staying.
"Well.  Perhaps I'll see you tomorrow," he says to Lena, tone neutral, as he takes a step back like he's getting ready to leave.

Lena Reilly
They're heading toward Starbucks and while it was the place where her most recent ordeal, Lena isn't hesitant about going there.  Sure, she's not likely to ever stop in at the one where they first encountered Katie and were injected with the disease which ravaged her and her closest friends but Starbucks was an incidental victim in this case.
When Sid needs to head off, Lena purses her lips and gives a little nod.  It's not entirely committal to the offer, more an acknowledgement of it and of Sid's farewell.  And with Sid departing, Kalen looks like he wants to head off as well.  The look that the Hermetic draws is sharp, at least for half of an instant, before it dulls.  They've never been close, but it's still a bit of a rejection.  Even if she isn't quite comfortable about him (or more specifically, the Awakened) right now.
"Yeah, maybe..."  That word trails off as she catches sight of Grace.  Another one she hasn't seen since Luke's offices.  She stands there, looking at Grace, and doesn't really know what to say.  So she just nods at the woman and stands there somewhat awkwardly with an unsure expression.

Grace Evans
Grace looks up, and the faint echo of Sid and is fading away, lost in the crowd. Lena, though, stands on the sidewalk looking like she might (or might not) want to leave as well. It's hard to say. And there's Kalen, so that might be the reason? Or maybe it really is her. Maybe it's just everything.
So what happens when awkward meets awkward? Grace scratches the back of her head, stopping in her tracks too for a second. But that hesitation only lasts so long. She needs to know...
"Lena, hi," she says. It's as gentle as she can make her voice, but it still rings with sadness. She tries to smile, and it comes out wrong, but it is an attempt. "And Kalen, you too."

Kalen Holliday
"I'll just...let you two catch up.  Call if you need anything."  That offer might have also been extended to Lena.  As with most moments with Kalen, it's hard to tell.  "Good night."
And he starts off.

Lena Reilly
Kalen makes his exit then, leaving the two Hydra survivors behind.  Lena looks after him a moment, frowning.  It's hard to tell if that expression is one of actual disapproval or one of thoughtful consideration regarding his offer...if it had indeed been extended to her.  But it's no matter; he's gone and thus it's just the two of them so she turns back to Grace with a hand coming to rest on the elbow of her other arm.  The latop case slung over her shoulder is trapped underneat her arm as a result.
"You're looking better," she says after an uncomfortable moment.  Lena is looking better too, although if she looked the same as when they last saw each other it would be a dire situation.  In this case, "better" means that she isn't coughing up blood and curled up into a ball still half-expecting to die.  Lena doesn't look particularly great; she's lost weight, and the hollow look under her eyes says that even with her short sleep schedule that she requires she isn't getting enough of it.  She doesn't look directly at Grace's face either, eyes coming up just short.
"How are you doing, after...you know."

Grace Evans
Grace still has some of the after-effects of the virus, but of the four, she appears to be the most improved at first glance. She doesn't look as thin as Sid has gone, even after being cured, and she didn't have as many days of illness as Lena or Sera. She just looks a bit thinner, a bit more tired, a bit more pale.
"You're looking so much better too, I'm glad to see you," she says, and while there isn't a smile to accompany her words, they're sincere.
Lena asks how she's doing, and that is so complicated a question, and this street is so crowded a place. "I'm... better would be a lie. Kalen helps out a lot though, keeps bringing me food and getting me out and... it helps."
It occurs to her that Lena doesn't have a Dan, doesn't have a Kalen, or a roommate to make sure she's okay like the others do. So she looks away, out into the street, as if to watch for rogue cars.
"How are you?" she asks, which again, is the biggest, hardest to answer elephant in the room.

Lena Reilly
How are you?  It's a reasonable question to ask, especially after Lena just asked Grace the same.  Nevertheless, it draws a tightness in her face, which is followed by a shrug.  Lena doesn't have anyone to look after her, and no one even knows she's moved out of her apartment (because honestly, only three people knew where she lived).  There's a little envy in the way they all do, but also a different expression.  It's not a sense of self-reliance so much as it is the idea that she doesn't really want anyone looking after her.  Sick people have people to look after them.
"I'm working a lot, mostly."  She reaches up absently to scratch the nail of her little finger over an eyebrow.  "I lost a lot of time with everything that went down and I had to do some work to make good on those no-shows.  It's kept me really busy, so..."
She shrugs and lets her hands fall to her side.  "I don't know.  I've just been trying to get things back to normal, I guess."  Which isn't quite true; 'normal' involved things like staying at the chantry, which she hasn't been back to since she first got sick, and actually keeping in contact with people.  But perhaps this is the new normal.
"Good for Kalen, though.  I'm...glad to hear he's helping."

Grace Evans
Grace nods, "I know about that, working a lot. I mean, I missed all my midterms and had three weeks of homework to make up. Not to mention, work." her eyes scan buildings, other people. She doesn't really meet Lena's eyes either. "But, you know, that's a little helpful to me, to have something else to focus on."
She smiles a bit of a sad smile when Lena says her bit about Kalen. "He's a bit... I don't know. Detached? At times. But there's reason for that. Anyway. I think he's become attached to me, so he doesn't always pretend he doesn't give three shits when I'm around."
"Normal... I don't know. What's normal?" she huffs. "Want to walk with me?" she asks, and gestures in the direction opposite the Starbucks.

Lena Reilly
"Normal is..."  She pauses there, and then shakes her head.  It's something she either can't properly explain, or isn't willing to.  That implies talking about things that she was hesitant to talk about before all of this.  Now that she's been forced to disclose one of her touchiest subjects, she's holding onto the rest for now.
Grace suggests going for a walk, and Lena gets it.  Grace didn't like Starbucks before all this, and this probably isn't helping.  So she just shrugs, nods and lights a cigarette as she moves to walk with the hacker.

Grace Evans
They must look a sight, these two, walking down the sidewalk, both deliberately not touching the other, but it's painfully obvious to any observer that they belong together. Lena looks worse, of course, but the hydra's tracks show on them both.
"Normal is a silly concept. We change, that's all there is to it. Feeling the way we do, I suppose that's normal for what we went through."

Lena Reilly
A sight would probably be an accurate way to describe these two traumatized women.  One of them may be thinner and more physically pronounced in her damage than the other, but they've both suffered.  And the physical signs aren't just Lena's weight or the way both of them are lacking in sleep; it is the skittish nature of them, and the way Lena's shoulders hunch a bit as she takes a drag off her cigarette.  The way they look around at the crowd because You Never Know.
Lena's eyes snap to Grace when she says that she supposes this is normal.  For a second there, she straightens as she suspects for a second that Grace meant that this is normal for Awakened.  But the words register in her brain and she doesn't back down from that feeling.  In this moment, the woman is actually more energized...more the Lena that Grace might remember.  Actually, more than the Lena Grace remembers.
"This will change, Grace.  You'll heal.  You'll get back to normal."  And in that moment, she reaches out and touches Grace's shoulder lightly.  It's slight, but it's there.  "My Tradition...we have a saying.  It's part of our Code.  Even trees rent by lightning may grow new fruit.  You'll get there...I promise."
And then she realizes she's making contact, and she pulls away abruptly like she had just noticed.  "I promise, you will.  What we are...it's not all just this."  Even as she says it in the midst of looking away, putting her walls up frantically quick.

Grace Evans
Grace's shoulders tighten a bit at the touch, but it's involuntary when she doesn't see it coming. As usual, she just takes it in stride without really acknowledging her reaction. "So, you mean, I'll go back to being completely unaware of the danger? Or, I'll just forget all this happened entirely?"
She looks up at the sky between buildings, which is not the best way to walk down the street, but whatever. She knows where she is, and it's just a glance. "I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not going to go back all the way. There'll be fruit all right, but it'll taste different, and that's okay. It's got to be okay. And if anybody says it's not okay," she says, making a fist-punching-hand gesture. "Well, I'll yell at them but good.
"You know, Kalen says the same thing. He says there is a balance between all the bullshit we go through, and the good bits. I just have had pretty horrible luck so far to see nothing but the bad."

Lena Reilly
She sighs a little bit, the Ecstatic.  And she puts on a small half-smile.  It's the closest thing to a smile that Grace has seen from Lena since this whole thing began, but it's also the farthest from a smile because the deep sadness in her eyes.
"You won't be unaware.  And yes, the fruit will be different, but that different won't just be okay.  It'll be better."  She shakes her head, looks down the street as they walk.  "Trust me on that."