Vivienne slid easily into the booth. She felt somewhat run down. It was because she skipped breakfast, even with her magic balanced again she still has to eat a lot to keep her metabolism going unless she wants to steal energy from folks.

Her clothes, the typical carpenter jeans and baggy work shirt in dark blue are covered in drywall mud today. So is her backwards ballcap. She gives her order to the waitress. Five steak plates and a pitcher of orange juice. She turns her phone off. She needs to get throguht the meal without any service calls really. Her head hurts, food will alleviate that too.

Her orange juice is brought out right away. She eats some crackers while she waits staring with glassy eyes out the window.

He'd asked Jules if he could use her car and, of course, she'd said yes. She'd already told him that he could use it whenever he wanted or needed to. He wasn't going anywhere in particular. Just getting out and about to learn some about the city since he wasn't sure how long he was going to be here. Might as well see some sights while he's here. Pick up a few gifts for his wife and kids. You know. Stuff like that.

He's grown hungry now and spots the sign for the diner. His stomach growls as he pulls into the parking lot. He locks it up after getting out and heads towards the door. Into the building he walks. He carries himself well. His hair, in its surfer cut, is combed and clean. He's wearing a light khaki colored pair of shorts and an orange t-shirt. Across the back it says 'Surf Hard... Die Happy' with an image of a surfer surfing under it.

He headed over to an empty table and sat down. The waitress came over and he ordered a big hamburger, fries and a large pepsi. She leaves and brings back his pepsi. Then she walks away. He's sitting there glancing around at the people in the place when his hazel eyes fall upon the woman staring out the window. He just sits there. Staring.

Many of the patrons are, it happens when five dinners get set down in front of her quite a bit. So Vivienne thinks nothing of it.

I'm sure there is still enough of a resemblance there for him to guess it's very likely her. She does look a lot more servere though, she hadn't been a hardened killer when he'd last seen her, just a potently magical girl who wasn't afraid of anything. She's been through a lot of things and seen a whole lot of shit.

She hasn't lost that ethereal quality though, she's always seemed as if she were half from another world. Of coarse technically she is.

Viv sets to the task of cutting up her first steak. Most of the patrons have stopped looking. She has yet to notice that one is still staring.

Yes. He's still staring. Quite openly even. And then it dawns on him. No way. It can't be. The only way to really be sure though is to ask. Right? And so he does.

"Vivienne?" comes a male voice off to her left. He's only two tables away.

Glassy bllodshot eyes scan the room with a predatorial quality her head doesn't turn and she keeps right on cutting. She does feel with her magic. No wonder the voice was familiar. "Marco." she says. Not missing a beat once her gaze locks onto him, while he's filled out, she'd still know his face in a crowd.

She asks no questions, she never really has played into his hands in anything. She isn't about to give him any sort of reaction.

Yep. It's her. Only anyone from the family ever calls him Marco. His food hasn't yet arrived so he rises to his feet. Almost hesitantly, he heads over to the booth she's sitting in.

"You mind?" he asks motioning to the empty space across from her at her table. He won't sit down unless she's okay with it. He doesn't want to intrude.

She nods. She does want to know why he's here. Heaven forbid it had anythihng to do with Mac, she'll let him do the talking though.

She's not surprised he seems hesitant, she's always affected him that way.

Upon being given her unspoken permission, he sits. The waitress looks a bit confused as she comes out with his food. He motions for her to bring it to him over here. And she does so. He waits until the waitress leaves again before saying a word to his step-sister.

"Didn't think I'd end up running into you this soon after my arrival," he admitted.

"Of coarse, I'm aware you wouldn't be looking for me." she comments dumping ketchup on her frenchfries. There are any number of reason's he could be here in the city. She'll let him talk a little before she draws anyconclusions about what he is doing here. She doubts it's random. Her, Mac, Gatt, two of Mac's bastards and The Juliette girl, now Marco....not to mention the demon, it semed all the pieces were on the board.

"I wasn't," he says bluntly. "I mean... I didn't come all the way up here, leaving my wife and kids behind to look for you. I wasn't even aware that you were here until I was already here. I came to talk to my brother."

All the pieces on the board... It sounds like a game of chess.

To Viv and Mac it probably is. "He isn't in town at the moment. Went on a little trip with his girlfriend." Viv says looking up with a grin. This may wind up being a chess game too, there is only one person in the world she loves more than Gatt. Viv won't like interference if that is part of what Marco is up to.

She carefully withholds why they are out of town, Tina and her effects on Gatt's finances aren't anyone else's business.

"Out of town?" he questions almost sounding a bit suspicious and a whole lot disappointed. "Jules didn't say anything about Gattling going out of town. She mentioned that he's got a pregnant girlfriend but nothing about him going out of town. When's he going to be back? I don't want to have wasted this trip for nothing..."

"I'm not his keeper." Viv says softly. She leaves that to Thorn who seems capable of caring for Gatt in most instances. " I don't know." she said. She found it funny, so Juliette was his source of information. Noted and filed.

He frowned and pushed his untouched plate to the side a bit. His hunger suddenly gone. "Damn," he mutters. "I don't want to be gone from home for too long," he says. "I don't want to leave my wife and kids without me for longer than necessary. But I can't go back until I talk to Gattling."

Part of Vivienne finds this amusing, poor pitiful Marc away from his wife and kids and he might bave to endure the hardship of beign away from them for too long. The feeble bastard never had been good at planning things.

Yes she is a little jealous that he wants back into Gattling's life now.

No. He didn't entirely plan all this out. It was more like a spur of the moment thing when Jules had contacted him to let him know she'd found Gattling.

"I hope Jules doesn't mind having company for an unknown amount of time," he says absently.

"Is he doing alright? Besides having lost his leg in the army I mean."

Can you tell that he's feeling a bit on the awkward side?

Good it leaves Viv in the dominant possition.

"He's Gatt, you know how that goes. His girlfriend looks out for him and he's nuts about her. He was a mess before he found her. Looking for me when he came here." Chew on that Marco, he looked for me first. but she doesn't say that outloud. "He works in an art gallery, not too shabby if you ask me. I had them over for dinner not long ago."

Does that dig at you Marc?

It doesn't surprise him that his brother had looked for Vivienne first. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt though. Cause it does. He's not going to let on to it though. Or at least try not to anyway.

"I'm glad..." he says quietly, very quietly. Glad that his brother was doing well anyway. Not glad that he'd sought out their step-sister first.

"And you?" He decided it would be 'polite' to ask her how she was doing rather than just ask about his brother. But can you tell that his question was a bit on the forced side? And quite hesitant too I might add.

"Oh I'm fine really. I'm like a cat, always land on my feet." she said smuggly. Actiually things had been going badly for her till quite recently, but Viv would never show weakness. Marc is not one of those people who'll get under her thick shell. Even Gattling has more backbone.

"Good, good," he says quietly.

He fidgetted slightly then. He wasn't sure what to say.

"I've got two kids," he says trying to make some sort of conversation. "My daughter is seven. My son is four."

And what can Viv say to that? I'm seeing a half demon, he's really sweet? My friends are a vampire and sorta hit man? No so she just nods. "Pictures?" Of coarse he has pictures he's already heartbroken at being awaqy from them. More jealousy, Viv can do a lot of things, but having children is not one of them.

"Yeah," he says and shifts so he can pull out his wallet.

"That's my wife, Abegail," he says handing her a picture of his little Mexican bride. She's wearing a spaghetti strap dress with Mexican designs on it.

"That's my daughter, Isabela, when she was born," he says handing her a baby picture of his girl. She's dark like her mother. "This is her now," he says handing her a school picture.

"This is my son, Tomás, when he was born. And this is him now." He hands her a baby picture and a recent picture of him sitting on a pony.

"This one was taken while Jules was staying with us for a couple of months." It's got him, his wife, the kids and Jules all standing in front of his traveling trailer home.

She looks at the pictures and nods appreciatively at them. She leans forward a bit while she does. Then back to her food. With a trickle of magic she switches her phone back on. She's not having a quiet meal anyway, no point in leaving it turned off.

Poor Vivienne. Having her lunch interupted by the missing step-brother.

He's got a proud smile on his face while he'd been showing her the pictures. After he's done, he puts them back in his wallet.

"What about you?" he asks. "You got any kids?" He doesn't know that she can't have any...

"Why would someone like me want children?" she asks in sarcastic tone. Don't let the pain show, never show weakness. It would be wrong for her to have them if she could though, little targets to be used against her. It would kill her and whoever hurt them if said children existed.

He shrugged slightly. "Was just curious," he said quietly. He glanced briefly at his untouched plate.

"Didn't mean to disturb your lunch," he said finally.

Funny how Viv's plates are all empty his is untouched and he talks of disturbing her. "I'm the one who ate all mine." she points out.

"So I see," he says a little more quietly. "Still... I just show up out of the blue totally unannounced and pop over to invade your time..."

"Be assured, you couldn't invade anything of mine dear brother." she warned softly.

He wasn't so dense that he didn't catch onto the warning behind her words and frowned slightly.

"I've not come to try to disrupt everyone's little world," he says finally. "I've come to clear up some things with my brother."

"And my worls is far from little as you well know." She says he's being very insulting, she's sure it's not planned he can't think that far in advance.

"You know what I mean," he says. "I'm not going to try to weasel my way back into anyone's lives. I just need to clear some things up with my brother before I return to my life with my wife and children."

You're right. It's not planned. He's not thinking very far in advance. Right now his mind is mostly on one thing. Talking to Gattling.

"You know you're a real prick, you walk out of his life and wait all this time to find him. What a piece of work. He'd be better off without both of us." she says. If not for Gatt needing her magic Viv would have nothing to do with him, she has the reverse Midas touch at times, turns gold to shit.

His frown deepened and he slumped back against the back of the booth bench. "You know why I left Vivienne," he says sounding almost defeated really. "You know I couldn't stay there."

"Bullshit, you were finally safe from him. You meant nothing to him. And you could have helped us. More fucking cop out bullshit to justify your fear to yourself. You haven't changed I see." she said angrily qand louder than she meant. The other patrons were staring.

"Helped you? How could I have helped you? I was, as you say, useless. I didn't know what to do..."

"And I don't think you ever really wanted to." she blurted rising. She pulled a wad of cash from her pocket and tossed it onto the table. She made her way out the door.

(By all means feel free to follow her this is quite fun)

He got up and followed her.

"Ever really wanted to what? Don't say something like that and walk away Vivienne," he says still following her.

She's shaking that's right, with rage. I'm not sure she's been this mad since she was thirteen years old. Tears are struggling to escape the corners of her eyes. Her eyes themselves have gone a cold and icey grey tone at the moment.

"Wanted to help us, you just wanted it all to go away, you never could deal with it and you were too chicken shit to toughen up and even try. You never did one fucking thing to make my burdens any easier at least Gattie loved me you piece of shit." She isn't yelling but her voice is quavering with rage.

"You're right..." he says. "I did want it all to go away! I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand him! He was your father!" He is not yelling. That defeated sound still very much in his voice.

"You wouldn't give my magic back..." Almost a whisper because there were people outside and it was not their business what he was saying.