Dicen had to bite his tongue to keep quiet at the gelid wind that bit at his skin through the fabric of the clothes he'd been offered. Between the gusts of air that blew his own hair and Blue's into scribbles and arcs across his vision, he could hardly see a thing. But, it didn't take too long for him to discern where she was taking him. He knew this building, this black windowed behemoth of a building. He couldn't remember<span style="font-style: italic">why</span>, but it brought him a sense of foreboding. It almost occurred to him to say something, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself until he could rationalize them. He didn't know this woman, and she didn't know him.<br/><br/>When he finally found himself being deposited of on the couch, Dicen eagerly accepted the blankets that were wrapped around him. He grasped the fabric and pulled it tighter around his body. The woman - Blue - knelt next to him, he shifted uncomfortably. She was analyzing him, scrutinizing him for any sudden movements. Dr. Ascolani's brother had done the same thing. In attempts to make himself less uncomfortable, he looked around what should've been familiar settings. And they were familiar still, just... dilapidated. "What happened to my brothers?" he asked after a moment. Events were starting to bleed together to paint a picture. A horrible, manic picture, to be sure, but one that he needed to see. "After the noise, what happened to the other Realians?" He looked at her fully now, patiently expecting an answer.<br/>______________________<br/><br/>It didn't take much time or effort to guide Lex to the barracks. He was getting used to the layout of the compound again; working on the base previously had helped significantly. And, just as it took no time to make it from the gym to the barracks, it took no time for a voice to call out to him before he'd even fully made it through the door.<br/><br/>"Lex," Jenessa called out again, closer this time. Marcus clapped him firmly on the shoulder and let him know that he was going to 'make himself useful.' It briefly annoyed him how eager Marcus was to leave him alone with his estranged wife, but he couldn't seem to get half an hour alone with Blue without the dumbass stumbling in on them. He didn't have much time to stew on it, though, as two hands much smaller than Marcus' latched onto his forearms. "I've been looking for you."<br/><br/>Lex barely managed a response before Jenessa pulled him back out into the cold. "Yeah, that's why I'm here," Lex pointed out, rubbing his arms to stave off the cold. "Look, whatever you've got to say, can we talk inside? It's fucking free-" He was cut off, quite abruptly, by another mouth crashing against his own to shut him up. He felt a rush of emotions all at once, and it was almost enough to make him lightheaded. Shock was the first one, the one that hit him most fully and notably, and it might have been the shock that caused him to melt into it at first.<br/><br/>And then the<span style="font-style: italic">other</span>emotions hit, one by one by one. Anger, jealousy, blatant and burning<span style="font-style: italic">hatred</span>. He grabbed her by the shoulders, much tighter than he meant to, and pushed her. His fingers twitched anxiously. He'd never hit a woman, and certainly never his wife, but if he could've seen to aim then he supposed that there was a first time for everything. Jenessa was oddly silent, but he could hear her breathing. She started to say something, but Lex cut her off. "Don't," he warned her, holding up a hand as if to physically halt her from talking.<br/><br/>"I just wanted to say that I-I'm sorry," she stammered, and Lex could tell from her voice how badly he'd scared her. And it scared<span style="font-style: italic">him</span>to know how good it had felt to scare her. "For what I said, in the barracks. I'm sorry, I just-"<br/><br/>Lex sighed deeply into his hands, trembling fingers trailing his lower lip just to have something to do that wasn't horribly violent. "No, I'm sorry," he apologized. He couldn't even feel the cold through the heat of his simmering anger. It horrified him to no end that he even thought of hitting Jenessa, but she didn't need to know what had been going through his mind. She just needed to know that he was sorry for it. "Actually, there<span style="font-style: italic">is</span>something that I needed to talk to you about. If you'll listen."