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[For those that know Seth, he's looking much better than he has for months. Pulled together, all sharp creases and straight lines. There's no dark circles under his eyes and he doesn't seem to have a glass in front of him. At least for now.

He also looks bitterly amused.]

A guy goes out into the woods for one freaking week to try and get his head on straight and you all go nuts. Nice to see that much as some things change, everything else just remains the same.

With a week or so of sobering up and learning my paranoia apparently has jackshit to do with my diet of scotch and whiskey, I had a thought that came to me and if I have to live with these thoughts, so do the rest of you.

How do we know that everyone that vanishes goes home? I mean, what if some of those that are positive about serial killers and criminals in our midst... [Hello, pot? This is the kettle.] ... what if they're right and someone's bumping people off and we just assume they're being sent home like so many others?

After that thought, not sure if sobriety will pay off but we'll see how long it lasts.

{Locked to Chloe}

How are you?

{Locked to Maggie}

Where are you? Are you okay?

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[Maggie, on the contrary, looks worse for wear, tired and a little dirty.]

I could have done without that bit of paranoia, you know. [Mostly because of Buffy. But she knows she isn't the only one who's had a loved one sent home, and it isn't a surprising thought. There's no actual annoyance in her voice.]

I've spent a week on a less voluntary camping trip, but I'm in one piece. I'll be back soon. Give me a chance to get cleaned up and check on a few people, then come over?

Did it get you? I'm hearing that it got into people's heads and sent them after others. It didn't get you, did it?

[Already he's showered, and working on getting his on body weapons back in place. That's what he got for leaving it behind. That's the lesson he's learned. Seth isn't good at lessons.]

It didn't. I'm fine, or will be once I've spent some time around people. I'm don't do well in isolation. Shepard said it can infect technology, so I wasn't even willing to risk messages. [She was lonely, and scared, and she hated it, but those are all easier to recover from than lasting trauma would be.]

Wouldn't have gotten you to me anyways. If you had tried. I left mine back here when I went out soul searching or whatever the hell I was doing.

Go and get cleaned up and rest and I'll see you in bit.

[He is glad for the opening, since he had nearly just headed over there.]

I left mine in a waterproof case behind a very distinctive rock. I wanted it accessible without coming back here, but I didn't want to risk having it close enough to infect me. [In other words, no, she hadn't tried to reach him or anyone else, and he couldn't have checked on her if he'd tried. It certainly isn't Seth's fault that she was on her own. Maggie thinks she heard a little guilt in there along with the concern.]

See you soon. I hope you'll stay awhile.

[By the time he gets there, she'll be showered and curled up on the couch reading a thriller, music playing so the place isn't quiet. It's mostly cheerful, low-key pop songs rather than anything intense. Maggie can relax through horror movies and books just fine; she actually finds those homey and soothing, but she's a little more susceptible to music.]

[Leave it to Maggie to worry about it being damaged. He wouldn't have thought about it, but he loves that she did. Even if it would have meant he couldn't get a hold of her.

Gathering up his device, he slid into his jacket and heads for the stairs. It's only a few moments later when he's tapping on her door, pushing it open a moment later.

Maybe it's too forward, but it's Seth all over.]

You're not shot again, are you?

[Because that's being a grown up, right?]

Judging by the smile on Maggie's face as she beckons Seth over, she has absolutely no objection to him opening the door without waiting for her to answer it. Just as well she didn't have to get up. She sets her book aside.

"The only guns I've seen were those ones," she tells him, gesturing at a pair of pistols on the table, "and I may be terrible at fieldwork, but I'm not quite so inept that I'd manage to shoot myself."

"Glad to hear it, or I think we would be head to the range here and having some practice." Yet even as he says that, he considers her for a long minute. "Unless you do need the practice, or some help with it. I've been firing for targets since I was about six, so I'm kind of adept at it."

Not that the reasons why were good, not with the abuse that came with it, but he is a damn good shot.

"How... how bad was it?"

"The problem isn't so much aim. I've always been very protected, and I don't tend to handle combat situations as calmly as I would need to." Seth already knows that Maggie spent most of her life behind a team of security guards. That she grew up as a kidnapping risk, not just the resident of a world full of the walking dead.

"Time at the firing range isn't going to make me stop feeling like I need to spike my tea with alcohol or worse any time I'm about to go somewhere dangerous."

She tucks one knee up against her chest and sets her chin on it. "I didn't stick around long enough to see the worst of this. The worst part for me was being cut off, not knowing whether any of my friends were alright or when it might be safe to come back."

Maggie summons up a little flicker of a smile. "I may have lived in the middle of the woods back home, but I had a great internet connection."

"Well, yeah. I imagine you're not comfortable with hand to hand combat that could end bloody," he says with a nod, understanding that. He imagines she would truly fight not to end up in that positiion.

"You can't risk you beca..." He manages to stop though, knowing that raging for her sake was not going to help either of them. But especially not Maggie.

He flinches when she mentions being cut off from others, looking away. "And before it even started, I just took off and left my device here. I'm sorry. I didn't think about you might need me or want to reach me... Which you might not have wanted to but still. I didn't leave you the option. "

He is a selfish man, and tends to do things for himself, and it is still hard for him to stop doing those things. Like taking off when it suits him.

Maggie folds her arms across her chest. "You knock that shit off right now. If you'd taken it with you, you'd probably have been infected and running around the woods trying to kill people, so I'm really fucking glad you didn't. I'm not going to sit here and listen to you wallow in guilt over taking a little time to yourself."

She purses her lips, still sounding completely unwilling to listen to any nonsense when she continues, "I trust you to protect me. But I also trust every member of my team. You're not the only person I'm willing to call in an emergency, and it is absolutely not your responsibility to be on call 24/7 just because I'm as good as helpless in a crisis. You're allowed a break."

Her voice softens. "I know that you and Richie had to lean on each other. You're probably used to being on call 24/7 any time you care about someone, because you were the only person there for him. That's not how things are with me. It never will be. Habits die hard, but I'm going to remind you until you get it through your skull." The last few words are said with quiet affection.

"Knock of what shit? Caring that I left you and others to deal with this yourself? If I agree will you accept it?" Because they both know he's going to think about it. "Not saying you're not right. Just saying," he admits, knowing this will go bad unless he's careful.

"I would never call you helpless," he points out, because her knowing that is important to him. "And it's kinda what I do, Maggie. Least when I actually give a shit about someone enough to actually care if they hurt or not." Which is a small list, but doesn't change that in Wonderland that list is growing.

"Except for the five years when I was in prison and that idiot apparently went native with the goddamn bears and hid out in the woods for months. Now it was to try and hide from the voices in his head, but I didn't know that while I was locked up."

Which is a lot more than he usually talks about his actual time in prison and not just the crimes they've committed. "And only got worse when shit got bad. So yeah, it's what I know, Maggie, and I don't want to get over that."

Because it's the only way he even has a clue to show he cares.

It's quite possibly the first time anyone has ever expressed the notion that Maggie isn't helpless, not even in an emergency. She's had to be brutally honest, at least with her team, about the fact that she is. In any combat situation, Maggie is dead weight. Pretending otherwise puts people she loves at risk.

But she isn't going to mention any of that right now.

A wry smile flickers briefly across her face as she tells him, "If you ever hurt me, I promise I won't stop you from apologizing. I just really wish you'd save it until you've actually done any harm."

More quietly, she adds, "I appreciate that you care, Seth, but I'm never going to be entirely alright with you turning that around on yourself like a weapon. If I get scared or hurt, it isn't your fault. I care enough about you that it's hard to watch you feel guilty, especially over something related to me."

She doesn't expect to talk him out of it, but she's going to say so anyway.

"Was Richie part of the reason you decided to go out there this week?"

Given some of the people in Seth's life, especially the women, he doesn't assume they're weak, fair, lesser, or any of that shit. He just assumes he has to be there to protect everyone he cares about because half the time they can't be trusted to do the same themselves.

"I don't apologize to many, Maggie. Accept it when you can," he says, trying to lighten the mood with a wry smile.

He opens his mouth, closes it and sighs. Again, some things were ground into him since birth. Or at least since he was old enough to understand words. Guilt was definitely one of them.

He shrugs after a moment. "Maybe. Yeah? I don't know. I just needed to stop drinking, and I needed to think on some things. Figured it was easier out there than in the mansion."

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