103 24.1 Discharged

Stanley made good on his promise to pick Natalie up the next day. Thankfully, nothing untoward happened during her overnight stay, and while the doctor was reluctant to clear her there really wasn't much he could do for her. So she ended up leaving with the couple, and upon stepping outside, Natalie stretched her arms, basking in the morning sun and taking in that not-so-fresh city air.

"Freedom!"

"You've only been in there for a couple of hours."

"I don't want to hear lip from you of all people!" she snapped "as if you could survive overnight without a laptop, phone, or WiFi."

"…point."

"We're getting sidetracked from the issue at hand here," the woman said with all seriousness. "I want to know what the hell happened in the year, or so I haven't seen you."

"Would you believe me if I told you I stumbled on a new lease on life and have made it so that I am now a regular contributing member of society?"

Natalie stared at him flatly for a moment before answering that question with an equally flat "no."

With a neutral expression himself, Stanley shrugged, "Hey, it's been a year and clearly I've changed, so who's to say that's not what happened?"

"Oh, I have no doubts that you've gone through changes, Stan." Natalie nodded. "I'm not an online conspiracy theorist too stupid not to see what's right in front of me, and while I can see the optimistic story of a guy overcoming his own deficiencies to make something of himself, I've known you literally your entire life. The only way I can see you changing to this degree is if you had a near-death experience or something happened to you that was so profoundly shocking that it made your stubborn ass change."

And to that, Stanley gestured to his left, "I met her."

And as one, both siblings turned to Ezraphel, who stood off to the side, a little ways away, more than content to watch their interaction as if it were rare footage from a nature documentary. So wrapped up in the view she was that once they turned their attention to her, she was momentarily shocked.

"Um…"

For her part, Natalie gave her a slow once-over before nodding, "That'll do it."

"Yep"

"And that's another thing we need to talk about."

"Well, can we talk about it later?" he groused, "preferably when we're not out in public."

Natalie glanced around, and while there weren't many people around at that time, the few that were gave them glances, well they gave Ezraphel glances, though she seemed ambivalent to the attention.

"Fine," she acquiesced.

And with that, the trio ventured to the car, and upon arriving, Stanley posed the question, "Are you still living in that apartment?"

"No, I moved," answered Natalie as she went for the front passenger's side.

"What?" he paused. "When did you move?"

Ezraphel carefully yet silently entered the vehicle through the backseat behind the driver's seat.

Natalie paused from opening the door, making a so-so gesture: "Eh, a little bit after I quit my job."

"You quit your job!?" Stanley exclaimed, "why?" He wasn't able to catch himself from finishing that syllable, and an awkward silence ensued.

In the backseat, Ezraphel cringed, 'Oh Stanley...'

Natalie gave her brother a mirthless smile. "It doesn't seem worth it to keep an expensive apartment and work 9-5 when I've only got a few months left to live at best."

Then she opened the door to the backseat and slid inside, leaving Stanley to stew in his mistake. Pinching the bridge of his nose, the short man took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before silently entering the vehicle.

'It's shit like this why I don't deal with people.'

The sentence is hyperbole at this point since he has actually gotten better with social interactions. Through a combination of his innate Incubus instincts and a form of exposure therapy via his various outings with Ezraphel, Stanley found that he could navigate his way through the social stratum if he cared to. More often than not, he deliberately kept interactions short, and he wasn't particularly mindful of how it came off to others.

Not with Natalie, though; not with family.

God, it felt like he was transported a decade into the past when dealing with her. The whole endeavor left him feeling tired, and it was with this countenance that he posed a question.

"Where am I going?"

…

As Stanley drove away from the hospital to his sister's apartment, said individual turned her attention back to the disguised Lilim, causing Ezraphel to stiffen. Logically, she knew it was ridiculous to be nervous considering how well they hit it off the night prior, but this time was different, or rather, Natalie was different. Last night's conversation with Stanley left her in emotional turmoil, plus Ezraphel's appearance and the nature of her relationship with her brother made the woman too shocked, disoriented, and preoccupied to do much of any critical thinking.

Natalie had the entire night after they left and the morning before they arrived to get her thoughts together. Now she regarded Ezraphel with all the scrutiny of a protective older sibling.

How did she know this?

"So, how did you and Stan meet?"

Because that.

She spoke casually; however, that casualness was betrayed by her keen eyes. Before Ezraphel could answer the question, however, Stanley beat her to it.

"I found her lying in my backyard one morning," he informed while keeping his eyes on the road. "I thought some asshole was trying to frame me for murder, but she was just unconscious, so I dragged her in the house on some dirty sheets and waited for her to wake up before I called the cops. She ended up sticking around longer than I expected."

Upon his explanation, both women looked at the man in various stages of shock. For Ezraphel, there was an added layer of concern as his explanation was very different and noticeably more truthful than the one offered to his friends.

As for Natalie, "there is so much wrong with that sentence," she grumbled.

In response, Stanley scoffed, "if you're getting uncomfortable by this, then strap in for a wild ride."

Natalie blinked, then looked from her brother to his girlfriend and back again a few more times. "You know what? You might be right, and now I'm even more curious." Her gaze settled back on Ezraphel. "Is that really how you met my brother?"

"I…" She glanced at Stanley for a bit before nodding reluctantly, "more or less?"

"More-more or more-less?"

"…yes."

"Hmm, now I have even more questions," she began, "but for reasons I'm afraid of the answers."

"Probably for the best," he grumbled, though both women heard him.

"I see what the problem is here now," she nodded to herself. "Stan, I'm going to need you to shut up and keep your eyes on the road from here on out."

"I'll do whatever the hell I want."

There was a beat of silence for a moment before Natalie turned to Ezraphel and asked, "Would you be interested in learning about some of Stanley's embarrassing secrets?"

Stanley stiffened behind the wheel.

Ezraphel did not miss a beat. "Yes!"

"Enthusiastic, are we?"

"Nat," he said with a warning tone.

"Stanley hardly shares his past with me" Ezraphel admitted.

"Really?" She gave her brother a look of disappointment. "Shame on you."

"Don't-" he began.

"I wonder where I should start."

"I am warning you."

"Maybe I should start with the Laura incident."

"I will crash this bitch, Nat!"

"Death doesn't frighten me; I have terminal cancer."

"Bitch," he muttered under his breath.

Natalie's eyes narrowed. "What was that?"

"I said BITCH!"

"Aw I love you too lil' bro," her gaze went back to Ezraphel. "Now, where were we?"

Ezraphel could hardly believe what she had just witnessed. It wasn't so much the byplay that surprised her, as it was the emotions behind the interaction. The Lilim had the feeling that even if Natalie wasn't currently ill, the outcome would have been the same. That is the outcome of Stanley actually backing down from an argument rather than engaging it as he usually did when riled up, and make no mistake, Stanley was most definitely riled up.

In the absence of her words, Natalie continued, "I have to say Ezraphel-geez, isn't that a name?" She muttered, "You mind if I just call you Ezra-no Ez instead?"

Ezraphel blinked "Ez is fine."

"Great," she smiled. "So from the top, I want to know exactly how this relationship started because the last time I saw him, Stanley wasn't exactly in the mental or physical mindset of wanting a relationship, and even if he did..." She trailed off for a bit, glancing at her brother and saying, "No offense, but you're a bit, uh, out of his league if you catch my meaning."

"Stanley mentioned something similar to that effect before."

"Well, he's nothing if not self-aware." Natalie giggled, and Ezraphel joined her.

And on that lighthearted note, Ezraphel swallowed her trepidation. Last night, she and Stanley discussed the matter of how they would explain the origins of their relationship to Natalie. And unlike the rather rushed and ham-fisted explanation they gave to his friends that teetered precariously on the edge of believability, they spent a significant amount of time crafting a backstory, and unlike before, this one was a lot more credible. Naturally, this was an uphill battle already, considering that even in the absence of the fantastical elements, the truth as it was was just far-fetched.

It started with their first meeting.

"So he found you passed out in his backyard? What were you doing?"

"I was experimenting against my better judgment, and well, I can't actually remember what happened after I took the plunge. All I know is that I woke up in your brother's living room, lost and disoriented, with a startled man next to me."

"I hope you didn't jump to any conclusions about that." Natalie then paused, "although since I didn't get a call from the local precinct about paying bail, things sorted themselves out."

"In a manner of speaking," Ezraphel spoke with a tilt of her head. "Stanley was not very receptive to my presence."

"Let me guess he told you to fuck off?"

"No"

"Oh well, that's surprising."

"He called me creepy, said I was fat, then told me to, and I quote, get the fuck out of my house."

"…"

Stanley could feel two pairs of eyes on his back as he studiously kept his eyes on the road. Internally, however, he was fuming and swore to the heavens that he would make Ezraphel pay. Sure, she was telling the truth, but goddammit, Natalie didn't need to know that shit!

After that too long beat of silence, Natalie broke it with a dry remark: "I can't imagine that it was his charisma that made you fall for him."

"Well, it just so happens that I apparently have strange tastes in men."

That caught Natalie off guard a bit, but as she really thought about it, "Okay, that goes a long way to explaining your current predicament, but strange tastes in men or not, I don't see how any of what you told me endeared him to you."

"Well, for all his confidence in attempting to curse me out, he certainly lost much of his bravado after I stood up," she says this while being almost two whole feet taller than the man.

The image of a yapping Stanley suddenly being cowed into silence by a standing Ezraphel drew giggles out of Natalie.

"Oh my God!" She laughed, "What happened next?"

This time the smirk melted: "He threatened to shoot me with his airsoft guns."

Unlike the Lilim, Natalie didn't lose the smile, though it did turn wry "a real modern David vs. Goliath moment there. He didn't actually go through with that threat, did he?"

"…"

Now the smile was completely gone. "Did he?"

Ezraphel pursed her lips but said nothing, and she could almost hear Stanley's thoughts.

"What the fuck are you doing!" he seemed to say in his silence.

"Excuse my language but what the fuck bro!?"

As Natalie went on a heated rant as a mother would a child (though with more than a few expletives), Ezraphel started to regret letting slip that little nugget of information. In truth, she just wanted Stanley to face some kind of reprimand for that. Yes, she still held a bit of a grudge for what he did back then, but she didn't expect it to spiral like this.

"In his defense," Ezraphel tried to defend, only to be interrupted.

"Don't you dare try to defend him!" Natalie snapped, "Who the hell shoots BBs at someone especially when they were unconscious and clearly in need of medical attention? Unless you were threatening him with bodily harm, he doesn't have an excuse."

Ezraphel kept her expression neutral at that, though unlike before, she did not let the silence permeate long enough for Natalie to think something amiss. Using the discomfort of the previous topic, Ezraphel forcefully moved on. It turned out to not be an easy thing initially. Natalie was already interested and critical of their relationship before Ezraphel's screw-up but she became especially interested once it was understood that Ezraphel encountered Stanley before his current changes.

If there was a silver lining, it was that Natalie was more interested in their relationship as opposed to her origins. It certainly helped that Ezraphel herself was being zealously sincere about her love for Stanley. On more than one occasion, Stanley has mentioned that Ezraphel was the only person who can pull off making enthusiasm a spectacle without it seeming disingenuous or over-the-top 'cringe.'

She didn't quite understand his meaning especially with the latter, but she has taken note that whenever she gets passionate or enthusiastic about something, such as various forms of media, Stanley seems to become more enraptured with her reactions than the entertainment itself. Natalie was much the same as when the Lilim managed to get into speaking about her relationship with Stanley she stopped asking questions for the most part, letting the Lilim ramble and gush about her love for her brother.

It might have been curiosity about the timeline of events, it might be the incredulity that she managed to succeed where so many had failed in steering Stanley in the right direction, or it could have been Ezraphel's aforementioned passion and charisma, but in any case the Lilim had Natalie fully enthralled. Natalie's outrage at her brother and suspicion towards Ezraphel were replaced with utter bewilderment and curiosity.

Naturally, Ezraphel omitted elements, but even with the censorship, there was plenty there to leave Natalie in suspension of disbelief because, in Stanley's words, their relationship was straight out of fiction. Eventually, however, all things come to an end, and for them, it came in the form of Stanley's announcement.

"We're here."