[center][b]Ranch House[/b][/center]

That was a lot of words for Hel.

What exactly no and yes were responding to Spire could only make an educated guess. He had gotten pretty adept at interpreting the quiet child's monosyllabic responses in terms of context. In order, it seemed to imply she meant "no Soren didn't give me breakfast" and "yes I came out here to snack on rats with the biological freak."

But that probably wasn't right.

Spire absentmindely set his hand on top of Hel's head, carefully working out a snarl in the red hair with gentle fingers. [Color=lightgray]"Thanks, kid. Do you want to go back and finish? Anything else you need?" [/color]

Or maybe, Spire mused, "No," was in response to his flippant "you know what they say about speaking of the devil." But he wouldn't bother to explain that. Spire wasn't the devil. Green was the devil. Erubesco was the devil. And Hel was hesitant enough to talk about that without getting the notion that speaking of it might make it appear. He had learned almost as little from from Hel about what happened to her in the labs as he had cut out of Larke and Oren.

Larke and Oren, who if Rei was correct, were apparently getting fed. This struck Spire as slightly odd since he knew Montana's primary tactics involved deprivation and isolation, and he was pretty sure Oren could go a few more days without without dying on them. Unless...Montana had given up. Which...

Damn it. If the old man killed her after Spire had waited this long, Spire was going to rip his spine out. And then... demand an apology since the old bastard would be back on his feet a few minutes later.

Spire eyed Rei. [Color=lightgray]"Safe to assume nobody asked him why. I think he might be procuring a snack for you next, Rei. Come on, kid." [/color]

He steered Helena around to leave the barn with some haste. Had to drop her off where she wanted to go before he headed downstairs. He wouldn't be intentionally giving her access to gritty gory scenes like that until she was at least, like... ten or eleven.

He really was trying to be a responsible guardian.