[h2]Esme Stirling[/h2] Esme tried not to stare at Dean as he answered her. She almost sighed heavily at his words as she listened. His words falling on her heavily. She knew he wanted to make sure she was safe. She could feel it. Back when they were together, he always wanted to keep her safe and out of harms way. But how would he keep things from becoming strained? It seemed like a lot for him to put on his shoulders to her. And he was also right. She wanted to stay and not go it alone anymore. It was becoming too hard to keep going on her own, especially when others didn’t quite understand her and dodged her like a plague. When he leaned in close, she almost pulled away from him, but listened anyway. He was right yet again. She did want to figure out where they should stand. “Alright.” she whispered back, feeling she couldn’t get out of it. He had done it to her once again, making it where she couldn’t say no to him even if she knew it would probably be the better idea. She also understood why he had whispered that part to her, he didn’t want the other two women to overhear and have Mika react. Her attention moved from Dean to Mika as she spoke up then back to Dean as he whispered. “That would be playing with fire.” she said in a soft whisper. Esme then looked back to Mika and Natalia and gave a nod to Dean’s question. “I need a drink as well.” She walked back up to her car and grabbed the journal off the hood of it, then looked back at Mika with a small smile. “Thank you for your offer.” Her tone was soft as she spoke, she then walked around to the passenger side of her car and opened the door, then opened the glove box and put the journal back in it. She closed it and the car door and locked the car doors. ______________ The ride to the bar was uncomfortably silent and gave her too much time to think over things. When they arrived, she quickly exited the car and looked around. The place was packed, but that didn’t really bother her since it would make talking harder. She just wanted to get a few drinks in her, play some pool, and maybe a few rounds of darts. She closed the car door and stepped away from the car ready to head inside and drown everything that had gone on the past couple of days.