Bring it.

“Huh. Sunny. It’s…surprisingly tolerable.”

“I will take anything that makes living here a little more bearable now.”

“Yeah, I know…” Carson sighed, preparing to voice the inevitable. She dropped her hands from her hair, fingers fiddling in her lap. Their food wouldn’t last forever, and obviously a decision had to be made at some point. Apparently that point must be now. She was anxious and worried about what the future holds for them in times like this. “What’s going to happen when our supplies run low? I mean…should we consider getting the mark?” 

Seeing Carson look a little distressed, Tyler scooted a little closer to her on the bed to take one of her hands in his. He gave it a reassuring squeeze as he listened. “You’re not going to have to get the mark, Carson,” that much Tyler was sure of. The mark was bad news and he wasn’t subjecting the woman he loved to that. “When we have to get it--if we have to get it--I will.”

“Okay?”

“I know you just wanna do the right thing, but we have to find out the best way to do the right thing for as long as possible.”

“Ty?” Carson called out to him from their bedroom. They were getting ready to go out, and of course Tyler was ready and she, fashionably late. Her distracted mood was owed to the topic weighing heavily on her mind– the demon recruit system. Carson had been avoiding the topic, however the lower their supplies got and with the limited access to more, a decision had to be made. “Why don’t we stay in? I can fix us a meal here instead. Suppose we go to the restaurant and get denied?” It was only a matter of time before effects of the new system trickled down to eateries and the like.

It had been Tyler’s idea to go out. He was surprised that it took this long until she was asking about the chance of getting denied. It was something he had been mulling over for a while. There was a chance that they were going to get denied any point now coming up and they would have to make a decision. “If we get denied, then we can come back here and make something,” Tyler answered, moving to sit on the bed with her. “We might need the food here later.”

“Sometimes you can’t ration things.”

“You say that now, and it’ll go good until someone’s real sick and we’ve used everything.”

“We’ll run out either way.”

“But if we ration, it’ll make our medicine last longer and be able to help people longer.”

“So, we should try to put together something for people that need medications. But aren’t on the bad team. I got extra Tylenol and stuff if anyone needs it.”

“Yeah? And what happens when we run out?”

“I just… I’m confused on what I’m going to do. Do I raise her with Diederich?”

“That’s an option. It sounds like he’s going to support you.”

“I just… I’m confused on what I’m going to do. Do I raise her with Diederich?”

“You could. It could be good, Kelly. You don’t have to but you could.”

“Right.”

“I only wanted it to try to win back Jorge.”

“Jorge should have been trying to win you back, not the other way around.”

“I don’t want this kid. Diederich has been excited for her, but I just… I can’t imagine raising a child.”

“You’ve been through a lot. This is a lot on top of that.”