4126 East Denver Ave
Tessa's Parents House, Bay City
Early Summer
Sundown

The scene that greeted Tessa as she arrived at her childhood home was several times more chaotic than she might have anticipated. As soon as she turned onto the street she could see the clashing flashing of several different kinds of emergency response vehicles. In front of the building she could see one ambulance and two police cars.

Racing up the three flights of stairs she is stopped in the hallway by a police officer. Young kid. Blandly good-looking in that played-football-in-High-but-not-as-good-as-he-would-have-you-believe sort of way.

"Hold up, ma'am," he said, hand out, arm straight, other hand on the butt of his pistol. "You're going to have to wait. We have a situation here."

Up the hall, her parents' door was open and another cop was in the doorway. And inside Tessa could hear her father yelling. "No! I'm fine! No paramedic! No hospital! Didn't you hear me?"

Her phone starts ringing again. It's her mother.
This message was last updated by the GM at 15:38, Mon 21 June 2021.

Tessa came onto the scene with her phone in her hand, having just stepped out of of her car when the cop, hand on his pistol, warned her away. She readily moved back steadily and got into the car.

She was unsure about this. She put her keys back into the ignition and turned it. By now, the phone had been ringing for a few moments. Then, she moved the phone to her ear, trying to focus as sharply as she could and keep eyes on everything, and not least on this young cop. She felt especially suspicious of him. She was in neutral, with her foot on the brakes but ready to switch to the gas to move out.

Tessa answered, waiting to hear the voice of her mother. The second anyone moved in a way she didn't like, she would peel out, ditching the phone down the street. But she wanted to try to help...at a distance.

"Tessa!" her mother cries out, in tears and sounding near hysterical, "When are you coming? I called the ambulance and your father went crazy and they called the police and oh my god it's all such a mess now I just don't know what to do! When are you coming?"

She breaks down in tears. Behind her, Tessa can hear her father arguing loudly with at least two people.

OOC: Thanks for bearing with me, I was having tech issues all last week. Glad to be back to posting.

Her eyes never stopped scanning, although her head hurt badly and it was difficult trying to watch everything. "Calm down, mom! Let me talk to dad, alright? The cops won't let me in, but I'll try to get him to cool off."

At some point, Tessa receives a new message from Lilith:

"Hey dear! Had an emergency and I'm no longer at my place. Let me know when you're done with your personal stuff. Kisses!"

The phone goes silent for a moment. She can hear muffled (but not that muffled) arguing. Then more silence. Then her father's voice, so dripping with false congeniality that he might as well have not mothered.

"Tessa, honey, I'm sorry you got dragged into this. You know how your mother is. But I'm fine. I'm fine. I came over faint but I'm fine. Just tell her... tell them... than I'm fine."

Tessa listened for just a moment, repeatedly saying "Ah," until he finally gave her the chance to speak.

"Dad, I know what mom told me, which sounds like a heart attack or something. You're fine? Good. Then you should have no trouble going in and proving you're just fine." Tessa sighed, both because she was trying to get her father to calm down, and because she had a serious flash of pain just then.

"You know how mom gets, she'll just be worried forever unless you get checked on. Now look, I'm very nervous with all these officers around. Get checked on, and I'll bring you some desserts this weekend. Deal?"