Lena's jaw clenched. No matter how much she puffed on the pipe, the tension didn't decrease.
Why did everyone have to be such stubborn fools? Common sense seemed to be in short supply around her recently and that only served to make her mood that much worse. Far worse than it was on most days.
The princess took a deep drag from the pipe. She didn't even care that the wind blew the smoke back into her face when she exhaled. In fact, she actually found the smell of tobacco to be somewhat comforting.
Damn it.... Couldn't anyone wake up already?
The doctor never wanted to give a straight answer for when it might happen. He just kept an eye on their progress and confirmed they were still alive. Humph, as if Lena didn't know that by the noise the life supports machines kept making. She didn't some useless doctor coming in and telling her such meaningless information.
On top of dealing with this, she had to struggle with the men he worked for her family.
Lena's eyes scanned the crowd of people walking past. Not many came to stop by the hospital today. They only seemed to use it as part of their route to get wherever they were heading. She took another puff from the pipe, her finger tapping the side impatiently.
Not only did none of her family seem on the verge of waking up, but more were also about to join them at the rate events were moving. Without Romeo, matters were only going to get harder moving forward. Two of the best men her family had currently were out of commission. The third didn't have anything yet that would be able to help them out. What was she supposed to do now?
"We go years without seeing each other and now it seems as though I can't keep away even if I wanted to." Lena's gaze didn't shift away from the crowd even as the new comer came to stand next to her. They kept a short distance between them, seemingly aware of the Princess's less-than-stellar current mood.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of the call this time? It doesn't seem that anything eventful has taken place in the last few hours since I was last here. Your father seems to be stubborn even when it comes to waking up in a decent time frame." Lena didn't respond to this comment, only moving when the other pulled a box of cigarettes out. Her hand came up to snatch them away from the other before he could light them up.
"Cigarettes are nasty. If you're going to smoke around here, I would prefer if you would choose to use a pipe, Richard." Richard only resisted slightly when the smaller hand manged to pull the carton of his much larger one. His eyes trailed after hand as she put the carton in her coat pocket furthest away from him.
"Come now, we both know that there really isn't that much difference between cigarettes and pipes. CIgarettes are just convenient to use than going to the hassle of putting a pipe together." Richard stashed his lighter pack in his pocket before the other decided to steal that as well. Good lighters were harder to replace than a cheap packet of cigarettes. He could just pick up another box on his way home.
"The smell of cigarettes are horrible. I would prefer not to be around them right now." The princess retorted. Despite her complaints against the white cancer sticks, she didn't offer the other her pipe. It was too precious to part ways with at the current moment in time.
"What I need you for is information. I know that information tends to reach your ears before it does many others. I assume you already know what has been going on." Richard made a non-commital noise as he turned his back to the other to sit on the only bench in front of the hospital.
"I have heard about a lot of things going on. If there's something specific you're expecting me to know, you're going to have to give me a hint or something else." Lena cast a glance in his direction that told him not to push his luck. She knew what he meant without him being straight about it. Richard found the power dynamic between the two of them to be rather interesting. Almost as if the Princess didn't care that he technically held a position above hers simply based upon his experience and years in their side of the world.
"It can never hurt to try and bargain even if the obvious answer is going to come back as a no. Still, I do need you to give me something to work with to know what you're talking about. I've been hearing about a lot of things going on recently. What's hearsay and what's real is a bit hard to weed out." A lot of things going on? What else did he know about that hadn't crossed Lena's ears yet?
"I think that right now it would be beneficial if you could tell me everything that you've been hearing. Anything that is related to my family. One of my men though tells me that there has been an unexpected set of events going on recently. There are a few specific names that I am looking for." Lena moved closer to the other as she spoke. She didn't want to risk anyone overhearing this conversation.
She dared anyone to approach her in her current mood. She would shoot to kill the moment that she recognized anyone to be an enemy. Lena knew that the director would clean up any problems without a fuss due to the current precarious relationship with the Red Scorpion Family. One wrong move would put him in a worse position than fearing a loss of funds and protection.
"If you're looking for names, I can think of a few off the top of my head you might find interesting. One for certain I believe I've been hearing has managed to shift towards the top of the hit list."
Those words were exactly what Lena wanted to hear.
"Tell me everything you know."
