snow is (fair) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2014-01-03 16:29:00 |
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Sitting in the cab on the way to the coffee shop that Rachel had asked him to meet her at, Nicholas wondered if it was right that he was doing this. His thoughts strayed back to the wife (ex) that he had left behind in Nebraska, the one he had thought little on since everything had fallen to pieces. It was as though he wasn’t the same person he was when he had said ‘I do’ to her. At the time, he had meant it, he had meant it with all his heart. A wife, a daughter, a white picket fence, he had longed for that sort of normalcy once upon a time, but looking back, Nicholas couldn’t connect himself to those feelings. Yes, he missed his daughter, and yes, he missed the friendship that he had with his wife, but that was the end of it. It didn’t go any further than that, and it bothered him, that disconnect. But he worked hard to push those thoughts out of his head as he paid the driver and exited the cab in front of that coffee shop, glancing up at the sign and then through the front window for any sign of Rachel. He didn’t see her initially and found himself pleased that he had beat her there. It gave him time to find a table, something quiet in the back where they wouldn’t be bothered by the other customers, and such a table happened to exist when he ducked his head in. Bee-lining his way in that direction, Nicholas settled with his back to the wall, fingers laced together, and when the waitress stopped by (because the place was more cafe than coffee shop), he told her that it’d be a moment, he was waiting for someone. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was that had drawn him to Rachel. She was sweet, had a smile that he could see even when he closed his eyes, but Nicholas thought that it was the vibrancy in which she lived her life that he was drawn to most. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, and he could appreciate that with how reserved he had grown over the years. Yin to a yang, the balance was something he desired, and her company was definitely an added bonus. Rachel wasn’t far behind, though not as quiet as he was with her own entrance. The jaunt to the café was a short one yes, made slightly more annoying with the Las Vegas heat. It mattered little that she donned an aqua colored shirt dress; it was still hot on her way in. The offending and aforementioned heavy backpack scraped noisily on the sides of the doorframe, making shoot a sheepish expression to the nearby waitress as she quickly tiptoed to Nicholas. “Hey,” she said, a soft greeting breathed across his skin as she leaned down and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. Setting down her backpack on its own seat with an almost unladylike grunt, she took the last open seat at their table. “Been waiting long?” She shifted in her seat with a mischievous smile, tucking her loose strands over her ear and her long dark hair over her shoulders. “No cake yet?” Every time the door opened, Nicholas glanced up with some expectation in his warm brown eyes, but it wasn’t until her familiar face showed up that he actually gave anything close to a smile. The kiss to the cheek was taken with a murmur of thanks even as he rose briefly as she gave a seat first to her backpack and then to her own person. Reseating himself, he gave her a long look before letting out a soft laugh. “No, no cake yet. I was waiting for you, after all.” He liked that smile, mischievous as it was, and he glanced over her shoulder to catch the eye of the waitress he had spoke to earlier, gesturing her over when she had a moment. “You weren’t lying about the backpack,” he commented, giving a nod to the offending bag. “That many classes? Or are the books just enormous?” “Both?” She gave a little laugh as she moved her hefty bag once more, making sure it wouldn’t topple with a loud clang and ruin the otherwise picturesque and quiet café. “My load’s heavier on some days instead of others. You just caught me on a heavy day.” As the waitress came by, Rachel beamed up at her. Rattling off her order – cake, coffee, a separate glass of water, and she’d let him order his (or her) cake – she crossed her legs and let her dangling foot brush against Nicholas before turning her attention to him for his order. Once the waitress left she grinned and relaxed, falling back into her seat with a soft, relaxed, sigh. “No work today?” They hadn’t talked often about his work but she imagined he didn’t really come with a strict schedule. Ghost hunting wasn’t exactly a nine to five. Nicholas gave a grin at her response, watching as she adjusted the chair to make sure her bag didn’t run off on its own. “There are days when I wish I had gone to school. Then I look at what you’re carrying around and my shoulders and back are quite grateful that I didn’t.” He didn’t have a lot of regrets in his life, and he had been given opportunities that most would be envious of, so over all, he was happy enough with what he had when he didn’t think too hard about the things that had happened in the past. And being around Rachel, that smile of hers, it was a little easier to forget about the past. His order joined hers moments later, coffee, cheesecake, and then his attention was once again on her, hands folded together, comfortable with the shared atmosphere. “I have someone who watches the shop when I’m out,” Nicholas confessed. “Though it’s not a particularly busy profession. I thought coffee was a good excuse to get out of the building for a little bit.” “No college?” She didn’t sound the least bit unimpressed. Her curious expression melted into a soft grin. “No frat initiations or late night dorm antics? What did you do instead?” Not that she could imagine him having a field day in college, the typical bawdy teenager image so at odds with the man before her, but she wouldn’t mind hearing a little bit about heydays. She tut-tutted softly, hands folding together too though they rest just a tiny ways away from his. “And here I thought coffee was a good excuse to see me.” She gave a mock solemn shake of her head though her lips nearly gave away her smile. She did enjoy teasing him, regardless if she was off her mark or not. Usually when people heard that he hadn’t gone to school, there was surprise in their voice as they judged him to be somehow less of a person for not pursuing a higher education. But he had never seen the point of it. He had a career (of sorts), and getting married and having a baby right out of high school had seen that he stayed on the path he had already been walking. That thought, though, of his ex-wife and his child back in Nebraska, gave him reason to pause. At some point, if anything else happened with Rachel, she would need to know about that. “I worked, mostly. Things kept me rather busy, and I was happy enough with what I was doing that school was a non-issue.” He gave a shrug of his shoulder. “Though I guarantee you that the skepticism I faced was much worse than any frat initiation.” A crack of a smile, his eyes dipping down to the table at his folded hands. He let out a long breath, trying to find some of that ease again. After a moment, he moved his hands towards hers, bumping knuckles against hers, a point of contact that he didn’t shy away from. Looking back up at her, catching the half-smile that threatened to come out, he had to give a grin. “You didn’t let me finish. Coffee is a good excuse to get out. But you are my excuse for coffee.” “Nothing wrong with just jumping into work, you know,” she reminded him, though it didn’t sound like he harbored much grudge over not going to school. It was a moot point to Rachel anyways. She liked him as is, no real care for his past education or not. “Oh I bet,” she said, laughing softly at the thought of the kind of skepticism he got from his chosen career. “Have to admit, I never thought I’d run into a bonafide ghost hunter. Let alone start seeing one.” Dating, seeing, whatever. It was all the same to her. The grin unfolded easily as her eyes darted from his face to their bumping knuckles, and she gently turned her hands over before sliding her fingers between his. “Nice save.” She gave their interlocked hands a gentle squeeze. “But as nice as it is to have you rain compliments on me, let’s hear about you. Any, what, new cases you’re working on?” She knew he had been having trouble sleeping and she gently ran her thumb over the top of his hand. She hoped his work wasn’t interfering with his sleep. “Anything interesting at least?” Seeing one. The words brought a grin to his lips, looking down as she slid her fingers between his own, giving her hand a gentle squeeze moments after she did. “There is a first time for everything, after all. Though I have to admit a hope that I’ll be the last one that you see.” Nicholas looked up with a grin, comfortable and at ease in her presence. He didn’t feel like this enough these days, and he had to admit to wanting more of it. A relaxed atmosphere, no monsters under the table ready to gobble either of them up. “I’ll have to see about raining some more down later. Have to spare them out, you understand, lest they become less special.” Nicholas gave her a wink, pulling his hands back as their orders came, steaming coffee and chilled plates of cheesecake. He thanked the waitress and turned his attention back towards Rachel, giving a shrug of her shoulders. “Nothing too interesting lately. Been working on something old, though, that’s came back up.” The thought of the Crawford case and whatever had been there dampened his spirits slightly. There was no proof that anything happening now was related, but the darkness felt the same. “Oh I don’t know,” she slyly started, a soft pursing of her lips as she gave him a long look, “I’m pretty good at feeling special when people sing my praises. Are you sure you want to hold out on me?” With the food and coffee arriving they pulled their hands apart and she relaxed back in her seat as she looked fondly at her plate of cheesecake. “Came back up?” That seemed a little odd and she frowned inquisitively as she picked up a fork and cut a small piece of her cake. “How so? You’d think a ghost haunting would stay steady until it was…. What’s the word for it… vanquished or something.” She smiled around her fork, a little sheepishly, as she savored the bite. “Then when it’s gone, it’s gone.” “Then maybe I’ll just have to pepper a few more here and there,” Nicholas responded, that sly tone and the purse of her lips making him grin. His hands felt cold without hers there, but the cheesecake required attention then and there as he picked up his own fork to cut off a bite. It sat on his fork as he watched her, his lips twisting for a moment as he took the bite, silent as he chewed. It wasn’t until after he swallowed that he responded. “I don’t know how much you believe in those sort of things, but there are things out there that you can’t get rid of, I’ve found. Not many, and you don’t encounter them very often, but…” Nicholas trailed off, putting down his fork and taking a drink of coffee before continuing. “There are evil things out there, and sometimes you can get them to go away for a while, but sometimes they come right back as soon as your attention is elsewhere. And I’m worried that’s what I’ve encountered.” He drew in a breath, his gaze dropping to his plate as his expression grew somber. “I hope I’m wrong, but it doesn’t feel that way so far.” She cut another sliver of cheesecake as he regaled her with the story, and she nodded thoughtfully along. She… well, she didn’t quite believe in anything she couldn’t see or explain, so ghosts were a little farfetched. But she did believe in the possibility of there being things that couldn’t be explained, at least by her, and it helped her keep an open mind about Nicholas and his job. Still, she made sure to keep her face neutral or interested, and not as skeptical as she might have been quick to with anyone else. “Evil?” Must. Not. React. Badly. Her brow barely twitched. “What did you encounter?” Nicholas understood the skepticism that was displayed, and even though Rachel fought to keep her expression neutral, he could see it in her eyes. He got it, he did, and he had had this conversation with hundreds of people in the past. “I know it sounds silly,” he started, pushing his cheesecake to the side for the moment, lacing his fingers together instead as he leaned forward towards her. “And I don’t know what it is I might have encountered but…” He trailed off after a moment, considering how best to phrase his thoughts. “Did your parents ever tell you stories about the boogeyman? Creatures in the night that would come out and snatch naughty children? Things like that?” “Yeah,” Rachel nodded, cutting another bite of her cheesecake and humming softly in delight at its taste. “Those things actually exist? I thought they were just to make sure you don’t get up in the middle of the night and watch TV or open your birthday presents when no one was looking.” That was distracting, Nicholas thought, his eyes immediately going to Rachel’s lips as she hummed with enjoyment at the bite of cheesecake. He had to pause to get his thoughts back into order, a sip of coffee to clear his brain before he continued. “Fables and stories like that have some root in history. People didn’t just make them up to scare children, at least that’s what I believe. So yes, I think that there are evil things out there, things we can’t necessarily see, that are out to get us. And maybe not all of us can sense them or would be hurt by them, but I’ve seen things that I couldn’t explain with the tools that were given to me during my schooling. It was something more.” He glanced down then, his shoulders sinking down with the breath he released. It was difficult sometimes to explain these things to people, things that he and Noah believed in. Difficult to see the doubt and to hear it in their words. If she noticed his distraction, she didn’t make light of it, her lips barely quirking into a soft smile around the end of her fork. Instead she listened intently, figuring actual attention was more important than simply agreeing with whatever he said. His field was one that would garner a lot of skepticism. An honest effort to understand, she figured, was always welcome. As his shoulders slumped, so did hers in sympathy, and she set her fork down to reach over and clasp his hands again. Her thumbs reassuringly ran over the tops of his hands. “So this evil… thing.” She squeezed their hands. “That’s what’s come up again your old case? Something you thought left but lingers still?” That was a lot heavier than just a ghost. His fingers curled around hers, giving them a tight squeeze as he nodded his head in response to her question. “I believe so. I don’t have any proof, and that’s what so hard about it.” A soft sigh escaped him, his gaze lifting to her eyes then, meeting her gaze. “I’m sorry. This must seem so ridiculous to you, these things I’m talking about. There are days when I wake up and can barely believe it myself, to be honest with you.” Nicholas managed a small smile, though it didn’t have a lot behind hit. “It’d be easier if I was normal, I think. Some normal job that people didn’t look at you funny for.” She snorted with a derisive sound, wrinkling her nose before giving him a soft, teasing look. “To hell with normal,” she said with a smile. “And to hell with anyone else thinks. You like what you do and that’s more than most can say. The not sleeping still sucks.” She gave their hands another squeeze for that. “But that’ll pass, I’m sure of it.” Nicholas didn’t say anything for a long while, but he drew comfort from the squeeze of her hands, the words that she offered. No, most people wouldn’t agree with what he did, with the things that he believed in, but as she said, to hell with those who didn’t. He managed a half-grin, gaze dropping to the table for a moment before he pulled himself up and out of that minor funk. “It does suck,” he admitted after a moment. “But I deal. And next time insomnia hits, expect a phone call.” Another squeeze of their hands and he released them, picking up his fork again to dive back in to the cheesecake. |