Clayton Danvers [Bitten] (feralgreywolf) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-10-11 21:00:00 |
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Who: Scarlett Bernard and Clayton Danvers and later appearances by Jeremy and Kate Danvers
What: Clay deals with Kate's latest relationship news
Where: Verdant, then the pack house
When: Last night
Warnings: Scarlett has a radius that allows werewolves to get drunk...
Status: Closed, anyone who was at Verdant last night would have seen Clay get drunk off his butt. Anyone at the house when Scarlett took him home likely heard the roukus of his arrival at home.
Scarlett was finding that she liked working at Verdant. It was kind of a surprise since she was used to working her own schedule and not having to interact with as many people as she did working at a bar. Normally she wasn’t exactly a social person but there was something impersonal about how you interacted with most people at a bar that it didn’t bother her that much.
Tuesdays were pretty boring at the bar so she was wiping down the bartop and humming under her breath when she saw a familiar person come in. “Oh great.” She wondered if he was here for another test.
***
Clay slid into a seat at the bar. He’d heard Scarlett was working at Verdant, and wanted to see for himself if that was true. He really kind of wanted to get drunk. He’d never actually been drunk. He’d drank, and he’d felt a buzz, sure. But it took a hell of a lot for him to get that effect. And he’d been considerably younger then.
He flashed his killer smile at her. “Fancy meeting you here,” he said to her. He held up his hand, no longer wrapped or showing any signs of distress, though it still ached from time to time, it was nearly completely healed after his idiotic show of punching a tree when he’d first met her.
***
Well the smile was new. Scarlett liked it a lot better than the last attitude he’d had. “Oh good, you’re in one piece again.” She finished her sweep of the bar with the cloth and put it aside. It really wasn’t in need of being cleaned it was just something to keep her from being bored.
“And I work here so it’s not too coincidental to run into me here. What can I get for you?” She had walked in his direction when he sat and felt her radius intersect with him and leave him human as she did.
***
“Depends. You gonna stick around so I can get wasted?” he had experienced her radius quite effectively the day he’d busted his hand. He knew how it worked. He could get fall-down drunk if she stayed close to him, so that his werewolf immunity to booze didn’t kick in.
“If so, something hard. Something that will go right to my head. I want to get drunk.” He was aware that he was attempting to use and abuse her ability. But he felt he had good reason. And honestly, getting drunk because he could was better than some of the other outlets he could have chosen to deal with the things rolling around in his head after his conversation with Kate.
***
“Well, that is part of why I took the job I did. And the bar is small enough you should mostly stay in human territory as long as you want.” There was a reason she’d become a bartender and that was because if everyone was going to ask her to get them drunk damn it she was getting paid for it. Scarlett grabbed a bottle of alcohol that might take the varnish off the bar if he spilled it.
“I like tips. And I listen pretty well if you want to talk about it while you slaughter yourself.” The first glass was poured out and slid to him.
***
Clay watched her pour the drink. He might not have been drunk before, but he’d drank plenty He wasn’t worried about the sharpness of the taste.He could handle that. He wasn’t even worried about how it would affect him. He had been around drunks, he’d been a college professor after all.
“Not really in the mood to talk about it.” He sighed. He wasn’t sure what he’d say. It was all a mixed up jumbled mess in his head. And was it really so terrible? So Kate was in a threesome with not just Clay’s best friend and brother, but also Stiles. Stiles who had gone full evil and tried to kill her once. But it totally wasn’t him, or wasn’t his fault, or whatever.
“There’s not much to say, anyway.” He took a drink, wincing as he swallowed and it burned all the way down. “My daughter has a new boyfriend. Along with the old boyfriend. What else is there to say?”
***
“Well, I can say that’s a new one for me. Which isn’t something I get to say very often.” And it seemed odd actually that she didn’t know of someone like that. She knew several people that were servants to vampires with very carnal relationships but were also married and had normal lives but not threesomes. Maybe she just needed to get out more.
She was ready with her bottle whenever he was ready for a refill. “So is it the fact that he’s joining things and it’s weird to have the three of them or the person himself that’s hard to swallow?” She didn’t know any of the people or history involved so she was curious. But she’d back off any questions as soon as he stopped talking.
One of the nice things about werewolves getting to do the human thing was they really did tend to get drunk fast.
***
“Here’s the thing. Her old boyfriend is my brother.” For all intents and purposes. They weren’t blood brothers, but that didn’t matter. They were pack brothers, they were brothers in every sense of the word. He took a drink after that, because even though he didn’t put up any outward resistance to Nick and Kate any more, he still felt some residual objections. “And the new one? He’s at least her age, but he’s also tried to kill her.” Broke her leg and left her for dead in the woods. It amounted to the same thing. And he knew technically it wasn’t Stiles who did that, but it was, at the same time.
Another drink and a wince, and the glass was empty. He pushed it toward her. He was going to get drunk in record time because that was his sole intent. He wanted to get plastered. He wanted to get fall down drunk, to the point he didn’t even remember his own name. The fact he was confiding these things in a complete strange was proof that he was well on the way.
***
“If he tried to kill her why does she want him as a boyfriend?” And the better question would be why did the old boyfriend who was still a current boyfriend let him be around? There were a lot of reasons it could be happening from people were stupid to someone had powers that persuaded them to let them stick around. She wasn’t sure she liked any of those options.
His glass was refilled and pushed back toward him. With it being a slow night he was never going to be out of her radius so the drunk should be fast and easy.
The way he was unloading on her reminded her of the night she got drunk off her ass on her mom’s birthday and took Eli home to sleep with him. Bad decision making courtesy of drinking. “If you have keys you need to give them to me by the way.”
***
Right. She was new to Madison Valley. Didn’t know the weirdness and the quirks of the dome first hand. Clay sighed. It was a lot to try to explain, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to delve into it all. Was it really even his tale to tell? Probably not. But it wasn’t like Kate or Stiles was going to sit at the bar and get drunk with Scarlett, and Nick wasn’t very likely to do so either. Hell, Clay wasn’t likely to be there, but there he was.
He dug in his pocket and gave her his keys without comment. He wasn’t going to try to be macho and drive, he was too old for that kind of stupidity.
He sighed again. “He was possessed by an evil spirit when he hurt her. And the current boyfriend, Nick? He’s an idiot.” Clay could say that behind Nick’s back because he said it to Nick’s face just as easily. He loved Nick, like a brother, the kind of brother he’d lay down his life for, no questions asked. Calling him an idiot was hardly the worst he’d ever done, or would do.
“All I want, you know, all I want is for my little girl to be happy. Is that too much to ask? That she’s happy. That’s all that matters.” Yeah, the drink was getting to him, just that fast. He was a big guy, but he was without his werewolf strength at the moment. He was just a mere human. And apparently he wasn’t going to be able to hold his drink well.
***
Scarlett was pretty much asking herself how she got involved in these things and why couldn’t she just keep her mouth shut like a good bartender? Oh, right, because Scarlett had a problem with her mouth and behaving. Simple really.
“Okay. Gonna refill your glass before I ask you the next one big guy.” Scarlett let him go through the level in the glass and poured it back up to the top again. He wasn’t in any shape to come at her over the bar and besides that sometimes when you were drunk it was the best time to make something sink into a person’s head.
“Okay here we go. What if this is what makes her happy? Then it’s wish granted right?”
***
He took a drink. He actually kicked it back, the way actors did in a dramatic movie scene, as if to make a point. He sighed as he set the glass back down on the bar, his fingers curled around it. “You have kids?” his tone clearly asked a question, but he wasn’t waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t know I did until I came here. Kate’s got a brother, a twin. They don’t exist in my reality. I don’t know if they were will. But they’re here, and there’s no question that they’re mine. Kate is almost a carbon copy of me in more ways than either of us wants to admit. And even though she was sixteen the day I met her, she’s my little girl. She’s my baby. And all I want is to love her and protect her and keep her from all the things in this world that would ever hurt her.”
Apparently he went straight for the emotional rambling stage of being drunk.
***
“Can’t have kids. It’s a null thing.” Scarlett decided to go ahead and answer the question even though he’d moved on from it. Nulls not being able to have kids was what pulled her into the LA scene because her mentor Olivia had wanted a little clone of herself so she had to get one and she’d picked Scarlett.
And oohhh yeah he was getting bad. That booze was going straight to his rambly part of his brain. “You can’t protect them forever. But I get it. And we’re going to have to pour you in the car to get you home big guy.”
***
“Big guy. I like that. I’m a big guy. They used to call me The Enforcer, but there’s not much to enforce anymore. Not I’m just the big guy.” Yeah. He was already pretty far gone. One of the perks of never having been able to get drunk before, probably. He took another sip of the drink, nearly draining the glass. As he set it down, his head dropped to his arm, and he yawned.
If she wanted to get him home, she’d probably have to dig his wallet out of his back pocket and take his address off his license. He wasn’t really in any shape to be telling her where he lived. Within a few seconds, he was out cold.
***
The Enforcer. Scarlet sighed and took the wallet out of his pocket to get the address and got Sam to not only cover her but to help her get him into a car. Scarlet wasn’t a fainting flower but Clay was solid and she wasn’t up to carting him around in a fireman’s carry.
Once he was in the car she put the address in her phone and took him home. Of course she could have just left him somewhere to sleep it off since if she left it should fix fairly soon but he’d wanted to be drunk so she was letting him be drunk.
Of course she drove up to the pack house and managed to get him half awake enough to get him out of the car but then he was out again and left Scarlett standing over him on the ground wondering what she should do next.
***
Kate was on her way over to the big house to talk to Jeremy like she’d promised her father earlier when she heard his truck pulling into the driveway. Instead of ducking in the back door like usual, she detoured around the house with the intention of greeting Clay and going in the front with him.
When she realized he wasn’t alone, she stopped walking. The other scent wasn’t familiar at all and was really strange. She couldn’t imagine why her dad would be letting anyone other than Mercy drive his truck nor could she begin to identify the source of that weird scent.
“Uh, hello?” she called, walking closer. It took her a moment to realize she felt kind of weird and couldn’t pick up any scents now, not even the really weird one. What the hell was going on?
***
Scarlett hadn’t known for a long time that she was a hole in the smells because of what she was. And even after a werewolf told her she still couldn’t imagine what that must be like. She felt the familiar buzz and squashing of another werewolf in her radius as she looked up from Clay who was seriously out of it on the ground and gave a small wave. “Hi, I’m Scarlett, and I have a drunk delivery. Would someone like to sign for him?”
And it occurred to her that she didn’t really have a way home once she left the big guy and his truck here. “And possibly give me a ride home?”
***
There was so much wrong with this situation that Kate wasn’t even sure where to start. “Was he drinking with Thor?” she asked, recalling that the god had mentioned how potent his ambrosia could be. That was the only thing that made any sense.
“Yeah, let me take him inside and then I can give you a lift.” She walked over and crouched down so she could lift Clay off the ground. Not being able to lift him was unexpected and she frowned. “Okay, what the fuck is going on right now?”
She knew that she could shout and bring a bunch of other werewolves running if need be. Not to mention a werecoyote and a necromancer.
***
She’d gone to try to lift him before Scarlett could react and she coughed slightly with a sheepish grin. “So you’ve missed me on the network, I’m Scarlett and you guys turn human around me. It makes me popular for drinking and I work at a bar. He was kind of upset about his daughter and drank waaaaay too much waaaay too fast.”
She waved a hand at Clay on the ground like Vanna White doing a reveal after the info dump.
***
“Upset about his daughter?” Kate repeated. Clearly Scarlett had no idea that she was the daughter in question.
Now that she thought about it, she did remember reading something about someone who could negate supernatural abilities. That certainly made this more difficult. Without her werewolf strength, there was no way she was getting Clay into the house on her own. The question was, who did she want to get to help her? She wasn’t sure if she wanted to explain any of this to Nick or Jeremy at the moment. Maybe Scott and Liam could help.
***
Kate’s attempt to haul him up roused him somewhat. He looked up at her, and he was lying prone on the ground. He grinned a goofy grin, the kind of stupid faced grin that could only be achieved when someone was super drunk and totally not entirely in control of himself.
He lifted an arm, and his hand awkwardly sought to caress Kate’s cheek. “This is her. This is Kate. Isn’t she beautiful?” He tilted his head, looking up at Scarlett. “She’s the prettiest girl I know. Even prettier than her mama and Mercy and everyone.”
He shifted his focus, such as it was, back to Kate and just grinned at her.
***
Oh boy. This was bad. Very, very bad.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said, reaching up to remove his hand from her cheek. “Think you can manage to get to your feet? With your friend here, I can’t lift you.”
Kate hoped that he could pull it together at least that much. “Nice to meet you, Scarlett. Wish it was under better circumstances. Let me guess. He’s upset about the conversation we had this afternoon.
It really didn’t surprise her that he’d put on a good front with her and then gone out to do something stupid. At least he didn’t break himself or get arrested this time.
***
Oh hey look, that was Kate. Way to put your foot in your mouth Scarlett. “Hi, Kate, I heard so much about you tonight.” And maybe after this she could crawl off into a corner and die of embarrassment.
“Well worried about you being happy anyway. He got pretty drunk pretty quick.” And told her all sorts of details that she wasn’t going to repeat at the moment. She crouched down on the other side of Clay to try to give Kate a hand. “Come on big guy, time to get on your feet and reel your way into the house.”
And she still felt a little bad about him breaking his hand and being kind of a dumb ass about it with the having to test out what she said by breaking bones so she didn’t want to just leave him laying in the yard.
***
“Big guy,” Clay repeated, still grinning at Kate. “That’s what she calls me. I’m a big guy. I like it,” he told her. Between the two of them they managed to get him sitting up, though it was obvious he was a bit unsteady even at that point.
He put a hand on Kate’s shoulder, and one on Scarlett’s as they hauled him up to his feet. He immediately started to pitch forward, clearly lacking the reflexes to break his own fall. Luckily they were there to keep him upright, and then it was just a matter of getting him to move his feet.
“I’m a big guy,” he said again, seemingly stuck on repeat with that particular phrase.
***
Apparently that saying about toddlers and drunks being similar was true. Kate hadn’t ever experienced it firsthand, but Clay sounded an awful lot like Rocco right now. It was amusing even though she felt a little guilty that she was apparently responsible for it.
Kate felt clumsy and awkward without her werewolf strength, but she was determined to get him in the house. There was no chance they wouldn’t draw the attention of other people inside with how much noise they were making. She just hoped they could avoid the ‘why’ of Clay’s drinking binge for at least a little while.
“Yes, you are a very big guy,” she agreed. “Maybe you should lay off the burgers and brownies for a while.”
***
It wasn’t uncommon for a vehicle to roll up to the house and for there to be chatter outside before anyone made their way in. Jeremy didn’t think anything of it at first. He barely glanced away from his book at first. But after a few moments of no one coming inside, the voices not fading away and a tone to them he wasn’t sure he liked, curiosity and concern won out and he went to open the front door. The lights of the house made him little more than a dark figure in the doorway, but for those who knew, the presence of an Alpha was unmistakable.
“What’s going on out here?” he asked, calm and even.
He wasn’t so much asking for the what, that was pretty obvious, from the way Clayton was barely able to stand and grinning like a fool while Kate struggled to help him. The stranger, he assumed, had gotten his wayward son home, and for that Jeremy appreciated her presence. What he was really looking for was an explanation as to why, out of nowhere.
***
“Oh my god I am sorry I ever called you that.” Scarlett sighed when Clay seemed to get stuck on the nick name again. He was either going to hate her or love her after all of this and she didn’t want to even try to guess which one it was going to be at this point.
They were stumbling forward with Clay’s weight basically pulling them. Walking forward was more of an attempt to not fall over as he pulled them down than an actual desire to keep moving at this point. And when they got a few more steps forward she felt yet another werewolf enter her radius and Scarlett made a face. “You know this will probably go better if I just drop him and back up.”
Jeremy immediately struck her as this world’s version of Will Carling. This was the Alpha and she was out here in his territory with her radius and messing things up. She kind of wanted to make a better impression than that. “Sorry. Drunk delivery and he’s heavy I didn’t mean to wake everyone up.”
***
“I’m drunk,” Clay declared as if that wasn’t well known at this point. “And that’s my dad. That’s Jeremy,” Clay said, moving a rock solid and very heavy arm so that he could point at the shadowy figure toward the house. In the process, he stumbled, which caused everyone to lurch, which in turn made Clay giggle like a giddy school girl.
***
Kate sighed at Jeremy’s appearance. Even though she’d been on her way over to the house to have a conversation with him, these were not exactly favorable circumstances.
“Yeah, why don’t you go wait by the car,” Kate suggested. “I’ll get him inside.” Once she had her werewolf strength back, it would be easy enough to haul him around. Then she could take Scarlett home and put off that talk with Jeremy a little longer.
It was weird how the moment Scarlett was out of range, she felt her strength surging back. Once that happened, she hefted her father up over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He was still heavy and awkward, but she didn’t have to go far.
She managed to dump him on the sofa and gave Jeremy a sheepish look. “Sorry about this.”
***
Jeremy did pay enough attention to what went on in town, it was the only way to recognize potential threats, to piece together who their guest was. Especially feeling the shift in his own senses, not as obvious when he wasn’t actively using them but enough that he definitely noticed their return.
He simply nodded to Kate, gave her a look that made it very obvious that they’d be talking about whatever was going on. Something she clearly had a hand in if she was apologizing to him. He’d thought she’d outgrown causing trouble like that. Too much her father’s daughter, it seemed.
He’d have to have a talk with Clayton as well.
“Thank you for getting him safely home,” he said, just loud enough that his voice carried across the yard to their visitor. She could have more easily not done. And maybe a night, another night, in prison would have done Clay some good.
***
“Hey I got him drunk, I figured it was the least I could do.” Scarlett was leaning against the car to stay well out of the way of getting them in her radius. It would expand if she got too upset but she was so practiced with it now that something like that shouldn’t happen. In fact instead she was trying to keep it pulled in a little smaller.
“Sorry for coming here uninvited. I don’t usually do that by the way.” She was also really practiced at having conversations from a good distance away without shouting.
***
Clay lumbered up from the couch. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but with Scarlett out of range, he was no longer feeling the effect of her radius. He was still drunk, it would take time for that to wear off, but he was aware and awake enough to want to know what was happening in the yard. He stumbled his way toward the door, grabbing the door frame to try and keep his balance.
Being drunk was a very odd feeling, though he assumed that was because he’d never experienced it before. He hadn’t grown up sneaking drinks from the liquor stash. He hadn’t grown up drinking and hanging out with his friends at the bars. He had a high metabolism, and the alcohol he’d drank tonight had been hard, designed to hit fast.
“Jer?” he muttered, and took a step forward, which had him lurching forward and falling toward Jeremy.
***
“I don’t believe there’s an invitation needed when dropping off a wayward child.” Any intention of continuing the thought was cut off by Clay rising, lumbering in his direction. Jeremy may not be the most physically powerful werewolf around, never had been, he was more than strong enough, more than quick enough, to catch Clay as he stumbled. He should have anticipated a response like that. The younger man was stubborn, and could be surprisingly headstrong when it suited him.
He stifled a sigh that would have been as much resignation as frustration. “I suggest you go upstairs, Clayton,” he advised, mild but firm. “You and I will talk tomorrow.”
***
“I’m going to take Scarlett home, Jeremy,” Kate said. “And then I’ll come find you.”
She knew better than to think she was getting out of that particular conversation tonight based on his tone. “Go to bed, Dad.”
This was not going to be a fun night.
***