Holland "Holly" Sharpe (ilicin) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-03-07 19:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 05, holland sharpe |
Week five - Thursday
Characters: Kathleen and Holly.
Location: Siena Suites, poolside.
Summary: Holly comes across Kathleen lounging by the pool. They talk about their lives, past and present, and develop an understanding.
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Blegh, it's so hot! Holly was thinking as he made his way from the parking lot up to the hotel, pulling at the collar of his form-fitting blue t-shirt to get some air against his chest. He had just come from a walk, because sitting indoors was really starting to wear on him day after day. The couple people he had befriended weren't people he wanted to bug every day, lest he look as desperate and lonely as he felt. Besides, keeping his distance from everyone was something he had to maintain.
Approaching the pool, Holly spotted someone lounging beneath an umbrella reading, and noticed very quickly that person was a pregnant woman. Without much thought, he adjusted his direction to walk closer to Kathleen, hoping the sounds his sneakers made against the ground would alert her of his presence without scaring her. She looked cute in her bathing suit and wrap, though Holly was disappointed to see the pool wasn't filled. It would have been nice to stick his feet in there.
"Boy or girl?" he asked, pointing to Kathleen's pregnant belly as he got close enough to exchange words with the woman without raising his voice.
"What?" She replied looking his way. The doctor was caught a little off guard while reading a book she found the other day. "Oh, hello," she said finally recognizing him. "I'm sorry what did you ask? I was right in the middle of a chapter." The paperback book now laid open on her bare belly.
"Oh, sorry, I asked if you're having a boy or a girl." Holly took a seat on a lounge chair closest to Kathleen's, perched on the edge. He needed to talk to more people around there, and he didn't want this to become somewhat awkward like standing around with Leo had been. Remember your people skills, Holland.
"A boy," she answered with a smile. Kathleen wanted to be polite, but felt a little awkward about how to behave around him. She had met all types of people, but not many who were like him. "Ah, how are you doing?" The awkwardness next shown on her face.
"Oh, I'm fine." Holly returned her smile. "You know, just not sure what to do with myself these days." He shrugged, but it was the closest thing to the truth he'd told anyone at the hotel. "I'm a technophile and shit's broke now, so - heh - kinda just trying to find new hobbies. And, uh, get to know people around here."
The strangest seemed to passed with just a few simple sentences which made her feel more at ease. "Yeah, I'm disappointed. They said that the internet was meant to survive a nuclear war, but I haven't been able to sign on to anything. It really sucks, because I am dying to tweet about my urge for some Cap'n D's fish and chips with extra vinegar." She snickered lightly.
She shifted in her chair, and then extended her hand out to him to shake. "I don't think we formally met, Dr. Kathleen Forbes." Holly took Kathleen's hand, making sure to keep his usually firm grip gentle since he was pretending to be a dainty woman.
"I'm Holly Sharpe. No cool title. And, god, don't talk about fish and chips. You're making me hungry for real food." Which, in Holly's opinion, was rather extinct.
Holly, yeah right she thought as she nodded at his introduction. "No joke. I've been dying for ice cream, and a Caesar salad. I mean, I'm pregnant and I can't send a man out in the middle of the night to get me an extra cheese and mushroom pizza. It's not fair." Kathleen shook her head. "And all i can do is make some bread."
She hoped he would not cry about the world that died. Kathleen did not want to care, it was just too hard to think about it on top of everything else going on. It was just surreal living in an empty world with a small group of survivors.
"That must suuuuck," he sympathized, balancing an elbow on his knee before placing his chin in his hand. "But, you can send a man out for other stuff." Holly grinned. "You should take advantage of that. I doubt any man around here would say no to a pregnant woman. I just got help bringing a TV upstairs, and if they're going to help me they're sure as fuck gonna help you."
"Oh," she nodded. "I know. They have been complete gentlemen to me. Everyone has been very helpful. It's a friendly group of people so far," she lean her head a little closer. Her voice a little softer. "Do you know about that boy staying with Alice?"
"Heard about him, but never saw him," Holly admitted, leaning in as well. He liked gossip just as much as the next guy - probably more. Besides, some dirt on Alice would be nice. "What about him?"
Her green eyes quickly scan that no one was near ear shot of them. "He attacked Jack, the little girl who is with Jed. It was sometime ago, I heard. He belonged to a gang out there that thought it was okay to beat up on defenseless children. I don't trust him, nor do I care to try after what he did. It's inexcusable, no one should harm children." She held strong opinions when in came to bullies.
Holly's eyes widened as Kathleen told him about Jared. He knew Jack, and had a soft spot for the girl, so to hear she'd been harmed by someone else in their group was not only surprising, it made him angry. What was more, Alice was letting some bully stay with her yet she got on his case for being a guy.
"It's the kind of stuff that the Taliban did in Afghanistan." She sighed. Some memories of her experience in that country flash in her mind. Her gaze fell beyond Holly's face like she was staring out into space for a few silent moments. She then blinked, and focused on Holly's face. "Yeah."
The reference to Afghanistan gave Holly pause, and he searched Kathleen's face as her eyes went unfocused. Had she been in the war?
"He did this before he came in here?" Holly asked, when Kathleen came back to the present. "Shit. I was hoping this group wouldn't turn into a gang."
"Oh I don't think so. We this opportunity to rebuild, and turning into a street gang isn't going to work for us. So, I wouldn't worry about that," she replied with confidence. Kathleen folded the corner of the page she was reading in the book, and then laid the book on the table next to her, and then grabbing a re-usable bottle of water for a drink.
After a sip, she look at him again. "Alice has a big heart. I don't know why, she took him in. Maybe there is something we don't know," she shrugged and then returned the bottle to the table. "I'd be careful if I was you." she warned. "Who knows how he would react seeing a transsexual." She assumed that is how he identified himself.
"Uh-" Holly sat up and looked shocked, unable to formulate a response right away. "Ha - no, no." He laughed nervously. "I'm not a transsexual. No, I'm - I know, deep voice, but no. I'm a woman."
"Really?" she said in a doubting tone. "You had the gender reassignment surgery?" There was something uncaring in her voice if she offended him. She did not like those who lied to her. "Okay be honest with me. I don't need any surprises if something were to happened to you and I needed to treat you."
Suddenly, Holly became extremely uncomfortable. Doctor Kathleen had a point: if something did happen to him, she'd be the one to uncover the evidence he was a guy. And he really didn't want to lie, but he knew Jed would accept him better if he did. Not that it mattered much anymore since he was already part of the group. Alice knew he was male and she hadn't kicked him out yet.
"I," he began, then paused. "I gotta go." Holly pushed himself up from the lounge.
"Wait, you can't get up and leave like that," she felt offended. "Enough of this bullshit. If you can't be honest about who you are? Then why did we survive ... If you feel more comfortable pretending to be ..." Kathleen shook her head in frustration, and then sat up. "Look I need to be with people I can trust."
Holly sighed loudly, and didn't move past Kathleen, but he also didn't sit back down. It was his turn to look around quickly to see if anyone was in the area, then his hazel eyes met Kathleen's. "This stays between me and you, okay?" He pressed his lips together as he gathered his thoughts. "Okay. I'm ... a guy, but Jed didn't trust me when I went to the museum, and I knew what he would think if he knew what I am, so I said I was a woman. I don't want to get kicked out of here. I just want protection."
She remained straight faced until he finished, and then her eyes soften. "No one is going to turn you away unless you do something horrible. Okay." She reached to hold his hand. It was her habit to reach out and touch. "I'll be honest. You kinda creep me out a little, but I try to look beyond that. It's not easy for all of us. I am sure its not for you. And I'm sorry, I was so blunt."
Kathleen let go of his hand. "C'mon sit back down."
"All right," Holly responded, his voice soft, as he eased back down onto the lounge chair. It did hurt not to be completely accepted, but he had to give Kathleen credit. Many people weren't willing to even try to look beyond things they couldn't understand.
"Thanks, Kathleen. Hey, if you ever need anything ... I can be the man to run out in the middle of the night and get you shit." It felt really nice being himself, finally.
"I might take you up on that," she now grinned. Holly was not as strange as she first thought, and was happy to see a change in the way he now carried himself. He did not look as if he was trying to hide who he really was anymore in her presence. "See it wasn't so bad."
Kathleen laid back down against the lounge chair again. "So you were a computer geek? Apple or PC?"
"My family always used Macs. My parents wouldn't buy us anything else." Holly tried to smile in remembrance of the past, but it came out wry. "Even when I moved out, I kinda just stuck with Apple. What about you? Are we going to have to fight over which is better?" That time, he did achieve a genuine humored smile.
"Nah, I don't really care. My last laptop was a Mac, but it irritated me that I couldn't use programs that I needed because there was not a Mac version. The Army likes to use Mircosoft Office for reports. So it was a waste of money." She explained while looking up at the bottom side of the green umbrella.
"What made you want to join the Army?" Holly pushed himself further back into the chair so he was lying back, eyes squinted against the sun.
"A full medical scholarship. They paid for my tuition to Loyola University's Chicago Stritch School of Medicine." She turned her head looking at Holly. "It wasn't a bad deal either. I got to serve my country."
"Yeah, you wouldn't catch me enlisting for anything. I don't do well in situations where I have to wear uniforms." It was a joke, but Holly didn't even bother laughing at it. "If you'd known Swine Flu was going to wipe everyone out, would you have still gone? Become a doctor and everything?"
The comment about the flu threw her for a second. "I, umm." How could she explain it? If she had gone a different path, she would not be pregnant. She could not imagine 'the what if?' "I'd probably would have died." She said now with her eyes looking up. "My baby is the reason I am still alive."
Part of Holly regretted asking, because the answer was so heavy and deep. It made him sad. "When are you expecting him?"
"Any day now." Her eyes still looked up at the green fabric of the umbrella above her. "It's up to him really." She paused and then changed the subject. "You should't play with Jed. He is eventually going to figure out that you're a man. I think he feels the same as me, and doesn't take lightly being made a fool. You don't mess with Texans." She turned to her side facing him. "I don't want to have to fix any broken bodies."
"What makes you so sure he won't break me once I tell him?" If he did, which he wasn't planning on. Holly didn't think it was so bad to have Jed think him a woman; it didn't hurt anyone. "The only reason I'm lying about it is because I want to be accepted here. Not everyone's like you."
"It's why you should come clean because the longer you don't the harder it's going to take you to regain the trust of those you deceived. I don't think Jed is the kind of man who would forgive so easy, but I think he would understand that you did this at first because you wanted to be accepted. We are all taking a leap of faith in trusting each other." She looked at him for a second. "You are pretty convincing looking woman, if I wasn't an awesome physician you might have tricked me at first."
"It's the hair," he said with a smile, amused by Kathleen's self-proclaimed awesomeness. "I've been dressing like this full time for five years - and getting paid for it, mind you. I don't know if I would dress like a woman 24/7 if I hadn't been, but I always liked girls clothes better." Holly was surprised to feel a weight off his chest just explaining it. The feeling scared him a little; he couldn't let his guard down too much.
"What gave me away? The deep voice? The bad case of booblessness?"
"Yeah those only confirmed my intuition and it was the way you walked. You don't have the hips," she explained. "Men and women are built differently in that area, so women like me can deliver a baby into the world." Her hand rested on her bare belly below her bikini top. She felt blessed to carry a child. It was a thing that a man could not really understand.
Holly nodded slowly, his eyes drawn to Kathleen's belly. "You're lucky," he said quietly. "You're going to have someone related to you once he's born. A family."
She closed her eyes and swallowed. The word family struck a chord with her, and made her instantly think of her mother. Kathleen grew up without her biological father, and her mother struggled in those first few years until she married. Kathleen was repeating it. Her child would never know his father.
Kathleen laid back against the lounge chair again, and then removed the sunglasses sitting on top of her head to place them over her moisten eyes. "Yup." It's all she said.
Holly knew immediately he'd gotten to Kathleen with what he'd said, but it wasn't so surprising. Her reaction even welled up some emotions within his chest as he thought of his sister. "You have any names picked out? I can't wait to see the little guy."
"I have a few ideas, but I haven't decided yet. I like his father's name Ian," she replied without looking at him. "He was a helicopter pilot who flew dust off missions. Those are medevac flights," she explained. The memory of him entered into her mind. "He was a real great guy." A narrow smile formed on her lips.
"Sounds it. I mean, just going by the helicopter pilot thing," he said, snorting softly. That sounded like an exciting job, not to mention an important one. "That's one thing Vegas doesn't have a lot of: great guys."
"There seems to be a shortage of available guys period, and its hard to compete when you're pregnant. It tends to scare men off," she laughed. There was a good chance that Ian, if he had known, would be terrified to learn she was pregnant with his child.
"Yeah, but look at the guys around here. Leo and Jed both took in kids. If that's a trend around here you better work it with the next guy who walks in through those museum doors," Holly teased.
"Well yeah, that's true. In that case I better pray that a tall handsome man arrives soon," she giggled, and Holly joined in.
"Ugh," he suddenly said, drawing a hand across his forehead, "I'm going to burn if I stay out here for much longer." Holly looked across the patio at an umbrella at the other end of the pool. He would have to get more umbrellas or do some rearranging once the pool was filled.
"Yeah, it's harsh, but the best source for Vitamin D," she mentioned. It's one reason why she was out by the empty pool in a bikini. Out in the sun for a short time to store up enough of the vitamin in her body to maintain a healthy immune system for herself and he baby.
"I'm glad we'd talked, Holly." She turned her head toward him, and reached out her hand. "If you need my help, you know where to find me."
"Thanks. The same offer stands on my part. I'm in room 205," Holly told her, leaning forward to take Kathleen's hand more firmly this time around. "You can call me Holland, but ... just between me and you."