InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "mi casa es su casa!"

Charlie Crews (i_zen) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2011-01-24 20:39:00

Entry tags:

charlie crews, in arkham, river tam

Freedom and fruit (River)
"Well, well, well. It looks like someone's getting out a little earlier than expected. Looks like you've been exonerated." The words were familiar. Charlie had heard them before, but he wasn't sure what he'd done wrong to be locked away for this time. When his mind was clear enough to think it through, he always came back to the feeling he'd done nothing.

"Com'on, or I really will beat you like a redheaded step child." The orderly gave a firm kick to the detective's stomach, and thankfully even drugs couldn't muddle his brain so much that he couldn't protect himself. He wasn't so fast that he could get out of the way, but he knew to go with the kick. He'd feel it for a few days, but he'd live.

Charlie got up, put on the clothes (a tailored suit and shirt with matching tie and a very swanky pair of shoes, even a pair of designer sunglasses) they gave him, and walked slowly wherever they directed him. He signed the release forms and collected the rest of his things; other than the clothes, this was all very familiar, even the walk to the cab waiting for him.

Last time he was released, he'd been hungry. The kick to the breadbasket had decreased his appetite, but he told the cabdriver to take him to a small place that always had fresh fruit. While he might not be hungry, he knew he would be eventually. Fruit seemed like just the thing to get and possibly a fish. A living one, not to be eaten. Possibly a dog, a large one for Ted. Or a horse.

It wasn't until he got out of the cab, paying the driver with the money he knew would be in his pocket, that Charlie realized who Ted was. He turned to get back in the cab, but it was gone. Charlie knew that if he got out, Ted would get out or already was. Charlie, for once, wasn't sure what to do. The drugs made it hard to concentrate but easy to go with the flow and not try to work against the flow. Charlie had to believe that he would see Ted soon; he'd get his housemate fruit to prove as much.

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i_feel
2011-01-25 02:18 am UTC (link)

She wasn't surprised when they let her go, because they'd been thinking about it around her for 48 hours before they did it. But River was a little surprised by the way they treated her once she'd tried to escape.

They didn't undo her restraints, or stop the medication, but they did, once she was gathered back to her room, provide her with a nurse that reminded her a great deal of Inara. She was older, but was calm and patient and had the demeanor of a companion. She made River smile. And she spent almost that entire 48 hours with River prior to her release.

She knew she was being babysat, of course, but somehow it was easier to take since the babysitter was so nice.

River was otherwise quite annoyed by her stay in Arkham. The entire experience had upset her, reminded her of what the Alliance had done to her, and separated her from those she cared about.

When she was to be discharged, she was simply wheeled on her gurney to the elevator, then taken to the main floor lobby. Her friend the nurse was then instructed to unrestrain her and get her dressed, and give her the paperwork she needed as well as call her a taxi. River didn't like this move, but understood it; The City knew she'd be likely to harm those who put her here or kept her here. She'd already harmed some of them.

The first thing River wanted to do was eat.

She felt weak and tired, and imagined fresh bao and apples. But apples on their own would be good. And then she could go back to her apartment, or find Hannibal. Or Simon.

She stood in the small market next to little tables full of coffee-drinking patrons, the fold of her shirt full of apples to buy. She was adding more to the pile, which would soon be wider than she was.

"Basket would make more sense," she said to herself.

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i_zen
2011-01-25 02:42 am UTC (link)

Charlie understood. Or he could. There was something in the freedom of food, fresh fruit especially. There was something about biting into an apple that wasn't processed in someway that lifted his spirits a little. He'd been pulled to the stand by the glint of reds and greens, and now that he was standing there, he felt he could probably eat one or two. He'd take more home.

"A basket would make more sense." Charlie nodded; he didn't mind if he overheard someone speaking. He didn't mind butting in to a discussion, even if it was just someone talking to herself. "But, it's not as fun as holding them in your clothes."

The smile was soft, understanding in someway. He motioned for the grocer, who'd come out to see what the girl with so many apples was doing exactly, to give them a few paper bags.

"Bags work, too. I like the way the bag sounds when it bulges with almost too many apples. Never too many apples." He opened up the bag then opened another one inside it. "I like Red Delicious and Granny Smith." He motioned to the two. "Gold Delicious is good, too." As he spoke, if she let him, he started taking the apples out of her makeshift shirt pouch and placing them carefully in the bags. His movements were slow and deliberate, for more than one reason: he was coming off the drugs, and he didn't know how a strange might react to what he was doing.

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i_feel
2011-01-28 05:20 am UTC (link)

River tilted her head and looked at the man somewhat sideways. He was happy to be here.

When he started talking, River decided she liked him. He reminded her of Book, somehow.

He began to move her apples to bags, and River let him, somewhat surprised herself that she was alright with the action happening. But it did make sense, too many apples, and apples roll....

"Sheh-sheh," she said, quietly.

"Don't you want any for yourself?" Her eyebrow arched.

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i_zen
2011-01-28 05:45 am UTC (link)

Charlie had an odd sense of personal space, and he often times took for granted that others would understand this. Of course, he also got looks and now and then a punch thrown, but he accepted these as much as the close proximity. Things happened, didn't they?

"I'll get some. These are your apples. Unless they weren't your apples. Are these your apples? Do you want all the apples?" Charlie looked down at the bag he had filled and was already asking for two more bags. He might have slipped a few apples that weren't in her shirt into the bag to give her a variety. He looked at her, his eyes narrowing a little, his head tilting with it.

"I don't believe I can allow you to take all the apple. You couldn't carry them all. I could help you take the apple away, but we couldn't carry them all together either. If I let you take all the apples, I wouldn't have any apples." He gave her a little smile and leaned in a little. His voice lowered. "There are other fruits that are amazing." His eyes widened to show just how amazing they were, but soon he was standing again.

"I'm Charlie. You should know this if you're going to take apples from me." Even if he wasn't the person who owned the fruit stand, he had been handling her fruit.

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i_feel
2011-02-01 05:17 am UTC (link)

River furrowed her eyebrows. This man spoke the way she did. That was troubling, because she knew there was something wrong with her.

They weren't his apples, not really. They belonged to the store. Still, River smiled at him and was polite. He was trying to play with her, be funny.

"Charlie," she said, repeating it to internalize it. "River," she said, both eyebrows raising, indicating that this was her name.

There were quite a lot of apples in the bags, now. She put a hand over her mouth and laughed at how many. "I'd never eat them all before they went bad," she mused.

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i_zen
2011-02-02 01:44 am UTC (link)

Charlie looked down at the bag. There was something wrong with him, or maybe it was that he was working on making it right. He was trying to fix himself and what the time in the stir as some people liked to call it, mainly those from the forties, had done to him. He had issues he was working through.

Charlie looked own at the bag and hmmed softly. She did have a point, a very good point.

"Well, River, I think if you don't mind. We'll split them. Then we can give them out as we go. You know you really should try other fruit. There's a thing called a star fruit, shaped like a star. Not a real star because that's a ball of rolling burning gas - not much good to eat that. But a drawn star. It's good." He set the bag down in the bin and started dividing the apples between the old bag and the new one.

"Sharing the apples would make people happy. Unless it doesn't. There are some people who don't appreciate apple giving." Charlie shook his head.

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