Sally Sparrow (ridesallyride) wrote in brightlightlogs, @ 2010-06-07 20:47:00 |
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Initially, Sally thought she'd woken up in a hotel room. Everything was perfectly symmetrical and sterile; two things she'd never really gelled with. Sally Sparrow liked old things, and old things rarely had that hospital room smell to them. Except old hospitals. Somehow, they always managed to retain that bizarre antiseptic scent that reminded her of skinned knees as a child. Not exactly pleasant memories. Opening the door a tiny crack, Sally glanced into the next room. Identical style to the bedroom and empty, she crept into the living room, staring with eyes and giving into her curious nature. Nothing appeared to have been touched. The kitchen was stainless steel, the living room was more hospital corners and straight lines. Outside the windows, the city of Las Vegas yawned before her. Nothing appeared to have been touched in the room because its other inhabitant hadn't spent much time there since he'd arrived the day before. Sam had talked to a vampire who already knew what he was, and then he'd seen Tara, and then, after sleeping off some of his confusion, he'd spent the day out of the apartment. Any time Sam found himself in an unfamiliar place, he spent some time exploring and scoping the place out. Las Vegas was no different. If there were vampires and other supernatural creatures around, Sam needed to know the lay of the land. He needed to know escape routes. He needed to find safe places to hide. He needed to sniff things out -- literally. So instead of spending the day cooped up inside an unfamiliar room, Sam spent the day running around the city as a dog, testing the boundaries of the city to figure out how far out into nature he could go and not hurt, exploring the different neighborhoods. He returned to the hotel dirty and sweaty, ready for a shower and to collapse onto his bed. The second he opened the door to his room, he could tell that something was different. The room smelled different than before. It smelled... like there was a woman in the room. Just in case the other person in the room was bad news, Sam remained in the doorway. "Hello?" Her jaw still gaping, Sally started, spinning around at the noise. There was nothing more adrenaline-rushing than realising you hadn't heard anyone enter a room until they spoke. The next second, her cheeks darkened as embarrassment overtook her. She tucked her hair behind her ear, glancing down and taking a step backwards. "Sorry. I... Well, I'm not very sure what I'm doing here. How... more like." The young woman was clearly not from Vegas, and hardly from America. "Erm, I'm Sally...? Sally Sparrow." The minute Sam heard her voice, he relaxed. Unless she was a very good actress, this young woman wasn't there to cause him trouble. It wasn't easy to fake fear and confusion, especially in front of someone who was better at picking up on body language and scents than the average person. The vibes he was getting from Sally said nothing dangerous. He stepped into the room and let the door shut behind him. "Sam," he said, wiping his palm on his jeans before offering his hand to her. "Sam Merlotte. How did you get into my room?" He frowned at her, puzzled and surprised, but not angry. "Er..." Sally glanced toward the bedroom she'd just come from. She rather hoped that wasn't this man's. That would be awkward to explain. Hello, apparently I popped up in your bed without introducing myself. Woops! With a quick few steps forward, she shook his hand once and let go. "Well. I-I don't rightly know how I got in here. I just woke up. In-" She nodded her head toward the door, hooking her thumbs onto the belt loops on the back of her trousers. . "- there." "Oh. Of course." Oh. Sam's eyes widened, and he nodded his head in understanding. Of course. She'd woken up there, just like he had. He should have known better than to expect to not have to share the room. Tara was sharing hers with some bald old man, after all. It only made sense that he'd end up with a stranger in his room, too. "I only got here yesterday. I've got no idea how I ended up here either," he offered in hopes of making her feel less alone, his Southern accent poking through slightly. "Woke up there," he nodded towards the other room, his room, not hers. "Guess... we're roommates?" That was weird, to put it lightly. Sam hadn't lived with another person in a very long time, let alone a woman. He probably could have managed with Tara or Sookie, since he'd known them for so long, but he didn't know Sally. Sally would have wished that her flat-mate would have known more than she did, if only so she'd get some answers to the 5 questions she had. Who was Zenner Corp? What did they want from her? When could she go home? Where was the Doctor when she needed him this time? Why had they taken from her cozy flat in London and planted her here? Tucking her lips into the corner of her mouth, she flattened her furrowed brow and looked at him again. "You're not an axe-murderer or an alien, are you?" "Uh." Of all the options in the entire world, she had to wonder if he was an axe-murderer or an alien? His mouth twitched as he tried not to laugh. "Definitely not an axe-murderer or an alien," he assured her. "'Course, if I was an axe-murderer, I'm not gonna say --" He frowned. "Okay, probably not the best thing to say. I'm just... a normal, boring human from Louisiana, I swear." That couldn't be farther from the truth, but Sam wasn't keen to take Godric up on his advice yet. He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair, looking away from her, finally feeling a bit self-conscious. "Nothin' special." "Attempt at levity, not a serious question. Not that if you were either of those things you'd tell me." Sally's lips pulled back into a slight smile as she shrugged one of her shoulders. God knew she'd never admit to either of those things if she was either of them. Thankfully, she was just an ordinary girl who had gotten into a few extraordinary circumstances. Sally shuffled to the couch, or what appeared to be a couch. It didn't look very comfortable, but she sat down just the same. "So... you got here yesterday?" "Yeah, looks like," Sam answered with a shrug of his own. "Don't remember anything if I got here earlier." It was a weird thing, falling asleep in his trailer and waking up in a cushy room in Las Vegas. Being from a world with vampires and werewolves and shapeshifters and maenads didn't make it any easier for Sam to understand time travel. It didn't make it easy for him to understand why he'd been kidnapped, either. He missed Bon Temps already. "A few of my friends are here too, which I don't understand at all, 'cause I just saw them back home, but one's been here for a bit." He considered sitting down as well, but he didn't want to get too comfortable, or too close. He'd been out running around all day and he desperately needed a shower. Or at least he felt like he did. "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Sorry, just something a friend told me once about how time travel works. I sort of understand it, but I don't completely." Sally felt completely out of place. Martha had told her that the Doctor was here, but she didn't really know either of them at all. They'd just helped her through a trying time, and then she'd returned the favour. Everything had come full circle. Sally was, for all intents, alone. "At least you've got friends around here, yeah?" "Yeah." At least he had that. Sam was grateful to have Tara and Sookie around. He was even grateful to have a vampire there who knew Sookie, and knew some of his other acquaintances. Godric seemed like a nice enough fellow, even if he was a vampire. "You?" He shuffled forward a little and leaned against the arm of the couch opposite from Sally. "Where are you from, anyway? England, right? Long way from home." Sally froze, as if someone hit pause on a DVD. Something didn't quite smell right when Sam came close. He smelled like he'd just run a bloody marathon. In the dirt. She desperately fought the urge to wrinkle her nose, pinch it, or cover her nose and mouth with her shirt. Men. Larry'd had a disgusting habit of wearing the same socks twice in a row. She'd gotten used to that, for a little while anyway. Forcing herself to smile, Sally glanced up, all dimples. "Quite a long way from home, yeah. I'm from London. Hammersmith, actually. Near Shepherd's Bush." Not that she really expected him to know where that was. Most foreigners simply thought of London as a whole. "Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking?" She was right: Sam had no idea where Hammersmith or Shepherd's Bush were in relation to anything else in London. "Never been there," he commented lightly, sounding a little wistful. He'd never left the country at all. He hadn't seen much of the country itself, for that matter. "Where am I from?" he repeated, eyebrows arched upwards. That was a... complicated question. "I guess you could say I'm from Texas. Small town no one's ever heard of. I left when I was a teenager... been a whole lot of places ever since, but I guess home would be Bon Temps, in northern Louisiana. I've been there a while now." Sally crooked her lips in a half-sad smile. "I don't have the first clue where that is. I don't even know if I could find Louisiana on a map, to be honest. Never really had a need for it before." She pulled one of her legs onto the couch, turned to face him. He just had one of those friendly faces, the kind that could put you at ease. "Texas, on the other hand, I could definitely point that one out." Sam's smile widened. "If you didn't know where Texas is, I think I'd be worried. Texas is too big to miss." He shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying to figure out what to say next. Though he'd always been a bit on the shy and reserved side -- mostly because he kept his distance from people, rather than being introverted -- he didn't often have a whole lot of trouble talking to strangers. He was nervous now, though, and he wasn't sure why. It might have been her youth, or the fact that they were strangers and sharing an apartment, or both. Sam wasn't really sure. "Have you eaten yet?" he asked. "I'm sorry, I was out all day and now... I really need to clean up, but give me ten minutes and we could get something?" Looking bashful, Sally winced. She never ate immediately before bedtime, and seeing as she'd woken up here, she had no idea how long it had been since she'd last eaten. Her stomach was a bottomless pit at the moment. "Yeah, that sounds... well, that sounds lovely, really." |