To be honest, she wasn't even supposed to be at the Reserve today, but there was a pregnant Diricawl she'd wanted to check up on who was close to popping. She'd planned to keep a close eye on the eggs for sure, but the bird had yet to drop them. She couldn't wait until she did. And when those baby birds hatched she was going to be even more excited because baby Diricawls were precious and this would be the first time she'd seen this particular animal's nurturing rituals.
She figured it would be similar to other birds, but one could never be too sure.
It was while she was on her way back to her office after checking up on the mama bird that she happened to catch sight of someone in Medical on a bed. Thorne? Thorne was back?! When had he gotten back?
Grinning widely, the blonde ducked into the medical room and wrapped her arms around the other man in an enthusiastic hug. "Oh mah God, I'm so glad yer back. Are you okay? Everythang I've been reading has been so terrible. I'm so sorry you had ta go through that."
She'd kept up with the coverage and it broke her heart that Thorne was having to go through what he was going through. She knew Joe had asked Laura to do some stuff for him and she had figured it had to do with Thorne, but she hadn't pried. She'd even sent Thorne a text message while he was gone, reminding him to keep his head up and that there were people who gave a shit about him. That was as far as the communication had gone, though.
To see him here, though, it made her glad he was back around people who cared about him.
Ford was dozing off but technically still awake when the enthusiastic blonde startled him into full consciousness in half a second flat. He probably would have jerked away and fallen off the bed entirely if not for the rails raised on either side—and the tight grip she had on him. That was going to bruise.
"I'm not Thorne." Because it had happened so many times now that it was no longer a surprise. He needed a hat with a sign on it. He tried to wiggle away, and he was a little out of breath as he added, "Like, seriously, not Thorne. Can you let go?"
Feeling him trying to wriggle out of her grasp and letting his words actually register in her brain, Rory immediately let go. "I'm so sorry..." she stated, stepping back away from the bed after she'd completely let go of him. Her cheeks were a furious red from the embarrassed blush that rose and she was pretty certain that she couldn't feel worse than she did right now.
"But... if yer not Thorne, who are ya?" Yeah, she should have asked before touching him... but she'd just been so damned glad to see him home. Though him wasn't him apparently. "I'm... I'm Rory. Rory Brynn. Mah sistah’s married ta Thorne's brothah."
"It's fine," Ford mumbled, straightening his sheet and generally trying to regain his composure. "You're not the first and probably not the last." Heck, she wasn't even the first one to hug him at random. At least this particular shock wasn't as bad as the first one this morning.
"Ugh, small towns," he said with a groan. Was every person in this stupid place related to or friends with Thorne? He might have been glad before, but Thorne himself had made it a moot and rather unpleasant point. He was tempted to not answer, to just embrace his inner jerk and let everyone assume he was an impostor—yep, pain meds had worn off—but he could already hear his mom's voice in the back of his head at that thought. He only barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. "My name's Ford. Logic and a bit of research tells me I'm Thorne's twin brother, but feel free to draw your own conclusions."
Rory herself took a seat by the bed, letting the other man talk. He didn't seem to be feeling well—looked sick in fact—so the little blonde didn't keep the seat long.
Instead, she moved to the mini-fridge they kept and took out two bottles of water. One for herself, because she'd embarrassed herself quite well and could feel the heat of the blush in her cheeks, and one for him, because he looked like he could probably use it.
After offering it to him, she retook her seat and ran her fingers through her waves. "I'm sorry, again. I really should have asked before I evah touched ya. I just get a little ovahexcited sometimes. It's nice ta meet ya Ford. I didn't even know Thorne had a twin, though, that's not exactly surprisin'. The possibilities when it comes to adoption are endless."
Unseating herself again—Rory didn't like to be very still for very long unless she had to—she began to pace just the tiniest bit. "Ya don't look like yer feelin' very well. I mean, do ya want me ta talk to someone? Get ya somethin'?" She wanted to ask what brought him to Snowcap, but for now, she'd hold her tongue. Sometimes, no matter how curious you were, prying got on people's nerves.
"It's fine," Ford repeated, a bit snappy, and then immediately felt guilty for his tone. She was being nice, which was a far cry from the way his day had started, so she didn't actually deserve his grumpiness. Nice or not, though, he couldn't quite shake his reticence. He took the water with a half-smile and proceeded more pleasantly, but still cautious. "I didn't either, until pretty recently."
He shrugged, non-committal. Did he want to talk to someone? Probably, but that didn't make that someone her—nor was he quite sure who that someone would be. "I'm fine. Just a rough morning." There. That was neutral enough, wasn't it? A flat-out lie, but whoever said diplomacy and truth were the same? "I won't be here much longer. In this room, I mean." And he had no idea how much longer he'd be in town, either. That remained to be seen.
Then, impulsively, he added, "You should probably know that I met Thorne this morning and he doesn't believe I'm his twin, so you probably don't want to, you know, bring it up in casual conversation or whatever."
"I bet that can be pretty confusin'. Bein' adopted an' all an' then findin' out there's this whole othah person who looks just like you." He didn't have to talk to her about it and to be honest, she didn't really expect him to. But she put that out there just in case he needed to. Rory tried to be helpful where ever she could and a part of that was because she still felt guilty about what she didn't know.
The other part was just because that's how she was raised.
"That's a good thang though. Not bein' stuck in here. I mean, I'd rathah be out there more often than not, anyway. I'm one of tha doctors out here. At least, fer tha animals. I'm not even usually here on Saturdays but there's this Diricawl that's pregnant an' I've nevah actually seen one go through those stages so I was kinda curious an' wanted to see how well she was doin'... an' now I'm ramblin', I am so sorry. Just... I'll stop now."
She could get entirely too excited over the animals under her care and the pregnancies that came about among them. Animal babies made her a complete mess of excitement and enthusiasm.
Of course, she came down from her high whenever he mentioned he'd met Thorne. She smiled softly, understanding completely. "Yeah... Thorne can be a little... he's just had a rough go of thangs as of late. Don't let it color yer perception of him. Things have been just awful. Maybe when he comes down off of everythang you can try again an' he'll be more receptive."
Ford made a face. "I don't particularly care for hospitals or beasts, so it'd be pretty much all the same to me." Though it did make him look at her a little more closely. She didn't look old enough to be a healer. He would have pegged her for a college student.
"Yeah, everyone keeps saying that," Ford said flatly. Despite the fact that he couldn't bring himself to give up the full story of what had happened that morning, he couldn't help feeling a little indignant. Having a crappy week wasn't a good enough excuse. Not by half. And if Thorne had had a crappy life, too? Well, that still wasn't Ford's fault. "I think I'll stick to my work for now, and he decides he wants to get his head out of his backside, maybe I'll be receptive."
It was easy to think about Thorne first and whether he would come around simply because she knew him. That didn't make it right, she knew, but it was the easier option. The thought of the man across from her being the one that wanted to come around hadn't even been present. For that, she felt a little bad.
"I'm sorry," she started - though she'd said that quite a few times since her arrival in the room - "You're right. No one has an excuse ta treat someone like shit. I'm sorry that happened to ya. An' I'm sorry yer stuck here fer right now. We're not all so bad, though. Tell me, what do ya do? If ya don't mind me askin', that is."
Had anyone even made the attempt to actually get to know who Ford was as a person? Rory didn't know, but even if they had, that didn't mean she couldn't show an interest as well. Sometimes all it took was one person to make a difference. And hell, even if that person wasn't necessarily going to be Rory, she could still ask.
Ford frowned slightly at her, eyebrows drawn together, then all at once released it in a long sigh. "No, I'm sorry," he said, absently running a hand over his torso where he could tell a bruise would be forming, if it hadn't already. "My crappy morning isn't any excuse to take it out on you when you're only being nice. I would prefer not to get into it anymore, though, if that's alright?"
He managed another small smile at her question, because at least that was one he could answer with ease. "I'm a public speaker and an activist. Which is to say I have a podcast and sometimes people actually pay attention to the things I have to say."
"That's completely alright, sugah. You don't even know me. It ain't like I expect ya ta spill yer whole life story. But I've always been a believah in 'if ya don't ask tha answah is always no'. What's tha worst that could happen if ya ask? Nothin' that's gonna break mah heart." Okay, while that might not have been exactly true, this guy didn't know that.
Hearing him actually open up a little bit though had Rory smiling brightly and her eyes lighting up. "Oh that's neat! What kinda activist are ya? An' what podcast? I listen to a couple when I'm doin' paperwork an' whatnot. Maybe it's one I know." She'd be a little excited it if it was. He'd be a bit of a celebrity.
Ford gave a short laugh, tempered by his mood and the fact that laughing kind of hurt right now. "The thing is that when you show up in a town claiming to be a longtime resident's twin brother, your whole life story is exactly what people want to hear."
He pointed at himself. "Being rights. Because, you know, half-vampire." Any other time, he might have hesitated to say it aloud, just in case, but given the recent articles about Thorne, it wasn't exactly a secret when he was wearing the guy's face. He hesitated for half a second before answering the rest, simply because he wasn't used to being open about linking his real life and his fictional life. He'd mostly resigned himself to that changing, but old habits were hard to break. "I'm Gawain Ardalle of My Cross to Bear," he said, changing his voice into the one he always used when representing the vampire. "It's okay if you've never heard of me. Most young, pretty girls haven't."
Ford kept a straight face for half a second before he really did laugh, pressing a hand to his warm cheek. Saying things like that to a real girl was way different than doing it on Wizgram, turned out.
"Yeah well, I ain't most people. I get tha whole 'if I had mah druthers' kinda thang. I mean... I ain't exactly whole human myself." She didn't go into detail for the moment because she didn't know him, but if she could make him feel a little better by letting him in on a part of her secret, maybe that would help.
When he started telling her about My Cross to Bear however, her grin grew. "So yer tha voice behind tha vampire mah old boss was absolutely in love with. I hafta say, yer very good. That is one of tha ones I listen to." Of course, when he started talking in the voice itself and called her pretty, she couldn't help the blush that rose to her cheeks for an entirely different reason. "I can agree with young, but I don't know all that much about pretty. You'll find there's a lot of much more attractive women here than me. I'm just tha breedah healah." It said Ph.D. on all her certificates, but she didn't dote on that. She'd earned the right to call herself doctor, but it never bothered her on what title one chose to use.
Her smile never wavered as he finally seemed to genuinely laugh. "You have a nice laugh." She hadn't meant for it to come out, but it had, and there was no way to reel the words back in. Oh well.
Ford considered her with a bit more interest at that comment, but he didn't ask. It was rude, for one, and none of his business, for another. It didn't stop him from being curious, but that was his problem, not hers.
"Thanks," he said in his normal voice, his tone entirely genuine now. He couldn't help that he was proud of his work. He might have even attempted a little flourish of a bow if he'd been in any other position. "Oh, come on, you're totally pretty. I may not be a suave two-hundred-year-old vampire, but even I have eyes."
He pressed his lips together to keep himself from saying more, and because her compliment had him momentarily speechless. Was this flirting? Like, real flirting? Or just exchanging niceties? Lord, he was so lame for not knowing these things. He was far, far too much out of practice, and what little practice he had was high school practice, and that hardly counted. "You have a nice accent," he said, when he found his voice again. "Is that...Texas?"
"Yer sweet. Thank you." The blush that rose in her cheeks seemed to deepen until she cleared her throat and ran a hand through her curls. "And, yeah. I'm from Port Aransas. It's a beautiful place." And boy, did she miss it every day.
Taking a good swig of her own water, Rory relaxed in the chair once more, letting herself almost melt against it. This whole... well... month had been pretty rough. But wasn't that just the way for most new kids? Just because she was a prodigy didn't make her immune to the regular occurrences that happened in a town like Snowcap.
Rory may have been flirting - just a bit - but that was only because it was a part of her personality. She didn't realize when she was doing it, she just... did it. That wasn't to say that he wasn't a good looking man. He was Thorne's twin and, well, she thought Thorne was attractive as well. "If ya wanted, I could show ya around a little when yer feelin' better. Maybe even fix ya a nice southern home cooked meal." That was her being nice. Or at least, trying.
"I thought about adding a Texan to my cast list, but I had a hard time pinning down which particular regional accent I wanted to grab." Which, okay, was pretty nerdy of him, but since it was literally his job, it was a little easier to excuse. "Maybe someday, though."
Ford looked down at his hands to keep from staring because now that he'd called her pretty, he couldn't help but keep noticing the truth of the statement. This particular case study was teaching him that flirting was more difficult once you named it. "I, uh, have a pretty strict diet, unfortunately. But I wouldn't mind having a tour guide and food of some sort?" He was pretty sure he'd seen the town six times over by now, but what of it?
Rory smirked a little at that. "Well then, how 'bout you just tell me what ya can eat, or what ya can't if that's shortah, an' I'll go about findin' a perfect dinnah dish? Sound good ta you?" She could cook whatever as long as she had a recipe. Sure, she liked to experiment every so often, but she doubted this was one of those times that she could.
"I could take ya around tha reserve too! I bet once ya saw some of tha animals you'd change yer mind about not bein' an animal person." Some of the animals they had here were just too interesting to not be drawn to them. It was different for everyone. "Or, I could take ya through town. Or take ya down tha trail I like ta take walks on through the woods." There were a lot of places she could show him, she just wasn't sure what places she could show him that he might like. A tour was no fun if the tour (and the tour guide) was boring.
"That sounds good, yeah." Ford didn't have the heart to be picky about both food and activities, so he held his tongue where it came to outdoor activities. Maybe he could stay in the shade and wear a bunch of sunscreen. He retrieved his phone from the nearby table and swiped it open to his contacts, then handed it to her with an expression that he hoped was not as sheepish as it felt. "You wanna give me your number, and I can text you when...well, when I'm not in the medical wing?"
When the time came, there was a good chance that Rory would ask him what all he was interested in and go from there. As far as she was concerned, he was the new guy here now. He could be as picky as he wanted and it wouldn't deter her a bit. Just give her a few minutes... or days... she'd remember he was half vampire. She was just kind of intrigued by the newness and the not!Thorne-ness about him. He was very different than his twin from what she was learning as she spoke to him. At least, from what he was currently showing her.
Reaching out to take his phone, Rory opened the contacts up and swiftly added her number to it. A text was sent to her phone right after. "There, now I have you, too." Reaching for her own phone as she handed him back his, she held it up and grinned widely. "Feel like smilin' like yer mama just baked yer favorite pie?"
If he didn't, she wouldn't take the picture. She might get one later when he was feeling up for it. But, if he did, there'd be a brand new contact with a brand new picture attached to it in her phone.
It took Ford a moment to realize she wanted to take a picture of him. He grimaced, knowing he probably didn't look his best at the moment. But then, when did he these days? It wasn't as if a day of rest would get rid of the pale skin and tendency toward looking like he needed to sleep for a real vampire's lifespan. "Um, sure, I guess." He couldn't say the smile was quite favorite-pie bright—especially considering his mom didn't bake, or really cook at all—but it was a smile nonetheless. "Sooo...I guess I'll see you around?"
"Perfect," she chuckled, after looking at the picture and saving it to his contact information, Rory closed her phone and put it away. "You will absolutely see me around. Like I said, I'm a doctor here. Fer tha animals, at least." With a grin, she gave him a wink as she stood and canted her head just slightly to the left. "Since yer givin' me a dismissal of sorts, I figger ya must be tired, so I'll go on ahead an' get back to what I was doin'. I'm lookin' forward to our tour, Ford. It was really nice ta meet ya."
There wasn't an annoyed tone in her voice at all at being somewhat dismissed in a way. She understood. Sometimes people just wanted to be alone for whatever reason. And it wasn’t like she’d actually been invited into the room in the first place. She’d just done what she always did and barged right the hell on in.
Ford watched until she was out the door, then settled back on his pillow and closed his eyes. The day had been such a whirlwind that it was entirely possible he'd hallucinated the whole thing. Except now he couldn't wish that was the case, but the second half hadn't been nearly so bad as the first. Groaning in frustration, he pulled the sheet up a little higher and did his best to relax and sleep just a little longer. He more than needed it.