alternate_girls (alternate_girls) wrote in btvsal, @ 2010-08-14 12:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | david cromwell, place: la, ~mitchie cromwell |
An Unlikely Employee And Unexpected Relation
Who: Mitchie and David
Where: Dave's Garage
When: Wednesday Afternoon - August 4
Mitchie had showed up at her alt!uncle's garage a day later then she had intended. She couldn't just show up out of nowhere and claim to be his niece. Without her having been successful in locating her alt!world father, Mitchie felt that telling David Cromwell who she really was would have the man thinking she had a more then a couple bolts loose and should be locked up. Good fortune seemed to be shining down on the teen because when she approached the business she found that a help wanted sign had been placed in the window. Getting a bit more nerve Mitchie entered the main of the garage.
David, at the moment, was laying on his back, underneath a custom bike he had been tinkering with for a few days. He'd been in a better mood recently than he'd been in for a while: Sarah had gotten away from Saints & Sinners and was working her own shop now, and they seemed to be growing closer and closer, despite the individual baggage they both carried into the relationship. He slid out from under the bike, and was just sitting up to dust some dirt from his hands when he saw the young woman walking in.
"Hey there... Can I help ya, miss?"
Mitchie had verged on answering with asking for the owner when she glanced in the direction from which the voice came. The voice had the slight familiarity to it, but seeing the guy under the bike, well there was no question who she was in the same room with.
"Yeah," the red head started as she took a couple steps closer tucking strands of red behind an ear, "I was wondering about the help wanted sign I saw in the window."
"Seriously?" He asked before giving a little sigh. "Sorry... didn't mean that to sound sexist... I just meant it'd be kind of nice to have a female touch around here... right now it's just me and my niece's boyfriend running the place."
He extended a huge hand to her, that grin, while terrifying, having a slightly teddy-bear feel to it.
"I'm Dave. Dave Cromwell."
Though it hadn't been intended, Mitchie gawked at the man a moment before finding her voice and offering her hand out. "I'm Michelle, though most call me Mitchie." The teen managing a smile with her introduction. It hadn't been that she was surprised by his size, it was just coming face to face with her alt!uncle had Mitchie momentarily at a loss for words.
"How much you know about bikes, kid?" He asked, that voice gruff but somehow... gentle. He had a soft spot for girls, always did. Treated them like princesses, despite his usual brutal nature. Perhaps that would explain his affection for Lucy.
"Not much I don't know about them." Mitchie let her gaze trail away from the man for a brief moment to give a glance around the shop. "Learned what I know from the best back from where I come from." The teen stated letting her eyes connect once more to the mechanic's.
"Tell ya what, kid..." He said, looking fairly amused by her confidence. "Lemme see how fast you can strip and clean the engine on that Harley right there. I like ya enough to offer you a job here... but I gotta see you in action before I let you near the vehicles."
The girl shot him an 'are you kidding me?' "Got the tools?" Wasn't like the process could be done with just her bare hands, and Mitchie didn't exactly have the required tools on her person at the moment.
Oh, what a shitty little grin he gave her there. He used his foot to move a rather... heavy-looking toolbox easily over to her. "Have at it, champ. Let's see what ya got."
Mitchie grabbed the handle of the tool box and lugged it over to where the bike was stationed. Not bothering to ask for a set of coveralls, the red head really wasn't caring if what she was wearing got stained or not, Mitchie opened the tool box and set to work on the engine.
The girl worked steady and silently for the next half hour and only when she had completed the task assigned her did Mitchie glance over to Dave with quite the victorious smile on her slightly smudged face.
"Well hot damn, girl." He said, whistling a little as he raised an eyebrow. "Talk about fate... you took that damn thing apart the same way *I* do. Step by step. Almost like I taught ya or someth...." He blinked then, his mind racing back to Blake and Bastian. "Crap.... where ya from again, honey?"
Was there any surprise about that? Mitchie had learned to take bikes apart and reconstruct them by her father and uncle Dave. So technically the man had taught her the mechanics behind motorcycles.
Wasn't like she could just blurt out that she was from L.A from a timeline in the future. "From up north." Mitchie settled with.
"Just... yeah. Nevermind. I met a couple girls from... my family.... recently that made me think... you know? Before I sound crazy, nevermind. When can you start?" He found himself wondering (hoping?) if maybe he and Sarah had some future!daughter walking around now... and found a smile creeping onto his face.
"Made you think what?" The teen questioned with a crook of a brow. Was he trying to get at what she thought he might be getting at? She hadn't been the only future!kid that had slipped through the timelines that had a connection to the man. If he had already met a couple of them then things might just be a little easier for the red haired teen.
"Trust me, it's crazy. I guess maybe I thought for a minute that you were with them. The girls I was talking about. I sound like an idiot now. Sorry." Ok, so maybe the big lug was just hoping that maybe one day he and Sarah had a happily ever after. SHUT UP.
She had an opening, so it was now or never. And with that thought Mitchie inhaled a deep breath before letting the words out. "Sure you can handle two Cromwells working under one roof." The teen fidgeted a bit with a shove of her hands into the front pockets of her jeans as she smiled tentatively to the man.
"Oh man." He felt his heart swell, the big doof. But sadly, he was thinking something slightly different. "Are you... I mean... the hair and all... are you from... me and Sarah?" He found himself hoping more and more that was the case.
The girl's face fell then. The last thing Mitchie wanted to do was disappoint the big bear of a man. But there was no way she was going to lie to her uncle. "I'm sorry. We're not related in that way."
Aw. The poor bear of a man made himself not frown, because he loved his family. All of them. And never wanted to seem otherwise. "Hey... it's ok. So... how'd you come to know my super-secret engine techniques, kid? Lay it on me."
"You taught them to me." A smile brightening the teens features once more with that revelation. "You and my father taught me all I know about cars and motorcycles."
"Heh. I bet. I always did love kids. So who's you dad, exactly? I don't wanna make any more stupid assumptions..." He had some obvious suspicions now, but kept them to himself.
"Joshua Cromwell. Your brother." At least she was hoping this timeline was a reflection of her future one. Just because she had failed in locating her father here didn't necessarily mean he didn't, or hadn't, existed.
"...my brother..." He said in an almost shocked sigh. "He... he's been missing. Here, I mean. Nobody's seen him for close to 6 years." David said in as calm a voice as he could, reaching over to sweetly pat her on the shoulder.
"Probably why I kept hitting dead ends in my search for him." Mitchie smiled faintly to her uncle. "At least I found you." At least she had found a little bit of light at the end of the dark tunnel she had traveled. "And your girlfriend seems real nice."
"You met my Sarah?" Aww. HIS Sarah. David really WAS a big teddybear when you got to know him. And didn't give him reason to want to kill you. "Yeah.. she's... she's a real gem. I dunno how the hell I ended up with her..."
"In my search for you, yeah." Mitchie smiled softly to her bear of an uncle. "It was because of her that I was led here. Though she didn't quite know who I was. As far as Sarah was concerned I was merely a prospective client for her." And not that getting a tattoo had just been a line served to the artist, Mitchie was giving serious thought to having a part of her anatomy permanently branded.
"Heh. If you get inked, you're lettin' me pay for it. No questions." So what? To him... this was serious bonding, ok? "Only reason I'm buyin' this so easily is because I've already met kids belonging to Neely, Ben, and Brandon..."
"Bastian, Blake, Brayden, Brandie and Kim? You've met the lot of them?" Mitchie asked with a little bit of interest. It kind of surprised her that with her Uncle David having met those Bale offspring that he hadn't met Brenna.
Sadly, Brenna and he hadnt had the opportunity to truly meet... although one suspected that gave a great opening for a crossover with another certain game. Shh.
"Yeah... there's a coupla kids that came with them that I haven't had a chance to really meet yet... but I'm aware of the situation." He said, trying to be as delicate about it as he really could.
"So," Mitchie fidgeted a bit shoving her hands into the hip pockets of her jeans, "now that you know we're kind of related any chance I could coax a hug out of you?" The teen smiling sheepishly at her future!uncle.
"Please... this is me. C'mere, kiddo." He pulled her to him, hugging her and wishing, not for the first or likely last time, that this was HIS child. "Anything you need, I'm here. I promise."
Mitchie hugged him back squealing with delight when David Cromwell pulled her into a bear hug. She had grown up loving the hugs her uncle generously gave out, and even though she was in her latter teen years, Mitchie felt she'd never outgrow those loving hugs.
"There is one thing." And Mitchie was a bit hesitant about bringing the matter up. Wasn't like she had stayed with the others who came through to this timeline, Mitchie had actually been on her own since arriving from the future.
"Anything. I meant it, kiddo... whatever you need, if I can't provide it, I'll find someone who can." Which, really, was his nice way of saying he'd threaten the piss out of Ben until HE provided it.
"Could kind of use a place to stay for a bit." That sheepish smile of hers then crept back up to tug at the edges of her mouth. She didn't like having to ask, but having a place she felt safe in, and provided a roof over her head was better then the alternative she had sometimes had to deal with.
"Like you need to ask twice, kid." David said with a big, friendly grin. "Consider my place yours. And if you need help finding some new friends here, I can ask Lucy to show you around..."
"You'll hardly know I'm there." The teen promised with a smile. "And who's Lucy?" Mitchie knew for a fact that the mentioned girl had been part of the small group that had jumped from one world to the other.
"Probably m'best friend." He said, knowing some people found it odd that he spent time with a sixteen year old girl. "She... kinda reminds me of the little sister I lost when I was a kid. So I ended up bonding with her, and I try to keep her safe."
"You know you're a big ole grizzly bear with the heart of a teddy." Mitchie smiled softly to her uncle before the teen moved to hug the big guy again.