WHO Blaze Wolfe & May Ryan WHEN August 14th, after this WHERE The woods. SUMMARY Blaze and May indulge in some mild speculation while they look for Ty. WARNINGS None.
In the town of Fall City, May had a lot of connections. An unreasonable amount. Public servants to news sources to one of her all-time favorite people ever who happened to be on the film crew that was currently taking up space in the town limits. They weren't always forthcoming with information and May didn't always count on them when it came to expediently giving her details on recent events, but she was lucky. In this one, small way, she had built in resources.
A sense of community was always reliable, though. People saw things before they knew how important they were and they cared enough to give it attention. They could sound an alarm before the sirens were finished blaring. May still felt like an outsider in the community, but she had some ideas on how to get insider info.
When her phone rang at 4am and the woman's voice on the other end told her about the fire at Hunter Tyler’s place, there could have been at least two more beautiful hours of sleep before May knew that there would be any kind of information released to the people who wanted it. In Seattle, this wouldn't make a headline. It wasn't important. But she thought that it was interesting.
If there wasn't a missing man, May wouldn't have worried. And just because there was one, that wasn't enough to get her out of bed, immediately. But there was someone scared and alone out there. If not by that alone, May knew too many people who would have leapt to help to just ignore it.
So, there she was. Walking through the woods, the soft leaves cushioning her footsteps. She'd almost grabbed a coat and some boots before remembering that this wasn't a movie; it was Washington in August, not January in Alaska. Her sneakers and a light sweater was all she needed.
Well, that and a thermos of coffee, now sitting empty in her car, and a handful of snacks she'd stuffed into her bag. Seeing a recognizable face a few feet ahead, May hurried to walk beside him. Offering Blaze a granola bar, she said, “Crazy morning, right?”
“Yeah.” Blaze breathed. That was putting it mildly. Still, he managed to muster a smile for May, before he took the granola bar. He was worried about Ty. “You want to take a dog?” He was holding two leashes. Both of the dogs were very interested in the granola bar.
“Yes.” Her voice was resolute. “Yes, I do.” She grabbed one of the leashes from Blaze and followed it until she was scratching the head of one of the enthusiastic doggos. May decided that this made her morning better by about a thousand times infinity, which she thought was a totally plausible calculation. Glancing back up at Blaze with a small smile, May asked, “Do you know Ty?” Hunter Tyler was the name she'd been given over the phone, but that wasn't what she'd heard anyone call him since she arrived.
She looked sooooooo tired. Blaze smiled a little against his concern for his missing bandmate. With only one leash, Blaze was better able to take the granola bar. Since Blaze didn’t want to stand there and read the ingredient list in front of her, he just put it in his pocket for now. He looked at the brush and tried to figure out which way Ty might take. In the end, he settled for the direction no one was currently going. “We could try this way?”
May glanced at Blaze thoughtfully when he put the breakfast bar away, but she didn't say anything. Any other time, she might have asked about it, but she figured that given the circumstances, food maybe wasn't top of his mind. Anyway, it was early enough that she had to prioritize what she cared about. When he suggested a direction, May nodded. “Let's do it. I’ll follow you. The irony of getting lost on a search party is too much, even for me.” There was a spark of humor in a grin that quickly faded away while she scanned the area. She wasn't sure if this would be as easy as seeing a patch of fabric caught on a tree branch, but she could always hope. “I’ve actually never done something like this before. Are search parties common in Fall City?”
Blaze shook his head. “Not like this.” There was the occasional dumb kid who got away from his parents and went playing in the woods and didn't know to follow the sound of that river. But kids didn't usually run away into the woods. Let alone adults. Not with the legends. “Ty's not lost. He's hiding.”
May’s nod was almost automatic; this seemed… pretty unusual, even for Fall City. It was an absent gesture at odds with the sharp way that her eyes cut to him when he described what he thought was happening. She hadn't thought to think of it that way, but Blaze wasn't wrong. It made sense. When she looked up at the canopy, it was with a slightly different perspective. “Because of the fire?” Shaking her head, she added, “Not that that wouldn't be enough, obviously.”
“Yeah,” Blaze said. “The fire probably really spooked him this time.” He frowned as he lead the dog through the trees. Blaze wondered if the firefighters had gotten the fire completely out yet. Mostly, he wondered about the cause.
“This time?” May asked, while the dog lead her through the trees. It seemed like he definitely knew Ty. And he knew a lot that she didn't. She thought that Val had been one of the firefighters on the scene; maybe she'd ask him some questions later. “What do you think started the fire?”
“Usually, it’s pizza boxes in the oven. But since Ty was asleep this time, I don’t know.” Fires tended to follow Ty around. Blaze thought that Ty probably started the fire in his sleep. But since that was a private issue, he didn’t know if Ty would be cool with him telling May about it. Especially since she was a reporter. “I’m just glad he and the dogs got out.” And wishing that Ty had gotten someone to stay with him so that it wouldn’t have happened.
“Oh.” May thought about that for a second. “Yeah. I mean, sure. Accidents happen.” Setting pizza boxes on fire was one of the things that she hadn't ever done, but she could… maybe see how it happened? Blaze’s definite friend Ty had some bad luck. She kind of hoped that it wasn't his fault. Her nod was firm in agreement with his next remark, though. “Yeah, definitely. Hopefully Ty’s okay. Can you tell me a little more about him?”
“Are you writing an article or are you just curious?” Was Blaze on the record?
“Just curious.” May wasn't currently planning on writing an article about this. Anything he told her was relatively safe. “We can talk about something else, if you want.”
“He’s a good guy,” Blaze said. “Really, really, smart but spacey. Good with animals. He’s lost almost all of his family and he’s been through a lot, but he tries to do good things for the people around him.”
She nodded while Blaze spoke. Ty sounded like the kind of guy you'd want to look for. She thought about that for a moment, while she navigated around a fallen branch. “He sounds like a good guy. If this is something other than some cardboard in the oven, I hope his credibility isn't undermined.” The look May gave Blaze was compassionate. “Although if it is, maybe some lifestyle changes would be good. Either way, I’m here to listen on the record if any of you want to talk about it.”
Blaze hoped it wasn’t too. He suspected that Ty was the one who started the fire, but he couldn’t say that out loud. “If Ty agrees to it and talks to you, I would.” An article wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and May was a good journalist and it seemed like she was offering to try and fix Ty’s image if the worst happened, which was really nice of her. But Ty was also a really private person. Blaze wasn’t sure how he’d respond to a journalist being interested. “Thanks.”
“No problem. It's what I do.” May glanced at Blaze with a small smile and a wink. Some people really liked to get their stories out there, but others were understandably more hesitant. May couldn't knock that.
But first, they had to find him. She was starting to get the impression that even when they did, though, a lot more searching was going to be needed before they could really help Ty out.