Alec Fox (theonlylaw) wrote in genome_project, @ 2010-05-08 22:32:00 |
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Current mood: | okay |
Entry tags: | may 2010 |
Who: Alec and NPC!Louise (thanks Willow!)
What: When the cat's away the mice will play. (Only not because Alec <3's his wife)
When: Saturday evening
Where: Mainland
Status: Complete
Rating: PG
Getting away from the island was always a strange thing, reminded Alec that there was a world outside of the carefully constructed make believe fantasy that the project had created.
He would have been back within a day had the seas not been deemed unsafe for travel, something about a storm. In Maine? How surreal. Alec just hoped it hadn’t touched the island or if it had that the people he cared about were safe.
He’d tried texting but for whatever reason his cell kept telling him that he had no signal.
Durden was now in the right hands and he was restlessly pacing the length and width of his hotel room clad in nothing but a pair of jeans and a white wife beater, bare feet against the carpeted floor.
Alec leaned against the nearby window and cast his eyes out towards the sea, trying to see if he could see anything beyond the ugly dark cloud hovering in the sky above. Fuck, he should be at home, where he could keep his wife and his son safe.
“Fuck this,” Alec muttered as he turned away and picked up a shirt along with socks and shoes, determined to take his mind off worry one way or another. He found his way to a nearby bar and perched on a stool, ordering himself a glass of whiskey.
He rubbed a hand through his hair and just adjusted the way his glasses sat, taking a moment to survey his surroundings.
He was alone for the first glass of alcohol that he had, but the bartender dropped another one down in front of him with a smile, tilting his head at a brunette wearing a long black dress on the other side of the bar to where Alec was.
"This one's from her," he said with a smile, glancing back at her again. "Man, you're lucky."
When she knew the drink had been passed over, she looked at Alec and smiled, sliding off her chair and walking over, letting down her hair and pulling her glasses off, sliding them into their case and putting them back in her purse.
"Hey." she said, sitting down on the stool next to him, "Anybody sitting here?"
Alec lifted his head as a fresh glass of alcohol was placed down in front of him, lifting an eyebrow at the bartender’s comment. He turned his head as the brunette approached and he watched her as she made herself comfortable next to him.
“Nah, nobody.” He picked up the glass and took a sip. “Thanks for the drink, but pretty sure I oughta be buying you drinks.”
He offered a hand and a slanted smile. “Alec.”
"Drinking alone?" She asked, her own eyebrow lifting, "A guy like you, that seems almost like a crime." She brushed her hair back over her shoulder, exposing the graceful curve of her neck. "And don't worry, you can get the next one."
She turned on the stool, crossing her legs. She rested one elbow on the bar and took hold of his hand with her own. Her long nails were manicured.
"Louise. What brings you to town, drinking alone?"
Alec noticed, it had been a while since he’d last seen a woman with manicured nails, but he couldn’t help but feel that it seemed fake, insincere. He liked a woman who could present herself to the world as she was without all the fakery. Like his wife, Lily.
“Business,” Alec answered with a smirk. “I should be out of here by tomorrow morning.” Fingers crossed.
He took a sip from his glass and rubbed his thumb along his lower lip.
"So we have tonight," Louise said, leaning a little closer. "What business are you in, Alec?" She waved a hand at the bartender, ordering herself another drink, whiskey. She liked her drinks hard.
She watched him for a moment, taking a slow sip of her drink and running her tongue over her lower lip, putting the glass down on the table.
Alec was well aware of how close she was and how she was predatory in her actions, he might have spent a large part of his life on a small island as of late, but he knew women and he knew how they worked.
“Me?” He asked, turning his head to look at Louise from beneath a pane of glass. “I’m in the…” What business was he in? “Transportation business.” That was one way of putting what he’d done with the Durden man.
He tipped his head. “And you?”
"So you travel a lot?" Louise asked, actually looking like she was interested in what he was saying and what he did for a living.
She took another sip of her drink, watching Alec over the rim of her glass. "I'm a forensic scientist." She lifted a shoulder and put her glass down on the counter again, dragging her finger around the rim slowly
“Yeah,” Alec answered. “I guess you could say that.” He was still nursing a couple bruises and cuts from his earlier altercation with the Durden man, still feeling a little pissed off about that.
He lifted his eyebrows when she mentioned what she did for a living. “Wow, that’s impressive. Bet you could tell me a hundred things about this place or me just by looking at it, huh?”
"And if you gave me your shoes, I'd be able to tell you a lot about where you've been too," Louise said with a small smile. She looked him up and down, catching sight of the cut on his lower lip and then the cuts on his knuckles. It was easy enough to see he'd been in a fight, and there was a chip of pain on his shoe: she was tempted to lean down and pick it up, but that would have been creepy.
She shrugged, "But it's your clothes I'd need if I was going to actually find out anything about you." She laughed softly and took another drink, "And I think you've probably got another job by the way that you drink your whiskey, and that you're missing someone right now."
She was good, really good.
“You’re good,” Alec said with a smile. “Really good actually.” He tipped his glass to his lips and took a couple slow swallows, draining it completely. “Your lab is lucky to have you.”
He rested the now empty glass back on the bar and checked his phone again, frowning as there was still no signal. Jesus, what would it take to get a couple bars of signal?
Her eyes slid across to his hand, spotting the ring sitting on his left ring finger as he looked for his phone. "I'm guessing the person you're missing is your wife?" she asked, eyebrow lifted.
Seeing the frustration on his face, she reached for her own phone. "Strange," she said, knocking the button that would set her cell to search for signal again. "Might just be the part of the bar we're sat in." She shook her head, "I'm sure your wife'll be alright without you for one night."
“Perceptive,” Alec remarked with a small laugh. “But, yeah, my wife would be the person I’m missing.” Even if at one time he would have done anything to be rid of her. Not anymore.
He ordered himself another drink and looked at Louise. “You want another?”
"How long have you two been married?" Louise asked, knocking back the rest of her drink and nodding, "Please. Same again." She smiled, sharp at the edge. She leaned forward a little. "Must be hard, being away from her so often."
“Fifteen years,” Alec supplied easily enough. He didn’t count the first two years that they’d spent hating everything about each other, he’d almost asked to be transferred off the project, but thankfully he hadn’t.
He tapped his thumb against his glass and nodded his head. “Yeah, it is.”
Alec inhaled and turned to look at Louise. “How about you, Louise? You got anybody waiting at home?”
"Do you not get lonely?" Louise asked. From what little she'd seen of Alec, he was a social man, and he liked women. That much she could tell from having spoken to him for all of ten minutes, the way he'd greeted her. "And no, nobody waiting for me, my job doesn't make it easy for a relationship."
Alec thanked the bartender as he came back around and refilled his glass whilst giving Louise exactly the same as before, taking payment from Alec. “Easy to ignore once I’m home and with my wife again.” He took a sip from his glass and turned blue eyes towards Louise. “That’s gotta suck. You know what they say about being all work and no play.”
"Oh, it's not that I don't play," Louise said with a flirtatious smile. "After all, I've seen The Shining, I know what that kind of stuff does to you." She lifted a shoulder, wondering if she should stop hitting on him. Probably, actually, considering he was obviously a guy in love. There was a twitch to the corner of his mouth when he said 'my wife', like he was constantly surprised and glad that he could call her that. She even leaned back a little, taking a sip of her new drink.
Alec chuckled at Louise’s response, picking up his glass to take another long sip. “Yeah, that guy did go batshit crazy.” He checked his phone again and shook his head, apparently this bar ate signal. He scratched behind his ear and looked over at Louise. “Thinking I should call it a night, got an early start tomorrow.”
Louise tilted her head to look at him and then just nodded. "You finally getting to go home?" she asked, "You look antsy. How long've you been away?" She took a sip of her whiskey and rubbed at her earring.
It was pathetic, it really was. “Not that long at all.” He picked up his glass and tipped it to his mouth, swallowing what was left of the alcohol. “But let’s pretend I didn’t say that.” He flashed a disarming smile and then rose to his feet, offering a hand to the pretty Louise. “It’s been a pleasure.”
Louise laughed softly and shook his hand, clasping it between hers. She returned his smile with one of her own that was equally disarming. "Pleasure's all mine, Alec," she said honestly. "Have a good trip back, your secret's safe with me."
Alec smiled. “You have a good night.” And with that he let go of her hand and made his way to the door, rummaging out a packet of cigarettes that he shouldn’t have because he told Lily he quit and a lighter. There were a few benefits to being away from home, just a few.