Noa Bellamy (sharpthings) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-07-05 23:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [06] june, noa bellamy, theodore greenling |
Who: Noa Bellamy and TJ Greenling
Where: Dog Park
What: Noa wants to fix up Jonny’s Dyna, so she finds TJ to help her.
When: [backdated] 6/8/19, early afternoon.
Noa knew the idea was maybe a touch more harebrained than she was typically, but Jonny’s bike had been gathering dust beneath a tarp for too long, and it wasn’t honoring him any to let the thing rust out from disuse. The Harley had been his baby, which had been part of why she’d kept from passing it on to another member of the MC. The only problem was Noa didn't know how to make it run. She had tried to start it and the engine wouldn’t turn over. Not a problem when there was more than a handful of men capable of looking it over for her, but somewhat more of a problem when she considered the multitude of questions she might have to answer from most of them, which narrowed it down to only the ones that hadn’t ridden with her man when he’d been alive. Until eventually, after some consideration she’d decided to track down TJ. From what she’d heard around the park he was real good with mechanical things, so a motorcycle that wouldn’t run was probably a cakewalk. Noa hoped that was the case, at least. “You got a minute?” she asked TJ, once she’d tracked him down near his trailer. TJ glanced over when he heard her speak. He'd heard the footsteps, sure, but people were always walking by without much attention paid so he never took that as much of a signal someone was coming by to talk to him. He shut the window he'd been messing with, trying to get it not to stick when it got opened, and brushed his hands off against his jeans as he turned to be able to give Noa his full attention. "Yeah, 'course. What can I do for ya?" Noa smiled, reserved around the edges. Wondering for only a minute if she’d really interrupted something important, and whether it was southern boy manners that had compelled him to give her some time. She was used to southern men and the ways they operated. “I got a bike that won’t run,” she admitted. “And I don’t got a clue how to get it running, but I’d like to. Do you have some time to take a look at it, sweetheart?” She leaned a hip against the trailer, relaxed, but also guarded in the same usual way that was second nature to her. “I heard you were real good with that kind of thing.” Her question was one that made him smile. TJ was never entirely sure what to expect when it came to questions from people there in the Dog Park - there was so much they could possibly be. Mechanics of a bike? That he could do, and easily. He much preferred when he got asked things he was certain he could handle. "Well whoever said that was nice," he said, a little smile quirking at the corners of his mouth. "I can take a look at it, no problem. Did ya want me to now? I've got nothing going on, plenty of time." TJ’s smile relaxed her a little, gave her more of an idea of him, if that made sense. Even if it didn't, it did to her. “If you're sure you can come back to that sticky window later,” she replied, her tone wry and her mouth just a hair more relaxed than it had been moments before. But she barely gave a minute for him to rethink the offer before she turned on her heels, waited only long enough to make sure he was coming, then made her way back through the tents and trailers to her own airstream. “It’s been covered, but the dust and heat is something else ‘round here.” Noa pulled part of the tarp backwards and revealed the front tire and handles of the Harley. TJ followed her easily, weaving their way through all the different various residences to get to hers. While there was always a chance he wouldn’t be able to help, he was fairly certain he would. He’d had a lot of work with vehicle mechanics over the years and the past several months had been with motorcycles alone. Unless there was something wrong with it that couldn’t be fixed at all, he was confident he’d be able to fix it. He tilted his head to look down as Noa pulled back the tarp, his eyes going over the parts of it exposed. “Yeah, those are both pretty bad,” he agreed, running his fingers along the handles as he glanced over to her. “When was the last time you tried to start it up? Did it sputter or try to go or just nothin’?” “This morning. It acted like it might turn over, but wouldn’t catch,” Noa replied without a pause, familiar enough with the terms from years of living with a mechanic, but without a clue how to remedy the problem. She could fix up the motors on her own equipment just fine, but the bike was a different beast. “It’s been sitting a year, and I don’t know if they really did more than put it under the tarp.” Noa couldn't recall who had been responsible for that in the aftermath of Jonny's death. She made quick work of the rest of the tarp, then folded it up and set it to the side, on a lawn chair. Beside that, on the ground, was a toolbox that she’d hauled from her shop. Most of Jonny’s tools were kept with the rest of tools that the Dog Park had acquired, but her man had always kept a box in her shop so he could tinker with things at his leisure. "Alright, good," TJ murmured in response, more to himself than anything. The fact that it had tried to turn over was a good sign, much better than nothing at all. At least the bike wasn't dead dead. With it having sat for so long, he was willing to bet the problem was something simple. It looked in good enough shape once she pulled the tarp off. "Mind if I give it a try to see? Then I might have a better idea before I start pokin' around." “Honey, you do whatever you want,” Noa replied with a small ‘be my guest’ hand gesture before she settled on the steps of her trailer. “I ain’t expecting you to be able to divine the problem just by gazing at it.” If he’d been capable of that than she would have considered talk of his skills undersold by quite a lot. “There’s a box of tools by the chair, if you need ‘em.” The dented metal toolbox was hard to miss in the dirt. TJ offered her a smile before turning his attention fully to the bike in front of him. His own was a Harley, so he was plenty familiar with the mechanics and more standard problems that might have come up. He tried to start it up on his own - not that he didn't believe her but to hear exactly what happened when he did, and once it failed to go he pulled the box of tools over to have nearby as he worked on getting a closer look at the engine. There was plenty of dirt and dust in places it shouldn't be, but that was to be expected. More than anything he was ruling out potential problems with each bolt in place. "It's been sittin' here for how long?" he asked, glancing over to her from where he was crouched down beside it. “About a year and a half, give or take a few months,” Noa told him. “It belonged to Jonny, my husband, and when he died they rolled it over here and covered it up.” She was never sure how much Jonny was still a conversation around the Dog Park, it’d been long enough that she didn’t expect every new face to recognize it, even if they sat at the table with the rest of the officers. “I’m sorry to hear that,” TJ said quietly. The name was familiar, but so many names were thrown around of people he’d never had the chance to meet, and keeping them straight in his head was hard enough without remembering the connections remaining there in the Park. His thumb absently pushed in against the wedding band on his finger, the metal pressing into his skin and leaving an indent when his thumb moved away. Sentiments of sympathy had become common place for Noa, so she only acknowledged it with a small quirk of her mouth. She had noticed the ring that TJ wore, but it didn’t feel like the moment to ask. Maybe later. “That’s a long time for a bike to sit, even in a place not quite so hot as this. Gas maybe evaporated out, but either way it’s old - oil too. First thing’s gonna be to flush those out and refill with new, see if that does any good. I have some back at my place I can get.” It felt obvious that she should have checked those things, but Noa didn’t spend a lot of time berating herself for missing them. It wasn’t like TJ judged her any for it, and Jonny certainly wasn’t judging her from somewhere beyond, so letting it go felt most right. “You need a hand carrying it back?” she asked, already halfway to standing. TJ hadn't expected her to help him carry anything, and he didn't want to make her, but she'd offered and thinking about the amount of stuff he'd need made it make sense to have two pairs of hands. It would be quicker and easier, at any rate. “Sure, if you don't mind,” he replied, straightening up and straightening his arms up above his head until his back popped, glad to not be hunched over for the time being as they started back toward his trailer. “Shouldn't be too much.” Once they reached TJ’s trailer, Noa waited while he gathered things, and as promised took her fair share when it was split between the two of them. It really wasn’t much of a struggle, even in the heat of the Greenbelt to haul it all back to the bike. “I owe you anything for the oil and fuel?” she asked once they were back, and she was seated on her steps again. Duke had ambled back sometime between when they had left and come back, and he was sprawled in the shade at her feet. “You’re already doing enough, I wouldn’t want to short change you.” More than likely Ruth even had some in the hangars that Noa could trade for. Along with the oil and gas, TJ grabbed spare oil and air filters just in case, not wanting to have to make a trip back again. Once they were back to Noa’s, he got everything organized and set to work draining the oil from the bike, which didn't take long to do at all since there didn't seem to be much inside. Not much of a surprise. “Nah, that's alright, I've got more,” he replied with a shrug, switching out the oil filter and grabbing one of the bottles to refill the oil tank. “Besides, I haven't even got it working yet.” He discarded the empty bottles to the side before moving on to the gas tank, well practiced, calloused hands making quick work to drain it out before he removed it completely to be able to get a better look inside and make sure there wasn't anything wrong after sitting for so long. “Hopefully this is all it needs and you'll be ready to go.” It was an old routine for Noa, watching the mechanics of bike repair, so she wasn’t watching TJ closely, but every so often she looked his way, impressed with how he hadn’t been oversold after all. If the Dyna ran by the end of it, whether he thought so or not Noa felt she’d owe him. “Fingers crossed,” she replied with her elbows propped on her knees. “If it doesn’t I might just get a visit from beyond the grave,” she added as a wry joke. If there really was an afterlife, of that she wasn’t all that sold on. TJ smiled a little at that, getting a bit of renewed hope he could get it working - which he didn't doubt he could. Watching him work for a few more minutes, Noa eventually decided to ask the question she hadn’t wanted to ask before when they’d been talking about Jonny. “Did you lose someone?” She held her left hand up and tapped at the ring she still wore, to indicate that she’d noticed his. “If you don’t mind me asking.” TJ glanced over, catching the gesture to her ring and automatically rubbing his thumb against his own. Losing was an interesting choice of words, and one that made him nip at the inside of his lip as the corners of his mouth twitched. “I guess I did,” he started slowly, his gaze shifting to the gas tank he was reattaching since he hadn't found anything extra wrong with it. “Not that she's dead, I don't think. I hope not. Lost in the sense that I don't know where she is.” Noa hummed thoughtfully. “Sometimes I think that’s worse,” she replied. “I don’t spend much time these days wondering about Jonny, ‘cause I know what happened. But having question marks would get my mind churning up all sorts of what-ifs.” She wasn’t going to pry further, content with what he’d given her as an answer. If TJ wanted to tell more, she’d listen, though. “I think about her all the time,” TJ said after a moment, crouching down behind the bike to get all the bolts properly affixed, but his gaze flickered over top of it to her for a moment before moving down again. “Got all kinds of what-ifs, but no idea if I'll ever find answers. I found her once, and that was with having a good idea where to start looking. Now it's a crap shoot.” “You love her?” Noa asked, instead of saying something about fate. She thought some things were fated, but it’d been proven enough to her that she believed some choices were all their own without fate getting her hands in their and mixing it all up. “Had to wonder if there was a reason you ain’t been giving the bitches much time.” That she’d noticed, and only because some of them were such gossips that she’d spent some time giving a few a dressing down about what was and wasn’t their business. “I do,” TJ replied easily. It was complicated, but he knew for certain that he loved her. Now whether she loved him still, that was a different story. One made messy by the fact that he could guarantee she didn't know he was alive. It had been a mess before he got bit, though. “And yeah, that'd be why.” “Aint’ too many faithful men ‘round here.” No judgement, just fact. There were plenty of men like Vic, who made monogamy look easy, but there were also plenty that even with a wife or girlfriend they wandered without a second thought. “You might of noticed.” TJ gave a little noise of acknowledgement as he double checked his handiwork before getting up and reaching for the gas can he'd brought over. He was well aware of the tendencies of most of the people who lived in the Dog Park, but all he'd ever really cared about was them letting him be. Having to give a gentle reminder or two didn't bother him, as long as no one tried to push it. “Yeah, I noticed.” Leaning back, Noa laughed softly and raised her eyebrows. “Do I need to be having a few conversations?” she asked curiously. It wasn’t always her place to keep the girls in line, and she was fairly confident that TJ could do it himself, if it was necessary, but it never hurt to ask. TJ chuckled softly and gave a shake of his head, bringing up a hand to rake his hair away from his face as he looked over to her. “Nah. It was more trouble when I first got here, but not much a ‘no thank you’ couldn't get turned around.” Reading him for a moment, she gave an easy smile and an, “If you’re sure.” Before she let it go. Then she watched him fill the tank on the bike, a funny little spark of anticipation building in her gut as she waited, and metaphorical fingers crossed that it was something simple like he’d thought it was. Her hopes weren’t high enough that if it sputtered on stalled they’d end up somewhere in the sole of her boots, but she had a good feeling about it, even if it was only built on the amount of cursing TJ had done, or rather hadn’t done. Once the tank was filled he moved back to the engine to check the air filter, which was completely caked with dirt. It was easy enough to change that out, clear around the area to get any lingering dirt out of the system, and then everything was put together again the way it had started. But cleaner. He gave everything a once over before getting back onto the bike and testing it out, and it took a few tries but then the engine roared to life with a familiar rumble. In a rare show of excitement, Noa gave an audible exclamation and a victory fist at the purr of the Dyna, her face near split in half with a smile. “You’re a godsend, honey,” she told TJ, while she kept actual tears at bay. She hadn't thought that hearing Jonny’s bike run would be emotional, but sometimes she surprised even herself. “I know where to come looking if it acts up again.” TJ was just glad he'd been able to get it working for her, and that it hadn't been anything too complicated. He shut it off and offered her a smile, shrugging a shoulder. “I've got a good bit of experience, I'm just glad I could help. If it gives you any trouble, let me know.” “Sure thing,” Noa replied, a weight lifted off her shoulders now that she knew the bike ran. “You’ll be the first one I search out.” |