Capt. Babs Greenling (is a ray of f'ing sunshine) (bite_sized) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-07-11 17:12:00 |
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TJ wasn't sure his heart had stopped racing since Kaleo first showed up around that food truck. It was luck he'd been there, he knew that. And he hadn't wanted to get his hopes up that Kaleo meant Babs, but it was all he'd been able to think about since he saw his dog. She had to be around somewhere. He didn't believe for a second there was any way she could have been killed, so the dog meant she was there, somewhere. And then she'd replied to him, and he hadn't wanted to say it was him, not like that. Letting your wife know you were alive, after she shot you and left you for dead, was not something one did over the freenet.
So he got on his bike, left the Greenbelt on his own and rode for the place she told him she'd meet him. He didn't have the dog, but he hoped she'd understand.
Everything seemed dusty to Babs: maybe it was the changing seasons, or because she’d been in LBJ’s clinic for too long. She’d lost weight, to the point of looking far sicker than was possibly healthy; her scrubs seemed ready to slip off at any moment. Her hair was limp, even wrapped up in a loose bun. Every part of her was was sore from moving so much: sure she’d walked around LBJ, but she hadn’t run or experienced stress like Kaleo running off in a while.
The meeting place was a dogpark a few miles away from LBJ. It was flat with limited trees or places for anyone to hide. In the ambulance, as dirty and rusty as it had gotten, they were safe from the undead. Babs had asked Nick to drive, citing wanted to look out for Kaleo- not admitting she wasn’t sure her reaction time was good enough for driving yet.
When a man in a motorcycle showed up, Babs’ breath hitched. Where was Kaleo?
“The hell,” she muttered, getting out of the ambulance and pulling the small handgun she kept hidden under the driver’s seat with her. “Where’s my dog?” she yelled out at the stranger, not making him out yet.
The sight of a Hellhound was a surprising one, but Nick couldn’t yet make out which Dog it might be, they were still too far away from the guy. Still, the fact that they were meeting with a Hellhound eased the concern had had initially had when it came to Babs meeting some random person on the freenet who supposedly had her dog, but only by a hair. Nick was still wary of the Hellhounds, even after all these months of an alliance with them.
And of course his relief only lasted about a second as Babs muttered and got out of the ambulance. He didn’t see Kaleo anywhere, which was why Nick grabbed his own gun as he climbed out of the ambulance and walked around the front to stand near the nurse. “The guy looks like a Hellhound, I don’t think he’ll be a threat to us,” he spoke low enough that only she would hear him.
TJ drew to a stop when he saw her get out with a gun in her hand, shutting off his bike a good bit away. Close enough to be able to see her and hear her just fine, but not so close to really take her in. That didn't matter - he knew his wife anywhere. His heart pounded against his chest, mind racing, because as much as he'd wanted to see her again he hadn't thought of how it would go. If he had, he certainly wouldn't have put a gun in her hand. Or put some other guy at her side also with a gun in hand.
He held his hands up as a show of surrender so they could hopefully not point their guns at him because he really didn't want that, and got up off his bike to stand. “Kaleo’s fine, darlin. He didn't want to get on my bike is all. Please do not shoot me.” Again, he added in his head.
That voice. Babs had had the gun up, holding it as solidly as she could without her limbs shaking. She walked forward, faster than she really should have without letting Nick know what was going on. The last time she’d heard that voice, they’d been trapped in her family’s RV in Pickens, South Carolina. Teddy on the floor, the undead rattling the trailer. Babs had shot Teddy in his sleep, sure that she was giving the man a more peaceful death than turning into a zombie. No, she hadn’t shot him dead: her heart couldn’t do it.
But there was no way he was alive.
“Don’t call me darlin. Who the hell are you?” Babs looked back at Nick for a second, her blue eyes confused.
Confusion colored Nick’s features as Babs looked back at him. Near as he could tell this Hellhound (TJ was it?) knew Babs, but it didn’t seem like the latter knew him -- or maybe they still weren’t close enough for her to recognize him? This was turning into some kind of weird soap opera drama, or maybe that was just the impression Nick was getting. Taking a couple larger steps so that he could fall in line with the petite blonde again, he looked between the two figures with eyebrows raised, but remained silent. Getting her dog back was Babs’ thing, Nick had only come so she wasn’t doing it alone -- though he hadn’t expected it to be such an ordeal.
For as much as his heart was pounding, mind racing, TJ at least managed to appear calm on the outside. More calm than most might be with a gun pointed at them - especially since he was well aware the person holding it definitely knew how to use it. His hands were still up, and his gaze flickered over to Nick for a brief second as he moved up beside Babs, but then his eyes moved back to meet his wife’s a moment later.
“Theodore Jonas Greenling,” he said calmly, slowly bringing a hand in to pull his dog tags out from under the collar of his t-shirt and up over his head, tossing them over to her - to catch or let hit the ground, that was up to her, but they'd make it to her either way. “Teddy, if you prefer, which you usually did.”
Motherfucker. Babs looked at the tags in her hands, looked at the man before her. Her instinct was to turn around and tell Nick it was time to go. They didn’t need to make a deal with a ghost, and Nick sure as hell hadn’t asked to be dragged into the Greenling marital dispute. She tossed the tags back, setting her jaw and putting her gun down. She didn’t release it; Babs was still ready to go if it turned out Teddy was pissed at her. Which, hell, she would have been.
“How are you alive, Teddy? And where the hell is my dog? I didn’t bring my friend and his gun all the way out here to shoot family.”
She wanted to run. Babs always wanted to run.
Fuck. Nick had to admit this whole situation had just gone from mildly soap opera like to absolutely being the best kind of daytime T.V. there was. While Babs lowered her gun, Nick didn’t need to do that same, he had never raised it towards the Hellhound. “Ah, just for the record her friend and his gun isn’t planning on shooting you,” Nick spoke up, wanting to make it clear he wasn’t here to put a hole in anyone. “I mean, not unless you give me a really good reason.” He tacked on, though a good reason really was only if TJ tried to harm Babs.
Which in all honestly he didn’t seem inclined to do -- which was a good sign in Nick’s book.
TJ caught the tags when they were thrown back, slipping them over his head and not bothering to keep his hands up as they'd been since neither gun was being pointed at him. He wasn't delusional, he hadn't expected some happy scene of being reunited, but he couldn't deny it stung that it seemed like Babs was disappointed he was alive.
“Yeah, good,” he said to Nick, his gaze moving to him for a moment before settling on his wife again. “I'm alive because you shot me in the leg, not the head. Thanks for that, by the way. Kaleo’s back at my trailer. Like I said, didn't want to get on my bike.”
Babs wanted to yell at Teddy, as if surviving the damn gunshot had been a personality defect. Another way that Teddy was getting in the way, or just getting his way. Babs was so torn between wanting to cry with relief that Teddy was there, and fear that she was going crazy and imagining him standing there, that she’d defaulted to anger.
She took a few good steps forward, closing the space between herself and Teddy. The hot wind seemed to threaten to knock her frail, sickly form over at any moment.
“Teddy, you talk to me when you’ve got my dog or something to say to me. Until then, I’ve got work to do.” Babs turned, going back towards Nick as her gut seemed to shake and threaten rebellion. If she’d eaten earlier, she might have thrown up on Nick when she reached him. “Sorry to have wasted your time, Nicky. I think we can go back.”
Nick watched the whole exchange on edge, ready to step in at any moment if need be. What he would have been able to do was unknown, even to him, so he was thankful on some level when TJ seemed harmless (for a Hellhound) and Babs came walking back towards him. Still, even if he was grateful for the fact this reunion hadn’t come to blows, he couldn’t help but shoot the other man a sympathetic look when Babs declared she had work to do and began walking back towards him.
“You didn’t waste my time, Babs,” Nick assured her. “And are you sure you’re ready to go back?” He wouldn’t try to keep her here longer if she was positive she wanted to go. But having someone from your past reappear, it was a big deal, one he didn’t want her to rush away from because she felt as if she may be wasting his time.
Fuck, that hurt. It all hurt. TJ had been so glad, so grateful to know Babs was alive and that she was there, he really hadn’t expected her to not feel the same toward him. Glad he was alive, at least. Of course they’d had their bad moments, rough times - maybe more than their share - but that didn’t change at that time they’d been together, did it? There had been good times. With the world going to hell, maybe he liked to think mostly about those rather than the bad ones that came along with, though he didn’t ignore them completely. He didn’t have any misconceptions about their marriage being messy, and it certainly wasn’t the first time Babs had cut straight through him with her words. Didn’t mean he was used to it, and it didn’t mean they didn’t hurt just as bad.
“I’m glad you’re alright,” he said, before she was too far away. That counted as having something to say to her, right? He bit his tongue to keep from adding to it, not wanting to piss her off at him even more, but the words still came together in his head all the same. Sorry to disappoint you by being alive.
Babs didn’t move past Nick, her arms crossed- it almost looked as if she were hugging herself. She swallowed thickly, knowing that her stony exterior was starting to chip away. Because she wanted to rush to Teddy’s arms, she wanted to give in and fall under the warm water of familiarity.
Looking over her shoulder, she glanced at her husband. Ex husband? She wasn’t sure anymore.
“Yeah. Glad you’re alive,” Babs managed a smile, but it didn’t reach her blue eyes. “Let’s go, my dog isn’t here,” it was easier to move this over to being about the dog, about the fact that TJ hadn’t brought him, than how she felt. How her heart hurt.