6:00PM: Bishop and Pete
It hadn't taken them long to get through their first round of drinks, but the New Year's Eve party was already full swing by the time Pete found himself in line for more drinks for himself and Savannah. It seemed like everyone in the city had come out tonight -- well, with the notable exception of Savannah's daughters, who seemed to be going through something -- and Pete was looking forward to catching up with his friends and acquaintances.
As he waited patiently in line, though, one of the people who sidled up next to him in search of alcohol was precisely one of the people Pete didn't really need to catch up with at all: the Hellhounds' president and father of two of his patients, Bishop Coldiron. Pete had made his peace with what had happened over the last year between himself and the Hellhounds, he thought, and he was glad to see that Bishop and Bunny were doing well with the twins, but that didn't make him any more comfortable with the man.
"Happy New Year," he said, though, wanting to be polite.
When the familiar voice sounded off to his side Bishop glanced over and his gaze fell on Dr. Pete Whelan. He owed a lot to the other man, in truth the whole Dog Park likely did, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of the unease the doctor felt around them. Could he blame him though? The Rogue Hellhounds had attacked his home and people Pete knew, that only would be cause for anyone to feel less than comfortable around them. Still, Bishop offered the other man a small smile. Even if Pete wasn’t comfortable with them, Bishop liked the doc, and not just because he had helped bring his sons into the world.
“Happy New Year, Doc,” Bishop replied while waving the bartender over and ordering two drinks for him and Hazel. “Ready to put this year behind you?”
It felt like an obvious question, yet Bishop asked it regardless. He felt as if he polled Austin as whole they would each declare 2019 a year they did not want to repeat. It hadn’t all been bad, after all Bishop had come out of the year with his boys and his relationship with Hazel, but those were bright spots in an otherwise very trying year.
Pete gave a shrug and shake of his head. It had been a pretty damned exhausting year, but that didn't mean he wanted to go into detail with someone he wasn't friends with -- especially when he'd barely talked about it with any of his actual friends. "I think no matter what there's always something to be said for looking forward," he said after he'd ordered his own drinks and set the money on the bartop. "But I wouldn't want a do-over." After all, he was much better off now than he had been at the start of the year. They all were.
Bishop had no preconceived notion that he and Pete were going to have some in depth conversation on how the last year had gone. They weren’t friends and likely wouldn’t even be speaking right now if it weren’t for the fact Pete had played a part in bringing his kids into this world. “Better to look forward than look back, ain’t like you can go that way anyway,” he said in agreement. “Gotta agree with you on that second part also, I ain’t looking for any kind of do-over for the year.” As hard as it was at points, it had also brought him more joy than he had had in the years before. His boys were born, he and Hazel were officially involved and Bishop couldn’t imagine not having that in his life. Frankly he didn’t want to imagine it either.