Bunny. (itisenough) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2015-08-05 11:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2018 [08] august, hazel dolan, nathaniel quinn |
Who: Nate and Bunny
Where: the entrance of the UMCB
What: reunion
When: early Wednesday evening
There was never a moment's quiet in the entrance hall of the hospital. People passed through nearly constantly: to a different part of the shelter, in or out through the front doors. Bunny, tucked into an out of the way spot where she could watch the influx of visitors, went mostly unnoticed by the people who passed. Only about one in ten even glanced in her direction. In a place with little privacy, being so ignored was its own kind of peace.
And Bunny desperately needed the peace. Her hands had been shaking all day.
Late last night, as she lay awake in the quarters she shared with yet another set of perfect strangers, listening to the soft in-and-out of their sleep breathing, Bunny had nearly convinced herself that she was grasping at shadows. In the long ago early days of her journey, she'd eagerly searched the faces of each group of travelers she met, heart in her throat every time that she might see a familiar sweep of dark hair, or that canny glance that could read you down to your bones after just a few words of conversation. The disappointment never dulled; it hit her keen and sharp between the ribs every time. In time, her hope hadn't died, exactly, but it became more like glowing coals than a raging bonfire. Now the flames had been stoked for the first time in ... well, the first time in a long while. And the heat of it was daunting.
Communicating on the freenet was something of a novelty, one of many Austin seemed to offer. Bunny had never suspected when she typed out a few brief messages about moths to a person going by the name "slapinthefarce" that she would find herself in this situation. The follow up post, with its mention of a documentary, had shaken Bunny so badly that she'd had to put the phone down. There were other filmmakers in the world. They couldn't have all been turned into the walking dead. She shouldn't read too much into a simple coincidence.
One word. That was all it took to topple the balance and toss aside all her notions of being practical. And it was, of all things, hen. Bunny had stared at that word, and then again at its second usage in the same reply, as the thrum of her suddenly racing heartbeat in her ears drowned out everything else around her. There was only one man she'd ever known in her life who used that term.
A reasonable person would simply have asked, then and there, the name of the person they were messaging. Bunny did not. Instead she cradled that newly ignited flame of hope close to her and agreed to meet "slapinthefarce" in person.
Now, sitting in a place that would let her see whoever came to meet her before he could see her, Bunny tipped her head back to rest against the wall and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. It didn't calm her nerves at all, or stop the eddy of possibilities that flowed through her mind.
It might not be Nate. Every part of her rebelled against the thought, but Bunny forced herself to confront the possibility. If it wasn't Nate, nothing changed. She could rest and recuperate in Austin until the need to move on hit her again. Nothing lost, but nothing gained either.
It might be Nate, but he might -- And here Bunny's hands began to shake again, so she clasped them together in her lap, hoping to still them. He might not be happy to see her. The man on the freenet spoke of finding new friends and new purpose. She might not fit into that picture anymore, in which case ... In which case she would lick her wounds and head back to Harlan. Everything lost, nothing gained.
It might be Nate, and he might be happy to see her. They could have the reunion that she'd imagined a hundred times in a hundred ways and she might find herself staying in Austin, staying with him, for the indefinite future. Nothing lost, everything gained.
It was a chance Bunny would willingly take. Hadn't she been putting heart and soul on the line every day since she set foot outside of Harlan? Whatever the outcome, it would be enough. She could face it.
Opening her eyes again, Bunny looked around the hospital lobby to reassure herself that she hadn't missed the man she was looking for. Then, satisfied on that account, she turned her eyes toward the door and waited.