better yet not fixed
Characters: Charlie, Wren and Adam Setting: the spiritual room
Adam hadn’t hesitated in pulling Wren towards his room after they were out of the rain, fumbling in the dark to find her a shirt and a pair of pajama pants. they’d be a little long, but at least they were dry. He also gave her a pair of socks and a hoodie, just in case she got too cold. He changed himself to jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, leaving a pile of wet clothes, her and his, in his bathroom and grabbed blankets and pillows from his bed and the spares before reaching for Wren’s hand again. It might have been too much, but now that the contact was there, part of him was craving it, finding comfort in it. That was what he wanted to come of things with Autumn. To actually get the needed comfort out of touches. He knew he had it in him, there were instances that supported that, it just wasn’t all the time. He didn’t want Wren to feel like she had to ask to hug him. He hated that, but at the same time, he needed it.
Wren had just pulled the hoodie over her head, glad for the dry clothes. They felt strange, but they were dry, and warm, which was a big plus. She wasn't entirely certain why it was Adam was continuing to hold her hand, but assumed he needed the support, or something like that. She hoped it didn't have anything to do with Chester's presence. She knew he was protective, even if she didn't believe he had any real reason to be.
She led the way towards the spiritual room, and once inside, she started to set up a few candles, giving the room a nice, warm glow. It was actually pleasant, the sound of the rain hard on the roof was soothing in a way. It felt like their own private little cave, sort of.
Charlie met them in the spiritual room. Whilst he had been mostly dry, grabbing a few blankets and pillows from his room had seemed like a sensible option, and so when he did turn up, it was with arms laden with bedding, Charlie just being able to see over the top where he was going. “Where do you want these?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled.
Adam had already set his own set of blankets and things on a bench near where Wren was setting up candles, not close enough to be a fire hazard, but just within the light. He was starting to wonder if Charlie would come, not able to help that he would be fine if he didn’t, but then there he was, or rather the pile of bedding that had a Charlie behind it. “You can put it over here if you want,” he called, hesitating for a moment because he didn’t really want to help, but that wasn’t like him. He wound up getting up to try and take some of it out of his hands.
Wren let Adam take care of that, getting the last few candles in place so the room had a nice, warm, soft glow. She was pleased with it, anyhow. Then she moved to sit on the floor, reaching up to twist her hair behind her head, trying to get it to stay back, which wasn't that hard with it's length and wet state. "Thank you both." she said, looking at them. "Also, as I understand it, there's been friction between you." she added. That was Wren. Coming right out and saying it, instead of letting the Awkward really settle in.
Charlie set the rest of the bedding down and began to organise it, suppressing an audible sigh. Of course she would just call them on it. Well, he wasn't going to just jump right in and explain that he considered Adam a rude asshole who was way off base with many of his comments and who, scarily, thought that not hurting feelings of one girl was more important than trying to save the lives of an entire community. Let him handle that.
Adam’s mind had been in the same place as Charlie’s, ignore the issue, organize the bedding, and get to the part where focus wasn’t on him. Then Wren was Wren and the issue was laid out in front of them. Just his luck Charlie didn’t say anything. It wasn’t like he was good at the talking part of things. Wasn’t that supposed to be Charlie’s gig? “We just don’t see eye to eye on some things.” Or a lot of things. And he was pretty sure he liked Charlie better when he was drunk.
“I’d like to clear the air, if possible.” Wren said, aware they were both uncomfortable now, but she was imagining it wouldn’t be any fluffier if they ignored it all. “I consider both of you important. It’s disconcerting that you’re quarreling.” she added. “What is it exactly that you’re not seeing eye to eye on?”
Charlie looked over at Adam and raised an eyebrow, as if asking if he wanted to tell her. He paused for a moment, then spoke, turning to look at Wren instead. “We had a difference of opinion about my actions. Amongst other things,” he offered up.
Adam watched, thinking about it and shrugging. “Among other things. I’m also not sure you’re the type to admit you’ve ever done something wrong.” Which he hoped he was wrong about. Even Jeffrey had been able to say he’d done something wrong.
“We discussed a little bit about the actions thing, but what specifically?” Wren asked. “And ‘other things’...like?” she said, happy at least they were both speaking.
Charlie sat himself down and leaned back. “Ask him - he’s the one who doesn’t like me,” he said, petulantly. He wasn’t going to hand this to him.
“It’s not like you’re my biggest fan either,” Adam pointed out, but shoved his hands into his pockets with a frown. “I think you have a crappy way of treating your friends. And you can’t see past yourself and how you’re so just in what you’re doing to see that you’re hurting people that are supposed to be important to you.” And he didn’t want to give Charlie a chance to hurt Wren again.
Wren looked between the two of them. "What's he doing that you view as 'crappy'?" she asked Adam. "And what's he doing that's hurting people important to him? He just arrived." she added, wondering if there was something else she'd missed. It was possible, of course. But maybe Adam had forgotten something, too. Either way she wanted it all laid out. She also glanced in Charlie's direction. "I'd appreciate you giving this a chance." she told him. Not exactly telling him to cut the sullen tone, but letting him know she wanted him to be an adult about things.
Adam chewed on his lip a little and fought the urge to shrug. “We talked about this already Wren. How he made you feel like your opinions and feelings weren’t worth anything. That’s crappy. And I know you’re not upset, but I’m still upset for you.” He let out a sigh and looked at Charlie. “And I’m not sure he’s done lying.”
“I means you, Wren,” Charlie said with a quiet sigh. He wasn’t all that surprised that she didn’t get it. “Hurting people important to me - that means you. And I was prepared to give it a chance. I don’t blame the guy for coming down on your side. Expected it of any friend of yours. It’s the rest that...” Charlie broke off, shaking his head. He didn’t want to get into that. If he brought up Adam’s opinions on what had happened the night everyone died, it wouldn’t help anything, and it would just hurt everyone all the more. “Nevermind,” he muttered.
Wren looked between them both. "I'm not hurt now. And if he is lying to me, then that's something I have to deal with. But I trust him." she told Adam gently. Then she looked at Charlie, and kept looking at him, for nearly a minute. "Nevermind is not an acceptable answer." she told him. "What's 'the rest'?" she asked, looking between them both. "I'm clearly missing something."
Adam went to sit near the candles, on the floor, looking at Wren at first. “We went over this, you’re a better person than I am. I did like him.” And now he wasn’t as sure. When she asked about the other part, he wasn’t so sure if Charlie was answer and his eyes went to the other man, curious how he’d react.
“‘The rest’ is stuff that we really don’t need to get into,” Charlie said, firmly. “It wouldn’t help anything, it would just make things more uncomfortable and apparently I’m not meant to hurt you. Which this would. So, nevermind,” he told her, before looking at Adam, his expression asking whether the other guy was on board with attempting to drop this, even if he doubted Wren would let it go that easily. Adam seemed to be of the opinion that Charlie was out to hurt the girl, when in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
Wren drew in a breath, and let it out slowly. "Which solves absolutely nothing, and just means you are both at each other's throats for reasons I don't even really understand. Put it this way, if at least I know what's going on? I can not step on toes. I can not bring up sore subjects. And if you both would kindly stop treating me like a child who can't handle things, that would be quite appreciated."
“It’s not treating you like a child Wren,” Adam jumped on before acknowledging what Charlie had said. “But he’s right. It’s not really...well my part is that I don’t think he’s any good at seeing that he’s wrong and he doesn’t think that’s the case. That’s the root of it.” He looked at Charlie and shrugged a little. “I’m not at his throat. I’m not a fan, but if you’re not still hurt, then I guess I can get over it.”
“What he said,” Charlie agreed, upnodding in Adam’s direction, even whilst still looking at Wren. “Not stuff we need to go into and I’m sure we’ll get over it.” Or, Adam would get over it and Charlie would never mention it again, which was as good as he was going to get with these things. And if Adam still disliked him for what Charlie had done to Wren in the past, then he could understand that - it was just the rest he would never be able to forgive, or so it felt right now.
"I don't like feeling like I'm just...being dismissed. Or ignored, or whatever it is you're doing, by blatantly not speaking about something you're both clearly sore over." Wren said. "It's silly. It's childish. And wrong about what, exactly? Just...him not telling me who he really was, back then?" she asked.
Adam was quiet for a moment, watching Wren before shaking his head. “There was that, but...he left you behind. And didn’t come back for you.” And everyone else had died. Sure, Wren was their prophet, married to the head guy, but she could have died too. And for all his talk about Charlie caring about her, he didn’t seem to do much of anything to help her. Bringing it up again might not go over well with Charlie since he was obviously trying not to go over, but she wasn’t letting it drop and it was the only thing he hadn’t really told her yet.
“Because I’d gone to the cops to try and stop mass murder,” Charlie said, sounding like he was parroting that out again. Which he felt that he was. “And then they tried to arrest me. And then they kept me locked in a room until my parents came to collect me. My parents who then took me home and checked me into therapy. So no, I didn’t go back.” He didn’t sound like he was making excuses, just telling a story that he felt like he had already told a thousand times.
Wren listened to both of them, and instead of getting upset, she actually was relieved. In fact, she even smiled at them. “Thank you. This is far easier to deal with than I would have thought.” she started. She nodded to Charlie, accepting his story there, it was what he’d told her in the first place. Then she turned to Adam. “Adam, you don’t understand.” she started with.
“Chester took the only course of action he possibly could.” she said firmly. “He wasn’t dealing with normal people. He was dealing with...with cultists. It’s...not the same thing. We’re talking about a group of people who willingly stood in line, and drank wine they knew was poisoned. Chester could have run up and down the streets, yelling about how Brian was going to murder us all, and he’d probably have been close to lynched for it. He had no other way to save people than to get outside help, to overwhelm the many. No one would have left with him. No one would have seen reason. I would not have seen reason. I drank the wine too. So, he got out as fast as he could, to get that help. Things did not go as he would have hoped, but that’s not his fault. But the fact that he left me? That he left everyone? That was his only shot. His only option.”
“I understand why you would find it odd, in other circumstances, but in this? There was nothing else he could do. And you can’t take on an entire society alone. That’s what it would have been. Imagine just trying to take on everyone here. There were more of us at the commune, all blindly following Brian’s every word. It wouldn’t work. No one would have been helped.”
Adam felt like he was being chastised, even if it was coming from Wren who really didn’t talk like that. He let out a sigh and shifted closer to her. “I guess I just can’t see leaving someone I cared about behind, no matter the situation.” He looked at Charlie, wanting to ask something else, something mean, about what he’d finally gone to jail for, but he didn’t. “Maybe that’s it then. Maybe I just don’t get it. But telling me that doesn’t make it something I can just get over right away when it’s bothering me. Just like I’m not jumping on being fine with his lies right away either.”
“Should he have assaulted me?” she asked, voice light.
Adam’s mouth opened, staring at Wren, not sure if he heard her right, let alone what he was supposed to say to that. “I...no. That’s not what I meant. I don’t know how you got there?” he stammered slightly.
"I know you don't." Wren said gently, understanding. "Here's how I got there. I just told you that no one would have listened to him. That I wouldn't have listened to him, though it seems to not have registered properly. Here's what it means, in more practical terms. No one would listen. So, if he was to take action that would mean he didn't leave me behind, he would have had to hurt me to do it. Knock me out, tie me up, throw me in the trunk of a car, I have no idea. But he would have had to harm me to do it. Because at no point would he have been able to get through to me. Not then. That doesn't leave many options. Add on top of that, that if he had hurt me, he would have had to get me past everyone else--people who would have turned on him on a dime if they saw that he'd hurt me or was trying to take their 'prophet' away from them. Then he would have been in danger himself, and he would have had to hurt more people. His friends. The very people he was trying to rescue from the thrall they were under." Wren explained to him.
She watched Adam's eyes. "I know you're thinking of some perfect scenario, where he comes and tells me that Brian's no good, and heroic music plays, and I come to my senses and get rescued. But that would not have happened. Not even remotely. I don't hesitate to say he could have been killed, if he did that. 'No matter the situation' only applies if the situation you're in involves reason. This one lacked it entirely. It was fueled by zealot insanity. And no matter how much someone wants to say 'I would do it differently', that doesn't mean they would, and it doesn't mean there was some better answer. When I tell you he had no other option, I'm being literal. I'm saying it at it's basest form. He was the only sane man in a sea of madness--and we're talking opposition upwards of seventy, eighty people--and he needed help. The cavalry, so to speak. It was the only way."
Adam made a face as he listened trying to grasp it, trying to understand, but she was right. All he could think was how he would have tried to do something different. "I have a hard time seeing that. That there was nothing else." At least at first. He wasn't sure what jogged the memory, but suddenly he had it, something that wasn't meant for him to hear, that he was surprised he remembered at all. Jeffrey had just kicked out a friend, with yelling and screaming and threats of violence so severe Adam had been left helping calm him down. He'd passed the others on his way to get something for his friend and a similar conversation was being had. They shut up the moment they saw him, but not without Adam hearing them grumble about how there was no crossing Jeffrey, no telling him or his that he was wrong.
Adam looked over at Charlie and then down at his hands. "I can try and get it though. I've seen people that others think can do no wrong. I'm not budging on the lying part though. That I’m still upset about. And making you feel like your feelings and opinions didn't matter. That I'm still upset for you for." He looked at Wren hoping that was enough because honestly he was the only one giving ground here.
"If it makes you feel better, you could always go through what you assume you would have done, and I could tell you the outcome." Wren told him, but she did think progress had been made. She looked to Chester to see if he was any better.
Charlie met her eyes. “If he wants to not like me because I lied to you, I don’t have any issue with that,” he admitted. “Or because of how I made you feel.” He shrugged. “That can be legitimate. Don’t hold it against him... You,” he said, turning to look towards Adam at the last word.
Adam still felt like he was being treated like an idiot for being so upset about it. “You still don’t think you did something wrong?” he asked Charlie before shaking his head. “I don’t know if I can come up with something better. Or some alternative, or that you’d believe me.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it lightly, ignoring Charlie. “I just hate the idea of leaving you behind.”
"I don't hold anything against him." Wren said, just so the implication was not out there that she did. Even if she hadn't felt like she made progress, she wouldn't have. She just preferred if they got along better. She gave Adam's hand a squeeze in return, and smiled at him. "I appreciate the sentiment. But this is on me, honestly. I was the one who was going to be so unreasonable in the first place. I'm the one who would have never, ever seen reason. Just...if you can see what we're saying, and accept that it's true, that's fine. And I can accept that you don't like the idea, but it doesn't change the facts of the situation...I think possibly we're okay?" she asked tentatively, looking between them.
Charlie shrugged a shoulder. “Sure,” he said, though he was less than enthusiastic about it. He appreciated what Wren was trying to do, but he wasn’t going to get happy about some guy not liking him whilst holding tight onto her hand. He simply wasn’t programmed that way.
Adam made a face then let out a sigh. “Yeah sure. I know you don’t hold anything against him,” he told Wren, looking at Charlie as he let go of Wren. “And maybe I’ll come around on that too. We’ll have to see how it goes.” Maybe if Charlie laid off the lying and the treating Wren like a child part, maybe he could turn the corner on that.
"I was saying I wasn't holding anything against you, Adam." Wren clarified for him. Chester had said that Adam had a legitimate concern there, and not to hold it against him, and Wren had been telling Chester that she didn't. "But, okay." she added, feeling like as much talking as could possibly be done on the subject had been exhausted. At least for now. After this? It was just going to be soothing things a little at a time, and hoping that nothing went too far out the other side.