Who: Adam and Carson When: Tuesday, Oct 24, evening Where: Adam’s place Status: Complete
Carson had already had a weird day. First there was the nightmare and late-night sleepwalking. Then Jules Cooper, the teenage girl from the strange dreams he’d been having, had turned up at the gym, looking for him. In one way, it was nice to have the confirmation that he wasn’t insane all by himself. He had three other people also experiencing what he was experiencing. In another way ... that made it so much more real. And possibly dangerous. They at least had some direction to face now, they would all get together and try to figure out what the fuck was going on.
In the meantime, Adam The Cute Nurse had invited him over for dinner. Carson was pretty sure Rylee was working, and Adam lived in the same apartments they did, so why not, right? Carson left the gym once his shift was over and headed that way, his mind spinning, but trying to get a handle on it. Otherwise he was going to be shitty company. He wasn’t stinky or anything, having spent most of his work day on his ass doing light duty stuff because he was still on his crutch, so he went straight to Adam’s. Carson limped his way up to the door and knocked, running a hand through his hair and hoping Casual was okay.
Rehearsing the conversation he needed to have with Carson was an effort in futility, but until it actually happened, Adam kept going back to it in his idle moments. There was at least a rapidly approaching deadline, since Carson had agreed to join him for dinner and it wasn’t the sort of thing he could delay since the full moon wouldn’t stop approaching regardless of whether or not they talked and it could break so bad, a fact of which Adam was deeply aware. He was fairly confident no matter how gently he tried to break it to Carson he was still going to come across a little like a crazy person and that it was going to be terrible for Carson since he might be cursed and there was no way to know for sure until after the shitty part happened.
Which to say Adam felt horrible about would be an understatement.
It wasn’t about how he felt about it though, so he pushed that aside. Left with a wide open variety of options about what to make for dinner, so he went with chicken enchiladas, which was one of his go-to comfort foods, since it went well with the beer he had on hand. He let himself focus on doing that and had everything ready in the oven by the time the knock came at the door. He had cleaned his apartment a little earlier in the day, which mainly entailed picking up clothes from wherever he left them, then changed into slightly fraying jeans and a comfortable T-shirt. Opening the door, he gave Carson a friendly, welcoming, smile. “Hey, man. Glad you could make it over,” he said, stepping aside to let Carson enter. “How’s your day going?”
Completely oblivious to what was coming, Carson walked into Adam’s apartment with an answering smile. “Hey,” he greeted as he moved out of the way for Adam to shut the door. “Thanks for the invite, I never turn down free food. It’s uh ... it’s been all right. I’m back at work, but not doin’ much, so. Kinda boring, but better than the couch.” That was a nice normal way of putting it, right? Right. Carson vaguely remembered what a normal life felt like, but it had been so fucking long ago. And things just kept getting stranger and stranger. Maybe this would help. A nice, low-key meal with somebody who wasn’t connected to any of the weirdness lately. “How’s yours? Whatever you’ve got going smells amazing.”
“Anytime, I like feeding people, so it works out,” Adam said. Though there was the distinct possibility Carson wouldn’t want to speak to him again. Sigh. Once he had closed the door, he headed back toward the dining/kitchen area, figuring Carson would follow him. “Yeah, I always feel like most things are better than being stuck on the couch. I had today off, so it was pretty chill. Had lunch with a friend, cleaned a little bit, went for a run. I made enchiladas since you kind of gave me free rein.” He smiled a little at Carson again. “Can I get you something to drink? Beer? Water? Something else?”
Carson trailed along behind him, glancing around at the apartment as he did so. It was neat and clean and seemed like a comfy place. It was so hard for him to imagine living alone sometimes, he had no idea what an apartment only he occupied would look like. Rylee was much better at decorating stuff than he was. “Sounds nice,” he commented about Adam’s day, then flashed him a little smile. “Beer works.” He knew he ought to go with water, but one or two wouldn’t hurt. Carson felt like he needed it after the night and day he’d had, after all. He helped himself to a chair at the kitchen table, sitting down with a little groan of relief and setting his crutch aside. He figured Adam wouldn’t mind. “So how goes the nursing world?” he asked casually.
For as much as Adam enjoyed being around people, he had been living alone for as long as he was able to. It was hard to imagine having someone he was always comfortable enough with to want to cohabit if the option to live alone was there; he had grown up with siblings and had roommates before, which had always been fine, but there was a variable amount of effort expended to keep his empathic reception turned off whenever there was someone else around. “It wasn’t bad,” Adam said, smiling back. He went to the fridge and pulled out a couple bottles of beer, saying over his shoulder as he removed the caps from. “Pretty busy, but nothing too remarkably odd lately.” No bus accidents, excessive animal attacks, or aggressive fog at least. “Where do you work, by the way? I don’t think I caught that,” he said, walking over to offer one of the beers to Carson. The timer on his phone for food still had a few more minutes, so he dropped into another seat at the table.
Carson accepted the beer with a murmured thanks, taking a sip and humming his approval. “Waterfront Fitness. I’m a personal trainer,” he told Adam and gave a smile that said he knew that was probably unexpected. He was damn fit himself, but also disabled, and people seemed surprised sometimes when he told them that. Like he couldn’t keep up with his clients or something. And yeah, he wasn’t training professional athletes in goddamn Point Pleasant, Maine, but he worked with a lot of people who were also damn fit and stayed that way because of him. “I also uh, work sometimes for the Wounded Warriors Project. Going around giving talks and fundraising and shit.” That part was possibly less surprising.
From what Adam could tell, Carson was definitely in better shape than Adam may have ever been, since aside from running when he had the time and having a job that demanded a steady amount of stamina, he rarely made it into a gym, so his job didn’t come as much of a surprise. Maybe still a bit of one, but Adam just smiled back at Carson instead. “Ah. I mean, you could just be someone in amazing shape, but that makes sense,” he said, taking a sip of his own beer. Drinking a little tended to help calm his nerves. “That seems like a great cause to work for. What branch did you serve in? If you don’t mind my asking.” He didn’t think it was a rude question, but he also didn’t necessarily want to pry.
Carson’s love of fitness had started before he’d gotten injured, naturally, since the training he’d been through had been so rigorous. After he’d lost half his leg and a lot of the strength in his right side and needed so much rehab though, sheer stubbornness had driven him to really push himself, and inspired him to teach others to do the same. Carson hadn’t wanted to be beholden to anybody else physically ever again ... but then a wolf-monster had tried to bite his good leg off. It had been a frustrating couple of weeks. “Thanks,” he said to the little compliment buried in there, giving Adam a smile. “Marines. I wasn’t in for a super long time though ... my unit got deployed not too long after stationing, and I was only in Afghanistan for a few months before I got hurt.” He gave a faint chuckle and took another swig of beer. “Hell, I was in rehab almost as long as I was active duty.”
Carson was pretty cute and he looked good when he smiled, Adam kept noticing in the back of his mind. That particular observation was extremely unhelpful, so he did his best to ignore it, since he already felt--not bad, exactly, but the sympathy adjacent to that feeling, that Carson had already been through a lot and had more to face. He was determined to help Carson however was in his power, provided he could convince Carson of...a whole lot. "I'm sorry. That sucks," Adam said, which felt inadequate, but was what immediately came to mind. "You seem to have really done well for yourself, with rehab and everything." He knew not everyone did, or could, for whatever reason, so he thought it spoke to an admirable level of determination on Carson's part. The phone timer for food buzzed, so Adam switched it off and stood from the table with a lopsided smile. "I hope you’re hungry and that you feel positively about cheese,” he said, moving toward the kitchen.
‘It sucks’ was a vast understatement, but Carson was totally fine with that response. He didn’t want people’s pity, and he’d been living with his updated ‘normal’ for years now, so he’d mostly accepted it. It was what it was. He wasn’t sure he’d done really well with recovering, but he’d learned a long time ago it was an up and down process. At least his body had healed as well as it could, that was something he was always grateful for. He gave Adam another smile and then laughed as he got up to get their food. “I am definitely pro-cheese,” he assured him. “And pretty much always hungry, so. Perfect.” He’d been eating like total dogshit lately, so what was some more carbs and fat? At least it would be delicious.
Sometimes Adam had trouble finding an appropriate way to express empathy, when he had crossed over into his personal life. It was easier when he was at work, where it was part of his job and he had professional boundaries to keep in place. He definitely didn't to seem pitying toward Carson and didn't want to come across as patronizing, so. Understatement it was. He took the baking dish out of the oven and turned it off, then grabbed a spatula and plates. "Then I think we'll continue to get along pretty well," he said lightly, flashing Carson a grin. Enchiladas were the sort of thing best served hot, so he dished out portions for each of them. He'd also made a salad, so he brought the bowl with that to the table first with some smaller plates and utensils, then the rest. "Though I can make healthier food and should get in a better habit with that, since eating whatever is bound to catch up with me sooner than later," he said as he sat back down.
If Carson was getting around easier, he would’ve been up and helping, but as it was he hoped Adam would forgive him. It was hard to crutch around and carry dishes at the same time. Carson straightened up and arranged the plates and utensils in front of him, then helped himself to salad. “It’s all about balance,” he murmured as he got everything prepared to eat. It smelled incredible, healthy or not. It was way better than the kind of shit he had been eating, more or less. “I’ve gotta get my diet back on track, this injury kinda fucked my whole world up.” There was more to it than that, of course, but he wasn’t going to get into all that with Adam. ‘I think I’m in love with my cousin and I feel like I’m going crazy’ wasn’t great dinner conversation with a cute guy he barely knew.
There was never any expectation on Adam’s part for his guests to help out, though he sometimes let people if they seemed like they might be insistent. Even less so when recovering from a crazy animal bite. Adam smiled at Carson and helped himself to salad as well before digging into eating. The conversation over dinner proceed pleasantly, just getting to know each other a bit better over heavy food and more beer, which tended to always be a winning combination. Carson seemed like a nice guy and Adam genuinely would have just wanted to be friends with him regardless of exacerbating circumstances, but that wasn’t how things shook out. Mostly now he hoped Carson would listen to him.
After eating, Adam offered Carson another beer and they moved to sit in his living area, since Adam could clean up later and the couch was more comfortable. He put on the World Series game in the background, though with the volume low, since he liked baseball but wasn’t deeply invested in the Dodgers or the Astros. They were still chatting a bit, but Adam felt increasingly like he shouldn’t keep pushing it off, as much as he didn’t know the good way to broach it still. Might as well start though. He should be better at this, he felt like, but breaking bad news as a nurse didn’t usually have a convincing the other party that needing bypass surgery or whatever was a real thing. “So… this might seem kind of random to bring up now and I hope you don’t mind, but, uh, about the animal that attacked you--you’re positive it wasn’t just some random dog, right?”
All in all it had been a surprisingly pleasant evening. Not that Carson had really expected anything less from Adam’s side, he just hadn’t been enjoying himself in anyone’s company much lately. But the conversation was light and cool, the food was excellent, and the three beers he’d had had settled in nicely. Carson wasn’t eager to leave, which was a nice change of pace, so settling into the living room to chat and drink some more and half-watch baseball was welcome.
The question surprised him a bit and he looked over at Adam with raised brows, not sure how to answer at first. He knew he probably sounded crazy, but confirming that the mirror shit and the dreams were real the other night with Neil had just further confirmed to Carson that he was right about this too. A small bit of hope bloomed that Adam might actually believe him, but he tried not to feed it too much yet. “Uh ... yeah. I’m pretty fuckin’ positive. But y’know ... could be wrong, trauma and all.” The last part came out muttered and doubtful. Carson knew what he’d seen even before the thing bit him. “Why?”
The topic change would have been abrupt regardless, at least on Adam’s part, since he couldn’t come up with a better way to lead into it. He had considered and dismissed several ways throughout the evening. His attention was already mostly on Carson, so he regarded him thoughtfully as he answered. It didn’t escape his notice that Carson voiced the possibility he might be mistaken, though without much conviction. Adam didn’t know if it made a difference, but making the jump to werewolf from monstrous creature rather than from dog seemed like it might be less big. “I believe you about it, and I don’t think you were wrong.” Setting his beer on the coffee table, Adam pulled open a drawer on it and pulled out the file folder Nick had given him. “Did it look anything like this?” he asked, pulling out one of the pictures to show Carson.
Just the words ‘I believe you’ made Carson want to hug him, his heart suddenly beating harder in his chest. Adam had to have brought it up for a reason, and he felt the butterfly-riot start up in his gut when the other man pulled something out of a drawer. Carson sat forward, beer still clutched in his hand, and looked at the glossy photo. “That’s it,” he said through lips that were suddenly numb. He got an unpleasant jolt of adrenaline as he glanced between Adam’s face and the photo. It was there, in color and in a well-lit room, from some kind of security camera, the big wolf-monster standing on two legs, huge and hulking. “That’s it exactly, how did you get this?” he asked with sudden urgency.
Adam held his breath as he watched Carson’s reactions, as though in those seconds not wanting to disturb him even further. He exhaled slowly as Carson confirmed, his stomach dropping. It was a weird mixture of almost relief that always came after putting words to something he had been turning over in his mind on how to broach, but moreover dread for what it could mean for Carson. There was still quite a bit to address. Adam’s gaze remained on Carson as he looked at the photos and back, worrying his lower lip with his teeth. “There’s this author guy--Nick Cooke--who I ran into in town. He’s researched and written a lot about this sort of… supernatural stuff that sometimes turns out to be real, since I wanted to be sure I wasn’t--overreacting; I didn’t want to bring it up if it might be nothing. Like if werewolves weren’t a real thing.”
Carson was listening intently, but all the words that came before ‘werewolves’ kind of jumbled together and didn’t make a lot of sense to him. A laugh bubbled up out of his throat because ... well, that was just fucking ridiculous, wasn’t it? The idea had been lingering in the back of his mind ever since the bite, continually pushed back into its corner whenever it dared to sneak forward. Point Pleasant was weird, yeah, but werewolves? Really? Nevermind that what had bitten him had looked just like every werewolf he’d seen in movies or on TV. And so did the creature in the photo Adam was holding. And if the shared dreams and the mirror shit he’d seen were true ... “You’re fucking with me,” he whispered, staring into Adam’s eyes, no strength at all in the accusation. He suddenly felt queasy and like his heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest.
Adam tended to babble a little when he was nervous and there was definitely some of that now. He regarded Carson with equal interest, trying to gauge his reaction as much as he was able to do so, since he knew the revelation must be A Lot to take in regardless of all the other weird shit that happened with Point Pleasant. Even with proof of any variety, trying to rationalize things could be a natural defense mechanism. “I promise I’m not fucking with you,” Adam said with conviction, voice steadier than he felt. It would have been better if that were all it was, instead of this whole, dangerous, horrible thing. “If I didn’t believe this was a real possibility, I wouldn’t have brought it up, but it’s too dangerous to take the risk of ignoring it and hoping for the best when the next full moon came around.” Which was rapidly approaching.
Carson was getting that same surreal feeling he’d had talking to Neil. Like none of this could actually be happening, because things like this Just Didn’t Happen. But it was. It was terribly real. Because he knew that thing hadn’t been a wolf or a dog or anything, and now he knew he hadn’t been hallucinating. Carson hadn’t allowed himself to entertain the idea that it had actually been a motherfucking werewolf for real, so he hadn’t made the connection to the consistent lore that werewolf-ism was spread through bites. He’d been bitten. A look of extra horror crossed Carson’s face and he leaned forward to put his beer down. “Wait,” he said. He started to speak again, stopped himself, scrubbed his hands over his face, looked at the picture again, then stood up from the couch to start pacing. It was slow and limping and hurt a bit without the crutch, but he barely felt it. Carson turned back to Adam and let out another of those unamused laughs. “You’re saying ... you’re really saying it was a fucking werewolf? Like, for real? And I’m ... what? Fuckin’ ... infected, now?”
Adam waited. He would lead Carson through some of the conclusions if he had to, but giving Carson a moment to process this and come to some of them on his own was probably better. Right? If he had expressed more disbelief, Adam was ready to dig in and try to convince him, but it didn’t necessarily seem like Carson was going to push back again on the being fucked with front. The look of horror drew a pained look from Adam that he tried to direct inward. Of course it was horrifying and Adam hated that he had to deliver the news, but there was no altering reality, so far as he knew. He ran his hands through his hair, a nervous habit, then watched Carson as he started to pace. “It’s entirely likely. There’s not really a way to know until it happens, from what I’ve gathered, but if this is what you saw--” Adam gestured again to the photo “--then I am saying it was a werewolf and that there are precautions you should take when the full moon happens, just in case. I’m sorry, Carson. I want to help you however I can.” He meant that, wholeheartedly, and tried to convey that in his tone; though they might only be recently acquainted, it wasn’t the sort of thing anyone should have to go through, much less alone, in Adam’s opinion.
Part of Carson kept insisting that it couldn’t be true. It had to be some sort of elaborate prank and that picture was a still from a movie or just really good monster makeup or something, because werewolves weren’t real and none of this could be true. But Adam sounded so sincere, and they hadn’t even known each other before Carson had gotten bitten, so what sense did that make? And he’d seen what he’d seen. And he was having these crazy dreams and seeing shit in mirrors, and maybe none of that was related, but -- “Fuck, man!” he exclaimed, rubbing his hands over his face again and pacing some more. “I mean ... how do you even know about this stuff? Just from this guy?” Carson looked over at Adam as he walked the length of the living room, a plea in his eyes for this to not be true somehow. “Have you like, seen one or something?”
Nothing good was likely to come in remaining anything other than calm, so Adam did his best to give Carson time to process and meanwhile Adam tried to compartmentalize his own feelings. He remained concerned, for sure, but as with anytime he was around someone going through a strong burst of emotion, he felt a growing pressure on the edge of his awareness that he needed to firmly shut out, even if there was always a weird temptation to not. Years of practice blocking out something he only understood imperfectly came in useful for times like now, where it would be a spectacularly bad idea. "Werewolves specifically from this guy," Adam said, since there was no use pretending otherwise. "I haven't seen one myself, but I have seen and experienced other things that are generally held as unbelievable, which is why I think it's a real possibility that you need to be aware of." He sighed, holding Carson's gaze; he wished it weren't true, but that did nothing, unfortunately. "I wouldn't fuck around with you about something like this. I don't want you to put yourself, or someone else, in danger."
Adam made it all sound so reasonable. Maybe that was just the nurse training, and he was just delusional or ... something. But Carson didn’t believe that, not really. He believed that he was finally hearing the truth. It just happened to be a disturbing, terrifying truth that he didn’t want to hear. He walked back to the couch and flopped onto it once more, sitting forward to plant his elbows on his knees and rub his face some more, his mind racing in all kinds of directions. He stayed quiet for a few long moments, trying to process it all and focus on something. Danger, being dangerous was something immediate to take care of. The thing that had bitten him had definitely seemed like it wanted to kill him, and if he turned into anything like that ... Carson looked over at Adam, his brow furrowed with worry. “So what do I do?” he asked in a small voice.
For Adam’s part, he believed in all of this wholeheartedly and when confronted with Carson’s completely understandable distress it was easier for Adam to keep his cool. This was how his mind tended to work when he could focus outside himself, which often came in useful at work. It felt like passing some hurdle when Carson sat back down and processed the information Adam gave him further and, ultimately, accepted it. He reached over to rest his hand on Carson’s shoulder, meant to be comforting, but also a little cautiously in case Carson wanted to shrug it off or whatever. “Well, we get ready for the next full moon that’s coming up, get somewhere that’s farther away from town. I’ve looked into finding somewhere remote and into, uh, heavy duty tranquilizers and stuff like that, and then get through that first.” He included himself into this, since he really wanted to help; part of him hoped he just ended up seeming crazy and nothing happened, but he was wary of fostering false hope. Better to prepare for the worst case. “That is, I want to help you, if you’re…” he trailed off, trying to think of how to phrase it, then settling on, “...cool with that.”
Wow, Adam had really thought about this, hadn’t he? For a second Carson wondered if this was some elaborate plan to kidnap him for some nefarious purpose, but that didn’t make sense. Of course, him potentially being a werewolf didn’t really make sense either, but that rang more true. Adam just seemed like a genuinely concerned dude, and if he wanted to drug Carson and take him out into the woods to murder or something, he could’ve done it already. He didn’t shrug off the hand on his shoulder, kind of appreciating the human contact, and lifted his own hand to chew anxiously on his thumbnail. “You wanna risk your life and uh ... non-werewolfiness to help me?” he asked quietly after a moment, meeting Adam’s eyes again. It seemed like a hell of a lot to ask, but he would be lying if he said he felt like he could go through it alone. Especially if tranquilizers were involved.
Thinking about what would potentially happen to Carson had been on his mind, since it felt irresponsible to dump all of this on Carson and then just… leave him with it. It wasn’t necessarily the ideal situation for either of them, but it was so much worse for Carson that Adam hadn’t really thought much about any potential danger to himself. Like he knew it could be a possibility, intellectually, but somehow it didn’t feel super important to him. He wasn’t cavalier with his life, but there very clearly seemed to him to be a right thing to do. Leaving his hand where it was, squeezing Carson’s shoulder gently, Adam smiled at little when Carson looked back at him. “It’s not like you asked for this to happen to you and it seems really shitty to tell you all of this and then leave you to handle it by yourself. So, yes, I’m definitely here to help you, as far as I’m able.”
Carson didn’t know what to say for the moment. The sincerity and generosity made his nose and eyes sting. He didn’t know a single person who was close to him who might believe this. Rylee sure as hell wouldn’t, he didn’t think Jared would, all of the rest of his friends and exes ... they’d probably just laugh at him. Murmur to Rylee about having him committed again. Maybe the other dream-people would believe, considering what they were all going through now, but Carson sure as hell didn’t want to ask three strangers for help of this magnitude. Adam was pretty much a stranger too, but he’d come offering help. He wet his lips and looked away as his eyes welled up, and sniffled a bit, swiping at his nose with the back of one wrist. “Thank you,” he muttered thickly, then cleared his throat. “Uh ... it’s pretty soon, isn’t it? The next one. Full moon.” It had almost been a month since he’d been bitten, so he knew time to prepare was almost up, if all of this was true.
There were people Carson would be closer to, though Adam had no idea if he would even want to get into it with any of them. The brief exchange Adam had with Rylee hadn’t seemed promising and he remembered with some guilt that she had told him to stay away from Carson. For now, Adam rubbed Carson’s back and looked away as he wiped his face, giving him a firmer pat in response to the thanks. “Yeah, of course. You’re welcome.” Expression becoming more serious, Adam let his hand fall away to pick his beer back up, though he didn’t drink from it. “It is. Next weekend. Sorry, I had some trouble trying to figure out how to bring it up with you, which was also some of why I started look into things in advance.”
“Next weekend, Jesus,” Carson muttered, scrubbing a hand over his face again. That was right around the corner. He had to wonder a bit of Adam had been coming up with other plans if Carson hadn’t believed him, and he had imaginings of the guy shooting him from afar with a tranq dart to drag him off somewhere safe or something. Probably ridiculous, but ... god, all the animal attacks? Had those been a werewolf too? Fuck. It all felt too heavy, like something he couldn’t handle and didn’t want any part of. The feeling was horribly familiar, one he’d had so many times during his recovery. Only this could hurt other people. People he cared about. And he couldn’t take months to process and get over it -- he had less than a week. Letting out a long breath through his lips, Carson rubbed his hand over his short hair. “Okay,” he said, doing his best to tap into his inner soldier and push all his feelings back down. It was just another internal enemy to fight, and he had lots of experience with those, right? “Next weekend. So ... do you have any more information? Stuff I can read?”
There was unfortunately nothing to be done about the ever approaching deadline. “Yeah,” Adam said in confirmation, almost apologetically. If Carson hadn’t believed, Adam hadn’t really come up with a good backup plan, but he would have tried to hash one out, or asked Nick for more advice until something came together. Adam had a tendency to be stubborn when he put his mind to it and the potential for disaster was too high, provided the Carson-turning-into-a-werewolf was the given outcome. Sipping his beer, Adam looked back over at Carson and studied him quietly, giving him however long he needed. “Yeah, one sec,” he said, getting up to go over to his bookshelf, retrieving Nick’s book about werewolves and another he had found by cross-referencing that one, before walking back to offer them to Carson. “This one’s by the guy who gave me that.” He gestured to the file folder with the pictures. “He’s done a lot of research on this--I can give you his contact info, if you want it? He’s in town for the time being.”
Carson took the books, looking at them a bit dubiously ... but if they helped or had real information in them, he probably better learn it. And fast. He didn’t think he’d read an actual full book since school, so that might end up being a challenge. “Yeah that would be great,” he said, looking up at Adam again. “If you think he wouldn’t mind me like, reaching out.” Carson kind of wanted to know how this dude knew anything at all, but he seemed to have written a whole book about the subject, so ... maybe he did. It could’ve been bullshit, of course, but the pictures ... well, there were pictures. He took another of those deep breaths and let it out again, then pointed to the folder with the photos. “Can I take those too?” he asked.
The books Adam selected were what were best on offer as far as Adam had the chance to tell, since there was a dearth of information that wasn’t just idle speculation. He sat back down after he handed the books over and picked up his phone from the coffee table. “Yeah, of course. To both things.” Adam offered the folder of pictures to Carson as well; he had gone through it already, but it was more for Carson’s sake anyway. “Nick said he was open to it when we talked before. I didn’t tell him who you were specifically, since I didn’t want to give that way in case you didn’t want to talk to him, so I’ll give him a head’s up you’ll be in touch,” he said, copying Nick’s contact info into a text to Carson and hit send while he was thinking about it. Adam glanced over at Carson. “I know this is a lot to have to deal with and probably hard to believe, but… thanks for hearing me out,” he said. “We’ll handle this as best we can.”
Even though they barely knew each other, all of the ‘we’s that Adam was throwing around were weirdly comforting. He’d thought he was going through the mirror ‘hallucinations’ and the crazy dreams alone, and it turned out he hadn’t been. He hadn’t known the wolf-monster bite was anything more than an animal attack, but it turned out he didn’t have to go through the truth of that either. The third big thing in his life was his and Rylee’s to bear, but at least that wasn’t time sensitive. Or as dangerous as all this. He stacked the things Adam had given him together and looked over at the other man with a grateful nod. “I wish I could say this was the only weird bullshit happening in my life right now,” he said with a bitter chuckle. “Some stuff’s happened lately to turn me into a believer, but ... this is a lot to take in. I uh, appreciate all your help though. I’m gonna read through these and try to game-plan.” And possibly have a bit of a nervous breakdown, but that was to be expected, right?
They might be newly acquainted, but Adam was set in his resolve to help Carson and all the better that Carson both believed him and didn’t seem opposed to Adam kind of crashing into the situation with the news. His eyebrows raised as Carson mentioned there was other weird things happening in his life. “Well, we might not know each other super well since we only recently met, but if you want to talk about any of the rest of it, I’m happy to listen, if nothing else,” he offered, sincerely. Carson seemed like a good guy hitting a string of bad luck--especially if there was more that was as noteworthy as a possible werewolf situation--and Adam was readily sympathetic to that. “But yeah, if you think of anything else let me know and we can game-plan more. I’ll have days off toward the end of next week and my door’s open whenever, if I’m not at work.”
If all of this was true -- and Carson was inclined to believe it was, as crazy as it seemed -- then it was better to be told by someone than to find out another way. Like just waking up the morning after a full moon covered in blood or something and not knowing what the fuck had happened. Or changing and hurting Rylee, which was suddenly his main concern. “Thanks, man,” Carson said, reaching over to give Adam’s shoulder a squeeze. He still felt kind of shellshocked, like this was all kind of surreal, but it would sink in faster than it would have a month or two ago, he already knew that. He sat there for another beat, then moved to stand up, getting his crutch on his arm again before he picked up the books. “I’m gonna head home, if that’s cool with you,” he said a bit apologetically. Irrational, probably, considering the circumstances, but still there. “Got a lot of reading to do, I guess.”
“Of course,” Adam said, giving Carson a reassuring smile. It was all a lot to process and Adam had given Carson more than enough to think about for now, at least of what he could think of, and he could follow up with Carson again later to see how he was doing with it. He stood so he could see Carson to the door, patting him on the back. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said, since reiterating couldn’t hurt. “Otherwise I’ll check in later to see how things are going for you. Sorry to have to sideswipe you with all of this, I know it’s a lot of information and just… other stuff emotionally to have to process.”
“Yeah,” Carson said with a little humorless laugh that said that was a vast understatement. There was a lot to wrap his head around, and he was sure he would go through a rollercoaster of shit before the week was up. He would probably talk himself out of believing this a few times. And suffer massive anxiety worrying about it being actually true and what that could mean. It was overwhelming to think about for the moment, so he needed to go be alone for a while. He walked to the door with Adam and shook the man’s hand again before he stepped out the door. “Thanks again, Adam,” Carson murmured. “I’ll talk to you soon.”