grady barrett (ashadowgrows) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-31 22:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, gavin, gavin x grady, grady |
Who: Gavin & Grady
Where: Police Station
When: Noon, Tuesday 11/07
Status: Complete
It was a rare occasion that had Gavin Lucas voluntarily enter a police station. He hadn't even gone there after Amelia went missing, the cops came to him and he had no business in the actual station. Today he did and it felt very strange to walk in there. The last time he'd been there he'd been arrested for driving under the influence and it was a miracle or sheer dumb luck that that was the most serious thing on his record. They all knew he'd done far worse.
He asked for the sheriff and ignored the curious looks of the cops on duty. Barrett was in his office and after some humming and hawing Gavin was allowed to go inside. He supposed he could have called but he needed a copy of the papers Amelia said Grady had - if they really existed.
"Sheriff," he muttered as he stepped inside his office, nodding at Grady a little awkwardly. "A moment of your time?"
Grady was both surprised, and not so surprised, when he was told Gavin Lucas was wanting to see him. It either meant Gavin wanted to know if there was any news on Amelia, or he already knew Amelia was back. Grady was guessing it was the latter, considering the man was there in the station, and Gavin Lucas - or any Lucas, for that matter - was not the type to come to this building voluntarily. He wondered how it had gone for Amelia, and if she was okay. He felt a weird surge of protectiveness over the girl and he was prepared to put Gavin in his place if the man didn't believe his own daughter was who she said she was, despite how insane it the whole thing happen to be.
When Gavin finally walked into his office, Grady moved to stand in greeting from behind his desk, motioning for Gavin to shut the door. No one needed to hear this conversation. "Mr. Lucas," Grady replied, motioning to one of the two chairs in front of his desk. "Do you want to have a seat?" He moved to sit back down himself, regardless of Gavin's decision. "How have you been?"
Gavin closed the door and moseyed over to the chairs, taking the seat he was offered. "Yeah alright," he said with a little nod, realizing just how strange this conversation could become. Amelia had told him Grady took care of her, set her up at Juniper, got the DNA test. For all he knew, Grady was well aware of the situation - but what if for some reason he wasn't? "You've uh... Met Amelia," he said cautiously, watching Grady closely for his reaction.
Grady clasped his hands loosely on top of the desk as Gavin sat. His expression was one of calm and he gave a brisk nod to Gavin's question. "Yeah, of course. How is she adjusting?" He knew this was an unusual conversation, but Grady didn't feel right beating around the bush, or trying to delve into how all of this was possible, because he just didn't know. Talking to her father, it felt like the most important thing was to treat this situation as normally as possible, just in case Gavin didn't fully believe Amelia was who she said she was.
That was a good question, one to which Gavin had no answer. "She seems happy," he said instead of trying, she'd only been home a day and he had no doubts things would get difficult at some point. Adjustment might just be hard. "She said you'd tested her DNA," he added cautiously before adding a quick: "I don't need to see it." He had no doubts, neither did Jasper, but he knew some of the people who needed to know she was back wouldn't believe it without solid proof. Maybe not even then.
Happy was good for Grady. He knew Amelia had been missing her family, and anxious about what they would say when she finally revealed herself to them again. Clearly it had gone well. As well as it could go, anyway. His brow cocked briefly at Gavin before he turned to his computer and typed in a couple of things before the printer behind him gave a whirr and began to print two pages. Grady turned to pull the documents from the tray and then faced forward again, giving the papers a cursory glance before offering them across the desk toward Gavin. "You don't need to see it, but some people might," he said, understanding what Gavin was getting at. "I'm sure you know you're not going to be able to enroll her in school as Amelia, if that's your plan. I think there are some people in this town who might believe what happened, but the majority won't."
Gavin didn't think he needed to see it either but there was something about having official papers in his hands that made him feel a little choked up. He nodded slowly, cleared his throat and looked at the papers mostly to avoid looking at Grady. "Thank you," he muttered. "It'll be... good to have. I'm not planning on telling people outside the family. I don't want her to, we don't need that kind of attention." He glanced up again and tried to read Grady's expression. "I don't think anything good would come of that."
"I agree," Grady said. As did Lettie. He hesitated and glanced at his door, which was still firmly shut. "If you need some help getting her proper papers... just let me know. I'm not sure what her plans are, or if she even has any yet." He had a feeling it might take some time for Amelia to get used to being back in Point Pleasant. "And clearly it's her decision, but I would strongly recommend Amelia continue seeing Ms. Amari at Mercy. Talking about her experience with a professional might help her cope with being back here." Lettie had seemed pretty convinced Amelia was Amelia, even when doubts continued to linger in Grady's mind. Talking to someone removed from family might be beneficial for the young woman.
Having the police on their side was going to take some getting used to and it was somewhat fitting that it was all because of Amelia. It would help, for sure, because getting her back into society was going to be hell and they could use the help, but Gavin was still a little unsure about whether to accept help from the sheriff or not. It did help that he hadn't had a lot of dealings with Grady Barrett specifically. He had already separated from Ollie when Grady took over as sheriff but that didn't mean he didn't know about all violence and crazy shit going on before he moved out. People talked. He didn't know who Amari was but he filed the name away for later to talk to Amelia about it. She was going to need all the help she could get. "Thank you," Gavin muttered after a bout of uncomfortable silence. "I'll uh, I'll tell her that uhm..." He stopped and leaned forward a little, brows furrowed. "Have you seen anything like this before?!"
"I've seen a lot, but no, nothing like this," Grady admitted. He liked to think himself more on Amelia's side than anyone else's, but her family quite obviously cared about her. Grady wasn't going to let Gavin's reputation mar his perception of Amelia. And honestly, Gavin Lucas had been pretty mellow and low key over the past few years. The same couldn't really be said for the entire family, but it was what it was. "I think a part of me still doesn't quite believe it, but the proof is there, both on paper, and quite literally with Amelia. The important thing now is keeping her identity from spreading around town. I'm sure your family knows to keep it quiet. It's up to you how you want to handle it, but I'll try to help in any way I can." Grady paused. "I would like to know more about where she claimed to be, but I realize it's been difficult for her to remember a lot of detail."
Gavin nodded because he understood. He still felt like maybe he shouldn't believe it, that all of this should be impossible, but one look at his daughter and he knew who she was. She smiled the same, she cried the same, even her hair had the same texture, it was Amelia and he had no doubts about it. "She told me a little bit," he said and shook his head. "She says it's like a bad dream that's fading away but it didn't sound like anywhere normal." He huffed as soon as he'd spoken the words because of course it hadn't been anywhere normal, she was back but nine years older, how could it be? He hadn't felt like asking her much about it because she looked a little haunted when she tried to remember and he'd much rather she smile and enjoy the fact that she was home finally.
"It can't be normal, if time moves that quickly... or maybe it moves normally and we just move slowly... I don't know. To be honest, it gives me a headache when I try to make sense of it," Grady admitted. "I certainly don't want to make her relive any bad memories, but she disappeared to that place in this town. Clearly it's something...supernatural, but it got me wondering if it could be responsible for more disappearances. And if there's a way to find it." He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. "I'll give her the time she needs to readjust, but if she's willing to talk to me some more, willing to help, I'd appreciate it."
"I'm sure she'll try," Gavin replied because Amelia was like that and less paranoid at cops than the rest of her family. She hadn't been raised into the bad feelings either, she'd completely missed out on those formative years with her family. It was strange to hear the sheriff himself talk about supernatural things but what else could explain what had happened. Denying it at this point would be an exercise in mule-headedness. "There are other things that might be responsible too," he said quietly and while he didn't really want to go into specifics there seemed to be an opening in this conversation and anyone who was willing to listen deserved a warning.
Grady wanted answers. He wanted logical, science based answers. But he was also aware from experience that there were things in the universe that couldn't be explained with science. Or maybe they could, except no one had figured out the science to them just yet. Studying Gavin, Grady tilted his head and cocked a brow curiously. "Such as?" He was willing to listen, if Gavin had something that might make all of this seem more clear. It would be small minded of him to simply assume no one else in this town had experienced unexplained events as he had. Hell, unexplained events seemed to happen every goddamn week.
Gavin grunted softly, rubbing the back of his neck as he considered whether to spill the beans or not. Grady was looking at him in a way that said he might not be all that open about supernatural things, just because of one unexplainable event. Gavin was a bit too tired of it all to care if the sheriff believed him or not and it wasn't like he had anything to lose with the man. "The tunnels, something weird about them," he muttered. "There are creatures in town, they look like people but they're not. Kids with black eyes, shadows, a skinny man in a bowler hat." He let out a little huff of a humorless laugh. "Hell, there's probably more I don't know about."
It felt like he ought to be taking notes and Grady had to resist the urge to pluck his pen from his shirt pocket to start doing just that. He knew about the tunnels. Had enough horrible things happen out there to know that the whole thing ought to be filled with bricks, or cement, or something. Probably impossible, but taping off the area hadn't helped either. Grady was about to ask more about the black eyed kids when his stomach seemed to flip flop uncomfortably. A skinny man in a bowler hat. Grady paled and he ran a hand over his face before it fell back to the top of his desk. "You've seen the man in a bowler hat," Grady said. "When?"
That wasn't the reaction Gavin had been expecting. He'd expected Grady to remain cordial, maybe nod along, then dismiss him politely. Instead it became very clear that he had seen the same thing, Gavin could tell before he even moved, the way color drained from his face and he looked almost trapped for a second. "A long time ago," he replied quietly, his own curiosity very evident in his expression and the way he leaned forward as he spoke. "My son was just a toddler and I... I saw him out in the street." He opened his mouth to say more but this was different than telling Jasper what had happened and it suddenly felt too personal, almost too intimate to talk about. "You?"
Grady knew this was where he needed to tread lightly because Gavin Lucas could very easily go around town telling everyone the chief of police was crazy. Not that Grady thought he would, given the situation with Amelia. Still, it was difficult for Grady to talk about it, since he had never mentioned the bowler hat man to anyone before. "I was ten," Grady explained, sounding calmer than he really felt. "He was in a tree I was climbing and when I looked up, he tried to grab me. Fell out of the tree and broke my arm. I saw him again when I was junior in high school, in the Fallows with my friends. One of my friends went missing that night. Not sure if it was related to what I saw, but..." He had never been able to shake the feeling that the bowler man had something to do with Jeremy disappearing. But he couldn't prove it either. And intimate or not, Grady felt a soft breath escape him, as if he had been holding it in for the last thirty five years. "I thought I was the only one."
Gavin had felt a sort of guilty relief when he heard his son talk about the black eyed children, like a confirmation that he wasn't alone in this. Again when Aaron told him about the tunnels. That relief was nothing like what he felt now because in all his life he'd never met anyone who'd seen the skinny man. He was listening intently and it wasn't until Grady let out that soft breath that he realized he'd been holding his own. "There was something about him, I couldn't move," he said quietly. "He touched me right here." He patted his chest where he still had that strange scar all these years later. "And he just... pushed." Bonding with the sheriff had not been on his bucket list but he still felt compelled to pull his shirt down enough to show it, surrounded by tattoos it was still fairly visible to this day. "I think he might have just gone right through me if a car hadn't come 'round the corner."
Grady felt a chill at the mere thought of that thing touching him. He, if it had been a he, had tried to, but Grady had fallen out of the tree before he could. He'd ended up with a broken arm, but Grady figured it could have been much worse if the man had actually managed to grab him. It seemed like Gavin had gotten lucky as well, just barely. "I haven't seen him since," Grady said, "but that doesn't mean he's not around. There was nothing about him that was human to me, but it felt crazy trying to explain it to someone else. You have any residual side effects from that?" Grady asked, motioning to Gavin's chest. "Anything physical? Mental?"
"That's a damn good question," Gavin said with a wry smile. His life had always been one big fuck up and that had started long before he encountered the bowler hat creature. Had it gotten worse after that? It was hard to measure whether more shit had been added to an already steaming pile. "Nothing physical. I've done some things to protect myself since, my ex she's... All into witch stuff and you know, you just pray it works."
Witch stuff. Something else Point Pleasant was 'known' for, though Grady had always had his doubts. Why, he had no idea, given everything else he had witnessed. The supernatural just continued to war with how logic minded he tried to be. "I guess that's all you can really do," Grady said. "Pray it works." Pray, pray, pray. It seemed to be the go to solution for a lot of residents in town, though Grady wasn't one of them. "Does any of it work?" he asked belatedly. Grady wasn't sure what witch stuff was exactly, but it never hurt to find out.
Gavin almost wished he could say he wasn't sure but Reagan Kelly's magic had worked and there was no doubt in his mind about that. "Some of it does," he said though he knew he didn't have any proof of that. "It didn't keep Amelia safe but some of it does work." This conversation hadn't gone the way he'd expected it to and he still wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. He observed Grady for a few seconds, brows furrowed in thought. "You're the first person I meet who's seen what I've seen."
Some part of Grady wanted to know exactly who in town was a 'practicing witch', or at least claiming to be. He knew of the Point Pleasant Six, and how most of those families still lived in town even today. But that didn't mean they were all stroking black cats and riding brooms at night. Was that witches really did, or just what society had created for them? Oh boy, this conversation had really gone off the rails, though Grady couldn't say it upset him. It was better to know exactly what was going on in his town so he knew better how to protect it. Because lately Grady felt like he was epically failing in that department. "I'm sure there are others. People don't generally feel comfortable opening up to the Chief of Police about their bizarre encounters," he said with a wry smile. "Can't say I blame them. I'd have trouble believing if I hadn't had a couple of my own."
Gavin picked up on that instantly - a couple. "Seen anything I didn't mention?" he asked warily, torn between wanting to know and wanting to live in blissful ignorance. Only ignorance wasn't very blissful when it came to Point Pleasant, it was bound to get shattered with something gruesome if you didn't know how to protect yourself. It made him wonder if Grady Barrett was protected at all, aside from his badge and gun. Supernatural elements didn't really give a shit about authority or bullets, that was for sure. It was a quick thought that took him by surprise. Worrying about cops? Not really his cup of tea.
As nice - was that the right word for it? - as it was to find someone who had shared similar experiences in this town, Grady was not entirely sure he wanted to explain all of his experiences with Gavin Lucas. "I'm a police officer," Grady pointed out with a twitch of his lips. "I've seen a lot. Some things that aren't easily explained. All you can do at some point is tell people to be safe and hope they take it to heart. Obviously you and I both know just from Amelia's situation that there are some things that you can't defend yourself again. It's a frightening reality and not one many residents in this town would appreciate."
"Hard to keep safe when you don't know how or what from," Gavin said quietly and thought of Aaron and Mila, getting drawn into something dark and evil. Was it related to the magic he and Caden purchased? He would never know, all he knew was that whether he was responsible for that too or not, he hadn't warned his little brother about all the darkness in Point Pleasant. Not specifically. Mutterings of generic evils and watching out while in church hardly counted when he could have told him what he'd seen. Then again he and Ollie had done everything they could think of to keep their kids safe and Amelia had still gone missing. "Come by the Black Porch sometime, I'll buy you a drink." Which was a way of saying thank you and maybe cutting this short. Grady couldn't tell him a whole lot and maybe he didn't want to either but there was some solace in finding another person who'd seen exactly the same thing he had and Gavin wasn't going to forget it.
That much was true. It had Grady wishing he had convinced his kids to stay in Portland with their mother, but were they any safer there? He doubted the bad stuff was contained solely to Point Pleasant. Maybe he ought to talk to Hunter and Jen and be honest with them so they could be more mindful of their surroundings when they were out. They may think Grady is insane, but he would rather them believe that than be faced with something like Amelia had been. He moved to stand, offering his hand out to Gavin to shake. "I appreciate it. Maybe I'll stop by sometime. I'll try to swing by and see Amelia soon, once she's a bit more settled. And if you need anything, just let me know."
Gavin narrowed his eyes briefly as he stood and moved to shake his hand. The strangeness of this encounter wasn't something he'd be quick to get over but in light of how things were going it wasn't even that strange at all. Amelia was back, she'd always been the sunshine in the family and now she seemed to be mending bridges for him with her return. Or maybe he was overthinking it. "Thank you," he said quietly, giving Grady a firm squeeze before letting go. "If you need... information about protections just swing on by." He nodded then and stepped back because there was no need to linger now that they'd said their goodbyes. He couldn't deny he was curious though and if Grady hadn't gotten so cagey he might have loved to stay to pick his brain a little more.
"Yeah, I may do that too," Grady said with a soft laugh. He hadn't meant to get cagey per se, but there were some things he just felt more comfortable keeping to himself for the time being. Although the idea of protections sounded appealing, mostly for his kids. So yeah, maybe he would pop by the Porch and grab a drink and see what Gavin meant by witchy stuff, and protections. It was a bit bizarre that this was his life now, but it would be ignorant and downright stupid to ignore what was right in front of his face now.