Who: Nick and Greer When: Wednesday, Nov 8, afternoon Where: the grocery store Status: Complete
Nick was starting to think that he was going to be staying in Point Pleasant long-term. Which meant he needed to start looking for somewhere besides Juniper to live. An apartment or one of the mobile homes in Seaview or something. He was used to living in hotel rooms, but it had been long enough now that he was starting to feel a little cramped. Plus it was getting expensive. His expenses were mostly paid for, but Nick didn’t like to seem like he was milking the company. Having a place to stretch his legs where he could cook for himself would be nice.
Speaking of cooking, he was on the hunt for some stuff to cook in the microwave in his room for when he was too lazy or too engrossed in work to go out to eat. Since the full moon on Saturday night, Nick had been busy cataloging the ‘animal attacks’ that seemed to plague this town, making lots of notes about times and locations, trying to find a pattern. He wasn’t sure exactly how many werewolves were in the area, and he felt that was something he and the people he worked for needed to know. But first he needed to do a normal human thing and shop. He went to the grocery store and started to mosey down the aisles, taking his time about scanning the shelves.
Greer happened to be in the same grocery store, picking up a few necessities for she and Dev. They were more or less settled in Seaview now, and it was a cute little rental that would hopefully last for however long they decided to stay. She carried a basket of groceries through the aisles, occasionally pausing to talk to whomever might be sharing the aisle with her. Clearly she was in no real hurry. Her habit of getting distracted by people tended to be the reason why she hit the frozen food aisles last. Otherwise she would have a carton of melted, dripping ice cream by the time she got to the checkout.
Rounding the next aisle, Greer was immediately drawn to the larger man contemplating the shelves of food. She smiled and began to walk toward him. "Hey stranger," Greer said. "I wasn't sure if you were still in town or not."
Nick was pondering the different kinds of instant noodles when he caught sight of someone in his peripheral vision headed his way. He glanced over and smiled automatically to see Greer there. He forgot all about his ramen and stepped in closer to loop in arm around her shoulders and pull her into a hug. “Hey there,” he answered. “Yeah, I’m still kickin’ around. I thought maybe you’d skipped town ... just vacated Juniper, huh?” Nick stepped back to grin at her, genuinely interested in where she and her man had gone. They seemed like interesting people, and he found it pretty fascinating, how this town held onto folks, even if they hadn’t originally come from there.
"We decided to stick around for awhile and Juniper was getting expensive," Greer explained as she returned his hug with one of her own. "Dev and I moved to a rental in Seaview Village. It's a cozy area. What about you? Have you decided to stay a bit longer?" Was he still working on his book? Maybe he found a 'Rost' of his own. Or maybe it was something darker and more ominous than that. For as much light as Greer recognized in Point Pleasant, she still felt something more sinister simmering beneath the surface. It was possible she and Dev would be gone before it exploded, because it would explode, but Greer wasn't sure what the future really held.
In his vague poking around for potential other places to live, Nick had seen some rentals at Seaview and considered it. He hadn’t decided if he would go there or get an apartment, though. He wasn’t very into lawn care. And if he was building this thing with Madison, it might behoove him to have a bit more space between himself and Greer. She was looking fine, even in the grocery store. “Yeah, I’ll probably be here for six months, at least,” he said with a rueful chuckle. “So I’m starting to look around myself. You guys like the place? Comfy?” Greer had struck him as the type of person who could get comfortable anywhere, so maybe that was a dumb question, but it was still worth asking.
"Six months." Greer looked thrilled at this news, of course, because it meant that someone she considered a friend would be around for awhile. Greer tended to make friends wherever she went, but she was particularly fond of Nick. "Well, I can safely recommend Seaview, if you want something a bit bigger than an apartment. We both like it a lot. It's not too much space, but not so cramped that we're on top of each other every second of the day. You'll have to come by and see us soon." She wasn't propositioning him, but hopeful that if he was sticking around town, they could get to know one another better. "What made you decide to stay?"
It was a longer stay than Nick was used to making in a place, but Point Pleasant was an incredible place with a lot going on, and his superiors agreed. There was more than enough to write about, both books and reports, and he knew he wouldn’t be bored here. He nodded a bit at Greer’s praise of Seaview. It was tempting to have a place with an outside to himself, but Madison lived in Seaview too, and Nick wasn’t sure if she would want him that close. Granted, she was pretty much working all the time, but still. “I know I look big, but I don’t crowd myself too often,” he joked, giving her a lopsided grin. “I’ll swing by sometime, yeah, have a look around. Anything weird happen to you guys out there yet? There were ghosts in my Juniper room the other night ...”
Greer's smile widened for a brief moment. "You do walk with a certain grace, despite your size," she teased. Nick had seemed like the kind of guy who could be comfortable just about anywhere. Probably because he didn't stay long enough to become uncomfortable. Her smile dipped only slightly and she glanced around just to make sure no one was in the aisle with them. "Nothing weird has happened to me directly. There was the strange fog when we first got here. A dear friend of mine, he lives in the cemetery and there has been a heaviness there that I never felt before. No ghosts that I've seen, however. Were they volatile ghosts? Did they try to communicate?"
While he was fit, he rarely thought of himself as graceful, so that made Nick smile brighter for a beat. One of his eyebrows quirked at the tidbit that her ‘dear friend’ lived in the cemetery, but Nick tucked that aside for the moment to answer her questions. He shook his head slightly. “No, they just appeared, the clearest and most distinct apparitions I’ve ever personally seen, stared, and then faded out eventually. A few different ones, throughout the day. But I had company at the time, skeptical company, and it threw her for a hard loop.” Nick had heard a few murmurings that the same thing had happened to a few other people around town, so it wasn’t just in Juniper, but he hadn’t hunted it down hard enough to find a connection. “I wasn’t aware the cemetery had any living residents ... you are talking about someone living, right?” he asked with a bit of bemusement.
"How fascinating," Greer breathed, wishing she had gotten a glimpse of the ghosts. "I can imagine any skeptical mind would have trouble accepting what their mind is seeing. I hope she wasn't too upset about it." Seeing was believing for a lot of people, even the most skeptical. There was just something about this town. It was hard to turn a blind eye to what was happening there, but so many people still did it. Perhaps it was just easier that way. Greer's smile widened and she released a small laugh before nodding. "My friend is living, yes. He's the caretaker. Of course the unliving certainly roam the area too. I haven't seen any of them with my own eyes, but you can feel them there."
Nick would have had trouble with Mads if she hadn’t believed what was in front of her face, he felt. He knew her logic had tried to rationalize it all away a few times since then, and he hoped she wasn’t struggling too hard with it all. She’d seemed all right the day before, even talking about the possibility of werewolves, but he knew a calm surface didn’t always mean calm waters underneath. “She was shaken up about it, understandably,” Nick said with a nod. “But she’s a cop, so I think she’s pretty good at staying calm when she’s freaked out. Your friend’s the caretaker, huh? I bet he sees interesting shit all the time.” Nick was already wondering if he could go talk to the man. He cocked a brow and smirked a little at Greer. “Introduce me sometime?”
"Rost would have plenty of stories to tell you about this place, and probably other places, if you were interested. And he might enjoy your stories too. We'll choose a night and walk over to say hello to him." Greer doubted Rost would mind it, since she was sure Nick would listen to him with sincere interest. Her own lips twitched as she studied Nick. "If I introduce you to Rost, do I get to meet your lady cop?" Depending on her mood, she could be a real romantic at heart, and she found she liked the idea of Nick finding love in Point Pleasant, as she and Dev had. Of course it could be totally platonic, but how could any woman look at this man and not feel a bit of a pitter patter inside?
Rost, huh? Nick wasn’t sure what kind of name that was, but it was even more intriguing. Any person who voluntarily worked at the cemetery in a place like this had to be either incredibly brave or stupid or Special. Nick was the most curious about the last one. Nick’s brow inched higher at Greer’s question and his smirk turned into more of a grin. “Don’t see why not,” he drawled. “Is that uh, a comparable meeting? Is Rost more than a friend?” Greer would be into a cemetery caretaker, somehow that made sense. Nick already knew -- from delightful experience -- she and her main man shared one another, so it was possible. Mads was probably not so generous, so Greer would have to keep their little tryst on the down low, but Nick thought she could manage that.
"If your lady cop is more than a friend, then yes, it's comparable," Greer said, her smile matching Nick's now. "I have to admit, it's strange to think of you being involved in law enforcement, which I know is strange, given how little we actually know of each other. She must be very special to catch your eye." And Greer never assumed everyone was as open with their relationship as she and Devlin were, so she had no intention of talking to the other woman about her time spent with Nick, as amazing as it had been. It was a wonderful moment in time, and one she would look back on fondly. But she hoped it also meant she and Nick could remain friends. If he was staying in Point Pleasant for awhile, she knew he was someone she would want to visit frequently.
Nick wasn’t quite sure if he and Madison were together or just casually dating and fucking -- those distinctions seemed so high school anyway. She was a lovely woman, skepticism aside, and he enjoyed her company. And she was a nicely convenient source of insider information when it came to the authorities in this weird town. Nick knew that those two reasons to keep seeing her might clash one day, but for now he was doing fine keeping things compartmentalized. Nick chuckled a bit at Greer’s assessment, and teased, “You think I’m some kinda criminal?” In some ways he was, he supposed; he was above the law in certain cases, imbued with authority from an agency outside of governmental constraints. But that wasn’t something he went around saying out loud. “Nah, she is pretty special,” he said. “Very pragmatic though, I appreciate that she hasn’t laughed me out of bed yet, given my line of work. Spunky. You might like her.”
"I do like spunky," Greer said, laughing. She liked all kinds of people but especially strong women. Ones that weren't threatened by Greer's existence. Many were, although she could never understand why. "And no, I don't think you're a criminal at all. More like... you would be... unimpressed with authority. You march to the beat of your own drummer, Nick." As did she, just in a different sort of way. "Your line of work is fascinating, so I'm sure she has no reason to laugh you out of anywhere, least of all the bedroom. I hope I can meet her soon. And you can meet Rost, who is very unpragmatic, although I'm quite sure that's not a word." She lifted a hand to touch his face, smiling. "Promise you'll come see me. We don't get enough visitors."
Nick was actually kind of flattered that she thought that of him, and it showed in his smile. He did have his own drummer, it just happened to answer to a higher authority if the paycheck was right. And it currently was. He thought Mads was slowly realizing that his line of work was not just fascinating, it was true, and therefore no laughing matter. Greer already knew that, and it was refreshing to know some people who believed the same things he did. Nick moved one hand up to briefly cover Greer’s, then turned his head to kiss the inside of her wrist. She smelled delicious. He didn’t linger there. “I promise,” he told her with a warm little smile. “And I can’t wait to meet your two men, they sound like a blast.” He was sincere in that; not to mention, he was curious what sort of people Greer counted as close.
She brushed her thumb against his cheek before lowering her hand. "I think they'll enjoy meeting you too," Greer said. Neither Devlin nor Rost were the possessive type, and she was sure that they were confident in how she felt about them. If anything, she was betting they would appreciate Nick in more than one way. "Will you let me know where you end up staying?" she asked. "If not Seaview. I promise I won't drop by unexpected or anything, in case you have your lady cop over." Greer would also talk to Rost about meeting Nick. She knew it had probably been a rough week for him, work wise, and so she didn't want to drag a stranger to his doorstep if he was feeling down.
Nick chuckled and made a little face. “She ain’t put a ball and chain on me yet, stop by anytime you want,” he told her in a low drawl. “Just gotta be a clothed visit. Until somethin’ changes, anyway. We haven’t exactly had an in-depth conversation about it yet.” He didn’t know what, if anything, Mads expected out of all of this. Nick wasn’t the settling-down type, obviously, but he could date while he was still in town. Until the thought of him not being in town anymore drove her away, as it so often did. “But I promise, I’ll let you know,” he said, smiling at Greer again. “And text me when would be a good time to swing by, and which house you are.”
"Clothes are an unfortunate necessity of life," Greer mused, though her eyes danced with amusement. "But I promise to wear them when I come to see you, and I promise to keep them on while I'm there." While Greer was secure and happy with her lifestyle, she was also not one to cause strife in another's relationship. And she liked Nick enough to be more than happy to just talk with him, if that's what they did. Maybe she would bring something to smoke as well. She leaned in to give him another one armed hug. "I'll text you soon. Until then, have fun with your lady and be safe, okay? Not all ghosts are as harmless as the ones you saw."
He embraced her gently back, noting that she didn’t press too close. It was sweet and a little unnecessary, he thought. But Nick had never really understood jealousy. Maybe because he never got that deeply attached to people ... or his nature was just more like Greer’s. You couldn’t own people. He could respect that his new quasi-girlfriend still expected him to be monogamous though, and he would act accordingly until he knew different. “Oh, I’m aware,” Nick answered with another deep chuckle. He knew all about ghosts and the other things that were not harmless and most people didn’t believe in. “You enjoy both of your gentleman, and same to you, take care of yourself, Greer.” He gave her a little wave as they parted, and started to push his cart on down the aisle. There was still shopping to do, if he could remember now what he’d been after.