Who: Carson and Rylee When: late morning, late May Where: his brother Robert’s apartment in Castle View Status: Complete
Reuniting with his family had been ... difficult, for Carson. Both he and Jules had hoped that when he woke up from sleeping in her bed, he would remember everything. That wasn’t the case. At some point in the night he’d ended up on the floor, curled up beneath a blanket, the hardness under the carpet more familiar than the soft nest of her bed. He still felt wrong somehow, like he was halfway to normal but had gotten stuck. He’d taken another shower while Jules had searched his social media to track down his family, and Carson had found that parts of his body were still different too. He couldn’t recall exactly how they should be, he just knew certain things were ... unnatural. He was unnatural.
A couple of hours and several Facebook messages later, Jules announced that she had found his sister Alice. She lived in town with her live-in boyfriend, and she was thrilled to hear that Carson was home. She met them at Moxie’s to pick him up, giving him a long, tearful hug. Alice was sad that he couldn’t remember her, but that didn’t seem to deter her much. Carson said goodbye to Jules and thanked her profusely and promised to keep in touch, then he’d gone off with his kin.
The reunion with his brother and his parents had been emotional for all of them and rather uncomfortable for him. He didn’t know them, and it was upsetting. He wanted to recognize their faces and return their emotion, he really did, he just ... didn’t. They told him a lot of things about his life -- how he’d grown up, what his interests were, his time in the Marines. All they would say about his half-leg and scars was that he’d been injured in the war. Nobody seemed to want to talk about it much. They’d also told him that he’d been living with one of their cousins, Rylee, who was also a long-time native. Alice explained that she’d moved away, but promised to call her as soon as she could. Carson was glad for that, thinking that if anybody knew more details about the days before he disappeared, it would be his roommate.
They all decided it would be best for Carson to stay with his brother. He had a two bedroom apartment, and Robert wasn’t weeping at him every ten minutes like his mother was. He also worked, so Carson would get some privacy. It felt kind of nice to settle in somewhere that wasn’t so obviously a teen girl’s bedroom, but Carson still slept on the floor that night.
Rylee had tried to stay in Point Pleasant as long as she was mentally able to. She had helped with some searches through Blackwater Woods. She had searched on her own. She had waited for Carson to call her, despite knowing he was gone. She had waited until her brain finally kicked her ass into accepting that he probably wasn't coming home. And then it had been too much. Point Pleasant had become too much. So she had quit the diner, packed up her things - Carson's family took care of his stuff on their own - and got a job working for a private practice in Virginia. It was mostly clerical work, but it was going to help pay for her online courses and it would be good experience if she wanted to continue down the path to becoming a nurse.
Getting away from Point Pleasant had been difficult, but she knew it had been the right choice. She couldn't bear to be there anymore, around so many people and places that reminded her of Carson. No one really understood the depth of her pain because no one understood what they had been to each other. Her heart was broken, and she needed the privacy and the space to let it heal. She had settled into a new apartment quite nicely and stayed focused on her goals. Only when she was home alone did she let herself grieve properly... or not, given most of her grieving included consuming a lot of alcohol.
Rylee had just started with a bottle of wine in her tiny studio apartment when Alice called her. It took her awhile to let the news sink in that Carson was back. The conflicting emotions inside of her left her dizzy and Rylee listened quite numbly as Alice described Carson's condition and where he was staying. Honestly, Rylee didn't care if he couldn't remember her. She just wanted to see him with her own eyes to know he was alive and well. As soon as she hung up with Alice, Rylee went online and booked a flight into Bangor International Airport. She quickly packed a bag, sent an email to her employer, one that probably meant the end of her employment, and called an Uber for a lift to the Richmond Airport.
It was still early when she drove into Point Pleasant with the rented car and Rylee opted to stop at her mom's to nap for a few hours. The sun hadn't even risen yet, so it was probably bad form to start knocking at her cousin's door already. After some sleep, a quick shower and clean clothes, Rylee drove to Robert's and knocked.
He let her inside, offered her some coffee which she gladly accepted, and waited on the couch while he went down the hall to tell Carson she was there to see him. Her hands were wrapped tight around the coffee mug, the heat burning into her palms. It was the only way to keep them from shaking as she waited.
Even though they had come out of the boxes of his stuff, Carson didn’t feel like his clothes fit very well, a little too tight over the bulkiest areas of muscle. He’d found a pair of glasses too, but the prescription seemed all wrong. He could see perfectly without them, so he didn’t even know why they existed. Had he had bad eyes before? He didn’t know. There was also a crutch that was more comfortable than the ones Jules had given him, so that was what he was using as he made his way down the hall behind his brother.
Carson’s phone had been completely lost, so he didn’t have a personal cache of pictures to look at, but he’d browsed his own social media plenty by now on Robert’s computer, and he recognized his cousin from those shots. They’d seemed close, and Carson was already bracing for another tearful reunion that made him feel guilty for not remembering anything. He kept hoping something solid would come back, something that happened before the horrible place he’d been, but most things were still a big blank.
As he limped into the room he gave Rylee a small, uncertain smile. He had a beard now and his hair was kind of shaggy, and he seemed to have more body hair than he’d seen in those pictures, along with maybe some more bulk ... but he hoped she recognized him well anyway. Robert said something about getting ready for work and disappeared again, leaving them alone. “Hi Rylee,” Carson said, his nostrils flaring a touch. She smelled good, with an edge of something a little sour that made him think she was nervous -- he couldn’t blame her, he was too -- but there was something else in it too. A more solid recognition that he couldn’t quite place.
Rylee set her coffee down and quickly stood when Carson came into the room. He looked... different. The same, but different. A little more muscular, like he had been working out more. A beard and the shaggy hair made sense, if he was trapped in some hellish dimension. They probably didn't have proper hygiene over there. Nic had told her that Carson had changed into a werewolf before the portal closed. Had he stayed that way? She had so many questions, but first it was important to just say hello and try not to overwhelm him. "Hi Carson," Rylee said with a small smile. She stayed put, though she was dying to run across the room and take him in her arms. To try and resist the urge, she slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "This is probably a really stupid question, but how are you feeling?"
He chuckled as he moved over to the chair next to the couch to sit down. Carson had the impulse to sit next to Rylee and cuddle up close, but he knew that was probably inappropriate. A lot of his impulses seemed to be. His thoughts had become steadily more human since he’d returned home, but he still felt the wolf underneath, the instinct to pack bond and stay close for warmth and sleep in a den and all that. Not people things. He pulled his arm out of his crutch and propped it up against the chair’s arm before he looked at her again. “It’s not stupid, how else are you going to know?” he murmured. “Uh ... confused, mostly. Kind of overwhelmed. Worried I won’t ever remember much. Tired. But here is better than there, nothing’s tried to kill me yet, so I can’t complain.” Carson smiled faintly.
Relieved that he didn't seem uncomfortable with her, Rylee sat, tucking one leg underneath her as she shifted her body to focus on him. Gods, her hands wanted to touch and hug and stroke. He looked so different with all the hair. She had seen him with facial hair before, but nothing like this. Rylee knew he was joking to keep things light, but she found it difficult to smile. It occurred to her that he could have died. Obviously she knew that, obviously she had thought about it a lot over the past few months. But now that he was sitting in front of her, Rylee realized that while she had grieved his being gone, she hadn't allowed her brain to think of him as dead. Exhaling softly, Rylee nodded. "I think overwhelmed and confused is pretty much expected. This has to be a lot for you. I'm guessing your family has already filled you in on a lot? I mean, about who you are and everything."
Carson expected that to fall pretty flat, so her reaction wasn’t disappointing. From what his siblings had told him, he was somewhat closer to Rylee than he was to them, since they were so close in age and had grown up together. There seemed to be more to the story, but he got the sense that it was in the realm of stuff they didn’t want to get into. He was curious to see if Rylee would tell him more. “They’ve told me a lot, yeah,” he said with a slow nod. “Just not everything, I don’t think. I mean I wouldn’t expect everything-everything, but ... I dunno, it all seemed too nice for a guy who woke up with no memory, naked and legless in the middle of the woods, you know?” Another flat joke, he supposed. Carson tilted his head at her slightly. “They said we were best friends, I thought you might know more,” he murmured.
Rylee couldn't help but smile a bit then, amused that he would think his siblings' descriptions of him sounded too nice. "You are a nice guy, Carson. They weren't sugar coating any of that for you. And maybe I do know more than they do, but I guess the important part is asking what you remember, what you already know and what you want to know." She knew she couldn't exactly tell him what they meant to each other, not with Robert in the apartment and if Carson didn't remember her, or their relationship, she was mindful enough to know she could disgust him, or put him off, if he knew the truth.
He’d meant more that his siblings’ description of his life had seemed too nice, like they were skipping over the bad parts, or at least giving them a shiny gloss. He had served his country honorably, blah blah. Nobody had breathed a word about werewolves or anything that indicated they knew where he’d been for months and why. There were questions of course, but he’d tried to be as vague as he could, claiming more memory loss than he really had. It just seemed safer that way somehow. It was nice to hear from Rylee that he was a nice person though, that jived with how Carson felt inside. He swallowed and nodded faintly as he thought about where to start. “How’d I lose my leg, I guess is my first question,” he said finally. “I feel like that’s ... not new. They told me it was in war, but nobody wanted to talk much about it, so I’m assuming it was bad. I don’t remember anything about it.”
Surprised, Rylee glanced down at his leg, wondering why his family wouldn't just be honest with him about it. It was a touchy subject, sure, and it brought back some painful memories for them, but Carson deserved to know everything. Maybe the details would help him somehow. "You were in Afghanistan. The vehicle you were riding in hit an IED. You lost your leg and you had some major damage to your arm." She motioned to his right arm. "You were in a coma for about a month. I'm not sure they were positive you were going to pull through, to be honest. But you did. You had a lot of physical therapy and you still go for check ups at the VA to get your medication. You have a prosthetic leg that you use when you don't have your crutch. I'm sure they told you that much?"
Carson had noticed the texture of scar tissue on his arm when he’d been showering, but it was hard to see the extent of it all under all of his tattoos. Which he’d been spending a lot of time examining and wondering about since he’d been back. He wondered if Rylee knew many of the meanings behind them. His brow quirked upward when she said he’d been in a coma -- that sounded like some kind of brain damage to him. He had a surreal moment where he wondered if he was just crazy, but Carson pushed that away. “Not all those details,” he said with a small shake of his head. “They said it was bad and none of us were very close for a while after. They did say I usually have a prosthetic though. Nobody found it in my stuff, I guess it ... went with me, but didn’t come back.” Carson shifted in his seat a bit, his gaze getting more keen on Rylee’s face. “Do you know what happened to me? Where I went?”
Rylee blinked as it hit her. Why hadn't she found his prosthetic? If he had shifted into a werewolf like Nic said, it would still be in the woods, right? Unless it had been sucked into that place with the rest of him. She took a breath and refocused. "The VA should be able to help you get a new prosthetic. I'll check with your mom to see if she's called them yet. If not, I can do it. I know your doctor pretty well." Shifting nervously, Rylee glanced at the hallway to make sure Robert hadn't reappeared. It was hard to talk about this stuff when she knew there was a chance to be overhead. "I was told what happened, yes. I wasn't there, so I didn't see it myself, but someone who was there was a friend of mine and he came to me afterward. Do you remember being over there?"
Rylee knowing his doctors tracked with what he’d picked up from his siblings -- his cousin had been more involved in his recovery than they had. Maybe it had been embarrassment that they hadn’t helped him more that had made it an uncomfortable subject ... or maybe he’d just been too difficult for anyone else to handle back then. Carson didn’t know, but he hoped he would remember eventually. He noted the apprehension on Rylee’s face when she looked away, and he got the gut feeling that she did know more about him than anyone else. Carson kept his voice low and an ear out for any approaching footsteps. “Not a lot of it is clear and straightforward, but yes,” he told her. “More than I remember being here. And I wasn’t ... human. Does that make sense to you?” He didn’t want to dance around it, but he didn’t want to sound like a total lunatic either.
Rylee nodded. She had already known from Nic that Carson had shifted before being taken. She hadn't known he had been that way the entire time. Was that even possible? There were people she could ask. It still didn't sit right with Rylee that Carson had changed on a night that hadn't been a full moon. It meant something, she just didn't know what. "You were bitten by something last year. We didn't really know what until later," she explained quietly. "You weren't supposed to change that night, it wasn't a full moon, but you did. We were managing it though. Vex had let you stay in his basement on those nights where you... you know." She paused briefly. "Vex disappeared when you did."
Carson’s heart had started to pound. He knew what he’d experienced and he knew what Jules had said about him being a werewolf, but somehow having it confirmed by someone he was apparently close to was exciting. Rylee seemed totally sane and normal, and if she was saying he was a werewolf too, then he must be. It was also exciting to hear Vex’s name. Carson sat up straighter and leaned forward toward her, his eyes -- not quite the same brown they’d been when he left -- keen on her face. “Vex was with me, the whole time,” he said, his own voice low but intent. “You know him? Do you know if he’s here, is he back too?” Carson realized belatedly that Rylee had come from out of town, and he frowned for a second. “I guess not, if you just drove in. I remember him from over there, but I didn’t know where to look here.”
She could see the intensity in his gaze and Rylee realized that while she had been told he was suffering from memory loss, it felt like it was finally hitting her that he didn't know her. He didn't remember anything. He may never remember. Of course she was relieved and thrilled that he was alive, but it was possible that he would never truly be back, not in the way she wanted. It was something she was going to have to get used to and probably accept, if this memory loss was permanent. Rylee swallowed hard and managed a faint smile. "I don't know if he's back. But I know where he lived. I could always drive you there," she offered. "He was living with a young woman named Lem. So if he came back... that's probably where he is."
The name Lem didn’t ring any bells, but Carson smiled anyway. Rylee was turning out to be way more helpful than he could’ve hoped for. “That would be amazing, thank you. Not like, right now, I mean, but ... sometime soon. If you’re staying a while, that is, are you staying a while?” He looked a little concerned again. Carson knew she lived in another state now, but he felt like he was finally talking to someone who knew him well and he wasn’t ready for her to drive away yet. He felt bad that he didn’t remember her, since they’d obviously been close, but Carson still had hope that everything would come back to him. He heard his brother’s bedroom door open with a quiet little click and his head turned to look down the hallway. Robert appeared a moment later to say his goodbyes before he left for work.
Rylee was about to answer when Robert reappeared. She plastered a bright smile on her face, promising she would stay with Carson for a while. He was the entire reason Rylee had come to Point Pleasant, so it wasn't like she had any plans to ditch him. After Robert left, Rylee exhaled and turned back to Carson. "I'm staying at my mom's for a while, yeah. When they told me you were back, I sort of took off without a lot of notice." She didn't add that she might not have a job when she went back to Virginia... if she went back at all. Everything felt up in the air at the moment. "So if you need something, or have somewhere you want to go, I can help you. I can call your VA physician today too and see if we can get another prosthetic. You'll probably need your medication again too."
It was a relief when Robert left, though Carson felt a tiny bit guilty about that. It was good of his brother to take him in, but there was some distance between them that Carson didn’t really understand yet, and it was awkward sometimes. He felt much more at ease with Rylee so far, and now that they were alone, they could really talk. He found it interesting that she’d rushed off from her life out of state to come back for him, but if he’d only been gone three or four months, and they’d lived together a long time before that, maybe that wasn’t so unusual. Carson gave her a grateful smile. “That would be amazing, thank you. I don’t have like, any contacts or phone numbers for important shit or anything ... I was on medication? Do you know what for?”
Rylee nodded and had to resist pulling her phone out to call the VA at that very moment. She was sure Carson's mom had the numbers, but in all honesty, it had been Rylee who had helped him after he started rehab and therapy. Everyone seemed to understand Carson and Rylee's bond and she had been the one who could handle him at his worst. Maybe they were all nervous again, wondering if his experience, whatever it had been, had changed him again. "You've been on pain medication for your leg and headaches you would get. Psych meds for mood disorders. Obviously you wouldn't have needed them being wherever you were if you had shifted and not been able to shift back. But because you're... you again... you'll need a new prescription sooner than later.”
Carson knew on some level that a coma indicated some brain damage, but hearing the words ‘mood disorder’ made him concerned. Maybe that had something to do with how cagey his immediate family had been so far about describing his war injuries. Had he been a lot to handle? Violent, maybe? “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he muttered, definitely not in any position to argue about what he needed. Rylee seemed to know, and he trusted her already. The rest of it was more interesting to him so he switched gears. “You say shifted so casually ... how long was I a straight-up werewolf before the portal?” he asked. “And the girl who found me, she could talk to me in my head, did you know about that too?” Everything looked more ‘normal’ over here, but Carson had found himself in a life with a lot of bizarre aspects, apparently.
Rylee wondered if she ought to be more cautious about how she talked to Carson, but... that seemed counter-productive. He needed to know the truth, to be aware of how injuries and what it was he needed to function. If he had been a werewolf all this time, and now he was back... who knew how long it would take before he started to feel pain again, or have an outburst. He was still Carson, wasn't he? The human side of him was still there, even if it was difficult for him to remember it. "You were bitten last October," she explained. "It's May, so it's been a while. The girl, Jules... did she explain anything else to you? The dreams? Any of that? I don't know all of the details, to be honest, except that you were sharing dreams with her and two other men. Something happened to where you could hear each other, talk to each other mentally. Telepathically, I guess. You... pretty much tell me everything," Rylee added with a faint smile. "For better or for worse."
Seven months? Damn. Though he’d spent three or four of them stuck in werewolf mode over there, so maybe those didn’t count. It was weird to think about in any rational sense, but he’d been in that body for so long, and since that time made up the bulk of his memories, it felt more strange to be a human again. “She told me some stuff, yeah,” Carson answered with a nod. “And it was all tied into ... whatever was wrong with everyone else. I don’t remember any of it, really, and they all just seemed like ... small scared humans, over there. Vex never drained my energy or anything.” He paused, then smiled wryly bad at her. “I’m glad I do,” he said. “I kept waiting for somebody in my family to mention the werewolf stuff or like, anything weird besides me being gone, but they didn’t, and I didn’t wanna sound totally crazy, you know? I just told them I didn’t remember much of anything, it seemed safer.”
Small scared humans. Rylee couldn't help but huff with amusement. He would probably find out soon enough, or remember, that Point Pleasant itself was full of small, scared humans. "It's a long, complicated story," she explained. "But whatever it is you did with Jules and the others... it helped. Things went back to normal. More normal than usual, to be honest." She paused, not wanting to dive into what that had meant for her. This wasn't about her, and Carson wouldn't understand it now anyway. "You did the right thing by pretending not to remember. They might have thought you were hallucinating otherwise, or called the VA for some psych testing. As far as I know, our families don't really know about this stuff, and if they do, they're really good at being in denial about it."
“They didn’t ask me a ton of questions, I thought that was a little weird,” Carson murmured, thinking Rylee was probably on track with the denial part. Maybe there was some protective instinct that made them incurious about that kind of shit. His memory banks might have been locked up at the moment, but God knew there were already things Carson wished he didn’t know. “Things got more normal than usual, though? Is shit like this common here? I mean like, there are obviously werewolves, which is a sentence I can’t believe I’m saying with a straight face.” Said straight face didn’t last long, and he grinned crookedly at her.
Rylee couldn't help but laugh a little. She didn't want to freak him out or anything, but if he had spent months as a werewolf, he probably wouldn't be easy to scare. "Yeah, things like this are pretty common here. At least, I think it is. Point Pleasant is known for being an odd town. A lot of unusual and unexplainable things happen. I think most of the town is aware of it all, but a lot of them are good at denying or ignoring it. I didn't believe it myself for a long time... not until you were bitten. Everything sort of changed after that." She didn't blame his family for not asking questions. The truth could be unnerving. Life changing, even. Rylee knew them well enough to know they wouldn't want to hear the answers. Not from Carson.
Her laugh made him smile even wider for some reason he couldn’t quite place, but it was nice. That nice feeling morphed into a bit of surprise and sympathy that something so extreme had been what opened Rylee’s eyes. “Wow,” he murmured. Concern suddenly came back into his features, and Carson frowned deeply. “I didn’t hurt you, did I? I don’t ... I don’t remember being a werewolf at all before I was in that other place, but I remember thinking it was different that time. Like, I could think in a more ... human way, I guess. I had control over myself, and it was a relief for a while. So I’m assuming it wasn’t like that before.” Carson paused, then added, “Does that make sense?” He felt like he was speaking nonsense, but he hoped Rylee understood what he meant.
Rylee's smile slipped when she thought of Sadie, but she pushed it out of mind quickly. No, she wasn't going to tell him about that right now, if ever. If his memories come back, and hopefully they would, then he would remember then. "You didn't hurt me. You knew something was wrong and you sought help. You definitely weren't in control before though. You only changed on a full moon and you had to be in a cage. Maybe being over there changed you somehow? If you were able to control yourself and think in a human way, then that's definitely different from how things are here." Rylee paused. "I wonder if that's carried over, now that you're home."
It was a relief to hear that he hadn’t hurt his cousin-slash-roommate-slash-best-friend, and he’d done something about it to keep it in check. Carson remembered all too vividly what it was like to tear into those monsters over there. They tasted disgusting, but there was some fierce joy in ripping them to shreds, hearing their squeals and feeling life dissipate into death. He could only imagine what mayhem he could cause with no control in place. If his solution was to spend the full moon nights in a cage in Vex’s basement, that was way better. Carson’s eyes widened slightly and his stomach dropped when she suggested it had carried over. He sat back, suddenly looking kind of uncomfortable. “If it did, it wouldn’t be the only thing,” he murmured. “Some stuff is, uh, different, with me. And I think ... I don’t feel fully human again. It’s hard to say why ‘cause I don’t remember shit, but it’s just this feeling I have.”
Confused and maybe slightly cautious, Rylee lifted a brow, clasping her hands together between her knees. He still looked like Carson, despite the longer hair and beard. He looked human enough to her, but she knew that didn't mean much if he wasn't feeling human. Rylee didn't sense any danger radiating off of him so she wasn't entirely sure what he meant. There was a joke about fleas on the tip of her tongue, but it may not have been the most appropriate time for that so she bit it back quickly. "What do you mean? What's different?"
Carson felt his cheeks flushing a little bit. He didn’t want to just blurt out the difference that he’d noticed first, not to his cousin, so he held that one back. “I can smell stuff,” he said first. “Like, more than I should, I think. I can smell the kitchen trash from here. He has his own bathroom but I always know when Robert’s taking a shit. I could smell that Alice was on her period when I saw her. And I’m hearing all kinds of stuff, like ... if it’s quiet enough, I can hear people’s heartbeats? I know that’s not normal. And I’ve seen all kinds of pictures of myself shirtless, but look ...” He pulled the collar of his shirt down enough to expose the hair on his chest, thicker and more abundant than any picture he could find. Carson sighed and let it go, shifting his shoulders around to settle his shirt again. “Those are like, the main things,” he murmured.
That was definitely different. Carson hadn't been able to do any of that before and Rylee found herself thankful that he couldn't do something like read everyone's minds now. She was also thankful that she wasn't aroused just by being in the same room as him because she had a feeling he would be able to smell that too. Rylee pushed the thought aside because thinking about it would probably just make it happen, especially since her body did seem to respond a bit when he showed just a little bit of his chest. Jesus. "You were over there for about four months," Rylee said after clearing her throat. "If you were a werewolf the entire time... I guess it's plausible some of those changes followed you back. I mean, those were all things you could do as a wolf, right? Hearing and smelling things. The hair..." She trailed off with a faint smile. "That's definitely new too. How do you feel though? I mean... you're not feeling violent or anything like that?"
Carson knew it was more than plausible, it just kind of sucked to have it confirmed by someone else. Enhanced senses aside, there was one certain change that was too canine in nature to be anything but that. It just probably wasn’t appropriate to talk about with his cousin. “Yeah, it’s like ... my senses are maybe halfway what they were over there,” he said. “I don’t remember what it was like before I left ... when I was caged up, I guess. But it’s like I’m stuck in some midway point, I dunno.” He gave a thoughtful pause, then shook his head a little. “Not violent, no. I mean ...” Carson trailed off and took a deep breath. “I get kinda excited around dinnertime, I wanna eat a lot of meat, seems like, but I don’t really ... want to hurt anything to get it, you know? Not so far, anyway. No raging temper or anything.” God, he hoped that didn’t happen. If he was already supposed to be on medicine for a mood disorder, he didn’t want this to make that worse. “So there was no bleed-over before? I was human or I was wolf?”
Stuck in a midway point might be accurate, although stuck may imply it could change and he would be normal again. Or it could mean the changes were permanent. Rylee had no idea what to expect right now, but she didn't think Carson did either. "That's good," she said, relieved that he wasn't feeling violent. If he wanted to eat a lot, that was okay, they could work with that. "If you start to feel overly angry or anything, we'll handle it. There could be a way to control that too. There was someone here who gave me answers before, but I'll have to see if he's still in town. If he is, I can reach out and see what he knows about this, if anything. But yeah, before you would only change on the full moon and that was that. I'm not sure you had any bleed over. Nothing like what you're experiencing now, anyway."
He probably shouldn't trust strangers, but when everybody was pretty much a stranger, it was reassuring to hear that there was somebody out there who knew what he was talking about. Carson kind of doubted he would know about this, considering the circumstances, but what the hell did he know, honestly? Not much of anything. Carson was just trying to feel his way through everything, same as everyone else. He nodded a bit to what Rylee said and then let out a big sigh and rubbed his hands over his face. It had definitely been more dangerous, but he found himself kind of missing the simplicity of life Over There. He’d just had to survive, not understand everything. “I appreciate all your help,” he told his cousin then. “All this ... it’s overwhelming. There’s still a lot of confusion.”
"I think you're going to be feeling that for a while," Rylee said, clearly sympathetic. "At least until your memories start coming back." Assuming they would. And god, she hoped they would. If they didn't, Rylee had a feeling whatever she and Carson had before all of this would be gone for good. It was a terrible, panicky feeling. But Rylee needed to focus on Carson and what would help him. She could worry about everything else later, if it turned out she needed to worry. Rubbing her hands on her thighs, Rylee glanced around the small space. "Are you okay here? Comfortable? Do you need or want anything to make it a bit more bearable?"
Carson glanced around the room too, though nothing about it had changed from all the time he’d already spent in there. He chuckled faintly and shrugged at Rylee. “Compared to where I was, it’s unbelievably comfortable,” he told her. “Almost, like, too much sometimes. I sleep on the floor in my room a lot.” Carson gave her a sheepish sort of smile. That was probably weird. But the mattress sometimes felt too soft, like he might just keep sinking into it until it swallowed and smothered him. Ridiculous, but he felt he was allowed to be ridiculous to a certain extent at this point in his life. “But no, I’m okay. Eating Robert out of house and home, maybe, but okay. Mom had my laptop and clothes and everything, they got me a phone ... Where, uh, where does your mom live? Close by?”
Sleeping on the ground when he had a perfectly fine bed was a little weird. But Rylee supposed that could be what he was used to. She doubted he had slept in a bed as a werewolf. Maybe it was one of those changes that carried over. Rylee thought about his old phone, wondering where it had gone. Did he have it that night in the woods? It was probably ruined by now, but she was a little relieved. She could only imagine what he might find in it about her, considering some of the texts they had sent one another. Rylee pushed her hair behind her ear and nodded, her gaze still looking around Robert's apartment. "A few blocks from here. Our moms are sisters... they're close. I have a sister in town too, and a half-brother. I can give you my phone number too, if you need anything when we're not, you know, together. I'll stay as long as you need me to." Honestly, Rylee wasn't sure she would be returning to Virginia. It was all dependent on Carson and what he needed... what he remembered. Right now, she couldn't imagine leaving town again while he was here.
Even though he had his own siblings and parents there, knowing that Rylee was going to stay nearby made something in Carson relax more. Maybe because she seemed to really know him, maybe it was just some instinct, maybe some memories he wasn’t fully conscious of yet. But it made him feel better to know she would be within walking distance. A walk which would be much easier once they arranged for him to get another prosthetic. “Yeah, I definitely want your number,” he said with a nod. Carson hadn’t been carrying his phone around the apartment with him, it was plugged up in his room, but he would definitely get her contact info before she left. “Thank you, Rylee, I really mean that,” he told her. “I feel ... a lot better about everything. At least like, knowing I’m not totally crazy.” He paused, then added, “You wanna hang out for a while? Maybe make those calls to the VA and then watch a movie or something? I dunno, something normal?”
"You're definitely not crazy," she assured him. The last thing she wanted was for Carson to doubt himself. Rylee offered him a soft smile, still resisting the intense urge to go and hug him. There was such a desperate need to touch him, just to feel that he was real. But she had no idea if that would be uncomfortable for him and Rylee didn't want to make him uneasy in her presence. Pulling out her phone from her pocket, Rylee began to search through her contacts for the VA. "I can stay as long as you want me to stay. I can call the VA and talk to your doctor and see what we can get going. After I finish, we can do whatever you want to do. I haven't sat down to watch a movie in a long time, so I'm down for that if you are." She wondered if she would be able to concentrate with Carson sitting with her, but she was going to try her hardest.
Having just a normal time with someone, doing a normal thing that cousins-slash-friends did sounded really good to Carson. His brother had been pretty cool with him, but there was still this strange-feeling wall between them. A hesitance. Rylee didn’t give him those vibes, and Carson really wanted her to stick around. Maybe he would end up asking her more questions about himself, maybe not, but he wanted to hang onto the only person who felt any kind of familiar to him. “That would be awesome,” he said with a smile. Carson reached for his crutch and moved to stand up with a little grunt. “Can I get you anything? A snack, a beer ...?” He was kind of hungry again, and he’d been in Robert’s kitchen enough by now to know it by heart.
Rylee looked up, nearly ready to get to her feet and insist she get whatever he needed. But Carson had never liked being treated like an invalid, because he wasn't one, and it was possible he wanted to move around and be helpful. "Some water would be great, thanks." It was probably too early to start drinking. Maybe. "It's almost lunchtime though, if you want I can order us a pizza? Chinese food? Some burgers? I used to work at Moxie's when I lived here. It's a diner... I bet I could get us a pretty nice discount on some food." She and Carson would cook dinner occasionally but when they lived together, it was so much easier to order in, or go out to eat.
Oh right, it was still early, wasn’t it? Carson had lost all sense of time and what was appropriate when. He slept and ate and drank when he felt like it, like he’d been doing for months, and so far nobody was complaining. “Oh man,” he replied in an appreciative tone to all of those suggestions, his free hand moving to his stomach. Carson wanted all of it, really, but he knew he had to pick one. “Burgers would be great,” he decided, the possibility of a discount making that one the most appealing. “Like, a couple of them, if they’re big. Three, if not.” Fuck, he was hungry. “Do they deliver? Or only pick up? I can ride with you if we gotta go get them.” Maybe that was kind of clingy of him, but he felt entitled to some clinginess, dammit. He might not remember her, but if Rylee was his best friend, she was his best friend. He turned back toward the kitchen to get her water. And maybe some beef jerky or something to tide him over.
"Unless they changed their policy since I left, they don't deliver, so we'll have to pick them up. If you're up for a car ride, you can come along, but it shouldn't take me too long. Moxie's isn't too far." Rylee wasn't going to protest if he wanted to come with her. She would order the food first and then call the VA. This felt good though, having something to do, helping Carson again. Rylee felt needed and that had been lacking in her life for the past few months. "Do you want fries?" she asked, a bit louder so he could hear her from the kitchen. "Milkshake? Pie? Moxie's is the epitome of greasy diner food so if you want it, they have it."
“I’m always up for a car ride,” Carson said back from the kitchen, then laughed a little. “Is that a super-canine thing to say? Fuck me.” His tone was light and jovial, since he finally felt up to joking about what had been weighing on him since he’d gotten back. Something about having someone there who believed him and didn’t care that he was still part werewolf was really relaxing. As he poured Rylee a water out of the fridge door, he groaned at all the tempting food she was suggesting. “Definitely fries, and ... shit, all of the above on the desserts. I’m hungry, and we can save whatever we don’t eat. ... if that’s okay, since you’re paying, sorry,” Carson was quick to add, turning to make his way back into the living room.
The joke took her by surprise but it still made her laugh. "I won't tease you about wearing a leash," she said, finding Moxie's number in her contacts. Rylee had never gotten around to deleting old numbers from her phone when she moved, but even if she had, she had a feeling she would always know Moxie's number by heart, considering how long she worked there. She lifted the phone to her ear and accepted the water he offered with a murmured thanks. "Don't worry about the money. Let's just order a shit ton of fatty food and chill out for a while. Whatever don't eat you can put in the fridge or share with Robert later."
Once his hand was free, since Rylee was already on the phone, Carson gave her a thumbs up, still smiling. That sounded like a perfect plan to him. There was just something about her that put him at ease, made him feel less lost. He felt better than he had since he’d gotten back. “Be right back,” he murmured quickly, turning to head back to the hallway and the rooms beyond. If they were going out, he needed a shoe and probably some better pants, even if he might not get out of the car. Maybe he could talk Rylee into giving him a little personal tour of some of the town on their way, point out some of his favorite spots or fill him in on more stuff they used to do or something. Carson was curious, but he mostly just wanted to spend more time with Rylee.