It's a Fever Dream (feverdream) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-12-06 17:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | #may 2018, amelia, amelia x ty, ty |
Who: Amelia and Ty
When: afternoon, mid-May
Where: the police station
Ty had kind of lost track of how many days it had been since he’d come back, but he knew it had only been several since Jared had come back. They had been busy reconnecting and enjoying each other and making plans, and Ty was now counting down the days until they left for Texas. Jared had taken over making most of the arrangements for them, since he was the one who still had a bank account and all that, and Ty was admittedly enjoying just being along for the ride. He helped make decisions on the stuff Jared asked him about, but otherwise he was extremely happy to relax and know it would all be taken care of.
He’d checked in with Grady by phone a couple of times here and there, but Ty wanted to go see him in person before they left. Jared was busy running errands, and it was a nice day, so Ty set out from Juniper to walk to the police station. It was a good distance, but he didn’t mind. It felt good to stretch his legs. Halfway there he realized he hadn’t called ahead and Grady might not be in ... but he kind of wanted to see the place again anyway. Ty felt like he hadn’t been there in years, and someone he knew would be there, and he kind of wanted to socialize a bit. So he already had a smile on his face as he pushed the front doors open and stepped inside.
It was a quiet day at the station and while Amelia never fully expected it to last she was still set on enjoying it. She'd caught up on most of what she needed to do and was busy categorizing and photographing items for their lost and found site when she heard the door and put everything down to go be official and welcoming. It was a relief to see it wasn't a stranger and she smiled automatically when she caught Ty's smile because it was so far from looking the way he had when she first picked him up. He was clean for one and he didn't look confused at all. She knew his memories had returned, thanks to in-house chatter, but it was an entirely different thing to see for herself.
"Hi!" She chimed, pushing past the desk to come greet him properly. "You're okay now?" It didn't really matter if he wanted a hug or not, he was getting one. Their relationship had been weird from the start since he was the first guy to find her after she returned and it was even weirder now that she'd returned the favor - quite literally. She might not know him well, but she felt it was safe to say she was entitled to hugging him.
Ty had almost forgotten that Amelia said she was working at the police station when she picked him up, but he wasn’t exactly surprised to see her there. It did make his smile widen though, and he welcomed the hug as she brought it to him. “Hey, my hero,” Ty said in a half-laugh as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed gently. “I’m okay now, yeah. Clean, got my memory back and everything ...” There were parts of him that weren’t okay, of course, but he was feeling really good at the moment, so no need to bring the mood down. “How’re you doing?”
There were parts of Amelia that weren't okay either but she was happy to see him doing well and it didn't hurt that it sparked that hope in her that Jasper might come back and be okay too. "That's so awesome," she replied as she let him go, still beaming at him though she had questions, so many questions that she didn't want to ask and yet... "If you're here to see Grady he went out but he should be back soon," she said with a little handwave back in the general direction of Grady's office. "I think he's been hoping to see you, but he hasn't exactly said as much." She gave him a knowing look, they both knew the sheriff. "I heard your boyfriend came back," she added, tilting her head. "That's good news."
They did indeed both know Grady, and how close-mouthed he was about everything, so Ty laughed a little at that look. “I did come to see him, yeah, but you’re an excellent substitute,” he told her with a grin. Amelia looked at home in the station, a capable young woman who no doubt made sure the place ran more smoothly. It almost made him want to come back to work, but not quite. Ty nodded to confirm that his boyfriend came back, his smile turning a bit more sly. “Actually ... he’s my fiancé now,” he said, and kind of wished he did have a ring to show off. How girly was that? But Ty still felt buoyant about the decision to marry Jared, and he kind of wanted to brag about it. “So it’s really good news.” Ty chuckled a bit.
"You're getting married?" Amelia said with wide eyes and a growing smile before hugging him again. "Congratulations," she near-squeed before backing up again. "Am I invited?" She had to tease, her grin turning impish and it was pretty obvious that tease did not require an answer. This was two weddings coming up! Well, three if she counted Caden but who even knew what was going on with him and Roxy. "Do you have a date yet? Gonna have a big ceremony?" It was really cool to her because it was a gay marriage and she'd never actually known anyone that was gay, not that she knew of anyway. She sometimes wondered about herself but it didn't seem important to figure that out. She was happy by herself for now. And yet, meeting an actual gay person getting 'gay married' felt a bit like peeking into a community she wanted to be part of.
That was exactly the kind of reaction Ty had been hoping for, and he grinned brightly as he hugged her back. He knew there would be people who would question their decision, say it was ‘too soon’ or something, that Ty needed to recover from his ordeal before making such a big decision ... but fuck them. If anyone would understand the need to grab life by the horns or whatever, it was Amelia. He scrunched one side of his face up with a bit of regret and shook his head. “Nothing big, no ... my mom isn’t a big fan of the idea, and I kinda ... want to do it away from here, you know? Jared’s mama lives in Texas, so we’re gonna go down there, have a little ceremony she can come to, get all his stuff, and road trip back up here.” He paused and gave a lock of Amelia’s hair a gentle tug. “We might have a party when we get back though, and you’re definitely invited.”
"You're gonna come back here," Amelia said and wrinkled her nose. She was glad for it, sure, but it also made no sense to her how they all ended up staying here. She did it for her family and just in case Jasper came back, maybe Ty felt the same about his family but she couldn't help but think he might be happier living with his husband to be somewhere else after what they'd been through. "Well if you're getting a house here, get one with a basement. In case we get giant monster roaming the streets again. We've moved in with my dad's girlfriend and she has a basement and I already feel safer."
Ty could understand that nose wrinkle. Part of him felt the same way about coming back to live in Point Pleasant, but like Jared had said ... it was home. As fucked up and dangerous as it could be, there was something magnetic about it. He got the gut feeling that even if they did leave for a while, they would be drawn back. Plus his mother was here, and he couldn’t abandon her completely, even if she disapproved of his marriage. “Basement, I’ll keep that in mind,” Ty told her with a smile and a nod. He was sure Jared would be on board with that. “I think Jared’s already house shopping, I’ll mention it to him. We’re talking about adopting too, a little down the road, so we’ll need some space.”
"Oh my god," Amelia said, her voice pitching a little higher. That was probably also a terrible idea, just like Mila and Aaron having a baby, anyone having babies in this town but it was still nice, it was life. Not one she particularly wanted for herself for the time being but it still made her smile. "You'll be the cutest family," she told him. "Do you think - are you gonna come back to work here?" She hadn't been ready to do a damn thing after she first got back, just a lot of therapy until she felt too restless to stay unemployed for longer. Grady had done her a big favor giving her this job but she'd also proven to be capable of a great deal of things so she hadn't let him down yet. She wasn't so sure being a cop again was a great idea for someone traumatized but then she didn't know a whole lot about what he'd been through.
Maybe these were all terrible ideas, but Ty still wanted to have them. He knew living here would be a risk, but it always had been, hadn’t it? And he’d survived here for years, they both had. There was some stubborn part of him that wanted to prove he could keep fucking surviving here. Point Pleasant had stolen his will and four months of his life, had almost turned him into a murderer, had tried to kill him, but he was still standing. He was attached to this place, for better or worse, and didn’t all this darkness need some light to combat it? Some love and life? Ty’s smile turned a bit pained at Amelia’s question and he glanced around the station. Part of him missed it, but mostly he didn’t want to think about shouldering that kind of responsibility again. “I might eventually,” he told the girl, his gaze coming back to her. “Not for a while though, I need some time, you know? Don’t say anything to Grady though, I’m gonna talk to him.” He smiled faintly at her, his tone turning teasing. “I’d hate to pass up a good opportunity to boss you around, though.”
Amelia probably understood better than most and her gentle smile said as much until he sassed her. Oh she could sass him right back and she folded her arms, her smile turning amused. "Oh you can try," she shot back. "But I have a feeling I'll be bossing you around by then." Maybe the reason this was working as well as it was was that Grady was never bossy with her, he was firm, yes, and she had her duties but she never felt like he was trying to push her around and the deputies didn't have the same sway over her as he did and they relied on her sometimes when nobody else was manning the radio at the station so maybe they knew better than to push her buttons. "I will make you coffee though," she told Ty. "We got a new coffee maker finally, it's pretty decent. You want some?"
Having worked for Grady for quite a while, Ty knew that he had a good temperament as a boss, which was probably perfect for Amelia. She seemed like a girl who didn’t take much shit, and Ty really liked that. Granted, he barely knew her, but maybe that would change, now that they were connected in such a bizarre fashion. “Shit, you’ll be running this place by the time I come back,” he said with a little grin. “But yeah I’ll take one, sure. Take a break, come have a cup with me.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the station’s break room. Since they had a few minutes, he wanted to sit down and talk with her a bit, if she didn’t mind answering some questions.
Amelia had questions for him too, mostly about Jasper that she was afraid to ask but she needed to be brave there and just go ahead with it. "Sure," she told him and led the way to the break room where she motioned to him to take a seat while she fixed up a fresh batch. "You're one of the few people who know my real name," she said and she might not have the words for it but it meant a lot to her, being around people who really knew who she was. "I'm getting used to Lyra Holden but... she's not me. Dad's started calling me Lia in public so if anyone hears him it's not as obvious."
Ty settled into one of the cheap plastic seats with an intense feeling of nostalgia. He hadn’t spent a ton of time in this break room over his career, generally chained to his desk instead, but it was still such a familiar space. The smell, the quality of light through the dirty window, everything was the same. With his apartment long gone, Ty hadn’t been hanging out in a lot of places that felt like his, but this station did. He made himself refocus on what Amelia was saying. He gave a smile that felt a little bittersweet. “That’s good of him,” he murmured. “I like Lia. I feel lucky I came back without a major change like that. I haven’t run into many people I know yet, I’m kinda ... still working on what to say.”
Amelia gave him a sympathetic smile, grabbing a seat while the machine whirred into action. She leaned her arms on the table, studying Ty for a moment as she tried to think of a good lie for him but nothing came to mind. All she had to lie about was where she was from and who her parents were but she avoided that by being cagey and secretive which really felt like lying too. "I wonder how many people really know," she murmured. "I feel like a lot of people know who I am without actually saying so, my whole family knows about what happened to you, because of my brother. There are some witches involved who lost people too. It's just... a lot of people and people generally suck at keeping secrets."
“Who knows and who believes it are pretty different around here,” Ty said with a wan half-smile. “I know a lot of people know the truth, and that’s okay, but there are so many in this community who knew me and just ... turn a blind eye to everything supernatural. Even if they’ve seen some of it themselves.” It was a strange thing in this town, but it was a pattern that Ty couldn’t help but see these days -- weird shit happened, even huge weird shit like the fog, and people forgot about it later, or explained it away with some crazy conspiracy theory, or just didn’t ever talk about it again. He’d met a good chunk of the town personally in the line of duty, and he knew at least seventy percent of them would never believe in where he’d been for the past four months. Ty’s smile turned a bit warmer on her. “But I’m glad to have people like you around, who know the truth. ... your brother, has he come back?”
Amelia shook her head and this really was the opening she needed but she still didn't feel fully ready to ask about Jasper. The fact Ty brought it up meant he hadn't seen him die at least and that was reassuring. "Did you know him over there?" she asked hesitantly because it was completely possible that Jasper and Ty had never met. She could only hope her brother had been hiding with the others, that he'd been safe until they started coming back, that he'd show up any moment now. She didn't care if he was as filthy as Ty had been or if he remembered her or not, she'd hug him so hard if she got the chance to do so again.
As a cop in Point Pleasant, Ty knew the Lucases, and he’d busted Jasper Lucas a few times for underage drinking and smoking and the like over the past several years. It had never been anything serious, the boy had never been booked, but Ty had taken him home in the back of the cruiser more than once. It had been surprising to see him on the other side of the portal, but in the midst of such shock and danger, he hadn’t thought a lot about it. Only after he was back did he really connect Amelia and Jasper in his mind, so Ty was glad that they were getting a chance to have this talk. “We didn’t talk much, but I saw him plenty, yeah. Not too long before I woke up back here, too,” he told Amelia. She looked like she needed reassurance. “He didn’t stay at Juniper all the time, he would come and go, but he was surviving, like the rest of us.”
"Yeah, that sounds like Jasper," Amelia said quietly and it was as reassuring as intended, far better than if he had never seen him at all. "What was it like?" she asked despite not really wanting to know. She kept picturing it based on her own experiences just with added giant creatures lurking in the fog. She knew that was wrong but she had very little else to go on. Fog, giants, other dimensions - it didn't tell her much. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it," she added quickly. "You absolutely don't have to." Maybe it was better if he didn't, but there was still a part of her that felt the need to know.
Ty gave her a soft half-smile, because it was sweet of her to say that. He thought she deserved to know, though, even if he never wanted to think about that place again. It was a privilege he couldn’t take, knowing there were other people still stuck there. “It was bad,” Ty told her, soft but a little grim. “I’m not gonna lie to you ... it was real bad. It was like ... a mock-up of Point Pleasant, all the same roads and buildings were there, but it was like everything was rotting. It was all rust and dark mold and just shit floating around in the air. There was no day or night, so it was impossible to tell time. No sun, just constant gray skies and fog. All the water I saw was black. You saw how filthy I was, and we were the cleanest things there, seemed like. And there were ... creatures. Of all sizes, they’d come out of nowhere and try to kill us. We managed by boarding up Juniper as much as we could and sticking together, mostly.” Ty trailed off and looked pained. “But Jasper was alive last I saw him, he’d figured out how to move around out there, I guess.”
That did sound like Jasper too and Amelia couldn't blame him, even if she wanted to call him an idiot for not staying where it was safe. "We could never stay in one place for long," she said, faint memories washing over her of her own place. "It was like there was always something closing in on us. Shadows. But it was clean, not like you said. Dusty, sometimes but never gross. Empty... We had a theory that things that went missing from our world would show up in random places over there. You could be in a completely empty house and find one can of tuna in the cupboard." She bit her lip and thought of Jasper out there in the filth, roaming around with dangerous creatures ready to pounce on him. What had he learned to do to avoid them? Would she have done the same? "I still don't really understand how you ended up there," she said, eyeing Ty curiously. "I was just told he was gone, that he was somewhere else now, that they had to do it or he would have killed me."
It took Ty a second to catch on that Amelia was talking about the place she’d been, and when he did a line appeared between his brows. He was even more curious about it now, to compare notes, to ask her if she’d really spent years there like it seemed. Four months out of this world had been bad enough for him, he couldn’t even imagine spending a good chunk of his life in that place. Well ... he had imagined it while he’d been over there, plenty, but most of those thoughts ended in plans to kill himself before that much time went by. There would be time to ask her questions though, for now it seemed that Amelia needed answers more than he did, since her brother was still presumably in the thick of it. “I don’t understand it all myself,” he admitted with a wry half-smile. “But there’s a girl here who can ... open up a portal to another world, I guess? None of us were ourselves, we were all mind-fucked by the infection or mind control or whatever it was, and we knew there were people trying to stop us. Only a few. Then we all got drawn out into the woods ... it was like a compulsion, I just left Jared behind, more than half-dead. Things got ... kinda chaotic when we all got to this clearing, but this girl opened up this ... hole in reality, with her hands. Only it wasn’t exactly a hole, kind of like ... an area that changed. And there were creatures surrounding us and trying to come through, and then she closed it, I guess. The normal woods disappeared, and we were all stuck.”
Amelia was pretty sure he meant Jules and the awful thought occurred to her that maybe Jules had opened a portal like that when Amelia found herself in another place altogether. It had been similar, she thought, though her memories of it were fuzzy. She'd been kneeling in the grass for one moment and the next it was like the whole environment changed and a new one swept in all around her. She'd been so little though, maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her and Jules hadn't been there at the time, had she? Had Jasper and Jules come back to the house right as it happened? She forced herself to breathe after realizing she was holding her breath. "I only know what dad told me," she said quietly. "After I woke up at the hospital. I was so angry but not at anyone, just... At this happening. At all of this happening. My therapist helped me a lot. I'm still sad, you know, but seeing you return- he might come back too."
Ty put his arm on the table and opened his hand to her if she wanted to take it. It didn’t feel inappropriate -- they were both survivors of awful ordeals, and were just trying to deal with the aftermaths. He was coming to value simple human comfort more than he ever had before in his life. “Listen, I’m no therapist,” Ty told her earnestly. “But in my unprofessional opinion, anger at this whole thing is a totally normal feeling to have. I’ve got some myself, it’s just ... probably underneath all the relief right now. I dunno how I got back, so I’m not gonna bullshit you with empty promises that Jasper will come back too, you’re too smart for that. But I really hope he does. And there’s reason to hope. So hold onto it as long as you can.” Ty knew that if he didn’t, or anybody else for that matter, he would always have a sense of survivor’s guilt. Like why was he special, why did he make it home? There were no answers, that was the most maddening part.
"You may not be a therapist but you're absolutely right," Amelia replied after taking the offered hand and giving it a little squeeze. "I'm trying to keep my expectations in check while also having hope and it's tricky. I keep swinging between feeling like I should be sadder and feeling like being sad is giving up on him and he'd be so offended if he knew how much I worried about him." She had never known Ty well but now it felt like she did because of their shared trauma, that strange event connecting them. It felt natural to tell him these things that she couldn't tell a lot of people, he was there and he was listening. "It doesn't really feel fair that he only had to worry about me for a few weeks and I have to worry about him for months. I'm gonna have to have a word with him about that."
Ty nodded a bit as she spoke, thinking he could understand trying to manage one’s expectations. He certainly hadn’t had much hope Over There, everything had seemed so bleak, but now look at what he was. Sometimes even the most dire circumstances could turn out okay. “Hey, at least you know he won’t be an old man when he comes back,” he offered with a faint smile. “Seems like our times ran at about the same speed, even if we couldn’t tell day from night over there. How fair is it that you had to survive for years, when it was only weeks to him? You can’t try to apply fairness to it.” Ty squeezed her fingers gently, then glanced over as the coffee pot made a noise that indicated it was done. He almost got up to do the pouring, but Amelia had said she would, so he just let her hand go. “I have a feeling it’ll work out for him and you,” he added. “Just be patient if he doesn’t remember you at first. That shit was disorienting.”
Amelia nodded and having Ty come back had helped her more than he knew. She was still keeping those expectations in check but now at least she knew what she could expect if Jasper came home. She had considered the possibility that he'd be old when he returned, two weeks for her had been ten years on the other side, she didn't want to think what months would translate to - if it was even connected to the flow of time in any way. Maybe it was random, maybe it was time travel, maybe she could have found another slimy puddle and come out forty years from now. It was too much speculation with no real answers and too many of them had led her to think that maybe Jasper was dead. Ty being back helped put an end to that train of thought and it took a lot of the pressure off. Now she just had to trust that Jasper was smart and resourceful, even if hearing he kept leaving the safety of Juniper was frustrating to her. She got up and poured some coffee for both of them then grabbed a pack of cookies from the cupboard before taking a seat again. "You get the special cookies," she told him as she slid the packet across the table. "Reserved for non criminal guests."
Ty accepted his coffee with a murmured thanks and then chuckled over the comment on the cookies. “Damn, I do feel special,” he murmured with a lopsided grin. He plucked a cookie out of the sleeve and took a bite before he lifted his coffee to his lips. He wasn’t back to work and he wasn’t ready to do so yet, but it still felt more like coming home than he would’ve liked to admit. Amelia was a new addition to the station to him, but even that felt natural and good, like they were meant to be somewhere together so they could talk about their similar experiences. After a sip of coffee, Ty set his cup down and smiled at Amelia. “So how’s the rest of your life going? How are you doing working here?”
"I like it," Amelia replied, glancing around the station. "I was worried I would never be able to hold a job because everything just feels so weird to me, honestly everything feels weird to me, but I like the people here and Grady has helped me a lot. We're living with my dad's girlfriend now and he seems, you know, better." Still drinking too much, though he was a little more human seeming these days. Amelia attributed that to Charlie for the most part. "And things have been quiet lately, since you guys went missing. Everything's just been calm. I keep waiting for the storm but it's not here yet so, yeah. Things have been okay. I had to file for bankruptcy though, so I feel super grown up."
“You had to file for bankruptcy?” Ty asked with some surprise. “Under like, your fake name and everything?” He would have thought that nobody in the financial world would have record of her, so that was strange. It was good to hear that her dad was doing a bit better, Ty couldn’t imagine what that man had been through, losing both of his kids for a time. He’d gotten one back, Ty just hoped the other one came through too. The Lucases could be pains in the ass, but they were still people. “Grady told me about how quiet it’s been, which is weird. But I’m glad it wasn’t just constant bullshit for you all to deal with.” He didn’t know if that was connected to all of their disappearances or not, but that was just one unanswerable question on a very long list.
Amelia nodded with a pained little smile. "Dad made the mistake of taking me to the hospital and since I don't have a job or insurance-" she trailed off and spread her hands in a whatyagonnado gesture. "Dad was gonna pay for it all but his lawyer told him it'd be easier to file for bankruptcy since I don't own anything." She was thinking along the same lines as Ty about how quiet it had been, like losing so many people at once had fed something hungry in the town and it was sleeping for now. It was an awful way to look at it but Amelia had grown up with the very real fear of monsters and escaping the place she grew up in hadn't meant she was safe. "We take our breaks where we can get them," she murmured. "I just hope it doesn't get bad again before everyone is home safe. Everyone deserves a happy reunion before shit hits the fan."
That sounded super shitty and Ty winced in sympathy. Sometimes the biggest monsters were the gears of society that ground normal people down all over the place. He sipped on his coffee as he nodded slowly. “I hope it stays quiet, too,” he murmured. He imagined himself and Jared returning to Point Pleasant after a wonderful wedding and road trip honeymoon to find the whole fucking place on fire or overrun with zombies or something. It would’ve been cartoonish if it wasn’t so horribly possible here. Why were they staying again? Why did anyone stay in this town? “I’ve got my fingers crossed especially tight for your happy reunion,” he said, nodding at Amelia. “If it happened once, it can happen again, right? Odds don’t mean shit around here, apparently.”
Amelia often dreamed of moving somewhere else but that included the whole family and some friends and eventually it didn't make sense anymore to leave, not when she was taking the whole town with her in her mind. The list of people she couldn't leave behind just grew out of control, even if she didn't even feel close to half of them. Her childhood friends still lived in town and she saw them sometimes, like ghosts from her past only they were alive and well, still living the same life that she had been ripped from all these years ago - only a few months ago. It was a head trip. If they were staying in this town, so was she. If her family was staying, so was she. If Ty and Ruby and Mila and Jules were all staying... "A part of me is totally ready for it not to be quiet again," she said. "Like I'm just waiting. If nothing bad happens again I'll end up like those crazy people living in bunkers, waiting for the apocalypse."
Ty gave her a wan smile. “I think that’s normal too,” he said. “Hypervigilance after trauma? Something like that. The bad thing is, it’s the smart way to live around here.” He almost asked her why she didn’t leave, or even why her whole family didn’t pack up and get out of town, but Ty already kind of had a sense of the answers to that. Not many people could really say why Point Pleasant kept its hold on them, but it did. There were always reasons to stay, and they somehow outweighed all of the reasons to go. “So here’s to being braced for the really bad shit ... at least we’ve already seen what it can look like.” He clinked his coffee mug against hers to toast to their preparedness, though it was kind of tongue in cheek. Ty knew they probably hadn’t even seen the tip of the iceberg on how bad things could get. He just hoped they were through the worst of it for their lives.
Amelia could drink to that and so she did, giving Ty a little grin when she put the cup down. "I still sometimes feel like we have to get up and move," she admitted then. "I guess it's a hard habit to break, I just want to throw all the most important things in a backpack and drive. My therapist told me to sing or scream or make a noise when I feel overwhelmed by it." She wasn't even sure why she was telling him, maybe it could help him too or maybe it was just nice to talk to someone who wasn't too close to her and wouldn't get too worried and give her that look. "Making noise reminds you you're safe. So does eating. You wouldn't eat if you were in danger. I like putting on music, it quiets it down. Guess it was the opposite for you though, you couldn't really go anywhere, staying put was safer."
Ty was definitely a good person to tell that sort of thing to. He almost encouraged her to do it. She was young and lovely and had been through so much, didn’t she deserve some freedom to wander? The impulse came from a bad place though, so he hesitated in saying it. He was sure Amelia knew she could road trip if she wanted to, and equally sure she had her reasons for hanging around. Right now, that was probably because of her brother. “Sounds like good advice, I’ll try to remember that if my fear gets too bad,” Ty said and meant it. He hadn’t been panicking much yet, too overwhelmed with relief that he was home and then happily smothered in Jared’s love, but he could almost feel it coming on, hovering and waiting in the wings. “But yeah, it was safer for us to hunker down in one place. Me and Jared are staying at Juniper right now, which kind of freaked me out at first ... but it’s so different here, I got over it pretty fast. Now I can’t wait to go on a trip.” He chuckled.
"Maybe warn your fiancé first," Amelia told him. "If you're planning on screaming. But yeah, I know what you mean. There were houses on the other side that looked familiar but they were completely empty and I knew... I knew I was out at least, if not home, because there was snow everywhere and birds. I hadn't seen an animal in years and it was so amazing to hear them sing. So you know you're not there anymore, even the air was different." She had found a house on the other side that was just like hers though she couldn't be sure if it was. The differences in the layout if any had been subtle but it didn't feel like her home at all without the furniture and knick knacks she was so familiar with. She suspected it was similar for Ty to be at Juniper now, though at least her world hadn't been disgusting nor nearly as terrifying.
“Everything was so fucking bright to me when I got back,” Ty said with a faint smile that didn’t really mean anything good. “And yeah, the air ... there wasn’t spores or shit floating around in it, so that was an immediate difference too.” He remembered hearing the birds too and being amazed at the sound, and how good that first swallow of water had tasted. Things Ty hoped he would never take for granted again. He was going to work on that in himself, he’d been thinking. Everything needed to be appreciated now. “This might be an insane question, and I hope it’s not offensive, but ... do you ever miss it? I mean, you were there for so long, to you, and you adapted to life there ...”
It wasn't offensive, especially not from someone who'd been through the same thing but Amelia took a moment to think about it. "In a way," she replied then. "Sometimes things feel overly complicated here. I can't just go into any building I want, grab whatever I need. Driving is weird, there are so many cars and signs. I don't miss the place but I miss Maggie. I wish she'd lived to come back with me. Mostly though, no, there's nothing to miss. It was like living in a box, just a very big box with roads and houses. It was simpler and easier in a way but also boring, gray and way too still. There was barely a breeze but being outside now makes me feel so alive because there are so many things to feel." His experience sounded so much worse, but hers had lasted so much longer that she didn't know if she could even begin to compare them. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you do not miss it."
It was an interesting answer, and Ty was glad she didn’t immediately sputter and ask him what kind of idiot he was for wondering. Humans were incredibly adaptable creatures, and Amelia had spent almost more time over there than she had in this world. Everything she said made sense to him, and his expression turned a bit sympathetic at Amelia’s mention of her friend. He hadn’t seen another human in his Over There except the ones who came over alongside him. Ty was kind of glad for that. Nobody deserved to be stuck in that kind of place. “It sounds eerie,” he murmured. “The adult world here is full of hard bullshit though, I will say. You’re not alone in feeling that. ... but no, I don’t miss it for a second. I worry about the people I accidentally left behind, but other than that ... that whole place can go fuck itself.”
"I still wonder how you got back, if you actually did something but you just can't remember," Amelia said quietly and she could only hope that everyone who'd been taken would return and whatever doorway into that hell hole was permanently closed - but that felt far too naive and optimistic. "We're the exact opposite there," she added as she realized it, a wan smile curling her lips. "I have no idea how I got there, you have no idea how you got back." She hadn't seen Jules in a while so she had no idea if the other girl had something to do with it but maybe Ty had done something similar to what Amelia had done and clawed his way out even if he couldn't remember.
“I wish I knew,” Ty said with feeling and a soft chuckle. “All I remember is going to sleep. Which wasn’t easy to do over there, but after that ...” He gave a helpless sort of shrug. “Maybe I did, but I would like to think I would bring other people with me if I could have, you know? If I found some way out like you did. I tried to protect as many people over there as I could.” He sighed. It had occurred to him to go to Jules and ask her if she had done something ... but if she had, wouldn’t she have brought her boyfriend back too? Plus, Ty honestly wasn’t sure if he was ready to see her again or not. He didn’t hold everything against her, but still. He didn’t know how he would actually feel, and he wanted some distance first.
"Maybe your time was just up," Amelia said with a little shrug. "And that place was just done with you." She really had no idea what had changed but she hoped that was it, just a naughty little prison sentence for people who went crazy and now that they were better they'd get to come home. That was a childish thing to believe in but sometimes childish beliefs were all that got her through the day. "Whatever happened, I'm glad you're back and safe and it's good to hear that you tried to protect everyone. I left people behind. I hadn't seen them in a long time but I'm sure they were still there when I left. They probably would have tried to stop me if they knew what I was going to do, and they might have hurt me with Maggie not there to protect me so I don't... I don't feel bad about it at all." Maybe that meant she was cruel, but whenever she thought of them she couldn't remember their faces, just the bad vibe she got from them and that angry look on Maggie's face.
“I wouldn’t either,” he told her, giving a little shrug. He knew that they’d all done bad things because of the infection from the fog monsters, but once that had cleared, Ty didn’t think there had been a person among them who had deserved to be there. But they hadn’t tried to hurt one another. That was one thing he’d been grateful for, all of the isolation and fear hadn’t turned them on each other. There had been little spats of course, stressed people in a relatively small space, but nothing he remembered as bad. The kind of people Amelia was talking about though ... he couldn’t blame her at all for leaving them behind. “I hope you’re right about my time being up, though,” Ty added. “I really hope it spits us all back out, one by one.”
"Me too," Amelia said and they both knew the weight of those words since she was personally invested in that happening. "And if you did stumble onto a magic door and just don't remember it, I hope the others find it too." Maybe they already had, she thought. Maybe it just spat them out in different places and time like her, but that was a depressing thought in itself so no, she didn't let herself go down that road, at least not for now. "You should get a dog," she said instead. "You and your husband. Dogs fix everything, mine really helped me. Well... My dad's dogs, but they're kinda more mine right now."
Ty didn’t have the mental space to worry yet about whether something nefarious had hitched a ride with him back into this world. It would surely bubble up in his mind someday, but for now he was just too relieved to be back. He needed to cling to the good for the sake of his own sanity. Ty gave a surprised little laugh and lifted his mug to toast to that idea. “I think that’s on our list for the future,” he said with a grin. “A big dog. Especially with me staying home for a while. Dogs before kids, right? I haven’t had one in years, but they make good company, don’t they? What kind do you have?”
"They're both some kind of bull dogs," Amelia replied. "Max and Rudy. Mom always said dad only got them because they look mean so I know what that looks like but they're rescue and they're super sweet. They just look mean if you don't know them." Kind of like her dad, she thought. She'd never outright seen him do anything mean but everyone always assumed he was some scary criminal when she knew he was softer than that. He cried when he was happy and drank when he was sad and Amelia had heard of things he supposedly did but it was hard to reconcile it with who he was in her mind. "And now we have a third dog too, Charlie adopted a collie."
He let out a low whistle and laughed softly. “That’s a house full,” Ty said, giving a little grin. It sounded kind of heavenly to him, a place full of noise and light and happy animals. Maybe anywhere that was halfway normal seemed heavenly to him right now, though. Like lounging in the passenger seat of a car, watching the deserts and hills and mountains roll by as he and Jared drove home from Texas. God, Ty couldn’t wait to leave. “Maybe me and Jared will find a stray along the way. Like a blessing from the dog gods, approving our marriage.” It wasn’t likely, but it made Jared smile anyway. “I’ll bring you back a souvenir from Texas. A stupid hat that I totally expect you to wear all the time or something.”
Amelia laughed and tried to picture what Ty might consider a stupid hat. Texas immediately brought to mind cowboy hats but they weren't exactly stupid. "I'll wear it all the time," she told him with a nod. "It'll be my thing. Hat girl. People will end up calling me Hattie and I'll end up with an old lady name." She let herself get a little carried away in the whimsy of it before grinning. "And maybe get a house before you get a dog, unless the dog gods decide your fate, of course."
It felt good to make her laugh, like it was proof that Ty was becoming more of his normal self every day. He’d been pretty funny, he liked to think, and he wanted to be funny again. He wanted to be himself again. Ty grinned back at Amelia. “You can reclaim Hattie for the younger generation, make it cool again,” he joked. “If it was ever cool to start with, who knows.” He might not actually bring her back a fashion disaster as a present, but he would definitely bring her something. They’d saved each other, in a sense, and that sort of connection meant a lot to him. “But yeah, a house is on the agenda when we get back. We’ll see about the dog timing, they tend not to be too picky about housing.” He’d seen dogs that were happy to live in RVs, as long as they had a person with them. Ty finished off his coffee and stood up to take the mug to the sink, feeling a pang of nostalgia as he did such a familiar task.
"Housing people tend to be picky about dogs," Amelia reminded him but it was light hearted, they would probably find a house to buy and not have to rent. "Are you guys getting a rescue? Or a puppy? Or have you even thought about it at all?" All she knew about dogs she knew from her dad, puppies were cute but a lot of work, shelters were overflowing. She wouldn't judge anyone for wanting a puppy but she knew where she would get a dog if she was getting a new one. Not that they needed more dogs in the house. "We have to let our dogs meet up when you get one, doggy dates. Just don't go to the dog park after dark."
Ty washed his mug as he grinned over all of Amelia’s questions. “We haven’t worked all that out yet, but I’m definitely in favor of rescue dogs,” he said, grabbing a few paper towels to dry the cup and his hands. “And yes, I’m aware about the dog park. Been called out there a few times for ... weirdness.” Ty paused for a couple of heartbeats, his eyes getting distant for a moment as he thought about how many odd occurrences he used to dismiss outright in his career. How much had he missed? A lot, it seemed like. He blinked rapidly and tried to shake it off, since none of it involved Amelia. Ty gave her a little smile and nodded. “Doggy dates, for sure,” he murmured. He put the mug back and pulled his phone out to check the time. “I’m gonna check to see if the boss is back ... might just leave him a note to call me if he’s not.”
Amelia finished her coffee and got to her feet, joining Ty at the counter and patting his shoulder affectionately. "He'll be happy to see you. I'm happy to see you. If I don't run into you before you leave just- have a great trip and enjoy your time away from here." Maybe they all needed a vacation if Jasper came back, Amelia couldn't imagine going anywhere while he was still gone, it was bad enough to imagine him wandering back home and finding their house empty and on sale. "And if you ever need someone to talk to you know where to find me."
Grady had technically already seen Ty at the hospital, but seeing him like this, fully himself again, was something different. They’d talked briefly on the phone a couple of times, but Ty wanted to talk to him face to face. If he wasn’t in his office, maybe Ty could catch him later. “I do, yeah,” he told Amelia with a warm smile. “And I appreciate it. Likewise, okay? You’re welcome to call me anytime, now that I’m connected again.” Still smiling, Ty opened his arms to her and quirked a brow. Amelia had hugged him first when he’d arrived, so he knew they were hugging friends now, but he didn’t want to just grab a young woman unprompted, so he left the acceptance up to her.
Amelia smiled back and closed the distance between them to give him a tight hug. She had always been affectionate and it had been hard to smother that part of her growing up. Lately she felt like she had years to make up for in hugging everyone she was allowed to hug and thankfully she had some family who didn't mind. Aaron was always good for a hug and her dad even if he was a little awkward. One more person to hug was just a nice bonus, especially since Ty being gay made him feel safer than otherwise and they had trauma that while perhaps not shared was similar. He felt good to hug too, solid and tall kinda like Aaron, plus he smelled nice now. "Don't be a stranger, even if you don't work here anymore you're always welcome here," she mumbled against his chest as she squeezed him by the middle. It might not be hers to tell him that but she knew she wasn't wrong about it.
Amelia wasn’t a little girl anymore, but Ty still kept age differences and comfort levels in mind when it came to hugging people. Not just women either -- there were plenty of men who didn’t want to hug a gay guy. It felt nice to wrap his arms around her petite form and give her a squeeze back though. It was such a bizarre thing to bond over, but bonding they were. That was Point Pleasant for you. “Thanks,” Ty said with a deep chuckle. He impulsively kissed the top of Amelia’s head. Her hair smelled good. “I’ll definitely be back, some of my favorite people are here.” Ty gave her one more firm clench and then let her go. “You take care of yourself until I get back, okay? No getting sucked into other dimensions, we’re done with that shit, yeah?”
It was nice and Amelia thought people underestimated just how much human beings needed hugging and touching to thrive. She rolled her eyes a little, not at him but just the mere idea of getting sucked into another dimension again. "I'm clinging to the hope that it's a once in a lifetime event," she said with a wry smile. "So let's just not do that again, that goes for you too, mister." If people started reappearing she hoped she'd hear of them since she was working in the town's hot spot of news, really. There was a lot of classified information she wasn't privy to but cops tended to moan and groan about their cases when she was around anyway. She'd make sure to tell Ty if she heard anything, he was no doubt close to some of those people. "Take care, Ty," she murmured since this was a goodbye. "Say hi to your man from me, even if I don't really know him."
“I will,” Ty said, then chuckled faintly. “I’ll go ahead and say hi back for him, because he totally would. That’s just Jared.” He gave a fond and probably sappy smile. He knew for a fact that Jared and Amelia would get along, but even if they didn’t, Jared was just ridiculously sweet. “Hey, shoot me a text when your brother gets back, okay? I’ll rest easier in Texas.” Ty wanted to phrase that as a ‘when,’ not ‘if.’ He had come back, it only made sense that the others would too, so he wanted to stay positive. Ty backed up toward the door a few steps. “See you later, Amelia,” he said before he turned to head out.
Saying 'when' made a world of difference for being such a small gesture, Amelia felt almost certain that Jasper would return too, if only for one inspired moment and it felt good to have that certainty, even if it might not stick around. "See you later, Ty," she said with a smile and it was funny how a short visit could brighten up an otherwise boring day. She genuinely liked Ty but he was also a beacon of hope that Jasper might wander into town any day now.