misssmalltown (misssmalltown) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2017-11-13 10:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | #september 2017, jared, jared x sadie, sadie |
Who: Sadie and Jared
When: Morning, Tuesday, September 12
Where: Jared's home in Seaview
Jared had made it plenty clear that he would not be available today so unless shit really hit the fan nobody was going to call him. He was using what he knew was going to be one of those last nice weather days to go out fishing and he'd already foregone one of his days off to deal with that cemetery issue the day before. Today was his and he was loading the trunk of his car with everything he needed when he spotted Sadie's car coming down the road. It hadn't been long since that sight would have filled him with a mix of anguish and hope, mixed with some frustration of course because underneath it all he had long given up hope. Today he was pleasantly surprised to find only curiosity and he slammed the trunk shut and waved as she parked the car next to his. He strolled over to the car, tilting his head as he tried to see what she was up to in there before stopping and waiting for her to get out.
Sadie had stopped by the station first, only to be told that Jared had the day off. It shouldn't have surprised her. Police officers couldn't work twenty four seven, but she knew from experience that they had a demanding job, and Point Pleasant had always been sorely understaffed. She had no idea if he would be home or not, but Sadie drove to Seaview anyway, tapping her fingers against her steering wheel in rhythm to the music playing softly in her car.
When she headed down his street, she could see Jared outside with his car, loading it up. He was obviously heading out. Fishing, maybe? She wasn't sure, but she was glad she'd caught him. Sadie pulled up next to his car and offered him a smile through the window as she parked and turned off the engine. Sadie pushed open the door then reached over into the passenger seat to pull out the foil wrapped pie she had brought. It was nothing overly special, but Sadie thought it might have been weird to buy him an actual birthday gift. "Heading out?" she asked as she got out of the car. She left her car door open, just so he wouldn't think she planned on staying long.
"Yeah," Jared replied with some of his surprise still lingering in his voice. "Taking advantage of the good weather, it probably won't last." She had pie and he figured it was for him which was something he honestly wasn't sure how to feel about. That small part of him that had been pining for Sadie for months now whispered that maybe, just maybe she wanted him back. There was a very fresh new part of him that said that might not be a good thing and another even smaller that got panicky about it because now he'd actually have to make a choice if it came to it. Sadie was the obvious choice, they had a history and he loved her but she left him and -- God, he was getting ahead of himself, his thoughts spinning in every direction. He tried to pull it together and gestured at the pie. "That for me or is there a bake sale around here I don't know about?"
Oblivious to the mental war going on inside Jared's mind, Sadie glanced down at the pie that was currently covered in aluminum foil. "No bake sale today," Sadie said with a small laugh. "You know, with all these new dietary restrictions and allergies, we're not even allowed to have bake sales at school anymore. Liability and everything, which is a shame. That was always one of my favorite parts of school, buying all the sweets the mothers brought in." Her mother included. It made her heart sting for a moment, but the pain had dulled over time and Sadie pushed past it quickly before taking a breath and smiling at Jared. "It's for you. I know it's not a birthday cake, but I had bought some cherries from the market earlier and thought they would be good in a pie. The crust is homemade too. I know it's not much, but... I wanted to say happy birthday."
A few months earlier and Jared knew he would have felt hope blossoming in his chest as he invited her inside to eat pie with him, foregoing the fishing trip altogether. There was still a hint of it, an uncertain little flutter in his chest mixed with apprehension because of his feelings for Ty. He had honestly never been in that position before and he didn't much like it. Some people could juggle multiple partners but that just wasn't him. "Thanks, Sadie," he murmured as he accepted the pie which felt far heavier than it actually was. "That's mighty sweet of you." He raised the pie a little as he looked at it because it beat looking at Sadie who looked as damn pretty as she always did. "How've you been?" he asked and thought of Danny whose predicament he'd promised not to talk to Sadie about. It was hard not to ask about him though and he made a mental note of contacting the kid soon.
"Well, I can be sweet sometimes," Sadie teased, lowering her hands to clasp them together. She felt decidedly less awkward talking to him today than she had a few months ago. The divorce had been final since spring, but living in such a small town, where people talked, and she saw him constantly, it had been a bit more difficult to close that chapter of her life and move on. Eventually she realized she wanted to remain friends with Jared if she could. He was a good person, and she had loved him once. She had never wanted any bitterness lingering between them. At his question, she wasn't entirely sure how to answer, because he knew her pretty well and she didn't necessarily want to just give him the tried and true 'I'm fine'. On the other hand, she was doing fine. Making poor life choices, of course, but what else was new? "I... think I'm doing all right," Sadie said finally, her smile soft. "My car's giving me trouble, and you know... dealing with high school kids nearly every day is enough to make my blood pressure skyrocket, but essentially, it's the same stuff, different day. What about you?"
He hated how his first instinct was to ask what was wrong with the car and figuring out how to fix it. It wasn't his problem anymore if she had car trouble but it still felt like it was. He bit back the urge to offer and it felt like a lump in his throat while she kept talking. At her question he pursed his lips in thought and nodded indecisively. "Yeah, can't complain," he said and instantly thought about Ty. "Work's been hectic, I'm sure you've heard all about what's been going on... Did you lose power last weekend?" 'Help her with the car', his mind was telling him. 'Invite her inside for a piece of that cherry pie.'
Sadie had heard about all the problems Point Pleasant had been having lately. Not only from the paper, but from basic town gossip. The police department sounded like they were keeping busy, at least. It was a bit strange to hear people talk about the weird instances, as if they were talking about the weather. Weird was no longer that weird to the locals here, including Sadie. "I didn't lose power, no," Sadie said with a relieved sort of smile. "A few people on my street did, though, but it came back on early the next morning, so no real damage done. It sounds as if you've been pretty busy. I'm glad you're getting a day to yourself," she added, glancing toward his packed and ready to go car.
He was relieved to hear that she'd been okay in that storm. She saw herself as independent and all but he still felt fiercely protective of her and picturing her alone in the pitch black didn't help any. "I keep waiting for the phone to ring," he admitted with a sigh and a grin and it wasn't too far fetched given his profession. They were understaffed and overworked and he hardly ever said no when Barrett needed him. "But so far so good... So what's going on with the car? Same as last time?" He hadn't meant to go there but old habits were hard to break and she still invoked a very strong need in him to fix things and be there for her.
"Oh." Sadie glanced back at her car and then grimaced slightly. "No. I mean, I just feels like maybe it's stuck in another gear? I think it may be the transmission. I'm going to take it to the auto garage later today to have them take a look." She was bracing for bad news and a hefty bill, in all honesty. But she'd had her car for a long time, so it was just about time for it to start falling apart. It was just a little stressful, because a teacher's salary didn't pay much. "It might be getting to the point where I need to start looking for something new. I just don't have the money to keep putting more work into it. It gets me from A to B alright, so I guess that's all I can hope for at the moment."
Jared had to remind himself that she had left him and not the other way around so this was Not His Problem and yet... Yet the gears in his brain were already turning to find ways to fix fix fix. "No you really need to get that fixed," he said as he battled that whipped part of himself. "Before winter hits ya hard, don't want to get stranded somewhere. A new car might not be a bad idea if you can finance it." He studied her face for a second, so familiar and yet getting less so for the last few months in a way he couldn't explain that gave him sad pangs all over again. She had always been his emotional support, someone to bitch about work to if he'd had a bad day, someone to laugh at the stupid shit he wasn't supposed to tell anyone but damn it, she'd been his wife. There was something old inside him that wanted to tell her about being the one to find the body, tell her he'd been hearing things, that maybe he and Danny were both going crazy lately. She wasn't that person anymore, not for him. "But you're alright?" he asked. "Things been good?"
Sadie nodded, because she knew she needed to get her car running good again before winter kicked in. She wasn't terribly sure it was anything Jared could have fixed anyway, and even if it was, she felt too weird asking him to. They weren't married anymore, and she had been doing everything she could to keep the maintenance up on the house when things broke. He might have been proud of her, getting under the sink with a YouTube fix it yourself video playing to try and fix a leaky pipe. She had been mostly successful in her home repairs, at least. She studied his face and wrung her hands together a bit in front of her before she smiled. "Yes, I'm alright, Jared." Sometimes she missed him, usually when she was in bed alone and feeling lonely. Dating hadn't exactly been easy for her. She wasn't sure why, although sometimes she wondered if the men in town were too scared to try and date the ex-wife of one of the deputies. It was ridiculous, of course, but small towns like Point Pleasant rarely made sense to her. "I should let you get on the road," she said, motioning to the car. "It's your day off and I don't want to take up too much of your time." Sadie reached out to grip the top of her open car door. "Are you doing alright, though? Everything is okay?"
Jared nodded firmly, furrowing his brows again as he came to the conclusion that he was possibly more okay now than he'd been for months. "I'm good actually, yeah. Things are good," he told her then smiled. "I mean we have open murder cases and the state police keeps sweeping in and leaving us in the dark and there's some seriously weird shit going on around town but... Other than that? I'm doing good." He knew she probably felt guilty about their breakup, she'd never been a bitch about it and he understood to a point that she needed something different. It wasn't until recently that he was feeling a little more ready to accept that maybe it wasn't just a phase she was going through and that they were probably never getting back together.
Sadie blinked a couple times, her arm relaxing against her car door. "That... sounds like a lot going on," she said. "What do you mean by weird shit?" She heard about weird shit all the time, but she had never really experienced it first hand. Everything that had ever happened to her had just seemed like extreme bad luck. But now she was curious, because she had never really spoken to Jared about Point Pleasant's reputation beyond the surface things - the witch trials, and disappearances. Everything else sort of felt like exaggerated rumors and myth.
"Just the animal attacks, those bodies-" Jared said, then thought about it for a couple of seconds. "That night we found the body up in the tunnels... I thought I heard a train. No, not thought. I heard a train. Wasn't the only one either. It was weird." He wasn't sure what he hoped to get from her but there was that very old habit of talking to her when he needed to talk to someone. For a long time she had been the only one he felt like he could really talk to. "Heard it again on Friday night," he added and connecting those two events in a single conversation made him wonder if he should ask Amanda and Ellis if they had heard the damn thing again. He just wasn't sure if that would be worse or better than if it was only in his head.
Sadie was well aware of the Cooperdale Tunnel's history. It was morbid and disturbing, which was one of the reasons why she never sought it out the way some people in town did. Supposedly haunted places in Point Pleasant brought a thrill to a lot of people, but maybe she was a little bit superstitious. She didn't want to go near that place and risk... something. Still, it was difficult for Sadie to really comprehend what Jared was saying, because the tunnel had gone unused for so long. "But trains don't run through Point Pleasant anymore," Sadie said with a frown. "Are you sure it wasn't the storm? Or... or a low flying plane?"
"I'm sure," Jared murmured with a nod and he appreciated how she immediately tried to find logical explanations for it, much like he did. "We searched the area for a sound system, you know? I figured it might be some jerks playing an elaborate prank. I mean, I've seen the lengths some people go to just to mess with you. Remember that Halloween when someone wrapped cling film around a whole house?" But there had been no signs of a sound system that powerful and the fact ate at him.
She studied him for a moment before looking off into the distance behind his house. It was extremely difficult to accept that there might have actually been a train that went through the tunnel. But it was also difficult to call Jared a liar, which she didn't believe he was. Sadie was just afraid that doubting him would imply otherwise. "Who is 'we'?" she asked after a moment. Whether he had company that late at night, or it was just a neighbor, she wasn't sure. "Did you both hear the train?" There had to be some explanation for what Jared heard, although she knew in her gut that there wasn't always an explanation here.
"Two of my neighbors heard it too, wouldn't leave it well enough alone neither," Jared said with some bemusement. "Then we found that body and there were no signs of anyone hauling big equipment around there." He shook his head and smiled again. "I know there's an explanation but I just haven't figured it out yet." Friday night had been different though because Ty hadn't heard anything while Jared did, but that had probably more to do with some post traumatic nonsense.
"I'm sure there is," Sadie said, even if she had no idea what it could be. If a train actually went through town, people would have been talking about it. Unless there was no sign or evidence that it actually happened, and they didn't want to say something and risk sounding crazy. Sadie studied Jared, her expression softening a touch. "Are you handling it all right? Finding the body, I mean. I know you're a police officer, and you've seen... plenty, but I can't imagine it gets any easier." She was the one who had found her father's body when he had killed himself, and it still woke her up in the middle of the night.
That was a look that was familiar to him. It had always put him at ease when they were still together, that concern and gentleness she possessed. "Yeah," he reassured her with a faint smile. "It was a little surreal which... I think helped? I can't explain it." He hadn't seen a face, the whole thing had barely seemed like a body at all and he hadn't been involved in the actual investigation so he hadn't had to deal with the rest of the... pieces. "But yeah, I've been okay. Had other things on my mind, keeping my brain busy so that helps."
Sadie nodded. "Good. That's good." She had no idea what's been on his mind, and it wasn't her right to ask anymore. His life was none of her business unless he wanted it to be. "I think... if you hear anything again, like the train, talk to someone about it? Grady, maybe. If there's something going on... well, that tunnel has always given me the creeps and things happen in this town that we can't always explain. Just stay safe, all right?" That was really all she could ask of him, because, again, she had no right to ask for more. Sadie didn't want to make things more difficult for him.
He usually laughed off the 'this town is weird' statements but it didn't feel right in the moment, even if he still chose to believe it was all hogwash. Talking to Barrett about it was off the table. The last thing he needed was for the sheriff to put him on medical leave or send him off to see some shrink. It had been a one time thing and the more time passed the easier it was to ignore it. "You know me, I always play it safe," he told her and maybe that was why she'd left him, because he was boring. He tried not to wallow in that again, smiling at her instead and lifting the pie a little. "Thanks for the pie again."
There were times to let loose and step outside of one's comfort zone... and there were times to play it safe. Generally with weirdness in Point Pleasant, it was time to play it safe. She didn't find Jared boring because of it. Being in his particular profession, she had once prayed every day that he would be safe. She still did, really. Even if they were no longer together, Sadie still wanted Jared to be all right. She gave him a small smile and glanced down at the pie. "You're welcome. Happy birthday, Jared." Determined not to linger, Sadie slipped into the car and shut the door, thankful when it started up all right. It would be just her luck for her car to not start at all, or stall, in his driveway. Sadie began to back up and offered him a small wave.
Jared waved back and didn't get in his car until she was already driving away. He put the pie in the trunk first with the rest of the food he was bringing and it would make for a nice treat while he was fishing. He still couldn't shake that feeling that he should have invited her inside or something and he felt weirdly guilty about it but at the same time relieved. He was moving on and it felt strange. His relationship with Sadie had been the longest and most serious relationship of his life so it wasn't all that unusual for it all to be new and unnerving. He just needed to figure out how to deal with it.