Who: Greer & Max Where: Seaview + The Beach When: Monday afternoon, June 11th
Max hated feeling weak and it was a small wonder he'd allowed himself to hide away from the world for this long. He knew he had a good reason to be scared after what he'd been through but he still hated himself for it, for not wanting to go into town by himself and for wanting to stay right there at the O'Reilly house where he knew he was surrounded by protective spells. It had been too long though and he fought the urge to ask Aidan and Aya to give him a lift - so to speak - via her door charm. It would have been so much easier to just walk through a door in the house and suddenly be elsewhere, able to backtrack if he felt overwhelmed. Maybe that was exactly the reason he didn't ask. He didn't want it to be so easy.
He took Patrick's truck, blasted music to calm his nerves as he drove through Blackwater Woods, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and trying to remind himself that what he'd been through was over, that nobody was going to summon him again and send him to another hell dimension. Singing along helped, he sure as shit hadn't been singing along to music on that fateful night, he sure as shit hadn't been himself in any perceivable way that night, heading home to hurt his own family. He was okay now, it was over and he was okay and this rock song was the bomb.
He didn't bother lowering the volume when he reached Seaview so his arrival was hardly secretive when he rolled up to the trailer where Greer lived with her men. She might not even be home, but it was just one of many stops he wanted to make today. But he knew she was home, he realized as he stopped the engine and let the radio go silent. He knew she was in there right now, could feel her presence in the weirdest way. He had to chalk it up to his mind playing tricks on him - because what else could it be - and he was both anxious and excited to meet her so it wasn't a hard sell.
Max had been someone Greer wanted to see for quite some time. But she had been caught up in her men, not to mention coming to terms with her newfound "ability". However, when Max pulled up to the trailer home that evening, she knew it. It wasn't the music, because it wasn't unusual for people to drive through Seaview with their radios turned up. It was just an instinctive feeling that he was outside waiting for her. And she was happy for it.
Greer didn't bother pulling on her shoes as she slipped out the front door. It was a warm day and she loved that she didn't have to put on layers of clothing anymore. Walking down the small steps from the porch, she headed for the truck, smiling even as she opened the passenger door to slip inside. Maybe he wanted to sit there. Maybe he wanted to drive off. She didn't know and it didn't matter. "I've been wanting to see you," Greer said.
"Man, you're clean," Max said with a disbelieving little smile after turning down the radio and the fact she came strolling out of the house as soon as he pulled up didn't really help him come to terms with that strange thing he was feeling. He reached for her hand to give it a little squeeze, somewhat at loss for words and a little emotional seeing her again. "I've been on my way here for a while," he admitted. "Haven't left the house, not really." Did sitting outside on the porch and walking around a close perimeter count? Probably not, he at least hadn't left the O'Reilly property in weeks. "You look good. Healthy."
Greer laughed when he mentioned that she was clean. She definitely didn't take showers or baths for granted now. Though sometimes she would still get a whiff of the Other Place and Greer had resigned herself to the thought that it would probably never fade completely. There was some reluctance on her part when he took her hand, but there were no sudden visions so Greer relaxed, entwining her fingers with his. "You look good too," Greer told him. "I understand not wanting to leave the house. I've been out a few times, with Rost and Dev... it feels normal enough, but sometimes I'll find myself staring at something and... I start to question if it's real, you know? It's a very strange sensation."
"I know," Max replied because he really did. Only the people who'd been over there with them would fully grasp just how terrified they were, how all of this normalcy felt like it could slip away at any second. "I kept thinking that if I got behind the wheel I'd go auto-pilot again and drive out into the woods. It's such a strange memory." He looked somber for a second before his eyes crinkled again as he smiled at Greer. "But I didn't and now I'm here. I knew you were home, even before I parked. Is that weird? I knew where you were. I can feel you right now, more than just your hand."
"It's not weird," Greer assured him. "I've felt the others the same way. Like I'm fully aware of them now, that they're here in town. Well, most. Ty, the cop? He's gone. I don't know how I know, but I know. I was at Moxie's the other night and one of the teenagers came in and I just knew it, before I even turned around. I could tell he was feeling the same thing. He said he knew I was inside before he even saw me." She smiled then, the gesture tinged with faint sadness. "That place changed us somehow. We're different."
Max wasn't as surprised as he should have been as she told him all of this because on some level he knew that he could probably find everyone they'd spent time with over there if he just let himself relax and pay attention to this strange new feeling. Greer was more in touch with it, she didn't ignore reality quite as much as Max did, but he could still feel it in him too, that connection. "The Lucas kid isn't in town either," he muttered. "Or the wolf." They weren't as far away as the cop though and he would never understand how he knew that because on a logical level he couldn't tell her just how far away they were. He just felt it. "Guess it was too much to ask to come back home normal," he sighed, but he couldn't deny that some part of him like it. He'd always been the normal and useless one among powerful magic users, on some level he wanted this.
Greer nodded, and she had to admit she felt some relief that Max felt it too. She already had a feeling it was a shared ability, given Jasper had known she was there, but the more people who validated, the more sane Greer felt. "Maybe we were never normal to begin with," Greer suggested, a small smile playing at her lips. "Look at who we're surrounded by. Your brother and sister are witches. Dev is a medium. But I don't think we just came back with the ability to... locate each other. I talked to Jasper about this too. When I touch people now, sometimes I get a vision of their death. That's never happened to me and it only started after I was back home. Have you had anything strange like that happen to you?"
"Jesus," Max whispered, cringing a little at the thought. "No, I haven't, what the fuck. Did you see... Mine?" Did he want to know? He almost instantly regretted asking but how could he not? That sort of thing made him think of shitty stories he'd read about dodging what fate had already decided, could that even be done? Would it have awful repercussions? "Fuck, don't answer that. I don't wanna know." It didn't even occur to him that it might not be real, everything they'd witnessed up until this point made not believing something like this not an option.
Greer smiled and brought his hand up to press against her cheek. "I didn't see anything. I think I've been pretty lucky so far, not having any visions of people I care about. I don't know if I could handle it. And I don't know if what I see is set in stone, you know? I don't know that our futures are fated. But I've been curious about everyone else, if they're feeling or experiencing something different." In a way, she didn't want to be the only one. She didn't want to think she had been the only one to change so significantly over there.
"Well, I haven't touched anyone who's not super close to me," Max replied with a little shrug. "So I don't know if I suddenly developed psychic powers. I don't feel normal though, I feel..." He shook his head, failed at finding the words so he just smiled at her and rubbed her cheek with his thumb. "I don't think any of us can be normal after what we went through." He didn't even consider that she might just have lost her damn mind, they probably all had, but he believed what she was seeing was true. "But I'm trying to get back to living. What's the point of surviving if I'm just gonna hide in my room for the rest of my life."
"I don't know if someone being close to you matters," Greer said after a moment. "Honestly, I think it's just luck... it feels random, sometimes. I'm still afraid to touch Dev or Rost, in case it suddenly happens. But obviously I'm not quite capable of resisting." She squeezed his hand gently again. "You're right, though. We can't hide forever. So I'm glad you're trying to get back into things, because you should. See your friends, take some women out to dinner... enjoy life." Greer smiled and brought his hand to her mouth where she kissed his fingers. "And I want to see you more. We may have come back here with some side effects, but we're alive, right?"
"You'd look hella fancy with silk gloves, you know," Max told her as he tried to imagine being afraid of touching a lover all the time. Maybe it'd be better to get that vision over with, get used to the mortality and move on rather than have that fear hanging over her head, but he didn't say as much. Nobody wanted to know something like that, it'd become a shadow looming over her as she no doubt wondered 'is this the moment' every time something looked vaguely similar to what she had seen in her vision. "But yeah, we're alive and we're clean. I never appreciated cleanliness this much before, I can tell you that." He glanced over to her front door and wondered if her men were in there or if she was home alone. It felt like he should know that somehow, with the way he was so in tune with Greer. "Do you wanna go somewhere? Down the beach or something?"
Greer laughed and tried to imagine wearing gloves the way Dev did. She could do that, she supposed but she just loved touching people too much... touching as in feeling their bodies beneath her hands. It was such a different experience. So this particular gift was more like a curse. Greer wasn't sure how she would adapt to it, but she knew she had to. Pressing a kiss to his fingers, Greer nodded. "Let's go somewhere." Dev and Rost knew she was with Max and they wouldn't worry. She just felt like it would be nice to go somewhere and catch up and make sure Max was really doing all right.
Max couldn't really define whatever this was he had with Greer. He knew he loved her, he wasn't sure how he could not, but he didn't really know how much of it was shared trauma and the fact she'd been the one light in his life for all these months. It was easy to get it mixed up with romance, but it felt like something bigger than that. Max had never really been into romance and he didn't love people much beyond his family but this was different and he didn't feel like he needed a name for it, they were pack and Greer's natural affinity for warmth and affection was so easy to lean into. He grinned easily when she agreed to hang out and turned the engine on again, tearing up gravel as he got them out of there. "This doesn't scare you at all?" he asked once they were a few minutes out and headed toward the shoreline. "The way we might be changing?"
Greer felt like most people had endless amounts of love to share, but not everyone felt equipped to do so. And that was okay with her. All she could do was live her life and love as many people as she could before it was over. Thankfully she had found two kindred spirits in life who understood and loved as much as she did. Max was her family now too, because they had gone through something terrible and otherworldly together. They had been more or less inseparable Over There and there were nights she curled up between Rost and Dev missing him. It was difficult to put those months behind her, especially now that she had something happening inside of her that was likely a result of being in that place. "Of course it scares me," Greer said, resting their joined hands against her thigh. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I can't stop it, or hide from it. And maybe if we're changing, we can use the change for something good, you know?"
Coming from anyone else, that might have made Max laugh because it was kind of naive to think they could do good in the world when whatever was happening to them was born from so much darkness. From Greer though, he believed if anyone could do it it was her. She was Good, with a capital G, without being high and mighty about it so she didn't make Max feel like rolling his eyes or getting the hell away from her. People like that were rare, he preferred the snarky bastards because they felt more grounded in reality and less fake somehow, but Greer never felt fake to him. "Do you think you can change the outcome? If you know what's gonna happen?" he asked, unsure how exactly she would want to use whatever this was to help people. But then maybe she made things better simply by treating people well, sometimes it wasn't more complicated than that.
"I don't know," she said honestly. "I think it would be too easy to develop a God complex and tried to control fate, if fate is a real thing." Greer liked to take things one day at a time, to just let things take her where they may. This changed everything and she was still trying to figure out how to deal with it. "I think it's... if I can help somehow, if I can change it, I'll try. But maybe all I'll be doing is delaying the inevitable. I just don't know yet. Most of what I've seen so far has been far into the future. I can't exactly stalk someone for four years to make sure they don't die." Greer glanced at Max. "What would you do? If you were me."
What would he do? Max huffed with wry amusement. The first things that came to mind were so bleak and negative that he couldn't say them out loud, not to Greer. He'd kill himself? Never touch another person again? "I'd be a lot worse at dealing with it than you are, that's for sure," he didn't want to hug his siblings and know how they were going to die. Could Knox even die? He wasn't so sure but that wasn't something he wanted to see either. He could already well imagine how their father would die so it was somehow less scary but what if he was wrong and this gift or curse would show him something terrifying? "Can you tell when people die too?" he asked since the timing thing caught his attention. "Or just a guesstimate? You could put a reminder on your phone."
"I've had feelings," Greer explained. "I don't think I've ever seen a specific day, just... time. And can you imagine, having a phone full of death dates?" She wrinkled her nose. It was bad enough touching another person and potentially seeing how they would die, but having all of those reminders in her phone? It was depressing to think about. "I haven't seen anything immediate, at least, so... small favors, I guess. I just wish I knew how that place changed me. Or us. There could be something about you that you just don't know yet."
"Fuck, I hope not," Max groaned but on some level he suspected there was. Maybe not anything psychic but that place had changed him somehow, the original bite sure as hell had changed him. All that filth they breathed in, the fact they hadn't had to eat for months, their bodies were wrong in some way or another and he was just waiting for some body-horror shit to go down. "But hey, you wouldn't have to have a phone full of dates, just a few that you think might be preventable. You know, the dumb accidents, the murders." That made him wonder though; if someone had warned him not to be out and about on the day the fog came in, would he have believed them? Would he have listened? It was a burden nobody deserved to carry and if it couldn't be useful, then what was the point of it?
Greer thought that maybe Max had changed too, only she couldn't feel how like she could feel his presence. Surely she hadn't been the only one. But she would wait until something happened... she knew Max would reach out if and when it did. "What if I fail?" Greer asked after a moment, her voice quiet. "I'm not a superhero. I don't know if I could save everyone. I don't know if everyone would believe me." She exhaled slowly. "It feels like an immense responsibility. But you're right. I should try, at least, right? If I think it's something I can prevent. They may try to lock me up for sounding crazy though." Not that Greer minded that. She knew people thought she was odd sometimes and that had never bothered her. But she certainly didn't want to scare people.
Max thought about it for a moment, frowning in concentration as he mulled over the potential outcomes. "You could always let someone else do the heavy lifting," he said. "Get a little team together. Fuck knows I could stand to score some good karma points. And what is it that they say? Better to fail than not try, or something. I have a feeling some of those dates would be burned into your head anyway and you'd be sitting at home torturing yourself over not doing anything about it." He glanced over at her again with a little smile. "So call me, if you need a hand. Ask your boys to join you. If they're not willing to help you with this then they don't deserve you."
Greer already felt bad enough involving Rost and Dev in what was happening to her. On some level, she knew Dev could relate and sympathize, given his own hands gave him flashes of things he sometimes didn't want to see. But maybe Max was right. If she could help someone, she had to at least try. There were plenty of people who didn't believe in her cards or palm readings but had that ever stopped her from giving them? "You would help me?" Greer asked Max, smiling over at him. "Even if it was horrible and hard?"
"Nah," Max said with a feigned little frown. "I'll only help if it's easy and fun." His smile said he was joking, even as he wished he wasn't. He didn't usually go out of his way to help people but all that shit they'd been through had made him afraid and fear was a powerful motivator. He wasn't even sure how helping her could possibly make the fear go away, but maybe it was some ingrained fear of hell that he'd picked up from society even if his family didn't subscribe to the guilt-type of religion. Or maybe he just wanted to help Greer because it was Greer. She shouldn't have to feel guilty just because some idiot got himself into trouble and the universe gave her a front row seat to see it. "I'm not gonna step in front of a bullet for some jackass but you know I'll help you if you need it."
Greer huffed out a soft laugh. "I wouldn't let you do that," she said, reaching over with one hand to smooth his hair back just above his ear. "But thank you for offering to help in some capacity. If I need it, I promise I'll ask you." She already knew Dev and Rost would be there for her if she asked them to be, but Greer wanted to limit how many people she put in harm's way. It was possible helping someone avoid a terrible fate wouldn't be as dangerous as she imagined, but Greer didn't want to take any chances. "What can I do for you," she added after a moment of thought. "You're still suffering. I can feel that much. I want to help you too."
Max leaned into the touch, however brief it was, a sucker for affection even if he sucked at maintaining relationships. They'd touched a lot on the other side but it had never really been pleasant, too grimy and desperate to hold any real comfort. It was different here, so much nicer. He huffed at her question then and shrugged, not eager to admit to her or himself that he was suffering, it was such a loaded word, he felt more like he was just feeling a little shitty. That was probably an understatement, was there any good way to describe how he felt? How they all probably felt? "You don't need to do anything," he told her with a flash of a grin. "I'm on my way already. Look, my brother even gave me this bitchin' leather jacket to make up for my old one getting wrecked. Now I just need a bike and I'm golden." She couldn't help everyone, it didn't work like that, but he appreciated the offer and just meeting her again and being around her seemed to help somewhat. "You wanna get a coffee or something? Or just sit by the ocean?"
Greer knew a jacket and bike couldn't fix whatever was wrong with Max, but she was glad he had family to look out for him. He was someone who hid his pain behind a smile or sarcasm and she understood that, even as she wore her own emotions on her sleeve. "Why don't we get a coffee and then go sit by the ocean for a while? I don't have any plans for the rest of the day, and I would like to spend it with you, if you're willing." They had been through a lot together and she felt like maybe it would help Max if they were just in each other's presence for a while.
"That's why I'm here," Max replied and turned the next corner to get to the sea side. He didn't feel like they needed to talk much, just being around someone who knew what he'd been through was life affirming in a way he hadn't realized he needed and he wondered if she was also scared the ocean would turn black and foggy as soon as they got there. It was a cloudy day so the ocean wasn't the pretty blue color he craved but gray was better than black and it served as a good reminder that here was nothing like over there. They got coffee to go and he found a good place to park on the marina, rolling down the window to get some of that fresh air. "You know, I wish I liked everyone who was stuck with us," he said as he removed his seat belt to get more comfortable. "If I'm gonna be knowing where everyone's at all the damn time."
Greer was more than okay with not talking, if Max preferred the quiet. She was content enough to just be in his company, like when they had been Over There. Maybe there was a part of her that was paranoid about the town just flickering into darkness and becoming what they had grown used to, but Greer tried to keep herself grounded. She was home now. That place wasn't allowed to ruin her life anymore. Well, except for the side effects she had brought back with her. "Some of them were nice people," Greer said after sipping her coffee thoughtfully. "I liked the wolf a lot, and the police officer. I think maybe everyone was scared and they just handled it in different ways."
"Eh," Max said with some amusement. "You like everyone, it's part of your zen thing." He definitely didn't like a lot of people and he hadn't liked most of the people they'd been stuck with. A part of him thought it was better that way, nobody he liked deserved to get stuck in a place like that, but now they all seemed to be connected and that made it so much worse. "Have you seen any of the people who sent us there?" he asked and sipped his coffee, slightly sulky to find it didn't have enough sugar to be to his taste. He still remembered all their names and one of them had been a friend. Max had been avoiding Nic Castell as much as he'd been avoiding the rest of the world and the mere thought of facing him was a little nerve wracking.
"I don't like everyone," Greer protested with a laugh. "I just don't actively dislike people either. Does that make sense?" She sipped her coffee again, her gaze stuck to the ocean in front of them. The sky was gray but it was still peaceful to her. The company helped. Some of her good natured humor faded at the thought of the people who put them in that place and Greer took a moment to think about it before she glanced at Max. "I haven't seen them, no. But, the wolf put us here too, remember? And he ended up being very helpful over there. They did what they had to do, Max. I'm sure it wasn't easy for any of them to make that choice."
"Yeah, I know," Max replied. "I don't hate them for what they did, one of them is a family friend, we met at his party, remember?" It was hard to think of it because he remembered just how much he had hated them when he wasn't himself, how much he had wanted to hurt them, even kill them. The Castells were dear to his family, things could have gone down a far darker path. "You should try it sometime though, hating someone. It can be fun to trash talk people, therapeutic and shit." He was all too aware now of how sharing this experience with her and others was stopping him from a self destructive path. He sometimes thought it'd be safer and better for everyone if he killed himself, even if he didn't want to die, but it was sobering to think of Greer or some of the others dying just because they might be tainted. If he'd been over there alone he had no idea if he'd cope with everything at all.
Greer nodded, because she remembered Nic in a vague way from the party, but it was from the woods that she recalled him more clearly. She had never despised people as much as she had those four and Greer could recognize now how wrong that had been. She sipped her coffee and smile against her cup. "I don't know if I could hate anyone. But I could probably try and talk shit about someone, if it's as therapeutic as you say. I just think there are better ways to release that kind of agitation and anger. Do you hate many people?"
Max chuckled and it didn't surprise him that she didn't indulge in the sweet feast of hatred like he did. Maybe that was better for the soul or something, he'd never been good at things that were good for him. "Enough," he replied with a little shrug. "I don't waste a lot of time or energy on it but there's plenty of people out there worth hating. You don't wanna go too soft and let them walk all over you." He wondered if Greer ever did get walked over, she was a certain kind of soft but she was no doormat from what he knew of her.
"That's true. But you don't want to be too hard either, otherwise you miss out on a lot of that softness. It's not all that bad." She smiled at him, well aware that she might come off to most people as someone who could be taken advantage of. But Greer liked to think she was smarter than that. She could be stubborn when she needed to be and she was perceptive enough to know when someone was trying to deceive her. There was a lot she could take, but she was not someone who would willingly let someone hurt her. Reaching over, she took Max's hand in her own. "You can be soft with me," she told him, keeping her voice light and teasing, as not to make him uncomfortable. "I won't walk all over you, I promise."
"Psh," Max said and clucked his tongue playfully, giving her a suave grin. "You're the kinda girl who could get away with walking all over people." It was easier to tease her back than to be serious but his smile turned earnest as he gave her hand a little squeeze, silently telling her he already knew. This was pretty soft, watching the ocean and drinking coffee, talking and holding hands. He didn't think he got much softer than this, especially not with people outside of his family. He knocked back the last of his coffee and kind of wished he'd gotten two cups. Then again he was also in the mood for a beer, but then he was usually always in the mood for a beer. "So tell me what you've been up to after you got home," he murmured, pretty certain she hadn't been cowering at home nearly as much as he had.
Greer shook her head, still smiling. She never wanted to walk over anyone, but she understood what Max meant and she knew this was how he was coping. What about the others? Were they trying to live normally? Were they angry? Depressed? Maybe they were pretending nothing had happened at all. It made her want to go find them and ask how they were, but not everyone would be as welcoming to her presence as Max was. "Spending time with Rost and Dev," Greer explained. "We had a small booth in the market a while back and I gave readings. That's when I began to realize that I was changing. Or had already changed, I guess. I don't think things can be like they were before so I don't really see any point in pretending they could be. What about you?"
Max gave her a wan smile and shrugged again. "I don't know, Greer. I've lived in this place most of my life and people here are real good at moving on and pretending." Did that include him? He was sure that if his family wasn't the way it was, he probably could pretend Point Pleasant was normal despite all the madness. He could feel that urge to brush it off, like a weird tickling in his throat, just let it slide and pretend none of it ever happened. But he was who he was and his family was anything but normal. "It kinda feels like things could go back to normal. Or as normal as anything can be around here."
"Maybe I'm immune to that because I'm not from here," she suggested. "And maybe things can go back to normal for some people, but I don't think they can for me. I don't know if I could pretend, even if I wanted to." Greer sighed. "I feel like maybe I should reach out to the others. Go see them and see how they're doing." She had no idea if anyone would be receptive to her showing up to say hello, but it felt necessary to try. They had some kind of strange bond now, some kind of link, and maybe that meant something. Maybe it was something they weren't meant to ignore.
"If anyone can reach out to all of them, it's you," Max tittered and he couldn't even imagine himself attempting it. "You or the cop, being a civil servant and all. Too bad he's somewhere in the south right now." He could almost pinpoint where, he just didn't know the name of the place, just that it was somewhere in Texas and how weird was that? "Think we're gonna turn into some psycho hivemind?" he muttered then, because it kind of felt that way. Knowing everyone's location wasn't normal, would they know what they were feeling next? Know when they were in danger? Want to live together before long? That was a miserable thought and he could only hope it wouldn't come to that.
"I like him. The cop." Greer paused thoughtfully. "Ty. I can't remember his last name. Maybe he'll be back, though. But, maybe I will talk to some of the others. Just to see how they're doing and if they've experienced anything strange like I have. I don't know about the hivemind, but the fact that we can all sort of... sense each other now... pinpoint where everyone is? Maybe that's where this is going." Greer wasn't too thrilled with the thought. "Maybe there's someone who could help us. Someone who knows something about all of this. Have you spoken to your sister about it?" Greer recalled that Max's family were witches. And she knew this town had others like them. The witches hadn't been able to help them before, but maybe they could now.
Max shook his head. He'd been bad about asking for help since he returned, mostly he just wanted to keep to himself and ignore what had happened as well as the world around him. "I wasn't even sure I wasn't just going crazy before I talked to you," he admitted. "I'll talk to her or dad soon, but I got a feeling they can't do shit about this." They hadn't been able to fight back when he was draining them, all the protective spells in the house hadn't seemed to deter him and that was one of the most terrifying things about this whole experience. He was something else now and whatever had caused it was something his family had no idea how to deal with. "We might be on our own in this one," he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Maybe." He might be right but Greer wasn't willing to give up before she had even tried. "Let me talk to some people. Maybe I can figure some things out. Even if I can't, we have each other. We had survived Over There together, so we'll survive here too." She realized she had been holding Max's hand this whole time and still hadn't had any visions of his death, so Greer considered that to be a win. Maybe, maybe, she was immune to those who came home with her from Over There. "Just call me, if you start to feel overwhelmed, or you need something. We'll be there for each other, okay?"
Max couldn't imagine leaving her hanging if she called him, though he was perhaps a little less likely to call under duress. He was a fuck-up and always had been but he'd always hated asking for help when he needed it. Asking for something that didn't really matter was easy, but he hated showing the world just how much of a mess he really was. Greer was a little different there, she'd been through the same thing, he didn't need to tell her how it had felt, how terrified he'd been and how afraid he still was of going back there. It wasn't like prison, something he could downplay and act nonchalant about, she'd seen him at his absolute worst so she should be easier to ask than anyone else. Was she though? Max didn't know, but he still nodded and gave her hand a little squeeze. "Absolutely. I'm always here for you."
"Good." Greer smiled and brought his hand up to her lips so she could kiss his fingers. "I'm glad we made it back together." She had no idea if Max would call her if he needed something but she hoped he would. There was probably a rough road ahead for them and the more support they had, the better. Smiling at him now, she lowered his hand to her thigh. "Do you want to get out of the car for a bit and go for a walk down by the water? Waste some time before we get caught up in all the chaos again?"
Max had a newfound appreciation for the outdoors after he'd returned, the air was so fresh and clean, the colors were so vibrant and beautiful. He had a feeling that even the darkest and dreariest winter months would hold beauty to him now and he nodded and gave her thigh a little squeeze. "Get a breath in before we face the bullshit, sounds good to me," he murmured and glanced out at the waterfront, relieved to see nothing but a normal ocean and mostly clear skies. "Do you think your boys would mind if I drop by some night, have a beer with you guys?"
Her smile widened. "I bet they would love to have you there." And Greer was confident about that. Dev and Rost were as open and friendly with people as Greer was and she knew that if she wanted Max there, they would want him too. Max had helped her stay sane Over There and she would never forget that. "I would love to have you there too," she added, reaching over to ruffle his hair a bit. "Come over anytime you want to, Max. Our door is always open to you." And Greer really hoped he would believe that and take her up on the offer. She pushed the car door open to climb out, ready to stretch her legs and enjoy the fresh air for a while longer.
It was a little weird - or maybe it was just telling - that of all the people in Max's life, the ones who defied social norms and didn't bow down to Christian Values were the most welcoming and well adjusted people he knew. Nothing but witches and psychics, polyamorous fortune tellers, drifters and druggies. He swore to himself he'd take her up on the offer and drop by some night with a case of beer or maybe even some good homebrew from his siblings. He could do that, he could be social and relaxed again, have a good time, maybe even a great time with Greer and her very open minded and bisexual boys. Thinking of sex in any capacity felt a little odd in his current state of mind so he let that thought go for now, entirely too sober to consider it and more focused on the here and now. He got out of the car, squinted at where the cloudy sky met the ocean and while it was all a little gray and dreary, it looked fresh and beautiful compared to his memories of the other place. "Didn't think I'd ever miss the ocean as much as I did, but look at that fucking beauty."
She honestly hoped Max would come by and see her more. He lived with his family, which was good, of course, but Greer thought it was important for him to get out and socialize, even if it was just with her and her boys. They both had a lot of healing to do, even if they didn't know it. What had happened to them was horrible and traumatic and that didn't go away just because they were home. Greer breathed in the salty air, unable to completely forget how it looked and smelled Over There. She had done a lot of walking around town since coming back and she definitely appreciated the colors, the smells, even the people, more than ever. "It is beautiful," Greer agreed wistfully. "It's so strange that we left when it was cold and snowing and came home to this. I can't complain too much about it. Or at all, actually. Come on." She took his hand to walk him down towards the water. "Let's just pretend for the next hour or so that we're two normal people living a normal, boring life, taking a normal walk along the ocean."
No matter the trauma, a normal and boring life would never appeal to Max and he let out a little laugh at the mere thought of it, shuddering visibly. "How was your day at the office?" he asked and the thought of Greer working in a cubicle somewhere was kind of hilarious. She'd liven up any office, that was for sure, make it more tolerable for someone like him. "I bought so many stocks, so many and then I sold a whole shit ton of stocks. Crazy day, the coffee was so bad." That would never be him, he'd never be a 9-5 kinda guy, born into chaos and raised too wild to ever really fit into that kind of a lifestyle.
Working in an office really did sound terrible. She was once a temp when she began to live on her own and she barely lasted three days. It just wasn't for her. Nor was it for Max and that was okay. Greer smiled as Max spoke and by the time he finished she was laughing. "Okay, okay, I get it. It sounds awful. Maybe we can pretend that we're exactly who we are, except without the lingering trauma from some hell dimension?" It occurred to her that she was still holding his hand and had yet to see any visions of his death. That was a good sign. Maybe those who had been stuck with them were... off limits, so to speak. Immune to her ability. That would be so nice.
"Deal," Max chuckled and he'd pretty much forgotten about her weird new ability for now so that was a good start or that handholding might not have been as nice as it was. It was a gift he'd always had, putting things aside and forgetting about them, if only momentarily. It had gotten him accused of not caring but really it was mostly self preservation "We're just mildly fucked up people on a nice beach," he stated and maybe Greer had never been fucked up in a bad way, but Max always had been and hell if most people weren't. "No more, no less fucked up than we were last Christmas."
"I like that," Greer said with a nod. "Mildly fucked up. That works for me." She had never considered herself to be damaged, or even fucked up, at least not before getting injured by that thing in the fog. Greer just wanted to live life and love people so that's what she had done. Now she felt different. She was different. But Greer couldn't allow that to change her, at least not for the worst. Having Rost and Dev helped. Having Max helped. And hopefully he would find solace in her too and not go down a dark path. It felt easy to do right now. Greer squeezed his hand, happy enough to be with him today and hope that there would be more walks on the beach together.