Ty Solomon (shadowbadge) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2022-12-05 13:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, brianna, brianna x ty, ty |
Who: Brianna and Ty
When: late morning, Friday, July 6th
Where: the McCarthy house
Status: complete
Ty had no idea how the next hour or so was going to go, but he had committed to tracking down and talking to Brianna and Miriam, so that was what he was going to attempt to do. He didn’t know how keen the Overlook women would be to chat, but it was better than having to deal with the teenagers, he supposed. Greer would probably be best at that.
He had made sure he was groomed and presentable before he drove up to Overlook. That sixth sense they all had now told him that Brianna was at home. Ty had figured that somewhere between breakfast and lunch would be the best time to show up, not too early but hopefully before she had to be anywhere with her kids or something. Ty just hoped it was Brianna who answered the door as he pulled up to the house -- it was too bad school was out.
Ty climbed out of the car and approached the front door, wondering if Brianna could sense him just as clearly as he could sense her, a sort of beacon tugging at the front of his mind. Was it clearer to him because he was seeking her out? Or could they truly not sneak up on each other? Ty rang the doorbell and stepped back, slipping his fingers into his jeans pockets.
Brianna was home, but her children were not. Phee was likely out with Greg and Bash had moved out to live with Theo on his boat. A ridiculous thing to do, of course, but Brianna was letting her son make his own decisions at the moment. So she was home alone with a second cup of coffee, listening to the silence in her home and thinking about how lonely it was. The isolated feeling didn't last very long because she somehow felt Ty Solomon coming up to her front door. Brianna still wasn't over that particular side effect of where they had all been and she absolutely hated thinking that the others knew where she was the same way she knew about them.
Staring at the door from the foyer, Brianna grimaced at the sound of the doorbell, but she stepped forward anyway and pulled the door open, not at all surprised by the face staring back at her.
"Deputy," Brianna said, forgetting for the moment that he was no longer a police officer. "Is everything okay?"
At least he wasn’t kept in suspense until the door opened, able to feel Brianna coming. Ty had a faint smile ready, and the way she called him deputy made him chuckle quietly. “Hello Brianna, it’s uh, it’s just Ty now,” he told her. “Everything’s fine, I’m not here with bad news or anything.” He understood how it could be startling to get a visit from a cop, even one not in uniform. They almost never showed up on anyone’s doorstep with good tidings. But Ty wasn’t a cop anymore, and his reason for being there was more interesting than threatening, he was pretty sure. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything -- do you have a few minutes to chat?”
No bad news. That was a relief. But there was still something, or Ty wouldn't be at her door. After hesitating for a moment, Brianna stepped back to allow Ty inside. "No one's home," she said, just in case there was need for privacy. She shut the door and led him down the hall toward the living room. "Would you like something to drink? I have some fresh coffee..." It was simply impossible for her to turn off the manners that had been beaten into her as a kid. Guests were guests, after all. She felt on all of the sudden, like she had to be Mrs. James McCarthy now that Ty was there. It was ridiculous, of course. He had seen her at her very worst Over There. But maybe Brianna was trying to delay whatever Ty was there to talk to her about too.
Ty followed Brianna through the house, trying not to gawk too much at the rich interior of the house. He’d been in several Overlook homes on police business, and he was always curious to see what people did with their mansions. “Uh yeah, some coffee would be great,” Ty answered, not giving a single thought to any pretenses Brianna might be putting up. He hadn’t known her at all before the portal, but Ty assumed that part of being an Overlook wife was being a good hostess, no matter what. He went to take a seat at the kitchen table, figuring that was as good a place to talk as any, if she was alone in the house. Kitchens were usually welcoming and comforting places. “How have you been adjusting to being back?” he asked, eyes on her.
Brianna focused on the coffee, glancing over only once as Ty sat down. His question was a difficult one to answer. Her instinct was to say she was doing just fine, because that's what she told most people. But Ty had been there too, so maybe she felt like it was slightly easier to be honest with him. "Some days are easier than others," she said finally. "Everyone else around me has gone back to how things were before I was gone. I'm just trying to catch up." Brianna looked at him again. "Cream? Sugar?"
He felt slightly guilty that he couldn’t completely relate -- Jared was extremely aware and sensitive to what Ty had been through. His family didn’t know the truth of what happened to him, and his mother didn’t seem too keen to ask real questions, like she knew she couldn’t handle it if he told her. Ty didn’t really hold it against her, he knew him being missing had been hard enough on her as it was. “Both please,” he answered Brianna’s question, giving her a wan smile. “I’m uh ... kinda sorry to hear that, sounds like it sucks.” It sucked for all of them, but if Brianna’s family just wanted to sweep it all under the rug, that had to be even harder to deal with. “‘Cause things aren’t normal for any of us anymore.”
She shrugged, dismissing Ty's apology. Yes it sucked, but what could she really do about it? James was always working, Bash had moved out and Phee had a boyfriend and friends. It left Brianna feeling alone and lonely, which was a difficult pill to swallow. Carrying the coffee cups over to the table, she set one in front of Ty and sat down across from him. "I heard you got married," she said, aware that she was pulling the conversation away from the real reason Ty was there, but she was a good hostess, so she would ask him how things were going and who didn't want to talk about their personal life? Especially when a wedding was involved.
It was already so different talking to her rather than Greer, but Ty had expected that. He’d known that getting her and likely Miriam D’Onofrio to open up was going to be a challenge. He murmured a thanks as she gave him the coffee, and hummed his approval once he’d tasted it. Ty chuckled and glanced down at the wedding band on his finger, nodding a bit. “Yeah, Jared made an honest man out of me,” he said, unable to help his little smile. Fuck, he loved that big lug. “We went to Texas to do it so his family could be there, then RV road tripped our way back up here. It was amazing.” None of that was relevant though, and probably a deflection that Brianna wasn’t honestly interested in, so Ty left it there. “I’ll get to the point though -- some of us have been reconnecting and talking ... has anything strange been happening to you, since we got back? Like something special you couldn’t do before?”
Brianna lifted her coffee to take a sip of her own, showing the acceptable amount of interest as he spoke of Jared. It was nice to hear that the two men had found each other, especially after Sadie Gaines was so brutally killed. Still, Brianna was grateful when Ty soldiered on and got to the point of his visit. She just wasn't prepared for what he was asking her. Arching a brow, Brianna carefully set her cup back on the table. "I have frequent nightmares of that place but I wouldn't say that's strange. I'm sure most of us do. What exactly do you mean by something special?"
Ty nodded his confirmation that nightmares were common, god knew he was still getting plenty of them. He would’ve been surprised if any of them weren’t. The fact that Brianna didn’t immediately know exactly what he was talking about gave him pause -- had she not discovered anything new about herself yet? Or did she get left out of the X-Men evolution or whatever was going on? “Some sort of ability that didn’t exist before ... like, I’ve found that I don’t feel pain anymore. Greer can get a vision of someone’s death when she touches them -- not always a guarantee, but sometimes. Enough. Carson, the werewolf, he can control his shifts now. Sage can turn invisible.” It all sounded so insane to say out loud, sitting in a very nice sunny kitchen with a put-together woman, but was any of it really crazier than what they’d already been through? “You haven’t picked up on anything like that?”
What Ty was saying didn't actually register in Brianna's mind as plausible. No pain? Visualizing death? Both of those things sounded rather terrible to her, even the lack of pain. Invisibility seemed the most implausible of all. It went against everything Brianna knew of the world. But then again... so did portals to another world. Or at least a mirror world of this one. She took a deep breath, turned in her chair to cross her legs, and shook her head. "No, I haven't. If... if I did change, I haven't felt it, or sensed it. Nothing strange has happened to me since being home. Is it possible all of this happened to you after we came back? Perhaps it's not related at all."
He couldn’t quite tell if Brianna believed it all or she was too cultured and polite to call him crazy. Ty was a little surprised to hear her say she hadn’t felt anything, because so many of the rest of them had, but maybe hers was subtle or slow to kick in. He might not even know about his own yet if he hadn’t had that slip while they were out hiking. “If it’s not related, it’s one hell of a coincidence,” Ty said with a little smile. “So far it’s me, Greer, Vex, Carson, Sage, Max ... Greer volunteered to check in with the teenagers, I’m checking with you and Ms. D’Onofrio.” He ticked them off on his fingers and then shrugged slightly. “I didn’t know right away, like some of them did. Maybe you just haven’t found yours yet.”
That many people was certainly more than a coincidence. Brianna's pulse quickened and she focused on her coffee again as she tried to think, tried to remember anything strange or unusual. But she imagined if something that bizarre changed within her, she would have already known. "If I've changed in some shape or form, it hasn't revealed itself," Brianna said finally, looking at Ty. "The only thing I've noticed is... I don't know, being connected to everyone somehow. I knew you were here before you rang my bell. Do you have any idea what any of this could mean?"
“I wish I did,” Ty told her, his expression turning vaguely apologetic. “That’s what we’re all trying to figure out. ‘Cause yeah, we all have that too -- the awareness of each other. That’s how I knew you were home.” It did feel kind of like a violation of privacy, but it wasn’t like any of them could help it. Ty was sure the others had learned to block each other out some to preserve their sanity, just like he had, but there was only so much they could do. Ty sipped on his coffee, his eyes still on Brianna. “Greer and I think we should all get together in one place again, just to talk and see if we can shed some light on it all. Would you be willing to meet with us?”
Her instinct was to say no. She could talk to Miriam, or Ty, but all of them? Brianna tried to push all of those memories down every day of her life, being around everyone would just tear that wall away completely. But at the same time, if something was happening to all of them, did that mean Brianna was next? What would James say? Taking a deep breath, Brianna considered before finally nodding. "Sure, all right. Preferably somewhere private." Obviously. She could only imagine what people in town would say if they saw all of the missing people gathered together, assuming the others were as agreeable as she was. "No one else knows about this, do they? Outside of our... group."
“Of course, yeah,” Ty said first, in regard to the talk happening privately. He didn’t think any of them wanted to loudly blab about what was happening to them in the middle of Moxie’s or anything. Brianna’s question gave him a bit of pause and one of Ty’s brows quirked up. “I don’t know, I mean ... everybody probably has someone in their lives they talk to. Is that what you mean?” It made him wonder a bit if Brianna had someone to talk to, which might have seemed out of place in a lovely home like this if he didn’t have so much experience with what went on behind closed doors. Being a cop had taught him that you could never tell what home life was like for people.
Brianna waved her hand dismissively. "No, I assume people will talk to... family, or close loved ones. It just seems like a bad idea to talk about it with outsiders. I know you're a smart man, depu... sorry, Ty, but I can't say the same for some of the others we were stuck with." She hadn't talked about her time in that place very much, especially not with James. It was a difficult subject to bring up and he hadn't asked many questions. A bitter part of Brianna assumed he was just happy she was back to mother their children again. "There's a lot that goes on in this town. I don't need anyone showing up on my doorstep asking questions because some people couldn't keep their mouths shut."
That was a harder question to answer, and one side of Ty’s face scrunched a bit as he sat back and briefly rubbed his fingers over his beard. “Maybe that’s something we can discuss if we all get together and talk,” he offered. Ty didn’t really think it was possible to control who anybody else talked to, and by now he was sure the truth had escaped the containment of their immediate circle. Whether anyone out there believed any of it though? That was a different story. He tended to think if anyone was going to come beating on doors, it would’ve already happened by now. “The sheriff knows,” he said, nodding a little. “No avoiding that -- a girl who works at the station is the one who found me walking outta the woods. But Barrett wasn’t in the dark anyway, you know?” He paused for a beat and then asked, “Who do you think might come knocking?”
Brianna didn't think it would be possible to tell people to shut up and have them actually listen. Bribery could work, but that was a slippery slope. It was a touch startling to hear that Barrett knew what had happened, but that was probably why he hadn't come around to press her for more answers after their first initial conversation when she had been returned. She eyed Ty for a moment and then reached for her coffee again. "There are plenty of people who would be interested in hearing about our experiences. And that's putting it politely. Being a former deputy of this town, surely you're aware of that?"
Ty gave her a wan smile. “In my experience, a lot of people can’t even comprehend any of this. They take the surface story or it just fades out of their minds. The psyche protects itself. Or do you mean like UFO internet wackos who no one takes seriously?” he asked. He wasn’t trying to be an asshole, he just wasn’t tracking on what she was referring to. He thought of the way the state police sometimes swooped in to take over the department when they had a big catastrophe ... Ty sometimes had inklings of doubts about their credentials, but he wasn’t the one in charge, so he’d always deferred to Grady. Could a woman like Brianna mean shady government spooks though? Or was she just worried about her reputation around town? Ty had found her difficult to read through their entire ordeal, and that didn’t seem to have changed.
Brianna chuckled a bit at the UFO wacko line. They'd had outsiders pop through Point Pleasant before, doing their blogs or podcasts or whatever the hell was popular these days. Little did they know how much of the stories were true. She just didn't know how much she should, or could, tell Ty. It wasn't like Brianna was a part of any shadowy organization, but there were plenty of people in this town who knew what went on. They just didn't talk about it. People went missing for so many reasons, and loose lips was one of them. "I mean people who make it their life's mission to discover the truth about places like this town and people like us. Not internet wackos. Potentially dangerous people, Ty."
He was silent for a moment as he studied her, then gave a slow nod. “I do see your point,” he said, a note of apology in his voice. “I’ll start bringing it up, as I talk to people. Warn them to be careful of who they talk to. And to watch out for anyone suspicious and new hanging around, asking questions.” It may have been too late and impossible to shut everybody up, like Ty suspected, but they could at least be on alert. He wasn’t sure what else they could do. “Maybe we can get a handle on how much it might have gotten out if we’re all together,” he added, still of the opinion that Brianna should join them. All of them should, at least once.
Brianna nodded, grateful that Ty was willing to warn people about who they speak to. He was a police officer... or used to be. They might listen to him more than they would Brianna. She also understood that he wanted her to take part in their group get together, and while she didn't think everyone would be agreeable, she supposed she could show up and see what was going on with everyone else. So far, Brianna hadn't seen or felt anything within herself that could be construed as "different" like Ty could, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. "I can give you my cell number," she said finally. "Once you're able to pick a place and time, just text me and I'll be there."
That was exactly what Ty wanted, and he smiled with gratitude as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “That’d be perfect, yeah,” he said. Ty took Brianna’s number and sent her a text so she could have his in return. He didn’t know if getting them all in the same room again would actually accomplish anything but he was willing to find out, and he hoped the rest of them were too. He almost asked her to call him if she discovered anything new about herself, but Ty was pretty sure she wouldn’t do that. Maybe it would come out at the meeting, if it cropped up between now and then, but whether Brianna would share or not was still a big question mark. At least she was open to attending. “I appreciate it,” he told her as he put his phone away again. He rubbed his hands on his jeans and glanced at the table, then moved to stand up. “I’ll get out of your way then.”
Brianna didn’t know what she would do if something strange just materialized within her. It was a terrifying notion because what if it was something as horrible as seeing someone’s death? Maybe James would be able to help her. If she decided to tell him. Brianna saved Ty to her contacts and then stood to see him to the door. She had a lot to think about. “I appreciate you coming by to tell me what’s going on. Give my best to Jared and… again, congratulations on the wedding.”
Ty smiled in that doofus way he couldn’t stop whenever someone reminded him that he was married to Jared now. “I will, and thanks,” he said as they walked back to the front door. He almost mentioned that they were going to buy a house soon, but then he recalled that Brianna was a realtor and they weren’t going through her, so that was probably rude somehow. If she was even working anymore, Ty didn’t know, nor did he really want to extend this conversation to ask. He let her open the door for him and stepped out, looking back to add, “Thanks for talking to me, Brianna. I know none of this is pleasant to dwell on.”
Brianna gripped the door frame and managed a small, somewhat cynical smile for him. "Yes, well... maybe they should think about changing the name of this town to something more suitable." Life in Point Pleasant was often more anxiety-ridden than it was pleasant. But then, that was probably everywhere these days. Brianna lifted her free hand in a brief wave before she closed the front door and took a breath. She had a lot to think about, and a lot of decisions to be made.