Shannon Murphy (shantastic) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2023-03-01 16:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, caden, caden x shan, shan |
Who: Caden and Shan (cameo by Gabriel)
When: late morning, Sunday, July 8th
Where: home, car, out and about
Status: complete
Shan had been dozing by the time Caden got home after his Saturday shift at the bar -- technically on Sunday morning. She hadn’t had the conscious brain power to start asking him questions about everything Kat had told her earlier that day, and he hadn’t seemed in the mood for it anyway, so Shan had just shuffled on to bed and snuggled up to Caden when he joined her. Her dreams had been weird and upsetting, full of people she hadn’t spoken to in years being sucked into a dark swirling tunnel in the middle of Atlantic City.
She woke up earlier than she wanted to and felt too shaken to go back to sleep, so she got up, leaving Caden still snoozing in bed. Shan got into the shower and took her time, trying to shake off that unsettled feeling. She braided her wet hair once she was out and plucked her eyebrows a bit, then threw a robe on and headed for the kitchen to get the coffee maker going and find something to eat. She wanted to talk to Caden about it all, make sure any of it was really true before she really let it all get into her head. Shan glanced at the clock and resolved that if he wasn’t up in an hour, she was going to wake him.
Caden was still getting used to Shan being home when he woke up on Sunday morning. He usually closed the bar late Saturday and Roxy had always been up early on Sunday to go to church. At least until the damn place had burned down. But when he opened his eyes today, he could hear Shan in the kitchen and honestly, it was kind of nice. He had pushed aside the Catholic guilt instilled in him as a kid a long time ago and had absolutely zero desire to step foot in another church. It made him glad that Aaron and Mila were getting married on the beach, instead of in a stuffy, restrictive house of lies.
He dozed for a while longer before the luring scent of coffee finally got him out of bed. Still groggy, he used the bathroom and splashed water on his face before wandering out into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. Grunting a good morning, he found a coffee mug and tried to decide whether or not he wanted something to eat.
Shan had settled on cereal, and she was sitting at the table, quietly crunching and sipping coffee with one hand while she scrolled on her phone with the other. Sometimes she felt the loss of the liveliness of living in a big city, seeing the wild Saturday night pics posted online by some of her friends ... but at the same time she had been there and done that so often in her life. There seemed to be a different kind of wildness going on in this place, and it had captured her curiosity. “Morning,” she echoed to Caden as he emerged. Shan gave him time to get a cup of coffee and join her, glancing between him and her screen every so often. Nobody wanted to be pounced with weirdness right off the bat when they woke up, so Shan wanted to give him a little bit to wake up first.
With his coffee poured, Caden sat down at the table with Shan, rubbing his eyes with one hand before grabbing his phone to check for any messages. He was going to talk to Max soon about Gavin and Kat's problem, but he'd been too busy with work the last two nights to do much about it. Still, the sooner the better. They didn't need Charlie waking up beside Gavin's mutilated body. Their family had been through enough bullshit now and Caden wasn't going to let anything else happen to them. He caught Shan glancing at him after setting his phone on the table so he cocked a brow and lifted his coffee to his lips. "Why'd you keep looking at me like that?"
Shan looked up with one of her own brows raised. “What, I can’t ogle my handsome husband first thing in the morning?” she posed lightly, putting her own phone down. She pursed her lips a bit, glancing at his mug to see just how much coffee he’d had so far. “There’s stuff I really need to talk to you about. But I want to make sure you’re awake enough not to be crabby.” She might as well be honest, she supposed. Shan liked to approach things in a direct sort of way, and while she was still figuring out the best way to communicate with Caden, she didn’t want to wait on asking him about everything Kat had told her.
Stuff to talk about. Fuck. Caden tried not to groan as he set his coffee back down on the table. It wasn't something stupid, like she was pregnant, because he'd had a vasectomy years ago. And he highly doubted she was going to bring up something like wanting kids, because she'd made it clear she didn't. That topic always had his shackles up, but Shan wasn't Roxy so Caden studied her, trying to gauge just how serious this conversation was going to end up being. "Okay," he said slowly, giving her a somewhat impatient look. "I'm always fucking crabby, Shan. Just... what do you need to talk about?"
He had a point there, she supposed. It really was a shame, because he could be a lot of fun when he let himself relax. That was a whole different topic though. “Okay, so ... first, is your sister crazy?” Shan asked. Her tone was a little incredulous, like she didn’t want to believe that was true, but hadn’t ruled it out as a possibility yet. “Like the delusional kind, because I took a walk with her yesterday and she told me a lot of stuff that’s just ... kinda off the wall. But I do keep hearing off the wall shit here, so I’m kind of thinking maybe it’s true?” If that was the case, there was a lot he didn’t tell her.
Caden's brow rose higher and he stared at Shan, his mind working over what could have happened to have his wife ask him that question. What had Kat done or said? He took another drink of his coffee before relaxing back into the chair. "First, Kat's a Lucas, so she probably is crazy. Delusional? I don't know. It's possible. What did she tell you that was so off the wall?" Already he wanted to strangle his sister. When had she even come by? Had Shan sought her out? Sure, Caden wanted Shan to get along with his family, but now he was wondering if that was actually a good thing.
Shan liked Kat already, but she’d liked all sorts of people in her life who had mental problems, it was kind of a thing with her. Kat seemed to be very functional though, enough to hold down a job and run her own business and everything, so if she was just living in some weird fantasy world, she was doing a good job of hiding it. Shan wasn’t sure how to take Caden’s reaction yet, but she really hoped he wasn’t going to start lying to her. “Well for one, that your niece went missing at some point,” she started with. “That her and Gavin both had a dream about this man in a hat and they woke up injured. That Mila went missing too -- and it had something to do with that old train tunnel out in the woods? Oh -- and she tried to kill Aaron first? And there was something about Jasper, but she didn’t say what, but like ... what the fuck, man? Is all that true?”
Christ, Kat really just went all in with their most recent family drama, didn’t she? It kind of pissed him off that she had told his wife all of it, especially when she hadn’t even been in town for most of it. Sighing, Caden drank more of his coffee, his eyes still locked on Shan’s face. He could lie, say Kat was certifiably insane. But Shan would learn the truth eventually, and it was better she knew. The more Shan knew about what she’d married into, the safer she might be. Maybe. The town was pretty cursed and it felt like his family was as well. Besides, Caden had a feeling Shan could read bullshit pretty well and he didn’t feel like fighting. “Yeah, that’s all true,” he said finally. “She shouldn’t have told you that shit without talking to me first. How’d it even come up?”
He looked like he meant it. She’d never known Caden to joke around and pull her leg -- though admittedly she didn’t know him terribly well yet. He just wasn’t that kind of person. Terminally serious. Shan sat back and tried to let that sink in, her brow furrowed. She’d had a vague belief that sometimes supernatural things happened, but she’d only ever thought of ghosts and shit, not tunnels that possessed people and nightmares that could really hurt you. Once again Shan got that weird feeling she was in the setup to some show. “She, uh ...” she started quietly, then scraped her teeth over her bottom lip. “She was here, just walking down the street and I saw her so I said hi ... she was heading into the woods, to that tunnel. I was bored, so I went with her. She told me after she dreamed about it, this nightmare she had and she woke up like really hurt. She said Gavin had it too. And I ... I didn’t know exactly how to take it, and she started telling me a bunch of other stuff.”
Caden was already annoyed that Kat had vomited their family trauma all over Shan, but when she mentioned the tunnel, that annoyance turned to anxiety ridden anger as he straightened in his chair, his eyes blazing. "Wait a fucking second... she took you to that tunnel? What the fuck for?" Images of Aaron bleeding out on his floor surfaced in his memory and Caden's heart began to beat harder. What the fuck had Kat been thinking?
That abrupt reaction made Kat believe it all even more than Caden’s verbal confirmation that it was true. He was pissed, and there was no reason to be that way unless all the creepy shit actually happened, right? “She didn’t take me, like she made me go, I offered to walk with her,” Shan said, her voice automatically a bit defensive. “And I guess ‘cause she dreamed about it, with the hat man? I don’t fucking know, Caden, once we were there for a minute, she started saying it was a bad idea, so we didn’t stay long. Are you serious though? The place is like, haunted or something?”
It didn't matter to Caden whether Kat asked Shan to go, or Shan just volunteered. What was his sister thinking? "She's a fucking moron," he said angrily. "Don't just fuckin' go off into the woods with anyone, especially not to that goddamn tunnel." Pushing his chair back, Caden stood, stalking over to the counter to grab his cigarettes. He didn't usually smoke inside, but at the moment, he didn't really care. He needed nicotine, and something to do with his hands. "Don't ever fuckin' go out there again," Caden said. "And if Kat asks you to go with her, tell her to fuck off. I don't know if it's haunted, but it's..." It was what? He couldn't quite find the right word for it. "It's evil, Shan. That's all I know."
Shan stared at him as he got up and went for his smokes, her lips parted slightly. The anger didn’t even faze her at the moment, because Shan knew somehow that it was a cover for fear. Whatever had truly happened at that place, whatever effect it had on his family, Caden was scared shitless of it. It made a chill run down Shan’s spine and she lifted her hands in a placating sort of gesture. “Okay, okay, I won’t,” she assured him. “It was creepy as fuck out there and I’m not a woodsy kinda girl, you know? I have no desire to go back, I promise.” From the way Kat started to sound right before they left, she didn’t really want to be out there either. It had seemed hard for her to explain why she’d wanted to in the first place, and that was pretty creepy on its own.
He didn't care if Shan was a woodsy girl or not. That place had the ability to pull people in... a lot of places in this town did. "Good." Caden knew he sounded gruff, but he was irritated as hell with his sister. What had she been thinking? He nearly called Kat to give her a piece of his mind, but Caden knew he might say some things he would regret later. Maybe. "Did she say why she was going out there?" he asked, calmly this time, now that he'd had a few drags from his cigarette. "Why was she over here in the first place?"
“She wasn’t ‘over here,’ she was just passing by and I saw her and said hello,” Shan said, a touch of impatience in her voice. She’d already told him this. “The only thing she could tell me was she dreamed about the place, the one where she woke up hurt, and she wanted to see it in person.” She gave a helpless shrug, unable to offer him anything more than that. He could ask Kat himself if he really wanted to know. “What I’m more concerned with is the whole ‘how the hell is any of this possible’ side of it, you know? Like I don’t get half of what she said, but it sounded like truly weird -- there was a fog, she said? With like ... monsters in it? You really saw this stuff, Caden?” Shan sounded more baffled than accusatory, still trying to wrap her mind around it all.
Caden rolled his eyes. He had meant what was Kat doing in Seaview more than their place. His sister never just popped by for a chat and with Aaron and Mila having moved out of the neighborhood, he couldn't understand why Kat had come around at all. But if she was heading for the fucking tunnel... he just couldn't understand her mentality. "Yeah, well, she's an idiot if she decided to go out there because of some fucking dream," he muttered. There was so much that he'd have to explain to Shan now and he didn't want to. It might have been normal to everyone in town, but to someone coming in from the outside, it had to sound pretty goddamn crazy. "I see shit all the time," he said after a moment, taking another drag from his cigarette. "This town is different, Shan. The shit Kat told you is true. She shouldn't have opened her mouth, but she did and..." He shrugged and held out his arms. "This is what you get for it. Shit happens here that probably doesn't happen anywhere else."
He seemed annoyed that she was asking, but Shan had learned that Caden kind of had an air of annoyance around him most of the time. He was just an irritable man. She didn’t really care if he was annoyed at her though -- this was important, world-shaking stuff. Shan stared at him silently for a moment herself, her expression pinched. Was he crazy too? Maybe delusions were a genetic thing in their family? Caden hadn’t shown any other signs of that kind of mental illness that she’d caught, but what did she know? Shan didn’t think he was lying or fucking with her, he definitely wasn’t a prankster, and he looked serious as a heart attack. Shan slowly sat back in her chair and let her gaze drift to the top of the table for a moment as she chewed on that. “So ... this is some kind of Twilight Zone town, where people like, get possessed and disappear into tunnels, and there are monsters in the fog, and like ... what else? Ghosts? Vampires, witches -- is this Halloweentown or something? What else have you seen?”
He wanted her to stop asking questions. He wanted to rewind time and make sure Kat kept her big mouth shut. How was he supposed to answer Shan without sounding like he ought to be in the nut house? Scowling, Caden shot her a look. "I don't know what the hell Halloweentown is. But yeah, this town is the epitome of the Twilight Zone. It sounds insane and I wouldn't blame you for wanting to get the fuck out while you still can." Hell, he would've left Point Pleasant years ago if he thought he could stay away. But his family was here and he wasn't leaving them. "Mila was possessed by something evil... tried to kill Aaron. Jasper and Amelia both went missing for a while. We got lucky because they came back... most of 'em don't. My dad... but there was something controlling him too and he’s dead because of it. Bad things have happened at that tunnel. People go in there and come out wrong, or don't come out at all. Just... stay away from the woods."
The fact that Caden had never seen Nightmare Before Christmas was a travesty, but not one that Shan could focus on at the moment. It did all sound insane and pretty unbelievable, and Shan got a sudden weird feeling like maybe this whole family was fucking with her and she was in a completely different kind of danger. It passed quickly though, and the idea that all of this was true started to really sink in. Shan sat and stared at Caden hard for a couple of quiet minutes, her brow furrowed with thought. “And this isn’t just some mindgame to get rid of me, is it,” she murmured finally, the words more statement than question as they came out. Caden had said his family was the most important part of his life, it didn’t seem like he would make up a bunch of trauma about them to fuck with Shan, when he could just tell her he was done with this and to go away. That was more in character.
As tense as he felt, Caden couldn't help but huff in amusement at Shan's question. He turned toward her, folding his arms across his chest, careful not to burn himself with his cigarette. "Shan, if I wanted to get rid of you, I'd toss you out on the lawn right now. My family is a fucked up mess, but we're not that creative." Her disbelief was understandable. If Caden hadn't grown up in this place, he wouldn't have believed any of it either. But once she realized it was true, she might want to leave on her own and that was something he'd have to deal with. "Everything I'm telling you is true. Whatever Kat said... true. This place isn't like Atlantic City in more than one way. I guess it's something you ought to know if you're going to stay."
Yeah, that sounded more like the Caden she was coming to know -- all her shit strewn on the front lawn and changed locks. Shan knew herself well enough to know she wouldn’t go quietly with that sort of treatment, but it was at least more straightforward than being gaslit into believing the supernatural world was real and more dangerous here than anywhere else she’d ever heard of, like Point Pleasant was the Bermuda Triangle of spooky fuckery. “Yeah I guess so, huh,” she muttered with a huffed laugh of her own. She couldn’t put much humor in it. Shan restlessly ran her nails through the top of her braided hair and stood up to take her coffee mug back to the counter to get a refill. This was definitely a two cup sort of morning, shit. It felt like too much to process all at once, it was going to take her some time to really get her head around it.
Caden watched her, trying to gauge her reaction to all of this. She seemed oddly calm, if a bit thrown, which was to be expected. He'd probably be suspicious if she took it all as truth with no questions asked. "You're safer knowing," he said finally. "And I didn't mean for Kat to tell you all that stuff. I was going to tell you." Eventually. Probably. Sighing, Caden ran a hand over his face. "You'll get used to it though. The crazy parts. But if you want to go back to AC, I wouldn't blame you."
Was he going to tell her? Shan wasn’t sure of that. Maybe he hadn’t planned on it and he was just going to let her get eaten by a monster or something. It would be cheaper than divorce. Her hands shook as she picked up the sugar bowl, and it suddenly made her so angry. Fear was weakness and she did everything in her power not to ever be weak. She slammed the bowl down harder than she needed to. “Stop saying that like you want me to do it,” Shan snapped before she could think better of it, her voice strained. She didn’t want to leave, run away from something all these other people were surviving. If it was even true. If she was even awake and this wasn’t some long, very weird dream. “What do I need to do different? Not go in the woods -- then what? Should I carry --” Shan waved a hand by her head as she groped for words, “A crucifix? Bear mace? What? You all have to deal with it somehow.”
Caden rolled his eyes. "Shan, if I wanted you to go, you already know I'd tell you that. Christ, I'm just giving you an out if you want it." He was trying to be a decent person about it. It wasn't like he had a lot of practice with that, but with Shan, yeah he was trying. "You just... stay out of the woods without me. All of 'em. If you feel the urge to go out there, tell me first. If you're out and see something that seems off, go the other way, especially at night." He thought of the Dark Man and what was currently happening to Gavin and Kat. "Doesn't hurt to keep a gun on you. I've got a couple if you need one. After a while you'll just... know how to deal with this stuff."
It was hard for her to not hear ‘I want you to go’ in between the lines of Caden offering her an out more than once. Shan had been kicked out of places and abandoned quite a bit in her life, both physically and otherwise, and when her emotions were up like this, all of those insecurities got louder. Maybe he didn’t want her to go bad enough yet to give her the boot, but he’d probably be fine if she did. He wouldn’t care. Why would he? It wasn’t like they meant anything to each other. Shan vaguely recognized her brain latching onto something that actually made sense instead of all of the rest of it, and she squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths, her hands braced on the edge of the counter. “Okay,” she murmured, more to herself than Caden. “Yes. A gun.”
He could tell she was trying not to completely freak out and he felt ill equipped to help her with it. Still, he put his cigarette out in the ashtray on the counter and walked over to her, taking her arm in one hand to turn her toward him. "It's a lot," he murmured. "I know that." There was a part of him that wanted her to leave, to go back to Atlantic City and do whatever the hell she wanted with her life. Not because he didn't want her in Point Pleasant, but because he knew there was a chance she could get hurt, or go missing, or worse. And it would be his fault for bringing her here. But Caden couldn't bring himself to push her out because... well, he didn't want her to leave. "There're other ways to keep yourself safe. Just... let me take care of it, okay? I won't let any bad shit happen to you."
Shan let him turn her, both hands coming up to cover her face before she leaned her head in against Caden’s chest. She could feel his heartbeat against the backs of her fingers and she tried to focus on that the most. Shan was sure Caden hadn’t wanted all of that bad shit to happen to his family, so his power to prevent it wasn’t set in stone, but the reassurance was still nice to hear in the moment. Nice and even more emotional, because not many other men in her life had given a flying fuck about protecting her. Usually they just wanted to hurt her more, to be the bad shit. Shan took a deep breath and held it, a shudder passing through her as she pushed down the big lump in her throat. Crying wouldn’t help anything. At least her eyes were dry when she looked up at Caden’s face, hands turning to grip the front of his shirt. “I’m just ... I dunno how any of this is possible, but ... I’ll try to be careful,” she murmured. “I don’t want to leave.”
Caden supposed one had to grow up surrounded by the impossible to believe it. Usually he didn't give a shit about the people in this town, whether they were coping or not. He cared about his family and that was it. But Shan was part of that family now and she was his wife, even if it wasn't exactly a conventional relationship. There was still a lot of shit they didn't know about each other. But he didn't want to throw her into the fire and watch her burn in this fucking place. "There are people who've been here their whole lives who've never been touched by any of it," he said, hesitating before he put his arms around her. Caden had never been good at comforting anyone, usually annoyed and needing space. But this was big time shit and Shan was handling it better than most would. "You've got me and believe it or not, my entire fucking family looking out for you."
She was still reeling inside, her brain buzzing with hundreds of questions Caden likely couldn’t answer. It wouldn’t get her anywhere to bombard him with all of her thoughts. She wondered briefly if Shane knew about any of this, since he was from here, if he had any idea how to protect himself and Reza. Shan resolved to tell him, even if he thought she was crazy. She related strongly to Kat all of the sudden, trying to warn her about this stuff, aware of how nuts it all sounded but forging ahead anyway. Looking out for her, like Caden had said. “I do believe it,” she said quietly after another pause, her eyes studying Caden’s. She believed that wasn’t any small thing either, the Lucases seemed like a strong and close-knit clan of fighters. A family she belonged in, maybe. Hopefully. Shan let go of his shirt to slide her arms around his shoulders, rising up on her toes to kiss him softly. “Thanks for not like ... lying about it. I feel like I must be fucking tripping or something, but I believe you.”
Caden ran his hands down Shan's arms. "Well, Kat didn't leave me a lot of room to lie." He said it as a joke, though there was some truth to it. He probably wouldn't have told Shan much of anything unless he absolutely needed to. But now Shan knew what she knew and it was up to her whether or not she wanted to deal with it. She just had to trust Caden now, which he understood might be difficult. "It is a trip though, living here. You'll get used to it. You got any more questions?" Caden hoped she didn't, but he'd rather she ask them now than bombard him with more later. He cocked a brow, his hands finding themselves rubbing up and down her back. "What would you've done if you didn't believe me."
“Only about a billion, but ...” Shan trailed off and shrugged, making a vague gesture at the side of her head. It was all too much to even put into words at the moment. She would be full of questions later, no doubt, for anyone who knew what they were talking about around here. If that wasn’t Caden, maybe it would be Kat. Or Shane. Or any other locals Shan made friends with. “I dunno, get majorly pissed at you for trying to gaslight me?” she offered with a small smile. The rubbing felt nice, having his big hands on her was soothing, and Shan curled her fingers against the back of Caden’s neck. “Or like, resign myself to marrying into a family of lunatics? Wouldn’t be too much of a reach for me, honestly.”
Caden snickered. "You've already married into a family of lunatics. Too late for that one." Because he wanted to get her mind off of the crazy shit, Caden cocked a brow. "Want to go look at some commercial real estate?" If she was going to do this dance thing, she was going to do it. The sooner the better, so she had something to do and keep herself occupied. He still hadn't talked to Gavin about using some of their cash to get Shan up and running, but it wasn't like he was going to take no for an answer. So it was a done deal in his mind.
Shan had been about to ramble about how there was good crazy and bad crazy, and so far Caden’s family seemed like the good kind to her -- not that her judgment of character was historically the best -- but he derailed that train of thought pretty easily. “Really?” she asked like a reflex, everything about her perking up almost immediately. Shan had expected to have to do all of the legwork herself, finding and leasing a place, getting all of the details nailed down, with Caden only grumpily paying the bills. But if he wanted to look with her, even just drive her around, that was awesome. “Yeah of course, ohmygod! I even have some ideas on where!” It wasn’t enough to make her forget anything they’d just talked about, but it was definitely the best distraction. She bounced up to smooch him again, then hurried away to head for the bedroom to put on clothes.
Caden wasn't really sure what they would find, but he knew there were plenty of vacant places to rent in town. He couldn't begin to guess what Shan was looking for, what a dance studio would need. But he was willing to drive her around to look.
"You have a place in mind?" he asked, once they were in his truck and pulling out of Seaview. "Have you been looking?" It was possible she was willing to just spot a place and check it out but it seemed like she had put some thought into what she wanted to do, so maybe she'd been checking out the town while he'd been working.
Not having much to occupy herself with while Caden was at work had resulted in lots of wandering by Shan. Knowing what she knew now, she might not do as much of that going forward, but she had explored quite a bit, and gotten some ideas. “Yeah, I’ve looked around some,” she said from the passenger seat, smiling a bit. There was still a surreal sort of fog hanging around in her brain -- their talk was a lot to process, it was going to take some time. She was happy to have something else to think about for a little while. “I’ve got a couple possibilities in mind. One of them is really close to Main, too, so that would be great for foot traffic. You know where the hair salon is?”
Caden had no idea what kind of foot traffic she might get, but if he was fronting her the money for this, he had to hope she got people in there and made some money. "Yeah, kind of," he said. "You sure that'll be big enough?" Again, he knew very little about this and what she needed. When he and his brothers bought the bar, it had already been established. They'd just renovated a little and changed the name. As far as Caden knew, there hadn't been a dance studio in town ever, so Shan would be starting from scratch.
Foot traffic was definitely more important for shops and such, but any business did better when it was visible, right? That was Shan’s theory, anyway. “Maybe! I haven’t seen inside yet,” Shan admitted, shrugging a little. “There was a number on the sign on the door but I didn’t call it yet.” Maybe today they could call whoever was leasing the building and have them come unlock it so they could take a look around. “I looked in all the windows though and it’s got hardwood floors, which is a good start. No matter where I go, I’m gonna have to install poles and put up the wall mirrors, so there’ll be some cost up front.”
Poles. Mirrors. It was all going to be expensive, he was sure, but he'd make it work. Given how small the town was, he was willing to bet they'd have to deal with Brianna McCarthy in order to rent any space. He'd let Shan do most of the talking then, since he generally couldn't stand anyone who lived in Overlook. "That's all you," he said, driving toward Main. "You've seen the Porch... that kind of shit is not in my wheelhouse at all." He knew the Porch was a bit rough, but that's how he and his brothers liked it.
Shan laughed a little. “God, I wish you guys would let me refresh that place,” she said with a sigh, but her tone was affectionate. It was kind of cute, in a grumpy old man way, how attached they all were to how things had always been. Shan found it much less irritating now that she had her own business to work on. Her studio was going to be as gorgeous as she could make it. “Don’t worry though, I can handle it.” Initially it would mostly be making phone calls and setting up professional installations, but Shan was looking forward to the decorating that would come after that. She’d already been daydreaming about paint colors and long sheer drapings and all kinds of stuff. Grinning, she bounced a little in her seat. “Ahhh, I’m so excited. And oh, it occurred to me that we could do yoga lessons too? I can’t teach it, but maybe if I can find someone around here who does and needs a studio, you know?”
"Nothing about the Porch needs refreshing," Caden grumbled. They had this discussion before and he was pretty sure Shan knew his opinion on it would never change. And even if it did, Gavin's wouldn't. He glanced at her, mostly amused by her excitement. It was better than the way she'd looked that morning, anyway. "I don't know anything about yoga or who teaches it. You could probably check the gym and see if they've got someone there." He didn't mind bankrolling Shan's thing, but he wasn't going to do much else than that.
“Yes the gym!” Shan exclaimed with a snap of her fingers. That was a good idea. Not that she wanted to steal business from the gym, but a dance studio would be a much better environment for such a thing, in her opinion. Fewer grunting muscleheads banging free weights around, and more chill music and peace for stretching. If they already had an independent instructor, maybe she could lure them away, or at least offer more availability for classes. That was all getting ahead of herself though, they hadn’t even secured a place yet. There were so many things to think about, it was exciting. “Ohmygod I could get certified to teach Zumba too or something, I’ll have like, all the women in Point Pleasant in my place.” She grinned over at him. “Except your exes, of course. I’m gonna need a list,” she teased.
Caden wouldn't care much if Shan got staff from other businesses in town. It was what it was. Not that he thought she'd be able to pay anyone much of anything, at least not for a while. Her mention of his exes prompted him to snort softly as he shot her a look. "It's not that long a list. I don't have a lot of those." He had been with Roxy for the last five years and before that, Caden hadn't dated much. He was with women, sure, but he wouldn't consider any of them to be important enough to call them an ex-girlfriend. "And I doubt you gotta worry about Roxy steppin' foot in any kind of business you might open around here."
Shan took that as an interesting tidbit -- not many exes in Caden’s past. She had no doubt that he’d been getting laid, and she had to wonder if any of those women were crazy enough to make themselves known. It wouldn’t surprise her if Caden had dickmatized a few ladies in Point Pleasant. They’d had five years of him not being single though, so maybe Roxy had fended all of that off a long time ago. Shan was curious about Caden’s ex-fiancee, and kind of looking forward to seeing her up close and personal at the wedding. “I don’t worry about her at all, so even if she did, she could sign up or get out just like anybody else,” Shan said, examining her nails. “That reminds me though, I gotta get a dress for the wedding. ... They’re not gonna like, make you two walk down the aisle together or anything, right? Since you’re both in the wedding party?”
Caden didn't think much about the women he'd been with before Roxy. Nor did he think about any of the women who flirted with him at the bar when he'd been with Roxy. Caden was a lot of things, but he'd never been a cheater. He glanced at Shan briefly as they neared Main Street, almost forgetting about Aaron's wedding and the fact that Roxy would be there. He'd been thinking more about the bachelor party. Grimacing at her question, Caden nodded. "It's not going to be one of those kind of weddings and I'm not in the wedding party. Aaron's havin' Gavin as his best man and Roxy is Mila's maid of honor. The rest of us are just guests." Thank Christ for that. "They're getting married at the beach, so... don't buy anything too fancy unless you want it covered in sand."
So it would be a small affair then. Shan could appreciate that. The people who insisted on having like ten people on each side stand up for them seemed so old fashioned and weird to her, even though she’d been a bridesmaid a few times. There had always been tons of drama behind the scenes, but that probably said more about the kind of girlfriends she’d had through the years. Still, the fewer people, the easier it was to coordinate, so good for them. Maybe it also meant Roxy would have to wear an ugly dress she hated, and that idea made Shan smile. “Reasonable shoes then, got it,” she said. Shan glanced over at Caden’s profile, her tone turning vaguely amused. “Are you relieved? No tux, no standing up there in front of everybody?”
Caden couldn't remember the last time he'd been to a wedding. Some relative when he was young? He didn't think he could call Gavin's wedding to Ollie a "wedding" as much as it was a death sentence. He was just glad it wasn't his. Oh shit, he had been to his own wedding. Not that he remembered anything about it. "I think I still have to wear a tux of some kind, but yeah, I'd rather not stand up there." He would have done it if Aaron wanted that, but Caden much preferred being a witness than an active participant. "I'm looking forward to Gavin's speech though. That'll be something he hates doing, so that's always fun."
“Oh god,” Shan said with a laugh. That was right, best men gave speeches, didn’t they? She didn’t know Gavin very well yet, of course, but every impression she got from observing him or hearing about him said he was a taciturn grumpy guy. Even at his birthday party, he hadn’t seemed to want any actual attention on him. Shan couldn’t relate, but watching him give a speech did sound amusing. “Oh shit, this’ll be the first wedding where no one’s like, dragging me into trying to catch the stupid bouquet,” she added as it occurred to her. “I’m an old married woman now, so fuck that noise. Just gonna eat and drink and dance.” If there would even be music ... though a wedding reception without music would just be depressing. She tilted another little smile at Caden. “You gonna dance with me?”
Caden had no idea if Mila was doing the bouquet thing or not but Shan did have a point. It was still a bit jarring every now and then when he thought about the fact that he was married even if it wasn't a conventional marriage. It wasn't even one either of them fully remembered. Cocking a brow, Caden glanced at Shan as he found a place to park. "I don't dance." That much was true. Maybe if he drank enough he might but Caden wasn't really someone who enjoyed it. He'd rather sit and watch than take part. "But at least you'll get a good idea of who might need your lessons when you see what people are doin' at Mila and Aaron's wedding."
Shan had never even been engaged, so it was a head trip for her too. Hell, she’d rejected several engagements -- though most of them had come from skeevy men who thought they knew her because they frequented her club. A couple had been sincere, but Shan hadn’t wanted to marry anyone at all, so she’d never said yes. It probably would have turned out intolerable with those men, but with Caden ... maybe they were just the right kind of fucked up for each other, but Shan was still enjoying herself. “Aww come on,” she said as she undid her seatbelt, grinning over at Caden. “You’re not even going to like, sway with me on the slow songs like we’re in middle school?” Even if she couldn’t get him to admit it right this second, she was willing to bet she could be convincing in the moment. Shan opened the door to climb out.
"I didn't sway with anyone in middle school either," Caden said, following Shan out of the truck. He had never gone to any dances in school. There had been zero desire to do so. Caden had not been a social creature, choosing to hang out with a few friends more than anything else. He supposed he was still the same way, even now. And he was happy with that. Locking the doors, Caden shoved his keys into his pocket to follow her to wherever she was going to go. "I'm sure you'll find someone to sway with you if you want."
Shan scoffed and hooked her arm through Caden’s as they hit the sidewalk for the short walk to the salon and the empty space next to it. “Oh please, like that wouldn’t make you jealous as fuck,” she said, her tone chipper. “But you know, if you leave me high and dry ... Mila has a brother, right? Is he cute?” Even if she was just trying to get under his skin, Shan wouldn’t stoop so low as to flirt with his brothers. Both of them had women attached, of course, but that mattered to her less than Caden’s bond with his family. She was jealous of it sometimes, that sibling love. “Ooh, or Jasper’s friend? He’s legal, right? He couldn’t stop staring at my tits, I bet he would sway.”
Caden rolled his eyes. Maybe it would make him jealous if she was dancing with someone he'd feel threatened by. Adrian Moretti was not one of those guys. "Logan is not someone who's gonna make me jealous. Let him stare at your tits for a while... give him a thrill. You could have a nice conversation with Mila's brother though. Dude was suspected dead for like five years before he popped up again." He knew Shan was just pushing his buttons, which was fine. She could sway with whoever she wanted to, but it'd be Caden who would be fucking her at the end of the night.
Logan, right, that was his name. Caden distracted her completely away from button pushing with that news and she gave him a flabbergasted look. “Wait, what? He was suspect-- like, he was missing for five years? Where the hell was he?” she asked. People went missing everywhere, of course, and some of them even turned up again, but on top of everything else she’d just learned about this place and this family, it was just another weird layer. And Mila and her brother weren’t even blood related to the Lucases! Though he had made it clear that the weird shit was a town thing and not just a thing with their family. Shan nudged Caden to turn down the street to their left as they came to the corner, the empty store space wasn’t far now.
Caden shrugged, as if someone disappearing for years and reappearing out of nowhere was just normal everyday life. In Point Pleasant, it was. He'd had both his niece and nephew disappear, not to mention Mila. They'd all come back, though probably not the same they were when they left. "People thought he'd been murdered. Years ago some guys went out to camp in Blackwater. Most of 'em disappeared and one guy, Cruz Acosta, was found with his dead brother on the road outside the woods. He got arrested for murder, even though Adrian's body was never found... some of the others were. So yeah, it was kind of a surprise when Adrian showed up again. Don't ask me where he was because hell if I know." Aaron had never said anything and Caden didn't care enough to ask.
The casual way Caden talked about it was kind of baffling to Shan, but then she remembered that Kat mentioned other people in the family going missing, so maybe this was normal for them. But holy shit, disappearances and murders and surprise returns ... it sounded like living in a soap opera to her. One with creepy supernatural shit in it, like a show on one of those cheap cable networks. “For fuck’s sake,” she murmured, more awed than anything. This was going to be a very interesting wedding, if she was able to corner literally anyone and ask them questions. Caden barely seemed interested though, so Shan let it go for the moment. They were walking past the salon that Kat had mentioned -- which seemed fairly empty when they passed the big window -- and then they were at the empty part of the building. There were signs in the window and on the door with the leasing office number, and Shan let go of Caden to bounce over and peer in through the glass. “Ohmygod! Ugh it looks bigger inside than I was picturing, wow.”
The Moretti family drama had little to do with him beyond the fact that Aaron was marrying Mila. All he could do was hope the two of them were safe now, from whatever was out there in that tunnel. He kept his hands in his pockets but followed Shan to the window. The only real estate he'd ever been interested in was the Porch, so he didn't pay much attention to everything else in town. Some shops came and went frequently. "Too big?" Caden asked, unsure as to how large a "studio" Shan really needed. He knew the bigger it was, the more expensive it was.
“No, no, big is good,” Shan insisted, then flashed him a wicked grin. “You know how I like it.” She moved from the window to pull at the door handle, but it was of course locked. Shan was tempted to go around the back to see if there was a window they could get into or something, but she knew that wasn’t the proper way to go about things. “Do you think they’d be open today?” she asked, eyeing the leasing office’s number on the sign. It was Sunday, so they might just get a voicemail, but if Shan could get in to look at the space today, she wanted to. She pulled her phone out to see if she could look the place up to see their hours before she called.
Caden chuckled at the innuendo and stepped forward to peer inside the building. He could just picture Gavin's face right now when Caden told him what he was going to use some of their money for. Oh well, it was happening. "I don't know, maybe. If not, I'm sure you could wait until tomorrow." But she was already pulling out her phone so Caden supposed she was going to try today anyway. He pulled out his cigarettes to take one out, watching her. At least this gave her something to do that wasn't bombarding him with questions about his family and this town. It seemed like she was mostly distracted by what was going on now, so Caden sighed and leaned against the building to light his cigarette.
When Shan couldn’t find the office hours anywhere online -- stupid small town -- she called the number, walking back and forth on a short path in front of the building while it rang. Predictably, no one picked up, so Shan left a message. She knew she probably wouldn’t hear from them until the next day, and she sighed as she hung up. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth to nibble on while she eyed Caden standing there. Shan was silent for a few beats, then turned on her heel to hurry around the corner of the building. “I’m going to check the back!” she declared over her shoulder. Maybe they had left something open, like a window. She could wait until the next day, but she really wanted to see inside. How would she even know if she was really interested until she looked at it?
Caden waited as patiently as he could as Shan made her phone calls, but he was ready to get going. Hanging out in front of an empty building wasn't exactly how he wanted to spend his Sunday. But before he could tell Shan it was time to go, she was bounding away from him to the back of the building. "No one's here," he said, exasperated. He followed anyway, tossing his cigarette butt to the ground. "What exactly are you planning on doing?" Knowing Shan, she was probably going to try and break in, which he had to admit would be a bit amusing to watch.
“Nothing bad,” Shan assured him as she rounded the back corner. She wasn’t going to break anything, right? She was just checking. In the alley behind the buildings, Shan located the back door to her maybe-future-studio and tried the knob. It was locked, of course, and wouldn’t budge when she rattled and tugged at it. There was a frosted window built into it that would probably just need a quick slam of a rock or a brick to break, but that was a little extreme. Part of her wanted to show off a bit though, with Caden’s eyes on her, to show him that she was tough and capable. She backed up a couple of steps and looked upward at the second floor. There was a fire escape, and she shot Caden a look. “Give me a boost? Maybe the upstairs window is unlocked.”
Nothing bad definitely meant something bad. He let Shan rattle around with the door knob, one brow raising when she asked for a boost. "Really? You're going to start this venture with a B&E?" It was something Caden would have done himself, but probably not in broad daylight, even if they were technically out of eyesight from the main road. "You know if you get caught the chances of you leasing this place is going to be lowered dramatically." Even so, he moved to hoist her up a bit, if that's what she wanted to do. She'd be the one going to jail if the cops were called, not him.
“What, are you scared of cops now or something?” Shan asked, though she was grinning a bit as she did so. Caden was acquiescing to what she wanted, so she wasn’t going to really give him shit. “And if I do, I’ll just find another place.” It probably wouldn’t be that simple, but Shan wasn’t going to show any self doubt or anxiety about it. If everything went tits up here, she could always just bail. She used the boost Caden gave her to grab onto the fire escape and pulled herself up. It was a little difficult, and reminded Shan that she needed to get back on a pole as soon as possible before she lost her upper body strength. But she made it and climbed the short flight of metal stairs to go check the window.
Next door, Gabriel had finished up with a client and done some sweeping. It was a slow day -- most of them were, unfortunately -- and he was to the point of trying to keep himself busy for the next couple of hours before his next appointment. The salon was pretty clean already, but the trash seemed full enough that it could go out, so Gabriel gathered up the bag and headed for the back door. He stepped out into the alleyway to toss it into the dumpster, and was a little startled to see a guy he didn’t recognize standing not too far away, behind the empty space next door. “Oh, uh ... hey man,” Gabriel greeted casually enough.
Caden stayed beneath Shan long enough to make sure she wasn't going to fall, then stepped back several feet, already working on lighting another cigarette. He doubted she would find any point of entry unlocked, but if she wanted to try, then he'd let her try. Caden was slipping his lighter back into his back pocket when the other guy appeared from the building next door and Caden resisted looking upward, not wanting to bring attention to Shan. "How's it goin'," he said in response, his amusement growing. Caden wasn't about to start offering any explanation or ramblings about why he was there. Free country and all that shit.
“Goin’ all right.” The guy looked a little odd to Gabriel, just standing there smoking ... Gabriel had been to The Porch often enough that his face looked sort of familiar, but a lot of faces in this town were getting to that point. He couldn’t place him though. Not that Gabriel was staring or he planned to start questioning him, not some buzz-headed white man in a small rural town. He knew better than that. He deposited his trash into the big metal bin, only stealing a few glances at Caden. Gabriel didn’t even think to look up as he took a few steps back toward his salon’s back door. But he did look over as the back door to the empty building flew open and a girl poked her head and shoulders out.
“Got it!” Shan proclaimed proudly, her focus on Caden. She noticed Gabriel a second later and gave him a dazzling smile. “Hey there,” she greeted, not offering any explanation for her presence either. Shan looked at Caden again and side-nodded for him to follow her as she backed up into the building once more. He was working on a cigarette but he could abandon it -- she wanted to look around.
They were almost in the clear until Shan made her grand entrance - or exit. Caden sighed, but tossed his cigarette, aware that they probably didn't have a lot of time now if this other guy was going to cause problems or call the cops. With a two fingered salute to the stranger, Caden walked into the empty building to join Shan. "We better hurry this up," he murmured to her. "Guy next door might decide to be a Good Samaritan and call the cops on us." Not that he really gave a shit about the cops, but if he was going to hit Gavin up for thousands of dollars for Shan, he’d rather not have to call his brother for bail money before then.
Shan was unconcerned. They would be long gone before the cops arrived, and it wouldn’t even look like anyone had broken in -- the upper window she’d found had been unlocked. This was such a small town in certain ways. Even if the cops did arrive, she felt like she could talk and flirt her way out of trouble pretty easily; not like it would be the first time. If Caden just kept his mouth shut, they would be okay. “I’ll be quick, promise,” Shan said as they shut the back door. Then she was darting away into the back rooms, looking around while ideas were already blossoming in her head. There was an area with a bathroom attached that she could turn into a small locker room, there seemed to be a lot of storage space, and once she walked into the main room of the building she could feel excitement bubbling in her stomach. “Ohmygod, these wood floors, Caden! They’re gorgeous already,” she called to him as she walked along and planned which wall the big mirror should go on.
Caden knew all about keeping his mouth shut. He sure as shit didn't speak to the cops, avoiding even the most casual conversation with them when they visited the Porch off duty. The guy in the alleyway didn't say anything as he followed Shan into the space, so he was pretty confident they wouldn't have the PPPD pulling up in front of the building anytime soon. With his hands in his pockets again, he watched Shan bounce excitedly around the area. Personally, he had no opinion, no knowledge of what she may be looking for. All he saw was an empty space and monthly rent. "Yeah, it's fine," he said with a shrug.
Shan didn’t let Caden’s lack of enthusiasm deter her. The place wasn’t perfect, but she already had a good feeling about it, and she could make it perfect. Somewhere in the back of Shan’s mind, she knew she was making a lot of assumptions about how much interest she could drum up in a town this size, but with all the ideas she had swirling around in her head, she felt confident that this would work out. For as long as she and Caden worked out, at least. Maybe that wouldn’t end up being very long, but Shan wasn’t really concerned about any fallout. She looked around for another minute or two, excitement building as she went, then decided it was probably time to go, before someone else caught them. “I definitely want this one,” she declared as she hooked her arm through Caden’s to drag him back to the rear door. “I’m gonna call the office in the morning.”
Caden might not be as enthused as Shan, but if she liked the space, she liked the space. He co-owned a business and soon, if everything worked out, Shan would own one as well. It would keep her busy, at least. And hopefully happy. "Sounds good to me," he said. "See how much this place runs per month... and then try to charm them into lowering it." Caden walked with her to the door, thankful that this little expedition had taken her mind off of the Point Pleasant bullshit. "Let's go grab a drink and something to eat before I've got to go work."