Who: Noah "Gizmo" Peltzer and OPEN Where: The grounds When: Dusk Rating: PG
It was common knowledge that Gizmo didn't do sunlight; he wore heavy black shades in the hospital when roaming the hallways or sitting in the library, and found the darker corners of the library whenever possible. His own room, the one he shared with Dean Winchester, was kept dimmed. Not as pitch-black as he might've liked it, out of deference to Dean, but dim enough that Dean might occasionally stumble into the corner of the bed until his eyes adjusted.
But the weather outside had been glorious today, the perfect mixture of cool, crisp temperature and cloudless blue sky, and Noah had patiently sat in the common room stacking checkers into towers and studying the Nancy Drew book that Sam had lent him from the library until he saw the sky shifting to a gorgeous watercolor palette. Everything out there turned neon pink and dusky indigo-blue with stripes of furious purple, one of the truly pretty sunsets where it looked like the sky wasn't ready to give up its ghost and turn to night yet, and Noah had donned his sunglasses and headed out the door. There had already been an orderly outside with someone, so they told him just to stay within eyesight and be back by the time it was full dark, since no patients were allowed outside at night beyond the courtyard for smoking purposes.
He was always up for an adventure, and the grounds certainly provided one. Trees and wooded areas and the boarded path that made his feet thunk on the wood, the Velcro-fastened skater shoes he wore slapping on the planks as he walked heel to toe, arms held out for balance. It felt nice just to be outside, to absorb the cool clean woodsy scent of the air after the somewhat-stale, disinfectant-scented oxygen inside the hospital for so long. He just wished he'd thought to invite Shock, or Dean, or someone who might've appreciated how pretty everything out here was at this time of day.
He was humming to himself, a little off-key but not unpleasant. It was a Gremlins song he knew by heart, and he didn't miss a beat as he wandered, lips pursed around the words, his long tangled black hair framing his stubble-ridden face. He'd been thinking about his parents a lot, his well-meaning mother and distracted father, and wondering if they were going to write or call or anything. None of his friends from the band had, even though they'd all promised they would. His parents had called once, a few days after he'd been admitted, to make sure he was eating alright ("Breakfast good?" his mother had asked worriedly. "And you're drinking your Ensure, right?" because there'd been times in the past when he'd gone off the stuff and dropped weight like a sinking stone), but never since. While he had made several friends here on the inside, Shock being the primary one he spent his time with (well, Shock and Rikku, but sometimes Rikku was working and couldn't hang out with him, and Dr. Hotchner was often busy with his other patients, and Dean and Jo were sometimes off by themselves and even Noah didn't need to be told that he wasn't a welcome part of that equation), he still craved contact, more interaction with people. It had been nice being on the road because he was constantly assaulted with new experiences, new people to meet, new stories to tell and hear, new places to explore. He wondered if he could track down Rhys soon, if the other man would mind. They hadn't talked too much while Rhys worked the knots out of his hair last week, but he had seemed nice and very gentle and he hadn't pulled hard on them like Noah's mom had when she got frustrated. Rhys was a good guy, officially, in Noah's book anyway.
He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the other person outside until he had nearly walked right up to them, and he stopped, startled, mid-note of singing and one foot not quite coming down on the path yet.
"Sorry," he said hastily, pushing his sunglasses higher up his nose even though it was getting dark enough that he could've gone without them for a bit. "I wasn't paying attention."