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maes hughes (maes) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-09-16 12:41:00

Who: Agent Washington completelysane & Maes Hughes maes
What: Meeting up for lunch and catching up.
When: July 31st, Noon [Backdated]
Where: Rusty Pelican
Rating/Warnings: Low/Some language, some talk about dream death.
Status: Complete upon posting



Maes had enjoyed his day so far. He'd managed to get a lot accomplished, and that was always a plus in his book. After dropping his family off back at home, Maes left again, but this time it was to meet up with Wash for some lunch.

It'd been too long since the two of them had really had a chance to speak, and well, he was always concerned about soldiers that returned home from war. It wasn't an easy transition for anyone to come back from a war zone and try to settle back into the civilian life. Maes hadn't had a hard time adjusting really, but he'd not been on the front lines. He'd been behind a desk for most of his tours, but he'd seen the aftermath of those that had been.

Too many good men and women had died over there, and many more once they got back.

Maes requested a table for two, specifically stating that a friend of his would be joining him soon. Seafood was not something Maes indulged in often, but he truly did enjoy it. Making his way to a table, Maes sat down, elbows propped up on the edge while he looked out the window and waited on Wash to join him.

Wash didn’t like idle days and that was all he seemed to have lately. After going through an event in which the sky had turned black and apartment buildings had literally disappeared as though they’d never existed, a few days of Nothing Much should have been good. And they had been, at least the first few days when everything had returned to normal (and after Wash had slept for nearly 12 hours straight). Quickly, though, Wash felt himself growing restless, like he should be doing something and he felt guilty for not doing anything.

So when Maes Hughes had offered to meet him for lunch, Wash had jumped at the chance to be out of his apartment for a few hours.

He hadn’t seen Lt. Col. Hughes in a long time, since Afghanistan. He was glad the man had made it back and pleasantly surprised to learn that Hughes had gotten married and had a little girl. The role of a Family Man seemed to fit Hughes like a glove. Though he was in no rush to have a family himself, Wash was a little envious.

He arrived at the Rusty Pelican and was rather impressed that despite the indirect bus route. He’d gotten pretty good at navigating the county’s mass transit.
He saw Hughes shortly after he entered the restaurant and indicated to the hostess he was here to meet someone. She smiled and nodded and let him make his way to where Hughes was seated.

“Good Afternoon, sir,” Wash greeted before taking a seat across the table.

"You don't have to call me, sir." Maes replied, looking over at Wash with a warm smile, "You can call me, Maes." Maes knew that it was easier said than done with that, but he could at least make the offer to Wash. They were out and about as friends, there wasn't any need in Maes's mind to be formal.

Still, he wasn't going to push him if he didn't want to do it, but the option was there.

Maes shifted in his seat, his attention fully now on Wash. "So how's life? How have things been going? You got a lady in your life yet?" Maes fired off the questions in rapid succession, a smile still on his face during his inquiries. Maes was always of the opinion that everyone needed someone to love in their lives.

That, he figured, had to do with his own happy marriage. "Or a gent, either way." He waved a hand dismissively, chuckling softly.

Not calling Hughes sir was going to be a difficult habit to break. Just because Wash wasn’t in the service anymore didn’t mean he could be disrespectful to a superior officer. Just one more old habit he wasn’t quite ready to break.

He’d just barely sat down when Hughes started firing his questions one right after the other leaving Wash a little at a loss for a moment. “Uhm...well…” he decided to start with the easier of the three questions. “I have met someone,” he started. “A lady. She’s fun and outgoing. I like her a lot,” he could feel the heat rising to his cheeks again. Why was it every time he talked about Kyu his face went red?! It was bad enough Gale teased him about it, now he had blushed in front of the Lt. Colonel. “We’re not official or anything,” he went on quickly. Official? What was this, high school? “But she seems to like me and I like her so…” he trailed off. Maybe this wasn’t the easiest question to start with.

Not that he really knew how to answer the other two questions about life and how he was doing. He could try bullshitting like he did with his doctors, but he knew Hughes would see right through it. “I’m luckier than I have right to be,” he said after a moment of thought. “I’m alive and have a place to live and there is Kyu, the girl I was just talking about-” his face started to flush again and he shook his head quickly before reaching and rubbing the back of it. He turned his eyes up at Hughes. “How about yourself ,si- Maes,” god that was going to be hard to get used to. “How are you doing? Are you stationed here now?”

An amused smile ghosted over Maes's features at the blush that tinged Wash's features. He tilted his head slightly to the side as he stated that they weren't official.

Now that wasn't good. Then again, not everyone moved at the same pace that Maes did, and while he was aware of that fact, he still thought that everyone should be happy and with someone.

"Sooo, the logical thing to do would be to make it official if you two like each other." Maes shrugged, "That's just my opinion on the matter though." He might leave it at that, maybe, well it was debatable at any rate.

"That is lucky indeed." He agreed with a nod, still smiling softly over at Wash. He was glad to hear that things were going well for him, and add in the fact that he was here? That was something. Maes had seen too many good young men die far too young over there. He was thankful that he'd made it out alive, and that many of his friends had as well.

Chuckling at the near slip-up, Maes took in a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, at Camp Pendleton. Still working Intelligence." Maes did enjoy his job. There really wasn't anything that he'd rather be doing, well, other than staying at home with his family but he had to pay the bills somehow. "I'm doing well, however, life is treating me rather well so I have no complaints at all." Really, Maes had none at all in regards to his home life.

“I’m not sure it’s really that easy,” Wash said hoping that heat in his face wasn’t presenting itself too much to the officer in front of him. “I’m not sure she’d want that. We’ve really only just met, you know? I don’t want to do or say anything that’ll spook her.”

He paused when the waiter came over to take their drink order. He’d barely looked over the menu since sitting down. A quick glance at what they had for drinks, he ordered a Pepsi and a water.

When the waiter had left again, he looked back at Hughes. “Still in intelligence, huh?” There was that urge to call Hughes ‘sir’ again. He could feel the title sitting in the center of his tongue. He swallowed it back with a half smile. “I couldn’t picture you anywhere else. I’m glad to hear that you’re doing well. Camp Pendelton’s a good place to hunker down. I was over at Seal Beach when I was, uh, discharged.” He hurried on quickly, “your daughter is adorable. How old did you say she was?”

Snorting softly, Maes waved a dismissive hand. "It is that easy! Besides, if you don't take a chance you'll never know or you'll miss out on something special." Of course, Maes did see things as being that easy. Rationally he knew that sometimes it wasn't, but he was a hopeless romantic. "Alright, alright," he admitted with a wave of his hand, "it's not that easy, but I am happy for you and I hope that everything goes right."

Maes truly did hope that things went well for Wash in that regard. Hell, for that matter in his life. Everyone deserved to be happy.

As the waiter came over, Maes smiled over at him, and ordered himself a Pepsi as well although he didn't get a glass of water. He nodded at Wash once the waiter had left, "You know it." Maes hadn't considered leaving the military once he returned from Afghanistan, he'd probably always be a military man until he was actually ready to retire. He chuckled softly, "Me either. It's not bad, I enjoy it." Maes's face broke out into a wide grin as Wash asked about his daughter, "Isn't she just the cutest?" Reaching into his back pocket, Maes produced his wallet, flipping it open to expose the photos inside before handing it over to Wash, "She's three and a half. Can't forget that half." He joked with a laugh, "She's growing everyday, it's going to be sad when she heads off to school in a year." Maes didn't want to think about his baby girl growing up, although he was willing to talk to Gracia about having another baby sometime soon.

That easy, huh? The Lt. Colonel was astounding in many ways. One of them being at how he could make something as complicated as relationships sound as though they were as simple as rolling out of bed in the morning. He raised a brow and chuckled a bit. “Thank you, sir, I appreciate that. Things’ll work out one way or another.”

Wash smiled listening to Hughes talk, glad to not be talking about the awkward wandering around his life had become since his accident and discharge. He set his chin in his palm and marvled at how Hughes’ face lit up whenever he talked about his family. “The half is very important,” he nodded his head in agreement, his smile growing.

He took his chin out of his palm and took the offered wallet of pictures. Good gravey, Hughes had a million of them in there. Every moment of the girls’ life must have been documented. It was actually rather endearing. Wash couldn’t help smiling as he looked through the pictures. “You know, I didn’t think fathers like you actually existed. You’re like too good to be true.”

"That's the spirit! Although, I think you should think that things will work out." Leave it to Maes to see the glass as half full every single time. As the conversation moved to his family, Maes's face beamed with pride.

They were wonderful in every single way, and he would look for any chance to talk about them. It was even better when people actually asked about them. "It is, she reminds me anytime I say she's only three." Maes let out a long sigh, and shook his head,

Laughing, Maes leaned back in his chair again. "I don't know. I like to think that most dads are proud of their families just like I am." Maes knew that there were some fathers out there that weren't as good to their families as he was, and that some children didn't even have their fathers in their lives. Maes hoped that he would be there every step of the way for Elicia and Gracia.

"I just love her more than anything else in this world. You'll have to come meet her some time soon." Maes gave Wash a smile, and thanked the waiter as he returned with their drinks. When he asked if they were ready to order, Maes shook his head with a laugh, "I know I'm not ready."

The waiter left them, and Maes picked up his menu. "So what else is going on in your life?"

“Mine wasn’t,” Wash said simply. He closed the wallet and handed it back to Hughes. “Elicia is a lucky little girl. I’d like to meet her and Gracia someday.” He would invite them to dinner, but Wash himself wasn’t much of a cook and he was spending more of his pension then he’d like on eating out. Such were the burdens of having a social life, one supposed.

He looked up as the waiter came over and asked them if they were ready to order. Wash hadn’t so much as looked at the menu since sitting down. He picked it up quickly to give it a quick look over. They had to have a burger or something he could just rattle off. Then Hughes laughed and told the waiter they needed more time, which the waiter seemed perfectly fine letting them have.

Wash glanced up from the menu when Hughes asked him what else was going on in his life and debated the answer. Hughes was on the Network now and surely he’d seen what people there had been posting about their Dreams and other strange goings on. It was only a matter of time before Hughes started experiencing things himself. Wash felt he should give him a warning, it was the least he could do.

“You know about the Network,” Wash started carefully. Even if Hughes had seen what the others had posted there was a difference between seeing and believing. “Seen what other people have said on there, right? Let’s say my life has become more...interesting...since joining the site.”

"Of course! You're welcome to come by anytime. Don't let me forget to give you my address. Seriously, my door is always open, Wash." He offered him a smile, and then turned to look back at his menu. Gracia wouldn't care, they typically had company over a few times a week, and they both believed that an open door policy for friends was the only way to be.

It did no good to shut people out of your life, and friends? Well, they were hard to come by.

Maes's eyes didn't leave the menu as Wash posed his question about the Network. He'd seen enough, heard enough, and hell, that was why he'd been reassigned come to that. He couldn't let Wash in on that little secret, but he could tell him his own personal thoughts about it.

Nodding, Maes finally glanced over at Wash. "I do. I've seen a lot of people talking about their dreams, about objects from those worlds. I have to say it's a bit," he lifted a hand, rotating his wrist in a circular motion as he tried to find the right word, "unsettling, to say the least." Maes was extremely happy with his life, he didn't need to remember a life he hadn't lived before when he was having too much fun with this one.

His brows rose above the rims of his glasses, "Have you experienced dreams then, Wash?"

Wash hesitated a moment before slowly nodding his head, “yeah, I have.” He glanced around their booth before leaning forward a little bit and lowering his voice to keep from being overheard. “They started shortly after I joined. Like, a couple of weeks after. I dreamed I had a wife and she was going off to...war, I think, I’m not entirely sure. Then I dreamed that she had died and my entire world fell apart. All I could think about was if I could have saved her and how.” He swallowed hard. He’d only ever talked about his Dreams with one other person. He hadn’t even discussed them with Kyu, not wanting to either spook her with how weird they were - and how weird he was by extension, or mire her down in his own confusing issues.

But he needed some insight. Hughes was smart and even if the man hadn’t had any Dreams himself yet, maybe he could put Wash’s mind at ease that he wasn’t going crazy. That his head injury hadn’t somehow fractured how the Dreams came to him.

“Then I dreamed I was...someone else,” he went on carefully, running a hand a little nervously through his hair, letting it come to rest at the back of his head. “Someone named David, a marine like me only in space. He - I get chosen for this special project. They change my name to Washington. This guy should be me, right? But then in the next couple of Dreams I’m Leonard Church again - the first guy, the one with the wife. I’m - he’s the director of the project that Washington was chosen for.” His head was starting to hurt, that all too familiar dull throb that started at the back of his head. But now that he had started explaining his dreams he wanted to keep going, get it all out of him. Out of his head the same way Director Church wanted Allison out of his and in the world again. “He - Director Church, me - still wants to save his dead wife and for some reason thinks he can use the project to do that. I’m not really sure how, but he’s going to use the A.I. that was created based on his personality, his mind. I - he - wants to experiment with the A.I. and the soldiers in his project.”

He rubbed at his temples, “and the other me - Agent Washington...he doesn’t know. He - I - think the Director saved him, gave him a purpose, a reason. He’s so frustratingly clueless it hurts.” He took a deep breath, trying to calm the expositional onslaught before it became too overwhelming for Hughes to follow. Wash was experiencing it for himself and he found it impossible to follow. He had no idea where he started and the others ended. “I’m starting to wonder who I even am…” he trailed off finally. That dull throb was moving from the back his head towards the front. He glanced up from the menu he had been staring at as he talked without actually seeing it.

Now this was interesting, and sad to hear. Slowly he lowered his menu, brows drawing together until a line appeared between them. Leaning forward, Maes propped his elbows up against the edge of the table, cradling his chin in his hands as he thought over the Dreams that Wash was speaking of.

He'd been informed to keep an eye on the network, to report back strange things and whatnot, but Maes honestly didn't see anything that wrong with the people there. They were merely trying to go about their lives, to understand what was going on with them and, not for the first time, Maes wondered why he hadn't been plagued by any dreams.

Perhaps it just wasn't his time yet.

He considered Wash's dreams for a few moments, and then responded. "Perhaps in this Dream world it's best for you to know what's going on inside of this other man's head." He leaned back, and gave a small wave of his hand, "To better understand his reasons why he's doing what he's doing, so you can better be prepared for when shit hits the fan since it sounds like it just might." He couldn't begin to imagine how he'd feel if something happened to Gracia, and what he would do to get her back.

"I'm not an expert on these Dreams, since I've not had any and I can only go from what I see on the network, and from what I've been told but I think that might be the case." Maes was equally as clueless when it came to the Dreams, "I wish I had better information for you, or that I could help in some way. The only thing that I can truly offer is an ear to listen for you whenever you need it, and possibly a little feedback if I find out anything." Maes would make it his top priority to find out as much as he could about the Dreams and any information pertaining to them in general.

That actually sounded plausible or at least not any less possible than anything else he’d been told. He really didn’t know much about the world his dreams were set in yet, other than it took place in space and there may be a war going on, although if it was between humans and aliens or a civil war among humans themselves was still a little hazy depending on whose head he was in at the time. Maybe his Dreams were attempting to give him a leg up of somesort? Though why his dreams were attempting to help him and noone else’s were was still something of a mystery.

“You might be right, sir,” Wash said. Breaking the habit of calling Hughes “sir” was too much to bother after all that. Especially with his head starting to pound the way it was. He sat back in the booth again and reached up to rub his temple. “I was starting to worry that the accident had, I don’t know, had actually given me some kind of brain damage and I wasn’t getting the dreams correctly, or something.”

He stopped rubbing his head and glanced up at Hughes across the table. “You haven’t had any yet?” Hughes hadn’t been on the network long. A couple of days maybe? A week? Wash had been on the network two weeks before he’d gotten his first dream. He frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure if this was the kind of thing he’d wish on Hughes. The man was happy, enjoying his life. Truly enjoying his life. He didn’t deserve this kind of complication. “Maybe...maybe you won’t get them.” That was unlikely. Everyone on Valarnet experienced the Dreams eventually. But Wash could hope.


Shaking his head, Maes offered Wash a soft smile. "I don't think that it has anything to do with your accident, but I can see your concern. I think that these Dreams are enough to mess with anyone's head from the sound of it." Reaching up Maes scratched at the scruff on his cheek, lost in his own thoughts.

It had struck him as very odd that he hadn't had any Dreams considering so many had them. Maes, however, wasn't about to lick a gift horse in the mouth, and hope that he continued on his streak of not having any.

That would suit him just fine.

Shaking his head, Maes shrugged before dropping his hand back down into his lap. "No, I haven't. I wonder if something is wrong with me, considering, or if I'm just lucky." He laughed softly and shifted back against his seat. "Who knows? Only time will tell if I'm lucky or if they're just a bit behind schedule." He snorted softly, and then pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I hope you find more clarity in your dreams, or at least some peace."

Hughes was correct, the Dreams were enough to mess with one’s head as well as their life and Wash knew this was only the beginning. He sighed and sat back in the booth and rubbed his eyes.

It was more likely that Hughes’s dreams were just slow in coming to him. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason when the dreams started or even how often someone got them. Even what people claimed to receive from them seemed without reason or cause.

“Thank you sir,” Wash sighed and lowered his hands from his face. “I hope so too. And I appreciate you listening to me ramble on about mine. If you do start getting them and you have any questions, feel free to ask. My knowledge of them is limited, but I’ll be happy to tell you anything I know.”

Maes waved a hand, "Anytime Wash. Just know that I'm here for you anytime you need anything." The offer was sincere, because Maes believed in being there for his friends no matter what might happen. It was hard to find good people to surround yourself with, and when you did find those people you kept them close.

Maes didn't want to lose any more friends, nor did he want for any of them to think that he'd abandoned them.

"But yes, maybe visiting with my family will help keep your mind off some of these things. We'll definitely have to set up sometime where you can come by for dinner." Family, dinner and friends, those were all winning combinations in his book. Maes was about to say something else in regards to the dreams when the waiter returned to take their order. Perhaps his questions were better left unsaid as it appeared that Wash was tired from just talking about them. Maybe another day he'd ask, but for now, he was happy to talk about anything else for Wash's sake.