Who: Sharon Carter, Viv, Leon Orcott and Chris When: Halloween! Where: Out and about What: Trick-or-treating, Leon gets turned into a cowboy. Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete when posted
Sharon had a sweatshirt on. That was the extent of her Halloween costume. It was brown, and it had a pocket for Viv to nestle in. The hood had a set of ears on it. She was a kangaroo. Get it? Anyway, she was out with Leon and Chris. It was Trick-or-Treating time! Door to door, pillowcase full of candy, the whole nine yards. Though Sharon was sort of staying away from candy… she had to get back in shape so she could be mission ready at work. And Viv was too young for it, anyway.
They’d been out for a little while, and Viv was blissfully asleep in Sharon’s pocket. Arms. She turned to Chris as they walked. “How’s the haul so far?”
Leon and Chris had bought matching costumes, both of them dressed as cowboys. Maybe it was sickeningly sweet that they were matching, but Leon had gone eight years pretending to be Chris’ cousin, and so he figured he had some cute brother moments to make up for. He’d made sure to bring them to one of the richer areas of town for the chance to get some full-sized candy bars.
“It’s great!” Chris said, smiling. He was holding a plastic pumpkin bucket for his candy, and while it was currently only half full, that was because he was periodically emptying it into the pillowcase Leon had slung over his shoulder.
Leon glanced at his phone to check the time. It was nearly six o’clock, and while he was sure that he and Chris could probably keep going for a couple hours yet, he wasn’t sure how long Viv would tolerate it. “When were you wanting to go back?” he asked Sharon.
Sharon had noted how cute the boys were, but she refrained from mentioning it. She knew that Chris got all shy and embarrassed when she complimented him too much, and Leon wasn’t much better. So she’d simply told them that she liked their costumes a lot, and then let the subject go. Sharon was good like that.
“You’ve made quite the haul!” Sharon laughed, leaning over to take a look into his pumpkin. “Oh, Gosh, is that a Pay Day? I’ve got dibs.” She teased, then gave Leon a wink. They walked a couple more steps while Sharon considered. “Honestly, she’s doing really well. I think I could go another… half hour? Hour? Are you guys getting cold?” Hot, apple cider was always a tradition for Sharon on Halloween. She wanted to give some to the boys, too. Before it got too late. It was a Saturday, though, so no one had to worry about work or school in the morning.
“You can have it,” Chris said, digging into his pumpkin and holding it out for Sharon to take, smiling widely as he did so. It wasn’t that Chris didn’t like Pay Day, but if Sharon wanted it he’d happily give it to her instead. It made Leon smile as he reached into his pocket to light a cigarette.
“Orcots don’t get cold,” Leon snorted. That wasn’t really true. He’d gone to visit Chris in New York for a Christmas or two when Chris was a kid and Leon had frozen his balls off, but Sharon didn’t need to know that and his declaration made Chris stand a little straighter, mimicking his brother’s stance as he nodded.
Sharon gave a happy little squeal and clapped her hands together, then accepted the candy bar from the little guy. “Someone loves me!” She said, and wrapped her arm around his shoulders for a quick squeeze. Then she tore open the wrapper and bit into the candy bar, getting a few crumbles of chocolate in Viv’s hair as she ate.
The question about the cold was a little silly. How cold did it honestly get in Orange County in October? Especially this year? But Sharon was in full-on Mother Hen mode--something that happened a lot when she was around Chris. “Well, then I suppose you’re not gonna want some hot, apple cider when we’re done?” She asked Chris. “Or Mulled Wine?” She added to Leon.
Chris beamed as he watched Sharon tear into the Pay Day, obviously feeling like he had done well. At Sharon’s question, both of the brother’s looked at her with vaguely horrified looks. “No, we definitely want that,” they said in unison, and then they burst out laughing, Leon affectionately clapping a hand over Chris’ cowboy hat, and he gently guided them toward the next house.
They’d only made it about halfway to the other house when Leon suddenly stopped dead, looking around with a concerned look on his face, hand lying on top of his not-so-fake gun. His costume suddenly looked a whole lot less costumey than it had a couple of seconds ago.
“All right, I can definitely do that.” She was going to have a sip of mulled wine herself. Okay, maybe more than a sip. It’d help both her and the baby sleep the night through!
Sharon and Chris were walking arm in arm to the next house. It took her a moment to realize that Leon wasn’t in step with them. She slowed, then stopped, and turned around to look at him, confused as to where the laughter had gone. “Leon?”
Leon had no idea where he was, and nothing looked right. The houses were bizarre and made out of something he didn’t recognize, the roads looked bizarre, and everything was wrong. Even the woman standing in front of him was dressed strangely, though she didn’t seem like a bad sort. “Where in the blazes am I?” he asked with a thick southern accent.
“Where in the blazes?” Sharon asked, raising an eyebrow. She glanced over at Chris, then back to Leon. “Leon, are you…” But she trailed off as she saw that his clothing had changed, his gun became much more real, his eyes were confused. This wasn’t play, he wasn’t messing with them. She could tell he was confused. “Are you all right?”
Leon was most decidedly not alright. But neither the woman, nor the baby, nor the young boy in front of him seemed especially panicked, and so he relaxed his grip on the pistol, and simply rested his hand on top of it. The woman and the boy seemed confused, or concerned, not so much with how bizarre everything looked but more with him. “My apologies, ma’am,” he said, tipping his cowboy hat a little. No need to be rude. “I seem to have lost my way.”
No, Sharon wasn’t panicking. Though, his actions were starting to get her a little worried. What on Earth was going on? She took a step forward, eyes darting from his confused face to the hand on his gun. “Well, that’s okay,” she said, holding one hand behind her against Chris’s chest. She wanted to keep herself between Chris and the man with the gun. There was no helping that Viv was strapped to her chest. “Can we help you find it?”
“Well, I don’t rightly know, ma’am,” Leon said. “I don’t suppose you’d happen to know where in tarnation I am right now, would you?”
“Orange County,” Sharon responded. “You’re Leon Orcott? And I’m Sharon Carter. This is Viv,” she motioned to the baby, “and your little brother, Chris.” She stepped to the side just a little so Leon could see Chris. Hopefully he wasn’t freaking out too much by the whole ordeal. It was in Sharon’s nature to slow things down, keep people calm, and diffuse any strange situations as best she could… like she was doing now. “We were just going to go back to my place for Mulled Cider and Mulled Wine. Do you still want to go?”
Chris wasn’t freaking out, but he was a little confused and held onto the back of Sharon’s hoodie with one of his hands.
None of that made a lick of sense. He knew he was Leon, of course, but he was pretty sure he didn’t have a brother. And his horse was nowhere to be found. And while he hadn’t spent much time in Florida, this didn’t seem like Florida. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sharon,” he said, eyeing her suspiciously, though his gaze softened a little as he turned to the children. “Viv, Chris,” he said, tipping his hat to them as well. Chris tipped his hat back, though he was clearly troubled that Leon didn’t seem to remember him.
Leon’s suspicion was quelled a little once she offered him mulled wine, and then he smiled. “Well, I ain’t never one to turn down a nice warm glass of mulled wine,” Leon said. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a horse around these parts. Name’s Trotty.” Leon was apparently bad at naming animals no matter what time period he lived in.
This must be one of those weird, Orange County things. Sharon remembered something about Halloween costumes last year, but she hadn’t been involved. Thankfully. She’d done a themed costume with Remy last year, and that would have been awkward. Turning into a Playboy bunny… would she actually be a bunny? Or some kind of weird, anthropomorphic rabbit creature?
That was neither here nor there. Sharon glanced at Chris, feeling a little better now Leon had calmed. Poor Chris. He’d been through so much lately. She cleared her throat, and turned her attention back to Leon. “...Trotty? Seriously? No, we don’t use horses. We came here in my car, we’ll take it back to my place.” That’s where Viv’s carseat was. “It’s just over here.”
Thankfully, they’d trick-or-treated in a big loop, and Sharon’s car wasn’t far.
“What’s wrong with Trotty?” Leon asked, frowning. Trotty was a fine name for a horse. He was very good at trotting. He was also good at galloping, but ‘Gallopy’ was a ridiculous name. “A car,” Leon repeated, sceptical. He’d never even heard of a car before, and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.
Trotty… well, Sharon didn’t respond to that. She simply chuckled as she shook her head. Then she clicked a button on her key fob, and the car’s headlights flashed as it beeped and unlocked the doors. She drove a little, dark Toyota, the kind that would blend in almost anywhere. Good for her job. She moved around to the back and opened a door to put Viv away in her car seat.
“This car,” she said, strapping the baby in. “You gonna let Chris ride shotgun?” She was trying to pretend like nothing was out of the ordinary, so Chris wouldn’t get scared.
That was… a big metal box on wheels with no horse. Leon had no idea how they were planning on going anywhere in that thing, which was confusing enough. And then Sharon asked about Chris, and gave her a bewildered look. “S’not safe to let anyone ride shotguns, let alone a boy.”