Who: Leliana & Wash What: Stumbling into each other, after being separated from Gale When: During SH Where: Out and about Rating/Warnings: Language, blood Status: Complete!
This fog must be shifting the reality somehow, Leliana was sure of it - one minute she was side by side with her towering soldier, the next in absolute solitude. It was unsettling, quiet distress rose from within, and phones proved to be useless. Calling for him did nothing; she was met with silence, silence that went on for miles (she assumed she had been walking for miles, anyway). It was clear that there didn’t need to be any civilian crowd control, because there weren’t any civilians. Bare streets, boarded buildings, not a soul in sight.
Until a static sound came from her mobile. Something subtle, crackling softly, and then it blared like a warning - and after that, she wasn’t all that alone anymore.
Oh, make no mistake, she wasn’t in any company she preferred to be in. It wasn’t Gale, wasn’t anyone she even knew, but some kind of horror incarnate - a thing of a more feminine shape with a hooded mantle of rotten skin that reminded her of the Divine’s cowl. Fingers so long they were sharpened at the end, perfect to impale someone with, and its mouth had rows and rows and rows of tiny teeth. Like a bed of needles, dripping in red, and from her throat came a voice with a ghastly mist.
You will never lay down your burden.
There was a hint of Justinia in there, the Divine before her that had made her into the shadow behind the sunburst throne, the sinister hand of Thedas’ theology. Leliana had stood a bit stunned for a second, wondering. How did you -
It all spiraled from there, a show of violence and blood on asphalt. A throw of arrows, a slice of daggers, nothing that worked to well with this demon woven by fears and guilt, and she’d been saving one of Gale’s most prized possessions for an emergency - and this was one.
An explosive arrow fired from her recurve (it was the first time using one of his gifts, she wasn’t one for explosions), and it met with whatever abomination that thing was. The ground briefly quaked, flames igniting through the fog, and the force had pushed Leliana back a couple feet into the ground.
If that didn’t kill it, then…
Wash was starting to wonder just how long he’d been walking. Hours? Days? The fog blotted out the sun, making it impossible to tell. The landscape continued to prove useless to navigate by. His phone in his back pocket was still dead save for the minor squelches of static that warned him a monster of some kind was nearby. The first time he heard it made him jump and then instantly fall into a fighter’s stance. The last time the hulking beast from his nightmares had taken him by surprise, not this time.
But that beast was done. Dead and gone. All that remained were annoying leech like creatures that crawled along the road or occasionally – and annoyingly – would fall from some overhanging structure or twisted lamppost. They weren’t even worth shooting. A simple stomp of a boot took care of them easily.
Wash continued walking hoping he’d be reunited with Gale, or maybe he could find his apartment again. That’d be nice. Give him a chance to change out of his gore splattered jeans and grab his battle rifle. He wasn’t having much luck with either.
The sound of an explosion caught his attention and instantly he took off running in that direction. As a rule he didn’t like explosions, but that had to be Gale. Had that cross-bred mutt from the Capital’s labs found him again? Wash took the time to reload his pistol as he ran, slamming the magazine into place. If it had, Wash was going to shoot it in the goddamn face.
He rounded the corner and was nearly immediately blinded by fire. “Jesus,” he raised a hand to shield his eyes. He’d been out in the dark fog for too long, the fire was so bright. Squinting, he caught sight of someone on the ground. Not Gale, but…
“Leli!”
Leliana’s response to the shout of her nickname was a rough cough from smoke inhalation. For a split-second she thought it came from that warped monster, but all she saw midst the inferno was a burning macabre carcass unmoving. Her face was filthy, the braid over her shoulder (she was this close to cutting it short like her dreamself) a tangled mess, fresh blood soaked her leg and there were a couple lacerations from attempted stabbings, the beginning formation of bruises, but overall?
She would happily take all that over death.
Wash had been a sight for sore eyes, he truly was - but there was a part of her who wished he was someone else. Still, aside from Gale, he’d been the only other person she saw.
Much better than no one.
“Hello,” she cleared her throat with another cough, standing on her feet. “Lovely seeing you here, I suppose.”
Adrenalin is an amazing drug. It dumped once more into his blood and made the sore ache in his back and torso seemingly vanish. He hurried over to Leliana just as she was getting up and on her feet again. He should have known she would have been out here too.
“Lovely, to see you too,” he said a dry chuckle. Jesus, he was glad to see her. He offered her an arm and a shoulder to steady herself with. “Are you alright?” His eyes were on her leg, moving up to the bruising that could be made out on her dirty face. She was standing, that was a good sign. He turned his head a little to look at the fireball in the street. He narrowed his eyes trying to make out what it was. All he could see was the silhouette of something smoldering within the flames. He clicked the safety off his pistol, but whatever it was didn’t seem as though it had any mind to get up and come after them.
“Was that it?” He asked her. “It” could have been any number of things, but given their current circumstances could really only be one thing: a monster ripped right from whatever it was Leliana feared. Wash shuddered just thinking what that could have been. And she had taken it down by herself. He hadn’t even been able to do that. “Jesus, Leli,” he murmured before turning away. “C’mone, we should get out of here.”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” she murmured, powder blue eyes squinting at the monster-bonfire. Leliana wasn’t a stranger to the supernatural; her world was ravaged by magic, dragons, demons, darkspawn - beastly horrors, most of the time with the intention of killing you. But what it had said - how it sounded - she could have sworn…
Ah, best not to overthink it. Likely it was this place inflicting some sort of psychological mindfuck, because why wouldn’t it? His offer to help be a crutch was gracious, and accepted, but the wound on her leg looked worst than it felt. It stung, it throbbed, she could still walk, though it was best to patch it up for now.
A deep breath. “You haven’t seen Gale, have you?” Her throat constricted with worry. If something of that nature was frequent, she prayed to the Maker and his damn bride that he wouldn’t be by himself facing it. “We - we were separated, I cannot even tell what time it is anymore.”
Wash started walking with her. They needed to find something that resembled a clinic or a drugstore, someplace they could find something to wrap up her leg and get a few painkillers for him.
“Yeah. I was with him a little while ago,” He answered as they went. He walked with her, letting her set the pace with her leg, keeping his arm and shoulder at the ready if she should decide she needed it. “I don’t know how long ago. I don’t even know how long I’ve been out here.” Days if the scruff on his face and the dark circles around his eyes were any indication. “He showed up while I was fighting...something.” He didn’t want to talk about the hulking monster that had come after him. That twisted nightmarish version of his stepfather that had been ripped right out of his head and given life. The abrasions and bruising on his face still throbbed and his body still ached telling him it couldn’t have been that long ago, really, when he’d been willing to die in order to take the thing out. “He saved my ass,” Wash said. “Again.” Just like York.
He glanced at her and was relieved to see she was still next to him. She looked worried and Wash felt a pang in his chest. Worry was not a good look for her. Leli shouldn’t have had to worry anymore. He gave her a rueful smile. “He looked alright. He told me he fought a monster that looked like something the Capital slapped together. But he kicked it’s ass. That’s Gale, you know. He’s tough. He put down his monster.” Wash took her hand. First because he didn’t want to loose her in the fog too and second to give her a little comfort. “We’ll find him again. This shits not going to last forever. The sun’ll come out and this fog and everything in it’ll fade away.” Optimism wasn’t something Wash usually spoke about, but he felt Leliana needed to hear it. He needed to hear it. He gave her hand a squeeze.
Maker, where was he?! Concern wasn’t a productive emotion but logic wouldn’t simply make it go away, not when they were separated and who else knows what was out there! Three monsters they’ve faced already, tree. Leliana wasn’t in the best state, neither was Wash, so -
“He looked alright,” she repeated, desperately hoping it wasn’t some ruse to calm her down - panic wouldn’t do any of this well. Gale was capable. He evidently handled one, was also smart enough to know when it was the appropriate time to run if things got too difficult. Situations like this, it was best to travel with at least one extra person, yet whatever was manipulating their environment seemed determine to unite them and tear them apart at different times with different people.
Down the road, around the corner was an empty pharmacy - littered with basic supplies, no doubt. Bandages and disinfectants. All they had to do was break in, no? “We could try there,” she swallowed a pained sound, gesturing towards it. “I would be ecstatic to find ibuprofen at the moment.”
Wash more than understood Leliana’s worry. If there was one sliver of a silver lining in all this it was that Kyu was gone and was far out of Orange County’s sadistic reach. The thought of the little love fairy out in the fog fighting monsters on her own was enough to make Wash physically ill. He still loved her, and he hoped wherever she was, she was safe and happy.
The pharmacy came into view. Finally! Wash let out a breath of relief to see something that looked somewhat normal, if a little rundown. He just hoped that they could find what they needed inside. He could use a few ibuprofen himself. Maybe if he was lucky, there would be some beer on the shelves he could use as a supplement.
“Right then, let’s get you patched up.” He said as they veered their course towards the pharmacy. “Can you walk that far?” It wasn’t too far away, but Leliana wasn’t sounding particularly great at the moment. “I can carry you, you know.”
“How chivalrous of you,” she hoarsely chuckled. “I can walk, however. It looks worse than it feels, I promise.” It stung, gave her a little limp, but with proper bandaging and a couple over the counter painkillers, she’d be fine. Worse injuries had been sustained. “It is mostly a matter of getting inside that could prove tricky, but I suppose you can use a gun to help force your way in?” A weapon she lacked - though next time, Leliana would be sure she was equipped with a more modern firearm.
But it wasn’t often she got to use her bows and daggers anymore, sadly.
The glass doors had plywood boarded across from it, though poorly. Even in her freshly wounded state, she could still pry her fingers beneath them and tug them loose.
He could use the gun to shoot the glass windows, or the boards over the door, but Wash was hesitant to cause any property damage if he could help it. He had no idea what was real and what wasn't and what would carry over once the fog lifted. And he had to believe the fog would lift. After a moment’s thought, he holstered his gun and helped Leliana get the wood off the doors. Once they were off, Wash could get a better idea about how the doors themselves were locked. If it was a simple tumble lock, he could attempt to pick it. He wasn’t as good a lockpick as York was, but he could manage in a pinch.
He squatted down in front of the doors, pulling a small lock pick kit out of his back pocket and set to work. He did not like having his back to the street like this. There was zero cover at the pharmacy’s front door. The two of them were like sitting ducks out there. “I need you to keep an eye out,” he told Leliana. He hesitated giving her his gun. The last time he had trusted someone to watch his back it had gotten him shot. Nothing against Leliana, but it was a lesson Wash had learned. “Listen for any static coming through on the phones. There’s always static before any ugly shit appears.”
No need to tell him to keep her eyes peeled - she’d already been doing that, trying her best to hone her vision past what could possibly lie beyond the fog. Silence from their phones had been a good sign, then. They didn’t seem to chatter when those leeches were near, though she discovered they were mostly harmless. Pests at most. Kick them, step on them, it usually did the trick.
Still no Gale, however.
“I hope something else large does not appear - I already spent that one lone explosive arrow he’d given me,” she sighed. “Anything else, I recommend we do our best to evade.”
“Evasion at this point is our best course of action,” Wash agreed. “I’m not in much condition to fight anymore.” His body was sore, aching and telling him to rest. Another fight just might do him in and that wouldn’t be any good for Leliana. Wash didn’t think Leli needed him to protect her. The Leliana he had come to know didn’t really need to be protected, but she did need his help. He had told her he’d help her look for Gale, and goddammit, that was what he was going to do.
“Fortunately for us,” Wash muttered, “our phones act as an early warning system. Mines been dead for days, but it still goes off whenever something nasty is getting close.” He narrowed his eyes on the lock in front of him. It was a little more complicated than he had first thought and it had been a while since this particular infiltration skill had been called upon. Finally with just a little gentle fishing with the thin pick and just a little sweet coaxing Wash was rewarded with a loud click and he could turn the deadbolt. His back protested loudly up through his spine as he stood again. “There we go,” he grunted pulling the door open with one hand and unholstering his gun with the other. “Stay close.”
How sweet, for this place to give them a means of an alert to let them know when something dangerous with teeth lurked by. Leliana did her best to suppress a snort. It’d be wonderful if the electricity was correctly functioning, but alas, she had a slim flashlight stowed away for this reason alone - they had to see where they were going and where the supplies were, after all.
“Clear thus far,” she murmured, though like he said, their phones would start that white noise chatter to tell them otherwise. Light shone over the aisle signs. First aid equipment, Lucky Row Seven. “It would be best to stock up on some supplies here, assuming we get separated.”
More likely than not, unfortunately. It’d offer ease of mind to know a friend at least had some first aid with him should he be on his own out there.
Christ on a pogostick it was fucking dark in here! Wash would swear that it wasn’t even a natural kind of dark. Then again, there was nothing “natural” about their situation at all, so why should a simple thing like darkness be any different.
“Let’s get patched up first,” he said as he made his way down the aisle. “Then we can raid the place for what we think we might need later.” Property damage had been out of the question, but effectively stealing from the store was apparently a-ok. Wash sighed as he picked up a bottle of rubbing alcohol off the shelf. Seriously, though, what choice did they have? They couldn’t go limping around Orange County. The chances of the two of them getting separated was too great. Wash had no idea where he was so getting back to his apartment was out of the question. They had to take what they could get at this point. Maybe if he could catch the name of the place he’d write them a check. Some kind of anonymous donation to cover what he doubted the store’s insurance would. He grabbed a bag of cotton balls and some bandages.
“Have a seat,” he instructed Leliana, a bit of that a soldier’s authoritative tone creeping into his voice in case she felt the need to argue. “I’ll take a look at your leg first.”
Awww. He was precious, truly, but Leliana had no plans to resist - it was an unnecessary waste of energy, and she wasn’t fond of the possibility of getting an infection in the middle of an almost-soulless place. Careful, she settled down and gently rolled the fabric of her pants up. A couple bruises, scuffs, but the skin was mostly stained in blood, both dry and wet, and there’d been a long gash up her calf and to her knee.
“That thing was a bit....odd,” she confessed, brows furrowed. “It was as if it knew me.” And knew the right words to say to stir up an old laundry list of insecurities. It sounded like Justinia, but she knew it was impossible for it to be her. “And Gale said the monster he faced looked like something the Capitol had put together? That’s curious.”
Wash got on his knees to take a look at her leg. He reached up to position her light over the injury so he could see it better. “It probably did,” he said. He used the rubbing alcohol to disinfect his hands first since he had been crawling around on the ground earlier. Yup, there was that familiar sting letting him know he had cuts on his palms he hadn’t even thought of. “These things - whatever they are - seem to have been pulled right out of our heads. Whatever’s creating them knows what scares us, what makes us uncomfortable. It’s like its confronting us with them for some reason.” Whatever that reason was, Wash couldn’t even begin to say. Who knew why anything happened in Orange County anymore? Wash had long ago stopped trying to figure out the “why” so long as he knew the “what”. The “what” had been more than enough to scare the shit out of him and dredge up feelings of self-loathing and rage he tried so hard to keep buried.
“This is going to sting,” he told her needlessly. He sounded a little apologetic, but it was meant as a warning so she could brace herself. He dabbed an alcohol soaked cotton ball against her leg to clear away the dirt and bits of fabric. Most of her cuts appeared superficial, but the longer gash along her calf caused him a little concern. It was a bit deeper than the others. He took his time with it making sure to clean it as best he could before wrapping it up. He glanced up at her, shadowed just behind the light. “What was it you saw?” He asked carefully.
Leliana quietly pondered his explanation. It seemed highly possible, didn’t it? With the descriptions of what they’ve faced thus far. The Capitol and what it had done, what going against them had made Gale do, had haunted his dreams and waking life. Similarly how war and revolution in Thedas in the face of Templar-Mage relations and the gaping hole in the Veil forced her hand in many, many questionable things that needed to be done to achieve their goals. The sinister hand of the Divine, the shadow behind the sunburst throne - all titles that carried heavy sins.
His warning served to keep her grounded in their reality. Nightingale kept a mostly straight face, but the muscles visibly tensed - worse pain had been endured, mind over matter, keep talking to not focus on the wound.
“An old friend,” she swallowed the knot in her throat. “Someone I served, in the dreams. The head of what you could call the church - I was tasked to carry out the decisions that would sully her name otherwise. I believe she died thinking she had turned me into a monster.” That she had been using her like Marjolaine had, but Leliana would argue that the difference between both women were vast. “It told me I couldn’t lay down my burdens, or be anything other than what she made me. Very introspective, that monster.”
Wash paused what he was doing to listen to her. Grey eyes wrapped in dark circles paid very close attention. A frown tugged at the corners of his mouth. He liked what Leli told him as little as he liked what Gale had told him about the crossbred lizard beast he had faced. The idea of someone playing with the emotions of his friends made that anger bubble up his throat. He swallowed it back. It tasted bitter, like bile.
“You’re not a monster,” he said and turned his attention back to cleaning the gash on her leg. He knew Leliana’d had her hands in dirty things, that she had made a career out of it. She could be a scary woman. But she was no monster as far as he was concerned. He thought back to the evening Leliana had him over to her house to thank him. How she had explained family had each other’s backs. She had listened to him and Wash was of the opinion that no matter the reality, monsters didn’t have nugs who wore pink bows and demanded belly rubs.
“You can be anything you want to be,” he went on. He pushed himself to his feet - a larger task than he would have liked to admit - and reached for some gauze and an Ace bandage to wrap around her leg. “You and Gale both.” He really hoped she knew that already, and sometimes it helped to have someone else remind you from time to time. Gauze and bandages in hand he knelt again and started wrapping her leg in order to protect the wound from the elements. “You aren’t the people you see in your dreams, no matter how much this place wants you to think otherwise. Its fucking with us,” his eyes narrowed. “And being a real dick about it.”
Not all monsters were rough around the edges, had grotesque teeth or claws. Leliana was a bloodied blade wrapped in silk, the dulce de leche sweetness a honeytrap. There wasn’t a chance for reformation in Thedas anymore; she’d willingly become the Chantry’s Grim Reaper, even as Divine Victoria. It was a slippery slope she almost had gone down here, but she had a chance for salvation - if it hadn’t been for almost losing Gale, she would have remained where she was. Lost herself and all she had been all over again. An endless cycle.
A tired smile broke through the throbbing ache of her wound. “Is that not what they tell the children?” It was a nice thought, wasn’t it? Aside from situations like these, Leliana was content. Swimming in shoes with a happy home of beasts - furred, hairless, and feathered. Someone to come home to. Friends, old and new, that had kept her grounded. Constant reminders that working in the career of death wasn’t worth losing them.
Perhaps it was what helped defeat the inner demon made manifest.
“It ‘being a real dick about it’ is nothing new - though I can only hope the end for this round of strangeness is coming to an end. Thank you for playing nurse, by the way,” she gestured. “You’re quite good at it.”
“Maybe they do,” Wash shrugged as he wrapped her leg. He was gentle, but kept the bandages tight so they wouldn’t move around on her leg and make the wound any worse. He sat back on his heels to admire his work, reaching up again to have her move the light around so he could be sure he’d done a good job.
Aside from the usual kid’s television shows he’d managed to somehow watch, no one had ever told him he could be whatever he wanted. Military life had been his only option. It had been that or factory work as far as teenage Wash had been concerned.
Satisfied that nothing was going to be getting through the bandage work, Wash sat back on the floor with his knees up and his elbows resting on them. He braced his back against the shelf across from Leliana. “I had some training in the field in Afghanistan,” he said. “I know how to clean and wrap a wound, but that’s about it. When this is over you probably want to go to somewhere and have a professional look at it.” And he hoped it would be over soon. The storm had lasted about a week, the shattered sight spell about as long. Wash didn’t know how long he’d been wandering around in the fog, but a week sounded about right to him. It had to be lifting soon.
God, he was tired, physically and mentally drained. He knew they had to find Gale and they couldn’t stay here for too long, but maybe if Leliana didn’t mind, Wash could just sit for a few minutes. He rubbed his scruffy face with his hands, smearing grime and blood over his skin. Then he let his head tilt back to hit the shelf behind him and rest there a moment.
Soldiers were handy, weren’t they? Gale had proved to have excellent bedside manners to when it came to dealing with wounds - if it weren’t for him she would have bled out Christmas morning (not the kind of red she liked to celebrate the holiday with). Not that she was incompetent herself, but having someone else tend to injuries was usually better. They did what needed to be done despite the pain.
Fabric rolled to cover the bandage, she craned to look around the shelf. Outside, where the fog persisted. A toxic psychological mindfuck. “Rest,” she advised, rising to her feet to test the firmness of her wraps. It’d say, though the ache persisted and she began to scavenge the shelves for bottle of aspirin. “I can make us a kit of medical supplies to carry around, should we get separated.”
Wash nodded numbly. He watched her search the shelves for items they might need: painkillers, more bandages and disinfectant and maybe some food and water. Wash realized he hadn’t eaten since coming out into the fog, and the last thing he’d drank was a warm beer Katou had given him. Surprisingly he was neither thirsty or hungry, just tired - very, very tired.
He closed his eyes, just for a moment. Too quickly did sleep sneak up on him and he sank into it as if returning to a lover’s embrace. For a fleeting moment he rested with his head and back leaning against the shelf hoping foolishly that when he opened his eyes next he’d be in his apartment and all of this would have been a prolonged and vivid nightmare. As he sank further into sleep the image of the monster that had come after him cropped up in his mind’s eye, calling to him all over again. He moaned in his sleep as the nightmare continued before waking up with a start and a gasp. It took a moment to reorient himself to his dark unfamiliar surroundings. He inwardly cursed himself for falling asleep. “Leli!” He called out fearful his lack of vigilance had gotten them separated.
Exhaustion didn’t weigh heavily on Leliana’s bones. Concern and determination to reunite with her lover kept subtle amounts of adrenaline pumping, and she did her best to keep her senses sharp. Powder blue eyes were always keen on gleaning details from their surroundings; alert if anything moved in the shadows, if there was even a sound coming from the outside. It’d be easy to detect with how quiet it was. No animals, no buzzing of electricity.
Wash’s panicked shout cutting through the quiet could wake the dead, Maker’s breath! Then came the worry that something was around, and she made herself visible at the beginning of the isle. “I’m here, I’m here,” she soothed, glancing around quickly. There wasn’t anything around - a nightmare, perhaps? “Are you well?”
He’d started to stand, one knee stained with monster guts under him, his other leg poised to push himself up and his hand reaching for his gun. A reflexive action, even when there were no enemies about. Relief flooded Wash when Leliana stepped into view. Then relief quickly gave way to embarrassment. Had he really just called out to her like some scared little kid? Thank god it was dark in the pharmacy so Leliana wouldn’t see the crimson creeping up into his pale scruffy face.
“Sorry,” he muttered a little sheepishly. He pushed himself up off the floor with a grunt. “I must have dozed off.” He may as well advertised where they were to every creepy crawly and boogeyman in the area. Well, there would be no more dozing now. There was a mission he needed to focus on: reuniting Leli with Gale.
“You get what you need?” He asked when he joined her at the top of the aisle. “We should probably get going again.” He felt a little stiff from his little nap on the floor. Hopefully walking again would loosen him up.
Nightingale smiled softly. There was some fear detected in his call of distress, but it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of - this place was literally throwing all their internal horrors out in the open. Dealing with it was better with company. “There were some children’s backpacks I took from this other isle,” she motioned to the small, cheap things. Hers was the Hello Kitty. Wash would get the Transformers one. “I filled them with some basic supplies. Peroxide, bandages, aspirin, water. And candy.”
Among other things! There were some energy bars she took from the shelves too, filled with protein. Small but with enough calories to hold them over. And the candy was mostly for her sweet tooth, because she’d quite happily step on those leeches while she bit off a piece of that kitkat bar.
Despite himself, Wash couldn’t help but smile at the Hello Kitty backpack. Wouldn’t that just tickle Gale pink to see? “Matches the toaster I got you,” he said and took the Transformers bag for himself. Ok, so technically the pink and white Hello Kitty toaster had been a gift for Gale, but Wash was pretty sure his buddy hadn’t actually used it. What he had against cute kitty faces on toast, Wash couldn’t fathom. “It's out in your kitchen, right? Mr. Sourface didn’t make you hide it in a closet somewhere? Just let me know and I’ll be sure to dig it out next time I’m over.”
Leliana had been busy while Wash had snoozed. He took a look inside the backpack. Aspirin. Good, he could use that. Water. Great, he needed that too. Oh, protein bars. He should probably eat one of those. Aspirin first, however. He downed three with a few liberal pulls off the water bottle. Then he put both away and dug out one of those protein bars to gnaw on.
He slung his little backpack over his shoulder and glanced towards Leliana, squinting a little to make her out in the darkness. “You ready?”
“Out in the open, as it should be,” Leliana promised, peach-colored lips tilted into a wry smile. Adorable thing about Gale was that while he acted grumpy about it - the toaster threatened his masculinity, you see - he let her have her way. “But, yes. I’m ready. If we get separated, then…”
A squeeze of his shoulder as they exited the empty convenience store. “I will see you when the fog lifts.”