Caroline Forbes is full of light (miss_mystic) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-03-03 10:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, joe hardy |
Who: Joe Hardy and Caroline Forbes
What: First meeting
When: Late January
Where: Rainbow Motors
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Complete!
Moving back home after five years was both an easy and difficult adjustment. Easy because she still had friends in the area that made her feel welcome. But the move was rushed. She heard about her mom and left almost immediately. Luckily her boss back in New York was understanding and had written her a glowing recommendation. Caroline had even been on a few interviews already. While she was confident they went well the waiting for a call still made her anxious.
Keeping busy was the best way to distract herself. It wasn’t that difficult to do with taking care of her mom and unpacking. But her mom was resting and she had already unpacked as much as she could until the rest of her things arrived from New York. Caroline decided it was a good time to stop by the garage and visit Stefan. After all she did tell him she would when she met him for coffee.
Caroline arrived at the garage walking inside. She saw someone under a car however all she could see were the feet sticking out. “Stefan?” She asked unsure if it was him or the guy he mentioned working with.
It was business as usual at Rainbow Motors. Joe had told Stefan he didn’t mind working a few double shifts to make up for the time he’d missed at the end of December while he visited his family and at the beginning of January while he’d been sick. It was good to be back at work.
It wasn’t unusual for customers looking for service to come wandering into the garage from the office area, especially if there was no one manning the front desk. Joe heard the footsteps on the floor before he heard someone call out for Stefan. “Sorry,” Joe called out before wheeling out from under the car he’d been working on. He blinked up at the woman standing over him and smiled. “Stefan’s not here.” He got up and wiped his hands on his coveralls. “I’m Joe, Stefan’s partner. Is there something I can help you with?”
Good thing she asked instead of just assuming it was Stefan. Cause this guy was definitely not Stefan. “Hi!” Caroline replied her usual cheerful self, despite all that was going on in her life. “Oh, no. I’m a friend of Stefan’s from high school.” Sort of, he was a few years older than her but they ran in the same circles. Plus they had kept in touch over the years, when he was in the Navy and she was away at college.
“I just moved back to town and told him I’d stop by to see the garage,” she added looking around a bit. “Nice place you two have. Stefan mentioned you were sick? I’m glad to see you’re doing better!” Okay, maybe she was talking a bit too much. It happened sometimes. She was a very friendly person. “I’m Caroline by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Caroline,” Joe said, “I’d offer to shake your hand, but,” he laughed charmingly and held his hands up to reveal that even though he’d attempted to wipe them clean on his coveralls, they were still smeared with oil and grease. Unless Caroline minded having her own hands smell like the underside of a car for the next few hours, a handshake was out of the question. He reached for a rag to attempt to get some of that filth off his hands. “Stefan mentioned an old friend was coming back to town,” he said. “He was looking forward to catching up.” And there was a lot of catching up to do. Joe had only met Stefan after he’d become a vampire. Caroline had known him before (or at least that’s what Joe thought). As far as Joe knew, Caroline hadn’t somehow found her way to the site and honestly, he hoped that she wouldn’t. It could be exciting, sure, but it had a way of interrupting and putting your entire life on hold.
With cleaner hands Joe motioned for Caroline to make herself at home. He smiled proudly at Caroline’s compliment about the state of the garage. “Thanks,” he said casting a proud look around. “Stefan and I bought it from our old boss. It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s all been worth it. I felt bad over the Christmas holiday,” he admitted, turning his attention back to Caroline. “I went and visited family and then got sick on the way back. Kind of left Stefan to fend for himself. I’m trying to make up for it but pulling a few extra shifts so Stefan can get a break. Would you like a drink?” He asked. “We got coffee, water and soda in the breakroom.”
“You know, I think I’ll leave my hands grease free for now,” Caroline joked with her own laugh. It was nice of Joe to be so considerate though.
Joe was right in his assumption. Caroline knew Stefan when they were both in high school, although he was a few years ahead they still got along and kept in touch over the years. She had no idea he had a vampire. Hell she didn’t even know vampires existed. “I met him for coffee the other day so we did a bit of catching up.” At least with the whole Bubbles situation. “But I’ve been wanting to see the garage since Stefan told me you guys bought it.” And yes she wanted to meet his business partner too.
“Sure! Thanks,” Caroline said following Joe into the breakroom. “Water is fine,” she added. “Did you get that nasty flu that’s going around this year? It sounds horrible.” She heard some people had been hospitalized and even died from it.
“I think so,” Joe nodded. He got Caroline a water out of the fridge and handed it to her. He helped himself to one as well. It may still have been winter in California, but it was unlike winters he was used to growing up in New York. To Joe this felt more like spring, or maybe even early summer. He had to remind himself periodically to drink water to stay hydrated. “I caught it on the flight back from Florida. The guy sitting behind me was like a walking sinus infection. By the time we touched down at L.A. X I was already starting to feel it.” Though Joe figured he was fortunate that it hadn’t been any worse than just feeling miserable for roughly a week.
“That’s good you’ve already had the chance to catch up a little with Stefan,” Joe went on before taking a sip of his water. “He’s had a rough time the last month or so. Seeing an old friend is probably good for him.”
“Gross,” Caroline replied wrinkling her nose at Joe’s description of his flight. “I’m glad I didn’t catch anything on my flight here.” She couldn’t afford to really. How could she take care of her mom if she was sick? “Well it’s good to see you are better now.”
Caroline accepted the water from Joe taking a sip as he spoke. “Yeah, break ups are tough.” Not that Caroline would really know. Her only real break up happened her senior year of high school. Since then she had dated of course, but nothing really serious. “But enough about Stefan. Tell me about you.”
“Me?” Joe raised a brow then chuckled. “Well, I’m originally from New York, about 45 minutes-ish outside the city. I moved out here with my brother a couple of years ago. He got a job at one of the local news papers.” Joe leaned back against the counter as he spoke. “I was trying to get my life back together at the time. Sort of. And Frank thought it’d do me some good to get away from home for a while. So he asked me to move out here with him to help with expenses until he got his career going. I ended up here working with Stefan and we became pretty good friends. Last year after Dean had his baby, Stefan and I offered to buy the garage from him so he could have more time with his family. And…” Joe shrugged, “here we are.”
He conveniently glossed over all the other things that had gone on. He had no idea what – if anything – Stefan had told Caroline over coffee, and he sincerely doubted Stefan had opened with “hey, it’s nice to see you after all these years. I’m a vampire now.” It had taken several weeks before Joe had made that discovery and he was actually on the network with Stefan. Joe did wonder how long it would be until Caroline found herself on the network as well. It seemed as though everyone Joe met either was on the network, or somehow ended up signing on. He supposed that should have bothered him, but for some reason it really didn’t.
“What about you?” He asked. “What brings you back home?”
“No way!” Caroline said lightly tapping his arm with her hand. “That’s where I spent the last five years. Went to Cornell and then got a job in the city before moving back here.” What a small world. Well not really considering both New York and Orange County were rather large. It wasn’t the surprising she would run into someone that had also lived in New York. But still.
However she didn’t dwell too much on their shared past location. Get my life back together. rank thought it’d do me some good to get away from home for a while. Statements that definitely stood out to Caroline. She didn’t want to pry. But she couldn’t help her curiosity. And if Joe brought it up, even in a vague way, he must be okay with talking about it. Right? “Get your life back together?” she questioned taking another sip of water.
“My mom,” she replied simply in answer to his question. “She needed my help. So I came home.” She didn’t mention the cancer part. Partly because she didn’t want pity. But also because Caroline was in a bit of denial of how serious it was. She was convinced her mom would be okay in a matter of weeks, or even months. But still she was going to be okay.
Joe smiled when Caroline stated she had come home to help out her mother. It was good when you were able to rely on family like that. The only reason Joe could possibly see himself going back to New York was to help out his father, mother and aunt. “That’s nice of you,” he said. “Plus, New York is great and all, but this time of year, I’d rather be in California,” he joked. “Much less snow.” Unless it was December, apparently. Then one could count on blizzards.
His smile turned a little uneasy when he explained what his previous statements had meant. “Yeah,” he said. “My fiancé was murdered a couple of years ago. I didn’t handle it well. I was a P.I. at the time and I tried to help catch her killer. In the end though, I didn’t actually help anything. Her killer was acquitted. I quit being a P.I. Shortly after that Frank asked me to move out here with him and…” he shrugged, “here I am.”
Joe really didn’t want to bring Caroline down with his baggage. “But you don’t want to really hear about that. Coming home is supposed to be happy, right? Tell me more about you. Also, I would love to hear some juicy stories about when Stefan was in high school.” He laughed.
“Yeah, but the pizza isn’t as good,” Caroline joked right back. To be honest though, as much as she loved New York, there was nothing like being back home. Surrounded by her family and friends. Especially her mom. When Caroline first left for college she had been pretty damn homesick. Overtime it faded. But now being back she realized just how much she missed her mother. She couldn’t imagine not having her mom in her life. She was still in denial that it was a very real possibility her mother would be gone soon.
Thoughts of her mother were pushed aside when Joe brought up his past. Wow. Poor Joe. That was a lot to go through. Too much for any one person. “I’m so sorry,” Caroline said honestly, her tone soft. She wasn’t sure what else she really could say to that. But she also knew Joe was probably sick of hearing sorries. “That’s… too much.” To go through she meant. Not for him to tell her. She was happy he did. Even though she just met the guy it meant something that he was able to share like that with her.
“I do,” she replied. Meaning she did want to hear more about it. “That is if you want to tell me,” she had manners of course. But also if Joe wanted a subject change she understood that as well. It was how she felt when talking about her mom lately. “Hm well lets see. I grew up hear. Went to high school with Stefan but you already knew that.” She was a few years behind him though but she still remembered enough for stories. “Then I left for Cornell, got a job as an event planner, but now I’m back here looking for a new one. I had some interviews. Waiting to hear back is like torture,” she joked lightening the mood a bit. “As for stories about Stefan? Those are best told over coffee.”
Joe understood how difficult it could be for people to respond to things like death and murder. It was something he never would wish on anyone else, but at the same time, unless you had your own experience to draw off of, there wasn’t much more you could say other than “I’m sorry.” Caroline seemed like a nice woman with the ability to put herself in another person’s shoes, so to speak. These days, sometimes that in itself was enough. “Thank you,” he said, his tone a little softer than before, “maybe we can talk about it more some other time.” He gave her a rueful sort of smile, “I don’t want your first impression of me to just be about death.”
He listened to her talk about her life, thankful for the change of pace. He was genuinely impressed when she said she’d gone to Cornell. That was an incredibly hard school to get in to. “I’m sure you’ll hear something soon,” he said with a smile. “In the meantime, I would love to get a coffee and hear all the stories.”
Caroline totally understood Joe’s statement. Just like he didn’t want her first impression of him to be about death, she didn’t want his to be about cancer. So focussing on Stefan stories and meeting for coffee was fine with her. “Here,” Caroline said holding out her phone. “Put in your number and we can set something up,” she added back to her usual cheerful self. Once he did Caroline sent off a quick text so he would have her number as well. “I better get going. It was nice meeting you. Looking forward to coffee.”