The Hellion (collateralshot) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-05-02 17:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent carolina, dan smith |
Who: Mr. and Mrs. Smith
What: Dan gets stood up
When: Back dated to the evening of January 2st (the night before this log )
Where: Dan's apartment over the Double Tap
Rating/Warnings: Low-Mediumish for high-running emotions
Status: Complete!
Dan had spent five hours in a restaurant waiting for the woman he loved to arrive and have dinner with him. Only, she never showed. She never responded to his texts. Never responded to his calls. It was as though Liv Moore had no idea who Dan Smith even was. It was as if he didn’t even exist.
Three hours had been spent at the table waiting for Liv. Two more hours had been spent at the restaurant bar attempting to drink it dry in order to ignore the fact that Liv -- the woman he loved and who had professed to love him -- had stood him up. It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did. It wasn’t as if Dan had never been hurt by a woman before. But with Liv, it was different. He’d denied his feelings for her for so long, only to admit them, have those feelings returned and then be cast off as if it meant nothing. He meant nothing. It was a feeling Dan had never experienced before.
He lost time in the glasses of alcohol he consumed. He had no memory of texting Carolina, but apparently he had. She’d appeared at the restaurant, dragged him out, bundled him into her station wagon (with a threat what she’d do to him should he puke while in there) and drove him home. He was silent most of the way there, brooding. For her part, Carolina didn’t press for answers. “She didnnea show up,” he muttered finally.
It had only been two hours since Carolina had settled into her bed. The buzzing of her phone had woken her from her warm, comfortable bed and bedfellow. If it had been any of the men in her unit, she would have just called them an Uber and gone back to sleep. Dan was many things, but he was not one to ask her for anything lightly or if he could do it himself. She may have been annoyed, but she didn’t ask more than where the hell he was before she slipped out of Kanan’s arms and into the cool California night air to go pick up her drunken husband.
Carolina glanced briefly at her passenger before her eyes returned to the road. A strand of red hair had escaped her messy ponytail and was blocking most of her view of him, anyway. She hadn’t asked any questions. Dan was a very private person and it wasn’t any of her business. He did look absolutely miserable, though. Definitely like a man who had been stood up by the love of his life. She’d never been stood up by someone she was head over heels for, but she was all too familiar with the heartbreak that could follow.
Hands flexing on the wheel, Carolina found it easy enough to extend her annoyance to cover the woman in question as well. “I take it this was supposed to be an actual date.” After months of insisting the two were just friends, if Liv had finally agreed to a date, it made sense that Dan had gotten his hopes up. Damn that albino spice junkie.
“Aye,” Dan grunted in response. There was no sense in denying what Liv meant to him anymore. Carolina had probably suspected the truth from the outset. She was a crafty woman, Carolina. Dan didn’t look at his wife. Instead he kept half-lidded eyes fastened on the road in front of them through the windshield. “T’was supposed t’ be.” His Irish-Detroit accent was thicker than usual, but that was the drink. It certainly wasn’t due to a broken heart. No, sir. Not Dan Smith. The Hellion didn’t have a heart to break.
Then why does it hurt so goddamn much, Dannyboy?
He was uncharacteristically quiet the remainder of the ride back to his home. Once Carolina parked her station wagon in her usual spot in back, Dan staggered out. He grunted something along the lines of “c’mone up, if ye want.” Seemed reasonable. It was pretty late and she had come all the way out to get him. Seemed rude to just send her on her way without…something. A drink maybe? Yeah. A drink.
The Double Tap itself was actually open with a part-timer tending bar since it was also rude for Dan to rely on Carolina every time he wanted to go out for the evening, whether it was for a job or…
Dan grunted again, this one much less intelligible, as he made his way up the steep narrow stairs to his apartment. He could hear the goings on in his bar below, but he no intention of going in that direction. Firstly, Dan was in no condition to tend bar. Secondly Dan was also in no mood to actually deal with people. One was enough. And Carolina, well, she was a tough woman. She could handle Dan’s sour mood.
And it was sour. Allowing it to steep in whatever alcohol he’d drank at the restaurant had turned him from being morose to annoyed to downright pissed off. By the time he’d fumbled the lock to his apartment and gotten the door open, he was spewing some very foul language.
Even if he hadn’t invited her up, Carolina had planned to do just that. The last time she had seen Dan this drunk was on their wedding night. At least she hadn’t needed to help him up the stairs. Definitely not in any shape to be left to his own devices. Nor did she really trust him not to choke in his sleep. She may not be in love with her husband, but she didn’t want to be a widow, either. Nor could she ignore the fact that if Dan could’ve called anyone else to pick him up, he would have. Hell, he might’ve anyway and she had been the only one that had answered the phone.
Stifling a yawn, Carolina closed the door behind them. “Go sit down before you fall down.” Contrary to her early-rising habits, she wasn’t a morning person. Dan’s sour mood didn’t bother her, but she was definitely going to need coffee to stay awake. Preferably some made by someone who could still tell the difference between a tablespoon and a measuring cup. It wasn’t the first time she’d spent the night with her husband, but it would be the first time she’d spend it fully clothed.
Making herself at home in his kitchen, she began pulling out mugs, cups, and grounds. “Coffee, whiskey, or water?”
Dan’s original intention had been to drink more once he’d gotten into his apartment, but now that he was there the desire had left him. He waved Carolina off as she headed into his tiny kitchen. “Git whatever ye want,” he muttered, “ye know where everythin’ is.” Carolina had been to his apartment enough times to be able to navigate without his help.
He did sit down – flopped down, actually – on his ugly dog-eared couch, but he was there only for a minute before he was up again and pacing around his apartment like a restless animal. “She fuckin’ left me there!” He seethed, hands alternately balling into fists and relaxing. “She didn’ call! She didn’ text! Nothing!” Clumsy feet tripped over one of the stacks of books near his couch (one of the few stacks that hadn’t made it into one of the new bookshelves he’d gotten for Christmas), making him stumble and nearly face plant on the hardwood. He swore at the books as if they’d tripped him up on purpose.
He continued to pace his apartment. “I don’t understand what the fuck happened!” He went on, more for himself than for Carolina’s benefit. “Everything was goin’ good. I thought it was good! Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with me?! I told her I loved her! God dammit!”
Truth be told, Carolina was glad Dan hadn’t chosen the whiskey. It saved her the trouble of switching it out for water anyway. The little kitchen had certainly seen better days, but it was clean and functional. She pulled grounds from the freezer, filled the carafe with water from the bottle, and it wasn’t long at all before the first tell-tale sounds of percolating began to fill the apartment. In the meantime, she poured herself a glass of water to tide her over.
Leaning against the counter, the Marine watched Dan with a mixture of empathy and annoyance. She understood his frustration - felt for him, even - but god damn if that pacing wasn’t beating a headache into her skull. It was too damn early for him to be stomping around in circles and the coffee wasn’t going to be ready for at least another five minutes. By the time Dan managed to trip over his own books, Carolina had decided that enough was enough.
The few squeaks her steps made on the nightingale floor were lost amidst the racket Dan was making. It was easy enough to place herself in the warpath, but it did take a moment for her to ensure that she did so at just the right spot. Her feet were set in a solid, grounded stance, ready to hopefully surprise Dan enough to stumble backwards back onto the couch. If on the off chance he didn’t see her, she was ready to physically be the wall to bounce him back onto it instead. Either way, she was going to make him, “Sit. Down,” and stop that infernal pacing, “before you snap your damn neck.”
Dan didn’t bounce off of Carolina, but her position in front of him did make him stop. He narrowed his eyes at her. “Ye want me t’ sit down?” He demanded hotly. “Sit down?! I cannea sit down! D’ye have any idea what this is like? I could finally be with her. She’s the best thing that’s ever ‘appened t’ me! And I made damn sure that nothing from my world would interfere in hers! An’ I’d do it again! I’d do it again an’ again if it meant she was safe, because I love her!”
Reality was starting to penetrate a drunken haze and sink in. Just what Liv’s absence tonight really meant. “But she doesn’t love me….” And why would Dan have ever thought that she did? For all he knew it was the influence of a brain that had made her want to stay with him and somehow that influence had lingered, been mistaken for something else once Liv had become human again. Enough time had passed now for that influence to wear off and for Liv to realize just what options she really had laid out before her. She could choose to be with anyone now that the threat of turning whoever she was with into a zombie was over. Or…she could choose to be with no one at all, play the field, get everything back that she’d lost when the Dreams had manifested themselves in their cruel way. Why on Earth would she settle for him when she literally had the world at her feet? And furthermore, who the hell was Dan for wanting to take that from her?!
The angry wind had left Dan’s sails, he sagged back and onto his couch. He set his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. For the next several moments the apartment was quiet, save for the quiet noises from the coffee maker in the kitchen.
Growling, Carolina was in no state to hold back her temper very well. Even as the rage finally exhausted Dan out of his rant, she was in no mood to indulge him. She rubbed her temple, closing her eyes for a moment. The silence was deafening in the apartment. It was almost as if the room had held its breath, waiting for the next round of yelling, and had no idea what to do now that it hadn’t come. She could relate. At least he had finally sat down, one way or another.
These conversations were not her forte, but she was the only one there at the moment. Carolina silently sat down on the edge of the coffee table and faced Dan. Her hands were clasped to keep them from balling into fists. “You know, Dan, you’re not the only one who’s been in love before. Or been stood up on a date. Nor are you the first idiot to believe that the two of you could overcome any obstacle, so long as you were together. And you’re sure as hell not the only one who’s drowned in a bottle to numb the pain.” She swallowed the wince before it could show in her face. Yeah, definitely not good at these conversations.
“But none of that shit makes it hurt any less. It doesn’t matter if you’re the one doing the breaking or the one being broken up with; unrequited love hurts like a bitch. Especially if you don’t get the chance to forget they exist for a bit while you try and get over them.” The coffee maker fell quiet on the counter. Carolina stood to pour both of them a mug before she too started to rant about past heartbreaks. It wasn’t really fair; especially since she was happy now.
Her eyes shifted back to the man on the couch as she began to divvy out the coffee. “Have to ask, though. Are you sure she stood you up? I’ve only met her once or twice, but the way she looked at you, well, she was even more puppy-eyed than you.” Carolina hesitated before cautiously choosing her next words. “Could something have happened to her that might be keeping her from answering your texts?” He probably wouldn’t react well to a ‘she may be lying in a ditch somewhere’, so she kept that part to herself.
Dan turned a tired glare up at his wife. No, he would not have reacted well had Carolina come out and say that Liv could be “lying in a ditch somewhere” as a possible reason for why she hadn’t texted him, and while she hadn’t said the exact words, her implication was clear. “No,” he bit off the word angrily. “If somethin’ had happened, I woulda been told. Leon woulda told me.” Even if Leon was Liv’s friend and not Dan’s, Dan knew -- believed -- that if something bad had happened and Liv was hurt somewhere, Leon would have told him. That was the only possibility Dan would entertain. Anything else would have made him even more of a basketcase.
Dan shook his head and returned his face to the palms of his hands. He was exhausted, emotionally and physically spent. “‘M Sorry, Carolina,” he mumbled against the heels of his palms. “I’m sorry I got ye up at this ungodly hour t’ come and see me like this. It’s late. Ye should go home.”
The glare did not phase her, but Carolina knew when to leave well enough alone. Dan wasn’t an idiot. Some small part of him was probably aware that things happened to people without anyone the wiser - hell, some of those “things” were probably Dan himself - but it wouldn’t do Liv any good for Dan to go out and look for her in this state, either. No, right now what Dan probably needed the most was probably a gallon of water and to sleep off the rest of the drink.
With a silent, but resigned, sigh, Carolina set down her mug. A bottle of water was plucked from the fridge and a few pills of aspirin from the bottle she knew Dan squirreled away. She nudged Dan’s arm with the cold bottle. “Here. Drink.” Her other hand held out the pills. “I’m not going anywhere. So. Couch or bed?” Saying she didn’t want to leave him alone in this state would probably earn her a skeptical look and some sort of question as to why she cared, so she skipped that part.
She got the skeptical look anyway, but he didn’t ask her why she cared. Dan knew he was in a sorry ass state. It was embarrassing, but he didn’t have the strength to tell her again to leave. In a way that Dan could really only admit while he was this drunk, it was a relief that Carolina had made up her mind to stay.
Without protest, Dan took the bottle of water and aspirin. He swallowed the pills with a glug of water and while Carolina was still standing over him, proceeded to drink two more healthy pulls. The water and pills would help take the hairy edge off the hangover he knew he would have in the morning. Sleep, however, was going to be fleeting. “Take tha bed,” he said and motioned with the bottle to the antique brass bed over in the corner. The damn thing creaked like a sonofabitch and Dan knew the rest of his night was going to be fitful tossing and turning. “I’ll be fine here.”
To be honest, Carolina wasn’t sure Dan would be fine anywhere, but she nodded anyway. She didn’t plan on doing more than resting until she got home. There was no point in staying the night to watch over him otherwise. Skeptical look or not, she did care about him, in her own way. Maybe she really was going soft. Anyway, she was already most of the way through a cup of coffee.
While Dan finished off the water, Carolina went to get a pillow and blanket from the bed. The blanket was loosely folded and deposited with what she assumed was his usual pillow at one end of the couch. Green eyes studied him not unkindly. There wasn’t much that she could do to distract him or make him feel better. “Try to get some rest.” The redhead placed one hand on his shoulder in an awkward gesture of comfort. “I’m sorry.”
“Aye,” Dan said with a sigh. He patted Carolina’s hand on his shoulder lightly, but with an appreciation that was left unspoken.
While Carolina made herself comfortable on the bed, Dan pulled his shirt off over his head and tossed it aside before laying back on his couch. Tomorrow, he decided. Tomorrow between the time his hungover wore off and he had to open his bar, he’d go and see Liv himself. He’d get some kind of explanation then. If it was over then it was over, but Dan wanted to hear it from Liv herself.