Will Gorski (officerstrange) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-02-02 14:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, olivia moore, will gorski |
Who: Will Gorski and Liv Moore
What: Will runs into Liv and decides to watch the game with her
Where: A sports bar near the precinct
When: January 10th thereabouts
Ratings/warnings: Low/none
Status: Complete
Dan was out of town doing ‘a job.’ Although he assured Liv there would be no killing involved she still didn’t like it. She thought he had put that life behind him. She couldn’t stand the idea of the man she loved going out and hurting others. Even if they deserved it. That’s what the justice system was for. Liv was big on helping others get justice. It was one of the main reasons she was a medical examiner. But there was a right way to go about it. And that wasn’t Dan’s way.
Liv found herself drinking at a sports bar to drown her sorrows. Jalapeno margarita in hand she watched the game on the TV. “Come on!” Liv found herself yelling out. “That was off sides!”
Will had had a long day at work, and the last thing he’d wanted to do when he got home was cook. The sports bar down the street from the precinct was a good one, and he already knew they had some killer wings, so when he’d wrapped up his shift he’d called ahead to order some, and made his way down to the bar.
His wings weren’t quite done when he showed up, and ordered a beer and took a seat at the bar while he waited for them, but his attention was drawn by a vaguely familiar voice that rose above the din of the bar. It took him a moment to recognize the woman, if only because her style was completely different than the last time he saw her. He grabbed his beer, and made his way over to her table.
“Moore, right?” he asked. “I didn’t know you liked football.” He didn’t know a lot of hippies personally - his dad probably would have lost it if he ever started hanging out with them - but the stereotype generally suggested they weren’t all that into things like the NFL.
Liv probably should have been expecting to run into people here. It wasn’t that far from where she worked after all. But still she was taken by surprise when someone called her out. Though that could have also been because she was so absorbed in the game.
She turned her attention to the man, a small smile forming on her face. She had only met him once or twice, but Liv was pretty good at remembering the people who walked into her morgue. No matter what brain she was on. “Officer Gorski,” she greeted. “I could say the same about you.”
“My dad practically lives, breathes, and bleeds football,” Will said. She didn’t seem too upset to see him there, so he slipped into the booth across from her. “I picked up a few things here and there. Played a little in high school too.” It hadn’t really been his thing in the end and he’d ended up dropping out after his first year on the team. “You meeting anyone?”
Liv’s eyes remained on the game. She barely even noticed when Will sat down at the booth. “Oh yeah?” she asked. “What position?” As in what position did he play in football but she figured that was obvious.
“Nah,” Liv replied to his question. “My boyfriends out of town.” At that comment she picked up her practically full drink and downed it.
“Running back,” Will answered. “Though I never actually got to play in any games. Just practice and some scrimmages is all.”
He frowned a little when Liv mentioned her boyfriend, and took a sip of his beer. “I take it you’re not entirely okay with that?” he asked, glancing at her now empty pint glass and raising his eyebrows.
“Not an easy position,” Liv commented before the subject changed to Dan. “Not particularly,” she answered honestly as she motioned for another drink. “But what can you do,” she shrugged eyes back on the screen just as the other team scored a touchdown. “Damnit!”
Will frowned thoughtfully. “I think I’ll actually stay and eat the wings,” he said to the server as he walked up to the table with Liv’s drink. Then, he turned to Liv. “I mean, assuming you don’t mind the company.” He had just been planning on spending the night in, but Liv seemed like she could probably use some company.
“Hm?” Liv asked eyes glued to the screen. “Oh yeah, stay. Eat your wings.” She had heard what he had said to the waiter. It just took her a minute to realize he was talking to her as well. “But you better share those wings, Gorski.”
“I wouldn’t dream of not,” Will said, grinning a little, and, before the server left, asked for another order of them as well. “So, does your boyfriend leave town often?” he asked.
And the subject was back to Dan. Liv frowned again turning her attention from the TV to the man across from her. “Not anymore.” He used to, before he quit his other job. Liv was well aware of that fact. But now it looked like he was going out on ‘one last job’ he said. How did she know it wasn’t going to come up again. “It’s not so much that he’s gone. More what he’s planning on doing.”
“And what’s that,” Will asked, frowning. Only belatedly, did he realize that he might be seen as prying. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that. Bad cop habit.”
“Nothing good,” Liv answered bitterly. But that was all she was going to say on the subject. “What about you? Got anyone special in your life?”
Well, that was a response that practically begged to have more questions asked. Somehow, Will managed to restrain himself. It wasn’t his business, he had to remind himself. Moore was a colleague, and he couldn’t just go prying into her business.
“No, no one like that,” Will said, trying to ignore the image of Lito that flashed into his head at that moment. “I mean, there’s a couple of special people, but no one who I’m dating,” he corrected himself. After all, what were Kala and Lito if not someone special in his life?
“A couple?” Liv asked with a raised brow suddenly intrigued. She even took her eyes off the TV to look over at Will. And hey, it beat talking about Dan and his other job that she really shouldn’t be discussing with a cop.
“Yeah, people who,” Will started, and then stopped. He had been about to say that they shared dreams with him, but he didn’t actually know if Liv knew what the dreams were, or if that would make him sound crazy. And finishing the statement with ‘are in my head’ would definitely make him sound crazy, “who I’ve gotten to know over the last few months,” he finished lamely.
“That is what dating usually consists of,” Liv replied taking another sip of her drink. “But if you don’t want to spill. I won’t make you.” After all he wasn’t making her talk about Dan. Fair was fair and all that.
Will snorted a little. “I have dated before,” he assured her, and then cut off as the hot wings arrived. He grabbed one of them from the basket. “It’s not like that, not really. It’s more like… family, I guess. An unexpected family.” Maybe a little more complicated than that, but it was the closest descriptor he could think of.
“Not exactly what I meant when I asked about anyone special,” Liv replied. “But good for you, Gorski,” she said as she helped herself to one of the wings Will had ordered. “You need all the family you can get in this place.”
“Yeah, I know,” Will admitted. “It’s just… complicated. They are special.” He smiled at her. “What about you? Do you have a family here?” Biological or not.
“Nope,” Liv replied with a shrug. “They are back in Seattle.” And Liv hadn’t kept in touch with them really. She had been in a bad place when she left Seattle. And now with being a zombie? It was just too hard.
“Seattle, huh?” Will asked, taking another wing and biting into it. “I know how that is. My dad’s in Chicago. When did you leave?”
“Like three years ago,” Liv replied taking another sip of her drink. It was hard to believe it was only three years. It felt like a whole life time ago. Though that was another life. She was a whole other person back then. Human. A surgeon. “What about your mom?”
“She died when I little,” Will said. Before he even had a chance to remember her, really. He had impressions of memories of her, the feeling of being curled up against her breast, but nothing as solid as an actual memory. “Car accident.”
“I’m sorry,” Liv replied with a frown. Because really no matter how much time had passed she had to imagine it wasn’t easy. “So it was just you and your dad?” she went on not sure if would want to dwell on the whole no mom thing or not.
“Yeah,” Will said. “For as long as I can remember. He was a cop too, so there were the long hours. But we did alright.” Mostly. His dad had always drank too much, and could, occasionally, be a mean drunk, meaning Will had to take care of him often for very little appreciation. “Why’d you decide to come here though?”
“Decided to follow in his footsteps?” Liv questioned with another sip. The game was temporarily forgotten about. The Liv part of her far more interested in getting to know Will better than the brain part of her’s interest in the game. “I just needed a change,” Liv said casually. It wasn’t exactly a lie, there was just much more to the story. “What about you?”
Will couldn’t help but laugh. “Actually, growing up, it was always the opposite. I knew what the job demanded, and what it did to people, and I wanted no part of it.” He shrugged. “But in the end, I guess I felt like it was something I had to do.” So that he could stop what happened to Sara Patrell from happening to anyone else. “But I needed a change too. I don’t know why I picked here, but I guess I thought maybe I could do whatever it was better here.”
“Funny how things like that work out,” Liv commented with a small smile. “Yeah, this place seems to have a certain pull,” Liv agreed. She had no idea if Will was also a dreamer, but if he was he’d probably understand the meeting behind her comment.
“I’ll say,” Will said, wondering if Liv’s comment about the pull had anything to do with the dreams. On the other hand, it could have just been referring to the sun and the beach, which was one of the original reasons Will had chosen the OC, aside from the fact that it felt like this is where he belonged. No one ever got anywhere without being bold… “Do you get strange dreams too?” he asked, hoping that he didn’t come across as someone who was weirdly nosy.
Will’s question only confirmed Liv’s suspicion. So of course she gave him an honest answer. “Yeah,” Liv replied with another sip. “It’s strange how many people I know seem to.”
“Maybe not that strange,” Will said. “It seems like the Network is pretty busy.” He definitely hadn’t memorized everyone on it, but it seemed like most of the people on the Network seemed to experience some sort of strangeness with their dreams. “Makes you wonder what it is about this place that makes these things happen though.”
“I’ve learned to stop questioning these things,” Liv said grabbing a wing. She pulled some hot sauce out of her purse and put it on the wing. The first one hadn’t been spicy enough for her. “What are your dreams like?”
“Confusing,” Will said, emphatically and with a bit of a laugh. “I’m not sure if I could describe what they’re like even if I was given a lifetime. They’re frustrating, and sad, and scary, but there’s joy in them too.”
“That’s a bit like life,” Liv commented. “Although I suppose life isn’t usually described as scary,” she paused, “unless you live here.”
Will snorted into his beer and took another wing. “Yeah, unless you live here,” he echoed, taking a bit of his wing. “By the way, do you always carry around your own hot sauce?”
“I do, yeah,” Liv replied taking another sip of her jalapeno margarita. “I like things spicy.” To emphasize her point she grabbed another wing and put some more hot sauce on it. “You want some?” she offered to Will. After all he was sharing his wings, she could share her hot sauce.
“I hadn’t guessed,” Will teased. “But yeah, I’ll try some,” he said. Will didn’t go out of his way to eat spicy food too often, but it was a nice treat once in a while, and he thought he had had pretty good tolerance for it. He took one of the wings, sprinkled some of Liv’s hot sauce on it, and took a bite.
“Not bad,” he said, chewing thoughtfully. “It has a bit of a,” but what it had a bit of was cut off by the surprised moan once the spiciness started really kicking in. Eyes watering, he reached for his beer, and gulped down several large swallows, though they didn’t seem to do much in terms of abatting the pain.
Liv couldn’t help but laugh as she watched Will’s reaction. She had seen that type of reaction before, almost every time someone tried to eat as spicy as her. “You okay there, Gorski?” Liv asked unable to keep the smile off her face.
Will finished off the rest of his beer and put the glass back on the table, his eyes still watering. “You trying to kill me, Moore?” he teased, and lifted his hand to wipe his eyes. He stopped himself at the last minute, and grabbed one of the wet naps they’ve been given and wiped his hands first. That was a mistake he’d made far too many times as a teenager.
“Not my fault you can’t handle some spice,” Liv teased right back. She laughed again as Will wiped his hands before wiping his eyes. At least he remembered to do that. “I think you’ll live.”
“Guess I foiled your plans,” Will said with a wink, waving down a server so that he could order another pint of beer.
“Damn it!” Liv said snapping her fingers. “Guess I’ll just have to keep you around then.”
“Too bad,” Will said, grinning. Will had been thinking that he would just go home, alone, with his wings, watch some TV, and maybe have a visit with Kala and Lito if the powers that be thought that was in the cards. But he far happier at the turn the evening had taken instead.
Out of the corner of her eye Liv saw her team score a touchdown. “Hell yeah!” she exclaimed even jumping up out of her seat and giving Will a high five. “You staying for the rest of the game?” she asked sitting back down. It was her way of inviting him to stay.
Will grinned, and turned in his seat for a better view of the TV. “You bet I am.”