Captain William Laurence (betwixtsea_nsky) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-08 20:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, pidge gunderson, william laurence |
Who: Laurence and Pidge
What: Getting tethered together
Where: Laurence's apartment
When: Mid-February, first day of tethered plot
Ratings/Warnings: Low/none
Status: Complete
These days, it felt like Laurence spent more evenings sleeping in Mary’s guest room than he did his own. The two of them would often talk late into the night, and it was more convenient for Laurence to sleep in her spare room than to make the trek back home, just as it was improper to sleep in her room without a proper invitation.
The night before, however, had been unfortunately Mary free. He’d worked late, and had gone straight home, made supper, and fell fast asleep in his own bed, and awoke the next morning feeling refreshed, if not missing the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the breakfast in bed that Mary would, on occasion, make for him.
He opened his eyes and sat up, moved to get out of bed and bumped into…
Dear Lord, was that a person? He looked around the room to make sure he was, in fact, in his own bedroom and hadn’t somehow wandered into a neighbour’s suite without noticing it, as impossible as it would be, but no, this was clearly his own room.
Laurence quickly got out of bed. He debated getting changed out of his pinstripe cotton pyjamas in some attempt to preserve dignity, but decided that that would take too much time, and then stood at the side of his bed. “Excuse me,” he said, loud enough, he hoped, to wake the person, and waited to see if they would stir.
***
Pidge had meant to get to bed early (well early for them) the night before but they’d kept wanting to get through just one more line of code before calling it a night and had ended up staggering into their bed around 4 like every other morning. And they knew they’d left their television off the night before so how was there someone talking to them? Pidge opened their eyes, realizing after a moment that this wasn’t their room in their apartment. The bed was too big and comfortable and the furniture was definitely not theirs.
“Where am I? And who are you?” Pidge scrambled into a sitting position, back against the walls and legs pulled up close to their chest so that they felt at least slightly protected.
***
“You are in my apartment,” Laurence said, his tone clipped, frowning to himself. The young woman - it wasn’t immediately apparent, but Laurence worked with enough young women in his dreams who were forced to conceal their gender that he was fairly confident in his assumption - seemed confused enough that he hesitated in his original assumption - though he wasn’t quite sure what his original assumption had been. That she had broken into his home to… sleep next to him in his bed? It certainly didn’t seem like a very plausible explanation.
“My name is Will Laurence,” he said, his tone softening a little. “And who might you be?”
***
Clipped tones didn’t bother Pidge one bit. People had their own defense measures and a lot of the time they were verbal like that. Pidge did curl up a little tighter though, almost as if to make a smaller target even though every instinct was saying Laurence wasn’t going to actually lash out physically. There was still the cops to worry about since by being in his apartment, even though no clue how or why that had happened. “Pidge Gunderson. I’m not a burglar or anything. I just woke up here.”
***
“No, you’d be a very poor burglar if that was your intent,” Laurence said. Not too many would crawl into bed with the homeowner and then fall asleep. That, and Laurence was far from a heavy sleeper. If someone had broken in, he was sure that he would have woken.
“Tell me, do you Dream?” he asked. This sort of thing always seemed to happen to the other dreamers.
***
“I don’t. Not yet at least if the people on the Network are to be believed. They keep saying it’s only a matter of time until I start.” Pidge responded. The idea of some type of drug in the water supply was still preferable at times.
***
“Ah, so you’re on the Network,” Laurence said, his suspicions confirmed. “I myself began to get the dreams before I joined the Network.”
He straightened, and then went to get his house coat to wear over his pyjamas. It wouldn't do to change while she was here. “I can't say I understand why, but the least I can do is make us both breakfast before you go home. I suggest letting your parents know where you are; perhaps they can come pick you up. I have a house phone in the living room.”
***
Pidge frowned when Laurence suggested letting their parents know. “Mom’s on the other side of the country and dad’s gone. I’ll just take the bus back. My pass should be in my phone.” It was just a matter of finding where the phone had gotten too.
***
Laurence frowned, looking her over. “You’re hardly dressed for a bus ride,” he said after a moment. “And I’d be very surprised if your phone and your bus pass made the trip with you.” It wasn’t impossible, of course, though it seemed unlikely. Still, it wasn’t as though Laurence truly understood the whims of the county. “You are free to look, of course, but I will drive you back.” And then, after some consideration, he added “take as much time as you need to gather yourself.” From experience, he knew that it often took someone time to adjust to the strangeness of the county.
He left to go prepare breakfast, though he made it only halfway there before he felt a strange resistance, and then with a sudden snap, he was hurtling back into the bedroom, straight toward Pidge. He twisted, hoping against hope that he could help cushion the impact. He was broad-shouldered and well-muscled, and if he hit Pidge full on he did not suspect they would come out of it unscathed.
***
Pidge had reached the same conclusion as Laurence about the phone not having ended up here through whatever had caused this. “My keys probably didn’t come either then. Great.” They said starting to get out of the bed carefully before Laurence was barrelling back towards the bed.
Pidge tried to get out of the way as quickly as possible, sliding back onto the bed. They managed to get mostly out of the way but still took a blow right in the shoulder with one of Laurence’s. “OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT?” They shouted in pain.
***
Laurence’s lips tightened a little at the language, but he supposed he couldn’t fault them. He had been startled by the suddenness of it as well, and his shoulder throbbed where he’d hit Pidge, though not so much that he was concerned or did anything so undignified as clutch it.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, though he suspected he already knew the answer. Pidge seemed altogether too lively for someone who would be injured badly.
***
“I’m fine. I think. Why’d you do that?” Pidge asked, rubbing at their shoulder while giving Laurence a look that was just short of a glare.
***
“I can assure you that I had no part in that,” Laurence said. Even if he had wanted to go careening into the girl, he didn’t think that he was physically capable of going about it in such a way. “It would appear that we’re stuck together, at least for the time being.”
***
“Dreams. Zombies. And now stuck with someone I’d never met. I hate this County.” Pidge grumbled. Mostly to themself.
***
“Oh come now, it’s not as bad as all that,” Laurence said, though the dreams and the zombies could be a little much. He wasn’t exactly thrilled at being in such close quarters with a foul-tempered teenager either, but he would make the best of it if he had to. “Come now, let’s get some breakfast in you and try to work something out for where we go from here.”