Day 26, Mid Afternoon Who: Dan Dreiberg and Andy Gallagher What: Trying to be useful Where: Thrift Shop When: Day 26, Mid Afternoon Rating: PG Status: Active
It was a game he'd played ever since he was just a boy. Sometimes if he thought hard enough about something or someone he'd dream about them. He'd laid down on the uncomfortable cement floor of the gas station to settle in for the night, knowing that his back would be killing him when he woke up and that there would be some other strange experiment just waiting around the corner for him and the other people here and he'd closed his eyes and thought of her. It was the same dream he'd had that night that they'd almost made love but hadn't. One moment they were there standing face to face and the next they were skeletons then dust.
He'd woken up an hour before dawn and hadn't been able to get back to sleep. It felt like she was always on his mind in this place. Even more so that he'd gotten to go back and see her when she was young. He'd tried to talk to her, to tell her how he'd felt but the words hadn't come for him. She'd been barely older than just a girl when he'd found himself at the last Watchmen meeting with the Comedian. It hadn't made things any better when he'd gone after Adrian because he wasn't yet the Adrian that would later put everything in motion. They'd all been so young and fresh and hopeful. Even Rorschach hadn't been quite as dark and twisted as he would be a few years later. He could remember being there the first time and how full of himself he'd been. He and Rorschach had been fighting the gangs for almost a year then and making some serious headway. He was living out his fantasy of being the Night Owl. He hadn't known that in a couple of years costumed heroes would be outlawed and he and his partner would go their separate ways. He hadn't realized that Laurie was more than just a pretty face or how dangerous knowledge could be to a man like Adrian. Being there again and not being able to tell anyone about what was to come had been the hardest thing he'd ever done. At least until he'd found himself back in Vas and there'd been no version of Laurie at all.
He'd needed something to keep himself busy and so he'd started taking inventory of the small gas station and once that had been done he'd moved down the road to the thrift shop. A bigger job, definitely, but one that was sure to take up more time and maybe get Laurie off his brain.