Sallie-Charlie, Sallie's apartment.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie has furniture now, and enough baking supplies that she can get into the swing of some normal things.

(She hasn't been home to Shadow since Waking Up, and she's aware of the need to at least see what happens there. But.)

Until further notice, she is at home in her apartment's kitchen working on a peach cobbler.

Comments

[52_dropoff]

There comes a knocking at the door.

Doing the knocking is Charlie. Over a week since things snapped back to normal - or perhaps to what could be called the new normal - and he hasn't seen her. He's a bit worried.

And he has to admit that he's been bursting with his big news and has to tell her.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie opens the door for the visitor before calling out from behind the door.

Charlie is so easy to smile for, some days.

"Wèi, Charlie."

[52_dropoff]

"Sallie...you're here. Hi." He smiles back. He feels oddly nervous. But also relieved. "I haven't seen you since...

"How are you?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"I'm...I'm okay, Charlie. And you. You're -- happy-lookin'."

Which is new-ish.

"Come in."

[52_dropoff]

He steps in. Sallie's quarters seem the same as ever, but subtly different.

Like so much else here of late.

"Thanks. And yes, I might be happy right now. Which is strange, isn't it? But I have a lot to tell you."

[realmrsreynolds]

Oh, please let this be good news.

"Um. Alright -- yes, please. Sit?" Sallie pulls a chair away from her new kitchen table and gestures for Charlie to sit down. "Can I get you somethin' to drink, or...?"

[52_dropoff]

"Just water, thanks." He sits in a comfy chair.

"So I assume you've been busy since the Crisis ended?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Oh yes. Everything and everyone needs somethin' to work on, permission to rebuild something, or just me needing to check in on patrons and the like."

And there's no time like the present.

"And Mike's been down for the count, so."

[52_dropoff]

"That has something to do with the bar being out of service, right?" He can feel Sallie's worry. "Anything I can do to help?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"You visitin' does more than you think it does."

Because Sallie's not required to explain herself. Not yet, at least.

"Thank you for that, by the way."

[52_dropoff]

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. I missed you." Pause. "And I had to tell you what happened to me." He tries not to smile too much. He's not sure he should be smiling that much anyway.

[realmrsreynolds]

Charlie admitted to missing me?

And he's still smiling.

Sallie's face drops. "What happened. Somethin' happened."

[52_dropoff]

"Well..." Build up to it, or jump to the point?

Sometimes, you do the explanations later.

"I'm alive again."

[realmrsreynolds]

"What!"

It's rather a shriek, all told.

[52_dropoff]

He tries not to smile too broadly as to further freak out Sallie.

But this, he would have to admit, is sort of fun.

"Something happened while I was in the lost and found box. I came unstuck in time." He doesn't think for a second that Sallie knows from Vonnegut.

[realmrsreynolds]

"Unstuck in time? Since when the good gorram is time something you can get unstuck from?"

First Mike, then Charlie - how many other folk got messed up on her say-so hiding in there?

[52_dropoff]

"The whole bar almost collapsed, so there's no reason to think that even time wasn't a bit unstable.

"And I've heard theories that timespace is actually more unstable than we guessed." Thus leading to Crises such as the one the Bar just weathered, in fact.

"But that doesn't matter. What matters is that my body thinks it's three years before my death."

[realmrsreynolds]

Very, very slowly:

"Will you live, this time?"

[52_dropoff]

She's sharp.

She always is.

No wonder he likes her so much.

"I don't know. I think, though, that the odds of going through what I went through are high. The only difference is that I have warning this time. Maybe I can act pre-emptively. Or find treatments here I could never find at home.

"But for now...for now I am alive again!" And the joy of that doesn't diminish just because the future is uncertain.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie is happy for Charlie. Really and truly.

Just...unsure. And uncertainty of late isn't as easy for Sallie to swallow as it might have used to be.

"What -- " Sallie starts, stumbles, starts again, "What do you plan on doing with this -- newfound life?"

[52_dropoff]

"I don't know yet. There's still no door, so home is out. Which I excepted." The other people he knew here who came back to life, they couldn't go home either. "But I have some ideas I'm forming.

"I could always head to Shadow and thumb a ride and see the future." He smiles in that way that says he's more or less kidding.

[realmrsreynolds]

He's so...happy.

"I just don't know what to say to all of this."

[52_dropoff]

"I know it's a lot to take in. And it's been such a strange few weeks that I doubt you have the brainpower to absorb it.

"But I needed to tell you." Who else would he share this with? "And also needed just to see how you're doing."

[realmrsreynolds]

"I'm..."

Sallie just shrugs. "I can't even describe all of it."

[52_dropoff]

"Describe some of it. Use words. Letters of the alphabet. Or pantomine. I have time." At least three years, he thinks.

[realmrsreynolds]

"Oh don't be smart with me," Sallie snaps. She turns on one heel and finds a chair to sit down in, not caring if Charlie follows or not. "You don't even get it, you big -- Ooh, I wish I didn't like you so much sometimes."

[52_dropoff]

"Er, no, apparently I don't."

He follows silently.

"You're right. I should not be a wiseguy. It's just the mood I'm in."

[realmrsreynolds]

"Of course it is."

This part sounds slightly deflated, staring down at her knees.

"I've watched a fair few of my friends die, you know. And you -- you're terrible important. And now...maybe I get to watch you die too. And trust me, please."

Looking up. (He looked so happy, just a few minutes ago.) "I am happy for you. You've been so miserable here with everything. I want this for you. But it's a lot, okay?"

[52_dropoff]

"For both of us. If it means anything, I have no plans to die this way again. It was too painful, for one thing. And it was only as I was dying that I learned how much I needed to live after all." He didn't let Renee in till he was past the point of no return. He now begins to understand that was a mistake. "I don't want to say for sure this time will be different. But I will not go down without a big fight.

"And thanks. For saying I'm important."

[realmrsreynolds]

"Did you think you weren't? After everything?"

[52_dropoff]

"I always did. But I was often accused of being an egomaniac." That coy smile returns. "To hear someone else say it...to hear you say it..." This is as close as he'll come to saying just how he feels now.

"Thing is, if I'm important, I need to do something useful with my life. I came close to wasting it a few times before. I can't do that again."

[realmrsreynolds]

"What do you think is useful?"

[52_dropoff]

"Well...I have this vague idea. Of trying to be a peacemaker.

"Of seeing if I can help people solve their violent problems.

"Without violence."

He used to revel in violence. He doesn't deny that. And he knows it's a violent world. But maybe it's time to try another way.

[realmrsreynolds]

"I think that's great, Charlie. Truly. And I need to be happy for you in that."

[52_dropoff]

"But you are not happy.

"It's not just me, is it?" This is a hint for Sallie to speak. Because if she doesn't take the hint, Charlie will not be too shy to ask less nicely.

[realmrsreynolds]

"It's just kind of all of it. You, Mike and Mel, things at home. My new...whatever it is. Talent."

[52_dropoff]

"Talent?" He's clearly coming in late to this.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie wiggles the fingers of her left hand in Charlie's direction.

"Seein' folk's recent thoughts. It's a thing."

[52_dropoff]

"Like mine? Now?" He looks amazed. Shocked, even.

[realmrsreynolds]

"Did I not tell you this?"

I guess it comes from the shock of the whole 'being alive again' thing.

"Came from the Bar, when everything was going haywire. I can touch folk, and sort of -- sort of see what they've been doin', or thinking recently. Just the top level o' things - I've been working with Charles to improve it."

[52_dropoff]

"We've both been busy." And he wonders if she's been hiding from him so he didn't have to find out about things.

"So it's purely on a touch basis. Meaning you can avoid it, even without training.

"Who's Charles?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Shi a, I can avoid it, so long as I don't mind never touching anyone."

Which is a problem for Sallie. A big one.

"Charles Xavier. Young guy; he's a good man."

[52_dropoff]

"Hard to go wrong with anyone named Charles," says Charles Victor Szasz. "I'm glad someone can help. I know telepathy can be difficult." Or so he's read. He never actually met any telepaths till now.

[realmrsreynolds]

"So...That's what's new with me."

Awkward.

"And you're more complicated than most."

[52_dropoff]

"I will need to meet my namesake and see who's more complicated." He gives a less coy grin.

"Could you cope with a hug about now?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Sure."

Sallie stands to do so - Charlie's always so tall - and is proud of herself when she doesn't flinch at the contact.

It's...easier, this time. To feel Charlie's concern for her, and curiosity, and always, always the unanswered questions.

[52_dropoff]

Funny that he never thinks of himself as tall. Maybe he just hung out with a taller crowd?

He returns the hug, silent, glad that they both made it. Glad that she will be there for him.