I remember you

[Lovely]

September 10, 2010
6:10pm


The sky had turned from the beautiful blue she loved to the dark grey ominious clouds that were bringing the rain, she could smell it in the air and shoved her hands into the pockets of the light, hooded, zip-up, sweatshirt she wore over the plain v-neck tee shirt. Wesley looked like any normal girl walking down this quiet road in her faded jeans and sneakers, her hair in a ponytail. She wanted to look normal though she knew she was far from it. She wondered how many others, besides what was left of her own family, were out there hiding, trying to blend into a world that they just didn't fit into? She sighed and her head turned slightly, there was a vehicle coming though it was far enough down the road that she couldn't see it yet with the turns and hills. Wes curled her fingers around the cheap, pre-paid, throw away cell phone in one pocket and the keys to the house she hoped was still standing, in her other pocket. It had been many years since she'd been here.. she'd been a kid.. barely had her first kiss. She smiled at the memory of the boy and of being that young, hiding behind the barn while his father and her father talked about crops and animals.

The truck was kicking up dust for now, but the rain would start soon and mist it down. He hoped there wouldn't be too much of it to turn the road muddy. His balding tires weren't the best on the dry road as it was. Garrett was driving fast with nowhere to go, really, but there was the old farm up ahead where he could wait out the storm if needed to. He crested the hill, looking up at the dark sky to see a flash of lightning traveling through the clouds. Putting his attention back on the road he saw the hiker and considered the distance to any safe place which wasn't being the tallest point on the road in a thunderstorm. She didn't seem to be looking for gas for a car unless she'd lost it in the field somewhere a ways back and he didn't remember passing any stalls along the way. He slowed as he came up on her, pretty certain no other cars were going to pass by for a while. He reached over to roll down the window to yell out, "Where you headed? Storm's coming."

She had to fake being surprised by the truck pulling up since she'd known it was coming long before it got there, Wes gave a shy smile to the man. She suddenly wondered what had happened to that boy from behind the barn.. she hadn't thought about that in years. He probably died or had years of therapy to convince him he wasn't crazy. "Home." She replied with a distant sadness in her eyes. "I know. I saw the clouds." She let go of the phone to point up toward the grey expanse of sky. She hated to get wet most of the time.. she only liked it when she wanted to. Her hand went back into her pockets and she smiled again, shrugging her shoulders a bit. She'd been walking for days and other than a little dust from this road, she'd kept herself very clean, she didn't like being dirty either.

"Think you can trust a crazy old coot that would hate to see a pretty lady get all wet? Give you ride up to the next stop?" He smiled like a half-shy not-so-crazy boy who genuinely didn't want to see her uncomfortable, or worse get struck by lightning.

"I know better than to trust anyone." She smiled even though she mostly meant the comment. "But I hate getting wet.. so if you won't be too offended that I don't trust you.. and you're still offering a ride?" She set her hand on the door handle, giving the sky a slight glare before bringing her pretty blue eyes back down to shine at the man in the truck.

"Takes more than an honest answer to offend me," he smiled, keeping his hand on the wheel but offering the other to introduce himself. "Don't have to trust me, though most everyone around here would say you can. Garrett."

[Lovely]

She chuckled softly at his answer to her question, that was refreshing since alot of people would get offended by her answer. "I have always found it's best to make your own judgements about people rather than rely on the opinions of others.. though I'll take the reccomendations into consideration." She pulled the door open and was climbing up into the cab when he reached out his hand and gave his name. It threw her for a moment and she paused, with the door still open and herself halfway in. It couldn't be.. no, of course not.. that was just silly. She shook her head a little and pulled the door closed as she settled into the seat, reaching to take his hand. "Wesley." She smiled as she introduced herself, trying to shake off that odd feeling.

"Wesley," he nodded, smiling a little more sharply, holding her hand still. Her name hung in the air and he looked a little pale. "You... used to live up at the farm," he said, pointing up the road. "That farm. You probably wouldn't remember me," he said, a little embarrassed now, and perhaps a little hopeful. He chuckled as he took his hand back and gripped the wheel.

She had only been shaken two other times in her entire life and one of them was because of him, she was shaken again in this moment, to find that he knew her.. he remembered her. Wesley paled a little as well, swallowing as she curled her hand in her lap and looked down to her fingers, her nicely manicured nails. She nodded a little and brought her gaze up to stare out the front windshield. "Yeah.. I used to live at that farm.. and I remember you.. You were my first kiss." She spoke softly as if not wanting to bring up the bad memories with the good.

He pinched his lips as she mentioned the kiss. He surely remembered it and her. "First kiss," he echoed quietly with a faint chuckle that rocked his shoulders as he looked out at the darkening road. It was an ominous reminder of the rest suddenly. "It was my first blood transfusion," he shrugged, wondering if the conversation was about to turn toward comparing their various battle scars since.

Wes was silent for a moment, staring out the window and then closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. "I am so sorry.." Her eyes were damp when she opened them and she shook her head. "I know it doesn't change anything.. but I never meant to hurt you.. you scared me with the hands and tongue and.. I'm not making excuses or blaming you.. I just reacted and.. I'm so.. so.. sorry.. Just.. just pull over and let me out. I'm the last person you'd want to give a ride to or.." She curled her hand into a fist, angry with herself for what she'd done. ".. anything. I'm glad to know you made it.. I worried, we left so fast..." She rambled on and waited for him to pull the truck over.

"I don't go back on my promises," he said almost sharply, turning to face her. "Said I'd get you up the road and keep you out of the storm. I'm sorry," he said, softening a little bit. "I'm ... I'm not mad, okay? I just never knew why, or whether I'd actually hurt you. I got out of the hospital and you were gone. Thought all this time it was my fault."

"You don't owe me anything.. I hurt you very badly.. It was never your fault.. you didn't hurt me.. my parents thought it was for the best that we leave before you told anyone what happened.." Her voice trailed off and her fist clenched tighter. "..they tried to protect us, we left, gave up everything, stayed away from people so no one else got hurt.. and hunters came anyway.. it doesn't matter where we go or what we do.." Her nails were digging into her palm. "I shouldn't have come back here.. they will come here and kill more of us."

[Lovely]

He shook his head. "Wait... wait a minute. What happened? What happened was I crossed the line and you had every right to try to rip my face off. Okay, maybe not literally since that nearly happened, but they stitched me up good and I lived to tell about it. But, what's to tell? I lost a lot of blood and they thought I was hallucinating. I wasn't though, was I?"

"You weren't imagining anything.. I never meant to hurt you.. it was an accident!" The tears were burning her eyes for what had happened then and what had happened a few days before. "But no one believes it or understands it, if they know we're different.. because we are different they think we're monsters.. they are the ones who are monsters, they are the ones who hurt us and kill children!"

He pulled a tissue out of the box on the dash and pulled over to the side though they hadn't gone far. He reached for her hand. "Now you're bleeding. Let me see that," he said. A close strike of lightning a short distance up the road blinded and deafened him a moment and a small patch of dry grass at the roadside smoldered where the truck would have been. "Then I know what I saw.. and I know what I felt didn't change much because of it," he said, blinking against the blur from the flash.

"But you're different.. you were always different.. thats why I let you kiss me.." She started to pull her hand away from his grasp but let him take it and looked out the window at the flashes of lightning. "It will heal fast.. it's one of the perks of being a monster." She opened her hand to let him see her palm. "I didn't know where else to go.. so I came back here.. to find out if it was safe for us or to figure out somewhere else that might be."

He smiled a little bit. "Different's not so bad. You get to see things nobody else wants to and couldn't explain even if they did. Like monsters, which you're not. Even then I didn't think so. At least I don't remember that I thought so. I went over it again and again, what I thought I saw, and not once did I ever think, hey that Wesley, she's a monster. Nope, I pretty clearly remember in my teen-aged squeaky voice saying to myself, man that Wes sure is hott even if she's got claws and knows how to use them."

"Not everyone thinks the way you do. I wish more people did.." She sighed and flexed her hand, showing him that it wasn't bleeding now. "How could you think I was hott after I practically killed you?.. If only there were more people half as forgiving as you. We kept to ourselves and didn't bother anyone.. all these years we stayed in the outskirts and they still came with their big guns because one of my brothers made the mistake of falling for a girl.. she wasn't as accepting and no one hurt her.."

His steel-colored eyes darkened a little at the thought of others coming after her and her family. "Could be why folks around here trust me like they do. I see folks with my heart, not my eyes all the time, though they still see quite a bit they like. Apology accepted, Wesley, now let me take you home," he said, sounding more like the boy she'd remember from school so many years ago.

"Well.. I wouldn't want to mess up the good things you have going for you here.. You have trust and that's important.. probably have a nice family, a pretty wife to treat you good and a few beautiful kids.." She'd missed him more than she'd probably ever tell him and her sweet, school girl adoration had not faded in all these years or in finding him here and still quite handsome. "I wondered about you but didn't really expect to find you here.. I'm sorry.. I won't stay.. I'll just gather a few things and let you go back to your life.. without much trouble. Some bad memories of me and a ride.."

[Lovely]

"I have a truck," he corrected, petting the dash and blowing it a kiss. "Never did get married, cuz I couldn't find Cinderella again after the ball. Then there was this storm one day and whoosh, she blew right back into my lap. At least that's where I'd hope she'd be if I wasn't driving her home right now."

His reply cut off her train of thoughts and any words she might have returned as she stared at him in a bit of shock. "Your Cinderella, huh?" She finally got something out beyond the blush in her cheeks and the curl of her toes, purely flattered by his words. "She could be in your lap.. later.. You know.. she sort of owes you a make-up kiss.. if you wanted one that is..?"

He went a little pale again then chuckled. "Let's work up to that, okay? I'm all for working up to that." He looked out at the sky, awed and frowning a little. "Doesn't look like it's clearing up much for love nor money. Better get moving or get inside before the hail starts. Homeward bound, huh? It's good to have you back in town, Wesley. Things were getting a little dull around here."

"Ohh.." Her hopes fell again as she offered the kiss and was rejected, she'd seen how pale he got. "Some Cinderella.." She muttered to herself, her head shaking a bit as her gaze went to the window and then she sighed. She should have expected as much, or maybe not let her hopes get up that he actually meant any of the nice things he'd said to her. "I don't have a home.. not anymore. I went and screwed that up over twenty years ago. It's not good that I'm here.. not good at all."

What had he said wrong? His smile went crooked and he sped up the truck a little as the wind picked up around them. "What do you mean? Home's where it always was - just up the road there. I think you'll be surprised it's been kept pretty much the same. And me? I think it's good you're here, but that's just me," he said.

"It means I lost home when I hurt you... when we had to leave and go live in the hills because of me. Everything that has happened since then, has been my fault.. and I'm not staying.. You don't think it's good.. how could you after what I did to you? It doesn't matter.. at least now I'm not wondering, I didn't kill you and I am glad for that.. I really am.. You don't have to say things you don't mean or anything.. I'm not going to attack you if you're not super nice to me, okay?" She sighed again and shook her head, she was frustrated and hurt. "I don't expect the house to be like it was.. it's been abandoned for twenty five years.."

"I don't say anything I don't mean," he defended. "I don't say much of anything unless I do mean it. The boys around here don't take much to idle chatter, so I get right to the point and if I don't have one I keep it to myself. Unless it's poker night," he clarified, glancing back with a more guilty grin. The rise in the road kept the farm hidden still and the rain began spattering the windshield in heavy drops. He went quiet a moment as the wipers squeaked them away. "Abandoned but kinda kept up and looked after to keep the vermin out and squatters from roosting too long."

She shook her head, keeping her gaze averted and only looking out the window as she listened to him defend himself and go on."Fine.. you mean it.. you think it's good I'm here.. I can't even begin to imagine why you'd think it was good in any way.. but fine.. you do." She gave in on that, closing her eyes to hold back her tears as the rain started splattering the windshield. "How do you know so much about it being looked after... by who?"

"Folks who've been around here long enough to care about most anything that goes on out here, namely me. I have a little help now and then, but lately it's been more 'then'. Not that many volunteers any more and no money to pay worthwhile help. Pretty much I go out to check on the cats and keep the weeds knocked down."

[Lovely]

She was shocked into silence for several moments, just staring at him from where she sat against the door of the truck. He had been looking after things and paying others to? The only word she managed to get out was also her baffled question. "Why?" It made no sense to her that anyone would care what happened to the place, her family had been gone so long. It made even less sense that it was the guy she'd hurt and the whole reason they'd left. Her father had been very sad and he never got over it, Wes had always assumed that he just couldn't sell the place even if the family would never go back.

"Just me," he shrugged, nodding down the hill to the farm at the end of the road that stretched out another couple of miles ahead of them. "Still standing and trying to keep it that way. Would be a shame to see it fall down or get burned."

Well that explained it, this was just some kind of charity or community like project he felt he had to do, it had nothing to do with her family.. though it was still weird that he would try to take care of the house that belonged to the girl who nearly killed him. "If my father were alive, he would be touched, I'm sure. I should thank you.. for him and for me, since I'll have a place to hide till the rain passes.. but I should also tell you.. not to waste your time anymore.. and definitely not your money.. it's not right for you to waste either on an empty house."

"It's not empty anymore," he countered softly. "It's never been a waste of time, or money. Stop trying to get me to go away so quick, okay? Let's just say I had a little more hope than most should have."

"Is there someone living there?" She asked, wondering if maybe his motives for fixing the place had to do with whoever had taken up residence in the house. "Hope about what?" It didn't make sense.. nothing made sense and hadn't for what felt like a very very long time and she just needed one thing to be clear. One thing she could know for sure, could count on or be solid when her entire world was once again ripped apart - literally! Was one thing too much to ask for? Probably.

"Hopefully you will be. I mean, you're not exactly traveling like a girl who really only wanted to pick up a little and leave again after this many years.. at least not things. You were a lot smaller then. Information though? Maybe some bits of the past? Okay, you weren't expecting to run into me, but you came back for some reason other than stuffing an overnight bag. Didn't you?" He thought he'd figured it out and then glanced at her, almost in a panic that she would leave again and he'd never have a chance to really tell her all he'd always wanted to. "What if I asked you to stay?"

She was once again surprised and confused by his answer, she noted the change in his tone as well as his scent and her gaze drifted back to him, seeing how he looked at her. "I'm travelling like a girl who doesn't have anything to pack. This is everything I own." She motioned to what she was wearing and her other hand brushed over the keys in her pocket. "And a house full of the past.. I didn't expect to run into you.. I half expected that the house wouldn't even be there anymore.. I just didn't know where else to go.. this was the place I remembered us being happy.. it felt safe back then.. protected.. that's why I came back.. I just need to feel that way again." This time when she blinked the tears wouldn't be held back and a few slipped down her cheek. "I wouldn't think you would ask me to stay, but if you did.. I guess I'd start by asking you why?"

[Lovely]

"I never wanted you to leave in the first place. I didn't get a chance to ask you stay then, but I'll be damned if I miss that chance now," he said, slowing down as they came closer to the drive. He didn't want to turn in yet, or stop the truck so she could run away. "Still the same old place. I guess still the same old me, too. Stubborn."

"But.. why?.. why do you want me to stay?" If it was just to tell her he hadn't wanted her to leave back then, well.. he'd just told her. Neither one of them had really had any choice in whether she stayed or left before, since she was just a kid.. they both were even though he was a little older. Wes remembered what it had felt like for her, but couldn't assume he felt that way then and couldn't now, not when so much time had gone by.

If he kept going, she'd have to ask why he drove on past. He chuckled and took a deep breath, turning in the drive and coming up alongside the house to finally stop the truck. If she wanted to run away, at least she might duck under the porch to get out of the rain that was coming down steadily now. Another close clap of thunder made him jump. "Why?" He turned to her. "Cuz when I saw you walking down the road, it woke me up. In here." He patted the pocket of his woven shirt and leaned on the steering wheel. "When I found out it was you, it was...," he paused, looking at the rain coming off the old roof in sheets over the edges of the gutters that needed work. He'd done a lot, but there was a lot left to do to keep the place up. He bit his lip a little, trying to find what he was trying to say in that straight-to-the-point way. "It was the glass slipper on the right foot, Wes. I kept hoping that one day you'd come back. Just me, I guess," he smiled.

Her eyes washed over him as he chuckled, she wondered what he found amusing and wished for a moment that she could read minds, his scent wasn't easy to read. It was probably her own tumbling emotions which got in the way, and perhaps his own, but she couldn't just sniff and read him like she could most people. She got as much of a mixed signal from his scent as she did his words and reactions to her. "Glass slipper..." She sighed and followed his gaze out the window, trying to put her thoughts and words together. Slowly she turned herself on the seat to face him, resting her hand over her curled leg. "What good is the right fit if the mere thought of kissing me makes you turn whiter than a ghost? I mean.. that sounds all kinds of wrong and not very right to me. Why hope I'd come back if you're scared of me? You know when I imagined finding you again, it was more the kiss and the happily ever after part of the fairy tale since we'd already been through the bad parts. And yes.. I thought about it... more than I'll ever admit.. but I did."

His eyes widened a little with his smile as she admitted a few things herself. "Because maybe.. it's not you I was afraid of. I seem to remember your dad being a little rough around the edges and stealing a kiss meant risking a little more than a few scratches from you. I'm just older Wes, not necessarily wiser and definitely...," he paused, reaching out for her hands and for her as he leaned closer. "Not afraid of you, or these."

"Over twenty years later you're still scared of my dad?" Her eyebrow arched up, almost amused and her eyes lowered to look at his hand over hers. "He's not really the one you had to worry about anyway.. my father was really peaceful.. my mother was the fierce one. She just hid it behind sweet smiles and homemade cookies." Wes smiled sadly now, thinking of her parents and of all the family members she'd recently lost. It was enough to nearly break the dam and she stiffled a small sob, trying to shake it off but her hand turned and she gripped his. "I wish we were back then and that all you had to fear was my dad getting mad over a stolen kiss."

[Lovely]

"Did he get a bigger gun?" He looked for a moment like he'd pale again, but he didn't, gripping her hand back gently and leaning for another kiss. "I'm joking. Not afraid anymore, except maybe that you'll leave again. What's a few scratches, hm?"

"He never used his gun.." She started to cry even as he tried to kiss her, it was just too much and she shook her head, trying to get herself under control. "He's dead.. they killed him!" She crumpled face down against the seat, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed, she tried but couldn't make it stop right now.

Garrett reached to put an arm around her but the seat didn't let him do so comfortably. He got out of the truck and ran around to her side, opening the door and grabbing his jacket from behind the seat to cover her. "I'm getting you inside," he said, water streaming over his worried features as he tried to pull her into his arms.

Wes was a strong girl but Garrett pulled her into his arms easily and she didn't fight his efforts, curling her arms around his shoulders. Her face burried in his shoulder, the sobs continued and she didn't even protest the rain that was making them both wet as he carried her up to the door. "I'm sorry." She tried to apologise, sucking in a breath that shuddered out with her tears.

The door of the truck creaked closed and he moved as fast as his legs could carry them both up the steps to the old porch. He was shaking and almost stumbled as he got to the door, not remembering if it was locked or not, but hoping it wasn't. He wasn't above kicking in the old timber, but thought twice about it if she was going to stay there alone. He didn't want her staying anywhere she couldn't close the place up. He could always stay, he considered as the doorknob turned and the walls shuddered with a close clap of thunder. The hair on his neck bristled with the close-by discharge that lit the air in light and scent of ozone that breezed through behind them as he closed the door with his foot. Many of the chairs that had been left in the place were covered with sheets and he set her down on the closest. "Glad I didn't let them sell off all of them," he muttered, staying wrapped around her for the moment once she was in the chair. "I'm sorry Wes. I didn't know.. no idea. I didn't mean to.. I didn't mean to," he pleaded, sorry to his core that he'd upset her so much.

By the time he got her down in the chair she was clinging to him, she wouldn't have let him go if he had tried to move away, the tears spilling off her cheeks and onto the front of his shirt. "They killed momma.. tried to kill us all.. that's why I had to come." She stammered out, shaking her head as he apologised. "Not your fault.. I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to cry.."