(Untitled)

[notenlightened]

Reese is in the Conrad common room. There's a book resting open in her lap, but she hasn't turned a page in the last twenty minutes. She's deep in thought - mostly about this situation she seems to have gotten herself in with Crews, but also, also inconveniently, her thoughts are drifting to what her father might say if he knew about this entire

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[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn has missed the Conrad. He's just back to visit briefly, to check in on his old room (still unoccupied, thank goodness) and just generally putter around. He's been feeling rather nostalgic as of late.

He wanders into the common room, where there's a stranger sitting reading. He pauses for a moment to try to see what exactly she's reading, but he can't seem to make it out, so he'll just ask.

"What are you reading?"

[notenlightened]

To be fair, she's still not exactly reading, because having a book is giving her an excuse to think, as destructive a habit as that is. But she took this book thinking that Crews wouldn't miss it, and so far, he hasn't come around looking for it, so he must not need it too much right now.

She looks up, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, and turns the left side of the book up so he can read the cover: The Island of the Day Before.

"Don't know much about it, to be honest," she admits. "I kind of just picked it up today."

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn nods. "I've never heard of it," he admits. "Then again, I haven't had much time for reading in the past." Except he now sort of does. He furrows his forehead at this realization, then shrugs. "Well. Any good? At least, so far?"

[notenlightened]

"Slow starting," she answers, remembering what Crews had said about it before. Really, he hadn't been lying.

"I hear it gets better eventually, though," Reese adds, and there's a brief smile that appears.

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn nods. "Ah," he says awkwardly. "That's good, I suppose. A lot of good books are slow in the beginning." He pauses. "I can't think of any right now, but." He shrugs. "Like I said before, I haven't had much time to read lately."

This is so awkward. Vaughn is bad at talking to girls.

[notenlightened]

"So what changed?" Reese asks. She might be as equally bad as Vaughn is about talking to the opposite sex, but one thing she does know how to do is interrogate.

"You said you didn't have time to read in the past. Which sort of implies that you have time now."

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn fidgets for a minute. "I came through the Rift," he admits. "Lost my job. And, uh. Other personal stuff. People I loved. A normal Wanderer experience, really, but." He shrugs.

[notenlightened]

"Oh."

Reese wasn't exactly expecting that answer, and the look of sympathy shows that.

"I - I'm sorry."

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn shakes his head. "No. Things have turned out well," he smiles at his feet. Not necessarily well, but... he keeps telling himself they could be worse. He could be without Sydney. He could have never met Babel. There are so many things that could be worse.

"And anyway, I'm sure you're missing people as much as I am." He smiles. "We all leave people behind, even if you're not a wanderer."

[notenlightened]

And Reese knows that look. That oh, things are okay, but they could always be less than okay look. She's kind of perfected that look, with Crews, to get him off her back.

"Missing people? I don't know if I'd say that." Her family, sure. Her father, not so much. And it's a little easier, having Crews here with her.

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn shrugs. "Well then. Not missing people." He shrugs. "The transition is easier for some." He pauses, then shakes his head. "I'm sorry. I keep assuming you're a wanderer. I don't know, maybe it's because I am. I'm Michael Vaughn, by the way." He reaches out a hand for Reese to shake.

[notenlightened]

"Oh," Reese murmurs, and shakes her head quickly. "No, I am - a wanderer, I mean. I just didn't think we were supposed to go around telling people that.

"I'm Re--" She cuts herself off, resisting the reflex to introduce herself by last name only. "Dani Reese."

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn shakes his head. "I understand," he says. "It's generally not a good idea, but here..." he gestures around the common room. "It's a safe place. You are safe here. Probably the one place in the whole city where it's okay to disclose who and what you are."

He smiles a little at her, and takes her hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Reese."

[notenlightened]

She does feel slightly more at ease, especially due to the fact that he was pretty forthcoming with his status here. Reese likes to pride herself on her ability to weed out lies, and so far, this guy reads clean.

She opens her mouth, ready to correct him, to tell him she's a detective, but then closes it again. Maybe that part's not so important here.

"And you, Mr. Vaughn," she answers. "But Dani - Dani's fine. Or Reese, if you prefer."

[stillaboyscout]

Vaughn's bad at lying. He'll be pretty obvious when he lies. But right now, he has no real need to lie to Dani--Reese--this woman.

He nods. "Dani, then," he says, because it's the first name she gives him. First option anyway. "And just Vaughn is fine. Really." He smiles a little bit.

[notenlightened]

Sometimes, Reese lies like it's her job. But only when she deems it necessary. And never on the job.

Now, she couldn't be any further away from L.A., and her job, and her responsibilities, so really, it would be almost easy to lie. But something about her senses that this Vaughn guy is pretty trusting. So she doesn't.

"Vaughn, then," she says, and there's a smile there, too.