Hyde Park, Sunday Afternoon
House had been called on another page to the hospital, except that this one actually appeared to be an emergency, so Geoff decided to take the time to do a little exploring. He'd told House not be concerned if he wasn't there when the doctor returned, and pulling on his coat headed out into town
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Packing the books into her backpack, Shane grabbed her skateboard and ran to catch the el, already making plans to stop on the way back and pick up something for herself and Tara for breakfast.
Getting off at her stop, she heads out of the station and hops on her board as soon as she hits sidewalk, the early morning light glinting off the lenses of her aviator shades. Lowering one foot to the pavement to give herself the occasional push, she scans the path ahead as well as surrounding her, keeping an eye out for pedestrians as she cruises up along the sidewalk that skirts the park.
As she's riding along, she looks over at the trees and notices something strange. A bit of yellowish-orange something poking out from behind a tree. Squinting a little, she reaches up and lifts her sunglasses so that she can see without impediment. Her heart skips a beat and then stops entirely as the sidewalk curves, allowing her to see who's sitting beneath the tree.
Mother fuck. It couldn't be.
Hurriedly leaning her weight back on her right foot as it rests at the back end of the skateboard, she skids to a stop and almost trips over the board, she's in such a hurry to hop off. Scooping it up, she trots the few yards back to the spot and then her steps slow, muffled in the spare, dry grass.
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The sound of a skateboard -- and for someone from the fourteenth century, that's not a sound that's easily forgotten -- draws his attention, because it has a bittersweet memory attached to it. Turning his head, Geoff looks toward the source of the sound.
And his eyes widen, jaw dropping, as he sees a surprisingly familiar figure.
"Shane?" He stands, taking a step as he squints a little, trying to be certain. "Sweet Jesus. Shane!"
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It's him.
Pulling her sunglasses off, her eyes are wide behind them... wide and astonished and beginning to fill with tears.
It can't be. It's not possible.
It shouldn't be... but it is.
He said it - he said her name and it's him and he's really here and she should talk, now, she should say something but all she can do is stare and keep staring, a tear slipping down her cheek when she finally has to blink.
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Except that it couldn't possibly be anyone else. And a couple of hesitant steps brings him close enough to see that she's crying. Which strangely enough tells him that he's right after all.
"Lady Shane," he says again, and then he's moving quickly toward her, until he's close enough to pull her into a tight embrace.
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Words are failing him, as they do on rare occasions, and he stops asking questions that he knows can't be answered anyway, tightening his arms around Shane and holding her. "Don't cry, Lady Shane," he whispers. "Don't cry."
[ooc: Must sleep! SP tomorrow? :)]
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"It's really you," she whispers, voice husky and choked. "Oh, my god, it's really you... oh, my god..."
[ooc: Night! And yep! :D]
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Geoff gives Shane a teasing grin, trying to elicit a smile in return. It's been ages since he's seen her -- nearly a year, although if he's understanding what House told him about the time correctly, it's been closer to three or four months for her. Which is strange in itself, but not nearly so amazing as the two of them winding up in the same city again.
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She has so many things she wants to ask, so many questions and things she wants to say... but feeling his touch on her face somehow makes him even more real than the hug did and she's blinking back more tears as she lets out a ragged laugh which is skirting the edges of complete and total breakdown.
She reaches up, a hand settling on each of his cheeks, as she looks up at him. "I missed you so fucking much," she whispers fiercely.
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But at the moment, he's really thinking more about the fact the person who means more to him than anyone in the world is staring him in the face, when he'd resigned himself to the fact they'd he'd never see her again.
"I've missed you too, Lady Shane. More than I can say."
And now there are tears running down his face as well, and he laughs. "We're quite a pair, aren't we?"
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"I wanted you here, for Christmas," she says softly, face pinched with anguish. "I wanted you here. I -- it was my first real Christmas and we had a tree and you weren't here and..."
Well, it was only a matter of time before she picked up Tara's penchant for babbling, but if seeing someone you haven't seen in nearly four months isn't cause enough for it? She doesn't know what would be. Still, she should stop. She doesn't want to make him feel guilty for not being there - it's not his fault she had to go. She shakes her head, shaking off the complicated feelings for the moment.
"I-I -- I took pictures... of the tree," she says, more tears streaming down her face as she sniffles. "It was -- it was really beautiful. It was so beautiful." She carefully wipes the tears from his face and then her own, rubbing them away with the corner of her sleeve. "We have a cat."
And it seems she's also picked up Tara's fondness for randomness in the midst of upset.
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It almost makes the six months of boredom and loneliness worth it, to see how excited she is, how much it means to her that he's here. "A cat? Do I get to meet him? And...is Tara, I mean...you're still with Tara, right? She's here too. And Kate."
If they're all here, and House is here, and now Geoff wonders if this might not be where Loz and his brothers went...something approaching normalcy might be raising its head, and he might really decide to stay this time.
For good. Literary fame be damned.
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With her left hand still resting on his face, she's surprised that Geoff didn't feel the ring. "Yeah, I -- Tara's -- Tara's ... yeah, we're still together," she says, nodding. A sweet and impossibly bright smile shapes her lips as she draws her left hand away from his face and fans her fingers out so that he can see the silver ring on her finger, the rainbow sheen on the moonstone setting shimmering in the sunlight, the effect only made more dramatic by the fact that her hand is shaking.
At the mention of Kate, her face falls and she purses her lips as she ducks her head. "She -- she's here, but... um. She mov -- she moved out a couple of weeks ago," she says softly, dark brows knitting, her voice sounding faintly strained again.
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He looks a little uncertain, because she hasn't said they've broken it off or that Kate has gone, just that she's moved out. Which isn't good, but isn't necessarily bad.
A thought suddenly strikes him, and he adds, "Are you in school here?"
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Shane nods deliberately, eyes looking suspiciously bright again though she manages to blink those tears back. "Yeah," she says quietly. "I -- Tara's been... spending time with her, but I j -- I just can't, I mean... I understand. Of course I understand... why she -- why she needed to move out, but I'm... it just -- it still hurts. That's all."
At Geoff's question, she blinks at him in bewilderment for a moment, but then the surprise smooths itself away and is replaced by a small smile. Slinging her backpack off, she unbuckles one of the flaps and pulls out a small, slim wallet and opens it. She pulls out a card and hands it over to him.
It's her Fandomtropolis University student ID.
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At the sight of the ID card, though, and the proud look on Shane's face, he grins broadly. Taking the card, he turns it over in his hand and then pulls her into a tight hug.
"Shane! I'm so glad. I know this was so important to, back at Fandom, and it didn't work out the way it should have. This is great! What are you studying?"
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