Ava, by this time, has obtained her free first drink (a frothy coffee one, good God she has missed these), and is keeping one eye to the door to make sure it doesn't go away.
She tenses slightly when she hears the voice, then turns to identify its source.
And smiles a faint, deferential, but overall friendly smile.
Talley's going to have been AWOL for a month next Wednesday.
It still pisses Felix the fuck off that he didn't hear about that until two weeks ago. He's tempered it with his fair share of yes, sirs and thank you for letting me know, sirs, and it's not like they didn't have plenty of other people to notify before the twenty-three-year-old vet they sent home with half a leg.
But Goddammit, they were out there together for three years. Doesn't that warrant being a little higher on the list?
Now all he's got is a notebook with news clippings, a couple notes he's cobbled together from mutual buddies and Talley's family, and zero concrete leads on where he could have gone. Not that that's going to stop Felix from trying to find him.
Milliways, he's discovered, isn't a bad place to work on the problem.
They're half hidden by one of the other chairs at Felix's table, but get close enough and they're impossible to miss: a set of forearm crutches propped within easy reach.
He's only had the prosthesis strapped to his stump for...well, about as long as Talley's been missing. It's going to take a hell of a lot longer before he can walk on it without assistance.
Wearily, he rubs at his eyes and reaches for a nearby mug. Before his fingers can close around it, though, he catches movement in the corner of his eye.
Felix freezes; and then, a beat later, he darts a sharp look up.
Comments 253
(Azazel was more experimental in some of the earlier rounds.)
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He sips his coffee, then lowers the mug and smiles at her.
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She tenses slightly when she hears the voice, then turns to identify its source.
And smiles a faint, deferential, but overall friendly smile.
"I was wondering when you'd show up."
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"So did you know I'd end up here?"
Knowing about the place itself: kind of a given. Though sometimes she wonders if he put a GPS tracker in her skull or something while she was asleep.
It'd explain the headaches.
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It still pisses Felix the fuck off that he didn't hear about that until two weeks ago. He's tempered it with his fair share of yes, sirs and thank you for letting me know, sirs, and it's not like they didn't have plenty of other people to notify before the twenty-three-year-old vet they sent home with half a leg.
But Goddammit, they were out there together for three years. Doesn't that warrant being a little higher on the list?
Now all he's got is a notebook with news clippings, a couple notes he's cobbled together from mutual buddies and Talley's family, and zero concrete leads on where he could have gone. Not that that's going to stop Felix from trying to find him.
Milliways, he's discovered, isn't a bad place to work on the problem.
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Still, anyplace new beats Cold Oak, until they move on to whatever the final chapter's going to be, and she's content to wander around in the interim.
Newspaper guy interests her. Isn't that what detectives and journalists and ... scrapbookers do? Slowly, she ambles a little nearer.
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He's only had the prosthesis strapped to his stump for...well, about as long as Talley's been missing. It's going to take a hell of a lot longer before he can walk on it without assistance.
Wearily, he rubs at his eyes and reaches for a nearby mug. Before his fingers can close around it, though, he catches movement in the corner of his eye.
Felix freezes; and then, a beat later, he darts a sharp look up.
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"Hey! Sorry." (She tends to walk quietly by default now.)
"Nobody here but us chickens."
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