A/N: Found out a few of my regular costumers have passed away this week. One, I just found out recently, and it was really weird that they won't be coming in anymore. So, this one is for them. Plus, I wanted to play around with Tilly and Joe some.
Closing
Time:
By: LOSTrocker
Tilly was closing up when a familiar voice
on the stage got her attention.
"You look like you could use a
break,"
Tilly was surprised when she looked up and saw who
it was. "Joe?" she
questioned with a raised eye brow. "What
are you doing here?"
"You know the last time I checked,
this place was mine." He reminded her
with a smile. "I can
come and go whenever I want,
you know."
"I know, but what about-" Tilly was going to
list the number of things
she had to do before closing this place
up for the night but Joe stopped her.
"It's not going
anywhere, and I'm not either unless you come up
here," he made
known, motioning her to the stage.
Tilly took a step back and
shook her head. "I don't think so Dawson, I
gave up singing
sometime ago."
"Now, why's that?" he asked her.
The urge to cry was becoming stronger every second. "You know why."
"Please, don't stop on my account.
C'mon," he insisted, with open
arms.
"You're not
going to stop bugging me unless I do this are you?"
Tilly asked
him. Joe smirked, giving her the
answer. "Damn you Dawson and
your stubborn ways,"
"You
love it, hell it's why you fell in love with me isn't it?"
he
returned with a laugh.
Tilly made herself comfortable
on his "lap". Joe slid his arms around her
with his guitar in
hand so she could reach for it to if she wanted to join in.
"Let's
see, what should it be tonight?" he asked her. "I guess blues
is
out of the question uh?"
She nodded. She wasn't in the
mood
for the blues tonight. He smiled. "I
think I have a good idea,"
Then Joe started to play one of her favorite
songs: "Have a
Little Faith in Me". It was one hell of a choice.
Tilly
didn't join in with Joe this time, at least for most part of
the
song. She joined in on the last part:
"…I Said, I
Will Hold You Up, I Will Hold You Up
Your Love Gives Me Strength
Enough
So Have A Little Faith In Me
I Said.....
All You
Gotta Do For Me Girl Is Have A Little Bit Of Faith In Me,
I
Said... I Said... Hey."
Tilly sniffed a little and put her
arms around him. Joe put his instrument
aside so he could get a
better grip on her. "Geez, it hasn't been five
minutes and you
guys are pulling that mushy gooshy stuff on me… Can't you
give
a guy a break?"
Tilly pulled apart from Joe and smiled when
she saw Richie had joined them.
She hopped
off Dawson so she could give her share of hugs to her old
pal.
"RICHIE!" she said happily. "What the hell are you
doing here Ryan?"
"Hey, a party, isn't a party unless
I'm on the scene," he declared.
"Could you at least liven
it up a little Dawson?" Richie pleaded to the
guitar player.
Joe laughed. "Give me a request, just none of that rap please."
"C'mon now, I got some skill!" Richie tried to say.
Tilly laugh. "You can't carry a tone Rich, hate to break it to you."
Joe chose a bit more up beat song this
time out of Richie's sake. "Drift
Away," by The Rolling
Stones. Richie couldn't sing,
it was true, but that
didn't stop him from doing it. Tilly tried
so hard not to laugh, but she
couldn't help it.
"Join
in please, he's killing me here." Joe whispered to Tills
but
Richie caught him.
"You're hurting me here man," Richie put on the dramatic routine.
Tilly tried to sing, but
laughter just over came here. It was really starting
to feel like
old times again. It made all the sad ones go away. She was so
lost
within herself she didn't know that someone else was there until
he
made his presence known.
"What's so funny?"
Tilly jumped out of her skin when Methos entered. "Dammit
Methos, give a
girl a warning next time," she said, clinging to
her heart.
"I did, remember, we planned this" his arms making a motion to encircle the room "this afternoon," Methos reminded her. "I offered you a ride home, and you accepted."
It came back to her. He'd stopped by for
his usual drinks. Lately, she
chose to walk home, but she took him
up on his offer when the rain decided to
pour. "Oh right,
sorry," she apologized, motioning her hand to her head as
if she
forgot.
Methos was a little concerned. "Are you all right?" he asked her.
"Yeah, believe it or not, I am." She
assured him with a smile. "Just,
um, let me close up. I got side
tracked for a minute."
As she went to clean up, the soft tapping of a cane caught her ear. She turned to the stage and found that Joe and Richie had took their leave. She smiled. They might be gone but it was nice to see they could visit every now and then.
Fin.
