It was a dark and stormy night… Well, actually it was the sort of weather that had him quoting Bulwer-Lytton, and while overdramatic and now terribly cliché, it was a dark and stormy night.
"It's gonna rain, I can feel it," Elliot says as she begins the process of cleaning the fussy brass Italian monster that dominates a whole corner of his shop. Elliot told him it was an espresso maker, but JD had doubts. The thing grumbles and growls and hisses like a demon, steam billowing when anyone other than Elliot tried to use it. JD had made the mistake of trying to use it once, and had paid the price when ten hardbacks had suffered irreparable water damage.
"You're going to make Glenn angry if you keep glaring at him like that---," Elliot laughs, taking out her polishing rag and running it over brass fixtures lovingly. He quickly averts his eyes back out the storefront window---
---just in time to see a car slam into the jogger, rolling him up onto the hood of the car. His first thought is oh god, the second is who goes running at nine o'clock at night in this neighborhood and the third is I can't believe they're actually leaving---
The driver is young, that much he can tell through the rain, expression shocked as they stare at the man draped across the hood of the car. He knows what they're going to do a second before they do, gunning the engine. The jogger, in the process of standing as the car begins to accelerate, flies off the side of the fender and hits the pavement with a loud thud.
He can hear Elliot calling out after him, asking him what's going on, as he rushes out the door---
The man lays sprawled half on the sidewalk, half in the gutter, cursing violently.
"Are you alright," He asks, approaching the man, trying to remember his first aid training back in musical theatre camp and looking for anything obviously wrong. If he's got a bone sticking out I think I'm going to puke…
The man's head snaps around to glare at him, pale blue eyes burning into him.
"No, no, I'm fine, getting run down by a couple of punks is just how I planned on ending my night," The man snarls, trying to stand, only to collapse as his knee refuses to support his weight.
"C'mon, let's get into my shop and get some ice for that knee."
The man grumbles, but throws an arm around his shoulders, shifting his weight onto JD as he stands. He's warm, despite the rain, breaths coming in deep gasps of combined exertion and shock.
Elliot meets them at the door, holding it wide and helping him guide the man to one of the couches in the middle of the store.
"Oh my god! What happened!?! Are you okay!?"
"Get her away from me---" the man rasps in his ear, his breath tickling the hair on JD's neck.
"Elliot? Why don't you get some ice for--- for--- uhm…," He shifts awkwardly, helping the man down onto the old plaid couch that had been in his dad's apartment before---
"Perry."
Perry--- Welsh/English for pear tree, a nickname for Peregrine, which means "traveler"… oddly appropriate for such a night…
"I'm JD, this is my shop…" He smiled nervously as the man's eyes roam the perilously stacked shelves critically. "Welcome to Dorian's Books and Curiosities…"
Elliot comes back and, oddly enough, quietly hands him the bag of ice with a broad wink, before going back behind her counter.
Oh god… I hope he didn't see that…
He hands the towel full of ice to Perry, who takes it and rests it carefully on his rapidly swelling knee, with a hiss.
"Thanks."
"We should probably call the police---"
"And tell them what? Some kids that I didn't see clearly in a dark colored older vehicle that probably wasn't even theirs hit me while I was crossing the street? Golly gosh I bet the excitement of it all will have all the cops fighting over the case like the last sprinkle donut in the box."
"Oohkay… is there someone I should call, then?"
"Why would you call anyone?"
"Well, you can't walk on that---"
"I'll be fi---" Perry grimaces as he twitches his battered knee, letting out a pained huff of air. "Give me the phone…please."
Perry talks quietly for a minute, and there is something is odd about his face, almost sad as he hangs up the phone.
I wonder what that was about. Plans they'll have to break? An ex? An estranged sibling that just so happens to live in the area? Maybe they'll be forced to reconcile, maybe that car accident was a good thing---
"You watch any TV," Perry asks, breaking the silence that JD realizes has been going on for far too long.
"No," he answers reflexively out of disgust, nose crinkling, before he can even temper his reaction.
Perry gives him a wry look, eyes sparking. Something warm begins to grow low in JD's belly as their eyes connect and he curses himself as all sorts of fool for entertaining any sort ideas about this man he doesn't even know.
"That's pretty dangerous to admit in this town," Perry drawls, eyebrow rising. The heat in his stomach rises to his cheeks, leaving his guts ice cold as he makes the connection---
"Oh god, you work in television, don't you? I'm sure---"
"If you're about to assure me that the piece of instant brain rot that I help slop out five days a week to the adoring masses is better than the rest of the crap on television, don't." JD's jaw snaps shut as Perry smirks. His cheeks and his stomach fight over the remaining blood in his body. "I'm perfectly aware that I'm the scum of the earth to most 'educated' people."
The words burst from his mouth as they always do, without control or real thought:
"---But you make people happy, that has to be worth something."
Fortunately this is the right thing to say it seems (unlike that time he saw that guy that looked just like Turk from behind and shouted 'EAGLE', only to realize mid-pounce that it was not in fact Turk---) as something eased about Perry's posture.
"Awww, gee, thanks, now my life has meaning," Perry snipes, shifting the ice bag further down his knee.
"JD? I'm going to go for the night, see you tomorrow," Elliot calls from the doorway, giving him another wink before he has time to protest that he doesn't even know this man and what if he's a serial killer and this is all an elaborate plot to kidnap me and lock me in his lair and do unspeakable things---
"Did she just wink at you?"
"NO! No, she has, uhm, a nervous tic… seizures, you know. No, she was definitely not winking at me. That's absurd. No."
"Huh." Perry shivers and crosses his arms over his wet t-shirt that clung tightly to his skin---why did you have to notice that brain?
"Let me get you my coat, you must be freezing."
He enters the backroom just as he remembers that he didn't wear a coat today--- it'd been sunny this morning and he hadn't thought he'd need one with the forecast predicting good weather all week --- Fooled me again weather man!
His eyes land on the large brown windbreaker hanging on the rack --- his father's coat. It'd been overcast that day--- JD hadn't had the courage to put the coat in the goodwill bin yet, even though his father wouldn't have any use for the coat anymore---
It's just a stupid coat, get a grip --- He forces the stupid tears that prickle at his eyes back down. It's so silly, getting upset over a coat of all things after all this time.
His father would have wanted him to give it away, instead of letting it linger useless on a hook as some sort of bizarre memorial to a man who wasn't going to be coming back for it.
He takes a down with a deep breath, the faintest trace of his father's cologne hanging in the air.
"Here, put this on."
Perry gives him a funny look, but takes the coat, sliding it on. It's a little short in the arms, but it zips closed easily enough and he hears the tiny sigh of relief that Perry lets out.
"Do you want some coffee? Elliot generally leaves me a pot…"
"Sure."
He steps behind Elliot's counter, pulling down two mugs from the cabinet.
"I haven't seen you jogging around here before---"
"Just needed to burn off some energy."
"Oh, do you---"
The door opens with a loud crash and JD nearly drops the coffee pot as he turns and stares at the man looming in his doorway.
"What did you do to my friend?"
"What?"
"Ben, stop being an ass…" Perry barks, an amused grin on his face. "JD this Ben, Ben this is JD."
Ben steps out of the shadows, revealing himself to be a tall brunette with a wide boyish grin.
"Thanks for taking care of Perry --- and making him call me, he'd probably be trying to limp the twelve blocks back to his apartment otherwise."
"No problem…" He smiles, pulling down a third coffee mug, "Do you want some coffee before you go?"
"Naw… we better get going…" Ben says, moving towards Perry. There's something about Ben's walk that seems off… it's not as energetic as he would expect out of the man…
He thinks that Perry sees it too, the way his eyes narrow as he watches Ben, how he stubbornly tries to carry most of his weight even as Ben helps him up… like Ben's more fragile than he appears.
"Well… have a better night…"
"Thanks, man," Ben smiles, helping Perry towards the door.
"Your jacket----" Perry forces Ben to pause at the door, looking back at JD over his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it," JD hears himself saying maybe he'll come back to return it, and maybe we'll--- we'll what, huh? You don't even know if he's gay or not and here you are writing another fantasy that's just going to disappoint you in the end…
He locks the door behind them, watching as Ben helps Perry into the car; sees the way that Ben's arm wraps around Perry's waist, his gut sinking in response.
His cell phone rings and he knows without looking who it is---
"Hi, Elliot."
"Sooooo… how'd it go? Did you get his number?"
Perry's saying something, his face concerned, just before he slides into the passenger seat that has Ben rolling his eyes.
"No, I think he has someone already, they came and picked him up…"
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