static space lover

***

Desperate times. Danielle liked the way that it sounded rather than admitting that it was more out of necessity than anything, considering on the nights they went out that she couldn’t always afford the amount of alcohol that they consumed. Or the drugs that ran through their systems by the time the night was over, leaving them with a hazy picture of the night before but never enough to get in trouble. “If you’ve got them, why not use them? It’s not like they do much more than pay my bills anyways,” she replied with an exhausted shrug as her lips twisted into a sharp smile and she leaned back in her chair to tug her shirt down some before letting it go. “I’m kidding, mostly.”

With a sharp look at her friend, she relented in taking part of the other’s food as she grabbed her own fork and tore the bread apart before she took another bite. “It’s a problem when everything looks good but then the smell comes back here from the kitchen and makes it so my stomach doesn’t agree.” Though it didn’t seem to be as much of a problem with the french toast as he chewed on another bite. “I’m sure they wouldn’t even notice if a few of them went missing considering the amount of girls that have come and gone over the years. They throw those things back into the closet and wait for someone to use them again or they gather dust.” Though Ruth had a way of taking it one step further as she shot the other with a smile with a shake of her head. “Savannah from Savannah, you sure that’s not too on the nose?” She teased.

“Right.” She didn’t really think Danielle was mostly kidding. The two of them didn’t talk much about serious topics. They got together when they wanted to have fun and let loose, not to talk about their deep, dark insecurities. She cared about Dani and her well-being and couldn’t help but pry. “How are things for you? Like generally in your life?” Obviously, neither of the girls were at their best right now after a long night of drinking and drugs, but this was the usual for them. She wanted her to know that Ruth was here to talk about anything and everything she wanted to talk about. She was used to listening to peoples’ problems and was good at it.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

There was a small mercy in that Ruth didn’t take a seat, but her shift in stance to lean against the bar was plenty of indication that Poppy wasn’t about to get rid of her so quickly. With effort, she suppressed a sigh, thinking it would be overmuch to loose it considering the grimace and eye roll; it’d be too much in such a short time. Instead, she glanced at her drink and shrugged, “I can never remember the name. It’s one of the ones with mezcal.” 

Right. And there was what amounted to the small talk version of TMI. It wasn’t a thought made with malice so much as it was one that stemmed from a distinct lack of care. Ruth wasn’t someone that Poppy held any particular fondness for and her siblings were hardly in a different position. She knew them equally or less, so there was no investment there.

Plus, if she were being honest, given that she was an only child who had grown up in a family with such loose ties that she hadn’t had much trouble turning her back on them and continuing to do so in the years since her initial decision to leave them, she didn’t really get it. Perhaps that was why the question unthinkingly spilled from lips, colored with nothing more than genuine curiosity and lack of understanding, “Aren’t both of those things their problem? Not yours?” 

***

She felt like she needed to put up with Poppy because they had similar friends. Neither had to like the other, but they had to tolerate each other. Ruth would at least try to be nice to the girl, even if it would be easier just to get up and walk away. Even if she didn’t need to be close to Poppy, it might be easier for both of them if they were. So she would hang out with her and talk with her in hopes that something would stick.

She signaled to the bartender, ordering the same drink as her companion. She watched Poppy out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t being outwardly rude, but it wasn’t hard to tell she wasn’t exactly overjoyed by the youngest Rose child’s presence. That was fine, but Ruth would rather have some company than none at all. She was a sociable girl. She was always around people whether it was family, friends, or strangers. It was all the same to her, but she liked having someone to talk to. So she latched onto Poppy for the time being. 

“Well, yeah, I know it’s normal to worry about a friend, but usually someone has to do something to make you worry because you start worrying about them and asking them if they’re doing alright.” He had given her plenty of reason to worry. He had given all of Grimmbrook plenty of reason to worry about him, but it didn’t seem many of them were as observant as Ruth seemed to be. “You really don’t have to worry about me.” It was something said by plenty of people, many who in fact did need someone to worry for them. So, Johnny was pretty certain Ruth would latch onto the assertion even harder then.

“Really, Ruth. I’m fine. You don’t have to spend all your energy worrying about me. You have a lot of other more important things to take care of.” He had been appreciative of her efforts, of knowing his expressions and being able to tell when things were wrong, but that didn’t mean he was really ready to share. “I’ve just been a bit tired, that’s all. All these shifts at the hospital are really taking us over thanks to this…mist.” Not to mention he lived where all of this chaos was originating, which was never good. “But really, there’s no need to worry about me.”

***

“Why do you care so much? Why do you seem so worried that I’m worried?” He was rambling. He wouldn’t do so if he wasn’t trying to deflect. She wasn’t going to let this drop until he told her what was up. She was persistent because she cared about his well-being. Holding it in wasn’t going to help him, so she was trying to give him a chance to talk about it. She’d always had a safe space with her family. They trusted each other and confided in each other. Ruth was lucky in that regard, and she knew he had siblings too, but she wanted to give him another option. Plus, she didn’t mind listening to other people, and the unique stories they had to tell.

“That’s totally fine,” she smiled over at Ruth as she approached the artwork taking her time to analyze each piece. Before Rachel partook in any new identity, she meticulously spent time studying the art of a role or profession. The amount of hours the woman spent studying art history to the various tools and materials that could be used to create a masterpiece was absurd. However, in order to successfully con anyone, she had to be the best of the best in whatever shoes she was filling in. However, there were pockets of light were the artistry and the game was left on the shelf. It’s how she was able to salvage her humanity throughout all these years. Investing in Ruth and getting her connected with people, simply because the woman had talent, was the only reason why Rachel was in her space. No matter what, she invested in the underdogs, the overlooked, the forgotten. “Are we talking investigation in regards to the mist?” she asked looking up from the canvas for a moment. 

***

People were, Brandon had learned through hard-won experience, generally a nuisance; what little they could offer him, be it money, or power, or clout (though he didn’t find he much desired that) wasn’t often worth the price of having to interact with them. As such, he’d been holed up either at home (or the station, when Cosette needed what she referred to as personal space but what seemed something more akin to just being left the fuck alone, which Brandon could respect, if not appreciate), plugging away on any leads he had for Madison Redding and generally keeping his head above water just long enough to keep from sinking into the bureaucracy of what the law allowed versus what he wanted to do. But tonight, Cosette had made her annoyance toward him abundantly clear, and the station wasn’t necessarily inspiring any sort of breakthrough as of late, so he decided to venture out into the public after something of a sabbatical for some coffee and a piece of pie, plunking himself down in a corner booth at the diner and working through his notebook to attempt to connect some dots of the case.

This was, he quickly learned, a mistake.

Feeling eyes boring into him, Brandon finally took a sip of coffee without looking up, chasing it with, “Whatever you wanna ask, or whatever you gotta say, I’d suggest just doing it.” Before I lose my patience, he omitted, having a tenuous grasp on that as it was.

It had been easy to dismiss it as a rocky road when there had been a small crunch beneath the wheels of her car. It only took a few minutes before Blake felt the unevenness and knew she had to pull over. She had been anticipating one of the tiers to blow for a while, they’d been on their last legs. However, knowing it would befall her didn’t mean she enjoyed it. Blake had been hoping she’d be able to get the proper tune-up and replacement before this actually occurred. t was a bit far too late now. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she dismounted from the driver’s seat to get a fair look at the tire. Yep. She had prepared for this, a spare that would do in the meantime prepped and waiting in her trunk. Blake had been prepared enough, at least she had thought so. No matter how much she prodded, the lug wrench wasn’t able to free the bolts of her tire. Yeah, she was properly stuck. Dirt on her knees, and exasperation on her face, Blake grimaced. This was not how her day was supposed to turn out. She shot a text to Gabrielle that she wouldn’t be able to make it (and assured to know that the event was still in a few hours so Gabrielle had enough time to compensate for her absence). Blake sighed. “So buddy,” She asked the inanimate object that was her car. “What do we wanna do?”

***

Ruth was sent to the grocery store as a representative for the Rose clan. It was one of those times when the mist was lighter and it was safe for people to go out. The store was crowded, but she didn’t mind. She wondered in and out of the aisles and around other shoppers with their carts full of supplies to last them for a while. The Rose children were in luck. They had pre-ordered equipment to weather the mist weeks ago. They were planning to investigate it, so they knew they needed safety gear. Now, it was sold out all over the place as it covered the entire town. 

           “That doesn’t mean bring them out every single time that you want to get away with things, but they do come in handy when you’re surrounded by a few too many people and not enough brain cells,” she contemplated around the rim of her glass as she took another sip before she set her drink back down again. It wasn’t a hard and fast rule but it was something that she noticed after a year or so at her current job that the more skin she showed, the more money she made in a night and it worked even off the clock. The alcohol helped to make it happen, or at least give off the impression that she would which was even better at the end of the night. 

Danielle chewed happily for a moment, sliding the menu towards the other before she pulled it back again. “I can’t decided what to order and your food looks better than anything else they’ve got here,” she replied with a crooked but tired smile. “You know that I have a few back at work that we could borrow since things have slowed down a bit there. They wouldn’t even know that it was us again.” Another night out in a row might have been one night too many but there were too many factors that had her pushing herself back out again, rather than hole up in the hotel and hope for the best. At least with Ruth, she knew that she was bound to have a good time out. 

She nodded her head as she agreed with what Dani was saying. “You are exactly right. It’s useful occasionally when you’re in desperate times.” The two women often found themselves in desperate times. She always came back to Riley and Reggie with the craziest stories after a night out with the blonde. Ruth placed a lot of trust in her when they went out, but both of them knew how to let their guard down with each other.

          “You get the flu if you go into the mist?” Alana sent a puzzled look over at the other, barely believing this was the first time that she’d heard of such symptoms and yet, there was still nothing being done other than to evacuate the area. “What happens if it spreads? Do we move closer together until it traps us all in one place? What happens then..” She shook her head. It was beyond comprehension at the moment as to why it was so blase to so many that she met since moving here as if it were normal. “If I were to ask you every question that I have, then we would never have time for anything other than answering them,” she mused thoughtfully with a nod as she moved the box into her hands from the smaller pile. “I think we could work something like that out. It might be fun to work with you all again.”

They had been one of her first jobs since arriving to Grimmbrook and easily one of the more interesting ones, giving her a lot to think about when it came to the unknown and unanswered questions that others had as she smiled across the boxes in their hands at the other. “I’ve never tried my hand at business.” Only taking jobs that were sent her way or ones that she went after that took her around the world, seeking out the passion that grew when she was in school to the point where she was happiest behind her camera. She laughed at the other’s comment before she shook her head, trying to stifle the laughter as not to upset Ruth but she had felt the same once she learned of it being broken down. Frankie had omitted that fact. 

           “I tried to warn you but you were so adamant to help me,” she called back over her shoulder as she unlocked and pushed open the door when the box in her hands was rest against the door frame. “Go ahead and set it down wherever. I think I’ll have to go through most of them before I can put anything away.” She’d forgotten to label anything.

“I’ve heard you get similar symptoms.” Ruth had certainly done her research on all the reports. She didn’t want to go in unprepared. To convince Riley, she needed to have all her facts straight. She’d even faked sick one day and went to the hospital just to observe patients who had been struck by the mist. She pondered the other woman’s question. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She was so focused on getting her siblings to agree to investigate it that she hadn’t even considered a possibility of it spreading. “I guess we go into hiding.” Excitement laced her voice and gleamed in her eye. She never thought she would be so interested in something that was happening here.

“I don’t have much else to do anyway.” She had jobs, but not the kind that required a strict nine to five schedule. Ruth loved that. She loved the freedom of working on what she wanted when she wanted. If she stayed up late, she could spend the whole night painting. If she wanted to go to bed early, that worked too. She liked living life on her own terms. “I know Reggie would love to have you come by. He hasn’t stopped talking about camera speed and all that other stuff you need to know.” Most of the time when he talked about it, it became white noise. She cared about her brother, but she didn’t have a huge investment in all the research he’d done on photography. She’d nod along, but most of what he said went right over her head. 

Nana was pleased with herself. Edith could tell by the utterly amused expression on her face and the way her chin was only slightly lifted. In return, her granddaughter shook her head, but couldn’t shake off the genuine smile on her lips. Fine, she could indulge them all, play along. “I say we name the ghost Hilda. Or! King Hamlet,” she smirked, sensing herself relax. She could relax, this was good, nothing bad would happen to Nana as long as she was there and even if they were full of it, she’d happily pay them, at least Nana was in good spirits. Speaking of… “Nah, I don’t think so? Listen to her, though, she’s the one who lives here and has noticed the strange… Activity. And she was the one who made me call you, Ghostbusters.” Edith flashed a grin to the pretty brunette, casually leaning against the door frame.

They have to try homemade my cherry jam once the ghost is caught. “Caught? I don’t think a ghost can be caught, Nana. As in captured. But no worries, there’s time for everything, jam, waffles…” Not a moment later, the grandmother was the first to react to Ruth Rose’s question– with a gasp. Why yes, my dear Harold passed away upstairs. Could it be him? Is this about his armchair? Termites were all over it, I had to throw it out! Edith’s cautious gaze snapped to Ruth, awaiting a reaction– praying to heavens it wouldn’t upset Nana, whatever she was about to say.

Ruth gave Edith a questioning look. It didn’t seem like she was taking this very seriously, but she was used to people not believing in ghosts or the work the Rose children did. It didn’t bother her so much. “You can try that out if you want,” she said with a small shrug. She couldn’t stop her from doing what she wanted. “Yeah, okay,” she said, nodding her head. The older woman had already given them good notes to go on.