| A Nickel For Your Thoughts |
[11 Nov 2006|04:29pm] |
One last stop before she had to be at her appointment. She stepped into the phone booth, pulled the door closed behind her, then fumbled through her pockets for change. One last phone call here at the edge, and then she'd be on her own.
Clink, clink, clink, went the quarters as they disappear into the slot, and then there was beeping as a number was punched in. Watch check. Just enough time to do this, and then she had to split.
A voice on the other end, then, "Tristan? Hey. Its Grace."
"Grace," Tristan said with a friendly tone. He put his feet up onto his coffee table and leaned back in against the sofa cushions. "How's it going? Staying safe out there? Keeping into trouble?" he chuckled softly and picked up one of Ryan's empty beer bottles. Idly he stroked it with his fingers.
"Heh. Yeah, you know me, wall to wall trouble." Grace looked out at the street traffic, gathering her thoughts. "Couldn't unlive any other way."
There was a nickel on the little counter beneath the phone. The vampire picked it up, began to toss it into the air. Heads. Heads again. Tails. "Look, I gotta be somewhere pretty soon, so I'm gonna make this short."
There was a small clatter as the coin hit the floor of the phone booth. Grace looked down at it. Tails. "This thing I'm in? If you want, I'll cut you loose."
"Why would I want to be cut loose?" Tristan asked her. He put the bottle down and uncrossed his legs, sitting forward in his seat. "Besides, that bitch is on my list, after her little display. I have my own paybacks with her too."
Tristan rubbed at his temples. "What's wrong? Are you worried I won't perform to your abilities? Or are you...scared? I'm on your side, Grace."
"Its not you, man, its me." Outside, a truck horn blared, and Grace put a finger in her opposite ear to block out the excess noise.
"I know what she did to you, and I'm confident enough in you to know that you'll get your own back on her. And I know you're on my side. If I didn't know it, I wouldn't have called."
She paused, dragging a hand through her hair. "It feels like pride's all I got left, y'know? I've let this go on too long already. I gotta close it out, maybe on my own."
Tristan shifted. Then he got up off the sofa and walked over to the one window in his apartment. He peeled back the thick black curtain and looked out onto the night. "I suppose I can understand that," he muttered. "But you're wrong about only having pride left. You have my friendship, if you want it."
He dropped the curtain back into place and picked up his lighter. Slowly he began to light the candles that littered his apartment. "If you get into trouble, call me."
"Listen to me," Grace said, head bowed, still looking at the shiny nickel that glinted up at her. "You...you're better than you think. Better than her, even if she'll try to make you think otherwise." She wasn't talking about Katherine this time. "And I want you to know, if you need someone at your back later, if I'm still in one piece, I'll be there."
There was another silence, during which the vampire realized that she'd smoked her last cigarette an hour ago and that she could really use one right now. Or maybe just a good kill, which would relax her nerves just as much.
"There is one small thing you can do for me, though, all right?"
"Anything, just name it," Tristan whispered. She sounded like she was speaking her very last words. Tristan had faith in her though. She was strong. She had grit. He liked that about her. In the end, he thought Grace would be okay.
He finished lighting his candles and then started to gather up the empty beer bottles with his free hand. The remaining pizza went into the garbage can, however.
"I gotta go meet somebody, and then I'm gonna be doing some stuff. It'll probably make the papers, so if you see it, you'll know it was me. Once those first few things are done, I'll try and get in touch with you again, let you know what's what."
A pause, one filled with traffic noise and light static from the phone. "If you don't hear from me, if I don't speak to you in a timely manner, go back to Fang Noir and ask for a redhead named Deanna. Herself doesn't like the boys much, but she'll probably talk to you if you say you've got news."
A second watch check. Time to go. "If you don't hear from me in a suitable amount of time, go talk to Deanna and tell her I went down swingin'."
"I may go see Deanna, but it will be to say howdy," Tristan insisted. "You're going to do fine." He didn't really know what else to say. "If you change your mind about wanting company, call me. Anytime."
"Thank you, Tristan," Grace said with a half-smile. She was just trying to cover all her bases, that was all. "You're a pal, seriously. When this is done, we'll go back to Fang Noir on our own. If you're nice to me, I'll throw in an informal tour of Hell's Bouquet. I seem to recall there was a mention of you liking to give up control?"
She let that hang in the air between them for a few solid beats, a more familiar smirk creeping across her face. "You wouldn't mind that, would you? We could push the envelope a little."
Tristan smirked. "Anytime, baby." He moved back to the sofa and sat back down, staring blankly at the wall. "It's been a long time since I've lost control like that. To share that with you would be a real pleasure." And Tristan meant it. "I've lost a lot, Grace. I don't want to lose you." He just left that hanging out there for her to interpret as she would.
And okay, so she twitched away from that a little bit, because there was still the specter of Rhiannon and that was just 'ew' as far as she was concerned, but it was only the slightest twitch. She'd lost a lot too.
"You'll hear from me soon enough. Watch the papers. Its gonna be a show-stopper." Grace chuckled quietly, then said, "Be careful, Tristan. I'll catch you on the downstroke."
And then she hung up and stepped out of the phone booth onto the sidewalk. She had an appointment, and she couldn't be late. It was time for her to show Las Vegas how she rolled.
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surprised