noteasytobepink | Wheelsy AU ~ Hollywood Nights

He can't help it, he barks a laugh to her words.

"I figured it'd get there eventually, if it hasn't already."

Picking up his fork, he pokes at his brownie and cuts off a piece, adding some ice cream to it.

"I just didn't want you thinkin' there was any truth to it."

"Oh, it'll get there soon enough probably." She grinned. "Might even be right by then depending on her intentions and all." Sucks to be Bill!

And, well, Bill still hadn't told her much about the mystery woman had he?

"We're just friends," he insisted again.

"I think I'm drivin' her nuts with my football watchin', an' junk food. An' she's out in the backyard beatin' up dummies an' stuff."

Bill couldn't see how any of those things could turn into any type of compatible relationship.

"She don't even like biscuits an' gravy."

"She's in the backyard doing the what now?" Starla blinked and sat up straighter at that. Football and snacks were normal after all. The rest of that statement hadn't been. "And no mistake Bill, biscuits and gravy don't sit well with anyone above Virginia you know. You can't hold that against a person who ain't local."

"She's -- athletic."

That was probably the easiest, and safest way to put it.

"She does like, Kung-fu stuff."

Not 100% accurate, but it was better than saying Clarice was a vigilante.

"An' outsider or not, I don't see how anyone wouldn't like biscuits an' gravy."

"Athletic," Starla deadpanned. "She's out doing kung-fu in your backyard and you don't think she's a little odd?" JUST SAYING.

"Bill, try to wrap your mind around the country divide. There's the North, and the South, and the South knows how to eat proper."

"She's... kinda unusual, but she's alright. Like I told you, she's got a lot of energy, so the excercise helps burn off a lot of it."

Taking a bite of his brownie, he shrugged.

Going to the North/South food issue, he shook his head.

"I dunno if I could ever live anywhere else if that's really the case. I'll bet you're anxious t'get back home an' to some real cookin', huh?"

He knew he would be if he'd been gone for the months she has.

"Unusual an energetic," Starla mused. "Every time you open your mouth about her she sounds stranger. I'm startin to think you ended up with some kinda government plot on your hands instead of areal person." Just saying.

"And...about that," she shrugged. "Figured you should be the first to know...but I can sleep out here Bill. I don't think I'll be goin back to Wheelsy. I just can't convince myself it's safe." Her therapist said it was a symptom of PTSD, so it wasn't just her imagining things/

He gave a short chuckle, thinking about how Starla wasn't too far off about Clarice. Government project? No. She was just a super powered vigilante mutant from another world. With spikey things.

"I think you'd actually like her if you met her. She's independent, like you've always been."

He gave her a smile and took another bite of his brownie.

Chocolate and vanilla turned to ash on his tongue when she made her announcement, and it took him a few tries to swallow it down and get his tongue working.

"You're not comin' back? Wh-- what do you mean?"

"Well, as long as she ain't intent of messin' you around Bill I think I'd like her well enough." Starla could be protective after all.

"And I mean just what I say Bill. Wheelsy don't feel like a safe place to me anymore. And it don't feel like Home. I didn't realize until I came out here just how tense and scared I'd been all the time." And she'd done her part to rebuild the town, she owed it that much but...yeah. "Do you realize how many meds I was on before I came out here just to try to sleep at night?"

"But, Starla, all that's passed. You don't gotta be-- why didn't you ever say anything before?"

He could've helped, he could have comforted, or protected her, or something.

"Of course it's still home. The town's recovered, y'can't just leave."

"I couldn't put my finger on it Bill! I just thought it was normal to be so broken after somethin so scary you know?!" She waved her fork at him, a little frustrated.

"But don't you see Bill? It ain't. All my students, all the kids, the whole school, the future of Wheelsy? They all died Bill. AN my husband. An my neighbors. An everyone but you Bill. It's the people that make it home and they just ain't there anymore!" Yes, yes she could just leave.

He drew back as if struck, feeling guilty for not knowing something had been so wrong.

"Starla, I know what happened was terrible. We lost a lot of folk, an' the town took a huge blow, but she's comin' around again. We fixed her," I fixed her, "an' the people who survived are makin' Wheelsy what it was."

For a long time, from the rebuilding to now, he held onto this belief, hoping his conviction would be enough to make others believe, and now he needed Starla to.

"It's still a good place t'live."

"Bill, the town died. A town isn't the houses or the streets, it's the people and three people ain't enough to make it all fine." No matter people had moved back from other parts of the country, people who had moved away after school and such. It wasn't the same.

"It may be a good place to live, I ain't gonna deny that. Lightning never strikes twice and all you know? but I'm sayin it's not a good place for me and I ain't goin back."

Bill felt like something cold and sharp had been stuck in his chest, and the finality he heard in Starla's decision was twisting it around.

"So what're you gonna do? Stay here in Hollywood?"

"Perhaps," She shrugged. "I do have a job after all. We'll see where I end up later but that's not somethin I need to know now." she was just glad he was taking this as calmly as he was?

The calmness was all on the surface, underneath he was hurting like hell.

It was a mask, one he'd worn many times over the years; when Starla had told him she had a date to their first high school dance, when she announced to him she was engaged, when she said goodbye as she left the wedding reception for her honeymoon.

After so much wear chinks in that armor had to develop, and one now let some of his bitterness through.

"Couple parts don't make you a movie star, Starla."

She stiffened, not liking that tone. Not liking it at all. "No, it don't Bill, bit it is work. Work where I don't have to look at children again and wonder when they will die. It's work, not stardom, and I need to work."

This was a good time for Bill's cell to ring right? Right!

"You're lettin' what happened ruin what you worked so hard for."

His jaw tightened when his phone went off, and he tried to ignore it, waiting for it to go to voice.

"You used t'like teachin'."

The cell kept trilling, and Bill barely knew anything about the damn thing. He didn't know how to make it shut up when it was ringing, other than answering it, so he did; giving Starla an apologetic glance as he turned his head.

"Hello?"

"No, Bill, I'm letting what happened be an ending. I worked hard to educate, an I did a good job, but there's no call for it now and I see the children when I close my eyes. No class should have to deal with a haunted teacher!" She slammed her hand on the table then winced and went back to her dessert.

The phone on the other hand..."Hey, letting you know that idiot Bran got himself drunk when you left, so one of your deputies is in the tank for detox. I'm manning the desk tonight since he was suppose to." Clarice chattered in that annoyed voice she reserved for idiots and poor diet. "Sorry, I know I'm not an actual deputy yet or anything but he was being an idiot and you know the guys needed to sleep after that alarm...and...you haven't yelled at me yet. Hello?"

Bill jumped when Starla hammered the table, almost hanging up the phone until what Clarice was saying filtered through.

"Hey, sorry. He did what? That-- " Biting back a curse and shaking his head, Bill glanced at Starla, then lowered his voice into the phone.

"Clarice, listen, I can't talk. What you did is fine, let him dry out, but y'can't officially handle any calls that come in. Go ahead an' man the desk, but if anything serious comes up, call Dave or Rudy in."

"Yeah, I figured. I'm just letting you know what's going on." She grinned and twiddled the phone. "You sound tense. Call me at the desk when you're sitting up brooding okay? I know you. Good night!" She hung up the phone.

Starla was...eating her crumble. Yep. "Trouble?"

"I'm not-- " he held in a sigh, and took in a breath; nodding his head even though Clarice couldn't see him.

"Okay. Let me know if anything major happens."

Hanging up the phone, he looked back across at Starla.

"No. S'alright."

He looked at his brownie and didn't want it anymore, but started to pick at it, just for something to do; trying to figure out what to say now.

"Alright enough that you're not eating a sweet? Of dear." She shook her head. "Or it's me and you are angry at me. Well, be angry then."

"I'm not angry."

He is angry. He's hurting, and this pain is a deep one that's always been there with her, scabbed over but never healed, and now ripped open fresh once again.

He came here thinking he could fix it, that finally he'd be able to close this wound and forget the scar, but her announcement has him blindsided.

Still not knowing what to say, he starts eating the brownie, just so she can't say that he's not.

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