Back in the Game?

[st_clare]

Julianna had sent her letter to Edmund special post so he could respond as soon as possible, and he'd actually called her right away when he'd gotten the information she'd asked for. She'd added the relevant details to her personal notes out of habit. Even if no one else could read her writing, she knew what she'd written.

The fact that she had Valerie's daily schedule meant she'd had the option of meeting her after one of her classes. She could have even arranged for the girl to speak to her in her office. But she hadn't wanted to make it seem like an order or a command. To arrange an accident might have made the Slayer suspect her motives. When she didn't even know what her motives might be, it was best to leave things to chance.

The Watcher was currently seated at a table by herself in the student union, half of her attention on the daily paper. Emotionally, she felt as shaky and coltish as she had the day she first went away to university. Hope intermingled with terror as she finished one page of the newspaper and started on another. She didn't know if she was prepared for this. What if the girl wasn't interested in what she had to say?

Then again, this was a chance to correct what she still saw as her error. To fix her mistakes. If Valerie didn't respond positively, she would have at least made the effort. That was all she could truly do.

Comments

[valerie_vause]

Valerie had spent the past three hours up close and personal with some raw material’s. Though her jeans still had dust particles that stuck in clumps her t-shirt was spotless. The same couldn’t be said for her cuticles, since plaster still coated them. Today she wore her hair tied back, nothing to do with fashion, it had just been practical to keep it out of the way as she worked. Class was an escapism. Now she wandered down the hall and into the student union with a few smiles and greetings. The strap of her bag slung over her left shoulder, it tapped gently against her hip as she walked. Notebooks were tucked under her arm while her right hand clutched a paper bag.

The place wasn’t overly crowded though there were more than enough people for it to be busy. Valerie didn’t really look around to find anyone because she had nobody waiting for her. Instead she headed straight to a vending machine to grab a can of soda, and narrowly avoided a guy who tripped over his undone laces. The tray he held with food flew into the air and crashed to the ground seconds before he did. Pasta went everywhere and a cheer chorused as people clapped at his misfortune. Valerie watched a rogue meatball roll on by before she set her things down on the floor to help him up.

“Thanks.” He mumbled with a wry grin, then turned to bow with good humour. Valerie shook her head with a smile, “You handled that well.” He chuckled, “Yeah, I’ll be here all week.” Then he turned and went about clearing up the mess he’d made. The blonde laughed a little, picked up her things, and finally got a can of soda. Now, where was she going to sit? Green eyes scanned the area, not registering faces so much as spotting vacant tables void of anyone else.

Several were scattered around. Valerie made her way over to the one furthest away since people tended to grab the closest seats to them.

[valerie_vause]

It was a little odd, though not unpleasant, being filled in on some personal details of Julianna’s life as a Watcher. Valerie wasn’t entirely sure what to say, so she listened instead and sipped at her drink. The rest of her lunch could wait, for it felt disrespectful to continue eating when discussing a girls death. Though, it did make her wonder what this had to do with her. The personal aspect she had assumed had been about herself.

The question was on the tip of her tongue but before she could part her lips Julianna held her hand up. Valerie chewed the inside of her lip, then blinked, startled at the woman’s next words. “I replaced her?” She had to be sure that’s what she’d been told. “I…”

Wow. Okay. The cogs in her head worked double time as she tried to comprehend that. She’d always wondered who had perished for her to be called, yet never in a million years would have expected to know her name. Let alone be sitting at a table with somebody who had known her. Valerie didn’t know how to feel in that moment. Sad, certainly, for Allison who no longer belonged to the living. Conflicted a little due to the undeniable resemblance to a twisted game of supernatural whack-a-mole that was the chosen ones. When the time came, if her life didn’t flash before her eyes, would that be her last thought? Who will instantly replace me? Would she blame her for dying and turning her life upside down?

“I don’t want to hit you with an avalanche of questions but…” Valerie looked over to Julianna, tilted her head and offered a slight, albeit cringed, smile. “What was she like? How did she… Do they know what happened? What age did she reach?” To others it could appear morbidly curious but for the blonde it held nothing morbid about it. So it wasn’t an ordinary everyday normal family tree but it was one, of sorts. Descendants of a calling, supernatural lineage that awoke with death. “I wonder sometimes why we need to die to pass the torch on, why couldn’t it be like a baton race, when you reach a certain age you hand it to the next girl.”

[valerie_vause]

Valerie smiled, the Watcher was being honest with her feelings which persuaded her to do the same. Granted she might not grasp exactly what it meant right then but she looked forward to having someone to talk to about such things. Plus the books Julianna had would no doubt be useful, the blonde could see the bright side already. “It’ll be nice to be able to discuss such things with someone other than myself.” Not that she spent a lot of time talking to herself, but there were occasions when she did to try and solve problems or answers to questions her mind kept repeating. Regardless she assumed Julianna would understand, why reach out otherwise?

Lips pressed together as she glanced at the woman. Tried to predict a reaction before she reached into her back pocket and curled her fingers around the small, dark pebble of a stone. In moments of deep thought she’d taken to rubbing her thumb against it. The motion soothing in its own right. If trust were to be earned it had be shown in kind, Valerie reasoned with herself, then scooped the stone out of her pocket to place it on the table between them. “So far it hasn’t done anything.” She shrugged lightly. “But since it could potentially do anything or nothing I didn’t want to leave it laying around for any kind of surprises. So where I go it’s gone, seemed safer that way.”

Though she paused, teeth capturing her lower lip for a split second before she added, “All I ask is that I get it back when you’re done.” Valerie could have listed reasons why, all of them valid, but the truth was she knew, unequivocally, that she’d see Beth again. It would be on her terms once she knew her true identity. She wasn’t entirely convinced that it bothered her. Perhaps in a sense, more bothered that she wasn’t.

“Oh, no, I mean yes you did give me your number, no I won’t need it again because I wrote it down in case random catastrophe struck.” Valerie cringed and brought one hand up to press against her forehead. That must have sounded horrible. Yes I kept it to warn of impending doom, make sure to call your loved ones before we’re all in pieces.