Sick is Not a Good State to Be

Who: Pepper and Roy
Where: Under sixth street bridge
When: Early afternoon

Roy had just gotten done with some bitch work for the DiGiovanni's, number running or...whatever. Some package got delivered to some guy and that was about all he knew about it. But it meant he had the rest of the day off, too. He wasn't due to the garage til tomorrow, and generally, he'd been having a shit few days. Like getting sick. That wasn't at all helpful, really. As far as positive things went, that didn't make the list. That made the 'this sucks a lot, it can stop any time now' list.

At least it wasn't properly raining. It was misty and miserable, and fucking cold again, but it wasn't pouring. Funny how 'good' weather in this city was on a sliding scale. He'd had weird dreams the night before, and was restless because of it. (Or he was restless because he'd been restless for days now, and there was no help for it, but he was blaming his dreams for the moment) He was wandering kind of aimlessly, passing beneath the sixth street bridge and heading more towards the water, having to stop and hack up a lung every few hundred feet or so. He was stopping to have another one of those coughing fits and he leaned up against a tree, taking a moment to breathe.

Pepper felt damp. there was no other word for it. It wasn't even raining, but it felt like the mist had seeped its way into her bones, right through her clothing. It was miserbale, that was for sure, plus with the rain of the last few days, the ground was wet as well. She'd been considering taking Helena up, going and finding the woman's place and camping out there for a bit, but her reading never had been particularly good and she wasn't sure of exactly where the woman lived, so she was sitting under the bridge, throwing pebbles into a puddle. Or, she had been - but then just as she launched her next one, Rpy appeared out of the mist and the thing hit him instead.

What Roy had been expecting wasn't to get pegged with a rock. Really, that hadn't at all been in his mental list of possibilities for walking down by the water. Getting jumped, maybe, but a rock? really now. He winced as it glanced off his shin, and he looked up, seeing a familiar face. "I know I haven't seen you in a while, Pep, but I didn't think I deserved to get hit." he told her, quirking a half smile, even if it was interrupted by another little coughing jag.

"Shudda watched where you was walking then, shouldn't you?" Pepper said, brazenly and not at all apologetic, though she'd cringed when she'd realised that she was going to hit the guy, and before he'd been looking. She paused, though, when he started coughing and tipped her head to the side. "You sick?" she asked him, sounding actually vaguely concerned - but not too concerned. She didn't do concerned.

"Yeah. You might want to keep your distance." Roy told her honestly. He didn't want to be sick, but he was, and he wasn't going to say no, and have her pick it up. That was the trouble, people like them, getting sick was a bad, bad thing. And it spread so fast through the underground community, too. People died from that shit, Roy wasn't keen on being the plague carrier here. "And I guess next time I'll try to keep an eye out for rogue rocks flyin outta nowhere."

Yeah, Pepper was staying back. She didn't like being sick. It was scary as hell, being sick - hard as well, since nobody wanted nothing to do with you and most doors that might have been open suddenly closed, leaving you more alone than ever. "Yeah, you should do that," she advised, sounding a little odd. She didn't like to think about 'sick' - not on her, or on anyone she knew. "Look - you... The soup kitchen gives out medicines sometimes," she told him, in case he didn't know.

He didn't actually know. In the end he looked up then nodded. He wasn't going to hold his breath. Like Jenny had told him he should go see someone. Cuz that was going to happen. "I'll check." he told her. Maybe it'd make her feel better. It wasn't like the tone was lost on him, though it could have been a lot of things. Like 'hey, I need to get the hell out of here!'. That could definitely be going through her mind. He wouldn't blame her. He tried harder to swallow back the next coughs that wanted to take him and he had some success. He turned it more into clearing his throat. "How you been, anyway?" he asked. He moved a little and sat at the base of the tree he'd leaned up against, making no move to get closer to her. They could just have a conversation that was a bit farther away than one generally had. Which was kinda a shame, he hadn't seen her in a while, and didn't want her to run off straight away.

"You should check - I mean, I doubt it's like real expensive stuff or anything, but even if it's just some bits to help, that's gotta help, right?" she suggested. That was the other thing about 'sick' - sometimes it led to 'sicker' and then it led to not waking up again one day. She'd seen that, over the years, on the streets, people who'd just got sicker and sicker and then one day they were a corpse. And some of those times, they'd been her friends. She didn't like the thought of that happening, ever. No, she didn't like sick - it worried her on so many levels. "And I've been okay - kinda... With everything in the city and all going down, kinda keeping my head low, y'know?" she suggested to him. Girl could get caught in the cross fire so easy when things went to shit. She didn't want that for her.

Roy nodded. "Yeah. Good call." he told her. "Guess I should look to doing that myself, but I've been a little restless." he admitted. "Plus, have jobs to do. Least I'm done for today." he said with a slightly more positive note in his voice. He hoped from where Pepper was standing she wouldn't see that he'd sort of recently been in a fight. Not that he was covered head to toe in cuts and bruises or anything, but he knew his cheek was a little bruised. Fading, though. "Guess I'd be slightly happier if it wasn't so wet out, though."

With the distance between them and the swirling mist, Pepper wasn't concentrating on his injuries. He was close enough that she could see him, but he was hardly clear. With him being sick, though, she wasn't going to get any nearer. "You're working at that garage, right?" she checked when he mentioned jobs. "What they like there - I met the guy who runs it, last week. He on the level, or...?" she checked. She hadn't decided what she was going to do there, but figured a different opinion couldn't hurt. Like she'd told that Laura girl, she didn't trust strange me, especially when they came offering stuff.

"Yeah, he seems like he is." Roy said, nodding at that. "I've never seen him pull anything shady on anyone, seems to be an honest sort." he added. "Why, you going to be coming round the garage?" he asked. And briefly, he wondered if he was being replaced, but then dismissed the idea since Dutch didn't know he was sick, even. If I kick off, you can have my job, I guess. he thought, that dark little voice in the back of his head not entirely gone from his bout with foul moods.

Pepper shrugged and leaned her head in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees. "Dunno. He said I could if I wanted. Pushing broom and stuff, y'know. But, I dunno - dunno if it's really my thing and... yeah," she said, brushing it off. She wasn't against the work, she didn't mind working for her pay at all. She just didn't like new people so much, when you got right down to it. She was a friendly thing, when people were there. But actually making herself go into their space, voluntarily - especially when she'd been invited. She felt vulnerable doing that, and she had to work up the nerve to do it. That sometimes took a while.

"Well, you know I'd look out for you if you were around." Roy said, smirking faintly and waiting for her to tell him she didn't need him to do that. Probably in a pointed sort of fashion, but that was why he'd put it like that. To get a rise out of her, at least. It would make him feel a bit more on even ground, with the whole her sitting way over there due to his being sick thing. Plus, it happened to be true, he probably would try to look after her. Tell the guys not to give her a hard time, all that.

"Don't need anyone looking out for me. I can look out for myself!" Pepper told him, giving him the exact rise he'd been going for. She sat up, pulling her cap further down on her head, so the brim rested against her eyebrows. "if I go, I'll be fine - and anyone tries anything and I'll whip em round the head with a broom," she threatened.

Roy bit back the grin that her reaction would have brought to his lips. He coughed a few times, which helpfully covered a little bit of laughter. Not at her, really. There were some girls out there who couldn't look after themselves, Pepper did pretty damn well, all things considered. "'Course you will." he said. "And you'll be fine, right." he added, nodding, like he accepted her answer and had been properly chastized for his concern.

The scowl Pepper gave him was dimmed with his coughing, though she tried to hide her concern at least some. "You keeping warm?" she asked him. Pepper had grown up on the streets, and that was her only real point of reference. She'd always assume everyone had the same issues, not stopping to think about their backgrounds. Most often, she didn't even know about them, not really. "You gotta keep warm. George is running a oildrum fire - they might let you round," she suggested to him.

"Most of the time." Roy said. Which was true. It could stand to be warmer in the bank vault. He'd worked out a little way to heat it but he needed to work more on it. He just never generally had time. Of course, he could be working on it now, but wasn't. He had to be in the mood to be creative, to build things that might have a chance of working. "I'll keep that in mind, though." he added. He might stop by, just for a while. He was thinking about other places he might be able to hit up for warmth too. The library, maybe. Marian's, if she was home, though he wasn't generally welcome to be there very long, being a male and all. He didn't really have money to go to the diner, or anywhere like that. Maybe the theater, if Maddy was in, but even then, there was the his being ill thing. George might be his best bet, if the guy was having a rational day. Or, depending on how one looked at it, if George was having a totally batshit day, and didn't care that Roy was sick. "You should come round the garage. Think it's a good place, really." he tacked onto the end, so they could stop talking about him and what he should be doing with his poor health.

"Yeah. Maybe. Maybe I will," Pepper said, sounding totally uncertain about that, but like she was working towards maybe making a positive decision. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and came across the piece of paper with Helena's address on it. "Hey - Roy?" she asked, pulling it out.

"Yeah?" he asked, watching her. He saw her pull something from her pocket, though wasn't sure what it was. He was mostly thinking that it'd be good if she did come by the shop. He'd see her more often, and he stood by his assessment of the place, or Dutch, at least. There were far shadier establishments in the city.

Pepper hesitated and then hopped down off her perch, heading over to Roy, though she stopped arms length away and held out the paper. "I... This woman gave me her address, but her writing's kinda messy and... Can you make it out?" she asked, covering, though Helena's writing was really perfectly fine. If he teased her about the fact she couldn't read well, she was gonna thump him, she decided - sickness or no sickness.

Roy winced. He looked at it, but he wasn't any better with reading than she was, even if he was unaware that they shared that particular shortcoming. "Sorry...yeah they're kinda messy." he agreed, even if he too could tell that they were in fact, perfectly damn fine. It was him that was wrong on that score. He couldn't meet her eyes, glancing down and away, feeling bad that he couldn't help her.

Pepper drew the paper back quickly and stuffed it deep down into her pocket once more, covering her disappointment fairly well. "Yeah, it's not good - people should be more careful with that kinda thing," she agreed, stepping back again and trying to think of who else she knew who she could ask. There were some people she knew who were off the list immediately. Helena'd been a nice woman, she didn't want some people knowing where she lived. That wasn't fair.

"Yeah." Roy agreed. "It important?" he asked, still feeling bad, and stupid, and a whole host of other things, that he couldn't do something that simple. Because it was easy, wasnt' it? Other people found it easy. Jenny even wrote her own stories. He was just an idiot, he guessed, which kicked his mood down a notch again.

"Nah - not important," she shrugged. That would have been her response even if it had been a life or death situation. At least, since she now knew he couldn't help. "Just a place to get out the rain, is all," she admitted, after a moment or two.

"You can head to the vault, if you want." Roy offered. "I mean, I get if you don't want to." he added, what with his being sick. "But I probably won't be there for a while, if you wanted to." he told her, feeling the need to clarify that he wouldn't be there coughing on her. "Not very warm though." he tacked onto the end, because it wasn't. "I mean, I'm working on it, but..." he shrugged, glancing away again. "But it's there, if you wanted."

"Hey - I got my own place and everything," Pepper reminded him. She had her spot under the bridge all sorted out, and people knew it was hers these days. Most of the time, anyhow. Right back under the middle of the bridge, there was a hole in the brickwork, small enough that fully grown people were too big, but it was a good size for her. "Out of the wind and all. Just - sometimes a change of scenery's good, y'know," she told him, contradicting the fact that a moment ago she'd been talking about needing a place out of the rain. But that was the problem with the crack - the bricks had cracked all the way up, and when it rained heavily, the water seeped down through the gaps. "Anyway, the vault's kinda creepy."

"Just offering." Roy said. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that the vault was creepy. There was a reason it had been empty when he'd come across it, after all. Plus there was that sort of knowledge that if someone got caught in there, they could suffocate. It was something he was quite aware of, even if there wasn't anything he could actually do about it. Just hope no one opted to do that to him, he guessed. "Hope you find someone who can point you to your change of scenery." he offered. "...could take it to Lily, at the library. She's nice. Maybe she can read messy handwriting."

Pepper gave him a sharp look. "...at the library?" she asked him. She knew where the library was, of course - big building, couldn't miss it. but she didn't like the place. That was a combination of reasons, really. She'd been thrown out of sleeping in the damaged sections a few times, over the years. And they always looked at her funny when she went in, or so she thought. Like they'd never seen dirt before, or like she was going to steal their precious books. Plus, it made her nervous - all those books, all that writing. She just had to bet everyone in there was so clever. They'd probably be really snooty at her, make her feel stupid. And dirty. At least she didn't smell like some people did.

Nodding, Roy at least managed eye contact again. "Yeah. I fixed a few things there last time I was in there. Lily was nice to me." he told her. Which was true enough. She was a bit strange, but then again, he knew he'd been strange himself, lately, so that could have just been his perception. "She was gonna pay me for the repairs. I have to go back again sometime and finish." he added.

She didn't look convinced. She figured that Lily had probably been nice to him because, well, he was a him. Pepper decided that Lily probably wouldn't be nice to her. If she was a library-type. "You should go back before she forgets that she's got to pay you," the girl advised instead. "maybe she was just being nice to you so she didn't have to pay you," she added, giving a whole other definition to 'nice' there.

"Maybe." Roy said, acknowledging the fact that it could be the case. "Maybe not." he added. "Either way, she might be able to tell you what you need to know. It's up to you." he said, leaving it at that. Pepper was going to do what Pepper was going to do, and that was it. He still felt bad that he couldn't tell her what the note said, though. "Could go down to the diner maybe. Ask my sister. She reads diner scrawl, I'm sure she could read it." Plus Marian had been better at that stuff than him. And she'd got farther in school.

Pepper preferred that idea. The diner she could do, together with Roy's sister. All round, a much more comfortable suggestion. "Yeah, maybe I'll do that," she agreed. "So, what work were you doing up at the library? they still mending that place, or they just gonna let it crumble?" she asked. She figured it would be the latter - broken things got forgotten about, left to decay, eventually. People gave up on them.

"I haven't seen anyone working in the bad part...ever?" Roy suggested, after thinking about it. "I was just fixing the restroom doors, and I helped Lily sort books for a while. I guess they're color coded or something, I dunno. I was just bored, really." he admitted. And he liked fixing things. Fixing things was what he did, and usually, he felt better about the whole world when he'd done a good job on something.

"They colour-code books?" Pepper asked. "I wouldn't've thought there'd be enough colours," she mused, then realised she was showing what she didn't know and stopped. "But I haven't seen anyone in the bad part for years - well, 'cept for security guards and people like that," she amended. they always turned up at the wrong time, which was why she'd stopped trying to sleep there. Not that she needed to now - most night now she had her place.

"Yeah, I guess. That's what she said." Roy told her, really not knowing if he'd been being bullshitted or not, at the end of the day. "I ain't seen anyone in there, though I've poked around myself from time to time." He had a couple of books in the vault that he'd taken. Why, he couldn't have said, he just had. But then Roy rarely understood immediately why he took anything he did.

Pepper hugged her arms around herself a little, pulling her coat close against the damp air. "What do you think it was like? the fire? Must have been pretty huge, huh? Light up the night kinda huge. Would like to see something like that," she said, thoughtfully. Probably the colours had been really pretty.

Roy thought about it, something he'd thought about when he'd been walking through the wreckage before, and he turned his head and covered his mouth as he coughed a bit again. "I think it was probably something no one who saw it would ever forget." he said honestly, that being what had mostly gone through his mind when he'd been looking through. That it was such terrible, beautiful destruction that it had to be inprinted on people's minds.

"Yeah, I bet!" Pepper said with some feeling. "I sure remember the first time that I went inside that part - I wasn't even there when it happened and I'm not gonna forget that in a hurry." All those burned rafters, all that destruction and then, here and there, little patches that looked like they hadn't been touched. Little tiny bits that were still perfect. It was strange, and Pepper had a hard time imagining how that could be like that.

"Yeah, I know. It's just..." Roy shrugged, at a loss for words. "Something. Maybe they aren't fixing it because it's haunting." he added, as an afterthought. "Or haunted. I don't know. Something like that?" he continued. "I mean, it just feels weird in there. Kind of...cut off, or something." He knew he wasn't explaining himself well.

"It's haunted?" Pepper asked, then frowned. "Do you believe in ghosts? I don't believe in ghosts - I've never seen one and if you're gonna be scared of somethings, there's more real things in life to be scared of than just making stuff up that you can't see," she said, reasoning that through as she went along.

Roy arched a brow as he eyed Pepper, before he coughed again, then spoke. "Who says if I believed in ghosts that I'd be scared of them?" he posed. "Maybe I believe in ghosts, but I'm not scared, just curious. Not that I've seen one, but that's what the place felt like to me. Just...haunted." he said, still knowing that the description was hardly a well explained one.

"Isn't that what ghosts are for?" Pepper shot back. "For people to be all 'scream and run away' at? So yeah, I think that if you believed in ghosts you'd be scared of them. I think that if you thought a building was haunted and you had to spend a night there all by yourself you'd be all fraidy and cry like a girl," she teased.

"I think if someone's sayin that all there is is to be afraid of somethin, then it's really her who's scared." Roy shot back, smirking at her. "Besides, aren't libraries supposed to be haunted? Or is that theaters?" he asked. He'd vaguely heard something about something like that but had no real clue what it was about. Though now he wanted to ask Maddy if there was a ghost in her theater. Then he paused, and grinned. "Wasn't it you who also said that my vault is creepy?" he asked. "I sleep there just fine. Yep. Someone's a scared little girl." he decided.

Pepper shot him a glare. "You know - I ain't stupid. I know that if that vault door shuts then there's no way out. I think it's creepy cos someone takes bad with something and you could wake up stuck in there for the rest of your life. I don't want that kind of thing. And then, maybe someone would come and find you and then they'd live there and you'd be laying there all mouldy-like in the corner," she shot at him, before remembering he was ill and shutting up about the possibility of him dying. "And I think it's big houses that people think are haunted anyhow."

"Anyone ever tell you that you can dish it out, but you can't take it?" Roy said, a little twitchy with her description there. Because his mind did go to what might happen if he died, and how people probably wouldn't find him for a while. Marian probably would, actually. She'd be by before anyone else would be. After all, he was one of the people who could disappear, and no one would even so much as notice. He knew it, everyone else did too. "I should get going." he added, covering another few coughs, and he pushed off of the tree he'd been leaning against.

Normally Pepper would have continued to rib him, but she figured that she'd stumbled as much as she thought she had by bringing up death. She felt bad about that. "The soup kitchen - and keep warm," she offered instead, taking another step back as he started coughing again.

"Yeah. You too." he said, giving her a half wave, before he started off again into the wet, dreary day. Maybe he would stop by the soup kitchen, see if they had anything. Maybe. Til then he was going to try and erase the mental imagery of the vault becoming his tomb, and his poor sister being the one to find him. Girl was fragile enough. But he didn't figure anyone else would really notice. But thoughts of death...they could go away any time now. Really.