Nathan Returns A Call, Gehenna Closes In

Nate

The last thing she'd said to him was he's really cute and he should call her on Friday and Nathan isn't the most easily suggestible person living in Denver at the moment but it doesn't take much for her to convince him to do things for her anymore either. Hasn't quite reached the point of being pathetic yet but he finds himself daydreaming about her sometimes when he never used to before. Like he's known her this long and that's how long it took him to realize he's in love with her.

It's no more substantial than a schoolboy crush and he knows this. How old is she and how much longer will she live after he's dead and he's harboring stupid pointless crushes like this.

When he calls her Friday night it's after Hannah has already gone out with her friends. He doesn't have to hide in the backyard or out on the porch to talk.

Ring ring.

Lux

Ring ring.

Ring ring.

Ring and Lux picks the phone up. There is ambient noise if he cared to listen closely, a conversation happening; music beneath a scrim of people talking, a Babel, a babble. A pocket, an envelope, of hush descending just before she says -

"Hi, Nathan! How are you tonight?"

Nate

"Good."

He says it slow like he's trying out the word. Been a long time since he's said it and meant it must be.

"I, uh..." He clears his throat. "Changed my name back to what it was, before my mom remarried. That whole thing came through this week. So if you see a Nathan Amherst in the paper from now on, that's... you know. Not a new guy."

Lux

Her initial response is silence, and silence is not a shape one can read easily in person, with the shape of that silence haunting the eyes and the contours of the face, and it is doubly difficult to read over a mercurial cellphone connection.

Then, "Really!" She sounds surprised. "Thanks for telling me, I would have been all ready to go punch the lights out of whoever was stealing your beat and your first name, but why'd you decide to do it?"

Nate

"Uhh..."

This is an answer he's going to have to practice a little better one would think. He ought to be able to rattle it off by now. Already had to explain it to a judge. But then he's also had to explain to a judge why he punched a stranger in the face at a bar within the past month too. Nathan is getting better at explaining things to judges. Not so much so to his loved ones.

"Well, my mom and her husband are getting divorced, and it's his name anyway. And I never really wanted it in the first place? But by the time I got to be eighteen and could do anything about it I was processing into the military and moving around a lot and... you know. I've been here long enough that I could do it, legally, so." Cough. "Plus 'Amherst' is easier to spell."

Lux

"Stardust," Lux says. "Or Zoom." Beat. "You could have been Nathan Zoom!"

Nate

"Crap," he says. Is he smiling? He sounds like he's smiling. "I could've picked something else? Where were you in March when I was filling out the paperwork?"

Lux

"Maybe I will change my last name to 'Zoom.'" The creature on the other line sounds to be sincere in her musing. "Can you see me as a 'Zoom'? But maybe not," concern, a sharp drop-off into that realm.

Lux just wants to have fun: forever, because that's how long she's got. Right? "Really, love, I'm glad for you if you're glad. Is your editor easy on the eyes and ready to throw you a nice bone what with the change in byline?"

Nate

"I wouldn't call him easy on the eyes but, you know. He said the same thing."

Nathan's voice goes harsher and louder as he imitates a middle-aged foul-mouthed New York transplant.

"'Jesus, Marszalek, it's about fuckin' time, you know how tired I am'a spelling your goddamn name every time someone calls for a comment?'"

Lux

"New house, new name, you're just new all over, aren't you?" Lux says, and she sounds neatly pleased -- demure, even.

Nate

The comment makes him laugh. It's a modest sort of laugh that barely makes a sound.

"Let's not get too carried away." To facilitate not getting carried away: "So what're you up to?"

Lux

"I'm up to no good," Lux tells Nate, lowering her voice so it is hushed. The music and low murmur of noise in the background fades; he can hear something opening, a door, and then closing, the same door, and then everything sounds close. "Gonna rat me out to the law?"

Nate

"I don't know if I have that kind of time..."

Lux

"Oh, I hear making statements is easy these days," Lux says, flippant: frivolous. "They've got ready made ones you can sign and everything, just tell them you've got a Class A something something, bureaucratic nonsense, I don't know." Beat. "I am actually in a closet right now, so that we can speak with privacy. I'd invite you out for a night on the town, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be available until just before dawn. Do you know how to fly a plane or a helicopter?"

Nate

Hard to tell if she has his attention without eye contact but she can't hear clicking keys or whining doors. Nothing to indicate he's doing anything other than smoking his vaporizer and listening to her talk.

"I know how to jump out of a plane or a helicopter. Does that...? No...?"

Lux

Laughter. Easy. "No. To heck with jumping out of a plane or a helicopter."

Nate

"Yeah, it's not as much fun as it sounds. I know a guy who flies the chopper for the ten o'clock news, if that helps."

Lux

"Do you think he'd teach someone he shouldn't be teaching how to fly the thing? They'd let him take it out for a jaunt?"

Difficult to say how serious she's being. Probably not very.

Nate

"Pilots are suckers for beautiful women. You'd prolly be able to talk him into it. Want me to give him your number?"

She's probably not very serious. He sounds like he's teasing her.

Lux

"Oh, no," Lux says, guileless. "You should invite him out for a drink, and that's when I'll make my move. Polish up the wiles, make sure they're in ship-shape! What'cha think of that, Nathan? Wanna be my wingman?"

Nate

Nathan needs more male friends who have steady jobs that don't put them in contact with the supernatural. This might not be the worst idea in the world.

Still. Socializing. The kid sighs a deep sigh and she can practically hear him pinching the bridge of his nose as he mentally prepares himself to agree to this. Debates the merits of jumping out of the helicopter rather than trying to be his friend's wingman.

"Sure," he says. "I'll text you when I know where we're going."

Lux

"Goody," Lux says, with relish.

And then, "Have you hung out with Amber recently?"

Nate

Something about the tone of the question and the abruptness of the shift has that part of his brain that shouts warnings sometimes begin to shout such warnings. Don't word vomit an answer, kid. Yes or no.

"No," he says. Then: "Why? Is she alright?"

Lux

Nate's brain is shouting warnings at him. Lux isn't shouting warnings. Lux is just curious; sounds curious, and there's a little (surprised?) quiet, then: "Oh, you do owe her a hospital visit, don't you? At least hospital gifts! Didn't she bring you books?"

It must seem like forever ago Lux and Amber and Nate all ran into one another over Nate's hospital bed, and it was a surprise for Amber and Lux, the mutual aquaintance.

"She's got a good hand, Amber."

Nate

The line of questioning Lux leads with isn't comforting at all. Might start to suggest that she's in the hospital but Amber is not exactly human anymore. If they can live to be hundreds of years old they don't have any need for hospitals.

Sometimes he forgets what Amber is and who she serves. It's easy to forget when he'd be content to ignore the things that live in the darkness but that's not the kind of life Nathan's living anymore.

"I... don't think I follow."

Lux

"Pardon?" Lux sounds perplexed. Then, "She's not in the hospital. She's dandy."

Nate

At least three separate questions languish and beneath the silence Nathan heaps atop them as he unearths a different response.

"Okay. Thanks for reminding me, I should invite her out for a drink too. It's been a while."

Lux

"Oh, good. And - "

Nate can hear somebody in the background raising their voice, coming closer. An easy baritone, and then a knocking.

Lux says, "I think I've been found out. Whoops! I'll talk to you later, huh?"

Nate

What is he, sixteen? He could have stayed on the phone with her all night. He jolts like he just realized how much time has passed and she can hear the jolting by the change in his voice. An undercurrent of Oh Shit.

"Sure! Yeah. Have a good night, Lux."

Lux

"I usually do," she says, and she hangs up.

Nate

[WRAP]