fandomtownies | In the Park

In the Park - Monday Evening

After what could be called a normal day back in the Clinic, Wilson decided to take a walk to help clear his mind out a little so he could...go back and spend the night running tests.

He'd grabbed a shower, changed into comfortable streetwear and was now strolling along, enjoying the first flush of night across the park. The darkness was soothing for tired eyes and a cup of coffee picked up at The Perk -on House's recommendation- kept his hand warm as he walked along. In all honesty, he enjoyed the town, like walking around and just seeing what was to be seen. Enticing smells were encouraging his stomach to make it's pessence known but he was ignoring it for the time being, more interested in stretching his legs and sipping on his coffee.

[ooc: Open if anyone wants him but doesn't want to be in the Clinic for it. :)]

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Inara smiled briefly at him as she passed him on the street on her way to meet with Gabrielle (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomtownies/269287.html).

"Good evening. Happy Halloween!"

His expression was one of...Oh...yes I guess it is All Hallow's Eve but then he smiled and waved as she headed on by.

Keeping warm in his bomber jacket, Ben is taking a stroll in the park. He sees someone he doesn't think he's met yet. "Evening," he says. "Nice night, isn't it?"

Since it was relatively quiet at the moment, he looked up and realized that the man was in fact talking to him. Returning a friendly smile, Wilson looked around and nodded.

"It is, probably one of the last we'll have for awhile."

"As long as it's not a Pittsburgh winter, I think I can handle it." He holds out his hand. "Ben Bruckner. My husband owns the Emporium."

Wilson recognized the Emporium immediately and he almost said he had met Michael but then he remembered that he'd met Michael under medical circumstances and...patient confidentiality and all that.

"Dr. James Wilson, I work at the school Clinic." He reached out to take the man's hand with a firm grip in return. "Or a New Jersey winter...I think I could live without either...though..." Wilson looked around the Park and smiled back at Ben. "This place would look good in a fresh blanket of snow."

As they shook hands, Ben narrowed his eyes, but it was a thoughtful expression, as if he were searching his memory. "Michael's met you." Ben gives a reassuring smile. "Not much we keep from each other," he says by way of explanation.

"I love snow...as long as I don't have to shovel it." His voice full of humor, he adds, "I suspect I'd end up responsible for clearing the sidewalk outside the Emporium."

The oncologist had to nod, since what Ben said was true, though he didn't give any further details. It really wasn't nice to medically gossip about someone's spouse as a form of small talk after all.

Instead, he laughed and nodded. "I think I'll be doing the same thing at the Clinic, there is little chance of House lifting a shovel. Though...I wonder if this place even gets snow?"

Dark brows knitted together in a slightly perplexed expression, which he quickly shook off.

"So, I've been meaning to poke my nose in but I'm just starting to get time to explore around, what is at the Emporium?"

"It gets some, from what I've gathered. We can keep our fingers crossed that it's not enough to require hard labor."

Ben sunk his hands deep into his jacket pockets. "I've been here a while now and I still don't know what's in all the stores yet. The Emporium is sort of a catch-all...a localized, small-town version of a big box store, I guess you could say. Groceries, clothing, drugstore items, hardware items, magazines, newspapers, comic books. If they don't have what you need, Michael will order it."

"Indeed" Wilson laughed in agreement with Ben about the snowfall.

The younger doctor's arms curled around himself in a sort of self hug that drew his jacket close against the evening chill, his eyes widening slightly as Ben described the Emporium.

"Really? All that? Huh...I'm going to need to make it a destination point then, I should probably pick up a few items."

Clothes actually being rather high on that list, since he'd only come with the couple of suitcases.

"How long have you two been here?"

"A couple of months." Ben hitched his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Emporium. "I'm working on writing a novel, so I've been keeping to myself quite a bit. I've only really started meeting people in the last few weeks. Michael's mother owns Deb's Diva Dive, she convinced us to come join her here since I was on sabbatical from Carnegie Mellon to write the book. And here we are." Ben moved to zip up his jacket against the cold. "Are you relatively new to Fandom, then?"

Wilson whistled inwardly as the man listed of CM with ease. He brightened then, with a warm smile and a soft chuckle.

"I've been there...to the Dive. I went the other night, the food was exactly what I was looking for. Comforting and filling."

Giving his head a slight nod, he turned his feet back along the path he figured that Ben had been walking, since Wilson himself had no real destination at the moment and also figuring that walking would help them both stay warm.

"I've been here...mmmm... about three, going on four weeks, I think? Hard to track time around here."

His hands slid down into the pockets of his slacks as he walked along. "What are you writing about?"

"Deb always has good food. Not exactly the healthiest thing to have on a regular basis, though. When your mother-in-law is the proprietor, however, you're expected to make regular appearances." He nodded, more to himself than at anything in particular, as they started along the path.

"I swear time is a completely different construct here. I feel like I've been here forever and yet not long at all. And considering some of the...more interesting people and events around here, it wouldn't surprise me if time really did work differently here."

Ben drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "The novel follows the lives of two long-term gay couples and the challenges they face." He looks a little embarrassed. "It's about three-quarters done in the first draft. Hopefully I can revise it well enough to get it picked up, but my last attempt didn't do so well.

"Can't say the time away from teaching classes has been wasted, though. It's been well worth the time being here in Fandom, meeting the people we've met and having all these different experiences."

"She had a very nice vegetarian dish, the night I stopped by...though I passed on the potato that came with it."

Wilson grinned, then fell silence, listening to Ben with open curiosity in his expression.

"It sounds like an interesting study." His tone held the sort of genuiness that hinted at the fact that he might have a personal interest in such a book himself.

The oncologist was chuckling then and giving his head a slight nod. "This place will definitely...give you new experiences. Perhaps that will be the factor that tips the scale this time? I know how difficult it is to get published, especially into today's market where they practically demand some sort of ... hook, if you will."

"I teach gay studies, which means I read a lot of the literature, and I live it in my own life, so I suppose it's a natural thing for me to write about." He smiles in a self-effacing way. "Eat, sleep and breathe it, I guess you could say."

He bit his lip at the doctor's last remarks. "I wasn't particularly looking to include the type of thing that happens frequently in Fandom in the book -- it smacks too much of what anyone outside of Fandom would consider fantasy fiction, or horror. That just doesn't fit with the sort of material I write. Not that there's anything wrong with those genres, per se it's just..." Ben searches for a better explanation, but fails. "They're just not my thing. However, some of the more recent events in my personal life have had some influence on what I've been putting into the novel." Ben's pointed glance at Wilson, then his look away, indicate that Michael's reason for seeking medical tests might have played a part in those recent events.

Wilson cast a quick glance towards Ben. "Aww, you mean you don't want to add some zombies to the book? Zombies have love lives too...well...okay maybe not." The doctor's grin was a quick, impish thing before he looked back out into the night.

He did turn back in time to catch the other man's glance and his expression softened as he nodded, thoughtfulness settling over his face.

"Did it help? Seeing it written in words, on a screen...rather then jumbled up inside?"

Ben chuckles. "I'm sure the love lives of zombies will be the focus of my next book. Or maybe I'll just leave that up to Michael and his comic-book writing."

Ben puffs out a breath of air and frowns. He wishes he'd done what he'd told Shane he ought to do: buy a pack of cigarettes for a stress reserve. He's really craving a smoke. "You know, as a writer, I'm supposed to say yes, it helped heal me. But honestly...I don't know. At first it just made me more confused, more hurt. It's not so much the writing it down, but the re-reading it that helped -- acknowledging it happened, coming to peace with it. I think Buddhist meditation and reflection did as much for me as the writing did.

"But it's there, and looking at it in the context of the book, it's probably the most honest part of the whole story, the most real, and therefore the most gut-wrenching -- which will be good for the readers, I suppose." Ben offers a wan smile. "I'm sorry, I'm going all philosophical on you. Don't mean to bore you."

Wilson listened with a quiet watchfulness and he nodded a couple of times in unspoken understanding.

"No need to apologize." His voice was low, an easy almost comforting tone. "I asked after all and it's not boring at all."

Walking along, head down thoughtfully, Wilson gathered his thoughts before speaking again.

"From what little I've seen...you two have a good thing. I don't know if that makes it harder or not."

Ben smiles, a little wistfully. "We have a great thing. I'm very fortunate to have someone like Michael in my life. Which makes it even more difficult when bad things happen between us. By now, though, we know how to talk, or how to fight when we're not sure how to talk. That helped us more than the writing did."

Ben pauses, hesitant to bring up other issues to a near stranger. But he'd poured out a lot already, and this wasn't something he hid, so why not? "Michael may have mentioned that I'm HIV positive. That's part of why I say I'm lucky. He's stayed with me through some really difficult times, when it would have been easier for him to walk away. This time, I walked away from him, and it was the most heart-breaking thing I've ever done. Sometimes it's easier to stay, even if you're fighting tooth and nail, than to walk away from something you know has potential. If that makes any sense."

"They, whoever 'they' are, say that communication is the most vital part of any relationship...and the most misunderstood." Wilson remarked softly as he continued to walk along.

Again, Wilson listened without confirming or denying what he and Michael had spoken of in the Clinic. It wasn't that he was being deliberately evasive on the issue and -heaven forbid- were Michael ever incapacitated, Wilson would be the first to recognize and give full rights to Ben as kin to be in on all medical knowledge but for the moment...things spoken of to Dr. Wilson tended to stay between himself and his patients, unless otherwise directed.

"It does make sense, Ben. You're both, lucky...if you've found someone and something worth fighting for, you're both lucky and life's not built to keep things running smoothly all the time, we all face challenges. The question is, what did you learn from the experience and what will you both do different next time to ensure that neither of you walks away? If there is a solid answer to that question then...you've both come through it that much stronger...in my uninformed, humble arm chair philosophical opinion."

Dark eyes twinkled with an easy sort of gentleness as he peered up at Ben.

Ben nods. "I thought I needed space, what I learned was that that wasn't the answer." Ben gave a short laugh, ending in a smile. "Not that I really wandered far. Our son lives in Pittsburgh, that's where I went. For all of four days. I guess I'm kind of weak-willed when it comes to being away from Michael. I'm finding out that's not a bad thing."

"Hard to be far from the person who makes it all right, for long, isn't it?" Wilson suggested in an easy sort of manner that still conveyed he was familiar with such feelings himself.

Ben laughs. "Sounds like you know that sentiment well yourself."

Though it would be hard to tell in the dark, Wilson blushed as he had to nod.

"A passing, familiarity with it I think you could say."

Ben knows better than to push too hard. "That's good. Something everyone should have some familiarity with. Is that why you ended up out here?"

Wilson paused and looked up towards the night sky briefly before he nodded, smiling quietly over at Ben.

"That was...yes."

"So did it work?" Ben smiled gently. "Are things...right? Or better, at least?"

"Better." Wilson said without hesitation because it was true, just being able to get out here to House had made things...much better.

Turning, he held his hand out once more. "I'm afraid I need to get going. It was a pleasure to meet you, Ben. I hope to see you at the Emporium."

[ooc: Gone way past mun's sleepy time. Was having too much fun! :D]

Ben takes the hand offered and gives it a firm shake. "Pleasure to meet you as well, James. Stop by anytime."

((ooc: saw the convo w/Phale and Crowley too. You had a good playtime. :) Sleep well!))

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In the Park - Monday Evening

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