fandomtownies | Caritas - Monday evening [Open]

Where festive zombies are getting smacked by nothing.

Tonight's special? Across the room smackings.

Faith had told Dale she'd tell her boss, so she was gonna do that. Right. Not nervous. She could handle this.

She walked up to the bar ... and then glanced at the zombies, and at Jolee again, cracking a grin. "You doing that?"

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Jolee said. "What can I do for you, Faith?"

"Got it," she laughed. "Can I get a Jack and Coke?"

Faith fidgeted before sitting down on the nearest bar stool, still chewing on her lower lip. "And I think I gotta tell you some stuff, if you've got a minute."

"If you're going to tell me that I'm bald, save it. I already know," Jolee said surprisingly seriously and he poured her drink. Dude could deadpan. He passed the glass over and nodded to indicate that he was listening. Or that he was sleeping with his eyes open. Old people could do that very sneakily.

It was probably the first thing, though.

Faith smiled wryly. "Damn, and I came all this way, too."

She took a sip from the glass, shaking her head. "Nah. Nothing that earth-shattering. Just, uh, my ... parole officer thought maybe ... you'd wanna know that I have a parole officer."

"Really?" Jolee asked, seemingly unphased. Jedi training was awesome for that kind of thing. "And why is it that you have a parole officer?"

The Jack and Coke was good for moments like this. She took a swig of it before going on.

"I have a parole officer 'cause I killed a guy," she said, setting the glass down again.

Really, there was more to it than that, but no point prettying it up, right?

"But you're reformed?" Jolee asked, getting himself a glass of water.

This time she didn't drink, just ... lifted the glass, watching the ice swirl, around and around.

"Trying to be," she said. "Went to jail, got my head out of my ass. Trying to ... I dunno. Can't undo it. Not like if I keep my nose clean for another year or two, the guy gets to wake up and have his life back."

Jolee watched the water as it filled his glass. He was listening very carefully to Faith. Not just her words, and not just with his ears.

His water ready, he took a sip before putting the glass down. "I should tell you the story of a friend of mine. I'm not going to because it's a long story and you need a lot of backstory for it and every passing minute brings me closer to bedtime, but it's a good story. The point of it is that he did a lot of bad things in his life before he got amnesia and realized that he was actually a good man at heart. And, shush, I know it sounds cliche, but it actually happened."

"Anyway, he moved forward. I didn't know him during his evil period, but I watched him accept who he had been, grow beyond that, and - most importantly - not mess up my life. As long as you can do those three things - especially not messing up my retirement - whatever you did in the past is in the past as far as I'm concerned."

Faith looked up, taking all of his words in for a few seconds before smiling faintly. "Your friend ... that must've been nice, for him. Chance to start over without thinking about it. But I guess it don't really count as starting over until you know it and have to think about it, right?"

Unless that was just a symbolism-kinda thing, and she wasn't supposed to take it like it really happened? Oh, well.

"I ... kinda owe it to somebody to see this out, so I'm gonna." She nodded hesitantly. "And it's not gonna mess with the job. I mean. Hell. If I were comin' in late or slackin' off, you could tell him and get me in trouble, so I got incentive to be a good employee, here. Right?"

"Not have to think about it?" Jolee asked. "Oh, no, he had to think about it a lot. And talk about it. A lot. For weeks, or maybe months... Long time. Anyway, he actually had to rediscover everything that he had done, worlds he had devastated, and at the end he had to face the friend that he took down that path with him. He had to stare every terrible thing he had done in the face and try not to laugh at the fact that it didn't have a jaw anymore. Which, admittedly, was pretty funny. 'I'm the greatest evil in the galaxy, but I have a pipe around my neck!' *ahem* Sorry, got a little sidetracked. Point is, he managed it. And if he could do it, anyone can."

"Anyway, you're right. As far as I can tell you've been a pretty good employee so far. Just keep it up and we'll be fine."

"Guess you always have to," Faith mused. "Kinda the point, isn't it? If you can't stare it down and walk the other way, then you haven't really changed. Not enough to matter."

She laughed. "No jaw? Hard to take evil seriously if it talks funny."

"He had a... vocabulator thing, let him talk normally through droid parts," Jolee explained. "Some people thought it was menacing. Those people found found gizkas menacing."

"Those are tiny alien pests. Amphibian, I think. Only menacing because they reproduced like crazy."

"Like bunnies do?" Faith blinked at that. "Weird. Some people think anything's scary if it's different, I guess."

She realized her ice was melting, and lifted her drink for another quick swig. "Thanks," she said with a shrug. "Kinda didn't know if you were gonna fire me, or what."

"Everyone has things in their past that they're not proud of," Jolee said. "There's a matter of degrees, sure, but if there's not something there I have to wonder when it's going to come. Nobody's perfect, after all."

"Anyway, you're fine as far as I'm concerned. Just keep that nose clean and there won't be a problem."

"Difference between ... people making mistakes and the kinda shit I did," she admitted, not looking up. "I mean, I wouldn't've blamed you, if you had fired me. Just thought ... you maybe deserved to know."

"I appreciate it," Jolee said. "Thank you. You probably should have mentioned it sooner, but the gesture is still appreciated."

"Probably should've," she said with a wry smile. "Had to psych myself up. Kinda like this job and all, didn't wanna lose it."

Mary was bored. She hadn't realized how quickly it had become habit to spend her evenings after work with George Michael. Finding herself alone with nothing else to do, she headed to the bar. She couldn't help noticing that the zombies seemed kind of spastic tonight. It was pretty entertaining to watch them get smacked around by nothing.

"Good evening," Jolee said. "What can I get for you?"

"Club soda with lime, please," requested Mary. "What's going on with the zombies tonight? They seem a little perturbed."

"Who knows? They're zombies," Jolee said, not tipping his hand. Which was fortunate since he was using his hand to pour Mary's drink. "They eat brains and spaz out sometimes. Here you go, miss."

"Thank you. I suppose it's not really healthy, eating brains at all. Of course, they're already dead," said Mary.

"The only health they need to worry about is their smell, but I'm working on that," Jolee said. "I've filled their living space with peppermint. I'm hoping they take on that smell over time."

That got a laugh out of Mary. "They could be all-natural air fresheners!" she said, sipping her drink.

"I'm not expecting that much stench covering. I'm just hoping to dull the smell of decay a bit," Jolee said. "But we can hope."

"It's worth a try," agreed Mary, taking another sip of her drink.

"I'm just glad this place has a good ventilation system," Jolee said. "That makes up for it in the meantime."

You can't even feel the air whipping over your head here. He's that good.

*glares at rerun of HIMYM*

AND I WOULD WALK 500 MILES AND I WOULD WALK 500 MORE...

...That's now in my head. DAMN YOU

I block your bat with my lightsaber!

Also, HAHAHAHAHA IN YOUR HEAD NOW! I spread the pain!

NEEDS MORE COWBELL

*ADDS SOME LIGHTSABER!*

If he didn't like the song, they'd get a Force Smack Upside The Head.

Jolee? Is AWESOME.

Jolee: *bows and thanks you*

My itunes is in love with that song for some reason. I've heard it like three times today.

Not that I'm complaining...

Since I'm on songs that were on HIMYM...

LET'S GO TO THE MALL!

Caritas - Monday evening [Open]

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