fandomtownies | Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center

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john price

Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center

Price was going over lesson plans today, trying to figure out what exactly he'd be covering on Friday. The class was going well so far. And now he was starting to think he could probably take over the world if he wanted to, and he could get his students to go along with the idea.

They all made him quite proud, really.

If anyone needed the Captain today, he was on duty at Wellspring. He'd be happy to help you.

[ooc: The OCD feel asleep [sic]. Open post!]

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Mary had been putting on a brave face when talking to Mike, but she could only keep it up for so long. The only other person in town who knew half of what she was dealing with was Price, so Mary stopped by to see him.

"You will not believe who showed up to see me on Thursday," she grumbled the moment she stepped through the door.

Price, on the other hand, was really just surprised to see Mary at all. Especially in the shop. But he didn't show it, he merely tilted his head in interest. "I've heard a lot of people showed up that I wouldn't believe."

"How about my dead father, the one I was so afraid of as a little girl?" suggested Mary. "It wasn't a very pleasant reunion."

"Well that's just rotten luck," Price said. "Everyone else seeing loved ones, and you... I'm sorry to hear that, Mary."

"He wanted me to forgive him," said Mary. "Of course, he waited right before he had to leave to ask for that."

"Well that's a bit of nerve," Price said. "Did he do anything to deserve it? The forgiveness, I mean."

"Not really. He kind of put it all on me, saying that I'll never move on with my life until I forgive him," said Mary. "He was the same as I remembered from when I was a kid. Just because he was dead didn't mean he felt he did anything wrong."

"Well then," Price said. "I hope you punched him in the face."

"I probably would have, if there wasn't a door and an armoire in the way," said Mary. "Besides, my friend Mike already punched him once."

"Good one Mike," Price said.

He paused, not sure how to ask his next question. "Can I ask why you came to tell me?"

"Because in a weird, roundabout way, you're the only person living on the island who has an idea of what happened to me as a child, and I'm finding that I'm getting tired of hanging onto secrets," said Mary.

"Secrets do have a way of festering," Price said. "And I think I feel honored that you're sharing them with me. Even if it was pure accident that I began to learn them in the first place."

"I've been hiding a secret for so long that it keeps building up momentum and taking on a life of its own," said Mary, sighing. She glanced around, making sure once again that there was no one (and no squirrels) within earshot before opening her mouth again.

"My dad was abusive. I ran away twice to get rid of him," she confessed. "The first time, my friend's dad found me and made me go home. The second time, I told my friend Danny why I couldn't go back. Danny was 17 and just a few weeks away from enlisting with the Marines. He took me to his place, then went back to my house and beat the crap out of my dad. I never saw him again until a few years ago when Dad contacted me out of the blue to let me know he'd remarried and had two new little girls."

Price wheeled out a chair so that Mary could sit as she talked, listening dutifully to each word that she said.

"And he had the guts to ask you to forgive him," Price said. "If he wasn't already dead I'd probably do something nasty."

"You'd probably have to wait in line," said Mary. "For years, I kept my secret to myself, and Danny wasn't telling anyone. In hindsight, though, I should have gone to the police much sooner. I never realized my mistake until I found out about my half-sisters. With me out of the picture, there was nothing to stop him from doing the same to them."

Price nodded. "And letting that happen, that'd be pretty awful," he said. "You did the right thing, then."

"I still have my doubts about that," said Mary with a sigh. "At first, I called his new wife to warn her. She didn't even know I existed. She didn't believe me, either. Four years later, she showed up at my workplace to tell me that she was divorcing him and wanted me to testify against him so she could get full custody."

She stopped and took a deep breath before continuing in a shake voice. "So I did it. I told a whole courtroom of people about... about what my dad used to do to me while he was sitting there with his lawyer, watching me the whole time."

"And did you get the bastard?" Price said, hopeful. But her tone, her tone told him that something had to have gone wrong.

"Nope. He was set free and somehow, he even manage to sweet-talk his way back into my stepmother's life. She actually let him move back into the house with her little girls," said Mary. "It was horrible! I was terrified he was going to come after me for testifying. That's when I bought a gun.. for protection, or so I told myself."

"And people wonder why I prefer problems you can solve with a sniper rifle," Price said. "Buying the gun was smart. No matter what the reason."

"I was a wreck for about a week," said Mary. "I started showing up to work with a gun in my purse, got drunk on my lunch break, and tried to think of ways to end the whole mess. And that's when I finally told someone else. I told Danny's girlfriend, Delinda, because she knew something really bad was happening to me. And Delinda just couldn't keep it to herself. She told her dad, who was my boss."

Price was ready to say that drunk and being a new gun owner was probably a terrible idea. But he knew that she probably knew that, and it wasn't the time.

"And what did he do?"

It was a very bad idea. Mary was leaving out some of the really stupid things she did around that time.

"He followed me," said Mary. "One night, I got it into my head that I was going to wait for my dad in the parking lot of his favorite bar and shoot him when he went back to his car. What I didn't know was that Danny followed me, and Ed Deline followed both of us. He used to be a CIA sharpshooter, actually. When the time came, I took the shot -- and then I heard two more shots echo in the distance. Ed was the one who fired the shot that finally killed my dad."

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Price said with a nod. "And at least you were spared the distress of killing your own father."

"Not entirely," said Mary. "There were witnesses, including someone who got Danny and I on a camera phone video. Danny took the blame at first so I could leave ~~the show~~ Las Vegas. He was eventually cleared by the same evidence that proved Ed did it. He disappeared with the help of his CIA contacts. He stopped by to check on me once, here in Fandom and then took off. I feel guilty sometimes that I took him away from his family."

"He did a good thing," Price said. "Sad that doing the world a favor ended up a burden for you both."

He paused.

"Thank you for sharing that with me."

"Thank you for listening," said Mary. "There are so few people that know the truth, and none of them are in Fandom anymore."

Price extended a hand to Mary, an odd gesture for certain. But he wasn't completely used to this sort of thing.

"I won't tell a soul," he promised.

"Thank you," said Mary. "I probably owe you a drink for listening to the story, even though I don't drink anymore. I've been sober for about two years now."

"Good plan," Price said. "I went and took a double whiskey shot for four of my fallen comrades this weekend. That was a hangover I'll remember for a long time."

"But a drink would be nice, yes."

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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Center

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