Double Date?

"So... if he decides to do anything...I wonder how long it'll take before he does it..."

I shrugged, "Dunno...how long before losing Locke drives him to action do you think?"

"Hmmm... good question.... He either registers things etremely fast or extremely slow... I think it took years for him to have his first breakdown after my mom died... let's hope he doesn't have a similar one..."

"It was bad, wasnt it?"

"Ha, bad doesnt even begin to describe it," Shand shook his head. "I remember going to stay with friends for a few days, and when I came back he didn't even notice I'd been gone..."

"I suppose bad was an understatement..." I frowned.

Shand nodded and sighed. "I know he held it together for us when we were little... but I don't know, I guess when we got old enough to semi-take care of ourselves, it just didn't work anymore."

"he really does care but he's not the best at showing it, I suppose..."

"I've always known that..." Shand folded his arms under his head. "It's just hard sometimes... every now and then I'll catch him talking to her...its creepy...but I feel sorry for him."

I nodded "I can understand that... There's a certain level of comfort and longing surpressed by doing that..." I stopped and looked at him,"but, you know, I would know anything about that "

"Of course, that was all from when I was little, before I ran away, so who knows, maybe he's all better," Shand shrugged. "One can certainly hope."

I shrugged,"dunno, only one who would know is Dolan... Well... And Micaela, of course."

"Yeah...I don't think he'd go all crazy....then again, Locke's like his only friend...what a sad little life..."

"You think it's a sad life having Locke as your only friend?"

"Well, of all the friends you could choose, I mean, honestly, it's probably the wisest choice.... kill two birds with one stone, best friend and instinctive bodyguard all in one...now I personally wouldn't thrive off that sort of situation.... and I meant more of Pops in general... I wouldnt openly admit that its funny, but everything bad happens to him, so thats what I meant when I said it was a sad life...literally..."

"oh the sad grip of fate and higher forces." I tried not to laugh at the thought of me knowing the higher force in this case.

"Its twisted....if that's how she treats her favorite characters, count me out...I hope she hates my guts..."

I laughed, "Sorry, Shand...I think she likes you quite a bit."

'Well until I die and come back at least twice, I'm not considering anything as written in stone." Shand folded his arms forcefully. "And if she feels the urge to 'like' me too much, I might just have to go on strike."

I frowned, "I dont think you can do that, Shand...impossible..."

"You can't say its impossible....thats impossible," Shand grinned. "I can go on strike if I want to...stop telling her things I would say... stop being so downright agreeable..I'm a pretty agreeable fellow when it comes to all this fiction stuff, I must say..."

I frowned,"only because you've probably found some sort of perk to it, I'm sure... Not out of the 'goodness' of your heart and her sake."

"Oh, you doubt my goodness?' Shand asked, eyebrows up. "...at least you've got a level head..."

I rolled my eyes,"yes, at least I have that going for me."

"And several other things I can think of off the top of my head, but mentioning them would indelibly change the subject without me even noticing, and before I took another breath, I would have forgotten what we were talking about in the first place and thereby shattered my focus." Shand paused and blinked. "...Now what were we talking about?"