Silver Sight (Completed)

Chapter 2

Cooper knows he's not taking this as well as he wanted to. The brave face he thought he had been putting on wasn't nearly as opaque as he had wanted it to be. Carol keeps looking at him with pity in her eyes and his father continues to keep his distance from him and what had happened to him. As if refusing to acknowledge it will make it go away. Will make Cooper whole again.

He gets his father settled into his hotel room. He spends an hour across the hall in his own hotel room trying to make love to Carol only to find that he can't seem to stomach it now that he's back in the town. Where her ghost has more power over him. Where he can feel her eyes on him and he can't shake the feeling that she'd call this betrayal. He can feel Carol's disappointment and she falls asleep angry but not with him though he wishes it was. It would be easier that way.

But Cooper can't sleep. Silver Pines makes him restless. It whispers memories to him in the shadows. The winds hold a laughter he chases and sometimes if he listens carefully he can hear the sigh of her voice saying his name as it rustles through the trees. Silver Pines reopens old wounds. Makes the rage rise up in him. Reminds him that he needs revenge to finally bind the cuts to his soul. But not as much as he just needs to know what happened to her.

Cooper slips from his hotel room and enters the forest in the middle of the night. It doesn't take long. He takes five steps out of his hotel and he's standing at the mouth of the forest. He holds his breath as he crosses that line of dense trees. He walks until he's certain he's far enough inside that he can be heard by the forest but not by anyone who might be listening back at the hotel.

"Silver Sight!" he calls to the trees. "I know that message was for me. I'm here. I know you remember what happened to me. What happened to her. And I need to know. I just want to know where she is."

He waits in the silence. He spots an owl with impossibly large golden eyes. Bright as stars in the night sky. He senses a hint of familiarity from this owl but he shrugs it off as impossible and continues to wait. Cooper doesn't know that Silver Sight sits in a tree up the mountain too far away to make it to him before he decides he's waited long enough to make a fool out of himself and leave. He doesn't know that the wind takes his words up to Silver Sight who watches with his forest's eyes as Cooper turns away, defeated, shoulders sagging, pride bruised, to walk back to the hotel.

Cooper doesn't know that Silver Sight waits until he's out of view to climb down out of the tree. Cooper doesn't know that Silver Sight feels bad for him, and wishes more than anything that he could return what Cooper has lost. But he doesn't know how.

--

The next day Cooper and Carol go to the precinct. The beige building is set into three sections, one for the recreation centre and gym, one for the cops and the other for the Fire brigade. The precinct is in the middle of it all.

When Cooper walks in with Carol at his side he knows the looks he gets aren't because he's there with a bombshell. He isn't greeted with familiarity and pats on the back. There are no "how's your job"s, or "how have you been"s. Regardless of the fact that he's their Sherriff's kid. The whispers kick up and burn his ears because he knows what they all think of him.

If Carol senses his hesitance she says nothing. She strides up to the new sheriff in charge until this is all settled and begins to talk while Cooper hangs back. His eyes have scanned the small bullpen and found the back of someone familiar. Someone he was really, really hoping he wouldn't have to see.

As soon as Aaron Sharrow turns around his friendly face falls into a dangerous glare. Cooper finds himself taking a step back. He might have turned and ran had Carol not reappeared with the Sherriff in tow.

"The infamous Cooper Booth," he says with a big grin that tells Cooper that the man doesn't mean it in the way that everyone else in the office would say it. "I'm Sherriff Andrew Paxton from the town of Redbank on the other side of the mountains."