Dark Ridge - Walking In The Day

Walking In The Day - Pt 11

WitD

Clay eased through the door and he watched Sarah Covington move around the ER desk, chatting easily with a nurse. She was just as gorgeous now as she'd been when she had been younger. His memories came to him slowly, like hazy dreams had on rainy days. Clay smirked, when he'd been younger, but he was the same age, at least physically.

Physically, he no longer looked the same. His hair was darker, because he never saw the sun anymore. Skin was now paler, for the same reason, and then there was the cheek implants, the new cleft chin and his jawbone had been shaved down also. The sole thing that lingered from his previous life was his eyes, aqua colored like pure Caribbean water.

"Mr. Fox, how are you doing today, venturing out into the sunless day?" asked Sarah.

Clay snapped from his daze. "I thought some fresh air was in order."

"Anything I can help you with?" asked Sarah.

Sarah stopped, his eyes flickered, and another flash of odd recognition washed through her, god he looks so familiar.

"I was wondering, and perhaps you can tell me, since really you're the only person I've spoken too since moving, how does the town react to gay couples?" asked Clay, his shoulders rounded and his eyes serious.

Sarah smiled. "We have a few, lesbian and gay couples, as far as I know, no one is ever treated differently."

Clay sighed dramatically. "Good."

"Had that sort of trouble before, have you?" asked Sarah waving for him to follow. She had to drop off some samples and thought it would be all right if Clay walked with her.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. So when were you at Harvard? Must not have been that long ago?" asked Clay, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"Over sixteen years ago," admitted Sarah.

"Then to Dark Ridge? Originally from here?" asked Clay not remembering where Sarah was from.

"No, first to California for a few years, then my daughter and I moved here three years ago," said Sarah. She turned a corner and headed towards the lab.

"You have a daughter?"

"Yes, Kameron, she's sixteen, and drives a car that I think will fall apart every time she leaves the driveway," chuckled Sarah, not sure why she had blurted that out.

Clay smiled. "You must have known my brother, Raymond, he would have been an underclassman to you."

Sarah thought for a moment, she'd never been a social student - that had been Miranda. "You know, I don't think so, but I didn't frequent the bars of the coffee houses, that was Miranda."

"Miranda?" said Clay, feigning interest. This was who he had wanted her to talk about, her pulse and her emotions were hard to read, but easing someone into a conversation was better than mesmerizing them, which Clay didn't like doing.

"My best friend, she died my last year of school," said Sarah sadly. Keeping the fact that it had been in childbirth to herself.

"I'm so sorry to hear that...," said Clay a pang of pain shot through his heart. Miranda was dead, his human spouse was dead, and this evoked more emotion than he was prepared for. "A good friend of yours?"

"My best friend," nodded Sarah. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to drop this off and get back to work. You can find your way back? There is an exit right through there."

"I can find my way, thank you, please do stop by the shop once we are open," offered Clay, extending his hand.

"Thank you, I'll do that, I might drag Kameron along with me.