to find what none could sell you.

vii. (the permanence of family)

They've come full circle, it seems- it's the start of Spring, Colorado snow just starting to melt fully away, and temperatures just beginning to reach semi-bearable levels. Buds are out on trees, but the threat of a final frost hangs over their delicate heads. Grace has had it up to here with winter, and so has most everyone she knows. Winter had become one long endless week, as far as she could tell, especially considering the amount of weekends she worked during school- and she just wants to break away from the homogeneous nature of it all.

It's mid-morning, nearing the lunch break she was ready for hours ago, when the sliding doors welcome a customer into the store. Grace steps around the nail polish display she is monotonously re-setting to greet whoever it may be, and is met with a sight she has no idea how to respond to. It's Buck, whose face she certainly hasn't forgotten, and he's chased by- is that? She thinks that it is- by the kid with the urgent need for stitches. "JD!" Buck hollers back to the young man, "this ain't no way to treat your elders-"

He's cut off by JD slapping his hat off of his head, looking smug. Buck scowls at him, slowly bending to retrieve the questionable article- a trucker-style hat with a reference to that missing shaker of salt on the front- and replacing it with feigned dignity.

Behind the two comes Josiah and Nathan, with Ezra on their heels. The broad shouldered man and his healthy-eating companion are laughing at the scene that's unfolding, Josiah arches his eyebrows in Buck's general direction. "I think you're lucky JD is the one who went after that hat, instead of a stranger."

Nathan nods, stifling a laugh. "Not a court in the land would convict 'em."

Ezra is absently adjusting his jacket. Grace notes that he seems to be in much better health this time, and watches as he glances up towards Buck and JD without turning his head. "I myself intend to shop only in the isles you do not." He makes a show of taking a wide berth around the two as he moves further into the store. "It'd be a pity if the moment God smites you stained my clothes."

Grace turns her eyes back to the door, sensing that more had to be coming. Sure enough, her favorite regular and- who was his calm friend? Vin- enter the store, and she finally scrapes together some level of professionalism and gives Chris a nod and a cheerful, verbal welcome. He returns the greeting with a smile, and Grace feels her atmosphere change. That is the brightest she's ever seen him be- maybe that old adage about "safety in numbers" is true in more ways than one.

Unable to stop herself, not on such a wild occasion as this- the crew that she attributes Chris' improved life to all in her store together?- she stops what she's doing with the nail polish shelves, and wanders up the facial care isle, where she can hear what's happening in the hair care isle one over, and sort of see it through the expensive bottled products on her side. Vin is browsing the shampoos, and JD watches, hands on his hips.

"You have been telling us about how great it is to be off the grid and live off the land and stuff for how long," he says shrewdly, "and yet you're gonna bring shampoo?" The younger man turns to Buck, throwing his hands into the air with drama. "This is an outrage."

Vin sends a good-natured scowl in their direction, mostly unbothered by their interruption. "If you ask me," he says, glancing pointedly their way, "roadtrip and suffering don't have to mean the same thing." Having delivered this argument, he returns his full attention back to the shampoo.

Somewhere behind him, she hears Chris choke, huffing, "You wanna bet?" to Nathan, who doubles over laughing at the exchange.

Meanwhile, other shenanigans seem to be happening elsewhere. Grace hears the sound of products hitting the counter up front, and turns on her heel to head that way. She has a customer, one who seems relatively normal by comparison, and she calls out a quick, "I'll be right with you!" as she approaches. Passing the seasonal and toy isle, however, she's just in time to see Buck and JD miming running over one another with children's sized toy cars leftover from Christmas clearance. She can only shake her head in amusement.