(no subject)

[tibetanmethod]

Heidi is working the night shift tonight, as she has been for the last several weeks. Norma Jennings is in Brazil, and that means that Shelly -- Norma's second in command at the Double R Diner -- needs to be around during the day.

She looks up as the bell on the door jingles; Cooper is holding it open for Moiraine. He gestures to a booth on the lefthand side, and they take a seat.

When Heidi makes her way over, Cooper and Moiraine find out that today is a special on cherry pie, since cherries are in season. Also, there is peanut butter.

Cooper leans forward and says to Moiraine, very confidentially, "I recommend the cherry."

Comments

[tibetanmethod]

Cooper looks out at the river. Down at the gear shift.

"What would have done the tainting?"

[blue_ajah]

"It is difficult to say precisely," she murmurs.

Her smile is gone, now, and dark eyes are shadowed as she watches him.

"But the Dark One is the Lord of the Grave, and you yourself mentioned certain associations with necromancy. I ... feared ... that given the circumstances of your last arrival at the bar prior to your return here, and the presence now of those who live and walk where they once had died..."

Moiraine trails off there before murmuring,

"I am glad to find otherwise."

[tibetanmethod]

"You thought I was dead."

[blue_ajah]

Very carefully,

"It did not seem likely, given your frequent absences from the bar without evident difficulty."

"I merely wished to be certain."

[tibetanmethod]

(I'd prefer not to die, if it's at all avoidable.)

Somebody else might get snappish right now. Might start asking if there was any behavioral pattern she'd noticed that would shore up that hypothesis -- if, in short, he's acting dead.

Or crazy.

(He's not crazy, he had her listen to the tape with him, she knows he's not acting like Leland did, like the Log Lady's husband did.

He's not.)

"How much danger is Harry in?"

[blue_ajah]

"I do not yet know."

Moiraine sighs, and glances out the window at the road. "To better answer that, I suspect, I would need to see Josie Packard, or perhaps one of the others--"

There is a distinct pause, in which she continues to stare out at the dark.

"-- or to visit Glastonberry Grove."

[tibetanmethod]

Utter silence.





"Please don't ask me to take you there."

"Not at night, and not without backup."

[blue_ajah]

"No."

Her tone is calm, and not unkind. Moiraine turns back to Cooper, meeting his gaze directly.

"I will not."

A breath, and then, "I suspect that would not be the wisest idea, in any case. I would not want to go there unprepared."

[tibetanmethod]

"No."

Even. Steely.

"You really wouldn't."

He starts the car again.

[blue_ajah]

The tone of his voice is hard and level, and she does not disagree. Moiraine says nothing.

And so, for a time, all is silent--
in the halls
--save for the sounds of the engine, of the tires passing over the road, of the air whistling softly past the car as it moves.

While Cooper drives, she looks out at the darkness, watching the inky shadows of trees against the night.