tibetanmethod | (no subject)

(no subject)

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."

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"Coffee will do," she assures him. "Indeed, it seems somehow appropriate here, would you not say?"

Moiraine glances around the diner with evident interest.

Toad is off in the corner, the last stool down at the counter. (He's a regular -- a man who looks like a refrigerator, and wears a total of four layers on top (three flannel shirts, and a flannel vest, and all four are of different patterns of plaid), as well as a trucker's hat.) The Haywards are in a booth by the window.

Ketty Lester is on the jukebox. Cooper says, "I would say." Beat. "I haven't heard this song since I was twelve." He's half turned around, giving the jukebox a wondering glance.

(Moiraine, of course, has the side of the booth that gives the best view of the room.)

The Aes Sedai's expression is a mask of serenity as she tilts her head, listening to the words.

Love letters straight from your heart
Keep us so near while apart
I'm not alone in the night...

"The melody is pretty," she murmurs, absently, as her thoughts drift to a single letter that she had written some years ago.

(my dearest Thom - whether or not we ever see one another again)

"Yeah," Cooper says, also absently.

This is a rare moment when he's not listening intently to the person across from him. He misses any undertones in what she's saying, therefore.

In 1963, he heard it playing from a window as he walked down Germantown Avenue with his father two days after JFK was shot. Cooper was nine. Sometimes songs stick in your memory that way.

There are a few covert glances cast in their direction -- strangers aren't all that usual in Twin Peaks, unless you're up at the hotel, and word travels fast.

At least a couple of people have wondered about the dark-haired woman in blue that Dale Cooper had dinner with just before Benjamin Horne tossed him out, after all.

As the song ends, Heidi sets down two plates of cherry pie, two cups of coffee, and two brightly polished forks.

"There you go. Anything else I can get'cha?"

"I think we're good for the moment." Cooper exchanges a quick glance with Moiraine. "Thank you."

Once Heidi is gone, Cooper picks up his fork.

And says, cheerfully, "Moiraine, welcome to Twin Peaks."

"Thank you, Dale," she says, smiling back at him as she picks up her own. "I am pleased to be here."

Pie and conversation ensue, though not simultaneously. (Bad manners.)

They leave before the Haywards do, though Cooper notices Doc Hayward eyeing them surreptitiously as he holds the door open for her.

"You know," Cooper says, conversationally, as he makes a left turn onto Main Street, "I've never actually seen a lumber documentary."

"Nor have I," Moiraine tells him, with more than a touch of amusement.

"Certainly the small portion of film that you showed me before has nothing of lumber in it, and I do not think that The Princess Bride would be accurately described as such."

"I've never seen that one." Cooper stops at an intersection, and keeps driving. "What's it about?"

Moiraine laughs softly.

"As it happens, there is a young boy in the film itself who asks a similar question, and is answered."

Her tone takes on an air of recitation as she says,

"Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, True Love, miracles..."

She shakes her head, smiling. "Ace said that it was a classic."

" -- isn't Ace -- she's...related to Raven?"

The question is asked almost cautiously.

"She views him as a brother," Moiraine confirms, but the glance she slants at Cooper is clearly curious.

"Why do you ask?"

"I've spoken with Raven recently." A little too calmly. "And it turns out -- I'm fairly certain that Ace was the other party involved in the fistfight. In the place we got pulled into."

At this, her smile fades utterly.

"I did not realize."

Moiraine studies him in silence, while he drives.

"Well," he says, mild, "neither did I." This with a slight smile. He's not looking at her, of course -- eyes on the road.

Silence remains, for a time. Moiraine turns to look out the window at the town as they continue on their way.

"I shall hope that you will not hold it against her."

His head turns, quickly, briefly. "Why should I?"

She shrugs, slightly. The Aes Sedai is still looking out the window, although she can see him out of the corner of her eye.

"It might be that only you could say."

"People respond differently in high-pressure situations." Cooper edges the car off the paved road, and onto a dirt road. "She's a friend of yours?"

"She is," Moiraine replies -- and it may be notable, to one who knows her, that there is no hesitation in her quiet response.

"A good friend, I think."

"Then I hope her knuckles have recovered from the onslaught," Cooper says, courteously, and puts the car in park.

It's a large, wooden building off to the right, with the stylized outline of a gun done in red neon on the outside. The gun moves, firing. To the right, two words: BANG BANG.

"This is the Roadhouse."

Moiraine stares at the neon gun and then turns to Cooper with a very odd expression on her face.

"... the Roadhouse."

"Yes," he says, eyebrows raised a little.

A beat, and then a faint smile.

"Very well."