Just Fine

Who: Brian and Hunt
Where: The phone... again ^^
When: Late morning

The diner was still pretty slow, so Brian was having plenty of opportunity to call people and check on them. Olivia down, Domino down, Mya he knew was safe, morning shift employees all accounted for and taken care of, and Manhattan out of town.... It had been a productive morning, and thankfully the worst of it had been first. no one besides Olivia and Domino were hurt.

Next on his list of "people to make sure were okay" was Hunt's name. He hadn't talked to Hunt in a week, now, not since their "the world sucks, so let's get totally smashed!" evening. He felt like he should've caught up with the man sooner, especially given his student's death and all, but hey, better late than never, right?

He punched the number in and waited, hoping for another "hey, I'm fine, but the news is freaking me out!" kind of conversation.

Hunt had gotten home the night before miraculously uninjured apart from a few cuts and scrapes where he'd fallen as they ran. Mutt, though, was a different story - the dog had run off and never come back and Hunt was actually preparing to go out looking for her when the phone ran and so he answered it with a very distracted "Hello?" as he looked for his spare leash.

Well, he was home and sounded in one piece, but then, how did anyone sound not in one piece? Unless it was with whimpers and things, like Domino; that'd been pretty obvious. But Hunt at least didn't sound in pain, that was a good sign. "Hey, Hunt. It's Brian."

"Hey, Brian - look, you called at a bad time," Hunt said, finding the spare leash in a drawer and hooking it over his shoulder. "Mutt went missing last night and I'm just headed back out to Lower Harbour Park to look for her." He didn't mention the attacks, though he couldn't have put his finger on exactly why. He just didn't have the urge to do so.

Shit. That wasn't quite as good a sign, though it was possible it was just an accident that the dog got loose and had nothing to do with anything. Brian doubted it. "Went missing? I'm just calling to make sure you're okay and alive and all that. There was some serious shit going down in town last night." And probably again that night. He couldn't imagine a pack of vampires leaving so soon, not with a whole town ripe for the picking. "What happened to Mutt?"

"Erm, we... ran into some trouble last night," Hunt said, feeling generally uncomfortable as the subject was brought up. "Look - I should get going, see if I can find her," he said, rolling his shoulders as though the twitch was physical and he could rid himself of his sudden tension. His voice sounded awkward, uncomfortable - not at all his usual easy, laid back tone.

Brian wasn't letting Hunt off that easily, if he could manage it. He could hear the discomfort, and all he could think was that Hunt was less "okay" than he'd hoped. "Trouble last night is big trouble, Hunt. I've had two people already who ran into it, and got pretty fucked up. What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine - couple of scratches, nothing big. Ended up getting chased by a gang of kids in the park last night," he told the other man, reluctantly. "Must have been on something, way they were acting." He heard the bullet, the shot - he wasn't entirely sure what had happened there. It must have missed or something, the way the guy got back up again. But it had been dark, everything was a blur, really.

Kids who were on something. Uh-huh, Brian knew what that referred to. But Hunt was one of those "there is nothing supernatural out there" types, who Brian was careful not to do anything questionable around, because he was afraid to break his brain. There was no way he'd admit to being attacked by vampires, even if he had the slightest thought that might be the case.

Well, shit. "Hunt, I need you to do a favor for me," he told him, voice serious. "This is important. Stay inside after the sun goes down, all right? Don't go out. Even if you don't find Mutt by then-- I know it's hard, but... just stay inside after dark. Okay?" If he could just extract a promise, he'd feel better. Hunt didn't have anything to defend himself with, he was a history teacher, for fuck's sake. Vampires would probably think he was pretty tasty and an easy target, and they'd probably be right.

Hunt chuckled a little at that, feeling a little better, if still uncomfortable generally. "Brian, how long have you known me for? I wouldn't have been out last night if it hadn't been some problems at the grocery store and then we were driving past Lower Harbour and Mutt jumped out the damn car window." He didn't mention the screams. Like he hadn't mentioned the other guy, the one he'd left behind, or the shooter. "Don't worry, I have no plans and my social life's a graveyard at the moment. I'm staying in. Anyway - with all the shit on the news, I think half the town would be closed anyhow."

Why the hell had the dog just jumped out the window? And wasn't Lower Harbor the park where the gunshots were reported? God, he couldn't remember. It was safer not to ask, just then, but he'd have to bring this whole thing up later-- preferably face to face. "Just gotta make sure, man. I don't want to find out you've gone and gotten yourself killed, okay? I've already had two friends today who had to have stitches or probably needs them and won't bother getting them. I don't want to be hearing about another one going to the hospital, or anything."

Hunt rolled his eyes. "You're overreacting, Brian - I'm sure the cops will have it under control by the end of the day. It's a small town, it'll be fine," he said, reassuringly, obviously entirely believing that.

Yeah, somehow Brian doubted that. He'd even offer a wager on it, but he figured that would be cheating, seeing as he knew what was really going on and Hunt didn't. "We'll see," was all he said. "I might stop by in the next day or two. During daylight," he added with a smirk that Hunt could surely hear, even if he couldn't see it. "That okay?"

"Yes, man - really, that's fine. Stop in whenever. You know that. But, look - I should go find Mutt," he said, ignoring the sudden blindingly clear statement in the back of his mind that Mutt was dead. He shook that off and it went away, leaving him feeling like someone had just walked over his grave.

"Let me know if you find her," Brian said, hoping for Hunt's sake she was all right. That man loved his dog, and vampires... well, he didn't have any idea if they could or would eat animals, or if they would kill one just for fun even if they didn't. He needed to learn more about vampires, clearly. "Good luck."

"I will - and I'll see you soon," Hunt said, walking back to the phone base station. "It'll be fine, Brian - you'll see." It was just kids, after all. A gang, probably up from down state, who thought it would be fun to terrorise a small town for a while. And they get arrested, or they'd get bored and they'd leave. It'd be fine.