Eating alone again

Given the choice between dining in the high school cafeteria and grabbing a burger at the Grill between his morning session there and his late afternoon class at Whitmore, who in the right mind was gonna go for dried out meatloaf and a room full of teenagers who hadn’t learned how to use their inside voices yet? Nobody, which meant that the minute the bell had rung he’d been out of his classroom, out of the school altogether.

Noah drove across town, fingers drumming lightly on the steering wheel, stilling only as he passed the Mikaelson mansion again. The last time he’d turned off into that driveway, intent on finally breaking the ice with the Original family. He guessed that much had happened, but the jury was still out on Niklaus Mikaelson and his … did you count a personal army of werewolf-vampire hybrids as a pack? Maybe. They’d certainly acted like one with Klaus as their Alpha, all of them loyal to him, a flesh and blood wall around his family.

Their existence had given him pause as he’d watched them move around the house in those carefully planned paths. The experiments Klaus had run in New Orleans had failed, leaving werewolves laying dead. Whatever he’d tried to do hybridise them had turned them against one another instead of just plain turning them. Something in the process had changed though – maybe the guy had finally learned from his mistakes – and now he had just what he’d been looking for. And he had his answers.

The druid grimaced faintly, his brow furrowing as he pulled onto the square. That should’ve been enough to send him home for a while, or at least move him on from this town. Maybe out west, see if he could track down some more information for Destiny on her family. There had to be a trail out there, even if it was the closest thing to stone cold after all these years. Once the school year was out he’d give it some serious thought, it wasn’t like either the high school or Whitmore was gonna wring their hands over losing a guy who’d been teaching a pretty niche subject as it was.

For once there was a spot right outside the Grill. With the kids still at school and most folks at work, he guessed things were gonna be slow – which meant the service should be fast enough to get him to Whitmore in plenty of time to set up for his class. The hostess beamed a smile as he walked in, passing him a menu before she nodded him back towards the tables. There were a handful occupied by couples, one filled with what looked like a road crew, guys who’d scrubbed up just enough to get something to eat. A guy sat alone at the table off to his side, giving his order to one of the waitresses. It was a real contrast – salad, as healthy as you could probably get in the place, and a milkshake.

Like he hadn’t been here a hundred times before Noah skimmed over the menu. Sandwiches, burgers, steaks, everything that a grown man needed to fur up his arteries. He picked through the list of sandwiches one more time before he half turned towards the guy. ”Are they any good? The salads I mean … I’ve been here enough times to check out the milkshakes. Never seen anybody order one of the salads though.” He figured they were probably some sort of mythical dish, the Grill’s version of a unicorn, everybody saw them listed, nobody had ever actually seen one.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 603

There’d been plenty of places where he’d felt like he was banging his head against a brick wall. People were stubborn, set in their ways and some stranger walking into their midst to try and ‘talk them around’ had a tendency to get every set of heels in the place digging in. It took work and patience and the sort of logic that was hard to avoid in the end. You had to wear them down until they were prepared to give. Noah figured he still had a ways to go with that when it came to Niklaus Mikaelson and this town.

For over a year he’d worked his way around the edges of it, talking to folks, pulling on those connections his family had been building for centuries to try and find his way back to whoever had managed to turn a whole pack against one another in New Orleans. It wasn’t until he’d finally heard Mikaelson’s name enough that he’d risked knocking on the Originals door. The family didn’t exactly have a reputation for being receptive to outsiders, but he’d said his piece, had laid his cards out on the table. Now it was up to the hybrid whether or not he wanted to listen to that logic. If he didn’t, maybe it’d be time to finally take a trip home, regroup, spend some time with his folks. Get some of his mom’s cooking instead of the Grill’s.

What came out of the kitchen had always been decent, grease laden maybe, but he’d take it. He was still too young to worry about clogged arteries after all. The guy at the next table probably was too, there were a thousand other reasons for picking a salad over a steak or burger though, some of which he probably should’ve paid a little more attention to.

Noah offered him a friendly grin as the guy turned towards him, lifting a hand in greeting. He didn’t turn away at least, picking eating in silence over a little friendly conversation here. Letting out a low whistle, Noah scanned the menu again, like he’d turn something up that he hadn’t seen before. ”That sounds like one hell of an endorsement. Most of the stuff I’ve had here’s been decent…” But nothing more than that. It wasn’t like he’d stopped in for a cheese burger and found himself in raptures. When you spent half your life on the road, it all started to blend together in the end, one basket of fries much the same as another.

Goat’s cheese? Maybe not the best salad ever for him then. Noah’s smile turned wry as he looked back up. ”Not my favourite thing in the world, I might give that one a pass.” A cheese burger with the normal bright orange stuff would do though.

He hadn’t expected the invite, wouldn’t have been rude enough to push for it when the place still had so many tables open, but the guy had given it freely. Leaving the menu where it was, already knowing what he was getting, Noah stood and moved to the indicated chair. ”You sure?” He glanced back smiled at the waitress as she appeared. ”Hey. Can I get a cheese burger and fries, and a strawberry shake, please? Thanks.” She shot him a smile, scrawling his order down before she scooped up the menu from where he’d been sitting to put it back with the others. As she melted away, he held out his hand to the guy in front of him. ”Noah … I figure I should probably introduce myself if we’re gonna be eating together.” One of the most basic building blocks of establishing a connection, even in a town where folks already seemed to know everyone by name at least.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 630

A single, brief conversation might not’ve looked like it could do much, but he’d been taught from an early age how important even the smallest amount of communication could be. Open up the channels, build a connection and you could change the world. The important bit was just kicking it off in the first place. That had been the problem with trying to get to Klaus. He hadn’t been able to work his way to that first conversation, not until he’d turned up at the house – a place he should’ve seen coming considering its grandiosity. A little chit-chat over lunch probably wasn’t gonna be built up with the same level of importance, but not everything could or would be. It shouldn’t be.

The corner of Noah’s mouth hitched higher, the smile he aimed at the guy slanted and guileless. He seemed to be chowing down with renewed gusto the minute he sat down with him. An attempt to get out of there fast? Maybe, although that didn’t jibe with the invitation he’d extended. He slumped back in his seat as his hand was released, watching the guy as much as was polite. ”I guess that’s always a bonus. Kids can drive you crazy.” Not that he’d ever had that problem. You couldn’t teach for as long as he had if every shriek or smart assed comment had you tearing your hair out. ”Sounds like a real solitary job. I guess you sleep while everybody else is going about their day.” Only the guy was out now, maybe fuelling up before he headed off to work, or enjoying a day off. Either way he was fuelling up for whatever was coming – as much as you could with a pile of greens and that goat cheese.

Noah’s nose wrinkled faintly as he glanced away from the plate. A huff of amusement rolled out of him. He laced his hands together, settled them on the edge of the table with his thumbs tapping against one another. ”I’m pretty sure I could stand to get a few more veggies in my diet. It’s not easy sticking to the healthy options on the road. You grab whatever’s quick.” And when you did settle down? He grimaced faintly. Yeah, he had no real excuse for it now other than he wasn’t ready to fall into that middle aged trap where suddenly everything that was bad for you was wreaking havoc on your body. If he could, he’d enjoy the junk food a little longer. When he hit his dad’s age he’d start worrying about the rest of it.

He lifted his chin as the guy offered up his own name. Like so many other details he filed it away in the back of his mind. Those details were what you strung together later, putting together the bigger picture that was often needed in his real line of work. ”Nice to meet you too, Carlton.” Amusement had his brows rising as the waitress appeared back. She set the milkshake down in front of him and headed back towards the bar. ”Thanks,” Noah told her before he looked back at Carlton and chuckled. ”Nope, not a student. You’re not that far off the mark though. I’m a professor – a teacher in general. I teach at the high school here in town and at Whitmore. It’s a bit of a niche subject, so I pick up classes where I can. You ever heard much about Scandinavia?” It was all he’d heard about as a kid, his introduction to the world often wrapped up in the stories his family had carried with them from the old world.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 607

Not everybody was made to work with kids. His own patience had proved to be almost infinite – it had to be when practically everything you went to deal with had self-control issues. You made yourself the steady presence, the one who wouldn’t lose their shit no matter how hard they were pushed. Noah guessed when it came to working the other side of things that patience had just ended up a bonus. ”I’d definitely avoid a change of career if I were you then,” Noah quipped, figuring the guy wouldn’t take offence at the suggestion. It sounded like he knew himself, what he could tolerate – although a restaurant that was bound to be full of teenagers was probably pushing it a little. He glanced around, not to many for now, no reason to pull the old man shaking his stick act at them.

Worrying about every mouthful of food that risked clogging his arteries already had him feeling like he was partway there. Druids might’ve been blessed with a lot of things, but unless he started down a dark path there was no quick fix for the physical ailments that’d get him just the same as any other middle aged guy in here. Noah glanced back at the guy, eyeing the cheese that was shovelled onto his fork and into Carlton’s mouth. He wasn’t sure he was that far into the whole healthy lifestyle thing yet. ”I’ve heard the hunting’s good around here,” he said, his voice neutral enough. The bells were starting to ring though. Hair standing up on the back of his neck, that awareness that was innate to his kind starting to radiate with that certainty that he hadn’t just stumbled across a cheese-loving health nut here. ”The wildlife’s meant to be the sort that tries to bite back though…” At least that was what the town council was blaming the supernatural deaths on this week.

Self-deprecating as ever, Noah waved off the compliment. Teaching had come easy after all those years learning from his dad, from the pack, the vampires. It was about listening, about being able to pass on the knowledge in a way others could understand. That skill had been in his family for centuries. ”We’ve probably crossed paths a time or two. I’ll have to keep an eye out…” Obviously he needed to be doing that more. Noah bobbed his head as he lifted his milkshake to take a sip. Medicine wasn’t exactly what you went into when you wanted to work solo, it was all about team work. ”Not many people would put their own dreams aside that way.” Most would be pissed if they did only to have it fall apart later though. Noah winced at the revelation, aiming a sympathetic look at Carlton. ”I’m sorry to hear that. Divorce is painful, no matter how much you still care about each other.” That loss was always gonna tear some part of you out.

Not wanting to keep poking at a sore spot, Noah leaned forward, his elbows on the edge of the table. A teacher ready to educate his class – albeit a class of one. His lips curled up, his fingers tapping lightly against the milkshake glass in front of him. ”Scandinavia’s a place – Norway, Finland, Sweden, some people even throw places like Iceland in there. It’s a group of countries in Northern Europe. My family came over from Norway a couple of hundred years ago. They kept their history and stories alive, told them to the kids in each generation. Now I tell other people’s kids about them. Most people here have heard of Vikings at least…” Fixated on them as though Thor and that blood soaked TV show were the only things to ever spring out of the place.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 630

”Try me,” Noah said simply, his voice and expression remaining neutral. That was his voccation after all – outside of the classroom, and even then he could probably stretch it – listening to others, helping them find a path through the situations they were stuck in. A safe pass that meant nothing bad would happen again. You did a lot for the people you loved, sometimes to the point where you ended up being the bad thing that happened to other people. When you were in the middle of it all, it made sense. It was only afterwards that you felt regret start to creep in and by then it was usually too late to change what had happened.

Noah laughed, the sound rumbling out of him at the suggestion that he might’ve been strapping on a rifle and a bright orange hunting jacket and heading out into the woods – or dressing for camouflage and bigger targets. ”No, sir,” he murmured, shaking his head. ”I’m no hunter. I’d rather bury my head in the sand about where my burgers comes from and let someone else handle making it.” When it came to the other sort of hunting, he did everything possible to make sure that it only happened when there was absolutely no other choice in a situation. ”I’ve had that’s the way to do it.” Moderation was practically his middle name, although Noah doubted they meant it the same way.

Moderation wasn’t exactly what the Scandinavian people were known for in the media, but they were a peaceful people when you really scratched that Viking surface. Noah started to fill Carlton in, tying the subject he taught to the geography of the place, and of course name dropping the most famous inhabitants of the region. Noah smiled as Carlton he admitted he had no idea what he was talking about. ”Plug it into Google,” he told him. ”I’m sure you’ll be able to trust at least half of what Wikipedia says about it.” And if it didn’t there was always the local library.

Picking up his milkshake, Noah took a long sip of it – it really was a pretty decent milkshake, even if it was probably gonna end up contributing to his cholesterol levels if he kept this travelling thing up for too long. He licked the taste of it from his upper lip as he gestured to the man opposite him with the glass. ”You do that sometime. We have taster sessions sometimes, you know, to encourage people to come study at Whitmore. You’ll see signs up around town when they’re going on.” That was how Destiny had first found him, the session he’d offered giving him a tie to the darach. He was still picking his way through what he’d found out about her parents, trying to find some nugget of information that would give her more peace of mind.

”Working,” Noah admitted wryly as Carlton asked about his weekend. ”Sad, I know, but teaching’s never the 8 til 3 job folks make out it is. There’s always stuff to mark, lessons to plan. How about you? Are you working? Heading out to the woods?” For that hunt that he still felt was a more loaded topic than Carlton had made it seem.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 544

Their conversation had been light enough for the most part, but now the guy was getting really antsy, Noah’s frown started to set in deeper. This town had its fair share of supernatural nightmares – it was the trail of them he’d followed here from New Orleans to start with after all. He’d spent hours on end scouring newspapers for the sort of reports that he could read between the lines on – bodies found, animal attacks, violence, all the stuff that usually got brushed under the rug, explained away in ways that wouldn’t scare the crap out of the population. Although, with this guy it had obviously failed.

One sandy brow rose as Noah looked at him across the table. ”Did you tell the sheriff or her people about what you saw? The authorities here could probably have helped with whatever it was.” The knots were tightening in his stomach, leaving him toying with his glass as he saw the waitress start working her way back towards the table with his plate. Noah eased back in his seat, offering her another bright smile. ”Thanks,” he murmured warmly, waiting until she headed off again before he allowed the frown to settle back in. ”Most normal hunters aren’t the sort to hurt people – in my experience at least. Most are just trying to keep folks safe.” There were always some who took the job too far though, and those were people who were usually behind his sort of reason too.

This was getting weirder by the minute. Noah remained quiet as the guy started to explain about his trust issues. Whoever this doctor was seemed to have helped him out but the way the guy described it was raising the hair on the back of his neck. ”But you’re here…” he murmured, plucking a fry from his plate to gesture towards him. ”I guess that means some of whatever this doctor did for you has stuck around. Are you still seeing him?” To him it sounded like some sort of therapy – which in this guy’s situation seemed like it would help again. Maybe not with the supernatural side of things, or whatever had happened to him out in the woods that had him so rattled, but one sort of help often bled into another.

He hadn’t headed to dinner with the intention of playing therapist either, but Noah guessed that in his own situation he couldn’t entirely control when things crossed over. He’d still had an appetite as he reached for his burger, but the moment the guy made his observation about him liking his meat already killed, he was swallowing hard and looking down at his burger. ”Oh, trust me, I’m not embarrassed about it. I’m a pacifist in most ways, which means I’m quite happy to let someone else do the hard work when it comes to preparing the meat for me.” He took a slow bite of the burger, managed to chew and swallow without the guy’s odd way of talking bothering him too much. Setting the burger down on his plate, he flipped the bun back, adding a small slick of ketchup to the meat.

”Venison?” Noah question, glancing up as he flipped the lid back on. ”Can’t say I have yet.” The hunters he did know weren’t the sort who bought their catch home to dress for the table. Noah dipped a couple more fries before he reached for his burger again. The conversation was flipping back and forth, maybe due to where they were, the strange and unsettling easing back into the normal. ”When you find your vocation, you’re willing to give up that extra time for it,” he admitted. ”So I’m not the only one working this weekend then? Sounds like a decent plan.” If the house remained empty for the weekend then the work likely wouldn’t end with the marking on Saturday. He’d pour himself into the rest of the work, making another attempt to get to the bottom of things here.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 667

Mystic Falls might have been home to a large supernatural community, but there were also plenty of people in this town – both human and supernatural – who were happier burying their heads in the sand. Some didn’t want to think about the nightmares that were out there, others didn’t want it known that they were a part of that nightmare. Studying the man sitting opposite him, Noah suspected that he was the latter. He knew what was happening out there, but didn’t want the attention swinging in his direction if he tried to bring attention to something. ”A lot of people see it as their duty to bring the cops in when they find something illegal going on,” Noah told him lightly. Their own business or not, it was a guilt thing that tended to stick with people.

He wasn’t going to pry into it here, not with so many ears probably tuned into the conversation already, but Noah also suspected that either this guy had run ins with hunters before, or someone who had was passing their suspicions onto him. They didn’t exactly have a good name in the supernatural community. Too many who had been hurt by the things out there took their revenge too far. That was where his family had always come in. Frowning faintly now, he he toyed with the cutlery that had just been set beside his plate. That was where he was supposed to come in now. ”I’d guarantee you were wrong. There are no absolutes, not even with them. It’s never all good or all evil. I won’t argue with you over it though.” But maybe he’d slowly wear him down. Actually visible proof was harder to come by, especially when he only knew one hunter here in town and it’d been a while since he’d seen her.

”I’m sorry to hear that,” Noah murmured. ”It can be difficult to adjust when something … or someone … you’re used to leaning on is no longer there.” It could be like missing a limb. It took time to recover, for the wound of it to start healing over and it definitely left you warier of opening yourself up to it again. One corner of Noah’s mouth kicked back up into an apologetic smile. ”Sorry, I’m pretty new in town. I don’t think I could name a single doctor here.” He wasn’t impervious to injury himself – no super healing, no heightened senses, although he wasn’t entirely powerless – but many supernatural things were. If this guy was something, then he was still trying to hide what it was.

Noah started ticking off the signs in his head as he worked his way through his meal. The focus on diet, all that talk of hunters, the doctor thing. He struck them off in mental pro and con columns as he always did when he was working in a sticky situation. ”I’m surprised you haven’t burned out already,” Noah said honestly. He took another bite of his burger, wondering how many people had isolated themselves like that here. ”There seem to be plenty of town events if you did want to branch out into something social.” Swallowing his food suddenly, Noah found himself having to grab his drink for a gulp to wash it down as he was offered some venison. ”Thanks, I think I might pass. I’d probably just ruin it trying to cook it. It’s probably easier just to stick to the burgers, hmm?” Although he’d never gone the easy route on anything in his life. It was always the difficult path, the one frought with danger but that had a decent payout at the end.

Tagged: CARLTON NORWICH * Word Count: 610