monroe aquarium ||aaron||

[jayleetaylor]

Jaylee was anxious to get out of Bon Temps. Today was her day off from the police station and she didn’t want to hear any more complaints about that damn Bill Compton and that poor seventeen-year-old girl Jessica who had been turned by him. Sometimes small town people were just way too nosey and it wasn’t like the two were hurting anybody. In fact she’d seen that redhead working at Marlette’s a few times. She just couldn’t understand what everybody was so worried about - but it definitely made her think twice about telling people what she was. She doubted that people would accept the fact that there were shifters running around too.

So she dressed herself quickly in a pair of jeans and a dark green tank top that was probably half a size too small so it clung to her like those fleece blankets when they’re all staticky. Her hair was wavy and down, hanging about to the middle of her back. It was slightly frizzy from the summer heat - whoever said the heat was amazing was lying their bum off because this heat was torture. On top of that when she got into the car she realized there was no air conditioning - apparently it had broken. Well just fan-frickin-tastic. She rolled down the windows - manual, not automatic because apparently she was living in the stone ages - and drove off to Monroe.

Not that there was a lot to do in Monroe but it was certainly bigger than Bon Temps and there was no way she’d be going to Shreveport right now. Not that it would matter, all the fangers were asleep so it wouldn’t be likely that she would be bothered. Vampires rarely bothered her anyway which was why she didn‘t mind them so much. Of course they could tell what she was, she could smell them just as good as they could her. But if she decided to stay a little late, she didn’t want to take the chance of running into a group on their way to Fangtasia. She’d promised her brother and father that she’d never set foot inside that bar, and really, she would rather be at a were bar instead - not that she was technically a werewolf - in fact, most werewolves she met were worse than the vampires. She had met a few from a pack who did a bunch of V and they were awful creatures to be around.

Finally she settled on going to the Aquarium. She parked the car and got out, walking as fast as she could into the building, relieved when the cool air from the inside hit her face. It was like rain on a spring day - so welcomed. Jaylee started walking around, looking at all the fish. She stopped in front of a tank that had little goldfish inside and realized she’d never been a fish before. She wondered if it would be different to not need oxygen. The transformation, she assumed, would be problematic; she would have to be inside the tank before transforming so she wouldn’t die. Maybe a frog, then a fish. Jay couldn’t help but smile at the thought as she continued walking around.

[Aaron Pritchard]

The aquarium always seemed like a good idea to Aaron. He'd been coming out here on field trips or rainy-day outings with his parents and his sister Rhiannon. Something about the cool, calm undersea environment made everything seem easier and less stressful, and stress was something that Aaron had had his fair share of recently. The shop was doing a lot of business and while the money and prestige that came along with a roaring trade did him a lot of good it was still hectic. This was his first real day off in God only knew how long, and the silence was something he was enjoying thoroughly. A low bench ran the length of the underwater tube that admitted air-breathers into this aquatic world and Aaron had parked himself on it nearly half an hour ago, ignoring the high-pitched squeak of the rubber conveyer belt that the few other patrons had zipped past him on.

He had needed to escape Bon Temps today. Normally he'd only venture as far as Shreveport, but he'd just installed a new stereo in his hunk-of-crap gorgeous car and it had enticed him to drive further than he would have on a day when hours were precious to him. His mother had asked him around tonight for his favourite dinner; meatloaf and mash with country-style gravy. He hated to disappoint her. His stomach already growled acceptance, and it was still only early. With a smile he remembered family dinners around the small, round kitchen table at his parents' place. An even smaller family unit tonight, now that Rhiannon was away at college in Texas.

He was distracted by a young woman, blonde and pretty, who had walked in on the left where the ground was static. Her attention was focused on a tank of goldfish, and Aaron couldn't help but smile to himself. Personally he liked the more exotic fish, but who was he to judge? Certainly any fish he and Rhi had kept as kids hadn't lived longer than a month. Maybe this goldfish had some kind of magical properties. This thought tempted a a grin onto his tanned face, and feeling bold suddenly erased his need for solitude. He stood and walked over the conveyer belt, stepping onto the solid flooring. He was next to the girl in a few moments, pausing and considering the fish seriously before venturing a comment.

“They're some kinda magic fish,” he told her with a nod of his head in the direction of the tank. it wasn't until he was closer to her that he seemed to recognise her face. She had moved to Bon Temps a couple of years ago with her father, her brother and her sister. Something Taylor. "Hey, I know you, right? You live in Bon Temps." He offered her a smile, slightly embarrassed that he didn't remember her full name. Bon Temps was a small town, after all.

[jayleetaylor]

The very not exotic fish had Jaylee in a sort of trance. She was trying very hard to resist the urge to shift just to see what it would be like to live for just a few moments as a fish - any fish. Goldfish, betta, flounder, shark… anything that lived under the water. But she couldn’t shift here, not in a public area. Since the vampire had just come out of the coffin two years and some months ago, her family (though not denying that they were shifters and certainly not hiding the fact) had decided not to flaunt what they were. The last thing they needed was a bunch of human getting all afraid of the fact that they were able to change form, though that was ludicrous since the shifters were unable to change human forms so there was really no risk of two of the same person just waltzing around town.

A voice distracted her - a male voice at that. Her head snapped toward him, half startled by the disruption. But she smiled in an attempt to let him know he wasn’t bothering her. Her smile was one that told anyone who saw it how shy she was - her father and brother would have said it would be the factor that gave away the type of personality that she had. She was, in almost every way, a Southern lady. Her stance gave her away as well though; she was standing with her arms hanging at her sides, but she took up less room than a normal person should. “Oh, uh. Yeah, I guess there are magic fish.” She wondered if he knew how true that was, given that she was almost certain she could change into a fish.

The man himself was attractive - tanned skin as though he might have worked outside, definitely human. Jay could smell that he was human and something else about him, something along the lines of cars - something that went into cars. Jay wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone what that smell was - oil or gas maybe. But it wasn’t strong and it definitely made her wonder if he liked being in cars. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place the face, or name for that matter. She was relieved to find out that he was in the same boat - unable to completely identify her. Well, let’s face it, you’re really not that noticeable. As far as Jaylee was concerned, she didn’t find herself incredibly attractive. Not like that vampire worker at Merlotte’s or even the pretty one, Dawn, that had passed away. She ranked herself maybe with Arleen, though the redhead was still prettier than her in her opinion. Jaylee was more natural - rarely wearing makeup. She had freckles splattered on her face and her hair was always frizzy and wavy unless she straightened it or took a curling iron to it.

“Yeah, I work at the police station.” She offered her hand to the man despite the fact that she knew she ran hotter than the average person - around 100 or 101 degrees instead of 98.6 which was the normal human temperature. Shifters were a little higher in temperature, maybe because of the shifting aspect and the need to adjust quickly. It didn’t really bother her and since this guy knew her from Bon Temps she was sure he’d probably find out about what she was eventually. “Jaylee Taylor. If you call 911 I answer the phone.” She smiled and pushed her hair behind on of her ears, making herself take up less space again as her hand went back down to her side.

[Aaron Pritchard]

“Not much call for me to be diallin' 911,” he replied with an easy smile, tilting his head to the side and squinting one eye at her a little as he attempted to check her out in a way that he hoped was subtle. She was pretty in a way that set her apart from the other girls in town. Bon Temps, as Jason Stackhouse liked to say, was 'full of pigs or sluts'. Aaron wasn't in the habit of using talk like that, but he had to agree that it seemed the only girls in town who didn't dress like porn stars were a bit on the tomboyish side. Jaylee Taylor was neither, with her long sun-kissed locks and her natural skin tone. He thought she was somethin' else.

He took her hand, enveloping her smaller digits in his own. His hands were rough, calloused and often healing from cuts and scrapes he got on account of his line of work. Today his right hand was blissfully free of wounds but a little motor oil stubbornly clung to the lines in his skin no matter how hard he scrubbed them in the shower. If her hand was warmer than anyone else's might have been he didn't notice it, and if he had then he most likely would have chalked it up to the fact that it was hotter than six shades of Hell outside. The only grace they got down here was the water surrounding them.

“Aaron Pritchard,” he told her with a more lopsided version of his signature grin. He always seemed to feel foolish when introducing himself for some reason. Perhaps it was because the thought of anyone not knowing you when you lived in a town as small as Bon Temps was a pretty ridiculous idea in and of itself. He released her hand, slipping his thumbs casually into the loops of his jeans. “I have an auto shop in town.” He hated saying that. It made him sound pompous and boastful. On the other hand, he'd worked hard for what he had and seeing as his business was named for him there was definitely no way he could escape the connection.

“It's pretty neat, huh?” he said of the aquarium. “It's nice to get out of town for the day. Though I'm sorry you couldn't manage to avoid all the local hicks,” he laughed lightly, referring to himself. He rocked back slightly on his heels, not having any plan of action in mind other than coming over to say hi to her. He wasn't a shy person, per se, but he didn't have a reel of comments ready and waiting to go in these kind of situations either. “Are you waiting for someone?” he asked her politely, thinking that if she was then he would just keep her company until the said someone arrived.

[jayleetaylor]

The man, who had introduced himself as Aaron, had larger hands than her, but that wasn’t unusual. Jaylee had a small frame and with that came small hands. She was a short woman and he had to have almost a good foot of height on her. He looked tall anyway. His hands were rough, but it sent chills, actual chills, through her body. It contradicted her own skin, which was mostly soft though that was probably because she was a shifter. As far as she knew no one in her family really needed to use moisturizer. She reasoned it by saying that she turned into a cat and cats were soft and cuddly. While she was a bit on the thin side, at least she had the soft part down. She smiled as he said his name and took his hand back, though she wanted to reach for it again just to analyze the calluses on it. It was probably something that would be seen as odd, admiring rough hands, but that meant that he could at least take care of himself.

“Oh I-I’m not waiting for anyone.” She thought her voice sounded a little too high pitched for what it usually was and maybe too desperate for company. Now that she was talking to someone she realized that company was sort of a necessity right now. She didn’t really want the guy to leave, especially if he lived in Bon Temps and she hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting him for any length of time that would cause her to remember his name. She was definitely going to remember it now - it wasn’t every day you ran into someone randomly in the aquarium and talked about magic fish. Her head shook slightly in an attempt to emphasize that she wasn’t waiting for anyone, moving her hair gently as her head moved.

His comment about avoiding hicks made her smile though, which seemed to push her just slightly out of her little shell. “You don’t seem much like a hick, not in the bad sense anyway. Maybe as much as I am.” A small laugh escaped her lips as she averted her eyes, looking back toward the tank. She was still subconsciously making her body as small as possible, taking up as little room as she physically could. Not because she thought she was fat - she knew she was a bit on the thinner side - but because that was just her nature. She was that girl in the room that no one seemed to notice, or so she thought. And when they did notice her, she couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out why. She didn’t think of herself as attractive per se; not ugly either but certainly not attractive. Plain. Very plain, though others had vocally disagreed with her when she ever (which was rare) voiced her opinion of her own looks.

“You’re welcome to join me, if you like.” Now her voice was soft, maybe too soft, almost a whisper. Hopefully he heard it. That was her shyness coming out again. “Unless you’re waiting for someone. Or if you want to be alone, I understand that too.” She gave him a small smile, a very small smile. She couldn’t look at him in the eye, that was too personal. The fact that she had even offered him to join her - figuring that he would turn her down - had already embarrassed her and she could feel her cheeks turning red with the blush on her face.

[Aaron Pritchard]

Aaron couldn't help but laugh softly as Jaylee invited him to join her and then almost seemed to take it back in the next breath. While he hadn't had a lot of experience with girls he did realise a shy one when he saw her and knew that she didn't want to come across as pushy or presumptuous. But, well, she had invited him to join her and because he had been struggling with a reason to bring the topic up himself Aaron decided that it'd be a good thing to accept. “I ain't waitin' on anyone,” he added, still smiling as he nodded at the tank of fish they'd been looking at. “I'd love to join you. Maybe we can see us some mythical sharks down the way there.” His smile simmered into a smirk but his eyes remained quite serious; it was the smirk that gave away his gentle teasing.

As they began to move along through the aquarium, Aaron wracked his mind for a little light conversation. “So how come I haven't met you properly before, Jaylee? Seems to me like I've met everyone in Bon Temps 'sides you!” His accent was thicker than corn bread and his manners were just as sweet. Aaron Pritchard had always been a nice guy but a quiet achiever. While people like Jason Stackhouse had their popularity and their athleticism, Aaron had been the one that the girls had all gone to for 'boy' advice. This had seen him more often that not in the 'friend zone' as Jason had once put it, instead of the 'end zone'.

He didn't have a problem with it, really. He liked being the kinda guy people could count on or turn to if they needed help. It was part of the reason why he had decided to open his shop, after all. He prided himself on the fact that he was only one of two auto shops in the area that was open seven days a week and he was the only one who would take a call at 2am to fix someone's car on the interstate. He helped old women carry their grocery bags from the Grabbit Kwik out to their cars. He braked for animals. He actually kinda thought that it was a shame that he hadn't gotten to know Jaylee Taylor before now because she was pretty cute.

His mother hated his taste in cars. She thought that his beat up old piece of American metal made him seem reckless; a boy with no prospects. What was the use in owning an automotive shop if you didn't have a good car, she said. It was a bad advertisement, sitting out front, she told him. If Mrs. Pritchard was that picky about the kind of vehicle her only boy drove, well now. What did that say for the kind of women she hoped he'd hitch himself to one of these days ('And the sooner the better, Aaron, I want me some grand-babies!') Somehow, with her demure manners and pretty smile he thought she might approve of her.

“You ever go to Merlottes?”

[jayleetaylor]

The woman’s slim fingers ran through her long blond hair and pulled it over one of her shoulders, tucking strands behind her ears as she pulled at the locks. Her eyes moved to the fish tanks as a small smile stretched slowly across her face. She took a few steps further into the aquarium building, making sure to walk slowly, she wasn’t fast like vampires where but she didn’t want to walk at a fast human pace because she didn’t want to give the impression that she was trying to leave him. She hoped he would follow her, or maybe lead her around. Her eyes went back and forth from the floor to the fish tanks, keeping an eye on what fish they passed and the entire time her mind ran wild with thoughts about the man she was talking to and whether or not life as a fish would be pleasant.

In all honesty she had no idea why the two had never really met before. Sure, she worked a lot, more now that the vampires were out of the coffin, but she’d been around town as well. It wasn’t like she never had a drink or anything. She wasn’t particularly ashamed of what she was either, but she didn’t think it would go over very well if everyone in town knew what she was. She’d been to the local bar and grill a few times, of course most the people she knew went to see the vampire work there or watch Sam Merlotte walk around in those skin tight jeans. Now days it was sort of like a circus show. It was horrible that things had ended up this way.

“I, uh, I guess I kind of keep to myself lately,” she smiled and put her arms behind her back as she laced her own fingers together and let them fall lightly on her bottom as she walked. “Of course I could ask you the same question though, couldn’t I?” she risked a glance at him, not realizing it probably looked a bit flirty. Not that she wouldn’t mind a little fun with the guy. It wasn’t like she was a virgin, but she wasn’t a whore either. Settling down just hadn’t occurred to her. What kind of man would accept that she could change into an animal? What kind of man would marry a house cat? It was why she rarely dated, just little hookups to keep from feeling lonely. Though that didn’t completely work - she was still very lonely.

For some reason she couldn’t stop smiling; in her mind she thought she looked like one of those annoying people who thought everything was funny, but she probably looked more like the little animal cat that she turned into when she wanted to shift. She tried not to think about it - thinking about it would make her want to change even more. “Yeah, I’ve been in and out of there more than a few times. I rarely stay very long. I go there to eat sometimes on my lunch break.”

Now that she was looking, actually paying attention to what Aaron looked like, she felt little pinches all over her skin like the shift was forcing itself on her, but she didn’t change form - she stayed the little blond woman in the aquarium. She had to get her mind off of his attractiveness if she wanted to keep the conversation going. “So… How often do you come here?” It was sort of a strange question really, one of those cheesy things people said to others to make sure there was no silence, though silence didn’t bother Jaylee so much, at least not right now. She just couldn’t think of anything else to say.

[Aaron Pritchard]

As they walked and Jaylee opened up a little more, Aaron found that she was actually quite good company. Her easy-seeming jokes and friendliness were both qualities he admired. All too often girls these days thought themselves above a simple guy like him. Aaron wasn't interested in flashy clothes or pretending to be something he wasn't. He was a potato salad and root beer kinda guy. He liked watching sports, but didn't flip his lid if he missed the game on Friday nights. And he was plenty happy with all that, actually. So it stood to reason that he could recognise, and appreciate, these similar kind of qualities in a lady.

He'd been about to invite her to Merlotte's for dinner or something when she'd asked him if he came out to Monroe often. Maybe asking her on a date was a little too forward just yet, and Aaron was silently grateful that Jaylee had interrupted his intentions. Walking along they made a fine pair, her hands behind her back and his in his pockets. Those smart folk who studied body language would have had a lot to say about it, but if it had been brought to his attention Aaron would have chalked it up to the both of them keeping their hearts safe. He was a romantic like that.

“Not too often,” he replied with a slight shrug. “Most days I'm pretty busy at the shop, on account of getting' work from Shreveport and out this way as well as just Bon Temps. But when I have time to myself I like to look at nature.” Pausing for a moment, Aaron lifted one of his hands out of his pocket and up to rest lightly on the glass. Behind it, a long silver fish glided through the translucent water, majestic and mysterious. He was quiet for a moment, then remembered himself. Looking at Jaylee, he smiled.

“I guess you could say I'm an outdoors man. Love camping. Do you like it?”

[jayleetaylor]

They stopped at another tank and again Jaylee was filled with the urge to shift. Maybe it was the cat in her wanting to play with the fish - she was fascinated with it to the point where she hadn’t noticed that Aaron had seemed to zone out until he started speaking again. “I like nature too,” she said. She thought about adding ‘if you only knew’ but thought better of it. She was nervous about telling someone what she was, that she was an animal during the full moon and otherwise could shift whenever she wanted and furthermore, that she liked to turn into a cat and that she was currently wondering what it was like to turn into a fish.

It just wasn’t something you talked about to a person you just met. Maybe once they knew each other a little more. If they planned on hanging around each other for any length of time, Aaron would have to know. It wasn’t like she could just hide something like that from someone - one of her friends if that’s what they turned out to be, or maybe something a little more. He was definitely good looking and he seemed like a perfect gentleman. Of course that was the problem; she doubted a perfect gentleman could accept her for being an animal during some nights.

“I really enjoy camping too, I don’t get to go a lot but I like it.” She smiled. “And I don’t know that I’d go alone with the weird stuff happening in Bon Temps. Did you know there was a woman found dead? It’s got everyone at the police station all riled up and rightfully so I guess. They say a vampire did it but I’m not so sure. Maybe someone falsified evidence or something, ya know?” There, that was a way to ease into supernaturalness, she supposed. Of course, she didn’t really have a problem with vampires but she was more of a sunlight kind of person.

[Aaron Pritchard]

Aaron was blissfully unaware of the internal struggle his companion was currently facing. He was a pretty laid back guy in general and had adapted to the open existence of vampires with little fuss, as had the rest of his liberal-thinking family. As it was he simply thought she was a nice girl who he’d been lucky enough to come into contact with on a random trip to the aquarium. And he really hoped that they would be able to run into each other more often from now on. Nice people in general were hard come by in this place, and now that he had found one Aaron was intending to keep the friendship.

He was pleased to hear that she enjoyed camping too. In his opinion the more two people had in common made for a better friendship, and he was about to tell her of some of his favourite camping spots when she told him that someone was found dead. His blood ran cold and he felt a little shivery himself, almost the same way he felt after sitting a spell in the sun and having a cloud pass over. Aaron’s eyebrows knitted in concern, his mouth pressed into a thin line of sadness. Too many things like this had been happening in Bon Temps lately. He couldn’t say that he hated vampires at all, in fact he thought they had a right to co-exist with every other creature. But he had to admit that it was things like this that gave them a bad reputation.

“No, I hadn’t heard about that,” he responded first. He worked from before sunrise to just after sunset most days, and hadn’t been to see his mother in a couple days. She would have normally been his source of neighbourhood news. “A vampire, huh? That’s terrible, poor lady. Do you know who she was?” His face was serious and his tone was genuine. As awful a thing as it was to have happened (again) in their small community, he had to hope that it was someone who wasn’t leaving behind their kids or the like.

[jayleetaylor]

Being a shifter and appearing normal was usually fairly easy, but with the urge to shift so great at the moment, Jay found herself having to focus far harder than usual. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of what she was, she actually liked being a shifter, it came in handy except on the full moon when she couldn’t stop, and of course when she fell asleep as an animal and woke up naked. That was a big pain. But still, it was pretty neat, what she could do. And any animal. She would have to remind herself to try a fish later, just to see what it was like. Maybe not though, in the wild there was always the chance of the random fisher with a net.

In any case, she had to keep focused on the conversation. She shook her head slightly and started walking again, slowly, looking at the fish in the various tanks. “Not a whole lot actually. Her name was Thelma-Rae Johnson. I don’t think she had much of a family, but the people who knew her seemed to like her. I didn’t get to talk to her a whole lot, but I did see her on occasion. I don’t know why anyone would want to kill her. But in Bon Temps, you never really know, do you?” Her voice was quiet, she was shy after all but she also wanted to hear this man’s opinion on things. Aaron seemed like an okay guy, and conversation was a good way to get to know each other better.

“It’s awfully sad, I think. But it’s hard working at a police station and hearing about so many deaths to keep cryin’ ‘bout it. It won’t do any good anyway. To cry about it I mean.” She shrugged and stopped at another tank, this one with lots of colorful tropical fish. She envied their beauty, wishing she could be as magnificent in human form as she could be in animal form, instead of this plain shell of a woman. “I didn’t see the body anyway. Which is good for me. I don’t know how well I’d handle that.”

[Aaron Pritchard]

Aaron had known Thelma-Rae. She had been a thin, bookish girl and had been a year below him in school. He stood still for a moment, her name bouncing around in his mind as he remembered looking at her as they had sat in the library one rainy afternoon. He’d been working on a paper and she had been reading something, but their eyes had met briefly and they’d shared a smile. Aaron had harboured a crush on Thelma-Rae ever since but had been too chicken to do anything about it. He hadn’t seen her much around town since graduation, save a few natural bump-ins over the past couple of years but they had never spoken to each other. Sadly, he now realised that he would never have the opportunity to talk to her.

“Wow,” he replied in a blank way that betrayed how affected he was by hearing her name mentioned. He heard the rest of what Jaylee was saying and took it in but didn’t respond. He blinked as the shock seeped into his bones, cold and toxic. He wanted to know everything, suddenly. He needed to know. And why had it happened? Had she fallen in with a bad crowd? Had she done something to make someone want to kill her? Aaron didn’t know what was worse; thinking that shy Thelma-Rae had done something worth murdering her for or that she had simply been a victim of circumstance.

He understood what Jaylee meant about not taking it to heart. Working where she did it was a natural coping mechanism and one that he would have adopted himself in a similar situation. He was both glad and disappointed that she hadn’t seen the body and didn’t appear to have any information. He didn’t want to pump her for details – he was too busy letting the realisation that it had happened sink into his brain – but it would be good to know that if he had questions there would be someone he could ask. Someone who, he thought, wouldn’t judge him for wanting to know. “I knew her,” he told the blonde girl beside him as they stopped at a large tropical fish tank. He looked into the depths of the blue water, past the fish and the coral and the other habitat decorations. He blinked again and seemed to become something like himself again, looking back at Jaylee with a hint of apology in his eyes.

“Sorry,” he told her with a sad shake of his head. “Hearing her name was a bit of a shock, is all. You never expect...” he trailed off as he searched for words. “You never expect it to happen to someone you know,” he explained.

[jayleetaylor]

Oh great now she’d upset Aaron. Well this wasn’t working out well at all. Hell, she might as well have told him that she shifts into a cat! That might have been less of a blow than talking about the dead girl in the square. Another awkward moment for Jaylee. Sometimes, when she didn’t really know what to talk about, and if she was willing to talk, she just started conversations about the strangest things. Like this whole murder. Tactless, that was sort of how someone might describe her right now. Talking about this murder like it was no big thing except for a juicy piece of gossip she’d heard since she worked at the police station. Well dang it, anyway. She was sure this just killed her chances of ever getting to know Aaron any better.

She felt her lips press into a line as she scooted back just a bit, afraid of what he thought of her now. “Gosh darn it, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to press any buttons or anything’.” She sarcastically and inwardly complimented herself on how amazing she’d been at putting Aaron off. “I guess, I just thought you might have heard. I mean, in Bon Temps, it has to happen to someone ya know, because, well, just about everyone knows everyone else. I mean, it’s sad and all an’ I’d never formally met the woman, but I’d at least heard of her an’ seen her walk by the station a few times.”

The blond shape-shifter sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’ve upset you,” her thick accent didn’t make the statement sound like a statement, but more of a question, though she doubted what she was saying. “I shoulda been more sensitive about it, I’m awfully sorry ‘bout that. I just… I guess I figured everyone ‘round ‘ere would be used to it by now, since so much has gone on lately. I mean, there was all those killings by that Rene guy, and then the mae-” she cut herself off. Aaron wasn’t a shifter, so he might not have remembered MaryAnne. “madness that took over the town that one time. Then there was that Sam who beat up that guy from Hot Shot an’ his family was all in town for a while.” She didn’t mention that Sam’s family (well, most of them) were shape-shifters too. “If ya want me to leave, I will…” Her voice lowered and she opened her eyes to look at the floor. She didn’t know how to be outgoing in a situation like this. She was back to who she was right when she saw him, that shy girl from Bon Temps.

[Aaron Pritchard]

Aaron managed to keep himself together. He was far from a blubbering mess, but he would be lying if he said that news of Thelma-Rae’s death didn’t affect him a bit. He didn’t blame Jaylee one bit, either. These sort of things had been happening in Bon Temps for such a long time now that people were starting to think of them as commonplace. Combined with the line of work the young woman was in, it was no wonder that she had just come out with it. When she apologised, rambling a little in her haste to make amends for her faux pas. Aaron wasn’t really the kind of guy to take things to heart, especially when he knew people hadn’t meant anything by them in the first place.

Shaking his head slightly in confusion as she launched into her apology Aaron unthinkingly reached out to place a steadying hand on Jaylee’s shoulder, coming closer to her as he did so. He wasn’t making a pass or anything of the sort, just trying to show in his own way that he hadn’t taken offense. His eyes skipped between hers; the light grey blue of his serious and concerned and the bright blue of hers wide and almost frantic. He stooped slightly so that she wouldn’t have to look up at him, his face expressing his acceptance of the situation.

“Hey,” he told her in a soothing tone. “It’s okay, you didn’t know that I knew her. And it sure is awful news, but I’m sure it will be okay somehow. The Sheriff’s department will be on it and doin’ the best they can an’ all.” He stepped back slightly and took back his hand, tucking both of them into his pockets so that he wouldn’t fidget. “Of course I don’ want you to leave. It’s okay, Jaylee. Really.” He offered her a smile of his own, slightly apologetic. Maybe he should have just pretended like he hadn’t known Thelma-Rae. It sure seemed to have ruined his chances now!

[jayleetaylor]

Sometimes Jaylee wished she wasn’t so timid. The over-shyness that was her major personality trait sometimes made her overcompensate by rambling after she’d said something wrong, like what had just happened. She hoped that as Aaron touched her shoulder, her clothes would hide the slight temperature spike that the shifters ran with. She wished she could just shift now and feel the less complex emotions of the cat. Jay could feel her cheeks flush red with the blood that ran to her face in embarrassment and she clasped her hands behind her back. Being an animal was easier, sure, you could think human and all, but there was no need for verbal communication and the physical was usually interpreted by humans as caring.

“I really am sorry,” She looked at the ground and let her hair provide a shield for the sides of her face as she started walking again. She was glad Aaron said he didn’t want her to leave, but she just felt like she’d killed someone with the way she’d acted. She continued to look at the ground, walking slower than they had been moving before. “Can we pretend like I didn’t sound so insensitive?” She breathed a laugh to lighten the mood, but she was more than half hoping that he’d take her seriously.

Jaylee tried desperately to think of something else to talk about, something that would take the heaviness she felt in the air away. Well, telling him that she was a shape shifter was definitely out of the question for now. There was no way she was going to risk telling him something like that. If he forgave her for her little rudeness that had resulted from being shy and trying to force out a conversation (and get his opinion on supernaturals, though that part hadn’t gone as planned), maybe she could tell him what she was another day.

“You said you have an auto shop, right?” This seemed like a safe enough topic. Jaylee finally looked up as she walked. “Do you like what you do there?”