<div class="floatleft">(http://www.stereoboard.com/images/artistimages/childish-gambino.jpg)</div><strong>Name: Cole Hawkins (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=250173.msg12434518#msg12434518)</strong><br/><strong>City | Date | Time: San Francisco, California | August 4th, 2017 | Sometime past 2 am</strong><br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning: Jacqueline 'Jackie' Fawkes</strong><br/><strong>Content: Trust was building...</strong><br/><hr/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: comic sans ms;"><br/>Cole could feel the effects of his meal kicking in, refueling the tired body that he had been carrying for a few days, but really has been carrying it for almost a year or so now. It was never easy; there was so much that got taken away from him and he had to fight and claw to some sense of normality. Or what he could now consider normality. Seeing Jackie...seeing her apartment and her living space and her food and warm, kind spirit was that sense of normality that had been escaping him for what seemed like forever. She was giving it to him; she was showing that there was a way to live a life, not worried and not looking over your shoulder every second. If it was only just a brief time, he was going to take it. He wanted to take it. At the very least for a shower because...boy, did he really want that shower. There had been many of times where everything could have went wrong; the food could have been poisoned by her. Of course, he would know and it wouldn't have done much to him but that was always the possibility. <br/><br/>Tac-6 could have been kicking down the door as they had gotten cozy and comfortable. But nothing had happened. In fact, through the entire day of wandering around, familiarizing himself with the landscapes and the new playground of (hopefully) opportunity, Tac-6 hadn't really shown themselves or had come down upon him. He had finally pulled himself, again, out of the space in his mind where he could seek out a small pocket of focus, hearing the gentle voice of Jackie speaking to him, talking about how she was glad that the food was to his liking (It was...) and that he wasn't a leech for being here (Thank god...). She had seemed to watch him for a long time; Cole guessed it was just simply to get some sort of narrative about him. She seemed to have came up short and instead decided to show him where the shower was. He moved back to the living room and collected his bag and headed off down the hall to where she was waiting, showing him how to operate it and asking if he had an extra pair of clothing.<br/><br/>He didn't. But he didn't tell her that. He just simply said. "Yeah, I think I can manage," to her and pushed that one small bit of a problem to the side. He waited for her to grab him an extra towel before he gave a small nod of his head and a small nervous smirk at her comment about not peeking in while he cleaned up. She was definitely a flirtatious one, he could see that. He never knew how to respond well to those types of comments. But he always tried.<br/><br/>"Well, as long as you don't go all Norman Bates on me, we should be five by five," he responded, his smirk stretching a bit on his tired, scruffy face. "I think if you have a laundry machine somewhere, I might want to use that after..." He added, thinking that he should get his clothes washed. All two pairs of outfits that he carried. He then finally shut the door to the bathroom, after a slightly awkward pause and his inability to finish a conversation sometimes and leaned quietly against the door with a hushed sign of relief.<br/><br/>A month...He had gone a month without a decent shower. That motel room back in Louisiana felt like a drifting memory, something that was passed along and erased. Part of that was true...but that shower had been a godsend. Maybe this was another. He stripped out of his clothes immediately, feeling the slight drenched nature and stiffness of his lived in clothes. He knew he needed new ones; there's only so much a good wash can do...but with what money? He got lucky with that motel room, but now he was pushing lint and discarded wrappers of bubblegum as his currency. As he finally gotten himself naked, he stared at himself in the small mirror over the sink and glanced at his body.<br/><br/>The long gash that he had sustained almost a week ago was now gone. Not even a scar or a marking. He traced his finger over his abs, where he could feel the wound and sighed. "Cassie..." he murmured a bit before he turned away from the mirror and started up the shower, adjusting the heat tank to the right level. Scorching hot. He would be fine. He needed to scrub the grime and dirt of a month off of him anyway. He slowly moved into the shower and felt Heaven rain down upon him. His fists gently collided with the shower wall as he leaned his knuckles up against it and just stood with the cascade of beaded drops of hot water, pouring through his hair, down his face and along his body, bringing a soothing massage and relief to his sore muscles.<br/><br/>"Thank you..." He whispered, his head bowed and his eyes gazing at the drainage, watching bits of dirt and caked blood wash off of him and into a swirl that was Cole's life now. In the tightest of nutshells possible. He gave a small laugh to himself...<br/><br/>"So what now, Dolomedes...?" He said to himself. "How are you going to save the world and make a difference?"<br/><br/>A shower first. A plan second.</span></span>