Derrick Cruthers yawned as he braced his tall, lean form against the wall of the subway car. After a thirty-two hour shift, he was exhausted. It wasn't so much the lack of sleep that was getting to him. He'd managed a decent amount of that, in fits and starts, between calls. It was the things that people did to themselves and each other. That was what really got to him. Growing up on a ranch he'd seen his share of injury and death, and in their natural states, they didn't bother him. What bugged him was seeing a baby hopped up on and addicted to drugs because her mother couldn't be bothered to get clean, a half dead eighty-three year old woman who's caretaker had beaten her. He was seriously beginning to regret having come to the city, but this was where the money was. Money that he would need if he ever hoped to save enough to afford a home of his own.<br/><br/>It was were the people were too, and he had to get used to people. Real, modern people. Like the one over there who he was pretty sure was passed out drunk. He'd stopped checking on people on the subway after the first one pulled a knife on him. Only reflexes honed around fractious horses had kept him from being stabbed that time, and who knows what he would have picked up from that knife. He really didn't care to think about it. He blinked as they subway came to a stop. Was this one his? Even after two weeks in the city, he wasn't sure which stop was his... Why did everything here have to be so big, and yet so very small all at the same time? It was stifling. The subway started back on its way, and he realized no, that hadn't been his stop, the next one was.<br/><br/>Soon enough he was back onto the street above, and heading the last few blocks to the apartment building he'd found a room in. The others he was sharing the place had been trickling in over the last few days, but he hadn't really gotten a chance to meet them with his hectic work schedule. He was off the hook now though, at least for the next three days. It would be nice to get a chance to meet the people he'd be sharing house with, maybe set up a few ground rules they could all agree on. It was Friday, that meant that they'd be home tonight if they were ever going to be, didn't it? He still wasn't sure how things worked in the city just yet...<br/><br/>That realization brought him to the door, and Derrick let himself in quiet as a mouse. At least two people were home, he realized as he passed them in the kitchen, and made his way to the large room that he was supposed to be sharing with someone. It was quickly clear that he'd moved in while Derrick had been gone. That was just as well really, it avoided that awkward first meeting when the space that had been all his up to that point got invaded by someone he didn't know in the slightest. Better that it be over and done with, and they meet up later. A glance at his neatly made up bed with it's wild horse throw over the top left him yearning to dress down and climb between the sheets. He didn't. There were people out in the living room, and he was far from presentable.<br/><br/>Taking clean boxers, his favorite pair of stonewashed jeans, and a cozy hunter green long sleeve with him, he made his way into the bathroom to get out of his work clothes and have a quick rinse down. He resisted the urge to linger under the soothing hot water provided by the most wonderful of inventions, an on demand water heater, and turned the water off the moment he'd gotten all the suds off of him. Then it was into his clothes, a quick detour to pop his rather ripe uniform into the washing machine, and he made his way to the living room, feet bare, hair tousled from his failed attempts to towel dry it, and glasses still ever so slightly fogged from the bathroom.<br/><br/>The two from the kitchen earlier were there, and he felt the beginnings of anxiety urging him to go to his room and do this some other time. Instead, he leaned in the arch way that connected the living room to the hall, and somehow managed to produce a shy smile. "Hi."