just_another | Entries tagged with lara

They're actually having a baby shower.

Joel is fairly certain his mother wouldn't have let them get away without something, even if he had insisted it be small and consist only of family, but for some reason he and Spencer have allowed themselves to be talked into a real shower. With invitations and food and little baby themed games to play. It's sort of strange, looking at it from his position, given that Erin is the one who's going to be giving birth and therefore is the one in the glowing pregnant woman position at this entire gathering.

She'd sweetly agreed to attend and had even whispered to Joel that she would take the brunt of the attention if she could manage it. He had whispered back that he knew they had picked her for a good reason.

But here they are. Several weeks have passed, the invitations have gone out and the decorations have been put up all over Joel and Spencer's living room. He had agreed to lift the enchantments on the house for the extent of the party, which means that anyone can open the door to their guests, they don't all have to be invited in by either Joel or Spencer, and it makes him a little nervous, but he understands the usefulness of others being able to answer the door. At least for today.

It's the decorations that keep getting to him. Sweet little ducks and zebras and monkeys, little jungle animals all over the walls. The bottle and rattle shaped cookies are pretty cute, but those aren't going to be left when the baby gets here. The animal theme, though, is fairly close to the nearly finished nursery Joel has been working on upstairs and he can't help but grin at the decorations.

Spencer, on the other hand, can't stop coming back round to the center of the living room to stare at the enormous sign that's been strung up above a table already stacked with gifts when a majority of their guests haven't even arrived yet. He'd been worried this morning that the day would overwhelm him, that knowing so many people would be coming into their home would be daunting when just a year ago, he'd never even once invited company over before meeting Joel; but so far, he feels calm, in spite of having had to watch Joel remove the enchantments that act as their security on the house. If someone wishes to crash a baby shower--which he doesn't imagine will happen anyway--then they'll have to face not only the wrath of a room that will be filled with witches and sirens, but the wrath of his mother- and sister-in-law, as well. That's not a sight Spencer thinks would be very pretty to witness.

Still, he feels light, perhaps a lingering effect of the having the chance to fall in love with Joel a second time during the spell that had taken over the town. Certainly, a great deal of his contentment has to do with the fact that he won't have to worry about losing his husband in a crowd but even beyond that, he's excited.

So much has changed in the course of the past year and weeks from now, they'll be holding their newborn in their arms for the very first time without another care in the world but for who they've been looking forward to meeting since they'd decided to take this journey together. There's something a bit strange about realizing that it's all coming to a head, that the waiting will soon be over and they'll be fathers at last, but when the first knock on the door comes, Spencer can't help but smile.

[Baby shower for Joel and Spencer's wee one. Erin, their surrogate, is present and is currently 31 weeks pregnant. If you're even a little friendly with either of them, Joel's mother sent an invitation, but the enchantments have been taken off the house for the event and so it's not an impossible party to crash. If anyone wants to crash a baby shower...]

All Joel wants is to go home and sleep in his own bed, but so far the doctor has forbidden it. Even with Spencer's promises to take care of him and make sure he doesn't exert himself, Joel is still stuck in the hospital for at least one more day, but probably two. Besides Spencer, he hasn't been allowed visitors either and Joel knows it's only been a day, but he feels like he's slowly starting to go crazy with boredom.

He understands why he has to stay. Sort of. He's still in a fair bit of pain despite the medication they've been giving him, so he understands why his doctor wants him to stay, but Joel knows he can do better. Especially now that the demon is gone. If they would just let him go home, he'd be able to brew something that would almost entirely do away with the pain in his hand and his chest, but he can't tell them that.

Or maybe he could, but he's fairly certain they wouldn't care.

Spencer has brought him several books, but even so, Joel is bored. He's currently lying in his bed with his head tipped back to look at the ceiling, counting the holes in the tile directly above him. He's gotten as high as six hundred before losing count and having to start over again, but it isn't as if he has anything else to do.

"Good news," one of the nurses says as he pops his head into Joel's room. "You're officially allowed visitors."

He has his phone out and is texting someone to come visit him before the nurse has even finished his sentence. As his vitals are checked, as his evening dose of medication is given, Joel sets his phone aside, picks up one of his books, and he waits.

[Joel is in the hospital post-demon battle. If your character is close to Joel or Spencer, feel free to assume they got a text letting them know what happened and that everyone is alive. Come visit a demon-free Joel for the first time EVER!]

It isn't until he finally does see Lara that he realizes he hasn't seen her lately.

It's his own fault, really, with everything that's been going on. Joel has never dealt well with a lot of activity or a lot of change and things have been very busy lately between the cruise and the aftermath and the fight with Eli. He's spent a couple of weeks laying low, keeping to himself, staying in the store or at home or at the library, but almost nowhere in between.

But he has a responsibility. He wants to help Raleigh open her bakery and while there is a lot of things for them to do, one of the things he's been focused on lately is finding her a location. She has a list of qualities she's looking for and Joel has spent a fair bit of time looking at places for rent along the boardwalk and then a bit further away, trying to find one that fits everything she wants.

It's not far from his store that he catches sight of Lara and he quickens his pace -- he's finally gotten rid of the cane with his doctor's permission -- and lifts a hand to wave when he's close enough for her to see.

There's half a bottle of whiskey sitting on the counter in Crossroads and Joel is sitting just behind it, staring at it thoughtfully, wondering if he'll ever be able to drink it again or even just the smell of whiskey will remind him of Spencer for the rest of his life. He doesn't need to drink it, there had been enough beer in his fridge to get him sufficiently drunk, especially when combined with the painkillers the doctor had given him for his wrist, but he wants to drink it.

He wants to share it with Spencer. That was the plan. He likes whiskey, but he'd only bought it because Spencer likes it, too, and while they'd had some of it together already, the plan was to finish it with him. Because Joel had plans. He'd been stupid enough to make plans all the while knowing it could never last because he's done bad things and he's hurt people and there are reasons he's tried so hard to keep his distance. Good reasons. But he'd been stupid and he'd listened to the part of him that thought it was okay to move on. The part of him that felt weightless every time Spencer smiled in his direction. The part that thought asking him out on a date was going to end well.

And it hadn't. It hadn't ended well at all. Joel isn't prone to exaggeration, but he thinks calling last night a complete disaster isn't far off. Mark had come and he'd taken Spencer and he'd hurt him. Joel knows it could have been worse; he knows they both could have died in that lighthouse, but that doesn't make the things that had been done to Spencer any easier to stomach. Especially not when he knows it's his fault. If they hadn't gotten close, if he hadn't let himself get so... so carried away, then Spencer never would have become a target.

Now he doesn't even think it matters. He can't imagine that Spencer will want anything to do with him anymore and that's why he's sitting in his closed, dark store instead of somewhere with Spencer. He should have stayed at the hospital, he shouldn't have been such a coward, but he doesn't think he can face hearing Spencer tell him he doesn't want him around anymore. So he's here. And he's drunk. And he's swaying back and forth on his stool behind the counter, wondering if there's enough whiskey left in the bottle to get him so drunk that he blacks out for a week or two.

He doesn't want to be here. He wants to go back and erase Friday night and do it all over again. He wants to be wherever Spencer is. That's the only thing he wants and he wants it so badly that his chest aches with it, but he can't have it.

"Fuck it," he mutters, his words already slurred, then uncaps the bottle of whiskey and takes a long swallow. Black out drunk sounds better than any of his other options right about now.

[Timed to Saturday late afternoon/evening. While the store is technically closed, he'll open the door for anyone who knocks or rings the bell. Given the violence of the attack on Spencer, the news has probably gotten around, so feel free to come bang on his door and assume your pup has heard. Joel himself has a black eye, a bruised jaw and a sprained wrist.]

It's been a strange, confusing, amazing and horrifying few days.

For someone who generally keeps to himself, Joel's not sure how so much has happened at once, but no matter how he looks at it, there's enough going on in his life right now to satisfy him for years to come. The ball had been both a disaster and one of the more gratifying nights of his life and while he hasn't yet spoken with Lou since sending her home in a cab, he knows he needs to find the courage to visit her at some point.

He needs to speak with Lara as well. The truth is, he's been avoiding her, still not entirely sure what he feels. He's angry, but more than that, he feels betrayed, and that's a feeling Joel has gone out of his way to avoid, it's why he's kept himself so closed off from most people in Siren Cove.

The threatening letters he's been receiving aren't helping matters and although he's handed them over to the police, he'd still spent most of the night in his work room, crafting witch bottles that he's hoping he can convince people to put in their homes or bury in their yards. Something is coming and he doesn't know yet if that something is coming for him or the people he cares about, but he's not taking any chances.

With the bottles in his bag, he locks the door to his store and heads into town. He needs to find a few specific people, he needs to run some errands and he wants to stop by the library to see Spencer, maybe bring him lunch. Even as he thinks about that, he finds himself smiling and he has to duck his head as he walks. The premonition he'd had the night of the ball had disrupted things a little, but even with that, he feels a lot more certain of where things may be headed.

[ooc: Joel can be just about anywhere in town. There are some specific people he needs to speak with, so find him wherever suits! He's also made witch bottles for people he cares about, so come collect your protective charms. And no matter what you read on google about making a witch bottle, he did NOT pee in them.]