Page 39 of Stoker's Serenity

What came out of my mouth was my best southern boy, “No, ma’am.” Respect. Simply for the fact I was addressing a lady.

“Okay. I’ll call and check on her in the morning, then.”

“Yeah, you go on and get some good sleep of your own,” I said.

“Thanks for not bailing at the first sign of trouble,” she said. “She might not know it yet, but she’ll appreciate it too. Just be stubborn. She’s a good person. She would never give up on anyone, but they just keep giving up on her.”

“Buck stops here,” I told her. She nodded and descended the stairs. I wanted like hell to smoke a blunt, but if some shit went down at work and they had to piss test me? Yeah, I had to forgo it. I needed to remain gainfully employed.

I pulled in a deep breath and raked my fingers through my hair, locking them behind my head and letting that breath out in a rush.

“Ah!”

I’d never stayed with a high-maintenance chick for long, but of course this was different… While yeah, Ren was going to be some kind of high-maintenance, she was worth it. The fixer-upper part of her psyche wasn’t damaged overnight, it couldn’t be fixed with just a drywall patch and a slap of paint. This was deep. Structural. Dangerous territory for a noob like me to be poking around in.

I called Marlin.

“What’s up?” he asked on the second ring. I could hear laughter in the background and I was glad the party hadn’t stopped on our account.

“I may need a fuckin’ pep talk here,” I said.

“Damage pretty bad?” he asked.

“Yeah, not at all what I thought, but yeah.”

“Trauma is trauma,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what the trauma was initially, the fallout from it is all the same.”

“I don’t want to fuck this up, dude.”

“Tough shit. That’s part of life, Stoker. You go in, you fuck shit up – it’s what you do after that, that’s what counts.”

“Sure as fuck ain’t here to fuck shit up and leave,” I said.

“Attaboy, now you’re talkin’,” he said.

“Where do I start?” I asked.

“Well, you start by listening. Just remember, you can’t talk and listen at the same time. Just. Listen.”

“Okay, I can do that.”

“She sleepin’?” he asked.

“Yeah, that Ativan knocked her the fuck out.”

“Yeah, I gave you the horse tranquilizer dose.”

“Thanks, man. And thank Faith for me, too.”

“Anytime, brother, and Faith knows what it’s like. She’s been there. You ain’t gotta thank her for nothing. She’s pure goodness, my woman. If she can stop somebody else’s suffering – she will.”

“Yeah, I feel like Serenity is the same, you know? Just nobody’s given her a chance.”

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” he said quietly.

“Good way of putting it. Still want to curb stomp the motherfucker for littering, though.”

“Ah, yup. I feel you there.”

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