oom: milliways library

[scurlock]

There really isn't a specific layout to the place, but every time Doc's been up here, it's been a little different. He passes it off to Bar trying to keep things interesting. This time there are long rows of shelves, full of books. Some are sorted by date published. Others, by subject. Some shelves are mixed in all together. There are stacks around on end tables and next to chairs and desks. There is a comfortable couch or two, somewhere. Ladders to reach high. It always changes and there's a few too many corners and nooks to really make it work from a layout standpoint, but it's quiet and full of anything someone could want to look for to read.

Doc opens the door and steps in, then glances at Kate.

"I promise, I ain't never..." a chuckle, at himself. "I haven't ever," he corrects "Been lost in here."

Comments

[ikissdhimbck]

"It must be hard keeping in touch with people worlds--and times--apart," she remarks sympathetically.

Katherine watches the smile mold his features, penetrating deep down and bringing to the surface his genuine happiness at the gesture. She hadn't known what his eyes were missing before. Now that she's seen it, she imagines how hard it must be to keep smiling in circumstances like Doc's, and is grateful she could impart at least momentary satisfaction.

"You're more than welcome. You've been a fine teacher thus far," she says as she steps through the back door, and suddenly her voice goes quiet as she takes everything in.



Blink.

[scurlock]

Doc's quiet, for a moment as he nods.

"S'pretty impressive," he says. "Lake freezes over in the winter, too."

It's warmed up enough now for swimming, but he hasn't gone yet. He prefers the ocean. It's cleaner, anyway.

There is a lot to take in. And they can't even seen the ocean from here!

[ikissdhimbck]

Katherine's eyes slowly dart to and fro over the landscape. She hasn't seen it's match in all of Texas.

After a time she turns her head to look up at her silent companion, eyes glinting with hardly contained excitement.

"Show me everything," she breathes.

[scurlock]

"All right," Doc says. "Haveta admit the forest ain't much, just trees, so we can wander back through it. The gardens and the greenhouse are this way," he offers her his arm again before heading down the path that will lead them to the plots of various plants and the greenhouse.

There are quite the variety of species, it also seems.

[ikissdhimbck]

Katherine nods. "I was advised by another patron to stay clear of the forest. Something about possessed rabbits?" She shakes her head, almost skeptically. "I trust with you leading the way I shouldn't have cause for worry, though."

She does see some interesting forms of flora and fauna though, remarking on each as they come upon them. "How did you ever adjust? There are so many different and strange things here."

She glances at some of the various bushes and trees and garden tracts, wondering how many are fruit bearing, and how edible the "fruit" is.

[scurlock]

Doc doesn't mention that rumor he heard about demonic cookie dough. That can be for another story.

"Took some work," he says, as she glances at the different plants. "T'be honest I don't know what half this stuff is, and most of the food I get is straight from the bar and the kitchens."

It is another short walk, continuing along the lake, to reach the area where the stables and forge are.

"You just...you get used to it. Been comin' here awhile and it gets easier each time."

[ikissdhimbck]

It's probably for the best Katherine does not, as of yet, know about the cookie dough incident. That will be an... interesting conversation, no doubt.

She is, however, appropriately impressed by the forest, the lake, the gardens... well, by everything, really. "I'm not sure I could ever get used to this place. Every time I read The Prince and the Pauper, or A Study in Scarlet, they always surprise and thrill me. I think there will always be something to surprise me here, too." She blushes self-consciously. "Strange, I suppose."

She smiles as they approach the stables. "Now we enter your territory," she smirks.

[scurlock]

"Yes ma'am," Doc chuckles a little as he pulls the doors to the barn open. There are stalls on either side, and a large hayloft on either side as well. Natural light can enter from the skylights along the center of the roof, and there are a few bales of hay stacked up near the walls in a few spots. At the end of the row is a tack room and then a desk and chair, and a bulletin board.

Outside are several good sized paddocks, and an exercise ring as well.

"Wasn't always my territory, but the man who ran it before me moved on sometime last year, been runnin' it sense."

[ikissdhimbck]

"And a fine job you're doing!" she remarks, picking up her skirts and walking through the open barn doors. She steps carefully as she walks, her heels not very conducive to the barn setting. "Do you do all this yourself? It's... well, it's immaculate!"

A sweet-looking Bay cranes its neck out towards Katherine, and she reaches her flat palm out to stroke it's muzzle. "Hi there, sweetie." She smiles warmly, a second hand reaching out to tenderly join the first.

[scurlock]

"I got a staff of about four, five other people here who help out with the day-to-day work, but s'easy enough for me to do most of the time."

He approaches the stall as he reaches into a pocket on his vest.

"She's always hangin' around when she hears me comin', thinks I'm gonna give her somethin'," Doc teases quietly.

This of course, is not helped when he offers Katherine a sugar cube for said horse.

[ikissdhimbck]

She smirks, picking the cube of sugar from his open palm. "I wonder why she would think that," she teases.

Katherine chuckles as the Bay eats from her palm, stroking her mane and mumbling quiet little things in her velvety ears. "She's a beauty," she remarks to Doc, then turns to the horse surreptitiously: "Don't let him make you fat, my dear."

[scurlock]

Doc laughs at that remark.

"Hell," then a quick correction. "Heck, I mean. Heck, I think she likes you. Don't see why she wouldn't, though."

He might blush just a bit as he smiles at her.

[ikissdhimbck]

Katherine chuckles, having the grace not to look at him as his cheeks redden.

"You think? I could do worse for friends," she smiles. "And I have a way with animals. Don't know why, but I always have. Horses are especially dear."

Pause.

"You don't have to do that, you know."

[scurlock]

Doc shrugs a bit. "Don't think it's proper to be swearin' 'round a lady, that's all." He offers her his arm again after the horse decides that they don't have any more sugarcubes. "And then I suppose we'll have t'go out sometime and see the grounds a bit better with horses when you've got more time to spare."

And she's more properly outfitted, but that's what bar is for.

[ikissdhimbck]

She smiles. "I appreciate it.

"I grew up on a farm, though. My father raised all sorts of livestock: chickens, pigs, goats..." She pauses, giving the Bay one last affectionate pet and taking Doc's arm again; "So I was a bit rough around the edges as a girl. ...I ain't always talked so purdy, m'self."

She blushes scarlet, and looks toward her feet as they walk. "But I would love the opportunity to come back sometime for a ride, when I don't have my children to worry about back home."

[scurlock]

"Then when you get back, we'll do that, I promise."

He leads the way out of the barn and away from the stables, points out the forge as they pass it, and then as they continue on down the lake path, the air grows a bit cooler, the breeze a bit more fresh...the pines into palms.

"Y'might want to slip off those fine heels, Miss Katherine. Wouldn't do to ruin them walkin' in the sand," he says quietly.

[ikissdhimbck]

A smile.

"I intend to hold you to that, Josiah."

Katherine is so preoccupied with the palms--the strange, tall trees that sway ever-so-gracefully in the wind--that she fails to notice the changing terrain.

"Oh. A-all right," she says, her cheeks a little rosy. She politely requests Doc's hand for support as she removes her shoes and stockings, and stands again barefoot in the soft sand.

Smile.

This is new and different.

[scurlock]

Doc gives her that hand for support, than kneels to fetch her shoes and stockings and place them carefully on a large, flat rock for safekeeping once she's finished.

"Heard it's part of the tropics. We get a ship in," he says. "The Flying Dutchman, actually. Ain't seen it around in awhile, though."

[ikissdhimbck]

"Is that so? My, who would have thought! The tropics. I teach my students about it, but I never expected to experience it in any form."

Her toes squish in the sand. The sea breeze catches her hair and lazily whips it about her face. She turns to Doc and simply beams.

"...I think I love it here." The sea, the beach, Milliways... all of it.

[scurlock]

Doc grins, a bit of a lazy, easy smile. One that comes from being relaxed and content.

"I think you'll find, Miss Katherine, that the more you come t'visit the more you'll love it."

[ikissdhimbck]

And his smile is met easily by one of her own.

"Then I hope Miss Bar will be so kind as to let me come back often."

[scurlock]

"I hope so too," and he blushes just a little as he sticks his hands into his pockets and glances out at the horizon to hide it, but it's obvious enough, even with his hair falling into his eyes a bit.

[ikissdhimbck]

And Katherine is glad as he glances away, because the blush has crept back into her cheeks as well. She, too, looks away, out towards the wide expanse of water.

"After all," she says after some time, smirking, "You owe me a trail ride. And a poetry recitation."

She bites her lip to keep her smile from growing too wide, not taking her eyes from the ocean.

[scurlock]

"Soon as you're back," he promises, rocking on his heels a bit on the sand, glancing over at her. "I keep my word to friends."

His word is really all he's got left, sometimes.

[ikissdhimbck]

She turns back to him and catches his eye. "I'm very glad to hear it."

Her hands are clasped together to keep her fingers from nervously fiddling with her skirts, her hair, her sleeves...

"Perhaps it's time I did get back to my students, though," and she regrets the words even as she speaks them.

"It's only my first week in town, and already I'm shirking my responsibilities," she chuckles.