nextgenerationmarvel | I Know It Took A While... (Rose)

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I Know It Took A While... (Rose)

Tommy Templeton pulled up to his motel at the edge of town and killed the engine on his bike. Between helping the others on the semi-team he was on and his own personal business for The Boss, he hadn't a lot of time to himself in the last few months. The situation down in New Orleans was a nice break and Kassi helped out, but Tommy still wasn't in a good place.

He loped up the steps to the room and closed the door behind him, dropping his bag on the floor. He set the 24-pack of beer on the small table to his right, determined to get started as soon as he laid down for a moment. A wave of fatigue hit him just then, the result of pushing too hard for too long. He needed to call Joe. He needed to call Roxanne about Joe. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and a slip of paper fell to the floor. Probably another receipt. Need to keep those for when I file...

He bent down and picked up the slip of paper and turned it over.

Rose: XXX-XXX-XXXX

"Oh man. How did you forget to call her?" he said to no one in particular.

We have no time to indulge in petty fantasy.

"Yeah, I know." Tommy said, pulling his phone from his pocket. He dialed the number.

He hoped she'd pick up.

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"I hear there are different ones but I wouldn't know. I'd never go to anything but a dive bar." Tommy laughed.

They left the bar and headed down the street to Aces and Eights Tavern.

Tommy secured them a table and a pitcher of beer, ostensibly for himself.

"I'll rack and you break. Meanwhile, I'll start with Twenty Questions." Tommy said.

"What kind of guy are you into?" he asked, getting the balls set for Rose to play.

Rose grabbed a cue stick and carefully chalked it off, starting to line up her shot.

She wasn't expecting the question, but she was good about not letting it show. "Honestly?" she asked. "I like a guy who doesn't mind livin' on the wild side. Guy who likes ta have a good time."

"Fair enough. It's hard meetin' people like that in this day and age. Everyone's afraid of pissin' someone off so people don't talk about what they want. So they don't go for it." Tommy said.

"How wild is wild, though? There's run-down-a-street-naked wild and then there's I-got-arrested-for-this-wild." Tommy said.

Rose took her shot, sinking a solid ball in the process.

"More like the second," she said. "Kinda guy who thinks a bar brawl ain't a bad way ta spend an evenin'."

Tommy laughed loudly at that. This was too perfect.

"Gunfights and bar brawls are Monday through Friday night things for me. I've been in more of each than I've had birthdays." he said.

Rose snickered a bit herself, though she missed her next shot.

"Ya do live an interestin' life, Tommy-Boy."

"Indeed I do, though not fully by choice. My...partner usually has me doin' somethin' crazy most of the time." he told her, chalking his cue.

He moves to take his shot and knocks down a red striped ball, followed by a blue-striped ball.

"I come from a small town in the Midwest. Bar fights were really the only thing you could do that wasn't staying at home."

Rose laughed. "Only good part of the mid-west is th' U.P. of Michigan. And only then 'cause yer nearly in Canada."

"I've been all over America but I haven't been to Canada yet. What's your favorite part?"

"Just about all of it," Rose said, "But I really love the wide open spaces. Plenty of room ta just run wild, get away from people, all the distractions."

"I can appreciate that. Sometimes getting away from people is a good thing. You don't have to hold back or pretend." Tommy said.

He aimed for the striped yellow ball, but misses the orange.

"What's the craziest thing you've ever done?" he asked.

Rose started to line up her own shot.

"Craziest, huh?" she asked. "Gone after more than a few folks outside my weight class... but one time, me and m' best friend, Frosty, stole one of the teacher's cars. Real boring stick in the mud guy. ...we ended up startin' a bar brawl, running from the cops, and pulling a Thelma and Louise with the car."

Tommy laughed aloud and took another sip of his beer.

"Wow. To be a fly on the wall for all of /that/." he said, laughing loudly.

"I assume you two didn't actually go over the cliff, right?"

"Oh, it wasn't a cliff," he said. "Unfinished highway overpass."

"You're a real wild child, aren't you? Remind me to be in the room the next time you aim to misbehave." Tommy said.

He stepped back to let Rose take her next shot.

Rose lined up her next shot and took it, sinking the next ball easily.

She laughed. "Good choice o' words there, Tommy-Boy."

"What about you? Where've you been that's good?"

"Well, I've been in actual gun fights. With gangbangers, Mexican cartel baddies. Other biker clubs. We went to Ireland once. It was a good time." Tommy tells her.

"I've been to Mexico a lot of times, too. Mexico City is one of my favorite places in the world, even if it is kind of hell on earth. I saw some of the Aztec temples down in Mexico. I've done work for some really bad people." Tommy said.

"But I got to see some really good sights, too."

"Mexico's fun," Rose agreed. "I speak a little Spanish, actually. Passable, anyway"

She took her next shot, sinking that too. "Ya ever been ta Japan?"

"I know a little Spanish but not much. You'll have to teach me." Tommy said.

"Never been to Japan, though. Always wanted to go but small-town country boys don't get really get to go overseas much."

Rose missed her next shot.

"Heckuva country. Bit of a ninja infestation though."

"Ninja? You mean, like, real karate-type ninja? Those guys exist?" Tommy asked, a little disbelieving.

"Huh. I thought that was just in the movies."

Tommy lined up his next shot and sunk it, but scratched right after.

"No, seriously, though. Ninja?"

Rose smirked as she lined up her shot. "Whole evil clan of 'em. Called the Hand. Nasty buggers. Hand ta God."

"A group of evil ninja that call themselves...the Hand. Sweetie, the jokes write themselves on that." Tommy said, laughing.

She sunk her next ball. "Yeah," she agreed. "I reckon they do. Doesn't change the fact that they're bad news. They got a habit of raisin' the dead."

Tommy perked up.

"Do they? Yeah, anyone who raises the dead needs to be put out of business. I'll have to look into these guys." he said. The Boss wouldn't like that at all, especially if they were the ones behind some of the recent stuff going on.

Tommy saw Rose about to take her next shot and he walked up behind her, placing a hand on her lower back.

"Have they ever hurt you?" he asked.

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