GW Robichaux

Snow's really gross when it melts, Mallory thought as she trudged up the sidewalk and tried to avoid being splashed by the passing cars as they drove through the slush on the street. The street sweepers had done a pretty good job of getting most of the mess out of the way, but there were still trouble spots here and there. The day was crisp and cool, and the redhead tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket as she walked, pondering the possibility of coffee.

Mainly she'd just wanted to get out of the trailer for the afternoon, wanting to think for a little. She almost felt as if she were waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the next thing to go wrong. Plus there was Sonya, whose presence had become, if not an annoyance, then something she'd become confused by. Having the Russian around was something she'd agreed to out of wanting to help, but maybe there needed to be a new plan in the next couple of days.

Mallory ducked around a couple as they wandered past her, spotting a familiar buffet restaurant she'd eaten at a few times previously. Lunch. Maybe lunch would help. A full stomach meant for more settled thoughts, or so her Gramma Iris always said.

At this point, she was willing to try anything.

GW had spent most of the morning rehearsing tunes on his fiddle, there was something soothing about playing the instrument to him, but there was also cold blooded practicality about practice as well. The music he played paid his bills and allowed him to live a pretty decent life doing what he loved. That meant he needed to constantly work on maintaining and improving his level of skill with both the fiddle and at singing as well. If people didn't feel they were getting their money's worth out of the performance then they wouldn't keep booking the band.

After finishing rehearsals for the day, he made a trip to the local music supply store, needing some fresh strings and oil for his fiddle. There was a decent buffet restaurant a few stores over, and GW decided to stop in there for lunch before picking up his supplies.

He still wasn't sure how he was going to convince Meredith and Lorne to back off on trying to restore Elian's memories whether he wanted it or not, but hopefully they'd come to their senses. Elian hadn't called him since that meeting, and he had to hope that no news was good news. Between his schedule and Mere's it had been next to impossible to get together lately, and he missed her.

The last thing he wanted to do was pick a fight with his girlfriend, but when she got stubborn sometimes there was no other choice.


Chicken. Mashed potatoes. Biscuits. Macaroni and cheese. Had she realized she was starving? Mallory filled a plate before grabbing a bowl for vegetable soup, then carried her food to a table near the window. Eating certainly wouldn't hurt anything, after all.

She filled a glass with soda, returned to her chair. Maybe solitude was what she needed, just her and the dog in the trailer, the way it had been. It wasn't that she wanted to kick Sonya out into the street, but the Russian's presence was...unsettling. If she could come up with another way to help the younger redhead, that might be better.

"You can't take care of everybody forever," she muttered to herself, picking up a still-warm biscuit and biting into it. "Maybe its time for something different on all fronts."

The food here was pretty decent for the price, and GW took a large bowl of beef stew onto his tray along with a slice of peach cobbler for desert. He didn't have anywhere he had to be right away, so he could take his time with lunch before moving on to the music store.

Just as he was about to go find a table, GW noticed the flash of red hair and turned to take an admiring glance (he might have a girlfriend that he loved very much, but that didn't mean he quit being a guy) and move on, but the face looked familiar. It took a moment, but a name was recalled with the face. Mallory Quinn, she'd lived just a few trailers away from him back when he lived in Searchlight.

The buffet was fairly crowded and he figured it might be interesting to see what was going on back in Searchlight, so he walked over to her table. "Excuse me, but I believe we used t' be neighbors. I'm GW Robichaux, you're Mallory Quinn, non?"

"Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah. At least it says so on my birth certificate." Mallory looked up with a half-hearted smile, still lost in her thoughts. She recognized the guy after a minute, and the expression turned more genuine. "Yeah, I remember now, we met at least once."

She noticed how crowded the other tables were, and politeness compelled her to indicate the seat opposite from her in the booth. "Looks like you' might be stuck eating over here unless you'd rather stand. Seems like the last of the snow has brought everybody and their brother out of hiding."

"Thanks podna," GW told the young woman, and the Cajun slid into the seat opposite her. "It does look like everybody decided to eat at the same time, doesn't it? I don't think I've ever seen the place this busy."

"Did you move out of the trailer park?" the redhead asked, shifting her glass of soda out of the way. "I think I just realized that I haven't seen you around since that one time. Was the town too quiet for you?"

The potatoes were still warm, and Mallory added a pat of butter to them to mix it in. Apparently the run of business the place was getting was leading to better tending of the steam trays.

"I liked the town just fine," GW replied easily, lifting a spoonful of stew to mouth to test the temperature. It was a bit hot so he blew on it a few times before taking a bite. It was as good as he remembered, just needed a little salt.

"I did move out," He told Mallory while he added a dash of salt to his stew. "But Searchlight was kind of far for me when most of my gigs are in the Vegas area, between rehersing with the band and actually performing shows I was coming up here almost every day. My girlfriend stumbled across a house that was for rent at a cheap price and I snapped it up."

He took another bite of stew and swallowed before speaking again. "So what about you? Still living down in Searchlight?"

"Yeah, still there. I don't think I could afford the city even if I wanted to, but Searchlight's not so bad." Mallory shrugged casually. Had she known that GW was in a band? Probably, but the scant details of their previous conversation seemed to be lost for the moment.

"How's that working out for you? The music stuff? Seems like Vegas is a good place to start if you want to build a following, have you been getting lots of work?"

"The city can be expensive," GW nodded, "but things are really working out with performing music, the band is always in demand. We've even made trips out to Reno, Phoenix and LA, I wasn't too sure how well Cajun and Bluegrass music would be received out here, but people are really liking it."

He took another spoonful of stew, then looked at Mallory. "So what brings you up to Las Vegas today? Cabin Feever?"

"Something like that. The snow was pretty while it lasted, but there's only so much at-home time I can stand." The redhead offered a rueful smile, picking up a chicken leg.

"I've probably seen the fliers for your band here and there, I'm glad its going well for you. Did your girlfriend move up here with you, or did she already live in the city?"

"Non. I met Meredith here in Vegas, at one of our first gigs." The Cajun told his dining companion. "She helps out occasionally at The GreenRoom, and is good friends with the owner." He didn't know how much Mallory knew about the supernatural and kept it as if the owner was just a regular human instead of a green skinned demon.

"She was more than happy to help me find a place here in town," his tone was wry and he shrugged. "For some reason she didn't seem to like Searchlight all that much."

"Oh, right. Lorne. Yeah, we...I met him a couple of times. He's a nice guy." Super casual, just as if the Pylean were someone she'd met at the grocery store. She wondered if GW was privy to the new trauma, if Meredith had told him.

"I was talking to him just the other day, actually, when this little blizzard or whatever hit. Apparently they're going through some...interesting times, right now."

"He is," GW confirmed, "and they are. I'm hoping I can talk them out of doing anything rash. Elian is worried that they might not be too reasonable when it comes to trying to restore his memories." At the redhead's surprised look he just shrugged, "He happened to be in the neighborhood bar when I stopped in one night and we talked. The poor guy just needs to time get his head screwed on straight before anyone goes messing with it."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I warned Lorne against doing anything foolish, I hope he was listening. Its wrong to interfere with someone if they want to be left alone." Mallory nodded once, emphatically, then picked up one of her biscuits.

"I mean, I'm sure they mean well, but its nothing to fool with. I don't think I ever met him, though. I can't imagine what he must be going through."

GW finished his stew and leaned back in his seat, his expression thoughtful. "I met him a few times before he was shot, Elian was one of the most generous and warm hearted people I've had the fortune to meet. I don't think that part of him has changed much, but this version doesn't have any experience with the supernatural, and it scares the hell out of him. If Lorne and Mere were to try something to forcibly restore his memories it could backfire on them and I'd hate to see that."

He picked up his fork and started in on his cobbler. "So how did you meet our mutual green friend?"

Mallory shrugged. "I was at one of the theme nights the GreenRoom had," she explained, remembering stampeding strippers and screaming tourists - and Victoria - with a sort of embarrassed fondness. "I've only seen him a few times since then, really, but he's kind of hard to forget."

The redhead ate more chicken, spooned up some soup. "Do you know about the thing he does?" she asked GW, lowering her voice a little. "With the singing and all? Have you ever sung for him?"

"I've performed at his club, but I've never sung for him if you understand what I mean." The Cajun shrugged and took another bite of cobbler. "That doesn't mean he hasn't read me, but we only talked about it once. I just asked him to give me a heads up if he saw trouble on the horizon."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," the redhead answered, pondering Lorne's latest bit of wisdom. What 'bigger piece' was she missing? She doubted the green demon would have any reason to mislead her about anything, she just didn't know what he'd been referring to.

Then again, maybe it was just that invisible other shoe.

"Did he see anything?" she asked, rattling the ice in her plastic cup. "Or was the coast clear?"

"He's not mentioned anything to me," GW replied easily, taking a sip from his water glass. "Then again he wasn't too happy when Meredith and I started dating, but I don't think he'd ever be petty enough to withhold that kind of intel."

He pondered that thought for a moment, weighing what he knew about the Pylean versus the jealousy the demon had obviously struggled with. He nodded again, confident he had Lorne's character down pat even without the benefit of supernatural powers. "Clear skies as far as I know."

"What about you?"

"I don't know. At this point, its like I'm waiting for something to happen and I don't even know what it is," Mallory replied. It was annoying, a weird version of leaving the stove on when she left the house or something. She just hoped that whatever it was wasn't so bad that it caused major damage.

She could really only take so much more right now.

"Glad to hear you got a clean bill of health, so to speak," she added, lifting her cup in a slight toast to GW. "Do you think you'll be able to convince your lady friend not to do anything rash?"

"In my experience you can't wait for things to happen to you, but you have to go out and make things happen." GW told her seriously, pushing aside his now clean cobbler dish and placing his elbows on the table. "Sometimes things will happen whether you want them to or not, but that's the way the ball bounces."

At her question about Meredith, GW smiled wryly, acknowledging the difficulty of convincing his girlfriend to do something she didn't want to do. "I don't know, I hope so. She was in a very dark place right after Elian was shot, they were pretty close. In a way, his memory loss has hurt her even more, since he doesn't want to 'come home' to the GreenRoom and his old life. I'm hoping that if I can convince her to give Elian time, things will work themselves out."

"Well, the ball needs to stop bouncing," Mallory complained good-naturedly, picking at the last of her chicken. "Its giving me motion sickness already. Makes me tired just thinking about it."

She pulled her soup bowl closer, started on the contents again. "I met Meredith a couple of times, and she seems stubborn but well-meaning. Maybe she'll change her mind, who knows?"

GW chuckled and wagged a finger playfully at Mallory. "The ball, it'll stop bouncin' when you be dead, woman," his southern Louisiana accent and manner of speaking thickened for effect. "What you can do, is catch the damn ball and try and make it bounce to your pattern."

Which was precisely what he was trying to do with Meredith and Elian.

"If I knew where the ball was, I would. I used to have a pretty good pitching arm, I just need to find something to throw with it."

Her lunch was nearly finished, and Mallory looked out onto the sidewalk, brooding a little. Maybe GW was right, but the fact remained that she didn't even know what this hypothetical ball looked like, much less where to find it.

Hopefully it wouldn't bang her on the head the next time it bounced.

"That's the spirit!"

GW finished the last of his water and stood up. "It was good to see you again Mallory, I hope you catch that ball." He pulled a business card out of his wallet and laid it on the table. "If you ever want to get hold of me, either to book the band or just as a friend, that's the way to do it."

The redhead smiled ruefully, picking up the card to look at it before tucking it out of sight into a pocket. "Thanks. I hope everything works out for you too, that the coast stays clear. Once it clouds up, it always seems to take a while to go back to normal."

The soup spoon scraped against the bottom of the bowl, and Mallory put it down to finish off her soda. She needed to be getting home anyway, see if Sonya's spirits were any better.

And she had to start looking for that damned ball.