Shine light into darkness 4: New Years at new shores

[ronfiction]

Lou walked the deck of the Green Monster and looked out into the distance where the bright lights of the city of Key West flickered. The New year celebrations were in full swing now and the city could be heard from the ship. The more time Lou spent on the ship the more in shock he was that he owned it. The thought of such wealth suddenly landing in his lap made him uncomfortable and his snap reaction was to sell the boat. Even that arrangement didn't pan out really.

Allison had talked him into renting the boat out when he returned to the north east. "Make at least 4 million a year doing that. The ship will pay for its self. That'll take care of the docking fees and upkeep for sure." The lawyer explained to him. The janitor walked the deck of his ship and even holding the railing in his hand, couldn't believe this was real. Lou had walked the entire edge of the ship and had looped back around to the party going on at the stern of the ship.

Everyone who had come on the ship with him was out enjoying the party they had organized for their New Year's Eve bash. Lou had tried to slip away from the festivities for a little bit, not being in the best of moods for partying. The topical climate never sat well with him, and he was still trying to shrug off the strange feeling that had come grip him since his meeting with Adam's mother. While trying to sneak back into the party, Lou bumped into someone else who was trying to avoid the party.

Jacob Carrier had been relaxing by himself on the edges of the party and when Lou circled back around, saw him by himself. Lou almost didn't recognize him without his lab coat on, but like Lou, Jacob had opted for more climate appropriate attire. Lou settled in next to the leaning Fae and gave him a nod and clinked his beer bottle on the still full one that Jacob had in his hand. "Happy New Years." Lou said in a tired sounding voice.

Jacob returned the nod and heaved a sigh while keeping his gaze out at the small gathering of people. He looked just as solum as Lou did and Lou wasn't immediately sure as to why. Maybe it was sea sickness for all Lou knew. "Membership to our club sucks more this time of the year huh?" Jacob said in a dark voice. Lou gave him a raised eye brow "what club?" Lou asked. Jacob shifted some as he continued to lean on the railing and took his first sip of his beer.

"The dead girl friend club." He said, in his usual blunt and dark sense of humor. Lou inhaled deeply at the mention of their now shared tragedy and gave him a clap on the shoulder. "Yeah, I suppose it does suck more this time of the year than most." Lou mused and also took a drink from his beer. Jacob motioned over to the party with his beer.

"Why couldn't that have been us man?" He asked sadly as he pointed out Rufus and Vanessa. The two sat close to each other and laughed brightly as Allison told a joke to those around him. "Why did it go so badly for us?" He said, his voice hollow now. Lou gingerly swished the beer in his bottle around some and gave an awkward glance to his feet. Jacob had only ever briefly touched on his sadness of Dallas's passing, and wasn't usually one to open up to people.

"Just wasn't in the cards for us Jacob." Loud said, trying to find something comforting to say. "I suppose it could have been worse. Whole world could have ended. At the end of the day, we got far more lucky than Dallas and Hannah did." Lou said. He wasn't the best at this sort of thing and being already emotionally drained from his conversation at the prison he was hitting the absolute limit of his emotional reserves. Jacob had more to drink and shook his head.

"You've still got your family, you've still got us. We all have to figure out how to start over now. But at least we don't have to start completely from scratch." Lou said and looked to Jacobs brothers and gave Jacob a tired shrug. Jacob gave Lou a defeated nod and looked to his old janitor friend. "So, what are you gonna do now? Heard Allison owes you a house or something." Jacob said with a distant chuckle.

Lou straighten some with his lean on the railing and shrugged some. "Dallas told me to help people. So that's what I'm gonna do. I've got plans to start a small contracting company. Gonna employ some of the good guys in the 424 and help out with the building of pine bluffs come the spring. Gonna turn my place into a half way home kinda like what Gus and the gang had going back in the day. I got a lot of plans but... I just needed to do this first." Lou said and nodded to himself.

Jacob smirked at the mention of Lou carrying out Dallas's final wishes. "You're a good guy Lou, let me know if you want a partner for your new company. Remember I did blue collar work too." Jacob said jokingly. Lou and Jacob started to argue about what actually counted as blue collar work and then one of Jacob's brothers spotted them keeping to themselves at the edge of the party and called them over to join the festivities.