[OPEN] -and you got nobody to love.

[charlie annalise richards]

She looked down at her hands. "It was.." She bit her lip, thinking. "I don't quite remember the month. It must have been December or January because I remember it was cold. In 1862. This man uh.. he took me from the orphanage.. He raped and killed me and left me in the marshes of Louisiana. But I wasn't dead when he stabbed me, so I drowned to death." She took his hand gently, putting it over the scar on her stomach. Even under two layers of clothes, you could feel the rut where the skin has yet to heal. "And this one nail is always broken." She said, holding out her hand.

She listened to him talk about Christmas and smiled. "I got a book once! I read it until the spine was worn. But I'm sure you'll find something to use them on. You remind me of this guy.. I can't place his name. But he was always tinkering on things."

[oliver lee winchester]

Oliver's eyes went a tad wide as Charlie explained exactly what happened. She had to put up with that, and then she had to deal with that asshole of a manager? His eyes widened enough more as he felt the scar across her stomach. "I'm guessing that's never going to heal..." This was his first time actually having an in depth conversation with an angel. He knew they, and other such creatures, were around town, but he was still relatively new. The main reason he came to town was because he wanted to attended the university. So far as he could tell, he was normal as could be.

Except that wasn't the case, but he hadn't yet pieced everything together.

"What book was it?" Oliver asked with a smile, in an attempt to keep the conversation somewhat positive. Yes, they could discuss serious matters, but Oliver wanted to add a bit of lightheartedness to it as well. Besides, Charlie seemed quite happy to discuss her book. Oliver was surprised at Charlie's words, and arched an eyebrow. "I remind you of someone? I've been compared to Rube Goldberg before, but that was after we made Rube Goldberg machines in class in elementary school. I got the best grade in the class. I don't know if I'd count that though, considering."

[charlie annalise richards]

"No. It's just like your scars, only it never actually.. closed." She shrugged, looking over at him.

"I don't remember what my book was. It wasn't in English. But I read it anyways. I think it was about Greek Gods. Or something like that." She smiled, shaking her head at his next comment.

"No, not him.. He had something to do with transportation. Like trains, and cars, and airplanes, and bikes and stuff. Something like that. How old are you?" She asked, looking up at him. "You can't be much older than Tyler. If you're older than him at all. I can't put my finger on it. You know that's gonna bug me, right? Until I find out who it is you remind me of." She tapped her fingers on her legs, chewing her lip in thought.

[oliver lee winchester]

Oliver nodded. He understood, but it was still a little strange.

"How could you have read it if it wasn't in English? I would imagine that would be a little hard." Though he supposed it depended upon whether or not Charlie knew other languages. He had to remind himself that she might be bilingual, or even multilingual. Just because he wasn't fluent in any language other than English (and mechanics, his father told him, but Oliver didn't think that counted as a language) didn't meant others weren't.

Oliver's eyes went slightly wide, not because of Charlie herself but because of what she was saying. Transportation. That stood out to him. Why? Because it made him think back to his dreams, where such images played a huge role. Not the first two, but the last two... "Now you've got me wondering." Oliver stated mildly, though he now had a contemplative look on his face.

"I'm nineteen. I'll be twenty in March." He explained.

"And who's Tyler?"

[charlie annalise richards]

"There was a lady that came in every Tuesday to clean. And she knew Greek. So she would read it to me. She would write down a couple of pages and I would read them over while she was gone. Until I could read the entire book myself." She said with a smile.

"See? Now you're wondering too. I'm trying to think of people who just.. disappeared from Heaven like, twenty years ago. Because some people do that, you know. God just.. puts them back in another body. Kinda like sending us angels back. Except they get a chance to live again. We're just here to help. I can't have babies or anything like that. Because I can always go back. I'm not living. But he just remakes some people. Like.. when you make different things out of the same clay?" She looked over at him, wondering if that made any sense. She wiggled her fingers a bit for emphasis.

"Oh, Tyler? He's my charge." She said, a bit hesitant at the word 'boyfriend'. Yeah, she was dating him. But the word still felt strange. "I'm supposed to be watching over him."

[oliver lee winchester]

"Wow, I'm sure that came in handy!" That was one way to learn how to read a book.

Oliver's eyes went perhaps their widest yet. "People who..." Oliver went pale at this. People getting put back in a different body. "You think I'm one of those people? I mean, if you want to try to think of someone, more power to you, but I don't know if that's me. I mean, I don't..."

Oliver faltered, biting down on his lip. She was right. She did have him wondering too. He decided to share a bit more with her.

"You know, those dreams I have? That transportation idea...I have a lot of dreams dealing with that, if that helps any. A lot of the same faces show up to. Does that mean anything?" Oliver finished somewhat stupidly. It did mean something, and he knew it meant something. It was just hard to believe. Was he actually, in a way, dead too?

Oliver nodded when Charlie explained who Tyler was, not sensing 'boyfriend' in the offing. Not that it mattered at this point anyway. "So that's why you were sent back here, then? To watch over him?" He wanted to make sure he had everything straight.

[charlie annalise richards]

"You might be, if you're having dreams. The people you see might be people from before. But it doesn't mean you're dead, goofy." She poked him gently in the chest. "You were born, weren't you? You get hurt, don't you? And you heal as slow as everyone else." She held out her arm, showing him the scratches. "They were gouges earlier. Just like.. ruts in my skin. My broken bones heal in like, two weeks. And yours heal in six. What if you were someone important?! That would be so cool." She smiled, then chewed on her lip at the mention of Tyler.

"Mhm. His dad died in a car accident. They were all drunk. And he thinks drinking will help with the pain. But it doesn't. It's like.. putting water in a bucket over a stone. The water is eventually going to evaporate and you're going to have a bucket with a stone in it. But he doesn't get that. He's got a really hard head." She smiled. "Him and all his brothers."

[oliver lee winchester]

Well, the not being dead thing was a relief. Still, though, if he was living, then died, and now was living again...well, that wasn't very normal, now was it? Maybe that was why he was drawn to this town...but what if that wasn't the case? What if it was the case? What would he do then? As far as Oliver was concerned, this was just as intriguing as it was freaky. Oliver wanted answers, especially now that Charlie brought up the subject in the first place. "There's a lot of flying machines in my dreams." And waking visions, since he'd had one of those now. Blargh.

Oliver frowned. "No, drinking is just going to put a mask on the problem, you're right. Though I get that sometimes it can be easier to try to ignore the problem than to face it head on." Hadn't that been what he was doing with his dreams up until recently? Up until he realized that there might actually be something to them?

[charlie annalise richards]

"Flying gadgets or weird things like flying boats or things we have today like airplanes and helicopters?" She asked, her green eyes looking up at him. It looked strange, two teenagers sitting side by side, but one wasn't much taller than an eight year old child. Even her frame was small.

"I know that. How do you think I feel? Being violated out in the middle of some.. wet.. dirty forest place? And then having some guy stab me and think I was dead. Well, I wasn't! I drowned. And I can tell you, that hurt. A lot." She just wanted to fix Tyler before it was too late, before he drank himself to death, or to some horrible disease, or did damage that couldn't be reversed. "You think he's okay?" She asked quietly, looking up at the boy. "That he's not gonna die?" She didn't want to admit it scared her terribly to think of him dying.

[oliver lee winchester]

"Well, hydroplanes do exist. That's about the closest we've ever gotten to flying boats." Well, come on, this kid was an aerospace major. That said, his dreams were specifically different than what he learned in class. Everything was old fashioned, too old fashioned. The kind of stuff you'd expect to see in black and white photos rather than color.

Oliver had to close his eyes and think back to his dreams and the 'strange' devices held within. They weren't entirely like modern counterparts, but the words he would use to describe them came to him almost as instantly as the pictures themselves. "Airplanes and gliders." He opened his eyes and peered over at Charlie.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way..." Well he'd almost screwed that one up, hadn't he? Fortunately, she still seemed more concerned about Tyler, and Oliver frowned at this realization. "You really care about him, don't you?" And now Oliver was starting to realize that Charlie had to think of him as more than a charge - A friend, at the least, if not something more. "I think as long as you're around, he'll be fine." Oliver stated with a small smile, hoping that his words were right.