Well Ain't That A Kick In The Shin [CLOSED]

[oliver lee winchester]

Oliver Winchester was seeking answers.

This involved a trek to the library, which might contain the knowledge he so sought. Something just didn't feel right about the whole thing. What was he supposed to do, though, when he had nothing to go on?

That wasn't true, though. He did have one thing to go on. He had the overwhelming theme of his dreams - Flying. He wasn't sure what answers may lie there, but he was willing to try almost anything at this point. He approached the librarian, slowly and cautiously. "Do you have any books on flying?"

After a few moments of searching in the section the librarian pointed to, Oliver came back to his seat with an assortment of books on the subject of aviation. As he perused over his stack again, he let out a laugh. What on Earth was he doing? How on Earth was this going to lead to any answers? It seemed like a sign of desperation to him. He couldn't find his answers anywhere else, so he was going to the most outrageous place. Perhaps he should just give up his search for the day. But he wasn't the type to give up. He kept up his search, until he was on the last book. His eyelids started to droop from fatigue. He'd been at the library for at least a few hours at this point. He only had one book left, though, and he intended to look through it before heading home.

Oliver was in a familiar place, though exactly where he could not name off of the top of his head. He'd had far too much coffee the day before, and was thus relegated to laying awake on his cot, while his brother snoozed blissfully and soundly a few feet away. He was tempted to throw his pillow, but thought better of it. Instead, he thought of the flying machine that he and his brother had been trying to master. They'd made it farther than anyone else in matters of control. Still, they had no idea how to turn the darn thing! There had to be some way to solve this issue...and as he thought, the idea came to him. Instead of a stationary rudder, why not try a vertical, movable rudder connected to the rest of the controls? He stared over at Wilbur, grinning. Maybe he'd rethink the pillow idea after all...

Oliver stirred in his sleep. As he opened his eyes slightly, he was vaguely aware of a shadow looming over him. He gave a small little smile and let out a sigh. "We'll test the Flyer in a little, Will...I need a few more minutes of sleep." Just as the words came out of his mouth, Oliver's eyes flew open as he slowly moved his head off of the book he'd fallen asleep on top of. "I'm terribly sorry, I must have dozed off..." Oliver blurted out, his voice still heavy with sleepiness, to whoever was standing over him. Whoever it was, Oliver did know one thing - It wasn't Will!

There was one other thing that he knew as well. As he looked down at the page he'd fallen asleep on top of to close the book (how much research could he really do when he was this sleep anyway) he saw a sight that shocked him awake instantly - a very old airplane staring back at him. One that he was very much familiar with - It was, in fact, that one he'd been dreaming about, and he'd dreamt about it in the past as well. And underneath it was a caption - The Wright Flyer.

[charlie annalise richards]

"I'm not Will, but you can go ahead and test your flier if you insist." Charlie said with a smile, turning the book to herself. She picked it up, reading it over a bit before handing it back. She walked over to the encyclopedias and pulled one off the shelf. She flipped it open to a picture of the Wright brothers, then turned it to him.

"There's your Will you're talking about." She said, pointing to him. "But he isn't much help to you. He's still up in heaven. But his brother disappeared twent-" She stopped mid-number, her green eyes over at him. "He hasn't been in Heaven for twenty years, Oliver. None of that rings a bell? Nothing about.. Any of this?" She ran her finger down the page, resting her chin on a stack of books.

[oliver lee winchester]

Oliver was only mildly surprised to see Charlie sitting across from him. They had agreed upon meeting at the library, hadn't they? It just ended up a bit later than usual, as a result of "The Grinch" (as Oliver had dubbed her grump of a manager) making her stay later at work.

He looked back down at his book, staring at that same plane that haunted his dreams, only vaguely noting that Charlie was leaving the table and coming back with another book. It wasn't, in fact, until she shoved the book in his direction that he paid attention again.

Before Charlie even finished her spiel, before Charlie even recognized the significance of Will's brother no longer being in heaven, Oliver recognized that face. It was one of those recurring faces - And, of course, the face in his most recent dream, the one he'd stirred from just a few moments before. "IT'S HIM!" He blurted out, being shushed by a few tables nearby. He blushed sheepishly, muttering an apology, but continued to look at that picture.

"You have...you have no idea." Oliver stated in a shaky tone.

While it wasn't all right there, the images were familiar, the names were familiar, and Oliver...Oliver's head was spinning. This was quite something to wake up to, and he had to rest his head down on his book again just to regain his bearings. This time, though, his eyes were wide open.

[charlie annalise richards]

She moved to sit next to him, looking over his shoulder at the book. She read the passages slowly, before eventually resting her chin on his shoulder to finish reading it. Charlie knew nothing of personal space.

"His name even kinda sounds like yours, huh? Orville and Oliver. I mean, it is your name if you take out one of the l's." She said, mentally rearranging the letters. "Does that make any sense? Or do you think you're Einstein or something? E equals Emm-Cee squared and all that jazz?" She asked with a smile, looking over at him through a curtain of orange hair.

[oliver lee winchester]

Oliver was a bit surprised to find a chin resting on his shoulder, but he didn't say anything. It would be more awkward to bring it to her attention than it already was, though Oliver made sure not to move too much.

"It is. It...explains why I had a hard time writing my name when I was a kid." He'd always fumbled on the spelling, and here...here he might actually have a reason why.

"E=MC square doesn't sound all that familiar. Least, I don't dream about it. That plane, though..." He pointed to the Wright Flyer. "I've dreamed about that one repeatedly. And he..." He jabbed his finger at the picture of Wilbur Wright. "I was thinking about throwing a pillow at him in my latest dream."

[charlie annalise richards]

She leaned back in her seat, untucking her shirt from her skirt. She smoothed it down, then looked back at him. "Oh yeah. Because you wanted five more minutes to test your flier or whatever it was you fussed at me about when I woke you up." She said, tapping her fingers on her stomach.

"I still can't write my name. But then again, I can't write much of anything at all.. But I can read." She smiled at her last statement, obviously proud of herself, as if she had put a lot of work into it. "Gee, who would have thought? That's kinda cool. See? You were someone important after all!" She looked back over at the book, but didn't touch him this time.

[oliver lee winchester]

"Hey, I was just waking up. Give me a break, will you?" He countered, but he was smiling. It was obvious that he wasn't actually too bothered about it.

"No one's taught you how to write? I could try to teach you. It's not too hard." Coming from a guy who learned to write a long time before, though, that wasn't saying much. "I guess I was. I remember...other siblings, though. He wasn't the only one." He looked over at Charlie, with something between a grin and a look of contemplation and confusion. He certainly felt a mixture of emotions at the moment. Not the least a feeling of... "Why was I picked to go back and not him? Why not both of us?" Just looking at that picture brought a surge of affection and familiarity. Yes, that was his brother, so why wasn't he here too?

[charlie annalise richards]

"I dunno. I guess He thought just you needed to come back. If you wanna start asking questions, start asking good ones. Like.. why did it take a girl with bright orange hair to help you figure this out?" She said with a smile. "And as far as writing goes, I think I'm okay. I don't have much use for it anyways. Once Tyler is okay, I'll probably just go back or something.." She said with a shrug, not really wanting to leave him. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, looking over at him.

"You really think you're this guy? Like, really really? It makes sense? All the puzzle pieces fit into place?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. She was so tired, but didn't care to leave the warmth of the library just yet.

[oliver lee winchester]

Oliver looked a bit taken aback. "I thought that was a good question..." It was indeed, but not one that she could answer. "Though I guess it would be better to ask questions that you could answer." He admitted. "So, since you brought it up yourself, why did it take a girl with bright orange hair to help me figure this out?" Well hey, she was asking for it.

"That's true. No use learning it if you're...going to go back. Do you want to go back, though? Do you have to go back when your work here is done?" Oliver wasn't sure what he'd do in that situation. In some ways, if their theories were true, he was in the same situation (having died, that is), but he was tethered back to life. She wasn't.

Oliver bit down on his lip. "Well, I'm not positive. I just...there's a lot that fits. I know that face. I know that plane. They've both been in my dreams repeatedly." Was that enough to go on, though? Obviously there was something really strange going on, but Oliver was almost itching to find out more. "Ullam." He blurted out, looking at that picture of Wilbur Wright once again, not sure where the nickname came from. He also blurted out "Sterchens" looking at a picture of a young woman with glasses. Where these pet names came from, he wasn't sure, but he knew they went with the people he was directing them toward.

[charlie annalise richards]

"I can't answer that one either." She said with a smile, laying her head on the table beside his arm. "I guess so.. I mean, I don't want to go.. I want to stay here.. But I guess if I do, it's for the better, you know? There's not much use anyone can get out of an angel, and once I'm done with Tyler I'll be as useful as an empty shampoo bottle." She shrugged her shoulders. She knew that if she left, Tyler would find somebody new. That if she left, he could have children -or puppies, as the case may be- with someone who is actually alive and living. And as much as she really didn't want to give him up, she was willing to bet she would have to.

She listened to him ramble off names, then pointed to a random guy in the back. "He looks like you. You guys have the same nose and stuff. What if that's where your body came from?" She looked up at him, her usually bright green eyes not no bright now that she was sleepy.

"My back hurts.." She said quietly, her wings aching underneath her skin.