Finaly some quiet..

[Annalise Jackson]

Anna sighed softly behind the wheel of her car, her hands still gripping the fine leather. It was probably one of the only things she had left that triggered any thoughts of home, or her well off parents. It had been a gift. Well, if by "gift" one meant it had been "gifted" to her on the requirement she leave and not look back. Why she still had it was anyones guess. The reason was probably more obvious than she wanted to admit.

The park was empty, which was precisely why she had shown up at the ass-crack of dawn. The sun was only barely coming up over the horizon, and dew still clung the the grass. She'd been sitting in her car for nearly twenty minutes, however. This was a precaution. While she liked coming here when it was empty, she was always weary about public outings with her guard down. Especially in an open plane like the park. More often, when she wasn't working, Anna was retired to her home, locked inside. She rarely saw people, and even more rarely had callers.

Taking a very slow breath through her nose the female lifted a hand from the steering wheel finally, and brushed aside a stray white curl, before opening her door, and sliding free of the interior of the cherry red vehicle. Shutting the door with a solid thump, prompted by a bump of her hip, she slid the keys to the car into a pocket of her dark skinny jeans. Anna grasped the front opening of her over-sized sweater and hugged in about her slender frame, before giving a nod of her head and finally moving from where she had parked her car, and into the park proper now.

There was nowhere in particular she planned to go, though once she reached the path she did slow to a stop. Pulling the sweater from her shoulders, she tugged the arms around her hips and tied them about her, so it hung down the backs of her legs. With a final faintly paranoid glance around herself, she lifted the white buds of her headphones from a pocket, plugged one into an ear, tapped the play button, and off she took jogging at an immediately even pace, her eyes focused solely in front of her.

[Richard Buckles]

Richard was put in an awkward situation after coming to town to see a friend his car blew a tire. But was not going to make it back to the school on a doughnut spare. So he hit up Selena for a place to crash since she lived in town. He hated to taco block her with the helping out in a pinch. Big course he would say that if she hadn't somehow used helping him out as a way to take a girl home.

Of course he was not projecting any of these thoughts. He was out in jeans and t-shirt at the park bright and early as always for a jog. He was far from in preferred clothes for it but these things could not be helped. He saw another jogger out and found that an odd surprise. He was used to being alone on his runs. Not that he minded someone being around.

He took off running after a small stretch. He was behind the woman but he was making stride to catch up as he was a quick runner. His mind working over the figures of her speed and his and calculating the time till they would intersect. He hummed his way along as he ran since he didn't have any music with him.

He didn't take long before he caught up with her and was almost to her. If she heard his thoughts all she would hear was calculations and numbers. When he came up along side of her he was to her left and declared it before passing "To your left." he came up behind her moments later.

[Annalise Jackson]

Anna had spent so long in the car making sure she'd been alone, that she hadn't even remotely expected anyone to be there. So she'd spaced out, narrowed her eyes on the path ahead of her. Her arms pumped at her sides, bare from the lack of sleeves in her tank top. Normally this would make her cold, since she never was much of a warm person, but with the rush of adrenaline, and as her tennis shoes slapped the path lightly with each step, she welcomed the slap of cool air.

What she didn't expect happened a few seconds later, and, at first, it was a low hum somewhere in the back of her head. For a moment it was low and slow, and she managed to ignore it. The louder it became, however, the slower her jog became, and the firmer a frown danced over lips. Glancing around herself she immediately looked for the source of the noise.

It came up directly behind her a second later, however, in the form of "to your left" and a sudden loud buzz of numbers and calculations. This threw her off in more ways than one. Startled out of her wits, and her zone, she stumbled on a step. This was enough to cause her to let out a sharp sound, her arms flying out to her sides in an undeniably comical wheeling manner, before she literally simply fell to the ground.

Anna's hands slammed the path before her face met it, saving her some serious issues, but her groaned soft as her knee caught it sharply. For a moment she just lay there, panting, her left eye swuinting through the noise still dancing in her head, her teeth grit together tightly.

[Richard Buckles]

Richard of course while understanding the idea of getting startled by something sudden he did not expect such a big response from her being passed by him especially since he declared it. He couldn't help but notice her looking around as he got closer which he thought was also strange. But each person does what they do even if it doesn't make sense.

The sound she made before she stopped and stumbled back made him stop. He turned to face her when he saw her going down which made new calculations. When she started her fall he lunged back towards her immediately and grabbed touched her shoulders.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly. His hands reached down over her arms and tried to help her stand again. "I hope all this wasn't because I startled you?" He would have felt just awful if he was responsible for her little mishap or if it was from a condition he wondered if he should get help. Something he would consider while she answered his questions.

Despite his speaking normally for some reason only thing she kept getting from his head was numbers and variables in equations still. "I have a first aid kit in my care for those bits of scrapes you got on you there."

[Annalise Jackson]

Anna groaned at the path beneath her, only to literally jump when the guy backtracked towards her. For the second time in as many days she was touched, and it was unnerving as hell. Not that it was meant badly, of course, she was aware of the -reason- behind the touching, but it always sent her senses into hyper drive, since she mostly avoided physical contact with people. It was an intimate thing, shaking hands, touching arms. Intimacy lead to more leaked thoughts, and more leaked thoughts lead to some rather serious dark inner thoughts that she would rather -not- be privy to. It had occurred to her at one point that locking herself away instead of learning how to deal with the constant stream of stray thoughts, had made her particularly more sensitive to their intrusion, but she'd been doing it for so long that the habit had proved hard to break.

She was stiff when he moved his hands down her arms, but used the help to pull herself upright from the ground yet again. The very second she was on her own feet she took a rather large step back, purposefully breaking the physical connection. "I'm ...fine..." It wasn't the fall, or the touching, that had her confused at this point. Of all the thoughts that she heard, the constant stream of numbers from his head was jumbling. Considerably less intrusive than the alternative, but rather confusing nonetheless.

"Uh..." Giving her head a shake she snapped her mouth closed, having not realized at first she had been just standing there staring at him like he'd stepped out of some sort of sci-fi movie. "..sorry. Just....my mind gets carried away with itself sometimes. Not your fault." Anna mumbled it, her eyes dropping to the small scrapes along her palms, and the tear in the right knee of her jeans. "I'm sure I'll live through it."

[Richard Buckles]

He smiled at her with a friendly manner as he helped her up. He couldn't help but notice how she seemed a bit jittery for some reason which made him tilt his head a bit in wonder what the matter was. Then after she stood up she shot back to distance herself from him which he might take as a personal space thing but she was jumpy the whole time. Then again he had met some people up at the academy who did not like being touched because of their powers and contact doing bad things for themselves or others.

Though he didn't remember seeing her ever before so he wasn't entirely sure if she had a power or not. Could have been something more basic like germ phobia. All the while just a dull sound of calculations and numbers running in his mind is all she was reading. "Well I am glad it was nothing serious either way." he said still with that pleasant smile from before. "You sure you are alright? Your mouth is sort of hanging open." he said with a furrowed brow look of concern. Then she snapped it closed which made him want to laugh a bit but he held that in as she was injured even if in a minor capacity.

"Well okay I was worried I had truly been so frightening coming up along side you took a dive. Still would prefer to have the opportunity to help you." he said not taking her dismissiveness of the sounds quite so lightly. He felt some responsibility still so he would want to correct the situation some. He shook his head "no no you stay right there I will take a jaunt over to the car and be right back and we can clean and patch up those wounds quick." If she was looking at his face she would notice several spots that were part of a scar. Looked like a cat bite but many times larger.

He then took off back towards his car at a full run instead of a jog. She saw him get there and pull something out of the truck rather quickly. And before she new it he was back to her with a bit of huff to his breath. He had cleared the back and forth fast because he went at this top speed both directions. He looked over at her "Want to come over to that bench over there so I do this? Or do you need me to carry you?" he of course was meaning this in an innocent fashion.

[Annalise Jackson]

Anna literally blushed when he pointed out that she had been staring with her mouth hanging open. It wasn't very often she felt embarassed, but in that moment, when she hadn't been paying the least bit attention to what she was doing because of what was flooding her own head, she felt a bit of shame in it. "Yeah..just scrapes." She mumbled in return, brushing her palms against her jeans and ignoring the burning sensation in her knee. It was bruised, for sure, but since the jeans weren't to torn up, she found it doubtful it was actually open skinned.

"Oh yeah...terrifying." She answered automatically, her lips twitching at the corner in an amused manner, her head shaking, before she pushed down the smile. His next words, however, made her frown quite suddenly, drawing her gaze from the surrounding park, where she was habitually looking around in an oddly paranoid manner, to his face. "What...no.....I....well damn." By the time she'd gotten any words out he'd taken off to the car, leaving her frowning after him. A couple of options opened up. She could just take off jogging again, but that was entirely more rude than previously when she'd pulled back like he'd burned her.

So, instead of taking off like a paranoid child caught stealing a candy bar, she focused on her head, her eyes narrowing tightly at the ground as she attempted to close down the door firmly while she was still absent the noise. Of course he was gone for about fifteen seconds, or at least it felt that way, so that was an intense failure.

"What? No!" She balked at the idea of being scooped off the ground like a sack of potatoes. In ten years a handshake was hard enough to pull out of her. No one had so much as hugged her. Her friends back at Meghans club had learned from her sudden startling reactions that it wasn't a good idea. "I can walk..."

Eyeing the guy as if he might try to pick her up regardless, she turned and made her way to the nearest bench. Slightly limping on her right side, due to having jammed her knee into the path hard enough to jar the joint, she was more than happy she didn't have to dance that day. It could prove rather difficult with her joint the way it was. By the time Anna had sat down on the bench the numbers were beginning to drive her crazy.

"Oh for the love of God, what the hell is with the damn numbers?" She burst out, something she definitely didn't -want- to do, since she had literally not told a single person about what she could do since the day she had left the school so long ago. "It's driving me insane. Numbers, and calculations. No one thinks like that."

[Richard Buckles]

He didn't mean to embarrass her with pointing out how her jaw had somehow been dropped. Was something he had never literally seen before. You hear about it in movies and read about it in stories but never see it in real life. So that did just add to the amusement of the whole situation. But he kept his entertainment at her expression to himself. He saw a peek of a smile clear to her lips even if only for a moment as she gave him back some sarcasm.

He of course did not pay any mind to her trying to decline his first aid. He was one of those try to help someone sorts even if they tried to act like they didn't want it. Sometimes it was a bit over baring to some but it usually was for the better in the end. When he came back she was trying to meditate it almost looked like. How odd he wondered why she would be trying to do that in the middle of the pavement at a park. Then again maybe she was one of those mind over matter sorts that thought she could diminish the pain with focus.

She definitely freaked a bit much at his pointed statement that he could pick her up. So there was something more to this than just being a stranger. Usually someone would say no or laugh it off but she practically screamed at the notion "Okay then right this way Miss....Oh sorry I guess in the scuffle there I was rude. Name is Richard." he offered without trying to force her name from her. He learned to let people say that at their own pace. Speaking of which he followed behind her at her pace to the bench.

She seemed a bit wary after his suggestion to carry her. He couldn't help but wonder why though. He set the box on the bench and pulled out a single packet alcohol swab. He ripped it open before taking her hand and turning it over to see it. She had a scrape on the heel of his palm though not much in the way of bleeding. It was barely a couple pin pricks. Guess it was a good thing she was so light or else the impact would have been harder.

He was middle of wiping the wound with the correct force though he knew it would sting. But to clean a wound properly it would hurt more than just cause of the alcohol. When she blurted about the numbers he looked at her with a furrowed brow of confusion though that changed quickly "Ohhhhh is that why you are so twitchy about being touched." he replied. He then lowered his voice "You are a telepath. Why didn't you just say so?" He then let her hand go quickly "Terribly sorry if I knew I would not have been so pressing about needing to tend to you personally."

"Well that's cause I am not normal either." he clarified pointing to his head "Got something that lets me see things in a sense of equations and math rather than normal like. I learned to put that to the for front after a few years to help block out surface scans. Sorry would you prefer hearing my thoughts instead of equations?" he questioned sincerely. "I know the numbers can be a bother. Not like I have anything to hide anyways."

[Annalise Jackson]

His sudden introduction caused her to pinch her lips against one another, eyeing him side long as they made their way to the bench, where she sat down promptly. With a small frown she tilted her head, studying her hand intently as if the small scrapes there were suddenly the most important thing in the world. Normal people smiled, nodded, said "nice to meet you" and introduced themselves. She knew this, and she was also aware of how rude it was to not reply at all. Which was why she eventually cleared her throat and managed a taut smile towards the guy.

"Anna." No, she didn't make any pretty pleasantness, as one might expect from someone one just met, but that would have to do. In honesty she had no damn clue why she was sitting on the bench to begin with. She should have turned her ass around, tucked tail, and climbed back in her car. Almost habitually she flinched away from his hands as he grabbed her own, but managed not to snatch it away from him like some kind of overly upset child. Instead she bit hard into the inside of her cheek and stared intently at the heel of her hand, which he was currently swabbing at with alcohol. The sting, of course, was nothing compared to how hard she was biting herself at the moment.

At her blurted question, which was a pent up build of daily frustration, a serious lack of social interaction, and the fact that her cat was not even close to being a good receptor for her frustrations any other time, he responded...weirdly eagerly. It left her blinking at him rapidly. Why hadn't she told him to begin with? That question made absolutely no sense to her. It was not in her nature to hide anything, especially if a thought occured to her, which was why she promptly answered him.

"Why didn't I....well hell. I don't generally just walk up to people and say "Hey I'm anna, and be careful what you're thinking because I can totaly hear you"..." She perked a slender eyebrow at him, pursing her lips against one another in an odd expression of mixed weariness and amusement.

His question, however, caused her expression to completely wipe itself, and she widened a set of blue eyes, before lifting her hand and waving her palm back and forth towards as if to stop him entirely. "No...no. Numbers are definitely better than thoughts." Clearing her throat, Anna gave a slow shake of her head and dropped her hand to her leg, where she gently swiped it against her jeans, itching the small scratches in this manner.

[Richard Buckles]

He of course wasn't actually expecting her to return the courtesy in the introduction as the easy she was acting was leading him to believe she was s bit antisocial. Though he was happy to see she did at least cough up a name. "Well it is a pleasure to meet you Anna." he said to her even if the circumstances are less than ideal. He of course always liked meeting new people and he tended to find himself meeting people that needed help.

He was glad she was cooperating with his attempt at first aid and not being very resistant. He was trying to be as gentle as he could while doing the job right. He looked at her oddly "Sounds like something that would get printed on a t-shirt you ask me." he shrugged. Though this situation was beginning to feel vaguely familiar for some reason.

He shrugged "You sure? Could save me some effort not having to talk." he said smirking. "Nothing like looking crazy talking to yourself to start the day." He looked at her questioningly "Well okay if you are sure you rather hear physics up to you."

He watched what she was doing to itch her scratch and he actually smacked the back of her hand "Stop that now I have to clean it again." He took her hand against and rubbed it with the swab. This time immediately applying a gauze pad and taping it over the space.

"So Anna I don't know everyone up at the school but I do recognize most. Also we seem close in age. So you just taking college classes and laying low?"

[Annalise Jackson]

It was becoming increasingly difficult to hold her own in this conversation, which was saying something, since she hadn't really been a true presence in the whole thing to begin with. She'd laid low since she'd gotten back to town, so running into another person with a "gift", so to speak, had thrown her off kilter just a bit. Not to mention how calm he was about the whole thing.

"Yeah." She muttered this under her breath as something of an all around remark as to what he was saying. Eyeing him quietly for a moment she tipped her head to the side and frowned at him. When she opened her mouth again, however, he smacked the back of her hand, causing her to jump and let out something of a squeaking sound, her features pulled into a very obviously startled expression.

"You can't just go smacking people you don't know." She mumbled as he taped the gauze across her hand, before she withdrew it entirely, her fingers flexing a moment. "I don't go to college classes." She paused a few long seconds, before clearing her throat. "I went to the school over ten years ago...I haven't been back since."

That was likely the most personal information she'd given anyone in her entire life, up to and including Meghan, whom had been the closest thing to family she'd had since birth. Flexing her hand yet again, Anna suddenly shot straight up off the bench, and took a healthy step to the side back on the path, before giving him a taut smile.

"Thanks for the ..." She lifted her hand and gave it a little wave to indicate the palm where he'd cleaned the scrapes. For a moment she seemed to struggle with what else to say, her mouth opening, closing, opening again. In the end she just nodded, turned on her heel, and began the walk back to her car.

[Richard Buckles]

Richard of course was very comfortable in the situation though he did wonder why she was so quiet and apprehensive about everything. It was just the two of them. Then again maybe that was the problem that she felt nervous so close to dawn with a stranger. Especially if she could t hear his thoughts. She said the numbers were better but then she didn't have that protection of knowing what he was thinking. Some telepaths took comfort at the information even if sometimes it made them cringe.

He knew she was surprised by the hand slap but she seemed a bit more upset by the whole thing. "Maybe but then if they didn't do dumb things like rubbing a wound on their jeans I wouldnt." he ones back at her. "Oh well I just got there three years ago myself. Ever think about coming back for some classes? I am a student and teacher up there myself. I mean a free college education is kind of a big deal."

He was a bit surprised when she shot to standing so fast and taking off away. Was kind of cute how she said thank you for the patch job. He stood there looking at her till she started turning away from him. He took a swift jaunt over to her and walked her to her car "You okay? Not to pry or anything just you seem a little out of sorts. Like something is really bothering you and I don't just mean here and now."

He didn't like to pry hard but he felt like sometimes you needed a jackhammer with some people rather than a small rock hammer to pick away slowly bit by bit. Richard was not the finesse sorts so jackhammer it was.

[Annalise Jackson]

Anna narrowed her eyes on her car, her teeth closed hard around the meat of her cheek as she focused on making it that far. Of course, her escape was cut oddly short when he moved to fall into step beside her, which earned an odd look from her as she resisted the urge to scratch at the skin under the gauze on her palm. The closer they got to her car, the more she slowed down. Actually, at this point, hearing his thoughts might be a comfort. At first she was just wanting to go close herself up somewhere, as she usually did. Now he was following her to her car, and it was not just awkward, but faintly worrisome. When he spoke up, however, her frown took on a confused look, and she slowed to a stop close to the end of her vehicle.

"Why on earth would you care what's wrong with me?" she finally asked, lifting her arms and crossing them across her chest. This, of course, was a classic off putting way to stand, and, more so, felt like closing herself off. After another few seconds, Anna shifted her weight from one foot to the other, obviously uncomfortable. "I'm fine. I don't do....the whole..." she lifted a hand and waved it around in the air flippantly. "..interacting thing.....people usually have some seriously messed up things going on in their heads..."

Why in all the hell she had told him anything was anyones guess, and, honestly, anyone would have likely guessed better than she would have. Probably because he was asking things, and so insistent, it was keeping her on her toes, making it a tad hard to overthink any responses.

[Richard Buckles]

He wasn't a mind reader or super perceptive but even he could tell how she was getting a bit frightened seeming as he followed her. He could let her in and maybe that would help her but he wasn't really sure since she was acting much like someone who did t have control of her abilities.

"Why wouldn't I be concerned about you is the better question? When you see someone have trouble you lend them a hand. Even if their pride or anxieties get in the way." he told her rather swiftly with a genuine ring to his voice. "Yes I won't deny you are right. People think about all sorts of things sometimes disgusting, sometimes horrifying but that doesn't mean you should just lock yourself away from getting to know people. And as odd as it sounds you can't really do that off thoughts alone."

"I mean people have thought but there is more to it than raw reactions. How they enact or suppress those basic thoughts are more telling of who they are. I am sure you had some thoughts since we met I would not like but even if I could hear then I wouldn't judge you for them."

He reached and held her hand as he lowered his wall of numbers. She could feel the flood of his thoughts shooting out now and easily picked up on. She hear him thinking that he knew sometimes touching amplified telepathic effect. His mind swirled around she could see that he registered her as attractive on a basic instinctual response. That baser response was crushed by thinking of a beautiful brunette that he called his girlfriend. Then came the thoughts of worry he was expressing out loud.

While he was obviously not a saint his mind reflected how much he really did care about her and so many people's welfare. She could see him holding a crying girl in a hospital. Attacking a mountain lion that was atop a different young lady. Teaching students and taking time to help a male student who was struggling. "So would you like to give me a chance to show you that the world is not as dark and horrible a place as you think?"

[Annalise Jackson]

"No." She immediately responded, this time without the previous hesitation. "Most people do NOT stop and help when they see someone who needs it." She frowned at him, once more securely tucking her arm around her as she eyed him. Not even for an instant did she feel swayed by anything he said. While it was true that not everyone with bad thoughts were bad people, it was more the truly dark, and depraved ones, that had caused her to close off from everyone else years before.

Her entire self defense stance was interrupted abruptly, however, when he grabbed her hand, causing her to flinch all over again. What was it with this guy and touching people? She didn't have long to dwell on it, however, as he dropped the numbers and she was suddenly assaulted with his thoughts. For a moment she just flinched, her whole face twisting in a mask of uncomfortably awkwardness.

The longer she stood there, however, the more relaxed she seemed to become. Instead of fighting against the flow of thoughts, which was a knee jerk reaction when assaulted by them, she simply stood silently, staring almost blankly passed his head. When he spoke it caused her to blink several times, and rather rapidly, in an attempt to draw herself out of the daze.

"The world will be a horrible place no matter how hard you try to see the good in it." she mumbled, though she wasn't as tensed as she was before. A slow frown danced over her lips, sadness, but a lack of the awkward unease. "But...." She paused and sighed softly, her hand brushing across the top of her head, fingers tugging loosened tendrils of hair up and over her head. "...a chance wouldn't hurt me. So..yes."