Chapter Four: Who Is Theodore Hart?

Kara decides to stay at the cookout after William's story. Despite wanting to leave beforehand, she feels less out of place, now. Plus, she understands that it'd be rude to ditch it when all these people showed up to meet her.

Besides, Mr Hart has given her some... interesting perspective.

Theo is not simply a rude and disrespectful human. He's a rude and disrespectful human grieving a friend. That's something she can relate to in a way. While she's never lost a friend, she has lost her mother. Sometimes she stares into the water and feels so angry and empty.

Maybe she judged Theo too harshly.

The minutes tick by into long hours and even more people show up at the cookout. Kara sees more faces than she can ever hope to remember and tries foods that she's never even heard of before. People talk to her and compliment her, ask her millions of questions, and by the time the sun starts to set, her head is aching from all the noise.

Worn down, she finds herself a quiet seat on a bench near the back door and sits down to rest.

"You're really going to fix up the house?"

If possible, Kara's heart jumps straight into her throat. She spins her head to see Theo Hart watching her, his towering frame blocking the light as he leans on the wall.

"Yes," she says once she's recovered from the fright. This guy moves so sneakily sometimes. That's the third time he's startled her.

"I never thought I'd see that house belong to anyone else. It's... Strange. How does it look inside?" This is suspicious. He'd been so cold and rude just this morning and now he's asking how the house is? Kara doesn't know if she can trust him or not.

"It looks better than when I moved in. I still have quite a bit of work to do, though," she tells him honestly. "It was a little run down and the weeds are damaging the outside walls. Almost all the windows were broken."

"Cracks?"

"I don't know, yet. Maybe." Theo nods and turns away, crossing his arms. She hadn't noticed before, probably because they were both soaked and worked up from falling in the lake, but he's got a nice face. Very somber, but not unattractive.

He looks at her once again and his lips pull into a frown.

"Where are you staying," he asks. Kara doesn't understand, at first.

"I'm staying in the house. 14 Peach St." Does he really think he can try to talk her into leaving again?

"No, I mean where are you staying at night until the house is finished. Don't tell me you've just been sleeping on the floor in that dump." Crap, she probably should have expected somebody to ask that question eventually. She had been hoping to have more work done on the house by then, though.

"I have a sleeping bag," she explains. Finally, she sees a new expression cross his face. Utter bewilderment.

"You've been staying in that rotten old shell at night? Seriously? What if some kind of animal got in while you were asleep?" She highly doubts any animal would come near her, but if one did mess with her, her Siren Song would work on it the same as any human.

"I'll be fine. It's actually been very peaceful out there. I haven't really seen a single animal, yet." Actually, now that she thinks about it, that's a little odd. Sure it's the tail-end of winter, but there should be some animals coming out of hiding.

"It's not exactly warm at night," he points out. "You'll get sick."

"It's practically spring. I haven't been too cold." She's actually used to shockingly cold water, so to her, this place is on the warm side.

"Wait a minute. Shit, I left you all alone after you fell in the lake," he says, standing up straight and looking at her with open concern at his horrified realization. "I just- that was-"

"Fine, it's fine," Kara interupts. "I changed into some dry clothes and honestly the sun was shining nicely so I warmed up fast. Besides, you got just as wet as I did."

"Yeah, but I live in a house with central heating and you live in a fricken box full of holes." Okay, little rude.

"That 'box full of holes' is my home; I'd appreciate it if you didn't insult it."

"It's-!" He shuts his mouth and takes a breath. Then another. Quieter, he says with his eyes shut, "I'm sorry."

Oh! Caught off guard, Kara has no retort for him this time. She hadn't pegged him as the sort of man who apologizes so easily. Or at all...

"It's... It's okay." They end up staring at each other in silence after that. Kara studies him shamelessly in an effort to understand his true thoughts, his true motives, but she comes up with just more questions.

Why does he look at her like that? Why has his attitude shifted so drastically all of a sudden? Why is he staring back at her without saying anything?

"Oh, there you are!" Saved by Mrs Hart. The short woman comes through the archway from the dining room and shoots a look between the two of them. "I boxed up some leftovers for you t' take home, dear. Consider it my way of sayin' sorry for keepin' you out so late."

Donna gives her a fairly big bag full of sealed dishes which Kara accepts gratefully. Until she has a kitchen, she'll gladly scarf down leftovers. As soon as Donna hands the bag over, she glances at the window with a worried frown. "Very late, actually. Oh, I can't have you walkin' home all by you're lonesome in the dark. Maybe..."

"I'll walk her home," Theo states.

"You don't have to do that," Kara says quickly, an instant attempt to turn him down despite knowing the end result already. These people have rules and customs and try as she might, they won't break from them. The last thing she wants to do is follow him through the woods again, but he'll insist. Because he's just so human.

"I'm walking you home," he tells her directly in a tone that holds little room for argument. Well, she could definitely argue it actually, but things are already tense enough. Kara does her best to bite back any snappy retorts and just nods her head awkwardly.

"Be careful walking around out there in the dark," Donna tells them both. She gives Theo a look before heading into the kitchen.

"I really can walk back on my own," Kara says. Granted she doesn't have the best night vision on land, but it's so close by, she really just has to stay walking straight and she'll probably find it.

"And I really can walk you," Theo counters. Before she can protest, he's already opening the door for her.

Outside, he doesn't walk far ahead and leave her behind like before. They stay a few steps from a each other, walking in relative silence, an almost comfortable air settling over them.

When they reach the woods, she immediately stumbles over a stick.

Okay, she's mature enough to admit it's darker than she expected. And with her unsteady legs, a pain.

To his credit, Theo slows down even more for her as she struggles to step over obstacles she can't see. Unlike her, he doesn't so much as falter in the dark. The way he moves is somehow graceful.

Compared to her, that is. Her skirt gets caught on some thorns and it trips her up, but he moves in a blur and she never touches the ground.

"You're remarkably clumsy," he mumbles as he rights her and starts to gently tug her skirt free. "This might end up with some holes torn in it."

"It's fine, I'm not too attached to it." With a hum, Theo yanks the cloth free. "Thanks."

"It's best to wear clothes that don't snag out here," he tells her. Kara takes another step, but trips over a rock or maybe a root jutting into the path. Once again, Theo has her. He wraps an arm under her and lifts, bringing her up to his chest.

"Clumsy may be too much of an understatement. Sorry, but I'd like to be home before midnight," he explains, adjusting her in his arms with a snort and picking up the bag she'd dropped. Kara doesn't respond, too shocked by his actions to even speak. He's carrying her. A human man is carrying her.

Theo starts walking again and Kara holds onto him just in case he drops her. If she goes down, she's taking him with.

Theo doesn't drop her, thankfully, and they reach the edge of the woods without any accidents. Instead of putting her down there, he takes her straight to her door before carefully lowering her to her feet.

"Thanks," she rasps, still shocked and at a loss for words. That had been the longest a human had ever touched her, held her.

"No sweat. Literally, you're tiny. Not as small as my mom, but tiny still." Is that some kind of weird compliment? Kara wishes she was in her old body so she could tower over him. Unfortunately, she has to settle for glaring up at him.

"Well, I appreciate your help. Goodnight, Mister Hart." He wrinkles his nose.

"Mister? Everyone calls my dad that. Just call me Theo." Hopefully she won't have to call him anything after today. Kara wants some peace and quiet. "Goodnight."

He turns to go and Kara steps after him.

"Theo, wait." He startles, looking back at her with wide eyes. It's hard to tell in the dark, but his cheeks look flushed.

"Yeah?" Kara points to the bag over his shoulder.

"My food?" Theo looks down at the bag, confused, and coughs to hide his clear embarrassed. He hands it over to her quickly.

"Sorry, I forgot, uh... sorry. Goodnight." He leaves quickly after that and Kara finds herself chuckling. She opens her door and heads inside, exhausted but also feeling lighter than air. She's never felt like this out of the water before.

Inside, she sets the bag down and looks down at her torn and dirtied skirt. Usually she just turns ruined clothes back into water.

With a tired yawn, Kara strips the skirt off and folds it up to set down by the bag. Maybe she'll keep this one. Just this once. It's a nice skirt, is all.

"Okay. Bedtime." Kara pads to the back door softly and slides it open with another yawn. Today was good. Strange, upsetting, tiring, and yet good. As she slips into the water, a smile tugs at her lips.