Now came the important part. 

The dog was sweet. Friendly, but not too friendly. Just the sort he supposed you’d want if you brought it in to work with you. Every day? Maybe, hard to tell, not what he wanted to know. Casey though. Yeah, she was cute. He hadn’t come in to talk about the dog though. Oh, now that he’d seen her and they’d said hello and all, he wouldn’t have minded spending the rest of the morning talking about dogs. About Casey in particular if the man – was he Sam? seemed to answer to it – had enough to say to take up all that time. Given how he was holding her, he might well have, at that.

But the longer they spent on the dog, the more time it gave that mother and her girl to disappear into the city. Back from wherever they’d come from minus one. So, the first chance he had at clearing his head and he held out the doll and tried to explain the situation. He wasn’t sure he’d managed it too well, and frowned at the floor as he pushed himself up to standing again, trying to go over what he’d just said, but Casey’s owner didn’t seem to have any trouble with it. Maybe it was the obvious conclusion to seeing a grown man wandering around with a doll; that he was looking for its owner.

Then came the follow-up question as he took the doll back. Probably the next obvious conclusion, and he must have said something a little sideways, but Lucas’ frown only deepened when Sam asked if she meant something to him. A lot? 

[b]“Not a lot of-No.”[/b] He cut his attempt at explanation short and shrugged one shoulder, a lopsided sort of confused dismissal that made what he was doing that much more important and that much more without a reason. Biting at his thumbnail, Lucas tried an apologetic grimace around his hand as he searched through old conversations and leftover feelings for what he needed. It could drive his dad crazy, when he couldn’t find the words to explain why he wanted to do something. And this was only a stranger who had more important things to do with his time, but he’d said he’d help and that deserved something. Only, what was there to say? The mother and girl who’d lost the doll were strangers, too. He just… 

[b]“It’s sad.”[/b] He brushed the doll’s hair back with careful fingers, unable to count how many times such a motion had been done before, and pinned her to his chest in a two armed hug to go back to happier memories. The old toy made for an incongruous sight against the backdrop of gun store, two grown men and not a child anywhere near, for the moment, however, it had the strongest hold on his mind, and he smiled absently. [b]“It’s all care and crying comfort stuffing inside. Stuffed full up to the gills and that’s all lost the keys to keep… It’s all lost memories.”[/b]

Lucas was used to getting weird looks now and again, at least once a day if he spent any amount of it talking with strangers. He was no longer worried about trying to fit in. Making himself understood if someone was trying to understand him was more important. He wasn’t sure if he’d explained enough or just confused the situation, but he’d tried. [b]“Have to give that back.”[/b]