PSL - for Saul Goodman, set Post-BCS, Pre-BB

[amicustenebris]

In all fairness to Saul Goodman, it would not have been uncharitable when he found himself stopped in the middle of the road, staring down what appeared to be the body that just ricocheted off his windshield, and first thinking, even kind of hoping he was being scammed. It wouldn't be the first time, and New Mexico was hardly suffering a shortage of people stupid enough to try it, clearly. The highbeams caught the slow patter of the first rain in what felt like months, picking each little droplet out of the dark as though they did not exist at all until the light touched them. Then the twitch of a set of fingers, shivering in the direction of a cane that had clattered to the ground just out of reach. A glint of the ring on one of his fingers, not a diamond but some manner of precious stone that seemed to glow with inner luminosity. 

It was fully nighttime even without the cloud cover, and the stranger really did seem to come out of nowhere. He might as well have not been there at all the instant before he was hit. 

From the looks of him once he was near enough to take it in, not the sort that would usually try a scam. Well-to-do, in his forties at the youngest. The curtain of his shoulder-length hair stuck in wet strings to the side of his face. Nice (though now scuffed) shoes. The suit was fine and black, maybe a little warm for this far south and this time of year. The cane was similarly fancy, with a silver handle. Eyes that were awake and expressive but wide and gave too much the impression of an injured animal. 

The kinda view that left a guy wishing it was just a punk kid trying to make an easy buck. 

Comments

[its_all_good_man]

“Oh! For the love of-“ Saul groaned after slamming on his breaks once something hit his windshield. The glass was cracked now. Great.
He fully expected a dumb, teenaged kid as he parked the car and rolled out to see who he hit.
They had to do this in the rain and make him get his suit wet didn’t they? Oh well, it wasn’t one of his good ones anyway.
“Ooooohhh shit!” He moaned seeing it was an older man and not his usual. He felt his heart rate pick up tenfold. He was so in for a lawsuit and not the kind he was gonna like. He nervously ran a hand through his wet, thin copper comb over and licked his lips before speaking fast.
“Are you alright, sir!? What the hell am I saying, of course not!”He began to ramble anxiously looking over. He picks up the cane and returns his attention back to the man.
“Uhh, d-do you need help up?” He asked. He likely knew the answer would be yes but he wasn’t sure if the man wanted a stranger to grab him

[amicustenebris]

Other vehicles were stopping. Concerned passerby. People preparing to dial emergency services.

The disorientation was all-encompassing. Pain swirled into the sensory overload that was all the light and sound around him, the patter of warm rain, the scrabble of asphalt, a stranger's face, and no immediate recollection of where he was or had been just before.

Gold pushed back, and the arm that wasn't under the rest of him reached for where he remembered his cane had been.

He started to push himself up and stopped short. Something tight in his chest, something cracked.

Another flourish of headlights and his thoughts were gone again. He winced.

[its_all_good_man]

Saul was starting to panic. The man wasn't really answering him and there were people gathering. Nosy assholes.

"Okay, hold on, I'm gonna take you to the hospital. I can pay for it even just, hold on, okay?" He rambles again as he fidgets slightly. He picked the older man up and carried him to his car, setting him in the backseat.

"Nothing to see here folks!" He yells at some of the stopped cars as he slides into the driver's seat of his own.
He rolls down the window to see past his cracked windshield and floors it to the closest hospital he can think of.

[amicustenebris]

Somewhere between the road and the car Gold fell out of consciousness, pain rising up in an all-encompassing flame before all the lights went out.

--

The stranger was out in the car but breathing. Might have hot his head, and given the tacky quality of his breath, he might have a broken rib.

He didn't seem to have a wallet on him.

Once at the hospital he came to probably just before Saul was left in the waiting room. When he spoke, at first it might have been hard to understand him -- his accent was thick, maybe Scottish? But once it processed, the "where am I?" Was unmistakable.

Maybe a little too familiar, how once he had an inkling of being in a hospital, he did not want to be there.

It was not long before a doctor emerged to speak to Goodman to update him on the situation. "He's stable, in no real danger. A cracked rib, maybe some head trauma. Can you...tell me what happened? He's awake and could give us some identifying information but other than that is a bit uncooperative."

[its_all_good_man]

Saul would glance from the road to the man in his back seat and was trying not to immediately panic. If he panicked he couldn't help the man very well.
-----------
Saul was anxious as hell in the waiting room. The man he hit was older and Saul was worried he gave him a heart attack or something and killed him.
He jumped when the doctor approached him and explained that the man was awake but not cooperating with them well.

"Uhh, I don't know the man personally. I was driving home in the rain and accidentally hit him on the road. I didn't want to leave him there so I took him here." He tries to explain. He didn't really feel like lying to the doctors about the incident. It really was an accident so he didn't do anything illegal as long as this man doesn't press any charges.

[amicustenebris]

The doctor maybe recognized him from ads, but whatever assumptions that came with, she appeared to take his account at face value. "That's kind of you. Like I said, he's doing all right. Confused. A bit surly. But he's not expecting anyone. No emergency contact or anything like that."

[its_all_good_man]

"Oh. In that case I'll wait for him. I'm not incredibly busy. Is there a time I can go back and see him or should I just wait until he's discharged?" Saul asked. He didn't want to get in the doctor's way or startle the man further but he wasn't going to leave the man to deal with this alone. He would at least arrange to pay his bill or give some money to him for it.

[amicustenebris]

She smiled. Clearly, if the man was as ornery as she implied, it didn't affect her very much. She's probably seen her share of prickly people. "Visiting hours don't stop for a few more yet. He'll be resting, but would probably benefit from knowing he's being looked in on if that's what you'd like to do."

A nurse showed him to the room once he was ready.

Gold was quite awake and not happy about it. His room was private for the time being, but he might wind up with a roommate eventually, if the world was feeling especially unlucky.

The TV wasn't on. A flip phone sat on the table next to his bed. His cane lay across the surface next to it.

If one were to guess that a majority of his sourness came from having to wear a hospital gown, it wouldn't have been wholly correct but no one would blame them either. Not that he looked especially imposing after bouncing off someone's windshield, but if suits were a kind of armor he felt naked without it.

He glowered when someone entered, not immediately familiar, but flickers of memory. At the very least whatever venom he had been saving to unleash on some busybody rn fizzled out and died.

[its_all_good_man]

Saul gave the woman a smile and watched her leave. He was debating on whether or not he was going to bother this man or not. He gave it a few moments before deciding he should check up on him.
“Hey there, uh, you may not know me but I’m the one that hit you. I promise it was an accident! I’ll uh pay your bill and what not. I just wanted to make sure you were alright and there were no hard feelings.” Saul rambled as he poked his head into the room where Gold was. Sure he was nervous but put his best foot forward anyway

[amicustenebris]

"Stop."

Gold sat back and shut his eyes to cover that he was rolling them. Of course part of his brain said 'this is something he believes he owes you, use it' but sadly he had enough of his faculties working to know half-truths for immediate gain would lead to trouble later. The man was under mo obligation to know not to hit something that had not been or near the road an instant before it was.

"That won't be necessary. Get me proof of whatever you end up paying to fix your vehicle and I will reimburse you. All of this --" he gestured at the general space around him. "-- will take care of itself, Mister--?"

[its_all_good_man]

Saul’s mouth immediately clamped closed when he heard “stop.” That was a pretty clear sign that he said too much. He didn’t expect the man to tell him not to worry about this AND offer to pay for his windshield.
“Uh, Goodman. Saul Goodman. You,uh, don’t have to pay for it really. I’m pretty sure my guy owes me a free one by now.” He says with a slight chuckle
He left out the joke on just how many he managed to hit and windshields he needed replaced

[amicustenebris]

"Most call me Gold. I'm sure you're usually very charming." It was not said with as much bite as one would expect. "But I have possible brain damage and I'm using that to keep the conversation short." Because for the moment his head hurt and while he didn't feel like arguing, he would feel compelled to. "As I said, I will take care of it. All that I need from you will be an invoice and that no one else be involved in this from your end."

[its_all_good_man]

"Oh! Yeah! Here's my card." Saul said, sticking a hand in his suit pocket and pulling out a canary yellow card with crimson letters and his face. His name and number and office address was at the bottom too. He wandered to the bedside and handed this to Gold before stepping back quickly to give him space.
He remained awkwardly standing in the corner for a while, not sure what to do with himself. He felt he should do more to help him but he wasn't wanting to make too many advances too quickly and seem creepy or pushy.

A Week Later

[amicustenebris]

As soon as a day later, Mr. Gold had already been discharged, bills settled up. Strange, given he definitely broke something. But were it not for a record that he'd been there (and Goodman's windshield), one could have questioned whether he existed at all.

A little over a week later, after a morning in court, Saul Goodman found a set of notes and to-do's awaiting him once he got back to the office, and among them was a simple black business card with gilded lettering.

Gold Pawn and Antique

Beneath it, an address and hours. Wasn't in the worst part of town, but not the best either. Kind of the place you'd expect to find pawn shops, though.

On the back, a phone number written in pen.

Re: A Week Later

[its_all_good_man]

Saul was surprised at how quickly the man managed to get discharged and set up shop. It took him months to get his firm set up here and he wasn't even in a decent part of town. He shrugged it off thinking the man must have had money and lined this up a while ago and didn't tell him. It wasn't Saul's business anyway.

He looked over the card, he decided he would give the man a call later that day and see how he's liking it here in New Mexico so far.

A Week Later

[amicustenebris]

When he dialed, an answer came after a few rings. A cordial voice with a distinctive accent on the other end:

"Gold Pawn and Antiques?"

Re: A Week Later

[its_all_good_man]

"Hey, it's Saul Goodman . I take it you made it out okay, huh?" He asks, trying his best to make decent casual conversation. Saul was pretty good at BSin his way through social things.

Re: A Week Later

[amicustenebris]

There was something immediately comforting on realizing he recognized the voice. "Well as one can, given the circumstances." The smile, though small, can be subtly heard in his voice. "Still settling of course, new locale and all. Do you have an invoice for me, Mister Goodman?"

Somehow even just the way he said the word 'mister' gave the impression he didn't abbreviate titles like that on paper.

Re: A Week Later

[its_all_good_man]

"Yeah, I'll send it over to the address you gave me. I'm glad to hear you're doing okay out there. I know it was a pain in the ass to get my firm set up over here." He gave a small chuckle.
He was currently fidgeting with files on his desk. Moving them around to different piles but not actually doing much with them. He ws figuring something to do with his hands.

Re: A Week Later

[amicustenebris]

Well, at least he wasn't arguing. "I can also come by if need be." He dropped off the card, after all. "I'm sure you're quite busy."

His secretary (with a perpetually 'over it' look about her) had a number of people in the office when he initially visited, and a phone frequently ringing. Clearly the man wasn't short of clientele.

Re: A Week Later

[its_all_good_man]

"Uhhh, sure! Go for it. My door is pretty much always open. Well, I should say it's revolving. Maybe I should install one of those." He chuckled at his own joke, as one does. Sometimes he's spared a chuckle, sometimes it's more of an annoyed huff from Franchesca through her nose. Oh well, the girl could file and made this less of a nightmare for him so he didn't mind.

Re: A Week Later

[amicustenebris]

Gold didn't laugh easily at much, so the small tug a the corners of his lips, whether an impulse to be polite, an instinctual reaction when understanding that someone was making a joke, or a genuine reaction, wasn't exactly audible through the phone. But when he answered there was still something of a smile in his voice. "Wonderful. I'll see you soon, then. On a quieter day."

--

It was anyone's guess how Gold KNEW when traffic through the office would be lighter. But like when the leaves on trees cup themselves, telling you they are preparing for rain, on the next day that clients and potential clients were barely a trickle, it was practically a sign he was about to appear.

And appear, he did. The cut and make of his suit was less -- warm. Like you'd more likely see in places where the worst winters came with roof-caving levels of snow. Still all black, still well-tailored, but fewer materials like wool. Shoulder-length, brown but gradually silvering hair well taken care of. That almost glowing gemstone on his finger. The gilded handle of his cane. Small in stature, he might have reached 5'6" with help from the slight heel from his dress shoes.

But it was the same man, albeit far less crumpled and possibly-dying. In fact, one would question whether there had been an accident at all just looking at him.

Willing to patiently wait and gently thanking Francesca for her assistance when Saul was ready to address him.

Re: A Week Later

[its_all_good_man]

Saul greeted him with a grin when he saw him. He stood from his spot behind the desk.
"Hey! Looking sharp today, Mr.Gold? I believe that's what your card said. Staying dry?" He asked, meeting the man in the middle of the room. Saul had a light pink suit on with a blue undershirt and pink tie. His dress shoes were light brown. He's had them for years but he keeps them well maintained.
He really wasn't much taller than Gold. He stood at about 5'11. His hands seemed to move to a different position with almost each word.

Re: A Week Later

[amicustenebris]

"As much as one can." A glance around, "though it is my understanding that rain in this part of the country is actually quite rare." Which just made their first encounter all the more unusual, really.

He offers a hand.

"But a preferable way to first meet, no?" On even footing. Not at the scene of an accident or a hospital room. "You remember correctly. Most just call me Mister Gold."

Re: A Week Later

[its_all_good_man]

"I know that was wild. You can understand how I wouldn't see ya out there. Honestly, I avoid driving at night or in the ran when I can. Being in my 50s I'm getting too old to drive anyway." He tries to joke.

"Well, come sit then! You want a drink?" He asks. He keeps liquor in his office for his clients.

"Also, you sound Scottish. Am I right? My family is Irish. McGill was my birthname. Goodman is for business."