Chapter Text
On the walk back to the Mean Bean, Stone finally found it in him to do more than glance blearily around on autopilot. His searching eyes caught on a sign advertising coffee-scented candles. After a quick glance at his watch, Stone pushed into the shop. The abundant clashing scents of the candle shop were a little overwhelming, but he strode in confidently, taking stock of the area. A few things stood out to him: a sign behind the counter titled “milk options”; a particularly intricate purple candle on display; and the back of a man’s head. There, in the back of the line, was Jerry, his old coworker/employee.
“Jerry?” Stone called, slipping into the line behind him.
He jumped, “Stone! You scared me, dude. So, you’re back. Can I uh… come back to the Mean Bean?”
“You want to?”
“Sure, I’d like to get back into the coffee business. Also, a lot of other shops were real concerned about hiring me because of all the government shit that happened after you closed up, and you pay a lot better than the grocery.”
“Welcome back, then,” Stone said, pleasantly surprised, “how much notice do you have to give?”
Jerry thought for a moment, “probably a week or two. I dunno, man.”
Stone nodded sharply, “I’ll be expecting you.”
The two moved up in line, finally approaching the counter. Jerry set down two rosemary scented candles.
“Good morning!” the man at the counter greeted pleasantly, “Just these two?”
“Yes, thank you,” Jerry checked out quickly and nodded to Stone before heading out.
“Good morning!” came the same greeting as Stone stepped up to the counter.
“Good morning,” Stone replied, flashing his iconic smile of pleasantry, “I came in the hopes that you could create a custom coffee-scented candle. If you are willing to go through with it, I will show you my exact recipe.”
The candle maker leaned forward, interest sparking in his eyes, “Absolutely! The price of a custom candle will depend entirely on how much it costs me to create it-“
“Of course.”
“-and I will need to actually smell the coffee, though the recipe will go a long way. Can you come by again at around 4:00?”
Stone bit his lip, thinking for a moment, “Yeah, I can duck in at around 4. Can’t stay long, though.”
“Not a problem, I’m honestly very excited to work on this,” the candle maker smiled broadly, “Do you have your recipe with you now?”
“I do, yes,” Stone pulled it out of a pocket and handed it over. The folded sheet of paper was covered in neat black ink detailing every step of Stone’s process. Under normal circumstances, he would never give his recipe away lest the Doctor found someone else who could make it, but he wanted the candle maker to have as much information as possible.
“Thank you! Well, I hope to see you later!”
“See you later,” Stone agreed with a smile. Admittedly, the smile slipped slightly as he left the shop. His idea was as progressed as it would be for the moment, so Stone slipped back into his mind, anxiously running scenarios where the candle didn’t work out: where it smelled wrong; where it woke him early; where it tipped and set the Doctor on fire again…
Stone shook his head, blinking his thoughts away and trying to focus as he flipped the Mean Bean’s sign to “Open” and took his place behind the counter. Faking this smile was more than natural.
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As 4:00 approached, Stone found himself full of excitement and trepidation. He’d already set up a sign noting a break from 3:45-4:30. He knew he could get people to leave. That wasn’t the problem. Stone sighed quietly to himself. Worrying about the candle wasn’t getting him anywhere. It wouldn’t ever get him anywhere.
Relief washed over Stone when he found the shop empty at 3:45. He brewed up a fresh goat’s milk latte with practiced efficiency and strode down the street. Focusing on the path, focusing on each step, that was all Stone could do to stay present. He wanted this to work so badly, but his anxiety about potential failures grew stronger by the second.
A long few minutes later, Stone pushed open the door to the candle shop once again. To his surprise. The man behind the counter had been replaced by a bored-looking teenage boy. The shop was also less busy than it had been that morning. Only a handful of other customers drifted around the shop: a few older women and two teens. As Stone approached the counter, the boy turned away and was shouting into the back room, presumably where the candles were actually made.
“…guy you were expecting,” was the first Stone heard as he came into earshot, “Dad!”
“What?” came an annoyed response, slightly muffled by distance.
“I think the guy from this morning is here!” he called back, giving a half-hearted eyeroll to the empty doorway as clattering sounds preceded the arrival of the man from that morning.
“Oh hello! It is you!” he exclaimed as he caught sight of Stone, “come in, come in,” he continued, gesturing for Stone to follow him into the back room. Stone did so wordlessly, doing his best to focus and take stock of his surroundings. The back room wasn’t huge, but it was large enough to house some machinery that was probably for producing a larger quantity of candles. One wall was covered in shelving with candle scents and colors, most in a liquid or powder form. It looked like it had been carefully organized around 6 months ago, but the organization had been slowly deteriorating since. More pots of ingredients were scattered around the room, as well as cooling candles and bubbling mixtures. Barely contained chaos was the best description Stone could come up with. It almost reminded him of the Doctor’s workspace when he was in the middle of a particularly difficult project. When he was focused on something, there was no time to clean up, and Stone couldn’t hope to keep up with what the Doctor still needed and what space should be cleared…
“Are you… okay?” the candle maker asked after a moment.
Stone blinked, refocusing on the present, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m Lee Stone by the way.”
“James. May I?” he held out his hand for the latte.
“Of course,” Stone said smoothly, handing it over.
“So, tell me about this latte. I can’t say I’ve ever had someone specify the country their milk has to come from.”
Stone smiled, “I’m not sure how much of a difference it really makes to smell, but there is a taste difference, and the Doctor said he could smell it the one time I couldn’t find Austrian.”
James tilted his head slightly, “the Doctor?”
“My… my boss. I’m getting the candle for him,” Stone explained.
“This seems like a lot for ‘boss appreciation day’,” He smirked, noticing Stone’s hesitation.
“It’s more of a… get well soon,” Stone grimaced, “He’s been in the hospital for the past week and a half and… I was his personal assistant.”
“You knew him fairly well, then?” James’ voice softened in sympathy.
Stone smiled, but sadness lingered in his eyes, “As well as anyone.”
“You didn’t assist with anything… outside of working hours, did you?”
Stone’s ears turned a bit pink, but he opted to feign ignorance, “we both tended to work a lot of overtime if that’s what you mean,” he frowned. Was he that easy to read? “We never did anything unsanctioned. Well, excluding the Doctor’s independent projects. But that is why I made the lattes.”
“Overtime lattes… that’s sweet,” James said with a smile, then he noticed Stone glancing down at his watch, “I’ll let you get going if you need to head out. Could I get contact information so I can update you on progress and whatnot?”
“Of course,” Stone wrote his number and the address to the Mean Bean down on a sticky note and handed it over, “I do need to head back now, but thank you for doing this for me.”
“No need to thank me, this will be fun!”