Episode: 1.2

--- Jericho ---

(Okay… she is either going to be amazed I pulled this off, or pissed I stole her gun.)

(Possibly both…)

He paused for a moment, before running his hand down his face.

(most definitely both…)

The elevator doors finally opened, giving him a chance to leave the various mix of apathetic and concerned gazes of his apartment’s tenants.

(Come on, people you act like you’ve never seen someone with a duffle bag before.)

He idly tapped his foot against the ground waiting for his floor.

(Come on, come on, in a bit of a hurry today…)

The elevator pinged as it stopped three floors below his own.

(Damn it…)

The doors opened to an old lady easily in her sixties. She took one look at him before for some reason, telling him, “Hell no.” and clicking the close door button, that for whatever reason this building had on the outside.

(I can’t tell if that’s brilliant or idiotic…)

(I mean why have a close door button right next to the bring me an elevator button?)

(Then again, I did use it myself that time those guys who’d just murdered that one asshole on the fourth floor. I took one look at them all covered in blood, and I was like “Hell no.”)

(...)

(Wait a minute…)

He glanced down, and immediately grimaced as he realized he was still wearing the blood-soaked hoodie from the bank heist.

(Damn it, forgot to change.)

He ran a hand down his face, before shaking his head.

(I can change when I get home.)

The elevator stopped again, this time opening to a cute brunette and her kid.

When they looked at him, he tried his best to smile and give a polite wave. He then realized he still had Rook’s gun in his hand, and immediately shifted it behind his back as a nervous laugh escaped him.

She pressed the close door button too…

(Damn, these socially awkward situations…)

(It’s like the powers that be have it out for me.)

That thought made him grimace.

(Oh, right…)

He banged his head against the elevator wall.

(That’s a thing.)

The door finally opened on his floor, and this time he was smart enough to peek out of the elevator and make sure there were no witnesses. Upon seeing an empty hall, he quickly rushed halfway down the hall, before freezing as he heard yelling from inside one of the apartments, as well as the sound of something banging against the wall.

(It’s none of your business.)

He bit his lip, when the noise finally stopped. After a moment there was more yelling, and he quickly stepped away from the door as he slipped his mask off.

The apartment door slammed open a large man in a wife beater left before marching down the hall opposite him, and back towards the apartment elevators.

A faint sobbing could be heard through the half open door.

A thousand violent thoughts tore through his mind, as his grip tightened ever so slightly on his gun.

(A knife in the throat… Throw him in the van… Burn it out in Enforcer territory.)

(She won’t like that.)

(She doesn’t have to know.)

He ground his teeth together before shaking his head clear.

(It’s not my business.)

(Don’t think about it.)

Through an act of will he managed to force himself the rest of the way to his own apartment, where he reached for his key, and promptly froze.

(Wait…)

He patted his pockets down.

“Shit…” he cursed, before glancing at the door.

(Okay, so I lost my apartment key…)

(Which means I have to wake Rook and have her let me in…)

(Meaning I can’t wash the blood off before she sees me…)

(Which means this is going to suck.)

He glanced to the side, wondering if he should take his chances going to one of the other people in town who wouldn’t snitch him out to his mom or try and blackmail him for half of the money.

He quickly realized he knew no such people.

(I need new friends.)

He took a moment to steel himself, briefly considered trying to pick the lock, and finally knocked on the door.

It took him another moment to remember Rook sleeps harder than the dead.

Groaning, he pulled out his cell and dialed Rook’s phone.

She answered on his third attempt.

“Wha’ ish it?” she slurred through the phone.

“I’m locked out of the apartment…”

“Damn it Jer…” Rook groaned before hanging up.

He stared at his phone for a second.

(Well, I might luck out and she’ll be too tired to kill me.)

He then remembered his luck in life.

(Fuck.)

A minute later the door slowly opened to an exhausted looking blonde wearing a green tank top and camouflage cargo pants.

“Alright Jer…” the blonde yawned, “wha’sh up… I wasn’t planning on…”

Rook gave him a once over as her face went from exhausted to confused in less than three seconds, “…you to look ready for the morgue.”

With a quick step she shoved him back a little, so she could look down both sides of the hallway. She then grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie and painfully dragged him into their apartment.

“Okay, Rook before-” he began.

“No.” She ended.

“But…”

“I’m not dealing with you, or the blood you’re covered in, until I’ve got more coffee in me than I do blood.” She informed him walking to the kitchen.

“That’s… fair.” He admitted, placing the duffel bag on a table in the living room as he moved to the couch.

“Also, don’t get blood on anything, stuffs a bitch to get out of fabric.” Rook called from the kitchen just as he was about to sit.

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“It’s already dry.” He told her scratching at one of the spots on the suit, causing a few flecks of dried blood to fall off.

“Fine… but toss your hoodie somewhere and you’re replacing any of my stuff you get blood on.”

He glanced at the duffel bag full of money, as he took off his hoodie.

(I’m okay with that.)

Rook eventually returned cup in hand, paused to eye the zipped up bag, before taking a seat next to it on the table.

He opened his mouth to try and explain the situation, only to stop short as Rook raised a single finger and took a long sip of her drink, before ending in a satisfied sigh.

“Now then first things first.” She began gently setting down the cup, before standing and harshly slamming her fist into his arm, “Why the fuck are you covered in blood?!”

“It’s not mine?” he said more as an offering to the angry woman than an actual answer.

“Is that supposed to make it better?!”

(It’s supposed to make you feel a little better…)

He glanced towards the ground as his hand found its way to the back of his neck.

(Then again it doesn’t really change things.)

She watched him for a moment before taking a deep breath and letting it out, likely remembering how he got when he stressed himself out.

And while he appreciated the sentiment, it didn’t make the knowledge any less bitter.

“Okay… step by step Jer,” Rook tried again, this time seemingly much calmer, “Tell me what happened, please?”

He swallowed the lump forming in his throat, “O-okay, um… well you know how we’ve been having money problems recently?”

“More than I want to admit, but yeah.”

“Well, you know how a few nights ago you made that one suggestion…”

Rooks face scrunched up a little, “What suggestion?”

“The uh, one about um, uh…”

“The one about what?” she glared, patience running thin.

“About… robbing a bank…” he winced.

“Robbing a… bank?” she repeated slowly, before her eyes jumped to the duffel bag.

“No.” her eyes jumped back to him.

“No, no, no.” her eyes settled on the bag as she opened it to a several thousand dollars. “Nooooooo-heh-heh-ha…”

“Um, Rook?” he tried, as she continued to laugh in a not happy way.

(I think I broke my best friend…)

“You robbed a bank?” she asked with a forced smile and a paranoid look to her eyes.

“You suggested it…” he reminded her while trying to make himself seem as small as possible.

“I WAS FUCKING DRUNK!!!” she yelled smile gone, “You robbed a fucking bank, a fucking bank?! Do you not realize how stupid that is?! I mean how, how the fuck did you even rob it?!”

“I uh, robbed the guys robbing the bank…” he admitted just a little nervously.

Rook’s face contorted by confusion. “You robbed the guys… what?”

He resisted the urge to scowl.

(I know it’s not the most impressive plan, but it was a moment of opportunity!)

“Can you… Can you explain h-how that works?”

“Well I was casing the bank (that’s what they call it when you’re looking to rob a place) and suddenly said bank was being robbed. So, I sort of snuck in through the back and uh, took down the people who were actually robbing the bank. Since you know, they had already taken care of the hostages and loading a car… Which I stole afterwards and drove here… it’s uh, downstairs with like ten of those bags in it…”

“Okay, so you stole the car a bunch of professional criminals used to rob a bank…” Rook summarized, as she started pacing.

“Okay, okay… that isn’t too bad, I mean as long as they don’t end up in jail and realize you’re the one who carjacked them then, we just need to give the money back and they won’t put a bullet in your head… okay, I can work with that…”

Rook nodded to herself, her shoulders now that she had a semblance of a plan, only to tense up once more as she glanced at him.

“Wait, shit… with all that blood… How exactly did you steal their car?”

“Oh, I uh… took their car keys after killing them.” He admitted nervously rubbing the back of his neck, since he wasn’t entirely how to handle his friend’s panic attack.

(Usually she’s the one talking me down…)

“You- you killed someone?” she asked her voice a near whisper as she froze.

She watched him for a tense moment before taking a seat next to him, her gaze never breaking from his, “H-how are you holding up? Uh, how much of this b-blood is yours?”

“Oh, the blood ‘s all theirs; none of it’s mine.”

“N-none of it…? Wait, no.” She began her face going from worried to surprised and back to worried, “I-I mean how are you holding up… emotionally?”

“Emotionally?” he repeated pausing.

(How am I doing?)

(Well, she’s worried so that means she’s still my friend…)

“I’m alright.” He decided with a nod. After all, as long as she wasn’t abandoning him, he’d been through worse.

“Are you sure, I mean you just said you killed someone… that’s not the kind of thing you can just walk off.” She told him, her eyes falling to her hands as if remembering something.

After a moment she shook her head and elaborated, “What I mean is, you don’t have to put up a front with me. Our entire relationship is about dealing with the messed up shit in our heads, whatever you’re feeling you can talk to me about it.”

(Huh… this is one of those moments isn’t it…)

(Damn it, even with everyone’s help I’m still not any good at these emotional things…)

He rubbed the back of his neck, and sighs looking all over the room except at her.

“Can you… can you give me a minute to think about it?” he tried, hoping if he had a moment, he could figure out what a ‘normal’ person’s reaction to his situation was.

“Take all the time you need.” Rook nodded, taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.

(Okay, she wants to know how killing people is affecting me…)

(If I was normal, I would be having a panic attack … but I’m not, so I’m not.)

He didn’t think she’d accept that as an answer, so he pressed on, his gaze rising to the ceiling as he lost himself in thought.

(Alright, so I killed like six guys, how do I feel?)

(…)

(Kind of bored, now that Rook isn’t planning to rip me a new one.)

(Okay, going to need a more socially acceptable response than that…)

(What kind of stuff did Lily say about this? I know we had a therapy session about this.)

(Right, she said to be open and honest.)

(And I already know how that plays out.)

He shook his head clear of that thought, before finally deciding ‘screw it’ and just gave her a semi-honest answer like his therapist suggested.

“I guess I should feel horrible…but I don’t, and I think that might be a bad thing.” He admitted, a knot forming in his chest, the same way it did every time he confessed to his mind being ‘broken’.

“Shock…”

“Huh?” he asked, his eyes returning to her.

“I think you’re in shock, sort of… like your head was saying if I deal with this now I might die, so I’ll deal with it when I won’t.” she explained, “I saw it from a couple guys back in the military, I’ve even gone through it once or twice myself.” She admitted her eyes glazing over for a second.

His eyes started to nervously wander around the room again, as he briefly remembered the ‘episodes’ the rest of his family used to have.

(What am I supposed to do? Say something or…?)

His gaze fell to where she was still holding his hand, before giving it a light squeeze.

(Just be there as best I can…)

After a moment she squeezed his hand back, a wry grin forming on the edge of her lips as her eyes regained some of their focus.

“Thanks…”

He shrugged, all things considered it wasn’t that big of a deal for him.

“Okay…” Rook nodded to herself, “Before your calm wears off, I need to ask you a couple things to make sure this,” she gestured to the bag on the table, “doesn’t come back and bite us in the ass, alright?”

“Alright.”

“First, did anyone see your face?”

“Uh, no, I wore this mask.” He told her pulling out the black masquerade mask he’d been wearing.

“A straight up supervillain ain’t cha?” she smirked taking the mask before placing it on the table.

(Better a supervillain than a superhero…)

He knew she was joking, but still…

“Next, you said you stole their car, and parked it downstairs, right?”

“Yeah, in the garage under the building.” He nodded, pulling out the car keys.

“Okay, out of sight for the moment, but… I’ll need to go make sure it doesn’t have a tracker.” She told him, taking the keys, and pocketing them herself.

He winced.

“I completely forgot about that…”

(Amateur mistake… I really am rusty…)

That thought physically hurt.

“Don’t worry, it’s not really an issue, they taught us how to find a tracker and disable it,” she smiled, “Odds are it’ll just be a burner car, something they could’ve easily ditched if things went south, while also not being able to track it back to themselves. I’d just… paranoia you know…” she sighed, rubbing the back of her neck as her smile faded.

“It isn’t paranoia if they’re actually out to get you.” He reminded her, with a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

(And I know like ten people actually out to get me so… yeah…)

“Don’t say stuff like that or I’ll start thinking you’re the only crazy one here.” She laughed, lightly swatting his arm.

“I plead guilty and insane.” He told her raising both his hands, happy to wave that very real issue off as a joke.

“Dumbass.” She told him with a soft smile.

“Bitch.” He told her with the same smile.

Rook shook her head before sighing as her smile faded a bit, “Alright, last question then you’re done for the night, okay?”

He nodded.

She took a deep breath before letting it out, her smile fading just a little.

“What exactly did you do with the, um, murder weapon…?” she asked flinching with the last two words.

He couldn’t help but flinch himself, “I’ve, uh, I’ve still got it…”

“You’ve still got it… short term, that could’ve been very bad Jer, you understand, that right?” she told him placing a hand on his shoulder.

“If it was found on me I’d be in jail.” He nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

(I may be rusty but I’m not that rusty.)

“Alright, as long as you understand that. Long term though, this is good since you’ve still got it we can make sure it’s properly dealt with, okay?” she explained giving his shoulder light squeeze.

He nodded.

“Now, where is it?” she asked looking him in the eye.

He pulled the gun out flinching, knowing her reaction to using her gun to kill those guys.

“Y-you used this gun to kill someone?” she asked stunned.

“Y-yeah…” he admitted closing his eyes as he waited for the impending explosion.

When no such explosion came, he risked opening his eyes, well one of them anyway.

Rook was staring at the gun with an odd mix of emotions, and while none of them were necessarily positive, none of them were angry either.

(Shit… This, this somehow worse than her being pissed…)

“Is… is everything alright?”

Rook blinked.

“Hm? Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

Despite his issues with people, he was aware of the fact that since she said that while wiping at her eye, he probably should be worried.

“Just uh,” Rook glanced to the side, before giving him a wry grin, “Just when I said we were partners in crime I didn’t mean go make me your accomplice.”

He knew she was joking but still…

(And on top of it I made her an accomplice even before this…)

(Oh, shit I made her an accomplice even before this!)

(How I could I make that kind of fuck up?!)

(I’ve never dragged my people into my messes, like this!)

He frowned, as he remembered a relatively common and rudimentary revelation of his.

(I really am a shit friend…)

(Then again what’s new?)

(Is this any different from when you got Al-)

A shudder ran through him as he tried to shake away that thought. That very, very bad thought.

(Don’t think about it.)

(Inhale… 1… 2… 3… 4…)

(Exhale… 1… 2… 3… 4…)

(Don’t think about it.)

“Is that uh, everything?” he asked, more to distract himself than break the silence blanketing them.

“Yeah…” she sighed standing up finished with the gun.

“Go get some clothes and take a shower, the stuff you’re wearing now…” she gave him a once over before shaking her head, “put them in a bag and I’ll burn it later, I don’t want you anywhere near a fire.”

“Come on, that was an accident, I can be trusted around fire…” he told her defensively, “Besides you were there when I did that.”

“Which is why, I know you can’t actually be trusted around fire, my little pyro.” She smiled pulling on her jacket.

“I’m not a pyro, I just have a healthy admiration for explosions…”

(Aiden is a pyro. I’m more of a… demolitionist.)

(There’s a difference… I think…)

“Whatever… just try not to burn the place down again, and I’ll be back in a minute.” She told him opening the door to the apartment.