Story: Of Lost Loves and Soulmates
Rating: Mid T for some language
Full Summary: Kim desperately wants to find her lost love.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kickin' It and am merely using the characters for my and your entertainment.
Kim looked at the business card she clutched in her hand before looking back up at the apartment door on the second floor. Room 223. She looked back down at the card, confirming that this was indeed the apartment and that she had arrived. Swallowing thickly, Kim took her sunglasses off the top of her head and nervously slipped them on her face, looking around frantically to see if anyone was around to see her. She couldn't let them know that she, Kim Crawford, was actually going into this apartment.
She had gotten the card from an old man at the grocery store who for some reason told her he knew she was searching for someone. It had singlehandedly been one of the creepiest experiences of her life, but nonetheless, she had taken the card and shoved it deep into her purse before anyone could see her picking it up. After all, this was very embarrassing. What would her friends say if they knew she was actually about to come here for help?
Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she raced across the small street and to the stairs leading up to the second floor. She stopped in front of 223 and tried to find one last ditch effort of why this wasn't a good idea. But she couldn't find any. Knocking tentatively, she waited for a signal that confirmed that there was someone inside. She heard nothing. She knocked again, louder and more forcefully. This time, she heard a grumble and the sound of a glass bottle hitting the floor.
"Door's unlocked." A scratchy voice inside gruffly half yelled.
Well, there was no going back now. She pushed the door open to a small, but quaint apartment dimly lit only by the light streaming in from the cracks in the shades. There was minimal, but tasteful furniture in the living room. A small coffee table was set in the middle of the carpeted room between two plush couches. A couple wilted plants aligned a few corners. The only downsides to the room were the numerous beer bottles and cans littering the floor, the empty, molding pizza boxes, the rumpled clothes and laundry strewn about, and the scruffy man wearing a wife beater and boxers laying nonchalantly on one of the couches with a towel covering his eyes and ice pack on his head. He was chewing on a toothpick, which alerted her to the fact that he was indeed awake, but if he realized she was in the room, he didn't acknowledge it. All in all, the place was kind of disgusting. Her lip curled as she put the sunglasses back on top of her head. She was so glad that it didn't smell like garbage or B.O. in here. Or worse.
Kim cleared her throat, clutching her purse closer to chest, "Excuse me? My name is Kim. Are you the one people call Shady Jack?"
"Yeah." He grumbled, "That's me."
"Well… Can you find someone for me?"
Slowly, he reached up and pulled the towel and ice pack off of his face and head. His eyes were still closed, "Could you pipe down a little? I've got a hell of a hangover."
"And that's my fault how…?" she responded, annoyed that he hadn't invited her to sit or acknowledged her officially since she had entered the room. It irritated her. "Don't you think you're being a bit unprofessional? I'm a potential customer."
Jack finally opened his eyes then and sat up slowly, staring at her in annoyance. His hair was all over the place and bunched up on his head. He ran his fingers through it to get rid of the tangles before shoving the hair to the back, uncovering his face. Kim was pleasantly surprised. She had expected him to be some old perverted looking geezer, but he was much younger than she expected. And he wasn't altogether bad looking, though he clearly hadn't shaven yet. There was two day old scruff on his chin and upper lip.
"Well then sit down. There's a free couch right over there." He snapped at her impatiently. "D'you want a beer or something? I've only got cheap crap though."
Her lip curled as she shoved some dirty laundry off of the other couch and sat down as close to the edge as she possibly could. She kicked away some of the bottles near her feet with her heels. "No thanks. I don't drink."
He stared at her with an odd, but slightly derisive look, "Yeah… figured."
Her eyes narrowed. What was with this guy? "What is that supposed to mean?"
He ignored her and instead reached into a briefcase sitting on the floor next to him and pulled out a couple sheets of paper and a notepad. He removed a pen from behind his ear and flicked to a new page on the notepad.
"Name?"
She frowned, confused, "Kimberly Crawford."
Jack looked up and rose an eyebrow at her, "Not your name. The person you want to find."
"Oh." Her cheeks turned slightly pink, "His name is Brody Carlson."
"You got anything else?"
She frowned, put off by how blunt and gruff he was being, "He's around twenty-eight. I don't remember his birthday. Last I remember, I think he was studying business. Um…That's all I have… We broke up about five years ago."
Kim had asked around to see if anyone knew Brody or where he could be, but from the negatives, she figured he didn't live in Seaford anymore. She hadn't gotten anywhere in her search and that's why she had gotten desperate. That was when at lunch with her friends, they had suddenly brought up rumours of some guy who could find anyone you wanted. Like a bounty hunter, only not. She hadn't really said anything during the conversation, but the gears had started turning in her head. When the old man at the grocery had confronted her, that was the clincher. She had decided to come here.
"That's all you have?" Jack sighed and ran his hands through his shaggy brown hair. "That's not much to go on."
"Your business card says you can find anyone, even with just a name." Kim pointed out, somewhat aggressively.
He rolled his eyes. "Obviously I can find them. It's just harder when all I've got to go on is a name." He scratched out something on the notepad. "What about his looks? Describe what he looks like."
"Well… He's got hazel eyes and shaggy brown hair. Though I don't know how he styles it anymore. He wasn't altogether that much taller than me back then, but he might be much taller now. I'm not sure."
Jack frowned. "You know what? Just stop. Your information sucks."
Her mouth dropped open in shock, "That was rude."
"You're rude. For wasting my time. You literally just described any old Joe on the street."
"Well sorry! I haven't seen Brody in five years! Isn't it your job to find him anyway? Stop railing me and just move on."
He rolled his eyes again and took the two sheets of paper he pulled out earlier from the briefcase and the pen and slid them in front of her.
"What are these?"
"General agreement form and contract. Just some stuff you need to sign before I start my work."
She read through some of the contract terms, "Price is liable to change? What is that supposed to mean?"
"Some people are harder to find than others. Especially if they're celebrities or high profile individuals. Depending on how hard it is to find one of those people, the price can go up. Regardless, there's an advance payment of twelve hundred dollars."
"Twelve hundred? Why is the price so high?"
"I'm getting people's information to find them. Why do you think?"
She put the paper down, slightly miffed. "So you use shady methods to find people?"
He shrugged, "I'm Shady Jack. What do you expect?"
She put the pen she was holding down and straightened, glaring at him, "So you just gather a bunch of information on people and stalk them to find them?"
"Is that a problem?"
"Yes it's a problem! Doesn't that mean that if any random person wants to find someone, all they have to do is pay for the service, and you just do it? That is so sketchy!"
"I've been called that too." Jack sniffed, grabbing an upright can off the floor and shaking it to see if there was anything left in it. He leaned back against the couch cushions and folded his arms, regarding her with a raised brow. "So what if it's sketchy?"
Kim stood up, having had enough. This guy had a bad attitude, was an absolute asshole, and dealt with illegal things to boot.
"You know what? I don't even know why I bothered to come here. You're such a disgusting creep."
"Not ten minutes ago, you were about to use my services anyway." He pointed out arrogantly.
She blushed hotly, "At least I know the guy! He was my ex-boyfriend and soulmate. I just want to find him."
"Sure… Just like that nerdy kid in high school would believe you were his 'ex- girlfriend' and try to find you too."
Her jaw dropped, offended, "You think I'm making this up?"
He shrugged, "A lot of people lie to find other people. And I don't care. My job is to find the people. I don't deliberate on who to help or not."
Kim's eyes narrowed in absolute disgust. "Don't you have any moral compass or something?"
"The only thing I care about is money to pay the bills."
That was the last straw. Giving him a dirty glare, she snatched up her purse without a word and left his apartment, slamming the door on her way out. She stormed down the stairs and began to descend the hilled street on which his apartment was located. Kim couldn't believe she had actually been about to trust this creep. But now what would she do? She was certain Brody was the one that got away, but she didn't know how to find him in the least. Nor did she have any idea of where to start.
And she really wanted to find Brody.
Releasing an annoyed sigh, she ran her hands through her hair in frustration and stopped marching down the hill. She turned back around and looked at the direction of the apartment. She didn't want to associate with Jack, but he was honestly her best bet in finding her lost love.
Making up her mind, she briskly walked back up the hill and back to his apartment. She ripped the door open without prelude and walked in abruptly. Jack was sitting in the same place, staring at a picture in a frame forlornly. If Kim wasn't so disgusted by him, she might have felt pity and slight intrigue at the pained look on his face. When the door banged against the adjacent wall and he noticed Kim, he jumped in surprise and set the picture aside quickly, slamming it into a couch cushion. She stormed in and sat on the couch opposite to him, ignoring whatever it was she had just interrupted.
"Okay, you win." She picked at her nails. "But! That doesn't mean I like you."
"I wouldn't think so. We barely know each other." He replied smoothly, yawning.
"And I have one condition."
Jack stared at her like she had grown two heads. "Condition? You don't get to add conditions."
"Yes I do, Shady Jack, or I can guarantee you I'll spend the rest of my life trying to get you locked up because what you are doing is wrong."
"You'd be arrested as an accomplice too, you know?"
"That's fine."
His eyes widened slightly, clearly surprised at her response.
"As long as it takes one more asshole off the street, that's fine." She stated.
"You would sacrifice yourself for something as trivial as this? That's stupid." But he didn't sound so disgusted. "Well. How can I say no when your resolve is so strong? What's your condition?"
"You come with me when I go to find Brody."
Jack was at a loss for words and frowned, looking incredulous and confused, "I knew you were crazy. Why?"
"Because if you accidentally get the wrong Brody, we can change course immediately. Also, I don't have a car." She stated, only half truthfully. Truth be told, she was very scared to find Brody by herself. But she couldn't very well tell her girlfriends that she was going after her old college lover. They would think she lost her mind. Besides, at least Jack knew her plan, so she wouldn't have to waste time with explanations.
"Alright." If he was suspicious of her reason, he didn't show it. Kim was glad. "Sign the paperwork, and we can start this contract."
She read through the contract, noting what his key terms were. It basically stated he was not liable for any rejection on the part of the person who had been found. He was also not to be held responsible for not succeeding in finding the right person. Should he be unsuccessful, the price in full would be cut by fifty percent. The price in full would vary depending on the difficulty of finding the person, and he determined the full price by the amount of resources used. The nonrefundable advance payment was by check of one thousand two hundred dollars and was not included in the full price of his services. It was a pretty reasonable contract to be honest, and it made sense to Kim. Sighing and knowing she had stooped to the absolute lowest level with this, she signed the contract.
She took her checkbook out of her purse, filled it, and signed it, sliding it across the table with the contract. Jack picked them up, attached them to a paper clip and stuck them in a manila folder.
"I'll dig up what I can from what you gave me." He said, setting the folder on the table, "Expect a call if I find him."
She nodded and left without another word, trying to convince herself that she was making a good decision. This was to find Brody. Regardless of the method, she had to find him. Hopefully, this wouldn't come back and bite her in the butt.
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