Claudia wiped the tears from her eyes as she looked at her outfit in the mirror. Black cigarette pants, black top, purple blazer Artie made her get in case she ever needed to look professional was slung on a chair next to the mirror. Two voices were raging against each other in her head, one saying he killed Leena, the other arguing it wasn't him who killed her it was the thing inside of him that was made when he tried to save the world. And there was one beneath those blaming her for almost killing him, for being a burden to him, for causing him trouble the past 3 years. She wiped the smeared makeup from underneath her eyes and pulled the pony tail off of her wrist, fixing her hair in a bun. She leaned over to grab some bobby pins to secure it when someone knocked on her door.
"Come in" The door creaked open to reveal a Jinks dressed in a blue button down, black coat and slacks.
"You look nice." He shut the door behind him, which was kind of ridiculous since there were only two people left in the house and both were contemplating what they had to say at the trial alone in their rooms.
"Back atcha. Who knew the Jersey boy could clean up nice?" He chuckled but then his smile faded to his serious face. "Stop with the serious face."
"This is my face Claude." He crosses over to her side of the room. "Are you going to be ok?" Claudia turns back to the mirror before going over to her dresser.
"Yeah, I mean what could possibly go wrong, right? I mean Artie could be bronzed or imprisoned, or killed, you know just another Wednesday at the old warehouse." She stops for a minute and he stares at her. "Could you help me with this?" She places her necklace with the handcuffs in his palm.
"The regents know the circumstances Claude. It wasn't Artie who really did that to her. They'll understand and do what's right accordingly." He opens the little clasp and pulls the necklace around her neck, before clipping it. She turns around to face him.
"And what about releasing a plague on half the world Steve? How will that go down? I mean you, Pete, and Myka all almost died. And some people did die before we got the antidote out. That much damage gets you in some pretty big trouble, Astrolabe or not." He walks over and grabs her coat and holds it out for her to put on.
"I don't have the answers Claude and the regents probably don't either yet. So all we can do is go down there, support him and maybe he'll be fine." He checks his watch. "We better leave now just to be early." He starts walking out, not hearing foot steps behind him he turns around. "You need to come, Claude. You won't forgive yourself if you don't." he walks up to her and kisses her forehead, before grabbing her hand and pulling her down the stairs where Pete and Myka were waiting. Pete walked over to them.
"We were about to come up and get you. What was taking so long?" Before Steve could answer Claudia interjected.
"Oh you know Jinksy here, he always takes a ton of time to get ready. He needs to primp." She looks over at him, eyes asking him to go along with the story.
"Well I look good don't I?" He said winking at Claudia.
"Guys we need to leave now. I promised Vanessa we'd meet her 5 minutes early to talk about the trial." Myka yelled from the kitchen. "Claude you didn't eat yet do you want a muffin?"
"Yeah sure thanks." Pete's face looked amused for the first time that morning.
"And do you want your muffin buttered? We can assign someone to butter your muffin." Claudia stared at him before laughing. Jinks looked around.
"Did I miss something?" Both turn to look at him and stare imploringly.
"You've never seen Mean Girls?"
"No." Pete stared eyes wide.
"Man, were you living under a rock when you were in the ATF? Well I know what we're doing tomorrow."
Claudia smiled as they filed out into the car. After being designated to the back seat Claudia grabbed Jinks' hand.
"Thanks, for ya know being a good friend." For some reason the word friend stuck in his stomach.