Disclosure: I do not own the characters of Takers and this story is meant for entertainment purposes only, Matt is all mine though.
AJ had been irritable and unpredictable for the past week and after a fight with the Jake over Lilly he had disappeared. Truthfully they were all mad at him about his attitude and behavior as of late and none of them were quite sure what had triggered the violent outbursts or the endless encounters with the opposite sex while he was on a binge but they were pissed and were more than happy to let him stew in his own misery for a little while. So after Jesse had literally had to peal him off the bar on Tuesday night after he had downed almost an entire bottle of Jameson by himself the guys had had it; the youngest was putting them all in danger with his behavior. The lecture did not go well; AJ was livid and had even taken a swing at Jake after he had mentioned something about embarrassing him in front of his lady. It was like something had snapped inside AJ and after his swing missed Jake and the black man retuned the punch, connecting with the tattooed musicians jaw and sending him crashing to the floor. AJ had taken off running after he realized what had just happened and this time no one chased after him. "He needs some time to cool down, clear his head of all that clutter," Gordon had said as they all tried to comprehend what had just occurred.
It was days before anyone tried to get the youngest to leave his 'fortress of solitude' as Jess was calling it. First it was John, then Gordon and John and by day three both Jake and Jesse had been there multiple times; their only obstacle was AJ had somehow managed to change the locks to a key card required lock and reprogram his alarm so they were reduced to banging on the door and trying to call his cell, which he had intentionally forgotten to charge. "This kid is working my last nerve," John said as he pounded on the door for what seemed like the millionth time. "Damn it AJ open this door!" he yelled at the steel door.
Gordon just laughed as a lady walking her dog rushed the poor animal from the strangers. "You're scaring the neighbors brother, may want to watch it before one of them calls the cops on the black man and the scary screaming white guy," he joked making John roll his eyes as he continued to pound on the front door.
A kid on a bike was the only one that did not seem scared as he approached them. "You guys looking for Scotty?" he asked.
Both of the older men exchanged looks; they hadn't heard that name in a long time. Scott Barringer was AJ's prized alias, the most developed right down to the 'faked' newspaper articles, transcripts and high school year book. He kept that one close for reasons he'd never shared but they all knew he rarely used it. They had all figured that Scott was as close to the true AJ as anyone was ever going to get for a back story. AJ had described him as a former high school football star whose parents had split and his father remarried a much younger woman. Father and son shared the woman, unbeknownst to the father of course. As a result of the guilt the son turned to sex, drugs and alcohol to take away the pain which resulted in being kicked off the football team and sent off to a rehabilitation school in the mountains. Jake had told them he always thought that was the true story of AJ considering all the extreme activities that AJ was into, but he was sure no one would ever really know the truth. Gordon was the first to recover from the shock of hearing the Barringer name after all these year. "Yes we are little man, have you seen him today?" Gordon said as he knelt down the child's level.
"Are you his friends?" he asked looking at them with an innocence neither of them had known in some time. "Scotty doesn't have a lot of friends, he says its not the quantity of the friends but the quality, that's why we're buds, cuz I'm quality."
John nodded, "Yep, we work with Scott, buddy."
"My names Matthew not buddy," the child said with confusion on his face.
Gordon laughed, "I'm Gordon and this is Johnny," he said making John frown at being called Johnny.
"Its nice to meet you," Matt said with a smile and holding out his hand for them to shake. "Scotty says its good manners to look someone in the eye and shake their hand when you meet them. Let's 'em know you got class and not to mess with you."
John snorted, "I'm sure he does. Now Matt, have you seen Scotty today?"
"No not today, but I had to go to school; Momma says I have to or Scotty can't teach me anymore music," he said harshly, obviously irritated that he couldn't play with his friend unless he went to school.
"Your mother's right Matthew, school is important. So when did you last see Scott?" Gordon said trying to get more information out of the kid.
"Last night, I learned new three new cords on the guitar."
John was shocked, AJ wouldn't open the door for them but he would spend time with a young kid teaching him to play instruments. "Did he mention having any plans?"
Matt shook his head, "No, I asked if we could practice more but he said he had to go for a run. He does marathons," he told them excitedly. "He said that when I'm bigger I can be his time keeper."
"Wow, that will be pretty cool bud," John said with smile, at least AJ was completely isolating himself, even if he's only contact seemed to be with an eight year old.
"Yeah its gonna be epic, but Scotty trains at night and its usually past my bedtime so I can't help yet. He always waves to me before he goes, I'm supposed to be in bed but I like to look at the stars so I stay up when Momma turns off the lights," he told them quietly like his mother would hear his secret. "I heard him come back though," he told them. "He was loud last night, woke me up."
"What do you mean?" Gordon asked getting a little worried.
"Scotty, he's always super quiet, even when he's out late with some pretty girl. He always says 'Keep it down we'll wake the neighbors,' but last night there was no pretty girl and he seemed angry," he said.
John looked at the kid strangely, "What do you mean he seemed angry?"
"He was walking like this," he said as he demonstrated a limp. "Like he fell off his bike but he didn't, Scotty doesn't like bikes…and he was cussing, Momma says that you only use words like that when you're really angry," he said seriously before looking up at Johnny, "Do you think he's okay? Cuz I fell off my bike last week and it hurt a lot."
Gordon smiled at him while John texted Jake to head over. "I'm sure Scotty's just fine mate, he probably just pulled a muscle on his run, that can be quite painful," he assured the boy. "Now Matthew when you go for your lessons with Scott," he began but Matt cut him off.
"Jam sessions, I'm not a baby, Scotty says real musician have jam sessions," he said firmly.
'Wow, AJ has gotten himself a fan,' John thought to himself as Gordon tried to correct himself, "Sorry bout that mate, your jam sessions, how do you get in?" he asked.
Matt looked at them like they were stupid, "Through the back door duh," he said like it was the most logically thing in the world as a whistle could be heard from the porch next door. "That's my mom, its dinner time," he said getting back on his bike. "See you guys around," he said as he got on his bike and rode away.
"Why didn't we think of that?" John asked as Gordon shook his head and headed that direction just as Jake pulled up with Jesse, "Obviously you weren't far," he teased the two. Jake shook his head and gave John a shove forward as the two were filled in on AJ's latest extracurricular activity. They decided it was now or never so walking around the house to the door and into the house they were surprised to find it unlocked and AJ sitting in the living room with his leg propped up on the coffee table with some ice.
"Not like what your mom was making for dinner Matty?" AJ shouted over his shoulder, "I've haven't ordered anything yet kiddo, what are you in the mood for?" he continued before he turned his head to see the rest of the crew standing by the door not the small boy he had been expecting. "Shit," he said in shock as his foot fell off the coffee table and AJ cried out in pain, "Mother Fucker!" he yelled as he pulled his ankle to him and tried to lessen the pain.
John rushed over to his side, "Bro what happened?" he asked as he helped AJ get resettled and the ice back on his very swollen and bruised ankle. His right eye was still black as ever from his fight with Jake but now his left arm from hand to elbow was scraped up pretty good in addition to a nasty gash just above his eyebrow too.
"Training accident, didn't notice something on the path, tripped and took a hard fall," he said honestly as John examined his ankle. This was not the first training accident AJ had had in the most recent months. He had always had a tendency to push too hard for too long or get distracted and end up injuring himself so the older blonde wasn't surprised to see him injured but he was shocked at the amount of damage. John shook his head and tilted AJ's head back to get a look at the gash as AJ tried his best to convince them his spill was not a big deal.
"What happened to no more runs at night alone?" Gordon lectured harshly.
"You're still on that?" AJ growled, "Dude, enough about the safety protocols. My route is safe," he spat before a pained hiss escaped his lips and he jerked his head away from John's fingers. "Stop that!" he yelled at the older man in frustration.
John rolled his eyes and stepped away from the youngest but not before putting a little bit of pressure on AJ's big toe with his index finger to see the tattooed athlete almost pass out from the amount of pain he was in. "You need a doctor and an x-ray," he said as AJ got control of his pain receptors and attempted to refocus his brain.
"You need to stop that!" the youngest hissed while Jesse laughed. "Jesse shut up."
"Dude you should have seen your face, you'd be laughing too," the younger Attica brother joked.
Jake had been quietly taking in the situation before he took a step toward his friend, "Can you walk?" he asked as he started looking up directions to the nearest hospital on his phone.
AJ looked at him like he had lost his mind, "What?"
"I asked if you would walk on that ankle or do we need to carry you?" Jake said calmly not looking up at them from his phone. He could only imagine the look on AJ's face when his words were finally processed.
"Doesn't matter, I'm fine!" AJ yelled, "I don't need no x-ray."
"That reaction and the fact that you're ankles almost twice its normal size suggests otherwise mate," Gordon said with a sigh. "Now let's get you up and checked out before that gets any worse."