Disclaimer- Heavy Rain is still not mine. Hence, the fic instead of the sequel/DLC. :(
This is a sequel to Probability, which will be referenced at random points in the story, but is not required reading for this fic at all. As for details from the game, here are some important things to note: Madison and Jayden made it to the warehouse while Ethan was in lock up. Madison got her book published, Ethan got to see his son, and Jayden got the tanks of doom.
Updates will probably have more space between them due to school looming on the horizon, but that doesn't mean that I'm giving this up at all. Hope you all enjoy!
Edit- Went through and tried to purge most if not all of the typos! Please let me know if there are any that might've escaped me. Thank you so much for your patience.
Part 1
Crime never slept. As a result, seldom did he.
Going on pure statistics one could guess that at this moment a crime was probably occurring. Using that same logic, a second later another crime could be occurring. Add those seconds until they became minutes, continue adding until they became hours, and once you reach days the odds of any crime occurring became astronomical.
Any second spent doing something insignificant meant perpetuating that cycle, and he would be damned if he let that chance to make a difference slip through his fingers. Not while he had the opportunity.
But he couldn't work like this forever. He felt his eyelids begin to droop and he immediately forced them back open.
Sleep. That one little thing that he seemed to keep on forgetting about. People generally functioned better with it, but if given the option he ran better on coffee anyway. Espresso was the real winner, however. A few shots of that kept him going for hours, crash or no crash. That left him plenty of time for paperwork, managing case files, and best of all, ARI.
Sleep? Why would he want to sleep when he could instead be in a place like this?
The sun gently drifted through the trees surrounding him, making things comfortably mild, while a faint breeze periodically swept through. He noticed the leaves dancing out of the corners of his vision, drifting into the air.
Jayden leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk. It was such a subtle illusion and so easy to believe. ARI.
He blinked his eyes once, then twice behind the black glasses, shaking his head.
How long have I been on?
The files floating around him rotated like a merry-go-round, lazily moving along in a circular motion. Somewhere beyond them blinked a set of numbers detailing the time, date, and weather conditions of the region he was currently in.
He squinted to see them better, something he knew he didn't have to do while in ARI, but did so anyway. When he saw what the numbers were really telling him, he couldn't help but let out a few choice expletives.
2:30 in the fucking morning? Shit. This is what you get for worshipping a bunch of roasted beans, you idiot.
Work was going to be hell tomorrow, no doubt about it, but the caffeine would help get him through it like it always did. He glanced at the files one more time before choosing to throw in the towel. He could preach all he wanted to about how he didn't need sleep, but his body did in order to keep on functioning. At the very least he could get in a few hours before the sun came up.
Jayden slipped the glasses off his face and closed his eyes. He carefully waited, the image of a perfect spring day still crystal clear in his mind. This was the tricky part. His fingers traced over the span of his desk, feeling the contrasting textures of the papers resting on it. He explored further, touching the grain of the wooden desk and the cool metal of the lamp resting off to the side. Everything was there where he had left it.
His mouth began to go dry. This won't be like before, will it ARI? I won't open my eyes only to find myself in exactly the same place? That forest?
He let his eyes slowly open, giving them time to refocus. The colors blurred but became clearer, coming together to form nothing but the dark navy curtains covering the window in front of him. Darkness blanketed his apartment, the only light the faint blue glow coming from ARI itself, and once it sunk in that he was really here instead of stuck in there, he let out the breath he had been holding.
It had let him go. Or at the very least it seemed to, for now. He felt like an idiot for tempting fate again, but ARI always had a way of pulling him in. So innocent. So simple.
Rubbing his eyes, he glanced around in the dark until he found the switch to the lamp. The yellow light appeared in a flash, illuminating the documents and folders scattered underneath his hands. All the paperwork from the week was there, along with some from the week before. One file in particular caught his eye, however. Right on the front of it was a bright red splotch.
Jayden blinked at it in confusion until a second joined it. His hand shot to his face and he grimaced as he realized exactly what it was.
Another damn nosebleed. ...I guess I really slipped up this time.
A box of tissues rested on one of the nightstands by his bed and he got up to grab a wad of them. As he held them all to his nose, he noted that the nosebleed wasn't too bad, but the fact that he could still get them didn't put his mind at ease any more than before. A few of the tissues escaped him, falling to the floor, and when he reached down to get them, he finally saw it. The slight twitching of his hand.
Sighing in frustration, Jayden made his way over to the bathroom so he could properly clean up. His hand initially slipped on the handle of the sink, but caught it the second time, cranking up the water as high as it could go. He shoved his hands and face under the faucet, focusing on the icy coolness there rather than his own rapidly fluctuating temperature. He had this under control. There was no need to think about the little vial hidden away in his desk.
Even if it does such a wonderful job of fixing everything. ...No, don't even think of it that way. You've spent months resisting the fucking thing, don't crawl back to it now.
He propped his arms on the edge of the sink, taking in deep breaths and exhaling them just as quickly. This set of symptoms was the strongest he had felt in a long time, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. He just had to let it pass.
The sink continued to run as he threw more water on his face. Waiting it out was a miserable experience, but worth it. Time ran by, the seconds and minutes spent there completely insignificant to him while he waited for the shaking of his hands to settle down. He needed the trembling to go away and for his body to stop acting like a goddamned thermostat. Eventually he relaxed, returning to himself again. After waiting a few minutes longer, he put one last splash of cold water on his face and looked up at his reflection. The yellow light made him seem even more pallid, if possible, and he couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
"...What the hell have I done to myself?"
His mirror image simply threw his disgust right back at him.
He shook his head and grabbed a nearby towel to wipe his face. Questions and doubts had come to him late at night before, but now was not the time to dwell on either of them. All he needed to do now was limit his ARI use, something he had already made a mental note to do. That was the key. No ARI, no tripto. Tonight was a setback, but he could recover. All he needed to do was maintain a sense of control and everything would be okay.
Just keep reminding yourself of that, got it? Don't fuck this up any more than you already have. You can't afford to.
With that in mind, Jayden turned away from the mirror and its damning reflection, shutting off the light. Forgoing any attempts to change out of his suit, he crawled onto his neatly made bed and rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling. After all that he still didn't have any urge to sleep. He needed something else to keep his mind occupied, something a bit more interesting than the fan hanging above him.
He turned his head to the side, eyeing the remote on top of his nightstand. Most of the time he rarely used it, but in cases like this a TV was almost invaluable. Most of the junk playing on it was designed to distract rather than engage the viewer, and he figured that the news, at the very least, would have something to say.
Besides, he thought idly as he sat up and switched it on, there's no news like bad news.
"-such a challenge! Most people would have been terrified to be in your position."
Another interview? He groaned in frustration and got ready to change the channel. With my current level of patience, I'm not sticking around unless you saved a school bus full of nuns and small children from a pack of mountain lions.
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't scared myself. It wasn't easy by any means-"
Wait a minute. His eyes widened. Was that Madison? The brunette on TV laughed in response to the interviewer's comment and he recognized that expression perfectly. That's Madison Paige, all right. Talk about one hell of a coincidence.
He had been looking for the news, but never thought that he would catch her instead. She looked no different than before, and he caught himself wondering how she had been doing over the last few months. He'd called Shaun a couple of times to check up on him, but had only caught her once by accident. Shaun had been telling him about Ethan's plans for their new apartment when she had dropped by. The kid gave her the phone before either of them could understand what was going on and when he heard her voice answer "Hello?" he didn't know how to respond.
They ended up making small talk once he had finally found his voice again, discussing her job and her leg while he deflected questions about his work and how he'd taken to dealing with it. The worry in her voice carried over the phone a little too well, but she never pushed him for a straight answer.
"Keep on worrying like that and you'll go gray by the time you're 30." he had joked.
It'd been a lame way to steer the conversation away from him, but she let herself take the bait, throwing back a sharp retort that he couldn't help but grin at.
In the end, talking to her in general, even about nothing, had been nice. When he wasn't unintentionally making a fool out of himself he found it almost easy to keep a conversation going, something that was no small feat when it came to dealing with someone like him. The woman was an anomaly, no doubt about it. ...And had the ability to be one hell of a reporter as a result.
"I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but the public hasn't been able to stop talking about your new book! Did you expect such a reaction to it?" The female interviewer asked, smiling widely.
Jayden placed the remote beside him on the bed and carefully watched the screen, his attention finally caught.
"Considering the coverage of the case, yes, but the general response to the book and my work on it was the real surprise. Parents are the ones I see the most at the signings, and hearing their gratitude is always a humbling experience."
He tapped his chin in thought as he processed that. He thought he'd heard about her publishing a book not too long ago, but here it was now, clear as day. A small icon rested on the corner of the screen.
Heavy Rain. That alone almost made him chuckle. It was only a matter of time before she'd publish something on the case. Madison's a journalist, for Christ's sake. She was intimately familiar with most if not all of the details of it, something none of the others could claim.
However, that thought did raise an interesting question about the folder that she had handed over. Was there something in that book that she failed to mention to them at the station? Maybe. That didn't mean that any of those details were important to the case, though. Still, he couldn't help but be curious about it. It added another layer to an already complicated case.
The host pointed to a map displayed on a screen behind her, highlighting different areas across America. "From New York to Nevada, you've been all over the country, but apparently you still have a few destinations left on your agenda. Can you tell us where you're heading next on your tour?"
Madison tilted her head to the side, her lips curving into a small smile. "Actually, I went over it with my publisher and we decided that DC would be a great place for the next signing. It's the capital, after all, and I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier to suggest it."
"Have you ever had a chance to go there before?"
She shook her head. "No, but it's one of those places that you should try to go to at least once-"
A shaky laugh escaped him as he ran a hand through his hair. "Un-fucking-believable." She's actually heading down here, huh? Shit. I wasn't expecting that to happen.
"We've got a few dates in mind, but if anyone wants to keep track of it, all they have to do is access the website. I'm updating it constantly, so if you're wondering about dates or just have a question or two, you can check it out there." A line of text appeared at the bottom of the screen, the little white letters giving the exact address of her site before fading into the dark brown of the desks the two women were sitting at.
"This has been Madison Paige everyone! Heavy Rain can be found at all major bookstores, and if you live in Washington DC, don't forget to keep an eye out for Madison herself! Check her website out for extra details. Thanks for watching!"
The cover of the book floated on the screen along with the address to its website, and he grabbed the remote to check the date that the interview had originally aired. It was only about a month old, but that didn't tell him anything about Madison's plans.
Are you really considering this? She's probably come and gone already, with you none the wiser. He told himself, being realistic about his chances. You're busy, she's busy, why even bother?
Jayden turned off the TV and fell back onto the bed, yawning in exhaustion. ...Still, maybe it'd be worth looking up once. No harm done, no foul.
One peek never hurt anyone, right?
"They never showed up? Talk to me, Sam. What's going on?"
"One of the family members came by the office today, and told us everything. Apparently the negotiations weren't going too well on their end, since the crooks didn't even bother to show up. Another message was sent after that, but the family's not even sure their daughter's still alive."
"Shit." Madison paced back and forth, narrowly dodging a stack of boxes. "What are the cops doing about it?"
"Right now they're trying to find them before anyone does anything stupid. The last thing I heard was that they had a good lead on the location, but I'll give you a heads up if anything changes."
She came to a stop, her grip tight on the phone as she anxiously bit her lip. "I should be out there, looking for something, anything! Anything that could help."
"Don't beat yourself up about it, Madison." Sam replied, understanding her feeling of powerlessness a little too well. "We've got people out there along with the local police. Something's being done about it. You can't be in two places at once, as much as you'd like to be."
"Maybe not, but if I hadn't delayed this by a week then I would still be there to help."
"Maybe, or maybe not. It's done, Mad. We've sent the information you've gathered over to the police, so they've got more facts to work with. You've done all you could, given the current situation." He was silent for a few seconds, but then spoke up. "Look, I promise to let you know as soon as something comes my way. Just do your thing and we'll get back down to business when you return to Philly, okay? Do we have a deal?"
"...Deal." She didn't like it one bit, but she could at least look over what she had in the hotel later on. "I'm holding you to that, Sam."
He laughed. "I've known you long enough to know that you'd never let me hear the end of it otherwise. Now make sure to take care of yourself over there, okay?"
"I will, you know that. ...Thanks for letting me know, Sam."
"No problem at all. Talk to you later, Madison."
Madison let her arm fall to the side as she glanced around the storage area of the bookstore. This case had popped up a few days before she had left. A couple's teenage daughter had been kidnapped from a shopping mall in the middle of the day, leaving a trail of witnesses behind to give their own perspective on what had happened. The criminals themselves had been sloppy, leaving behind a trail of clues while they attempted to ransom the girl for a hefty amount of money.
The general consensus around the station was that the perps were nothing but a group of amateurs looking to make a quick buck, but that didn't mean anything to the girl they had kidnapped. Stacy was still out there, having god-knows-what happen to her, while she was standing here in the back room of a bookstore, getting ready for a book signing. Madison grit her teeth, but knew that it wasn't in her hands. In fact, it never really had been. The case was being handled by the cops and she had to trust them with it.
You get too attached to these things, Mad. To the people involved. Listen to Sam. Get out there, do your thing, and don't let the stress get to you.
She put her phone away and crossed her arms, sighing deeply. The police would handle this. They would get Stacy back to her parents safe and sound, no problems whatsoever. She almost laughed at her attempts to be optimistic about it, but the alternative would get her nowhere fast. It would do for now. At least until she got this over and done with.
She looked away from the scattered crates in time to see a man in a vest run through the double-doors separating the front area from the back. He motioned towards her, trying to get her attention, and she recognized him as one of the managers she had met this morning.
"Madison? The store's almost done setting up an area for you in the non-fiction section. However, a couple of employees were wondering how much space you think you might need today. Any ideas?"
Madison tapped her foot in thought, wondering for a brief instant about the case being worked on miles from here. The girl waiting to be found. Wanting to be found.
She put a weak smile on her face and walked towards the doors, heading with the manager back into the main area of the bookstore. "No, but let me take a look. I shouldn't be hiding back here anyway."