James is the first to his car in the parking lot, to some small relief. He doesn't get in immediately, instead taking a moment while he's outside to kick the tires of the sedan while he waited for Qrow and Winter to come down. The tires were hard, firm, proper. He'd gotten them changed a week ago. He always got them changed before and after a job. It helped to keep him and his cargo safe, and made it harder for him to be tracked down.

James tried to pretend that the accident didn't have anything to do with this new ritual of his, but he knew the truth.

The sound of the back door to Roman's apartment building opening with a creak makes James look up, seeing Winter striding towards him with a wave. James returns the gesture, taking two steps to get to the driver's door of his car, reaching into his pocket so that he could find his keys. Finding them, he laces a finger through the keyring that separated his house and car key, as well as the electric fob from each other.

A high-pitched chirping sound and a low thump signal to Winter and James that the door was unlocked. James gets in first, immediately leaning over and reaching across the car to remove a small photo of Penny that he liked to rest on his dashboard. He frowns a little as he tucks the photo of Penny, in a soft green dress with her soft orange curls wild into his glovebox as Winter slid into the seat beside him.

"Seatbelt." The word leaves James' mouth before he can even think to stop himself out of sheer force of habit from driving Penny around with him. Winter rolls her eyes, but listens, and after hearing the click of a seatbelt into place, he's able to relax a little. He closes the glovebox with one motion, it snapping shut, before returning his hand to the steering wheel.

It's silent for a moment. Winter looks out the window, uncomfortable before looking over at James and trying to cut through the impossibly great distance that his absence had left. "I'm glad to have you back." James looks over to Winter, smiling gently at the young woman in an effort to offer her some small comfort as he waited for Qrow to arrive. He had a feeling that it might be a bit of time before the other arrived.

Winter's voice seems to crack with her next words."It's been... hard."

James feels his heart clench and ache in his chest. Somehow it outweighs all of his other worries and pains.

Winter Schnee had come into his life through Ozpin, a teenager that was on bad terms with her family and needed a good way to help take care of herself. James had given her his guest room for a while, and in exchange, Winter would help take care of Penny while he was away. In a lot of ways, she was like a daughter to him.

He wasn't sure that he even wanted to know the extent of what had been happening to her when he was gone.

"I'm sorry, Winter." James' voice is low, and he looks over at her directly now, relaxing a bit in his seat. "I didn't know that would happen. Were you able to take care of yourself while I was...?"

Winter nods, expression hardening with her resolve. "I managed to get an apartment to myself and a friend." She looks up at him, seeming as confident as ever. "And I'd try to check in on Penny when I could. Working for the old Wizard's done more than enough to pay our bills, and I've even learned to cook."

James smiles, relaxing a bit in his seat as he slid his phone into the cupholder beside him and just listening to what Winter had to tell him. Once she was finished, James feels himself chuckle. "It sounds like you've been doing very well for yourself." He pauses, "Though I am curious how you've been able to see Penny."

"She and Weiss are in the same class this year." Winter answers plainly enough. "So I've been able to chaperone field trips and see her then. She seemed sad, James. Scared."

James sighs, raising a hand to try and push a loose lock of hair back out of his face as he was overwhelmed with sadness. He couldn't be there for Penny. His brow furrows, his entire body tensing. He shakes his head, brings his hand down. Looks back to Winter. "Winter, I am truly eternally grateful. She loves you a lot and... well, I couldn't be there for her when she needed me. Thank you."

Winter's eyes soften for a moment, and she reaches over, gently placing a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him. "It's not your fault." After a moment, James feels himself relax slightly, only to sit upright, back ramrod straight. His eyes travel over to the apartment door and he finds himself drumming his fingers, now annoyed with the fact that he and Winter were still waiting on Qrow to arrive.

Winter follows James' line of sight over to the door to the apartment building, displeasure reading clear on her face as she stared at the door that didn't seem to have any sign of opening anytime soon. "I don't know what Ozpin sees in that guy." Winter's hands clench in her lap. "How can he be so... late?"

James sighs, watching the door as well. "I don't see what Ozpin sees either. It Seems like he drinks too much."

"That's one way to put it." Winter crosses her arms, sitting back in the seat and crossing one leg over the other. "We've done two jobs with him and he's just..."

The door opens with a creak, and Qrow half-falls out, walking with a slight wobble and looking like he may have just been pushed out of the building by a pair of large hands. James doesn't even need to look over to know that Winter's frown had increased and that her eyes had narrowed, a sigh leaving her lips purely from frustration.

Squinting, Qrow looks around the parking lot, completely unsure as to which vehicle he was supposed to be going to. For a moment, James realized that he didn't specify which car was his to the man, but he simply watches the man for a moment. Seeing Qrow start in the wrong direction, James taps on the horn of his car to alert Qrow to where he was supposed to go with a loud honk. Qrow jolts a bit, clearly caught off guard. His red eyes fall on the simple silver sedan, where he saw James and Winter in the two front seats.

The red-eyed man walks towards them, shoving his hands deeply into his pockets and hunching over. James doubts for a moment that he would be ready to go on the little scouting mission that they'd been assigned to. It was simple work, but it was also one of the most important things that someone could do when their job involved actively avoiding police and even death.

Qrow reaches the car, and tries to open the passenger's door, only for Winter to slam her hand down on the lock, effectively locking him from trying to take her place in the car. Qrow rolls his eyes, a bit of a sneer across his face before getting in through the back seat and sliding into the middle. "I can't believe I have to do this with you two." The rookie's voice comes out as a growl, though whether there was anger affecting it wasn't immediately clear. James does his best to ignore it, putting his keys in the ignition, turning them, and smiling approvingly when he feels the engine turn over. "Why do we even have to do this-"

Qrow doesn't get to finish as Winter snarls at him. "Hold your tongue." The girl's fists clench in her lap and she even turns a bit to face him and show her frustrations.

James turns, putting one arm over the back of Winter's seat and keeping an eye on his surroundings so that he could get the car out of the parking lot safely. It was new, after all- a gift from Ozpin, sent as an apology for things that no amount of apologies could truly fix. It was empty, but it was something. And James wasn't about to turn down having a new car after their last job went so poorly, and he certainly wasn't about to scratch it up in a parking lot.

Besides, nobody was going to notice a two year old sedan with nothing conspicuously wrong about it.

"Always so touchy." Qrow leans back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest in a single motion that screamed bitterness. "I never did anything to you, ice queen."

A low sigh manages to slip out of James' lips as he resigned himself to the fact that it seemed unlikely that Winter was going to take that well at all. He wonders for a moment whether he'd be able to just ignore Qrow and Winter's bickering and just drive, but he had the feeling that wasn't going to be any sort of real option to him.

"You know exactly what you did." Winter sneers at Qrow, her hands balled into fists in her lap. "You're constantly disrespecting every-"

"Winter." James' tone is a warning for both of them to stop. He didn't want to have to deal with any fighting on this little mission as they drive up to the sign that separated the parking lot from Candle Street. He waits a minute, letting a dark green minivan pass before he turns the car onto the main road, beginning his drive towards the first gas station that he, Winter, and Qrow were supposed to look at. In the end, Roman and Glynda had only given the trio two stations to look at, since it was unlikely that he'd be at every gas station the day of the job.

"Winter, could you-" James uses his right hand to reach into his breast pocket, removing his notebook and passing it over to Winter. Winter takes it graciously and opens James' glovebox, finding his gps and begins putting in the address for the first of the stations that they were going to. "Thank you."

Qrow laughs from the back seat, breath stinking of whiskey. "Some criminal you are, don't even know where you're supposed to be going." He leans foward between James and Winter's seats, as though he were looking to do nothing more than taunt the two of them constantly and without any true sort of consequence. "Is that why you needed to be replaced?"

James grips the steering wheel tighter, and for a moment he realizes that he can feel the metal and plastic wheel bend some under the pressure of his right hand. He almost jolts,, that was certainly new but decides to just take his hand off of the wheel instead, acting like he were getting some gum from a small compartment under the radio next to him. It looked better than him crunching the wheel, especially when he wasn't sure about how much Winter and Qrow knew. Though James fully expected for Winter to find out about the metal parts that held him together at some point, he didn't want Qrow knowing any more than he had to.

The man wasn't privy to such information.

James pulls to a stop sign, doing his best to ignore Qrow as Winter sets the gps up on the dashboard in a place where he'd be able to see if he needed to look. He hears the sound of Winter closing his notebook in one motion, paper rustling against paper.

"If you were a good replacement, they wouldn't have had to ask for me back. The reasons I've been away are frankly none of your business, Qrow." James keeps his voice hard. Winter looks over at him, then back to see Qrow there in the back seat, and leaning a bit too close to her for comfort. Winter seems to prepare to reach back and push Qrow away from her, but James just shoots her a look. Winter stops, crossing her arms over her chest.

Qrow slumps back against the seat, looking out the windows as the three of them drove. "Why are you even back anyways? everyone said you were-"

"Qrow." Winter hisses the word.

James frowns, focused on the road more than he was Qrow's babbling. "The reasons I've returned are entirely my own and they aren't for you to know."

"You're the same as her and Glynda then." Qrow sneers. "Constantly have a stick up your-"

"Enough." James raises his voice, trying to ensure that Qrow got the message, though it felt largely like he was talking to a brick wall. Specifically, a brick wall that was stuck in its teenage years. "That is not only wildly inappropriate, but I have absolutely no qualms about leaving you on the side of the road to get picked up for a drunk and disorderly."

Qrow's eyebrow raises in some interest, almost as though he were completely taken off guard by what James had just said, mouth dropping open a little.

James' eyes meet Qrow's in the reflection of the rear view mirror, and James almost feels a smirk ready to show on his expressions. It seemed that had shut Qrow up. His eyes go back onto the road, looking forward as he made a left turn under the instruction of his GPS. "I thought so."

Winter looks between James and Qrow, her grey-blue eyes sliding over both of them before she sits a bit more upright, reaching up to let her hair down out of the bun that she usually wore. It was a rare sign of relaxation from Winter, but it was also halfway a ritual for her when they were working, from what James had noticed.

He suspected that she picked up the wearing a bun habit from spending so much time around Glynda, but James never commented on it, how Winter wore her hair wasn't his business.

The first gas station slides into view, and James lets his eyes travel around, looking for a good parking spot near the gas station, deciding to use a spot in the plaza next to the gas station, choosing a space in front of a dollar store in the parking spot nearest the row of boulders that separated the two parking lots.

He pulls in and parks the car, opening the door and looking over at Winter. "I want you to go in, look for cameras. If they seem like they're keeping an eye on you, make a point to pick things up conspicuously and make a purchase." James shifts slightly in his seat, reaching into his back pocket and getting his wallet, which he quickly flipped open to remove a twenty dollar bill. He folds it in half and passes it to Winter. "Advil, if they have it. And get something for yourself if you want to."

Winter takes the bill, gets her wallet out of the small purse that she'd set down by her feet when she got into James' car, already heading towards the gas station so that it would look like she'd come alone. Qrow watches her leave for just a moment before looking back at James.

James directs his attention to Qrow now. "I want you to go in and double up, but also keep an eye on what the parking lot looks like and whether there are security cameras there. Photos if you can get them." James shuts the car door, and Qrow gets out of the vehicle. "Any questions?"

"Yeah." Qrow's voice is as gravelly as ever, and for a moment, it makes James feel his skin crawl. "What the hell are you going to be doing?"

James controls his face, his tone. Answers. "I'll be looking at the area around the station. Vantage points and getaway roads. When I'm done, I'll pull into the gas station and fill up, that'll be your queue to leave the store and get in so that we can leave."

Qrow rolls his eyes. "Awful lot of nonsense for looking at a gas station of all things."

"It's necessary." James keeps his voice hard as he locks the car door with a chirp from his key fob. "Once you've been in this business for a while, maybe you'll start to understand that."

"Says the guy who got himself blown up." Qrow's words bit, but before James can say a word, he's already on his way to the gas station, half-hunched over as he walked, leaving James to investigate the area on his own, seeking out good places where they could put getaway vehicles and extra coverage so that they knew that the robberies would be safe. He doesn't photograph the area, just using his own memory to keep track of everything. He'd done this enough times that he could keep track of things easily enough.

It's a process, but James gets a good idea of everything he needed to see and know in just a few minutes, but reminds himself to go back in on another day, probably at night when they were likely to make their heist. He was sure he'd be able make it happen on a night when he wasn't causing problems for anyone else, most importantly Penny. James is vigilant in his work, but once in a while he finds himself letting his eyes wander over to Qrow, who was seemingly pretending to text in front of a display for charcoal.

For a moment, James felt some jealousy sprout up in the core of his chest, but he tries to suppress the feeling. There was a large part of James that was hurting, mostly as a result of the fact that he'd been replaced while he'd been in the hospital. He didn't know whether Ozpin, as mysterious as they were, had even hesitated for a second before finding a replacement. That was probably what hurt the most, James realized.

And what a replacement Qrow was, James thought. Qrow hadn't done much as far as putting his best foot forward went, and it made James seriously wonder whether the man had even made an effort at trying to mesh with anyone, let alone him and Winter. Winter had said that they'd done jobs with this Qrow before, but James only found himself seriously questioning what those would have looked like.

Whether the man was even capable.

For some reason, James had a sinking feeling that he'd be stuck babysitting the rookie on this upcoming job. That didn't exactly make James feel great about things, but he figured that perhaps he'd been asked to take Qrow because he was expected to be able to keep him on leash of sorts. In the back of his mind, James stores away a note telling him to call Roman or Glynda and see what he can learn about Qrow. Maybe they'd have some information that would make the man slightly less infuriating.

James watches as Qrow steps back from the charcoal display. He looked down at the watch that he had on his left wrist and takes note of the time. It was time for them to go. He gets into the car, noting the fire ladder leading to the rooftop of the plaza before driving over to the gas pumps at the gas station. He parks at one of the pumps and heads inside, seeing that Winter was getting two cups of coffee, a bottle of Advil, and a small package of gummy bears. He doesn't have to even question who the coffees were for.

He queues behind her and waits, getting out his wallet and credit card so he could buy some gas before he brought Winter home and dropped Qrow off back at Roman's apartment- he presumed that the man had a way home. Winter leaves the store first, coffees paid for and climbs into the passenger's seat. James quickly purchases the gas before going back out to the car and beginning to pump the gas. Qrow saunters over to the car, sliding into the back seat, and seems to throw the girl an obscene gesture as he slides into place.

James takes his time, filling the car as he overheard Qrow and Winter bickering in the vehicle, and for a moment he thought that he heard something about selfies and poor tactics. James shakes it off, placing the fuel pump back on its hanger before getting in and turning the key, the engine turning over with a rumbling sound.

"Do you need me to drop you off, Winter?" James reaches over with his right hand, taking the cup of coffee that Winter had gotten him and the bottle of Advil. He sets the coffee down between his legs as he opens up the bottle of Advil, taking two tablets of the medicine after reading the back label for just a moment. "I don't mind."

"If you could, I wouldn't mind." She looks over at the cup of coffee that James was now raising to his lips to wash down the medication. "I got you hazelnut, black. That's what you like, ri-"

"It's perfect, Winter." James smiles over at the girl as he lowers the coffee, feeling its warmth stretch through his bones and relaxing away the day's hurts and pains. He almost forgets for a moment that Qrow was still in the back seat. "You'll just need to make sure I don't get lost on the way."

Qrow looks between them from the back seat. "What about me?"

"I'll be dropping you off at Roman's apartment after."

"Oh." Qrow makes himself comfortable in the back seat, and James can feel the weight of the man's read eyes burning into the back of his neck. "So are we going to look at this second station or was this all a waste of time?"

"We could do it today." James answers, driving onto the . "But it's better that we do this one at a time. Daytime surveillance is good, but we need to come back at night to get a better idea of what we're dealing with. And if we do it all at once details get confused."

Winter looks up at James, watching as the man had a sip from the hazelnut coffee. "When do you want to do that?"

James lets his eyes flick over to Winter's. "I have a new phone in my glovebox, put your number in and I'll let you know when its time."

Winter rolls her eyes, opening up the glovebox and finding what looked like a seriously dated flip phone. She reaches into her purse, pulling out an antiquated looking cell phone of her own and beginning to add contact information from hers into James'. "Do you have any idea when it'll be?"

"Sometime during the week. Let me know when you have classes and I can plan around them." James reaches over to take the phone once he was sure that Winter was done with it. He sends her a quick message that said nothing but "test" and hears her phone buzz. Satisfied, James tosses the phone into the back seat with Qrow. "If you have a burner phone add your contact information and I'll call you when we're doing this again."

"Pushy." Qrow rolls his eyes, flipping open the phone and looking at it as he tried to get to the contact list. It was just a list of the codenames that Roman had rattled off in the meeting room nearly an hour before. Apparently, this was a trend he would have to get used to. He goes to the add contact button and begins preparing to add his information.

There's a moment's silence.

"...Please tell me you have a burner number." James mutters the words from his seat, one hand gripping the steering wheel tight as he drove around the back of the gas station, using it as a chance to see what the back of the building looks like. "The last thing I need is some rookie jeopardizing everything because they don't have a separate phone."

Qrow seems a bit taken aback by this, reaching into his pocket and producing a second phone which he holds up so that James could see it in the rear view mirror. "Duh." He flips it open, getting the contact information that he'd never need to know and enters James' number into a new message and just sending the other man's phone a message with his name in it and nothing else. James reaches back to take his phone back and for just a moment, his gloved hand and Qrow's meet, but James quickly pulls away, pocketing the phone and concentrating on the rest of the drive instead of the man in the backseat, or the girl beside him that sipped occasionally from her coffee.

To James' relief, most of the bickering seems to stop, with Winter guiding him to her new apartment for the first time. It takes a couple of minutes to get there, but soon enough James is slowly pulling up in front of Winter's apartment.

He takes a parking spot and waits as Winter gets out, watching the girl carefully as she went inside, not pulling back out until he was sure that she was inside safe and sound. James doesn't even notice the presence of Qrow sliding into the passenger's seat beside him from the back, or that the other man was instantly making himself comfortable, adjusting the seat to his own likings.

James makes a mental note to go back and set it back to Penny's preferred settings when he got home that night.

Satisfied that Winter was inside and safe, James takes a U-turn, beginning the drive back to Roman's apartment so that he could drop Qrow off and hopefully not have to deal with the other man for the rest of the night. He didn't feel like he had the patience for it, and he'd have to look over maps of the area around those two gas stations that night anyways.

Some extra research into Ozpin's intentions likely wouldn't hurt either.

"You sure I don't get a ride home too?" Qrow laughs the words out as he looks out the window, trying to avoid talking to the older-looking man too much. The surveillance trip had been awkward enough with Winter there, now that it was just Qrow and James, the tension seemed to multiply.

It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out that James wasn't happy about having been replaced, or that Qrow was unhappy about having the person that he'd been brought in to replace back on the scene.

"I figured you'd have a way home." James answers as he drums his fingers against the steering wheel on the drive back to Roman's apartment. "Is that incorrect?"

"I mean..." Qrow sighs, looking back over at James for a moment. "It's kind of the right, kind of not. My brother-in-law drove me into town, he said I could call him if I needed a ride home, I just don't like doing it." Qrow almost seemed reluctant to talk about it, but James decided not to pry. It wasn't his business, and it probably never would be.

James raises an eyebrow, looking over at Qrow and then sighs. "Call him for a ride home." He keeps his voice restrained. "I can leave you at a burger place or Roman's if you need me to."

Qrow reaches into his pocket, sending out a series of texts as James simply pulled over in front of a small deli and parked, waiting for a verdict on where he was supposed to leave Qrow for the night. After a minute or two of Qrow's texting, the red eyed man finally spoke up.

"He said he can meet me here," Qrow seems to move around a bit in his seat in a manner that suggested to James that the man was checking that his shoes were still tied. "I guess I'll be seeing you around Jimmy."

"It's James."

"Of course it is." Qrow laughs as he pushes the car door open, hopping out of the vehicle and closing the door immediately. James uses the small button control to roll down the window so that he could finish saying things to Qrow. "So should I call you or-"

"What?"

"For our next little trip out with Ice Queen."

"Her name is Winter." James' jaw clenches a bit with the words. "And I'll call you when it's time. I can even give you a day's notice if you need me to."

"Will you now?"

James pauses, his eyes meeting Qrow's directly for the first time. "Have I given you any reason to doubt me?"

"Nah." Qrow says the word, stretching a bit as he stood outside the car and closed the passenger's door behind him. "But you don't exactly inspire confidence."

James looks ahead at the deli for a moment, sighing, and Qrow looks up at the building, examining it, almost as though he were trying to pass the time. He speaks. "Either way," James mutters the words, catching Qrow's attention "I will call you."

"Yeah," a low chuckle. "I'm sure you will, Jimmy.:

"It's James."

"Yeah, sure." Qrow laughs the words, stepping away from the car and raising a hand in a nonchalant half-wave. "See you around, Jimmy."

As the man walks towards a bench outside of the deli, James almost considers offering Qrow a ride home, but decides against it when he sees that Qrow was getting a phone out to call someone, presumably the aforementioned brother-in-law. Feeling a bit better about leaving him there, James drives home to spend the rest of the night to himself.

Research, dinner, and bed sounded absolutely lovely after such a long day.