Hours later, surprisingly awake, even energized, and still comfortably full from the breakfast that had followed the three hour jaunt with Mike, Jesse found himself back at the lab. He was there before Walt, and was halfway suited up when the older man walked in.

Jesse looked up as he heard Walt enter. "Hey, morning, Mr. White."

"You're earlier than usual," Walt responded as he came down the stairs slowly. "I didn't see your car outside."

Jesse cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. I know." He paused and looked up, eyeing Walter's expression. This should be fun if Walter was in the same bad mood as the previous day. "Mike dropped me off this morning."

Walter looked a little surprised but then his face quickly returned to being stoic. "Some business you had to attend to?" he guessed. He walked towards Jesse and as he took his jacket off.

"Yeah," Jesse confirmed. "We had, uh, some stuff that we needed to take care of real early this morning. Like, way out in the desert."

"Really? That early?"

"Yeah. It was cool actually... Involved guns and all." Jesse watched Walt's face for any sign of reaction. Jesse was proud of his morning, but Walt looked unphased. He wouldn't mention that the gun involvement consisted of Mike lining up tin cans in the distance and coaching him on how to aim. In fact, that had been a full hour of their morning. Other than that, the morning consisted of about an hour of driving, and an hour of the usual pick-ups. But couldn't Walt even acknowledge any of it? "Yo, did you hear me?"

"Yes, I heard you," Walter answered. He hung up his jacket. "So early mornings now too?"

"It's whenever they've got stuff going on," Jesse replied with a shrug. "Early morning though - never really thought about it, but it's actually kind of friggin' cool. I saw the sunrise. Over the desert. Have you ever watched the sunrise over the desert?"

"Actually, yeah. It is a pretty sight." Walt didn't imagine that Jesse was frequently up early enough to catch many sunrises over anything.

He could see that Jesse was rather pleased with himself and wondered why Mike bothered to manipulate his ego. It made him suspicious. Wasn't his goal just to make sure Jesse was clean? Why all this extra-curricular activity? He acknowledged that keeping Jesse feeling useful probably did help keep him out of trouble. "Did you get any sleep after all of that?"

Jesse frowned. "A little." Did falling asleep on the half hour car ride back count? Sure it did. "Not much," he admitted.

Walt looked unamused as he pulled over a chair to sit and take off his shoes. "Are we going to have a repeat of yesterday?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jesse began to feel defensive. He had considered not telling Walt at all about his morning. But the excitement of it, and the explanation for why he didn't have his car, made it hard to keep a secret. He wasn't good at secrets. Yesterday, he'd been distracted, true, and combined with Walt's irritability that day, things had been heated. Today he felt more refreshed, despite the lack of sleep.

"I don't mean anything, Jesse..." Walt shook his head and tossed his shoes to the side. He didn't want to argue or waste time again today. "It's just you said it yourself. You need sleep."

Jesse couldn't argue with that, but he would much rather spend his time with Mike than in the lab. Jesse debated telling Walt that he hated the lab, how he hated where his mind went while they were cooking, but resisted. "Why do I even tell you anything?" Jesse said instead. "Yesterday, you were kind of a dick. What was it you used to say in class? Oh yeah - if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything at all. So yeah - follow your own advice and don't be a dick."

Walt laughed despite himself. He pushed back the chair and stood up, then shrugged. "So if you want to stay up all night and you can still function here when I need you, then that's your prerogative."

"I'm doing what Gus and Mike ask me to do to support our mutual business venture," Jesse retorted. "I'm sure they'd be happy to know that you don't have an issue with their... prerogatives."

Walt chuckled again. "Do you ever see Gus on these little adventures?"

"Sometimes." Jesse bristled at Walt's use of "little" once again.

"How often is sometimes?" Walter reached for his hazmat suit.

"Not often," Jesse conceded. "The dude's wrapped up in his chicken place. When I see him, then it's, like, something mad serious is going on or he really needs something right away."

"Do you speak with him?"

Jesse gave him a curious look. "Usually Mike does..." 'Usually' meaning that the rare times he did see Gus, the two of them sent him to wait somewhere out of earshot like a child.

"Don't you wonder what they're talking about?"

"Of course."

"And Mike doesn't tell you?"

Jesse hesitated and then admitted, "No." Whenever he asked Mike, he got the disapproving 'too many questions' look, which shut him up. He wondered if he should have lied and said yes.

Walter pulled the zipper up on his suit. "Just be careful. Agendas can change."

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Agendas can change. What's that even supposed to mean?"

Walt's eyes glanced up at the video surveillance that was so easy to forget about. He was never quite sure whether there was an audio tape as well. He lowered his voice anyway. "Very simply it means to be careful who you trust."

"Is this about Mike again, Mr. White?" Jesse asked. "Are you serious? Jesus. You have such a stick up your ass. What's your issue now?"

"Just be careful, Jesse. That's all I'm saying." Walter shook his head. "Nothing to get upset over."

"You act like we can't trust anybody outside of just the two of us," Jesse answered in exasperation.

Walter gave him a reproachful look. "Jesse," he started, "I'm not sure trusting anybody outside of the two of us is really that wise at this point. Do you think they trust us?" He jerked his head towards the surveillance camera overhead.

Jesse chewed on the inside of his lip. He knew Walt was right. Things could change with Gus at any moment. There was always that risk. And the cartel could cause trouble as well. They always needed to be careful and ready for whenever the next change might come. "I trust Mike," he said finally.

Walt raised his eyebrows. "Okay..." he said sarcastically. Fully suited up, he started to walk towards the middle of the lab. He realized it was probably wise to move past the conversation and just cook. Especially here. Snapping on a pair of gloves, Walt responded calmly. "Jesse, you are free to trust anyone that has earned your trust."

Jesse caught on immediately. Mike hadn't earned his trust.

Walter glanced up and met his eye. Jesse didn't look angry, but slightly disheartened. But Walter didn't regret his words. Mike rubbed him the wrong way. Like he was playing two sides. He knew Jesse had fallen into trusting him somehow, maybe from the positive reinforcement, or whatever else happened when the two of them disappeared together, but Walt wasn't convinced. In his mind, everyone should be considered dangerous.

Should he remind him that Mike was only keeping tabs on him with these excursions?

No, he warned himself. Drop it. You can only protect him to a certain point and then he has to realize on his own.

"Let's cook."