3. "But once the trouble was on its way, I was just goin' with it."
Marleene flailed awake, limbs spasming around her.
"-damn it. Wake up!"
A pillow smacked her in the face and then she was in a sitting position, staring at a red-in-the-face Amata. "Dude. What the fuck?"
Amata smacked her in the face with the pillow again. "Did you know?"
"Stop hitting me! I think I'm awake. Did I know what?"
"Your dad is gone. He left the Vault."
To her credit, Amata didn't immediately keep going. Marleene just kind of blinked at her. "Gone."
"Yeah. Gone."
The words didn't make sense. Nobody left the Vault. Not anymore if her suspicions about Mary Kendall and Ellen were right. Besides, James wasn't young enough to-
Her jaw dropped open.
"Son of a bitch."
"What?"
"Dad's not from the Vault."
Amata screwed up her face like Marleene had just spoken Greek. "I'm sorry. What?"
"Think about it. We-" she waved her hand, cutting herself off. "Too long. Not important right now. This could have waited for morning. Why did you-"
Amata interrupted her. "My father thinks that you know something about it. But I don't-They killed Jonas!"
It felt like her brain just sort of stopped. Warm, kind Jonas. He couldn't be...dead. But that meant-
Her dad gone. Jonas dead. They'd be coming for her next, for answers or to kill off the last remnant of plague her father and Jonas represented. Either way-
Marleene got up, suddenly furious and the strength of that emotion boiled over across her bond. An answering curiosity and worry came back. She could tell she'd woken him up but she shoved the connection away, focusing intently on Amata. "Who?"
"I think it was Stevie Mack. But I don't- Mar, you've got to get out of here."
"Where? Where am I supposed to go? Outside too?"
Amata just kind of shrugged. Her eyes hadn't left Marleene, focused with the same sort of desperate intensity that Marleene knew from years of the Tunnel Snakes harassing her. She was scared. That pissed Marleene off, not only that Amata was scared but that she couldn't beat the problem to a pulp. Fucking shit fuck.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
"I don't want you to die too."
Marleene didn't move. This was fucking bullshit that she was having her choices taken away, again. Worry slipped across the bond again, more insistent and accompanied by a tug in his direction. She huffed. Butch. Wrench in the fucking works. A traitorous pang went through her heart at the thought of leaving him. But if she left, he could be like any of the other adults in the Vault. A missing mate but the bond tended to weaken with distance and time apart. It was the only way Mary Kendall had managed to have the kids she had.
She could take back her choice and give him a better one. Whatever was Outside had to have other people she could choose, if she wanted.
"Fine." Maybe he and Susie could get together. She ignored the pang of jealousy and near hatred at the thought. Ridiculous. They didn't have a claim on each other, not a real one.
Amata pressed something heavy and metal into her hand. Marleene pulled away to see a gun in her hand. "Take it," Amata urged.
"What? No. I'm not taking a gun."
"Mar-"
"No. Okay? Ten Commandments. Kind of a big fucking deal. Number seven is no killing. And if I see Stevie Mack and I have a gun, I'm shoving it so far up his ass, he'll need to cough to get it out."
Amata stomped her foot. "And how many times did God have the Israelites kill their enemies? Samson's whole deal was killing people! And what about David? I mean, granted, the whole Bathsheba thing was just really awful. But his other big story is with the big dude."
Marleene blinked. "Since when do you know the Bible stories?"
"I don't know if I believe any of them. They're, you know, kind of weird. Also, weird incest. Ew. But God is important to you so I paid attention because you're my best friend." Amata shrugged.
Marleene stared at her, genuinely touched. But still, she pushed the gun back into Amata's hand. "I know how to fight because of the Tunnel Snakes. You never fought back. I'll be okay."
"They won't bother me though. My dad won't let them."
"It's Stevie Fucking Mack. He is the literal worst. I don't trust him and neither should you. If your dad thinks you know anything about me, which you do now, then Stevie will probably have license to almost kill."
Amata just shook her head. "Meet you at my dad's office?"
"Always wanted to break in." Marleene grinned, not really feeling it. Amata stuck out the hand without the gun in it. Marleene pressed hers palm to palm with it. Wiggle, wiggle, fist bump, clap, snap, hug. "Go. I'll be right behind you."
Amata left.
Marleene dressed quickly, taking the time to wrap her knuckles in short, efficient movements. Not long after her tenth birthday, she'd discovered an old, dust covered punching bag. Since she had never been particularly good at baseball despite being on the team, she'd had to find her own way to exercise and punching things was incredibly therapeutic for a girl constantly picked on. And after breaking into the media room for the nth time, she'd found an old vid called "Rocky". It looked legit so she modeled her training after his.
She had a feeling she would need it now. A spike of fear erupted through the mate bond and her head whipped around to stare at the wall where she knew Butch was. What the hell?
Marleene left her apartment to see a couple of radroaches start to overwhelm Officer Kendall. An infestation then, probably brought on by her dad leaving. They were lucky it wasn't mole rats.
Kendall been a dick to her her entire life but no one deserved death by bugs.
Marleene charged over, kicking one of them and immediately turning around to stomp on another before it could leap on Kendall. He whacked the third with his police baton before turning on Marleene.
She backpedaled away from him. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Following orders."
Okay, she'd landed in the fucking twilight zone at some point because what the everloving hell? "I'm friends with your daughter, asswipe! Are you really going to fucking beat me with that thing?" she snarled back after her moment of confusion, standing her ground. It was a conditioned response to the Tunnel Snakes and she knew it but that knowledge didn't stop her at all.
"I'm supposed to bring you in." The baton drooped to point at the ground. Uncertain now that he was faced with a fight. Just like the Tunnel Snakes. Which meant that as soon as she turned her back-
Her eyes narrowed. "Does that require you to beat me?"
His hesitation gave her just enough time to move before he could raise the baton again and she cracked in to his jaw with her fist. He dropped. Marleene sighed, flexing her hand and checking for any pain. Nope. Fan-fucking-tastic. She stomped down on a radroach again. "Dickless bugs."
A swell of fear, like it couldn't be controlled anymore, had her swiveling her head again to see Butch charging towards her. "What's wrong?"
"My ma. My-she-radroaches!"
Everything that Butch didn't say, she understood. Marleene swept past him, fists clenched at her sides. Butch tagged along behind her, not close enough to touch but close enough that the waves of panic he was feeling burned into her.
Their apartment door slid open with a hiss and then she could hear roach chittering. "Get away from me, you filthy thing!" She was slurring her words. Badly. Still drunk then though she was pretty much always drunk.
Marleene didn't hesitate to descend on the radroaches with a fury. With every stomp, she swore insults at the bugs. One leaped for Ellen and she managed to punch it out of the air. Radroach guts splattered her hands and wrappings.
"Oh, that is disgusting." Marleene wrinkled her nose as she shook her hand to get at least some of it off.
She looked over at Butch just in time for his hands to grab her face and pull her in. The hunger and relief that exploded in him caused an answering reaction in her and he didn't react to the dead bug smeared on his face when her hands went to it. Goosebumps erupted along her skin when he slid his hands down her skin. One of his fingers brushed the mark along her ribs and electricity arced from the touch and she pressed up against his body, seeking more contact. Butch seemed to have felt her reaction because his fingers went back to that spot, pressing, reassuring, seeking.
She wanted him, wanted his touch. She'd been ignoring the way they felt together but nothing in her life had ever felt so fucking right. For the first time in her life, she got it. That feeling of matching she'd had when they'd completed the bond had arrived again in full force along with the addition of not quite knowing where she ended and he began. Time seemed to stand still when they burrowed into each other's souls and found fear and want and joy and pain and all the messy human emotions that everyone tried to hide but when faced with a mirror shone in all the cracked, flawed beauty that they were at their deepest core, no matter how hideous and unloveable they thought they were. That was the point. The understanding of another person completely and being understood completely in return.
Which is why when he pulled away, regret tainting their bond, she tried to follow, wanting that connection to stay. Instead he angled his head to press his forehead against hers, fingers buried in her hair.
"Mar, you don't want this."
She blinked, barely able to follow what he was saying. Everything in her screamed for him and she could feel the strength of how much he wanted her as acutely as she could feel her own desire. "How-What?"
"What are you doing awake?"
When he didn't get a comprehensible answer, he pulled his face away. Slowly she gave him the bare bones of the situation. Her dad had left. She was being hunted. She had to leave too.
His blue eyes searched hers, lines appearing between his eyebrows. Then he pressed his forehead against hers again. She could feel him bolstering himself before he stepped fully away.
The loss tore into her and she hated it, hated the loss, hated that she felt that way, but wanting oh so badly to have that connection again.
And then he started taking off his leather jacket. "Whoa. What-what are you doing?" She stiffened up, eyes wide. As much as she enjoyed sex with him Before Marks, nothing about this timing was good even if her body and soul wanted that coupling again.
"Here." He handed her the jacket. It was warm from his body, smelled like his cologne. She stared at him.
"What the hell? I don't think I've seen you without your jacket since you got it. What are you doing?"
"I can't follow ya out. Ma needs me." They looked over to where Ellen had flopped back onto her bed, passed out. "But if I can't go with ya, my jacket can."
"Butch, you love that jacket."
"I know." Something crossed his face, something unfamiliar. It felt like he'd clamped down hard enough on the bond that she didn't get a corresponding hint as to what it was.
She shook her head. "I can't take it with me."
"I'm giving it to you."
"Dude. No."
He fucking rolled his eyes at her, took the jacket out of her hands, and draped it over her shoulders. The tiny amount of contact set her nerves back to buzzing. "I don't want to guilt you into taking it so just accept it, you jackass."
"Dickweed."
"Fuckhead."
Marleene lifted an eyebrow. The banter was calming, familiar, even as she felt the clock ticking. "That's a new one. Where'd that come from?"
"What can I say? You bring out my inner poet."
"So you're a poet and you know it?"
Butch groaned. "That was terrible."
A frown twisted her mouth as she stared at him. She couldn't...Ugh. Feelings. "I think I'm going to miss you."
"I think I'm going to miss you too." He smiled, the expression not meeting his eyes, and bumped his shoulder with hers. "Asshat."
It was hard, looking at him there, exposed without his leather jacket. A lump formed in her throat. How do you say goodbye to someone you don't know if you'll ever see again?
AN: Thanks for reading, everyone! As always, chapter title from the same movie as the others. Please review and show the love or dislike. Y'all are awesome and I hope you have a fabulous day or night, whenever you read this. Slan!