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L.L.A.P

~Laces

Chpt.3

"You don't have any memory?" Maria questioned, finishing up her last bandage around Jason's ankle, and he shrugged.

"Seems so. I remember that my name is Jason, but that's it." he informed, his voice sincere and calm. However after Jason reviewed the sentence in his head, his eyes widened in realization. "God, I don't even know my last name."

"That's horrible." Carla frowned, and Luke placed a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"Where have you been staying?" he questioned.

"I slept on a bench last night." Jason responded and everyone in the room was silent for several moments. However, the silence didn't seem to come from pity. It seemed to come from understanding what it was like to sleep on a bench all too well.

It was Luke who then broke that silence.

"Grandma Carla," Luke looked over at the old woman. "Can he stay? We have a spare room." Carla's eyes widened.

"Of course he can stay, but are you okay with that? Michael-"

"Michael isn't going to rise from the dead to take back his bed." Luke stated with a small smile. "'sides, I think Mikey would've liked him. Jason did save Charlie after all." Luke stated and Jason looked between Luke and Carla, lost about who they were talking about.

The old woman turned her attention to Jason, her clear blue eyes matching his.

"Jason, would you like to stay here? You can stay as long as you want as long as you help out with some chores." Carla stated and Jason stared at her, baffled.

"I… are you sure?" He didn't expect this. For all they knew, he could have been a criminal just making up this amnesia story.

"Of course." The old woman smiled tenderly at him. Jason stared at her, his jaw partially dropped in surprise. After waking up in pain and remembering nothing and staying the night on a park bench, this woman was offering him a place to stay. He was moved by her offer, his throat dry from his happiness.

"Thank you." He finally managed to say. He then wrapped the woman in a hug. "Thank you so much."

"Is that a yes?" Charlie inquired and Jason smiled at her.

"Yes. Yes, I would like to stay her for a while." Jason had figured that maybe his memory would return to him in the coming days, and having a place to stay was great so he wouldn't have to wander the streets, alone and hungry.

"Welcome to the family then!" Maria exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air and Jason laughed at that.

"Here, you're probably beat. I'll show you to where you'll be staying." Luke informed and helped Jason up the stairs of the old house, each step creaking loudly. Jason was worried that they wouldn't hold several times.

However, once upstairs, Luke led Jason down a short hallway, where there was a room at the very end of it.

It was a fairly empty room. The walls were a dull blue, there was a made bed, a work bench, some tools on the work bench, and a thin layer of dust on everything.

"Who was Michael?" Jason inquired, looking over at Luke, remembering the name being mentioned earlier.

"My kid brother. He did mostly odd jobs, but he loved fixing things." Luke smiled sadly, his eyes laying on the work bench, but Jason could tell that the other man's mind was on the past.

"What happened to him?" Jason's voice was soft when he asked. Luke snapped out of the past, but his eyes remained on the work bench. He almost looked like he was holding back tears.

"Wrong place at the wrong time. Some punk stole from a convenience store and my brother was coming home from one of his odd jobs in the area. Cops saw him and bang. My brother was dead before they realized their mistake." Luke frowned, tearing his eyes away from the work bench to look at Jason.

Jason was gritting his teeth as rage boiled in his stomach. He wanted to do something. He felt like he could do something. He just didn't know what.

"That… that's awful! How-"

"Calm down, you looked pissed."

"I am pissed. That's not right." Jason growled, his brows furrowing over his blue eyes and his jaw was clenched in anger.

"Well, I know that it's not right, but there isn't much you can do." Luke said with a long sigh, but there was also a hint of frustration in his voice.

Jason noticed how Luke seemed to be restraining his own anger.

"Got it… well… thanks for letting me stay here." Jason whispered, unsure how to carry on the subject while on the topic of Luke's dead brother.

"No problem. You just make yourself comfortable and get some sleep. The bathroom is right next to your room and if you need anything, Maria and I are in the two rooms up here." He informed.

"Where do Charlie and Carla sleep?" Jason questioned and Luke smiled.

"They have two rooms downstairs, but I wouldn't risk waking either of them up. They both can be real bears when they don't get their sleep." He informed with a small chuckle and Jason smiled at the man.

"Thanks for the warning."

Luke left the room and Jason started to make himself comfortable and strip off his clothes. He removed his jacket and shirt, and then looked at himself in the mirror in the room. He wasn't expecting the amount of gnarled scars that didn't heal properly and scars that looked to be the result of bullets and scars that went down his chest and Jason could hardly believe that was him in the mirror.

"What the hell did I do?" he whispered, tracing over the scars with his fingers. He then removed his boots when he felt something come out of one of them with a clunk.

Bending down, he picked up the object that fell out of his boot, and to his shock, he found that it was a pocket knife. But not just any pocket knife. No, this knife was extremely sharp and thick enough to slice through…

People. He thought, but shuttered. Why would the thought of cutting people come to mind when staring at a knife? Fingers… you can slice through fingers. Good for getting information. His brain told him, which freaked Jason out even more.

He placed the knife into the pocket of his jacket and tried to push it from his mind. At the moment. All he really needed was some sleep.

~*~*~*~*~Later~*~*~*~*~

Jason woke up with small beams of light falling over his face, making him squint his eyes.

Sitting up, Jason could see that the sun was shining through the window blinds.

The events from the day before suddenly crashed onto him and all sense of his drowsiness was gone.

Trying to remember anything from his past, Jason sat up, closed his eyes, and tried searching through his mind for something, anything. Unfortunately, he had no luck.

With a sigh, Jason rolled out of the bed and to his surprise, there was a pile of fresh clothes set out for him. They were obviously older clothes, but Jason didn't mind. He was just grateful that he had something to wear that wasn't stained with sweat and blood.

Jason threw on the large t-shirt and then the large pants. To hold up the pants, there was a pair of suspenders.

Jason would have preferred a belt but he didn't the feel of the suspenders too much. Yeah, they were a bit crooked and he didn't know how to even the straps out, but they held up the pants, which was all that mattered to Jason.

Once he looked in the mirror, he couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"I look like I'm from the 40s." he chuckled, then made his way to the door. However, he stopped in the doorway. He felt like he was missing something important, that something in the back of his head was telling him that he simply couldn't leave without.

Jason dug out the pocket knife from the jacket pocket and went to put it into his pocket when he froze. That was wrong.

He put the knife in his shoe, and then walked out the door.

It scared him that he had that sort of habit of needing to have a weapon on him in a place where weapons usually wouldn't be stored.

However, Jason just tried to push the thought of the knife out of his head.

Jason found Carla in the kitchen, cooking eggs.

"Good morning, Jason." The old woman smiled.

"Good morning." Jason's eyes went to the old clock on the wall and they widened. "Or, I guess it's good afternoon." He frowned. The clock read 12:36.

"I couldn't find it in myself to wake you up. You looked so peaceful." Carla informed, then placed the frying pan with the eggs off the stove, walked over to him and started fiddling with the suspenders.

"You're much larger than Luke and Michael so I had to lend you my late husband's clothes. He was about as large as you are." She then chuckled at how the pants were a bit loose. "However, when he got older, those donuts really did catch up to him."

"No doubt that'll happen to me." Jason smirked, which got a good laugh out of Carla. Once Carla was finished straightening the suspenders, she gave the young man a once over to make sure everything was alright.

"You're built like an ox, I wouldn't be surprised if you worked on a farm." Carla said, then went back to the eggs and slid them onto a plate. She then placed some premade toast with cinnamon sugar drizzled on top and bacon on the plate as well.

"Eat up." Carla stated, handing the food over to Jason.

"Thanks." Jason grinned gratefully, sitting down at the small table in the kitchen. "Where's everyone else?"

"Luke and Maria wait tables together at a nearby diner. Charlie works at a café and also picks up odd jobs here and there." Carla informed. "I also have a part time job at a grocery store bagging items."

"Huh. That's interesting." Jason hummed. "Not to sound offensive, but aren't you old enough to retire?"

"I have to keep myself busy somehow." Carla chuckled. "Now, do you want orange juice, milk, water, or apple juice? I'd offer you coffee but the machine is broken."

"Milk is fine, thanks." Jason smiled and the old woman got out the carton and poured him a glass.

"I can't thank you enough for everything, Ms. Carla." Jason stated and the old woman laughed.

"It's just Carla. You don't need to be so formal about it." she informed, then said, "And don't think I'm just going to let you lounge around all day. I have some errands to run and I am going to need those strong muscles of yours."

Jason smiled at the woman and chuckled,

"Yes, Carla. It'd be my pleasure."

"After running the errands we can then get you some more clothes since I don't think you'll want to wear my husband's clothes all the time." Carla stated and Jason's eyes widened.

"You don't have to do that. I don't want to cost you too much money-"

"Oh hush up, it's fine." Carla stated. "God gave me money so I can help others. Now finish up. We need to go to the laundry mat and then the grocery store to pick up some things." Jason swiftly finished the food, and then followed the old woman out the door.

As he jumped into the side of a beaten up looking Subaru, Jason briefly wondered when he would get his memory back. However, Carla just turned on the radio and left it on Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive.

The song doesn't bring back any memories for Jason, but it does bring out some happiness. And oddly enough, he can remember every word to the song.