Chapter 3

As the sun rose, Gus was snuggled up in bed with his teddy bear. He had that teddy bear since he was a child. It was so old and worn out that half of its face was gone, but Gus still loved it. He had never given it a name, but sometimes he would call it Jesse when he unknowingly talked to it in his sleep.

Gus was a heavy sleeper. He had slept through storms and earthquakes and alien invasions. So when Walter White snuck into his house that morning, he did not stir. The first thing Walt did was unplug Gus's alarm clock, so he would be late for work. Then he went on Gus's computer to find his secret recipe. Unfortunately for Walt, Gus's computer required a password. Walt tried entering chicken and several different combinations of numbers, hoping to crack the code, but none worked. He would have stayed and tried every possible number combination possible, but he had to get to Los Pollos Hermanos. If Jesse joined him, he could get the secret recipe from him. Then it wouldn't matter what Gus had on his computer.

Before leaving, Walter took a look at Gus's calendar. His days were booked up with community events and fundraisers. Walter snarled when he saw the word "community" because he hated people. When he was the owner of a successful restaurant he certainly would not give his hard earned money away to support a stupid cause. He did not give a fuck about cancer research or saving the environment.

When he arrived at Los Pollos Hermanos, he found that Jesse had temporarily solved the problem of the broken window by taping a Backstreet Boys poster over it. This time he did not care if Jesse would not help him break in. He crawled through the window, ignoring the pain of the shattered glass cutting his skin. Blood dripped from his wounds as he stood before a horrified Jesse.

"Sir, I'll get you a band-aid. Do you want Hello Kitty or Toy Story?"

"I don't need a band-aid. I need you to come with me."

"I want to work with you, I really do. But I can't leave Gus."

This made Walter angry. If he couldn't have Jesse, he would never be able to make chicken that could defeat Gus's chicken. "Fuck Gus and fuck his chicken!" he spat.
Jesse gasped at Walter's language. "Sir, please don't say things like that about Mr. Gus."

"Your naive sense of loyalty to your boss is pathetic. Gus doesn't need you. He would probably be happy if you left. He doesn't actually care about anyone, he only pretends to be nice so people will buy his chicken. He will replace you with another chef and forget about you."

"No, that can't be true!"

"Do you think you're special to him? He has tons of other chefs at his other restaurants, you're only as good as the chicken you cook. Yesterday he told me that he would fire you without hesitation if a better chef applied for the position. He even asked me if I wanted to take your job, but I refused."

"But Gus helped me with my homework. I thought he was my friend."

"Gus doesn't have friends. All he cares about is business. He is using you."

Jesse broke down and cried for ten minutes straight. He didn't want to believe what Walter said, but he knew his old teacher would never lie to him. He wiped his eyes and looked up at the bald man. "If I go with you, will you be my friend?"

"Yes. I certainly don't want to use you so I can open a restaurant that will make me rich and put Gus out of business. I want to work with you because I like you," Walter lied.

"Thanks, I like you too," Jesse smiled, already starting to feel better.

"So what's Gus's recipe?" Walter asked.

"I don't know it," Jesse said.

"What do you mean you don't know it? You made that chicken every day!"

"I don't have a good memory. Don't worry though, I have the recipe right here. Gus wrote it down for me," Jesse said as he turned to the cooking station. The recipe was taped up above the frier. Jesse reached up and took it down, but in his clumsiness he dropped it into the boiling oil. Walter reached in to grab it, but it was too late. The paper was ruined, and so was Walter's left hand.

"Do you need a band-aid?" Jesse asked, cringing at the sight of Walt's severely burned skin.

"No," Walter hissed. He pretended that he was immune to pain, but he was secretly in agony. He would probably have to lose that hand, a he had forever lost Gus's recipe. He considered killing Jesse in his anger, but decided that he could still make use of the boy. "Jesse, come with me. We have a scheme to plan."

Jesse nodded and opened the back door. He had forgotten the existence of that door until that moment. Walter grumbled, wishing that Jesse could have just let him in that way so he wouldn't have had to cut himself on the window. He snarled and glared at the idiot boy as he walked out, leaving a trail of blood behind him.