Poor Reggie had been practically worrying through his cuffs by the time Jackie finally rejoined him. Her mood having improved considerably since he first lost sight of her. And when he'd been eager to get her back to her den and well away from that Sinclair fella, Jackie went without a fuss. Although she now observed Reggie's mother hen behaviour with a new found distrust. If he was aware of this shift Reggie gave no such indication and instead overflowed with unspoken relief to see she was alright and her mood better than previously. That and there didn't seem to be any blood to clean up.
"Reg, darling," Jackie began sweetly, almost able to see the exact moment where Reggie's relief came full circle to anxiety again. "Be a doll and tell Fontaine I won't be around this evening won't you?"
"Ma'am..." Reggie pleaded without saying the exact words. Using his tone and those normally steely eyes of his turned soft to beg. It was actually rather endearing but it did nothing to make Jackie want to change her mind. If anything it was little more than the icing on top of the cake. Smiling with enough sugar to rot a mouthful of healthy teeth Jackie tenderly pat Reggie's cheek. "Don't wait up, sweetheart."
With that she made a beeline for Cohen's fun house.
As much as one could make such a path through underwater tunnels and transports that was. She's gotten rather good at getting to Eve's garden in remarkable time as of later. No matter where she was in Rapture Jackie could have pointed out the easiest, fastest way to that particular establishment.
Would have made good time had she not been waylaid by one of the lads on the way there. Jackie had no time for whatever shiny-toothed Jerry had to say. His offers of extra company had gone beyond being entertaining and now landed squarely in the range of intolerable and so when she brushed him aside for the tenth time it was without a shred of kindness to soften the rejection. It was difficult to feel particularly generous with him when he was distracting Jackie from the real object of her affections.
Now she could have probably put an end to Jerry's pestering with a comment on which team she was batting for, but other than that little detail ruining some of her personal con, Jerry would likely flash those pearly whites and suggest he join. As if he could somehow add anything by virtue of his genitals. A hard pass Jackie decided.
But finally she was free of that bleached set of teeth and found herself meeting with a more welcome sight. Good ol' Timmy mixing her a drink while her favourite gal danced up on stage. Yes, this was exactly what she needed after dealing with that fox Sinclair.
"Still haven't handed in your resignation I see." She commented while sliding into the usual seat at the bar.
Timmy's answering smile was caught somewhere between sheepish and mirthful, still testing the waters there it would seem. She actively encouraged his more impish streak. "Still dragging in enough money to stay a bit longer." He shrugged, passing Jackie a fresh glass without being asked. God he could be a real lifesaver some days. "Thought you ought to start a bit stronger tonight." Timmy went on tossing a purposeful glance back towards the main sitting area. "I hear Ryan might be joining us common folk this evening."
Abruptly Sinclair's claims of her boys being a good set of ears seemed valid and Jackie took a hefty swig of the concoction that Timmy had whipped up for her. He was right, she'd need it.
Uttering a quick word of thanks along with the usual tip and request for anything to do with Cohen's business, Jackie let the boy get back to his day job. Last time he'd come back to her with some information on Miss M's line doing something or another to offend Cohen's sensibilities. Which likely meant she'd be looking to buy from the woman from now on. As well as some new artist turning down Cohen's offers of showcasing, not a big enough splash to have a name for himself just yet but Timmy promised to keep an ear out. Anything to get Cohen's fany knickers in a twist.
Likely Timmy would not be keeping this job much longer and Jackie was willing to admit she'd miss the kid behind this bar, but he'd make use of himself elsewhere - no great loss in the long run.
Then sure enough as she sat there making short work of the first drink, their lord and master came to call.
Jackie's stare was venomous as she watched Ryan enter the garden. Some tiny locked away part of her understood the pointlessness of her aversion of Ryan. But she did nothing to try and dampen the heated dislike that sparked inside of her the moment he came into her sight.
What made it worse was the begrudging respect she might have also held for him. The sort of respect that she'd never share with Ryan himself or her brother. Because she currently sat in his city, the dream he'd made a reality without betraying or killing anyone to get his way. They'd accomplished less and bloodied their hands far more – of course she hated Ryan for making progress in a different way. All the while he stood between Fontaine and what had become the only thing he desired.
On principle alone she must hate Ryan, for her brother's sake if nothing else. Part of her still wondered why Frank never attempted to erase Ryan. All these schemes and games, but never once had the thought of simply stopping Andrew's heart dead in his chest ever come out of her brother's mouth. He spoke of victory as though Ryan would be there to bear witness– perhaps that was exactly what he needed. To have Ryan see the moment he lost. Jackie would have rather they have been a little more practical than theatric in this regard. But Frankie wanted Ryan to see and so Jackie's hands were tied.
However, all that she could have forgiven had he just not had the same eyes as she did. Eyes that he currently only had for Jasmine up on that stage.
Over the rim of her glass Jackie's harsh stare shifted just slightly. Following Ryan's gaze across the floor to the stage where Jasmine danced her heart out. As always she worked that little bit harder when Ryan was spectating.
Silver lining, Jackie was able to see that extra energy as well.
"You really shouldn't look at Mr. Ryan like that." Timmy's cautionary voice murmured at her back. He always warned her against her open hostility. He was right of course, but Jackie couldn't seem to find it in her to stop. How her brother veiled his true thoughts on Ryan was beyond her.
Glancing down at the remainder of her drink as it sloshed around miserably at the bottom of her glass Jackie remarked. "What's he going to do? There ain't no laws against disagreeing with Ryan. Not even a prison to put me in if there were."
Funny that Jackie thought. Where did Ryan expect to put her brother and his smugglers if he ever caught them? Fortunate for him, Jackie thought smirking as she downed the last of the burning drink, they'd never be clever enough to find out.
As if he had some kind of second sense for traitorous thoughts, Ryan's attention momentarily shifted. How it managed to be torn from Jasmine for even a moment was genuinely a mystery. And when his eyes met with hers it took every ounce of self-control to not form a rude gesture with her hand and instead lift her glass slightly. Behind her she could practically hear Timmy's spine snapping up straight followed by a quiet hiss of, "What are you doing?" He was a skittish one.
"Being friendly." Jackie answered through the plastered on smile that dropped the moment Ryan was no longer looking. "Would look bad for the boss if I weren't civil with our owner."
Sighing heavily Timmy slumped against the wooden counter, eyeing his rather questionable employer. She put more money in his pockets than Cohen ever had and Fontaine's business looked able to double that, but the trade off was this. This looming headache and sense of dread coiling in his stomach. He no more wanted to see Ms. Wayne in strife than he wanted to get strung up himself. "If this is your idea of friendly I'd hate to see what you consider unfriendly to look like."
"A grave."
Timmy choked expecting to see Jaclyn follow up with a smile or joke but there was nothing. A little shiver raced down his spine as Timmy recalled that why yes, this was Fontaine's right hand gal. He forgot on occasion, when she'd look at him and smile in a way that seemed soft – genuine.
Perhaps he'd made a mistake agreeing to her offers.
The urge to reassure himself was nearly overpowering. Nervous questions passed through his head, little queries that might have comforted him to hear answers to fake or not. It was a weakness he knew and so Timmy tried not to speak and instead focused on cleaning the glass that no longer needed his attention. Just to keep his hands busy and his mouth shut. One of these days he'd dig himself a hole too deep to climb out of if he kept speaking out of turn.
Cautiously he glanced back up to Ms. Wayne's back. Her attention firmly on the stage and the man that inspired a rather stunning level of hatred in her. He could only watch as the red glow of the garden lights bounced off of that face, catching in her eyes only to deepen the level of contempt shinning back at them. The garden was made to illuminate deep guttural human desires and emotions – they had not been thinking of unadulterated loathing when they rigged up those bleeding colours. Were it not so frightening Timmy might have marveled in how beautiful it was.
He could not risk trying to comfort himself with reassuring questions, but he could at least try to put himself in a position of safety by keeping her satisfied and his nose otherwise clean. "Not sure if you're still interested." He began slowly, waiting till it seemed she was at least lending him one ear. "But there's been some talk about Tenenbaum recently."
"What about the creepy German?"
"They say Sinclair Solutions gave her the boot."
Both ears now.
Ms. Wayne looked away from the object of her attraction and the object of her scorn in favour of facing Timmy. She cared enough about this to focus back on him. Once again Timmy was confused by her priorities, it seemed the business came first. If it affected Fontaine, she'd focus. "What for?" Jaclyn asked, eyes narrowed slightly. "Way I hear it she's a genius, why'd they let someone that valuable go?"
Timmy had to chuckle when he answered. "Ethical boundaries." How could he not laugh? They were in Rapture after all.
It took a moment but finally Jaclyn processed this new information and her reaction was a hefty sigh. "Going to need something a bit stronger, Timmy." She muttered wearily. "Didn't think I'd be dealing with that wretch again so soon. But if there's such a thing as an ethical boundary in Rapture I got to find it."
And because Timmy liked his skin on his bones, he did not dare express his concern upon realizing Ms. Wayne was talking about Augustus Sinclair. Instead he just turned to fetch that drink and continued to keep an ear cocked – he'd need to gather more information for her if he wanted to stay in this nice little safety bubble.
…
…
This time they met in his office.
It was no doubt some form of petty revenge that had Sinclair arriving to find his office not as empty as he'd left it. "Ms. Wayne. I was not expecting you so soon." He greeted cordially, only the slightest weary edge to his words to give away his surprise and discontent.
She on the other hand was smiling, expression all hard edges and teeth.
Jaclyn had made herself at home in his office, lounging comfortably in the seat across from his desk bathed in the red glow of the Sinclair Solutions sing that sat beyond the window. Red bouncing off that sharp expression seemed appropriate, as though she'd just finished pulling herself out of that hole in the ground to the devil's den. Between some of the sorts Rapture played host to she just might have. Although Augustus did not see her as the Persephone sort.
Next Sinclair took note of the fact she's chosen to sit in that specific place rather than behind the desk itself, at his seat. Which would have made for an exceptional power play, if just a touch cliché. If it were anyone else he may have seen this as a basic courtesy to the owner of the establishment, but given it was Ms. Wayne here was loath to take anything at face value. Even if the face she used was a particularly lovely one.
"Not long enough since our last discussion?" She hazarded and Sinclair found himself relieved she wasn't putting much effort into pretenses today.
He on the other hand was not one to give up his manners no matter how disingenuous they might appear. "Not at all. Just a surprise, wasn't thinking I'd find you on my doorstep quite so soon." He would have rathered she actually had stopped at the doorstep as opposed to letting herself in. Now how did she manage that in the first place?
Likely, Sinclair thought with a faintly amused smile – the same way he had pulled the same little circus trick down at the fisheries. With words.
And given she'd not immediately tried to kill him once the door to the office clicked shut behind him, Augustus was willing to bet that wasn't why she'd come to visit. So for the time being it was a civil meeting and the cigar in her hand made him distinctly aware of his lack of one.
"So," Sinclair began, easing down into his seat opposite Jaclyn. The desk between the pair of them seemed to be acting as a well needed separation.
He'd never fully moved beyond the thought that this woman might just attempt to claw his eyes out given half a chance and the smallest provocation. No doubt she was armed as well, somewhere in that neat little number there'd be a handgun pocketed away. The holster Sinclair wore felt just a bit heavier at his side now. A comforting weight that allowed him to speak without so much as a hint of apprehension.
"What can I do for you?"
The words were spoken as though he was liable to do anything without proper incentive. But Sinclair had a feeling this broad wouldn't come acalling unless she thought there was something of worth on the table – so she had his intrigue.
"What do you think of ethical boundaries, Sinclair?" The lady asked and he laughed.
"Nothing more dangerous down in Rapture than talking about 'ethical boundaries' bar flat out communistic mutterings." He didn't take her for the type but Sinclair still raised a brow and asked. "Wouldn't be a red would you – Ms. Wayne?"
Her answering snort of derision was encouraging and Sinclair was able to relax once more as he opened his draw to fetch that cigar he'd been dearly missing.
What was less comforting was the shark like quality her stunning baby blues took on as she calmly responded. "Were I in fact a red, I'd have already gotten a nice little visit from chief Sullivan, isn't that right Mr. Sinclair? I'm not the only one crossing names off my list." A small chill raced down Augustus's spine and he could not quite pinpoint the brand of that response, but the source was right there in those eyes. That looking of knowing, of daring, he'd known Jaclyn to be an information gatherer like himself in many ways, he'd not expected her to so quickly come to know the extent of his communication with Ryan's enforcer. He wondered if she would have greeted him with a gun had this information given her cause for concern, had she come into it before their little deal was struck. The thought was a decidedly unpleasant one and he let it lie.
Easier to manage when in the next moment Jaclyn had eased back into her seat with a careless, very nearly offensively unimpressed flick of her wrist and lazily added. As it is, communism and the like go against human nature in its most basic form – and more importantly against my sensibilities. I don't have the time to pretend I have patience for the practice. No. I ask about ethical boundaries because it seems your company here actually has some."
In answer to her first statement Sinclair simply noted. "The downfall of all great ideologies are the people themselves." He didn't say it aloud but there was a jab at Ryan's great chain in there somewhere. It would not be wasted with Jaclyn and her fleeting wolfish smile was evidence enough that she enjoyed that sly slight on the man. But Sinclair was confounded by the final thing she'd said. "Now what makes you think that?"
It was Ms. Wayne's turn to be coy it would seem. "As I hear it-" And the throwback was not at all lost on Sinclair. "-you let go of that woman Tenenbaum for crossing those boundaries."
Now Sinclair was both tired and uncomfortable. He shifted in his chair, hand running back over his forehead, scuffing the beginning of his hairline as a sigh huffed out of him. "Tenenbaum…" He repeated wearily, having had quite enough of the woman in all honesty. She'd been too loose a cannon, brilliant everyone assured – but likely just as crazy. Seemed the two traits too often came hand in hand. "In Rapture there's no such thing as moral restraints when it comes to business." He conceded and while he'd never in all his life shunned Ryan's stance on such things – Sinclair believed there were such a thing as moderation. "People start getting a bit jumpy if they think they're likely to end up lab experiments. No better for business than letting it be restrained by morality in the first place."
With that given Sinclair once again raised his stare, once again finding himself curious and cautious of Jaclyn in equal measure. "Why the interest in Lady Frankenstein?"
"Been poking around the fisheries." Jaclyn answered with a careless flip of her hand.
She gave the information so easily that Sinclair was inclined to believe she was lying. But that knee jerk response was quickly smothered as he reminded himself they did have a deal on information sharing. He'd given her some and now she returned when asked. "Been spooking the boys something fierce and now she's gone and entered a partnership with Fontaine and the whole thing positively reeks." Wayne went on, spitting the words as though the whole ordeal were somehow an offense to her sensibilities.
Which caused Sinclair to wonder – what were her ethical boundaries; did a woman such as herself have any?
Smiling under his hand as he lit up the cigar Sinclair decided he would find out. Albeit not through the simple means of asking. If they were to be doing business like this frequently enough he'd figure it out before long and not lose the joy of discover by asking flat out. Everyman needed a hobby.
"And you want to know if she's likely to put you out of the job?" He suggested and Wayne's faint chuckle was just a touch disconcerting.
"Not in the slightest. I only mean to find out if she's a liability to Fontaine." Jaclyn explained with a crass shrug.
There was never a question as to where Jaclyn's loyalties lie, nor how resolute she was in them. Her attempts at a self-serving outer appearance were admirable, but Augustus knew what was for one's self and what was not. He'd built his livelihood on knowing where that line was drawn. Ms. Wayne did not seem to see where she crossed it. And this, Sinclair thought without a shadow of a doubt, would be Jaclyn's greatest failing.
So his smile was cordial as he gestured to the bottle of scotch between them. "Well heaven forbid I be one to disappoint. Where would you have me begin?"
This time when she smiled it was all teeth. Nothing but sharp edges and spite. But perhaps for the first time since they met – genuine.
...
...
There were days that were so good it seemed like Fontaine was walking on streets of gold and the rest of them were left slugging around in the mud after him.
He'd be beaming like a damn child by the end of those days, talk of how he'd soon snatch Ryan's city out from under him, bring it all under his own control. Those were the nights that Jackie could sit back with her brother, share a drink and pretend they were still topside and her little monster was just doing any of the usual cons.
She was alone in her reminiscing of course. Frankie no more wished for the surface than he wished for Ryan to suddenly have reality hit him in the face and have him wise up to all the different ways he was enabling Fontaine to outsmart him.
But Jackie found herself missing those old days at the bar more and more. Not the sun, not the breeze – just the laughter and raunchy music on a late night. But she made do with what they had now and on good days, collapsed in the back room snickering over the stupidity of Rapture's elite with Reggie bringing them more than enough drinks – it was enough to pass.
But then there were the bad days.
Somewhere Jackie had heard the turn of phrase, 'When she was good, She was very good indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid.'
If those words hadn't been written for a curly golden haired girl somewhere, they sure as hell would have been written for her brother.
The bottle Frank threw at the wall shattered loudly, sending bits of glass flying in every direction. Before each piece had even landed a book followed it, Frank's hands already reaching for something else to hurl. All the while Reggie stood stiff as a board by the door and Jackie lay sprawled lazily across the lounge's arm, not watching as her brother tossed a fit. She could hear the carnage perfectly well and did not need the visual aid.
Sullivan had been sniffing around again, damn near licking at Fontaine's heels he got so close. They'd managed to catch a few of his men, none of which had anything of real value to show and no directly damning evidence against Fontaine. But it was the implication that would be catching Ryan's attention. He'd proved time and time again to have no trust for Fontaine or indeed anyone who stood in a position to smuggle things in or out of Rapture.
Regardless of how little actual proof there was to implicate Frank to the smuggling ring – the mere fact that Sullivan was getting so uncomfortably close to his boys was enough to get Fontaine's blood boiling.
"That—" Another bottle picked up, another sound of shattering glass. "—fucking idiot!" Frank snarled, the pause in carnage likely due to him exhausting his supply of items in easy range. He'd go looking for more the longer this went on. "I told him didn't I? Discretion. I told him didn't I, Reggie?" He barked, getting a simple yes from the otherwise silent statue of a man.
The reply was unnecessary; Frank wasn't actually listening for one. "But oh no, Wilkins thinks he's managing his boys so damn well. Thinks he can bark at me over wages of all things. You want to get strung up by Ryan's god damn lap dogs, that's one sure fire way to go about it!"
Something new shattered and Jackie winced, wondering what on earth he'd found to break now. Her headache was lending itself to this situation horribly and the longer Frankie went on the more her patience dwindled.
His fingers had just curled around the neck of a mostly empty bottle of vodka when Jackie's slow drawl broke through the raging for just a moment. "Frankie." She called slowly, waving her arm back and forth in the air in the same sluggish manner. "Come 'ere a second, would ya kindly?"
Still not facing her brother Jackie caught the sound of him snarling but a few seconds later she heard the bottle being set down rather than broken against the far wall. A couple more and Frank was standing rigidly by her head, glaring down at her face as she laid over the curve of the lounge.
Frank's body was bound up so tight it was a miracle he hadn't just snapped. Had he they'd be cleaning Peach's blood off the floors rather than the remains of shattered bottles of alcohol. One was easier to clean than the other but Jackie couldn't deny the thought of ol' Peach dead at her feet was not wholly unappealing. However, seeing her brother so tense was decidedly less pleasing.
With a flippant gesture she called her brother down in a way she had a few times in the past. Once when he was only a boy and still suffered from the questions as to why they had no parents to care for them, the first time a con had gone busto, and every single time Frank had drunk himself blind.
It had been quite some time and Frank stood with his eyes narrowed, skeptical of this old tradition being pulled out of the history books after so long.
For a moment Jackie wondered if he'd outgrown the practice. That possibility turning to an excruciating squeeze in her chest, unpleasant and painful to consider. But a moment later Frank let out a hefty sigh, dropping to his knees by the side of the lounge, arm and heads buried against his sister's side a moment later. The vice like pressure vanished and Jackie allowed herself a pleased hum as she ran her fingers across the back of her brother's head gently.
He was still tense, likely would be until he'd been properly able to let off steam but Jackie reckoned she could get him to at least calm down enough to stop breaking things for a while.
"Fuckin' incompetent." Frank groused again, voice muffled by the lounge's cushions but the sour note still came out loud and clear. "Better of hiring a bunch of circus monkeys."
Laughing gently Jackie eased herself upright, careful not to jostle her brother too much and to keep the gentle movement of her hand going. It worked to sooth Frank just a little.
Glancing up Jackie caught Reggie's gaze and with her free hand gave him the silent go ahead to start cleaning up the disaster Frank's fit had left behind. Once Reggie got to it Jackie turned her attention back to her disgruntled brother.
"Enough of that, Frankie." She murmured, voice taking on that familiar note of tenderness that she sweetened up for the masses but only gave genuinely to her brother. "Instead, come tell your big sis again about those crackpot scientists you've got on payroll."
This was a topic of conversation that usually lifted Frank's mood where all else failed. Simply because it was perhaps the most promising of all his enterprises and Frank was nothing if not an excitable kid in Jackie's eyes.
Shifting slightly under her hands, Frank lifted his he'd just enough to peer up at her and if that was just the look of petulance. She couldn't help but laugh again at the sight of it, though Frank didn't seem any more put off by her snickering. "Are you actually going to listen this time or are you just trying to distract me?"
"If I do both would that satisfy you?"
Without awaiting an answer, Jackie positioned herself a little better, to make it easier for Frank to rest his head on her lap as she toyed with drawing imaginary patterns against his skull. It took little more prompting and after a slow start, Frank's bad mood still evident in the tightness lingering in his words, he was talking freely about whatever this ADAM business was.
Jackie was no academic, any intelligence she had crammed into her skull was all street learnt and she was certainly not the brightest spark in terms of higher education. Likely one of the dimmest in Rapture in fact. So she just let Frank's vague explanations of genetic manipulation and seemingly magical underwater sea slugs wash over her. Fortunate for them both Frankie was about as scientific a mind as herself and she knew that the words he was giving her would not have been the ones the eggheads had, all he said to her had been tailored for a common man's ears. She listened of course. More to the excitement that slowly trickled back into her brother's voice than the actual content.
But Jackie did find herself picking up on a few things that struck a cord.
Primarily that this miracle wonder drug would likely be highly addictive and stand to do some serious damage in the long run. Her mind wandered back to Stiff who was no longer quite so stiff in the hands. He'd been on cloud nine after getting those fingers twitching again, but she hadn't heard so much as a whisper of him in months. Frank had shrugged this off, commenting that he'd gone stir crazy and was likely just a raving lunatic by now. Knowing what they did now, Jackie would have put money on it having something to do with the slug that bit him. Stiff might have been a pig but he certainly had all his screws tightly in place last she'd checked them.
"You just keep that German twist at a good arm's length, brother." Jackie advised when Frank took a moment to breathe. "All kinds of horror stories circulating about that one. Heard she jammed a needle straight into some poor sod's groin."
Frank's laughter lacked even the faintest shred of sympathy. Being a man himself Jackie would have thought he would have at least flinched on the sorry bastard's behalf. Not so much as an empathy wince. "Sounds just like something she'd do." He agreed rather than cringing, smirking faintly at the thought and Jackie had to roll her eyes.
"If I didn't know better, Frankie, I'd say you're sweet on her." Despite the hint of teasing, Jackie was all concern with those words.
Her brother would end up narrowing in on a woman like that. It was just like him to be completely and utterly insane when it came to a broad that caught his eye for so much as a second. Jackie did not think she needed to remind him how poorly that had gone over in the past. She'd not be the one cleaning vomit out of his clothes should it go south again.
Rather than give her a straight answer, Frank responded with a snicker of his own. "Ha, I've never been sweet on anyone beyond the sheets."
"Oh now ain't that the biggest lie you've ever told. I can think of a few broads topside you fancied."
Not one of them stuck around for more than a night or two of course. Jackie liked the ones that had a toss with her brother in the sheets and then carried themselves off. A simple spot of fun. It was the ones that thought they'd get attached that left her with headaches.
As if able to read the thought flying across his sister's mind Frank then added. "Yeah, and not one you would approve of."
"Not one you'd have kept if I had." She might have sent girls packing in the early mornings, but only because Frank was usually still dead asleep. He wasn't the type to get close to anyone really. The only exception she could name being Reggie.
With a sigh Jackie relented, allowing the topic to drop. If this Tenenbaum woman ended up being one that caught his attention there was not a blasted thing she could do about it. Frank got his way most days and she couldn't think of a woman that hadn't been won over by him with some pretty lie or another. She'd just hoped he didn't go playing around too much with the ones that had a brain rattling around their heads. This almost never proved to be the case.
"You like the smart ones, brother. The smart ones are the dangerous ones."
It's bad for business she might have added, but Frankie knew damn well the dangers of a clever woman. She'd taught him that early – taught him not to over look a girl because she fluttered her eyes and said sweet little nothings. If she had a working mind and he was busy gawking at her breasts he'd never get far. Her Frankie had to be better than the slack jawed men she played.
"Nothing to worry about on my end, sis." Frank assured her though Jackie still had doubts. "She's crazy alright, but that dame is going to get the ball rolling faster than Peach and his boys. Got the damn key to Rapture growing in her lab she does."
Admittedly it did seem that way. Some magical goo that could completely rewrite a person's genetics. Something that could make them older, younger, stronger, faster, smarter. Anything they damn well pleased. Jackie couldn't have even dreamed that up. But she'd always held true to the belief of 'if it's too good…'. After all Frank had made his livelihood off of giving idiots things that were too good to be true.
Although it seemed Rapture ran almost exclusively on the premise of it being too good. The whole city felt like it couldn't be true and granted it seemed cracks were beginning to show. Even had Fontaine not been supplying bibles, booze and even letters to the surface – the city would have started to crack under the pressure. Ryan didn't see the faults yet and more hopeful men thought he might in time. But Jackie thought he'd see this through until the whole place was sunk.
Unless of course, her brother got ahold of it first.
"For now…" Jackie began, voice hushed to a quiet murmur. "You rest. No running off to check on the progress of scientists or those smuggling boys. No exchanging what are barely concealed slights against Ryan and just rest."
"Anyone would think you'd found a maternal instinct, Jackie. Not exactly following Rapture's philosophy with this 'rest' idea." He teased but Frank wasn't making an effort to go anywhere. Instead he seemed even more comfortable and content to stay leant against the side of the lounge with his sister keeping him comfortable and warm.
"Rapture can have you back when I'm good and ready to give you to it." Jackie chided with a faint smile, waiting for Frank to settle down properly.
She knew when he was relaxed because he'd gone right ahead and fallen asleep where he sat by her side. Must have been the first time he'd actually slept in a long time. Always so busy, always moving – never stopping for a moment least he get trapped with his own thoughts for more than a second. Jackie wouldn't wake him for hours yet, if he got restless she might have Reggie help her get him to bed but she'd not take away the few hours of rest he could manage.
Sighing quietly Jackie leant back against the arm of the lounge, fingers still gently brushing across her brother's head as he slept. "Not so sure it's going to like what you do to it though, Frankie." She mused under her breath. Rapture would just have to handle whatever Fontaine dished it, and once Ryan was out of the picture the only thing this city would have left would be her brother.
Jackie could not think of a better ending for the city of man.
A month later the first plasmid was released to the public.
