Note; This chapter is kind of depressing... Warning in advanced... Buuuuut I decided to have it be a focus on Riley and Hunter, with some more Jayden. I'm going to be at my Grandma's this weekend so I don't know if I'll have internet or not... if not then I'll have more chapters up when I get home. Anyway, enjoy. ^^
And thank you again for more positive feed back. :D
Disclaimer; I do not own any characters from this game. They belong to Quantic Dream... Except for Riley... He's mine. XD
Warnings; This contains spoilers from the game. There is violence, drug reference, and mature content in future chapters.
Pairings; Carter Blake x Norman Jayden
Chapter IX
"This is great; well I should head back to my room… I'll start working on some stuff and talk to you, if you have anything you want to know about the Ghost case I can probably weasel some information out of Hunter." Riley said moving towards the door of Madison's room, she arched a brow and watched him about to leave.
"Weasel information out of him. How exactly?" She asked in curiosity.
"Get him drunk is the best way actually." He said with a small laugh running a hand through his hair, he really wanted a hair cut at the moment.
"I see, I guess it works out being a reporter who lives with an agent." She said with a small smile, Riley nodded.
"It definitely has its perks. Though sometimes he can be an asshole about it, when something's really top secret I can't get into his mind no matter how drunk I make him." Riley said with a shrug.
"Well I guess that makes sense, it would be bad if he could leak top secrets so easily, I feel like that would make him a bad agent. Good for people like us but bad for the government. How'd you two meet and become friends anyway?" Madison asked in curiosity, Riley stopped at the door and looked over to her with a small smile.
"Well, I was following up on a case and Hunter was the one running it. So of course I barged my way into his life, he hasn't been able to get rid of me sense." Riley said with a small laugh. "But I should really get going, I need to catch Hunter before he goes to bed, usually when he gets home he falls asleep in minutes… He's rather lazy surprisingly." Riley said with a shrug. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Alright, bye."
"Bye." Riley said back walking out of the room and heading towards the stairs so he could go to the level below and get back in his room, he looked over the railing and spotted Hunter's car with a large smile on his face. 'Oh great timing! Now I can tell him the good news!' He picked up his speed so he could make it look like he'd been busy for when the man got home.
Walking in the room he opened the folder and spread the papers around, hopping on the bed he looked around and grabbed a pencil from the nightstand, grabbing a notebook that was there he quickly flipped it open and began to scribble thoughts down to make it look like some research before he boredly looked over the papers. Hearing the door open a large smile came across his face as he looked up towards the agent. "Someone else knows about his addiction!" Riley exclaimed in excitement as Hunter walked in the door. Hunter looked at the papers sprawled out on the bed and gave a soft sigh as he flopped down in the chair in the room.
"Your point?"
"Well they'll take it away right?!" Riley asked shifting around on the bed before writing something down in a notebook, Hunter watched him carefully unsure if now was the best time to tell him.
"No." Hunter said flatly, he watched as Riley's form went rigid. His gaze turned into a glare which was now burning holes in the notebook in his hand. He tightened his grip on it and the pencil listening to it snap he looked up and over to Hunter who boredly fixed a crease in his pants.
"What?" Riley hissed under his breath.
"They'll pull some publicity stunt; say that Jayden is getting help for his problem. Meanwhile he'll be stuck with paperwork until the press calms down."
"But… he's a drug addict!" Riley snapped standing up on the bed clenching his hand around the broken pencil.
"Yeah, and the drug is issued by the government, Riley, they can't just take it away from him. They'd have to do it to everyone, which then we'll have more people killing themselves or dying from over exposure to ARI." Riley jumped off the bed and walked over to Hunter, glaring down at the man who leaned back in the chair. "That's why I declined testing ARI; I've seen what it does to people before tripto got involved."
"That's bullshit!" Riley snapped leaning closer to Hunter, grabbing the man's tie and pulling the man closer to himself, their noses were basically touching as Riley's glare intensified.
"That's the government for you." Hunter replied idly. "Besides, Jayden's apparently getting his use under control." Hunter added, knowing not to fight against the young genius, the results could be disastrous, especially while he was holding a make shift weapon. "So, I heard you led Jayden to Madison."
"I want results, I'm bored! At least when I worked with agents I had insight! Now… now I'm stuck here! Lying and pretending to be a reporter! I fucking hate reporters!" Riley sneered in the man's face. "I figured if I gave them something then I wouldn't be as bored! And I get nothing! Absolutely nothing! Till Madison arrived that is, then I finally was going to get involved, I could rub Jayden's nose in something only to find out that nothing will happen!" Riley snapped in annoyance. "He's supposed to be mine! My cop! How can I enjoy killing him properly if I can't even find anything against the guy! I can't do it, Hunter! I said I could! I said I could kill him, but I have no real reason. Sure he brought me in; he imprisoned me in that god damn cell but it's not enough!" Riley stated in pure rage as he pulled his face back from Hunter's. "I can't kill him without just cause; I mean killing him would ruin everything we worked for! How can we prove a point if I kill someone because I want to instead of… well a real reason? He doesn't beat suspects, or seduce them, he's too fucking logical, and too god damn noble! His tripto was all I had on him, Hunter! I'm desperate!"
"I think you're mad at him for testing your equation, not because he brought you in." Hunter stated in a bored tone, Riley moved his hand and stabbed the pencil deep into Hunter's shoulder listening to the man cry out in pain.
"Don't remind me about that!" Riley snapped feeling the agent's blood on the side of his hand; Hunter winced and grabbed the arms of the chairs deciding against retaliating.
"You know it's true though." Hunter said in pain, Riley let go of the pencil watching the other half of it fall on the ground. Hunter's hand quickly went to the pencil and he pulled it out with a gasp in pain, he quickly applied pressure to the wound as he stood up, moving towards the bathroom to tend to the wound.
"He didn't even hit me when I tried to push him over the edge… why is he such a goody-two-shoes?" Riley asked under his breath, not even paying attention to his partner in crime. "Maybe… maybe you can push him?" Riley asked looking towards the bathroom.
"I could… But do you really think he'll do what you want him to?" Hunter asked Riley sat down on the bed and shoved all the paper work off; he laid down and started up at the ceiling, making shapes in the texture.
"No… What are you doing anyway… at work I mean?" Riley asked in a calculating tone.
"I'm watching him, making sure he's staying under control… I can find more cops at the station too." Riley pouted his lips as he rolled over on his stomach and stared out the sliding glass door.
"Watching him?"
"His ARI was updated, people have been having problems with it, they decided to take me off my leave and make me watch Jayden. They're beginning to worry he might kill himself too."
"Too?" Riley asked looking towards the bathroom as Hunter walked out, shirtless with some gauze taped over his wound.
"Clay killed himself." He explained sitting on the bed, Riley sat up and looked at him, crawling over to Hunter, he lightly trailed his fingers over the gauze kissing it gently, as if to make up for his outburst earlier. Hunter just shrugged him off.
"Why?" Riley asked moving away from Hunter, sitting on the other side of the bed.
"He was tired of what he looked like… I mean his wife left him, he couldn't go out in public without people staring at him… oh and his kids are afraid of him. I don't blame the guy." Hunter said with a shrug as he laid down on the bed, Riley looked over to the man and examined the burn scars that took over the right side of his chest and trailed down his bicep, he inched closer and ran his fingers over the scar tissue in awe.
"I didn't mean to get his face." Riley stated bluntly. "He moved… I was going to get his neck and chest, when he jumped back however it got his face." Riley said softly, feeling like he needed to explain it, Hunter grabbed Riley's hand and looked over to him noticing the slight conflict in his eyes. Riley pulled away and covered his face with his hands, trying to hide the tears that flowed down his face. Hunter sat up and watched him as he silently sobbed. "I didn't mean for any of that to happen… how'd he do it?" Riley asked utterly distraught from the news.
"He took a vial of triptocaine while in ARI." Hunter said watching Riley shake.
"I killed my best friend." Riley sobbed; Hunter sighed as he moved over and placed a reassuring hand on Riley's shoulder. He never understood why the man got so emotional when cops came into the picture; he could understand Clay, but everyone else? They were all the same, violent and ignorant. They used their badges as a pass to do whatever the hell they wanted, their titles even, a reason he refused to call anyone by their title. He glared ahead at the wall ignoring Riley as the man cried his heart out over the news of his friend. It was always weird to see Riley like this, he was so cruel and cold when reporters were in the picture, yet when they killed all those cops he never did anything to help, he didn't even touch the lye he just stood by and watched like a helpless child. There was never any anger in his eyes, yet in the interrogation he was able to act like killing the cops was nothing. Even though when the camera was off and Jayden was out of the room he'd stare at the pictures of his fallen comrades and cry until he passed out from exhaustion. "So… you'll be seeing Jayden a lot?" Riley asked snapping Hunter out of his thoughts.
"Yeah… I have to watch the guy like a hawk." Hunter said moving away from Riley and getting comfortable in the bed as the man wiped the last of his tears away.
"Good… Tell me how he's doing when your work is done… I'm going to go out…" Riley said getting up and slipping his coat and shoes on. Hunter didn't even bother to watch him as the man turned the light off. "I'll be back later."
"Be careful." Hunter said with a heavy sigh.
"I always am." Riley added walking out into the bitter cold of the night air.
--
Jayden's eyes shot open as pain surged through his body, he gasped and rolled off the bed. His hands shook as he pulled himself to his feet. His skin became paler with every second as he made his way towards the closet. He collapsed on the floor, his eyes went wide as he felt a cool breeze blow over his shaking form, he could feel blood ooze out of his nose as he forced himself to crawl the rest of the way. He struggled opening the closet and located his suitcase, he fumbled with it for a while until he finally was able to open it. His hands desperately searched for a vial of tripto, his sunken eyes shifted towards the suitcase as he couldn't find his salvation from his pain. He gave a strangled cry and stopped searching, the pain was becoming unbearable. "Where… where is it?" He asked not expecting an answer.
"Blake obviously took it… Is it really worth the humiliation and the pain?" He lazily opened his eyes and looked towards the man who stood over him, surprised to see it was himself.
"No… He only took two of my vials." Jayden said desperately going back to his pointless search, pulling the clothes out of the suitcase in a desperate attempt to find his drugs.
"He must have taken it while you were dozing off." Jayden put his head down in defeat, he needed it, his tripto, he pulled himself away from the suitcase and pulled himself up to his feet. Stumbling he made his way to the bathroom; he needed to splash water on his face, maybe that would help? He leaned against the sink grabbing onto it tightly in attempt to stop his shaking hands, he looked at himself in the mirror noticing that he was bleeding out of both nostrils instead of one.
"Shit…" He said breathing heavily as he moved his hand to the dials turning the cold water on, he watched it run and did his best to stable himself so he could let go of the sink. Doing so his knees buckled under him and he found himself to fall onto the floor, his vision started to spin as he found himself staring at clouds. Instead of lying on tile he found himself laying in some grass, he watched as birds flew through the sky making an arrow shape. A pained expression was plastered on his face; he blinked as he found a silhouette to block his vision of the sky.
"Jayden?" The voice sounded so familiar but he couldn't place it, he gave a pained groan and covered his face with his hands, panting in pain. He didn't want to move he just wanted to lay there; maybe he'd just die now, that would be nice. To just have it all be over… it would be like falling asleep, there were no worries here on the plateau… just himself. "Hey… stop being lazy, Norm... you have a big day ahead of you." He moved his hands and looked up at the silhouette.
"Clay?" Jayden asked pain audible in his voice.
"You can't give up now. You have to find Riley, catch him for me, okay?" Jayden watched the silhouette move out of his way, then watched him turn and start to leave.
"Wait… Clay! Why'd you do it?" Jayden called after him, watching as he seemed to have disappeared. "Clay?" He asked softly, slowly closing his eyes, "Why'd… you…" He wasn't able to finish the question before passing out on the bathroom floor.
