Norman felt like the world's biggest hypocrite as he let Carter kiss him. The cop attempted to remove Norman's dress shirt, but it was then that the brunette finally pushed him away.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

The other man sighed and looked away from him as he said, "Do you care about me?"

Carter rolled his eyes. "Not this shit again…"

Jayden shook his head and closed his eyes. "Fine, forget it."

Blake sighed. "Alright, alright. I care about you, okay? Why do you constantly need to be reassured of it?" he asked honestly.

Norman scoffed. He rose from the bed and went for his briefcase on the other side of the room. He extracted the folded piece of paper he'd previously found in Carter's bathroom an hour ago and tossed it to the black-haired man on the bed.

"What's this?" he asked in confusion. Norman stared at him expectantly as he unfolded it. After realizing what he was holding, he looked back up.

"This looks bad, doesn't it…" he said guiltily. It was then that Jayden finally lost it.

"Oh, yah think? Yah think it's bad, do yah?" he said loudly. He wasn't quite yelling, but his voice was raised. "Fuck you, Blake. One second you 'care about me' and the next you're pulling shit like this!"

Blake stood up. "It wasn't me, Norm. I swear –"

"Then what is that? Yah had business with the FBI at the exact time when I got suspended, huh? What a coincidence!" Now he was yelling.

Carter shook his head in exasperation. "Look, I can explain it, okay?"

Norman gave a laugh of hysterical disbelief. "Is that so? So, just so I can get it straight, you're gonna try to convince me that yah didn't send th' FBI the tape of me lettin' a suspect go so I'd get fiyahd. You knew I'd come bahck t' Philadelphia!" he had one hand on his hip and the other against his forehead. "You knew I'd come bahck, so yah tried to get me fiyahd so you could keep FUCKING me." He spat the second-last word at Blake, unable to control his hatred. Carter could hardly understand him, his accent was so thick when he was angry.

They were silent for a moment while Norman tried to calm down and Blake tried to think of a way to explain himself.

After a moment, Jayden said, "So, yah got an "explanation", or what?"

Carter scoffed. "What, so you can call me a liar?" Jayden ignored him. "Okay, you know what I did? I tried to transfer you to the police department. We had a surplus in the budget this year, I suggested we get a full-time FBI agent stationed in Philadelphia, and everyone agreed. So I sent them a request to get you. Okay?"

Norman still wasn't having it. "Really. You wanted to fuck me so badly that yah went through ahll that shit. That's so interesting, Blake. That's really great."

"See? I knew you'd do that," the cop pointed out. Norman sighed and shook his head. After a second, he started toward the bedroom door. Blake stopped him again.

"C'mon, Norman, why are you doing this, huh?"

The ex-agent stared at him. "Because you're a selfish piece of shit, Blake. You only care about getting laid and you don't care who you fuck over in the process."

Blake looked away from him, but stopped Norman for a third time when he tried to move past him. "I didn't send them the tape. You know why I did all that shit to get you back?"

"Enlighten me."

"Because I…" Blake covered his face with both his hands as he turned bright red. "I love you."

Jayden almost felt it coming, but was still shocked when the words came to his ears. It took everything inside of him to not believe him, for the sentence was said with such honest pain that Norman could hardly look at him.

"Look," he said finally. "I… I'll be bahck in an hour or so. I just gotta get some fresh air, okay?"

Norman looked back to Carter and saw the pain on his face as he stepped out of Norman's way. He left the house, and, realizing he had nowhere to go, began to walk aimlessly.

He didn't stop walking when it got dark out, not when it turned cold and not when the lights of the city began to go out. He had nowhere to go, so he simply didn't stop.


Norman woke up at noon the next day on a bus stop bench in front of a drugstore. He felt like shit and was freezing his ass off, so he stood up and tried to figure out where the fuck he was.

After a few moments, he gave up – he was in a part of town he couldn't identify for the life of him.

After another moment, he realized that he had neither his phone nor his wallet on him.

The ex-agent, feeling like the stupidest fuck on the face of the earth, considered what to do. In the end, he opted for asking a guy waiting for the bus where they were. He told Norman that they were in South Philly, and to get back to Oak Lane he needed to head north for about a three-hour walk.

"Well that sucks," Norman thought to himself. He thanked the man at the bus stop and headed in the aforementioned direction.

"This is all fucking Blake's fault. If he wasn't suck a prick I wouldn't have left in the first place…" he complained to himself. After fifteen minutes of walking, he'd gotten lost again and had to ask another person how to get to Grey's Ferry.

After resuming his trek back to Blake's apartment, Norman revised his earlier criticism. "What if he really is telling the truth?" he wondered. "I should've at least given him a chance…"

Jayden was too busy thinking that he almost didn't notice the cop car pull up next to him. He turned towards it and felt his heart rate hit the ceiling. He tried to look casual as the window rolled down to reveal a familiar face.

"Norman?"

"Ash?"

The police officer looked surprised. "Blake's been looking for you since last night… he's pretty worried."

The brunette blushed. "Oh. Really?"

Ash nodded. "C'mon, get in. He's looking for you right now." Norman nodded and did so. "Why'd you go running off in the middle of the night anyways?" he asked bluntly.

Norman sat down and sighed as Ash put the car back in 'drive'. "I… I think he tried t' get me fiyahd."

"What makes you say that?" he asked in confusion as he merged back onto the busy streets of Philly.

Jayden looked out the window, very desperately not wanting to discuss his relationship with Blake with Ash. Seeing no way around it, however, he responded with, "Remember in the OK case, when Mahrs escaped? It was me. I let 'm go. And Blake had it on tape. He sent it t' my supervahsor to get me fiyahd so I'd come bahck to Philadelphia."

Upon saying it out loud, Norman realized how stupid he sounded.

"Uh, w-why would he do that?"

Norman looked away from Ash as he said, "You didn't know we're dating? He wanted me to stay in Philly because of it."

Ash didn't answer. He blushed slightly and turned the car sharply onto the freeway. "I should probably tell you…" he swallowed and Norman turned to look at him in realization.

"It wasn't Blake," they said at the same time.

Ash sighed. "I'm real sorry, Jayden. I didn't realize you'd think it was Blake… I really didn't want to do it, but Perry was making me…"

Norman just nodded, but he wasn't really listening. He was too focused on how much of an asshole he'd been to Carter.

"He probably thinks I'm an idiot… and he told me he loves me! Fuck, how do I manage to screw up every relationship of my life?"

As Ash pulled into Blake's driveway, Norman sighed. "I'll be lucky if he ever speaks to me again"