Much thanks to these awesome four - LabGirl2001, Lady Cougar-Trombone, AllAmericanSlurp, and xxWasabiWarriorAlertxx - for the reviews! (X, I know I still owe you a reply!) I really appreciate it.

Just a few warnings for this chapter before we begin. One of the characters will use an offensive term (not a curse, but still offensive). There are also a few themes that would be hinted at here, including child abuse and a relationship between a minor and someone older, that deserve caution even if they are just mentioned briefly.

Other than that, all chapters, with the exception of one or two, from here on out are personal favorites.

Ten.

An affable waitress in her early fifties was standing beside Leo's table as Jessi walked up to the restaurant. Through the bright glare on the window from the ripe afternoon sun shining over Manhattan, she could make out the woman's fiery red hair and even warmer personality. She was leaning close to the booth where the boy sat, intently listening with a smile as he spoke something to her. She nodded with a chuckle, and then she tapped his shoulder heartily before she left.

Coming in through the door, Jessi observed from the dying friendly smile and the regeneration of that livid look on Leo's face as he glanced at her that he had been long aware of her forthcoming company and was none at all surprised by it.

Jessi sat down across from him at the booth with a half-smirk, half-smile on her lips. She watched him with amusement as he bluntly ignored her presence. He said nothing, only worked through a generous piece of cheesecake on his plate. What interested her further, however, was the lack of hostility in the air. Given, he was still upset, but he wasn't as unwelcoming as she primarily inferred he would be.

Still, it was clear that he wasn't willing to resort into any formalities any time soon.

"You don't seem like a guy who favors wasting any time when it comes to business, so I'll just come right out and say it," Jessi said, her smile never faltering. "I like what I see in you. You look like an amateur, but…" she shrugged, "you have a potential to be a pro. Especially if you keep making smart moves like that zombie drone you've set up in the e-mail you sent Douglas Davenport."

Leo broke off a piece from his dessert with his fork, hunching a bit towards it, before lifting it into his mouth. He leaned back, chewing, and then looked out of the window as if there was no one there with him.

Jessi chuckled. "Look. I can't say I blame you for being so ticked off. You got put into time-out in front of grown people, and that is embarrassing," she said. "But, you have to admit—you're as much to blame. You have a knack for getting yourself into those situations. You know, where people always put you in some place? It even looks like you like it." She stared at him. "Everything starts at home, they say."

Leo wiped off the sides of his mouth with the napkin from the table.

"I mean, it's always been like that so you really wouldn't know any better," Jessi persisted, examining the small menu in front of her. "I personally don't; I've never had any siblings. Glad I didn't. It may not have been as bad if you're the oldest, but Adam's got that taken care of. Middle child, Bree. Middle children, actually, because Chase is in that mix, too, now that you're in the family. If you're the youngest, you just flat out don't have any say in anything. You can try to be in it, but when you're not as talented as they are, all you get are handouts."

The clear shots, she expected to have some effect. However, it seemed like Torrance had taught the boy well as she couldn't detect the slightest hint of reaction from him.

"What are you in the team again?" Jessi shifted into the offensive. She sat up. "Mission Specialist? How is that anyways? Being the guy in the background?"

Nothing.

"The sidekick," Jessi tried again.

Leo checked his watched before cutting off another slice from the shrinking dessert.

"Fourth fiddle?"

Leo continued to chew.

Jessi's smile widened, her brows rising testily. "Token black kid?"

The silverware on Leo's hand fell noisily on the plate as irritation finally got the best of him. "You're ruining my cheesecake experience here, Blackbeard," he expressed exasperatedly. He glared at her steadily. "What do you want?"

"Commission," she answered honestly. "Like I said, you're good. You're skilled. If you pull off a good job, you'll make five figures quick. Do an outstanding job, and you can make six."

Leo chuckled incredulously, shaking his head. "You're impossible," he muttered to himself as he picked up his fork.

Jessi seemed to be more encouraged by his response. "Why not? It sounds like a pretty good deal, if you ask me," she said. "Oh, come on. Get real. You're not going to get that much money waiting on your siblings hand and foot. Nor would you get credit for it."

"Oh, yeah, like working for criminals and sickos is the best thing I could do with my life," Leo quipped sardonically. "Really, Blackbeard. That's a nice argument right there."

Jessi simply shrugged. "What does your intact morality mean to the world anyways?" she asked.

Leo stared at her. "Now I see why you don't have any friends," he commented. "And it actually explains why you're dating your bodyguard who's almost ten years older than you are—which, by the way, in case you neglected to find out about this, that's actually illegal. It might not hurt to remind Hadley Hayes Hunter right there that he could get incarcerated for even paying attention to you."

A smirk tugged at Jessi's lips. "You've been reading up on me," she said.

"I'm just returning a favor," Leo said. His eyes remained fixed on her, letting her know that she could not move him around with a flick of a finger like she did with her lackeys. He knew that was what she wanted to do, to manipulate him into doing something she wanted.

It was ironic, actually, how, above all, she was the one who was not giving him enough credit by failing to acknowledge that he had enough will to resist.

As he tried to look back on his plate, his eyes caught on something that he hadn't noticed there before. Due to Jessi's striped top that narrowed towards her neck, he was offered a clear sight of her shoulders. On the left, he saw a deep scar, the skin that slightly puckered up one shade lighter than the rest. It took on the shape of a thick twig, one that branched out into two less significant but hardly unnoticeable lines.

Jessi noticed his stare. She turned her head to where he looked at, and then smiled forebodingly.

Leo looked up, still upset but also apologetic. "Sorry," he told her sincerely.

"Oh. What, this?" Jessi laughed gutturally. "I wouldn't worry much. I'm not ashamed of it." Her fingers affectionately caressed the lines. "She nearly tore my arm off when she threw that can of beer at me. Well, when both of them did, really. I had to look away the whole time, while the doctors were putting in the stitches." She lifted her eyes up at Leo. "This scar reminds me why I do what I do."

Leo looked away. For a moment, the sympathy he felt for her as he looked into her life through her drawings flooded back to him. This affirmation of his older suspicions moved him to understand why she had set up the couple that had habitually harmed her.

Still, he didn't find it sufficient to justify the anger she seemed to take out on everybody else.

"The world out here is not a fairytale," Jessi said. "I have a feeling you know about that."

The reference to what happened to his father was not lost on Leo. Nonetheless, he disregarded it. She was still using it to her advantage, he knew, and that was unfair. "I don't forge alliances with people who hide who they are," he insisted.

"Who said anything about alliances? That's something that comes after you've learned to control people," Jessi said. "If you know how to do that, the rest just follows."

"And you would know something about that," Leo stated.

Jessi laughed. "Well, I've been told that I'm pretty good at it," she said. She sighed. "It's messy business, really. Corrupting someone, I mean. They resist, every time. But I can do it." She tilted her head playfully as she frowned. "I'm not as good a hacker as Torrance but I think, if I really felt like it?" she smiled at Leo, "I can mess with your siblings' heads, too. All I need is access to their chips, right? And I can make them dance whenever I want them to." She eyed him warningly. "I can change everyone, Leo. I can corrupt even you."

Leo maintained indifference even in the face of tangible danger. He couldn't let her—even himself—on that the additional threat to his siblings worried him. He scoffed instead. "That Krane guy really got you under his thumb, huh?" he said.

Jessi smiled. "You know about Victor Krane?" she asked. Leo didn't respond. She turned her attention back to the menu on the table. "Wouldn't hurt to know someone like him. He does good business. You might even want to consider working for him to bolster up your track for future employers."

"No, thanks. Working for my stepdad's done a lot of that for me," Leo said.

Jessi nodded. Leo thought that there must have been something in what he said that turned and clicked something within her, because all the malice that had always dominated her expression suddenly changed to hurt. It wasn't very obvious, but he had learned to read people enough to know that it was there, right in the undercurrents. She smirked, but instead of getting irritated, he felt pity for her. "You know he's never going to love you as much as he loves them, right?" she asked.

Leo thought about lying, but in the months that he was gone he had learned too to face the facts and deal with them when it was presented to him. So, he smiled a small but honest smile. "I do," he said. He turned to his right, to the side of the booth where his jacket was. He unzipped the pocket, and from there he drew out the tarnished and wrinkled piece of paper he retrieved from under the sink at the Nash's residence a lifetime ago. "By the way, I need to return this to you," he said, sliding it towards her.

Jessi picked it up. When she read it, along with the fresher inscription filling the once empty space, her smirk gradually diminished into nothing.

Luke Berwyck

(904)831-8059 xt. 323

"Where'd you find this?" she asked.

"Not important," Leo said. "But what's important is that he's looking for you. Been looking for you, actually. While you're out burning bridges, your biological dad's been building them just to find you."

Jessi stared at the paper, seemingly unsure how to approach it. "How'd you know?"

"I just asked around. It's amazing what you can do with the right resources," Leo said. He stood up then. He slipped on his jacket. "You should try using your connections for useful things sometimes. You might need the good that comes out of it." He smirked at her. "I know you think you're the Queen of Darkness, Blackbeard, but get real. The Underground is no fairytale either."

With that, he left.

Jessi sat at the booth, staring at the paper as the world melted into oblivion around her. She had forgotten about it and was quite glad that she had. It had been one of those beacons of hope that failed her, especially at that point in time when she desperately needed someone to rescue her out of the misery that surrounded her. The completion of this search would have been a wish come true three years ago; now, it was only a query that would continue to haunt her everywhere she would go.

She wondered if she should call the number, but then a seemingly more important question piqued her interest: how did that boy find that piece of paper? If she was able to hide it successfully from those two horrid beings she had lived with without them finding it, how did he?

Unless…

The half-smile, half-smirk that frequented her lips came back upon it. Her eyes brightened. Of course. She was right about him. He might have thought it was all flattery, but her observations were true.

He was fit for business in the Underground.

She drew out her phone with a renewed sense of joy then pulled up her messages. She nestled closer to the warmth of the cushioned seats as she added six people from her contacts as recipients of a new message.

09/26/14, 1:49 PM

Potential recruit. 16. M. Intermediate/Advanced computer skills. Advanced technological knowledge + capabilities.

She paused to think of additional information. When it came to her, her smile widened dangerously.

Offers physical access to Davenport Industries. Bids? Y/N

After she waved the waitress over, three text messages came through. Two N's.

One inquiry.

From: J. Khan

09/26/14, 2:01 PM

What is the extent of access?

She shrugged. She addressed it to the remaining four.

09/26/14, 2:01 PM

Close to Donald Davenport without drawing suspicion.

She sent it.

It took a few minutes for the replies to come, so she spent that time looking over the menu. When her phone vibrated, she flipped it to face her.

Her smirk grew dim and lethal.

From: V. Krane

09/26/14, 2:17 PM

Willing, unwilling?

09/26/14, 2:18 PM

Unwilling.

Her phone vibrated again soon after.

From: V. Krane

09/26/14, 2:19 PM

Take him.

Jessi sighed contentedly. She went back to perusing the menu, now blatantly ignoring the few late takers texting her. "Like you ever had a choice in the first place," she muttered as she thought of Leo's rejection of her demands.

to be continued.