A/N: This note is gonna be quick because I'm typing it on my phone, but thank you for the lovely feedback on my last chapter! I know it's taking longer to post, but I'm happy to say I caved and got unlimited data on my phone so I can (hopefully) update more whenever I'm out of town. So let me know what you think, and enjoy!
Throughout the rest of the week no matter what the weather had been like Alex would pick Norma up at school, making it a new part of their routine. Norma had to say she didn't mind it, it was a whole lot less tiring after a long day in class. And Alex was fine with doing it since it was on his way home from work anyways.
Norma walked up to the car with Elizabeth, smiling at Alex who was waiting for her outside. "You know you should probably wait in the car when you get here." She said, looking around at the girls who would pass by smiling at him. "I think you are kick starting the freshman girls into their last stage of puberty."
"Or I could just come in a mask next time, with Halloween coming up soon I'm sure I could find one that would work." Alex joked.
Norma smiled then looked over at Elizabeth. "This is my friend Lizzy."
"Ah yeah, we took the bus together one year."
"Oh you remember, I'm flattered." Elizabeth joked.
"How could I forget? You're the girl who broke her ankle jumping out of the back of the bus in our fire drill."
"What?" Norma said with a laugh, looking over at her friend.
"Oh god, I must have blocked that out."
"I can see why you two are friends. I offered to help you to the nurses office and you yelled at me and told me you could walk there yourself."
"And then I fell-"
"-Fell again on the walk there." Alex finished, a fake smug look on his face.
"I was in pain, I'm usually not that rude to people who try to help me."
"I figured as much."
"Well we were actually going to ask you if it would be alright for Lizzy to ride home with us?" Norma asked. "I forgot we made plans to go to the diner today so we're gonna walk there from the house instead."
"We're a lot closer to the diner now then it is from the house." Alex said.
"Yeah, but you already drove over here and waited. I didn't want to just bail on you."
"It's fine Norma, I can even drive you guys to the diner on my way home."
"You don't mind?"
"Not at all."
"If you are driving there why don't you just join us." Elizabeth said.
"You two already had plans, I don't wanna get in the way." Alex said.
"We're only going to eat burgers and drink our weight in milkshakes, you won't be getting in the way of anything."
"She's not kidding, that's all we're going for." Norma said. "Come on, you might even have fun."
"Okay, I'll come." Alex said then the three of them got into his car and drove to the local diner.
When they got inside they found a nice booth in the corner of the diner, the girls taking a seat on one side and Alex sitting across from Norma on the other. A waitress quickly found her way over to their table, pulling out a pen and pad.
"Can I get you started on anything?" She asked, pen poised.
"Yeah." Elizabeth said, pointing between her and Norma. "We're gonna do the burger combo."
"Soda or milkshake for the drink?"
"Milkshakes, both strawberry."
"And you sir?" She asked, turning to Alex.
"I'll have the same, chocolate shake though."
The waitress wrote out their order then gave them a smile. "Alright, coming right up." She said, walking off.
"I had you pegged more as someone who orders a water." Norma said, looking over at Alex.
"Normally I would." Alex said while he took off his coat, putting it beside him on the booth seat. "But you said we were coming here for shakes, I had to do it right."
"Well if you are going to keep driving me home I'll have to cut the shakes out myself or I won't be able to fit in the passenger seat."
"If it comes to that I'll just buy some tie downs, you could ride home on the roof."
"That actually sounds like fun." Elizabeth added.
"It's settled then. We'll stop at the store after we eat and get ropes, you can both go up there."
"I think I'll stick to the inside of the car." Norma said with a chuckle. "Less bugs in the teeth that way."
"Oh, you're no fun." Elizabeth said nudging her friend playfully.
"Probably a good thing anyways. I just finished fixing the whole car, I really don't want to sink more money in it to fix a dented roof." Alex said.
"You fixed it yourself?"
"Yeah, mister fix it over here has been working on the thing for nearly a month now." Norma told her.
"I could have done it faster but I had to keep waiting for my next paycheck to buy more parts." Alex said.
"Where do you work?" Elizabeth asked.
"My buddy got me a job at his uncle's store. They sell fishing, hunting and camping supplies. I mostly do the stocking and inventory, dealing with customers is not my strong suit."
"Yeah, you wouldn't want to actually interact with people." Norma joked, making him smile at her.
Their food came not long after and they talked more as they ate. Going over subjects like school, Alex's time in the marines, and him and Norma's home life together. They kept everything very light, most times making playful jokes with each other or sharing funny stories.
"So Alex." Elizabeth said. "Being the sheriff's son you must have to keep a lot of town secrets."
"Yeah." Alex said with a nod, taking a sip of his milkshake.
"Can you give up any?"
"Hhm." Alex said, thinking a moment. "I got one from the home robberies of '84."
"I remember those, they were awful." Elizabeth said, turning to Norma to explain. "That summer alone we had fourteen different house robberies. Someone would sneak into the houses undetected and take only a few items, no real patterns to what they were stealing. And the crazy thing is they never caught who was doing them either."
"Technically they did catch the culprit."
Elizabeth looked at Alex, shocked. "Are you serious?"
"A rookie cop made the bust. He was out at one on the houses that had just been broken into on a rainy day just like this. He noticed some dried mud on the cement in the basement, going outside to where it could have came from. In the yard there were prints that led all the to the fields behind the home, he followed them till he found the one behind all the crimes. A stray dog."
"What?" Both girls said in unison.
"It turned out the dog had been sneaking into people's crawl spaces and grabbing whatever it could fit in it's mouth then going off to bury them."
"That is hilarious." Elizabeth said, her and Norma both laughing. "Why wouldn't they want to share that story?"
"My dad didn't want to admit to the town that he had been outsmarted by a schnauzer."
"I can not believe that. If ten year old me would have known it was just a dog I wouldn't have spent so much time going around the house and making sure everything was locked."
"So what ever happened to the dog?" Norma asked. "I'm assuming since they wanted to keep it quiet he wasn't taken away in two sets of little handcuffs."
"The officer that found him took it in. Not allowing the dog to leave the house without being on a lease of course."
"Wait." Elizabeth said, thinking a moment. "Frankie, officer Nelson's dog?"
"Named after Frank Abagnale."
"I knew I saw that dog take my mom's little garden gnome out of my yard when he went by on a walk. My parents wouldn't believe me when I told them, they thought I broke it and hid it somewhere."
"Feel free to tell them they were wrong, I'll back you up if they still don't believe you."
"Oh, it's alright. I've done enough bad things they didn't catch me for that make up for it." Elizabeth said as the waitress walked back over to their table.
"Here's the check. And I'll clear some of this stuff out of your way." She said, setting down the bill on the table and taking their empty plates with her as she left.
Alex and Norma both reached out to grab the bill and bumped hands, pulling back. "Alex, you don't have to pay." Norma told him. "We invited you."
Alex smiled and grabbed the check. "I wanna. You always pay for the things we eat at home."
"It's not like that's actually my money, it's what your dad gets for taking care of me."
"Still, you do all the shopping and planning for it." He said as he took out his cash and left enough for the bill and a tip.
"Well I know you are both too proud to want to let someone else pay but I'm happy for a free meal." Elizabeth joked. "Thank you Alex."
"No problem." Alex said, standing up. "I'm gonna run to the bathroom quick before we go." He said, walking away from the table.
Elizabeth watched for him to be out of earshot then turned to Norma. "The new and improved Alex Romero."
"What are you talking about?" Norma asked.
"He's like a completely different person than he was when we went to school together. He actually talks and he is super nice, not to mention how much hotter he's gotten."
"You think he's hot?" Norma asked with a look of concern, her tone sounding worried.
"Don't give me that look, you know I'm not going for him. I already got my heart set on Rick, and even if I didn't I would never do that to you."
"What do you mean, do that to me?"
Elizabeth chuckled. "Come on Norma, you are totally smitten with him."
"I am not." Norma defended.
"Why are you pretending you aren't? You already admitted it to me once."
"That was a momentary lapse in judgement. And that's when I thought he might be into me, which clearly he isn't."
"It's funny, I never took you for clueless." Elizabeth said, smiling at her.
Norma looked behind them and saw Alex coming back. "Shush now, he's coming back."
"You girls ready to go?" Alex asked, walking up beside them.
"Yeah, we're ready." Norma said, hopping up from the booth.
After they left the diner Alex drove to Elizabeth's house, dropping her off before they headed home. On the ride back Norma looked over from the passenger side and smiled at him, he felt her eyes on him and glanced over.
"What?" Alex asked, looking back at the road.
"Nothing." Norma said with a laugh. "I just thought it was sweet how nice you were to Lizzy."
"Why is everyone so surprised that I can be nice to people?"
"I'm not surprised. I know that behind that cranky exterior is a pretty good guy."
"Now you're the one being sweet." Alex said sarcastically as he turned into their driveway, putting his car in park.
"I'm just saying I like that you get along with her. I've had friends in the past who wouldn't do well with my other friends, and it always caused problems."
"Friends?" Alex said, looking over at her with a smirk. "What makes you think that we're friends?"
"Face it Alex, we're friends now. You're stuck with me."
"I guess there could be worse people to be stuck with."
Norma reached over and playfully shoved his arm. "Thanks for the compliment." She said then they looked over as a car pulled in beside them, noticing the cruiser. "That's weird, David said he wasn't going to be home till late tonight."
Alex turned off his car and got out as his father walked over to him. "Where have you been? I just went driving all over looking for you." David asked.
"I picked Norma and her friend up from school, then we went out to eat at the diner." Alex said, nodding over at Norma as she got next to him. "Why? What's going on?"
"I need you to do something."
"What's that?"
David glanced over at Norma. "Can you give us a minute?"
"Yeah, I'll just go inside." She said, walking off and heading into the house.
"Seriously dad, what's going on?" Alex asked.
"I need your help."
"Are we finally going to build that treehouse together?"
David ignored his joke and went on. "I need you to deliver a package for me to Tim Martin. You know who that is?"
"Yeah, I went to school with his son Jerry. But why am I doing it, isn't that what the postal service is for?"
"This isn't something I can ship."
Alex glared at him suspiciously. "What is it then?"
"There is a shed about half a mile east of Ladyface, if you go straight through the woods you will come up on a tent."
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell it is you are trying to get me to do."
"I wouldn't be asking you to go if I didn't really need your help. It would not look good for me to be seen near there and I don't trust anyone other than you, you're the only one who can handle it." David said, making Alex's expression softened a little. "Please just go and pick up the package then bring it to Tim, I promise I won't ask you to do anything ever again."
"Okay, fine."
"Thank you, son." David said, putting a hand on his shoulder a moment.
"Can you not tell Norma about this? I don't want her asking me questions about whatever you're having me do. Maybe say we fought and I went somewhere to cool off."
"I won't tell her." David said then Alex turned around and got back into his car.
It was about a fifteen minute drive to get to Ladyface. Alex had been there before when he was younger, knowing exactly what was being hidden from the rest of the world beyond the fields. He drove the path that only a few knew of that led him right to the shed, pulling up near it and turning off his car. He took a deep breath then got out, walking straight through a wooded area till he came up on the tent. Before he could get all the way over to it he was stopped by the sound of a gun cocking behind him, within seconds the man was in front of him with his pistol pointed toward his head.
Alex looked the man over, he couldn't have been much younger than him. "You know if you don't drop that gun you are going to have a really big problem on your hands." He said, staring at the man.
"From where I'm standing it looks like you're the one with a problem right now." The man said, putting up what Alex had to assume was his tough guy act.
"Put your gun down dumbass, that's Romero's kid." Another man said as he walked out of the tent, coming over to them while the other man let his arm drop. "Sorry, the new kid is trigger happy." He said, looking at the other guy again as he swung his gun back and forth by his side. "Stop swinging that thing around Zane. It's a firearm, not a damn toy."
"Sorry Remo." Zane said with attitude, stopping the movement.
"The package is in the tent. How big is your trunk?" Remo asked.
"I have a Camaro." Alex said.
Zane looked over at Remo and chuckled. "It's a good thing he's short." He joked.
"What?" Alex asked, confused.
"Wait right here." Remo said then they walked to the tent. They came back a few moments later with a man whose arms were tied behind his back and had a cloth bag over his head.
"Who the hell is that?" Alex asked, looking at them in shock.
"He's the package." Zane said, pulling the bag off of the very unhappy looking man. "Enjoy this fresh air while it lasts Trent." He mocked then the man turned his head and spit in his face. Zane lifted up his fist, ready to hit the man when Remo stopped him.
"You know what the boss said, we deliver him unharmed." He said as he added a gag to the mans mouth and put the bag back over his head.
"Are you guys crazy?" Alex asked, looking between the both of them. "Because you must be if you think I am bringing some hostage to your boss."
"You aren't bringing him to our boss. And this man is a traitor."
"I don't care who he is, I'm not doing this." Alex said and started walking away when he spoke again.
"What if I told you this man tried to kill your father?"
Alex stopped, turning back around to them. "What?"
"David found him outside your home in the middle of the night a couple days ago. He was wandering around the house, looking for the best place to leave his pipe bomb. He wasn't smart enough to realize your father wasn't even home yet, had he not pulled up and saw him things would have played out much differently. He didn't care that you were in the house, or the girl that is living with you. He was going to kill you all, you and everyone you have left in this world."
Alex stared at him, thinking about what could have happened. "Hand him over." He said, pulling the man by his arm roughly.
"You know where you're taking him?"
"Yeah." Alex said and without another word he started dragging the man along with him.
Alex drove across town to the warehouse, parking out in the lot. He got out of his car and went around to the back, opening up the trunk. He reached in and grabbed the man out, getting him onto his feet and shutting the trunk. He looked at him a moment then pulled off his bag.
"If you try to spit on me I will hit you before the saliva even leaves your mouth." Alex said before pulling his gag off.
"So, you're Sheriff Romero's boy?" Trent asked as they started walking toward the building, Alex ignoring him. "Ah yeah, you got that quiet thing from him too. He likes using that trick on people. Makes you look scary, right?"
"Stop talking to me."
Trent chuckled. "He sure can talk when he needs to though, can't he? Judging by your reaction when you saw me he had to talk you into even showing up. So what was it, you two have some falling out? I bet it was all his doing."
"Don't you understand the term stop talking?" Alex said, regretting the decision to take off his gag.
"He must have fed you something good to get you to do this. Did he use the whole you are the only person I can trust to do this bit? Make you feel special, maybe like if you did this he might finally see you as something." Trent said with a laugh. "Like that would ever happen."
Alex stopped walking and tossed him to the ground, hitting him as hard as he could in the face several times. "I told you to shut up." He said, shaking off his hand before reaching down and pulling him back up.
The rest of the walk to Tim Martin's office was quiet, aside from a few moans from Trent. Alex walked straight inside and pushed him into one of the chairs.
Tim looked over at the man then back at Alex. "What happened to his face?" He asked.
"He fell." Alex said.
"Alright, we'll go with that."
Alex didn't waste much time sticking around there, heading straight home. He opened the front door quietly, hoping no one would even notice he was there yet. He walked out into the kitchen and went to the freezer, finding a frozen bag of peas and setting them on his sore hand.
"You know if you were going to skip out you could have told me, I would have had you pick up some more milk on your way back." Norma said, walking into the kitchen behind him.
"Sorry." Alex said turning to her.
Norma looked down and noticed his hand. "What happened to you?"
"I had to kick the shit out of somebody."
"You got in a fight?" Norma asked, shocked.
"It was a little more one sided than that."
"Let me see it." Norma said, walking toward him.
"Norma, it's fine."
"If it's fine you won't mind showing it to me."
"Okay." Alex said with an exhale, lifting the bag of vegetables off his hand.
"Oh my god." She said, gently taking it into her hands. There were bruises already formed, and dried blood from his cuts and what she figured was the other person's face. "We have to clean this."
"It's not that bad."
"Yes it is." Norma said, letting go of him and heading to the downstairs bathroom to get a first aid kit. "Sit." She said, walking back into the room and setting it on the kitchen table.
"You don't have to-"
Norma cut him off. "Sit." She said then he pulled out a chair and sat down. She sat next to him, pulling her chair close to him and putting a leg on either side of one of his.
"Where's my dad at?" Alex asked while she picked through the kit.
"He went back to work."
"Of course he did." Alex said then Norma took an alcohol wipe to his hand, making him wince.
"Calm down tough guy." Norma said, smiling at him. She wiped away all the blood then grabbed out a wrap, starting to spin it around his hand. "Why did you have to kick the shit out of somebody?"
"I had my reasons." He said as she finished up, clipping the hooks onto his wrap.
"What is it with you?" Norma asked, looking right at him. "One minute your being open and actually talking to me honestly, and the next you are completely closed off again."
Alex looked down at his neatly wrapped hand. "Thank you for helping me." He said then stood up, leaving the room without saying anything else.