Addison awoke surprisingly early, given how she'd only slept nine hours in the past three days. Jerome was still asleep, face hidden under Addison's arm and a hand on her stomach, snoring lightly. She slowly moved her arm and his hand, careful not to wake him. She climbed out of bed and went to brush her teeth and hair with the spare hygiene products she left there in case she needed to get away from her drunken father for a while. After she'd finished in the bathroom, she walked into the living room to find Oliver laying on the couch, watching TV.
"What are you doing up?" She asked him
"Could say the same to you," Oliver shot back, looking up at her. "Y'all fucked in my bed, didn't you?"
"Its Jerome's bed too,"
"Yeah. But I sleep in it,"
"Not like its never happened before," Addison pointed out.
Oliver glared at her and went back to his show.
Addison walked into the kitchen and made herself a glass of water, looking at the time and noticing that Charlie wasn't awake yet.
"Charlie isn't going to work today?" She asked Oliver from the kitchen.
"I don't think so. Probably called in sick so we could all talk to Kristen together,"
Addison nodded and finished her water before heading back to Jerome's room, ruffling Oliver's light brown hair as she walked past. She entered the room to find Jerome still asleep, laying on his stomach with his head tucked under his arm, blocking out the sunlight.
She walked over to the bed and lay down next to him, pulling him closer by his torso, no longer caring if she woke him up. Surprisingly he stayed asleep, only giving a small grunt at the sudden movement. She lay her head down on his shoulder blade, rubbing circles on his back with her nails. She moved her hand up and began playing with his hair, giving him a mohawk and giggling. She leaned over him to press her lips to his cheek, hearing him groan and watching him lift his head slightly. He looked at her with a 'what the fuck do you want,' look on his face, only making her giggle more. He definitely wasn't a morning person.
"What time is it," he muttered, voice muffled by his arm.
"7:15," she answered.
"Oh my god Addy go back to sleep," he said, tucking his head back further into his arm.
"No, I'm not tired," she said, pulling his arm away from his face.
"I am. Quit it," he grunted, pulling himself out of her grasp and rolling onto his side to shove his face under the pillow instead.
"I'm just playing, J, don't get mad," she said, curling up behind him.
"I'm not mad. Why are you wakin' me up so damn early,"
"Didn't mean to," Addison replied innocently.
"Bullshit."
Addison giggled and lay there with her cheek pressed to his spine, waiting for him to either wake up fully or fall back asleep. He did the former of the two, sitting up slowly, putting his head in his hands to rub his eyes. He looked down at her over his shoulder and she giggled, seeing that he still had the mohawk she'd given him.
"What?"
"Nothing," she said, sitting up and making his hair stand up more. He was too tired to care.
"I'm gonna take Oliver over to Curtis' and figure out how the hell he knew about me," he said, staring at the sheets.
"Want me to come?"
"If you want to. You don't have to,"
"Okay," she said, getting out of bed, and going to dressed in some of her clothes she kept in Jerome's dresser. Jerome lay back down with a hand on his bare stomach, feeling it grumble. He sat back up almost immediately, earning a look from Addison, before leaving the room to make himself a bowl of cereal.
"Quit fucking in my bed," Oliver said to him on his way through the living room.
"It was my bed first, shithead. You don't like it then go buy yourself your own bed. Or move into the guest room. Why are you pitching a fit over it now? You've never cared before,"
Oliver just scowled at him and went outside to smoke.
Jackson came running into the living room from down the hall in nothing but his Power Rangers pajama pants, asking Jerome to make him some cereal.
"Why does everyone wake up so early in his damn house," Jerome grumbled, getting the milk back out.
He made Jackson's cereal and finished his own before going outside with Oliver to tell him to get dressed.
"Why?" He asked
"Because we're gonna go find out how Curtis knew I was alive," Jerome explained.
"Fine," Oliver said, standing up and going back inside, Jerome following.
Jerome went straight to the bathroom, looking in the mirror and shaking his head, seeing the mohawk he was given. He didn't bother to smooth it down, only stepped out of his pants and turned on the shower, getting under the water. He washed his hair and body, brushing his teeth as well before getting out and putting a towel around his waist, and going into his room. Addison was on the edge of his bed fully dressed, playing one of Oliver's video games. He went to his closet and got a T-shirt and jeans out, finding boxers in his dresser drawer and getting dressed. He moved in front of Addison, pulling her up off the bed and kissing her slowly. She kissed him back before he pulled away slightly.
"C'mon," he muttered against her lips. She turned off the game and they grabbed Oliver, heading on their way to Curtis'.
Oliver knocked on the door, Jerome not bothering to hide behind anything this time. Curtis answered, looking extremely shocked to see Jerome standing there, and not in a cell at Arkham.
"What you doin' here boy?" He asked him. "I called GCPD yesterday tellin' 'em bout you stayin' with Charlie-"
"Yeah, I know you did, snitch," Jerome interrupted him angrily. "How the hell did you even know?"
"Heard Chloe and Jackson talkin' bout ya when they thought I wasn't sleepin'. Why ain't you locked up?"
Oliver and Jerome looked at each other, remembering the promise they had made not to squeal on Gordon. Jerome looked back at Curtis, deciding not to explain.
"Why'd you tell?" He asked instead.
"'Cause, J, you're a danger to others and possibly yourself. Ya ain't safe ta have around the kids," Curtis said sternly.
"Maybe not. But we're calling Kristen later, and she's gonna come out and talk to him," Oliver said proudly, "She's gonna give him some medicine and he'll be fixed,"
"You might think that'd work, Ollie, but some things are jus' broken beyond repair,"
"We'll get Kristen to tell you just how 'broken' I am," Jerome spat, infuriated by his uncle's comment.
"J, ain't no need to go gettin' mad, now. It was jus' a simple statement. You're right. I'll let the doctor make those decisions about you. Not my place," Curtis said, backing down from the argument.
Jerome glared at him and walked off back towards his house.
"Hey... Don't call the cops or anything, okay? We got it all figured out," Oliver said, "Kristen'll come out to see him later, and we're gonna figure out what went wrong in his head. Don't go trying to get him locked up, Curtis. Just... Think about Chloe and Jackson, okay? Think about what they'll go through when Jerome gets taken from them again. He's safe to be around. I promise. Don't say anything. Please,"
Curtis thought it over. "First time I hear o' him doin' some dangerous or illegal shit, I'll have Jim Gordon himself come down there and pick 'em up. Got it?"
Oliver nodded and grabbed Addison's upper arm, pulling her with him off the porch and down the road.
"That was too easy," she said skeptically, eyeing Jerome kicking rocks a few yards ahead of them.
"Yeah... It was. We can only hope he was nice out of mercy rather than trying to let us believe him so he can call GCPD again."
Jerome paused in the middle of the dirt road, waiting for them to catch up.
"What'd he say?" He asked when they began walking again.
"Said he wasn't gonna call the cops again unless her heard of you getting into trouble," Oliver explained, staring at the ground.
"What's wrong then?" Jerome asked.
"He gave up too easily. Curtis is stubborn as a goat when it comes to something he believes in. And he believes you need to be locked up. I'm just trying to figure out why he gave in so easy," Oliver said
Jerome only furrowed his brow and looked off to the side, seeing a mockingbird land on a neighbors rose bush.
They walked for a while in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Jerome finally spoke up when something crossed his mind.
"Addy, where's Archer?" He asked, talking about her four year old little brother.
"With his mom. She decided to come pick him up until preschool starts back up," She said, referring to the spring break they were all on.
"You've been going to school right?" He asked her.
"Hm... Now and again, yeah. Haven't felt like doing much since you got locked up. I go when I need to in order to avoid failing because of truency. Other than that I usually don't, no. Just hang out with Jonathan or something."
Most guys would get jealous upon hearing that their girlfriend had been constantly hanging around with some guy while they were locked away, but Jerome didn't. Jonathan Crane was one of their best friends, and had been since Jerome was 16, Addison 15, and Jonathan 14. Jerome vaguely thought of how he missed hanging out with Jonathan, before pushing those thoughts away and reminding himself that thinking of people he missed only hurt him more.
"Yeah? How's he doing?" He asked
"He's alright... His dad was arrested. Or killed... I don't remember. Something happened to him though. Apparently he'd been testing out some weird fear injection on Jonathan and gave him an overdose. He ended up in the hospital for a while... Was having some pretty scary hallucinations from the injections. He's out now though... Haven't talked to him in a few days,"
"Damn," Jerome muttered upon hearing about Jonathan's father.
They walked in silence the rest of the way home, pausing when they saw a squad car in the driveway. They all looked at one another, silently praying that it was only Jim Gordon.
They walked in the door to see the detective, sitting on the couch with Charlie next to him and a very content Chloe drawing in a coloring book Oliver didn't remember her having yesterday...
"You give her that?" He asked Gordon, gesturing to the coloring book.
"Yeah, I did. Figured she might like it," He said.
"Thanks..." Oliver said skeptically, unsure of the detectives motives.
"Jerome," Gordon began, "Where did you guys go?"
"A few miles down the road to talk to my uncle. The one who called you yesterday. We wanted to find out how he knew I was alive." Jerome explained.
"If anyone had seen you-"
"No one did. Its... 9:00 in the morning," Jerome said, glancing at the clock above the TV, "On a Wednesday, we have like three neighbors from here to Curtis', all of which are at work right now," Jerome explained.
"Still, Jerome. You need to be careful. As much anger as I have towards you for the things you've done, I'd hate to see you taken from your family when you have the opportunity to get help. Speaking of which, have you all called your aunt yet?" Jim asked.
"No sir," Oliver said, "But we plan on having her come out later today, if she isn't busy with other patients."
"Okay," Jim said, approvingly. "Well, I need to get going. Gotta get to work on a case. Actually, your case, Jerome. I was assigned the task of finding your 'missing' body,"
Jerome looked away sheepishly.
"Wait detective Gordon!" Chloe exclaimed, not catching what Jim said about a body. "Take this," She handed him the picture she had been coloring. It was a small gray kitten playing with a ball of yarn, all colored outside the lines with a large 'Thank you' scrawled across the top in Chloe's messy handwriting.
"Thanks, kid," Jim said with a smile, ruffling her hair. "Make sure to get in contact with your aunt today," He said sternly, poking a finger into Jerome's chest. He walked out the door, leaving Addison and all the siblings except Jackson to stare at each other in silence, shocked by Jim's friendly and slightly playful attitude.
"Well..." Charlie began. "I guess uh... Go get me my phone please, Chloe."
"Okay," Chloe said, running through the kitchen to get to Charlie's room and coming back in the blink of an eye.
"Wow, Chloe," Jerome said, feigning astonishment, "Did you work on your 'super fast running powers' while I was gone?"
Chloe grinned and nodded proudly, handing Charlie the phone.
Charlie sighed and selected Kristen's name out of her list of contacts, hearing the phone begin to ring and answer almost immediately.
"Kristen Valeska, how may I help you?" Said a voice on the other line.
"Hey, KC its Charlie," she began, using Kristen's nickname. "Are you busy later?"
"Um... I have an appointment at 3:30... Why? Everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah we just uh... We need to talk to you about something,"
"Hm... Okay, well, I can come around five, if that's okay." Kristen suggested.
"Yeah, that's great," Charlie said with a smile, even though Kristen couldn't see it.
"Okay, sweetheart. See you then. Love you,"
"Love you too," Charlie said, hanging up the phone. "Five." She said, turning to Jerome. He nodded and turned down the hallway, planning on getting some sleep before his aunt arrived.