'Over'

Sorry I didn't update sooner with this chapter – I burnt out all the gigabytes on the Internet key that my family has over here so I was stuck without it for the rest of the week, but here's the next chapter!

It had been weeks with no phone call from Mr. White, and Jesse was at the point of buying the paper every day to check the obituary for his death notice expecting to see a cancer related biography. He felt genuinely sorry for the poor man's diagnosis, not only because he had seen his Aunt go through the same thing, but because it was the cause for Mr. White's involvement in the drug industry. Like he and Charlie had discussed last week, going into the business was suicide, so if you were desperate enough to go into it the reason must have been damn good. And Mr. White's reason – raising enough money for his family to live comfortably after he died – was fair enough. After all, Jesse wasn't going to combat his motives after seeing the kind of product that the chemistry teacher could crank out.

So, anxiously awaiting a call and not knowing what to do with his spare time, Jesse spent a week enjoying the city with Charlie. The two ventured to museums, restaurants, shows, parks and even the zoo – it was a nice break from their hectic lifestyle, and they were glad to spend some serious time together. Jesse was reminded of his life before drugs and dealing, and felt a pang in his stomach when he realized that he had forgotten just how peaceful and enjoyable a normal life was. He expressed his feelings to Charlie as they were exiting the zoo on Friday, headed home after a long day looking at the animals.

"I dunno, I just feel so stupid," The twenty three year old sighed, shaking his head as he thought of the life that he could have had. "Obviously the money is attractive, but how far does it go, y'know?"

"Well," Charlie murmured, biting on her knuckles. "At this point you can't quit. We're too far in."

Jesse looked over at her in the passenger's seat, curled up into a ball with heavy bags underneath her eyes. Although the week of relaxation had done her some good – especially away from her choice of poison - it was clear that she was starting to feel some withdrawal. He had been noticing some sweating and sickness, as well as an obvious lack of energy from his love. It made him feel helpless and want to scream out in frustration, but he felt as though he couldn't say anything. With a sigh, he reached over and detached her knuckles from her mouth for at least the twentieth time that week. Her habits getting worse were another sign of her spike in anxiety.

"We'll survive."

Suddenly, the phone blared to life in the backseat, causing both Charlie and Jesse to jump in surprise. He cursed, pulling off to the side of the road momentarily, and dug through piles of objects to try and find the ringing device.

"We've gotta clean this fucking car," He grunted, finally finding the phone just before the call went dead in his hands.

A quick check of the caller ID proved that it was the one person Jesse thought he would never hear from again.

"Can you meet?"

"I thought maybe you might have, you know…" Jesse started off as him, Charlie and Mr. White had been seated and served their food at the dingy restaurant they had decided to meet in. "Kicked. Signed…signed off. I was even checking the obits. No such luck."

Mr. White, having been prescribed a week off from work from his wife, had been eager to schedule a meeting with his 'coworker', as he had wanted to update him on his current situation. Walter realized, to a certain extent, that it wasn't truly fair to leave Jesse hanging on certain information. The younger boy needed to, at the very least, make sure that his ex-chemistry teacher wasn't dead. Charlie had tagged along too, not having been called into work that afternoon and happy to see Mr. White well and alive after a full week.

"So um…" He continued after Mr. White refused to speak. "Where does it stand? Coughing up blood, giving speeches, you know, like: 'I deserve this, I'm an asshole.' What's the upshot?"

"The upshot," The older man began. "The upshot is that I have radiation pneumonitis."

"Damn." Both Charlie and Jesse's faces fell, as they automatically accepted the complicated medical word as bad news.

"Actually," Mr. White had a slight smile on his face, seemingly happy to realize that his two ex-students truly cared for his well-being. "It's not as bad as it sounds. It's a fairly common occurrence; easily treated. In fact, the news is all good."

Jesse paused his eating, looking at Mr. White with a stern face as if daring to imply something. "What do you mean good? You mean, like, 'good' good? Like…remission good?"

"Remission," Mr. White confirmed, resulting in a breath of relief for both of his counterparts at the table. "Not to imply that I'm cured; I still have cancer. But there's been a significant reduction in the tumors."

"How significant?" Charlie questioned, biting her knuckles as she stared at Mr. White with earnest eyes, hoping for a good answer. She had learnt a bit about cancer from when Jesse's Aunt had been diagnosed with it, and remembered several conversations she had had with Ginny talking about what the different stages were like, and how much she had wished to even make it to the remission process of things.

"Eighty percent."

"Dude," Jesse lay down his force, sharing a look with Charlie as her eyes went wide and pulling her knuckles away from her mouth again. "No way!"

"Now, I'm not out of the woods yet, not by any stretch," Mr. White held his hands up, ready to explain more. "But 'options' is the word they keep bandying about."

"That's awesome!" Charlie grinned, "Serious?"

"That's…that's great man!" Jesse seemed even more thrilled, especially considering the personal connection he had with the disease. "I mean, my aunt, she never…I mean, you know, at your stage – I didn't think that could happen. Mr. White, you kicked its ass, yo!"

After his last excited statement, Jesse slammed his hands on the table and rejoiced with a triumphant look. Mr. White, however – paranoid as usual – looks around the restaurant in fear of being overheard. He liked his conversations private, which was difficult when Jesse didn't give a tiny rats ass about privacy.

"No," Jesse stopped him. "You must be so psyched."

"Of course I am," Walter reassured them both.

"Okay, now we…" Jesse pushed in the direction of their business, realistically questioning what was going to be next for them. "I mean, what do we…oh! Hey, I almost forgot."

He pulled a bag of cash that had been earned so far based on the last batch of blue rocks out from beside him and set it on Mr. White's side of the table, waiting until the man had hidden the bag from sight again until he smiled. They had been making good money so far, and still had some product to sell, so Jesse wanted to know what Walter's future plans were.

"So how do you want to, you know," Jesse began again. "Proceed? In light of this kick-ass news?"

"We'll take our time and stay cautious," Walter admitted, spreading his hands and showing that a bit of thought had gone into his decision. "Sell off what we have. And then…well, I guess I'm done."

The chemistry teacher paused for a minute, thinking about his words with a sullen expression, and then smiled slightly. The possibility of his cancer getting better meant that there was no longer need to prepare for his death, which meant that cooking meth would no longer have to be a desperate alternative to install a lifetime fund for his leftover family in his hypothetical wake. It meant that he was, once again, free to live his life without worrying about providing for Skylar and Walt Jr. upon his death. It meant he could go back his old teaching position, go back to having family time instead of cooking time, and pretend that this entire, insane period of his life had never even existed in the first place. It meant freedom. For Jesse, on the other hand, it meant lack of business and therefore, lack of money. It meant that maybe – just maybe – he could continue on the famous blue meth legacy, but only if he learned in time before Walter quit the industry for good. He would have to create his own business without the official chemist, and would have to figure out everything on his own. If he couldn't uphold that, he would be forced to find a real job – and he knew from his past attempts that that wasn't an easy option.

Still, there was nothing that Jesse could do, and he couldn't exactly blame Mr. White for not wanting to take part in the drug industry any longer based on what he'd seen. Jesse was tied down because of the big money and his lack of motivation to find a real job, but Mr. White was living a double life, and it was easy for him to go back to his old one without skipping a beat. At the end of the day, Jesse was happy for his ex-chemistry teacher. It was just one less person who would be affected by the terrible world of drugs.

Or so he thought.

"This is your brain," Charlie muttered, cracking the first egg onto the pan and grabbing another one as Jesse secretly watched with a grin on his face. "This is your brain on drugs."

After returning home for a night of adult rated fun after their meeting with Mr. White yesterday, the two had slept in a bit after relaxing at the thought of a work-free afternoon. Charlie hadn't received any calls from Gus yet, so until her phone rang she considered her calendar clear.

"I didn't know Ms. Macey was into anti-drug PSA's," He came out of his hiding spot, making the smaller girl jump in surprise and whip around to face him.

"YOU!" She pointed the spatula towards him. "Are not supposed to be awake, Mister."

"Do you want me to go back to bed?" Jesse came up behind his significant other, giving her a series of kisses on her neck as she made sure the eggs weren't sticking to the bottom of the pan.

"No," She sighed. "You've ruined everything – we may as well bask in the failure of my plan now."

"Shut up," He joked, separating himself from her and going to get some coffee ready. The two had recently purchased chairs for their island, which had made eating easier and made the complex look a little homier.

The toaster dinged, making Charlie jump and causing Jesse to chuckle at her antics. Abandoning the eggs to go fetch the toast, she hurriedly pressed the button on the toaster and in the process of removing the bread, burnt herself on the hot metal.

"Christ on a cracker!" She hissed, cradling her burnt finger to her chest. Jesse was quickly at her side, pressing a wet cloth to her blistered appendage and grabbing the toast for her. He scooped the eggs out of the pan and prepared the two plates for them before grabbing a Band-Aid for Charlie who was still grimacing in pain.

"Here," He murmured, placing the Band-Aid on her finger. Her skin was already rising up and turning a nasty yellow color.

"Thank you," Charlie sighed, shutting the stove off and grabbing forks for her and Jesse. "I love you."

"I love you too," Jesse gave her a kiss on the forehead before sitting down and tearing into his meal. "And you're a good cook."

She laughed as she picked at her eggs, trying to force herself to at least eat something for Jesse's sake and knowing that she would need to start eating normally sooner rather than later. But after a couple of bites, the same thoughts of gaining weight and the fear of becoming large overwhelmed her, and she set down her fork once more. It was a vicious cycle that she had become accustomed to, and wasn't exactly open to the idea of stopping anytime soon. There were bouts of normal eating, followed by a purge and a long starvation period, but generally Charlie was fine with taking in child-sized bites every now and then. She didn't care if she had to live in a constant state of hunger with a significantly decreased lack of energy; at this point for her a normal lifestyle was hardly relevant anymore anyway, so she chose against it.

She locked eyes with Jesse, who had been watching her discreetly while he finished his own meal, and tried her hardest to smile. The attempt failed miserably, and she dually noted that her expression must have been more of a grimace than anything positive.

"Let's go buy a ventilator," She blurted just as he opened his mouth, wanting to avoid any conversations about her diet. "So that we can smoke in here."

Jesse sighed deeply, sensing that she had detected his urge to strike up a particular conversation, and agreed that a ventilator would indeed be a good purchase for their humble abode. As it turned out, the two would also add two large lazy boys, a carpet, an Xbox, two side tables and a lamp to their purchases that afternoon.

"Do you remember these?" Charlie laughed, holding up some of Jesse's old drawings as they sat in the bedroom later that afternoon. "Hover man, Kanga-man, and what was this guys name? Backwardo?"

"No," Jesse laughed, taking another drag of his cigarette. "I changed it to Rewindo, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Charlie grinned, puffing away at her own smoke as they both relaxed and enjoyed the new ventilator for all that it was worth. "And I guess you thought male kangaroos have pouches?"

"Yup," They boy shook his head, remembering how cool he thought the cartoons were at the time he had drawn them. "I wasn't paying attention to specifics."

"I still think these are kickass," Charlie muttered, flipping through the rest of his artwork. Jesse found a grin creeping up on his face at her words, as she seemed to be the only person who had stuck with him for his entire life and continued to believe in him no matter what. Charlie had always regarded all of his dreams, ambitions and goals – all of them – as serious and achievable. They had always been validated, always taken seriously and always fully supported.

"I've always wanted superpowers," She admitted, closing the book and moving it to the side of the bed.

"Oh yeah?" Jesse wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close as they both finished their cigarettes. "Which one?"

"Invisibility!" She smiled, the memories taking her back. "People always used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I would always say 'invisible'."

"I remember you saying that once," Jesse nodded. "In class once with Mr. Peters. English. Everyone was talking about their futures, and when you said that everyone laughed."

"Mhm," Charlie remembered that day very well. "I don't know quite what prompted it, but the thought of it stuck with me. It was only later that I found out that invisibility, is in fact, a technical possibility."

"Oh?" Jesse questioned, grinning fully and outing his cigarette to prepare for one of Charlie's stories. "I'll take that bait. Enlighten me."

"It was in this book that I stole from the library," She began to explain, taking the last drag of her smoke. "Although I was never really good at stealing – you seem to be able to do it and shine with innocence afterwards whereas I've always sort of radiated guilt."

This made Jesse laugh, scrunching his nose up at the truth of the statement. He remembered countless times where he and Charlie had stolen candies and sodas and pops from convenience stores, and always had memories of Charlie looking very sullen and stricken with guilt afterwards.

"Anyway," Charlie continued, outing her cigarette on the ashtray. "To be invisible is easy. You just have to find a way to defract light."

"Oh?"

"Yes," She continued, smiling when she realized that Jesse wasn't taking her seriously. "You have to adapt yourself to your surroundings – hide in plain sight. It's only then that you'll be able to blend like a chameleon and get the desired effect."

"Huh..." Jesse thought for a moment, smiling when he realized that her logic was, in fact, sound. "I guess that makes sense."