Chapter 21: We're Jamming

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Jfc, I'm so not on the ball lately. Completely forgot about uploading this until I caught a review email for Firewatch. My bad, much sorry, so apologies. Unfortunately, I then came up with a new idea while I was reading over the upload. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a mindworm and I basically rewrote the entire second half of this chapter (Like, everything after the flashback). I think it was longer before, but c'est la vie. Quality over Quantity, right? Hope you enjoy.

I'm thinking I might start a biweekly-alternating schedule instead of trying to get all four stories updated each week (Like Blackwell and Firewatch week 1/3 and Bump and Island week 2/4). Might help to get them all done on time. Plus, I'd have two weeks to work on each one, so they might end up being a bit better/longer. Not a concrete idea yet, but I'm mulling it over.

On the upside of the delay, I do now get to recommend A Series of Unfortunate Events to those of you who haven't seen it already. It released on Netflix (Friday 13th) and it is awesome. Has all the right vibes from the book series (probably 'cause the Author is an executive producer on the show.) and the casting is fantastic. Definitely highly recommended.

Also, I've noticed that the briefings really do serve as just occasional locked-room style exposition-fests. No idea if you guys like them or not, but it's pretty awesome on my end. Helps me bring all the plot points of the 'investigation' together really nicely like a 'Last Time on The Blackwell Job...' sequence.

Oh, and I know Max seems a little superhuman here, but that's deliberate. I'm trying to show Chloe as still being all 'in awe' of her and Chloe is pretty much the textbook definition of unreliable narrator. I have seen somebody do Max's last move before though. It's pretty awesome.

Today's chapter title, if you hadn't already guessed, comes from Bob Marley's song "Jammin'"

watch?v=oFRbZJXjWIA

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

jim89:

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I was going for with 'The Network'. Glad to know that's a real thing.

Sheesh. Chekov has an armoury now? Heh. I'll have to try google that sometime, thanks.

Exactly. Good 'ole Billy Wobbledagger. One of the things every 'writers advice' type article says. Go with the flow. If your writing is all janky and disorganised, it's gonna be hard to read and hard to read is generally never read. Unless it's that ridiculous Harry Potter fic that's actually famous for being utterly terrible. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called (Something about Immortality? Sounded vaguely Twilight-esque as I recall.), but it was pretty much adored for being so utterly, utterly bad. Like The Room or Troll 2.

Yep, exactly. Needed her to have a little head-start in getting her skills for later. (Spoilers...) And yeah, superhuman skills have their place, but the sort of weird super-spy criminal vibe I'm going for is definitely not it.

Good. Glad you're liking that. It's an old D&D habit, just fleshing out every single NPC in existence. Doesn't take that long, actually. People are not as unique as we think they are. It's like the Borderlands guns. There's 12 bazillion different ones that are basically just unique, ever so slightly different combinations of the same collection of stats and quirks.

True, true. Studied that in A-Level sociology, actually. It's particularly evident in the latest American election. Both saddening and interesting to see how certain individuals controlling the narrative can change events on a massive scale. And indeed you don't. You'll find out exactly where they stand soon enough though.

Totally agreed. Stop learning, start dying. Plus, even the master swordsmen have to keep practicing or their skill drops.

She runs the whole organisation. Max is entirely the Big Kahuna of The Syndicate. And she certainly does. A lot less psychotic events occurring, fo' sure.

It certainly was wasteful. It's why I made her fourth mission. Enough time to have put some effort in to training her, but not enough that she'd be skilled enough to fix her mistake. But yeah, he is soooo crazy. Hopefully this chapters little flashback puts some evidence into that. Kinda going for a Mr Blonde from Reservoir Dogs meets Mr Scratch from Alan Wake feel. Curious if I got that or not, actually.

I actually have Max's, uh, 'promotion to big boss' story planned for a short thing in the Improbable Mission, so stay tuned for that.

Oh, Jimmy got his reckoning in an earlier chapter already. He was the old guy in the plane nightmare and the flashback in the bit where Max killed Frank.

*shrugs* No-one ever said con artists couldn't be hypocritical.

It is indeed. It's like that old XKCD comic. Biology is applied Chemistry is applied Physics is applied Maths. It's why I like experimental science. Theory is all well and good, but application is really what settles something in your mind. So yes, my unnecessarily long way of saying 'exactly like the med school vs residency thing.'

Yeah, definitely the 'we only have 5 episodes' thing coming into play again there. Sucks they had that limitation, but c'est la vie. It is how it is. But yeah, definitely made sense that the Social Sec would be planning the party, right? Or at the very least given the busy work for it, given how micromanaging I'm sure Victoria would have been.

Yeah, pretty much. Nathan pretty much justifies everything he does by "I'm a Prescott, byotch!", so... And yep. Definitely a lead on the Divide & Conquer plan there.

Eh. I know you're kidding, but really don't bother. They're all just throwaway characters to pad out the club a bit. Literally made them up on the spot. They'll probably pop up in casual conversations and the occasional "Oh, (Insert name here) is being a whore again." type observation, but that's it.

And that will be dealt with later... Spoilers. ?ￂﾠI have given enough clues to possibly work it out, but they're scattered over like, the last 7 or 8 chapters, so I'm pretty sure everyone's forgotten 'em by now. :)

Heh. Yep, totally fucking agreed. The whole political mechanics of organisations is so dull compared to actually doing the things. But, you don't always get the things done without the mechanisms running in the background, so they're a necessary evil sometimes. Personally, I agree with you about how it should be handled. Small, informal 'meetings' to check stuff and then just get on with it.

Yep. Plus, y'know, he's tried to crush her a couple times and his usual intimidation isn't working. She's kinda throwing him for a loop in a "What the fuck do I do about her?" kind of way.

Victoria certainly is and Max certainly should. Coming up in a few chapters, methinks.

Yeah, it was one of the things that always disappointed me about Leverage. We only got the whole information-gathering/preparation side like twice in 5 seasons. I was actually interested in how they pulled all the threads together for the final heist.

No comment. Spoilers.

And you certainly will. Hope you enjoy it when it finally happens.

MaxNeverMaxine:

Thank you, and there certainly was. I've written a whole bunch of backstory for this and I want to get it all in ASAP.

Oh yeah, when that happens, it's gonna be so hella awkward.

It so could. And yep, that's definitely going to be elaborated upon in the next few chapters. Quite happy with the vagarity of what you know about it so far. :)

GunRecon 11:

... *cries*

Dingodog21:

Damn. That's frickin' awesome. I like it.

Max clasps her hands together and the screen flicks on behind her. "Ok, so. We've eliminated all other suspects." Pictures of Frank, Step-Douche and Wells pop up on screen, then disappear as Nathan's picture gets way bigger. "This is our target, Nathan Prescott."

She clicks her little remote-thingy and the screen changes. "Now, first we..."

I frown and interrupt. "Uh, guys? What about Frank? Isn't he still a problem? He still wants his money, right?"

Max shrugs. "We paid him off already. He was surprisingly cooperative after that."

My jaw drops. "Seriously?"

"Indeed." Laura smiles. "Frank is one of those darling individuals strongly motivated by money. Once we paid your debts, plus a little something extra, he was quite willing to provide any information we required."

I blinked. Damn. I should really learn to stop underestimating these guys. I sit back. "Well, ok then."

Max turns back to the screen. "Now, we're running a two-pronged attack here. First, we need evidence of his crimes." She clicked the switch again. "Here's what we know so far."

She clicks and pictures of Kate appear. "Prescott drugged Kate at a Vortex Party with drugs he bought from Frank" Screenshots of Franks ledger pop up, with 'Rottweiler' highlighted. Shit. Nathan buys a lot of drugs. Perks of being the rich boy, I guess. She clicks and two lines from the ledger select and get bigger to fill the screen. "Purchases by Rottweiler on the Fourth, just before the party. Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid and Flunitrazepam. Both are popular date rape drugs."

"Is Frank willin' to testify t'Nathan bein' in his lil' ledger?" Travis asks.

Max shakes her head. "No. But we recorded his admissions." She shrugs, throwing out a smug smirk. "Either way, we can show Nathan bought drugs from him."

She clicks again and a bunch of pictures of a hella lot of girls come up. I recognise a couple of the ones on screen from the police file Travis and I got from the station. "Now, we have a list of girls who've gone missing here over the last ten years. Now, Nathan would've been a child when the first disappearance happened. So, we can safely assume he's only involved with the later ones. Maybe as an apprentice, or a copycat, we can't say yet. It's likely not all of them were part of this, but there's definitely a pattern. Unfortunately, we can only link Nathan to Kate, none of the others."

She clicks a button and one picture grows to fill the screen. It's Alexis. Pretty sure it's from her Facebook or whatever social shit she used. She's on a beach somewhere smiling, with her arm around some shirtless guy. "This is Alexis Rodgers, daughter of teacher and novelist Richard Rodgers. She's also the latest of the disappearances. Now, according to her parents, there's no Prescott connection." She smirks. "But Tish found a possibility to investigate."

Max clicks again and a picture of Alexis, Dana and Juliet appears. They're in some hella dark room, with lots of those weird-ass stage lights in the background. Pretty sure they're pissed. "This is Alexis at a Vortex party some months ago. She was friends with Dana and Juliet, they were her in." The screen changes again to show a whole bunch of these pictures. "There's a lot of these, on different dates. She's definitely a Vortex regular, even if she wasn't a member. Nathan tried to take Kate at a party, there's a good chance he took Alexis at one too."

Then, I remembered. I was supposed to meet her in the parking lot, but I got distracted kicking that kidnapping fucker's ass and taking care of Katie. Shit... If she found him afterwards... Maybe he took her to replace Katie! Fuck... "It's my fault."

Max stops. She cocks her head and frowns. "What is? Alexis?"

I nod."Yeah. I um, 'invited her home' before I saw Katie. We were supposed to meet in the lot. If she got there after me and Katie left, that fucking asshole might've..." I sigh. "He might've taken her to like, replace Katie."

Max grins and nods hella slowly, looking thoughtful. "Hah! Yes, this is good."

I stare at her. "How the fuck is anything I just fucking told you good?"

"Because," She waves vaguely to the screen. "If that's true, it means taking her wasn't planned. That means he might've made a mistake. Maybe missed something in the clean-up. It's very difficult to change targets last minute like that. We might be able to find something." She looks over the pictures, muttering something.

I shake my head, completely fucking shocked. What the fuck, Max? "Dude. She could be dead because of me!"

"Would you rather it have been Kate?" Max is direct as fucking ever. She holds eye contact hella steadily.

"No, I..."

"No. You wouldn't. It's in the past, Chloe. You can't change what happened. So pull through and do what you can. Got it?"

I nod. Maybe she's right. Cold as fucking nitrogen, but yeah. I can't do shit about it. All I can do is make sure that fucker pays for it. I meet her eyes and nod again.

She smiles. "Excellent. Now, as I said, there's no link. So, we need to find one." She clicks and a picture of the dorms appears. "Currently, Nathan lives here, in the Prescott Dorm. It's possible he'd have hid evidence here. Or at the very least, forgotten to hide some. So, we'll need to find a way in."

She clicks and... Rachel. Pictures of her are plastered all over the screen. "This is Rachel Amber, she was the victim before Alexis. Nathan reportedly had something of an eye for her. It's possible he's to blame for her disappearance too." She clicks and the pictures of Rach disappear, replaced by the freaky-as-fuck drawing we found on Wells computer. "Rachel in the Darkroom, over and over. Tish tested it, it's definitely Nathan's handwriting."

She crosses her arms and leans back against one wall, looking over her shoulder at the screens. "This doesn't really mean anything concrete, but it gives us a connection. We need to investigate her disappearance further, see if there's a link. Chloe, Laura will need what you remember of when she disappeared."

I frown. "You've got the police report. Can't you just go off the shit I said to them?"

She shrugs. "We could. But this way, you get involved. You wanted to learn what we do, right?"

I nod. "Hella yes."

"Well then," She smiles, gives a little bow. "Welcome to the Team."

I grin. "Awesomesauce!"

Travis chuckles. I glare at him. He chuckles louder. Asshole.

"So, what next?"

"Our competition. Prescott's pet Ministry of Truth, Principal Raymond Wells." She clicks, and guess what? A picture of Wells appears. Apparently even criminals use too much Power-Pointless. "Wells is being paid by Prescott to keep his sons indiscretions quiet. We took his bank records from his computer. Tish traced several depositing accounts to Prescott subsidiaries. They send money to Wells each month. He even gets a small bonus for the big jobs. We've copied his emails," She clicks and the emails appear on-screen. "and the account details for proof."

Tish nods. "And whoever Prescott's pet hacker is, they're fucking good. It took a shitload of tricks to find those accounts. He'd ran it through a fucking encrypted DoD satellite to register the damn account and then sent the money through banks all over the fucking world."

I... have no fucking clue what that means. "Uh, so he's good then?"

Tish grins, and nods. "You bet, Mabono. But as good as the naaier is, I'm better."

Max clicks the remote and the screen shuts off. "So, that's what we know. Any questions?"

Laura nods. "What of the police? Can we find any proof of Prescott's bribes?"

Max turned to Tish. "Tish?"

She shrugged. "Not yet. None of the Wells accounts link to the cops, either. I'm still looking though."

Laura smiles. "Maybe we should set that Detective on the matter? It would be easier to have someone on the inside feed us information rather than needing to break in when we require something." She sighs. "That does get awfully exhausting."

Max nods again. "Good point. We'll start dropping her messages suggesting she look into it."

Travis cocks his head. "So, recon Nathan's room, talk to the cop an' Chloe's memory-test. Anythin' else, boss?'

Max shakes her head. "That's it. Now, everyone. Let's get to work." Everyone files out back to the main room. Laura heads off upstairs, Cassie goes into the armoury and Tish wanders off to what I'm guessing is probably her room.

Max checks her watch. "Hey, Travis?"

He turns to her. "Yeah?"

"I've got an free hour. Want to go a couple rounds in the ring?"

He grins. "Sounds good ta me, boss. Weapons or Fists?"

I watch Max smirk. "Don't you know me at all, Travis? Fists, of course."

His grin gets bigger. They both wander over to the ring. I wander over after them. "Hey, are you just gonna fight in that?"

Travis is in jeans and a button-up plaid shirt and Max is in her usual Hoodie, T=Shirt combo and holy shit, how many of those fucking Doe tees does she have? Max shrugs, calling back over her shoulder. "If we get into a fight, they're not going to let us change into gym clothes. Always learn to fight in normal circumstances. You'll find it easier when you actually have to fight that way later."

I nod. Hella true. I head over and lean on the weird high-tech kitchen counter so I can watch. They really need to put some fucking chairs in here.

Travis leans back and pulls his fists up like he's in a boxing ring. Max's just sorta hang loosely by her sides.

They circle each other, both grinning. Travis moves first, swinging a fist at Max like a fucking sledgehammer. She hops back and the fist just whistles through air. Travis' grin gets bigger as he follows up with his other fist, pushing Max further back to the edge of the ring. Max dodges every swing, never moving more than she needs to. Every time he punches, Travis' gets quicker, until he's doing that whole flurrying shit at Max like Morpheus and Neo.

He doesn't hit her once.

Max doesn't hit him either though. She doesn't even try. Just sticks to dodging the shit he throws at her. When he gets her pushed back against the rope, she dodges sideways and gets behind him, planting her foot on his back and shoving.

Travis takes the kick and gets pushed up against the ropes. He kinda uses it as a springboard to bounce back and try tackle Max. She gets shoved over and ends up on the ground. He waits, patiently, for her to stand again.

The minute she gets back up, Travis throws another punch, but she does this hella weird whooshing dodge thing backwards that puts her right up against the edge.

Then, she stuck her foot on one of the ropes running round the ring and pushed off, flipping over Travis' head. She lands on the other side of him and throws out her arms like she's a fucking Olympic gymnast. She laughed. "Are you not entertained?" She calls, like she's fighting in front of a fucking hall of people and not just me.

I laugh anyway. She throws me a wink.

Travis swung around at her again, but like always, Max just... wasn't there. She pops to his right side and throws a hella rapid bunch of punches into his ribs, making him twitch and change his swing right at the hella last minute towards her. As his fist flies past her face, Max grabs it and yanks him with the punch, pushing him right up against the ropes.

Max waits for him to turn around again, then ducks back as he charges. She darts under his arms, grabs him around the middle and fucking lifts him like a dancer, basically just shot-putting him over her shoulder. He goes right over the fucking ring and sprawls over the floor.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

Max hops over the ropes and lands next to Travis on the floor. She offers him a hand, which he takes with his usual annoying-as-fuck grin. "Good match, Travis. You got me a couple times there."

He snorts, dusting himself off.

Max turns to me. "So, enjoy the show?" She smirks.

I just blink at her. "How the fuck did you do that? You... and he's..! What the fuck?!"

She laughs. "Leverage and Momentum. Used the force of his charge to punt him out of the ring."

Travis rolls his shoulders. I shudder. I can hear them cracking and it is creepy as shit. "Damn, boss. I think you got me good on that flip. Gonna go get some painkillers." He grins at me, tipping an imaginary hat. "Talk to ya later, darlin'."

Max watches him go, then turns to me. "So, you busy today?"

I shrug. "Not really. Why? You want me to help with shit?"

She shakes her head. "No, not today. You wanted to learn, so you're going to learn. Come on." She turns and walks towards the stairs. I follow. "You've had lesson one from Travis and Cassie already. Now, it's Laura's turn. She's going to work on your grifting while I'm at Blackwell."

I nod, trying to be all hella professional and shit. But inside I'm jumping up and down with excitement like a five-year-old on crack. I'm gonna learn disguise!

Max snorts. "Keep it together, Chloe. Have fun, I've gotta go."

We say our goodbyes and go our separate ways at the top of the stairs. I watch Max leave, then turn to look at 's sat at one of the tables in the main area, drinking something and reading a book. She's playing with her little feather necklace with one hand as she turns pages in her book with the other. I stick my hands in my pockets and amble over. "So, Max says you're my teacher today, right?"

She looks up and smiles. "I am indeed. Please, take a seat."

I sit down in the other seat while she puts her book away. When she looks back at me, I hella feel like I'm just being... assessed.

Laura smiles. "The first and most important lesson I can teach you is this. Disguise is like Magic. It's all about creating an illusion that people want to believe is true. All the acting, the make-up and clothing come together to create that illusion."

I nodded, listening hella intently. "So, it's like, tuned to people, right? You pick shit that they're gonna wanna buy into the most and make it happen."

She tilts her head slightly. "Essentially, yes. We select our roles based on the particular biases and interests of the mark as those they will be more likely to believe."

She lounges back in her chair. "It's why most of our jobs are simply researching those we wish to target. Maybe two thirds of every contract we take is simply investigation and planning, so we can create disguises and ideas that our target will want to buy into."

She clicks her fingers in a hella Eureka moment. "For instance, we targeted a shipping magnate earlier this year who, to all appearances, had no exploitable vices at all. He didn't gamble, was happily married and so on. Apart from his occasional theft of ideas from those under his employ, one of whom requested our services originally, he did very little of interest."

She smirks. "Until we found his childhood dream of making first contact with an alien civilization. That gave us the idea of faking alien signals, disguising ourselves as 'experts' and so on. He wanted to believe it was real, so the question whether it was or not never entered his mind. As a species, we are most talented at fooling ourselves into believing whatever we wish to. Grifting is the method of exploiting that."

"So, that is the theory behind what I do." She stands. "Now, how would you like a more practical demonstration?"

I nod, grinning hella wide. "Hells yes. I'm in."

She laughs. "Come along then. I have my gear downstairs."

We spend the rest of the time trying shit out. It's hella weird, like being in a Beauty Course run by Sherlock Holmes. I get to play with Make-up and Costumes and shit with Laura prodding me into doing specific shit and asking those annoying leading questions teachers always do when you're almost, but not quite there.

So. Fucking. Cool.

After a brief walk around the dorms, I head into class. I make it two minutes before the bell. Mr Dunn is already at his desk, looking at some papers. I nod to a couple of Vortexers and head to the back. Kate smiles up at me as I walk over.

The bell rings and Dunn looks up. "Alright class, time to get to work! Today we're going to be working on some spatial geometry, focusing on Euclidian dimensions and Minkowski space."

Um...

What?

I share a puzzled glance with the others on my table. Even Brooke, our resident math genius, looks slightly lost.

He turns to the board (A Blackboard, and the only one in the building) and starts writing. "So, if we assume X is..."

I sigh. This is going to be a long lesson.

*Flashback Begins*

"You don't have a clue who you're messing with, you dumb fuck!" The goon spat a gob of blood and teeth at us. "Do you have any fucking clue who our boss is?"

Jimmy shrugged. "Nope. But 100 people surveyed, and top five answers on the board." He cocks the shotgun and levels the barrel on the man's knee. "Name the douchebag who's in charge here."

The goon spits again. "Vincent... Van go-fuck-yourself."

"Hmm. Vincent Van go-fuck-yourself..." He throws out an arm. "Our survey says..." He pulls the trigger and the goon screams. "Wrong answer."

The goon grits his teeth. "You fucking son of a..."

Jimmy rolls his eyes. "Save it for the quick-fire round, laddie. Onto player two. 100 people surveyed, top five answers still on the board..?"

The second goon glares down at Jimmy. He's not even wriggling against the rope tying him down. "Come on kid, you're on the clock." Jimmy grins suddenly, singing "Badadadadada, dada, dada, dadadada doo." Then, he frowns. "Wait a mo. That's not Family Fortunes. What the hell am I thinking of?" He turns to me, leaving the shotgun pointing at the goon.

"Countdown." I'm standing off to the side of the action, watching impassively.

He grins, clicking his fingers to point at me. "That's the one." He looks back at the goon. "Sorry for the delay, boyo, but that was just gonna irritate me fer ages if I didn't get an answer. Speaking of answers, have you got one yet?"

The guy just keeps up the glare.

"Sorry, lad. I really do need an answer." He pokes the shotgun into the man's crotch. The man looks down at it, then back up at Jimmy. He works his mouth for a second, then spits in Jimmy's face. I expect Jimmy to snap, kill the man, but he just smiles, cleans the gob of spit of his face and looks at it.

"Hmm. Saliva. Well, you never know what's gonna be on the board, eh?" He throws his arm out again. "Our survey says..." The shotgun fires again and the man screams, louder than the first. Not surprising, given where the shotgun slug went.

Jimmy steps left. There's only one more goon remaining. He levels the shotgun on the man's face, ignoring the agonised cries from goon #2. "Two strikes, one more wrong answer and you lose the pot. Now." He opens his mouth to speak.

"John McCruirick! Our boss is John McCruirick, he's down by the docks! Oh god, oh god, don't kill me."

Jimmy lowers the shotgun and paces round the back of Goon #3. "Bing, bing! Right fucking answer. Finally. You go home with all the money."

He cuts the ropes tying the man to the chair. He immediately launches out of it, falling to his feet and backing away from Jimmy along the floor. Jimmy keeps walking till he's behind the second, where he reaches forward and slides the knife into the man's ear. Goon #3, to his credit, doesn't scream. He just watches in silent shock as goon #2 goes slack against the ropes.

Goon #1, still screaming about his knees, gets a knife to the brain stem, killing him instantly. Jimmy pulls the knife out and walks around the bodies, wiping it off.

He strides over to the guy on the floor and pulls him to his feet. "Get the fuck out. Tell McCruirick we're coming and we're going to make it rain fire down on him and his people. Got that?"

The goon nods hurriedly, pretty much in a blind panic. Jimmy slaps him gently, taking hold of his face and looking him in the eyes. "Tell him we're coming."

Then, he opens the window and throws the man out of it. He turns back to me. "Right, Max. Let's go kill us a mob boss."

*Flashback Ends*

I walk out of class, flanked by Kate and Taylor. They're chatting lightly about evening plans. "Me, Vic and Court are heading out to Arkville. There's a sale on..." That's when I switch off. Eurgh. Shopping.

I match my pace to theirs. It's a comfortable walk, with the two chatting happily. I, on the other hand, am planning. The Boy's dorms are a floor above the Girl's. There's a fire escape at the rear of the building. I should be able to use that to circumvent the door lock. Then, I can check dorm slates to locate Nathan's room. I snort to myself. There's no way he'll...

"Well, if it isn't the Bible Basher. Come to give us a sermon, eh bitch?"

I come back into reality to see three jocks accosting Kate. Taylor is ranting at one, but they're ignoring her. Clearly no authority without Tori present.

One of them grins, running his eyes over Kate. "Hey dude, you saw that video, right bro? I wonder if she'll give us a live replay..."

The middle one laughs. "So right, bro." He leans forward and says something crude to Kate. I roll my eyes. Really?

Kate doesn't respond, eyes stuck to the floor. She's crumpling under the attention. Her brow is furrowing. I can see her eyes start to water. Her lip is even wobbling. I sigh. Damn it. I'm going to have to intervene.

I move forward as middle jock tries to grab Kate. I dart forward and seize his hand mid-way. I quickly twist it, shoving him into the lockers. Kate dashes out of the way at the last second. He wriggles, yelling at me to let him go.

I feel people in the corridor slow and group up. Fuck. We have an audience. Ah well, maybe I can turn this to my advantage. I twist the arm a little harder and the jock whimpers. The other two are standing, frozen and unsure.

I lean forward and talk clearly to the jock. "Kate is now off limits. If I catch any of you violating this, there will be consequences." I twist harder still and he squeals. "Understood?"

He nods frantically, scraping his face on the locker. I was always baffled why they put airholes on these things. I quirked a smile at the other two. "Understood?"

The both nod dumbly. Clearly unused to being challenged.

I grin. "Excellent." I pull the jock back and slam his head into the locker again. Then, I let him go. He sinks to the floor, dazed. "You might want to see a nurse about that."

I turn. Everyone in the corridor immediately swivels, pretending they weren't watching. I almost roll my eyes. Students. They're adorable. I raise my voice. "That goes for everyone. Bullying is a douchey thing to do. Stop it." I let the whimpering jock twice my height speak for the consequences.

Everyone stares at me for a moment, then goes back to pretending. Everyone except for Dana. She rushes out of the crowd and wraps her arms around me. "That was Amazing, Max! How did you do that?"

I shrug. Well, I sort of vaguely wriggle. Man, Dana hugs hard. "I dislike people hurting my friends. And they were hardly the smartest opponents."

She focuses on me. "Can you teach us that stuff? How to defend ourselves, I mean?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Defend yourself from what?"

"Look, I..." She sighs. "There's something you should know about Arcadia Bay, Max..." She leans in, voice hushed. "Something terrible happens here, Max. Girls go missing all the time. Rachel, Alexis, Megan!"

I pause. Huh. I colour my tone with surprise. "Seriously?"

She nods. "Seriously. And the police don't do shit about it. So, if we can defend ourselves, maybe we could stop it!"

I raise a brow. "Ok... What does that have to do with me?"

She gives me a dry look. "Babe, you just kicked Ray's ass and he's twice your size. You work it out."

I stare into her earnest, bright eyes. I sigh. "Fine. I'll think about it. No promises though."

She grins. "Thanks, Max! I'll come find you tonight and we can talk about it! This is gonna be awesome!"

I watch her bounce and flounce away. Shit, that girl has an insane amount of energy.

I turn to Kate and Taylor. Kate is still on the edge of tears. Taylor is staring at me slackjawed. "So, where were we?"

They don't say anything. Damn it. I really have to stop freaking out the civilians. Kate scurries over and throws her arms around me. "Thank you Max!"

I pat her on the back awkwardly. "Sure, Kate. Anytime."

I turn to Taylor. She's gold-fishing, now and staring at the jocks. Her mouth is just opening and closing over and over. It's kind of amusing. "How..? Why..? What..?"

I lean over and poke her. She shakes herself and looks at me. "I..." She shakes her head. "That was..." She finally grins. "I see why Vic likes you."

Heh. I give a quick bark of laughter. I shake my head and smirk. "She does have excellent taste."

Taylor laughs and we continue off down the corridor. "So, Kate, what are you doing later?" She grins cheekily. "Hot date?"

Kate flushes and Taylor laughs harder. "Uh, no, nothing planned, really. I... I was just going to stay in."

Hmm. An idea occurs. "You know, Kate. If you're not busy, you could come play with us?" I offer.

She frowns. "Play?"

I smile reassuringly. "We're practicing for the next Vortex Party later this evening. Thought you might bring your violin and jam a little. No obligations, just a little fun."

Her mouth opens and closes a few times. From her face, she's mulling over a refusal. I open my mouth to try persuade her further. She interrupts, surprising me. She nods and smiles. "Okay."

I smile. "I'll see you there then." We hit the stairs. Taylor points off down the other corridor. "I'm heading this way."

Kate nods. "I'm up another floor." She smiles. And it actually reaches her eyes this time. "I've got art with Mr Johnson."

Taylor's shoulders slump a little. "What 'bout you, Max?"

I shrug apologetically. "I've somewhere to be too." I look down at my watch. "And I'm running a tiny bit late." I turn and head straight for the doors. I call back as I go through them. "Remember, 7pm sharp, Kate! Don't be late!"

I head downstairs and out, straight for my car. I pulled out of the lot and drove to the station. Sergeant Beckett needs her first message.

I park around the corner from the station. Hmm. Where's my notepad? Shit. I rifle through the glovebox. Ah, fuck. I think I left it in Tahiti. Damn pickpocketing monkey.

Right.

Well.

I'll have to improvise. "Tish?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"I'm heading into the station. Playing maintenance. Give me a problem to solve."

"Will do." She didn't wish me luck. None of us ever needed it.

I hop out of the car and open the trunk. Hm. I pull out a set of overalls and a toolbox. Maintenance. Fantastic.

When I'm changed, I head into the station. I stop by the desk for a pass. The female desk sergeant looks up at me. Solid with greying hair, the woman is clearly an old-timer. She looks me over. "Whadda ya want, hun?"

I drop the toolbox on the desk. Hmm. Local element should work here. I quickly list off identifying features of the local accent. Mainly mergers and preveler raising. Pacific Northwesterners don't think they have an accent, but they do. "Maintenance. Here to fix the problem ya got with the lights."

The woman frowns. "What problem with the..?"

The lights flicker. I raise an eyebrow. "That one."

I roll my eyes. "C'mon. I got other jobs today and this'll take five minutes." I bluffed, relying on the small town looseness. The worst thing these people deal with is speeding and the occasional drug offence. Tends to eliminate rigid rule-adherence.

She stares at me for a second before shrugging. "Fine, just make it quick."

I smile and tip my cap. "I will. Thanks."

The cops milling around didn't give me a first glance. I resisted the urge to smile. Everyone always ignores the service. It's back to the expectations again. Their eyes just wash over you like a ratty old poster. They did notice the flickering lights though. A couple of them were complaining bitterly. "Shitty station. The stuff around here never fucking works right."

I walked past them for the stairs.

Beckett's desk would be upstairs in the main room. As a sergeant, she didn't merit an office of her own. Not that they'd have one to give her. Small stations are limited on space. The central location would push the invisibility of the overalls.

"Tish?" I murmured. "I need full darkness in three for four."

"Can do. Three minutes and counting, boss."

I found a junction box and tried to look busy. I stood just before the three minute mark hit. I took a quick scan of the room. Helpful to note landmarks and exits. The lights went out. A few people shouted suddenly. It was pitch black, after all. I moved quickly to Beckett's desk, scrawling on the first paper I found.

'Beckett. Maybe these will help you clean house.

-A Friend.'

I scrawled down the account numbers on the back of the paper. The moment I was done, I headed back to the box. I'd just crouched as the lights flickered on. I cursed under my breath. "Fucking close, Max. You're losing your touch."

I headed back downstairs, stopping at the desk. The sergeant bristled at me. "Was the blackout really necessary?"

I shrugged, leaning over the desk. Polystyrene cup of coffee. Perfect. I waved a hand dismissively. "Just had to swap the acriatic inducers. It won't happen again." The gesture actually covered my tossing the small amnesia pill into her drink. She'd forget all about me by tomorrow.

She glared. "Fine. Now get out. I hope you don't treat those other contracts as shoddily as you treated this one."

I smiled, then turned and left. "Tish, scrub..."

"Yeah, yeah, Mabono. Scrub you from the security footage, I know. This isn't fucking amateur hour."

I smiled. "True." I checked my watch. I had an hour to kill before the band got to the church. I think I'll hit The Two Whales. I fancy waffles. I also had a call to make.

"Yeah, Trevor. I think if we..."

There's a tiny knock, then the main door creaks open. I see Kate poking her head around it. "Um, hi?"

I turn and smile. "Kate!"

She steps through the doorway. "I don't really know what I'm doing here, I..." She mumbles faintly to herself. "I just..."

I cut in. Don't leave her time to doubt. "Thanks for coming, Kate."

She walks over to the stage. She's still not looking at anyone. She mumbles something faint at the floor. Trevor sticks up a hand and waves. "Hey Kate."

She looks around at the others. "I um..."

She's too nervous. Damn it. Need to do something about that.

"Hey, it's ok." I turn to the others. "Take thirty. Tell Joyce the pancakes are on me."

Trevor nods, smile wide. "Thanks, Max. You're the man."

I am. I so am.

Kate and I wait patiently as they leave.

I head over to the stage and pick up my acoustic guitar. "So, do you know this one?"

I sit down and start strumming.

"I don't recognise myself, look like someone else in the mirror"

Kate shakes her head. I throw her a grin. "One sec." I hop up, and go into the office. Ten seconds later, I've printed sheet music. I head back into the main room. Kate watches me walk across to her quietly. I hand the sheet music and she flicks through it. She looks back up at me. "Uh..."

I smile, hopefully reassuringly. "It's just some fun, Kate. You seem like you need to relax, so..."

She frowns and tilts her head, staring at me. Then, she nods. "Okay." She puts her case down and opens it up.

The violin she pulls out is surprisingly nice. Old, but very well looked after. An instrument with both the love and wear of a lifetime. She sees me watching and smiles. "It's a family heirloom. We've kept it safe through every trouble."

She brings the bow gently across the strings. The sound is beautiful. Perfect and soulful. "Grandfather performed with it in London at the height of the Blitz."

The bow glides into another note. "Great-grandfather played it for troops in the trenches during World War I."

She plays a final note. "It's always been with a Marsh, as far back as we know. My Dad gave it to me when I was twelve." She smiles fondly, cradling the violin.

I smile. "It sounds beautiful, Kate. You've looked after it well."

She beams, pleased at the praise. "Thank you. I try my best to. The violin.. I just feel it's only right to take care of something with this much history, you know?"

I nod. It's good to have respect for the past. Not so much you can't see it objectively though. Too much respect and you get the Amish. Then again, those guys were impossible to con.

She scans over the sheet music, then raises the violin again. I listen to the violin for a second. The music washes over me and I join in.

"I don't recognise myself, look like someone else in the mirror..."

I watch Kate's eyes flutter closed as she loses herself in the music. She sways gently along to the rhythm.

"I know what I did was wrong, I was just playing along, trying to see clearer"

Kate's playing is incredible. Every note is hit, with perfect tone and emotion. She could do this professionally.

I watch her through the whole song. She's oddly perfect for Chloe. External opposites, but inwardly both idealistic and hopeful. If only they could pull their heads out of their arses and talk...

We play the closing notes and the song drifts to an end. Kate opens her eyes. "That... was fun!" She smiles, bright and chipper.

I smirk back. "It really was. Wanna go again?"

She nods, then thinks for a second. She raises the violin.

It takes me a moment to recognise the tune. It's actually an old favourite. I wait for a moment, catch the beat, then join in. "Golden brown, texture like sun..."

She's relaxing, slowly. I mentally patted myself on the back. The violin was a good way in. I catch her eye and grin. Slowly, I up the tempo of my playing. She grins back, matching my speed.

She ups the tempo again in the third verse. I find myself struggling to keep up. Fuck. My mentor would be so disappointed. I double my efforts.

That's when she starts improvising around the melody. I end up mostly mimicking her. Shit, I'm completely outclassed here. She opens her eyes and smiles impishly at me. I almost laugh out loud. The little shit.

I fall behind and she finishes the song on her own. It's something of a humbling experience for me. One of only a half dozen in the last five years.

She looks over at me, sweating and panting, utterly unfazed. She smiles. "That was fun."

I nearly drop my guitar. I wheeze at her. "Yeaaah. Fun."

She laughs. "Shall we play again?"

When the others returned, Kate stayed. She even joined in. Not on every song, but more than I expected. I sat out once, watching her Deliverance the crap out of all three of my bandmates. She's laughing delightedly all the while. So perfect for Chloe.

When the others leave, we stay to clear up. Kate helps me flip chairs without complaint. We tidy up in amiable silence. Once we're done, I turn to her. "Hey, Kate? You want a lift home?"

She nods and gives a small smile. "That would be great, thank you."

We head out to my car.

I pull up outside her house and turn to her. "Can I come in? There's something we need to talk about."

She frowns. "What..?"

I cut her off. "We'll talk about it inside. Please?" Unsubtle, but I'm too tired for trickery.

She shrugs. "Sure, Max. Come on."

We head over to the door, Kate lets us in. A deep voice calls out as we walk through the hall. "Katie? Is that you?"

Kate calls back. "It's me! Max is here too."

"Max is here?" A tall, Tom-Selleck-esque figure appears in the living room doorway. He looks at me. "It's nice to see you again."

I nod. "You too, Richard."

Niceties with me fulfilled, he turns to his daughter. "Hello, Katie." He walks forward and embraces her. Kate smiles happily and hugs back.

They separate and Richard looks at me. "So, what brings you by..." He checks his watch. "At nearly half past ten at night?"

I shrug apologetically. "Katie has a schoolbook I need for tomorrow, so..." I do that weird apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry about this."

He waves me off. "It's not a problem. Just curious. I am in the career of truth, after all." When I frown curiously, he clarifies. "I'm a judge."

Huh. Interesting. I note it for future use. "Cool." I smile. "Well, It'll be a few minutes then I'll be out of your hair."

Her Dad winks at me as I walk past. I nod to him. I follow Kate upstairs. She walks over to her room, pushing the door open.

I promptly shove her forward and block the door with a chair.

I look up as someone gets shoved through the door.

Kate gapes at me sat on the bed, hella shocked.

I run a hand through my hair and grin, kinda sheepishly. "Hi."

She stares. "Chloe?"

Kate & Max's 1st Song:

watch?v=28KduHrvCxM

(Tom Klose - To Hurt and To Be Hurt / Berlin Sessions #50)

Kate & Max's 2nd Song:

watch?v=1CBqHw-MS18

(Nouvelle Vague - Golden Brown (Cover The Stranglers))

AN: I know it's not originally by Nouvelle Vague, this is just the version they're playing.