James' entire world was a roil of fury and fire.

Getting out of that elevator was mostly what he had needed to be done, getting away from Qrow was what he had needed to be done. Getting to Roman's was what he needed to do now.

But he couldn't bring himself to do that. Not right now, when all he knew was anger.

Qrow had intentionally penned him in, and while James didn't appreciate that whatsoever he wasn't going to let it happen again. James leaned against a wall, and stared at the floor in front of him. He looked down at his hands, which were cyclically relaxing and balling into fists.

James looked at the wall in front of him, and had to fight everything in him to keep himself from punching it so hard that he left a fist-sized hole in the drywall.

How dare Qrow do that?

James raised his hands to his face, covering himself and trying to block out the entire universe around him. This was wrong. This was so, so wrong.

He didn't want to think about what was going to happen. He didn't want to think about how angry he was about the line of questioning that Qrow had decided to go down.

Why did Qrow have to ask him about attraction of all things?

Things had been going so well again, but now, things weren't okay. This was something that James couldn't see getting fixed.

He inhaled deeply.

Exhaled slowly.

Inhale deeply again.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

James just stood there until he got himself calmed down enough that he could potentially see everyone. He went to the door to the staircase and pressed himself against the wall beside the window to keep himself out of view from anyone that was on the other side. James just watched for when Qrow went down. He was going to go down once Qrow was out of the way.

Being caught alone again with Qrow was the absolute last thing that James needed.

When he saw Qrow go down, James waited. He stood there in the hallway for an extra two or three minutes before going down himself. He was going to have to go to the apartment, and he was going to do his best to take a seat that was as far away from Qrow as possible.

People were going to notice that things were wrong.

He knew it.

Winter had probably already picked up on the fact that he was missing.

And he was going to be late, which meant that everyone else was probably going to start worrying too.

Great.

Absolutely fantastic.

James pushed the door to the stairwell open and began to take the stairs down to the correct floor. He took his time, knowing that if he pushed himself too hard, then his body would start aching and then he wouldn't be able to drive home as safely as he would have liked.

And so he dragged himself down the stairs to the door to Roman's apartment, and instead of knocking and announcing his lateness, James let himself in as quietly as he could.

Inside, the room was almost silent, with Qrow and Roman both missing from the space, and Junior, Glynda, and Winter were in the living room, talking to each other as quietly as they could. When the door opened, all of their eyes turned, and they stared at James.

Shit.

They probably already knew that something had happened.

Winter pulled away from the other two and crossed the room to see James. She stepped up close, and she hugged him as closely as he could. James didn't respond, at least until she said something herself.

"What happened?"

"It's not worth talking about." James answered, pulling himself away from the girl that could have been his daughter gently. He went to the large reclining chair, and he took his seat there, since it was at the very least a guarantee that Qrow couldn't sit next to him.

Junior left the room now, walking off in the direction that James was willing to bet was where Junior and Roman's bedroom was. Glynda looked at James as he settled into his seat and reached into his clothes to find his notebook and paper.

"James." She greeted him.

"Glynda." James opened the book up to an empty sheet, dated it at the top, and ran the side of his hand over the paper to smooth it down. "Is something wrong?"

"I could ask you the same." Glynda answered, leaning against the wall next to where James was sitting. "You and I need to talk about this next job, James."

"Of course." James mumbled. He looked up and his and Glynda's eyes met for just a moment. "Anything for my beautiful wife." The words were sour on his tongue. Wrong. Wholly unpleasant.

"We aren't at work yet, James."

"Sorry." James muttered. "I figured I should get myself back into that habit."

Glynda let a small smile crease her face, and then the door down the hallway opened, with Junior leading the way out with both Roman and Qrow following behind him as quietly as they could. Slowly, the group began to convene, with Roman taking his seat at the front of the room as usual, and Qrow ending up on the loveseat next to Junior, which was odd, if nothing else.

Glynda's hand made its way onto James' left shoulder, and then she pulled away, taking her place on the couch next to Winter. She seated herself there, crossed one leg over the other, and got her tablet out so that she could do her job to the best of the ability.

At the front of the room, Roman was smoothing down his shirt, and getting his easel in line. He looked around it, finding a folder with what James was willing to bet was photos from their little reconnaissance mission.

Roman looked over at James for just a moment before pulling his eyes away, smiling, and opening his mouth so that he could begin this little meeting. Any hesitance and nerves that had been there almost instantaneously disappeared from his features.

With one motion, Roman whipped himself around to face the room, the folder clutched in both of his hands in front of him. "Well," He grinned. "Isn't it great just seeing all of your beautiful faces again. It's been too long, I was starting to miss our little family."

As was normal for them, the entire room groaned when Roman made this particular comment. The redhead frowned, and looked among the room before muttering something that sounded like "tough crowd" under his breath, just loud enough that James was able to make it out.

Roman flipped open the folder that he held in front of him and began to flip through it in search of something for this week's board meeting. "So," Roman began, looking through the contents of the folder with a bored expression on his face. "As most of you should know by now, we have a little adventure to go on next week. And as such, some of us have been doing some training."

He pulled out two photographs of the building that James and Roman had gone to a few days before and attached them to the easel with some tape. "Peacemaker and myself-" Roman's eyes flicked over to James, and James nodded back. "Well, the two of us went on a little reconnaissance mission a few days back, and we got a view of the building." Roman raised an eyebrow at James.

Realizing that he was being handed the spotlight for just a few minutes, James pushed himself up and out of the recliner and crossed the room to the easel. He began to search it over, looking for whether they had a map of the area that they were going to be working in or not.

"Roman do you-"

"Map?" Roman asked, reaching into the folder and passing one to James.

"Thank you.' James unfolded the map quickly and pinned it up for people to see. Roman was scrambling at his side to find something, and soon James was handed the little package of sewing pins that Roman used for these sorts of things.

James shoved a large thumbtack into the map over where the Salem Group headquarters was located. "Our operations will be taking place at 39 West Street, here in Atlas. The area is mostly secure, but it's a business district. Stores, restaurants, and a parking garage a block or two away are all things to be aware of. Because it'll be night when we do the job, we won't have to worry about it being as high traffic as usual- vehicle or otherwise."

He flicked his eyes over to meet Roman's, them having a quick silent conversation before Roman was flicking through the folder in search of something. "Externally, we have to be aware of security cameras all over the place, a large parking lot which will be an important location to note, and the fact that it's urban driving."

Roman pinned up a photograph that had been taken a few days back of the parking lot. Roman smirked, and tapped on it, now taking a chance to speak up about his findings for himself. "Our little parking lot that Peacemaker here mentioned, is pretty big. Probably about eighty spaces, which makes sense. It'd be wise of us all to be aware that it'll be packed when we have our little attack. There's a worker's door not too far off from it, that's what basically everyone but Peacemaker and North should be using when we do this."

James took the reins back now. "Aside from that, there's the front entrance and one in the back that we probably won't need to use. We weren't exactly able to find it."

Roman nodded, and gestured back towards James' seat with a nod of his head. James, understanding, stepped back out of the way and sank back down into the recliner. He watched as Roman pinned up a few more pictures and beckoned Junior up to the front of the room.

It almost felt like a bad show and tell, except with people that were approaching their respective midlife crises.

Junior didn't bother to stand up, as he was usually able to command attention by just being there. "I've been able to take a look inside of the building," Junior began, crossing one leg over the other at the ankle. "The floor that we'll be working on is pretty straightforward. The bar's easily accessible, the coat room's near the front of the building where people come in, and that's about all we'll have people installed in. Beyond that, I'll have to handle the behind the scenes."

"How is it looking?" Glynda asked, her voice serious. "I'm sure that there's plenty to worry about-"

"Since I'll be playing security," Junior began his answer. "I'll be having to make regular rounds of the building anyways, which will bring me through multiple floors of the building. I've trained Scarecrow on bar so that he can play his part convincingly-" Junior looked at James now. "Peacemaker, you and I have work to do."

"We do." James affirmed with a nod, scratching down a note to set time aside for him and Junior to start their little training sessions together. "We'll discuss a date and time after the meeting."

"Thank you."

With that matter settled, Junior began to give his overview of what he'd learned about the building so far. He didn't need to go into the same nitty gritty that everyone else did. When the job had been arranged, it had been done with the full awareness that Junior was going to ultimately be the one that saw the most of the building unless something went wrong.

James didn't listen too closely, instead he was trying to pick through his brain to pick out what it was going to be that he needed to do in his role. He'd been given a weird role in this job, quietly calling the shots so that everyone else would be able to make it in and out of things safely.

At least, that was assuming that they weren't going to be caught on cameras during the job. There was still the rumor that said that Ozpin was going to be at the event, but James still doubted that he believed it.

He didn't want to believe in ghosts, not really.

Junior stood up at the front, talking for several minutes before going and rejoining Qrow on the loveseat where he'd been sitting before he was called up to speak. Roman took the command of the room again, and everyone's eyes were absolutely glued to him as he put himself at the front.

Roman was about to open his mouth to say something, but before he could say anything, Glynda stood up, crossing the room from her place on the couch. The blonde arranged herself at the front in everyone's line of sight, and Roman raised a brow for just a moment before conceding the floor to the blonde woman.

"As you all know-" Glynda began. "In our last meeting, we announced that Ozpin was going to be at this job, though we won't know where." Her eyes fell on James, and James felt his entire body stiffen as he realized that she was silently judging him based on what had happened at the last meeting. "And we've recently heard from them again regarding the job."

The room was completely silent, and Glynda was at liberty to speak for as long as she needed. Everyone wanted to know what this job was supposed to look like, especially if there was going to be an unknown factor involved.

"As far as I've been informed, Ozpin will be at the bar for part of the night, though they haven't said what other roles they'll be playing over the course of the evening." She pushed her glasses up with two fingers. "As such, you should all be prepared to be approached by a stranger in case Ozpin decides that they want your aid."

James grit his teeth, wondering whether he was going to have to confront the fact that the person that had bought him a car was going to be there. The same person that had re-equipped him with his old sidearm.

The same person that he could very easily blame for halving him.

And he didn't even know what this person looked like, and that perhaps was the scariest part of all. He wasn't going to be able to keep track of this job as easily as he would have liked, even if his main role was going to be one of the information runners.

Glynda stepped aside, giving the floor back to Roman. "I'm sure that there's something you wanted to say?"

"That would be correct." Roman proclaimed, strutting up into the main view of everyone once again. "Everyone, you're going need to be able to play your parts, but you're also going to need to look your parts. Peacemaker, North, I'm sure you two are ready to play the Robinsons. Qrow, you'll need a bar uniform. I've got what I'll need to wear, as does Junior."

A hand waved in the air, and everyone turned their heads to stare at who it belonged to.

On the couch, Winter was sitting there, with her long white hair tied up into a bun to make it look like she was a miniature Glynda. The girl began to lower her hand slowly, realizing the gravity of the situation and looked around the room.

Roman opened his mouth to talk now. "What's wrong, snowflake?"

"I-" Winter opened her mouth, then closed it again and swallowed. James already knew what the girl was going to ask the room, and he was worried about it for a moment. Technically, he shouldn't have brought Winter to this meeting, but the girl had messaged him insisting on being brought to the meeting.

James couldn't say no to her. He never could, not really.

Winter swallowed, and she shot him a look from where she was sitting on the couch. James didn't say anything, only nodded in her direction to give her the encouragement to keep going. Finally, feeling ready, Winter began to talk.

"I want to be on this job." Winter announced, standing up in her seat. She looked around the room, and Winter looked like she was either ready to fight or run. She swallowed, and then began to explain herself. "I've found out that my mother and father will be attending the Salem Group Charity Ball, and I've been given permission to come along for it along with them and play the trophy child." There was an unspoken because Weiss isn't old enough.

Roman opened his mouth to say something, but only ended up shooting Glynda a look, like he didn't even know how he was supposed to navigate this. Glynda stood up with her tablet, and walked into another room, leaving them all alone with Winter for a few minutes.

"Please," Winter pleaded. "I'm going to be there anyways, let me be a part of this."

James leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and clutched his hands together in front of him. Quietly, James spoke up to get Winter's attention. "Winter," he began. "Let Glynda make her contact, and then you'll have an answer."

Roman met James' eyes. "You support this?"

"I do." James answered. He didn't say why, he didn't say that it was because he knew that Winter wanted a chance to prove herself, he didn't say that it was because it meant that he was going to have a chance to keep an eye on her when her father was around. He didn't even say that Winter had called him specifically so that she could pitch herself to the room. "I support Winter completely in this matter."

They must have sat there for six or seven minutes, the entire room mostly silent as everyone tried to figure out what they wanted to do about Winter's request.

In the end, it all fell in Glynda's hands.

Glynda came in, turning off her tablet, and looked amongst the room. She sighed deeply, pushed her glasses up her face with two fingers, and opened her mouth to speak.

There wasn't a single pair of eyes that wasn't on her.

"I've spoken with Ozpin regarding this matter." Glynda announced, striding across the room to go back to the couch. She seated herself there, crossed one leg over the other, and smoothed down her skirt.

"And?" Winter asked, sounding like she was both nervous and excited about whatever the verdict would be.

"They have approved Winter's presence on this job." Glynda's eyes met Roman's. "Though some details will need to be worked out, she'll be there."

"Thank you." Winter said, and it was like all of the tension had just flowed out of her body. She stood up tall, held her head high, and for just a moment, Winter looked like she was ready to be a leader.

Deep down, James was proud of her, if a bit nervous.

Roman nodded, stepped forward, and looked between Glynda and Winter. "You know, you'll probably end up in a similar role to Peacemaker on this job." He began, "However, because you're going to be there with your family, things will have to be done in a more... secretive manner."

"Of course." Winter said, confirming that she understood. She blinked, and then looked throughout the room. "I won't let any of you down. I promise."

"Well then." Roman said, sucking in his cheeks like he was trying to figure out exactly what he was supposed to say to Winter, or to anyone else. "Since this has taken a bit of an... unexpected turn, I think it's best that we call this meeting over, and we'll be back to meetings in a few days."

There was a quiet titter throughout the room as everyone agreed to that. James didn't say anything, instead he just got up, folded his notebook, and pocketed it. He wanted to go, but since he was Winter's ride, he couldn't do so immediately.

He did however, have time to go for a walk while Winter spoke to Glynda and Roman about the job.

James shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and was on the way out when his and Qrow's eyes met, if only for just a second. He looked away immediately, fearing the ball of anger that was trying to build up in his chest. If there was anywhere that James didn't want to be, it was in Qrow's presence in this time.

He stepped out of the apartment, and leaned against the wall just outside, just like he had at the last meeting here. It was important to him that he spoke to Junior at some point, and he was going to have to be able to drive Winter home once this was done.

The apartment door opened, and Junior stepped out to meet James' eyes almost immediately. The man closed the door behind him, and gestured over towards the elevator with his chin, silently asking James to join him.

James pushed off the wall and followed after Junior, neither of them really wanting to speak to each other just yet. Together they stepped into the elevator, and James didn't go to the same corner that he always did. Instead, he just stopped right in front of the door and stared at it.

The elevator door closed, and Junior finally spoke up. "Qrow told us."

"I'd expect that." James muttered back. "Look I don't..."

"Are you okay?"

That was just the real question, wasn't it? James frowned, trying to figure out whether there was actually a good way to answer that. He could say that he was okay, but there were few things that were keeping him from saying so for sure.

Mostly, he was just angry.

He sighed and shook his head, careful to pull his eyes away from the larger man. "I don't know." He finally answered. "How much did he tell you?"

"That you got in a fight in the elevator." Junior answered, leaning back against the wall. "Not much more than that. He seemed pretty upset.

"I'd expect that." James mumbled. "I don't want to work with him anymore, Junior."

"James." Junior said, his voice truly insistent for the first time. "What's going on?"

The elevator door opened, and James stepped outside of it, already making a beeline for the door so that he could leave the building and go out to the lawn instead. He sucked in on his cheek, and had to resist the temptation to chew at the inside of it out of pure frustration.

Junior was just bringing all of the questions that James didn't know how to answer. And considering what was going on with Qrow being so odd, he was just left completely lost. He opened his mouth to say something, only an "I-" making the way out before he closed back up again with the shake of his head.

There really was no way to explain himself here, was there?

"Jim?"

"When you and Roman-"

"James?"

James shook his head a second time, pushed the door open, and stepped outside of the building and down the small flight of stairs that led to the parking lot. Junior followed closely after him. "James, talk to me-"

As he got close to his car and stopped. James let his eyes squeeze shut.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale again.

"Junior," James managed. "When you and Roman got together... did it make sense to you?"

"What's happening?"

"I don't know." James growled. "I really don't know. Junior he keeps on just doing these things and none of them make sense."

"James?" Junior's voice was deeply worried. "James you need to-"

"Look," James reached into his pocket to find his car keys, and he unlocked his car with a quiet chirping sound. There was a thudlike sound as the car unlocked fully and pulled the door to the driver's seat open. "Ask him, it'll work better. I... I just want to wait out here. Could you send Winter down when you're done?"

Junior's expression saddened, and he sighed. There was a quiet moment where he inhaled before letting out a quiet "Okay."

"Thank you."

Junior left.

James was alone.

His world was a roil of fury and fire.

He wanted nobody else to live in it.