"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" Connor sang as he bounced around excitedly. "Me likey bouncy! Me likey bouncy!"

Cooper groaned loudly. "Dad please, make him stop. He's driving me crazy!"

James sighed. The boys were driving him absolutely insane. "Why don't you just take care of it?" he asked in exasperation. "You know how to make him shut up."

Cooper nodded and then proceeded to pop Connor right in the mouth. "Shut up you dork!" he ordered. "Stop being so fucking annoying!"

Connor whined and smacked Cooper back. "Daddy, Cooper hit me!"

James rolled his eyes. This was not exactly how he had pictured this night going. Between Matt's reaction to the revelation of his true nature (which, while annoying, had been entirely expected and understandable given the oldest Hardy's moral character) and overhearing Mark talk to Jeff about him behind his back, he was starting to get kind of annoyed. Sure he knew that Mark was absolutely right on all counts, but that didn't stop him from feeling annoyed. He would have at least appreciated the courtesy of being included in on the conversation so he could say his peace. But no, Mark had to do it in secret. Part of him had wanted to jump in during Mark and Jeff's little talk or even confront Mark afterwards, but he hadn't done either of those things. It wasn't really because he had been wanting to avoid a fight; he rarely ever avoided a fight if he could help it. He was good at fighting because he could frustrate the other person into giving up. But tonight....well he didn't really know why he had just snuck out of the house. It had just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

"Daddy!" Connor said impatiently. He grabbed the sleeve of James's shirt and tugged on it. "Did you hear me? Cooper hit me!"

"Well you were being annoying," James snapped without thinking.

Connor's mouth dropped open as Cooper laughed. That had not been the response he had been looking for. "MEAN!" he yelled before kicking James on the shin and storming off.

James sighed. "Fuck," he said. He wasn't going to admit it out loud, but that had actually kind of hurt.

Cooper patted James on the back. "It's about time you said that. He needed to hear it." He shoved his hands into his pocket. "Of course he probably won't talk to us for the rest of the night now."

"Oh he'll talk," James muttered. "But he'll just scream about us being mean and shit like that."

"True." Cooper cast a look in the direction Connor had gone off in. Connor hadn't gone too far yet. It looked like he had found something on the ground that had captured his attention so that was stalling him. "You okay Dad?" Cooper asked.

"I'm fine," James said automatically. He didn't really look at Cooper as he said that. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you look like something is bothering you," Cooper replied. He gave James an exasperated look. "Come on Dad, don't bullshit me. Just tell me what's wrong."

"Ugh...fine," James said in defeat. He told Cooper about the conversation he had overheard Mark and Jeff having. Cooper listened to every word he said and Connor didn't come back over to interrupt the proceedings (which probably meant he was doing something that he shouldn't). "So what do you think?" James asked when he was done with the explaining.

Cooper sighed. "Well I would say Mark is right, but I don't want to say that, so I won't. What I will say is that you might need to make a choice."

James grimaced. "I hate choices. Why do I have to make a choice?"

"Because life is about choices. With great power comes great responsibility."

"And with my knife comes a great amount of bodies," James said. He folded his arms over his chest. "Don't quote Spiderman boy. It makes you sound like a geek."

"Well if Connor hadn't made me watch that fucking movie six times earlier today, that wouldn't have happened," Cooper replied. "Now let's get back to the point. You have four options to choose from here. One is that you keep killing people and just hope that Jeff stays on the path of denial he's on now."

"I like that one," James said eagerly. "Let's go with that one."

"You didn't hear the other options yet."

"I don't care! I like that one!"

Cooper glared at him. "Shut up and listen for five seconds. Your second option is to tell Jeff that you're going to stop killing people, but then keep killing people in secret. I don't think you should go with this one though because it'll take Mark about two minutes to figure out that you're lying."

James pouted. That was one thing he didn't like about being so close to Mark. It was really hard to get away with shit when he wanted to.

"Another option is to keep killing people, but only kill guilty people."

"Like that guy from that show you watch?" James asked. "Uh...what was it again?"

"Dexter," Cooper answered. "And yes, that's exactly what I mean."

James thought about it. That thought had potential, but the only problem was that it would take too much time to sort out who was guilty and who was innocent. And time required patience, which was something he did not have a lot of. "What's the last option?" he asked. He needed to know what the hell else he could do.

Cooper suddenly looked apprehensive. "Well it's uh...it's...I shouldn't even say this..."

"Just say it already!" James ordered.

"The last option is that you stop killing completely."

James stared at Cooper in disbelief. "What?" he finally said.

Cooper shrugged. "I just--"

"Why in the hell would I do a thing like that?" James asked. He was trying to imagine a life without killing and he just couldn't fathom it. Killing was in his blood. It was what he did. He was good at it and he loved it. Not doing it...he couldn't even imagine that.

"What if Jeff asked you to do it?" Cooper asked. "Or better yet, what if Jeff said that you had to stop killing or he was going to leave you? What would you say?"

James blinked. He was actually at a loss for words. "Um...I would um..." He threw his hands up in the air. "Cooper this isn't fair! Why in the hell would Jeff give me a choice like that?"

"Because he's not a killer!" Cooper replied. "And he's not a killer in retirement or a retired killer's brother who's too used to this to give much of a shit anymore. He's a moral person with compassion for human life. Do you really think he's going to stay okay with what you do forever?"

James pouted. The answer to that was no, although he wanted it to be yes very badly. "This sucks," he announced. "The only option I actually like is the first one."

Cooper sighed. "You're not even going to consider any of the other ones?"

"Well...the third one I'll think about," James said. "But the second one would be a fail in epic proportions and the I don't even want to think about that last one." The few times he had tried quitting for Annabelle's sake flashed through his head and they made him shudder. Denying his bloodlust was not something he ever wanted to do again if he could help it. Was that selfish? Probably. Could he really quit if he really really wanted to? Maybe. But the problem was that he didn't see why he should quit. He had tried to see it for Annabelle's sake, but he never managed to do it. Of course Annabelle had never been good about making sure he stopped for good, so that hadn't helped matters. If he had really thought that she had been going to leave him even for a second because of the him killing thing, he would have tried a million times harder to actually stop.

"Daddy!" Connor called out. "Coopy! Come here!"

Cooper and James went to look at Connor, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. "Oh good grief," James muttered. "If he's playing hide and seek again, I'm going to kick his ass. Last time he did this bullshit it took me five hours to find him."

Cooper shook his head. "If he was playing hide and seek, he wouldn't have yelled." He motioned for James to follow him. "Come on. I think I know where he was yelling from."

James followed Cooper into a nearby alley. As soon as they got there, Connor ran and jumped all over James. The blood that had been on his shirt automatically was transferred to James. "Daddy, those girls tried to touch me inappropriately!" he tattled.

James raised his eyebrows. "They did?"

Connor nodded. "Yup." He buried his face into James's shoulder. "It was horrible!"

James looked over at Cooper, who shrugged. There was no way that they were ever going to find out whether that was true or not. Connor's version of the truth wasn't always the actual truth. Connor had a tendency to misinterpret things like this all the time, and people touching him inappropriately was one of the common excuses he gave when James or Cooper asked him why he chose to kill someone.

A choking noise made all three of them look over at the girls. Two of them were very much dead, but one was still fighting for her life. "You didn't finish her off?" James said with a frown.

Connor pouted. "I thoughts she was dead!"

James sighed and handed Connor over to Cooper. "Hold him," he ordered. He walked over to the girl that was trying to crawl away. She was young; definitely no more than sixteen or seventeen. Her clothes were completely stained with blood; he actually couldn't tell what color they might have been before Connor had gotten his hands on her. He grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up just enough so he could take his knife and slash her throat. He couldn't take any chances with her. She had seen Connor's face. If she somehow lived, then there was a chance that she could become a problem later on.

"Where are we going to put these bitches?" Cooper asked. "There's no dumpster to put them in."

James looked around and noticed that Cooper was right. But there was something else he could use. He walked forward about ten steps and pulled up a man hole cover. "Everyone grab a body," he ordered. "We'll toss them down to the sewer."

Cooper and Connor did what they were told, and they disposed of the bodies as quickly as they could. James put the cover back over the hole when they were done and then the three of them retreated further into the alley. They were going to have to stay hidden in the shadows now since James and Connor were covered in blood. "That was fun," Connor said happily. He put his arms around James and Cooper. "I wants to do it more."

Cooper shook his head. "Connor--"

"Okay," James agreed, cutting off Cooper. "But just for a little bit longer."

"Yay!" Connor cheered.

Cooper glared at James. "Dad..."

"What?" James said innocently. Deep down, he knew that this might not be the smartest thing in the world to do, but he still needed time to decide what he was going to do about the whole Jeff thing. And since sometimes he thought better after a good hunt, he thought that this was just what he needed to help him make up his mind.

Cooper shook his head. "This is not going to end well. What are you going to tell Jeff if he finds out you're doing this?"

"Well I'm kind of hoping he'll still be in his big denial thing and he'll just overlook it."

"Dad!"

James groaned. "Okay okay! I'll think of something...and I'll try to leave most of the killing to you and Connor. How's that?"

Cooper sighed in defeat. "It's a start," he muttered. "But I think you're going to have to accept the fact that something around here will probably have to change if you keep up your relationship with Jeff."

I know I know, James thought unhappily. That's kind of what I'm afraid of.