Two weeks passed by like a stroll through the mud. Carol felt like her life had gone to the past; always on the run and hiding from her determined ex. She longed to go outside, to play and to go to school. And on top of it all, she wanted to see Jason again. She wanted to apologize about her breakdown the night he visited her.
She wished she could explain everything to him, share where she came from and how she got into this mess.
And she got her chance when the weekend came around.
One morning, Jason showed up all of a sudden.
He was waiting outside of her apartment door, dressed in a stained red hoodie and dark jeans. His hair was a mess, sticking up every which way. Carol wondered if he had rode his bike without a helmet. Was this a personal visit? She tried to quiet the pittering of her heart and form a greeting.
"Jason, what are you doing here?" Carol asked warmly.
"I am here to escort you back to your apartment," he explained briefly, pushing past her into the room.
"Escort? What are you talking about?" Carol babbled on behind him.
Jason circled around the simple yet expensive living room. It also doubled as the dining room.
"Trix struck a deal with the police," Jason finally said. "She will leave you alone, leave Gotham, and do community service in Metro City."
"Are you serious?"
"Something along those lines."
Carol's mind spun and she sunk into the nearest seat she could find. Trix made an agreement with the authorities? That sounded like the last thing she would do. It was like her personal mission to royally screw anyone that got in her way.
"This is too easy," Carol mumbled.
"I agree, but there's nothing we can really do about it," Jason said coolly, squatting next to her. "The police wanted to close the case and call it good."
"But she's still out there!"
Jason's hard blue eyes were like two stakes of ice in her soul, cold and secure.
"Yes, she is," he breathed. "But you're not alone."
He rose up from the floor, and offered her his hand. Carol accepted it, and he pulled her to her feet.
"Have you called Anya?" she inquired, wishing that Jason would hold her hand a little longer instead of slipping out of her grip.
"She's nervous about letting you go back to your old apartment," Jason admitted, as he handed her personal effects as they strolled throughout the condo. "But once I told her about my co-worker installing a security system she cooled down."
"Wait, you're installing a security system in my apartment?" Carol blinked, replacing the many items that were in fact Anya's and not hers.
"Is it a problem?" Jason replied.
"Well no," she said after a moment. "I guess not."
"Good," he grunted.
"Please tell me you're not doing all of this for me," Carol sighed as Jason corralled her to the exit.
"Well, since you're not capable of doing it yourself, I don't really have a choice, do I?" his tone wasn't sharp as usual, but it still had some sting to it.
The door slammed shut, and Jason headed towards the stairwell.
"The bike is out back," he stated. "I'll meet you there."
Carol followed behind him, mumbling in confirmation. Jason paused, apparently confused.
"Did you want to, y'know, take a moment to process?" he asked.
"No, I'm good," Carol shrugged.
"Oh, okay," Jason awkwardly led the way down the stairs to the lobby.
Going out the back door, Carol and Jason reached the red motorcycle. They mounted it and drove back to Carol's old apartment. Thankfully, the domicile appeared to be untouched. All of her possessions were where she had left them. Carol was worried that Trix had broken in; she had been known to do it in the past.
"Everything look alright?" Jason inquired, still standing near the door. He seemed perturbed just being in the room. Maybe because it was hers? Carol focused on analyzing her belongings.
"So far," she replied, sweeping through the small living room and kitchen. "I'm just glad everything seems to be here."
"Does your stuff go missing often?"
"Not anymore," Carol answered, flipping through her school books lying on a small coffee table. "But I used to lose a lot of things."
"Any idea who it was?" Jason probed, slowly wandering through the apartment.
"No," she sighed, sliding into a shoddy excuse of a dining room chair. "Apparently many people don't care for me very much and my roommate isn't here enough to notice."
Assuming that she still had a roommate. She could very well have moved out.
Jason sighed loudly, his gaze moving around the room briefly.
"Well, if you can handle putting your things away, I'll head out," he announced.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind if you hung around for a while longer," Carol blurted out, jumping to her feet.
Jason raised an eyebrow.
"If you don't have anything else going on," she mumbled, letting her voice fade.
"I don't," he stated. "I can only assume you have something else to tell me."
Carol swallowed the anxious lump in her throat before returning to her seat.
"Yes, I would like to discuss a few things with you," she responded.
Jason strode forward, claiming the only other chair at the table.
"Alright," he sighed. "Let's get it over with. What's up?"
Did he have to be so straightforward? Carol squirmed in her seat as she summoned her courage.
"I want to thank you again for everything you've done with this situation with Trix," she said slowly. "And I hope that you don't think differently because of it."
Jason's brow furrowed and he leaned forward, putting an elbow on the tabletop.
"Why would I think of you differently?" he questioned. "I told you before, none of this is your fault."
"And I understand that," Carol said a little too hastily. "What I'm saying is that I value your opinion. I know some people have extreme views about same-sex relationships, and I didn't want you to think any less of me-"
"Carol! Carol!" Jason interrupted. "Why would I care about that? Your relationships are none of my business!"
"But I want it to be your business!"
Jason froze, his confused blinks evident enough that he was struggling processing her words. Of course, the blood rushed to Carol's head, and she began rambling, her words and thoughts muddling together rapidly.
"Relationships haven't always worked for me. All the guys that I seemed to choose were either shallow or abusive, so I thought that maybe things would be better if I tried seeing girls instead. And I dated a few wonderful women but just like before they would each fizzle out, and I found myself alone again. And then I met Trix, and I was just so tired of things not working out that I naively went along with her machinations. And after everything she put me through, I swore I'd never ever pursue anybody again, that i would stay out of relationships.
"But then I met you, Jason . . . and I just couldn't help myself. I really, really like you. And it's okay that you don't like me back; I'm fine with just being friends. Just going out to lunch and getting coffee once a week, it's perfect and it's fine, but I don't want you to dislike me or hate me, because I don't want this to end."
At this point, Carol was in tears, ugly crocodile tears with the runny nose and everything. There was no holding back, not when she was telling Jason everything. She waited amidst her sobs for Jason's response, excited for and yet dreading it.
Jason remained oddly silent even as her sobs transformed into noisy sniffles. Daringly, Carol glanced up at the man sitting across the way from her. He sat ridged and stone faced, but behind his stern mask, she could see mixed emotions flickering in his eyes. With almost mechanical movements, Jason pulled a solitary napkin from its holder atop the table and offered it to her. She gratefully accepted it and did her best to clean herself up.
"I'm not very good at this," Jason said finally. "Emotions, friends, and all that jazz."
"It's hard," Carol agreed, deciding there was no ladylike way to blow her nose and just going for it.
"Look, you've been through a lot, and it's been hard on you, I get that," Jason continued on. He was very much out of his element; he began to fidget in his seat like he didn't quite fit on it. "I dunno how to say this. . .it just can't happen."
Carol could almost feel her heart stopping in her chest. She was afraid to even breathe.
"You and me," Jason fumbled with his words. "It wouldn't work. We can't be anything more than what we are now. With my job and you with your life, we're just not compatible."
The icy slap of rejection; it never got any easier.
"Can we still meet for coffee once in a while?" Carol managed to spit out.
A soft smile broke over Jason's lips.
"I'd like that," he admitted.
"Good," Carol choked out. "I don't know how I could go back to sitting in that café by myself."
Jason leaned over the table, using a finger to brush a stray tear off of her cheek.
"I mean, look at you," he jeered. "You're a wreck whether I'm around you or not."
Carol giggled and silently agreed; she really couldn't be without him. After a few minutes of witty banter, she offered Jason some lunch, which to her surprise, he accepted. Amazingly, not everything in her refrigerator was lost while she was away. There was a few freezer meals shoved in the back of her freezer that hadn't expired yet. It was a brief lunch yet enjoyable. Jason groaned about his realization of how annoying Anya could be, while Carol regaled stories of past adventures she had had with her best friend.
When it came for Jason to leave, she waited for the aching pain to start in her heart that came with watching the door close. Astonishingly, it never did. Despite her fears, they were still friends, even after her expressing her feelings and bawling all over the place. Carol smiled at the old wooden door for a moment.
It hadn't ended after all.