Without Guilt

Chapter XI: Living Never Gets Cheaper

Scarlett's emotions had grown numb over the course of the two hours it had taken them to reach the Financial District. Her mind had just shut off to her surroundings, guilt leaving her more frozen than the snow that continued to fall.

She kept thinking of Ashton and Ethan going after Pier and subjecting him to all sorts of horrible things.

Maybe she'd see his body dangling from the lamp post in the plaza.

It made her not want to go back. She'd finally gotten out. She'd finally given in to the voice in her head screaming at her to run.

Now that she had though, she was lumbering through the streets with nothing but the clothes on her back.

Maybe Ashton had been right. Maybe she was too stupid to make it on her own.

Where would she even go? She couldn't read maps, and she wasn't from around here. Ashton had stopped her from going out on supply runs a long time ago. He said she should know her place and act like an obedient wife - stay at home, cook, clean, do laundry. It was the man's job to go out and work, to hold all the money and put food on the table.

The other women looked down on her for it. She knew they laughed behind her back; it was always the same wherever they went. There was little difference between her and a mule that just did what it was told and cried when it was beaten.

Maybe that was why when Pier was nice to her, she had been quick to take his hand.

Her fingers tightened their grip on Otis' hand subconsciously, reminding her that she was still holding it. She had ice burns along her palms from touching the freezing metal of the fire escape, and though her arm was now numb, she knew she'd feel the pain from her fall later.

It was always the same.

The light was fading when they finally stopped walking, Scarlett nearly walking into Otis thanks to the difference in their gait. He could hardly stand, and his face was covered in dried blood to the point that it was difficult to make out just where exactly he was hurt.

"What are we going to do, Otis?" She asked exhaustedly, hesitantly releasing his hand. She was too tired to cry. "Maybe we should go back? If anything happens to Pier…" Her eyes stung as tears began to well up.

Maybe she hadn't cried enough.

Otis half turned to look at her, still cradling his injured hand close to his chest. He opened his mouth to speak but grimaced, blood dribbling down his chin.

"What have they done to you?" She exhaled a breathy whisper, her hands moving to her mouth as she studied him. "Is this because you gave me and Pier your place?" She asked, her mortification growing.

Otis shook his head, having to grab her as firmly as he could by the shoulder to stop her from flying into a panic.

"It is, I know it is! That son of a bitch-" She hiccupped painfully as she tried to swallow down her tears.

"Scar-" Otis didn't have time to try and comfort her even if she'd saved his life. He'd release her shoulder, reaching with his good hand to knock on the boarded-up window of the building they stood under.

Scarlett turned her gaze skywards as she wiped her tears. She hadn't exactly been lying when she told Ashton that she was trying to get extra money. She'd been working hard while he went out, trying to scrounge up enough supplies and parts for her and Pier to get by so that Pier didn't have to shoulder the burden of paying off Ethan Murphy alone.

She'd been stupid to ever think it would be enough to keep her secret quiet.

Otis continued to knock, the sound consisting of three short knocks followed by three long ones and then again, the short ones.

It took Scarlett some moments to realise there was a rhythm, not to mention to absurdity of it. "What are you doing?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

Otis tried to indicate the building.

Scarlett looked from him up to the building quizzically. Was this somewhere they knew? They'd been walking for quite a while though she couldn't tell how long, only that her feet were sore and her legs extremely tired.

The mere thought though had her move over, knocking more frantically.

"Hello?" She called, pausing to press her ear against the wood to try and listen. "Hello?" She knocked again.

There was no sound from beyond, but some light became visible from a very slim gap in the boards.

She rapped harder, ignoring the pain it sparked in her fingers. "Hello! Please help!" She yelled. "Please help us!"

Muffled sounds came from within, movement close by.

Scarlett looked to Otis who gave an exhausted nod, setting his hand against the board but failing to knock. He wouldn't last much longer, and this realisation sparked her with new energy. "Please help! Help!" She yelled at the top of her voice, that fear that was holding her back before ebbing away and being replaced by an almost cathartic release. "Help!"

A board came free as the nails securing it were torn away, Mason's scared face appearing like a ghost from behind it, hammer still in his hand and poised in preparation to take on anything that might come through.

He let out a yelp, very nearly thrashing Otis with it if Scarlett didn't promptly pull him back. Though the pull wasn't violent, he had no energy to keep standing and just fell.

"Mason!" She'd never been happier to see his chubby bearded face.

Otis remained lying in the snow where he'd fallen, watching as the flakes spiralled down. His mind had slowed now, everything around him far away like he was submerged under water.

Mason stared uncomprehendingly at Scarlett as she threw her arms around him, squeezing him like he was her last friend in the world. He had to pull back to take her in, looking for all the world like he was convinced he was dreaming. "What…?" He began slowly.

"Otis needs help, Mace." Scarlett remembered urgently, quickly wiping the tears from her face. "Help me get him inside, please." It wasn't like her to speak this way. She usually assumed indifference, made a joke out of everything to not get emotionally invested in it.

This probably only further confused Mason but one look at Otis and he was torn back from whatever far away land his mind had taken flight to.

"Oh hell, what happened? Oh my God, Otis-" He worked another panel free from the window to make enough room, struggling to get himself over it and out into the street to help Scarlett lift the man between them.

"Get the boards, make sure nothing comes in from there." Mason rambled a bit distractedly as they managed to get Otis settled on a couch.

He was terrified seeing Otis like this.

"Right." Scarlett set to work, keeping her mind and hands busy to prevent herself from falling back into that pit of helplessness.

She had no idea where they were two minutes ago, but now she knew they were in the Financial District. This was Mason's building; they were somewhere on the ground floor- it looked like a lounge of sorts though she'd never been in a hotel before to be able to properly identify it. Just what she'd seen on TV as a little girl.

She paused when she heard the door opening. "Where are you going?" She asked Mason, fear spiking again.

"Dorothy," Mason called back. "She's upstairs!" The door shut behind him promptly.

"Why?" Dominique asked quietly, sitting beside Scarlett on the opposite couch as she watched Dorothy pull another needle to add it to the growing collecting on the tray.

"He was trying to help us…" Scarlett mumbled, staring into her steaming cup. It offered little warmth and felt painful in her ice burned hands, but she couldn't bring herself to set it down.

"No, I don't understand why he went to Will's place." Dominique rephrased. "He'd just been in Med Bay, why wouldn't he come back here to see Dorothy?"

Mason opened his mouth to speak but shut it again promptly. He was not going to blame this on Kumi, especially not when the man wasn't here to defend himself. He also knew how stubborn Otis was, but there were still so many things missing from the equation.

Dorothy was quiet. She hadn't said much since she'd walked in, focused on her work, but there was also guilt in the knot of her shoulders.

"Ethan was at Med Bay when me and Kumi went by." Mason stated slowly.

"Any idea what he was doing there?" Dominique asked, looking over the sullen faces of her friends.

Mason shook his head. "No clue. He left in a hurry when we got there. Otis was kinda tense, like he was worried about something."

"Did he say what-?"

"No. You know him; he never says a damn word about anything to anyone." Mason replied promptly, his frustration showing through.

Dominique cooled off with her questioning.

"Think Ethan had something on him?" Scarlett proposed after some moments of silence.

"Like what?" Mason's expression reflected his confusion about the suggestion. He knew Ethan Murphy dealt in blackmail, but he couldn't think of one thing he might have on Otis Meyer that would make the man scared of him.

Scarlett shrugged. "… maybe it was because of me and Pier."

"I don't see what that has to do with Otis." Dominique cut in. She was holding her breath at the mere thought that Ethan might have somehow caught wind of her pregnancy and was trying to get Otis to cough up her location.

Scarlett shuffled in her seat. "Otis offered us Will's place. Ethan was… threatening to tell Ashton on us if we didn't pay him. Between that and paying rent for one of them private places down Roslyn Place, Pier didn't have nothing left over for food. Layla was doing me a solid and letting me get just a little extra so I can share it, but we weren't gonna last long going that way." She confessed, unable to meet anyone's eye right now. "Otis said he didn't want no rent, so Pier was planning on telling Ethan we could pay off what he said we owed a lot faster. Maybe that rubbed him the wrong way and he went after Otis." She shrugged.

"Nah, that can't be it." Mason dismissed, and Scarlett felt just as terrible as she felt relieved to not be responsible for what happened. "Once Ethan's got you, he don't let you go. Doesn't matter how big your payments, it never stops."

Dominique let out a quiet breath, reaching over to offer Scarlett a comforting squeeze to her shoulder.

Scarlett teared up despite herself. "I just don't want anything bad to happen to Pier because of me… it's all my fault."

"Scar, nothing's going to happen to Pier." The other woman tried to reassure. "K's gone to find him, he was on patrol, I doubt Ethan can reach him before Kumi can."

Mason nodded his agreement. "Pier ain't an easy man either. Ethan couldn't move him if he tried."

"But Ashton-" Scarlett muttered tearfully as she sniffled.

"Honey, you said Otis tore into him with a knife. There's no way he's getting up any time soon, and if he was clever, he'd stay put." Dominique interrupted. "You stop being scared of him; you hear me? I would never let him lay a finger on you again."

Scarlett managed a grateful smile through her tears, melting into Dominique's arms when she hugged her.

She didn't know how long she'd been waiting to hear those words. To feel like she had a friend in the world who would protect her, but she knew that for a long time coming the shadow that Ashton had cast over her life would not leave.

"Do you think he knows about me and Pier?" She asked quietly. "The way Ethan said it… he was trying to make it sound like Otis and I were…"

"Shhh… don't you worry about that now." Dominique soothed, gently patting her back. "Whatever Ethan was after, he wanted to take Otis down."

Mason still couldn't wrap his head around it. If what Scarlett had suggested was true, then what could Otis so desperately want to hide?

"What if it wasn't Ethan who had something on Otis?" Dorothy spoke up for the first time, her voice sounding small in the large room. She'd finished her work, now just quietly cleaning her stitching needle. "What if it was Otis who had something on him?"

Mason blinked. "What do you mean?"

Dorothy slowly lowered her needle, setting it back in her kit. "I just picked 32 needles from his mouth, Mason…" A tremor in her voice betrayed her calm exterior. "Ethan was trying to make it so that he'd never talk again."

"We need to tell the Boss." Mason said.

"No." Dominique interrupted firmly.

"This has gotten out of hand, Dom." He insisted.

"No, Mason." She repeated, fixing him with a sharp stare.

His brows furrowed. "Why not?"

"Because it will open up a whole can of worms none of us are prepared to answer for." She warned.

"What are you so scared of?" Mason questioned, rising from his seat. "Ethan Murphy's been doing a lot of folks dirty over the years. He's done horrible things, he's ruined people's lives, all just to fill his own pockets. Look what he's done to him, Dom!"

Dominique stood up too, her action suggesting desperation, but she approached gently, taking Mason's hands. "Mace, I know you love him…" She started slowly, but those words might as well have been a hot iron brand because he recoiled from her.

"So what?! This isn't about me!" Mason snapped. "Yeah, the stupid fat fag Mason loves a guy- who the fuck cares? You know what, if any of you cared about him instead of what I am, maybe we wouldn't have gotten to this point!"

Dominique held her hands up. "That's not what I was getting at."

"Then what were you getting at, Dom?" He demanded to know. He had enough of everyone making fun of him and belittling him for what he was.

"I need you to see the bigger picture." Dominique emphasised. "You go to the Boss and every single person that Ethan Murphy has something on will be exposed. Not just Scarlett, but everyone else too. Otis would never want to do it that way anyway, you know it."

"Oh, fuck what Otis wants!" Mason ranted. "If he'd just listened to me and came here, none of this would've happened." His anger just as quickly melted to upset as he looked towards the unconscious man. "But he's stubborn as hell, he's always worrying about everyone else…" He covered his mouth, too ashamed to sob.

Dominique pitied him. "I know." She assured, squeezing his arm gently.

"… I'm sorry I yelled at you." He apologised after a moment.

She gave him a nod and released him, letting him go pour himself a drink.

"Dom…" Dorothy spoke up. "He really needs antibiotics."

Dominique's expression firmed up. "Of course. Just tell me where to get them and I'll see if I can't get something sorted."

"I know there's some in Med Bay but…" Dorothy sighed. "It's 5,000 a pill."

"Why so expensive?" Scarlett questioned in surprise.

"The Boss doesn't want us just giving them out for free. He issues a certain amount for us to use but we have to give a full report. The stuff that's left behind from the bottles he gave us goes for at least that amount." Dorothy explained. "Sometimes higher when lots of people are hurt."

"Well… how many does he need?" Scarlett asked uncertainly. She didn't even own 5,000 parts. She barely had 200 to her name.

"Probably a full course. He's hurt bad. 7 days' worth at least." Dorothy admitted.

She could see Scarlett's face as she tried to do the math.

"35,000." Mason offered, rubbing his face. "I got 27,000 from what Dom and K paid me."

Dominique shook her head. "That's yours to keep."

Mason almost replied by saying it was never hers to give him, but he managed to swallow down his misdirected anger with his next mouthful of alcohol.

Please R&R!