Chapter 3

The loud dance music pumped through the gym hard enough that the chairs and tables rattled, practically skipping across the floor. Rocky collapsed into a chair; wiping sweat from his forehead when his friends finally allowed him time to leave the dance floor. Dancing was not his thing at all, never had been. He was never able to get out of his head enough to let loose and not be so self-conscious about everything. (Or else, he got his dancing ability from his father, which was none).

And that night Jason and Emily made sure he would stay on the dance floor long enough to remind him of just how insistent his best friends could be with trying to get him to "act like a teenager sometimes". And it certainly didn't help they had Jo on their side. All three of them were dancing machines; Emily had taken dance classes since she was little, Jo did a lot of dancing in the traditional sense through her tribe, but also loved any and all music (which she and Colt bonded over) and found her enjoyment in dancing to have the same sort of enthusiasm, and Jason just liked to party.

All of which was clearly evident by Jason hollering at the top of his lungs to the song and swinging his tie around in the air like a lasso, dancing with their friend Laurie, who whipped her hair back and forth to the music that bumped through the speakers. Rocky smiled to himself, gently shaking his head as he watched his friends, spotting Brett on the dance floor as well. He was the shyer guy of the group of friends, but Brett was more likely to put himself out there than Rocky was. And he was surprised to find that he'd gotten a date to the dance in Riley, who Brett had admitted with a light blush that she'd asked him and he hadn't initially planned on going at all.

And how Jason had asked Rhuben to go with him, Rocky wasn't sure. The Jacksons were put on probation as well, they'd all been together when their 'sentences' were decided. It was a miracle that his parents at least let them go to the dance, but it must've been a 'one last night of freedom' for them, too. Then again, what else was to be done when they continued to get sucked into things that put everyone around hem in immediate danger?

Probation might be good, Rocky had reasoned as he sat in the conference room along with his brothers and parents, listening to the decision that his father had come up with that was adequate for the laws they had broken. Maybe it'd keep them from making those mistakes again, maybe it was something that'd help them leave it in their past. Though, as he continued to nod quietly, he knew there wasn't a chance of that happening.

Telling him and his brothers to stop helping others was like telling their father to stop putting away criminals.

"Giving up already?" Emily teased, sliding into the seat next to him. She placed her purse on the arm of her chair and twisted back around to grin at him. "I thought Rocky Douglas didn't give up on anything."

Rocky rolled his eyes. "I'm just taking a break," he reminded her. "My feet are going to ache for the rest of eternity but I'm almost ready to go back out there."

It was then Emily's turn to roll her eyes. "You're not a soldier, Rocky," Emily reminded him.

Rocky gave her a funny look, a small smile. "I know that."

"Then stop acting like it."

"I'm not."

"You are!" She reached out and shoved him on the arm. "You act like it's your duty to make sure that everyone else is having a good time even when you're miserable." She gestured toward his feet. "If you were tired, you should've said something instead of having Jason keep you on the dance floor until your feet started to bleed." She shook her head. "Just like you should've said there was something going on rather than have the rest of us get into trouble."

Rocky knew it was only a matter of time until Emily got to telling him how she really felt about everything that had been going on. Where she was tired of having to sit back and wait for information to get to her, then being told things up front. He knew it was bubbling beneath the surface, she hadn't said much of anything at all since things winded down that night and she, Rocky, and Jason had been reunited. But the night had been going well; he gave her corsage and she gave him his boutonniere, they took pictures, went out to dinner, then went to homecoming and danced the night away.

He even didn't fuss when she insisted that he slow danced with her "at least once". He didn't have any issues with slow dancing, really. He'd done enough of then when he was with Jennifer, but even she wasn't able to sweet talk her way into getting Rocky to dance the night away with the others. Emily had always been different in that way.

They were friends but…she knew him so much better than anyone else did. Knew what he was thinking before he had to say anything. Was always and ear to listen whenever he needed it, even if it didn't know he needed it. They were close and…and he was still figuring things out. It was part of the reason why he agreed to go to the dance with her. If they were going to be finishing senior year and going their separate ways soon, he wanted to at least know if there was anything to move forward with.

(Especially with his mom and dad making such a big deal about it when he said they were going to go to the dance together. And that only a little less than what Colt and Tum-Tum had to say about it).

Rocky took in a deep breath. He turned in his seat to face her, the aching of his feet a distant reminder compared to the thumping of his heart. Knowing he was seconds away from potentially getting himself into any more trouble. "Come on, Em—"

"—You act like it's your duty to protect everyone around you," Emily continued. She shrugged. "And, yeah, maybe it used to be, but you're not going to be around forever. You shouldn't tie yourself to something that's not your responsibility. They can take care of themselves." Emily looked at him curiously. "Unless there's…something you haven't told me?"

Something he hadn't told her. There were a couple of things. But only one big thing that came to the forefront of his mind. Something he hadn't told Jason, or Jo, or Brett, or…or Tum-Tum. He wasn't sure how Tum-Tum would handle it, Rocky would never be one to say that he cared much about how their grandfather showed his love to his grandchildren, but he knew it would devastate Tum if he fond out the truth. And it wasn't the right time.

Rocky's gaze slid around the packed room to his little brother, who stood with his friends, but awkwardly had his body contorted to include Amy in the group. It was obvious, even from where Rocky sat, that his youngest brother wasn't quite sure how to bring her into conversation. But at least he was trying. He was a lot braver than Rocky was at that age.

"What?" Emily insisted. She leaned back in her seat, rolling her eyes. "Let me guess, you're afraid Harding isn't done and he's going to target the dance, right?" She mimed bringing up her hand and up to her mouth to mime biting her nails. "Oh, that's such horrible revenge. He's going to block us all in the room and hold us hostage until someone goes all Carrie on him." Rocky rolled his eyes at her joke, but smiled a little. "Come on, Rocky. I know when something's bothering you. And I know it's not this dance."

Rocky opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"I know dances and dancing really aren't your thing, but I invited you to come so you could get some time to relax and actually be a teenager for once. Yourself. Not 'Rocky'." She used air quotes around his name. "You can never really give yourself a day off."

"Have you ever known me to be able to do that?" Rocky joked back. It was what he needed to do, to make a joke, to make things more lighthearted. There was no point in ruining her night over something he really needed to get over. "Em, I'm fine. I'm just tired."

"Anyone would be." She jostled his arm again, this time in a more lighthearted way. Rocky relaxed. She could never be mad at him for too long, even if he deserved it. She settled into her seat as the song switched to another one that Rocky knew was one of Emily's favorites. He'd heard her sing it enough on the way to and from school when he drove her. He gave her a look and she waved him off. "Don't worry about it, I already tortured you enough with this song."

"You're a great friend."

"I know."

"I don't deserve you as one."

"I know that, too." Emily smiled sweetly. "I'm just glad you figured it out." She reached out and patted his wrist, holding her hand there. Didn't remove her hand after the seconds passed. Rocky made no move to remove her hand either. It felt nice, anyway. Knowing that, finally, in a way, he was doing something right.

Still, the thought nagged him, that Harding may have been put into custody, but he'd been released from it before. That there was the chance that the police could storm into the dance and arrest him and his brothers and the Jacksons just because there was some other charges being put on them. That something, he wasn't sure what, was going to go wrong.

Call it intuition or too much time spent having to anticipate danger in almost every interaction. As it was, Rocky couldn't help but have his eyes sweep over the crowd, watching and waiting for Darren and Darryl to do…something. Since Harding's drugs had been seized, and his classmates who had taken it had been taken to the hospital for observation, things had died down at school. But Darren and Darryl still bemoaned how they'd lost out on their biggest highs and the best way they'd made money. (Which was hysterical as Jerry was consistently saying he would be sending Darryl to military school once he had the chance, but still hadn't pulled the trigger. There was something to be said about having to be a father and an officer of the law, the two jobs that were the hardest to differentiate from each other).

If they were going to use the dance as a means to get their revenge, it wouldn't surprise him in the slightest.

"Besides, you're acting like everything is about you," Emily continued.

Rocky looked up at her, but she looked away from him, smiling gently as she watched Jason pull Laurie closer for a slow dance. Smiled even wider when Marissa, the girl that'd asked Colt to the dance, dragged him to the floor to do the same. Rocky caught Colt's eye, making Colt grin and quickly lift his eyebrows before quickly turning his expression back to one of annoyance. Then Rocky looked over to Tum-Tum and smiled to himself, finding his little brother awkwardly shuffle with Amy onto the dance floor before placing his hands on her waist, then her shoulders, then her waist, before doing a sideshuffle to the slower music that played.

"And I hate to break it to you," Emily continued. "The sooner you realize it's not, the better off you'll be."

Rocky thought for a moment, continued to watch his brothers. Then nodded. He knew exactly what she meant. Sometimes, he just needed that reminder. Emily smiled, noticing his nod, and reached forward, gently pressing her fingers into his palm. Rocky took in a breath and slid his hand back so that her palm pressed against his and cupped their hands together.

Emily's smile widened even further.

Snyder reached up to rub his forehead. Oh, how stupid all of this was. He should've just taken his revenge as soon as he could, wait for the boys to leave the house for that inane dance, break in, and slit his throat the second he had the chance. No one was going to expect the director of the FBI to be taken down that quickly or at all.

He wasn't dumb enough to have the rest of his team to take surveillance at his house, not like the last time Sam had done that. Not like the time that Sam had managed to track him down to his Naval ship. Oh, it still pissed him off for how he couldn't have expected that to fail. He should've never underestimated the stupidity of his nephew and his idiot friends.

There was no way, otherwise, that Sam Douglas should've figured out where he'd been hiding. He was there for weeks, months, and there'd been no sign of police! It should've been easy to get the boys onto that ship, get the ransom money, take the ship out to sea, kill the boys, then dump their bodies in the water to prove he meant business. But his nephew and his friends had to have been taken down by a bunch of little kids.

Who cared if they had learned the same martial arts that Mori had taught him, Snyder knew the ins and outs of it, made his own business off of it! They were grown men who should've been able to grab those kids and take them down anyway. Size and weight always mattered in a fight, why else were their weight classes when doing wrestling matches. Why else did no one ever take on sumo wrestlers unless they had the same body type? Why else did they never have it where the weak went against the strong?

It wasn't a good fight, it wasn't entertaining. Not knowing who was going to win, sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting with baited breath to know the last blow that was going to knock someone out—the killing blow—that was entertainment.

And it was keeping him entertained as he sat in the seedy basement of the best-looking house in town. No one would expect anyone to be there, it cost millions upon millions of dollars for someone to by it and there was no negotiating on asking price. That way, the realtors knew who was and wasn't serious when it came to buying the house. And how would anyone question the obtainment of such a place with such a highly regarded LLC name? No one that he'd seen. It was like taking candy from a baby, how easy it was to secure the place.

And his name wasn't attached to it, no one had to know.

So he sat in the basement, miles underground, with soundproof walls, watching as the two men he'd had flown in for his very own entertainment beat the shit out of each other. Blood started to splatter the last couple of hits, now it started to pool at the feet of the wo men as they continued to swing at each other. Half of the shots missed, they were gasping for each, practically leaning against each other to stay up. Desperation kept them going.

It was a legitimate battle to the death.

Whomever didn't win…if they didn't die in battle at least had the pistol waiting by the leg of his chair to be used. He couldn't remember the last time he had a gun in hand and needed to use it. Long enough that his fingers itched at his side, twitching even faster when another solid blow landed that knocked the older of the two men to the ground. He struggled to get up, feebly scrabbling his hands against the ground with his weak, trembling arms to right himself.

Snyder continued to watch the two. He crossed his legs the other way, resting his cheek in his upraised palm. Watched with rapt fascination while the younger of the two men went over to the older one and hoisted him to his feet. They spoke quietly, leaning hard against each other, fists swinging to at least continue to hit each other. As long as the fight was still going, as wimpy as it was, neither of them would die.

It was nice, Snyder mused. In a sad, pathetic way. Just as how sad and pathetic it was that those hormone riddled boys—as Sam and Mori continued to call them—thought that a dance meant things were going to be normal for them. They may as well get their rocks off then, because once that night was over, things were going to go badly for them all. The saddest part of it was that they thought the dance was safe for them. That they weren't continuously being watched.

But Snyder was always watching them. Always had been.

Always would be until Sam Douglas was begging for his mercy.

A/N: So, the Snyder portion of this chapter was originally going to be how the last story ended, but, to me, it felt better placed in here, especially with the surprise revelation I decided to go with for Crossroads. And I also extended the scene with Rocky and Emily because, originally, it was never going to be there. It was going to be a few lines. But then I realized how it'd help with this story.

I'm super excited for the rest of this story and, differently form the last story, there will be chapters/scenes with POVs from the Jacksons! I purposefully didn't do that last story to add to the mystery of what they were up to or how they tied into things (some of which still aren't clear, lol), but you'll get to see more of them here!

Cheers,

-Riles