You're mother always said you looked prettier when you smiled. I always tell her you're always pretty, aren't you, firecracker?
The thought plagued her mind in her father's voice as Jax entered the the apartment. Everyone around her cheered and clapped. He was hugged one by one. He had finally come home. She put on a smile and clapped when they did, then approached when it was her turn and hugged him tighter than anyone. This was her partner, her brother in the force.
"I'm sorry, Sonya." He whispered in her ear beneath the party around them.
"Welcome home, Jax." Her smile was a chainlink fence she had put up.
"It's good to be home again. It'll be good to be on the hunt again too." He could sense the unrest within her. He felt it too.
"Come on, let's get a drink!" Stryker intervened.
The three parted through the party the kitchen where alone they could pour a fine wine Stryker had brought for the occasion. As the cork shot into the ceiling, Sonya smiled and laughed, Jax liked that, and gave her the first glass.
"So, Lieutenant, when's the next raid party?" Jax joked, but he was serious, and Stryker could see it in his eyes.
"Jesus, Jax. Relax." He poured for himself, back turned from the two to rest the bottle on the counter. "Both of you."
"Every moment we hesitate, the Black Dragon are ten steps ahead of us." She added.
"That's why we have helicopters." Stryker joked.
"You know," Jax swirled the wine and savored the sight and smell, and soon the inebriation it would give him. "maybe I could use a weekend off."
"That's the spirit. Rest up, seriously, that's an order."
"Yes, Lieutenant." Sonya reluctantly nodded and took a sip.
"A big storm's coming in." Jax added, he elected himself to change the conversation, "most lightning I've ever seen."
"Strange thing is, they say the storm is traveling against the wind." Stryker continued.
She slammed the glass on the table and rushed for the door. Jax met her and held her shoulders, and her fiery gaze.
"Kano is out there and people are dying."
"You're obsessed, Sonya." Jax tried to find his partner in those eyes. The fire held her deep within and he reached out with his voice, with reason to pull her from the flames, but he was not so sure if she could be rescued. "You just lost your father and you want to get out there and get yourself killed?"
"Not if I kill him first." The wall of flames burned bright in her eyes and recoiled for a moment.
"Sonya." Stryker pulled their attention back to him. "I get it. You're not the only person on this fucking team that's lost a loved one or a friend to this job."
She could see his wife on the pavement where they found her. How could she forget the one thing he couldn't.
"You're not the only who's looking for this mother fucker." Jax added.
"I have to be the one who finds him, Jax. I have to be the one to kill him."
"Geez, Sonya, you're starting to sound like him." Jax pulled her closer and whispered to the soul hidden behind those eyes. "You're not a killer. You're not like him."
"I'm not crazy, Jax." She assured and pushed away.
"Now you sound like the crazy guy in the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute." Stryker snickered, it was awkward and he looked as though he had spilled himself unintentionally. When caught off guard, he brushed it off, "oh, sorry. Some guy in the clinic's been claiming he knows where Kano is."
"Some guy in a mental hospital knows where Kano is?" Sonya prodded in disbelief.
He let the 'N' linger before he allowed himself to continue, "not just that."
"How long as he been locked up for?" She prodded again.
"Ten years." Stryker snickered, as though he couldn't even belief himself. "You know that case with Chicky and the three girls he murdered?"
"Yeah, the cokehead murders in Manhattan. I thought he died in a stand off." Jax recalled as if he were in front of Chicky just as he was that day. "I shot him."
"Yeah, well, we found him because of his accomplice, Jordan. Claimed insanity, seemed believable enough at the time."
"And now?" She was not amused with this digression, and glared with tired eyes.
"Funny thing, I've been hearing a lot of what he has to say lately. Now, I don't know if insane is the right word." Stryker seemed strange to them. A stranger if even.
As Lieutenant he would very well have information they might not as detectives, but to hold it from them in such a hot case as this even if it were from a psychopath locked away in a hospital. The thinnest string could still lead to the greatest ball of yarn they've searched for. She wasn't so sure, though, as he uncomfortably laughed it off.
"Don't worry, I've already looked into it. The guy's nuts."
"Then why mention it?" She was ready to deck him.
"Just, I looked into it cause they kept saying he was asking for you. Every day, every night. Sonya. Sonya! Where's Sonya? Claiming to know where Kano was, but would only tell you. Seemed nuts to me."
"Sounds like you're both crazy." Jax jested.
"Manhattan Psychiatric Institute?" She wasn't laughing.
"Don't go, I've already spoke to the guy, he's nothing." This didn't stop her. Sonya was gone before Jax could finish his next drink. He'd follow her to hell, but he had just climbed out and stared at the face of it. Should he again?
The door closed behind her.
Th first floor of the facility was for staff only. She revealed her badge to the receptionist who seemed to know of her. The story about the building raid and collapse was on the news paper she had folded to the side of her coffee.
She locked eyes on a older man in a white coat that seemed surprised to see her. He spoke her name like it were a question, but when as she repeated her name and rank, and request to speak with the man, he only returned that they had received a call about her headed their way. Stryker was already ahead of her.
"Visiting hours are closed, and we don't normally allow these kind of patients guests." He guided her down the white, clean halls of the asylum.
"This is an official investigation. I need to see him, if only to rule it out." The doctor seemed more assured by this, but he still seemed uncomfortable with the sudden occasion.
"Ten window, to the left. Here we are," he peered in, "Jordan Stevens, criminally insane, murderer, schizophrenic, should I go on?"
"I know the list." She waited for him to open.
The door opened and a clean white room greeted her. To the right was a door that hung against the wall with a thin mattress with even thinner comfort. The room looked almost plastic to her, save for the brittle human form clumped on the bed.
"Jordan?" The doctor greeted, prodded, and bid the animal his welcome to their guest. "It's Officer Sonya Blade."
White, eyes glazed like the fluorescent light above them, and brown hair that tangled unkempt across his head. Jordan tugged on the white shirt and reached for the edge of the bed to sit up. When his eyes finally met hers, he looked cold and blank at her.
For a moment there was silence.
She imagined he'd say something to her that maybe she'd recognize. Something about Kano, or the Black Dragon. Something about her.
Anything!
He stared blankly, as though this was the first time he had ever seen her, or heard of that name.
"Th'fuck are you?"
She felt stupid.
Sonya turned and stared a dagger into the soul of the doctor before she started down the hall.
Another waste of time.
As she neared the exit into the next set of halls, a low voice echoed, almost older, but not the doctor's.
"Bang bang, she shot me down. Bang bang, that awful sound. Bang, bang…" She could almost hear her father sing down the hall as he had when she was a child.
His voice invaded her skull. It called to her and pulled at her.
"My firecracker shot me down…" just as her father would.
For a moment she hung in silence.
That awful sound.
A moment later, the door shut behind her.