You know what? FUCK THIS. I am BRI. I am BRILLIANT. Fuck this self-deprecation and what it stands for. I. AM. BRI.

Uh hm. Yeah... that's what I do when I need to mentally pimp smack myself. Hey! It's fun.

I have an idea for this. REALLY! As Crash so nicely labeled it, "Protective Tommy" is about to emerge. And Jude's... Jude's Jude. Still pretty damn fucked up but... yeah. And trust me... I'm sensing a little drama on the horizon. Don't think all that time spent in Brice was in a vain.

Forgive me for making this heavy but I fucking like it that way.

I HAVE A PLAN! And this is about to turn into my pretty little play ground for odd word play and crazy details. I kind of want to get lost in them. I kind of wish this was 100 percent mine.

And OH YEAH.

REVIEW. Thanks.
And please tell me if I ever confuse you or you just don't get it.

Chapter 7 / I Don't Want to Miss You Tonight

Tommy popped his neck, adjusted his sun glasses, and burst through the double doors into the fourth floor, Jude's floor.

"Sir? Sir! You can't go in there right now!"

He didn't stop his steadfast path towards Jude, waving a hand in the generalized direction of the woman who was trying to interrupt him on his undertaking. Had his face been granite, there wouldn't have been a chisel strong enough to scrape and crack away at the hard rock plaster job. The man had a mission. The man had a drive. The man...

My god...

He stopped dead in his tracks; his footing felt shaky even though his feet seemed bolted to the cracked slate tiles beneath his well-worn leather shoes. He could have counted the seemingly miniscule amount of time he'd last seen her in hours, minutes, and seconds but it still shocked him to look at her.

She lay across the Formica topped activities table, arm to temple, tracing patterns into the faux wood grain. Her hair was a mess of angles on planes, falling against her cheek in haggard, tormenting clumps. She had her eyes closed, raccoon eyes. She looked like she wore her signature black eyeliner but it was just the fatigue that had taken up residence against her face. She seemed smaller, paler, and more fragile than even the most delicate of crystal dragons and dolphins he'd seen his mother lock away in a curio cabinet in his childhood. This cabinet had transformed her into an ever dimming twenty watt bulb, brightening just before it blew.

"Jude!" He steadied himself against his solid outburst, damn near sprinting to her piece of hell. She didn't look up at him. She didn't acknowledge anything other than the random exes and ohs she kept tactilely whispering over and over and over again. He knelt and reached for her shoulder, sliding his fingers up to her chin, wanting her to wake up. "Jude, baby, get up."

She lazily opened her eyes, looking at him in ways only known to the dead. She blinked hard, staring back down at her invisible masterpiece.

"Visiting hours are over, Tommy."

"You're going home." She simply smiled, instilling the fear of god in him the way his priest did when he took confession on Wednesdays. He remembered the way he'd found her, completely submerged in the down blankets and silk sheets of her insanity. The way she rambled on and on, frustrated with the way she couldn't form complete sentence. The way she screamed at him for not being real, for being completely nothing. He grabbed her arms and pulled her into a fully upright position. "Didn't you hear me?"

"This is my home now. I'm crazy."

"NO YOU AREN'T!" The roar he unleashed echoed within the tiny blue room, warranting a shriek from a young blonde girl and maniacal cackling from the brunette sat across from her, ate its way through his demeanor. He looked down at her, still unfazed. "Jude, what happened? What's wrong?"

"The doctor told me what was wrong with me. It's been called and it has a name. I'm crazy now."

He pushed the jumbled chaos away from her face, stroking the roughened softness of her cheekbone. Her skin was cold to the touch, ice against the pads of his fingers. He felt the tension built up in her jaw and the quiet gnashing of her teeth. He leaned in close to her ear, mumbling just loud enough for her to hear.

"Forget everything he said, girl." The smell of winter hung onto the edge of earlobe, sleet crackling just behind. He sat up, pulling her up with him. "I will not let you stay her. Come on."

She peered at him, so down trodden and devastated. She opened her lips to speak, closing them once more. She grabbed his hand, wrapping his arm around her and hiding just beneath the side of his jacket. The movement touched him, moved him as he felt her slightly pushing him towards the exit. He tightened his hold on her, falling in step with her soldier marching. Again, a woman from the lands of no where shouted at him.

"Where are you going with her?"

He turned his head to look over at the attendant behind the half inch thick glass at the "help" desk. He smiled at her tacitly, every implication of victory twinkling in his eyes.

"Home. Mail me the papers I need to sign." The same male nurse who'd dared to touch Jude stepped out in front of him, trying to block their departure.

"She can't leave." He stood cross armed, tensing the muscles in his forearms. Tommy continued smiling as he lifted his cover of protection from Jude for the moment. He fell in close to the nurse, head to head, combat ready for the undertaking.

"Like hell I can't. I want you to try and stop me." He stared at his rival and gladiator opponent, mentally willing him to enter the war. The nurse just snorted, stepping to the side and making his mordant gesture to welcome their exit.

"Right this way, sir."

Tommy arrogantly winked at the man, holding onto Jude once more.

"Thank you." He led her towards the door, her stopping and looking over her shoulder back into the room. He followed her gaze and word mouthing to the razored and darkened girl sprawled out on the couch. She nodded her head in approval and goodbye, Jude finally taking them over the threshold and out her imposed doom.