Fair Ain't What I'm Looking For

Chapter Four: Off His Tree Top He Goes

Jack figured he had to have been roaming the City of Rocks for hours. He was undoubtedly lost and that terrified him. He walked around corridors that never seemed to lead anywhere just to more corridors. Finally he found himself walking down some steps that lead to a glass dome hallway. A globe sat in the middle held in place by copper metal peaking to a point at the top. He walked over to it, a small plaque was embedded at the base it read: For he who dares to dream of a utopia of his own.

Jack traced his fingers along the cool metal and his fingers fell from it as he went to stare out the glass window. There was nothing out there today. No exotic looking fish or large creature. Just the sight of the metal and glass walls. Across he could see into another glass hallway. It was deserted. He really was lost. He dropped his head to the glass and closed his eyes and slid to the ground.

He found himself wondering why he just didn't leave this place to begin with. He was sure that if he'd said something about not wanting to stay in The City, Shawn would have let him go... On second thought, maybe Shawn just would have had him killed. Another name to add to their death count in Anthony's notebook. It was really-

Jack paused and lifted his head.

Footsteps softly shuffled along down the other hall.

Jack slowly inched his way to the globe and hid behind it. He didn't know what he'd do if it was Shawn, well maybe try and deck the kid. Though Jack had to admit his skills at defending himself were a little rusty. But running for your life was just so much easier then trying to defend yourself sometimes. Most of the time.

Sometimes he really did regret leaving home. Yeah the sky had been gray for as long as he could remember and life had been very hard, but at that time he hadn't done anything to warrant being chased. The further he'd gone from his home town the more he'd strayed from everything he'd ever been taught. His mother had been a good person, he truly felt that she never would have judged him as he was now.

A voice called his name and Jack snapped back to the situation at hand.

"David?" Jack peeked around the globe, he was by himself.

"Jack, thank Rhapsody I found you," David smiled as he walked over to him.

"This place is insane," Jack stepped away from the globe and actually hugged David quickly.

David stiffened for just a moment and hugged Jack back and then let go, "Uh, yeah..."

Jack didn't seem to notice David's reaction, too happy to be found by someone he deemed sane, "I thought I'd never get out of this place, how'd you find me?"

"The usual method, I asked," David shrugged.

Asked was more of an understatement, having barged in once again into Rhapsody. Doors had been flung open, Chris and Ryan reluctantly answered his loudly yelled question since Shawn was refusing to see anyone at the moment.

That only lead David to believe that Shawn didn't so much as leave Jack to think things over as Chris had put it, but had left him to wonder aimlessly lost for days. Shawn had done it on more then one occasion, David himself being one of them.

"Oh," Jack shrugged and smiled, then frowned abruptly, "Shawn's fucking crazy."

"He's not crazy, he's just... I don't," David walked over to the glass wall and stared out it, "he's kind of like a castle, you know, made of sand..."

"A castle made of sand?" Jack raised a skeptical eyebrow at David's back.

"He's big, lots of people notice him, he's entrancing, but all it's going to take is a big wave to come crashing down."

Jack stared at him confused, but David didn't elaborate. He just continued to stare out the glass window and pressed his warm hand against it.

After that, David like he said, showed him around Rhapsody, but it was filled with awkward silences and people sending David dirty looks. Jack could hear the whispered insults and snide remarks, it actually was starting to make him angry. But since he was still new here he knew there wasn't much he could do about it.

David turned and stared over to a strange looking dial sitting at the very center high wall in the middle of Rhapsody. This place of course looked familiar to Jack. On the opposite end sat the large long stairs he'd followed Ryan down, the WELCOME TO THE CITY- sign in the middle.

"We better get back, I told Fletcher that he and Robert could have dinner with us tonight."

Jack simply nodded and followed David happily back to Hedos.

Half way back down the long lit tunnel Jack turned to David, "Dave? I can call you Dave right?"

"Dave, David, Davey, whatever," David shrugged, but honestly felt his pulse pick up for minutes after.

Jack was the first person, besides Shawn and he didn't count, to call him by a nickname. Excluding his family, but he didn't live there anymore.

"Well, Davey," Jack smiled at him and David couldn't help but smile back.

"Yeah Jack?"

"I was kind of hoping, you know, after this days experience, maybe I could just keep living with you?"

David bit the corner of his bottom lip to keep from smiling so much and nodded, "I'd like that Jack."

-x-

He was very quiet. David made him open the door when the two had arrived. Robert, when Jack met him, didn't seem too strange. Jack had already met Fletcher in passing that morning, which reminded Jack that Christopher and Fletcher were supposed to take the guy the holding place. Jack had to wonder how one got to be so desensitized about things like that.

They were all sitting in the kitchen as David continued to make the food, making Jack help by cutting the vegetables. As Jack cut up carrots on the cutting board he watched Fletcher who was reading to Robert on the other end of the counter. He didn't seem like a bad guy, he spoke in a firm but soft tone and oddly enough had a gentle feel to him. And if somebody like Robert had been taken by those Reformer guys and still trusted Fletcher, well he couldn't be that bad.

"So what're you reading?" asked Jack now moving on to the celery.

"Of Mice and Men," was Fletcher's reply as he turned a page.

Jack paused and raised an eyebrow, "Ain't that a little on the depressing and sick side?"

David snorted, but continued to cook.

Fletcher smiled, "It's actually Robert's favorite book."

Robert looked to Jack and nodded. Jack just shrugged and went back to cutting the vegetables and Fletcher went back to reading. The kitchen became quiet, sans for Fletcher's low reading, David's stirring, and Jack's vegetable cutting. He couldn't help it, he started to hum under his breath.

For the life of him he had no idea why he was humming that song, but it was the only one he could hum without messing up. Under his breath he started quietly singing to himself, getting lost in the sound. He'd learned it from that girl. She wasn't so bad at first, but when she caught him, all hell broke loose and well, he went running.

Jack stopped singing the song under his breath when David loudly dropped an empty pan to the ground and stared at him. Fletcher had winced and Robert's hands shot straight to his ears his legs pulled up to his chest, eyes clenched shut.

"Where did you learn that song?" David looked both slightly panicked and angry.

"Uh, some girl in Saint Morning..." Jack didn't understand.

David was getting louder as he spoke, "When!?"

Jack stared wide-eyed for a movement and then found himself speaking louder, "I don't know! A few months ago, why?"

"Stop yelling, stop yelling," Robert was rocking back and forth while Fletcher glared at the two of them as he tried to calm him down.

"What did she look like Jack?" David's voice refused to lower even though he knew what it was doing to Robert, he felt so bad, but for some reason couldn't stop.

"David, for all that use to be holy, goddamn! You're freaking your friend out!"

David seemed to now be ignoring this fact, "Jack, I'm not joking! What did she look like!?"

Robert sprang out the chair and ran out the room, loud footsteps leading upstairs.

Fletcher shot both of them a glare again, "Fucking David! Stop obsessing! Why do you have to let her get to you so badly!?"

They watched as Fletcher sprinted upstairs in search of Robert.

David turned to Jack and looked guiltily to the floor, "I just, I'm sorry. My sister, she just, screwed a lot of people over and expects me to believe it was always an accident."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "A long haired brunette, always wore long brown skirts and white shirts."

David looked up at Jack but didn't say a thing, instead he stared over their heads towards the ceiling, "Maybe, I'm gonna apologize to Robert and see if Fletch calmed him down some."

Jack waited for all of two seconds before lowering the heat on the stove and following after David. Jack always had to be in everyone's business he had no idea why. Too much curiosity and hated knowing too little. It took him a minute or so, but he found them two sets of stairs later at the end of the hall. David and Fletcher were kneeling in front of a closed door trying to coax Robert out.

But all that came from behind the door was yelling, he wouldn't stop saying, "I can hear them, I can hear them, they're out there, I can see them!"

Jack stopped a few steps away from them, "He locked himself in the room?"

David and Fletcher stared at each other.

Jack for all his worth, tried not to look too worried at their expressions, "Did either of you try the door knob?"

Jack walked over to the door and simply twisted the knob there was a light click and the door gently opened.

David and Fletcher shared a look again and had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Well, go," Jack made shooing hand gestures.

Robert had only been in the room for four minutes at best, but the room looked like a wreck. The mattress had been ripped from the bed and used to block the window. A rather large dresser miraculously had been tipped over and shoved against the mattress and a smaller one blocked the bathroom door.

Shower curtains were tied oddly together to keep whatever was in the bathroom out of the actual room. The box spring for the mattress was half shoved into the closet tearing. Jack had to marvel at his ability to quickly trash a room.

Robert sat in the corner of the room, "They're gone right?"

He was shaking.

David and Fletcher both nodded.

"Good," that seemed to calm him down a bit, "good."

Jack was confused. Shawn acted nothing like this, in fact he was the creator of loud noises. At least he was basing that assumption off the fact that Shawn loved to slam his cane down and shoot people.

Once Robert was calm enough, though not enough to leave the room as of yet, David and Jack went back down stairs to finish making dinner. It was done without conversation, but full of guilty looks and lots of sighing. Pretty much all by David.

When they finished making and plating everything he and Jack carried it upstairs to Fletcher and Robert. They had turned on the lights and were sitting in the middle of the wreck reading. Robert was actually reading now. He seemed a bit shaky, but better off then before.

After five minutes David turned to Fletcher, "I'm really sorry."

"David," he glanced at Robert who was now sitting next to Jack who was trying to talk to him, "you know as well as I do that he's not gonna be a hundred percent right, not for a long time."

"I know," David roughly ran a hand through his hair frustrated with himself.

"Then you need to tone down the yelling. Robert's like a high strung puppy," Fletcher set his empty plate aside.

"Puppy?" David smiled.

Fletcher rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean."

Across the room Robert arched his eyebrows up at Jack, "You're talking a lot, why?"

"To you or in general?" asked Jack as he shoved more food into his mouth, it tasted so good.

Robert shrugged and for a brief moment frantically glanced around the room.

"Figure a guy can always use more friends, especially down here, right?" Jack smiled at him.

Robert, for the life of him couldn't quite pin it down, but felt extremely comforted by Jack's smile. Like Jack was one of the few genuinely nice, caring, and sincere people on the planet. It was a real and warm smile, you hardly got those down here.

"Yeah, you're right," and Robert, much to Fletcher and David's surprise, smiled brightly.

David and Fletcher once again shared a look, but found themselves smiling as well. Jack just had that effect on people when he smiled. It was a major contrast to Nick's cheerfulness...Maybe everyone close to Shawn just wasn't right, but maybe at one point, they had been.

-x-

When it came, two days later, David refused to let Jack go by himself. It was obvious that Shawn had come to his decision. Ryan was leading them back to Rhapsody talking a mile a minute about what he planned to cook for Anthony's upcoming birthday. Ryan, try as his little heart desired, was no gourmet chef. His food usually came out bland or too salty. He was apparently under the impression that the more seasoning you used the better it would taste. He was far from right.

"So then we didn't tell him it was actually me who cooked, well he guessed after he took a bite. I never know how he can tell who cooked," said Ryan as he scratched his back at an odd angle.

Jack watched in morbid fascination, "Uh-huh."

"Because Chris can actually cook," said David making sure to stress the word actually.

"What're you getting at?" he sounded genuine, but Jack got the feeling he just pretended.

"Ryan, I'm going to say this and know you'll ignore me, but YOU CAN'T COOK!"

Ryan winced and Jack rubbed at his ears.

"Why thank you David, I'm glad you like my cooking!" he lead them up to Shawn's now familiar large door.

David flung his hands in the air and rolled his eyes as Ryan went inside quickly then let them in.

The door shut loudly behind them and only Jack walked towards the middle of the room. He glanced back, David was standing next to Ryan at the door. He supposed since it was actually only he who had been summoned David had to stay back.

"I got a job for you Kelly," Shawn would never quite look the same to him after that day.

"Yeah and what's that?" clearly uninterested in what Shawn had to offer.

A slow and curling smile made its way across Shawn's face, Jack found himself swallowing a lump in his throat.

"How does running Hedos sound?"

Jack blinked, "Come again?"

"I've been looking for someone to run Hedos. Little Davey," and he took this moment to stare pointedly at David then back at him, "ain't so high on everybody's trust list. I hear the things they say about him and I ain't so stupid as to let him run it."

He raised an eyebrow as if in challenge.

"I suppose not," drawled Jack.

Shawn snorted, "Believe it or not people like you Jacky-boy."

"I've only been here for 'bout five days and one of them I spent lost trying to buy food."

"Apparently you made a good impression," Shawn pulled out his cane and started picking at the gold tip.

"I'm all for having an actual role down here, but running Hedos? According to Dave only un-noteworthy people live there," Jack watched as Anthony jotted some things down in a green notebook.

"Jack," Shawn slammed his cane down hard and said his name strong and loudly, "this is one thing I seriously ain't giving you the option. You-run-Hedos."

Anthony took over still writing things down in his notebook, "As such, there are meetings of sorts you'll have to attend, regardless of the hour. Certain attire you have to wear on certain occasions, it's a learn as you go process."

"It sucks!" bellowed Ryan.

Shawn shot a finger at him, "Captain One-eye, muzzle."

Ryan shrugged. David snickered.

"Of course there are other obligational duties you'll have to fulfill. No wussing out because you can't handle a little blood, that'll get you killed. Us killed and Rhapsody help you if it's someone important," the look on Shawn's face sent a shiver down Jack's spine.

The moment was killed though as the door flung open causing Ryan and David to frantically jump away. Nick joyfully ran in, a bright childlike smile adorning his features.

He waved a batch of letters in his hand, "Hot off the presses! Our darling birthday boys party invitations! Complete with red and gold S and A looping, very nice I have to say."

Shawn's right eye twitched and he chucked his cane across the room at Nick who continued to smile appreciating the envelopes as he dogged it.

"Did I do something wrong?" he chanced a look around the room.

Ryan and David looked at him like he was crazy, only Ryan's expression was more borderline I love you still, while Jack couldn't suppress his laughter.

Anthony looked red and was hiding his face with his left free hand, closed notebook in the other.

Shawn just sighed and gestured to Jack and David, "Just give them theirs so they can leave."

"Heya David! Here this one's yours!" he handed David one then over to Jack, "Jack, Jack, look, yours is special, because you have rank now!"

Jack's was embroidered with lacing red and gold, while David's wasn't. So, he was invited to Anthony's birthday party, a chill ran through him. Nick was smiling brightly, Anthony still looked embarrassed, Shawn looked angry, Ryan anxious. It was like he was standing in the court of a deranged king and his insanely happy jester, anal and uptight queen er lesser king, and their incapable knight.

The only people who struck him as sane were he, David, and possibly Christopher, who was no where in sight.

-x-

A/N: I was trying to make Robert aka Dutchy a contrast to how Shawn aka Spot behaves having been sent to these Reformers. It didn't go off exactly as I pictured, but damn close. And if you haven't noticed, Sarah does play a bit of a role in this.

Chapter Five: From A Third Story Window

What harm could flipping through Anthony's notebooks really do? Or rather what can it lead to?