Sorry for the long wait, I'm actually further ahead with this story, I just didn't bother updating :(... And thank you to the Guest that reviewed!
"Are you sure you want to eat here?" Loker looked at the scruffy, Russian man that picked up a hot dog and handed it to her.
She pulled out her wallet but the scruffy man stopped her. "No charge."
"Oh no, I couldn't accept that." She said sincerely.
"And I could not accept money from such pretty lady." He grinned.
"Thank you so much." She came around and gave the man a hug. He grinned again and looked over to Loker.
"I don't think you should hug strange men in front of boyfriend." He said, but his hands remained on her arms.
"Oh, no, we're not dating." Loker corrected him.
"No? Well than I accept another hug." He hugged her again and she laughed.
Loker didn't find it very amusing that this middle aged man had his arms around his friend that was half that man's age. "Thanks." He forced a smile and him and Peters continued walking. "You really shouldn't hug strange men, he had a point there."
"He wasn't strange, he gave me a free hot dog." She smiled and took a bite off of the hot dog that was smothered in Mustard, Relish, Ketchup, and other condiments. Loker was surprised it didn't just collapse under its own weight.
"That makes him even stranger."
"You don't trust people a whole lot, I know. But maybe you can open up a little more; you'll find the world is filled with good people."
"How can you work at the Lightman Group, catch murderers, rapist, robbers, and frauds and still think there are good people?"
"Because that's just one side of the world, you only see the darkness because that's what you know, so you've closed yourself off to the everything, even the goodness, just to protect yourself from the bad things." She looked down thoughtfully at her half-eaten-hot dog.
"I don't seem to close myself off around you." He said sincerely.
"No, not always, but everyone has their demons and you sometimes hide so you won't have to confront them head on, I'm just one of those demons."
"No, you're not." He never viewed her as a problem, ever.
"I'm not saying I'm not your friend, I'm saying that certain things that you connect with me are demons, and therefore, I'm a demon by association."
He just looked at her, what could he say? She was right; he did sometimes hide from her and close himself off. He doesn't mean to though, he wanted to let her in completely, but he's worried if he does, she might see the real him, see that how much he changed from the little boy she remembered.
They walked in a comfortable silence back to the building. When they walked in, they felt refreshed. Since the walk had helped with her boredom, Peters decided it would be better to start work now, while she wasn't trying to find ways to battle the never ending war that is her boredom. She sat down and started her work, getting a little done before Loker came in and dragged her into another room.
"Turn on the news." He told Gillian and Ria when he walked in. After filling Peters in, he had managed to convince her to come with him, now she was moving towards the TV, watching the news reporter talk.
"There's much to be learned still, but House Ethics Chairman Zeb Weil reportedly spent more than $82,000 on a single escort over a matter of months. He exited his congressional offices moments ago. Is it true that... Congressman Weil, how long has this been going on?" the news reporter said.
"Look at his disgust." Gillian pointed out. Everyone looked closely at the Congressman they had been working with.
"Yeah, but it's not like he's disgusted at himself, it's like he's disgusted with the idea of having sex with her." Ria looked at the TV screen.
"Well maybe they weren't having sex." Gillian reasoned.
"Why would a guy spend $82,000 on an escort he's not having sex with?" Loker asked. Everyone exchanged glances but Peters kept her eyes glued to the man on the screen. She had never had a knack for reading people, unlike Ria, and she didn't study it either like Loker, Gillian, and Cal. So she could just barely make out the disgust on his face. She looked down, ashamed that she was working alongside deception experts while she herself couldn't see a thing. Loker took notice of her shame. "Peters?" he asked, but she didn't seem to hear him.
"Why do I work here?" she said after a couple of minutes. Ria and Gillian had already left.
"I don't know." He said truthfully. "I don't know your reason behind it, but I like having you work here." He smiled and that made her smile.
Whenever they were kids, Eli Loker always managed to chase away the bad thoughts. She cut her leg on a rusty nail, sticking out of an old bridge in the middle of a forest, Eli was with her and he never left until he made sure he could carry her, he told her she wouldn't lose her leg, told her she would probably have to get a Tetanus shot, but it wouldn't hurt that bad. There was blood everywhere and he had to bandage it with a handkerchief he had had in his pocket. They weren't even double digits then, but she remembered thinking that Eli had been her hero, and he still was.
"Thank you, Joker." She smiled and she could have sworn he had a tint of pink in his cheeks.
"No problem." He said and quickly turned away, he didn't want her to see him blush. He didn't even know he could blush until now. But she was so cute just then, the sun outside made her hair seem to glow, and she smiled at him. He did like it when she smiled.
After sitting at her desk doing paperwork for an hour or so, Peters was told to track down a car. So she did flawlessly, and Loker called Gillian about the results.
"The car belongs to Jacquelyn Mathis; the girl the school nurse thought was pregnant. Deputy bond had homicide bring her in. Second district station right now." He said over the phone, he then hung up and looked at Peters. "Thanks." He said before walking out.
"Joker, wait!" she got up and rushed over to him.
"What is it?" he looked down at the blonde.
"Ria and I are going to go to the bar later and I wanted to know if you want to go?"
"Isn't that your game, the one where you let drunk guys hit on you." He scoffed. "Thanks but no thanks, I'd rather not watch drunks hit on my childhood friend."
"You don't have to. Besides, you could hit on drunken girls if it will make you feel better." She smirked.
He thought about it for a second. He could do that, but most of his attention would probably be on the blonde getting hit on.
"Nah, I'm good." He replied.
"Alright." She backed away as if she surrendered.
"Yeah, I mean I have to get some stuff done." He rubbed the back of his neck. He was lying of course; he had done all of his work a little while ago, but she didn't have to know that.
"Okay, if you change your mind you know where to find us." She grinned and walked out of the room. Her blonde hair swaying behind her, he watched her walk away, and then looked down at the floor. Now what was he supposed to do?
He couldn't walk out because she might still be there and catch him in his lie, but then he had nothing to do in here. Maybe he should go to the bar, just to make sure she gets home safe.
So he decided to go down to the bar, she wasn't outside. He went in and saw her sitting on a bar stool, talking to Ria and sipping a vodka tonic. He started to worry, she had never been able to hold her liquor, and after a couple of those she would probably pass out.
"Hey," some man came up and started talking to her, she started batting her eyelashes and flirting, the game had started. Sadist, Loker thought as he leaned against the wall and watched her twirl her little finger around this poor devil.
They hadn't seen Loker walk in so Ria didn't see the flash of jealousy on Loker's face. But he felt it, and he hated feeling that, especially if it concerns Amelia Peters.
He had felt this when a boy had walked up and started flirting with Amelia. Of course that didn't go exactly like he would have expected.
There was a blonde girl; no more than 13, there was also a dark haired boy a little older than her. They were sitting on the steps of a police station, wondering what they were going to do now.
The police had let them go with a warning, mostly because both of them were pretty smooth talkers. Eli had convince them that the two teens were supposed to get home because their mom was going into labor, when the question "Why were you stealing the car?" got brought up, Amelia said it was because they thought it was their uncle's, and they had to get home for their mother.
The story surprisingly sold, they were pretty good liars. So there they sat, wondering if they should just go home or pull another stunt, when Eli said he was going to follow some rich old woman and see if he could successfully get some money off of her.
"Well, hello beautiful." A boy with sandy blonde hair came over to where she sat and started a conversation. "Where you from?" he asked. "Heaven?"
"Yeah." She said sarcastically, he just laughed.
"So seriously," he said. "Where you from?"
"Why would I tell you?"
"Because I'm nice." He grinned.
"I'm sure you are, but I don't even know your name."
"Danny, you?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out." She grinned at him.
Eli was walking back, counting the money the old lady had given him; he had told her he needed money for a cab because his sister was in the hospital, people were so gullible.
Then he looked up at where Amelia was to see her gone. Panic surged through him as he looked around the park the police station was at.
"Amelia!" he called out, no one answered. He started to sweat; they weren't even supposed to be there, he never wanted to come to this side of town. There were gangs and murders, robberies and…and…he didn't even want to think of the other things there were.
He raced through the park until he saw, for a split second, a blonde walking away with some blonde haired boy. He gave chase.
It wasn't long before he caught up with them seeing as he ran most of his life. "Hey!" he shouted, causing Amelia to turn around with wide eyes. "What do you think you're doing?" sometimes he scared himself at how fatherly he must seem to her.
"Walking." She said in that matter-of-fact voice that made him mad.
"With whom?" he leaned in with a fake smile.
"Danny, this is Eli. Eli this is Danny." She gestured to the boy, who offered a hand that Eli ignored.
"We have to get home, come on." He nodded over to the street.
She sighed in annoyance. "Alright…" but that was interrupted when some guys started walking up from behind Danny.
"Sorry, I didn't know you were with a guy…" Danny said, something in his voice wasn't right. "But I guess its fine." He punched Eli in the gut, causing Eli to cough and lunge over.
"Eli!" she screamed as one of the guys held her back. She stomped on his toe and whirled around to elbow him in the back.
"Whoa, we've got a fighter." Danny exclaimed with a grin.
Eli suddenly got back up and went after Danny, but Danny dodged the punch.
A guy came up behind Amelia and twisted her arm behind her back, another guy punched her stomach.
Eli kneed that guy in the back, than elbowed his face down. He managed to get Amelia out of the other guy's grasp and then Amelia went and kicked him between the legs. All that was left was Danny.
Amelia stared the teenage boy down while Eli spit out the blood after he had gotten a right hook from one of the guys.
"Wow…" Danny slowly clapped. "I like you." He pointed at Amelia. "You, not so much." He looked at Eli.
"Who are you?" Eli said with a low voice.
"I told you, Danny." He grinned. "I'll be seeing you very soon, well maybe not soon enough. Bye bye, Champ." He said to Eli, and then he sauntered off into the alleyway.
Eli looked down at Amelia; he tried to be mad at her, but he just couldn't muster it up when he saw he face, her eyes were filled with fear. "Amelia…" he whispered. She suddenly burst into tears, his eyes widened.
"I'm sorry." She repeated over and over again. "Eli, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault." He wrapped her into a hug; she buried her face in his blood stained shirt.
"It is my fault, if I had just stayed where I was, none of this would have happened." She cried.
"It's okay." He kissed the top of her head. He tried to be as comforting as he could; it wasn't her fault she walked off with a psychopath, right?
Yes, she eventually got over that, but it was a scary encounter.
He had stopped looking at her because that drunken guy had started bragging about himself, and she stopped paying attention. Good for her.
"Hey." Ria came up beside him.
"Hey…"
"I thought you weren't coming." She took a sip of her beer.
"Couldn't resist." He smiled.
"I guess." She followed his gaze, and looked out the window. "Is it Peters?"
"What about her?" he said absent-mindedly.
"You love her, don't you?" Eli's head whipped around to face Ria.
"What?" he chuckled nervously.
"You love her, admit it."
"I don't love her. I mean, I like her like a friend." He shrugged and looked over at the blonde at the bar.
"You sure?" Ria raised an eyebrow. "Cause it doesn't seem like that's all."
Eli didn't respond, mostly because he looked back outside the window and saw a commotion.
He went outside, leaving a confused Ria. He looked down and saw that someone had written on the road.
It was very impressive, written in different color chalk; most people were taking a picture or thinking how beautiful it was. But Loker wasn't paying attention to that; he was paying attention to what it said. "Nice to see you again Joker." Then it had a little smiley face underneath it.
Loker looked around, only to see a man about his age with sandy blonde hair, the man grinned and winked. No…This can't be happening. Loker watched as the man turned the corner. Danny's back.