A/N: PENULTIMATE CHAPTER... PROBABLY OR PROBABLY NOT. Oh God and I was also freaking out over The Walking Dead mid-season finale. Speaking of, I have a dying sensation for a Walking Dead/Breaking Bad crossover. Anyways, this might be the penultimate (second last) chapter, then obviously I'll do an epilogue... I'm not sure. If I think of more interesting stuff to write for this then there will be more chapters. Enjoy and review, please!

WARNING: Flashbacks of verbal and slight physical violence.

I do not own Breaking Bad or any of its characters.

He didn't think ever in his life that he would grow out his hair this long, but it wasn't like he had a choice now.

Jesse walked forwards but only to abruptly be jerked back by the stuck leash that he had to yank to allow it to flow through its track again. His eyes were failing him as he strolled along the aisle to grab a mask. Suddenly, the creak of the opening to the lab echoed through the room and Jesse turned his head to see nothing other than one of the gang members- Lester was it?- walking inside.

Jesse figured that maybe he was just supervising, even though that was usually Todd's job. Awkwardly, he continued his stroll along the track to get as far away from the gang member as possible, but swore under his breath as it got stuck again and went taut. "Goin' somewhere?" Lester growled with a mocking smile. Jesse gulped and slowly made his arm up to yank the leash further.

"I need to finish cooking." The younger man blatantly said, hoping that his phrase would spare him a few bruises. They weren't supposed to bother him while he was cooking. "Leave... leave me alone... please." His voice cracked slightly as he tried not to show fear (obviously failing); it took a simple action just to make him break down; most of the gang's actions were basic and menial, yet it still seemed to damage so much. They knew he was terrified of them and what they could do, and that made Lester smile wider.

"Nah, don't feel like it." Lester stalked closer to Jesse, making the younger man freeze in his place. "Tell me, rat," He emphasized the last word with disgust, as if Jesse were a disgrace to all humanity. Jesse started slightly at the word. "Don't you want to get outta here?" He asked, sounding oddly genuine. Jesse looked down, avoiding eye contact, in which Lester frowned and responded in a threatening tone, "Answer."

"...Yes..." Jesse quietly whisper so that it was nearly inaudible. His bottom lip started to quiver faintly as Lester silently chuckled.

Lester smiled tauntingly as he spoke, "Couldn't hear that, pussy." He assertively jerked up Jesse's head so that their eyes met. "And look at me while you're fuckin' talking, rat." He added.

"Yes." Jesse repeated loud enough for the assailant in front of him to hear. He gulped down the lump in his throat as Lester released Jesse's jaw and snickered.

"Shame, because you're never gonna fuckin' get out. We're keepin' you here as long as you're needed." Lester reminded before inhaling briefly to speak again, "And you know what happens if you try to escape again? Enlighten me." Tears strung in Jesse's eyes as his face started to grimace slightly. Lester solemnly rolled his eyes and scoffed, ineptly slapping Jesse across the cheek, which Jesse afterwards brought his hands to. "Answer me." Jesse's nose started to water as a tear rolled down his cheek; Lester just wanted to hear him say that they'd kill Brock if he tries to escape.

"Fuckin' pussy. If you even think about escaping, we'll kill little Brock. I'm sure you wont want another one dead, after killin' your bitch." He taunted. Jesse felt anger burning inside of him as Lester continued his insults regarding the death of Andrea, when finally he noticed Jesse crying over it. "Aw, is that makin' you upset? Tell ya what, rat. I'll stop when you stop crying. She was nothing but a bitch, and it's your fault that she's dead-" Before he could finish, Lester was nearly knocked off his feet by Jesse, who cried out as he charged forwards with outraged tears rolling down his cheeks.

Jesse was nothing in comparison to Lester, who was approximately 6 feet or higher, Jesse being only 5'7". That being said, Lester straightened himself from the sudden force and gave Jesse a glare of abundant wrath, but quickly switched to give a dangerous chuckle as he took out a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket (along with a lighter) and lit one up to smoke. Jesse watched anxiously for longer than just a brief moment, whimpering on the spot as he knew what was coming to him; he was going to get burnt. And sure enough...

Lester abruptly took a step forwards and yanked Jesse forwards from his hair, acquiring a painful cry from the kid, so that his neck and backside were in the open of Lester's vision. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth with his open hand and pressed it against the backside of Jesse's neck, resulting in a tear-jerking cry. Just as he tightened his grip on Jesse's hair to do it again, Todd walked in on the scene.

"Uh, Lester?" He asked, completely apathetic as always. Lester turned his head to see Todd giving a blank expression, glancing at Jesse's head remaining in the hands of the buff gang member. "We're, uh, not supposed to interrupt his cook..." Todd continued, scratching the back of his head subconsciously. Lester scowled as he released Jesse, who was panting as if he were in a panic attack (which he probably was); Lester merely gave him a look of contempt. The eldest man chuckled and turned back to Todd, who stood awkwardly by the doorway.

"Good 'ol Toddy." He walked forwards to the exit, messing up Todd's hair as he walked past him. "Keep an eye out for this pussy," He stopped at the exit, jerking his head to the direction of their pet, purposely speaking loudly to let Jesse hear exactly what he was saying. "He's gonna need a lot more supervisin' to keep me away from fuckin' him up good." And with that, Lester turned away and out of sight.

Todd looked around himself and walked towards Jesse, who was letting tears fall freely down his face. "Hey, sorry about that, Jesse. I'll tell 'em next time not to bother you so much during the cook." He apologised, gingerly positioning Jesse to stand straight, ignoring the older man's groans of pain. "Some of them really like you 'round, y'know."

Jesse turned towards the table where there laid all sort of supplies and flasks for cooking, he hung his head low and albeit he was afraid to say, even if weakly; it was barely audible for Todd to hear anyway:

"Go fuck yourself." But Todd walked away and leant against the wall of the lab to watch Jesse; his gaze made the hairs on Jesse's arms stand; whether he liked it or not, he was more terrified of Todd than anyone else in the gang.

I am a coward, he thought, Mr. White was right.

Skylar looked up from her seat as she gasped silently to herself, Jesse softly shut his eyes, awaiting to find out for who exactly was at the door. "Hey, I'm home for lunch..." Flynn trailed off as he noticed another figure sitting in front of his mother, who's mouth was slightly agape. "Uh... who's that...?" He asked quietly. Jesse froze up as he opened his eyes wide; albeit he had never actually heard the kid's voice, he was pretty damn sure he knew who it was. Oh, fuck.

"Er, hey sweetie, um, what do you want for lunch?" Skyler quickly got up from her seat with a smile that was obviously false and attempting to be innocent. Jesse could feel the awkward tension as it crept up behind him, he took a deep breath and tried to mute out what was happening; sitting still like a statue after he put his hood over his head. "We have uh, left over pizza from yesterday." She glanced at Jesse, only to see him blankly staring at his full plate as he chewed the inside of his cheek. His eyes mostly spoke for him; he was uncomfortable to the highest. It reminded Skyler of when Walt had invited Jesse over to dinner unexpectedly, except back then he was more alive and talkative...

Flynn gave his mother an angry look and there was a brief moment of uneasy silence, which felt more like forever than just a few seconds. Jesse broke the silence by slowly emerging from his seat; a screeching sound as the chair scraped against the floor. "I'm just... uh, gonna, er..." He spoke slowly as he slowly made his way to the front door, trying to hide his face as much as possible with his hood. As he put his hand on the door knob to turn, he continued, "-Gonna go..." Unfortunately, Flynn's voice stopped him from opening the door to leave.

"Hold on, he's- he..." Flynn stuttered as he spoke, inching himself forwards slightly to face towards his mother, who had the look of complete anxiousness plastered onto her face. Her nose began to turn pink as well as her eyes as the young boy continued, "He's the f-fugitive that was on TV! He's the one that worked with dad- w-with Walt." His voiced raised louder as he spat his father's name; his eyes began to water, feeling even more betrayed that his own Mom would lie to him again after what- a year a half of being dishonest? Skyler stepped forwards, holding back the tears as they strung into her eyes.

"Junior-"

"It's Flynn." The younger boy interrupted, a perturbed expression on his face as he spoke. Skyler gulped, forgetting entirely that there was another man in the same room; Flynn must have done the same. She closed her eyes briefly and opened them again, giving her son sad eyes; the same ones she'd given for the past seven months.

"Flynn... I know... I know you're upset and I-" But she was cut off again.

"No! I want to know everything now!" Flynn shouted, his face grimacing with every word. Jesse glanced back and force between the two, wishing that he was invisible but only to find out that he wasn't when Skyler shot her eyes at him; eyes that were full of apologies. He felt for the kid, hell, he went through all the pain Walt had caused for the past two years, and this kid was going through all he had gone through within approximately six months. Jesse visibly clenched his jaw as his throat went taut. There was an uneasy silence, Skyler was speechless; completely taken from words. She had nothing to say, especially not in such an abrupt moment. What exactly was she to say? 'This man is a murderer, drug addict, and also worked with your father for more than a year, causing profuse amounts of deaths, and yet I still seem to sympathise with him'? She'd already lost most of her own son's trust, she couldn't lose all of it.

But maybe that was better.

"This is, um... Jesse Pinkman... and he helped your father... through-... I..." She trailed off and remained silent; completely cut off of what to say. Her son was in front of her, pleading for her honesty, yet the man to her side felt like the exact same presence of Flynn; he was lost and upset, and had been through too much than he could handle. Flynn shot her a devastated look. He was angry; why was she sticking up for this... this murderer, rather than her own son. He glanced at Jesse and surprisingly saw, not someone who was a danger, but someone completely broken, inconsolable, anguished, bereaved... This was the man who was more of a son to Walt than Flynn ever was. The youngest of the three grimaced in an utter lugubrious expression as he held back an urge to scream, storming out of the room without looking back. Skyler let a tear fall from her eye, her bottom lip quivering as she massaged her temple to relieve stress. She turned to Jesse, who gave a face of guilt and sorrow. He nodded faintly, getting the message from Skyler's gaze; I can't have you here.

"Can you..." He sighed before continuing, feeling as if asking for a tiny favour would be a profound bother. "... Can you just give me a ride?" Skyler sadly smiled for a brief moment before nodding, avoiding eye contact.

"Where?"

"I don't know."

They only seemed to get more cruel and inhumane by the day; dehumanizing Jesse in almost every situation. They didn't even call him by his name; only Todd did that, and Jesse hated it. He hated how softly he said it, as if he were trying to be gentle and polite; when he was the killer of Andrea and the bringer of most of Jesse's pain.

They would neglect him too, at times. One previous day, they had 'accidentally' left him in his pit for too long without care, jeering and laughing at him hysterically once they had returned to find him fainting from dehydration with a wet stain trailing down the side of his pants legs due to going too long without washroom breaks. His flushed-red face of humiliation was apparently 'hilarious' to them as well.

They also liked to tease him for the laughs. Tempt him that they were going to free him, or tempt him with better food and drinks, only to crush his hopes by laughing in his face and swearing at him for actually believing they would treat him like he was worth something- anything.

Everyday was followed by insults and vile remarks which sunk into Jesse's mind to make him believe whatever came to him. It came to the point where he was terrified of merely speaking.

"You're nothin' more than a piece of filth, you know that, rat? You don't deserve anythin'. Hell, if I could've," Uncle Jack had once said to him in the previous months on one of his tipsy days; though even if he was sober, it wouldn't make much a difference and he probably would have said the same. "I would'a killed you a long fuckin' time ago. I dunno why Toddy wants you as his bitch. You're fuckin' worthless, rat."

And from then on and beyond, Jesse believed him and every single word they had said to him.

Skyler parked at a parking lot of a basic motel that was near a quiet square Albuquerque. She switched off the engine and turned her head to her side to face Jesse. "This is as far as I could take you without getting noticed." Her voice was gentle; it reminded Jesse of his Mom's voice, how she managed to keep her voice soft and smooth after finding out her son was a murderer and involved with the infamous Heisenberg. Jesse took a deep breath and readied himself to open the door, but was cut off as Skyler stopped him. "Wait-" He turned around and halted for Skyler to speak. She took out her wallet from her purse which was placed on the floor of the rental van, pulling out a mixture of ten and twenty-dollar bills, which eventually let up to approximately 100 dollars in cash.

Jesse shook his head and slightly moved his hands up as if to decline the money. "No." He gently spoke, glancing at the money and back to Skyler. "I can't take that." He added, his hands close together, as well as his feet, as if chains were still bound to him.

It was amazing how much eyes could say about a person, yet Skyler saw nothing in the eyes of the man in front of her; no life, no happiness. "Take it, please." She simply spoke, a hint of assertiveness in her voice. She wanted him to be okay; she knew he probably wouldn't be, but it was worth a try. Jesse looked at the money in her hands and pulled up both of his hands to take it. It's funny how such a 'small' amount of money meant a lot to him now; it felt like just yesterday that he was throwing millions out of a car. He opened the door and stepped out, looking back with thankful eyes. Skyler looked back as well, face full of worry and anxiousness as Jesse walked in the direction of the motel.

A/N: Hopefully I could update quicker... Sorry for any grammar errors! I'll look it over later. Thanks for reading this chapter (as well as this story) and review, please!