Jesse did not go quietly into the DEA's office. It had taken much cajoling, and the promise of endless tacos before he agreed to go. As they walked in the building, he was shaking so badly that Livi yelled at him to get it together, lest the cops think he was detoxing. Charlie quickly grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, earning her a nasty side glance from Livi, but her hand against his seemed to steady Jesse slightly.
Charlie watched the two of them disappear down the hall, then spent over two agonizing hours sitting on a hard plastic chair in the cold waiting room of the Albuquerque DEA's office.
Jesse emerged from the DEA's office a semi-free man, sentenced to 18 months probation in return for both the information he handed over and repayment for Hank Schrader's off book handling of him months before. His trump card, the location of agents Schrader and Gomez, proved useless. Mr. White broke in to his wife's new house before going to Uncle Jacks' compound; Skyler White offered the location of her brother-in-law's body in exchange for a plea deal from the prosecutor's office.
Reluctantly, Jesse pulled out the one card he had left: the unsolved murder of Andrea Cantillo. He sobbed like a baby as he recounted watching Todd gun her down; almost an hour later, when he emerged from the interrogation room, his eyes were still red rimmed and puffy. Charlie bit her lip nervously as soon as she laid eyes on him.
Though Charlie insisted Livi was on his side, there were moment in the interrogation room when it felt more like she was once again sitting at a different table, arguing for a restraining order against him. Why had he gone along with Charlie's plan anyway? There was nothing for him in New Mexico and his name meant nothing to him anymore. He could have easily slipped away, started over somewhere new as someone new. Why go through all that agony, relieve all the pain of the last two years for nothing?
Tacos.
Real food was a commodity at Uncle Jack's compound, the thought of tacos was the most persuasive argument for Jesse to go to the DEA. The neo-Nazi's subsisted off microwave dinners and the occasional meal from a shitty fast food joint. Even then, all Jesse got was their leftovers, some cold fries and a half eaten burger if he was lucky.
Livi, Charlie, and Jesse sat awkwardly at the restaurant, munching away in silence. Jesse and Livi argued on the drive about the fairness of his probation sentence, sending Charlie over the edge. She jerked the car to a stop on the road's shoulder, sending Livi and Jesse flying foward, and threatened to return to the townhouse sans tacos. Angered by their behavior, she consumed many margaritas at the restaurant and Livi had to drive home.
Jesse managed to mumble a thank you to Livi before disappearing into the townhouse. Charlie followed twenty minutes later, locking the door purposely behind him. She managed, after much arguing and coercing, to convince Jesse to sleep in the guest room on an actual bed.
"There," she said, smoothing out the comforter. "Much better than my busted ass couch."
"I guess," Jesse replied skeptically, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.
Charlie's face fell slightly. "Well, unless you need anything else...I'm gonna go to bed." She moved towards the door quickly, avoiding Jesse's gaze as she brushed by him.
"Hey, uh, Charlie?"
She looked back.
"Uh, thanks for...for just...just thanks," he replied quietly. Charlie gave him a small nod and gestured vaguely down the hall.
"You need anything...well, I guess you know where I sleep, so..."
Before Jesse could respond, she was gone.
Falling asleep took longer than usual. Having Jesse back in her house was strange. The last time he was under her roof, the night had not ended well. Charlie stared at the ceiling for over an hour, waiting to hear Jesse's soft snores fill the narrow hallway. While she may have made a habit out of inadvertently poking him with her elbow each morning, Jesse's habit was snoring.
She spent several minutes in that hazy, half-sleep where dreams and reality start to blur. She was 19 again, freshly expelled from Berkley and using a fake ID to sneak into bars near UNM. After seeing her out for the fourth night in a row, a friend joked that Charlie was determined to wear the laminate off her ID.
"Yo, let me buy you a drink," someone whispered in her ear.
Grinning, Charlie turned around, ready to retort back with something clever, but the words were taken out of her mouth when she saw him.
Jesse.
...they were stumbling out of the bar and into Charlie's house, practically tripping up each step on their way in...
...she woke up with a killer headache, blurry vision, and Jesse sleeping next to her...
...Jesse was sitting on her couch, snorting something before they went out for the night. Charlie's class schedule for her first semester as UNM was discarded on the floor as Jesse, eyes red-rimmed and grinning, sweeped her into his arms and kissed her...
...they were arguing, Charlie voice growing hoarser and hoarser as she screamed at him. She was blocking the stairs, refusing to let Jesse get by. He grabbed her upper arms and tried to move her out of the way, but she stood her ground. A glint of anger in Jesse's eyes, and then all of the sudden she was falling...thump thump thump and a sickening ripping noise as she fells down the stairs and landed on the floor of the living room.
Clearly panicked, Jesse was running towards her, taking the steps two at a time. He crouched down next to Charlie, how was gripping her leg, trying to make the pain stop. "I should call an-"
"Get out!" Charlie wailed, tears streaming down her face.
"You need to go to a doctor, yo. It looks-"
"Give me the phone and get out!" she screamed back, but Jesse refused to moved.
"Get out!" she repeated, smacking Jesses's hands away from her."Get out, get out, GET OUT!"
Jesse slid a phone across the hardwood floor, and bolted, leaving the front door open as he fled...
Charlie awoke with a start, as though a noise has shunted her out of the dream and back to reality.
It's nothing. She said to herself, running her hands over her face and taking a deep breath.
Deciding that she needed a some water, she grabbed the empty glass by her bedside table and sleepily stumbled into the hallway, not bothering to turn on the light.
And that's when she heard it, feet steadily shuffling against the floorboards of the hallway near Jesse's room.
It's just Jesse, she assured herself. But what if it's not? They said all those people died, but Jesse escaped...what if someone else did too?
Steeling herself, she flicked on the hall light. The brightness blinder her and she screwed her eyes shut, blinking them open and close quickly, forcing them to adjust.
Glassy-eyed and clearly asleep, Jesse paced rhythmically back and forth down the empty hallway.