Author note: Thanks for all your reviews, kind words, and constructive criticism.-Screamer
"Jesse?" Charlie said softly knocking on the slightly ajar door to the guest room. Jesse said nothing, just closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"Jess?" she repeated, this time standing a few feet from the bed. "I'm going out...I'll be back later."He hear he walk slowly down the stairs and out the door. He kept his eyes closed until he heard the hum of her car engine as she backed out of the driveway.
Jesse rolled over and stared at the white ceiling, rubbing his bloodshot eyes when they started to burn. He'd stared at the ceiling all night, watching it turn from dark to shades of grey and streaky pink as the sun rose. When Charlie has shaken him out of his trance-like state last night, he'd panicked unsure of where he was and maybe on some level who he was.
He gave Charlie credit. She spent at least two hours calming him down, talking to him in low tones as he hugged a pillow tightly to his chest as visions of Andrea and Jane and Emilio and Combo and every other person who's life he'd fucked up flooded his mind. When Jesse was calm enough to feign sleep, Charlie pulled an arm chair up next to the bed, crossed her feet on the edge of it and draped a blanket over herself before she drifted off to sleep.
It was a familiar pose to Jesse. He's spent the last few weeks of his aunt's life doing the same thing in her hospital room, afraid to leave in case she was no longer there when he got back.
Why the hell was he doing this to her? Why bring Charlie into the mess he created?
He screwed his eyes shut again, drapping and arm over his head and trying to force himself to sleep. The sun streaming through the window lit his eyelids up; instead of the darkness that he craved he saw the tiny veins crisscrossing over the barely opaque pink that was his skin. Grumbling, he pulled the comforter over his head, but a few seconds later kicked it off the bed.
He turned to the small bedside table and found another bright blue Post-it note, firmly stuck on the wood surface. He peeled it up with a sense of guilt; had his antics last night scared her so badly that she was afraid to put a Post-it note on his forehead?
Though hoping that wasn't the case, Jesse couldn't fault Charlie if it was the truth. When Charlie shook his shoulder last night, trying to get him to wake up, he'd panicked and started screaming.
"Jesse, Jesse, it's fine." she'd said, putting her hands on his shoulders, but Jesse stared at her blankly, not knowing who she was or where he was. "Jesse, please...Jesse...Jess! Pinky!" Shaking and sweating, he'd snapped out of it...
He crinkled the Post-it note up in his hand, his fist tightly gripping it as he silently fumed. Even if he wanted to get away now, he couldn't. Charlie had her car, and he wouldn't get far on foot. And if he did leave without telling her, what would the DEA agents think when they came to check on him? He had to stay, at least for now.
He smoothed out the note, 'Running errands, etc. Back around 3,' it read, 'Coffee & food downstairs. Use the cell on table if you need me.-C'
A normal note, it was just a normal note. They could have been any normal couple living together, instead of a set of former lovers who hadn't spoken to each other in six years, one a former meth kingpin suffering from severe PTSD. He read the note again, and realized he didn't deserve someone like her.
For the first time in her life, Charlie had skipped school to spend the day with Jesse. He picked her up for school at usual, but instead of lazily making their way to homeroom, they were speeding down the interstate towards Elephant Butte Lake. Instead of books, there were two fluffy towels shoved into Charlie's backpack. They stopped off at a deli and grabbed sandwiches and drinks, Charlie not bothering to pull a shirt back over the bikini top she was wearing.
Though Jesse protested, they spent twenty minutes hiking to a secluded area of the lake that Charlie's brother James used to take her to when she was little, hoisting her on his back to speed up the trip. They spent the first hour or so making out and sunning on top of a steep cliff that overlooked the lake.
After lunch, Charlie suddenly got up and walked over to the edge of the cliff. She looked back over her shoulder at Jesse and grinned mischievously. "You coming?"
"Yo, you're crazy." Jesse said, shaking his head.
Charlie shrugged, "Fine then, be boring," she said, reversing a few paces.
"Don't-" Jesse protested but Charlie was already running, plugging her nose at the last minute and flinging herself off the cliff. Jesse ran to the edge in time to see her slip into the water, causing a small splash as she did so.
She popped up out of the depths of the lake a few moments later, treading water and grinning. "Don't be such a baby!" Charlie swam over to the shore and climbed up a path that led back to the cliff top where Jesse was waiting.
"You gonna jump?" she panted, reaching for one of the towels and drying off her face. Jesse shook his head.
"C'mon, it's not that bad. I just did it."
"You wanna jump to your death in this place, go for it...me, no way-"
"What if we do it together?" she asked, grabbing his hand in hers. "I'll hold your hand the whole time..."
Jesse considered her proposal, ultimately stripping down to just his boxers.
"Take a deep breath, right at the edge," she advised, lining up next to him and taking his hand. "Ready?"
"Yeah."
"Go!" Charlie started running, but didn't get very far; Jesse's feet were still firmly planted on the ground. On the next try, he ran but stopped perilously close to the edge of the cliff, throwing Charlie off balance and to the ground.
"This time, Pinky," Charlie said firmly, and they ran towards the cliff together. Charlie turned her head towards Jesse, he was screaming manically as they plunged towards the water, a look of pure terror on his face...suddenly she was in her the hallway of her own condo, the same look of terror on Jesse's face as he screamed from the nightmares Charlie couldn't see to shake him out of...
"Charlotte!"Her mother's voice snapped Charlie back into the present, where she was sitting at a table at an overpriced, upscale restaurant, being lectured about working too much at a job that didn't matter.
"Sorry," she said, shaking her head slightly, as though she was shaking away the memory of Jesse's screams the night before. "What were you asking?" Her mother shook her head disapprovingly, rolling her eyes as she took a long, drawn out sip of tea.
"Your mother was asking what has been taking up so much of your time lately," her father supplied, shooting her a stern look.
"You know, work," she said, stalling, "I'm working with the design team to develop a new interactive music experience for-"
"So, work," her mother supplied as Charlie's phone rang. "At least put that thing on silent!"
Charlie glanced down at her phone and saw Work Cell on the caller ID. Jesse had obviously found her second note. "And that's them now," she said, hurriedly getting up from the table. She winked at the tyoung girl sitting next to her mother, "Be right back."
"Hello, this is Charlie Preston," she said pointedly as she walked quickly away from the table and towards the entry way of the restaurant.
"Uh, hi Charlie Preston-this is Jesse Pinkman?"
"I know," she replied with annoyance. "I was with my parents, Jesse. Is everything ok?"
"Probation officer just left."
"Wow, not even one full day of probation and they're already checking on you," Charlie said with a laugh, "You must of caused a hell of a lot of trouble, Mr. Pinkman. Any problems?"
"Nope."
"Good. I'll be home in a couple of hours, do you need anything?" she asked, glancing back at the table where her mother and father were growing visibly more upset with each passing moment. Jesse said nothing, "Look, Jess, I gotta go...my mom's about to flip over the table out of sheer annoyance."
"Sounds like a great time."
"I promise, I get video of it if she does, wouldn't want you to miss Elizabeth Preseton completely losing her shit," she replied sarcastically. "Are you sure you don't need anything?"
"Cigarettes," he mumbled back. "Any kind."
"Alright, I'll be home in a couple of hours...and Jess?"
"Yeah?"
"I hope you're still there when I get back."