"What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" Jax laid his shoulders and spine up against the closed door, head riding back into the wood as he let his body go loose.
"You rang my bell, Teller." She answered softly as she curled her arms defensively into her torso, noting the smirk he gave in response to her accusation, "Not the other way around."
"I mean," he matched the movement of her arms, his stance more relaxed though. "big picture. What can I do for you? What do you need to keep a balance?"
Ally searched the open look he was giving her but didn't answer, breathing in slowly as she loosened up on the tight way she was standing. She took a cue from the relaxed drop of his shoulders and leaned her hands onto the back of the chair that was in front of her, letting her spine arc as he matched the movement and headed toward his seat. He dropped hard into the chair and used the toe of his boot to kick back Chibs' seat for her.
"Screw everything else, Jarry. Put a pin in it." He spoke quietly as he offered the chair with an open hand, elbow digging into the table. "Let's talk about the flow of information."
"I've been here before. I've navigated this kind of situation and I did a damn good job of it." She shrugged as she sat gently, her shoulders leaning back into the chair as she let a hand rest to the table. "That's why I'm here, Jax. Obviously Roosevelt's way of doing things wasn't working."
"Obviously." He snorted as he tugged a pack of smokes from his pocket and offered it in her direction.
She lifted her hand to wave it off but leaned in as he shrugged. "I'm not naïve. I'm not stupid. I know you're not going to give me anything legitimate. But you have to make it look like you are. You have to throw me a fucking bone every so often."
"I can dump a handful of leads on Lin. Give you some other little nuggets." He nodded as he lit the cigarette and tugged the ashtray in his direction. "You can get your people moving. Feds'll think you're onto something. We can work together without sharing the test answers, yeah? And the little things – like the heads up the other day. We can work with that. That was solid."
He slung the bottle back hard, swallowing off it deeply as he let his shoulders slide back against the roof's ridge wall. His head tipped back so that he could grind the lip of it into the back of his skull, licking the whiskey warmth from his lips while he bit down on the welcoming feeling of almost pain. He married the numbing with the feeling and let his eyes clip shut in the sunshine, sunglasses already downed on the bridge of his nose.
"You sure it's smart to muddy yourself up right now?" Tig's boots grated on the roof softer than slippers on glass but the sound was still an intrusion he could have gone without.
"This whole situation is muddy." Chibs lazed back at the other man, still driving his head back into the lip of the roof's edging.
"Well, yeah." Trager agreed as he crouched before the Scot. "That's why we need you clear."
"I'm tired of bein' clear, Tiggy." He admitted as he finally downed his jaw, looking toward the other man over the rims of his glasses, catching the blue in the sun's brightness. "Aren't you goddamn weary?"
"Sure." Tig nodded slowly, his face wearing a map of worry. "But I got miles to go before I sleep."
"Aye." Chibs let his head slack back again, sightlessly offering up the bottle in resignation. "She still down there?"
"Haven't heard any shots fired yet." The grin was ringing clearly through the other man's voice. "Guess that's a good sign."
"I wanna know who else is on your payroll." She laid it out softly, keeping her voice airy and far from anything that could be considered demanding. "My bet is Barosky."
He squinted sidelong at her as he sucked down a breadth of smoke, "Who's payroll isn't Barosky on?"
She nodded slowly in understanding, "You cannot trust him."
"I can't trust you, Jarry." He snorted as he shrugged back into his chair, angling his arm up onto the back as he turned truthfully into her.
"No, you can't." she agreed on a rueful smile, hand lifted softly. "But I have more self control than Charlie. And I'm not playing sides against each other for a greedy profit."
He barked a laugh out and slung farther back in the chair, "Bullshit."
"I didn't ask for your money." She shrugged and kept her face a stark line of surety, "I just took the envelope the man with the pretty accent handed me."
Jax snorted as he shook his head at her. "So if I stopped having him hand you envelopes, we'd still be chums?"
She shrugged into it idly, head turned into the way her shoulder lifted, "I'm not saying I don't appreciate it. But it's not my priority. Main Street being a place where shit doesn't blow up in my face? That's a priority."
"And Chibs?" he asked her quietly as he stubbed out the cigarette, the acrid twist of burning filter spiking a caustic smell between them. "He make it somewhere on that list of priorities?"
Her jaw lifted with a sudden sharpness and he caught the swing of blackness that coalesced in her eyes. "What does it matter? He's a big boy - all grown up, Pres. Trust me."
"It matters." His jaw was suddenly wired broad and tight.
Ally studied his face slowly, her lungs caught up still as she met his eyes. "You sent him my way, Jax. And you've obviously made it an acceptable situation."
"At his request. Because I respect him." He offered bluntly as his fingers pushed onto the table in explanation. "Not out of some inherent need to play matchmaker in the middle of this goddamn mess."
She nodded slowly into his brisk assertion. "He's on the list."
"How high?" he demanded sharply. "High enough?"
She inhaled slowly, lanking her body back into the chair so that she could stall any sort of response. She guarded against the searching way he was glaring over her by turning away from the bright blue of his eyes, her head angled so that she could exhale without wearing the color of his accusation.
"This is why I'm actually here?" She spoke slowly in a calculated darkness.
"No." Teller responded quietly. "But I'd like to know. In the interest of… trust."
Ally snorted and looked back over him, noting how old his eyes read in the youngness of his face. "I didn't call him and give him a heads up for you, Teller. I called him to keep him out of Stockton's yard. It wasn't in the interest of cooperation. It wasn't the money. It was to keep him safe."
He was suddenly grinning at her as he rubbed his fingers onto his lips.
"Having him in gen pop, where you're targets to every color of the goddamn rainbow, wasn't something I could have easily circumnavigated without my bosses noticing." She explained with a strained tone of annoyance. "I made a call."
He was fully smirking now and she bit down on the urge to slap it off his face. "I get that."
"And I'd appreciate it if you'd keep it to yourself." She leaned back from his amusement, shaking her head into the way he was smiling at her. The continued affection he was aiming in her direction finally had her exhaling into a half smile. "What?"
"Unser paid you a visit yet?"
"Which time?" she asked to the side as he lit another cigarette.
"He probably made a lot of sense." Jax admitted softly, his glance dropping as the humor drained from his face. "Said some shit that rings true."
She lifted a shoulder and dipped her jaw, "I make my own mistakes, Teller. I'm a big girl. All grown up. Ask Chibs."
He just passed her a small smile. "He's gonna be pissed I shut him outta this."
She just gave him a shrug as she pushed up from the chair, palms pressed to the table as she leaned forward in teasing, "I won't tell him anything if you won't."