Radio silence left a hole in Jess's day to day. Rob's near constant presence helped to ease the empty feeling that lingered in the space of her family being gone but he couldn't erase it entirely.
Naima and the kids helped a bit. Work and school brought a semblance of normalization to her life, but in an odd way it made her feel less real, like she was going through the motions and it was all happening to someone else. Sometimes she felt like the real her was still in Brazil and the one at home was an impostor. It had seemed that way since Scott left and they others were gone.
"No news is good news," Jess whispered to herself as she worked on repotting Brock's spider plant. Somehow he'd managed to drown it and the poor thing needed some help. It was looking sad when she stopped at his place to take care of it. Sonny's cactus was just as bad, only he hadn't given it any water in far too long so it was dry, crusty and brittle. He brought it to her before the boys left to 'work her magic' on it. Jess wasn't sure there was much hope, but she was trying her best. It was warm and cozy under a heat lamp right now, unlike the poor spider plant in her hands. "Geez, Brock…this poor thing…what did he do to you, sweetheart!?"
The plant was as silent as its owner.
No news. From any of them. Not a thing since Scott sent her to ads for the puppies and that was coming up on two weeks now.
She wondered where they were and how they were. Not knowing wasn't usually this upsetting and she'd been a phenomenal student the past two weeks in order to distract herself. She was already finished three assignments that weren't due till the end of next month. Not only that she'd gotten Rob into computer games and he was playing through all her old favorite multiplayer games with her. She was amused by how much Left For Dead 2 freaked him out originally, followed by him taking the game a little too seriously. In a weird way though, having them win and fail was therapeutic. It was also equally amusing how mad/invested he got with Portal 2. One night they spend six hours playing through the extended content and Rob refused to let her look up online how to do the puzzles that stumped them.
Neither really got much sleep lately, and Jess was ok with that. Maybe it was a good thing Scott wasn't checking in. He'd scold her for not sleeping enough and call her out for how much caffeine she started to drink again. He might be right too.
Jess sighed and patted down the last of the dirt around Brock's plant, tucking it in all snug.
Brushing dirt from her ice cold hands and rubbing them together, Jess glanced around the frosty back yard, mentally imagining a dog out with her. Out of habit, her fingers rose to tap the pendant around her neck, hiding under the oversized hoodie.
A puppy running around the yard was appealing. She liked Pippin, Zoe's puppy, being in the old house when no one else was. It wasn't as lonely that way and with Scott being away so often the thought for not being all by herself warmed her.
She just needed the right dog.
The places offering puppies had been sold out by the time Jess got to calling them, but now Rob was on the case and given how bored he was she didn't doubt he would find more.
Lately he'd taken to watching reality TV shows and yelling at the contestants. Jess couldn't even imagine Scott or Jason watching Survivor and she never really did either until Rob turned it on. Thankfully his version of 'yelling' at the TV wasn't scary at all and really rather funny, not like when Sonny and Scott got upset about the Super Bowl.
Keeping Rob entertained was difficult. He was like a german shorthair pointer that was kept indoors too long mixed with the sweet, over vigilant nature of a doberman. Literally climbing the walls.
Speaking of which, she needed to go make sure he wasn't overdoing his physio exercises. When he came to classes with her, she could keep an eye on him, but twice now she'd caught him overdoing it when she left him alone too long. Stubborn ass. He said he was going to do some bookwork for his business.
Jess started packing up her bags of dirt, pots and 'plant food'. Behind her the back door opened and she was proud of how well she resisted the urge to flinch or look over her shoulder.
It was Rob. Just Rob. Everything was fine. She didn't need to look.
Deep breath in. And out. All good.
"Was just thinking I should come and make sure you weren't overdoing your physio instead of doing your work," Jess chirped good naturedly, purposely not looking up as she got to her feet and started lifting most of the bags. "Wanna grab this bag? I got dirt everywhere and I don't want to get anymore on Scott's sw-"
When her head came up and she saw that it was not Rob standing there, a few feet away, Jess's words died in her throat and she froze.
"You really do like stealing my stuff, don't you."
There was a short pause where Jess processed the picture of one of her favorite people standing there, big, brooding, tired looking and almost hesitant as he watched her reaction to him sneaking up on her like that.
Jess couldn't care less that he'd scared her. She dropped everything haphazardly on the deck, clay pots clattering together and dirt bags dropping with a thump. In seconds she launched forward, arms out and crashed into the solid frame waiting for her.
"You're back!" Jess chroaked, emotion she didn't even know she'd been hanging onto bubbling up out of nowhere and making her cry. Come to think of it, she hadn't really cried hardly at all the whole time Rob stayed with her.
The arms around her squeezed and the man rumbled gruffly.
"Yeah, well, someone told me you weren't sleeping and that you've corrupted Rob into playing those damn computer games, so I thought it was time to come back and bust your heads in."
A watery laugh slipped out and Jess replied, "Who told you that?"
"Naima."
"Dang it, I can't even be mad." Jess pulled away and wiped uselessly at her eyes saying, "Hi! Missed you!"
"Never would have guessed." Scott told her, eyeing her head to toes. "You been eating enough, at least?"
Suppressing the urge to look to the sky, Jess said truthfully, "Yes. I've been eating, and in case you were interested I've aced every quiz the last two weeks and I've done three assignments in advance."
"How'd you do that while playing…what was it…Porthole?"
"Portal! It's a game where you use a portal gun to solve puzzles for a psychopathic robot."
"That sounds…I have no words-"
"Wait a second! How'd you know I was playing Portal?"
"I have my sources."
"Did Rob tell you?"
"Nope."
Jess narrowed her eyes at him as she rammed her fingers into her armpits with a shiver.
"Trent?"
"Not revealing my sources." Scott told her. "Get your ass inside, you're gonna whine about how cold you are for hours as it is."
"Heyyyy! You just got back, do you have to be so bossy!? Didn't you miss me?"
"Nope. Not even a little." Scott grinned before she could believe him and take it to heart. He stooped and picked up her plant stuff. "Thought I had a bin for all this in the shed."
"There was, but I didn't need it all so I just brought what I wanted and left the rest in the bin, and then I needed more," Jess moved to help and completely missed the way Scott shook his head at her for not listening to him and going inside. "So I kept carting more out and then I guess I could have just brought the whole thing out after all."
They moved toward the shed and behind them the back door swung open again, letting a sweaty and puffing Rob out.
He grinned painfully at Jess when she tossed a suspicious look over her shoulder at him.
"Did you do the thing the PT and the PTA's told you not to?"
"Don't know what you're talking about." Rob answered lightly, holding his side and pretending to stretch. "I was just trying to save you from that ass down there who decided to sneak up on me."
"Just making sure you still got it." Scott said smugly.
Jess stopped walking and looked between the two of them, picking up on the faint signs of ruffled clothing and appearance on Scott as well as Rob.
"Did you- what happened!? Scott?!"
A little too innocently, Scott glanced at her and started putting her stuff away.
"He tackled me." Rob moaned, finally leaning on the railing.
"I did not. You fell."
"I was surprised."
"You're getting old."
"I still won."
"That was luck."
" Excuuuuuse me," Jess rounded on Scott with her hands on her hips. "But what was the point of me 'taking care' of him this whole time if you were just going to rough house the second you got home!? Have you any idea how much work keeping him from being stupid was!?"
"Hey!" Rob protested half seriously.
"You know what you are!" Jess shot back without remorse before turning back to Scott. "And you!- What are you-Don't just laugh! "
Scott's smug, innocent smirk was cracking into a full chuckle now as he snagged the last back of dirt from her and closed up the shed. Then he put both hands on her shoulders, turned her around and gently nudged her toward the house.
"Alright, pipsqueak, you can finish lecturing us inside. Let's go."
"It's not that cold out here!" Jess squawked.
"We go places to be." Scott told her with that familiar, gruff impatience. "Come on."
"Geez, you're bossy!"
"I'm looking pretty good now, aren't I!" Rob snarked good naturedly, grabbing the door for both of them. "Just remember who let you play computer games all hours of the night and went for snacks vs. who's going to bully you into taking better care of yourself the next time you're complaining about me."
Jess stopped moving suddenly as the realization that Scott was home and that meant Rob was likely leaving set in.
All fire and spicy evaporated and her feet stopped moving as she started up at the man who'd become like yet another family member to her.
"What's wrong?" Rob asked, sobering the second she froze and looked at him.
"You're going to leave soon, aren't you."
"What? No. I'm staying for dinner at the very least and I happen to find the couch extremely comfortable here! Now, come on. Inside." Rob gestured dramatically to the door. "I've had HVT's who listen better than you do!"
"Why the rush?" Jess asked suspiciously, stepping through the house carefully.
Rob slipped past them and disappeared into Scott's room for a minute while Scott nudged Jess through the house toward the front door.
"Got a timeline, stop asking questions." Scott growled. "You good?"
"Yes?" Jess raised her eyebrows as she complied.
"You trust me?" Scott asked seriously, treating her like porcelain and acting as if he expected her to be getting upset or scared right now.
Jess gave him a look that clearly stated just how unnecessary that question was.
"I'm just asking." The man huffed gruffly, steely eyes still boring into her own.
Still maintaining her look of disbelief, Jess said patiently, "Of course I trust you."
"Good." Scott nodded once, his jaw tightening. "This timeline is a good thing, but it's a surprise, so please don't ask questions."
Jess relaxed tension she didn't know she'd been holding and leaned into Scott's side when he put an arm around her shoulders to guide her out the front door.
"I can do that- but isn't this a lot for you? I mean, you just got back and-"
"That's a question." Scott growled as they descended the front steps.
"Can I have an answer?"
Scott drew a breath and studied her as he opened the truck door, finally he said,"You should know by now I don't do anything I don't want to."
"This is true, but you're being abnormally cryptic and-"
The door closed on her words and Scott smirked slightly at her somewhat indignant glare as he circled round the front of the truck to the driverside. Rob hopped in the back behind her a moment later.
"Ready?" He asked lightly.
"Do you know what's going on?!"
Rob grinned at her and shrugged, saying, "That's a question."
"I am still covered in dirt!" Jess exclaimed, looking down at herself and her hands.
"That's fine." Scott told her as he started the engine and pulled out of the drive.
Jess shot a sideways look at him and tried to still the mix of excitement, happiness and anxiety in her stomach.
"Is…is everyone else ok?" She asked, forgetting she wasn't supposed to be asking questions.
Scott let it go though, answering without hesitation, "Everyone is great. Couple bruises, few scraps, a bit of sleep needing caught up on, but other than that, we're all good."
Pleadingly, Jess had to push it, "Promise?"
"Promise. You'll see them later on. We have somewhere to go first." Scott flicked a glance at her and stated, "You've been on enough impromptu adventures with Rob lately, what's one more?"
"You sound jealous, big guy!" Rob chirped with ample sauce. "What's the matter? Mad that I'm more fun than you?"
Scott turned his stare to the rearview and glared at Rob with almost convincing ice.
"You're job was to keep an eye on her, not feed her bad habits and teach her some of your own."
"Hey!" Jess butt in without thinking or considering if Scott was actually mad or not. "You said I was supposed to be taking care of him, not the other way around!"
Scott pointed at her, eyes still on the road, "You actually did a decent job taking care of him. He's in better shape than I expected. You, on the other hand-"
"I ate food!" Jess protested, rolling her head back and sighing at the ceiling. "I slept! I went to school and work-"
"How much coffee are you drinking."
"Uhhhh…a little?"
"How much."
"Ok, fine . About three cups a day."
"WHAT!?" Rob squawked from the back seat. "I thought it was only one!"
"What? No! I mean, I drink one proper cup of coffee the start of the day, and then i use instant in my chocolate milk and-"
"Shit!" Rob threw up his hands. "I'm losing it, Metal! I'm actually losing it! I swear I thought it was only one cup in the mornings."
"I told you!" Scott answered darkly.
Frowning disbelievingly, Jess said, "How in the hell did you know I was drinking more coffee anyway!?"
"You don't have a poker face. I knew the second I asked and you hesitated."
"Dang it!" Jess looked out the window and wondered where they were going, not for the first time.
They were speeding out of town now and Rob was giving directions from the back seat. Jess wisely stayed quiet and tried to not to attempt figuring out what was going on. Instead she basked in the comfortable feeling that came with Scott returning. It always felt like he'd never been gone and had been away for ages all at once whenever he got back from a spin up.
Stealing a look at him, Jess caught the deeper lines in his face, noted the days old scruff and the well hidden bruises along his cheek and the scabs along his knuckles. One knuckle was slightly swollen and bruised up, making Jess wonder what he'd done to it and what else was hidden.
"Should be just on the right here." Rob announced. "And I just got a text. We can come to the side door."
Bursting with curiosity as they pulled into the driveway of a property several minutes outside of town, Jess climbed out of the trunk.
Dog's yipping and barking caught on the wind and carried to her eyes.
Scott gave her a side glance, clearly having heard the same thing and Jess's mouth fell open.
"Seriously?"
"Sent you all those ads for a reason, you know."
"They were all gone!"
"I know. That's why we jumped on this one. Let's go. There is a four legged creature in there waiting for you if you want it."
Dazed and buzzing with excitement, Jess followed Rob to the side door where the man was already chatting with the amiable lady at the door.
"Yes, of course! Come on in! I've got the ones available out, ready to go for her!"
As if in a dream, Jess entered the house with the silent shadow of Scott following her and Rob's bright, more friendly personality leading her.
She gasped when she saw what kind of puppies they were.
A mixed breed with dominant traits of lab. Some looked like they had more shepherds in them, but a few were clearly more lab-like.
Jess loved labs.
The puppies were excited to see them. Rolly, polly, well fed and cared for, not an ounce of fear or aggression in them as they tumbled and tripped over their own feet.
Jess hardly heard the quiet, well informed questions that Scott was asking the breeder as she climbed into the pen with the puppies.
They were scrambling and climbing all over her in seconds and she loved every second of it.
All five of them were adorable, there was one that once all the excitement was all over lingered with her rather than playing with the others.
It was the only one with light, chocolate fur and a little less fluff than the others. Her eyes were golden and her face held the goofiness of a lab and the sharp intelligence of a shepherd. Her ears were floppy, but they perked up like little fluffy satellite dishes when she was curious. Overall she had lab traits though.
To Jess, she was perfect. Sweet, playful, confident, hair not too long, more lab like than the rest of them and cute as a button.
"What do you think?" Scott asked, crouching down next to her
"I don't know, you kinda caught me off guard…I didn't have time to think or prepare myself-"
"That was the idea. I knew if I told you you'd talk yourself out of it and then it would be murder getting you here. Rob said you stalled a lot the past few weeks when it came to even calling places." Scott reached down and scratched the puppy behind the ear gently. "Well? Do you want her?"
It seemed unreal, staring down at the puppy in her lap. She looked back up at her with those golden eyes and tilted her head to the side as if to say, 'what's there to think about?'.
"Yeah," Jess murmured. "I really like her."
"Looks like she picked you already. If you like her, then let's get her. She's two weeks from being ready to leave her mother. Say the word and she's yours."
Heart squeezing in her chest, Jess rubbed the pup behind the ears.
"Are you sure?" She heard herself whisper.
"No. I dragged you out here to torment you with seeing cute puppies you can't have," Scott shook his head at her and finished with a growl of, "Of course I'm sure. You need a dog. Let's get you a dog. Hell I'll get you two if you need two."
Jess's eyes went huge and she burst out laughing, "I do not need two dogs!"
"I'm just saying if you did-"
"I don't need two."
"Ok. So will you let me get you this one?"
Tears gathered as the pup squirmed in her arms, climbing up to nibble her ears.
"Yeah. I want this one."
Scott gave a silent nod and wordlessly reached out for the pup.
Without question, Jess passed it to him and watched as she wiggled up his chest until her little chin was resting just below his chin. They looked at each other for a second before the pup gave a playful yip and tried to nip the end of his nose. Scott smiled, palmed his hand over the floppy ears, gave a good scratch behind them and passed her back to Jess.
"Yeah, she'll do." He turned to the breeder. "Same deposit that you and Brock talked about?"
"Yes! I'm happy with that price if it suits you. He spoke very highly and given that he'll be involved in her life, I'm very comfortable selling her to you."
"Awesome. Let's get it done."
Snuggling in the pup again, Jess whispered, "Now what am I going to name you? I feel like we know each other already. Were you my dog in another life?"
The pup gave a goofy wiggle in her lap and tried to grab her own tail before spotting the purple flats Jess was wearing and decided those looked fun instead.
By the time Jess was back home, she was on cloud nine with the reality that she was bringing home her puppy in two weeks. She could stayed there for hours except Bravo had other ideas.
The whole lot of them had gathered in the time they'd been away and Jess was of course thrilled to see them all.
They fed her, laughed, joked, carried on and asked about the puppy.
At long last, the serious reason for their crowding of her space came up and the atmosphere sobered considerably when Jess finally asked, "So, is everyone really ok? Did…did the spin up…go ok?"
The anxiety was clear in her voice and her unasked question hung in the air. Did they get Santino.
"Spin up went great." Jason told her lightly.
"Yeah?!"
"Yup." Jason grabbed his beer and rested his arms on his knees. "We got the bastard. He's gonna be locked away for probably the rest of his life, just like Harold."
Tension visibly left Jess's body and she sank back into the couch between Clay and Brock with a whispered, "Thank God."
Metal'd been watching her like a hawk all evening and while she seemed miles better than when he left her, Jess was still broken and scared. He made the call to tell her tonight. She had the right to know.
"Of course, you don't know a thing about it," Ray cautioned.
"Of course not." Jess agreed, nodding vigorously. "You didn't tell me anything."
"Good. Then we never told you the next part either," said Jason.
"Ahh…what next part?"
Metal started pacing behind the couch until Jess's big eyes started following him nervously and he sat on a stool instead. When Jason turned to him, waiting for that last indication that they tell her the whole thing, Metal took charge.
"While I am sure getting kidnapped and traumatized isn't exactly the highlight of your year," Metal began evenly, trying to be kind and blunt all at once. "I thought you would want to know what came of it all."
" Do I want to know?" Jess asked, searching each of their faces quickly before ending on his again. Her hands gripped her tea tightly now.
Clay took the reins next, speaking softly as only he could.
"Not all of it is happy, at first, but the ending,…we're pretty sure you would want to know it."
"And we're gonna summarize the unhappy parts," Metal added darkly, reminding the others just how careful he wanted them to be in telling her the details.
"Ok." Jess was still and quiet now, clearly locking it down in preparation for what she might hear and for a moment Metal second guessed this idea.
"If you want to hear it, that is," Ray picked up on her shift too and addressed if before anyone else could.
"I think I do."
"Ok," Jason rubbed his jawline. "So. We found the bastard. Snuck up on him while he was sleeping and let's just say he had a pretty rude awakening."
Sonny snickered softly and muttered, "It was rude alright and still better than what he deserved."
Brock kicked Sonny under the table and shook his head. Thankfully Jess wasn't exactly paying attention, though she did catch the glare Metal was sending in the direction of the Texan. She wasn't a dummy. He knew she would put pieces together.
"Once we got Santino, Mandy got him to start singing like a lark, without even knowing it. That coupled with what we got from Harold led us down a few roads that otherwise would never have been hunted down."
"Like what?" Jess asked, her voice getting tight as emotion worked on her face.
"We rounded up a dozen of Santino's partners and shut down his information selling network, which in and of itself is going to have a tremendous ripple effect that you and I will never know about, but I promise good will come of it, " Jason continued. "And after that we tracked down a human trafficking ring associated with his network and broke it up. Have a bunch of other teams wrapping that up, but we thought you would want to know we got twenty three girls out right off the hop."
"Y-you did?"
"Yup."
"Twenty three?"
"Twenty three, just taken and in transit. Some were even from the US. And they're going home now. Safe. More to come as they find them. We got our hands on a lot of good intel."
The boys shifted with some discomfort. They knew and expected Jess to be smart enough to figure out what they were getting at. If she'd never been taken, what they manage to find and destroy might well have been allowed to continue.
An uncomfortable lump rose in Metal's throat when Jess shattered, tipping forward into her own knees with a gasping, gut wrenching sob. Simultaneously Clay and Brock were leaning forward, hands settling to rub her back and hushing her.
Struggling to collect herself, Jess whispered, "Would- would they have been found if-?"
Jason nodded solemnly, "If we hadn't been looking for Santino and his buddies…there's a good chance none of them would have been found."
"And the only reason we found Santino was because we got our hands on Harold," Ray added.
"Which we have you to thank for," Sonny finished.
"It doesn't make what happened to you any easier, and it doesn't fix it because nothing will," Metal heard himself saying as he watched Jess cry into her knees. "But, we're hoping you realize that you saved those girls in the end, pipsqueak. You didn't take no for an answer, you didn't back down and you did the right thing bringing in that bastard of a step dad."
It was a long time before Jess could answer and her knees got soaked with tears and snot until Jason had enough and evicted Brock from his spot beside her because he didn't like doing nothing. In short order Jess was dragged up out of her knees and into Jason's chest instead where she cried a good deal longer with interspersed repeats of 'I'm so happy you got them out' and 'Thank you' and 'Did you really get him?'.
When the girl finally calmed, she grew aware enough to remember the silent room of brothers and embarrassment slipped in as she wiped her swollen eyes and mumbled, "I'm sorry."
"That's alright!" Rob piped up out of nowhere, reminding them all he'd been lurking among them the whole time and nearly scaring the living daylights out of Sonny because the man forgot about him. "You've been saving that all up for two weeks now. Bout time it came out!"
"Wait," Jason grumbled without malice. "You mean to tell me that in the time we've been gone she hasn't had one melt down?!"
"Nope. Not one." Rob answered. "I've been waiting for it since ya'll warned me, but I couldn't figure out why you had!"
Before Jess could be truly embarrassed further, Jason gasped with mock upset and locked her back into a tighter hug, saying, "Now what did we ever do to you that you cry on us so often?! Geez, kid. Toughen up or something, would you?"
The words didn't translate at all as real with the way the man was hugging her tightly, nor with the teasing tone, so Jess broke into a watery laugh and relaxed again for a moment before whimpering out, "Studies show people cry with the people they feel safest with…not that I don't feel safe with you, Rob-"
"No, no, I see how it is," Rob held up his hands. "I'll just see myself out-"
"Wait no!-" Jess's head popped up, thinking he was serious until Metal broke in overtop of her.
"Yeah, what the hell are you even still doing here?"
"I like it here." Rob answered smugly. "You have so many sports channels!"
"Oh, is that what you guys watched," Metal answered dryly, flicking a quick glance over Jess to make sure she wasn't still upset over Rob's joke. She wasn't. "Is it true, pipsqueak?"
"No he hardly watched any! We watched Friends a lot though-"
"Friends!?" Jason squawked.
"Yeah, what's wrong with Friends?" Rob asked, crossing his arms.
"Nothing at all." Sonny quipped confidently. "Jennifer Aniston is hot."
Rolling her eyes, Jess slipped up from the couch, mumbling something about washing her face and then pausing to ask hopefully, "Are…are you guys staying for a movie night?"
No one could deny her that one. Not tonight. Tonight they would have done just about anything for her to make her smile, given the hell she'd been through.
"Wouldn't miss it."
"So long as you're ok with some drinking," Sonny added.
Dead serious, Jess blinked at Sonny and said as if he were stupid, "I trust you guys, why would drinking be a problem?"
And then that right there curbed anyone's desires to get shitfaced drunk, should they have it. Damn the kid was too innocent to be around them. Metal shook his head slightly and wondered, not for the last time, what he was thinking bringing her in like he did.
He already knew the answer and it was reaffirmed when Jess detoured on the way to the bathroom so she could give him the biggest of hugs.
They needed her as much as she needed them. She was like the embodiment of the light the fought to protect in this world, and she had no idea.
Hours later, when Jess woke on the couch with her head resting on a pillow on Scott's chest, she was only slightly disoriented.
For one thing it was quiet, the movie was long over, the boys were gone, and for another she hadn't woken from a bad dream.
"You good?" Scott asked, voice indicating he was wide awake despite the slow, steady breath rate and the closed eyes as he stretched out with his feet on the coffee table.
"Uh huh." Jess shivered and started to move. "Sorry, you didn't have to stay like that for me."
"You looked peaceful, I wasn't about to risk waking you up." Scott said gruffly as he stretched and moved to sit up stiffly. "Besides, I'm used to sleeping in a lot more uncomfortable places."
"Fair enough. Just feel bad."
Scott hummed and settled upright, not moving further when she didn't get up or show any intention of leaving yet.
Still sleepy, Jess leaned her head on his shoulder and took in the confident quiet around them. It really was good to have Scott home again. Rob was great, but she didn't feel the same liberties with him as she did Scott. Until recently she hadn't taken the same liberties with any of them except Scott. Now she would cuddle up to just about all of them if she felt the need and mostly believed they didn't mind.
"You really got him?" Jess wondered out loud as she replayed the news in her head.
Scott nodded silently.
"And all those people…?"
"And all those people."
Staying quiet for a long time, Jess weighed it all out again. No one had said it outright but she had come to the conclusion herself.
"I'm not saying that being kidnapped by the brother of my crime lord step father is an experience that I would have volunteered for…but…I'm really, really glad something good came of it."
"Thought you might feel that way." Scott told her quietly, soundling oddly unlike himself with how soft and distant the tone sounded. "That's why we decided to tell you."
"You know, for someone who works to come across as unfeeling and insensitive, you're pretty good at thinking about what might make someone else feel better."
Scott snorted and she felt him look down at her head. "Maybe I'm just trying to make my own life easier? Maybe I don't like dealing with headaches and it's all for my own gain."
"Nope." Jess shook her head firmly as she watched the freezing rain fall on the window outside. "You might have been able to convince me when we first met, but you're too kind for that to be true."
"I'm not as kind as you think I am, pips." Scott sounded like he believed it.
Jess lifted her head and gave him a withering stare of disbelief.
"Scott," She said frankly. "You really go through a lot of trouble making everyone think you're this dark, scary person, but you really aren't that dark at all."
"No." Scott's frown deepened. "Sometimes I'm worse."
"No, you aren't." Jess replied automatically.
"Jess…" There pain in his tone now. "You can't put me on a pedestal like that."
"I'm not!"
"You do." Scott insisted.
"No, I don't! I know you're flawed!"
A humorless laugh escaped his lips and Scott murmured, "You don't know the half of it, pips."
Stubbornly, Jess set her jaw and said, "You're not a dark, horrible person, I know that."
"I strangled Santino with my bare hands."
Jess went quiet for a second, surprised by the sudden burst of admission and vaguely chilled by the thought.
Scott took her quiet as a reason to keep going.
"We were clearing the building, like Jason said, at night. I snuck up on him. Dragged him clean out of bed. Then, he made a comment and I…I grabbed him by the throat and I was ready to finish it, right there and then, orders be damned. I would have killed him happily if Jason hadn't called me off, so don't go putting me too far up that ladder."
That story could have taken a much darker turn, in Jess's opinion and she didn't see what the big deal was anymore.
"Ok, but you didn't kill him, so you just proved my point!"
"Jess- no. That's not how this works-"
"Yes it is! It's completely clear! You wanted to kill him, and could have, and then you didn't!"
"Only because someone stopped me."
"Yeah, but you still stopped."
Scott finally looked at her, exasperation written all over his features as he growled, "You are impossible, you know that?"
Undaunted, Jess smiled and said, "And you're never going to convince me you're a bad person!"
Scott's exasperation darkened again and he huffed, "I've told you before there are a lot of sides to me that you would not like to meet."
"Are you still those sides?" Jess challenged, raising her eyebrows at him expectantly because she knew what his answer was likely to be.
"Sometimes. When I need to be or when I'm being stupid."
"I still trust those sides to take care of me and treat me like I'm worth something."
"Even if I told you I killed more people than I care to count the past two weeks and I don't have a lick of remorse over it?"
"I suspect a lot of them were human traffickers and I already knew you don't lose sleep over killing them. You told me that ages ago…why are you trying to convince me you're a dark person, anyway?"
Scott paused, as if he was about to say something more and thought better of it. Instead he patted her knee and said in a gravelly voice, "I'm just tired, kid. Don't read into it. I get like this sometimes. Part of my charm. You need sleep. So do I. Go to bed."
"I thought I might play my game-"
"Not a fuckin chance!" Scott interrupted, shifting from brooding and tired to cranky in seconds, but that only brought a laugh from Jess before he could scold further.
"I'm kidding!" She giggled, hopping up and heading to her room. "Geez, you are too easy to get going sometimes!"
"You're a pest and I'm going to look for a new roommate." Scott ground out.
"No one else will put up with your cranky moods and charm," Jess shot back lightly.
"Probably right." Scott moved past her into the bathroom. "Did you ever move your laundry along?"
"Yup. Nope. Hang on, I gotta check."
She heard Scott snort with amusement as he closed the door and Jess smiled.
All was right in the world again. She could breath for a bit, at least.
