Back in the bathroom, Adam had lots of time to think up what got him there to begin with. How much time had he wasted following other people around? What made his life suck so bad that he had to go and take photos of random douchebags for other random douchebags?

Those questions went around his head a lot. And even back when he was chained to that pipe, he could realize how depressing that was. Years, he had figured. Years had been spent living for other people's lives as he ignored his own.

So, when he got out and started to follow Lawrence around, it cut into Adam every time.

The doctor's routine was different now. More secretive, even more secluded somehow than his old life. And now, when Adam needed more than anything to talk to Lawrence, the monotony was something he had to thank. Even if just for a moment.

Adam's old apartment building. Lawrence went there a lot.

Adam didn't know what magical file held that information, and he didn't want to. Amanda had it at one point, and then Lawrence got it, and now home was something that was infested with the members of Operation Jigsaw.

The drive there was spent lost in thought. He had promised over and over again that he would burn the place that did this to him. He swore he'd burn it right to the fucking ground, Lawrence by his side.

And he couldn't let himself break that promise.

Adam parked towards the back of the lot, underneath a tree. And right next to the old car that belonged to the doctor. Parked exactly where he always went to hide out.

Time to talk to him, for the first time in so long.

And try not to get shut down like last time.

He shook his head. There wasn't time to hang around and wait to come up with the perfect thing to say. The longer Hoffman was loose, the worse it would get.

So, he walked right over to the doctor's car and knocked on the window.

Lawrence jumped, snapped out of whatever trance he was in. Looked like he was doing something with a file, but more staring at it than reading it. The doctor looked at Adam with wide eyes, shouted something that Adam couldn't decipher, and unlocked the door.

Adam rushed to the passenger side and closed the door.

"Long time no see," he said to his friend.

Lawrence looked through all the windows before turning back towards Adam. "What part of stay the hell away didn't you understand?"

"Whoa! I missed you too!"

Even though he couldn't make out all of it, Adam was pretty sure Lawrence grumbled words like "juvenile" and "careless."

Adam bit his tongue to stop himself from saying snappy. In the bathroom that would have been impossible, but here, there was nothing stopping Lawrence from ripping Adam apart.

Other than the fact that he wouldn't want that, of course. That thought made Adam let out a calming breath.

After a few moments, Lawrence asked, "Now. What are you doing here?"

"Wanted to chat."

"Adam." The doctor sighed and put his face against his palms. "What do you want to talk about?"

It was fun to get under the doctor's skin again. Even if they hadn't talked for too long — really just the span of a day — Adam missed this more than he could tell the doctor. At least without spouting a bunch of gushy crap that neither he or Lawrence wanted.

"You still gettin' around?" Adam asked.

"I have," Lawrence replied. "Rather slowly, of course, but I'm managing. How's the shoulder?"

Pain shot down Adam's arm at the mere mention. Long ago, he had accepted that his shoulder would never be right. Not like it used to. The bullet, hurting it like that with Zep. And that was before any kind of infection that the bathroom caused.

Without even realizing he did it, Adam rested his good hand on his shoulder. That must have answered the doctor's question for Adam, because he offered a sympathetic grunt.

Lawrence said quietly, "I saw that they figured out Scott died. I'm sorry, I really am."

There wasn't much of a response to that. Not a valid one, at least. Adam could blow up on Lawrence for it, but it wasn't the doctor's fault. But he couldn't say it was okay, either. Because it wasn't, and it never will be.

Adam said all he could think up. "I miss him."

"It was reckless, what happened to him. He didn't deserve that."

Adam ground his teeth. Of course Lawrence didn't kill Scott, but that was a lot coming from a dude who made death traps fuckin' hobbies.

"Yeah," he said after a moment, "I know."

"Why are you here?"

The car suddenly felt small, cramped. Like the two were pressed against each other, uncomfortably co-existing in eery silence.

"Do you still even want out?" Adam asked. "Cause when I found out you were an apprentice, you didn't mention that you were full on performing surgeries and finding people to put in death traps."

Lawrence sighed and said quietly, "You need to understand, it was his choice—"

"Oh, stop with the choices, Lawrence. It's me."

"I know it's you and I told you to stay the hell away from me, and from here."

This time, pushing Lawrence's buttons served a different purpose. The doctor was one to crack under pressure. Maybe if Adam worded it just right, he'd get Lawrence to finally snap out of it.

He smirked. This was gonna piss him off.

Adam replied, "I'm a bad listener."

"This isn't some game. You can get us killed."

"Thought you liked games."

Lawrence slapped the dashboard. "Adam!"

That was pretty close to the response he was looking for. Lawrence finally shut up and buried his face in his hands, trembling as he tried to figure a way out of this. The doctor had grown too comfortable with putting people in torture games, and Adam was always sure this would work.

And by the looks of the doctor, Adam was right.

"I wanna get you outta this," Adam whispered.

They were silent for a moment, but Lawrence slowly took his hands away from his face and looked at Adam. In the light, Adam finally realized how exhausted Lawrence looked. He was about as grim and dead inside as he was in that damn bathroom.

"By invading my privacy again?" Lawrence asked.

Adam chuckled. "Something like that."

Meanwhile, Lawrence's plan to get away was to hide in the parking lot of Adam's old apartment. After all this time, there was some of his friend in there. At very least, the side of Lawrence that cared about him and wanted to see him get out. See him win.

It was past time for Adam to return the favor.

"You can't want this, right?" He asked Lawrence.

When he didn't respond right away, Adam was scared Lawrence was about to say he did want this after all. That he was so far gone that he couldn't see a life outside of these disgusting games. If seeing the whole operation burn to the ground meant Lawrence would be caught there too, there was a part of Adam that wasn't sure he could do it.

A big part.

But Lawrence shook his head. "Course not. I just… Hoffman is… A lot."

Adam nodded. "Yeah. Got that with the whole kidnapping me and trying to kill me thing."

"Technically, I did that too."

"Yeah, well. At least you were nice about it."

Lawrence rolled his eyes and chuckled. In the bathroom, they had moments like this. Where they caught up like two pals who hadn't seen each other in a while.

Fuck, he missed this.

After a moment, Lawrence asked, "What's your plan?"

"Plan?"

"Well, yeah. Hoffman and I aren't exactly besties."

That made sense, now that Adam thought about it. By putting together an introverted oncologist with a douchebag detective who got off on tormenting people, one wouldn't necessarily expect them to get along too well.

Adam asked, "If I can do more research on him, will you let me help you?"

The doctor's eyes softened, and he nodded. Adam hadn't expected him to cave, not that easily, but the sincerity in Lawrence's eyes made him want this even more.

He was doing the right thing, he needed to remember that.

Adam reached into his pocket and grabbed a sheet of paper. He had haphazardly scribbled his number on it before heading out, just in case this did go well.

"Text me and I'll reach out when I know more."

With that, Lawrence gingerly took the paper and said, "Thank you, Adam."

Adam nodded and looked out the window, towards his apartment. Even though it was stupid, this place reminded him of what he left behind. He needed to take one last look and grab the one thing he should have brought with him all along.

The cat. He wanted that damn cat so bad. In the silence of the car, Adam's mind couldn't drift away from her.

But he needed to make sure Lawrence knew to hold on. "We're gonna see the whole thing fucking burn."

"Wouldn't miss it for a thing."

This whole thing finally felt possible. Mark was going to be a monster to figure out, but everyone has something that makes them tick. If he worked hard enough, Adam could find it.

And Operation Jigsaw would be nothing more than fallen ashes, crumpling underneath his feet.

"Me neither."