"I wasn't spying," Jim defends. "I just looked up and hello! It wasn't like I was following them around looking for it."
Sighing again, he nods as Annie talks. "Yeah... I don't feel so hot myself. But what are we supposed to say? 'Hey, what do you think you're doing?' I don't know how to approach it with him. Nothing seems appropriate. But we're his siblings, ya know? I mean, we look out for each other. We're not gossiping, we're just concerned is all. I don't know... maybe that's how we should approach it."
Jim pauses glancing out the window to think for several moments. "Maybe Wes would have a better idea. Who knows... maybe he knows more than we do so he can explain it. Want me to ask him?"
Trent eyes what's going on around him, seeing Sparky and Faith, then Jim and Annie. Just watching for a few minutes, he looks back down to his little notepad and tears out a sheet to crumple it up and toss it into the nearby fireplace. Rubbing his forehead, he writes again.
Gage is genuinely surprised by Katie's response, and for a moment or two, he just stares at her, his mouth open slightly. "Um... thank you."
He nods a little. "I don't... have many friends, but... but I know you're honest and loyal. I'm... I'm humbled that you'd want to be my friend."
Standing awkwardly, he finally turns to go. "Thank you again," he says quietly. "I'll see you around."
He walks back down through the cubicles, his mission accomplished. It was different... it felt... strange but good at the same time. It was definitely a humbling experience, and quite honestly, one he hadn't expected. It was one thing for Sapphire to think he was okay, but even Katie, who had gone through so much... he wondered if this is what Carson felt like when Jamie had forgiven him.
Making it to Sapphire's desk, he leans over the wall, watching her. "I'm gonna go home now," he mentions. "Thanks for bringing me."
Months. That's what it had become. Days had turned to weeks, and weeks had multiplied on top of each other. And Alec was going crazy.
Pacing the room downstairs next to the holding cell that had been converted into his living quarters, he throws a pillow, letting it crash against the wall. He glares at his ankle bracelet. He was allowed to roam TJY all right... but he never did. What was the point? This was worse than prison. At least in prison he'd have company. Here, people passed by on accident, or it was Hal bringing him his meals and clean clothes. Dani hadn't come since she'd made the mistake of helping him escape. Carson never dared show his face.
That thought brings a crooked smile to Alec's face. He had the upper hand on that one, apparently. But this whole thing stunk. Reese said they were working on it. He said that the case was stuck in the system because he didn't want him to go to prison. But what was the point? If he was stuck here or prison, what difference did it make? Why did Gage get out so easily?
Alec knew good and well it was because Gage was cooperative. But the guy was weak. He'd caved too easily. Not Alec. No... no, he would not cave. He would not be broken.
Sinking down on the cot, he growls and runs his hands through his hair. This was stupid. His conscience reminds him that last time he'd gotten out, he'd almost had his head blown off from the Agency. What was to say next time he got out, that wouldn't happen again? He replays that night like he had time and time again. He remembers the strange longing for safety, finding it only temporarily in the woman he'd met at the bar. He should have taken her up on her offer of her spare room that night. How things would be different if he had. And that night, he had felt more lost than ever before, knowing that both the Elite and Agency wanted him. He'd had nowhere to turn and he'd never had that before that night.
Something deep down had cracked open that night, allowing just a small glimpse into the heart of a young man who desperately needed to belong. But just as quickly, he'd shut it up tight again, turning right around like a cornered animal and fighting his way out. Unfortunately, he'd been caught. And now... now he was here. He was tired, bored and frustrated.
Reese said soon... soon they'd get him in a program. But Alec knew that he himself was the problem. Someone like Gage, they could play however they wanted. But Alec? No... he made it too difficult for them so they just ignored him, leaving him here to rot.
A cackle escapes and he throws another pillow. Maybe he really had won. They didn't know what to do with him... he was a rare case, yessiree. He'd thrown them for a loop. He'd show them. Just wait.
But deep down, way deep down, something else was cracking. He was getting tired. And no man could live like this and not feel loneliness in the pit of their spirit.
Gunner chuckles as he concentrates on his doodling. "What? You think I don't want to get out of here? That I like having my ankles chained together, wearing this green jumpsuit and eating food that tastes like cardboard? If I didn't want to talk to you, why would I have asked for you?"
He falls silent for at least two full minutes, seeming to be lost far, far away. Eventually though, he looks back up at Angelica, a wry grin on his face. "Silence can drive a man mad, you know that? Temporary insanity, that's what I vote for. That's the only way they'll let me off. 'Course... maybe they'll throw me back in the loony bin then."
Sighing deeply, he fiddles with the pen in his hand. His eyes become serious. "Look, Bree's not crazy. Her parents got her thrown back into Crescentview. Something about money. JT's lawyer couldn't get far enough in the time we needed it, so we sprung her. Now, I'm hoping they're somewhere safe, though last I heard, JT's car was abandoned."
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