(no subject)
Title: Crimes of Perception
Genre: Prison Break
Author: Kate Monster
Characters: LJ Burrows, Lincoln Burrows, Michael Scofield, Sara Tancredi, Paul Kellerman
Rating: PG-13 ("Language, LJ!")
Summary: LJ is finally in a place that should be safe, with people he should be able to trust, but no place is safe anymore.
Spoilers: Through 2.07, beyond that is unspoiled speculation.
The car was an hour down the highway before Michael and Lincoln finally decided that it was okay to get up from the floor of the car and sit like normal people.
“And buckle your seatbelt,” Lincoln ordered LJ, who managed to keep his reaction to an eyeroll as he snapped it together. His father was fast approaching the point of ridiculousness and sooner or later LJ was going to have to put him in his place. Hopefully later.
“Guys? I hate to say it,” Sara said, glancing at a passing sign, “but I really could use a rest stop.”
“Yeah, same here,” LJ said with relief. He glanced at his uncle.
“I don’t see why not,” Michael said. “We seem to be making good time. Linc, can you reach my bag? The one with the hats?”
LJ was closer and zipped the bag open before his father could get to it. He pulled out a fisherman’s bucket hat himself. “Ooh! Dibs on this one.” He plopped it onto his head and twisted in the seat to try and catch a glimpse of his reflection in the rearview mirror. “Wicked.”
“Here,” his father said, passing him a pair of sunglasses. “Your eyes. Too recognizable.”
“Some of us are legally exonerated, you know,” LJ said, even as he took them and slid them on.
“Yeah, but the last thing we need is somebody to recognize you and put two and two together,” Michael said, accepting a baseball hat as Lincoln passed it to the front. “Don’t underestimate the amount of media coverage you got in all of this. Don’t act suspicious, don’t stare, and don’t make eye contact with anybody.”
“Right, cause slinking around with hats and sunglasses? Is totally not suspicious,” LJ said.
“It’s a sunny day,” Sara pointed out as she pulled the car onto the exit ramp and applied the brake. “I’m not worried until it starts to rain, really.”
“We might have to do something about your hair sooner or later,” Michael said, looking LJ up and down. “It’s pretty distinctive.”
“C’mon,” LJ said, feeling nervous and pulling the hat down a little more, “everybody has this haircut now.”
“I don’t know,” Michael said.
“I’m not cutting my hair.”
“Well,” Michael said, squinting at him, “if you don’t want to do anything about the hair, we could always try and pass you off as a girl. That’d throw ‘em off, I think.”
LJ reached out and lightly socked Michael’s arm where it was propped over the back of the seat. “Yeah. I don’t think so.” Michael drew back, wincing and grinning, rubbing his arm.
“Maybe we could get some food,” Sara suggested.
“I’m hungry, too,” LJ said.
“Here.” Michael twisted around and handed him a handful of ones. “Get yourself something out of the vending machines. Enough for the day if you can.” LJ tried to contain his disappointment as Michael passed more bills to Lincoln and set some aside for Sara. “Might be awhile before we all get out again.”
The car pulled to a stop and LJ checked his reflection over Sara’s shoulder one more time before climbing out, his eyes cast to the ground, consciously trying to look as nondescript as possible. He started for the vending machine, then felt a hand on his arm. He jumped. It was only Michael.
“Let’s go to the bathroom first, okay?” Michael asked. The tone in his voice didn’t leave much of an option, and he followed. His interest was piqued.
He jogged to catch up with Michael who was trailing after Lincoln. Once they reached the men’s room, Lincoln immediately bent down to peek under the stalls, checking for occupants, and Michael grabbed a nearby cleaning sign, shoved it in front of the door, and closed it quickly.
“What’s going on?” LJ asked. He could barely see with the lower light inside. He pulled the sunglasses off and dropped them in his pocket.
“I don’t trust her,” Lincoln said, turning around to face Michael. “He talked to her when we weren’t there.”
“But she told us,” Michael said.
“How do we know she told us everything? She’s the one who brought him to us in the first place.”
“She helped us,” Michael protested. LJ shifted his weight nervously. He actually did have to pee. At least they weren’t excluding him anymore. “More than once.” The last statement had a pointed edge to it.
“I know you have feelings for her,” Lincoln said, and LJ glanced up in surprise, “but you have to put that aside. We can’t trust anybody. The only people I trust are right here with me.” He hit the wall for emphasis. Michael jumped. “She’s one of them, Michael. Her father was one of them.”
“Our father was one of them, Linc,” Michael reminded him.
Lincoln shook his head. “We can keep her around, but if we do go after Steadman, we’ve got to keep her in the dark. She might tip them off.”
“Steadman?” LJ blurted in surprise. “As in Terrence?”
Michael nodded quickly. “Yeah. Long story, we’re pretty sure he’s alive, and we think that’s the reason Veronica got killed.”
“What?” LJ demanded. “What do you mean alive?” He looked at his father for help, but Lincoln was deliberately looking away. “What really happened to Veronica?”
“It’s too dangerous to go track him down directly,” Michael said. LJ hung his head. He knew when he was being ignored. He didn’t care, though, not if Michael was Michaeling. “But if we can find something, anything, at this place Kellerman told her about, maybe we should try.”
“Or maybe,” Lincoln said, “we should just dump the girl, and book it for Panama. I’m sorry,” he said quickly to Michael, “but it’s just not the right time, and we all know the guy was probably setting us up.”
“Of course he’s setting us up. And we’re not dumping Sara,” Michael said. “Not without any proof she’s working against us. You’re being irrational now, Linc.”
“But I don’t want to quit,” LJ insisted. “Not now.”
“We don’t have any options left,” Lincoln said. He leaned back on the sink. LJ turned to the urinal and unzipped his pants with a sigh.
“I want to see the building in Denver,” Michael said. “Scope it out. See what we’re up against before we just give up and walk away.”
“Bet they’ll know we’re coming,” Lincoln said. “Couldn’t we just wait a few days? Go find Sucre or something. Get them off their guard.”
LJ zipped his pants back up and moved over to the sink to wash his hands. “If anybody cares, I think any plan to avoid Kellerman is stupid. If he wants to find us? He’ll find us.”
Michael exhaled. “He’s right,” he said to Lincoln. “We can run, or we can try to fight back. And only one of those options gives us a chance of actually ending this.”
“Fine,” Lincoln said, “but in the meantime, what do we do about the doctor?”
LJ looked back and forth between the two of them as he wiped his hands on his pants. He wanted her to be trustworthy. He wanted somebody other than Michael and Lincoln to depend on. But he also knew that this one wasn’t his decision to make.
“We’ve got to know for sure,” Michael said with a sigh. “But leave that to me.” He was Michaeling again.
“Hello?” Somebody was pounding on the door. “Who’s in there?”
LJ scrambled in his pocket for his glasses and shoved them back onto his face as the door was forced open. Some guy in a set of coveralls stuck his head in. Some guy who looked like a rest stop employee. “Uh, sorry,” Michael said. “Door kinda fell shut by accident, I think.”
“No worries,” the man said, propping it open and waving a hand.
“We’re going,” Michael said, and Lincoln exhaled.
The conversation was clearly finished. LJ nodded to his father and uncle before tripping off in the direction of the vending machines.
He studied the selection. It was too early for an ice cream bar or chips, but he might want chips later. And unlike the ice cream, the chips would at least last. He purchased a bag of potato chips and studied the options. Chocolate chip muffins. That would work. He punched in another set of buttons, pulled out the food, and stepped back to study the soda machine.
“’Scuse me.” LJ leapt back in annoyance as a small dark-haired kid shoved around him.
“Hey, watch it?” he snapped at the kid. But the kid ignored him and started shoveling quarters into the machine. He punched a button and a bag of M&Ms started to drop, then froze where it was, trapped by an errant Doritos bag.
“Aw, crap,” the kid said. “Mom!” He dashed off. “Help!”
LJ tucked his food under his arm and fed two more dollars into the coke machine for a Mountain Dew. The bottle dropped down and he fished the change out of the slot.
“Let’s see,” a woman’s voice said, walking into the pavilion with the snot-nosed pushy kid. “Maybe we can get it out of there.” She studied the machine and reached for her purse.
LJ moved over to another machine. Maybe he should get some gum, for after breakfast. It was pretty close quarters in that car, after all.
“Excuse me?” He turned to where the woman was struggling with the machine. “Do you have change for a dollar?”
“Here,” he said with a sigh, handing her his extra quarters. She passed the bill over.
“Thanks, dear,” she said with relief.
Dear. He cringed inside. He tucked the bill aside - the vending machines didn’t like this one - and fed another one into his own machine, selecting a pack of spearmint gum.
“There you go, sweetie,” the woman said, presenting her little brat with his M&Ms. He clutched it and dashed off down the hill for the car, as she fell into place behind him. They were parked right beside the fugitives. Of course. Since his day hadn’t sucked enough so far. He shook his head, bought a final packet of crackers, and then followed, balancing his food in his arms.
Michael was already standing beside the car. LJ glanced up the hill and saw his father jogging the sidewalk around the rest stop. He didn’t know why it surprised him - after all, Lincoln had to have some way to stay in shape. Maybe he should start weightlifting with his father or something. A little father-son bonding activity couldn’t hurt at this point. “That’s all you want?” Michael asked in surprise.
“Should I get more?” LJ asked.
“Gonna be a long drive.”
“Huh.” LJ opened the door to set his food down, then closed it and straightened back up. He didn’t want to sit down just yet. It felt good to stretch his legs. He stretched his arms up, too, and watched as the kid chased his little sister around the parking lot and the mother rolled her eyes at them. He hoped they got hit by a car. It wasn’t a good day to be cheerful, not around LJ Burrows.
He remembered when he used to be like that. Running around like an insane monkey. Not caring who saw him or what they remembered about him.
Things were different now.
In fact…
A sudden thought struck him, and he crouched down, pretending to be stretching his muscles, and studied the bottom of the car. After a moment, he moved as low as he could, pressing his head on the asphalt, looking up.
“Hey. What are you doing?” Michael asked, appearing over him. His tone was less one of accusation, and more one of curiosity.
LJ’s fingers traced the underside of the car. He’d want to wash his hands again before he ate. It was filthy under here. Something moved with just his light touch. Like a magnet. His heart leapt. He plucked it off and stood up, holding it out for Michael to see. Michael’s eyes widened but he made no sound.
He looked up the hill at the nearest trashcan, but Michael shook his head, and LJ nodded in agreement. He bent down again, this time leaning over to the car beside them, and his fingers quickly placed the little object securely beneath it, feeling the tug as it clung to the metal surface.
He straightened back up. Michael looked somewhat pale. “D’you think there’s more?” LJ whispered as quietly as he could.
“I don’t know,” Michael said, “but we don’t have time to sit here and find out.” He ducked down as well and started feeling beneath the car, and after a moment, LJ joined him.
“I think it’s good,” LJ said after a moment. He stood up and they stared at each other, with matching faces of horrified relief.
“I know a place where you could get some great benefits,” Michael said slowly.
“Yeah, cause what I really need right now is a 401K,” LJ said. He didn’t know what to do other than make a funny, but at least Michael cracked a sly grin. “Should we tell Dad?”
Michael shook his head, squinting up the hill as Lincoln rounded into view again. “Your dad is freaked out enough.” LJ nodded in vehement agreement. “And there’s nothing we can do about it at this point. They already know we came this far.”
Sara appeared around the far side of the car. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail and shoved it beneath a wide-brimmed hat. LJ pulled back against the car nervously, shoving both hands into his pockets and glancing at the ground.
“Hey,” Michael said, greeting her warmly, “I was just gonna go for a jog around the place. Wanna come?”
“Sure,” Sara said. She pulled off her hat and shook her ponytail out. As the two of them stepped away together, Michael turned around and shot LJ a look over his shoulder. He got it. Michael was up to something. He was Michaeling.
LJ checked to make sure the car doors were locked, and then made his way up the hill back to the restroom, where he scrubbed the car grime from his hands and then pulled the glasses off and splashed water onto his face. He stared at his dripping face in the mirror. He looked more like his father than he thought. He wondered how much they would resemble each other if he shaved his head to match. But then he remembered why it had been shaved all the way, and he reached for the sunglasses as quickly as he could.
By the time he returned to the car with a packet of cupcakes and a bag of pepperoni pizza Combos, everyone looked ready to go. He glanced over at the van beside them. The kid was buckled into the backseat and yelling about something LJ couldn’t quite hear.
Whoever was tracking that dot - Kellerman, or somebody else - would be following the kid’s family now until they realized the mistake. That kid hadn’t done anything wrong, he’d just been a little impatient at the candy machine, that was all, his mom had picked an unfortunate parking space, and now he was going to be directly in the line of fire. And somehow, LJ didn’t care. Nobody else cared when he fell into the line of fire, except for his father.
Maybe Kellerman was right. Maybe he did have what it took. After all, it did run in the family. His grandfather had been one of the best, hadn’t he?
“C’mon, let’s go,” Lincoln said to him, and LJ opened the door and climbed into the backseat, scooting his food aside and pulling the door shut behind him. Sara and Michael had switched seats without comment.
They pulled out of the parking lot behind the van. He knew what Michael was doing, or at least he had a vague idea, and he relaxed. They were on top of this. If there was a way to win this, they would win it. All he had to do was stay on his guard until they did. And he was pretty much used to that by now.
“You bought cupcakes and Mountain Dew?” Lincoln asked in dismay, staring at the seat between them.
“What?” LJ asked. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing’s wrong unless you want to be made of sugar. I got some extra water and some nuts and stuff. Make sure you balance what you’re eating. You wanna be strong right now.”
“I always feel strong when I drink Mountain Dew,” he muttered. “And what are we supposed to do? Dad, we’re eating out of vending machines.”
In response, Lincoln held out one of the bottles of water. “You’ll get dehydrated,” he said.
LJ sighed and took the bottle. “Thanks,” he said. He hesitated. He was about to say something, something about how it was enough, really, how his dad didn’t have to try so hard to make up for all the time he’d missed, but then he stopped himself. He didn’t really want to complain. He never thought he would like having somebody nag him about homework and healthy eating, but it did feel better right now. Maybe his automatic reaction was to whine and complain, but the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to do that. Instead, he unscrewed the water bottle and took a sip. He was thirstier than he thought. He gulped another large amount of water.
“So, about that book report?” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist. “I think I’m gonna need an extension.”
“Fine,” Lincoln sighed. “Don’t think you’re off the hook, though.”
“Nope,” LJ said. “I’m on it. Just as soon as we stop somewhere.”
“And where would that be, exactly?” Sara asked. “Where are we going, Michael?”
Michael barely moved, only his long fingers drummed slowly on the steering wheel as he contemplated his reply. “We’re going to ‘em,” he said at last.
LJ took another sip of his water. His father was right. It was a good time to be strong and healthy. Especially if they were going to be fighting back, starting now. He was going to be ready.
Genre: Prison Break
Author: Kate Monster
Characters: LJ Burrows, Lincoln Burrows, Michael Scofield, Sara Tancredi, Paul Kellerman
Rating: PG-13 ("Language, LJ!")
Summary: LJ is finally in a place that should be safe, with people he should be able to trust, but no place is safe anymore.
Spoilers: Through 2.07, beyond that is unspoiled speculation.
The car was an hour down the highway before Michael and Lincoln finally decided that it was okay to get up from the floor of the car and sit like normal people.
“And buckle your seatbelt,” Lincoln ordered LJ, who managed to keep his reaction to an eyeroll as he snapped it together. His father was fast approaching the point of ridiculousness and sooner or later LJ was going to have to put him in his place. Hopefully later.
“Guys? I hate to say it,” Sara said, glancing at a passing sign, “but I really could use a rest stop.”
“Yeah, same here,” LJ said with relief. He glanced at his uncle.
“I don’t see why not,” Michael said. “We seem to be making good time. Linc, can you reach my bag? The one with the hats?”
LJ was closer and zipped the bag open before his father could get to it. He pulled out a fisherman’s bucket hat himself. “Ooh! Dibs on this one.” He plopped it onto his head and twisted in the seat to try and catch a glimpse of his reflection in the rearview mirror. “Wicked.”
“Here,” his father said, passing him a pair of sunglasses. “Your eyes. Too recognizable.”
“Some of us are legally exonerated, you know,” LJ said, even as he took them and slid them on.
“Yeah, but the last thing we need is somebody to recognize you and put two and two together,” Michael said, accepting a baseball hat as Lincoln passed it to the front. “Don’t underestimate the amount of media coverage you got in all of this. Don’t act suspicious, don’t stare, and don’t make eye contact with anybody.”
“Right, cause slinking around with hats and sunglasses? Is totally not suspicious,” LJ said.
“It’s a sunny day,” Sara pointed out as she pulled the car onto the exit ramp and applied the brake. “I’m not worried until it starts to rain, really.”
“We might have to do something about your hair sooner or later,” Michael said, looking LJ up and down. “It’s pretty distinctive.”
“C’mon,” LJ said, feeling nervous and pulling the hat down a little more, “everybody has this haircut now.”
“I don’t know,” Michael said.
“I’m not cutting my hair.”
“Well,” Michael said, squinting at him, “if you don’t want to do anything about the hair, we could always try and pass you off as a girl. That’d throw ‘em off, I think.”
LJ reached out and lightly socked Michael’s arm where it was propped over the back of the seat. “Yeah. I don’t think so.” Michael drew back, wincing and grinning, rubbing his arm.
“Maybe we could get some food,” Sara suggested.
“I’m hungry, too,” LJ said.
“Here.” Michael twisted around and handed him a handful of ones. “Get yourself something out of the vending machines. Enough for the day if you can.” LJ tried to contain his disappointment as Michael passed more bills to Lincoln and set some aside for Sara. “Might be awhile before we all get out again.”
The car pulled to a stop and LJ checked his reflection over Sara’s shoulder one more time before climbing out, his eyes cast to the ground, consciously trying to look as nondescript as possible. He started for the vending machine, then felt a hand on his arm. He jumped. It was only Michael.
“Let’s go to the bathroom first, okay?” Michael asked. The tone in his voice didn’t leave much of an option, and he followed. His interest was piqued.
He jogged to catch up with Michael who was trailing after Lincoln. Once they reached the men’s room, Lincoln immediately bent down to peek under the stalls, checking for occupants, and Michael grabbed a nearby cleaning sign, shoved it in front of the door, and closed it quickly.
“What’s going on?” LJ asked. He could barely see with the lower light inside. He pulled the sunglasses off and dropped them in his pocket.
“I don’t trust her,” Lincoln said, turning around to face Michael. “He talked to her when we weren’t there.”
“But she told us,” Michael said.
“How do we know she told us everything? She’s the one who brought him to us in the first place.”
“She helped us,” Michael protested. LJ shifted his weight nervously. He actually did have to pee. At least they weren’t excluding him anymore. “More than once.” The last statement had a pointed edge to it.
“I know you have feelings for her,” Lincoln said, and LJ glanced up in surprise, “but you have to put that aside. We can’t trust anybody. The only people I trust are right here with me.” He hit the wall for emphasis. Michael jumped. “She’s one of them, Michael. Her father was one of them.”
“Our father was one of them, Linc,” Michael reminded him.
Lincoln shook his head. “We can keep her around, but if we do go after Steadman, we’ve got to keep her in the dark. She might tip them off.”
“Steadman?” LJ blurted in surprise. “As in Terrence?”
Michael nodded quickly. “Yeah. Long story, we’re pretty sure he’s alive, and we think that’s the reason Veronica got killed.”
“What?” LJ demanded. “What do you mean alive?” He looked at his father for help, but Lincoln was deliberately looking away. “What really happened to Veronica?”
“It’s too dangerous to go track him down directly,” Michael said. LJ hung his head. He knew when he was being ignored. He didn’t care, though, not if Michael was Michaeling. “But if we can find something, anything, at this place Kellerman told her about, maybe we should try.”
“Or maybe,” Lincoln said, “we should just dump the girl, and book it for Panama. I’m sorry,” he said quickly to Michael, “but it’s just not the right time, and we all know the guy was probably setting us up.”
“Of course he’s setting us up. And we’re not dumping Sara,” Michael said. “Not without any proof she’s working against us. You’re being irrational now, Linc.”
“But I don’t want to quit,” LJ insisted. “Not now.”
“We don’t have any options left,” Lincoln said. He leaned back on the sink. LJ turned to the urinal and unzipped his pants with a sigh.
“I want to see the building in Denver,” Michael said. “Scope it out. See what we’re up against before we just give up and walk away.”
“Bet they’ll know we’re coming,” Lincoln said. “Couldn’t we just wait a few days? Go find Sucre or something. Get them off their guard.”
LJ zipped his pants back up and moved over to the sink to wash his hands. “If anybody cares, I think any plan to avoid Kellerman is stupid. If he wants to find us? He’ll find us.”
Michael exhaled. “He’s right,” he said to Lincoln. “We can run, or we can try to fight back. And only one of those options gives us a chance of actually ending this.”
“Fine,” Lincoln said, “but in the meantime, what do we do about the doctor?”
LJ looked back and forth between the two of them as he wiped his hands on his pants. He wanted her to be trustworthy. He wanted somebody other than Michael and Lincoln to depend on. But he also knew that this one wasn’t his decision to make.
“We’ve got to know for sure,” Michael said with a sigh. “But leave that to me.” He was Michaeling again.
“Hello?” Somebody was pounding on the door. “Who’s in there?”
LJ scrambled in his pocket for his glasses and shoved them back onto his face as the door was forced open. Some guy in a set of coveralls stuck his head in. Some guy who looked like a rest stop employee. “Uh, sorry,” Michael said. “Door kinda fell shut by accident, I think.”
“No worries,” the man said, propping it open and waving a hand.
“We’re going,” Michael said, and Lincoln exhaled.
The conversation was clearly finished. LJ nodded to his father and uncle before tripping off in the direction of the vending machines.
He studied the selection. It was too early for an ice cream bar or chips, but he might want chips later. And unlike the ice cream, the chips would at least last. He purchased a bag of potato chips and studied the options. Chocolate chip muffins. That would work. He punched in another set of buttons, pulled out the food, and stepped back to study the soda machine.
“’Scuse me.” LJ leapt back in annoyance as a small dark-haired kid shoved around him.
“Hey, watch it?” he snapped at the kid. But the kid ignored him and started shoveling quarters into the machine. He punched a button and a bag of M&Ms started to drop, then froze where it was, trapped by an errant Doritos bag.
“Aw, crap,” the kid said. “Mom!” He dashed off. “Help!”
LJ tucked his food under his arm and fed two more dollars into the coke machine for a Mountain Dew. The bottle dropped down and he fished the change out of the slot.
“Let’s see,” a woman’s voice said, walking into the pavilion with the snot-nosed pushy kid. “Maybe we can get it out of there.” She studied the machine and reached for her purse.
LJ moved over to another machine. Maybe he should get some gum, for after breakfast. It was pretty close quarters in that car, after all.
“Excuse me?” He turned to where the woman was struggling with the machine. “Do you have change for a dollar?”
“Here,” he said with a sigh, handing her his extra quarters. She passed the bill over.
“Thanks, dear,” she said with relief.
Dear. He cringed inside. He tucked the bill aside - the vending machines didn’t like this one - and fed another one into his own machine, selecting a pack of spearmint gum.
“There you go, sweetie,” the woman said, presenting her little brat with his M&Ms. He clutched it and dashed off down the hill for the car, as she fell into place behind him. They were parked right beside the fugitives. Of course. Since his day hadn’t sucked enough so far. He shook his head, bought a final packet of crackers, and then followed, balancing his food in his arms.
Michael was already standing beside the car. LJ glanced up the hill and saw his father jogging the sidewalk around the rest stop. He didn’t know why it surprised him - after all, Lincoln had to have some way to stay in shape. Maybe he should start weightlifting with his father or something. A little father-son bonding activity couldn’t hurt at this point. “That’s all you want?” Michael asked in surprise.
“Should I get more?” LJ asked.
“Gonna be a long drive.”
“Huh.” LJ opened the door to set his food down, then closed it and straightened back up. He didn’t want to sit down just yet. It felt good to stretch his legs. He stretched his arms up, too, and watched as the kid chased his little sister around the parking lot and the mother rolled her eyes at them. He hoped they got hit by a car. It wasn’t a good day to be cheerful, not around LJ Burrows.
He remembered when he used to be like that. Running around like an insane monkey. Not caring who saw him or what they remembered about him.
Things were different now.
In fact…
A sudden thought struck him, and he crouched down, pretending to be stretching his muscles, and studied the bottom of the car. After a moment, he moved as low as he could, pressing his head on the asphalt, looking up.
“Hey. What are you doing?” Michael asked, appearing over him. His tone was less one of accusation, and more one of curiosity.
LJ’s fingers traced the underside of the car. He’d want to wash his hands again before he ate. It was filthy under here. Something moved with just his light touch. Like a magnet. His heart leapt. He plucked it off and stood up, holding it out for Michael to see. Michael’s eyes widened but he made no sound.
He looked up the hill at the nearest trashcan, but Michael shook his head, and LJ nodded in agreement. He bent down again, this time leaning over to the car beside them, and his fingers quickly placed the little object securely beneath it, feeling the tug as it clung to the metal surface.
He straightened back up. Michael looked somewhat pale. “D’you think there’s more?” LJ whispered as quietly as he could.
“I don’t know,” Michael said, “but we don’t have time to sit here and find out.” He ducked down as well and started feeling beneath the car, and after a moment, LJ joined him.
“I think it’s good,” LJ said after a moment. He stood up and they stared at each other, with matching faces of horrified relief.
“I know a place where you could get some great benefits,” Michael said slowly.
“Yeah, cause what I really need right now is a 401K,” LJ said. He didn’t know what to do other than make a funny, but at least Michael cracked a sly grin. “Should we tell Dad?”
Michael shook his head, squinting up the hill as Lincoln rounded into view again. “Your dad is freaked out enough.” LJ nodded in vehement agreement. “And there’s nothing we can do about it at this point. They already know we came this far.”
Sara appeared around the far side of the car. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail and shoved it beneath a wide-brimmed hat. LJ pulled back against the car nervously, shoving both hands into his pockets and glancing at the ground.
“Hey,” Michael said, greeting her warmly, “I was just gonna go for a jog around the place. Wanna come?”
“Sure,” Sara said. She pulled off her hat and shook her ponytail out. As the two of them stepped away together, Michael turned around and shot LJ a look over his shoulder. He got it. Michael was up to something. He was Michaeling.
LJ checked to make sure the car doors were locked, and then made his way up the hill back to the restroom, where he scrubbed the car grime from his hands and then pulled the glasses off and splashed water onto his face. He stared at his dripping face in the mirror. He looked more like his father than he thought. He wondered how much they would resemble each other if he shaved his head to match. But then he remembered why it had been shaved all the way, and he reached for the sunglasses as quickly as he could.
By the time he returned to the car with a packet of cupcakes and a bag of pepperoni pizza Combos, everyone looked ready to go. He glanced over at the van beside them. The kid was buckled into the backseat and yelling about something LJ couldn’t quite hear.
Whoever was tracking that dot - Kellerman, or somebody else - would be following the kid’s family now until they realized the mistake. That kid hadn’t done anything wrong, he’d just been a little impatient at the candy machine, that was all, his mom had picked an unfortunate parking space, and now he was going to be directly in the line of fire. And somehow, LJ didn’t care. Nobody else cared when he fell into the line of fire, except for his father.
Maybe Kellerman was right. Maybe he did have what it took. After all, it did run in the family. His grandfather had been one of the best, hadn’t he?
“C’mon, let’s go,” Lincoln said to him, and LJ opened the door and climbed into the backseat, scooting his food aside and pulling the door shut behind him. Sara and Michael had switched seats without comment.
They pulled out of the parking lot behind the van. He knew what Michael was doing, or at least he had a vague idea, and he relaxed. They were on top of this. If there was a way to win this, they would win it. All he had to do was stay on his guard until they did. And he was pretty much used to that by now.
“You bought cupcakes and Mountain Dew?” Lincoln asked in dismay, staring at the seat between them.
“What?” LJ asked. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing’s wrong unless you want to be made of sugar. I got some extra water and some nuts and stuff. Make sure you balance what you’re eating. You wanna be strong right now.”
“I always feel strong when I drink Mountain Dew,” he muttered. “And what are we supposed to do? Dad, we’re eating out of vending machines.”
In response, Lincoln held out one of the bottles of water. “You’ll get dehydrated,” he said.
LJ sighed and took the bottle. “Thanks,” he said. He hesitated. He was about to say something, something about how it was enough, really, how his dad didn’t have to try so hard to make up for all the time he’d missed, but then he stopped himself. He didn’t really want to complain. He never thought he would like having somebody nag him about homework and healthy eating, but it did feel better right now. Maybe his automatic reaction was to whine and complain, but the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to do that. Instead, he unscrewed the water bottle and took a sip. He was thirstier than he thought. He gulped another large amount of water.
“So, about that book report?” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist. “I think I’m gonna need an extension.”
“Fine,” Lincoln sighed. “Don’t think you’re off the hook, though.”
“Nope,” LJ said. “I’m on it. Just as soon as we stop somewhere.”
“And where would that be, exactly?” Sara asked. “Where are we going, Michael?”
Michael barely moved, only his long fingers drummed slowly on the steering wheel as he contemplated his reply. “We’re going to ‘em,” he said at last.
LJ took another sip of his water. His father was right. It was a good time to be strong and healthy. Especially if they were going to be fighting back, starting now. He was going to be ready.