Rituals and Chocolate Cream Pie (15/?)
Normal padlocked the inner door of the unit before pulling the heavy outer one into place.
“So we get off at seven and I do a five-hour shift, but I only get paid for four?” Jo asked as she hovered behind him.
“Yep,” Normal replied. “You work here; you get the same deal as the rest of them. When your training period is up, that hour gets paid.”
“Yeah, but you said when you finally do decide that my training period was over, it’s flat rate for four and that extra hour is per delivery,” Jo said. “That hardly seems fair.”
“Fair?” Normal asked. “Fair? The teamsters are long gone; fair went out the window long ago.”
“What if that hour is a quiet one and you didn’t tell me which hour of my shift is the one I’m paid by commission?”
“Please. I have dealt with these peons for years and I know them. Given half the chance, they’d sit on their collective butts all day drinking my coffee if they knew which hour they got.”
“Normal, we supply our own coffee.” Jo cocked her head.
“Yeah, but it is my water and facilities,” Normal replied.
“You change the hour, don’t you? You don’t even give us a chance to work it out.”
“Course I do. I’m not stupid,” Normal said. “Though Muto was right. You do have a brain cell, so you might work out. Usually it takes them about two weeks to realize that one.”
“Jeez, thanks,” Jo said to the backhanded compliment.
Normal pulled something out of his pocket. “Here.”
“What, I get paid already?” Jo asked, though she hesitated. “Hey, I want a job, but I’m not that desperate.”
“Please, Missy, I set the bar a little higher than part-time bike messengers,” Normal retorted before turning his attention to securing the shutters. “God knows what I’d get.”
“Glad to know what you think,” Jo replied, causing Normal to turn around and look at her.
“Seriously, have you seen some of the pinheads that work here? I’m not sure when half of them last had a shower let alone went for a screening or even know what one is,” Normal explained. “He begged me to pass that on, but Missy; I’ll give you a piece of advice. Do what I do and steer clear of interoffice dating because you don’t get a health plan with this position.”
Jo nodded as Normal left for the night and opened the envelope in her hands.
Jo,
Heard Normal was keeping you late to do orientation shit, so won’t get to see you at my quitting time.
If you’re interested, me and some of the guys are hitting a bar down the street. Thought, seeing as how Sketchy had to cut out early and won’t be back tomorrow that you might want to join us so you get a chance to at least learn our names before Mien Führer sticks one of us with you for the ride-by tomorrow.
As I said, we won’t bite if you don’t want us to.
Hope to see you there,
Flip.
Jo smiled. “Okay, a quiet drink with the guys from work. I could do that. I can fit in here. New speed, new time and a new me.”
Dean sat in the corner of the command center, bored out of his skull as he watched the others work. The only thing he had to keep himself occupied was a pack of cards Luke had given him while Max had finished up some paperwork.
Yeah, he loved this; sitting and waiting on the fearless leader to finish up so she could talk him through how she would respond to his or Alec’s behavior in different situations.
“You ready?” she asked.
“Suppose so,” Dean said as he looked up from the game of pairs he had been half-heartedly been interested in at that moment.
“Fine,” she replied as she started down the corridor, causing him to look back down at his cards to continue playing.
She stopped and turned to look at him. “Are you coming?” she said.
“If you ask, yeah,” Dean said with a smirk, causing Max to put a hand on her hip.
“Can you follow me then?” she said with a slightly irritated tone to her voice. “Please?”
“Sure,” Dean said, tidying up the pack before getting up and walking over to Luke to return them to him.
Dean patted the ditch digger on the shoulder as he thanked him before he made a move to follow Max. “You know, manners doesn’t you cost anything.”
Max stopped and turned, “Really? Costs nothing?”
“Ah, there it is,” Dean said with a smile as he caught up with Max halfway down the corridor to her office.
“There is what?” Max said.
“The lecture about something that is frankly none of your business,” Dean replied curtly. “Especially considering I can quite easily go back to my dad’s and sit on my ass tonight.”
“You’d do that?” Max asked, not really caring about who heard this discussion.
“Hey, I’ve lost bigger pots,” Dean said with a smile. “I survived. So don’t think you going all emo at me is going to make me see the error of my ways and force me to do this out of the goodness of my heart.”
“So even though you know what is on the line, you see this as a way to make a quick buck?”
“Is this where you tell me that ripping off someone’s home is just like a Jerry Lewis Telethon?” Dean replied, turning to start back down the corridor.
“It isn’t like that,” Max said bitingly as she grabbed his arm.
“Yeah, it is, because we both know even if time wasn’t a factor, you would still be asking me to do this,” Dean retorted. “Anyway, a man has to have his pride. So you should think about at least trying to be civil until this is over.”
“You are getting paid for this. I can be any damn way I like.”
“Yeah, and as I said, I can live without the folding, though I admit the idea of missing a free night out with a woman like your sister being something that I’d feel sorry about,” Dean said. “But still if anything, I’m doing you a favor.”
“A favor?”
“Yeah, I know what those cult dudes want to do, and you can’t hold the whole seizing thing over my head like you do Alec or Samantha or any of the others. As for you trying to play on my heartstrings, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have a clue that any of this was going down and you’d still be looking for Alec in the middle of nowhere while those Familiars used him as a test subject.”
“Really.”
“Yeah, really. I got shot up with the shit that causes the seizures too, remember and if I had taken that stupid antidote stuff, you’d have nothing to make after tonight’s shindig,” Dean said firmly. “And I don’t remember you even having a passing concern about my welfare while I was waiting to see if my antidote-free brain was going to turn into Swiss cheese.”
Max glanced away for a moment; he had her there.
“But that is fine. I’m not really one of yours. I’m just some ordinary guy that some Frankensteins decided to use as a blueprint,” Dean said nonchalantly.
“Is that how you see yourself? An ordinary guy?” Max replied. “One that just happens to be “supposedly” twenty years out of his time?”
Dean raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand that one either, Max, so don’t try and get me on that. I know you don’t really get the stuff we hunt and what it can do. What I’m saying is that I get that the only thing you care about are these guys here,” Dean said. “But as for the cash, it’s between me and Alec, okay? It’s out of his pocket, not yours and not this place, so it has nothing to do with your transgenic crap.”
“Crap?” Max asked.
“You know what I mean,” Dean replied. “So you can stop the righteous act you’ve been pulling since Logan’s. All it’s doing is pissing me off and I ain’t the one in need here.”
“Fine, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you are still a bastard,” Max said coldly.
“I’d give my parents the credit for it, but they were married for a couple of years before I came along, so I’d have to say I’m a completely self-made one there,” Dean retorted.
“Now I know where he got it from,” Max muttered.
“Can we just get this over with? You tell me what you’d say or do if I act like Garfield, then I can go and “bond” with your sister before we have to go play let’s pretend,” Dean said. “And for the record, I may not know him as well as you do, but give the guy some credit. Alec’s as much of his own bastard as I am,” Dean said as he got to the small room that served as Max’s office.
Sam knocked on the door with some trepidation, part of him hoping that the apartment was empty or at most she’d be there alone. Boy, this was the part he hated because he had to be the one to always call.
Sometimes he wished he was more like Dean. He wished he didn’t care about coming off like a bastard even though he knew that the simple act of doing this in the first place actually made him a bigger bastard than his brother as Dean never gave false hope by offering a variation of the, “I had fun and if I wasn’t leaving town” speech.
That wouldn’t cut it this time as he knew he wasn’t hitting the county lines before the sheets were changed. This was just like those years he spent at college, when he ran the risk of actually having to work out how to have some sort of relationship afterward. Not that it had always been a bad thing back then, like with Terry, Becky’s best friend. She had basically been his "fuck buddy” in his sophomore year before she had decided to spend some time experimenting with Susan. Actually he couldn’t complain about being friends with her during that time, especially after the three of them celebrated Susan’s finals in his dorm room.
But this was different. This wasn’t just a girl he was simply trying to work out how to remain on good enough terms to let him say hi too or to occasionally partying with and it wasn’t like he could ignore her either. This was a conversation that needed to be had, because like it or not, Gem and her daughter had been a bigger part of this new family setup in the past few years than he had been and that wasn’t going to change just because he might feel a little awkward right now.
Plus there was the fact that he needed to do this just to make sure she was okay and to make sure that nothing had happened to her like Amelia. Like Jess.
He knocked the door again, part of him praying that no one would answer. Unfortunately, when the door opened he found himself even less prepared than he had hoped.
“Oh great, what do you want?”
“Ehm, Dalton, isn’t it?” Sam said, drawing himself up to his full height in the presence of the eighteen-year-old X6 in front of him. “Is Gem around?”
Dalton hesitated. “I don’t want any trouble,” Sam said.
“Then what do you want?” Dalton hissed.
“My brother and I were in Terminal City and he’s got to take care of something with Max, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to drop by and... Look, I just wanted to make sure Gem’s okay, to talk if she wants to. I know she’s like your sister and that you weren’t happy about…”
“About someone, whom she barely knows, whose supposed to be dead, taking advantage of her when she is vulnerable?” Dalton asked. “Why would I be unhappy about that?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Sam argued. “I... I didn’t know.”
“Sure you didn’t,” Dalton spat out.
“Look, I just want to make sure she's okay.”
“After what you did?” Dalton retorted as he continued to bar the way. “She isn’t stupid, you know, if that is why you’re here. She’s not going to let you in so you can try for round two.”
“I never said she was stupid, and I’m not here for anything like that,” Sam replied. “I understand what you’re thinking, man, but I swear I didn’t know about heat cycles until I walked in on her.”
“Really. I’m supposed to believe that you haven’t heard half the rumors about us, about how our women turn into crazy, feral, wild things that have to be locked up for their own protection?” Dalton retorted. “Sure you haven’t. Like half the guys that hassle our girls haven’t heard that one.”
“Hey, Dude, I understand where you are coming from,” Sam replied, trying to placate the guy. “She’s family to you and you want to protect her.”
“Really?” Dalton asked. “Is this where you tell me that, because you spent three days with my sister, you know how she feels? That she wants to see you and that I should chill?”
“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” Sam retorted.
“Oh, this is where you say that you understand why I’m not happy because you turn up here, in our place, to find out that you suddenly now have sisters yourself and if it were you were me, you’d feel the way I’m feeling right now,” Dalton growled. “Don’t insult my intelligence by even trying to spin that one because you got no idea what Gem and I and Eve have been through.”
“Dude, I wasn’t even going to try,” Sam tried to say.
“Good, then you’ll understand when I ask you nicely to leave because I’m not just going to let you in the door.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Sam argued.
“I don’t care what you say it was like,” Dalton argued. “You are going to go now or I’m going to end up breaking my promise and rearrange every bone in your body.”
“Dalton!” Gem yelled as she caught the end of her brother’s conversation.
“See? Still in one piece,” Dalton said, turning to his sister. “I said I wouldn’t do anything to him unless he got in my way, and I’m giving him fair warning.”
“I’m sorry, Sam,” Gem said, staring her little brother down. “It’s okay. If you’re here to check on how things are with me, then it’s fine.”
“Dumb Beta,” Dalton started to mumble under his breath, causing his sister to swat him on the back of his head.
“Watch your mouth!” Gem said firmly. “I’ll handle this.”
“Sis,” Dalton said as he stood his ground in the doorway.
“I said I’ll handle it,” Gem replied, causing the boy’s shoulders to fall. “Dalt, I’ll be a minute.”
Dalton shot Sam a look before turning to his sister. “One minute.”
Gem nodded as the boy headed back into the apartment.
Sam sighed. “Look, I didn’t mean to cause any problems.”
“It’s okay,” Gem said as she tiredly ran a hand over her face. “I’ll have words with him. He’s just...”
“Just being your brother,” Sam said. “He’s just looking out for you.”
“Well, still doesn’t mean that he gets to act like an ass,” she replied. “He knows what happened. He doesn’t have any reason to be pissed at you.”
Sam ran a hand through his hair before he stuck his hands in his pockets. “Look, I just stopped by to see if you were... Boy, this is awkward.”
Gem cocked her head to the side. “Awkward?”
Sam nodded. “I just wanted to see if you were okay, that’s all, because of, well... I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“Thanks,” Gem replied. She hesitated for a moment. “Hope you are okay.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sam said. “I just wanted to make sure that you know that you didn’t think you had to avoid me. But if you want me to stay out of your way then fine, I completely understand.”
Gem stood there not sure what to say.
“I just want to make sure that we can still be friends, after your heat thing,” Sam said. “That is all.”
“Right,” Gem said, confused. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“Well, I’ll be honest. I’m still trying to work out a lot of things and until I knocked on Cindy’s door, I didn’t get that there were other implications to being transgenic, at least an X series anyway,” Sam said. “And, well, Alec explained a little about what happened with the “breeding partners” thing.”
“Oh,” Gem said tensing. “Breeding partners.”
“No, I’m not just here because of that,” Sam said as he saw her obvious discomfort.
“Then why are you here?”
“You’re Molly’s best friend and were, at least before the whole thing at Cindy’s, my friend, so I just wanted to at least try and clear the air between us.”
“Who says that there was air to clear?” Gem asked accusingly as she crossed her arms.
Sam nodded and took a step back, “Okay, I had better be going. I just wanted to... Sorry.”
“I’ll see you around then,” Gem said as Dalton appeared at the door.
“Minute’s up,” the boy growled. Gem nodded and went back into the apartment.
“Hope you enjoyed your visit. Please come again. I’m sure I can make your next visit more interesting for you,” the boy said as he slammed the door in Sam’s face.
Sam walked despondently into the command building. Jesus, could this day get any worse?
“Hey, why the long face?” Alec said as he spotted Sam.
Sam shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
“Okay, it’s nothing,” Alec said as he sat at his desk. After a few moments he ran his hand through his freshly-cut hair.
“So what time are Dean and... Samantha supposed to be heading out?” Sam asked, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence.
“Well, shift change is at 8:45, so they should be at the club from about 7:15 until 9:00, then we’ll have a complete alibi,” Alec replied as he scratched the back of his neck.
“Is something wrong?” Sam said.
“No,” Alec said quickly, to which Sam nodded. Alec took a breath, noting the uncomfortable look on the guy’s face before scrubbing his hands through his hair. “Man, it’s just I haven’t had my hair as short as this since I was twelve and they decided to let us grow it.”
Sam smiled. “Then why did you get it cut?”
Alec turned around to show the red area just below the hair line. “Should calm down by tonight, but just in case I get caught on camera, I thought it best that we match and someone wasn’t agreeable about getting inked or even a transfer, let alone a wig.”
“Dean wouldn’t play, huh?” Sam asked.
“Told me to stick it for even suggesting it,” Alec explained. “Girls; they have it so much easier.”
Sam smiled, “I’m not sure providing an alibi is the usual reason to have long hair."
“Really? So what is your excuse?” Alec asked jokingly, to which Sam responded with stony silence.
Alec tutted as he thought about how to recover the conversation. “Well, the girls are just synchronizing their dos, which means neither one of them just spent the last twenty minutes dealing with the aftermath of having the top layer of their epidermis burned off a part of their body, and I don’t care what anyone else says. The base of your skull is a very sensitive area.”
“I guess it would be,” Sam replied glumly.
Alec cocked his head. “Seriously. Why the face, man?”
“It’s fine,” Sam replied.
“It’s not like you have to worry that someone is going to screw things up tonight and blow your cover while you’re doing something highly illegal, is it? Let alone have to deal with a baseball that might as well be made of kryptonite, seeing as how many times I’ve failed to get my hands on it.”
“Where’s Dean?” Sam asked as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
“My automatic response to that question is that he’s probably with Sam, but seeing as how you’re here and the one he should be spending time with, the one with boobs, is with Joshua catching up, I don’t know. So big bro could still be with Maxie,” Alec said. He then yelled over to Mole, “Hey, Lizard Brain! Any idea where Dean or Max is?”
“Duchess is in the office,” the DAC replied as he turned his attention to the coffee cup. “Should be out pretty soon. She looked pissed when she went in.”
“Okay, I’ll give him five minutes at most,” Alec said to Sam. “Two if he’s perfected his “how to be as charming as Alec” routine. For some reason she doesn’t like that one.
“Really?” Sam replied. “I wonder why that would be?"
Alec smirked. “I really have no idea.”
“Hey, Princess, looks like he made it out alive,” Mole yelled to Alec as Dean appeared in the hallway. Mole turned and yelled in Dean’s direction, “Duchess, they’ve been looking for you.”
A confused Dean spun around to see if there was a person behind him. “What did you say?” Dean asked Mole.
“I said they’ve been looking for you,” Mole repeated as he went back to his work. Dean nodded in response as he walked down the corridor, though he paused after a moment.
“Hey, what did you call me?” Dean asked.
Sam grinned as he looked between a slightly confused Dean and Alec. “Oh, I get it. Duchess.”
“What?” an affronted Dean asked as Alec held back a little chuckle. “I am not…oh get that look off your face.”
“Suppose it could be worse,” Alec said with a shrug. “At least it seems to factor in your age.”
“Thanks, Princess,” Dean asked mockingly.
“If it upsets you, I can ask him not to call you that, though he might start calling you Queenie,” Alec said with a smile as Max made an appearance at her office doorway.
“Luke, get in here!” Max yelled, causing the ditch digger to jump.
Mole sighed and threw a sympathetic look in Alec’s direction. Alec’s shoulders slumped.
“Great, there goes any idea that this is going to be a fun job,” Alec said to Dean. “What did you do?”
“Ain’t my fault if she can’t take a joke,” Dean replied.
“Yeah, sure. It’s fine for you to say that, but I’m the one stuck with her,” Alec replied. “What did you say?”
“Does it matter?” Dean asked, causing Alec to glare at him.
“Come on, Duchess, let’s get you out of here,” Sam said as he turned to find himself face to face with Cindy.
“So you are here,” she said as Sam recoiled a little. “Was told you were, but thought if you had sense, you’d be long gone.”
“Hi, Cindy. How’s things?” Sam said more than a little uncomfortably.
“Don’t you start with a “how’s things,” Tallboy. You and I are going be having a sit down real soon, but first I got this to do,” she said as she turned and nodded to Sketchy who was standing behind her. “Give it to him.”
“What? You get me to skip out on my ride along with Jo just so I can fix it, then make me drag it over here really just to give it away?” Sketchy asked
“Well, it wasn’t so you could show off your handy work! Give the man the damn table,” Cindy said as a reluctant Sketchy handed a confused Dean the coffee table.
“Is this some future thing that I don’t know about?” Dean asked as the woman started to turn.
“Future thing?” Cindy replied. “On what planet is this ‘a future thing’?”
“Well, it ain’t my birthday and it can’t be a housewarming present as I don’t have a house or anywhere else to put it. Not that I don’t appreciate the idea. It’s a nice table and all.”
“Damn straight it’s a nice table! Like OC would allow any fugly piece of wood to sit in her crib. But no, it ain’t a future thing or present thing,” Cindy said. “Damn Winchester thing, this is.”
“Excuse me?” Alec said.
“Pretty boy, OC has had enough. She may have spent sixteen hours queuing and four trades to find the a replica 1960s G Plan coffee table, but she does not want to have to go through the pain of having to watch her hard earned finds need fixing yet again, so he can damn well have it seeing as how those with the same genome have decided that they have a kink to work out by breaking the damn thing.”
“My genome?” Dean said, looking in Alec’s direction. Alec looked just as confused as Dean.
“Oh, don’t just blame him. There is the other one as well. Once is an accident, but twice? Hell no! Cindy ain’t waiting around for it to happen a third time, not in her apartment, so you can have the damn thing before you get any ideas seeing as how your family seems to like “using” so much,” Cindy said, turning around as Sketchy looked at his hands.
“I feel unclean now,” Sketchy said as Alec and Sam seemed to exchange embarrassed looks.
Dean dropped it, “Oh, man.
“You can say that all you want, but I am not waiting around until you decide to follow their lead and you come around to my place to use your naked ass to redesign my furniture,” Cindy said before turning to Sam. “Oh yeah, there is a downed hover drone on the roof across from my building that the sector cops are asking questions about.”
“Hover drone?” Alec asked.
“One of those flying trash can lids?” Dean asked.
Sam swallowed. “It came down. Oh boy.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “And I’d say you are lucky that I wasn’t so pissed that I didn’t point them in your direction as none of my neighbors are stupid enough to lose their pants in that way.”
“Your pants brought down a hover drone?” Alec asked.
Dean laughed. “How the hell, Sam…?”
Sam ran a hand over his face. “Great and it’s not like Gem’s pissed at me as it is.”
Chapter 16a
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