What I Learned at SRU -121- (Part 2)

What I Learned at SRU
Chapter 121 - Skeletons in the Closet
(Part 2)

- Sunday, June 5th, 2011 -

"You haven't seen it, have you?" Toph demanded. "With those eyes of yours, n' crap?" She was scratching her nails through her hair fussily, bent over beneath her bed.

"Uhhhh..." Meng twiddled her thumbs, watching her cousin crawl about the pile of dirty clothes at the foot of her bed. "I think, erm...Sokka...had it...?"

"What?" Toph snapped, dubious. "Why would he have my guitar? He doesn't even play."

"Uh, maybe you should, like...ask him?" Meng was struggling to be vague and not ruin the surprise. Sokka would be there any minute with the little craft project Aang had helped him with. Given the craziness of the weekend, Toph hadn't even looked into practicing with her new toy until now.

"God...damnit," Toph grunted, irritably shoving a couple of shoeboxes out of her way as she dove further into the abyss beneath her bed. Her voice muffled from within the cavern of eternally lost socks. "My guitar case was here. I know it was, I mean...it's been a few days, but...-"

"I'm sure Sokka will help you find it," Meng meekly chirped from above, sitting patiently amidst disheveled bed covers sprinkled with music note symbols.

"That doesn't even...-" Toph started in protest, but huffed, then coughed harshly. "Argh, fucking...-!"

More shoving.

"You OK down there?" Meng prodded, wearing an amused smirk.

"Ugh," Toph came back after letting another cough pass.

Meng silently waited for her older cousin's finagling to pass, and by the time the young woman emerged, even messier than before, Meng saw fit to carry on conversation.

"So, uh...Hey, Tophie."

Toph puffed her bangs out of her face as she crawled off to the space tucked between her bed and closet.

"Yea?" she replied.

"Ever since I got here...things seem, I dunno, just...really crazy. Weird." Meng was fiddling with her curly, frizzy mess of hair. There was an aesthetically pleasing habit she had of toying with her own hair tips when she let it grow out. "You know?"

"Mm," Toph hummed back, intent in her search.

"Is it always like this? I mean, is this just...college?"

"Ha, noooo, no. Normally, classes are busier, campus is more packed, and all this weird-ass shit ain't happening. This stuff with Korra? Like...that ain't normal, trust me."

"So this town, it's...actually usually OK?"

"Well, I thought so, but fuck if I know anymore. Frankly, I barely had a reason to go down there outside of fast food runs and, like...eat-in food runs, and...maybe groceries..."

"Food reasons."

"Yea."

"You never...go out on dates?"

"Huh? A-psh! I mean, maybe some times, but...on campus, mostly. I don't really do dates. But there's been a couple dances I went to. They were both...fun."

"I guess Dougie's a little more...erm...gentlemanly? Than most college guys, I mean."

"Uhhh...-" Toph considered it. "Yyyea. Yea. Ya know, I guess he is. Good on ya. Or something."

"Heh. Thanks."

"But, nah, like...for real, I don't even get what this shit is all about. Like, what Kat's all getting activist-y on, and Korra's gotten herself into some shit, and Janey was already a hot mess when we met her, I don't even...-"

"So, next year will be a lot calmer?"

"Oh, yea. Next time around, things will be more chill, count on it."

As Toph had been speaking, Sokka had silently snuck up to the open doorway to the dorm room. He was holding Toph's recent gift - a black guitar - and Meng had to contain a squeal at the sight of it. The shards of Grammy's instrument created a rather unique and beautiful semi-mosaic effect. She beamed at Sokka with approval, but the guy just gawked back at her awkwardly.

"Cool," Meng concluded their chatter. "Uh, so...Sokka. Hey!"

Toph perked up at this, whirling her body to face the general direction of the door.

"Unh? Meat-Head, where you at?"

Sokka stepped in, cradling the guitar like a baby - being a young man entailed holding babies with a deathly fear of dropping them.

"R-right here," Sokka sputtered. He cleared his throat. "Found something of yours."

"Ah." Toph smirked, getting up on her two feet from the carpet.

Sokka was surprised. Toph's half of the bedroom had a floor almost as clean as his sister's half. Of course, that was only because crap had been...shoved around into the corners, but...still. It was a rare sight for him to see.

Toph waddled up to him, pushing her shirt back down over her waist. She extended her arm, hand open sideways.

"Ahem," she wriggled her fingers in a grabbing motion. "Would you kindly hand me my instrument, Good Sir?"

Sokka smiled weakly at her and cautiously extended the guitar's neck for her to strangle.

As he did so, Sokka recited, "A man chooses."

"A slave obeys," Toph gleefully completed their reference.

As she grasped it between both hands, Toph swooned and sighed in exaggeration, giving it a strum with her finely carved thumbnail. She then flinched from what apparently was off-key, and immediately went to tuning it. Her hands had yet to have reason to touch the edited surface of the guitar.

"What were you doing with this?" Toph asked as she tweaked some knobs and strummed again. "Did I leave it in your car after we went to the park, or...-?"

"Nope. I stole it," Sokka bluntly confessed.

"...You what?" Toph deadpanned.

"I took it. Meng had an idea, and so...then Katara and Aang, they helped, and-"
"Idea? What idea?" Toph didn't look like she had any patience for this.

Sokka sighed, taking a step forward and snatching Toph's wrist. She tried to jerk her arm back, startled by his movement.

"Hey! Wh-?!"

But before she could struggle too much, Sokka had pressed her palm against the guitar's body. Toph's body froze. Sokka let go and backed off a bit to let her drink it in through the way Toph could: her hands, her fingers. He watched her face squirm and contort in strange ways, brows furrowed as she felt her way around.

"You...-" Toph whispered, savoring the strange sensation of old and new within the same place.

"It was Meng's idea," Sokka was quick to reiterate. Just as she was taking in the pleasant senses at her fingers, Sokka was taking in the sight of her awe. "And, like...Katara helped us sneak the guitar out, so...Aang could actually help get the wood on there, and...-"

"Yea, but, like...-" Toph strummed again, evidently satisfied that it was in tune now. "You got this all together - just for me."

"I-I dunno if it was quite like that, it was...more a group effort, and...-"

Trying to conceal her confused irritation, Toph posed, "Can I not at least pretend like you wanted to do something romantic for me?"

Sokka sighed at this, giving her no reply.

"Sooo...-" Toph suddenly felt a lump in her throat that she had to push past to speak. "Whh...-? You mean, you didn't do this to try and be romantic?"

"We did it because we're...your friends, and after it got broken, we-"
"What is with youlately, Sokka?"

"Me? What's with you? I'm...leaving soon."

A tension of unspoken doubts and unexpressed frustrations filled the room as the two stood, face to face. Sokka was staring at Toph, while Toph's head was bobbed and tilted. She plucked a few single note strings, her lips pursed.

"Uhhh...-" Meng was entirely uncomfortable by all this. So much for things being 'chill.' She hopped right out of Toph's bed and awkwardly tried to slide past the two of them, who were occupying the sparingly small space in the room. She gave them both a pat on the shoulder as she passed by. "I'll let you two talk," she plainly put it. "See you at lunch."

Toph blew a frustrated breath at her floppy bangs before cautiously setting her new treasure aside, leaning it against her desk. Meng quietly closed the door behind her.

"We haven't exactly been in sync lately," Toph observed in this moment of quiet.

"Don't you mean, more like...not singing in harmony?" Sokka proposed.

"...Huh?"

"Uh, 'cuz...like, music? With the guitar, and...-?" Sokka trailed off, picking up on Toph's impatience.

"Yea," Toph said flatly. "Like that? Not in sync..."

"Well, sorry," Sokka grumbled, rather disingenuously. "I don't know what to tell you."

"Maybe you could actually act like we're still a couple? That'd be nice."

"Are we, though?"

"Wh-? I...-! Why would we not be?" That lump in Toph's throat re-solidified itself.

"I don't know," Sokka mumbled back sharply. "Maybe because, in a few weeks, I won't be here?"

"Um, OK, but...-"

"How is this supposed to work when we can't see each other?"

"Sokka, you moron, I can't ever see you in the first place..."

"I know, I meant-...! Urgh, you know what I meant."

"Did I?" Toph retorted. "'Cuz if I did, I don't think-"
"I love you."

Toph was frozen in mid-sentence by Sokka's declaration. There was that phrase, that dreaded, loaded, weighted phrase that she had issues dealing with.

"I...love you," Sokka repeated with a sigh. "And that's why I don't want to see our friendship get mucked up because we can't figure crap out."

"Uhh...I-...That's...-?" Toph grunted through her nostrils, brows arced from internal conflict.

"I mean, where did we think this was going to go?" Sokka reflected. "It's been fun and stuff, I mean...you're...awesome, like...obviously..."

"Chyeah," Toph panted out in a nervous laugh. "W-well, you're...-" Her mumbling wandered off, her brain unable to put into words whatever positive compliment she had been intending to reciprocate.

"And then once I graduated here, it sunk in, eh?" Sokka sighed, scratching behind his ear. "I'm leaving. And you're still stuck here for another two years."

"Yea..."

"And then your old sort-of-boyfriend-but-not-quite-'cuz-you-already-h ad-a-boyfriend...started showing up with your cousin?"

"...What? Douglas?"

"And that reminded me of how you just...dove right into things with him, apparently. And also that other guy, from the dance?"

"Oh..." Toph's stomach felt very queasy all of a sudden.

"I'm just saying, one reminder can lead to another, and before you know it, I've got a chain of ideas - and that goes back to me, too, and how stupid I was acting, bouncing around Ty-Lee as soon as Suki broke up with me, only to just go over to you, and...-"

"What, are you...worried I'll cheat on you?"

"Uh...-! Yeeeaaa...? Kind of? B-but I mean, also, me. That I might cheat on you?"

"...Oh. Well." Toph gave him dull words with a sharp tip of her tongue. "Fucking awesome. Glad for that vote of confidence, Meat-Head."

"I just don't want to turn a blind eye to what's happened."

"..."

"That wasn't supposed to be a pun! Or a joke. Argh."

"Yea...Well...Hard to tell with you, isn't it?"

"Toph." Sokka's eyes rolled back in his skull as his gears grinded together. How to put it? "You can't escape the past, right?"

"What does...-?"

"You. Me. We haven't exactly handled our love lives so well. That's all I'm saying."

Toph chewed at her lip and scratched her nose, unsure of how to respond to that, but knowing that some attempt at snarky self-defense was not the answer.

Sokka continued.

"The way you and I both ping pong off people, I just don't see how we'd be able to make this work in the long run. I don't do long distance. Do you?"

"I guess...not?" said Toph in a way that did anything but reassure Sokka. "I haven't tried, but-"

"And what if you meet someone else?" Sokka pressed. "What if I meet someone else? What then?"

"Then we...fucking...figure-it-out, OK? I don't get what...-" Toph snorted irritably. She was not at all liking Sokka's uncertain tone here.

"Or we can just 'figure-it-out' right here and now," Sokka proposed. "I just don't want to even deal with that sort of complication."

"Now, hold up a sec here, Idea Guy..."

"We need to get this squared away because this you-and-me thing? It's cool." The 'scriff-scriff' of Sokka scratching his forming neck beard. He tried to add a touch of humor. "I like the 'us' bit. Even before I got to play with your boobs."

Toph snorted a laugh and fluttered her lips a little.

"Um, well..." She tried to play along a bit. "They are pretty awesome boobs..."

"They are. And that's great. But the...whole...you. As a person. When we were just friends? That was already great. I don't want to lose that."

"Well, same, so...why-?"
"Long-distance stuff with us? That is going to complicate things."

"What makes you so-?"
"With the way we both rebound and chase tail, it might be a better idea if we're just plain about it."

"Wh-? Sokka...No. No-no-no," Toph pushed, extending her hands out as her voice quivered. The way he was speaking was not good, and she wasn't going to have any of that. She found his arm and quickly slid her hand up to her shoulder, pulling him toward her.

"I'm just saying," Sokka spat, shrugging up his meaty shoulders as he resisted.

"You're not trying to break up, here, are you?"

"Eh, no, but, just-...It's more like I'm trying to prepare for that possibility."

"That possibility?"

"Like, we don't know what'll happen come the autumn. So, let's...you know, like, enjoy stuff as it is, but...I was thinking that we could leave things open."

"Huh? What, like...not committed?"

"Unless you're saying you want to commit. To two years of long distance."

"That...-" Toph's stomach churned. She did not want to commit to that idea. It sounded horrible. Toph had never gone six months without being in some kind of relationship, and she had yet to be in one that lasted more than a year, to boot.

"See?" Sokka pointed out her hesitation. "Oh, and how did you react when I said, 'I love you?' Because you didn't say it back."

"That...doesn't mean anything, you know I'm not exactly about that stuff, it-"
"'That stuff?' Wanting to be with someone for, I dunno, ever? That's not 'your stuff?'"

"I...don't know, I don't think about this shit, I just...-"

"That's my whole point, you don't think or plan or commit. And, I mean...to be fair, do I? Not with romantic stuff. It's why Suki broke up with me - twice. Because I'm freaking crappy at commitment."

Toph crossed her arms and made sure to twist her face around to show her discomfort. Hm, maybe pouting the lips a bit? Yea, stick those eyebrows down. Look mad, look unhappy.

Toph let out an "Mmph..." to make sure her point got across.

Why did this Meat-Head have to choose now to go over-thinking these things? Why couldn't they just approach this kind of shit when - and if - it happened? Ugh.

"Anyway, that's my thinking," Sokka resolved. "We keep enjoying what we've got here, and then when I leave campus - for good - we leave things open. You find some other guy in the fall? You can go for it, no big deal, rolls off my back."

"Aaaand...if you find someone?"

"W-well, sure, same thing, but, psh...not as likely."

"Hm. True. You don't have awesome boobs."

"I don't. Kinda hurts my chances."

"Tsh..." Toph's grumpy, put-on pout withered a bit at Sokka's dry humor in all of this.

Did he maybe just not care the same way she did? Or did she not care as much as she thought she did? This was confusing. And annoying as fuck.

Sure, she'd been with a number of guys over the past few years and all, but...Sokka kind of 'clicked' better than the others. It was like he said - even apart from the playing-with-boobs part, their 'them-ness' was still pretty great. If neither of them could be willed to commit to the two-year road ahead, maybe his idea wasn't so bad. If anything, it would keep their 'them-ness' safe from being muddled with romantic complication.

But Toph wanted that romantic complication. It seemed she had to consider just how badly she did, and if it was worth doing what she was always expecting the boys in her life to do: stand one's ground.

"Sooo...-" Sokka was waiting on her for a response. "That...sounds OK?"

"Umm...Whatever, I mean...I still don't think this is something that needs to be all planned out, or...-"

"If it makes no difference to you, I...kinda like having some kind of plan."

It does make a difference to me, you dunderhead.

"'Kay."

"Uh..." Sokka scratched his itchy neck again. "So I guess that's...that?"

"I guess," Toph grumbled, thoroughly unsatisfied, but bottling it inside. There was no use arguing - that would only prove his point.

"All right. Now, how about we go meet up with your cousin, get lunch - down at Appa's, that way you're guaranteed to have some french fries - and...you bring your new toy, play a song, sing a thing..."

"Sing-a-thing?"

"A song," Sokka corrected himself. "Sing a song."

"You said 'sing a thing,'" Toph pointed out plainly.

"Yes. That's true."

"...Just, wow."

"I'm nervous. And awkward. We just had a very uncomfortable discussion."

"They're called 'songs,' Snoozles. Wake your brain up. It's not hard."

"My brain is awake. I think it just needs...food."

"You and me both." Toph sighed, sensing his body heading for the door to exit the room. She fumbled behind and reached out, taking his elbow. "Let's go eat," she declared, squirming her arm to interlock with his. As they entered the hallway together, she felt him administer a blundering kiss to her forehead. It wasn't...him-like, the particular manner in which he'd kissed. But Toph would take what she was given right now, ignoring the stinging worry that this conversation had stuck into her chest for the time being.

Jane's fingers twitched in her pockets as she watched the raven-haired woman lift her cheap lighter to her lips, shielding it from the breeze around them. June flicked at the lighter, and the tiny orange glow of its flame lit up her pale face, skin caked with make-up. Simply watching June light up her cigarette and press it between her defined lips made Jane's old addiction to the habit shake her up from the inside. They waited a minute as a nearby faculty member trekked through the mostly empty parking lot and started up their vehicle.

"So," June began their conversation, breathing smoke out of her nostrils. She pulled out a folded piece of loose-leaf from her back pocket and extended her arm out to Jane. Jane took the sheet after a moment's hesitation, then unfolded it and studied its contents. Sloppily written names of chemicals and equipment used for concocting certain kinds of unsavory things...Jane couldn't help but be reminded of herself: tinkering with scientific materials and practices while lacking the formal know-how. Was this kind of thing such a person's fate? Using those skills to mix up stuff for criminals?

"So," Jane repeated June's single syllable with expectation.

"Think you can swing that stuff?" June checked.

"Er...Prolly can manage the horse tranq," Jane mumbled, re-scanning the chicken-scratch list. Korra, standing beside Jane, paled at this remark. Jane continued. "But...Thought that was all you needed. What's with the other stuff?"

"Uh, weelllll...-" June shrugged off this question, her eyes squinting as they slid sideways.

"Ugh. C'mon, June, you're killin' me, here," Jane grumbled with disapproval.

"I just figure if I'm making the trip, I might as well squeeze in a little extra revenue on the side, and-"
"The Chief told me you already agreed on terms," Jane grunted.

"Tsh, yea, not sure 'agree' is a word I'd use with that woman, but...-"

"I'm not getting you all this shit," Jane hissed, shoving the now-crumpled note back in June's hands. "Besides, I go fuckin' stealing all this from the lab and someone's gonna notice, ya think? That's problems on top of ones I already got."

"All right, all right," June eased her off. "Not gonna pick a fight with you, Shamrocks. Sorry I asked."

Jane's glare stuck to the pale-faced woman with ever-tired expression.

"I said sorry," June muttered with a bit of a pout to her.

Korra, a bit surprised at how June genuinely seemed to want to stay on Jane's good side, finally spoke up.

"Uh, tranq? I heard the word 'tranq?' What, like 'tranquilizer?' As in, knock-somebody-out-for-a-long-period-of-time tranquilizer?"

"Very good, Korra," June patronized, flicking ash off the tip of her cigarette. "You're not as thick-headed as I was led to believe."

Korra shot the snarky woman her own dagger eyes, but her hard stance softened when she detected the good-natured smarm about the woman.

"June's gonna have to put you out for a while," Jane explained. "That's how she used to...erk...-" Jane stopped herself, her shoulders flinching as she instantly realized her slip of the tongue.

"Used to...what?" Korra asked. It all clicked. "Wait, so that's why you're helping, because-...! Argh. Is fucking everyone in this town a goddamn criminal?" Korra sighed.

"Heh." June took another puff. "Town's called Wayward, bucko. What'd you expect?"

Korra rolled up her eyes, not dignifying the woman with a reply.

"Dude, Korra, be chill," Jane tried to ease. "You chose to get involved in my business? This used to be my world. 'Kay? It's shitty. I'm beyond sick of it. You think bad of me 'cuz of what I did?"

"N-no," Korra spat, not having thought the circumstances through when she'd fired off her tongue. "But you prolly had your reasons, right? I mean...-"

"Your buddy Mako did, too. And I figure June did." Jane nodded to their current partner, who raised a brow of curiosity. "But it ain't our business. Fact is, we got ourselves stuck in this shitstorm, people are in trouble, and we've gotta see this through. Let's just fucking get this last job done."

June caught herself gawking at the orange-haired girl's burning determination. It was a far cry from the apathetic, gloomy runt Sokka had introduced her to months prior. Her words - 'see this through' - were a harsh reminder for June.

"Last job?" June remarked. "I thought you were already over all this gang stuff?"

"I thought so, too," Jane mumbled bitterly. "But like I said, I'm just trying to finish what I started. Korra got into all this 'cuz I asked for her help - and those kids got dragged in 'cuz she stirred junk up. I'd go with you guys, but I can't."

"Triple Threats would skin you alive," June knew as a matter of fact.

"So I'm gonna send ya'll off on your merry goddamn way and do what I can do here in town: help Kat n' Aang with the peace-march stuff." Jane slapped Korra on the back. "But you got this, LadyBro. I know you do."

"I do," Korra replied, pounding one set of knuckles into the palm of the other. "Creeps won't know what hit 'em."

"They won't," June agreed. "Mostly because they're prolly gonna get sniped before you could even land a hit on 'em."

"Say whuh...-?"

"Listen," June took one last drag on her cigarette before callously flicking it off into the grass at the parking lot's edge. "The whole 'punch-punch-punch' schtick - it's cute, I like it - but it ain't gonna fly. These guys are gonna have guns."

"What the hell?" Korra sighed. "Give meone, then."

"Oh, right," June balked. "Yea, I'll just...-" She shook her head, trailing off at the notion. "You're gonna be a hostage, remember?"

"Kor," Jane nudged her. "You're gonna need to have some fucking restraint here for once. June's gonna knock you out so she can deliver you, make it look legit. Tied up, gagged, all that crap. The cops are gonna tail you guys and take care of stuff. You might not even be awake for half of this."

Korra's teeth were grinding together with frustration. What kinda good was she going to be knocked out, tied up, and...-? Rawrgh! This plan was stupid! Those guys needed to pay for what...-

Jinora's smile flashed into Korra's head. It was followed by Ikki's enthusiasm and Meelo's laughter. Korra's frustration withered at these thoughts and the emotions that followed them.

"Please," Jane begged solemnly, her eyes flickering at Korra's with desperation. "Those kids aren't the only folks on the line, here..."

June concluded, "If you're gonna help save Ginger's cowboy, you can't be a cowboy."

"Been waitin' to say that?" Jane dryly asked.

"You bet," June smugly came back.

"I'm still in," Korra reaffirmed. "I'm just confused about what fucking good I'm gonna do when...-"

"Just do what June tells you," said Jane. "She's got your back."

Korra gave June a curious look. When June shrugged with disinterest, Korra glared back at Jane.

"She does," Jane insisted. "You do," Jane reiterated to her boss.

"Yea, yea," June playfully scoffed. "I do. Besides, there's a bounty on your ass," she explained to Korra. "There's money to be made - not my problem that the fuzz is gonna flip you right back outta there. I get my paycheck. You gals get your folks back. Cops bust a hideout. Everybody wins."

"But...you are doing this for more than just the money," Jane stated, checking for the authenticity of her own words.

June shrugged.

"Sure," she callously replied.

Jane glowered at her.

"Don't gimme that look," June pouted again. "I'm fucking teasing. I'll help your girlfriend here get your boyfriend back, 'n you can have a lovely little threesome together, and-"
"Oh-kay," Jane cut her off with an eye roll, shoving June's shoulder.

Korra felt thoroughly weirded out by Jane's apparently older friend and co-worker. It was hard to tell when she was joshing around and when she was telling the truth.

"Now, hey," June spoke up to Korra, pushing past Jane in jest. "When this storm passes, you take good care o' my little Shamrock Shake here, comprende?" June lifted her brows before shining her teeth at Korra, who flinched back with awkward rigidity, blood rushing to her ears at the implication. "You're a big girl, Korra," June elaborated, slapping Jane on the back. "But this one's a bony little twig, so no roughhousing. Don't want my best frycook getting broke on me. I've still got another year of manual labor to squeeze outta her. Be gentle on the gal, would ya?"

"Ugh," came Jane from behind, steam practically billowing from her ears. "Told you," Jane grunted to June, her freckled cheeks burning red. "'S not like that...Anyway," Jane turned to Korra and bobbed her head in June's direction. "Lady's a fucking handful, but she's like me: we been through shit, we know how to handle ourselves. That said...Be glad you're gonna be unconscious for most of the trip."

Jane and June, like a mother lion and her cub, engaged in a rough side-hug which June initiated.

"She's right," June agreed. "I'm gonna blast up the 80's rock ballads and sing off-key the whole ride. You're gonna want to be asleep for it."

Korra smirked at the two of them, June's calloused hand bumping over Jane's matted orange hair in an approximation of paternal affection. June looked endeared to her employee in her own almost sadistic way, while Jane looked flustered, grumpily embarrassed. June's arm, bent upwards to rustle Jane's hair, exposed its bicep to Korra, and she noted the coiled snake tattoo that resided there.

"So, eh...-" Korra sifted her nails across her scalp. "We gonna, like...do this thing, or...-?"

"Can't yet," June replied dryly, freeing Jane from her arm. "The feds have to get their ducks in a row."

"Knowing Chief Jia," Korra muttered, "that won't take very long."

June took in a deep breath, and sighed out tiredly, arms crossed as she surveyed the quiet parking lot before them.

"Nope," June said through her sigh. "Not long at all."

"What am I supposed to do?" Korra wondered.

"Well," June puffed. "Jane's gonna rustle up the supplies I need tonight. Give it a day or two, and once I get the go ahead from Lin, I'll let you two know."

"Then we can finally put all this bullshit behind us," Jane breathed out disparagingly.

"Yea?" June observed. "You can try, at least."

- ? -

The sharp edges of the green bottle cut and tore, scratched and sliced, leaving trickles of red dripping down as muffled screams of agony accented the horrifying moment before her.

But Lin wasn't looking at the poor woman - a nameless, unknown entity to her. Instead, Lin's horrified eyes were glued to the next woman in line along the wall. Her mouth bound and gagged, June was tied up, on her knees, awaiting her fate. She was a very different girl than she had been months before, ransacking that apartment. She had bags hanging from her eyes, her raven hair was cut short into a bob, and a sweatshirt hoodie was draped over her head.

Motionless, June was looking up at Lin, pale-faced and terrified, but her eyes were hollow.

Those eyes said, 'This is the end.'

Lin's fists were balled tightly, her ears deaf to the struggle in front of her. A firm, steady hand fiercely grabbed her shoulder, tugging her back a step. Startled, she felt some small relief when she realized it was Noatak, the young man who'd been standing beside her all this time. He wore the fine brand of clothes he shared with his father. Noatak had a young lion's mane of groomed hair, a clean-shaven face, and a cold, unfeeling look about him. But the glint in his tired eyes spoke to Lin in that moment.

Those eyes said, 'The time is now.'

A shriek startled the lot, but it was quickly silenced as a gurgling escaped from the woman Yakone had been torturing for information. June's eyes shut, as if bracing for the same to happen to her.

Yakone, the burly crime lord with the mutton chops, let fall the nameless woman's body. As the body slid down sideways, it left a streak of dark red against the brick wall behind it. Lin strained in the dark to see the woman, and from she could discern, her face wasn't terribly identifiable now.

Yakone flicked his rigid wrists about, loosening them up after the tense work he'd just executed. He approached June, a bloody-edged broken bottle still in his grasp.

"Your friend here cooperated well enough," his gravely voice bellowed, leveling the bottle at her face. "So you'd better have something damn good to say if you want to have any chance of living." The sharp chunk of glass was pressed against June's neck as Yakone violently yanked her mouth gag off, letting it hang and absorb the trickle of blood already dripping from June's chin. "We both know how easily you squeal when up against the meat grinder."

Teeth grit, June's eyes dashed over to Lin, whose heart skipped a beat. Would the foolish girl sell her out? She'd certainly proven persuasive of turning in her allies at the first sign of trouble, just as Yakone had vocalized.

"Sorry," June hissed back at Yakone. "Ain't much else to tell." Lin felt a dry patch of relief at June keeping their secret.

"Is that right?" Yakone impatiently huffed, keeping the pressure of the bottle at June's neck and he squeezed his hand against her face. She choked in reaction, struggling to keep her breath. "Where'd the rest of my men go? They should've been here by now."

"Maybe the fuzz finally caught up to 'em," said June through forced breaths. "Gee, wonder how they found your guys, huh?" June's words carrying a certain cheekiness that her current position didn't afford.

"You little...-" Yakone pressed the glass into June's shoulder, and she cried out in agony, only to be muffled by Yakone's hand.

"Stop," Lin growled through grit teeth. It was the word she had longed to say to Yakone for months now. "The police are on our tails, and you're wasting time on this imbecile. She doesn't know any more than we've already gotten out her, so why-?"
"Toughen up, Lin!" barked the kingpin over his shoulder. "You'll need a thicker skin for this line of work. This pathetic coward isn't a friend of yours anymore."

"I signed on to be your body guard, not a thug-for-hire," Lin defended. That had been her role in this undercover affair, and they were so close to closing the book on this madman. She hadn't been lying - the cops were literally tracking them down on Lin and Noatak's signal that evening. A few more minutes of stalling and Yakone would be cornered. Yakone's previous right-hand man had been picked off merely a couple hours prior, leaving Yakone scrambling to figure out who was after him.

"Yes. A body guard," Yakone noted. "And right now, guarding me entails snuffing out backstabbers and traitors."

Lin's tense body twitched with fright as the bloodied victim Yakone had tossed to the cobblestone moved, gurgling and whimpering for help with indecipherable syllables.

Yakone sighed, requesting, "Will one of you take care of that for me?"

Lin quivered with rage at the man's callous attitude as he lingered over her comrade, June, digging his fingernails fiercely into her cheeks. Lin's unsteady hand wobbled at her gun holster. She had half a mind to end things right then and there.

Standing behind his father, Noatak stepped up to Lin, who trembled at the suffering, bloody woman on the tarmac. His cold, icy hand clenched down on Lin's wavering fingers, easing her hand away from her gun. Horrified and perplexed, Lin watched as the young man drew out his own pistol with one hand and screwed on its silencer with the other.

Noatak pointed his weapon at the poor, misshapen woman in the shadows. Lin watched Noatak end the woman's suffering without incident, expressionless and devoid.

"That's the way it's done," Yakone commended, slapping June on the cheek like a cat playing with an injured mouse. "That's what you need to strive for."

Lin watched as Noatak, gun still in one hand, took his other hand and tapped his forehead, this chest, and both shoulders. As June whimpered against Yakone's grip, Noatak silently prayed to himself over his father's most recent victim.

"Lin," Yakone beckoned, ramming June's head against the brick wall she was laid against. "Your turn."

Lin's lips hung open with shock as she watched Yakone get up on two feet, presenting a semi-conscious June.

"You've done this before," Yakone sighed.

"Those people were armed," Lin muttered. As if this even mattered to the man. "And it was in defense, not...-"

"Don't get soft on us," Yakone snarled. "I'm trying to harden you for the road ahead. This is in defense." He kicked June in the side, and she choked in pain. "Your friend here is a traitor, and a coward."

"No," Lin insisted. "I won't do it. I'm not going to-"
"Argh, you're a disgrace," Yakone barked. "A weakling." He readied the broken bottle in his hand and loosened the tie on his neck, approaching Lin with fire in his eyes. "I'll teach you a lesson, you insubordinate-"
-Click!-

Yakone was stopped by the sound of a pistol's rack being slid, the silenced barrel being pressed against his temple.

Noatak hissed into Yakone's ear.

"Stay...away from her."

Yakone seethed back in anger, dropping his makeshift weapon. It shattered into pieces.

"How...dare you raise your weapon to me...?"

"What are you going to do about it? You're the weak one. You always say that making others fear you is the most effective way to control them. But it isn't. Making them trust you is. You trusted June to do your dirty work, and now she's betrayed you - she has you running like a rat in a maze. And Lin? She's been working with me, to bring you down. And you never saw any of us coming." Noatak cocked his weapon, ready to fire. "What could be more effective than that?"

"Have you suddenly forgotten what happened to your mother? To your brother?"

"No. I haven't forgotten where you led them to."

"And you think you'll lead them any better than I have? You're still practically a child, you barely know-"
"Quiet," Noah commanded. "Lin. Untie your friend. Get out of here."

"Noatak," Lin called out with doubt. He flicked his head at her ferociously, and she obeyed begrudgingly.

No sooner than she'd been freed did June go sprinting off into the night in a panic, ditching Lin outright. Lin had expected this - June had seemed like the type to only look out for herself. The authorities were close, though. June would get apprehended soon enough, and their arrangement would get enforced. Lin had her own task to attend to.

Noatak's silenced pistol went off - twice - calling Lin's attention back to the two behind her. Yakone had called Noatak's bluff, shoving his own son down on his back. The two were wrestling now, Yakone's girth overtaking Noatak's as he strained his arm out to reach for the dropped pistol, all the while pinning his traitor down by the neck.

"I made you what you are," Yakone seethed through grit teeth. "You're mine."

"I'm your son," Noatak choked out, resisting his attacker. "Not your tool of revenge."

Lin dashed over to the two, scrambling for her gun as she did so. Her eyes were so distracted by Yakone's hand grabbing the gun that she was fumbling with her own weapon.

"This is my city," Yakone declared. "I'll be back one way to claim it."

As Yakone barely grasped the pistol from the ground, Lin forcefully kicked it from Yakone's hand, causing it to misfire into the cement before it was flung away once again. She immediately thereafter cocked her gun and jammed the barrel against Yakone's skull.

"No," was Lin's icy reply to Yakone's declaration. "You won't."

-Bang!-

A/N: With any luck, there is only one more crime drama scene left: the sting operation. My apologies for those who aren't too much into this. But as Lin's character verbalized in this chapter, I'm trying to finish what I started, see things through, etc.