No future

Con grins a little. Though realizing feelings for Jamie, it was still new, and slight sheepishness passes a moment through his eyes for his impulsiveness.

“Okay…don’t make much for me though, I’m not that hungry at the moment.” He knows that even after all the turmoil lately, that statement coming from him was a surprise. His appetite generally matched his body size. But for the last week or so, he really hadn’t been that hungry.

Con slides out of the car, going around to open Jamie’s door, then accompanying her inside. He’s glad to see that the crew from TJY has already been there, cleaning up the mess. If it weren’t for stacks of paper on the desk that hadn’t been put away, one would never guess the chaos that had happened there.

Con automatically gives the house a quick search, assured that it is only he and Jamie. “Well, I’m gonna give Laura a call and see about her coming over. I still never got a chance to talk to her.” He goes for his cell phone and waits for an answer, slowly pacing the living room floor. “Hey, Laura…no, I took off early…yeah, don’t ask.” Con would just rather not explain to his sister why he’d left TJY early. “Look, I’m over at Jamie’s with her.” Not wanting to make Jamie feel bad for not wanting to be alone, he reroutes his reasoning for Laura coming. “I’m not so hot on the idea of her being over here by herself yet. I doubt those goons will be back – they usually don’t strike twice, but I’d just as soon have somebody keeping an eye on things. I’m planning to bunk down here a couple days, and wondered if you’d be willing to as well.” He lowers his eyes to the floor as he talks, glad for Laura’s understanding. “Alright, that sounds great. Yeah, once you get here after work, I’ll take off for my place to grab a few things, then we’ll go from there. No…it wasn’t Reese’s suggestion…just mine. …Okay. See you later then. Bye.”

He hooks his phone back onto his belt and goes to find Jamie. “Laura will be over tonight, so we’re all set.”


Carson cocks his head a little at Misty. “You’re pretty bold for a petite little thing, aren’t you?” He shakes his head. “You tell me what I’m going to do…what choices does someone like me have? What chance do I have at a life other than the only one I know?”

He stands up, tucking his hands into his jeans back pockets. “I gave myself up as a prisoner to this side so I wouldn’t die. I can’t go back to where I came from because they’d tag me a traitor and give me a bullet to the head. I can’t join this side…once I give them what I know about the Agency, I’ll no longer be of use to them. Though I don’t think anyone here would kill me off, I could see them keeping me here until the war is over, and no one would trust me enough to let me help more than giving out information.”

Carson works the muscles in his jaw, not having felt this vulnerable in a long time. “I won’t lie – I’m out to save my own butt here. I’m willing to be a traitor to the Agency so that I don’t suffer a worse fate – though I do have a personal grudge against them, which makes turning on them a little easier. But in the end…I’m just looking for the easy way out, and there’s no future for somebody like me.”


Jason throws Katie a wry grin at her promise, knowing good and well that if the same circumstances came up again, she’d break it without a second thought. But he couldn’t be upset...he could only enjoy her spunk.

He quirks an eyebrow at her reference to him being sweet. It hit him as strange. He’d been called a lot of things, but never sweet. Was he really that different around Katie?

Letting that thought go, he aims for the phone. “Alright. Let’s get that pizza before I starve.”

It doesn’t seem to take much time at all before Jason and Katie are able to have their pizza. Jason takes a first bite of a slice, only to have sauce squirt out from under the cheese and promptly land on the front of his shirt. “Aw, man.” Jason rolls his eyes at himself and grabs a napkin. “Ya’d think I could at least handle eating a piece of pizza without making a mess of that too.” He throws Katie a silly grin. “I better extend my wardrobe if I’m gonna keep staining my shirts. I still haven’t gotten everything replaced since the fire.”


Laura hangs up the phone with Con, a little confused about his unwillingness to say why he’d left work early. She was more than happy to help out with Jamie though. She knew that Con didn’t really need her there, but understood his reasoning, and respected him for it. At least there seemed to be one part of his world that was making him happy right now.

She looks up, seeing Hal walk by. “Hey, Hal?”

“Yeah?” He spins around, stopping his route to Reese’s office.

“Did you see Con this morning?”

Hal’s eyebrows raise. “Who didn’t?”

Laura is confused. “What?”

“You weren’t here?”

“For what?” Laura shakes her head. “What happened?”

Hal hesitates for just a moment. “He and Jason got in a bit of a row. I guess Con found out Carson was here and lost it.”

“Lost it?” Laura was becoming concerned.

“Yeah. He was out for blood, lemme tell you. I’ve never seen him that hot. Probably scared Carson half to death, but Jason managed to get in the way, and Con ended up taking things out on him instead. Probably a good thing, otherwise we might have had the last batch of that Agency gang to burry.”

Laura’s face pales. “Is Jason okay?”

Hal nods. “He got it pretty good, but he was alright. Reese gave him the rest of the morning off though, so things could cool off. Your brother took off with Jamie after that too.”

“And Carson?”

“My guess is that he’s feeling pretty lucky, and if not, he should.” Hal shrugs. “Sorry you missed the excitement.”

“Yeah…” Laura gives a little nod, but isn’t amused. As Hal walks away, she glances to her desk where there’s a picture of her and Con years before. “Oh, Con,” she whispers. “Where have you gone?”

Despite Nate’s knock, Laura still jumps, looking up in surprise. It takes her just a moment to grasp what he’s saying, as she tries to pull her mind out of the previous subject and back to work. “Um…yeah, okay. Sure. Just um…” She looks around her cubicle, feeling as though she’s forgotten something. “Yeah.” She gets to her feet, hoping all her ducks are in a row. She hated pulling information out of other people like this, but apparently no one else was around – that was the only reason she ever got chosen to help out in these kinds of situations. “Lead the way, I guess.”