Pickle jar

Carson gives Misty a little smirk at her comment. “Alright, I give. You can drive.” He pulls his own jacket a little tighter around himself. “You pick the place, but it’s gotta be in agreement with my wallet.”

He nudges her teasingly as they walk, finally getting back to her car. Getting in, he shakes his head. “Crazy weather. They’re saying it’s one of the coldest winters in a long time. Just my luck – the one year I’m without a car.” He rolls his eyes.

It’s not much later and the two are at a café downtown. It’s fairly quiet today, peaceful, even though it looks out onto the busy street.

“…so I spent the first night at her place last night.” Carson finishes up telling Misty that he’d moved in with Dani after having been living at Mom and Pop’s all this time. He finishes off his glass of soda pop, then shrugs. “I guess that brings us up to date. Well… not quiet.”

He cocks his head, looking across the table at Misty. “I forgot to mention that somewhere along the line I got accepted back by the only sheila that ever got the upper hand on me.”


Wyatt sighs and nods his agreement, slipping in behind the steering wheel of his jeep once more. Waiting a few minutes until Ty was a short ways away, Wyatt drives slowly and makes a few unnecessary turns to stay a satisfactory distance from their target. "Where is the blockhead going anyway?" he mutters.


Ty trudges down the sidewalk, his hands in his jacket pockets. His eyes were focused on the cement slabs at his feet, rather than ahead, so when the women knocks into him, he jumps, completely startled. Turning around, he lifts his eyebrows. "Um..no problem?"

He's surprised again when the second figure moves past him, and he stops, a bit confused, but not caring a whole lot. It wasn't any of his business what was going on. But...

His eyes sudden catch sight of the forest green jeep several blocks away, and a scowl forms. "I told you I wouldn't be babysat," he growls under his breath.

Turning, he slides into an alleyway instead of heading down the sidewalk, then scoots behind a dumpster, out of sight from the street.


Wyatt drives slowly, suddenly having lost sight of Ty. "Aw, great." He glances down to the left, then to the alley on the right, but Ty had vanished. "He may not be able to read, but he's too smart for his own good."

Shaking his head, he makes sure no one is coming before doing a U-turn. "If he wants to be alone, so be it. I'm not gonna play this gave with him. If you want to go looking for him, that's up to you, but I have to get back to the office before I'm the one on the unemployed list."


There's just enough space between the dumpster and the brick wall, and Ty can see Wyatt turn around and drive off again.

Giving a smirk of satisfaction, Ty rises to his feet again, continuing down the alley until he's at the other side of the block. Looking both ways, he opts to turn left towards the center of town.


Axel tinkers a bit in the engine, hearing Jess' comment about the carburetor, but keeping his eyes on his work. "Mm-hmm..." He reaches in to fiddle with a hose. "Looks like the last guy who worked on this had a few of his own screws loose."

Slipping his hand down in with a wrench, something gives way and he winces, drawing his hand back out just in time before the tool slips from his numb grasp to clatter onto the floor. Shaking his head with a little bit of disgust, he rubs his hand for a moment until he can flex his fingers again and pick up the wrench.

Still concentrating, he goes right back to work. "The carburetor has problems, that's for sure, along with several other things. I'm surprised the guy was even able to drive it here without being towed."

Axel squints into the engine, then gestures over to the tool bench. "Hey, grab me those pliers over there, would you?" He keeps his eyes on his work, even after receiving the tool. "There we are..."

Working for a while longer, the time slips by. Small talk mixed with work would create a boring atmosphere for some, but here, somehow it doesn't.

"Grease!"

Axel looks up from the van to see Leo. "What?"

"Ten minutes and she's ready to roll. How's your project coming?"

Axel holds up a piece of severed hose. "Peachy."

Leo grins. "Well you and the peaches have fun. This baby here is gonna be running as smooth as butter. Don't know what your problem was with it."

Axel shakes his head, a wry grin barely noticeable. "It's like a pickle jar," he calls back. "I've been doing all the work, and all you had to do was pop the lid."

Leo sets his hands on his hips. "That's not fair!"

Axel's grin finally emerges. "Sounds far to me. But you better get a move on, or those ten minutes are going to be gone."

Muttering under his breath, Leo gets back to work.

Axel turns his head to catch Jess' eye, his own sparkling with humor. "Leo wins a trophy and you get your car back. Seems like a pretty good deal." He looks over to the far wall where there was a clock. It was noon. "And all before lunch to boot." He gives a nod of satisfaction. There was more, dancing on the tip of his tongue, but he held back, returning to the van.

"Big plans today?" he finally asks.


"No."

Rick sighs and looks at Scott, trying to change his mind, but finding it nearly impossible. He sits on the edge of the bed, papers in hand. It was after lunch, and trying to get Scott to interact with him was like pulling teeth. "But Scott... what happened last night..."

"Won't happen again," Scott states flatly. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine!"

"No, I'm a loony, right?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Rick looks at Scott sternly. "Now I'm trying to give you the best option here."

Scott tucks his knees up close to his chest, remaining stubborn. "It's an option. That means I have a choice. And I don't want to stay there. I want to stay home... or here... but not there."

Rick sighs, giving up. "Alright. You don't have to stay. But will you go see her?"

Scott shrugs.

"I thought we talked about this." Rick tries to look Scott in the eye, but his younger friend refuses.

"Maybe I changed my mind."

"You said yourself that you knew you needed some help. Don't you want to feel better? Don't you want to get rid of this nightmare?"

Scott swallows hard and shrugs. One minute he wanted to go to the counselor, and the next he was terrified of it. "Fine."

"Alright then." Rick gets to his feet. "We're going to do this then. And you're going to give it your best shot, because I know you can."

Turning, he heads for his desk, picking up the phone.

Not really wanting to hear the conversation, while Rick's back is turned, Scott slides off the bed. At least he was dressed for the day... he'd gotten that much accomplished by noon.

Padding quietly in his bare feet, he slips out into the hall. Squinting in the brighter hall lights, he looks down both ways, seeing no one. He didn't know what he was doing... he knew Austin was around here somewhere and that was a scary thought, but he just wanted to get out of the infirmary and out of Rick's sight for two minutes.

Taking a deep breath, he walks slowly, keeping one hand running on the wall as if looking for security. Without Domino, he didn't have any security at all.

Not knowing why, he finds himself stopped outside his old office once again, glancing in on Dalton.


"Hi, Miss Garrison. This is Rick Johnston, from the Elite. I visited the other day." Rick cradles the phone between his shoulder and chin. "I just spoke with Scott, and... he's willing to come see you. He doesn't want to stay, even though I wanted him to after an episode last night when he just about got his wish to die." He sighs deeply. "But at this point, I'll take what I can get. I'd like to set up his first visit."