BROHOUSE - NEXT MORNING

KITCHEN

LUTHER

Zaden putters around humming, reminding me of her Mother when we first got together. For the first time since I was brought here, it is just us in the house. I hate feeling unsure, but I don't know what to make of this. She looks up as I cough then gesture at the table; she shrugs. Taking a seat, I regard her carefully  as she has tensed up slightly.

“So this gay thing, how does it work?” I ask. She takes her time turning to face me, she has a bowl in her hand quickly mixing something.

“Well, they wank and suck each other off or stick their dicks up their hot tight asses, thrust until they cum…” She stops mixing then approaches with a spoon. “...can you taste the cream for me?” I am too stunned at her candour to do anything other than open my mouth. “This is where you swallow.” She prompts, then reaches for the tea towel when my spluttering causes the cream to spray over her and the table. “How does it taste?”

“Needs a bit of salt.” I return, but as she moves away I grab her arm. She immediately drops the bowl and yanks herself free. I put my hands up and slowly stand. “Whoa! Sorry! Sorry! When did that happen?!” I point at her shoulder. “I hate tattoos, you know that!”

“You hate...are you kidding me?!”

“Why? To spite me?!”

“Oh piss off! Get over your damn self! I have a tattoo because it covers the bullet hole.”

“Bullet? When the fuck did you get shot and why wasn't I told?!”

“You were finished with me, remember?! Besides, you will hate the reason!”

“Try me!”

“Took a bullet for Faal when his gun jammed on a job in South Africa.” I stare at her. “Yeah, love him so much I was prepared to die for him! What do you to say to that?!” I sit down slowly and swallow hard. “Just as I thought, nothing!”

“He died in my arms. Never even opened his eyes, took one breath then was gone.” She stops cleaning up the bits of bowl. “He was so small. And the first one I held…” I fight the urge not to cry and succeed, I cannot show weakness in front of her. “...and he died.”

“So I didn’t kill him, you did!” She spits back.

ZEE

I don’t think I have ever felt as shitty as I do right now. The pain in his eyes is genuine, but to my mind it was deserved after all he said and did.

“And that’s why I couldn’t go to the hospital when you took a header down the stairs.” He continues, then closes his eyes briefly. “I couldn’t watch another one of my kids die.”

“Oh bullshit!” I can’t, no won’t believe this. “You called me, us, murderers time and time again and blamed us; well more me than him, for daring to survive the birth!”

“I know! And I should not have taken my grief out on you and I’m sorry!”

“Are you sorry about trying to get Lindsay and Grady together too? And don’t think for one minute that I was jealous! Why would I be jealous when I have a big fat steak of a man to greet me at home? No, hurting me was something I am used to, but to go all out to hurt Matt was…”

“He looked so much like him when he was born…” He says softly. “Just the spit of him and it winded me.”

“He...he did?” Now I am stunned as I have never ever seen a picture of Zebediah. Nobody has, as he refused to have any photos of him in the house, but Mom said she knew he had one, but not where it was.

“Wait here.” He mutters, and stalks out. Less than a minute later he is back with his wallet and hands it to me. “Right at the back.” My hands are trembling as I open it and pull out a small laminated picture; then blink rapidly. “See what I mean?” I flail for the chair and he helps me to sit down.

“Jesus.” I mutter as I stare at it.

“Turn it over.” He orders quietly.

“Who is...is that me?” I gasp.

“Yep.” His chair creaks a bit as he sits down then scrapes as he moves a little further back. “I always wanted a girl. Yeah, I know what I said, I remember everything I said and did. And like I said, she’s all you, apart from the eyes.”

“Why do you hate him so much, whiteness aside?”

He sighs as he sits back. “The same reason every father hates the man that replaces them in their daughter's life…”

“Try again, you weren't like that with Grady.” I retort.

“Ah, but Grady was about the money.” I blink at him for a few seconds. “Him I could handle and bend to my will, but he...Faal was, and is, all about loving you. I could not stand it!”

“You offer him money to go?” I scrutinise his face.

After a few seconds he nods. “Gotta speculate to illuminate - and it illuminated his principals. And your damn stubbornness.”

“Eh?”

“After he finished things with you, you stormed right back after him and got him back. Oh nicely tweaked on the rights.”

I smirk as I remember the look on his face when he came with Lindsay and Michael to try and reclaim them, then once more finding myself gaping at him; he waggles his eyebrows. “What do you mean tweaked?”

“Just cause you are Black does not mean you can shit on my family. I reworded a thing or three.”

“You...you did that?”

“Blood is blood.” He replies. “Can I have it back?” He gestures for the wallet and photo and I slowly hand them back. “Do...do you want a copy of it?”

“Please.”

We are both quiet, just taking on board what has been said, when the door is flung open jerking us out of our contemplation. Faal and Zeus screech to a halt  with concern on their faces. Part of me feels for him when they’re immediately at my back.

“What's going on? What happened to the bowl? Did he hurt you in anyway again?!” Faal rattles off questions, but keeps his gaze on Luther, while Zeus starts to clean up.

“Always did hate a mess.” Luther snickers. “I startled her that’s all, we were just talking. I shall leave you to it.”

“Talking? You and him were talking?” Faal is incredulous as he watches Luther start to leave.

“Will tell you later. What's with the hurricane?” I squeeze his fingers and he relaxes a bit.

“Novotny has been spending.” Zeus explains and Luther comes back in. He looks at me, I nod and he retakes his seat. “Uh…”

“And…” I prompt.

“He's been taking out large sums of cash. The only other time he has used the PIN is to pay for the hotel, but he has checked out now.”

“When did…?” Luther and I say at the same time. I raise my eyebrow. “Oh yeah, you fixing my fuck up.” He chuckles and I fight not to smile.

“Thank you. So when did he check out?”

“Late yesterday morning. And we know where he went, because the hotel called a cab for him. He was taken to the Bridge Place Hotel.”

“Jesus. He is really testing his mettle, isn't he?!” I glare at Luther.

“And that is important because?” Luther frowns.

“Bridge Place Hotel is less than hour from where his ex, Ben, and his new husband, Steve, live.” I explain before getting up and grabbing a bottle of red wine and glasses. I check my watch and do some counting on my fingers.

“Am good, make it large.” Luther scrubs his face whilst I pour. For five minutes nobody says anything as we try to make sense of what he is doing. “Get him to go back willingly.”

“He's having the time of his life on someone else's dime as per fucking usual; why would…” I stop and take a sip. “...can you word it right?”

“I got one idiot to sign, and I saw him as a son. What do you think?!”

“I think that that galloping grasping gargoyle is going to regret ever bragging to him.” I turn to Faal. “Send Mac for Lindsay.”

“Okay what and why?” Zeus frowns.

“If truth be told, if I wasn't such a vengeful hellcat then she would not have been able to gloat about her good fortune.” Faal pulls me gently into his arms and nods. “But I could not have her banging on in prison about how she had a millionaire waiting for her!”

“Zaden, what are you talking about?” Zeus demands.

“You didn't?!” Luther laughs, the first genuine laugh I have heard in a long while.

“Yep, she did!” Faal chuckles. “She had someone in for Lindsay too, to make sure that flat ass-et made it out alive so we could collect. So she came up with the flight plan idea.”

“Scary, just scary!” Zeus snorts.

“So the office then?” I prompt, and with yet another smirk Luther nods and leads the way.

“Seriously, what the frickin’ hell is going on there?!” Zeus mutters.

“I don't know, but I look forward to fucking it out of her later!” Faal replies.

“Not as much as I do!” I call over my shoulder.

ADIRONDACK PRISON, NEW YORK - A WEEK LATER

HOSPITAL WING

FOX

I look down the corridor and will my heartbeat to slow. The door opens, and in strides Jones. He nods and smiles as he passes the other orderlies and guards then makes his way to me.

“How's the patient?” He chirps.

“Fine, doing fine. Sorry about your Mom, she okay?”

“Yeah she's great. Just gonna put stuff away.”

“Great.”

MICHAEL (STILL MASQUERADING AS JACOB JONES)

As I get to the lockers I can't believe we pulled this off. Okay, I didn't get to see Brian, but I got out and I have some lots of money from his account, which I am sure that Fox and I can reach a deal with. I stuff the holdall into the locker and lock it, Jones is an idiot, not only did he have his PIN number he also had his locker code on the same piece of paper! I look forward to coming back to collect that!

“Hi.” I turn to the voice behind me and smile. “Craddock, Edward Craddock. I am one of the new guards. You are?”

“Jacob Jones, an orderly.”

“Jacob...oh, yeah heard the guys talking. Is your Mom alright? it must have been such a shock, heart attacks are scary!”

“Yep, it was. She’s getting there, but I may need to take some time off again just in case. So when did you start?”

“Last week. Looking after Michael Novotny.”

“Oh yeah, poor guy, such a mess. Happened just before I took Stark. Did they ever find out who attacked him?”

“Not yet.” He looks at his watch. “I gotta go, nice to meet you.”

“You too. Have a good shift.” He waves as he heads out, and I lean against the lockers before walking around to check if anybody else is in here but I am alone. I grin as I open the locker again and take out the emails that Luther and I exchanged a week ago from the holdall and reread them…

Luther: Novotny! You FUCKING IDIOT where the hell are you?!

Me: still in Pittsburgh, having a nice break, how you doing?

Luther: how am I doing?! How am I FUCKING doing?! Oh, just great, apart from the fact that you are roaming the streets! Get your ass back now!

Me: have you missed me? ;)

Luther: winking, winking are you buttfuck?! No I haven't missed you, but have some news that will have your hole clenched tighter than a virgin nun’s pussy! Jones is waking up and more importantly healing!

Me: so?

Luther: well when the swelling goes down, they are going to know that he is not you ain't they?!

Me: so I have time, I haven't managed to get near Brian yet.

Luther: how the fuck not? For a man so obsessed, I’d have thought that his house would've been the first place you'd go!

Me: I don't count that place as his house! That's their house, and the stench of his hubby lingers! I am talking about our place, the loft, but it’s gone! Some bastard burnt it! Anyway, I shall get to him somehow, I might follow his new press officer - shame he wasn’t as good in bed as he is with words!

Luther: for fuck sake, focus! I am on my way back to New York!

Me: can’t you try and stay a bit longer? I want to try Babylon tonight!

Luther: no I can’t! I have been passed fit to travel. Now get yourself back by the end of the day! Fox has given you a cover story - your mother had a heart attack and you were on compassionate leave. If you are not back by the end of this week, both you and Jones will have another fucking problem, do you understand?!

Me: Today?! I don't have enough money for a flight back! I can scrape together enough for a train or something, but that will take longer…

I remember it took him almost three hours to respond; when he came back with end of the week or he will send someone to find me, I was so happy! I had over $6 grand in cash on me so splashed out a bit and ended up getting drunk for three days straight. The hangover was so worth it! I hear someone calling out to Jones so quickly put the stuff away and stride out.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

The guy frowns briefly then gives me a sympathetic smile. “Uh, Warden just wants to check on you, see how you are holding up. Can you go to her office in an hour?”

“Oh sure, no problem. I think I will go and see Stark first.”

“Okay, Ward C, he’s caught a chill. Poor widdle baby!”

“Exactly. See you later.”

WARD C

LUTHER

My stomach is churning in anticipation and relief. Anticipation that the man that wished my granddaughter dead is back behind bars, and relief that a deal has been struck with the DA. I look up as the door opens and Jones comes in, smiling as he approaches. “You look well considering…” He smirks and takes the seat next to the bed with his back to the door.

“Thanks for your concern. She’s fine, thanks for asking.” He leans back in his chair. “So where is he?”

“Novotny?” He nods with a sneering smile. “Still in ICU, went back into a coma.”

“Back into...so why didn’t you contact me?!” He hisses.

“And how the hell was I supposed to email you that?! You are the one in a coma!” I look at this twerp with such disbelief that I wonder how the hell he managed to wank in the first place, let alone get it in the cup to produce a child of Jenny’s smarts! Seems the only thing she inherited was his smart, but in a better way, mouth!

“Oh yeah! Forgot that! I’ve gotten so used to being him!”

MICHAEL

Although I can just about understand why he didn't email me; I am still pissed that he didn't try another way of letting me know that I didn't have to get back so quickly.

“So…” I move the chair closer to his bed and he frowns. “...my Mom could fall ill again and I have to go and see her…” I watch the surprise flit across his face.

“Not sure why you are telling me this.”

“So I can try and…” I am interrupted by the door opening and it is Craddock.

“There you are, Jones, the Warden sent me to find you, wants to see you now.”

“Oh, okay. Will see you later Stark.” I wink at him as I stand and follow Craddock out.

WARDEN CLIFTON FLECK'S OFFICE - 10 MINUTES LATER

CLIFTON ‘CLIFFIE’ FLECK

I look up as the door opens and gesture to the seat in front of me, he sits down and adopts a sorrowful expression.

“How have things been?”

“Not good. I thought she was getting better, but had just received word that she's taken a turn again.” I sit back nodding and his sadness deepens. “I may have to take some more time off to go back to visit.”

“Of course, I understand. Can you bear with me for a minute, I just need to get something for my next meeting.”

He nods and I stride next door and collect the holdall. He is too busy looking around the office to notice. It is the thud of it being put on the desk that brings his focus back to me.

“So, Mr Novotny, before you are formally charged with absconding from jail and the murder of Jacob Jones amongst other crimes; take off his face!”