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[textualhealing]

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[hostage]

Good. Because I'm richer than he is, Jeff. By like... a lot.

[And he knows that's what really matters. A threat is only really good for getting someone's attention, not holding it.

The fire burns itself away between his fingers and Jesse brushes what's left of the paper onto the leg of his jeans. He picks up his glass and the bottle, pouring himself another drink.]

Now it wasn't just you, right? Who else was watching Joel? I could use a name and address.

[textualhealing]

[At least Jesse's worked out quickly what Jeff's motivations are, because he's damn right. Threats are fine for the present, but it won't be long before Jeff puts it all out of his mind and denies it ever happened. But money? Knowing there's the possibility for plenty of it is enough to keep him interested.]

Just some native that works for me. He does that kinda crap all the time. He won't bother you guys again. If I give his details up I'm gonna start losing trust in those kinda guys real quick and I need them.

[hostage]

Yeah, that'd be inconvenient. But I still need those details.

[textualhealing]

Great to know confidentiality is important to you. [But he's dragging his phone out of his pocket with the hand not still clutching onto his scotch.] What are you uh, gonna do? Like. With the details? You're not gonna... I mean if you are, I can't... [Plz don't kill anyone.]

[hostage]

[Why don't you sweat about it a little, Jeff. Jesse takes a sip of his whiskey, waiting.]

[textualhealing]

[Why are morals so hard? He misses not having them.] Jesse, I'm serious, you gotta tell me he'll come out of it alive or I can't give him up. I guess I got a line, and killing natives is it.

[hostage]

Then you probably oughta stop hiring natives for this shit.

[textualhealing]

Yeah, well, you mighta already noticed that getting imPorts for this kind of crap isn't exactly easy.

[hostage]

Tell me what I wanna know or I'll get somebody here who can pull that info straight outta your brain. How's that for easy?

[textualhealing]

[Jeff manages the most mature of eye rolls.] Look, I get it. You think you can't falter on this whole tough guy bravado right now without showing a weakness, right? But you can. You've already won. You've made your point. I'm not here to judge or push advantages or whatever other crap, I've already rolled over like a good boy. All I'm asking is for the safety of one of my guys. That's it.

[hostage]

[Jesse... smiles. No, seriously, he's massively relieved that Jeff cares so much about a single native life. That's decent of him, and Jesse appreciates decency.]

Relax. I'm not gonna hurt him. He might forget me and Joel ever existed, but he's gonna be fine.

[textualhealing]

[Well that isn't quite the reaction Jeff was expecting, but he's not going to complain about it. Although there is a small part of him hesitant to believe.]

Okay. That's good, I'll just... [Not write it down, apparently, because everything on his desk is soaked.] I'll send it over in a text. [Which he does right away, phone slipping straight back into his pocket afterwards. He sips his drink, shoulders slumped in a display of defeat.]

For what it's worth? I am sorry. I never knew it'd cause so much shit.

[hostage]

Yeah. You kinda ruined the best thing I had left in my life.

[And Jesse is still really tempted to set this fucking office on fire because of that. But that wouldn't actually fix anything. It'd just feel good.]

Like, as a word of advice, though: You're messing with some serious shit. When it comes to Mr. White, I mean. You might wanna be careful with how much he knows about you.

[textualhealing]

Uh-huh. Thanks for the warning, Mr. I Want You to Double-cross that Potential Psychopath.

[Sullen sip as he considers his options. Jeff's careful enough when it comes to his private life staying private, but that doesn't mean he can't cover his ass just that little bit more. Step one is getting a full time bodyguard. He's had enough of these sort of visits, thank you very much. Step two is... well he's not planned that far ahead but he feels like taking some responsibility for this is sort of expected here.]

What can I do for you guys? I can make this right. You two still got a chance. Just tell me what I gotta do to fix it.

[hostage]

[Jesse feels absolutely no guilt about what he's asking Jeff to do. The guy's getting what's coming to him. But that doesn't mean Jesse wants the people in Jeff's life to suffer, okay. The warning's fair.]

Mr. White's gonna kill Joel. Probably sooner than later. The only thing left to do now is find a place to hide him, probably as far away from me as possible.

[textualhealing]

Jesus Christ. [Why is everyone trying to kill each other?]

Why now? What's changed? Is he jealous or what?

[Walt knew who Joel was before he got Jeff on the watch. There's nothing he's found since then that would warrant murder by normal standards.]

[hostage]

That's one word for it. Like, putting it mild. Only "jealous" makes it sound like he thinks I'm a person. What he really thinks is I'm something he owns. So what's going through his head is Joel took something that belongs to him.

[And Jesse will be taking another drink of his whiskey now.]

[textualhealing]

And he has to kill a guy for it? Someone steals something of mine I ask for it back, I don't go murdering for it.

[This will never not be weird to him.]

And Joel's an imPort right? He'll probably come back. Then what?

[hostage]

There's ways. To get rid of everything. If anybody could figure out how to make the nanites stop working, it's Mr. White.

And you gotta stop thinking about him like he's somebody normal who has like a reasonable reaction to shit. He's not reasonable. He does whatever he feels like. The only way to ever really stop him from blowing up is to make him think everything's exactly how he likes it.

[textualhealing]

So we work with that. If he wants everything "normal"-- [Finger quotes with drink in hand, almost spilling its contents but not quite.] -- then we give him that. We make everything on the surface just how he likes it. He gonna ditch Joel if Joel "ditches" you?

[hostage]

That's what I'm hoping, but it ain't a guarantee.

[textualhealing]

Good, it's a start. Maybe I can give him the good news. Or we tell him Joel's ported out. Either way, you guys are still living your happily ever after, not being watched by yours truly, and Mr. White has been reliably informed that Joel's out of the picture. We can do this, kid, it's easy. [So much confidence in his own abilities. It's either that right now or he finds a corner to go cry in, so this is probably the better option.]

[hostage]

["It's easy." Spoken like someone who truly has no idea what he's gotten into. Jesse lets out a sigh.]

He'll figure out Joel's not ported out. It's better if you just tell him me and Joel had a fight. Over you stalking us, if you already told him you got blown. Makes the most sense.

[textualhealing]

So we put all the blame on me. I guess that's a running theme here. [Jeff's so used to palming off the blame to others that this is a hard thing to come to terms with, but he's managing thanks to the pointy persuasion techniques of Joel and Jesse's more pyro method.

He moves now, finally a little more comfortable that he's not about to be shot at any given moment, making his way towards the chair at the other side of the desk. Not his chair, not yet, but he sits nevertheless, slumping back into it as he rolls the almost empty glass in his hand.]

You guys got someplace new to stay?

[hostage]

[Jesse doesn't comment on Jeff's self-pity. This is mostly Walt's fault, of course, but Jeff's responsible for his own piece of it. The blame isn't undue.

He sips at his whiskey, apparently not bothered by Jeff electing to sit now, and shakes his head at the question.]

I gotta stay at the school. And Joel skipped town, but he's not settled anywhere yet. Probably just... I dunno. He'll keep moving. It's what he does.