Nick stares at the bunk above him where AJ was laying curled up in a protective fetal position snoring slightly as he slept. How AJ gets to sleep so fast he would never understand. Try as he might Nick took at least a half an hour to fall asleep in this place and it was never a good sleep that awaited him.
It had been a hard day for them all complete with another psychiatric evaluation. Nick hated talking to someone when he was forced to do it. Especially someone who always wanted to know how he felt about things and what were his “feelings” during this or that time. And of course after the damned evaluation came another grilling in the form of an interrogation from Cicero and Falco, who mostly just sat there looking pissed off.
They had some free time afterward, which they spent sitting in a room that contained a TV and other forms of entertainment for them. AJ spent the time sitting on a windowsill eating Cheez-Its every once in a while from a small bag he had staring at everyone. Kevin of course took over the TV and spent the time cursing off the reporter for the stock market on CNN as Howie stared at him like he had two heads. Nick spent his time watching Brian. Brian meanwhile was seated at a small keyboard where he played “Carol of Bells” over and over again getting faster each time. Nick thought he was going to break one of the damned keys off if he was to go any faster.
Nick didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home to his little whole in the wall and live his life again, even if he really didn’t have that much of a life. Of course he wouldn’t have much to get back to. The police had come with a search warrant and were currently searching each of their homes for any suspicious evidence. He had only found out because he heard Kevin arguing with an officer about how if he went back to find anything missing he would sue all their asses.
Of course he knew what was in his apartment and that scarred the shit out of him. There was some damn incriminating evidence in there if they looked in the right places. Oh course according to AJ police weren’t always the smartest people alive. Hopefully he was right.
AJ sits straight up on his cot suddenly and starts breathing deeply as his eyes dart around the cell madly. It was morning by now and Nick was up sitting on a small stool on the other side of the cell talking across the hall to Brian. Both Brian and Nick were staring at him now. Their conversation had obviously been disrupted by his sudden outburst and both were more interested in what he was doing now.
AJ was sitting straight up in bed wide eyed, breathing deeply with small beads of sweat on his forehead.
“Morning,” he says lifting one hand and waving at the two of them slightly.
“Yeah,” Nick says curtly back to him.
“You ok?” Brian asks from across the hall.
“Yeah. Yeah. Peachy,” AJ says before collapsing back onto the bunk and covering his face with his hands.
Another nightmare.
AJ had been having nightmares for years now and they were all the same. He was always around nine years old in them and hiding under his bed and he wound hear footsteps down the hall coming towards his room. Everything was always so real. He could even hear his own heart beat quicken in it. First he would see the familiar shoes first as they walked into his room and came towards the bed. He would see them stop in front of it and slowly he would kneel down and stick his head by the small opening to stare at AJ. The familiar voice would say, “You’ve been a very very bad little boy, AJ,” before the hands would reach under and pull him out. He would wake up then spring up from his bed, breathing heavily, and breaking into a cold sweat.
It was always the same. Always the same and it always ended the same way.
God he hated his past. He wished that it would just leave him alone. Leave him alone for good and stop coming back to haunt him. Maybe he needed the psychiatrist more then he wanted to admit. All he knew was in those meetings even the littlest thing he said would cause the man to scribble with his pen on his paper. He hated the feeling that this man was trying to figure out things about his life when he didn’t know him at all.
“You sure you’re ok?” Nick asks.
“Yeah yeah I’m fine,” AJ says, “Just a nightmare that’s all.”
AJ rubs his eyes again and stares at the ceiling of the cell. He looks at his hands quickly and then quickly lays them down next to him when he notices how badly he is shaking. Something was wrong with him and he knew it. Something wasn’t right and he needed help, but what kind of man would he be seeing a psychiatrist. His street credibility would drop…no plummet probably because of it.
“AJ,” Falco’s voice says coming from outside the cell as Nick steps back from the bars.
“What?” AJ asks looking over the bed down at Falco.
“C’mon Cicero wants to talk to you about something,” he says opening the cell door.
“Alright,” AJ sighs twisting his body and hopping down from his bunk and walking out of the cell, “What does he have to say?”
“I’m not sure,” Falco says closing and locking the door again as Nick stares at them.
AJ keeps his shaking hands in his pockets as they walk down the hall and into the interrogation room where Cicero is sitting at a table.
“Hello AJ,” he says, “Thank you Falco you can go,” he says to Falco who gets an almost shocked look on his face as he is asked to leave the room.
“Have fun sunshine,” AJ says to him as he walks out of the room and shuts the door behind himself.
“AJ I understand as well as you do that this is a case about the murder at the Den, but I have been asked to question you on another case.”
“What’s that?” AJ asks.
“AJ did you know your father was dead?”
AJ shrugs, “So what if I did.”
“Do you know how he died?”
“He was shot. It’s nothing new.”
“AJ they never found out who did it and they want to question you about the case.”
“So I’m a murder suspect in two different cases now?” AJ says, “Wonderful.”
“AJ listen to me if this will help you with this.”
“Ok I’m listening,” AJ says.
“If it helps as far as I’m concerned your basically clear of the murder at the Den charges.”
Brian sits on his bunk with his legs dangling over the edge staring at the wall thinking about things. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about his school work now. God he was going to be so far behind now that he might even have to take up another year at school. There goes his chance about graduating at the top of his class. God what were his parents going to say to him once he got out of here. They would have his head if they could. Maybe it was actually safer for him to stay in jail instead.
Brian looks over to his left quickly to look into AJ and Nick’s cell as AJ starts singing softly to himself again, “Have you ever felt the breeze hit your heart like the wind was blowing it apart. Has it spinning like a merry go round indicating of a storm touching ground. Wish I could weather any storm, but it was a heartbreak from the norm. It was a day I would always remember. The saddest day in sweet September. Lately I’ve been thinking bout you baby. Just sitting away watching the days go by. Lately been thinking bout you baby. Just sitting away watching the days go by…” Brian knew the song too.
Brian hadn’t had time in years to just enjoy his free time and now he had lots of it, too much according to him. He holds his hands into fists and closes his eyes tightly. His whole world was falling apart around him. He would never be hired for a good job now with this n his record. He wouldn’t finish on schedule with his class and his grades would fall. His reputation would be ruined on campus and his father would never want t see him again probably. Everything he had worked so hard for was gone…gone so fast in one night and it was all Seth’s fault. He was going to kill Snap for this. He would strangle him with every ounce of his strength when he got back to school.
Brian snaps back to reality quickly and stares around his cell quickly then opens his fists. He had two small streams of blood dripping one from each hand. He had been holding a fist so tight that he had cut into his own skin. Jesus how as he going to explain this? He opens them up flat and stares down at them and then wipes the blood off on his bed sheets.
Oh that damned psychiatrist was going to have fun asking about this one.
Kevin reads over a letter from his company manager quickly and then crumples it up. He was going to end up bankrupt because of the damned fool. Some people were so incompetent it amazed him. And now here he was stills tuck in this God forsaken jail with these people.
God he needed some type of drugs to get rid of the god-forsaken headaches he had been getting every hour on the hour for the days he had been in here. His business was falling apart and so was his reputation. God only knew what his clients were saying about him now the accused murderer. Life has finally screwed him over and he knew it. Now what was he going to do?
If it weren’t for that stupid girl with her blond hair and bright blue eyes he wouldn’t be here now. If the stupid girl had just stayed inside the damned club none of this would be happening now and he would be at his house getting ready to go out again tonight. Some people were so incompetent, they couldn’t’ even be trusted with their own life. The stupid girl whose name he had forgotten already even though she had told him herself. Of course he didn’t need to tell anyone else that. If he did he risked being stuck in here longer then he already was going to.
And that was something that he did not want at all.
Howie watches AJ from his cell as climbs on the bars of his cell taunting the guards as he sings some song. The Locks always knew how to pick them that was for sure. AJ was second in command to Conrad and pretty much everyone on the street knew that. God only knew what Conrad was doing out there without his second in command and best friend.
Call it a hobby if you will, but Howie had always been fascinated with the gangs of New York. There was always something about them that intrigued him. The ways the members always seemed to know what to do in certain situations, how the leader knew his men the best, how they never let each other down and the sense of loyalty that ran through each of their veins. It had just always been something he wanted to know about. That was even a part of why he wanted to be a police officer in the first place to find out more about the gangs and their members.
He just so happened to come across the Locks while looking through some case folders and had kept dibs on them ever since. He could name every member of the gang if you asked him to even the deceased ones. He called it a hobby others called it an obsession.
Would he ever want to be part of it? Of course he would. He would give anything to be part of a gang, but of course he was a cop. No matter what he could d to earn their respect their was still the underlining truth that he was a cop and they all held a deep hatred for cops in them.
“No. More. Drama. No. More. drama. No. More. Drama. No. More. Drama. No. More. Drama. No. More. Drama. No. More. Drama. No. More. Drama. No. More. Drama. Oh no oh no. No more drama in my in my lifeeeee. So tired. I’m so tired. So tired tired of all this drama,” AJ half yells half sings to the guards through his bars as one walks up and slams a baton against the bars trying to shut him up. Bad idea.
“Ohhhh big bad cop with a stick,” AJ says, “What ya gonna do hit me with it? I’ve been shot before that won’t hurt me. C’mon I dare you try me. C’mon,” AJ taunts the man yelling from inside the cell as the man reaches for his keys to open the cell.
“NO,” Cicero yells walking down the hall, “Don’t even think of it,” he says to the guard as he puts his keys back into his pocket, “And you,” he says turning to AJ who is smirking widely, “Don’t instigate things.”
“Instigate? Me?” AJ says then smirks again.
“AJ I mean it,” Cicero says turning his back towards him and beginning to walk away with the guard.
AJ mumbles something under his breath that Howie can’t understand, but it causes the guard to go running back toward the cell and grabs AJ by the front of his shirt pulling him against the bars.
“Let him go,” Cicero yells running back trying to pull the guard off AJ as Nick tries to pull AJ out of the guards grip from inside the cell.
Finally there is a loud ripping noise and AJ and Nick go flying backwards as AJ’s shit rips sending them stumbling to the ground. Brian was staring at them from across the hall with Kevin. AJ was getting to his feet and walks straight up to the bars locking eyes with the guard who was frozen by now. AJ was standing completely still with his eyes locked on the guard. Howie could hear someone mutter Jesus Christ, but he wasn’t sure who it was. He wasn’t sure if he did it himself. All he was sure of was that AJ was standing there with what looked like twenty or more scar running up and down his chest and back.
