Travis was tense most of the night but he said he was fine. Whenever I asked what was wrong he would just smile and said it was nothing and that I was making a big deal out of nothing.
I didn't believe him. The Casey house has just been attacked and he seemed to be harboring anger towards Cameron for the rest of the night. But 'it was nothing'.
It was late and Travis and I had been hanging out between his bedroom and Ben's for a few hours. I started to get too tired and eventually left on my own so I wouldn't pass out in Ben's room. Travis remained, talking with Ben about who had checked in with either of them.
I was currently lying on his bed with my eyes shut and his comforter completely over my head. I inhaled lightly. It smelled like the woods. Like trees.
The door opened and I panicked only for a second, sure that whoever it was wouldn't see what I was wearing. I didn't have spare clothes here. It was beginning to be a common occurrence now. So when I was getting ready for bed, I just grabbed one of his t-shirts.
"Lacey," Travis said quietly. I relaxed, not worried about Ben or Annabeth walking in on me in only a t-shirt. My legs were freezing but as soon as I got in his bed to sleep, I couldn't complain.
"Why are you hiding under the covers?" he asked as he climbed onto his bed.
"I'm not hiding," I argued.
The covers that were covering me entirely up to my head moved up only slightly before falling back over me and I could feel warmth near the side of my body. I wanted to inch closer to him to feel how warm he was but I stayed where I was.
Instead, with my eyes still closed, I reached blindly out towards him with one of my hands until I latched onto his arm and tugged him to my side. Heat hit my legs and I melted.
"You're like an icicle," he said, jumping back at first before he returned.
"Yes," I admitted but there was a smile on my face that he couldn't see. I inhaled deeply and the smell was even stronger than before. It was soothing and I felt my muscles relax more than they already had.
"Are you okay?" he asked, concern lacing his voice as he came closer to me to try to warm me up.
"Yeah, I just don't have pants on," I stated before focusing back on the smell.
He didn't say anything for awhile after that and I was extremely curious to see the look on his face but not enough to move the comforter away from over my face.
His hand slinked around my side on the outside of my shirt and he squeezed my hip.
"I could warm you up," he suggested.
I inhaled again. Comfort and safety.
"Are you sniffing something?" Travis asked when I didn't answer him.
I nodded, not that he could see. "Your bed smells like you."
Suddenly, Travis was under the comforter with me and his voice was close to my face. "Are you serious?" he asked.
"So did the one at the Casey house but it wasn't this good," I admitted.
Travis started laughing and hugged me to his body. "You're such a creep."
I shrugged.
"It's a good thing I like you," he said.
My stomach fluttered and I opened my eyes to peek at him. "Creep and all?"
Travis nodded. "Creep and all. If you were romantic or some shit, you'd probably be perfect and then I wouldn't stand a chance."
I scrunched up my face. "I'm romantic."
He snorted.
"Travis, I am!"
"When?" he challenged.
I cocked my jaw to the side for a second, "Well it's not exactly easy when we're being shot at every time I see you."
I turned on my side to see him better. After being under the covers under for so long, my eyes had started to adjust to the light. His bedroom was also dark but not as dark as under the comforter and a bit of that was streaming in where the comforter didn't completely cover his head. So I was easily able to tell he didn't look impressed at all.
"I get shot at more than you do and I'm romantic all the time."
I thought back to all of the things he'd said even just recently that made my stomach twist and turn. Maybe he didn't say or do a lot of the things that were the textbook definition of romantic, but he still always managed to give me butterflies.
"Eh," I joked.
Travis pushed me away slightly from him in protest but I pulled myself back to him.
"How are you going to lay here in my bed and tell me I'm not romantic?" he asked.
"I'll admit it if you admit that I can be," I said, tangling my legs with his so he wouldn't push me away again.
"Cold, you're so cold," he cringed but didn't move away. "I'm not admitting shit unless I know it's a fact."
I groaned in frustration. "This isn't a city to go on dates in!"
"That's not my fault," he said, clearly amused.
I paused. "Let me prove it to you."
He just laughed. "You made it clear that you can't multitask. I can wait until we aren't getting shot at for you to romance me off my feet."
I pushed on his shoulder slightly. He'd taken his shirt off so I made no attempt to remove my hand, letting it rest on his shoulder because I was all too eager to oogle over his muscles.
"I'm serious," I said, trying to be firm. "I'll be romantic."
"Fine," he said laughing for a little bit before settling down, staring at me softly.
My stomach started to flip flop in on itself in tenfold and I pushed on his shoulder.
"Stop. You're doing it right now," I said.
"Doing what?" he asked.
"You can't give me any more butterflies until I do something to give you butterflies and you say 'Dang, Lace is romantic,'" I said in my best Travis voice. It was a terrible impression.
"I wasn't even doing anything," he said quietly with his eyes still on me as my stomach flipped.
"Yes. You were looking at me. You do it all the time when you look at me like that or when you kiss me or when I ask you where we're running away to and you say 'Anywhere you want to go,' and all I can think is going everywhere with you," I said, impersonating him again.
He scrunched up his nose, "I don't sound like that."
I rolled my eyes. "That's not the point."
"We're going to be waiting forever," he let out a dramatic sigh.
Every now and then he would say things obviously romantic but otherwise it was just the little things and I don't think he even realized it. Well, until now, that is. He was probably too smooth for his own good. Meanwhile, what had I done to show I cared? Guilt started to eat at me again.
"I do care about you, you know. I came back here for you," I tried to reason.
"Mmm you did," he said as his hand trailed up and down my side. "As a cop."
"I'm not," I stated. "Stop saying that."
Travis only chuckled. "Or what? You going to arrest me?" he taunted.
"Perv," I sighed and one of my hands went up to cover my face. I could feel my cheeks heating up but I knew he couldn't see.
I peeked at him to see him smiling and my heart soared. Only, it was the type of feeling that filled me up so much I felt like it was going to pour out of my mouth just how much I liked his smile. Or just how great he made me feel.
But I felt like anything I said now was only going to come across as me trying too hard since we were just talking about how I wasn't romantic. So I tried to store this moment as best as I could, remembering just how I felt so I could use it later.
"I like you," I said with a grin, remembering how he'd said something similar earlier. I leaned closer to him.
"Fuck, does that mean it's too late to bail?" he whispered.
I laughed and wrapped my arms around him, kissing him.
That morning, I woke up alone.
The bed was cold which told me he'd been gone for awhile. I pulled my pants from yesterday on and one of Travis' clean shirts before exiting. Yawning, I looked around for anyone and came up short until I found Annabeth in the living room reading a book.
"Hey," I greeted.
She glanced up at me for a second before looking back at her book. That was better than a sarcastic remark.
I went into the kitchen that was connected to get some coffee. Upon entering, there was a giant whiteboard sitting on the ground and leaning against one of the cupboards. Different colored Expo markers were used to write all over it in different handwriting.
There was a long to do list on it. Some of the tasks included pack up shit - tom crew, check on trackers, fuck bitches get money, interrogate - jay crew, get cars - eli, meeting, check hannah's apartment, get stick out of your ass.
They had things to buy on another side of the board and then things to investigate. It almost looked like the start of the boards back at the special ops conference room at the hotel. Almost being the key word because wherever there wasn't a list, there were obscene gestures or drawings, most of which were stick figures in random compromising acts.
I poured a cup of coffee as I looked over the board some more.
"Where are they?" I asked loud enough so Annabeth could hear.
"Out trying to clean up the mess of yesterday," she said.
I nodded, that made sense. "Are you dropping me back off at the hotel or what?" I asked as I peeked in the fridge.
"We figured you'd stay here for the day. The Dacostas know you work with the cops. They'd know where to find you if they're trying to squeeze you for info again."
"So what are we doing?" I asked as I shut the fridge.
She looked at me with annoyance in her eyes, glancing up from her book.
I smiled at her. "Maybe we can go get breakfast?"
There was barely anything in the fridge and I was starving. I didn't know why they didn't keep this house as well stocked in basically everything, food and furniture even, as the Casey house. Especially if they had the money for it.
"When Hannah gets up," she said.
I tried to contain my happiness as I drank my coffee as fast as I could and practically ran to the shower to freshen up. I took probably a longer shower than necessary as I thought over last night in my head, getting lost in my mind. I wanted to do something nice for Travis, he was always making me feel like he cared for me or wanted me around. I mulled over how to do that and by the time I'd gotten out of the shower, the bathroom was full of steam.
I threw his shirt back on. It was an old t-shirt that had the sleeves cut off. I personally liked when he wore shirts like this, at least back in the day because you could see his arms and muscles and tattoos. Now I didn't see him often enough to really see him in regular shirts. At least, not yet.
I looked at one of my arms, it gravely different than what Travis' would've looked like in it. I brushed a hand over my bare upper arm, particularly where his Casey tattoo was. The gang meant the world to him. It was his life, his family.
I finished getting ready and went into the living room to see Annabeth in the same spot.
"Hi," I said, sitting down next to her on the couch.
"Jesus Christ."
"I was thinking," I began.
"Congratulations."
"As I was saying, I was wondering...would you consider me a Casey member? Ben mentioned something to me the other day and you know, I was just curious..." I tried to ask it as casually as I could, like I didn't care what her answer would be but my insides were swirling with fear and I had to remind myself to breathe. Act normal.
"Why?" she asked hesitantly.
I bit my lip. "I was just thinking about tattoos and stuff."
Annabeth started laughing. Hard. It was one of the few times I'd ever heard her laughing and I looked at her uncomfortably.
"You want to get a Casey tat?" she asked, still laughing lightly.
I shrugged, looking off to the side trying not to be embarrassed. "I mean, everyone has them, don't they? If you don't think I should, I won't."
She didn't say anything and just started scrolling through her phone.
"I was thought about it in the shower and I don't really know where to go or if you do them yourself because I figure that's something you don't want anyone just doing," I played with my fingers.
Annabeth still didn't say anything but Hannah walked in, looking more than happy for the early morning. I waved to her.
"And I thought maybe Travis would like it but I wouldn't know what to get, even," I said quietly, realizing how dumb my idea probably was. She stood up and walked out of the room, putting her phone to her ear.
Great, she was probably going to tell on me and I was going to have an even angrier Travis busting into the room shortly.
"What's going on?" Hannah asked, sitting next to me.
I waved her off, "Nothing. We were going to get breakfast if you're hungry."
Her eyes softened and she tilted her head to the side. "Girl, I'm so glad you're here. Do you know how hard it is to get real food in here? You're so amazing. No wonder Travis likes you."
I grinned.
"So what are you going to do about your job?" she asked.
I looked at her curiously, wondering why she wasn't upset about yesterday and only cared about my job. "Are you not upset at all about the Casey house? Wasn't it like, your house?"
"Psh," she said. "Nah. Not mine. I was just a name on a piece of paper. I've never even stepped foot inside of it. But you have and you're working for the other side. Spicy," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
Annabeth walked in, saving me from having to answer anything thankfully.
"Let's go to breakfast then Lacey can get a tattoo," she said and swiped a pair of keys from a jar.
I stood up, shocked. "What?"
"What? You're getting a tattoo?" Hannah asked.
"Are you sure? Are you really sure?" I asked, walking closer as she waited for the two of us.
Annabeth shrugged off the jacket she was wearing and handed it to me. She lifted the bottom of her tank top and I averted my eyes quickly, not sure what she was doing.
"Oh my gosh," I whispered.
But she paused, with her tank top up near her shoulders, exposing her back.
"That's what the design looks like," Annabeth said.
"What the heck?" I asked as I moved closer to her back and held my hand out closer to the mark on her back, my fingers hovering over her skin but not touching.
Annabeth didn't have a tattoo. She had a scar.
"Did someone brand you?" I asked, but I already knew the answer was yes.
It looked like Travis' tattoo. It was a bunch of Celtic designs all interweaving. Except his was ink and hers was skin. And it looks like at one point, she moved because some of the lines were doubled where they shouldn't have been. The tip of my finger finally touching some of the permanently raised skin and she flinched away, pulling her shirt back down.
"Cam has that on his chest," Hannah said as Annabeth grabbed her jacket roughly from my hands.
My eyes widened, following Annabeth out of the house.
"Wait, can we just leave him?" I asked, speaking of the sleeping Cameron.
Hannah nodded as Annabeth's all black car unlocked. She seemed to know better than anyone.
I stood next to the car, "Do the other guys have that?"
"No," Annabeth said. "Just us."
Hannah was a little taller than I was so I climbed into the small back seat, not wanting to feel guilty over hogging all the extra leg room like yesterday. Immediately, new car smell hit me and I ran my hands over the entire back seat's leather.
"Only Caseys do," Annabeth further explained but that didn't help any. They were all Caseys.
She started the car after Hannah shut the passenger door, the engine almost literally roaring to life and I didn't know I was a car person until this moment right now. I wanted this car.
"Casey blood," she said as she backed up and peeled out of the driveway.
"Who did that to you?" I asked, as I watched the fields outside become a blur. The drive to wherever we were going was sure to be cut in half with her driving. The engine hummed as she sped up.
"Our dads."
The look on Hannah's face told me that she didn't know that either. But then, she mentioned yesterday she only knew what she needed to know. I didn't know how she managed. I didn't know how she dealt with working at the hospital, giving Eli or Cameron supplies to take and not worry or not want to go and help herself for all of those years.
I knew Annabeth's dad was in prison and he still was but I wasn't sure what happened to Cameron's dad. He must have died or Dylan and Owen would have had a file on him and I couldn't see any other reason Cameron would have taken over the Casey gang.
The only noise that filled the car after that was the engine as Annabeth accelerated.
"We should change the subject," Hannah offered.
"Knock yourself out," Annabeth said, unamused.
"What's up with that whiteboard?" I asked.
Annabeth sighed and I saw her roll her eyes in the rear view mirror. "They're idiots."
"I tried not to read it. I didn't want to know," Hannah shook her head.
The speed declined enough for us to turn a sharp corner and I held onto the headrests to stop myself from swerving.
"Help me fix it when we get home," Annabeth ordered, looking at me.
I grinned. "You mean you don't think getting a stick out of your ass is important business?"
Annabeth laughed again and I felt a sort of pride growing in me.
We pulled up to a drive thru and ordered. Annabeth paid and as we waited for our food, she sighed.
"We come here a lot. This chick has a crush on Ben," she stated like she was talking about the forecast for tomorrow.
I pulled on the headrests to try to look at the girl getting our breakfast food ready. "Really? Isn't she in like, high school?" I asked.
Hannah giggled. "Aw, she has a little school girl crush on him."
When she gave us our food, the girl looked like she was about to say something else, but Annabeth sped away before she got the chance. I almost felt bad for the girl.
We ate on the way and I wasn't sure where we were, but we ended up in a suburban neighborhood. We parked on the street and I waited for Annabeth to lead the way.
"We're not going to get caught by anyone out here, are we?" I asked, looking around.
"No. Now don't touch anything. Don't break anything. Don't tell anyone you're here. Especially Travis," Annabeth said slowly to me, pointing a finger in my direction.
I held up my hand. "Jeez, calm down. I'll behave."
She walked up to a small house and around to the back door, where she knocked a few times. A man covered in muscles and tattoos opened the door and let us in.
We walked into the small house. The lighting was dim and it smelled like drugs.
"Annabeth," the guy covered in tattoos said.
She nodded, crossing her arms. "Chad. This is Lacey and Hannah," Annabeth gestured to us like it was physically paining her to introduce us.
"Miller's Lacey?" he looked at Annabeth for a second and then back to me.
Good god. It was inescapable.
"Ooh wee," Chad said putting a hand over his heart and looking over at Annabeth. "You didn't tell me she was coming."
"Why does everyone know me?" I stomped my foot, annoyance in my voice. "Is there like a gangster's gazette I need to subscribe to or something?"
Chad laughed. "She's funny."
"She's dumb," Annabeth said, sitting on the couch.
"What are we doing?" he rubbed his hands together, "Who's getting inked?"
I stepped forward, "I wanted the Casey tattoo, uh Annabeth knows what it looks like?"
"Oh damn," Chad said and pulled out some boxes. "I don't know how many of those I've done. I could do that with my eyes closed. Where?"
"Um. I hadn't thought that far," I admitted and looked down at my body.
"Dumb," Annabeth said.
Yeah, probably, I couldn't help but agree with her that time.
Hannah sat down next to her. "Well what are you planning to do about your job?"
"I need it nowhere that's easy to see," I said, Hannah's words helping narrow down my options. I hadn't figured anything out with Dylan and Owen and I couldn't exactly show up to work when they decided to take me off house arrest with the Casey tattoo on my arm or hand.
"What about your leg?" Annabeth suggested, which I was surprised to hear her offering any advice.
Chad sat down at a desk, getting everything ready.
I pursed my lips to the side, "No..." I tired to think of any place no one would see. If I had it on my leg, there was a chance if I was wearing shorts or pj's that someone could see.
"Right here," I said, pointing to the spot on my ribs right under my chest. The spot was right under where my bra ended and no one would see that unless I knew about it. I always had a shirt or tank top on.
Chad looked over at where I was indicating, except I still had Travis' shirt on.
"That's going to hurt," he warned.
"Yeah, but no one will see it. I don't care."
He motioned for me come over near the couch by him and I stood next to it.
"Is this like," I started, looking down at the couch. "Safe?" I figured that was better than asking if it was sanitary.
He glared at me for a second, "Yes."
It looked like he had his own little tattoo area in this corner but in my head, you had to be on a table top or some fancy chair, not someone's couch. Hesitantly, I laid down on the couch as he put gloves on. I pulled up part of my shirt so he could access it and he started to clean off the area to prep it.
"I heard you shot Sterling Dacosta," Chad said as started drawing on my skin. I tried not to overthink what I was doing.
"What?"
"She got him in the arm," Annabeth clarified, standing up now to watch what he was doing. It made me feel a bit better, seeing as I had no idea who Chad was. Hannah was looking through a book. I wasn't sure what it was of.
"Nice," he said, nodding his head. "Mad balls on this one."
My face reddened and he laughed.
"Chill out, it won't hurt so much if you do," Chad offered as he reached back in his chair to grab the ink gun. "Ready?"
I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a deep breath, trying to relax before I nodded. "Yeah."
After awhile, I started to become numb to it. It still hurt, but it was just something that I was learning to live with and I couldn't remember what it was like to not feel this type of pain in my side. It was like when I got a cold and I couldn't remember what it was like to breathe normally. This was definitely, basically the same thing.
Annabeth was watching like a hawk almost the entire time, only ever moving away to see what Hannah was looking at. Apparently she was thinking about getting a heart tattoo but decided to put a pin in that idea and come back to it. I don't think my pained face helped her decision any.
All the while, Annabeth had a giant grin on her face and I didn't know if she was happy or just happy I was in pain. Neither reassured me.
"When are you going to tell Travis?" she suddenly asked.
Chad stopped his assault on my rib cage. "Miller doesn't know?"
"Just finish," I whined. "Keep going."
"That's what she said," he mumbled under his breath and I had to keep in any sort of reaction, good or bad to stay still.
"I was thinking when it looks better?" I suggested. Chad had mentioned it would take a little time to heal. But it all depended on how long I could keep it a secret from him.
The buzzing started again and Chad got back to work.
"It's almost done," Chad said but I was too afraid to look.
"Can I tell Finn and Ben?" Annabeth asked, sounding like she was about to burst at the seams.
I closed my eyes to relax. "If they doesn't tell Travis, I don't care."
She didn't waste any time in calling one of them. "Come to Chad's," she said.
"Hey buddy," Chad interjected. He should be focusing 100% on finishing this.
"Lacey's doing something stupid," Annabeth added.
She hung up quickly after that and then dialed someone else, a large grin on her face. "Walk away from Travis if you're by him," she said and waited. "Lacey's getting the tat, don't tell him. Yes, I'm fucking serious." Annabeth laughed and then hung up. She really had a problem with saying goodbye.
Shortly after that, there was a knock at the door. Annabeth went to get it, seeing as Chad was still busy.
"What the hell, little package? You're going to get your ass kicked. Either by Travis or your boss!" Finn barreled into the tiny room. I had to keep myself from laughing so I wouldn't mess anything up.
"What are you even thinking?" he asked.
"I was trying not to think much on it. Annabeth said it was okay," I said, worried maybe he didn't think I should get it.
He peered over Chad's back, looking at the tattoo. "Damn, you're stuck with us now."
I wanted to hug him but again, Chad was taking forever.
Finn sat down next to Hannah. "You getting one next?"
She laughed and shook her head. "I'm going to take a rain check on that particular tattoo."
He nodded, "Probably for the best. So are we going to get to work you into the job rotations now, Lacey?"
"Uh well, nothing's really changed," I said.
"Oh, no problem. We'll add figure out your work shit to the to do list. Did you see it? We're trying to be organized now so we can work out your stuff with the fuzz just as soon as we add it."
I held in a laugh.
"No," Annabeth said, "We're going to fix that."
Finn looked slightly offended.
"You have pizza on the supply list," she said, her face completely flat.
"Because we're out," he whined.
"Lacey and I already agreed we'd fix your whiteboard," she said, leaving no room for disagreement. She sounded a lot like Cameron, to be honest.
Finn threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. Just buy some pizza."
After Chad finally finished, he showed me how it looked in a mirror and a giant grin was plastered on my face the entire drive home. We made it back not too long ago and none of the guys were home yet. Chad put some bandages over it so my shirt wouldn't irritate it and I just had to make sure Travis didn't think I was actually injured and everything would be fine.
Finn had left after Chad finished, going back to whatever he was working on before he made a pit stop to see my tattoo.
"I have the Casey tattoo on me," I said, practically squealing.
"Yes. I know," Annabeth said from her spot on the kitchen floor, rewriting the supply list. I noticed there was no pizza on there. "I was there."
I grabbed her arm to get her attention. "But I'm practically a Casey."
She rolled her eyes. "You're dumb."
Hannah was watching television, not wanting to involve herself in any of the whiteboard mumbo jumbo and I was adding things to the to-do list.
"I thought you wouldn't want me to get it," I admitted as I turned to look at her.
She glanced at me for a second before going back to writing.
"Last time you didn't want me in this life," I said.
Annabeth paused, her hand resting on the whiteboard. "Yeah. But you came back on your own so that's your own choice this time and you make him happy."
I grinned. I drew a happy face with a speech bubble in it and wrote 'I'm Annabeth and I love you' on the inside. Annabeth wasted no time in erasing it off with the side of her hand.
"Write something like that again and I'll break your hand."
I held in my laugh and went back to the to-do list. I added things that I could help with my side of things, like finding out where the missing Casey files went from the conference room, which seemed suspicious now and finding out where the cops were with investigating everything. I added to check my text messages on there and put my name next to it because I couldn't go completely off the grid. It was bad enough I wasn't back in the hotel.
The door opened and Ben and Travis came in, both dirty. Ben kept glancing at me before quickly running off, a sly smile sneaking onto his face.
However, Travis walked over next to me and glanced at the whiteboard before staring at me. I returned his stare from the floor. Had Ben told?
"Yes?" I asked politely.
"What were you doing today?"
I shrugged, trying to keep a poker face. "Just hung out. Had breakfast. This."
He narrowed his eyes at me, "Mhm."
Grinning, I tried not to be affected by his hard staring. I shrugged. "What did you do today?"
He finally looked away from me and over at Annabeth who was ignoring him. He clenched his jaw before looking back at me. His eyes scanned over every bit of me that he could see and I was afraid he could see through my shirt at this point. "I know you did something."
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I hope you liked it! Let me know what you think! Have a great day and don't forget to smile<3
The next chapter should be out around Thursday or Friday, I believe! It'll be in Travis' point of view. There's a snippet of it out on my Twitter (BreakawayJS)
Annabeth and Lacey aesthetic:
(and other stuff on my tumblr: jschristine.tumblr.com)