The Calling, Part IV: Living the Dream

 Setting: Before Chapter 1

It was the one day of the year that the shop was closed. It was just for the best, when this time came around she didn’t give a shit about anything. Once she thought that maybe continuing to pierce and tattoo would get her mind off of this dark anniversary, but that was one of the times that she totally fucked over a client. She hated failing them like that. So it was just better to close the doors for those painful twenty-four hours where all she could think of was losing him. 

 

Janine twisted one of her dimple piercings. That was the amazing thing about them. It was an opportunity to take a little pain to leave something beautiful in its wake. It made her realize that beauty could - and in its most natural state, must - come out of pain. She loved what she did for that very reason. She never liked to cause pain, but it was always worth it to see a job well done. 

 

She got out a needle, twirling it in her fingers before she sighed and started to check her blood sugar. She didn’t feel like it was off currently, but… Right now, distracting herself this way was all she could do to keep from thinking about him. And if she gave those terrible memories and emotions to come to the surface… Well, she would definitely go looking for a fight just to try and let them out. She would just never forget how it felt to see his face on the news that day with those assholes touting that they finally caught him and killed him. 

 

A quiet knock brought her attention away from the number and she squinted at the door. “Come in.” She read the number just as the door came open and she saw the girls on the other side and tried to force a smile their way. 

 

“Hey girl,” Charlotte said softly, coming in with a slightly pained smile on her face, entering quickly and going to sit next to Janine. Roxy closed the door behind them, putting her head down for a moment and releasing a small breath. 

 

“Hello ladies,” Janine said, hugging her friend and putting her head on her chest with a sigh. “Damn am I glad to see you.” 

 

“Good to see you too,” Charlotte said quietly, and when Janine pulled back a little bit she could see that her blue eyes had tears in them. “I’m sorry. I miss him so much…” 

 

Janine closed her eyes. From a young age, she was always the one to be strong. That certainly wasn’t going to stop now. “Me too,” she said softly, pushing a hand through her short bangs. “But we’ve shed enough tears,” she said, picking up her friend’s face and trying to lighten the mood in a terrible impersonation of his voice. “‘Ey ‘ey ‘ey. Why are you crrrrrying for me? No no no, no crying for me Chi-ca. Dios mio!” 

 

“Somehow over the year your impression got worse. Even when I think it’s impossible, I’m proven wrong. Dios mio indeed.” Roxy sat on the arm of the futon and pulled out a vape, putting it in her mouth as she looked between the two of them with an amused smile. “If anything would make Indy roll in his grave it would be that.” 

 

“I still think it’s pretty accurate,” Charlotte - or to them, Chica - said with a small laugh, and it was just a relief to see her smiling. Especially today. But like all happiness in a time and place like that, it didn’t last very long and soon turned to a sigh. 

 

“So what are we doing today ladies? Because staying here and moping around is not gonna be it.” Roxy looked between the two of them over her vape, pulling it back to breathe out a cloud of vapor. 

 

“Gimmeeeeeee!” Chica whined, reaching over Janine towards her sister for the vape. Roxy gave her a side-eye and her sister responded with wide eyes and clasping her hands, bouncing in place until Roxy just sighed and passed it over. “Thank you!” 

 

“You know my vote,” Janine said, leaning back and crossing her legs. “Go to The Parlor and fuck up shit.” 

 

“Janine?! Seeking out a bar fight? I’m positively shocked.”  The sarcasm dripped from Roxy’s voice. 

 

“Hey, you’re damn lucky I was there to fight for your ass,” Janine said, pointing over at her with a laugh. “Otherwise you would never have me in your life, then where would you be?” 

 

“I would be a successful lawyer and Chica would be a doctor,” Roxy said, giving her sister a look before the two of them burst out laughing at that thought. 

 

“Yeah right!” Chica said, passing the vape back to her twin sister and rolling her eyes at her. “Ignore my dear sister, she’s so rude!” 

 

“Oh and you’re an angel!” Roxy said, pointing at her with a snort. 

 

“As far as this sap knows, I am,” Chica said, rubbing her hands together. “But ya ho is gonna get a diamond necklace for my birthday which is absolutely next week.” 

 

Roxy snickered at that. “Just get one man and scam his pants off,” she said with a shrug. “Way simpler than trying to remember the name of whatever stupid Chad you’re scamming this week.” 

 

“Well unlike you, I’m not willing to ride a dick attached to a crazy person!” 

 

Janine snorted at that and shook her head. “You guys,” she said amusedly, tsking her tongue and shaking her head. “You couldn’t pay me enough to even look at a cock. Much less that old crazy bastard’s.” 

 

“You know what, J? That’s fair,” Roxy said with a laugh. “But you’re too vigilante like to see green.” She pulled out a big ass wad of cash from her purse and fanned it out. Chica oohed and aahed at it and Janine just laughed evilly before plucking it out of her hand. “HEY!” 

 

“Make it raaaain, bee-atch!” Janine yelled out in a deep chest voice, throwing the bills up in the air. 

 

“Will you cut that out?!” Roxy asked, diving to collect all the bills from where they were scattered all over her and the floor. 

 

“Oo, free money,” Chica said teasingly as she picked one up from the couch. “Thanks sis!” 

 

Roxy looked over at the others, who were both wearing their cutest and most winning smiles. Eventually, she just sighed and shook her head. “Keep it. You know I can just waltz on over to the Victor’s Village and bat my little eyelashes and say oh my darling king and get enough to buy both you bitches diamonds.” 

 

Janine couldn’t help making a gag noise at that. “Oh God. I just vomited a little just hearing that.”  

 

“Girl that’s the first rule, tuck that gag reflex back!” Chica said, giggling at the look that earned her from her friend. “Alright alright, I get it, lesbian as fuck. I wanna lick some titties as much as the next gal but dick pays so much better.” 

 

“Can attest,” Roxy said, putting her cash back in her purse. “Dick pays great. But luckily for your little lesbian ass, you got us to treat ya.” She punched Janine’s arm and she smiled at her. “We take all the dick so you don’t gotta.” 

 

“Nah, but every once in a while some crazy-ass bastard comes in and asks me to pierce his balls.” She shook her head and laughed. “Cry like little babies every single time askin’ for their damn mommies. If I did like ‘em before, watching guys cry like that would make me not like ‘em anymore.”

 

“I can imagine,” Chica said with a giggle just thinking about that. “Sucks to be them! We both sat like champs.” 

 

“Oh hell yeah, you just tell me when you have another opening and let’s talk gages,” Roxy commented amusedly. 

 

“Hell yeah, love my gages.” Janine turned to show them off. “Alright ladies, all this talk about dick makes me need some eyebleach. Let’s go to the bar and scout out the pretty ladies. But Chica, no scamming that poor little bartender Monty.” 

 

“Aw, come on!” Chica whined. “He’s just my type. Sad and pathetic and horny!” 

 

“How do you know he’s horny?” Roxy asked, putting on her designer leather jacket. 

 

Chica giggled as she got up, pulling up one of the legwarmers she was always so stubborn about wearing in place of pants. “I have eyes Rox!” 

 

Janine was just putting on her shoes when Roxy spoke up, her face growing grim and serious. “We should go check on Vos.”

 

It was the most haunting expression she’d seen when the news broke. Janine would never forget walking into that little apartment, there wasn’t a single thing in it that was able to be salvaged. Rubble littered the floor, some of it burnt, some of it broken beyond recognition, and in the middle of it the small figure of the kid that was saved by him, who now hated him. And still hadn’t let go of those feelings. “For sure,” she said quietly. Chica gave a glare at that, and Janine just sighed quietly at her friend. “Chica, I know that it’s hard for us to hear anyone talk bad about Indy, but they don’t ever mean it,” she said, staring at her hands for a second. “They’re just hurting.”  

 

“Who isn’t hurting right now!?” Chica asked, hugging herself a little bit and glaring over at the other two. 

 

“He would have never let any of us abandon Vos and you know it,” Janine said defensively. “Even if they hated all of our guts.” Her friend was just that kind of person. “After all, it’s because of Indy that I’m even here, whether I deserved it or not didn’t matter.” She put her face down in quiet reverence for a moment, feeling her lips start to quiver a little bit. Fuck, she missed him. “We’re going to make the trip over to Vos.” 

 

“I don’t know if I can take hearing them make another comment about him,” Chica said, shaking her head and rubbing her knuckles a little bit. 

 

Janine closed her eyes. It was hard. But she knew better than anyone how much Indy loved his primo. “Then I’ll handle them,” she said levelly. “But we can’t let anything tear us apart right now.” She gently rubbed her hand on Chica’s back. “So let’s go have some fun,” she said, trying to put some energy behind her voice. 

 

“How much fun are we talking?” Chica asked, giving them both a grin - even if it didn’t reach her eyes - and bouncing her eyebrows. 

 

“You’re such a slut, what’s wrong with you?” Roxy asked with a knowing smile. Chica gave her an offended look and gaped at her in offense. 

 

“You’re one to talk!” Chica said right away, going over to try and noogie her sister while Roxy easily threw her off with a snort. “You whore!” 

 

Roxy stuck her tongue out at her and blew a raspberry, but she turned towards her friend, still worried about her. Janine smiled a little bit, not wanting to worry them. “Alright ladies, let’s see what the ol’ feeding pond has in store for us tonight.” She did not at all feel ready to face them.

 

“Alright!” Chica chirped excitedly, clapping her hands as she put an arm around Janine and Roxy led them out of the door. “We’re gonna party hard and then make Zorro usher our dumb drunk asses out of there.” 

 

“Fuck yeah,” Roxy said, her high heels clicking on the sidewalk as the three of them walked out to the bar, Chica humming excitedly as they crossed through the door. The scene was alive, full of people, just as always. Janine relaxed a little bit at the chaos around her. It made her feel less alone, having all these people surrounding her. It was nice, to not feel alone. To not be alone. The more people, the better. And this was one of the busiest places in the District, despite it being a Wednesday night. Eyes were on them - particularly Roxy - as they entered the building. There were no strippers on the stage, and some of the regulars tried to egg her on to get up there and dance for them, but she just shook them off like the fleas they were as they went to the counter. 

 

“Tada!” said the bartender as they arrived. Janine saw the trick, but it was obvious that none of the others did so she played dumb wtih the other two as the young man grinned over at them. This made Janine immediately narrow her eyes in his direction. 

 

“You seem awful perky,” Roxy commented as she sat on a stool and put her face in her arm. “Must be nice. To be able to just act like nothing happened.” 

 

Janine glanced over at her for a moment. She was thinking it too, but… Monty always somehow got through this day without breaking like them all. She was so fucking jealous of him, for just… Being able to forget about the man that saved him from the District they both hated. Lucky bastard, must be nice to not feel how Janine and the girls were feeling right now. Chica wouldn’t even look at him. 

 

Monty just shrugged. “I don’t get to choose when I work,” he said with a shrug, but his face softened when he saw how they were all clinging close to each other. “So ladies, what can I get you? Tell me how drunk you want to get and I’ll give you something delicious that’ll get you there.” he propped himself up on his elbow and leaned towards them.

 

“I don’t want to remember my name,” Janine said honestly, thumping her fist miserably on the counter. 

 

“I don’t want to get that wasted,” Roxy said, squeezing Janine’s shoulder a little bit. “Just enough to be happy.” 

 

“Yeah, I wanna be careful about my intake,” Chica confessed, tapping her acrylic nails on the counter and still not looking over at him. 

 

“Done,” Monty said, going to mix some drinks for them. 

 

“That fucking bastard,” Chica said quietly as she put her head down on her arm. “He could at least acknowledge that something is missing.” 

 

Roxy flipped him off when his back was turned, shaking her head. “Fucking ridiculous,” she said in agreement with Chica. “Well, he’s not invited over after his shift then,” she said with a shrug. 

 

Janine just sighed a little bit as she watched him shaking up a drink and heard the ice clanking off the metal of the shaker. “We can’t just exclude him because he’s coping differently.” 

 

“He’s not coping with anything!” Chica said, throwing out her hands, but the girls went silent when Monty came back with drinks for them all. 

 

“...When does your shift end?” Janine asked as she tapped her short nails on the cool glass. 

 

Monty just sighed a little bit and shrugged. “Closing.” 

 

“Three?!” Roxy asked, staring at him. “Did you start at three? That’s like a twelve hour shift!” 

 

“Here’s your tab, ladies,” Monty said, sliding over the slip of paper and going over to another patron flagging him over. When they looked over, Janine gave them a hard look. 

 

“Fine,” Chica said, crossing her arms as she sipped her drink. “Not like we won’t be awake.” 

 

“Atta girl,” Janine said, gently punching her arm as she took a few sips of her drink. It didn’t taste like it could get her fucked up, but she trusted Monty to make her something strong. The tender in question came back with a cheerful smile on his face and gave a nod when Roxy handed him the money for their drinks. 

 

“Too kind as always, Miss Roxy,” he said, plucking out a bill from the pile and sticking out his ass to put it in his pocket. “Much appreciated.” 

 

“Sure,” Roxy said dismissively. “You comin’ over after your shift’s over?” she asked finally. 

 

Monty just shrugged a little bit. “I’ll probably be real tired, I’ll just go home and crash.”

 

“Fine, we don’t need you anyways!” Chica said, giving him a curt glare and hopping up from her seat. “Let’s go get Vos.” Roxy snarled a little bit at the bartender and hurried after her sister. Janine just lingered. She could see the familiar expression of those honey eyes trying to hold it together. 

 

“Are you sure that being alone is what Indy would have wanted for you?” she asked finally over another sip of her drink. 

 

“What the hell does it matter what Indy would have wanted for me, he’s gone.” Monty punched the counter a little bit and Janine could see the tension in his fist, how tightly he was squeezing it.

 

“Consider meeting us after your shift,” she said. But she didn’t have the energy to handle this anymore so she got up and went after the girls, worried about what they were going to say to Vos if she wasn’t there to stop it. She opened the heavy doors to the rec room that was attached to the building, the music muffling when they closed behind her. They were, for once, the only figure in the room, holding a cue stick and chalking it when they looked up eagerly and deflating when they saw who it was.

 

“Oh. Just you.” Thankfully they seemed to be acting normal.

 

“Hello to you too,” Roxy said, coming in and leaning over the table to fuck up all the pool balls on it on purpose before coming over to do the same to her hair. She pulled up the young person’s face to check her lipstick job, laughing at the dark pink poorly-applied name brand blush that was so obvious on those freckled cheeks. “You can cool it on the blush,” she commented with a laugh. 

 

“Ey, can’t get too good at it,” she widened her eyes a little, “Missus.” She let out a snort and a small chuckle before that city twinge came back to her voice. “Gotta keep up the cute little kid look, ya know?” 

 

“Can’t believe Tartan was dumb enough to fall for you,” Roxy said, shaking her head. “God. What an idiot.” 

 

“I mean, he’s fuckin’ you,” Vos said, darting behind the table as she laughed at Roxy who was gonna dive for her. “Aw, c’mon, I was just jokin’!” 

 

“I thought it was a good one,” Janine said, taking no shame in hopping up on the corner of the table and sitting on it, taking the eight ball and tossing it in her hands a little bit as her legs swung. “Truthful.” 

 

Chica just laughed in agreement. “Oh, you’re so cute!” she said, coming over to ruffle the top of Vos’s head. “And I love when you terrorize my sister.” She hopped up next to Janine, looking at the cube of chalk on the corner of the table and putting her finger in the divet. 

 

“That’s why this one was born,” Roxy said, “Don’t let that big puppy eye deceive you. That eyepatch hides evil.” They all started laughing at that as Vos shrugged and flapped the patch a few times. 

 

“Nah, just a deeply troubled past. But which of us don’t got one’a those?” She sighed and the room went a little quiet at that, the girls taking sips of their drinks quietly. This drink was strong, but that was all the more reason for Janine to chug it. Anything to get her mind to a happier place. 

 

“How are you, Vos?” Chica asked finally, her voice slightly quiet. 

 

“Fine,” she said right away, trying to line up another shot and sighing at the asses on the table directly in her vision. She put some spin on it so it went all the way around the striped ball and hit the solid instead. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

 

“You know why,” Roxy said, giving her a slightly hard look. “Don’t make this harder on us by making us say it out loud.” 

 

“Oh, I didn’t even remember,” Vos said, her voice taking on a bit of an edge. “Whateva. I’m fine.”

 

But this was not the face of a person that was fine. Janine just sighed quietly. “You know that he didn’t leave you on purpose.” 

 

“He told me he would see me soon, he said he would be careful.” Her voice broke a little bit and she put way too much force on her next shot, causing a loud crack as a few of the balls went flying. “Just to leave!” 

 

“I know,” Janine said quietly. “And I’ll always be angry at his dumb ass for getting caught. But he would have never wanted to abandon you.” 

 

“Well he did!” Vos yelled, throwing the cue stick onto the ground with a smack. 

 

“Woah, calm down,” Roxy said slowly. But Janine couldn’t even blame the little one. She felt all of that too. She too spent so many nights awake wondering why he would travel the whole country instead of staying here, with the family he made. She felt so lost trying to follow in his footsteps and it was hard to not hate him for that. She just put up a hand to stop Roxy from trying to restrain her. 

 

“It’s okay to be angry, still,” she said, closing her eyes and just waiting for the alcohol to kick in. “I am too, sometimes. I can’t lie and say that I’m not. But we just have to remember that it’s not Indy’s fault as much as it is the system that put people like us into danger in the first place. He saved people, that was what he always wanted. But we shouldn’t be directing our anger at him.” But when she loved her brother and protector so damn much, it was really fucking hard not to. Her hand tightened around her drink. 

 

“He had every opportunity to stay here!” 

 

“But he couldn’t when there were other people that needed him too!” Chica contested. 

 

“I thought I was special to him!” Vos yelled back at her. “But I wasn’t. Not special enough to make him stay here.” 

 

“You were special to him,” Janine said quietly, seeing the deep-set pain in that golden brown eye that wasn’t covered by an eyepatch. “You were his only primo. And Vos that’s why he couldn’t stay. He had to keep working to make sure that kids like you could escape. Kids like him. And when he left every time he made me agree to take care of you no matter what happened. He saw himself in you more than any of us.” 

 

“Well I don’t want to be like him!” she said, throwing an empty glass from the table at the wall and watching it crack. “I don’t ever want to think about him again after what he did!” 

 

Janine just squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a familiar stinging in them. “Fuck, this isn’t what he would have wanted for us at all. Look at us, fuck, we’re falling apart at the seams.” She shook her head. “We’re all going to go back to the apartment together tonight and grieve, okay, just… Everyone just… Calm the fuck down!” She could feel her breaths growing heavier, her fists growing tighter, her vision growing more and more red with anger.  

 

“Damn girl,” Roxy said quietly, noticing right away that she was making a fist. Janine was gonna get into a fight tonight one way or another. “Don’t do something wild.” 

 

Janine barely even heard her. Watching her friends act this way… She had two choices. And she wasn't going to break here. So she just cracked her knuckles and looked at the words tattooed across them. Dumb Fuck. It gave her a laugh every time, but she was far more than that. She did stupid shit, sure, but she was no fool. She was gonna fuck up shit for someone today. 

 

“As long as it ain’t me,” Vos commented before making a shooing motion. “Off my table, hoes, I wanna watch this.” Chica and Janine hopped off, watching the little scrap sink each of the balls in numerical order, barely taking a second to level the shots before making them. “Where’s my eight?” 

 

Janine held it up, tossing it on the table underhand and letting it roll as it would. Before it was done rolling, Vos had a pocket chosen and bumped in, giving a smirk over at the girls that were watching. “No biggie.” 

 

“Yeah, good for you,” Janine said, but she was focused on something else. Finding a bitch to beat the shit out of. Someone that was really asking for it. 

 

She led the way, this time the other three by her tail. When they got back out to the club, Janine was looking around the room for anyone that was asking for it tonight. First person to misstep was getting a taste of her fist. 

 

“J,” Roxy said, nudging her and gesturing to a hidden nook where drug deals were the best of what took place. Janine followed her gaze and her eyes narrowed right away at the figure there. No, figures. She took off like a shot, before anyone else could stop her, towards that area. The girls could barely keep up with her. But if it was what Janine thought it was, she had to stop it immediately. And even if it wasn't, she wouldn't be ashamed. She just couldn't take any risks after she was that kid, desperately wishing someone would notice her. 

 

Janine could see the woman that was standing there, nervously looking at a pager and then looking around the room. Suddenly, the room she was in wasn’t the Parlor. It was that stupid raunchy old club in District Two, where she was barely awake her blood sugar was so low. She only remembered seeing a pair of kind brown eyes and an outstretched hand. She could vaguely remember his words. “You’re safe now. He can’t hurt you anymore.” 

 

That old place disappeared from her vision as soon as it appeared in the first place, and she remembered where she was. She wasn’t there anymore. She was all grown up. Safe. And going to protect as many as she possibly could now. And do her part to bring down this awful, terrible regime that trains kids to be killers and throws the ones that can’t be out the door. 

 

When her vision came back, it was shrouded in a layer of red. Fuck District Two. She could easily beat up a motherfucker, diabetes be damned. Janine could hear the voices of her friends behind her, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. She could only focus on one thing. 

 

“Hey,” she said, cracking her knuckles as she approached. 

 

“Can I help you?” she asked in a level voice, putting down a pair of sunglasses. 

 

“This is a bar, you know? Not really a place for kids,” Janine said. 

 

“This is my son. He needs marijuana for his epilepsy. Now get out of my face, you aren’t the police and he’s much too young to witness a fight.” It could have been a convincing story to a normal person, but Janine could see that she was grabbing him by the back of the shirt and pants with a tight fist. “Right Gregory?” 

 

The boy just nodded. But he was obviously not from Eight - at least, not from any area that Janine knew of. His gray eyes were wide, as if wanting to say something, but he didn’t. He just crinkled his cheek where a bandaid was, and when he moved it, revealed a spot of purple. 

 

“No, but I can take him to the rec room. That’s much more suitable for kids.” 

 

“That won’t be necessary.” She was on the ropes. Janine wasn’t going to wait a second longer and make him think that she was going to leave. She took her glass and slammed it unmercifully on the woman’s head, causing a loud smack and barely a crack in the glass as she used the heavy side first. Then she slammed the thinner rim on the patch that was bleeding as she was stumbling, making it break and dropping it. Janine reached over and ripped her hand off of the boy. 

 

“Stop, please, she’s gonna kill my family!” he said, trying to wrench Janine off of her.

 

“She’s not going to hurt a single damn person when I’m done with her,” Janine said, pulling one of her arms behind her back with force as she screamed, not stopping until she heard a pop. “Girls.” Roxy and Chica came over right away to talk to him, gently pulling him away from Janine as she finished the job with a punch to the bitch’s windpipe that caused her to gasp out and grab her throat. “Scum of the earth,” she said, shaking her head and turning around, leaving her there to either suffocate or run straight to the hospital, Janine didn’t give a damn. When she turned around, Vos gave her a thumbs up before gesturing her head to the exit where the girls had gone with the boy. 

 

Even before the noises stopped from the woman on the floor, Janine ran towards the exit, needing to catch him before the girls fucked this up. Fuck, they thought they were doing the right thing but they just didn’t understand. When she felt the crisp autumn air hit her face outside, she took a quick breath, not wanting to appear winded and scare him even more. Instead she went over to where the boy was backing into an alley away from the two girls. “Back off,” she said to them quietly, pushing them to the side and out of his sight. “I’m not gonna hurt you.” 

 

She slowly approached the boy, hands out to show him she didn’t have any weapons. She kept a small distance from him so that he had space before kneeling down to be his height, keeping her hands in plain sight. “You’re safe now,” she told him, looking at his face with a small smile. “She can’t hurt you anymore.” 

 

She gently reached out towards him, palms face up so he could choose. Slowly, the boy slid a hand into hers and she enveloped it in her other hand and squeezed softly. “I was like you, one time,” she said quietly, lifting up her shirt a little bit to show him the brand that was on her back, covered up with tattoos. “It’s kind of dark but do you see the brand through the ink? You can feel the skin if you want.” His touch was unsure but he quickly pulled his hand away when he felt the raised scar tissue. “She might have promised you an impossible amount of money. All I can promise you is a meal and a bed. But it’s up to you.” When she was first freed from there… She didn’t want to trust anyone anymore. Not after what they did to her. Indy changed that, somehow. Gave her a new life here. She was so grateful for him. 

 

But the boy in front of her wasn’t Indy. 

 

Indy was gone. 

 

She didn’t notice how her lips were quivering until she felt the coolness of one of her lip rings touching it and quickly took a deep breath in through her nose. Focus on the present. She had to be strong. 

 

The boy swallowed down a lump in his throat and then closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her neck and giving her a tight hug.

 

There was something about that hug. Something that brought the tears out of her eyes like a dam had been broken and there was nothing that could fix it now. Broken like her heart. The tears ran out of her eyes and blotted into his shoulder as she hugged him back tightly. For just a moment, she wasn’t the girl that had to prove that she was tough to survive. For a second, she was just… A little kid that had been ripped away from her family, forced into unspeakable things, and sold. That missed them. And missed the one who helped her survive here. She missed Indy so much… And for the first time since he died, she cried about it. With someone. It had been a long time since that happened…

 

“How’d you know I needed a hug?” she asked, trying to keep the mood light with a small laugh as she tried to wipe away her tears. 

 

“I could just tell,” he said with a small shrug, and hugged her again. “You’re not a big hugger, are you?” 

 

“No,” Janine said softly. “Was it that obvious?” 

 

“Yeah, your whole getup doesn’t scream hug me. No offense.” 

 

“I did just beat up a bitch at the bar,” Janine commented, laughing and drying her eyes. The girls didn’t need to see that. Especially not Vos. “A bitch who is never gonna see you or your family again. Now let’s go home and get you some food. Ol’ Vos over there, hates saying it, but is a wonderful cook,” she said, gesturing over to her before leaning over to whisper. “And has a stick and poke tattoo on her ass.” She laughed at the look on his face and put out an arm, still letting him choose. “But you didn’t hear it from me.” 

 

“I wanna see it,” the boy said with a giggle, putting himself under her arm as they walked back out to the others. 

 

“No fair, I didn’t even get to get drunk and take off my top!” Chica said as Roxy grabbed her by the ear and started dragging her back to the shop  with those extra rooms where she once stayed. Even if Indy was gone, she would keep his legacy alive. Outcasts, innocents, rebels. All of them taking refuge behind her doors, and she was happy to do it for them all. She was going to make him proud this way and she didn’t fucking give up, ever. 

 

It was exactly what Indy would have wanted, and until she keeled over and went cold, she was going to live out that dream.