Too Good to Be True

"Remind me again why we're driving all the way out into the middle of the woods to do this?" Brian asked. He helped Zacky hoist the unconscious body of their latest victim into the trunk of Matt's SUV.

"Because if we did it here, someone would see us," Matt drawled sarcastically. He ignored Brian's glare as he started the engine, knowing the other man knew far better than to say anything about it. "And because we can't go to my house anymore. Charlie thinks I'm done." Once everyone else was inside the vehicle, Matt pulled away from the warehouse. He couldn't waste any time since he'd told Charlie he would be home in an hour and if he was gone much longer than that, she would get suspicious. All they would have time to do was kill the poor bastard and bury him in a shallow grave.

Once the job was finished and he'd dropped everyone else off at the Brian's house, Matt headed home. So far he was only about ten minutes late past the hour he'd quoted at Charlie, so hopefully, things wouldn't be too bad. As soon as he walked into the house, he smelled breakfast and had a smile on his face as he walked into the kitchen. "Chicken and waffles?" Matt asked, looking over the spread. "Everything smells delicious, darling."

Charlie hadn't thought that it was that big of a deal that Matt was running a few minutes behind. She knew how it was when either of them went out on runs, sometimes you ended up taking a bit of a longer path that you had originally meant to. When she heard the front door open, Charlie couldn't help but smile as she glanced up to meet Matt's gaze just as he entered the kitchen. "I thought you'd be hungry after your run," she explained as she leaned up to kiss him softly. Her nose scrunched as she pulled away, eyeing Matt up. She couldn't quite place it but there was something off about the situation. Matt didn't seem sweaty nor was he breathing hard at all. Just as soon as the thought passed through her mind, it was gone as she turned to grab the plates to relocate them to the breakfast bar.

After she had taken her first few bites of food, Charlie glanced to Matt to see whether he was enjoying the meal or not. She was sure that he was but it still made her nervous in the back of her mind. Pleasing Matt had been important before but now that she knew how bad his temper could be, she didn't want to press her luck. Even now that he was supposed to be done with his work. "So did you want to do anything specific today or what?"

(psst he's also not wearing running clothes, Charlie )

"Well I appreciate it, darling," Matt said, smiling. He noticed the way Charlie looked at him, like she might be suspecting that he hadn't actually gone on a run. He was glad when she didn't say anything about it, because he would hate to ruin the day so early by having an argument. Matt followed Charlie over to the breakfast nook, smiling when she handed him a plate. Some people might think of it as an odd combination, but Matt liked chicken and waffles, especially with the sauce Charlie always made to go with it. "Why don't we get the Halloween decorations down from the attic today?" Matt suggested when Charlie asked if he had anything specific in mind. "It's about time we started decorating, don't you think?"

Getting the decorations down and putting them up would likely take a good portion of the day, which Matt hoped would serve as a decent distraction. Because he knew that if he gave Charlie the opportunity to think about it, she might start to figure out that he was lying. "Just let me change into my basketball shorts and I'll start getting things down from the attic, okay darling?" Matt said, giving Charlie a kiss on the temple as he took his empty plate to the sink. "Breakfast was delicious, by the way. As usual." Matt headed upstairs, unloading his pistol and tucking it into the back of his sock drawer. Surely Charlie wouldn't have a problem with him keeping the pistol. He would need it for protection, or at least that's what he would tell her. Once he'd changed clothes, he headed back downstairs. "I'm gonna go up to the attic," he told Charlie.

(Ohgod pls forgive me)

Charlie hadn't really taken notice of the clothes that Matt was wearing until he stood to put his plate in the sink. It took her a few moments to piece together why his attire was bothering her but as he headed up the stairs, Charlie turned to eye him. And when she realized why, her blood ran cold. It was a familiar sort of feeling for her, the same she had felt all those months ago when she first discovered what Matt did for a living. She opened and closed her mouth several times, unable to shift the feeling of deceit. Even when Matt reappeared, Charlie sat still as a statue, perched over her unfinished meal. Her eyes followed Matt's movements, narrowing slightly when he spoke to her.

She didn't want to argue with him because in part, she was afraid of what he would do if he was pissed off and in part because she just plain hated fighting with him. Clearing her throat, Charlie opened her mouth when Matt finished speaking. "Matt, why'd you go running in those clothes?" It was a blunt question but she didn't think there was any sort of way to skirt around the subject. "They're not comfortable to run in..." she trailed off, hoping that whatever it was that Matt had been doing, that he would come clean about the subject instead of feeding her more lies.

(I didn't even realize it until after I'd posted Matt, you idiot)

Matt had just turned his back to Charlie to head to the attic when she spoke again. In the back of his mind, he cursed himself for not taking the damn clothes with him and changing before he came home. It was a mistake, rare one, the kind he couldn't afford to make. "I ran in them because I wanted to," Matt said shortly. "It's October, Charlie. It's starting to get fucking cold. Now are we going to spend a nice day decorating our house or do you insist on yet another fucking argument?" He barely gave Charlie a few seconds to respond before he continued on to the attic, pulling down the ladder and climbing up inside.

Matt knew he'd been caught in his lie, he wasn't stupid. But he couldn't tell Charlie what he'd really been doing. She had to think he was leaving his work, even if that was the last thing he would ever do. He was in too deep now to ever walk away. When he returned from the attic with the first box, Matt paused. He wasn't going to go through all of the trouble of getting the decorations down if they weren't going to decorate. "Charlie, this is never going to work if you don't trust me," Matt said. "We're about to get married and possibly have a baby in the near future. And I love you, Charlie. Don't you love me?"

"Matt," Charlie spoke, whatever hesitation that she felt disappearing as she looked over to Matt. Her eyes narrowed as she scoffed, trying to remind herself to keep her own temper under control. "You went running. When you run, you get hot," she said in a low voice, sighing as she pushed away from the counter. Ignoring Matt when he headed back up the stairs, she turned to clean off her plate and put it into the dishwasher. She leaned against the counter, grossing her arms as she sipped at her juice. Charlie wasn't allowing herself to think of what Matt's slip up likely meant because she just plain didn't want to accept it.

"You don't get to turn this around on me," Charlie muttered when Matt reappeared. She huffed, setting her nearly empty glass down. She turned, brushing past Matt on her way toward the stairs. "I think I'm actually going to go for a run," Charlie declared as she started up them. She didn't look back at Matt, knowing damn well that she had probably just ended any chance of them having a good day together.

Matt had been trying to keep his temper in check, but Charlie was making that very difficult. When she headed upstairs, he followed after her, reaching out to grab her by the arm when they reached the top of the stairs. "No, you're not," he growled. "You're going to stay here and we're going to at least pretend we're having a good day. Unless you'd rather leave me at home alone to drink? You know how I get when I drink, Charlie, and I both know we don't want that."

Matt loosened his grip on Charlie's arm, but didn't let her go. He knew she probably knew what he'd been doing while he was out, but she wouldn't say anything. She was building up a fantasy in her head, he was sure, if what their life would be like if he left his work and he was sure she didn't want to let that go. "Are you coming downstairs or not?" Matt asked. "Or should I just take the box back up into the attic and break open my twelve-pack in the fridge?"

When Matt's hand wrapped around Charlie's bicep, her breathe caught in the back of her throat. She was brought rushing backward into the memories of when Matt had really hurt her. This was nothing compared to when he'd waterboarded her or thrown her down the stairs but that didn't make her any less afraid. Matt was just as capable of hurting her now as he was then. Her stomach twisted into a firm knot as she listened to his words, trying to keep herself calm. If she lost it, she was sure that the situation would only serve to escalate.

Charlie gave a meek nod, chewing on the inside of her lip. She wanted nothing more than to have some space from Matt because she hated the wa that she was feeling but she didn't think that was really an option. Not with how determined he seemed to be to give her an ultimatum. There really was no choice for her to make, only the illusion of one. "Okay," she whispered, breathing a sigh of relief as he finally let go of her arm. She smoothed down the material of her shirt with shaky hands before she turned to Matt. She was sure the emotion on her face was detectable, she was ready to break down but still, she forced a half-hearted smile to her face. "Yeah, o-of course," Charlie spoke a bit louder, her voice a bit rougher than normal.

While Matt brought down the boxes from the attic, Charlie began to spread the items out on the lawn so that they could figure out what they wanted to do with their yard.

"Good," Matt said curtly. He led Charlie downstairs, giving a wave at the box he already had sitting on the counter before he went up to the attic to get more. He took each one outside to Charlie so that she could lay them out, with the exception of the ones that obviously contained indoor decorations. Once he'd gotten all of the boxes down, Matt put up the ladder and closed the attic before going out to join Charlie on the lawn. "Why don't we start with the tombstones?" he suggested, eyeing an open box. "Then we can add some of the fake bones and some dirt to make it look authentic."

Matt grabbed several tombstones from the box and went to the front of the yard, mentally mapping out where the best places to place the tombstones would be. He took pride in how his decorations looked, so he wanted this to be perfect. "I don't know about you, but I think that looks pretty good," Matt said, stepping back to look at the work they'd done. "What should we put up next? I know we've got quite a bit we could work with."

Charlie lost herself in the task of unpacking the boxes, thoroughly convinced that there's no other option for her to keep her calm. She didn't want to be doing this right now, seeing Matt every few minutes with another box in his hands. She hated the fact that she felt this way more than anything because she loved her fiance and yet, she was afraid of him in the next moment. Matt wasn't the teddy bear that he had been to her, he was the one that she needed protection from only to morph and be that same teddy bear again. It made her heart ache in a way that she hated, that made her sick to her stomach.

"I'm pretty sure we have some bones..." Charlie trailed off, looking around for a moment at what she had set out. "We'll have to pick some up," she commented absentmindedly as she grabbed the circular cage to hang from one of the tree branches that contained a skeleton inside of it to imitate a medieval torture method. "We should pick up a fog machine. It'll make the tombstones seem more spooky. Don't you think?" Charlie asked as she headed over to the tree, glancing back to Matt to gauge his opinion. "I'm going to go grab the ladder from the garage, okay?" She felt silly telling him such a simple thing but after the near fight not so long ago, she didn't want to poke the embers again so soon.

"We'll have to make a run to the store later, then," Matt said. He'd thought they had a few bags already, but he supposed he'd been wrong. When Charlie mentioned picking up a fog machine, Matt nodded. It wasn't like he didn't have the money to spare or anything. "Yeah, go ahead," Matt said absentmindedly, hearing her say she was going over to the garage. He had a small idea why Charlie was telling him something so simple and as terrible as it likely made him, it also made him happy. The darker side of Matt loved that Charlie was scared of him enough to tell him that she was going twenty feet away.

Once they'd finished decorating outside, Matt headed into the house, knowing Charlie would follow after him. They needed to decorate the inside, but first he felt that a cup of hot chocolate was in order. "Do you want marshmallows in yours, darling?" Matt asked, dropping a few miniature marshmallows into his own mug. They didn't add a lot of flavor, but to Matt it wasn't really hot chocolate without them. "We've got to put that motion sensitive skeleton by the front door, it always scares the shit out of Jimmy and it's hilarious."

Having decided that the idea of going back to school just wasn't realistic, Charlie settled on putting her all into decorating their yard. She wanted to have one of those houses that people spoke about even in the middle of summer, about just how awesome and well-thought out it had been. She stepped back long enough to take a look at their yard and had decided that maybe it would be best to switch a few things around but then Matt was saying they should head inside and she followed him without thinking about it. The fight that would ensue if Charlie tried to stay outside on her own just wasn't worth it, she didn't think.

Charlie's face scrunched a bit at the mention of the skeleton and of Jimmy. She had thought that the boys may start to fall by the wayside simply because Matt was trying to leave the whole lifestyle behind. She opened her mouth to comment before she thought twice and closed her mouth. It wasn't her place to question Matt, as much as she didn't understand what he was doing, she just plain didn't want to fight about it. She cleared her throat, leaning against the counter with a cup of cocoa in hand. Charlie sipped at it, searching almost desperately for a safe topic to bring up. Nothing else was coming to mind so she went with, "it's been awhile since they were all over." Charlie knew the last time had been the night that Johnny had ended up shot, she just hoped mentioning it wouldn't push Matt off the deep end. "If Johnny's feeling up to it, we could have a small get together soon. What do you think?"

Matt noticed the way Charlie's face scrunched when he mentioned Jimmy. Surely she didn't think that just because he was supposedly leaving his work that he would leave his life-long friends behind as well? If the boys fell to the wayside it would just be the two of them and he would have thought that she wouldn't like that. "We can have a get-together if that's what you want," Matt said, taking a sip of his cocoa. "Maybe a Halloween party. We'll see if their girls want to come along too, so you won't be all alone with just us guys."

A Halloween party would be a good opportunity to boost the morale that had been lost after the fiasco with Johnny. They hadn't had a job since then, hadn't even bothered with it since he'd been shot. And maybe if they started having parties like regular friends, it would help fool Charlie into thinking he was really leaving his old way of life behind. And of course, he would need to discuss his plans with everyone so that they didn't give things away.

Charlie wasn't so sure that the idea of the girls accompanying the others was that great of an idea. She would have to be more careful about what she said, what she did with them around. At least with the guys around, if she accidentally said or did something stupid, she didn't have to really worry about Matt reacting. But still, Charlie gave a small nod of her head. She took a sip of her cocoa before setting the mug back down before she spoke. "We could if you wanted," she agreed, tilting her head to the side as she watched him.

"Would you want us to dress up?" Charlie asked after a moment, raising an eyebrow. "We should do something like Jack and Sally, I mean, if you want to do a couple costume," she murmured, growing a bit more excited at the idea. Charlie shifted around on her stool, tucking one foot under her before settling back down. "What do you think?"

Matt nodded when Charlie suggested that they dress up. It wouldn't really be a Halloween party if they weren't in costume. "We can do Jack and Sally if that's what you want," he told her. "You choose the couple costume and I'll wear it." He could tell the idea made her excited and he wasn't going to take that away from her. Finishing off his hot chocolate, Matt reached over to set his mug in the sink. "You ready to finish decorating?" he asked Charlie. "We've still got the inside of the house to do. And then maybe we could just relax on the couch and watch a movie, maybe do a little wedding planning? I think Halloween is coming on this evening."

Most of the indoor decorations weren't as intricate or in-your-face as the ones they put up outside, but Matt still liked to put them up. It just wasn't Halloween if every inch of the house wasn't decorated. And the sooner they got everything put up, the sooner they could get everyone together for their little Halloween party. Offering his hand to Charlie, Matt helped her to her feet, giving her a soft kiss on the lips. "I'm going to go grab the box of stuff for the kitchen."

There was still a bit of her hot chocolate left in the bottom of her cup but Charlie set it in the sink anyway. It had cooled off a bit too much to still be enjoyable. Grinning as Matt helped her to her feet, she gave a quick nod of her head. "Sounds good," she answered quickly, watching as Matt disappeared back up the stairs to grab one of their last boxes. While everything for outside took up multiple boxes, there was only two or three for their inside decorations. Charlie began to unpack everything when Matt set the box down, moving everything to their usual spots. The more of the decorations that went up, the more relaxed Charlie felt because she doubted anything too bad would go on at the moment.

Clearing her throat as she headed into the living room where Matt was busy hanging things from high up, Charlie grinned as she leaned against the arm of the couch. "Kitchen and hallway are all done. Did we want to do the lights up the railing this year or no?" Charlie asked, tilting her head to the side. She vaguely recalled them not really turning the lights on at all the years before so she thought that they may not end up putting up that set of lights this time around.

Matt carried the few boxes into the living room, deciding he might as well start with the decorations that would need to be hung up high. He'd nearly gotten finished when he heard Charlie come into the room. He nodded when she said she was finished with the kitchen and the living room, climbing down from the ladder he was on. "Well, the living room is done now, too," Matt told her. He thought for a minute about the lights on the railing before he shook his head. "No, let's leave those alone. We never turn them on, anyway."

Matt enjoyed decorating for holidays but he hated taking them back down, so the less they had to take down, the better. "I think I need to sit down for a few minutes," he said, plopping down on the couch. Realizing he was still wearing his shoes, Matt kicked them off, trying to land them as close to the door as possible. "I think the house looks pretty nice. What about you, darling?"

Charlie wasn't able to stop herself from tensing, flinching slightly when Matt kicked his shoes off. She wasn't sure where the sudden reaction came from but she would do her best to ignore it. She didn't want their evening going south, not when it was seemingly going so well. Turning her attention to Matt, she nodded as her face broke out into a grin.

"I might make some cookies later if I'm feeling up to it. Just to get into the spirit a bit more," Charlie commented as she curled up on the couch, tugging the throw from the back of the couch onto her lap. She turned to him, smirking a bit as she raised an eyebrow. "What kind of cookies should I make, hm?"

Matt smiled as Charlie sat down next to him on the couch, slipping his arms around her shoulders. He tugged a little bit of the throw blanket over his own legs, leaning back and getting comfortable. "Hmm, I don't know," Matt replied, matching Charlie's smirk. "I really like snickerdoodles, but you can't really go wrong with the classic chocolate chip. I'll even help you, as long as you let me eat the leftover dough."

Matt slipped his hand underneath the blanket and gave Charlie's thigh a squeeze. "Why don't we go make those cookies now?" he suggested. He smirked. "I'm craving something sweet." He gave her a wink before he got to his feet, heading into the kitchen. Charlie could follow if she wanted, either way, he wanted cookies now and he was going to make them. "Charlie, where's the sugar?" Matt shouted.

Charlie scoffed at Matt's suggestion, her eyes narrowing a bit as she grinned. "Oh yeah, you are, huh?" She quipped, raising an eyebrow as she started to sit up. "That's the only sweet thing you're going to get," Charlie called after Matt, just to get under his skin. She knew that she had likely riled him up but she didn't think there was much harm in messing with him. Pushing to her feet, Charlie bit back her laughter as she rounded the doorway into the kitchen.

"Sugar's in the container in the corner," Charlie said, motioning toward the array of copper containers in the corner of their counter top. She was a fan of rustic designs and so, most of their kitchen decorations followed that theme. "Why don't you make the chocolate chips and I'll make the snickerdoodle ones?" She offered, coming up behind him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, Charlie leaned up to press a kiss to his clothed shoulder before moving off to begin her batch of cookies.