Long Way

I sat at my desk ordering supplies for the office on my computer, trying to ignore how relevant the lyrics to Janis Joplin's song Piece of my Heart were to my life.

"Take it, take another little piece of my heart now, baby."

I glanced at the list of printer ink cartridges that I was supposed order, then looked at the list on the computer. I decide, screw it and click on one of each kind. These people can figure it out for themselves. This really isn't even part of my job. I should be trying to figure something out about these break-in's for Martin. But for whatever reason, I'm doing this.

"Break it, break another little piece of my heart now, baby. If it makes you feel good...

"Ugh, shut the fuck up, Janis. Jesus Christ," I said out loud, staring up at the ceiling.

I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye, like someone had walked by my office or something. I looked up and saw Martin leaning on my door jamb.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked him.

"Would you believe me if I said five minutes?"

"Yes."

"You underestimate me."

"Never." He stepped into my office and walked around to my side of the desk, and leaned down to look over my shoulder at the computer screen. I tried to ignore how close his lips were to my neck.

"Long night?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go up and get an hour or so of sleep then head back out."

Martin has been staking out some of our high-risk properties the last few days, just to be on the safe side.

He stood up then and walked back around to the other side of the desk.

"Okay, if you need anything, just let yourself into my apartment," Martin said to me.

"Alright."

"I'll check in before I leave again." I nodded and he stepped out of my office.

I finished the supply order and sent it off. When I was done it was time for lunch. A boring sandwich in the break room was not doing much for my appetite today, so I elected to leave and go to Andretti's Deli to get a sub.

I got up and grabbed up my purse and keys, and headed out of the office.

On my way down the hallway, I looked up at the camera that looked over the entire hallway and waved at it. Then it hit me. I stopped in the hallway and thought to myself for about 30 seconds, then I turned on my heel and practically ran to the elevator.

I pushed the button to take me up to the seventh floor, and skittered around the elevator as it went up two floors. When the doors opened, I ran out and shoved my key into Martin's door.

I ran through the apartment to his bedroom yelling his name. When I got there I jumped on the bed and yelped in excitement. He put his hands around my waist to calm me.

"I figured it out! I figured it out!" I yelled.

"Tell me."

"The camera's!"

"What about them?"

"We've been wondering how these guys got the codes to the keypads. What if they came under some pretenses, like a cable man checking lines or something like that, then when they got in they installed a camera to get the codes, then when they broke in they took the camera with them?"

"There were no reports of anyone seeing any cameras."

"Yeah, but these camera's are tiny. Like, really tiny."

"I like it. Run with it, see what you come up with."

"I want to go back to the accounts that have been broken into and check things out again."

"Do it, just make sure you show your badge and tell them you're a tech." I was so excited that I hadn't noticed that he had moved his hand up to my breast and was squeezing it gently.

"Mmm." I snapped out of it then and pushed his hand away, and jumped off of him.

"I almost had you."

"No you didn't."

"You can run, but you can't hide, LeBeau."

"We made an agreement."

"You made an agreement."

"I'm going back to work now." He grinned at me. I hitched my chin up and walked out of his room quickly. He was right, I couldn't hide from him. And doing something with him would complicate things with Declan even further.

I wasn't even interested in lunch anymore. I drove straight to the first account that had been hit, and told them that I was just a tech doing regular maintenance.

The first few accounts that I hit showed no evidence that my claim was correct, so I went to Andretti's and ordered an eggplant Parmesan sub with roast beef and ate it in my car while contemplating what to do. When I finished eating I drove to the only commercial account on my list of accounts that had been hit, which was an insurance company near where Mo's Garage was.

I looked around and noticed that Martin's guys had installed a motion sensor over the back door that would turn on a light if activated. Near the sensor I noticed that a small section of the paint was chipped off. I asked the maintenance man for a ladder and climbed up to take a better look. I was glad that I had chosen to dress casually today in faded jeans and a black girly style t-shirt with the company logo on the left side of my chest.

Sure enough, it looked as if someone had stuck something up on the ceiling near the sensor and had taken it down, removing some of the paint when they did.

I climbed down and thanked the maintenance guy for the ladder.

"No problem, the guy who came last week needed a ladder too. What is it that you guys keep checking for?" I gave him a sideways look.

"Someone was here last week too?"

"Yeah."

"Can you describe him?"

"Yeah, he was slim, probably my height, dark hair, kind of darkish skin, good looking. Real young, too. Probably eighteen or nineteen. Why?"

"I was just trying to figure out if some wires got crossed and two of us ended up on the same route. Thanks for all your help."

It took all that I could not to run back to my car. I sped back to the office and ran inside and took the elevator up to the fifth floor. I figured that by now Martin would be back in his office.

He was sitting at his desk when I ran in out of breath. I stood there for a few moments bent over with my hands on my hips trying to catch my breath while he watched me.

When I got myself straightened out he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Big news?" he asked.

"I know what our guy looks like," I told him.

"Keep going." I told him the whole story about what happened at the insurance company, and what the maintenance man told me.

"I don't have anyone here that young, but I do have a couple guys that match that description that might be mistaken for being that young," he said when I was finished.

"So we're back to someone in house? That's ugly."

"I'll look into it. Good work, you can go back to your regular work now."

"Okay." I turned and kind of limped back to my office. I'm not really into working out, and Lord knows my cardio is lacking. I'm sure the foot long sub didn't help much either.

I had been sitting there for about ten minutes when my cell phone rang. I looked down and saw just a phone number on the caller ID.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hey it's me." Declan.

"What's up? Where are you?"

"I'm at work. I was just letting you know that I'm not gonna be around tonight because I have to go to my sister's going away party tonight."

"That's fine, I was planning on going over to my parent's place anyways."

"Alright, I'll see you later then."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye." I hung up and thought about how strange the call had seemed. It had been a few days since Declan and I had "reunited," and ever since we'd been just going along like we had been before, just now we were sharing a bed every night. I didn't know if we were back together or what. In a way it felt like we were, but in another it didn't.

When five-thirty rolled around, I clocked out at work and drove directly to my parent's house. When I walked in the door, my mother was in the living room answering a text message, Metallica was blaring through the house, and my dad was in the kitchen. I dropped my purse down on the couch.

"What's up?" I said to my mother.

"Making dinner. How was your day?"

"Good, productive."

"That's good. Where's Declan?"

"He had to go to his dad's place for his sister's going away party." She didn't answer, she was too busy texting, so I went into the kitchen where I could hear my dad bitching away.

"What's up?" I greeted him, grabbing a beer out of the fridge and offering it to him. He shook his head so I took the beer for myself.

"Your mother is the worst cook. Who starts a meal, and then just walks away from it? I come in here and shits boiling over and burning, and she's in a totally different room, texting!"

"I text when I cook sometimes."

"But are you in the same room? At least in eyesight of the stove?"

"Usually."

"See that's different."

"I'm right here, quitting bitching," My mother said, walking into the kitchen.

"I have to be in here to make sure that we get to eat dinner tonight!"

"You're dramatic," she said to him. I laughed and took a sip of my beer. Not to mention this whole conversation was being yelled just so you could be heard over the music that was still rocking the house.

"Can you hear that?" I asked my dad.

"This is my mood music. I need to get into the mood when I cook."

"I bet." I followed my mom out of the kitchen to the living room and watched as she turned the music down to a normal level. My dad yelled his complaints from the kitchen but we ignored him.

I saw what looked to be a photo album sitting at the end of the long dining room table.

"What's this?" I asked my mom.

"I found that today. You should take it home with you. There are some picture's of Gina, and a lot of you and Declan when you guys lived here."

"God, that was years ago," I said, flipping through a few of the pages.

When Declan and I met it was right after my sister had passed away. I was nineteen and still living at home, and he was already out on the street doing his thing. Mo kicked him out of his house, and he had no other place to go. He was contemplating going back to his dad's, but I knew that wouldn't be a good thing so I convinced my parents to let him live with us.

He and I moved down to the basement, which is fully furnished, and we basically never came back upstairs unless absolutely necessary, which wasn't often. I would go weeks down there without seeing my parents. We fell in love down there. He helped me grieve for my sister who he had never even known. I would like to think that I helped him just by being with him, but I don't really know anymore. Those days were so precious and now they seem so long ago.

I looked at some of the pictures then closed the book and set it on top of my purse to take home with me.

"You'll have to show it to him," my mom said.

"Yeah I will."

We sat on the couch and talked while my dad finished making dinner. When he was done he brought everything out to the table for us.

"Just the three of us for dinner tonight," he said. "Shawn just called and said that him and his dad and Travis were going out."

"I should have stayed home so you guys could have dinner by yourselves," I said as we sat down and started eating.

"I don't remember the last time we ate dinner by ourselves," my mom said to my dad.

"It had to be when Diana and Declan moved out. Travis was what? Twenty or so."

"Yeah, something like that."

"When he was going out with Rachel Rottman," I said, gesturing with my fork.

"That's right. He was always with her when they first got together."

"Did you hear that she's having a baby?" I asked them.

"I heard that," my dad said. My mother shook her head.

"Can you imagine if they had stayed together? Travis could be a father."

"Nowadays that's a scary thought," I said.

"Tell me about it."

"Yup, you were with Declan, moved into your own place. And he was with Rachel. I thought I was going to have my house to myself finally," my dad said. I laughed.

"Chad was in college," my mother mentioned and we both nodded.

"Times sure have changed, haven't they?"

"Tell me about it."

We finished our dinner and I went back to my house. I let Willa out to do her business and I filled her dish with some leftovers from dinner, then I changed into some sweatpants to watch TV while I waited for Declan to get home.

My phone rang again with Leon's number coming up on the screen. Strange, I didn't think that Sharon was working tonight.

"Hello?"

"Hey it's me," Declan again.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm at Leon's, will you come down here so Linc can go home?"

"Where is your truck?"

"It's here but I'm gonna need a ride." Great, that means he's drunk.

"I'm on my way."

"Thanks D."

"Yup," I said, and hung up.

I sighed and got up off the couch and changed back into my jeans, and put on my leather jacket that was just a bit too big for me.

"Willa, come on, let's go get pop pop," I called. She jumped down from her spot on the chaise and trotted to the door with me.

I loaded her up into the backseat of my SUV and we drove to Leon's. It was the middle of the week, so it wasn't so packed that I couldn't find a parking spot in front of the bar. I told Willa to be good and I locked her in, then went inside.

I found Declan and Lincoln up by the bar. Declan was standing up talking to some guy I didn't recognize, and Linc was sitting at the bar.

Declan made it clear that he saw me as I walked up to the bar, but he didn't leave his conversation to say anything to me. I sat down on the stool that was right next to Lincoln's and observed that Sharon wasn't behind the bar. Probably a good thing if Declan was drunk. A young, pretty brunette came up to me and smiled.

"What can I get you?" she asked.

"What are the specials?"

"We have a drink called a Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and two dollar drafts."

"I'll have the cake thing."

"Coming right up."

"Put it on my tab," Lincoln said to her quietly.

"Okay," she said with another smile.

"Thank you," I told him when she'd left to make the drink.

"Take it as my way of thanking you for coming here so I could go home."

"Things didn't go well at his dad's?"

"Nope."

"Did you go with him?"

"Nope. Alaina started ballet tonight." I smiled. Lincoln was so cute when it came to his girls.

"That's where you should be now, is with the girls," I tell him, putting one arm around him in a hug. "Get out of here."

He hugged me back and gave Declan a heavy slam on his bicep, paid his tab, then walked out without another word in typical Lincoln fashion.

The bartender brought me my drink and I took a sip. Not bad, tasted just like it's very sweet name. I took another sip and felt Declan's arm around me. He turned me around and kissed me on the lips.

"You taste sweet," he said.

"Pineapple upside down cake," I said, lifting my drink up to his lips and giving him a sip. He raised his eyebrows a little.

"Kind of good, right?"

"Very sweet. I'll stick to beer."

"How did it go at Charlie's party?"

"Could have been better."

"Did you get into it with your dad?"

"Yeah."

"Declan."

"He started it." I cocked my head sideways at him.

"I know."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Just the same old shit. He was going on about how I was never gonna change or amount to anything, that I was an alcoholic loser, whatever. So finally I just let him have it. Told him that he was a hypocrite."

"Was Charlie mad?"

"I don't know. I don't think she knew it happened."

"Well that's good. Did your mom show up?"

"No, just like I figured."

"That's probably for the best." He snorted.

"Yeah, I didn't need to get into a fight with both of them."

"No you didn't."

"Let's go play pool."

"Willa's outside waiting for us."

"Is she? We'll go quick." I laughed as he dragged me off my stool and through the bar.

There were three steps that led up to where the pool tables were. As we approached the steps, I saw a guy yelling at what appeared to be his girlfriend. She snapped something at him and started walking away, and he grabbed her around her arm and threw her down the steps. Declan let go of my hand and in one sweep of his arm, took the girl and moved her to me. I gently took her around her arms as he stepped in towards her boyfriend.

"Why don't you leave her alone and pick on someone your own size, dickhead," he said calmly.

"Why don't you mind your own fucking business?"

"You unfortunately made it my business when you threw your girl down the stairs in front of me."

"And what are you gonna do about it?" This guy was obviously drunk, and it was obvious that he didn't handle his liquor like Declan did.

"Knock you on your drunk ass if you don't get the hell out of here right now." The guy wound back when Declan was expecting it and punched him. Declan ducked back at the last minute and got the very least of the punch as possible. Being as drunk as he was, the guy almost took himself out with the effort of the punch. Declan took advantage of this and round-housed the guy, knocking him off his feet.

"Tony!" his girlfriend squeeked in my arms. I let her go and she stumbled over to him in her high heels. Declan was already over by the guy, picking him up under his armpits. I grabbed the chick by her purse strap to hold her back as Declan dragged the guy out of the bar.

"What happened?" The bartender yelled to us.

"He got sea sick and fell down," Declan told her. "He'll be fine."

I felt like I was walking a fucking dog holding this chick by her purse strap. She was pulling the strap tight, holding her arms out towards Declan.

We got outside and I let go of the strap unexpectedly, sending the girl down to her knees flailing her arms. Declan smirked at me.

"That was catty." I gave him a hands up gesture and he set the guy down against the side of the bar.

"I don't really want to play pool anymore," I told him.

"Me neither, let's go take Willa home." I nodded and we walked over to my car and we drove home.

When we got home Declan threw the ball in the yard for Willa for a few minutes, then we went inside. I changed back into my sweats and when I came back out to the living room, I saw him flipping through the photo album my mother had sent home with me.

I sat down beside him as he looked at the pictures.

He stopped on one of me and Gina when she was in the hospital. We're laying in her bed, smiling at the camera. She looks very thin and pale, a shadow of herself. She has a hot pink bandana wrapped around her bald head. I look very young and tired.

"I wish you could have met Gina," I told him.

"Me too."

"She would have loved you." he smiled and flipped the page to a picture of him and I shortly after we had met, before we had moved into the basement together. My hair was dark brown instead of the jet black that it is now. I'm sitting on a stump and he's leaned down behind me with his arms around me. We had fallen in love very quickly.

"Look how young we look," I said. He smirked.

"The good old days."

"Yeah."

"One day, we'll get back to that." I didn't say anything, I just looked at him. His lip was cut from the fight earlier in the evening.

"I promise."

"Okay."

Back when that picture was taken I would have believed anything that he told me. Now, I wasn't so quick to believe.