Mad Men

After his sleep hazy conversation on the plane, James was sure he knew what he needed to do. The first part of his plan was the most important; he needed to fix things with his wife. The second, he had to find a new job or, at least, he couldn’t stay at Power Play without a guilty conscience eating at him and straining his and Lisa’s relationship. The first part would be easy. The second terrified James. He had moments of realization, dwelling on the fact that he literally broke the law for a living, but the rush he felt when he’d stolen the first car, taken the first ride under the hot Pittsburgh summer sun, it wasn’t going away.

James knew what it felt like for people with addictions, who knew they should stop, knew what they were doing was bad, but could not stop. He was there too. But there were people who cut their addictions, people who got out. James needed to find one.

The next day, James wandered into Brandon’s office, not even bothering to knock like he had when he was first starting and learning the ropes. Brandon had a newspaper opened to the ads and was circling and taking notes on a scrap of paper next to him. He looked up when James entered.

“We’ve got a big few days coming up James, I hope you’re all ready to roll!” The cheeriness in his tone of voice had become familiar for the past week. The Boss had been assigning directs tasks for Power Play for nearly every other day. What was a rarity had become something quite familiar, though no one questions it. Brandon, of course, saw this as a great reward for his hard work, as did many of the other guys. James felt like he hadn’t been around long enough to feel deserving, but he couldn’t deny the excitement behind the mystery. But he did have to push aside the nervousness at having to tell Brandon soon that he wanted out. That would have to wait until he finished the first part of his plan.

“Always ready. Did you need anything done today?”

Brandon shook his head. “Nothing pressing. We need to finalize things first.”

“Cool. Can we talk non-work for a minute then?” James wiped his sweaty hands on his pants, praying that the bond he’d formed with these guys really was friendship and not just work standard. Luckily Brandon leaned back in his seat and smiled.

“Of course! You need something? I can reserve any strip club in the city limits for private parties on a night’s notice!”

James had to laugh at his eagerness; it put him at ease.

“No, Brandon. Actually, I was wondering… way back when I first started here, you said something about being married. And that we should get together sometime. Well, Lisa and I are on the rocks right now, and honestly, it’s the job. Cause I’m not around. And I’m also a dumbass, but that’s a different story. I’m just wondering, is there anyway, ya know, maybe you and me and some of the other guys can just have a casual group dinner with some girls, so Lisa maybe doesn’t feel like we’re living completely separate lives right now?”

There was a long moment of silence, when Brandon stared with a blank expression and James giving one back because he wasn’t sure what Brandon was thinking. But it ended shortly, with Brandon smiling and picking up his desk telephone.

“Of course! I’ll make reservations now. Theresa will be happy. Trust me, it’s not just you that forgets that relationships demand more face to face attention than, you know… Anyway, why don’t you go talk to the guys about it. Tell them, how about, Buca’s for 8 o’clock tonight. Lisa likes Italian, right?”

James nodded enthusiastically and had to stop from sprinting from the room and doing a triumphant fist pump.

xxxxxxx

Despite the tense atmosphere in the Neal house since their fight the previous weekend, Lisa agreed to go to dinner without much persuasion. She didn’t want to be fighting with James. Just looking at her husband made her anger melt away, and his efforts in making amends gave her hope. She knew they could work through this job because she knew they could work through anything. If James wanted to make things better by making her apart of this new part of his life, she was going to eagerly agree.

James had been very clear to everyone that Lisa didn’t know, and didn’t need to find out about the specifics of the job. Everyone was to stay vague and keep conversation light and social only. Luckily, it wouldn’t be too hard, because most of the guys were bringing casual dates who didn’t know the details of their work lives either. Still, he was sweating and nervous.

“Ready?” James helped Lisa slip a light jacket over her dress, despite the warm summer night. “You look beautiful.”

The compliment added a blush to her smile before they headed out the door and into the waiting cab. Lisa wasn’t necessarily nervous, but she didn’t know what to expect. James had told her nothing about anyone he worked with, and considering the fact that her own job was mostly secretarial work, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to add anything productive to conversation anyway.

James took her hand when they got out of the car and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Truthfully, he was trying to reassure himself that this wasn’t the worst idea in the universe.

A server led them to the back where Brandon had managed to get several tables together to fit their large group. By the looks of it, James and Lisa were the last to arrive. Breadsticks and salad were already overflowing on the table.

“James!” Matt had kindly saved two seats next to him. The rest of the guys shouted greetings while they dug into the food. Lisa and Matt had met once or twice before and remembered each other, which put her at ease. James’ attention was quickly pulled to introducing Lisa to those around him and in turn being introduced to the other girls at the table. Geno was in Russia for the weekend and unable to make the dinner, but besides that, it went exceptionally well. Lisa and Orpik’s wife Elaine hit it off rather quickly, and everyone gushed about the food once it arrived. James was sure to jump in and be a part of all of the conversation and jokes at the table. He felt like the luckiest guy in the universe for having such a beautiful wife by his side.

Lisa got comfortable quickly, falling into conversation with Elaine about movies and other current pop culture. She felt James’ hand on her back and leaned into him slightly, thinking that the entire group was very different than what she expected. Instead of uptight businessmen keeping her husband out at all hours of the day, it was a big group of goofy guys. It both baffled and comforted her. The wine that just kept coming complimented her easing mood and the delicious eggplant lasagna in front of her. By the end of the night, she felt more confident than she had since James got his new job. She felt like she was finally back in control of her marriage because she wasn’t in the dark about her other half’s life.

“Wanna go?” James was relieved and a little drunk and wanting to secretly celebrate the success of the evening and the first part of his plan. When Lisa agreed, they bid the group good night and headed outside to hail a taxi home.

James knew that the wait on a Friday night wouldn’t be long, and he took the time make sure everything was OK between them.

“Did you have fun?”

Lisa wrapped her arms around James’ waist and smiled up at him.

“Yes I did. Thank you.”

They met for a kiss in the middle, James unable to keep the smile off of his own face.

“I’m gonna try harder to spend time with you, Lisa. I mean it.”

She simply smiled wider and kissed him again.

A taxi slowed at the curb in front of them, but James pulled Lisa back to face him after opening the door.

“Lisa, really. I’m really sorry for the way I acted. I’ve always wanted you to have everything. I thought that’s what we needed but I know now, that stuff doesn’t matter. I’m just happy with you.”

James felt his heart flutter at her smile, her complete willingness to forgive him. How he ever got Lisa to fall in love with his undeserving self, he’d never know.

Lisa leaned up to kiss James, running her hands into his suit jacket and making sure he got her point without any words. He was panting when she pulled away.

“Holy shit, I’ve missed you so much.”

Lisa simply laughed as she pulled James into the back of the taxi by his tie, confident that he would keep his promises and thankful that he’d finally started including her in his life again.

xxxxxxx

An hour later, the group had left the restaurant, with the girls heading home and the guys agreeing to meet a few of the others at a local bar. Brandon, Matt, Brooks, Bortz, and Kris were met by Deryk, who had opted out of dinner, and they commandeered a table right in the center of the seating area, wanting to be the center of attention. It wasn’t long before that attention came from unwanted spectators.

“Well look who it is.”

The group, who were loud and jubilant only a moment early, were immediately annoyed and ready for confrontation as they turned their attention to the voice.

“Oh, Christ,” Brandon rolled his eyes at the speaker, who was accompanied by several others. They were dressed down, just like Power Play, and the leader of the group wore a mischievous smirk to match his unruly red hair. “It’s the fuckin’ Weasley brigade.”

“Who the hell let you trash out of Philly?” Deryk eyed one of the guy in the back, knowing he could take him when it came to it.

The leader spoke up. “Actually, we’re here because we’ve got word of something big going down next week, and we can’t let that slip by without careful consideration of our participation.”

“Jesus, Giroux, I should’ve known you were still out suckin’ dick. You just can’t find your own damn work, can you?”

He simply laughed off the comment as he reached out to grab one of the full beers that was sitting on the table. It was that little move that set off an entire brawl, guys reaching for and grabbing collars, tossing people aside while throwing and ducking punches. Brandon managed to get Giroux pinned against the side of the table when Deryk took a swung at another redhead with long curly hair.

“You guys better be gone by tomorrow morning. This is our job. If I get so much as hint that you’re sniffing around downtown when the weekend is over, you’re dead. Understand?”

In his defense, Giroux didn’t back down. He pushed Brandon forward and was ready to throw a fist when the yelling from the other patrons was overcome by the shouting of police. An officer yanked both men away before another came in to cuff the one from Philadelphia.

“We’ll see you later.” He laughed menacingly as he was hauled away from the mess of spilt beer and turned chairs to the front of the bar.

xxxxxxx

James was confident when he got up early the next morning; as far as he was concerned, his first part of the plan had gone over much easier than thought it would, and his sense of accomplishment allowed him to go into work without a guilty conscience. He figured he wouldn’t be there much longer if the second part of his plan was anything as close to smooth sailing as the first, so James kissed his half asleep wife before slipping out of the house and heading downtown.

There was nothing to indicate that anything was out of the ordinary when James pulled his car into the private garage under Headquarters, and nothing unusual about the ride up in the elevator. When he entered the lobby, there was nothing unusual about Matt greeting James before saying Brandon was in his office waiting for him. It was what, or who, rather, in the office that was very out of the usual, and it made James’ stomach sink and his mouth to dry immediately with panic.

“James! Come on in.” Brandon seemed unfazed by the uniformed police officer standing in his office, but James had to remind his feet how to move so he could join the two men inside. He was thinking back to every car he’d stolen that summer, wondering which one was caught on camera or which one had been reclaimed with his fingerprints inside. What would Lisa say when she had to come visit him in prison? Who was he kidding, she would never stay with him in prison, not after he lied to her. James was just about to start contemplating the horror of jail when Brandon began talking again.

“James, this is Officer Glass.” Brandon turned to the officer, who was now facing James with one of his hands resting on his gun holster. James gulped. “James has only been with us for a couple of months. He’s a hard worker who does everything one hundred percent.” Both men smiled at James briefly before the officer turned back to Brandon.

“We’ll finish talking later. I’ll see if I can ensure that the charges have been dropped and we’ll get them out of Pittsburgh.”

“Thanks, Tanner. Enjoy the weather.” The officer shook Brandon’s hand and smiled once more at James as he walked past him and out of the door. James waited for a few moments before speaking up.

“Uh… Did something happen that I should know about?”

Brandon puffed out a breath as he sat lazily back in his seat and ran his hands over his face and through his hair.

“No. Nothing personal to you, I mean. Go ahead and sit.” Brandon motioned to the chair at the other side of his cluttered desk, which James reluctantly sat down in.

“We had a… an altercation, last night, after you left. There were only a few of the guys out still, we left the restaurant for drinks and ended up running into Penalty Kill-“

“Who?”

“Oh, a group of fucking clowns from Philadelphia. They like to pretend they have an ounce of talent in their group, but they mostly just ride our fucking coattails. Anyway, they came to Pittsburgh, probably just to see if they could get anything from us, and it ended with a brawl and a shit ton of cops. We’re fine of course, with our understanding with the police. But we had to bail Engell out again, and the guys from Philly are probably still local, so Tanner came in to talk it through with me.”

James didn’t know what to say. The way Brandon said it, this wasn’t a big deal, even with the police involved.

“Brandon, how do we get away with all of this?” James decided to go with his most long burning question.

“Because, James. We live in a corrupt world. It’s a cycle. We help them, they help us. We both win. It’s selfish, but it’s just how it is. You strike a deal that works for everyone, and it’s easy. The boss is very good at persuading.” Brandon let out a laugh. “Doesn’t hurt that Deryk’s got every woman in any position of power in this city wrapped around his finger.”

James forced a smile at the ongoing apparent joke just to keep things in the room comfortable.

“So, what I called you in for here. Like I said earlier this week, we have a very big job set to be completed Thursday. We’ve been working on it all summer, and it’s gonna be our biggest haul ever. Boss has lots of special requests, and we’re gonna need a couple of different vehicles from you. Brooks and Joey are working on locking down the sources now, so once that’s done you’ll need to get started right away. Sound good?”

“Yep.” James stood up to leave. “One more thing, Brandon. Um… Where does the Boss live? I mean, where does he, uh, operate from?”

Brandon didn’t even lift his eyes from his computer when he answered, “Here, in Pittsburgh. Here’s down in the banking district. But he’s obviously a very busy man.”

“Cool… Thanks.” James smirked to himself, thinking part two might be just as easy as part one.