Can Never Be Too Careful

Who: Dodge and Jessie
When: Late Afternoon
Where: On the streets

Jessie hadn't gone back to school after she'd made it back onto the streets, but she was headed that way. If only she'd brought her bag with her when she went with Quentin she wouldn't have to go back to school, but she'd left it there and that was why she was heading back.

Currently, she was less worried about what had happened with Quentin and more worried about the fact that she'd actually considering going into that restaurant and trying to order a beer. Or two...or three. Unsettling and unfocused, Jessie stuffed her hands into her pockets and stared at the people on the street as she walked by.

Dodge wasn’t doing well. Max’s threats he thought were unearned, but at the same time it made his stomach turn over at the thought. The man saw through his facade and his act to fake his death. Someone wanted him, wanted something from him and if he didn’t stay in line Jessie and Maddy were in trouble. That part wasn’t sitting well with him at all. He’d unintentionally stayed out longer than planned, pageboy hat pulled down low on his brow while he pondered his existence.

Jessie had stopped paying attention and started kicking up her pace, wanting nothing more than to grab her bag and head home, but there were other things in store for her. Like almost running into someone literally on the sidewalk. When she looked up, she immediately started apologizing. "Sorry, I didn't see you. Guess I should have paid more attenti...Dodge?" It took her a moment to really see his face, the hat he wore different than his fedora, but she was squinting and looking up under the hat just to make sure. What the hell? Dodge was..."So you're not dead?" She asked, her voice bordering on pissed off. She didn't wait for him to acknowledge anything she said, just yelling. "There's rumors going around that you're dead but you sure look alive to me. Why the hell aren't you correcting them? What the hell is going on, Dodge?"

Dodge caught her instinctively, arms going around her waist before he realized who he was holding on to until she started speaking. Part of him was relieved to see her safe and in one piece but then her words registered. Again acting on instinct he clapped his hand over her mouth and pulled her away ducking them into an alley. “Shh JJ, hush.” He held her close, his hand still over her mouth and he looked at her sharply. “I’m gonna let go, but you’d damn well better not yell. Alright?”

Jessie's mind was racing and while his instinct might be to shut her up, hers was to get his hands off her. She stumbled with him into the alley even as she struggled to free herself and finally when he started talking, she lifted an eyebrow. Really? He thought he was going to talk to her that way and get away with it? Even though her hands were at her side, she pulled her right one back and planted a punch on his stomach as hard as she could...which wasn't very hard considering the circumstances, but she felt it would be hard enough to free her. "First of all, don't you fucking talk to me that way," She hissed when her mouth was free again. "Secondly, what the hell is going on? You'd better start explaining..."

Dodge hissed a little when she punched him, doubling over some. It wasn’t that she hit him that hard, but he hadn’t expected it. “Keep your voice down alright,” he said with a bit of a glare, but in his eyes it shone that it was important. “I started a rumor. I needed to change things, Dodge had to die. And Dodge is dead JJ. Forget you knew him and let him go. For your own safety.” He couldn’t believe he was telling her that, but he had to now that Max had threatened her.

"What are you even talking about? None of that makes sense, Dodge..." She whispered before she'd even known she'd said the name that technically wasn't supposed to be used anymore. "Why does you needing to change yourself result in you fake killing yourself? Fill me in, because that doesn't sound right...And what's all this 'for my own safety' business? Your boys aren't gonna come find me and like..pester me to death for information." She didn't understand any of this and for this being the first time she'd run into him since his 'death', it wasn't helping to clear up any questions she had. Other than the fact that he wasn't really dead.

Dodge breathed out hard, falling backwards against the wall behind him, looking at the ground. After a long moment he looked up at her again though it was hard to see his face under the shadow of his hat. The wrong hat. “I messed everything up JJ. Remember our fight? That wasn’t the only one I’ve had recently. Just icing on the cake. I hurt everyone around me and I was hurting my boys just by letting them live the life I was leading them into. It wasn’t right. So I had them taken away. All of them were shipped off the orphanage.” He wanted to reach for Jessie, but he kept his hands to himself for once. “They wouldn’t stay there if they knew I was out here. So I started a rumor. I’m dead, they’ll start over and I get to start over as someone new. New name and everything.” The part about her safety he didn’t want to explain, but at the same time he couldn’t just leave it open, not when she’d asked. “I didn’t make many friends in my life JJ. And some people would do anything to get their hands on me again, or to hurt me. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

Jessie calmed down enough to listen to him, but leaned on the wall purposefully. She needed to keep space between the two of them because she knew what 'Dodge' was like, but if he was really trying to not be 'Dodge' anymore, then who was he trying to be. She'd have to come back to that question, because right now she needed to focus on something else. "Ok so..first off, hang on, let me see if I get this straight. You made some enemies and now you think that I might end up getting hurt because of enemies you made? That seems a little crazy. To be honest, this whole...thing...seems a little crazy." She made a vague gesture around them when she spoke, looking up at him with concern in her eyes.

“JJ, look, I know you hate me, but please promise me on this one. I’ve hurt you enough already,” he said softly. There was honesty in his eyes, something deeper than usual. He wasn’t playing games, not with her life. He’d seen that evil in Max’s eyes. “And yeah, it’s a little crazy and a little extreme, but it worked didn’t it? I mean a damn gang war broke out the other day.”

"Promise you what? That I'll completely forget about you? I don't have mind erasing capabilities, Dod...what am I even supposed to call you if I can't call you by your name?" She asked, looking at him seriously. She took another look at his very serious expression and could tell that he wasn't playing around, so she sighed. "Fine, I promise. But you have to fill me in on everything. On what's going on, on what to do...I need to know." She frowned at him when he spoke again and crossed her arms over her chest. "So..the gang war was on purpose? People got hurt in that!"

“J.D.,” Dodge told her. “That’s the new name.” At her questions he reached for her, knowing she’d react badly, but he hoped part of her still trusted him at least a little bit. “Come on,” he said softly guiding her deeper into the alley, knowing where it crossed and an empty building they could duck into. “I had nothing to do with the war. Or not directly. It just happened because Dodge died. People thought I was lying about my power.” That part made him smile grimly but it faded quickly.

"J.D, really? What's it mean?" She couldn't help but wonder if she'd been inspiration for his new name, so hopefully he'd explain it. J.D. was way to close to JJ. She watched his hand as he moved it towards her, but when she realized they were only going a little further into the alley, she followed. But she made a point to stop just a bit away from where he was going. "I'm not going any further. And this isn't funny... People were just fighting because they thought you were dead? That was the reason? Dodge, this is..this is seriously insane. How is reinventing yourself worth all of this?"

“John Doe. It’s what they’d write on my death certificate if I did die,” he explained matter of factly even if it was painfully morbid. “I didn’t know they’d start fighting,” he told her, turning back to look at her and keeping his voice low. He hadn’t expected the fighting to be rooted in his gang breaking up. Hell, he’d started to believe everyone who told him his power was all in his head he supposed. “There’s a hierarchy out there. People thought I was full of hot air, but I was on top. When my gang broke up, someone else had to take its place. That’s how things get settled on the streets. I know people got hurt and I tried to break up fights, but J.D.’s just a guy. And Dodge couldn’t come back to life.”

"John Doe, Dodge, really? You couldn't come up with something a little less sad? You could have any name in the whole world and you pick John Doe?" Jessie ran a hand through her hair as she listened to him talk and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to take a step back and make any of this make sense. "This is completely insane. So...what am I supposed to do when I see you? Just completely ignore you?" She didn't think that was so out of the ordinary originally, considering that's sort of what she'd wanted to do from the start, but now there was this underlying sense of unease about this situation, this conversation, and Jessie didn't know what to think.

Dodge shrugged a little. “Depressing or not, it was fitting. I tried everything else already.” At her question he looked at her, eyes a little confused. “I thought you weren’t speaking to me ever again. I don’t think it’d matter to you much. You know I’m not dead, so you can go back to wishing I was.”

Jessie shook her head. "It's not fitting, Dodge. That's the name they give to missing people, it's not fitting. You're a person, you need a real name...And this is completely ridiculous! Why are we arguing about this when there's possibilities that one of your potential 'enemies' could be lying in wait to just..jump me or something. Why just me, anyway? Why not Maddy or...Oh my god, are they threatening my aunt too?" Yes, she was still pissed off at him, but how could she go back to ignoring him when he'd just told her that?

“JJ, I’ve never had a real name. Not one I can remember. I was ‘boy’ until I met Patrick and he gave me a name. I don’t need one now.” He didn’t want to argue about it anymore. He’d like the idea when Zhen presented it. He’d thought it was creative, but both Maddy and Jessie seemed to hate it. “Maddy too. Not Evie,” Dodge explained. “Don’t tell Evie about me, dead or alive. I’ll tell her on my own if I decide I want to.” He looked at Jessie, eyes hard. “I ran into someone today, it’s on my mind. If I keep in line it shouldn’t be an issue, but I’d rather you just keep having known me to yourself alright? I figure that’s what you want to do anyway.”

"Does Maddy know they're like...after her? What does 'staying in line' even mean? That could mean anything," Jessie said, shaking her head a little. She covered her face with her hands and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "You know I have to tell my dad. At the very least, I have to tell him. And he's gonna want to tell Aunt Evie...So you'd better decide real quick if you want to tell her because I have to tell him. But he'll know what to do. He'll have the answer for all this." He'd have a way to keep them all safe, to keep Maddy and Dodge and her...everyone would be safe. "...Hang on," She said as she realized something. "Who is saying all this stuff? IT has to be someone, they've already given you rules..."

A killer. Dodge listened to her work her way through her thought process, wincing when she mentioned her dad. Just what he needed. “They aren’t after anyone. He threatened me, but I told him he had the wrong guy. And I don’t know who he was, but I’ve seen him before. It doesn’t matter. He wanted Dodge, I’m not Dodge. If I stay away from his sister, then you’re fine. Just go back to hating me. Don’t tell your dad. His idea of fixing it will be kill me for real. You know that, I know that.”

"They are after people if you're standing here, telling me about it," Jessie said, having a hard time finding rationality in keeping all this secret. "You know I have to tell him. I can't not tell him. I can't keep secrets from me and he'd damn sure want to know if someone might be coming after me sometime. Or Evie. Or Maddy even. Anyone. Keeping this a secret from other people, yeah, I get that. Random people. But he's my dad, Dodge. He can make this safer for everyone involved just by knowing about it. He won't kill you, that's ridiculous." She stopped again, thinking over his words, and gave him A Look. "Really, Dodge. This is happening because some guy caught you with his sister? Did you learn anything?"

Dodge pulled the hat off his head, running a hand through his hair. He didn’t want someone else to solve his problems. He just wanted Maddy and Jessie to be safe. There was a fleeting of thought that he probably should have died, but he pushed it away. “I was talking to her. That was it. I did learn a thing or two thank you very much. He just wanted to fuck with me, but it’s got me nervous. Like or not, I do still care about you. Tell your dad, then watch the papers for a John Doe in the morgue. About seventeen. That’ll be me beaten to a bloody pulp.” She knew what her dad was, she had to know. Angry he shoved the hat back on his head, low enough so all that showed was his frown. He wasn’t putting up with this, he was going back into hiding. He shouldn’t have left his place today at all. It just kept getting worse. With nothing left to say to her he turned, headed back the way he came.

"Dodge, he would not kill you! How can you tell me this and expect me not to tell my family about it? I need to tell someone, I can't keep something like this in! And you don't get to guilt trip me into doing that. And..where the hell do you think you're going?" She hurried after him and grabbed his arm, pulling on it a little to stop him before she let go. "Stop. Stop it right now. You need to stop running and face this. Because this is happening, apparently." She was trying not to think about what he'd said about her, trying not to make that a factor in any of this. "If my dad knows, then we can make sure nothing happens to you either. We can at least try. And he'd not like that, but no matter what happened," No matter what you did, "if you're in trouble, then you need help. I don't take threats lightly. This is serious shit, Dodge. More serious than you making some stupid ass decisions before."

When she grabbed his arm he stopped a little surprised that she’d bothered to stop him. “Your dad can’t save me JJ. Tell him what you want, but he won’t want to save me, even if you ask him. He didn’t even want me to hang out with you. Just...stop.” He watched her for a moment, wanting to give in and be close to her again, wanting everything she had that he didn’t. A family, security, people who loved her unconditionally. “If you tell him, don’t tell him I’m alive. Just stay safe for me. If you need me I’m over the Apollo. Ask for J.D.” She’d hate it but he touched her cheek lightly, just a graze of his fingers.

So yeah, maybe she didn't think her father would be happy with the idea of helping Dodge out, but she did think that if she expressed concern about the situation, he'd know what to do. He'd put feelings aside in light of what was the right thing, because she looked up to him that way. He always knew what to do in situations where she didn't. But then he was touching her cheek and she frowned. "Dodge, come on..." She sighed, shaking her head a little as she moved to take his hand away from her face. "This is serious. Don't just pull this shit and disappear again. I'm mad at you, yeah, but if you're going back out there and people are threatening you...This is a big deal. This is more than what happened." She wasn't willing to write off everything he'd done, but she was willing to try and think about something that was potentially dangerous more than thinking about something that was just emotionally straining.

“Jessie, I didn’t disappear remember? You glared at me on a sidewalk and told me you wanted nothing to do with me.” Dodge let her pull his hand away, tucking it into the pocket of his ratty pants. “Stop pretending you’ve decided to start giving a damn about me again. It’s not more than what happened. It’s my big deal and it’s your problem to just be careful. I’ll keep my nose clean and you go back to pretending you don’t know me, to avoiding me. You ended our friendship, don’t think that just because I’ve run into some trouble you have to start it up again. I don’t need you to save me. I don’t want to be saved.”

"That's plain stupid, Dodge..." Jessie said, but she didn't argue with him much more. She had stopped their friendship dead in its tracks. She'd told him to stay away from her and her family and that was what she'd wanted all along. But she didn't want to see him like this. He looked lost and yes, she was pissed at him and yes, just him looking lost wasn't about to change her mind about what he'd done. But there were threats involved here. There were things bigger than all of them, bigger than his stupid actions, on play. "Fine. You know what? Fine. But if you decide to stop being an idiot and decide you do need some help, you can come find me."

“JJ...” he started but trailed off. Dodge wanted to tell her how damned naive she was. For all her talk of being worldly and open-minded she had no idea how the world worked. He wasn’t being stupid or an idiot because he didn’t want her brand of help. Nor did he want her turning on something she’d already said just because she thought he needed saving. Sighing he took her shoulders in his hands and pulled her towards him, ghosting a kiss across her cheek. “Stay safe,” he whispered in her ear before letting her go, trotting off the way he came and disappearing at the entrance to the alley