...I Knew Her

Who: Brett and Jessie
Where: An alleyway near the Kitten Club
When: Late afternoon

The day had started badly. It always did when he had those fucking dreams. More so because he'd woken to the sound of someone hammering on his door. The messenger had stayed long enough after Brett had wrenched open the door and caught the fist flying towards his chest now that the door had disappeared mid-knock in his fist to tell him that he had to be at the docks by ten, then he was to be at the Kitten Club by midday. he'd still been shaking off the remnants of the dream as he got dressed, as he'd reached into his pocket and pulled out the paper he found there - Jackson's number on one side. Helena's details on the other. He didn't know what, if anything, he was going to do about either of them, so in the end he'd just dropped it onto the kitchen table before leaving.

That had been this morning, and the world had changed again. The Kitten Club had been pretty empty when the news came in. Nothing official, nothing through the papers or the police, but questions had been asked and news spread like wildfire, unofficially. Stella - he'd known her, she'd worked here. And these were his girls - though he would never, ever admit that aloud. They were part of his job, one of his jobs. Possibly his favourite job. It wasn't much, being a bouncer, but it kept them safe and it was something that wasn't the rest of his jobs. It was one of the only strictly legal jobs he had.

Only, she was dead now - and, sure, it wasn't on his watch, but she was still dead. He'd played it cool when he'd found out, the usual wall up in place, that blank look he'd perfected. He'd waited until his break to leave, go for a walk - get some air. He really needed some air.

'Air' ended up being a random alley - he'd walked for a little bit, not long, before he'd ended up leant against a wall, taking some deep breaths, trying to get it together again. It wasn't fucking meant to go like this.