Safe

Who: Jesse and Jessie
When: Jan, 27, evening
Where: Their apartment

The first thing that JJ did when she got home was feed Leo and clean his litter box. After that, she carefully changed out of the dress and sweater that had once belonged to Lily and into her pajamas, folded them and placed them safely away. Grabbing the blanket off her bed, she made her way to the couch and toppled onto it, pulling said blanket up and over her head so that she was just one big mass under it. She did this fairly often, especially when she'd had a not-so-good day.

Her mind was even more muddled than before she saw Dodge. She'd been hoping seeing him would help, and maybe it did a little bit, but now she was confused about other things. All she knew was that this day was giving her a headache, what getting into a yelling match with DG, then punching Mud, then walking home with Dodge and realizing something she never thought she would... She sighed. At least she was at home, safe, where she wouldn't have anyone tell her what she did was boring and that she needed to take more pride in herself or anyone to confuse her about boyfriends and feelings.

Jesse came in, knowing it was starting to get late, but it wasn't properly 'late' yet. He, much like his daughter, had not had a great day. In general, after everything, it had just spiralled, and he wasn't in a great place, mentally. Seemed that was a running theme of late, wasn't it. He seriously couldn't think of anytime in recent history where things had been going well. If it wasn't one thing it was another. And, after he came in, and saw the pile-o-blankets-and-jessie there on the couch, he exhaled quietly. "What's the matter, Baby J?" he asked, kicking his boots off, and he walked over to the couch to look down at her, leaning one hand on the arm of the couch as he reached out to pull the blanket back so he could see her.

The sounds of her father coming home were reassuring to Jessie, but she didn't make moves to head out from under her blanket coccoon just yet. Not until he moved some of the blankets back, but even then she stayed where she was and just stared up at him. "Bad day." She said, studying his face. It didn't take her long to realize that she wasn't the only one whose day hadn't been what they'd hoped. She knew her father well enough to know when he'd had a bad day too. "What about you?"

"Not the best." he admitted. "What happened in yours?" he asked. "Is it a hot chocolate with marshmallows night?" Since he made her that when she had bad days. Or, he tried to. he knew that his mother had always done that, with all her kids and with Baby J too. But he had picked up the tradition when she was little, even if her troubles back then had been a lot milder. Like Jimmy at school throwing a worm at her and the like.

Nodding, she sat up and brought her blanket with her, wrapping it around her like one massive jacket. Hot chocolate with marshmallows sounded perfect to her, so she stood up and started to make her way to the kitchen. "I ran into DG today...." She said, figuring her voice portray how well that interaction had gone, but for good measure she added, "She said some stuff that wasn't all that nice. Then I was walking home and stupid Mud comes up to me and is all, 'Hey, Princess..." so I ask him why in the world he thinks it's ok for him to just stop girls like that, especially when I was on my way here, and he told me I should just be happy that someone thought I was cute and that I should stop being so bitchy about it, so I punched him. A few times." Why was it easier to talk about Mud being an idiot than about DG saying mean things? Maybe because Mud had just scratched the surface of stupid things to say whereas the stuff that DG had said had really gotten to her. That was probably why.

Jesse headed into the kitchen, listening to her speaking, and he started getting everything out to make her the hot chocolate. "Well, it's good you punched that ass, because that's bullshit, and I'm glad you didn't put up with it. You know you don't have to, and just because there are people out there like him doesn't mean he should get away with it." he said, firm on that. But then he'd always raised Jessie to be independant, strong willed and a girl who didn't take shit from people. The world was a harsh place, and he wanted her to be prepared to deal with it head on, and not need any guy around to do it for her. He didn't want her winding up like Ronnie, who was just dependent on so many things on so many levels...yeah. He didn't want his daughter thinking that was the way to go. "What did DG say?" he asked.

Now that she replayed it in her mind, she wondered why she'd felt sorry for punching him at all. He was an ass. But at the mention of DG, it didn't take her long to realize why. Because it wasn't Mud's fault she was already pissed off and even if he deserved a good punch, he didn't need a good group of punches. "I thought about apologizing because even though he's a jerk, it's not his fault I was that mad to begin with. I would have punched him still, but I don't know about wailing on him...I was already mad because of what DG said."

She sat at the kitchen table, pulling the blanket tighter around her so it was just her head sticking out of the cover. "After school, I went for a walk. I was trying to clear my head because I'd been thinking about Lily a lot today. Sat down on a bench and along comes DG. We had a pretty nice conversation for a while, talked about Lily, talked about her sketches, until she asked me what I did. So I told her I spent time with my family, I cooked but mostly just for you and me, and I write sometimes. And she says that that sounded 'really fucking boring' and how I should be proud of what I do enough to show it to the world and enter competitions and that I should be proud of what I have, and she called me 'little girl'. So I told her that she was never going to call me little girl again and asked her who she was to tell me to be proud of myself and what I have, and that I am very proud of who I am and what I have and..." She found herself trailing off again, jaw clenching once more. Every time she talked about it, it just made her angrier. "She's lucky I didn't just punch her..."

Watching Baby J talk, he frowned, seeing how much it stressed her out there. "Well, first of all, there's a huge difference between pride and being full of oneself." he said. "That, and you do what you do that makes you happy, and it isn't her place to say what you should or shouldn't do. Or if it's boring or not. Maybe to her it is. Maybe to you it isn't. And it's not up to her what's fun for you and what isn't either. Next time tell her to mind her own damn business, and keep her nose out of yours."

Leave it to her dad to take a day full of worries and anger and say just the right thing to make it all seem fine again. She should have said that, she should have said that exact thing but DG had caught her off guard and somehow gotten under her skin and Jessie hated it. "I told her that! I told her I don't want to cook for everyone or show everyone what I write. I told her I did that for the people I cared about and she said that I should have said that first..." Jessie shook her head again. "She just made me so angry...Dodge says that it's just the way she is, but I don't see how it's ok for anyone to act that way. It's just rude."

"Maybe something was bothering her and she was looking for a fight." Jesse suggested. "Not that it makes it okay or anything, it doesn't, but that's what it sounds like. Like she was trying to start something. There any reason she'd want to do that?" he asked. He'd dealt with that in his life before. sometimes? People were just itching for something, and that was kind of it. He'd been the target of that a lot in his life, really. Though usually it was someone's boyfriend who didn't like the smile he'd gotten out of their lady....but that wasn't the point.

"I don't know," She started, sighing. "I don't know her that well at all, I mostly just know of her." And now I know she's rude..."I mean, she seemed fine when we were talking earlier. I have no idea why she just did a complete turn around and started judging me." Speaking of looking for a fight, that was exactly why she felt badly about Mud. Not insanely badly, he had been asking for it, but bad enough because most of her anger hadn't come from Mud's stupid words. So now she was feeling a bit like she'd just channeled DG and took her need to fight out on someone else, and it wasn't fair.

"What were you talking about when she did that?" Jesse asked, getting out JJ's mug, and he put marshmallows in it. The hot chocolate wasn't ready yet, but he always made it like that. Put marshmallows into the mug first, pour the hot chocolate over them, then add a few more on top. Sugary as hell, but that was the point, right?

"Just what I did in my spare time." It didn't make sense to her at all. It wasn't something that someone would necessarily care enough about to give opinions one way or the other. If someone had told her they collected stamps for a hobby, she wouldn't tell them to their face that she thought it was boring, even though she did. Shrugging, she looked back up at Jesse. "It's just weird. But enough about DG. What happened to you today?"

Teenage girls were a mystery sometimes. Though the chocolate was ready so he got her the mug, dropped some more marshmallows on top, and he brought it over to her. "Just got into it with some people that I didn't really like." he said. "Helena, who possibly might make you some new clothes, so if you get time, go see her so she can get your measurements. But sometimes we argue." he said, sitting down at the small table with her. "And there's the stuff with Lily."

"You ok?" She asked, studying her father a bit more closely this time. But then he mentioned Helena and said she was might make her some new clothes. "Helena? Oh, well, that's very nice of her. What were you arguing about?" She didn't know Helena that well, so the idea of going over to spend time with her alone seemed a little weird, but it was free clothing, free clothing made specifically for her, so she could get over the awkwardness for a day. Talk of Lily had her frowning again. She tried to cover it up with a sip from her hot chocolate, a very small one because it was still too hot to drink in gulps, and just nodded to Jesse. Under all of the other events in her day, she'd always been thinking about Lily.

"Doesn't matter." Jesse said about what he was arguing with Helena about. Stupid shit, was the short answer. "She's still grieving. I'm not sure she'll ever really get over it. She's a stubborn woman, I'm stubborn, sometimes that doesn't add up so great, y'know?" he said, giving a tired half smile. "We'll go to the funeral. Her wake." he said, knowing that would likely be a place he wasn't welcome, but whatever.

Jessie brought the mug of hot chocolate to her lips and blew on it, trying to cool it down more quickly. "You're sure it's not bugging you?" She asked before taking another small sip. JJ gave a nod to his second statement. Going to the funeral and getting to say their goodbyes to Lily would help. "I think I'm going to write something about Lily, something nice."

Yes, it's bugging me a lot. There's just nothing to be done about it. Jesse thought. but her second statement was more important to him, so he smiled at her, a soft expression. "I think Lily would really have liked that." he said genuinely. I think that's very good of you, Baby J. Do that." He sat back, looking at her for a long moment. "You're a good girl, JJ." he told her. "Just so you know."

There it was, the smile she'd wanted to see since he came home. It brought out one of her own. She placed her mug on the table and leaned in, hands on it, and sought his gaze. "You're a good guy; the best guy. Just so you know." Her smile widened just a touch. "Here's what I think we should do. The rate we're going, neither of us is going to get any rest tonight." She knew her father and she knew that the both of them were more than likely to just mull over the day's events instead of getting to sleep. "I think we should try to put everything crappy that happened today behind us, right now, so that it doesn't take up more of our lives than it already has." Except for Lily. That would take more time to get over. But arguments and words and stupid fights in the street. She might be able to put them behind her for now. "And if we can't and we're both still awake in the middle of the night, I think it's for the best that we make pancakes."

He laughed. "Alright." he agreed. "Sounds like a plan to me." He could go with that. It was better than the alternative, which was pretty much what she'd just said. They'd both be up spinning their wheels. They both tended to lose sleep with their heads were too noisy. It was a trait she'd picked up from him, no doubt. But he guessed there were worse ways of dealing. Like explosive violence and the like. That was far worse. He was ignoring that she'd punched someone. She'd been justified, and he'd raised her to be able to hand out a pop to the eye when she deemed it necessary.

Feeling a little better, JJ felt it was time to brave another topic. The last of the day's events. "Would you have a problem with me learning to play billiards? Figured it wouldn't hurt to learn something new and Dodge is going to teach me Saturday if you don't have a problem with it." She wasn't sure why there would be a problem, it wasn't an illegal game or anything. The only thing she could think of was that most billiards tables were inside a bar somewhere. Still, it was important to her to know where her father stood on this.

Jesse didn't answer immediately, watching his daughter for a long moment. "Spending a lot of time with Dodge, are you?" he asked, tone very light. He'd answer about the billiards in a bit, though his initial reaction was 'I'd rather you didn't'. Not because of the game itself, but because of where the tables generally were located, and having his baby girl hanging around bars? Not such a great plan. Even if she did know how to defend herself, it still wasn't a place he wanted her to be.

"He's a friend. Just a friend." She said, making a point to emphasize that. Dodge was only a friend. She had friends, and friends that were boys and that didn't mean she had to think of them as anything other than just friends. And although she'd realized today that a boyfriend might not be as awful as she'd thought earlier, that didn't mean she was so eager to run out and find one. "He walks with me after school sometimes," She added, because Jessie James didn't need someone to walk her home, but walking with someone toward her house wasn't so bad.

He still kept his eyes on his daughter. "I hope he's just a friend." he said. "And I just need to say this much, okay?" he added, disclaimering it beforehand, because he believed her when she said he was just a friend, but still. He knew how this shit worked he'd been a teenage boy before, and hey look. He had a daughter out of the deal. And he would never in a million years trade her for anything at all, but he didn't really want his baby to be hit with the same life he'd had either. "But you yell at me for the kinds of things I used to get associated with." he said. "And that kid pretty much does that shit every day. Its his life. So before he does too much walking you home, consider that." He sighed and sat back in his chair a little. "Be careful. I know boys, and they'll tell you what you want to hear, you know. That kid especially." What with the reputation he had. "And I'm sure it'll start with walking you home, then there'll be holding your hand, and then there'll be more than that, and that'll be what he was after from the start. I know you're not going to want to hear that, but trust me. You know I wouldn't say it to you unless I had it on good authority."

Jessie listened, really listened, and didn't say anything until he was finished. Even if the idea of doing something more than just holding hands with Dodge was giving her a really unsettled feeling, especially hearing it from her father. But if she had to hear it from anyone, she'd pick him over the rest of her family. Being ganged up on by all of her aunts at once and having 'the talk' was not the way she'd want it to happen. "I tell him the shit he does is stupid too," She said when he'd finished. She'd leave out the part about Dodge holding her hand for now. She'd fought him on it so many times before, but once she'd actually held his hand it hadn't been so bad. That didn't mean she wanted to go around doing other things with him or even that she wanted to always hold his hand, but on a day like today, it had been kind of nice to have a hand to hold. She sought his eyes again for the next part. "Nothing is going to happen. I don't like him like that, I don't like anyone like that. Dodge is just a friend, that's all. But I promise I'll be careful and if I ever do start liking someone more than a friend, you'll know about it because I'll tell you. But nothing is going to happen," She repeated, just for good measure.

"Telling him the shit he does is stupid is fine, but that's still association there, Baby J. And it could still fall back on you, because of that. Everything has consequences. Like what happened with me, when I got shot? That affected everyone, not just me. The same thing'll happen with that boy." And if Dodge was anything like he'd been at that age, he didn't really realize that. But then it was an adult realization, the idea that all of your actions splashed back on everyone around you who gave a damn. "And just...be careful, okay? Like I said, I know how this stuff goes. And it all starts small and seems really harmless, and it's just a small concession, really, and once that happens, it's really easy to keep that going. You get one thing then move on to the next, and keep at it, and since the first was okay, then why not the rest? It's manipulation. And you deserve someone who's honestly going to be all about you, where you're going to be the light in the sky for him." He quirked a half smile. "And I know eventually you're going to like someone, but just make sure it's not Dodge. You deserve a million times better than someone like him. You don't get a reputation like his without earning it, being a huge manipulator, and someone with no morals. Add on top of that the ability to tell people what they want to hear in the nicest way possible..." He shook his head. He wouldn't tell her she wasn't allowed to hang out with him--but he couldn't not give a warning there. Kids like Dodge were slimeballs as far as he was concerned, and he didn't want his kind anywhere near his baby.

Jessie sighed. Of course she was going to take in to account everything her father said. He was the most important person to her and she valued his opinion more than anyone else's. She could see where he was coming from and the warning didn't go unnoticed. He was right, Dodge didn't have the best reputation and Jessie had no intention of falling for him even though he'd stolen her first kiss. But he was a friend. He'd been the one to help her find the locket, he'd put his neck out there for her in that instance, and it meant something to her. But it meant more to listen to her father. Maybe she could find a happy medium between having Dodge as a friend and not upsetting her father. After all, when she was hanging out with Dodge, he wasn't out there doing all that stupid stuff he did when she wasn't hanging out with him. Aside from stealing lockets, but that was a one time deal.

"He's just a friend and it's staying that way," She assured him. Honestly, she didn't even want to be thinking about taking things to any sort of next level with anyone right now. She'd only just today realized that having a boyfriend might not be so terrible. But when she did have a boyfriend, it would be on her terms, with someone her father approved of, for sure. "I just like hanging out with him. No funny business. I promise to be careful," She repeated.

"I would consider him trying to get you into bars to play pool would qualify as funny business in general, Baby J." Jesse noted. "Which I would prefer you didn't do. I don't really want to have to start kicking people's asses for hitting on my daughter when they're falling down drunk." he said. Not that he wouldn't. Because anyone who laid a hand on her would in fact, get their ass handed to them. But that didn't mean he wanted her to incite it either.

"If I can find a place that isn't a bar, a nice place, that has a billiards table, does that count? Or is it no billiards at all?" It was a shame, really. Playing pool had actually sounded like something fun, something she'd like to do. Tactical, a thinking man (or woman's) game, but if her dad vetoed it, it simply wasn't going to happen.

"I don't want you hanging around in bars." He told her. "If you can find a table somewhere else, fine. But you're not going to start hanging around in bars. Your mother did that." he told her. And it wasn't meant to be a low blow or anything, and wasn't even phrased like he thought she was going to follow in her mom's footsteps because he didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell. But still, it was true, and he wanted to impress upon Jessie the fact that it wasn't acceptable.

Which, of course, Jessie knew but she hadn't thought of it that way at first. She should have, it should have been the first thing she thought about, and she wondered if maybe her father was right about boys, especially Dodge, being able to sway her certain ways. And now that it involved actually swaying her thoughts one way, towards bars and places like them, it really didn't sit well with her. Jessie James didn't let herself get swayed in ways she didn't want to be swayed. She needed to get her head back in order. She was going to blame this on the bad day she'd had and not let it go with her into tomorrow, like she'd promised to her father. But who knew, maybe Dodge had some place that wasn't a bar that he was going to take her to to play pool; he hadn't told her where they were going to play it. Needless to say, there would be no bar trips. "I don't want to start hanging around bars. I'm not going to. If I can find a table somewhere else, we'll play, but if not, we won't play pool." She wanted nothing to do with places that her mother frequented, bars definitely included.

She lifted her mug to her lips again, taking a larger gulp this time because it was cooling down. She glanced back over at the couch in the living room, then to her father again. "Want to go sit on the couch? It's more comfortable." After the days the two of them had had, hot chocolate and sitting on the couch didn't sound like such a bad plan.

He nodded, getting up, and after a moment of hesitation, he made himself some hot chocolate too, since it was still on the stove, then he went over to the couch to drop down onto it. He'd definitely had better spans of time in his life. But jesus, the last few weeks...yeah. He was feeling very done now. The world could stop jerking him around any day now. "So what else has my baby girl been up to?" he asked.

She sat carefully down beside him, blanket and all, and smiled at him over the mug that was pressed to her lips again. "I've been thinking of ways to cheer you up." Jessie lowered her mug to show the grin that was on her face. "Like...maybe we'll go to your favorite restaurant? Ooor, we could go look for a new figurine tomorrow after school? Or we could do both!"

He smiled at her. "Sounds like a good idea. Let's find a new figurine. We haven't found anything truly hideous in a while. And the apartment's getting far too nice looking, we need to ugly it up." he told her, nodding like this was reasonable. He wasn't sold on the restaurant thing, because the last time he'd been there, he'd had Lily with him, he thought. And he'd gotten bad news. So he wasn't necessarily looking to go back any time soon.

After another sip of her hot chocolate, she laughed. "I agree, we do need to ugly it up some more. Maybe we could get some really awful curtains or terrible throw pillows..." She loved their ugly figurine tradition, but talking about making this apartment uglier had her wondering. She was sure they'd keep the figurine tradition whenever they found a new place, but she wondered if they'd keep joking about making it ugly. She also wondered if there were any leads on new apartments, because as much as she did love this one, it was hard to see her dad sleeping on the couch every night. But then there was the whole issue of whether they had enough money to even be looking for a new place. Sighing, Jessie took another sip of her drink, but didn't say anything. The last thing she wanted her father to think was that she wasn't happy where she was or that she didn't appreciate their life. That was the farthest from what she felt; she loved her life, but really, was it so much to ask for him to have his own bed to sleep on too?

He looked at her as she sighed. "...what was that?" he asked, knowing she was not saying something. What it was, he wasn't sure, and he wasn't any good at mind reading. Therefore, asking was always the way to go. Especially with teenage girls. Plus, he hated letting anything go when he could see there was something there. He'd never in his life been any good at that.

Jessie was frowning when she looked back at him. "Don't you ever get tired of sleeping on a couch?" She asked, figuring that was the best way to put it, even if it might not make sense without more explanation. But it was the one thing that was bothering her the most, the fact that he didn't have a place to call his own within his own apartment.

He thought about that, then shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm used to it by now." he told her honestly. "Though I suppose it'd kind of cramp your style, having anyone over, huh?" he asked. "Why?" He figured there was more to it than her wondering about his sleeping arrangement.

Jessie's frown deepened. "What? That's...that's not at all what I meant." She shook her head, shifting a little so she could look him in the eye. "This is your home too and you have to sleep on a couch. It's not really fair to you. You should have a place that you can go that's all for you, not just a living room that we share and then you have to sleep in. Why don't you sleep on the bed tonight and I take the couch?" It wasn't a big step, it still wasn't what she wanted for him, but she figured it was something.

He shook his head. "Jessie, that's your room. With your things, and it's your bed, and I would never be able to sleep in there, because it's not a place for me." he said seriously. "I've been thinking on a new place anyways, if it's bothering you that much, I'll just step up that search, okay?" he told her. Because he didn't want her twitching over things but he really couldn't sleep in his daughter's room, even if she wasn't in there. Just...no way in hell.

"I just want you to have a bed too and a place that's yours. You shouldn't have to sleep on the couch in your own home." Jessie glanced back at him. "I can help you with the search too." Although real estate was something she wasn't well versed in, she figured it couldn't be that hard. They just had to find an apartment that had a room where they could put a bed for her father too. That shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

"We can look at places together and make the decision that way." Jesse told her, figuring that he'd be wanting her opinion on anywhere they were planning on living. he wouldn't just up and move them without her having a say. She'd probably think of things that he wouldn't, and if either of them could be considered practical, it was probably her. "We can do that Monday, maybe?"

"Sounds like a plan." She said, her smile finally returning to something that looked normal. She finished off her hot chocolate and set the mug down on a table nearby before settling again into the couch. Pulling the blankets around her, she stifled a yawn into one. It was probably too early for her to be feeling tired, but if she thought about it, her day had been a little on the exhausting side. Still, she didn't want to get up yet. She felt the most grounded here, beside her dad, that she had all day and a few yawns here and there wasn't going to rush her off to bed just yet. "Did you do anything else today, besides talk to Helena?"

"Not really." he told her, seeing she looked sleepy. "Nothing of consequence, anyways. Mostly I just wandered around." he said. Which was true. He hadn't had a very full day or anything of the kind. "You look tired, Baby J." he told her, smiling. "Why don't you head to sleep? You don't want to get overtired, then not be able to rest later." Not that she'd had a habit of doing that since she was like, three, and bedtime wasn't her favorite time of night, but still.

"Well, I could go sleep or I could sit here with for you a little longer." She smiled back at him, not denying that she was tired. Not this time. He'd already caught onto her and that yawn certainly hadn't helped it. Honestly, she was feeling the calmest she had all day and if she got up to go to bed now, she'd be ruining that by having to wake up tomorrow. She figured she could stay here, feeling as peaceful as possible, for just a little while longer. "I think I'd like to just sit for a while. I'll make you a deal..." Removing the blanket for the first time, she got up and hurried into her room, coming back with a deck of cards. "One game and then I'll go to sleep." She didn't care what they played, just that they played something. It was all part of the 'forget what happened today' plan.

He laughed. "Sure thing, Baby J." he told her. "But I veto playing hold'em with you again. You always cheat." he accused, even if that was wildly untrue. He still liked to tease her. And, he could use a little distraction from his day as well, so he was happy to go with it. Playing cards with his daughter was a really good way to not feel like the world was a shitty place.