New Kid On The Block

Ch 13: Better Times

"You ready to go?" Wrench asked.

"Go where?" My eyebrows shot up in confusion.

"To get something to eat." He said. "You haven't ate since lunch time yesterday." I blinked in surprise realizing he was right. As if on cue, my stomach rumbled.

"I don't-"

"You need to eat." Sitara said cutting me off. "So don't even try to get out off it." she pushed me towards the door with Wrench chuckling as he followed.

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"The mall?" I hummed as he parked the car.

"Yeah, we got to get you some clothes too." Wrench replied. "I mean, unless you want to continue to borrow clothes that don't fit you." I rolled my eyes in response.

"I'm not letting you pay for clothes for me."

"I'm not." he said, reaching in his pocket and pulling out a wallet. He held up a credit card with the name Dennis Jordan. "Don't worry, he's an asshole millionaire that had it coming. Screwed a bunch of people out of there homes."

A few minutes later we were sitting in the food court.

"Did Horatio have any family?" I asked, in between bites of my sub.

"Not any that he was close to." He answered, dipping a fry in ketchup before slipping up his mask and eating it. "He, like most of us, didn't have the best time growing up."

"Yeah, but should we...contact them?"

"Sitara already did. Didn't get a response."

"That's...."

"Terrible, I know." he sighed balancing his chair on two legs. "Don't worry though, Dedsec will send him off in style."

"Were you guys close?" I asked looking up at him when he paused. He let his chair clatter back to the ground on all fours.

"Not really. I mean we've worked together for the past year but it's nothing that ever really left work. You know?" he said. "I know he used to DJ, but he had to give that up to join Dedsec." I nodded, I knew that rule well enough. Dedsec members had to be anonymous, which meant no high profile jobs. "You know, he practically started the Bay area Dedsec?"

"He did?"

Wrench nodded. "How do you think he became Dedsec's main operation manager. I know we have a policy of no leaders, but he came just about close."

We spent the next hour walking around the mall. I ended up getting about six sets of clothes and a new tablet. I wanted to get a new leather jacket, but couldn't find one that i liked. I ended up settling for dark blue hoodie instead. Wrench commented something about my roots starting to show, and I ended up grabbing a box of hair dye too.

"You're not going to redye it blue?" he asked sounding surprised.

"I'd have to go get it professionally done." I shrugged. "Too much of a hassle." We walked back to the car and I threw the bags on to the back seat. "Should we head back to the Hackerspace?"

"No point really, nothing we can do and its getting late." he said motioning the darkening sky.

"Yeah." I agreed boredly staring out the window as he drove us back to his apartment. I quickly zoned out loosing track of where we were. Instead my mind turned to Horatio and Fence. If I had got that message earlier, would he still be alive. If everyone hadn't been so focused on me, would they have noticed he was gone sooner? Would we have gotten there sooner?

Wrench swore slamming on the breaks and pulling off to the side of the road. I gasped catching myself against the dash board. The car that had been driving behind us slammed on its horns revving its engine as it sped past us.

"What the hell Wrench?!"

"Damn."

I turned to follow his gaze and my eyes widened. While I had been deep in my thought, I missed the fact that we had turned on to the street where my apartment use to stand. And I say use to because the entire thing was nothing but ash and scraps of metal.

The fire had been so recent they hadn't had time to put up fences yet to stop people from walking into the aftermath. Instead, orange cones roped off the area with police tape.

"How the hell." Wrench muttered.

"What?" I asked realizing I must be missing something. He pointed to what was left off a fire escape and I squinted. Sitting atop the twisted metal was a grey and black cat. No, a grey cat covered in black ash. "Soviet."  I gasped in surprised. I threw open my car door running up to the tape and ducking underneath it. Behind me, the driver side door opened and closed.

"Hey! What are you doing? Stop." A voice yelled from behind. I had been so excited seeing Soviet alive that I missed the fact there was a security guard. I turned to answer by Wrench had already caught up with him and was explaining to him gesturing towards the cat.

I figured he had it settled so I carefully picked the rest of my way through the rubble. "Come here Soviet." I called clicking my tongue as I neared the fire escape. His ears perked up and he stood purring and rubbing up against the metal railing. "Come here, don't make me climb up there." I sighed heavily.

He meows angrily, probably because I wasn't petting him. And jumped down to just above where I could reach him. He leaned down sniffing my finger tips. "Really? You are an  asshole." I groaned, stretching was no use.

I hadn't realize that Wrench had followed until he reach above me picking the cat up. Soviet gave an annoyed meow but didn't struggle as Wrench dropped him into my hands. I instantly cradled him in my arms, flipping him over and holding him like a baby.  We carefully headed back to the car navigating our way through the wreckage.

We stopped at a drug store to grab cat food before getting home. Once inside he took off to explore the apartment.

"Don't worry, you won't have to deal with the two of us for long." I promised. "I'll start looking for a new apartment tomorrow." He dropped the bags with my clothes onto the counter and I turned to watch as Soviet disappeared under the coffee table. He reappeared on the other side sniffing at an empty can of Red Bull that was laying on its side.

I jumped slightly feeling Wrench wrap his arms around my waist from behind.

"Sorry." He murmured pressing his face against the top of my hair. I closed my eyes leaning back into his embrace. He breathed out heavily and I knew we were both thinking about the same thing. Both of us were tired, not physically but mentally. "How's your head feeling?"

"Starting to throb a little." I admitted.

"You should sleep." he said softly, stepping back and letting go of me. I shivered, almost instantly feeling the absence of his body heat. I turned around glaring up at him. "What?" He asked titling his head.

I rolled my eyes wrapping my arms around his next. The sudden movement caused him to loose balance but he quickly regain it. "You should come to bed too." I murmured an he laughed slipping his arms around my waist again.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" he smirked.