Reputation: Book One

Autumn

"Momma, I wanna go home," Jhordyn whines, gripping the handlebar to the shopping cart tightly.

"No," I tell her for the seventh time. "We have to feed a lot of people too often to just sit at home and play dress up without having to buy groceries."

"Yeah! This is fun," Cori giggles, jumping off the side of the cart and running to some barbies on display in the aisle, Talitha following her curiously. She slowly reached forward, gently touching the faces of the dolls. I roll my eyes in annoyance. This is what I get for taking two little girls and a clueless teenager to the market with me.

"Mom, leave us here with Talitha," Cori says, grabbing Talitha's hand.

"I cannot drive yet," She tells Cortanney. She frowns.

"Where I came from, we walked everywhere while trying not to get killed," Talitha tells the girls straightforwardly. I purse my lips. They didn't need to know that.

"That must've sucked," Jhordyn snorts. We all laugh. "You have no idea how good you have it," I cut in.

"I mean, I came from the woods on basically an isolated island, so I don't know what 'good' you're talking about," Talitha smirks.

"Oh yeah, you're right!" I gasp. "You even lived without your parents, right?" I ask, trying to intrigue the girls. They immidiately snapped around to gaze at her. Talitha nods. "Since I was ten. My dad ran away but my mom died protecting me," She tells them, booping her nose.

Jhordyn turns and gives me a pleading look. "Mom, please don't die. And don't let dad run away either." I laugh,shaking my head.

"I will never leave you. I may have to go work and leave you for a day or two, but I need you to remember I feel so bad when I do. When I get hurt really bad sometimes, I wish I could be home with you and your sister," I tell her sincerely. I watched her let that sink in for a minute.

"I thought Cortaney was my half-sister." She finally says. My pulse quickened.

"Uh no. She just has a different dad." I sputter, twiddling my fingers.

"Wouldn't that be step?" Cori asks, arching her eyebrow. "And how did that happen anyway? I thought you only have kids with the people you love," Jhordyn interrupts. Talitha gave me an alarmed look with wide eyes.

"Well, Qrow, I-I mean I love him too, but a long time ago I loved him like Adrien now. So, there was a little... accident between him and I." I tell her. "I mean, I'm happy I have Jhordyn in my life, I just...wasn't expecting her."

Jhordyn gave me a look. I force a smile and grab a jar of pickles off the shelf. She sighs. "Mom, you sound like you're talking to a stranger when they ask you what you do for work. You're lying. To me." She says as she puts her hands on her hips. I let out a nervous laugh, giving Talitha a look to save me from the conversation.

"You will learn when you're older and when your dad is the one to tell you." I finish, looking away dismissively.

A sudden random feeling told me to check on Qrow to see how he was doing. I quickly whipped out my phone and shot him a little text asking how things were at home. As I looked up, I witness a tall, slender, brown-haired man slip his hand into an old lady's purse and slowly pull out her cell phone and wallet. I looked at the woman who still stood clueless, staring at the endless items on the shelf. My eyes widened. I knew I had to move quickly. I shoved my phone into my butt pocket, turning to Talitha.

"Talitha, take charge right now. I'll be right back," I tell her, running off after the man as he turned the corner down the cheeses section. I cut through the cleaning aisle to cut him off along the back meat wall, building momentum as I charged down the empty aisle. Just as I reach the end on the other side, I spot him quickly walking past the open freezer section. I gasp and slow down, letting inertia do the work. My body flew into him and I slammed the guy into the produce wall, wrestling him into a choke hold as we tumbled to the floor. I caught myself on my knees as raw packaged meat fell behind us from off the shelves and onto the floor. Everyone looked up to watch us, wide-eyed.

"Give back what you stole!" I demand, pulling his body off the ground as I wrapped an agressive arm around his throat. He coughed and gagged as he tore at my arm around his neck.

"Stop resisting. If you don't give the phone and wallet back to me in the next five seconds, I am going to take it from you." I warn.

"Finders keepers," he choked. My tolerance snapped. I let go of his throat, slid out from under him, pulled his head up off the ground by his hair and slammed it back into the floor. He groaned in pain, reaching for his head. I grab his whole ear and lean forward.

"Hand it over," I whisper into his ear.

I saw him go in and out of consciousness. I cuss to myself, shaking his shoulder. Then, he gave in and his body went limp. I smiled, sighed from the effort and stood up, reaching over and snatching a red plastic jump rope from off the isle rack in front of me. I bent down and pulled his arms over his head, tying it around his wrists tightly. I then dragged his large, heavy body over to the seafood manager by the green handles. He backed up against the wall, his hands above his head and his body quaking. I rolled my eyes at his stupidity and tossed him the jump rope handles.

"Make sure the cops come," I grunt, bending down again to grab the phone and wallet from his leather jacket pocket. "If he wakes up, just..." I pause, searching for words as I studied his face. "Yeah, you'll be fine," I tell him reassuringly. As I turned around, people pointed their cell phones at me, their recording lights shining. I felt my stomach drop. Shit.

I grabbed the front collar of my shirt and pulled it over my face, taking off back to where I'd left the girls. They can't report me to the cops or I'd lose my entire career. I'd have to go to court for 'authority impersonation', whatever the hell that means. Along with a big, fat ass fine, I would probably get arrested along with Qrow, Tripp, Jerzei, and even Adrien too because we use his nursing degree for incident cover-ups. Such as last time and the many times before; we hurt someone, we take them right to the ER so he can handle them. Everybody loves Adrien, so he has all access to everything in the files. No check-in needed for the patient; just a little shot of drugs and it's no longer our fault. Which is very illegal, now that I think about it.

I dart for the canned goods, the girls in sight. I run up to them and Talitha gives me a worried look. "What the hell did you do now?" She shrieks as I grab both the girls.

"We need to go," I tell them, pulling them forward. "Leave everything, I will explain when we are home. We can come back later too, but if you don't want to have to go sit in the police station we should start running."