Underworld: Assassins

Chapter III: Dinner With the Jacobs

After a nice walk through the darkening streets of New York, Davey, Les, and I approach the Jacobs' apartment building. "Here we are," Davey says, opening the door for me and Les. I wait for him at the bottom of the stairs, and he quickly shuts the door behind all of us, before re-joining me. Les runs on up ahead of us, and we laugh. "I'm sorry," Davey says, apologizing for his brother's poor manners. "He's probably far past hungry." I laugh, and tell him it's okay.

"He's young," I say. "There's plenty a' time still fuh him to learn to slow down." Davey laughs and nods, before once again offering me his arm. Seriously, this guy is a breath of fresh air compared to what I've come to expect from most New Yorkers. Together, we mount the stairs, going up quite a few flights before we finally get to his floor. "An' Les ran up all 'a these?" I joke.

Davey laughs, before replying, "If he did as he does most nights, he ran up about half the stairs, and dragged himself up the rest of them." I picture this in my head, and sudden laughter rises from my lungs. Davey laughs along with me until we reach his door. Les is nowhere to be seen outside, so I assume he is already inside the apartment. "And here we are," Davey says, once again opening the door for me, this time without separating from me, and letting me step inside. I smile and thank him, before entering a small apartment, and take a look around. At a table, a middle-aged man with an injured arm sits and reads a newspaper. His dark brown hair looks almost just like Davey's and Les's, and I realize he must be their father.

He looks up as we come in and a wide grin spreads across his face. "Ah, Davey, who is this?" he asks curiously.

"Dad, this is Tina Parker, she's just starting with the newsies," Davey replies.

"It's nice to meet you," Mr. Jacobs says, standing to come and meet me. Although, I do notice he also has a limp. "I'm Mark Jacobs."

"Nice ta meetcha, sir," I say. I shaking his left hand, albeit a bit awkwardly.

"I apologize for my broken arm and the limp, I was injured at work," he says, having noticed the awkwardness of the handshake.

"Nah, don' worry 'bout it, sir," I reply kindly. "Lotsa things happen ta folks, and there ain't nuthin' you can do about it."

"She's a smart one, David," Mr. Jacobs says to his son. "You might want to keep her around for a bit!" He laughs, but Davey's face starts to redden, which I find to be kind of cute.

"Oh, uh well, I mean..." he stutters, trying to explain to his father that we aren't an item. Then again, I'm sure it does look like it, considering my hand still rests on his arm.

"Thank you, sir," I say, trying to relieve the stress Davey has suddenly found himself under, "but ya son an' I only jus' met today."

"Mary!" Mr. Jacobs ignores my comment entirely. "David's brought home a girl!" I chuckle with Davey, who shrugs as if to ask, 'What can you do?' A pretty, though I could see stress weighing down on her, middle-aged woman comes out of the kitchen, looking at Davey and me. Her blonde hair is swept up, and she's wearing a nice pink dress.

"Oh!" she exclaims excitedly. Oh great, here we go. "It's so lovely to meet you, honey!" She gives me a hug, then pulls back and looks me over. "Aren't you so adorable? What's your name?"

"Uh, Tina," I say awkwardly. "Parker."

"I'm Mary Jacobs." She grins, and runs off to the kitchen, after telling me to have a seat and make myself at home. Davey pulls my seat out for me, and I sit down, letting him help me by pushing my seat back towards the table. He soon joins me, sitting directly to my left.