CHAPTER FIVE ;
" bugs & bad feelings "
" i know that i messed it up
time and time again
i just wanna roll my sleeves up
and start again "
✧ START AGAIN
onerepublic!
When the three stooges enter the grim apartment, they find Laurie Lang, wearing a very pathetic expression, lying on the floor in the middle of the hallway with her legs and arms stretched out around her. Scott's friends stare at the unmoving girl for a brief moment with wide eyes.
Suddenly Dave motions out a hand and exclaims, "Oh, I see her breathe, we good."
The three men all give sighs of relief before dropping back into their sadness and solemnly wandering down around the apartment.
Luis eventually meanders on over to the fifteen year old, staring down at her with a tilted head, "What are you doing, Queenie?"
"Dying without the commitment." Laurie replies in a monotone voice, staring up at the ceiling with a look of disappointment still on her face.
"Oh, okay." Luis just shrugs and then frowns as the thoughts of the busted heist come back to him, "Your dad here?"
"'Thought so. He went into the bathroom, but he's been in there for, like, half an hour so he probably jumped out the window or something."
"Huh." Luis replies thoughtfully before he tries to step over her flailed limbs, "'Scuse me."
"You got it, Dude." She gives a thumbs up before sighing heavily and resting back into the wooden floor.
Luis knocks on the bathroom door, calling, "Scotty, what's up, Man?"
When no one responds, Luis glances down at Laurie who props herself up onto her elbows. Luis pushes the door open, calling Scott's name as he looks around. He pulls open the shower curtain and shrugs when Scott is still nowhere to be found.
Well, the man clearly left her behind again.
And here she was thinking she was going to have to revoke her own membership from the Dads Ditching Club for a reason.
Laurie rolls her eyes and lays back down as Luis shuts the bathroom door, "Typical."
She stays planted in her spot for a few more minutes before she rolls onto her stomach and lazily clambers up to her feet. The fifteen year old grabs her backpack and then a juicebox from the fridge, and then she waves at Kurt and Dave before she yanks the front door open. Her feet make loud flump-flumps as she purposefully mozies down the gray stairwell. She doesn't really pay attention as she walks and kicks at the gravel lining the sidewalk. She's still just sipping her juicebox when suddenly two booted feet land in front of her, literally appearing out of nowhere.
"Laurie!" A familiar voice sounds breathless and harried, "Oh wow, did you see that? Thank God! That was... wow, God!"
The girl just slurps in her juicebox and boredly rolls her eyes up to see the source of the voice, knowing that it's her dad. Only, like, yeah, it's him, but it's kind of hard to tell when he looks like he's about to go cosplaying or something.
With a frown, Laurie pulls her orangey-yellow straw from her mouth, "Scott? Why're you wearing that thing?"
He breathes heavily and part of the helmet is hanging from his face as he gasps breathlessly, "That was the worst thing I've ever experienced."
"What's going on with you?" Laurie quirks an eyebrow at her dad, pulling her chin back to be away from the psycho.
"Something's not right about this thing. We need to get rid of it right now." Scott grabs onto the collar of the red and black suit at her and shakes it at her in display.
"The motorcycle suit?"
"No, no, no! It's not a," he groans out a sigh, closing his eyes and quickly shaking his head, "We gotta get rid of it! We gotta put it back!"
Laurie's eyes practically pop right out of her skull, "You wanna go back?! Like, to the creepy haunted mansion of doom?"
"It's not staying with me!"
"Can't we just," Laurie wiggles her shoulders into a shrug, "I don't know, garbage chute the thing?"
"The guy we took it from is watching us, Laurie." Scott tells his eldest daughter seriously, but there's weird panic and uncertainty in his brown eyes, "I'm not doing anything with it but putting it back!"
Even though she can completely see his reasoning, it's his daughter's turn to groan now, "I got a really bad feeling about this."
♢ ♢ ♢
"Get down on the ground! You are under arrest!"
Scott and Laurie stand in the middle of a dark street with their black gloved hands raised and their eyes wide while police cars with flashing red and blue lights surround them.
"No, wait!" Scott quickly tries to explain their way out of this, "We didn't steal anything! We were returning something we stole! Oh..." The man squeezes his eyes shut, groans, and scrunches his lips together in irritation with himself.
Without even looking at her father, Laurie sourly states, "I hate you."
♢ ♢ ♢
Not an hour later, the father and daughter have been booked and sent off to their cell as the metal door closes and creates a loud clanging sound. Scott is just shaking his head a little, not speaking as he looks past the cell bars with a look of aggravated disbelief in his eyes. He slowly eases back onto the bench that leans against the wall, pulling his knees up to his chest as he still stares off into space. He's taking this a lot harder than his daughter is.
The girl is all wild and weird as she yells, "I want my one phone call, Mister Police Officer!"
Scott sadly looks up at Laurie as she presses her face to the bars of the cell, scowling at the cops as they walk by. He should've never let her get involved in this. What an idiotic thing to do. What kind of a father is he? Sure, he knew he was a pretty much a screw-up dad, but he wanted so badly to do right by Laurie and Cassie and now look where he's got them: Laurie in a cell with him and Cassie without her dad again.
Paxton's cop partner, Gale, walks over and, with a frown, unlocks the door for the fifteen year old to exit, "Fine, come on. You'll get your one phone call."
"Thank you!" Laurie spits out in irritated exasperation, "Geez, the customer service around this place sucks."
"You're hilarious." Contrary to his words, the grumpy detective does not seem all that amused while he guides her through the station.
They stop before a payphone and Laurie frowns deeply, looking over at him innocently, "Carp the fish, do you have a phone book?"
"A what? No one has those anymore."
"Well, no one remembers phone numbers anymore either!"
Detective Gale glowers at her, "While he tries to get here, Paxton said,"
Laurie pulls a face at the mention of her soon-to-be step-father, knowing that this whole situation kinda backfired on her and she's utterly screwed, "Euw."
Gale gives her a sardonically understanding smile and nod, "Yeah, he said to tell you to either call your mom's number or your family lawyer's. Only. You gotta remember at least one of those."
With those encouraging parting words, Detective Gale turns and walks away.
Laurie puckers out her bottom lip and, with a huff, dials the only number she remembers before listening to the dial tone and waiting for him to answer.
Finally, a drowsy voice states, "If you're waking me up at this hour, you better be dead or dying, whoever you are."
"Hey!" Laurie cheers brightly, accidentally gaining the attention of the nearby cops so she immediately puts back on a somber expression and voice, "Er, I mean, hello, Mr. Makina."
"Laurie?"
"Yes Sir, it's me, your client."
"I'm too tired for this." Gordo goes to hang up and Laurie goes into panic mode.
"No, no! I need you to listen to me! You're my lawyer, aren't you?"
"What? I'm not your," he just scoffs and then groans, "Ugh, I was sleeping, Laurie. What do you want?"
"How was your... bar exam?" Laurie suspiciously glances over her shoulder.
"What? You mean my biology test?"
"Yeah, that. Just a question. Checking in, you know."
"Oh." He then sighs, giving into her absurdity as he always does, "It was fine, I guess. Got a F. I think I really have them fooled this time."
The teachers have this thing where they all think Gordo is this genius kid (which is completely true) but Gordo has his own thing where he's set on proving them wrong. He studies hard to know all the right answers just so he can choose whatever is opposite on test day. Laurie just thinks it's because he wants to say a big "screw you" to the school system and the government, but that's not it at all. The only reason Gordo Makina is in summer school is because he doesn't want Laurie to be alone.
Back in the present, the fifteen year old girl laughs and nods, "Here's to hoping."
"Yeah." Gordo yawns, stretching the word out, "So, seriously, Laurie, what're you calling me at this time of night for?"
She chuckles awkwardly, kicking at the wall with her foot, "You would never believe where I am." She gives time for the necessary dramatic pause, "I'm in jail."
Gordo just laughs before silence stretches over the line.
She raises an eyebrow, "Why're you laughing? I just told you I'm in jail!"
"Oh, wait," the boy hurriedly speaks, worry filtering into his voice, "you're serious?!"
"Yeah, I'm serious, what did you think I was meaning when I said the words, 'I am in jail'?"
"I don't know, I just thought you were talking about your body being a fleshy jail cell for your wild and free spirit..."
Laurie pulls the phone from her ear and just frowns at, "You are such a nimrod."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are,"
"Are you sure that's your lawyer?" Gale presses down an eyebrow at the girl as he stands on the other side of the room.
"Oh Godzilla, is that a cop?!" Gordo's voice drops to a panicked whisper on the other end of the line.
Laurie ignores her best friend as she flashes a horrifyingly offended face at the detective, "Do you question my lawyer's professionalism? How dare you, Sir!"
Gale just rolls his eyes, mumbling, "Whatever."
Laurie turns again to the payphone, "Now, where were we?"
A familiar voice suddenly speaks up from behind her back, "Laurie..."
The fifteen year old completely stiffens and her eyes widen and she winces, "Uh oh."
Gordo winces with her, reading her mind, "Is it Paxton?"
"Mmhm."
"Are you dead?"
"Mmhm."
"If he kills you, it's police brutality and we can sue."
Laurie sighs and rolls her eyes, "Yeah, thanks for the legal advice."
"I charge by the hour."
Laurie gnaws down on her lip as she hangs up and uncomfortably turns around to face him. The tall man stands on the other side of the room with a frown on his lips and a bend in his eyebrows.
She does her best to get out of it, gasping suddenly and exclaiming, "Paxton! What are you doing here?" She tsks and shakes her head at him, "Did you get arrested?"
He doesn't even give a courtesy laugh.
"Back to the cell then?"
"Yeah."
"Ok-ay." Laurie sadly walks back to the cell where Scott still sits with his head down.
The door pulls open and the man looks up, his expression dropping at the sight of Paxton on the other side of the bars. Laurie awkwardly steps back into the cell, but Paxton doesn't close the door while he still just looks at Scott in sad expectation. He knew this was gonna happen. He knew Scott was just gonna go ahead and do the same thing all over again. But then he went ahead and got Laurie involved.
Paxton shakes his head, "You know, you almost had us convinced that you were gonna change your ways."
Laurie looks over at her biological dad with sad eyes, feeling almost regret for not trying to talk Scott out of it. She should've stopped him. She should've done something.
"They were really rooting for you. It's gonna break their hearts."
Laurie looks down at her shoes now, feeling the guilty come on then. Cassie. Mom. She didn't really even think about how her actions were gonna affect them. She just wanted to... Well, what did she want? It isn't like some innate desire within that makes her want to steal. She couldn't care less about money. Was it to spend time with Scott? Watch out for him so personally that she had to be there herself? But that was selfish. She promised to look out of her family and now she's screwed them.
"And to get your own daughter into this..." Paxton scoffs and squints at Scott who has done nothing to defend himself, taking all of the words because he knows they're true, "What kind of man are you?"
Something else takes over Laurie as she suddenly turns on Paxton, spewing, "Involved in what exactly, Paxton? We were out for a jog."
Scott lets out a quiet breath as he looks at his oldest daughter, slowly blinking away from her because he knows her meager excuse isn't going to work.
True to what Scott anticipated, Paxton just looks at his daughter with a deadpanned expression, "In the middle of the night?"
"Uh yeah." Laurie says in that stupid typical teenager 'duh' tone, jutting out her chin and waving a hand, "Haven't you ever heard of midnight jogs?"
"You wanna be serious for a moment here?"
"Not particularly." When Paxton just frowns at her, she heaves a sigh and nods in understanding, "Fine. We were borrowing their gnomes from out front."
"Laurie," Paxton says in a warning tone, sighing and shaking his head.
"But we decided they didn't match the azaleas so we wanted to return them."
"Hey!" Scott suddenly breaks in, speaking harsher than Laurie expects, "For once in your life, Laurie, stop kidding around."
Paxton's eyes are sad as he watches the immediate change between the biological father and daughter that just seemed to have been connecting. The fifteen year old slowly looks over and holds her gaze on Scott for a long moment. Her comfortability with him pulls back while a hard mask overtakes her expression, and she does badly at hiding it. Her shoulders stiffen and her icy eyes narrow and her hands clench into fists. Her eyes flick down to her feet and she fights to swallow the annoying lump rising in her throat.
The other detective suddenly steps up, interrupting the family drama to inform them, "You two have a visitor."
Scott forces himself to look away from Laurie so he can voice his confusion, "Who?"
"Your lawyer."
"Our lawyer?"
The detective doesn't answer and he leads the two now silent "criminals" down the station hallways.When the interrogation room's door opens, a weird dude sits behind the table. He's got thick white hair covering his head and face and he's wearing thick glasses and a pretty nice suit for being in a police station. Scott stops in the doorway, standing slightly in front of Laurie as they both watch the guy in reservation.
The guy speaks like he's got all the inside information as he says, "I told you I'd be in touch, Scott. I'm starting to think that your apparent preference for the inside of a jail cell is genetic."
Scott's eyes widen and he drops his head to the side, recognizing that voice,"Oh, man."
Laurie slides her hand into her pocket and, with a big attitude, tilts her chin to the side, "Okay, who're you?"
The man doesn't bother answering the fifteen year old's question, but, instead, motions to the two metal chairs on the other side of the table, "Sit down."
They do as they're told, still watching the guy in confused caution.
Scott gives a sigh and he's quick to say, "Sir, I'm sorry I stole the suit."
Laurie loudly gasps at the realization, drawing the attention of the two down-casted dudes, "You mean, he's...?"
Laurie doesn't look at Scott when she points a finger at the white-haired guy.
The man blinks, answering her unfinished question, "Yes."
"Hah, awkward." Laurie cringes before dropping her eyebrows again, "But you said that you're our...?"
"Yes."
"Wow, this is like reality television up in here."
Scott ignores her, shifting uncomfortably in his chair as he tries to speak seriously with the white-haired guy, "I don't even wanna know why you have the suit."
"Maggie was right about you."
The fifteen year old girl immediately straightens, looking over at her father with wide and worried eyes.
Scott tilts his body a little more towards Laurie, "How do you know about,"
The guy interrupts, "No wonder she's trying to keep you away from Laurie and Cassie. The moment things get hard, you turn right back to crime. The way I see it, you have a choice. You can either spend the rest of your life in prison, or go back to your cell and await further instructions."
"Huh?" Laurie presses herself against the edge of the metal table.
"I don't understand."
The guy just smiles weirdly, "No, I don't expect you to."
"Hey Scott?" Laurie leans closer to her dad, eyeing the white-haired man, "This guy's shady."
"Yeah, I can see that." Scott whispers and nods at her, "Thanks."
"But you don't have many options right now, and quite frankly, neither do I. Why do you think I let you two steal that suit in the first place?"
Laurie's mouth falls agape while Scott asks in shock, "What?"
"Second chances don't come around all that much... So, next time you think you might see one, I suggest you take a real close look at it."
The man gets up and walks out of the interrogation before another word can be said. That doesn't mean his words are followed through upon, though. And the second chance comes when Scott and Laurie are back thoughtfully sitting in their jail cell. A long trail of ants creeps into the space and, then, out of the nothing, comes something. Laurie gives a small shriek and she jumps when the red and black suit suddenly appears on the floor beside them.
"What?" is all Laurie gets out, her eyes as wide as flying saucers.
Scott immediately stands up, speaking quick and quiet, "That guy's offering a way out of here."
"Huh?" Laurie scrunches her nose.
"The suit, it's, it's got this mechanism that allows it to shrink. That's what happened in the bathroom..."
"You have got to crappin' me."
"You saw it appear out of nowhere five seconds ago, right?"
"Well, I..." Laurie shakes her head, "This kind of stuff doesn't happen to real people."
Neither of them speak as they both look down at the suit, a thousand thoughts swirling within their heads. The ants suddenly begin to cluster together and then they're displaying numbers on the floor, counting down as the voices of the cops get closer.
A brief moment passes before Laurie purses her lips in decision and quickly turns to Scott, "Do it."
"What?" Scott responds with wide eyes of his own.
"Put it on! I'll close my eyes!"
"What are you talking about? I'm not leaving you here!"
"Ugh." Laurie groans dramatically, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands out at either side of her, "Don't be stupid. Put on the dang suit, Scott."
"Listen," He steps closer to her, his face growing stubborn and firm, "I know I don't have the best track record with you, but,"
"You want me to trust you, Dad?"
Scott pulls back a little, watching her with an indecisive gaze.
"Then get out of here. You're not gonna get a fair shot unless you leave. Cassie wants to have her dad." Laurie forces herself to spit out the words that she really does mean, "And so do I."
Scott frowns at her for a second longer before heaving a sigh and grabbing for the suit. Soon, the man is completely covered in the red and black material and Laurie hands him the helmet. She offers a flat smile and nod before he reluctantly takes the thing and latches it into place. He steps back a little, rolls his shoulders back, and just as the ants form the number '0', his thumbs pressed down onto little red buttons. Right before Laurie's eyes his body capsizes, the air nearly trembling and waving all around him.
"Holy crud-muffins," she gasps in shock as Scott disappears from the space that he was only milliseconds ago.
She's pretty certain that she's got to be dreaming. That was like... magic or some other weird something. She wasn't really sure that Scott meant it when he said the thing could shrink, but... that was the most insane thing she has ever seen in her life. Her hand flies up to her mouth as she spins in a circle, scouring the ground for him as best she can. Paxton and Gale suddenly walk up to the cell gate, but they both come to an abrupt stop when they see only Laurie standing there.
Their eyes widen in horror as Paxton demands, "Where'd he go?"
The fifteen year old straightens and her chin lifts a little as they impatiently wait for a response.
Laurie can't resist the small smirk that comes over her lips when she says, "Abracadabra, I guess."
After how many days of not updating, I've finally come back! Sorry about that, Folks, I've been focused on my other two stories. I do hope you liked this chapter! I really enjoyed writing so much of this! Scott and Laurie's relationship is all over the place. Gordo made a voice appearance and he's as helpful as ever. Oh, and Laurie just found out about the suit! Next chapter is going to be so much fun, I can't wait! How do you think she's going to get out of this? Let me hear your thoughts about the chapter!
Funny Thingamabob:
It's funny that pretty much happened in Spider-Man: Homecoming though