Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Times like these are when he is actually grateful for being more lean than being bulky. Not that this happens a lot. This as in running from his former crew that literally wants to kill him. It doesn't happen very often but honestly it’s not like he didn’t see it coming.

The streets are crowded tonight, it is Friday after all. But he uses the mass amount of people to his advantage even if it’s a little hard to maneuver through them all. He always appreciates a challenge. He picks streets with the most people and starts walking -quickly-, keeping his head down and slipping through them as fast as he could. He isn’t sure exactly where he’s going, he wasn’t prepared for this. He should have been, definitely. But he wasn’t. And now he has to deal with that.

He’s only been in Los Santos for a month and these fucks already found him again. So he doesn’t know the roads or the street names like he did in the previous location.

Maybe he could’ve learned them quicker if he actually tried, he thinks before he throws himself into a dark, empty alley. One lined with dumpsters and garbage and probably every disease known to man.

He stands, thinking, not even for a second before pushing himself behind a dumpster and disappearing into the shadows. He can’t help but gag at the smell and the thought of all the possible things that could be stepping in.

He remains tense but curses quietly as the pain starts to edge in. He counts his injuries. He didn't have time to before, once the chance came he booked it.

His torso caught a few good kicks, his head, few good hits. He can feel the right side of his face starting to swell from the knife cut. The chilly air is making his lungs burn, still short of breath. And he might be concussed.

God his head hurts. The people are so loud.

He shakes himself, he needs to focus. To think about how he can fight his way out of this one. The gun weighs his pants down but he wants to ignore it. The past month hasn’t been his...proudest. He did buy a gun, but only because he lost his knives-

Particular voices that his mind discerned from the rest of the crowd makes his shoulder tense even more, they are almost coiled up to his ears.

“Aleks,” his name is sung into the air, seeming to echo off of the alley’s brick walls and radiates into his brain.

He just doesn’t want to deal with this anymore. Is that so much to fucking ask for?

“We can talk this out right? Like old times?”  It’s sarcastic and Aleks feels it in his gut that this is gonna be rough. He squeezes his eyes shut and god, this guys voice is so annoying.

“I don’t think he’s in this one Vinnie.” Another voice admits and Aleks realizes with a stuttering heart that-that voice is Charlie. Charlie doesn’t deserve any of what is happening or had happened, whether with the crew or in his life. Charlie is even younger than Aleks and his body is already being eaten up by anxiety at the measly age of 18 years old.

“Then how about you go and look in any one of the other fifty fucking hundred LS alleyways, kid.” Vinnie all but shouts back to Charlie. Aleks grimaces and acts before thinking.

He doesn’t speak. He just steps into the moonlight to try and make himself look bigger then he actually is. It doesn’t fail, per se, but it’s not very convincing.

“What, nothing?" Vinnie tries.

When Aleks doesn’t say any of the things on the tip of his tongue, he thinks that maybe later he’ll regret his lack of retorts, but right now? Aleks doesn’t know what to do.

Vinnie scoffs. Like it’s Aleks who’s in the wrong here. And in all honestly, Aleks thinks he might agree.

"Hm. Wow. The fucking chatter box doesn't have anything to say, my fuckin’ prayers have come true." He says in sarcastic disgust.

A moment passes.

“I guess you can guess what happens next.” Vinnie chuckles darkly, looking down and going for something in his jacket. A gun. Aleks knows this. When Vinnie looks back up, Aleks is gripping his own gun and aiming it at the man’s chest.

He’s not going to use it, maybe wack someone with it but it’s more for insurance, intimidation, if nothing else.

The problem is, Vinnie knows this.

Vinnie, the gun in his right hand, pointed toward the ground, and his left arm held out to his side, stops one of the men who took a step forward after Aleks' reaction. It was Scoot who Vinnie stopped and Aleks feels his body go cold. Scoot has always intimidated Aleks -not that he'd ever admit it- mostly because the guy’s about two heads taller than Aleks and built like a motherfucker.

"Ah, what a turn of events." Vinnie drawls, almost bored, "I’m sure you know exactly what you’re doing with that." The man scoffs the shakes his head, like he’s trying to look disappointed. Aleks narrows his eyes in annoyance.

“You were a good asset, I won’t lie. But I fucking hate you.” Vinnie pulls his mouth into a straight line and shakes his head once more. He lowers his hand and then Scoot charges forward, Charlie hesitates but Aleks saw Vinnie push him foreword before returning his attention to Scoot.

For such a large guy, Scoot somehow catches Aleks off guard and managed to throw the first punch. The fist hits the same side that’s already cut and aggravated and Aleks ends up on the ground without him even knowing about it. He drops his gun in the process and curses himself at how quickly he got put down.

His eyes are screwed shut because his head feels like it’s vibrating but then he feels something push his face into the concrete. Aleks vaguely realizes it’s Scoot’s boot that is indeed on top his head before trying to wrangle himself out from under it. But now Aleks is seeing colors that he knows are not supposed to be there right now. He now is very sure that he is concussed.

Someone shouts something and there’s a couple gunshots that ring out. They’re loud and right next to him but he doesn’t feel any holes in him yet. Maybe they missed, he thinks. Or maybe he already got shot and he's just in shock. Maybe one of the civilians got caught in the crossfire. Mayb-

If anyone got shot or heard those shot go off, they would’ve called the cops by now. LSPD is not known for being speedy but they’ll get here eventually and none of them could afford getting busted now. So like Aleks expects, the foot quickly disappears. Slowly, he lifts his head, and even slower, he opens his eyes. He can see that Scoot and Charlie are down and out on the ground and Vinnie is, he’s fighting with someone?

Casting a look to the mouth of the alley he saw that most civilians have scattered and left the scene, surprisingly no stragglers taking pictures or videos.

Dragging his eyes back to the fight, Aleks sits and just watches for a couple seconds. The unknown person is obviously winning. They fight hand-to-hand and the guy’s landing punches on Vinnie’s body in such an organized fashion, Aleks has to guess he’s been properly trained. To add to that Vinnie has never been good at hand-to-hand, Aleks can almost laugh at how badly he’s doing.

Once the guy sends Vinnie to the floor too, Aleks forces himself to stand up. Quickly, he makes sure to grab his gun on the way up. The dude turns to Aleks and stares as Aleks sways in his place. He’s starting to get double vision, Aleks is, because now, he sees two newcomers which just can’t be right; there had only been just the one not two seconds ago.

The newcomer takes a step forward and Aleks -even in this state- is quick to draw the weapon. He can only hope he’s aiming it at the right man. The weapon successfully stops the man from coming closer, for only a second though, because the guy starts for Aleks again. He walks closer and ignores the weapon that’s now basically in his face completely. But he makes no move to start a fight, a part of Aleks is grateful. The other part is suspicious.

Aleks’ face is hard but the other man’s just looks bored. Aleks considers that maybe he shouldn't throw such a look to this guy because really, he did kick the asses of the people kicking his ass. But the easy look on his face made Aleks feel unsure of the man's intentions. He looks...content with the fact there’s a gun pointed to him.

"You know, you could just tell me your name and this could go a helluva lot easier than where it’s going right now." He speaks, voice smooth and almost calming. Under different circumstances of course. Aleks shifts on his feet.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Aleks asks, trying to even out his voice and push the pain out.

The man sighs dramatically, "Uh, yes I would, actually. I’m supposed to be saving someone’s ass here so, depending if you are that person or I just knocked them out,” he points to the bodies on the floor, “this could go a couple different ways."

Aleks looks the other over. The man just made a clear threat but, he doesn’t come off as threatening. Then again, he did just successfully take out three guys in less than five minutes, so maybe Aleks should rethink his stance on this guy.

The other man has been edging forward slowly and Aleks' rattled mind doesn't even notice until he is able to see that his eyes are a dark color, probably brown. To say the least, Aleks now he felt threatened. Aleks also suddenly remembers he has a gun in his hand and he thinks, now would be a great time to use that.

He sends his free hand flying toward the guys face as a punch but get blocked. Aleks expected that. He kicked a foot into the guys shin next, getting a grunt in pain in return. Aleks pushes the guy away and takes a step back, watching the other catch himself. His hand twitches around the weapon, still unused.

"Jesus, seriously?" The stranger seems more annoyed than angry, which confuses Aleks to no end. He’s acting like this is just a minor inconvenience, which in this business, could very well be.

He brings his hand up to his ear and starts talking. Aleks hazily realizes that he’s talking into a comm. Who’s this guy with? He claims he was supposed to “save” him but, Aleks can’t exactly trust that, can he?

"-a little bit physical here, you might wanna step in." Aleks reigns in his focus long enough to hear that.

"Fucking - get in here." The man hisses after listening for a moment, he stays away from Aleks, keeping distance but still blocking the exit. He crosses his arms and stares hard at Aleks.

Aleks sucks in a breath, winces a little then opens his mouth, "Listen. I really don't want to do this right now so, move maybe?" Aleks tries, knowing that it’s not going to work but maybe if he tried anyway...

"Just tell me your name and then we can discuss leaving." The man doesn’t take his eyes off of Aleks even when Aleks averts his, uncomfortable with the eye contact.

Aleks bring his eyes back up to meet the other guys’ and the two stares at each other for a long minute. As of now, there are no people on the street, and besides the cars that are quickly speeding by, there is no noise.

Through the darkness, Aleks eyes’ notices that the other has facial hair -a goatee, he thinks is what it’s called- and beanie on. A zip up jacket hangs over his shoulders, unzipped, and his jeans were dirty but not dirty like Aleks'.

The stranger waves his hand in front of his face to get Aleks’ attention back, "Hey, you still in there?" He asks loudly.

Aleks inhales and then exhales, "Aleks." he admits. Deciding that if this guy was gonna kill him he should do it sooner rather than later.

The other person frozen at this, then after another moment, unfroze, nodding, "Well, you are not who I came to get."

He pulls out a gun of his own so Aleks raises his back up, suddenly alert. Adrenaline starts to fill his veins again-

"James!" There’s a shout from the mouth of the alley. Both Aleks and the guy whip their head toward the sound, to another person running at them. Aleks slides his gun to the newer newcomer, in turn, making the first stranger man step closer, cocking his gun.

"What?" The first man, James, shouts, keeping his eyes on Aleks but tilting his head back to the newer man, "This isn’t the guy you're looking for."

Aleks squints at said newer man. For some odd reason, the guys body shape looks familiar. As he gets closer and closer Aleks starts identifying the body. Aleks' arm goes down only an inch. Now he’s hallucinating. He has to be.

Aleks opens his mouth to make words but his attempts fall short. He can only stutter the first letter before closing his eyes and taking a long breath. He opens them again, he’s still there. Going to stand next to the other guy -James, he reminds himself- so, not hallucinating then, if James can also see and talk to him.

"Brett?" Aleks finally gets out, he knows his voice cracked and he sounds like he's about to cry but, he's confused. And dumbstruck. And now his head hurts even more. What's happening, what's happening? This literally can’t happening. Physically impossible.

The man, Brett, nods, Aleks can’t make out his expression because of the dark but Aleks almost doesn’t want to know.

"Immortal! Yeah, buddy. Thought it was you." Brett sounds relieved as he takes a second to take in the sight that is Aleks and then turns to the other man, James.

"James, put your gun down." Brett says like James is being unreasonable. Aleks readjusts his aim to James. But weirdly enough, James listens to Brett and lowers his gun.

Aleks takes this time to look at Brett. Or to squint at him, at least. He is wearing a baseball cap, hiding his hair but from the looks of his bushy beard Aleks can only assume his hair would be in the same state. Brett looks,,,good, for a deadman, Aleks decides.  He looks a bit bigger than how he did in the crew, more muscle and the way he stood and held himself only helped.

James turns himself towards Brett, “He said his name was Aleks, not Immortal." He explains himself and Aleks considers dropping his own weapon down and just running. He is still very confused. Mostly about how in the hell Brett is here. He’s supposed to be..dead.

Aleks shakes his head, feeling frazzled, and that he should also try to explain himself, "I don't go by that anymore."

It's been a couple months since he's gone by Immortal and has started trying to disconnect with that name. Before, he'd never let anyone call him Aleks. Nobody even knew his real name. Well. Sly knew, but that's a different story.

Brett pauses, uncertain, "Aleks." He tries the name. Once Aleks nods, Brett nods too. There might've been a small smile on his face too when he turns to James and introduces the two.

"James, this is Aleks. An old crew member. Aleks, this is James. A new crew member."

James nods at Aleks, an eyebrow cocked in an interested way like he didn't already know who Aleks was before walking into this alley. Aleks blinks and moves his eyes back to Brett because they should be having a very different conversation right now.

"We thought-I thought, you were..." Aleks trails off, he felt tired. This is way too much.

Brett nods, opening his mouth, "I'm sorry," he ends up cutting himself off after taking a closer look at Aleks, "are you - you don't look so good. James, help me right quick." Brett starts forward with James slowly in tow.

Aleks shakes his head. No. He wants a damn explanation, "We looked." Aleks murmurs when Brett lays a hand on his shoulder and holds his forearm. His vision is getting more hazy and his limbs faintly feel like pins and needles. He still doesn’t really know if this is real.

“We can talk about this when you can hold yourself up again." Brett’s voice cuts through
Aleks’ mind fog. He, for a quick second, is distrustful of Brett. Why should Aleks trust him after two years of mourning and loss?  But this is Brett, Aleks thinks, everything he does is for a reason, no matter how stupid.

Brett takes one of Aleks’ elbows and starts walking, leading the three out of the alley and into the streets. As they walk, they avoid the bodies. Aleks isn’t sure if they are dead, he doubts it but wouldn’t have any negative feelings if the scales tip that way.

James follows closely as they make their way to a vehicle that’s parked right across the street, in the opposing alleyway. Brett pushes Aleks into the back seat and there he drifts in and out of sleep, eventually though, he is lulled into the darkness by low voices from the front seats and the comforting rumble of the car.

Chapter Text

Aleks tries him damnedest to stay awake for the car ride. To listen to what Brett was saying to James, to look at his surroundings and make sure he knows where they are going. He mostly fails, to say the least. He spends most of the time drifting in and out of sleep while the causal rocking of the car calms him.

The adrenaline drained out of him once he was put into the car. All the pain -physical and mental- is becoming very evident now. The hurt is the only thing keeping him awake. The voices are something else that Aleks tries to pick up on but soon gives up. They’re too muffled and he is too tired.

Apparently Brett has risen from the dead, Aleks thinks lazily. He knew that Brett had been pretty unhappy in the crew, he had always voiced that freely, but, faking his death? Aleks doesn't know if that process was really worth it. Then again, Vinnie could hold grudges till the end. Still, Aleks is allowed to be bitter, so he will be.

The car ceases its movements and stops vibrating. Where are they now? Aleks tries to push himself up so he could see out the window to his right, the door to his left supports him. All that he can see through his blairy eyes is a tall building. Really helps him figure out where he is, totally doesn’t make a feeling of paranoia spark in the back of his mind. The car door suddenly opens, his elbow slips off of the armrest and he almost falls out of the damn car before Brett grabs his bicep, effectively catching him.

"Come on you dick." Brett mutters, tugging him out of the car to stand up.

"You're calling me the dick?" Aleks says back, pulling his arm out of the other man's grip and shakily, but successfully, standing straight.

James appears in Aleks' field of view, looking a little uncomfortable. He looks between the men in front of him, feeling like his presence was unwelcome.

"Did you kill Vinnie?" Aleks looks to the man who put Aleks' three attackers down. He seems to have forgotten about that until now.

James looks surprised at the question, his eyes go wide and, even in the dark, Aleks can see the white around the brown pupils. James looks to Brett for help but the other provides no such thing, seeming to be equally as curious.

“Um, no. I didn't." He answers, returning his eyes to normal and looking at Aleks straight on. Aleks stares back for a silent moment, "A shame. Where are we?"

The three stand in between of two large buildings, warehouses more like. The street is dimly lit, Aleks doesn't know what part of town they’re in -or which town for that matter- and he feels unsure about this whole situation. He is, admittedly, very vulnerable in his current state and he isn’t sure how he can get out of this.

"This is our place." Brett walks him toward a steel door, "And we're in East Vinewood if that's what you were actually wondering."

Vinewood? Jesus, maybe Aleks had closed his eyes a bit longer than he'd originally thought...

A few steps forward, nailed on the wall beside the door was a box with numbered buttons and a screen that lit once Brett pushed a square. Aleks can't make out exactly which squares, he thinks it was four-one-one-six but can't be sure. The door pops open with a quiet beep and Aleks looks away. He probably shouldn't have looked, shouldn't know the code because he's not a part of the crew. He's not a part of any crew and hasn’t been for long enough.

With all three inside, Aleks notes that this entry room looks more like an office then a gangs warehouse entrance, besides for the lack of lighting. There are two couches and a chair with table in the middle of them and a small rug underneath. There are two doorways, one to the left and on to the right on the facing wall, although the one on the left had a door with windows in it, the doorway on the other wall only had a long red curtain with a chinese symbol. It’s...strange, to say the least.

"I'll get Jakob if you take him to the med room." Brett says to James, who promptly sent him a pleading look but is only met with the back of Brett’s head as he walked through the the red curtain.

Both Aleks and James stare after Brett, the only buffer between the two. James sighs, "You can walk alright, right?" James cocks a critical eyebrow and watches Aleks closely. And James needs to not do that. Stare at Aleks that is, because can’t handle his level of eye contact.

Aleks scoffs at the question of his abilities, "Yeah, of course."

James rolls his eyes and hums, "Yeah, okay. Come on." He lead Aleks to the left of the building.

-

This room James jabs him into is very bright. The fluorescent bulbs makes the room yellow tinted and almost makes Aleks even more dizzy. James points at a bed, silently telling Aleks to sit down. Once he sits on the foot of one of the two twin beds in the room, James goes to rifle through the closet on the right wall. Aleks is left to hazily observe the room.

There are the two beds, they’re more like cots Aleks notes. The one Aleks sits on is pushed up against the left wall. He uses the wall as support to keep him upright. In between the beds is a bare nightstand. Definitely nothing professional. But a lot cleaner then Vinnie’s place.

Aleks ends up staring at the door in front of him for about 30 seconds before James appears back in front of Aleks, setting a med kit down next to him. Now Aleks stares at the others chest, seeing that the shirt under the jacket is a dark grey color with the white print that reads 'welcome to the shit show‘.

"You look even better in the light," James huffs before going on, "Jakob’s our medic. He's not official or anything, just knows a thing or two."

Aleks nods, regretting it because the world shakes with him. Blinking hard, he painfully moves his squinted eyes up to the James’ face who was looking at him again and then quickly avert his eyes to to labels on the med kit.

The door opens quickly and makes both guys jump, Brett’s back. Aleks doesn’t get a chance to wonder again why James was staring again.

"Alright Aleks," Brett announces, “this is Jakob. He’ll be your doctor for tonight.” Brett gestures to the person who also entered the room. A guy with dark skin and dark, frizzy, buzzed down hair. He’s skinny -Aleks could compare him to a twig and not know the difference- and he’s tall, taller than Brett which probably makes him around six foot.

Jakob’s face is blank and he doesn’t greet Aleks as he goes for the med kit, opening it.

"You still haven't gotten any of the new shit I asked for." Jakob sounds disappointed and when Aleks looks down at the sad supply of medical things, he understands.

“Why am I the one who has to get you medical supplies?” Brett asks, like he genuinely doesn’t know the answer. Even a concussed Aleks could be able to answer him that.

Jakob looks up and stares straight at the wall behind Aleks, his brow downset but he doesn’t look as annoyed as his voice portrays, “Just hope one of you fucks doesn’t come back with a bullet wound because then I’ll only be able to put a bandaid on it.” He looks back down to sift through the limited supplies so Aleks goes back to staring at what was in front of him, which happen to be Brett’s shoes. Combat boots it looks like. Those are cool-

"Follow the light." Jakob commands and Aleks snaps his head back up, blinking to focus on the small flashlight that Jakob held. And Aleks tries, he struggles but still manages. Jakob puts down the flashlight, bends down a bit to hold his hand in between his and Aleks’ face, looking directly into Aleks’ eyes, “Do you know how many fingers I’m holding up,”

Aleks sees four, but honestly it could be two, he’s not actually sure but he doesn’t want to be wrong. “Yes.” He says. The medic rolls his eyes -which may have been the most emotive thing he’s done yet- and keeps his hand up. Aleks looks to Jakob’s face and oh, he realizes, Jakob is wearing glasses.

“Wow, thanks, how many?” Aleks has trouble focusing back on Jakob’s hand.

“Four,” Aleks guesses, hoping he’s not too wrong. Jakob nods at this and looks back down to the kit.

"Do you know your full name," Jakob asks next, absentmindedly. He organizes some gauze and bandages while waiting for an answer.

Aleks looks to James and Brett, "Yes."

Jakob shoots Aleks a blank faced glare. James sniffles from next to Brett which pulls Aleks’ attention away from Jakob and toward them. James looks annoyed and it’s catching up to Aleks that they don’t have to do this. Just because Aleks knows Brett doesn’t mean they have to be this hospitalible. Aleks doesn’t even think they would want him here if they knew what he did to make Vinnie so pissed-

“Alright,” Jakob turns around to face Brett and James, “you two leave. I need medical privacy with Mr. Yes over here.”

James shakes his head while rolling his eyes, “Gladly.” He drawls out, going for the door. When he passes in front of Brett, the older man slaps him upside the head and hustles James out of the room before closing the door and leaving Aleks and Jakob in silence.

“You didn’t have to kick them out you know,” Aleks carefully side eyes the other man.

Jakob’s eyebrows twitch, “Can you give me a full first and middle name?” Jakob’s questions never sounded like questions. They just sounded like he was telling you to give him the answers that he wants.

“Aleksandr Vitalyevich.” Aleks sighs after taking another moment.

Jakob nods. Aleks is glad he doesn’t comment on the length or origin of the name, Jakob doesn’t seem like someone who cares about anything that much and Aleks appreciates that.

With a wipe in one hand, he uses his other to poke Aleks’ chin to move his head, showing off the side of his face with the cut on it. It’s probably four inches wide and maybe an inch deep. Not great but, probably the best knife wound he’s gotten from an enemy. And in all honestly, Aleks had forgotten about the injuries until Jakob started tended to them.

Jakob started to dab at the wound and wipe the dried blood around it. Aleks flinches each time he touches the cut directly.

“I can do this part can’t I?” Aleks tries to lean away, Jakob stops him with a scoff and a hand on Aleks shoulder holding him in place.

After the cut was clean, Jakob threw the bloody wipe into the trash can by the closet. He produces two butterfly bandages and smooths them over the cut while he talks.

"Take your shirt off.” He says, looking at his work and nodding to himself.

The command has Aleks’ eyebrows raised, "What,"

"Take your shirt off." Jakob seems annoyed at the fact he has to repeat himself, "I need to see whatever damage the dicks did to know what to do. So, take the shirt off." He says curtly.

Aleks takes his chances, figuring he doesn’t exactly have anything to hide. His tattoos cover most of the scars he’d rather not talk about so he guesses it’ll be alright.

He manages to get the shirt off with minimal pain and doesn’t look down once it’s off. He doesn’t want to see the physical evidence of his failure. When Jakob pokes his ribs he flinches and throws a glare his way.

“Nothing’s broken or cracked, just bruised so it’ll just hurt for a bit.” Jakob settles. He finds a pill bottle of painkillers, shakes out two tablets and drops them into Aleks’ hand, then pulls out what looks like an ice pack. He twists it a couple times in three different places and then waits until Aleks takes that also. “Don’t touch the cut and also you have a mild concussion so, trash cans right there if you throw up. That,” he points to the pack, “should get cold in a coupe minutes, put it on wherever it hurts the most.”

Aleks nods minutely, and stares at the pills and pack in his hand, “Did Brett tell you guys who I am?” He almost doesn’t even know that’s his voice that asked that question but Jakob answers nonetheless.

“No.” Aleks finds it odd that Jakob didn’t sound offended or defensive, Aleks himself might have been if he was in the others situation. “He pulled James out to go ‘for a drive’ and here we are.” Jakob answers simply. Aleks nods again and dry swallows the pills. “You can sleep now if you want. Just scream if anything happens.” Jakob sounded sarcastic but Aleks thinks he’s serious.

Before leaving the other man turns out the light above the bed Aleks sits on, the other one is still on but it dims the room considerably. Aleks sucks in a short breath through his nose and nods to himself. He puts his shirt back on and leans himself back on the bed, he’ll just close his eyes for a bit and deal with everything else when he wakes back up.

-

“Can we like, maybe have a team meeting or something?” Jakob suggests, only mildly sarcastic because he does actually want answers. He finds everyone in the kitchen, James and Trevor sitting at the counter, Brett standing behind the counter and Lindsey and Asher sitting at the table.

“Yeah man,” James agrees, looking at Brett with a certain look that he usually gives Jakob when he gets too tired of his attitude. “It was real coincidental that me and you just happened to be where your old crew buddy was getting fucked up, huh?"

“Is that what you guys went out for?” Trevor asks, looking curiously to Brett. “Old crew buddy? Old crew as in The Rattlers?”

At the mention of the name, Brett licks his lips and inhales through his mouth, shooting an annoyed look at Jakob. Jakob doesn’t feel bad for Brett though. As their leader, he should be able to explain a situation to them. Especially one that he had obviously planned for.

“Can you tell me how he’s doing first?” Brett inquires, not even trying to hide the fact that he wants to avoid the subject. Jakob almost doesn’t let him brush it off before Brett starts to talk again, justifying himself, “I’d rather talk to him first and get some things straight before openly talking about the things that I'm not actually sure of.”

Jakob sits for a few seconds, letting Brett stand in the silence until he nods.

He shrugs, “Well, like a told him, mild concussion, bruised ribs and a nasty cut on his head.”

James had turned his head in Jakob’s general direction but has now turned his body toward him, looking at Jakob incredulously, “Seriously?”

Jakob gives him a one of his own looks, “Do you think I’m lying?”

James rolls his eyes, “He was acting like he got shot five times.”

Jakob’s eyebrows twitch, “I can remind you of how you acted during your last major concussion when you go wake him up every two hours to make sure he’s still breathing. If you want me to of course.”

Trevor laughs because now it seems as if James’ eyes will bulge out of his head, “Excuse-What do you mean? Why does it have to be me? We literally almost shot each other not even two hours ago!” he yells.

Jakob pulls his mouth into a line, “Because I’m the one in charge of medical policies. And this one requires someone waking this guy up every two hours - what’s his name, Allen, Alec-”

“Aleks,” Brett supplies with an amused look.

“-Yeah him, to make sure he isn’t dead. And I know, you guys did almost shoot each other so obviously you need some bonding time now.” Jakob smiles.

-

It’s been two hours.

James enters the room after Jakob pushed him toward the hall and closes the door after him. Aleks was indeed asleep on the cot, where he was earlier, when they had first gotten here and James had sat the guy down.

Immortal, James’ first impression of the guy had been to think about how his reputation didn’t exactly hold up to the name. Of course he has heard of Immortal, most everyone of the east coast has heard of the Rattlers, they’re nicknamed Rats for a reason. They were the group who did anything to get to the top and that includes killing, converting and blackmailing anyone and everyone that came into business with them. From what James has gathered over the two years he’s known Brett, blackmail is exactly what happened to the man. He had made a name for himself independently, a bigger one with the rats, and was planning on making it bigger because he isn’t going to stay dead forever, especially now that he has Fake Chop.

If Immortal - Aleks, is in the same boat, James just can’t bring himself to care. Just because he’s Brett’s old buddy doesn’t mean James has to like it even trust him. James has plenty of people in his past that he wouldn’t want his current crew to know about.

Maybe James is biased, he considers. Call it a hunch but James thinks Aleks is bad news. He doesn’t know if Fake Chop could afford getting into a confrontation with an another long-time established gang right now, this early into the game. Then again, a win could help them exponentially. Hypothetically speaking of course.

James stands over the bed for a few seconds, just observing. A melted ice pack is on the floor, a puddle of water is spreading around it. There was a damp spot on Aleks’ shirt where James could guess that said ice pack is supposed to be. The cut on his forehead is an aggravated red and looks like it’s been scratched a couple times, one of the butterfly bandages is falling off. If nothing else, James can admire the intricate tattoos that wrap and sproll around Aleks’ arms. James has always liked colored tattoos.

He blinks and bends down just a bit. He pokes the guys ribs, hopefully the hurt ones.

“Hey.” James hollers. Aleks winces in his sleep and wakes up immediately and James isn’t prepared for the reaction. Aleks grabs James’ arm and throws the limb away from himself then throws a kick, which James dodges quickly. Aleks tries to get up but winces in pain again and looks up at James and relaxes only slightly.

“Jesus dude!” James yells, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Aleks throws him an astonished glare, “What the fuck’s wrong with you?”

“I was checking if you were alive, not trying to kill you.” James threw his hands out aggressively. Who does this guy think he is?

James straightens himself out then holds up some fingers, “How many,”

Aleks rolls his eyes and looks at James’ hand. James sees him hesitate before answering, “Three.”

Almost, James thinks to himself. At least it’s not totally double vision like before when Jakob held up two and Aleks said four. This time he only sees one extra, instead of two. Not great but not horrible.

“Name.”

“Aleks.”

James hums, “Pretty sure ‘Aleks’ stands for something a little bit longer than that…”

Aleks’ neck twitches a little and his head tilts. He’s getting frustrated, James realizes.

“Aleksandr,” he grits out, “Want me to spell it too? A-L-E-K-S-A-N-”

“Wait,” James waves his hand to stop the other in the middle of his own spelling bee, “do you actually have brain damage or is your name really spelled with a K and an S,” he asks, doubtfully. He almost moves to get Jakob back in here.

Aleks only scoffs, “Jeez, dude, yeah it’s spelt like that. I guess you’re not ready to know that there’s no second E either, you might have a brain aneurysm.”

At least he can spell, James reasons and rubs his eyes with both hands, “Whatever man, cool.”

“What time is it?” Aleks asks. James looks at him through squinted eyes, “‘Bout 1:30.”

James watches Aleks’ eyes widen considerably, “In the afternoon?”

“AM.” James corrects him and watches Aleks visibly deflate. “Oh shit dude, why’d you wake me up? Wait, why am I asleep - I mean, was,”

James guesses this is where the conscience talking stops and he should leave now and at least try to sleep until Jakob wakes him up again. But for some reason, he doesn’t.

“Maybe because you got a concussion and I’ve been informed that you have to wake up every two hours to make sure you aren’t brain dead.” James states, simply.

Aleks nods then slowly lays back down, side eyeing James, “Where’s Brett?” the tone of voice makes his eye narrow. It’s like Aleks is annoyed, doesn’t want to see Brett and something flares inside of James because this is his leader but - then he remembers that Brett did lie to Aleks, about being dead and all. Brett’s probably really looking forward to that conversation.

“Sleeping, last I checked.” That was a lie. Brett is here, the base, with James and Jakob. He knows that he’s awake because James was going to push this responsibility onto the man so James could go home himself and sleep in his own bed, not one of these shitty cots that Aleks is on and that Jakob regularly sleeps on. But James just wanted to see if or how Aleks would react to being slept on.

Aleks only brings his eyebrows up and down, unimpressed with this information. “Well, I’m going back to sleep now, thanks for the bed.”

James leaves the med room, leaves the warehouse, arrives at his home and then leaves the conscience world for at least the next five hours.

Chapter Text

Aleks doesn’t remember who comes in the second time to check on him, after James leaves. Or the third time, after the second person leaves. He wakes up the fourth time he honestly doesn’t remember where he is. He sees Brett’s face in front of his and thinks he has to be either dreaming or dead.

“What the fuck?” Aleks mumbles but remembers. Brett’s back.

The man has a smile on his face but it’s not a happy one.

“How you feeling now?” Brett asks Aleks, letting his eyes drift up and down the younger man, taking account for where he is wincing in his movements and what’s stiff and not moving correctly.

Aleks only rolls his eyes and says nothing. He pushes himself into a sitting position, swinging his legs over the bed so they dangle out in front of him.

“Well, name?” Brett tries. Aleks knows that Brett hates tip toeing around shit and after these few questions, he knows they’ll have a talk. And Aleks for once, actually wants that.

“Aleksandr.” He says tiredly. Brett nods.

“Double vision?” He asks and Aleks shakes his head, everything is much more clear now. He can actually see and think straight. “Nausea? Headache?”

“No and yes.”

Brett nods. Aleks rubs his eyes, “What time is it?”

“‘Bout seven-thirty in the morning.” Brett says, sitting himself on the other bed. Aleks groans softly, probably at being so tired.

Brett doesn’t know if he wants to have this conversation right now. But he knows that if he doesn’t at least start it, that they’ll either talk about it at the wrong time or never at all. So Brett takes his chances.

“So,” Brett starts, a tight feeling in his chest makes him force out words that he hasn’t actually thought about yet, “Did you finally get sick of the suicide missions Vinnie sends you on?”

The look that Brett got would have legitimately scared him if Aleks wasn’t in a bed, recovering from a concussion.

“That’s the first thing you say to me?” Aleks spits, vehemently.

Brett does not choose his words carefully, “Technically the first thing I’ve said to you-“

“Brett.” Aleks takes a breath, “Shut up.”

Brett pulls an impresses face, “Wow, all it took for you to grow a backbone was for me to die.”

Aleks looks confused and angry at the same time the way he narrows his eyes and shakes his head at Brett, “What the fuck is this? Are you trying to make me angry?”

Brett doesn’t actually know what he’s trying to do right now. And now he doesn’t know how to end it.

"At least I know that’s possible now.” He comments and Aleks bits his lip and shakes his head again, “Your shirt is on backwards." Brett settles for the ‘ol changing the subject tactic. It works well enough, especially with Aleks.

Aleks squints his eyes once more at Brett and looks back down at himself. “It seems as though it is.”

Brett looks down to his boots, contemplating how he will go about this conversation.

"I guess I'm going to explain myself to you now." Brett sighs. Flicking his eyes up, Aleks has leaned his back onto the wall behind him and crosses his arms now, expectantly.

“I just wanna know why.” Aleks offers a place to start.

"I had a disagreement with Vinny." Brett settled, it’s a simple enough explanation. Too simple for Aleks of course.

"You had a lot of those." Aleks states, simply.

Brett panicked for a split second. He’s had the whole previous night to think about what he could say or how to explain but, he settled on nothing. So, his next comment was just another stall to think about what he would say after that.

“Seems like you had one too.”

Aleks looks at him, too harshly for Brett to be prepared for, “You wanna know what I said? What I did?”

Brett stops himself from swallowing or blinking, “I know what you did.”

Aleks opened his mouth with doubt but Brett stared right back with the same level of seriousness to make Aleks realize.

“You...you’ve been keeping tabs?” He tries, disbelievingly.

Brett nods once and Aleks throws his hands up, “Jesus Brett, not once through this whole time you couldn’t’ve given me a sign? A visit? Anything?”

He seems desperate, looking for something that Brett doesn’t know if he has so he keeps his face neutral. “Would that have been any better than right now?”

Aleks elects to ignore that question, answering only with another question, “So I still don’t get an answer? A reason?”

“He…” Brett inhales, thinking, “Vinnie threatened...something that, I couldn’t...risk. And at the time, that would’ve been earth shattering.” He knows it’s terribly vague, he knows. But he’s hoping it’s enough for Aleks, at least for now. He is also hoping that Aleks realizes this.

There’s a moment of silence where Aleks just sits and stares. He’s thinking, Brett knows this because he’s playing with the ring on his finger. Brett actually recognizes the ring, but Aleks used to wear it on a necklace around his neck, not on his finger. Before Brett could wonder about that the other man starts talking again.

"After you left,” he says, sounding tired. “things got a lot more tense." Aleks pauses and then shrugs a little, “I guess you’d already know that if you already know everything.”

Brett nods a couple times, biting his lip. “Why’d you stay?” It seems like Brett is just seeing how many buttons of Aleks’ he could press before he gets yelled at.

“Why the fuck do you think I stayed?” Aleks asks but Brett knows he doesn’t actually want to hear his answer because, well, Brett is beginning to regret being so forward with everything he says.

Another moment passes. Aleks speaks again.

“So what happens now? Can I leave? Does the doctor have to check me out first?” The sarcasm is evident and Brett almost smiles because it’s just nice to hear out of Aleks’ mouth.

Brett doesn’t answer because he doesn’t want Aleks to leave. And Brett doesn’t know how to say that without Aleks punching him and leaving right away.

“You can leave anytime you want, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t die. You’re not actually trapped here.” Brett scoffs, “But you and I both know what’s out there waiting for you.”

Aleks rolls his eyes, “And what kind of target do you think that paints on you? On your guys? I don’t want to be responsible for that.” He shakes his head and crosses his arms.

Brett, quiet frankly, doesn’t care. He cares about his guys, very deeply. But, despite what Aleks thinks, he still cares about Aleks.

He can only shrug, “I guess you could call protection an apology.”

“Protection!” Aleks barks out an almost desperate laugh, his eyebrows are are raised to a point where he looks in pain and it sparks something in Brett.

“What am I supposed to say? What do you want me to say?” Brett clasps his hands together.

Aleks shrugs sarcastically, “I don’t know, maybe a ‘I’m sorry’? Maybe, a ‘I wish you were here’ postcard like the fuckin’ movies?”

Brett bobs his head, “Well, I’m sorry for any pain I caused you but I’m not sorry for what I did.”

“That seems...redundant.” Aleks raises one eyebrow.

“It probably is but honestly, it’s too early to think of something better to say which that, I am sorry for.” Aleks huffs in amusement but still looks reluctant to give Brett and leeway. Which Brett can respect because, a grudge coming from Aleks? Brett’s more than willing to be the one that said grudge is on for that to be true.

Aleks nods at the comment about the time, rubbing his eyes. “Are you gonna tell your guys what I did?”

Brett actually laughs at this, “First of all, it’s not my story to tell. Second of all, I’m proud of you for what you did.”

Aleks looks at Brett likes he’s crazy. And he very well may be.

"Are you hungry? Yes, you are. We just happen to have food here." Brett lifted himself to his feet, “The others should be coming around soon.”

He watches Aleks get up, steadily enough for Brett to be satisfied and opens the door for him, closing it behind them. They’ll continue this whole conversation another time. Maybe.

-

Brett walks through some halls and a door and Aleks follows aimlessly. They passed through the entrance that looked like an office, then through a larger room -Aleks is pretty sure it’s the center of the entire warehouse because there are doors everywhere, probably about ten in total on all but the one back wall where three couches sat, One is oddly cow print and only makes Aleks curious- and then through a door into a mid-sized kitchen.

There is a counter separating the kitchen on the right from another space on the left with a rounded table that Jakob currently sits at that’s tucked into the corner of the room. Brett goes behind that counter and opens the refrigerator.

Aleks looks back to Jakob, he’s holding a coffee cup up to his face, peering over the top of it at Aleks.

“You’re still alive,” he says after sipping at his drink. His voice sounds unsurprised. He puts the mug back down and nods, “That’s great.”

“Is it though?” Aleks cannot deny that he jumps when he hears a voice behind him. Sarcastic and snide.

Brett sighs and Jakob puffs air through his nose as a laugh. Aleks turns to see James and holy shit, does he see him.

James is attractive. Very, attractive. How he’s just noticing this now, Aleks blames the concussion for knocking his judgement out of whack because, damn.

His hair is down. Aleks didn’t even realize it but James’ hair was long. Passed his shoulders -probably longer if straightened- and so, so, curly. His face doesn’t have the same annoyed scowl that Aleks remembers him having. Right now he looks delighted with the comment he just made. His mouth is an open smile, corked at one end, his eyebrows are raised and so are his eyelids. Like he’s waiting for Aleks to respond with his own quip. And because of that is why Aleks doesn’t give him a response.

Nonetheless, Aleks is caught off guard, to say the least.

“Alright, sit down.” Brett motions for Aleks and James to sit.

James goes for the stool under the counter that leans against the back wall, Aleks goes for the stool closest to the exit.

Aleks tries to focus on Brett because after that one comment, James readily ignores him. He turns his chair to face Jakob and sparks up a conversation about a job. Aleks can tell that they’ve known each other for some time by the way they talk with one another. Aleks wondered for how long and how they met.

Brett cracks an egg on the side of a pan and the sizzle stops James and Jakob’s words.

“When are we gonna have that team meeting huh?” James asks, “And is he gonna be present,” James nods toward Aleks. Aleks chooses to be silent and narrows his eyes at the other man. Besides that, the thought of there being a ‘team meeting’ makes Aleks get twitchy.

He and Brett didn’t talk about how long he’d be staying. They probably should have. Maybe he, or someone else, would bring it up.

Brett rolls his eyes, “Yes he is gonna be present. You can say his name you know, he’s not fuckin’ Voldemort.”

“And he is right here.” Aleks sends a glare to James who only tilts his head.

“Sorry, who are you again?” James asks and Brett gives him another slap on the head.

“I don’t want to have to put anyone in time out okay?” Brett looks between the two men and they both scoff at each other.

Brett closes his eyes then turns back to the softly simmering egg and there was silence.

Silence until Aleks heard a door open. It sounds like a garage door because it’s loud and metal and annoying. No one does anything about it so Aleks assumes they are either used to the noise or already knew it was coming.

A second later another person walks in the room. A young man, tall -maybe as tall as Jakob-, short brown hair and a full beard, enters the room. He first looks to Brett to say something.

“We /really/ need to get WD40 on that thing.” He huffs and then looks to the other occupants of the room. First, he started to head toward Jakob but glances at Aleks and stops in his tracks.

Aleks should probably leave soon if he doesn’t want to meet the rest of this crew which, let’s be honest. He really doesn’t.

“You are..” The man starts, uncertain but quickly finding some ground, “the old crew buddy.” He quickly looks to Brett to see if he was right, when he got confirmation he nods at Aleks and smiles. “You’re Aleks then.”

Aleks nods back at him, “And you are..?” There's something about this guy that feels nostalgic. Familiar. Something Aleks doesn’t recognize. Yet.

“Trevor.”

Aleks nods at this. He doesn’t recognize the name. Before there can be a silence Brett starts to talk.

“Someone text Asher and Lindsey when they’ll get here.”

Looks like Aleks is going to meet this crew after all.

-

They are waiting for two people named Asher and Lindsey. Brett finished everyone’s eggs. It’s just eggs and nothing else which Aleks doesn’t mind. Another thing he doesn’t mind is every time he finished a plate, Brett gave it to James to pass it to another person because James was the closest. Once Jakob, Trevor and James got plates, James pushes Aleks’ over to him without making eye contact.

Aleks looks down to the plate. He doesn’t know who Asher is but remembers a women named Lindsey who was close to Brett and on the East coast for a brief time before she moved herself to the West to pursue bigger and better things.

If Aleks remembered correctly, Lindsey was a brute, and, hopefully, still is. She was blunt and honest and oddly kind. She liked Aleks because both of them would give Brett shit for anything he did. Nevermind attitude, she was built like a brute too and she knew it. Not too tall but held herself like she was six-foot-three. She had toned muscles, broad shoulders and could roundhouse kick like a motherfucker.

If this is the same Lindsey, Aleks is going to get just a bit overwhelmed. It’s enough that he finds out Brett is still alive but he can’t forget that Lindsey never reached out after the news broke into the public. At this point, Aleks can’t help but wonder if she knew.

Actually. Of course she’d know. She was Brett’s best fucking friend, even before Aleks. But then again, Aleks considers, that’s not saying much. Aleks met Brett through the Rattlers and Brett took pity on him for how Vinnie was. They did get close. Aleks, at one point, even looked at Brett like an older brother the way he talked to Aleks and treated him. But Aleks did get attached to easily and knows it.

Brett, James, Jakob, Trevor and himself had stayed in the kitchen, in mostly relative silence. Brett and Trevor did most of the talking. It was about random, unimportant topics that were quickly changed or quickly distorted with hypotheticals so Aleks didn’t listen much. He was too caught up in memories and casting glances to Trevor.

The other man has been staring for at least twenty second at a time at Aleks. He’s been doing this for the last fifteen minutes. Aleks is starting to get uncomfortably insecure.

Trevor has taken a set at the table with Jakob so Aleks has shifted his chair to see all the occupants in the room. After, maybe, two minutes, Aleks noticed when Trevor wasn’t talking he was looking at Aleks.

“Did you need something or just wanted to stare? I know I’m stunning and all but-“ Aleks starts out, letting his voice take an annoyed tone. Maybe he shouldn’t say anything, in general or in front of Trevor’s crew but, Aleks couldn’t care less at this point.

Trevor cut him short though, explaining himself but not looking away - and as a matter of fact, staring even more critically. He’s nothing like James though. Trevor seems curious where James seems...unreadable.

“You look really familiar.” It’s one statement from Trevor but it makes Aleks regret asking.

Aleks stares back at Trevor awkwardly, “Sorry about that.”

Trevor laughs at that, like Aleks wasn’t actually sorry. Aleks looks to Brett who’s eating his own plate of eggs watching the two with curious eyes. Trevor sits back in his chair with his arms crossed. He drops the topic for now.

“Anybody heard from Asher? Lindsey?” Brett asks bringing Trevor’s attention back to him.

Trevor nods, “Asher’s gonna be here in like ten minutes and Lindsey’s said she was here like a second ago.”

Aleks has a nervous energy in his stomach but ignores it and drops his fork and pushes his plate away.

He needs to decide what he’s going to do. If he will talk, ask questions, act like a normal goddamn person, or be the silent man. He’ll decide right now.

“Is this, Lindsey Lindsey?” He looks to Brett who gives a smile and nods once.

James gives a loud huh sound to Aleks’ left, “So you know Brett, apparently Trevor too, and now Lindsey?” Aleks looks to James, he’s looking at Aleks like he can see through every lie he’s ever told and every bad thing he ever done. “It’s lookin’ more and more like you were tryin’ to find them.”

The accusation leaves Aleks speechless because, James is right. He was trying to find Brett. Well, subconsciously maybe. He didn’t think of that until right after James said it but, maybe he was looking for Brett. For Lindsey. He went on the run. He went west because that’s where people go when they run away, is it not?

“James,” Brett’s voice pulls him out of the sudden existential question, “Play nice.” He softly commands.

James rolls his eyes but quiets himself right in time for that damn garage to open again.

Aleks keeps his head lowered until he hears someone else enter the room.

“Hey, what’s the emergency-“ and that would be Lindsey. She still sounds the same but when Aleks looks up, she looks a bit different.

She’s staring at him, with her harsh eyes. Not in anger, or disappointment or anything like that but with pure shock. Aleks keeps his face blank, or at least tries to because he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do or say or look like.

Lindsey’s hair is dyed blonde now and styled different, she may have gotten just a bit taller or it could be those boots she’s wearing, Aleks honestly doesn’t know. She might’ve even gained more muscle. And he never knew her that well but he’s nervous. He can tell she is too by the way her mouth is still gaping and her eyes dart back and forth between Brett and Aleks.

“Wow, um,” she closes her mouth then opens it again, “Immortal. Hi.”

She takes a couple more steps into the room. “I see, you’re here. I was not made aware of that.” She looks to Brett again but this time it’s a glare.

Aleks nods, “Not Immortal. Aleks.” He thinks that he should get that out of the way first, to avoid unnecessary tensions and unnecessary confusion.

“Alright, Aleks,” she breathes and Aleks doesn’t think he has ever seen her like this. At a loss for words, that is. “How...how did you find us?” says us hesitantly because she probably doesn’t know what else to say. James, unfortunately, answered for Aleks.

“He didn’t.” Lindsey’s eyes flicker to him and then to Brett again when James nods at him, “He found him.”

Lindsey nods very slowly, “I hope I’m not so out of the loop that you guys have already talked it over,” she leaves the statement open ended and her voice took a threatening tone.

“We have literally not said a word about it.” James supplies, “Kinda fuckin’ discomforting if you ask me.”

Aleks understands. A stranger from Bretts past comes back with another crew on his tail? Aleks would be suspicious too.

“What a perfect time to discuss then.” Lindsey nods.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Asher?” Trevor pipes up.

Lindsey jerks a thumb other her shoulder, “He’s right out here. Just move your lazy asses about fifteen feet and we’ll be fine.”

Aleks nods  to himself and moved with everyone else. He rubbed the back of his neck and waits by the door for everyone else to leave first. He gazed at the floors and watches each pair of shoes walk by him. He counts them, one, two, three…no four?

Aleks looks back up and James is smiling. The man throws a hand in front of himself, “After you, please.” He sounds sarcastic, “I’d never trust a Rat behind my back.” and that, does not sound sarcastic.

Aleks shakes his head at being called a Rat but goes through the doorway anyway, he flinches as James claps him on the back, chuckling from his own joke.

Chapter Text

“Alright,” Brett claps his hands once they’ve all entered the room and sat down on the three couches in the main room. Trevor, Jakob and Asher all sit on the cow print couch, James and Lindsey sit on another and Brett and Aleks sit on the last.

“What am I allowed to talk about?” Brett looked over to Aleks and James almost rolled his eyes. It shouldn’t matter what Aleks wants Brett to say about him, Brett should say it all and actually trust them.

Alright, James’ll take that back. He knows what’s happening. Brett is respecting a friend’s privacy and asking what he can and cannot talk about but, Brett should already know what he should or can talk about or mention. He shouldn’t need confirmation for Christ’s sake. James knows full well that he’s just thinking that because he doesn’t like Aleks yet -that’s right, yet- but he also agrees with that side of his conscious.

Aleks, when Brett looked to him for an answer, looked almost surprised that Brett even asked, “Whatever you think they need to know.” He supplies, shrugging.

James wonders why Aleks can’t just talk and tell them what’s up but then he realizes that Aleks could leave out certain things and James still trusts Brett to tell the truth. Because Brett will always tell the truth, he will just avoid doing it.

Well. He did fake his death so, that could count as lying.

“Well.” Brett starts, or tries, “Um. Okay, you guys know that I faked my death a bit before we started this crew and that I purposely stayed behind the scenes enough to where no one at all thought that I was alive.” James watches Brett take a small breath when he was done with that sentence. He’s nervous, James knows this. He hasn’t talked about this in a while.

“I’ve told you about the Rattlers a bit and how they really were and what they did to people while I was there.” He takes another breath and James looks to Aleks who kept a carefully blank face. Brett continued, “After I, ‘died’, I still keep up with everything they were doing and i saw that Aleks had recently gotten onto bad terms with the Rattlers and went AWOL so to say and-“

“What’d you do?” Trevor leans forward, his face is smiling eagerly. James casts a look at Aleks, he doesn’t look offended or affronted.

Aleks considers what he will say, tilting his head, “I had a disagreement and I did something about it.”

Trevor accepts that, leaning back in his chair, watching for the rest of the story. But James, he’ll accept it for the sake of Brett and this meeting but he doesn’t want to. Later on, he’ll ask Aleks himself. But, then again, he does he care? Oh right, he cares about Brett so in turn, James cares about Brett’s problems.

Brett starts up again, “I noticed that Aleks wasn’t on normal jobs and that the crews dynamic had drastically changed so I got curious and did deeper research and I found that Aleks had managed to make his way cross country, god knows how, and into Los Santos. I figured out where he was after a week so I figured that they’d be coming too. I was right but I just wasn’t expecting Vinnie to also come, because he just peer everything back on the East Coast. So I pulled James aside and said I need him to help out an old friend. My plan was to have James take Aleks back to his place but there was a misunderstanding on names so I stepped in.”

Brett explained everything in truth. James still has questions. It seems Aleks does too.

“That’s the only reason you stepped in?” Aleks narrows his eyes. James nods with him, “Yeah man, you could’ve told me that over the comm.”

Brett shakes his head, “I didn’t recognize the voice, I didn’t know if it was him or one of them.”

James is dissatisfied with that reasoning, pulling his mouth to the side and pushing himself back into the couch.

“Also,” Jakob raises a finger and looks around at everyone else like they’re idiots, “this, um, situation? Kinda puts us in a bad spot? Once they know that he’s here they aren’t gonna hold back. Especially when they know you’re here.” He points to Brett.

James full heartedly agreed. If he had to personally escort Aleks to wherever the hell he lived, he would. As long as he didn’t have to deal with any backlash from the Rattlers because of Aleks.

Brett lifted his chin at Jokab, “Hm, well, they won’t find out because it’s not like he’s going to be running jobs with us. And, maybe, I want to catch up with my friend after he believed I've been dead for the past two years,” he suggests.

Jakob gives him an unimpressed look but relents nonetheless and shrugs. “If you wanna put us in danger then so be it. No offense.” He adds and looks to Aleks who nods at him.

“I said the same thing.”

“I agree,” James looks to Brett but then back to Jakob, “but it’s not like they saw me, or Brett.”

Jakob shrugs, “True. I just hope I don’t have to say ‘I told you so.’”

Brett pulls his lips into a straight line, “Thanks I appreciate that,” but James is having a bit of a hard time focusing on anything but Aleks in this moment because the guy wont stop moving. It’s not because he’s nervous. It’s not nervous energy it’s just, extra energy.

He’s been bouncing his leg up and down for the past two minutes, solid. And probably at a speed that could baffle an Olympic runner. With his hands, Aleks mediates between tapping his legs -for a few seconds it could look like there’s a rhythm to it but mostly it doesn’t look controlled, per se - and messing with a ring on his hands. James vaguely wonders why Aleks would have a ring because he can’t be married. Right?

James looks to the floor. Right?

Brett’s phone rings and the man stops talking. Well shit, when did he start talking? Was James really that zoned in on-? Nevermind.

“Um, hold on.” Brett says and he walks away to the corner of the room and take the call. James watches for a second but finds himself bored. He looks back at Aleks.

“Can you stop?” James bites out.

Aleks’ leg stops for just a second before bouncing again, “Can you stop?”

James squints his eyes, “Lemme think about it.”

Aleks shakes his head and looks away, his leg continues to bounce. James looks away too but not before making an affronted noise. He looks back to Brett who looks like he doesn’t want to be on the phone anymore because he keep nods his head, shifting from foot to foot and giving “yeah”s and “uh huh”s.

“Alright great, bye.” Brett huffs once he’s hung up and then mutters, “God, he’s hard to talk to.”

Brett turns back to the group and claps his hands together, having pocketed his cellphone, “Who remembers the mafia gang from La Bronks?” there’s some noises of recognition that float around the room before Brett starts again.

“Well, they wanna have a face to face on Saturday evening which, if you can’t count, is in two days.” He looks annoyed, with good reason, because, two days? They could make it work for an important ally but, those guys? James didn’t even consider them real mob-like, they’re just a mess.

“Two days?” Trevor asks with lifted eyebrows.

Brett nods, “Just got of the phone with the old man. Was pretty instant that it was that soon.”

James sighs, “Well, I can’t go.” Brett nods again, “Send Trev and Linds.”

Trevor’s eyebrows somehow go higher and James amends his last statement, “Or Lindsey and Asher, whatever.”

“Yeah, I’ll see. I sent the list to Jakob, someone go see if we already have anything they want.”

Trevor, Jakob and Asher get up, and then James does too, feeling like he’ll be more help with them. Before he leaves the room though, Brett speaks, not to him but to Aleks.

“Aleks go follow James to the armory and see if you can help. I’m gonna talk to Lindsay.”

Well, /that/ wasn’t discrect at all. By Aleks’ unimpressed face, James would guess that he agrees. He only waits to see if Aleks will actually follow him before leaving after the other three guys, blatantly ignoring him. They are through the door and have left the room before Aleks, to James’ surprise, breaks the silence.

“You guys have an armory?” His voice is light a curious and James bets that if Aleks didn’t have the ounce of self control that he does, he’d be over James’ shoulder, pestering him with accompanying questions.

James keeps his head straight forward but can’t help but pull a face, “Yes? Why? Did you not?”

Aleks makes a ‘tt’ noise with a scoff, “Well yeah we had one. They didn’t call it an armory though.”

James doesn’t comment on the ‘we/they’ thing that just happened there and scoffs on his own, “What’d you call it then?” he decides not to give Aleks any slack. If he is still confused on where he stands with the Rats, then let him be confused, James figers that if Aleks doesn’t like it, he’d tell him.

Aleks doesn’t answer for only a second, he exhales quickly and James will bet anything on Aleks’ neck twitching because he has realized what James is doing.

“They just called it the gun dump.”

James let a small smile grace his face because one, that was the shittiest name ever and two, James knows exactly what buttons to push on this guy and he considers that a job well done.

James let the silence speak for him. James wasn’t going to talk to Aleks unless he had to, he wouldn’t ignore him but, if he wasn’t spoken to first he’s not about to spark up a buddy-buddy conversation with the guy. Aleks seemed to take note.

The short remainder of the walk was quiet. James didn’t mind.

They accporch the door and James turns himself around, leaning into the door. It’s heavy so he pushes it. He might have let Aleks walk down the hall behind him but, damn his paranoia, won’t let him pass through a door behind him. James makes sure to make strong eye contact with Aleks while he does this for two reason. James is simply making sure that Aleks is constantly aware of James distrust of him and the fact that James is just curious as to how much he can handle. The door blocks out sound so while he slowly pushes it open, voices fade in which make the contact a little less awkward but not by much.

Aleks looks annoyed and, better yet, nervous, when James stares. James smiles at him -with teeth and everything- before turning his head to look at the occupants of the armory. He holds the door.

“Well?” He shouts, “What’do we got?”

Aleks shakes his head as he too enters the room, he stands off to the side, excluding himself from the group. He is looking around the room, eyebrows raised. James would guess from the size. Admittedly, it’s pretty big. It’s just very long, really. It’s a thin room but extends maybe thirty, forty yards back. The steel table in the middle of the room takes up space and makes the room look smaller than it it because it’s covered and you can barely see the metal anymore.

“I mean,” Asher starts, and James turns his attention back to him, “Not..much? Not much. Of what they want. But I know exactly where to get everything we do need.”

James nods, “Alright. Gimme what we do have.”

Asher does just that and reads off names of weapons and Trevor, Jakob and James try to find them. It’s a short list, and they find everything they already have in about five minutes. Aleks didn’t help. James keeps one eye on him the whole time.

“That’s all?” Trevor asks. “Well that sucks.”

James snorts, doesn’t he know that.

Trevor looks through so more crates, obviously bored and James looks back to Jakob and Asher. “Where’re we gonna get the rest of this shit?”

Asher shrugs, “We can ask the Fakes?”

James tilts his head down and raises an eyebrow at Asher who promptly raises his hands up, “Hey, it’s just a suggestion. They said they’d help us with whatever we needed.”

James shakes his head, “Yeah they did, but we can’t just take their help, come on man.”

He sees Jakob roll his eyes. Jakob doesn’t like James being stubborn. But that just make James want to flaunt it in his face.

“We have allies other than the Fakes. They’re like last resort.”

Asher shrugs, Jakob speaks, “Who do you think will have all of what we need?”

James scratches his chin, “I dunno, Fake Pine? They have a lot of random shit.”

Jakob pinches his face, “isn’t Fake Pine, by name, a part of the Fakes?”

James shakes his head, “I’m talking about AH, dude. AH is last resort.”

“I have no idea what the difference is but okay.” James nods to Jakob with a smile. He then looks back to Aleks because he’s taken his eyes off the other guy for more than three seconds and needs to know where he is again.

Aleks is looking between all of them with a very obviously suspicious face. James pulls his own face of suspicion, “What?” He asks harshly, pulling Aleks of whatever he was thinking about.

Aleks looks to James and after a second he shakes his head, “Nothin’.”

“Oh look,” Trevor calls, James keeps his eyes on Aleks, just waiting for the man to fidget. To James’ surprise, Aleks suppresses himself and stands still for possibly the first time him his whole life. James turns his body and walks to Trevor. The kid stands in front of a cardboard box and points at it with a wide smile on his face, “fireworks.”

James lets a smile grace his face, “Oh yeah. We got those on year for Fourth of July and lit them off the roof.”

Trevor laughs and then stops to give a very, bothersome smile.

“Well, you guys know what this means. Right?” He looks away from James and back at the others.

-

Brett watches Aleks follow James through the doorway and then blows out a breath.

“What the fuck?” Lindsey hisses at him. Brett lowers his head and breathes again, “Brett, what, the, fuck.”

He straightens himself out and looks right into Lindsey’s eyes, “Okay, listen-“

“Damn right I’ll listen. Tell why the fuck Immortal was in our kitchen. I don’t care how, I want to know why.” She crosses her arms and Brett bites his lip, willing himself to be calm.

“Didn’t I just explain everything-”

“No,” Lindsey shakes her head, “You told them what happened. Now tell me.”

Brett throws back his head and screws his eyes shut. He’d really rather not but, he can’t exactly argue with Lindsey now can he?

“What would you like to know? Why he’s here?” Brett tried, Lindsey didn’t give him an answer so he takes that as a yes, “Because that was true that I’ve been checking up with him. I wanted to know if he actually did die doing some stupid shit that Vinnie sent him off to do.”

Lindsey hummed and Brett throws her an incredulous look, “Do you think I’m lying?

“If you cared about him so much why didn’t you just tell him where you went and take him with you?” She asks which is something that Brett had been asking himself for the longest time.

“Because, Lindsey, if I wasn’t dead, Vinnie would have tried much more harder to find me and taking Aleks with me would have made it a bit obvious don’t you think?”

Lindsey bristled, “Then why didn’t you just have James take him home, like you planned?” there’s clear air quotes around that last word but Brett still answers, as steady as he could.

“Because James was about to shoot him and I didn’t realize that Vinnie was going to be here too. They found his place and I’m going to take a wild guess and say that he doesn’t have any safe houses around here yet.” Brett finishes and chances a look at the woman.

“Why - ugh,” She puts both her hands on her forehead and shakes her head. Brett knows what she wanted to say. She almost asked him why he even needed to be ‘dead’ in the first place. And Brett still doesn’t have an answer for her.

She lowers her hands and looks at Brett. She doesn’t look angry, she doesn’t look happy either. Her face is content. She bites her lip for a second and nods, “Alright. Whatever. You know that they aren’t going to let this go without him dead right? And there’s nothing pointing to you being alive right?”

Brett shakes his head and she nods again, letting out a long breath.

“You know he dyed his hair?” Brett looks to her.

She looks appalled he’d ask such a thing, “Okay, I not that stupid. Yes I noticed the platinum.”

Brett shrugs, “It’s a little funny. You think he did that to try and fit in around here?”

“Honestly,” she huffs out a breath and lets a small smile grace her face, “that is something he would do.”

Brett smiles back at her. But then he sees a light in the hall that the others went through. He tilts his head because the light is green and now it smells like gunpowder and fire, “What the fuck-?”

It blew up and Brett’s first instinct was to pull out a gun and shoot someone but then he heard James’ cackling, Trevor’s howling and whatever the fuck Jakob does as a laugh. Brett closes his eyes and breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth and then he chuckles to himself. They found fireworks.

Lindsay can’t stop from laughing either, “Jesus!” she tries to make her voice stern but halfway through the word she struggles.

The firework dies off and right away another gets thrown into the room. Immediately Brett runs, picks it up and throws it back into the small space and immediately there are shrieks and yells. Brett smiles widely. Lindsay yells something at them about being children, James yells something else back and through the dim hallway he can see Trevor and Aleks laughing with each other. Bret honestly doesn’t know what the right choice is now but, they have a deal now and maybe Aleks will find his place here. That’s what Brett hopes at least.