Guess who?

After all they’d been through together, the girl believed that her brother knew how much the freedom of choice meant, especially to her. If she weren’t given that, Ashley knew the chances were she wouldn’t even be standing here today; she’d probably have taken the easy way out a long time ago. Bearing that in mind, it seemed inconceivable to the girl that Bradley would join an organization hell bent on controlling everyone and everything around them, even if their ultimate goal was noble, at least a long time ago. Power corrupts, and Ashley had no doubt in her mind that the people pulling the strings of the Templars had nothing but their own selfish desires in mind.

"Alright, alright, you trust him." She said, repeating Ashley's words and allowing the blonde to look away, knowing it wasn't an easy conversation for her. Having to defend her brother to not only Robert but Alyssa now too had to be exhausting. She nodded twice, sighing under her breath and then wiping her palms down her face. It was a tough conversation indeed, even for Alyssa. "We don't have to talk about it anymore. I know you want me to trust you on this matter, Ashley, and believe me - I wish I could. I want to believe you, but you know me, until I'm completely certain, I won't and can't wrap my head around just one answer." She turned her head and looked at Ashley with an apologetic look on her face, clearly sorry for not being able to say what she wanted to hear. Lying to her had never been an option, she would never do that. Omitting certain things however, well that was necessary once in awhile. This was definitely not the time to mention the Templar archer. In fact, this wasn't the time to talk about the Templars at all, not anymore. 

The sudden sound of the door bell pulled Alyssa out of her little bubble, making her stand immediately. "Must be the pizzas." She mumbled and gave Ashley's knee a reassuring squeeze as she walked around the coffee table, stepping over Shadow carefully, and towards the door. She glanced into the desk of drawers next to the door to make sure the gun she kept there was in place before looking through the spyhole and then finally opening the door. "Two pizzas?" The man said, eyeing Alyssa. "Yup, thank you." She replied shortly and fished out a couple of bills from her pocket, handing them over and taking the pizzas. "Keep the change." She mumbled and closed the door again, bringing back the pizzas to the coffee table. "I'll get us something to drink and some napkins. You're not one of those fancy people who wants plates and cutlery, right?" She laughed lightly and disappeared into the kitchen, returning with two bottles of water. "Sorry, water is sort of all I have. Not counting the really old orange juice." 

Hands on his hips, Justin couldn’t help but chuckle once more. “Alright, alright,” he finally said, lifting his icy blue gaze to meet Alyssa’s. “How about I buy you dinner? Maybe a little bit of food’ll make you feel better. I know this pizza place ‘bout ten minutes from here. Open twenty-four hours, the owners are like family and its where I used to go when I lost races. But then, you know,” he shrugged, “I stopped losing races and started just going for the food.” He was teasing her again, this time making sure to stay out of her reach in case she tried to hit him again.”Just follow me. If you can keep up,” he added, quickly getting into his car and letting the engine roar. Tires squealed as he headed down the road, surpassing the legal speed limit as he headed to the little restaurant he was talking about.

He hadn’t been lying when he said he knew the people that owned it. They were actually the first people to give him a job after he’d been kicked out of homeless teenagers shelter when he’d turned eighteen. He pulled into the parking lot, sending Alyssa a smile as he headed towards the front door. It was practically a hole in the wall, run down and barely staying together, but to Justin it was like a-whole-nother home. Pushing the door open, he held it open for his companion and beamed at the woman behind the counter. “Alice!” She was an older woman, closer to her sixties but she moved across the room to embrace Justin, her voice raising to shout in Italian for her children. They lived in a small apartment above the restaurant and had let Justin stay there from time to time.

"It better be really good food then." She said, kinking an eyebrow but then offered the hint of a smile. She appreciated the offer and thought maybe he was right, that it would make her bruised ego feel better. "Alright then, let's go." She mumbled with a firm nod, and then shot him yet another look when he made a comment about her being able to keep up. "Ha ha, very funny." She rolled her eyes and started back towards her bike, getting on it quickly before sliding her helmet back in place and then following him down the empty road to a small restaurant that she honestly wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't led her there. "Thank you." She mumbled quietly when Justin held the door open for her. Something about the place reminded her of the time before conning was something she did seriously, back when she was in-between living on the streets and living in high rise buildings in luxury that wasn't really hers. Being here made her feel something - she just wasn't completely sure what it was, but for once it had nothing to do with work.

She watched the woman behind the counter greet Justin with the biggest and most sincere smiles Alyssa had ever seen, unaware that a smile was forming on her own lips at the sight. Soon, two young adult joined in - clearly just as happy and excited to see Justin. It was so unusual for Alyssa to see something like this, and she honestly had no idea what to do. Feeling a bit like she was invading a private moment, she decided to stay in the background, her eyes fleeting to the floor after a moment. But before she knew it, Justin pulled her directly into the conversation, literally. Somewhat startled, Alyssa blinked a couple of times but then smiled. "Hi... I- uh... yeah, I.. it's really nice to meet you." She finally managed, and then laughed a little at herself. 

Completely blindsided by their questions, Alyssa had no idea what to answer, and shot Justin a look before looking back at the two 'kids' and their mother with a smile. "I... uh... Well, Justin is just a friend. You heard him, we, I mean I - I like his cars." She frowned for a second and then couldn't help but laugh, hearing herself sound absolutely stupid. They were so nice, so genuinely nice and kind that she almost had no idea how to act, or even how to feel, when being so unused to it. She quickly tried to turn the conversation around though, thinking it would be her best chance to come out of this not looking like an even bigger fool than she already felt. "And how do you know him exactly? You gave him his first job, I hear?" She smiled and actually listened when they took turns telling how they'd met him the first time when Benjamin was just a toddler. 

"Don’t take this the wrong way now, okay? I’m only asking, I’m not insinuating anything." 

That was never good. Ashley braced herself for what she knew was coming. She was aware that Robert had broached the subject of Bradley working for the Templars with Alyssa, though she was pleasantly surprised to see that her mentor had just a bit more tact regarding the matter. “No, I don’t,” Ashley said honestly. “Brad doesn’t really like to talk about work, just as I don’t like him to bring any of it home.” The girl thought back to the rather odd incident a couple of days ago when she had found one of her brother’s files in the kitchen cabinet. She struggled internally with the decision of whether to tell Alyssa about the incident. It was strange yes, but it also was more than likely nothing. She knew what Alyssa would think if she did tell her, but at the same time she trusted the mentor.

"Come to think of it though…" Ashley sighed, a look of guilt flashing across her features. "There was this strange incident a couple of days ago, when I found one of his files from work in the kitchen cabinet, but he took it away from me before I could read it." The blonde shook her head and sighed once more. "It’s probably nothing, he said he’d just misplaced it. You know how we get forgetful sometimes right?" Ashley asked, though it sounded more like she was trying to reassure herself. She locked eyes with Alyssa, looking pleadingly at her.

Alyssa kept quiet after she'd brought Bradley's work up, watching Ashley's face intensely when she reacted and spoke from then on. Even if she hadn't looked at her though, she would still have been able to detect the slight change in the mood. How Ashley immediately became guarded and somewhat suspicious, even though Alyssa had tried to go about it casually. As casually as possible when it came to something like that. She could tell immediately that there was something Ashley wasn't saying, and that she was trying to decide whether or not to say it, and even though Alyssa definitely trusted Ashley, she was mildly surprised when she actually decided to open up and share it with Alyssa anyway. Surprised but proud in a way.

"Yeah he did, and I know, it’s really stupid," Ashley sighed, raising an arm to scratch at the back of her head in frustration. She had found the whole row involving Shadow to be entirely unnecessary, and that was one of the reasons why she had been so angry at Bradley. Shadow had just been minding his own business, and Brad had been the one clumsy enough to walk over him. It just didn’t seem right to the girl, to blame Shadow for a crime he did not commit. Ashley had reasoned that her brother’s annoyance was not based solely on this incident alone, but from the adding up of Shadow’s many little transgressions over time, though that still did not give him the right to threaten to look Shadow in a cage.

"I’m fine. Like I said, it’s just one of those things that siblings go through every now and then, it’ll pass." Ashley shrugged, before continuing. "I’m just really mad at how he chose to blame Shadow for his mistake. He said that Shadow had been laying in front of his door in the middle of the night and he tripped when he walked out,” the blonde said, wrinkling her nose and making a face. “That just doesn’t sit right with me. Shadow’s just a dog, he can’t be blamed for wandering around the house and laying down, can he?” She asked, locking eyes with Alyssa, even if she already knew the answer deep down in her heart. Ashley shook her head and let out another long sigh.

"It sounds to me like something else might be bothering him and he's just...using this whole thing about tripping over Shadow as an excuse to finally blow off some steam?" She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, still wondering what was going on with Bradley, because from what Ashley had told her previously about the man, he wouldn't usually blow up because of a dog sleeping in front of his door. Of course she couldn't help but wonder if he was upset because of something work related. Something Templar related? Not knowing his alliances was terribly irritating - mainly because Alyssa cared so much about Ashley, and for her sake, she really hoped he was just working for Abstergo, and not the Templars.