Fight to be free

  Reiner rolled his eyes when Jesse continued talking, the man easily falling in step with the soldier as he walked to the cook. The cook nodded to Reiner, knowing he wanted food and water, so Reiner lingered by the serving table until he got it. 

Jesse frowned  under Reiner's grip and contemplated liking  or biting him so he would let go but who knows where that hand has been. The younger man crossed his arms and tapped his foot and tried not to think where that hand had been lately. 

  "Well, I took a physics class in high school and we built a few things. That’s why I asked." Daphne shrugged, more and more time with this dude was making him even weirder. She didn’t get the whole science nerd thing. "No one would ever ask a chef to make a Turducken." Daphne said, her voice monotone as she stared at the man sitting next to her. Why did she not mind her own business? The man continued to ramble on and on about absolutely nothing. She was pretty sure he just talked to hear himself. 

Put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains.  

  "I can throw you into the vat of used motor oil. That might get you over your phobia." Alex said with a laugh. He wasn’t surprised at all to learn that Jesse wasn’t interested in cars. Most of the intellectual people he met could care less about cars. Most of the ones he went to high school with couldn’t even tell brands of cars apart, let alone anything about what was under the hood.

Shit, was this man trying to kill Jesse or why did everything that came out of his mouth sound so goddamn sexual. Alex's chocolaty laugh resonated sweetly through Jesse's ears. ''Yes, I do mean like liquor and I swear I won't go full nerd on you if we happen to drink more than allowed because, by how you put it we're not permitted to do much here are we? I mean without someones permission. Who holds the spirits? Barbie over there?'' 

  Brandon hadn’t intended to open up, but Jesse caught him unawares when he knew who he was right away, so he couldn’t foresee the harm in speaking about his daughter. Plus, the other man seemed to struggle with comprehending emotions and apathy was of intrigue to the hunter. An absence of feeling was desirable to Brandon.

If Jesse hadn't been so heedful on contemplating Brandon's reactions he would have remembered this is when a normal person would smile and give him his condolences. In its place his brow shaped in curiosity and his mouth gaped slightly, until he said in a hush voice ''I see...'' and turned to look down at the bed with a lost stare. He heard in Brandon's voice the painful joy it brought him to talk about his daughter; yet there was so much more he wanted to ask, so much more he needed to know.

  'Did you have a kid?' Did. Past-tense. She was something that was, and now was not. Brandon reached for his flask off his nightstand and all but chugged its contents.”I was an only-child. No nieces or nephews possible,” he answered with a cringe as the moonshine burned down his throat.

Jesse listened to the other man, he finished his cigarette and put it out in the ashtray; this is was actual mourning looks like. A man that when Jesse first encountered had been protected by layers of clothing and hidden behind a strong demeanor was now shed free of limiting obstacles. Is that was death is supposed to do to you?

  Daphne frowned, rolling her eyes. She hated when people laughed at her. “Alright then.” She forced a smile, not wanting to come over as a bitch. “I was just wondering. It makes sense though. I just heard physics and thought maybe you’d be more helpful. Do you have a position here yet? I’ve never seen you around before.”

''Oh no no, I wasn't trying to be rude. I'm sorry, it was very ironic because I don't get along with machinery.'' he gave out an innocent chuckle and gave her a commiserating look. Though on the inside he felt a slight pinch of acid run through his veins, did she just say an exact science isn't helpful? Did she just call him useless after having heard he knows about actual theory of time travel? Jesse might have just found his favorite person in the whole camp. 

  Alex smiled, happy that someone at least understood his passion about cars. He knew he used to get on his old friends nerves when he used to talk about cars. His old roommate and coworker, Thomas was the only one who cared. “You can come down to the garage. I can try and teach you, if you want.” He couldn’t help but chuckle at the way Jesse talked, using computer slang.

You can teach me anything you want, Jesse thought, no, scratch that you can teach me anywhere you want. ''I'd hate that actually. But maybe you can help me erase the tabu I have towards actually getting my hands dirty with the hardware of a car.'' he said with a laugh. You can teach me inside the vehicle or outside. In and out. 

  Brandon huffed a short laugh of agreement. “Fucking is the only thing that feels alive anymore.”

''I've only ever felt alive while fucking.'' he gave Brandon an incredulous half smile as if he shouldn't be taken so seriously. ''I can honestly say- Oh thank you'' Jess cleaned his hand from the ash and let it drop on the tray, ''- I don't feel much different from before all of this, just less productive and less fucked. A lot less.'' Even still on a natural high from a gratifying  lay Jesse wasn't comfortable talking about himself in such big chunks of actualities, he hugged his knees and tried to let silence make him comfortable again. 

  Alex listened to Jesse talking, getting more and more interested in the other’s life as he kept talking. The life he was describing sounded like something from one of those secret agent movies he used to watch when he was younger. Never did he ever think that those were jobs that people actually did. Yet here Jesse was telling him that he did exactly that. “No, don;t worry. You’re not boring me. That sounds so much better that the life I had before this happened.”

”Alex, you know how you can tell when someone’s extremely passionate about something?” he inquired though the question was somewhat obvious but he needed it to make a point. ”All I know about cars is how to drive one, and that’s it. I know nothing, in fact I used to despise having to so much as fill the tank.” he continued. ”But you my friend, you made me want to get under the hood and install a new engine, get behind the wheel and go fast, and shit I really have no idea about cars.” Jesse chuckled aware of how he used computer slang on car talk. ”But for a second you made me think I did.”

  Normally Brandon would have refused bumming Jesse —or anyone— a cigarette, but he’d more than earned the reward in this case. He passed the smoke he’d just barely lit to the other man and took another out for himself.

''Thanks.'' he said as he stole Brandon's cigarette; he pressed it to his lips and took it all in, the smoke, like Brandon. He trapped the fumes in his lungs for a couple seconds before letting it out slowly, his head tilted slightly upwards. ''If that wasn't home, then I don't know what is.'' he added with a titter.

 Daphne tried her best not to look confused as the men continued to ramble on about something or other. “Astrophysics? Is that like the physics of space? Well any physics. I bet you could help us come up with some machines or something right? To help us? I mean, Alex has a bunch of junk in her garage. Right?” Daphne asked, taking some of the words she did understand and trying to continue the conversation with the man. 

''Machines?'' he asked with a laugh, ''No, not in the slightest,'' he covered his mouth with his hand and laughed again, ''I'm sorry, it's just, the only machine I had anything to do with, and it was a minor hypothetical situation at a bar with one of my professors is, the time machine.'' his eyebrows arched in innocence as he gave her a apologetic shrug.  ''Aah. But I can always teach you the basics if you want or Alex, of course you need physics to build a machine but...it's like making a movie and I'm the guy behind the camera. I know the process of making it but I don't get involved with the actual making. Does that make sense?'' The speckled man continued, his face looked harmless and childlike as he saw no understanding in the woman he was talking to.