Trick or Treat 👻 Smell My Feet

When Cass heard her brother’s voice her dark eyes fell to him and a smile settled onto her features. During the holiday months they were allies, both dealing with the dynamic of their family in different ways but always coming together to get through it all. She welcomed it when the rest of the year Jesse mostly did his own thing, checking in on her here and there. She moved toward him and looked down at Aspen. In her baby voice she said, “that’s uncle Jesse…say hi!!” She said, reaching down to wave the little girl’s hand for her. She seemed nonplussed.

“I had to get out of there. This year is…” She trailed off before sitting next to him at the bar of the diner. “Mom’s up everyone’s ass and dad doesn’t seem to give a shit at all. He doesn’t even really seem like himself and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing because he’s at least been leaving me alone.” She paused for a moment, unsure if she should say this next part.

“Mom’s been taking him to doctors but she tells me they are just check ups. Gotta believe her when she’s that adamant about something, I guess.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Jesse’s mouth, waving back at the baby. He glanced up at Cass, nodding as she talked about how things had been at home. He knew that she had a lot more visibility on things there, Jesse spending as little time as possible since he’d moved out after Kyle’s death. 

“Who goes to multiple appointments for a check-up?” He asked with obvious doubt. “Maybe they’re just being paranoid.” He shrugged uncomfortably, trying to shake the feeling that things were being kept from them. It wasn’t entirely unfair. It wasn’t like either he or Cass were due to win any Child-of-the-Year awards anytime soon. “You’re gonna be home for Christmas too?” 

Jesse was sitting at a table in the Rise & Grind, technically on the clock but doing nothing work-related because it was slow at the moment and he didn’t want to. He looked up from his computer when he heard the bell over the door but he made no move to get up when he saw who it was, instead watching as Nicky stepped inside. 

“Did you knock my sister up?” He asked bluntly, ignoring the looks from the other customers who were trying very hard to mind their own business. 

“You don’t get sweets or anything,” he replied, pouting slightly, “And when you have a kid, you have to say that it’s ok that you don’t get any, even though it’s not. It’s bollocks, man.” He supposed it was more apparent to him that it wasn’t as fun nowadays when he knew that Teddy was beginning to get into it.

“Tell me about it, bruv,” Jeb let out a sigh. His son had recently seemed to have blossomed in many ways, but he thought that it could just be him turning three and everything seemed so sudden because of it. Now he had his own personality and had a lot of words to say, even if he didn’t fully understand what they meant.

Jebediah looked at Jesse’s costume a bit closer, knowing that he had a fair amount of run-ins with the law and reckoning that he had somewhat of an idea about the uniform. “It looks like it,” he shrugged, “If not, it’s pretty convincing.”

“I don’t understand why you can’t get any.” Jesse shrugged, pulling a few pieces of candy from his jacket pocket and offering them to Jeb out of sympathy. “And kids get enough to share. I’d just take it.” He wasn’t bluffing, though even Jesse was confident that he was doing the world a favor by failing to procreate. 

“I almost didn’t dress up this year but it kinda seemed like giving up.” He admitted. “Then again, Bax would probably shit himself if I skipped Halloween.”

Jebediah grunted in response. “Tell me about it, mate,” he sighed, handing the cigarette over to him. His inability to stop smoking probably wasn’t helped by his brother, who smoked even more than he did. Jeremiah constantly stank of the stuff, so he couldn’t really keep his mind off them for long.

He didn’t even blink at Jesse’s costume. He had a funny idea what - or who - it was meant to represent, and although he felt that it was kind of offensive, he didn’t care that much. After all, it was just a Halloween costume, and it wasn’t as if Dean had family (that he knew about) to be offended by it. “Yeah, but now we’re too old to actually have fun on Halloween,” he muttered.

“Hey,” he replied, chuckling lightly, “I actually worked on my costume up until Teddy decided he didn’t want to be Yoshi anymore.” Jeb thought back to the night before, when his son had insisted that he was not going to be Yoshi, but a ‘real’ dinosaur instead. He was lucky he already had a dinosaur costume to wear. It wasn’t like he really got to explore the fair with him, though, since on his walk over, he received a text from his mom. “How long did it take to put yours together?”

Jesse made a face when Jeb said that they were too old, absolutely certain that it didn’t work that way. He always had a great time at Halloween- or at least, he had up until last year when shit had really gone sideways. “Speak for yourself. I plan on having a blast.” He was determined, his costume itself being a way that he was trying to prove to himself that he could still have fun after the things that he’d seen in the past year. 

“Kids, man. They grow up so fast.” He offered idly, his thoughts immediately going to Cass and her new baby. Jesse had never really been around small children before. He and Kyle were close enough in age that he didn’t remember when he was small and it’s not like anyone was gonna ask him to babysit.

He looked down at himself when Jeb asked about his costume. “I found it in my attic.” It was his great uncle’s attic but Jesse felt a lot of ownership towards the farmhouse at this point. “I think it’s legit. Or was, at one point.” He picked at the moth-eaten sleeve of the jacket,  having a lot of guesses as to why Frank would have an old Muddy Waters cop uniform in his attic.

She made sure Aspen latched onto the bottle and watched with a small smile as the little girl shut her eyes, already contended again. A sigh escaped her before she looked back up at her little brother. She didn’t realize just how much she’d missed his face through everything. At least when she was on her own working at Rusty’s there were days she could tail him and make sure he made it home okay, or wasn’t getting into terrible amounts of trouble–all of which was done without his knowledge, of course.

“God, I would love to out them for everything. You should see mom with Aspen. Sometimes I have to beg her to give me my child.” Cassidy said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “Dad is losing it, you know? When was the last time you went home?” She asked, seriously curious.

“I miss my apartment. I miss my life. I miss not relying on them for anything. But this little thing…” she said, looking back down at her baby. “I’ll never regret her. Not for a second.”

Jesse didn’t know what to say because he couldn’t relate. Despite growing up with the same set of parents he knew that his experience had been vastly different from the one that Cassidy had endured. 

He froze when she mentioned their dad, his brow furrowing in confusion. Normally he would have assumed that she was just complaining about them in general but the way that she said it gave him pause to think. “I saw them in Chicago, but we didn’t really talk.” He admitted. “He’s probably just stressed because of his re-election campaign. You know how he is about work.” 

His demeanor relaxed when she spoke again, his gaze falling to the half-asleep infant in her arms. “I’m glad. I wasn’t sure- I didn’t think you’d want a baby.” He grimaced, realizing that none of that had come out the way that he’d wanted it to. “I’m sorry. If you ever need anything just... I’m here.” The offer sounded empty coming from him, mostly because he’d been dodging his entire family ever since Kyle had passed. 

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his coat. “Even if it’s just running interference at dinner with them, I can just- whatever you need.”

Rocket often hid her drive and anger at the world from Jesse, she felt he didn’t need to be subjected to the harshness of the world, she’d only given him the job because a year ago it had been Christmas and she needed the help and didn’t have the heart to get rid of him. He was like a puppy or maybe, in a different life, a little brother. “I meant here.” The second one, she meant, looking at the sign that indicated the town.

Jesse shrugged, grabbing a rag to idly wipe down a counter that was already clean. “I don’t hate it here.” He admitted, knowing that his opinion on Muddy Waters was different from most. “I thought I’d want to leave after high school, but I got...bored. So I came back.” Normally Jesse was happy (and even encouraged) everyone to think that he was a deadbeat but there was something about Rocket that made him want her to believe otherwise. Or at least suspect  that there was a chance.

“I mean, I plan on doing things here. Other things.” He gestured idly with the rag in his hand.

She laughed as he hid the bottle she’d already sampled from in his coat. “That’s great, but what are you going to drink?” Katherine asked, grinning up at him as he tugged her out of the bar. She took the bottle when it was offered and took a drink, letting the liquor burn down her throat. 

“Halloween? I’m hoping that Dabs will let me have a seance in the morgue. I could charge a shit ton of money for that and probably still make it to a real party before the night was over. Why? What are you doing for Halloween?” 

Jesse perked up at the mention of a seance. It wasn’t that he believed in that kind of thing but watching people who did was a wild time. Not to the mention the dubious suggestion of hosting it in the morgue.

“I don’t know.” He admitted with a small shrug. He couldn’t say as much but his enthusiasm for the squickier side of Halloween had definitely lessened over the past year since he’d found himself haunted by the memory of watching a man die at his own hands. “I might just give Bax a heart attack and call it a night this year.” Jesse felt that tormenting the local cops and the town’s sheriff was his civic duty, worried that they might be too disappointed if he opted out of Halloween altogether. Then again, nothing might scare Bax more than perpetually waiting for the drop that never came. 

Rocket looked at Jesse for a moment. “Why do you stay here?” She said drinking from her coffee mug, she looked at Jesse, Rocket had a great affection for him, even if she kept that a very deep secret, she knew he was a good kid, and she liked his humour, but someone like him had potential, he could do anything he set about trying to do, so to be here, wasting his time, it made no sense to her.

Jesse was caught off guard by the question, unused to people actually assuming he could do anything else. He harbored a lot of secrets with varying degrees of gravity attached to them, but having personal aspirations was right up there with the fact that he’d killed a cop and gotten away with it (thus far). 

“Uh,” He reached for an empty mug, suddenly desperate to gargle coffee that was too hot. “I like it here. Wait- did you mean here?” He paused, gesturing at the floor beneath them. “Or here.” He pointed towards the windows facing Muddy Waters’ main street. 

Cass let her dark eyes linger on her little brother for a moment, eyes that they shared, that they’d even shared with their youngest brother as well. The mark of being a child of the Child’s family. It had been one of the reasons why people had believed she was the daughter of the Mayor and not some illegitimate daughter her mother couldn’t have gotten rid of. She noticed his posture, the way he seemed completely uncomfortable and felt disappointed for a moment, but kept the smile on her face. She knew he was awkward with feelings, but she had at least wanted him to be a little excited about being an uncle. Cass had a good poker face, though. The Rascal’s liked to use that sometimes.

She set her baby down and reached for the bottle before maneuvering her into cradling her into the crook of her right arm. “That big man scared you, didn’t he? Let’s get you a full belly and you’ll fall right back to sleep.” Cass said softly to her baby before letting the little girl suck on the bottle.

Her attention turned back toward her brother. “Not just yet. Soon, though. Since I’m still breast feeding it’s hard to be away from her for long periods of time and I can only make so many bottles at a time.” She explained before letting herself sigh. “It’s so nice to be out of the house. And that mom didn’t want to come with me.”

Jesse shifted uncomfortably when he caught her staring at him, feeling too transparent for comfort in that moment. His relationship with his sister was difficult, mostly because he genuinely did care for her and had no idea how to show it. He only seemed to make things worse when he tried, something about his entire family leaving him at complete unease. Frank was arguably the worst of the bunch and yet somehow he was the one that Jesse found the least uncomfortable to be around. 

He felt a wave of relief when Cassidy turned her attention back to the infant, Jesse watching with curiosity. He never would have guessed that his sister would have gone through with having a baby, much less ease into maternal instincts so easily. 

His short bout of relaxation came to an end when Cass mentioned her reasons for being unable to go back to work yet, Jesse turning green at the mention of breast feeding. He wanted to drown himself in the nearest mud puddle, failing to properly mask his dismay. 

“You know, now is your big chance to out them, with the election coming up and all.” He shrugged, desperate to distract the conversation towards the topic of ruining their dad’s long political career.

“You suck,” she countered childishly. Katherine didn’t disagree, exactly, it wasn’t how she’d decorate a bar but there weren’t a lot of options in Muddy Waters. “I don’t think to-go drinks are a thing? Pretty sure that’s just a liquor store. Which I’m not opposed to, we’d probably get better service.” She slid from her stool and tapped her knuckles on the bar. “We going or what?”

Jesse nodded thoughtfully in agreement, unwilling to argue that point when he absolutely agreed. “Oh so now you’re worried about the rules?” He placed his hands on the edge of the bar and leaned over, reaching to grab the bottle she’d taken earlier. He stuffed it in his jacket and turned to head for the door. 

“Going.” He promised, catching the edge of her sleeve to make like he was the one waiting on her instead of the other way around. He let go as they passed through the exit, offering her the bottle of vodka as they started down the sidewalk. “You got plans for Halloween this year?” He asked curiously, pulling a pack of cigarettes from one of his many pockets. 

Hearing her brother’s voice made her head snap up and her eyes open wide. It was completely unexpected to run into him around town and if she were being honest with herself she had to admit that she knew he was avoiding her and her new baby on purpose. He hated conflict which was basically all that had been her life for the nine months she was pregnant and living with their parents, and now the 5 months her baby had been alive. She’d wanted so badly to share in the small moments like the first time she’d smiled, or even the way her head smelled after giving her a bath.

A big smile crossed her features. “Hey, Jess,” she said, shifting her baby, to lay her in the crook of her arm, using her leg to rock her up and down. Her fussing quickly turned into simple baby noises and Cassidy felt relief. She’d finally found something she was good at other than partying–being a mom. “Yeah, everything’s okay. Right, Aspen?” Cass asked, making faces at her little girl to get her to smile. “People are just dicks. Can you hand me the bottle in the cup holder of her stroller? I think she might be hungry…”

“Long time no see. You look good…” She wanted to say she’d missed him but that would have skeeved him out even worse. “Want to say hi to your niece?”

Jesse was still hurt that his sister had named her baby Aspen, but the thought of even having a niece was usually enough to horrify him in another direction. His fear of becoming the next crazy uncle Frank seemed to loom closer every day. 

He was broken out of his thoughts when Cass asked him for the baby’s bottle, Jesse’s face pulled tight as he reached for the stroller like it was the mouth of a crocodile. He plucked the bottle as gingerly as possible from the cup holder, offering it hesitantly towards Cass. 

“Hi, niece.” He offered stiffly, refusing to give anyone the opportunity to insist that he hold their baby. “So are you back at work now?” He asked curiously, wondering if his parents were helping Cass out at all aside from letting her stay with them.

“Considering it’s above our heads, I’d say yes.” Rocket didn’t mind Jesse, she thought he was cute in a kind of idiot way. Despite her usually harsh opinions of people giving him the job had not been something she’d regretted, it also helped that Jesse knew a fair amount about things going on and was more than willing to divulge certain aspects with her.

Rocket smiled at the pumpkin statement, and gestured over to a large wooden crate filled with pumpkins. “The irony is, I don’t like pumpkins, but needs must and it is almost Halloween.” A time of year Rocket despised, she always knew something would go down on Halloween, it was cursed in a way, with gangs at war. Even so, she didn’t want to show Jesse her hatred,

Picking up her cup of coffee she looked over to Jesse. “Is your place okay?” She finally said realising she should probably act like a concerned boss, although she already knew the answer.

Jesse had no idea how he hadn’t realized that his boss was living above them this entire time, but then again, he spent so little time and focus on his day job that it shouldn’t have been that surprising. He tended to be more interested in the dire citizens of Muddy Waters, the infamous numb nuts that everyone loved to hate. Maybe Rocket was just too functioning from all appearances.

“Yeah, that place could probably survive the entire book of Revelations.” He shrugged unconcernedly, convinced that the run-down farmhouse he lived in outside of town was impervious to evil. It’d survived Frank this long, which seemed to prove its resiliency. 

“There was no collusion!” Katherine said loudly, her fake Russian accent laid on extra thick. She slapped her hand on the bar for emphasis, making the liquid in people’s drinks shiver. Not one to waste good alcohol, she quickly downed the shot of vodka and added. “Russia is innocent. Is scapegoat!” 

People were deliberately and pointedly ignoring her now, which was precisely what she wanted. She wasn’t even Russian. “Actually,” she said in her normal voice, “Putin is a dirty motherfucker who wanted to help get Trump elected so that there’d be a politician more ridiculous looking than him. Also you’re an ass and you’re buying the next round. Or stealing it, I don’t actually care.” 

Jesse bit the inside of his cheek, trying to keep from laughing as hard as he wanted to. Between the two of them (mostly her) they had managed to draw the attention of everyone in the bar already.

“Fine. But we should get it to-go. This place sucks.” He gestured to the life-sized nudes on the wall, fairly certain that they couldn’t be called art.