WHO: Sam and Blaze WHEN: Thursday, August 23. Night. WHERE: Wolfe Investigations SUMMARY: Blaze is upset that JJ is sending letters. He tells Sam about the notes and asks her to freeze JJ out until he confesses. Sam goes to confront JJ. Camila is like, the only one in Fall City who doesn’t give Blaze her threatening mail. WARNINGS: Implied threatening notes. Harassments. Talk of JJ.
"It's like twenty degrees cooler than it was earlier." It might have been night, but Sam had four coffees in her hand, her messenger bag over her shoulder, and she used her toe to kick the door closed behind her. "Thank goodness. Hey Blaze," she held over the cup carrier to him. "Coffee?"
Blaze hadn’t looked up when the door opened, but when she addressed him, he did. He felt guilty for missing opening the door for her when he saw how much she was carrying. Blaze’s feet were intent on the motions but his mind was somewhere else.
Between being angry at JJ for sending another letter after Blaze had told him to stop, he wasn’t in the best place. Still, he forced a smile at her and took the coffee. “Thanks.” Iced was a good idea. “I’ll get it for you next time. A congratulations on surviving the day.”
Sam raised an eyebrow, thinking Blaze didn't seem entirely himself, but then again, she might be reading too much into it - the heat, after all, was enough to make anyone a little crazy.
"Thankfully the Mayweathers have air conditioning, and I told JJ I was coming over." She shrugged. Somehow she got away with telling JJ what things were what, and she never really had stopped to question it. She knew some people didn't get on with him, and she knew he could be a bit of a dick. But she didn't have problems with him, usually. She left the rest of the coffee in the holder, and slid into her desk, reaching for one for her. "Anything new on those divorce cases?"
At the word ‘Mayweather’ there was a shift in Blaze’s expression, like a window pane frosting over until the glass became one with black ice. If the sun could have seen Blaze’s face right then, it would have ended the heatwave. He pressed his lips together in a tight line. “Yeah? Did he tell you about how he’s been sending people around town anonymous threatening letters?”
Sam had a sip of coffee in her mouth. She swallowed it and turned to fully face Blaze. "He did what?"
The idea that JJ had just been chilling out and hanging with Sam all day made everything worse.
“He's the one who's been sending people all those threatening notes.” Blaze had told him to stop. He'd thought JJ would stop.
"Okay, but Dash's was dumb," she pointed out, and really so was Lola's. They were both, over the top, and felt like pranks more than anything else. She couldn't blame Dash for not taking it seriously.
“Dash’s was mild.” His tone was curt, but it wasn’t directed at Sam. Blaze was just so frustrated with the whole situation. Each movement was a little too quick and hard as he put down the coffee and pulled his laptop out of his bag. Blaze gestured for her to come over and look.
She thought Dash’s was dumb? Blaze had a whole collection of them. He could show her the range.
“Here are the two that he sent to Marceline’s boyfriend. The second one translates to a Shakespeare quote that basically says “I’m gonna destroy you so bad people will be crying about it.” Marceline’s boyfriend is big into Shakespeare.”
Sam raised an eyebrow, grateful for the translation since it would have taken her a while. This was at least more creative than Dash's had been honestly.
“This was sent to an actress in the film crew.” One who wasn’t there anymore. Coincidence? Blaze wasn’t so sure.
“This was sent to a film crew member who loves her ice machine and accidentally sat on a fire ant hill the night she arrived.”
It was possible for Sam's eyebrow to raise slightly more, and it did.
“Here’s one of the fliers JJ made and hired a tourist to put up around town. He made one for each of Marceline’s dogs. We were so freaked out that we stayed up all night on her porch, to make sure no one took her dogs. She had to assign guards for when she couldn’t have them with her.”
Sam's raised eyebrow turned into furrowed ones.
“This is the note that JJ sent to Rhett Wyatt right after his co-star was murdered.”
The furrow into a downright frown. Sam had applied to be Rhett Wyatt's assistant, and had spent time with him - thought he probably would have made a good boss, even if what she was doing for Eddie was more in line with her interests and skill set. And while she didn't know him well, she could imagine how that note might have set, knowing that your co-star was murdered. It was the sort of thing that if she didn't know JJ like she did, would feel like evidence he'd done something to Moira MacTeer.
Blaze left the laptop open next to her, so that she could go back to any file she wanted. Tension set his jaw as he leaned forward and put a hand to his temple. Looking at all of them again and feeling the pain that some of those people had felt..Blaze just….It was like being a wave continually slamming into a wall. He sighed. “I’m just so tired of him being able to hurt anyone he wants and get away with it without any consequences. Unless he confesses to it, the police aren’t going to be able to do anything. I thought it would matter more to him that I dropped him from the band and it didn’t. If nothing changes, he’s just going to keep at it. He’ll get worse.” He shook his head and slumped back. “...This was just way too far.”
He looked at Sam. “Please don’t stay with him, tonight, okay? I can find you somewhere else with air conditioning. The last thing he deserves is a friend right now. Maybe if you freezed him out for awhile, he’d come clean about it. Even if he didn’t, at least it would be a consequence.” As the two people who tolerated JJ enough that they’d hang out with him, they were two of the only people who could actually punish him. And Sam was the way more important and meaningful of the two. Blaze thought JJ loved her, in JJ’s own way. He wasn’t sure how romantic it was or not, but it was there.
“You’re Fall City’s only hope.”
The quip, of her being Obi-Wan Kenobi didn't make it past her lips. She knew JJ Mayweather could be a dick. It was one of the reasons why she would have never purposefully picked him to be any sort of reader of her stories. But it had happened, and somehow the betrayal she'd expected at some point in the future, had never really come to pass. For whatever reason, it seemed as if she could dictate how their relationship went, and she hadn't ever really pushed on that weight very hard. If anything, she largely ignored things that happened outside of her sphere with JJ. Even the picnic thing, she'd gone on her picnic with him, with little more than a comment.
"I don't need air conditioning that badly," she stated instead. "It was more I knew they had it, and I could tell him I was showing up, and he wouldn't push back, and so I did." She'd promised him a chapter too, one she hadn't gotten to him yet. Her lips pressed together clearly annoyed that she might not get intentional feedback on it. But also, this sort of bullshit, made one of her gothic romance assholes look like well-adjusted men. And wasn't she always frustrated by women who just let men get away with shit in stories?
"However, I did leave a bag there," she stood up, without any explanation to Blaze. "And I should go get it."
Blaze could see it in her expression, and he knew what she was going to do. The understanding was unspoken. “I'll cover for you.” That time, he did open the door for her.