the_lawless (the_lawless) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-03-08 23:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 05, jed bailey, leo parker, | jed and leo |
Week 5 - Tuesday
Characters: Jed Bailey and Leo Parker (and also Walker)
Location: Siena Suites
Summary: Jed finds Leo to talk about being manly and guarding the cave.
Rating: PG-13 for subtle innuendos and swearz.
The Sienna Suites was an awfully big place. They'd kept themselves to one building, but it would be pretty easy for someone to sneak around. How folks protected their own rooms was their own business, and the door locks were pretty good, but that still left the main area wide open. Since that included the bulk of their food supply, the fact didn't exactly make Jed easy. It was his job to make sure things stayed safe, but he was quickly realizing he couldn't do it alone. He'd probably need help from every able adult, but first he needed a right-hand man who at least looked like he knew a thing or two about security. Considering there was only one other man in the whole place, Jed found himself at Leo's door. He knocked three times.
"Leo? It's Jed."
Having just gotten out of the shower, planning for a long day of moving some of Kathleen's stuff, Leo was just finishing up getting dressed, and when he heard the knock on his door it nearly startled the life out of him. He would have been embarrassed if anyone had seen the way he fumbled his comb and nearly dropped it. Well, anyone but Walker, who giggled from his place of bouncing on Leo's bed. Quickly pulling his t-shirt on over his head, he unlocked the door and yanked it open, looking up at the man on the other side.
"What? Something wrong?" he looked genuinely worried, glancing nervously over his shoulder as Walker came running to greet Jed with a smile. The kid had encountered the other man often enough to not be so reserved, at this point.
"Huh? No, nothin's wrong," Jed said, quickly realizing the logic in the question. "Juss wanted to talk some things over with you, so figured I'd stop by. Hey, kiddo." Jed smiled at Walker. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of the silent boy, but anyone so happy to see him was okay in his book. Walker gave him a little wave and went bounding back toward Leo's room. Apparently, his bed was bouncier.
"Oh," Leo said. "Oh... good." His relief was drowned out by the feeling of awkwardness. "Come in, then." Taking a step back, he opened the door wider and invited Jed in. He couldn't, for the life of him, guess what Jed would want to talk about, and wondered if he'd done something wrong. Sitting down at one end of the couch, he proceeded to pull on his socks, even though he had no place to be.
Sitting down on the other end of the couch, Jed specifically didn't comment on the fact that it looked like Leo had just gotten out of the shower. "You're comf'rtable with a gun, right?" he said, getting right into it.
"'Course," he answered, one brow slightly raised in question, his gaze automatically shifting to his own rifle propped near the front door. Leo pulled his boots on next, going through the arduous process of lacing them up. "Why?"
"I been thinking 'bout the kind of security we gotta have around here," Jed said, leaning his elbows on his knees. "Having extra eyes is good, but we got our supplies pretty out in the open. This place is big, and it'd prob'ly be easy for someone to sneak on in and help themselves."
"I know," Leo admitted quietly. He paused to think a moment and when his boots were laced all the way to the top he sat up straight and leaned a little on the arm of the couch. "There's no way to really lock it up tight, in that building, either." He'd obviously put a lot of thought into this, and he seemed concerned.
Jed nodded, relieved that Leo sounded at least like he'd thought about these things. "Exactly. I been thinking about stuff we can do for that. In the short term, guardin' the place works, but there ain't enough of us to keep that up for too long."
Thinking quietly for a moment, Leo stared at the floor, and found himself thinking not as a guardian, but as the intruder. He thought back on all the things that got him into trouble. "What about video surveillance?" he asked. "There's gotta be someone here that knows about that sort of thing. Hell, might already be some set up. I never thought to look." That would work fine until the power failed, then if they had enough people gathered up Leo could see the looting starting all over again. He narrowed his eyes and frowned a bit.
Jed grinned. "Now see? That's why I needed someone to talk things over. That's a good idea. Alice mentioned Cass knows a think or two about fixin' stuff. Maybe she'd know about the cameras and things."
"Yeah," his shoulders relaxed some when Jed seemed pleased with Leo's answer. "And Searle. He's young. Seems like he'd be all into the electronics and stuff." Not that he and Jed weren't young, but Leo sure as hell felt like an old man, most days. Hauling himself up off the couch, he went into the kitchen and came back with a couple of beers. He'd been saving them for the next time Alice came up, but it was all he had to offer. Sitting back down, he passed one over and snatched the bottle opener from inside a dirty ashtray on the coffee table. Jed nodded his thanks as he popped over the top. "Meantime, there's always dogs," Leo shrugged. "They didn't pull the expression 'meaner than a junkyard dog' out of nowhere."
Pulling a reluctant face, Jed took a sip before answering. "I dunno. I ain't willin' to try and train some dog that's gone feral these past months, and raising 'em up from pups isn't really short term either. We really oughta fence this place off some. I got some buildin' experience, and we can scrounge up some barbed wire. Makin' things difficult will scare away most."
Leo shook his head a little. "Make people think we have something to protect," he said, thinking back on what Alice had said to him the second time they had met, but then he shrugged. It's not like they had a choice. Building a fence was an absolute necessity and Leo knew it. "But you're right," he added. "We gotta put one up." Leo took another drink from his beer bottle and leaned against the couch's arm again.
Jed frowned. Leo was right on both counts. "Maybe somethin' more subtle? Like an electric fence? And we could build up doors and locks in the main buildin' itself, so no one could get to the supplies."
Just when Leo opened his mouth to agree, Walker came bouncing out of the bedroom, nearly tripping all over himself and barely catching his balance before he sat down on the couch between the two men. He mimicked Jed's posture, even holding an invisible beer in his hand. Completely used to the kid by now, Leo didn't pay any attention to the quirky hyper activity.
"And if we take shifts, watchin' after the place, that'd be something," Leo said. "Cass and Alice could probly both pitch in." They'd both pointed guns at him when he first met them, so they immediately came to mind.
For his part, Jed couldn't help giving Walker a bemused look and the boy smiled up at him but scooted a bit closer to his guardian. Getting glimpses of Leo's life, Jed had to admire him. He thought it was pretty hard with Jack, but taking care of a real little kid, who wouldn't even talk? That had to be like dealing with someone from another planet. "Yeah," he finally said, his gaze going to Leo as he took a sip. "Cass and Alice, definitely. Zoe'd prob'ly be good, too. She's handy."
"Yeah?" Leo considered, though he probably looked a little uncertain. He'd only met Zoe in passing, and didn't really know the first thing about her except that she appeared petite and playful. "She alright with a gun?"
Jed frowned, thinking a minute. "Y'know, I don't rightly know. She says she can take care of herself, and I know she's got some moves. There's this one thing--" he started, giving a bit of a grin. Then his eyes snapped down to Walker and he stopped short. "I mean, I'm pretty sure she'd do good hand-to-hand, if she don't got a gun."
Watching Jed's expression shift the way it did, and considering the sudden lapse in topic, Leo couldn't help but half-grin into another drink of beer, his eyebrows raised in knowing curiosity. Walker giggled like he always did, his shoulders lifting as he brought his little hands to his mouth, like he knew what the hell Jed was talking about.
"Oh yeah?" Leo asked, looking all the more amused after Walker's reaction. "Did you two... get into a fight?"
Biting his tongue to keep his grin from reaching shit-eating levels, Jed nodded. "Yeah, been in a couple fights. Girl can hold her own," he said, leaning back against the couch as he took another swig. "Y'know she used to be an acrobat? Really comes in handy for fightin'."
"No shit?" Leo marveled, his mind wandering. His expression was slowly starting to match up with the other man's and his tone sounded almost proud for Jed, despite barely knowing the guy. "How'd you luck into fights like that?"
Jed gave an overly modest shrug. "What can I say, she wanted to fight me from the start. 'Course, it'd been a while since she'd found someone to fight with. Guess we all got our eyes peeled that way."
With the bottle to his lips, Leo choked back a laugh, restraining so as not to strangle on the beer he was struggling to swallow. His eyes wandered toward the window as he fell into thought again, his mind veering immediately to Alice. "Yeah, guess so," he admitted. Walker swung his legs boredly between them. Grown-ups were ridiculously dull sometimes.
Forcing his mind to get back on track, Jed said, "Yeah, so shifts would work. It'd be better if we could do 'em in twos, but we ain't got that many people yet. Me and Alice are still goin' to the museum everyday, so someone else'll have to get the afternoon. Night shift's gonna be a bitch."
Leo contemplated this for a moment, his brows knit together in though. "Well, I don't sleep so good anyways. I could do night." Then, perking slightly, he added, "afternoons, too." It's not like he had a lot else going on right now. Besides, though it wasn't something he'd ever admit, something he probably wasn't even aware of himself, Jed's approval meant a lot, and he was inadvertently seeking it. Leo had spent a good portion of his life behind bars, and when he wasn't locked up he was usually found himself in some gang. His adult life, he'd been surrounded by testosterone, and to top it off, Jed was somewhat of a leader in this group. "At least 'til more people come along."
Jed raised his eyebrows, but his grin was wide. He was impressed, and grateful, though not entirely convinced. "Seriously? 'Cause things ain't that bad, that you gotta take everything on yerself."
"Things ain't that bad right now," Leo clarified and took another drink from his bottle, and though he was no longer facing Jed, his face briefly grew serious. "Not like I got a bunch else to do." Walker shifted his attention from one man to the other, trying to care about whatever they were discussing.
The last bit was probably true. Time seemed to spin out into eternity, everyone just waiting, so your waiting might as well have purpose. "Yeah, alright," Jed said with a shrug. "But you ever need relief from the post, let me know. Send the kid or somethin'. You'd be a good messenger, eh, Walker?" The boy lifted his shoulders to his ears and grinned, like a turtle trying to hide inside his shell, but he nodded despite his shyness.
Leo gave the boy a side-long glance and smiled a bit before he reached up to ruffle Walker's hair. "'Course he would be," he said, a ghost of his smile still lingering when he looked up at Jed and back down to the kid. "Be good at helping me keep an eye out, too," Leo added. "Can't have people coming in to steal all your Chef Boyardee." Walker's eyes grew wide and thoughtful and he adamantly shook his head.
Jed wiped his mouth to hide a grin. "You'll do good, kid. No one's gettin' to your pasta." After a moment, Jed pushed himself to his feet. "Speakin' of kids, though, I gotta check on mine. Not mine--well, y'know, Jack."
"Yeah," Leo nodded. While Jed might have thought the other man's situation was difficult, Leo wouldn't have traded places with him for all the money in the world. Jack was a preteen girl with tantrums, foot stomping, and the soon to come hormonal 'episodes'. He stood but only offered his hand to Jed when he was a good couple of feet away. "Jack's a good kid," he said, like it was important for Jed to hear.
Jed straightened up a little as he shook Leo's hand. He nodded, smiling more with his eyes than his mouth. "Thanks. So's Walker. You're doin' pretty good." Not that Jed was any kind of expert, but he thought it should be said.
Unskilled in the department of taking compliments, Leo half-grinned, nodded again and let his hand drop, using his other hand to bring his bottle of beer to his lips for another drink. "Alright," he took a step back. "I'll see ya later, then?"
"See ya later. You too, Walker," Jed said, holding out his fist for a bump. Walker had seen this done at the meet-up once, and he quickly trotted over to knock his fist against Jed's, grinning, before he ducked behind Leo; a little six-year old ball of nerves.
Jed beamed before heading out the door. That had gone better than he'd even hoped. He didn't just trust Leo any more; he downright liked him. It was good to know that just because the world ended didn't mean he couldn't find a drinking buddy.