Claire wasn’t the only one who hadn’t gotten any sleep that night, though Jesse had more than heavy thoughts keeping him awake. For starters, the cot that was pressed against the wall in the cell he had been thrown into early that morning (it had to have been at least 3) had springs that dug into his skin, making it impossible for him to find a comfortable position. It wasn’t like he tried very hard to sleep anyway, since his racing thoughts didn’t cease long enough for him to pass out, even for a short while.
He just kept thinking about all the ways he had fucked up, even though there was still something inside of him convincing him that the way he had reacted was how he should have reacted. He spent the entire night staring up at the ceiling – a ceiling he had stared at more times than he would like to admit – thinking back on how things had gone down, trying to figure out how things escalated as quickly as they had.
It felt like he had been in there for days by the time he heard one of the officers tell him to get his ass out of bed. The voice was familiar, since he was one of the several cops who knew him from previous visits to the Babylon jail, and because he had been one of the men who had driven him from the club, doing him the great favor of making him feel like the scumbag he was for getting into a fight on Valentine’s day.
When he was told bail had been posted, a look of genuine confusion crossed his features. He was exhausted, and he still had blood on his shirt from the night before, and all he wanted was a hot shower and something to eat, though he hadn’t been able to think about any of that until then, when he knew for certain he was actually getting out of there.
He knew who it was who had come for him, and knowing this information almost made him want to stay in the jail cell. Heaving a sigh, he went through the motions of being released, and eventually made his way to the front, where Claire was waiting for him. He swallowed roughly the second their eyes connected, but he couldn’t stay looking at her for long.