It was obvious by the way he looked away from her again, what answer he had in his head for the question she had asked him, though Jesse had never been particularly good with ethics. The man and woman who had become his legal guardians after they had adopted him, taught him the differences between right and wrong, and good and bad, among other things, which meant he had a general concept of what he was supposed to be doing in order to be considered a civilized member of society, but he seemed to have a harder time than others actually following that code of conduct. It seemed that the more he tried to be good, the harder it got. Sometimes it felt like pulling teeth.
Climbing out of the car, Jesse followed her to her doorstep like a stray dog who was being led inside for food and shelter. She was right to assume that this would be the place to take him in order to provide him comfort, since his own apartment had never been truly personalized. He had just enough to survive, and maybe a piece of furniture here or there, though they had been bought cheap and were rarely used, since he did nothing more than eat and sleep there.
Jesse seemed to be moving on auto-pilot as he gathered some clean clothing that he had stored at her place, for when he had spent the night and didn’t have time to stop home before work, or whatever else he had planned. He never thought a situation like this would arise, where he had to change out of clothes that were smeared here and there with blood after spending the night in jail. He didn’t even know who the blood belonged to – chances were, most if it had sprayed onto the bottom hem of the button down when the other man’s nose had been broken by his fist. It wasn’t like Jesse had any markings on him to prove that it was his own, but that didn’t mean much – he had always been an exceptionally fast healer, which often times got him into trouble, since he couldn’t prove to anyone that he was merely exercising self defense when that was the case.
He stepped into the bathroom, stripped himself of his clothing, and stepped into her shower. The hot water running over his shoulders made him stay under the shower head even after he was already washed. Steam lingered even after the water had been shut off, and he stepped out to change into the clean clothing he had placed on the edge of the sink. Once he was dressed in the fitted red t-shirt, black jeans and socks, he put his boots back on, lacing them up before he stood, swiping away the condensation from the mirror in order to get a look at his reflection again.
Considering how the night had gone, it was no surprised that he looked as exhausted and worn ad he felt, and with a sigh he combed back his hair and stepped out of the bathroom. The scent of whatever Claire was cooking quickly replaced the clean smell of soap he had grown accustomed to. He took a second to just stand in the doorway and watch her, undetected by the redhead who was still at work until he stepped forward in order to slide his hands around her waist, his arms pulling her back against his chest as he buried his face into her hair, his eyes closed as he simply breathed her in.