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"You definitely know what you're doing, right?" Hunter presses on, curling his arm around the side of the gate to steady his grip on the metal netting.
"No. No I don't." Jade tugs at the padlock again, her manicured nails chipping away at the rusting iron gate. "I think I've made it explicitly clear that I don't have the slightest clue how-"
"Now is not the time for a debate, although I would so love to see ginger verses ginger go at it. Rain check. Ellsworth, keep working on the lock, we've got four minutes before a guard sweep through this area, and I would prefer not to die in a dingy alley. I have plans to go out surrounded by my liquor cabinet and five favorite prostitutes." Ike flashes her a quick smile that earns an immediate scoff from the redhead lock picker.
Hunter taps his converses against the ground, and he can't tell if he's really sweating because of his nerves or because of the mid summer sun. Based on his track record, it's probably the anxiety building in his chest, none of which is being helped by the fact that his partners in crime seem less than competent.
Hunter spent the better part of his teen years trapped in a hellish-brainwashing-monastery-turned academic-establishment with Ike as a roommate. Hunter knows more about that guy then he ever wanted to. (Like what brand of cologne he wears on serious dates and which scent he uses for his flings. He's walked in on Ike showering because apparently mansion life never taught him to lock doors. He knows how Ike's night terrors leave him waking up with piercing screams.)
As he watches observantly from across the alley, Hunter barely recognizes his old roommate now. Ike isn't the a scrawny sixteen year old who once betrayed them, or threw the party of the year, and let them almost die on more than one occasion. He's not living in his father's shadow. Ike is taller, stretched out and sharper than he was before.
Don't get him wrong, Hunter still knows Ike is total douche, but like Jade said once, he's their douche.
When they made their big escape, it was Ike who went charging back into the school to find the missing Glory. He's the one who ended Abraham once and for all.
New York life seemed to fit him. Ike was Manhattan bred, through and through. After a few years of catching glimpses of Jade slip by in the background of their Skype calls, Hunter stopped asking what she was doing in the city.
Life away from MGA has molded Ike into something kinder. Hunter has an inclination that it has to do with a certain damsel in depressed too, but Ike would be unbearable if Hunter ever even suggested it.
Jade cut her hair right before they left Morning Glories Academy, and she has even more freckles now. Hunter doesn't ask her if she still has her abilities. He's happy not knowing. He'd be happy if he could forget everything about the place they escaped from.
(Maybe not everything. Maybe not the girl who charged head first into him in the hallway. Maybe not the girl who thought he was pretty brave. Maybe not the girl who forgave him for standing her up at their picnic. Maybe not the girl who died for him.)
"Any luck, darling?" Ike glances down at his watch again, silently timing something in his mind. The scarf wearing boy has devised some sort of plan in his mind, but he hasn't felt like sharing it with the rest of the group. It's ok, Hunter is used to being out of the loop.
"I'd be having better luck if you could give me a pair of gardening sheers, or some liquid nitrogen, or a machete."
"Ah. Must have left those in my other pants. Regardless, I have total and utter faith in you." Ike grabs Hunter by the shoulder, pulling him to whisper in his ear, "We need a Plan B. I lost faith in her three minutes and twenty seven seconds ago." He grits through his teeth.
"You know I'm standing right here?" Jade stomps towards a keypad latched on the side of the bundling, surrounded by a knot of ivy.
"How many plans do we have exactly?" Hunter questions them.
(She used to keep all her plans in binders and folders. She loved to come up with names for them. Hunter always thought she would be a great writer, she just had the kind of voice that you wanted to listen to. To be honest, Hunter thought she was great at everything. Probably because she really was.)
"Seven if you count Project Toronto." Ike finishes counting off on his fingers, sliding his aviators glasses down to cover his eyes.
"We don't count it." Jade snaps harshly, making a point to turn and glare at Ike.
"Why? What's Plan Toronto?" Hunter asks innocently, glancing between the two of them.
"You die in it." Jade finishes typing something into the keypad, and then she raises her leather boot and presses it to the wire fence.
"Yeah. I really did like that one." Ike says wistfully, just as the gate swings open towards them.
The way Hunter smiles, it may as well have been the pearly gates of paradise opening up to them.
Jade smiles triumphantly, and she shimmies through the entrance first.
It took two months of planing and three months of research just to find this place. Hunter should be leading the charge, racing inside. They spent so much time preparing for this moment, but now that it's here, he's utterly frozen.
"What are you waiting for?" It takes Ike a few seconds to realize that Hunter isn't trailing behind them.
"I'm just..." The ginger stutters, his hand fluttering to the back of his neck in response, "Savoring the moment?" He cocks and eyebrow and hopes they buy the excuse.
Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Ike told him on more than one occasion. Hunter will leave his lesson eventually. He's never been very good at saying what he really means.
"Savor the moment after we rescue my best friend." Jade requests, and for the first time in a long time, she smiles, a genuine Ellsworth grin that's usually reserved for Ike on the rare occasions when he did something sweet.
"In my head, I know we're rescuing her, but I just can't believe it when I say it out loud. It sounds crazy. We mourned her. We sat through her memorial."
(The didn't actually sit though her funeral. Jade was dragged away by the guards, kicking and screaming as her lighter engulfed the dry grass in flames. Ike charged at them, and got the crap kicked out of him but he still remarked that Casey threw a better right hook than the guards. Hunter didn't leave her side. He wanted to dive in after the casket. He didn't want to let her go. He didn't know how to.)
"Believe it, Hunter. God, she's probably going to be so pissed it took us so long." Jade runs a hand through her hair, clearing it away from her face as she navigates down a darkened hallway. Unlike the two guys who tense as they turn towards the darkness, she stopped being afraid of it a long time ago.
"Yeah, if the situation was reversed, she would have found us all months ago."
"Less chit chat, more looking for our obnoxious blonde leader." Ike fumbles with his flashlight, pointing it through one of the windows.
The building is a research facility supposedly abandoned by the Academy, as they trace down the halls, more and more signs of life appear. There are piles of scattered files, flickering lights, and sounds radiating from the row of cells.
"Where do we start? There's at least two dozen rooms."
"She's in there, I bet." Ike shines his flashlight across the corridor to point at the cell tucked in the dusty corner.
Room eight thirteen. Figures.
"Before we head in there, let's consider this: are we really sure we want to rescue Goldilocks? Remember how annoying she was? Her savior complex was truly infuriating."
"Ha. Ha. Don't pretend like you didn't miss her. You drafted up a rescue plan before we even brought it up." Jade rolls up one of her sleeves as she smacks Ike's shoulder, cutting past him towards the door. Her hand shivers as it grips the doorknob.
Hunter feels panic build in his chest as they swing the door open. He thought he have time to plan out a cool opening line when they saw Casey for the first time. He had to make a good impression. Now his armpits are all sweaty from the heat and the nerves and his hair has fallen out of place. He definitely should have done more push-ups. What if she didn't find his clumsy charms cute anymore?
The last time he saw her was when she took a bullet for him. How could Hunter possibly thank her for that? How could he manage to scramble together an accurate apology to make up for the period where he really believed she was dead? Casey wouldn't have given up on him.
Once inside the cramped corner room, the first thing he registers is how dusty the air feels. The walls seem to close in on them, and he can't help but feel slightly claustrophobic.
It's Ike's hand that shoves him forward a few steps, propelling him into action.
"Hey, Blevins." He stutters like an idiot. Hunter tries to formulate a follow-up response, but his brain isn't working at fast as his heart is beating. She's here. Right in front of him. Her tired smile is worn like leather but her eyes are still electric.
"Hey, Hunter. Took you guys long enough."