Archive of Our Own

Prologue

It was Johann von Müller who is named as the first one. In all the texts he is the man who first started the modern age. It was he who first devised the difference engine that would change the world. Adda Lovelace was the one the texts skipped over because she was the one who first turned the engines to making her winning gambles. Müller was the one who gave the world the difference engine but Lovelace was the one who turned it to profit. The difference engines grew and changed; they got faster and better with the aid of electricity and they built the punch cards that would run through then as fast as the mill shuttles wove clothe. By the turn of the millennium the difference engine had become the computer that organized everything.

When the wars came it was the computers that helped turn the battle fields into charnel houses. As the bodies of the young lay in the dirt the survivors turned on the technology that had made the slaughter so much easier. They would never ban the computers - too much relied upon them - but they did restrict them so that no private citizen could own one but in the end there were too many of the old personal machines still floating quietly through the black market to make the restriction successful. In the end the treaties were put aside in favour of new agreements that brought the computer back into the light.

Part One

The sun is hot against the black fabric of Mikey's t-shirt as he leans against the side of the house. He can feel the coolness of the concrete through his jeans and he tips his head back, closing his eyes against the bright light. If Gerard was still in the basement he'd go down but he feels strange being in there without the soft noises from his brother. His parents had joked that he'd be happy to finally have his own room but Mikey would rather have Gerard than the extra space he doesn't really need. He listens to the quiet rattle of traffic passing by and turns up the volume on his music deck to mask it better. There's homework in his bag he should do but he doesn't want to move. The kitchen window opens with its tell tale shush of wood sliding on wood and slams into the top of the frame.

"I can't pick up anymore work," his father sounds annoyed.

Mikey tugs his headphones back so he can listen to his parents better. It sounds like the same fight they always have about money but he knows that things have changed since Gerard went to art school not, he thinks bitterly, that his parents will tell him anything. He hears the click of his mother's shoes crossing the floor.

"I know but it's his sixteenth. It's important."

"We can't afford Gerard coming back and that."

"I could pawn one of Elena's broaches."

Mikey's throat tightens at the thought of selling any of Elena's jewellery. He knows it is all they have left of her possessions and he hates the idea of loosing even that. It was her unexpected death that is helpful pay for Gerard's art school and Mikey knows that his brother feels guilty enough already about benefiting from her death. He thinks about the bootleg films tucked into his bag and wishes again there was a way to give his parents the money from them. It's not as much as he'd like but he's sure that if he could do that then his mother wouldn't be talking about selling the last pieces of Elena's presence. He wishes he were old and already through CySchool so they could look back on problems like this and laugh.

"We'll talk about this later, I have a shift," his father says and Mikey scoots down the steps to the basement so his father won't see him. He doesn't know what he'd say if his parents knew he heard them.

The basement is dark and cool after being outside and Mikey lets his eyes adjust. Gerard's drawings are still on the walls but the space where his bed and desk always sat makes the room feel empty. Mikey tries to ignore it as much as possible. The ancient computer his parents bought them takes up Mikey's desk. Gerard had always preferred drawing to computers and Mikey knows that his parents were grateful that he didn't follow Gerard's preferences in that. Unless there is a miracle Gerard is never going to be a famous enough artist to support the whole family. Mikey is practical enough to understand that even though Gerard is talented it isn't often an artist gets to be as famous Warhol. The programmers, the CySchool grads, they'll always make a good wage. They make enough Mikey knows that if he can become one of them he'll be able to support the rest of the family. If he's good enough he might even be able to support Gerard enough that he won't have to work in the CorpArt sector. The pamphlets for the CySchools pinned on the wall above the computer monitor right next to a panel from Gerard's comic are Mikey's reminder of why he needs to always do better. With a sigh he pulls out his homework.

* * *

Robert knows he does not have the money for one of the universities, can't even afford one of the technical schools no matter how much his mom wishes they could. When the Agent comes knocking at their door with an offer for Rob to join up it seems like the answer. He signs the papers without hesitation even though his mom asks if he wants some time to think about it. Rob shakes his head. At least with the Agency he can do something that makes a difference.

* * *

The Pumpkins are going to be playing the Gardens three weeks after Mikey's birthday and he knows exactly what he wants to do for his birthday. Going to see The Pumpkins with Gerard means that he can get the present from his parents of a night without curfew so he won't have to worry they'll actually need to spend any money. He gets the tickets first. The concert tickets coupled with the train tickets to get into the City clean out the majority of his saved up money from the bootlegging but he knows that he can always re-sell them at a profit if he can't go. He talks to his parents first, pulling out his idea late one night when they're both tired and he knows they've been fighting over money and his birthday present.

"Please, I don't want anything else." He tells them.

"What about school?"

"It's the last day before the long weekend and I know we won't be doing anything. Me an' Gee have always wanted to see them and it would be so awesome to go. I've been saving and everything for it an' I'd be really careful. Gee'd be there to keep me safe an' he was going to be back home for that weekend anyway." Mikey says in a rush, afraid that his parents won't go for the idea.

"You can pay for tickets?" his father asks

Mikey nods as earnestly as he can, "and the train."

"That's a lot of money Mikey."

"I know but I've been saving for something really special. It'll be awesome and I never see Gee now that he's in school. Say yes? Please."

His parents look at each other in that way that Mikey knows means they're having one of their silent conversations. He misses how he used to do that with Gee. Finally his father nods. Mikey pretends not to notice that his mother's eyes look suspiciously damp when she says yes.

Gerard doesn't have a phone - it's too expensive - so Mikey has to email his brother and wait for his response. Gerard is pretty good about checking at least once a day on the school computers but it's still a fight to make himself work while he is listening for the ping of a new message in his inbox.

R U SERIOUS??!! SO FUCKING RAD! is Gerard's response and Mikey smiles. He knew his brother would be excited to see the Pumpkins. This is a way better present than the paint he'd gotten Gerard for his own birthday back in April.

* * *

Agent training is intensive. Rob hasn't seen or talked to anyone since he signed the papers to go inside. The physical training has made him bulkier but he is used to moving with his heavier body. He looks up at the counter, red numbers ticking silently inexorably over, and exhales. At zero he slams the clip into the gun, sights, aims, and fires. He lets his body absorb the recoil like he's been trained to do. Rob steps back and along the rest of the range he can see other proto-Agents doing the same. The instructors have told them all that it is rare they will ever have to use their weapons but that does not stop the requirement that they are comfortable using their Agency issued gun. He hears the instructor call the next round over the built in com system and steps forward once again.

* * *

The computer that takes up most of Mikey's desk looks ancient. Their parents had purchased it when Mikey was still small in the effort to give their own children access to tech they'd never had. The gift of the computer had come along with old introductory texts from one of the CySchools as a not so subtle reminder of what they were supposed to be aspiring to as their dream. He still remembers his brother's tearful frustration at trying to work with the command prompts and the old texts. Gerard had never managed more than the basic computer classes the school offered and Mikey had surpassed him early on.

Mikey is ghosting through the edges of the bands when the call goes out looking for somebody to find information. He takes it without hesitation. He hasn't done many of these jobs because he's always afraid that he'll get caught no matter how careful he is. He's too new without the reputation or the contacts to pick up the really lucrative ones but these calls that go out within the network are easy for anyone who knows to pick up. It's the sort of work nobody wants to do if they can hire it out because it's boring. After the trip to see the Pumpkins he wants a quick way to replenish his funds and the job will easily do that. He pushes his glasses higher and sets to work.

* * *

The wind is sharp with cold that hints at the coming winter as Mikey waits for the train to take him into the city from Jersey. He stuffs his hands deeper into his pockets and wishes the train would hurry up. It had been warmer when he'd left for school so he doesn't have any gloves with even though it would be nice. There is a bootleg tucked into his bag because Terrance defaulted and Mikey really wants to get rid of it before he gets into the city. It would be easy to just slip it into a garbage can but he hates to waste potential profit. There's a girl waiting for the train a few feet away who looks likely. She's wearing artfully ripped jeans and a jacket Mikey knows costs more than his Dad makes in a week. He sidles over to were she's leaning against the edge of one of the advertising plinths.

"You know if the train is late?"

She shrugs, "probably."

They trade small talk for a bit while Mikey does his best to decide if she's going to run to the Agents about his bootleg. When she tells him that she's planning to go to the Pumpkins' show he steers the conversation around to movies. He figures if the train doesn't interrupt he'll have a sale in the next few minutes. When he offers to sell her the bootleg copy she pauses for a second and he wonders if he's made a terrible mistake.

"Why not." She finally says and hands him her money which is crumpled from her pocket.

Mikey doesn't bother counting it just hands her the bootleg. Even if she's shorted him it's still better than having to deal with the bootleg. When the train comes she makes a point of getting into the same carriage and sitting as far away from him as possible. It seems odd that she didn't follow him to keep up their conversation but when she pulls out a small view screen Mikey knows why she didn't bother with him anymore. He just hopes that she doesn't try watching the bootleg on the train.

Two guys carrying dented metal lunch boxes with tool belts strapped around their waists get on at the next stop. They're obviously on a night construction crew and Mikey can't help thinking that he and Gerard are never going to be those guys. They're going to get out. They sit across the aisle, legs spread wide so their heavy boots are just in the walk way. The one guy shifts every time somebody has to move past him. The train fills up with passengers and he ends up with a tiny old man for a seat mate. The old man pulls out a data pad and Mikey wishes he could see the screen. He's never had the chance to use one but the forums are alive with how useful they are if properly modified.

The doors of the train hiss shut and it begins to glide out of the station. Mikey hunches down in his hoodie and watches the construction workers out of the corner of his eye. They're talking just low enough he cannot hear them over the sound of the train. When the one man begins tapping his fingers Mikey can see he has a missing a finger on his left hand. They have the sort of job that his classmates want but looking at them just strengthens Mikey's resolve to get out.

His body sways with the movement of the car and Mikey looses himself in the Pumpkins' music. He lets his eyes lose focus so the scenery blurs past. The two businessmen in charcoal coloured suits sitting behind him are laughing loud enough to cut through the music. Curiosity has always been one of Mikey's faults and he rubs the side of his face against his shoulder just enough to shift his headphones off his ears.

"My whole hand just like that," he snaps his fingers.

"She's a freak man." his friend replies his voice a mixture of awe and disgust.

He shifts enough that his foot kicks the back of Mikey's seat. "What'd you expect, she's a flatlander."

The first guy chuckles, "yeah yeah, just like a bitch in heat."

"They'd probably pay you for it."

Mikey pushes his headphones back into place. He doesn't want to hear more about the businessman's flatlander girl. He turns the music up loud enough that he doesn't have to hear their laughter. He wonders if what they said about flatlanders was really true. He doesn't know anyone who has ever met a flatlander. In the bands nobody would ever claim to be a flatlander unless it's for porn. He feels the thump of the businessman's foot against his seat again and leans more against the window wishing the ride was over already.

The train clicks across one of the river bridges and Mikey stares down at the brown water filled with barges. He can see one of the big Ag barges stacked high with green crates slowly gliding into one of the docks. Its sides are painted with a fading mural of vegetables and golden brown turkeys. The train sways and Mikey' s hands clench into fists. It's such a long way down to that dirty water. He focuses on how the barges glide past each other seemingly close enough their crews could touch with ease. It's better to think about the barges than how the train carriage sways. He doesn't relax until the train is safely back on land.

Gerard is waiting for him at the station looking exactly like he did when he was still at home. Mikey is weirdly relieved to see that his brother still looks like him remembers. Gerard smiles wide and happy as he waves at Mikey. Mikey hitches his bag up on his shoulder and manages an awkward half wave before the bag slips down again. Gee catches him up into a hug just like when they were kids. The hug is still just as warm and firm as Mikey remembers. He buries his face in Gerard's hair and inhales the familiar smell of cigarettes and charcoal dust. Gee thumps his hand hard on Mikey's back and Mikey grins face still hidden in Gerard's hair.

"It's been too fucking long."

"Still miss me even though you're in Art school, huh?" Mikey jokes but it sounds more plaintive than he meant it to.

"I'll always miss you Mikes." Gerard says solemnly.

Gerard tries to slip him one of his student credits for the bus but Mikey shakes his head. Gerard frowns and Mikey knows that he's going to push the issue later. Gerard lets him take the window seat and Mikey leans against the side so he can have a better view even though he can feel the chill of the metal seeping through his clothes. It is so hard not to gawk at everything even though he knows vaguely what to expect from his last trip into the city with their parents.

A huge transport with faded green paint rumbles past in the other lane and he can feel the shake from its airstream as it passes the bus. The traffic slows and stops along the side of a huge glass building which curving sides that make it look like it is slowly melting. There are seven vaguely female silhouettes holding up the word Musée on the building's sign. Gerard's voice is excited as he tells him about how Musée is the major art gallery in the city. It makes Mikey smile to hear the familiar excitement lacing Gerard's voice as he talks about getting to take a tour through it for one of his classes. Gerard flushes when Mikey says his art will hang in there one day.

The dorms where Gerard is required to stay are two tall buildings with abstract shapes curling up their sides into murals. Inside the building smells vaguely of paint. The dorm room Gerard shares with his roommate is just as messy as Mikey was expecting.

"Tim's usually out and he's gone for the break so this is it," Gerard waves his arm around as if displaying a grand show piece.

Mikey drops his bag on the bed and picks up one of the sketch pads to flip through. It's filled with studies of people not the bits of comic that he was expecting.

"Gotta practice what's important if I'm going to be a corp-artist."

Mikey puts the sketch pad back on the bed. "That's not the stuff that goes in Musée, Gee."

"At least I get to be an artist."

"But you're better than that."

"Yeah well, that's no guarantee I can make it and we need the money otherwise how are you going to manage CySchool?"

"There's guarantee that I'll get the scholarship."

"Of course you will, you're awesome at that stuff," Gerard says with an older brother's certainly, "and I know how much we're going to need to cover the rest."

Mikey sighs. There's nothing he can say to that without making Gerard worry about him. Neither of them will acknowledge the fact that Elena hadn't supported Gerard's art efforts just to see him go to corp-art.

"Besides when you're a filthy rich CyMan you can keep me so I can be a real artist." Gee grins at him obviously teasing but Mikey knows he'll do everything he can to make sure that comes true. His brother deserves more than corp-art.

"Com' on they gave me supper money," he says instead.

"I still can't believe you saved up enough for this."

Mikey shrugs. There's no way he can tell Gee where he really got most of the money from because he knows his brother won't be happy with him doing the bootlegging. He knows Gerard is expecting an answer. If they were reversed he'd expect an answer then again even if Gerard wouldn't tell him he knows enough about running the bands he could find out for himself.

"Don't worry about it. Now don't you have some awesome artisty place for supper? "

"Fine, wanna go to a flatlander place?"

"I thought they didn't come out from there?" he asks feeling young and out of place.

Gerard shrugs, "I dunno know, it's supposed to be flatlander themed."

"Good enough."

* * *

Rob's wrist aches from where his sparring partner hit it. He rotates it surreptitiously while he watches the instructor opening up the projection screen. There are only four other students in the class. Five out of the thirty recruits Rob came in with who got picked for deep-cover work. They only look at each other with sideways glances even though they are all trying to memorize faces just in case they ever cross paths in the real world. The familiar black and gold logo of the Agency flares onto the screen and the instructor clears his throat.

"You've all had the risks explained to you before you even signed up but if you're rethinking that now is the time to get up and walk out that door," he pauses and nobody moves, "alright, welcome to training."

* * *

The walls of the restaurant are painted to look a flat expanse of grass that disappears into a far away horizon where the sky is bright blue with a few billowing white clouds. Aside from a few groups of trees and a far away animal herd the scene looks desolate and Mikey wonders how anybody could stand to live in an area that was that open. All the servers are wearing wigs of tightly matted black dread-locks with a drab-olive shirt and pants. The menu is heavy on meat dishes and at first Mikey is worried it's going to be too expensive even though the other dinners are all young and probably students as well. However, once he checks the prices he realizes the restaurant is probably using soy meat replacer and relaxes.

"They should have picked a better font." Gerard says.

It only takes a mild hum to set Gerard off about fonts. Mikey leans back and listens. If they were back in Jersey it would be just like old times. He moves a water glass out of the path of Gerard's waving hand and hums in the right places to keep his brother talking. It's good to hear him talking after months of just email. Gerard spends the majority of the meal talking about his classes, his projects, and the group of second years who insist on wearing matching outfits every day. Mikey interjects occasionally but he's content to listen to Gerard. It makes him feel better that even after Gerard has been away they can still fall back into their own private language of gestures and short hand. Gerard doesn't say anything when Mikey pays but he can tell it bothers his brother.

The Gardens are hot and starting to fill with people when they get there. Gee nods toward the bar and Mikey doesn't even have to blink to let him know that he agrees. Gee passes him a cup marked with the black slash that matches the one on his hand to indicate non-alcoholic. When he drinks he can taste the sharp bite of vodka just like expected. There are more uses than graffiti for the markers Gerard always carries. They stay towards the back getting pleasantly buzzed on the vodka while the opening bands play. Mikey feels loose limbed and leans against Gerard just a little so he can see his wide grin. As the last opener finishes they drain their cups in unison and toss them. The only place to see the Pumpkins is from the very front.

They slide through the crowd, letting people push and shift them forward and when that doesn't work Mikey uses a strategically placed elbow to get them to move. Once they're pressed against the barrier Gerard throws an arm around Mikey's shoulders.

"The fucking Pumpkins Mikes." he shouts overtop of the music playing while the stage gets set.

Mikey nods as fire flares the back of the stage and the crowd screams as the band appears. He screams along with the crowd. As the drums begin he looks over to see Gerard grinning back at him. Seeing his brother's joy Mikey can't think of anything that would have been a better present.

* * *

Mikey wakes up with Gerard's arm draped across. They took the late train back to Jersey and he knows his parents won't expect them to be up until late. His head aches from the vodka. Gerard mutters in his sleep and tightens his grip. He smells comfortingly familiar. Mikey closes his eyes and falls back to sleep.

The next time he wakes up Gerard is trying to stealthily crawl out of bed. The clock on his desk says it is midnight in blinking red light. Gerard tosses him the bottle of pain killers they always kept in the bookcase and it thumps against his hip. They stumble up stairs in search of coffee to find their mother waiting for them. It must be later than Mikey thought for her to be at home. She pulls Gerard into a fierce hug and Mikey is reminded again that he is not the only one who noticed his brother's absence.

While their mother cooks they sit at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Gerard tells stories about art school and living in the dorms. Mikey can tell Gerard is tweaking them. Some of the edits make him snicker and Gerard kicks his shin in retaliation. They're all surprised when the knock at the front door comes.

"You expecting friends?" their mother asks them even though she knows how unlikely it is that they'll have friends actually knocking at the front door. She wipes her hands and goes to answer it. Mikey gets up to refill his cup.

His mother returns accompanied by two men in dark suits. She looks worried. "These are,"

"Agents Green and Walters," the sandy haired man interrupts her, "we're with CyCrimes."

Mikey feels his stomach drop. He wasn't careful enough on the last job and now they've caught him. He feels so stupid for taking that job. No wonder it had seemed to so easy. He feels frozen in place.

"Coffee?" his mother asks.

"No thanks. Why don't you sit down Ma'am," Agent Green says gently and Agent Walters pulls out a chair for her.

She sinks down as though her joints ache and Mikey wants to scream at the Agents to get on with it.

"You're Michael Way." Agent Walters says and Mikey nods even though it isn't a question.

"Ma'am, we have reason to believe that your son has been selling inappropriate media. Being caught selling unapproved media carries an automatic sentence to the Halls."

His mother and Gerard make the same sharp indrawn breath. Mikey can feel his hands shaking and presses them firmly against his thighs. He can hear his mother sobbing softly. He hates the Agents for making her cry and he hates himself for getting caught.

"Now, Ma'am, he's only sold a piece of unapproved media so this isn't like he's running a major ring," Agent Green smiles as if this is funny, "so Michael, do you realize how serious this is?"

"I didn't know," he says softly.

"Michael you have to understand that this might seem like a silly law but it's very important. The Approvals Board is there to make sure only good content gets into our country. They don't want things without merit. Media that doesn't have approval could promote violence and crime. Those are very serious social problems and the Approvals Board is there to help in protecting citizen just like you against crime." Agent Walters explains gravely.

Mikey makes sure to nod along to his explanation. With the way they're carrying on about the bootlegs he's beginning to think he might not get caught on the hacking. He forces himself to breath normally.

"Now I know you probably didn't realize it was that important and you're just a kid who went down the wrong path." Agent Walters continues his dark eyes seem to be looking right through Mikey even as he nods in agreement.

"Micheal, we're not going to charge you," Agent Green says and ignores his mother's exclamation of thanks, "because we know this is just a lapse in judgement. You only did this once and CyCrimes isn't there to punish people for one bad mistake if it was just a slip like yours. We know that you're not going to do this again, are you?"

The Agent just offered him a free pass and Mikey knows he needs to grab it as quickly as possible, "no, no, I didn't know."

"That's good. We'll be watching you but we know that you've learned your lesson. "

"I have, I didn't know." Mikey says hoping that he isn't overplaying his role as a dumb kid.

"Will it still go on his record?" their mother asks, dabbing at her eyes.

"That could ruin a lot of chances for this young man and we don't want to do that. It's obvious he wants to achieve and that's the sort of drive that we like to encourage, just in a legal manner."

"Thank you, thank you, he'll be good." Their mother says. She reaches out to touch them but pulls back at the last minute.

"We're leaving now but we'll be watching Michael." Agent Walters says.

"Stay out of trouble," Agent Green tells him with another smile before following his partner out of the house.

His mother is griping the back of the chair so hard her knuckles are white. Mikey doesn't know what to say. It seems to stupid now but he's never really thought about what would happen if he was caught. It was always a worry but he never thought Agents would show up at his house. He glances at Gerard and has to look away from his brother who is still white faced, lips pressed into a thin line. He's never seen Gerard look so angry.

"How could you be so stupid?" his mother finally asks.

"I. . . " Mikey tries to say but she keep talking.

"You know how important CySchool is, you know that if you get anything on your record you're done. Did you do this to go to that goddamn concert? You're so goddamn lucky they let you off with a warning Michael James, so lucky."

"I know," he says desperately trying to stem the tide of angry words.

"You could have thrown away your whole future just for some stupid rock show. You're supposed to be the smart one, what the hell were you thinking even doing this? How could some rock show be so important?"

"It wasn't just some show."

"It was just childish. You're not a child anymore. We thought you were responsible. "She interrupts him voice hard. "This family doesn't have the money for you to be a child Michael. We're counting on you getting that scholarship. Do you want to spend your life on one of the crews?"

"Of course not" Mikey snaps.

"You want to end up in the Halls like the Fischer boy? Don't you get it, they'd eat you up and you just want to risk all that for a show?"

"You don't fucking get it. It wasn't just for the show."

"Oh really, then tell me what it was." His mother snaps as her hands flex against the back of the chair.

"It was school. Why the hell did you think my school fees were so low? I fucking paid them."

His mother staggers and Mikey wants to take his words back.

"We would have found a way." She says, "you didn't need to do that."

"Christ Mom, I know how bad it is. I know how much Granma's life insurance paid," Mikey yells trying not to think about how Gerard looks like he's been punched, " I know what Gee's scholarship doesn't cover. I fucking know. I heard you talking about not paying the power last month."

"It was temporary, you get caught and it's fucking permanent Mikey." His mother says. "Just go to your room, we'll talk about this when your father gets home."

Mikey locks himself in his room away from everything. Above him he can hear his mother and Gerard eating supper. The clink of cutlery on plates and the whistle of the kettle. He doesn't feel hungry even though he knows his mother had made the cherry pie he loves. He hears Gerard thump down the stairs and the squeak of his door closing.

The girl at the train station was a stupid move. He's sure he must have gotten picked up for that. He could be in the Halls by now. The thought makes him sick to his stomach. His mother is right. He knows he wouldn't last in there. The Halls are notorious for the wars the punkers carry in from the streets. The Fischer boy went in on drug charges and the whole neighbourhood had turned out of his funeral after he'd been in less than a month. He can still remember the whispers about why it was a closed casket. Gee would be devastated if he got himself killed in the Halls. He knew the bootlegs were risky but he wasn't fucking thinking. Mikey stares at the pile of discs in the corner just waiting for him to transfer the media onto them. He can't tell his parents he paid the power bill when they had to default on it three months ago. His mother already looks bad enough from finding out about the school fees. The fee assessment he'd brought home, printed clandestinely at school on his lunch break, had been so low he'd been sure that his parents had known he must have paid the rest of it.

He hears his father's boots thumping across the floor and knows his mother will be telling him all about the Agents. He can hear their voices. As he makes his way up stairs Gerard's door remains tightly closed. His brother's silent treatment makes him ache. He knows Gerard already hates that Elena's death is funding his time at art school and Mikey just rubbed his nose in the fact. He doesn't knock on the closed door because he doesn't want to have to face their parents if Gerard is still pissed enough with him not to open the door.

His father just looks at him and it's worse than his mother's shouting. He looks tired and there is a bandage around one of his fingers.

"So I hear you did something stupid. Want to tell me your side of the story?"

It isn't really a question. Mikey folds himself into a chair across from his father and tries not to look at how his mother stands behind his father, her mouth still tight with anger.

"I got caught bootlegging and I know it was stupid. I know. They aren't putting it on my record. I know I could have lost everything, I know that you're counting on me to get into CySchool, get one of the jobs. I get it. I know that if I can do that we won't have to worry anymore and Gee won't have to waste his talent at corp-art. I just," Mikey looks down at the faded table cloth, "I wanted to help out now and nothing pays like it did."

"Oh Mikey," his mother says and he knows she's losing her anger.

"That," his father sighs, rubs a hand over his face as if he can smooth out the fatigue lines, "it's good you understand what you need to do, and we," he places his hand over his mother's where she is resting it on his shoulder "appreciate that you want to help but for now you're going to get a straight job. We won't have you ruining your life."

"Alright," he says.

"Now I want you to go back to your room and really think about how you could have ruined everything. This is your reminder not to act like a hasty child," his father says.

His mother nods in agreement, " and after your brother has left you can start looking for a real job."

The weight of his parents' disappointment falls heavy on his mind. He hates himself for feeling so young. It is something he should know better, something he's been taught ever since they realizes Gerard would never master the computers. The door to Gerard's room is still tightly closed. He knocks softly on it but Gerard doesn't answer. He knows he shouldn't have said anything about Elena. Not where Gerard could hear him especially since he knows Gerard still wears her thin silver chain bracelet as a memory of her.

He leaves his door open in a silent invitation to his brother. He's staring at the wall and trying not to think about the silent computer sitting only a few feet away from him just asking to be used. He hears the squeak of Gerard's door then the heavy pad of his footsteps up the stairs. He sighs and curls tighter, hugging himself. He could stand his parents' anger if only Gerard would stop ignoring him. He hears the rumble of his father's voice and Gerard's answering mumble. He lets his eyes go unfocused so the spots on his wall from the years of Gerard waving around uncapped markers sway as he breathes.

Finally Gerard's footsteps thump back down the stairs. He hears him hesitate then the sound of his footsteps moves towards Mikey's room. Mikey curls up in bed and tries to stop his hands from shaking. The bed dips as Gerard climb on behind him. He doesn't know what to say, doesn't even know how to begin apologizing for being so stupid, for bring up Elena, so he stays silent and shifts to make more room for Gerard. The bed dips again and then Gerard is stretching out against him. His arm curls over Mikey's stomach, a familiar heavy weight as he settles into the position to himself the big spoon. He can smell the familiar smell of his brother: cigarettes, markers, and sweat. Gerard's arm tightens around him and they lay together quietly. Mikey can feel the rise and fall of his chest against his back as Gerard breathes. He can feel the warmth of Gerard's breath against his neck and he wants to say something but everything sounds wrong in his head. Eventually the gentle rhythm of Gerard's breathing helps lull him toward sleep. Gerard's arm around him feels though it's holding him together. Slowly he can feel his muscles relaxing and the shaking in his hands leaving. Even though he knows Gerard is angry with him but they drift off to sleep before Mikey can figure out something to stay to his brother. He can tell when Gerard falls asleep and Mikey lets himself drift off so they fall asleep spooned together.

Gerard wakes him up when he tries to roll off the bed. Mikey sits up and pushes his glasses on ignoring the finger print smears on the lens. The fight that was brewing between them erupts over breakfast when Mikey takes the last of the coffee. Their parents are both still upstairs and they try their best to keep their voices low. Neither one of them wants their parents to know that they are fighting. Gerard's face is flushed an angry red and Mikey can feel the heat of his own anger in his cheeks. His fists are clenched so tightly they ache with the need to hit something, the need to feel the bones of his hand impact something.

Gerard finally snaps, "I should have known you'd do something stupid."

"You're not my fucking keeper." Mikey hisses.

Gerard turns away and grabs his coat. He disappears out the door, careful not to let it bang shut behind him. Mikey knows that Gerard will be gone for the day. He leaves a note for their parents to let them know Gerard is out. He suspects his brother is probably at Elena's grave but he won't go there. He's only gone to Elena's grave once. He'd watch Gerard there, watch him sitting and talking to her as if she was still there. Even though they've always shared everything that had seemed too personal, too private, to intrude on, so he stayed away. The grave wasn't her. It was too bleak, too impersonal with just her name engraved into the stone. He spends the day in his room studying for the tests he knows will be coming up after the break.

The computer beckons him and Mikey finally has to make a serious assessment of what he's going to do about his activities in the bands. Even though the agents never mentioned his hacking Mikey wonders if they really didn't know. He knows it's not impossible for the Agents to have found the right bands, to have found the right places to lay in wait for an unsuspecting coderez. He's always been so careful, only taken a few jobs that seemed safe but now he wonders if they were truly safe. They were small scope ones and he wonders if the Agents were just laying a trap to catch him at something bigger. The penalty would be higher than the bootlegging. The possibilities swirl through his thoughts and he can't concentrate on his notes. He knows his bootlegging days are finished unless he gets desperate. He's almost positive they caught him through the girl at the station but he can't be sure and that lack of certainty worries him. It's so much easier to get caught handing off a bootleg, so much easier to be identified. If Gerard wasn't angry over the whole thing he'd probably laugh at the idea of Mikey trying to do it in disguise.

He's always been more afraid of getting caught for hacking. The occasional news stories on hackers who get caught have always made him nervous. He only has to close his eyes to picture the solemn faced man in the black suit and thin black tie who always reads out the long list of crimes that the major hackers are charges with when they're finally caught. The big ones always seem to have money for lawyers in fancy suits with flash-slick smiles and efficient unsmiling assistants hurrying beside them. If Mikey wasn't constantly worried about it he'd probably never have noticed how the small time hackers are always the ones who get shipped to the Halls while the ones with the lawyers always seem to vanish from custody or get off in trials that go lightly reported. He knows it is the kids, like him, the ones who aren't good enough, who get shipped into the Halls were they fade away and disappear into the morgues.

Even though the consequences scare him hacking has always been his backup plan if he does not get the scholarship so he can go to CySchool. Gerard and his parents would have a fit if they knew but Mikey wants out of Jersey. Without a scholarship he has no way to get out. He doesn't want to be stuck in the same job as his father, doesn't want to end up on a crew where the work slowly cripples everyone. His aunt has always said it was a shame he and Gee weren't good enough at a sport to get on one of the teams but Mikey knows the odds of getting on a team are even worse than his getting a scholarship. He is good at computers and he knows that he has to be better to get the scholarship. Without the scholarship he won't have the money to go to CySchool no matter how much his parents try to save. Even if Gerard gets a corp-art job and helps they still won't have the money to send him. He is never going to tell his brother that he started because he wanted to be able to help out with the finances. He wanted to make it so their father might finally buy a new Sunday suit jacket and their Mother will stop wondering if she should pawn her jewellery or maybe even Elena's. There is a little over a year left before he will know for sure if he has the scholarship. It is not really that much time and he knows his parents have managed without him before so he finally boots ups. The bands are the same as always and it makes him feel comfortable that nothing major has occurred to stir anything up. He quietly drops the news that he's gone. He slowly disappears as well as he can from the bands, wiping away what he can to prevent any Agents from stumbling on him. He's shaking by the time he's done just waiting for Agents to burst in but nothing happens and eventually he falls into a fitful sleep.

He wakes up to the sound of Gerard's footsteps. The room is dark but he knows the sound of Gerard's steps without a doubt. He'd been worried when his brother hadn't been back by the time he'd gone to bed. He feels the bed dip as Gerard crawls clumsily onto it. Mikey scoots back just like always to give Gerard more space. He smells of cheap beer and cigarettes.

"Promise you won't ever do anything like that again?" Gerard asks.

Mikey doesn't say anything and Gerard's fingers dig into his shoulder as his brother shakes him, "Promise me you won't do that again."

Mikey nods jerkily and Gerard's fingers relax a bit where they're digging into his shoulder.

"I don't want you locked up," Gerard whispers into hair.

* * *

The high collar of the formal dress uniform of the Agents is stiff against the underside of Rob's jaw as he stands in the presentation line up. He knows his mother is in the crowd of onlookers, all of them carefully screened before being let into the ceremony, but he can't see her from his position on the stage. The speeches are long and the sun beating down on his dark uniform is making him hot. He can feel sweat sliding down the small of his back and he knows his face is going to be turning pink from the sun. He doesn't move, not even to shift just a bit, because he is there for everyone to see how good the newest Agents look. He is use to standing still. At long last the speeches end and he walks across the stage to receive his pin that he will never wear outside the walls of the Agency.

His mother, the only person he wanted at the ceremony, is daubing her eyes with a tissue when he finds her.

"I'm so proud of you," she tells him.

Rob nods and hugs her tight even though anyone can see. He can never tell her that he still has more specialized training to go through before he gets to actually start making a difference as an Agent. All his mother will ever know is that Rob will have to disappear for awhile.

* * *

The silence in the house feels oppressive after Gerard goes back to school. He still isn't willing to go back to the bands he usually frequents for fear of the Agents watching him so he plays the surface ones but they seem empty. Instead he throws himself into study even more knowing that his results need to be truly impressive to net him his ticket out of Jersey.

Jobs in Jersey are not plentiful but he finally manages to get hired a drug store. It is farther out than he usually goes but Mikey likes the distance. It means less risk that he will run into one of his classmates. Aside from Doug, the manager, the rest of the employees are working mothers. They treat him kindly but keep him at a distance which is just fine with Mikey. Their conversations about diapers and the latest tabloid news is foreign to him and he isn't willing to learn. Instead, he keeps to himself and does his job.

There is a computer repair store next to the drug store but its windows are dark and the sign is always flipped to "closed". Two weeks into his job he arrives to find the computer store is open. If he hadn't seen a man coming out of the store he would have missed that the sign had been flipped to open. He takes his break sitting at the table behind the store and he is surprised when the back door of the computer store bangs open. He is used to his breaks being uninterrupted. Nobody comes out so Mikey decides that he might as well satisfy his curiosity.

When he peaks into the doorway he is expecting to see a man. Instead a woman with curly red hair is hunched over a work table. He shifts a little and she looks up at the sound of his shoes crunching against the concrete. There are lines around her eyes and Mikey revises his guess at her age upwards.

"Help you with something?" she asks in a surprisingly gravelly voice.

"No, I thought this was closed."

She shrugs, "Just on hold."

Mikey shifts awkwardly, "I, um, my break's done, I have to get back."

"Okay kiddo."

"Goodness, she's had the store must be almost seven years now," Rosa says when he mentions the computer store being open while they're restocking shelves.

"I thought it was like dead." Mikey says.

She clicks her tongue, "I don't know how she does it, just leaving it for weeks at a time."

"She must be good at it to keep going."

Rosa shrugs, "How should I know? They're so expensive."

Mikey shrugs and they finish the rest of the stocking in silence. He mentally files Rosa away as another example of why he has to get out of Jersey.

* * *

Rob has never been comfortable with the bands. There are too many secrets hidden in them just waiting to be found out. He knows it is a necessary class but the training for dealing with computers and the band runners is always the low point of his day.

"There are three basic types of band runners you're doing to run across," his instructor says and Rob starts taking notes, "the scripters can be bothersome but in the end most of them never go onto to do anything series and the majority are just kids playing around. Unofficial Agency policy is to keep an eye on them, maybe show up and give them a good scare if it looks like they're planning to do anything more. It's highly unlikely they'll ever compromise your cover so don't worry about them. Most hackers start out as scripters and are just trying to turn pro and make some money. There is a big range of what they can do but if you run across one be wary and be ready to call them into the Agency for a pick up. If you think they're trying to check you get the Agency on it ASAP because if they're good enough they'll blow your cover."

"How d'we know?" Johnson asks because he is always the one who asks.

"If the Agency detects one of them trying to check you your handler will alert you and you will have to decide what to do about it. We strongly recommend letting the Agency's own CyMen direct the hackers in the right direction to reinforce your cover. Now," the instructor pause gaze racking over them, "if you find out a coderez is looking at you, don't hesitate. Get out as fast as you can if you can't disable them by any means necessary. These are the ghost runners. We know they're out there but it's very rare that we catch them. Always be alert to any suggestions that your target group is using or planning to use a coderez. If you find out that one of these guys have be hired to check into anything get out because you will be blown, no question about it."

The class shifts uncomfortably and the instructor smiles, "good news is that it's unlikely they'll get hired because these guys are rare so majority of the time it's just hackers you need to be concerned about."

* * *

The woman is sitting at the outside table when he has his next break. She shoves a chair out in invitation and Mikey flops down into it. Standing all the time at his register makes his feet ache.

"Not used to clerking?" she asks.

Mikey nods.

"I remember it sucks. You must be pretty new here, I don't remember you from before."

"Just hired me."

She hums.

"How long have you worked with computers?" Mikey asks

"Since the release," She says.

"I thought everybody went into the C-sector side back then."

"They did."

"You were in the C-sector?" he asks. All the C-sector people he has seen have all looked polished and sleek.

"It was the place to be."

"Why would you leave?"

"Too much stress, why? You want to go into that?"

Mikey nods, "of course."

"CySchool and then C-sector huh?"

He nods suddenly feeling silly for admitting it. She has to know how difficult that's going to be for anyone from Jersey to do.

"You even have a computer?" She asks.

"My parents got me one." he says.

"Is that right. You know anything about them kiddo?"

"A little and it's Mikey not kiddo." He says irritated at her assumptions even though he knows with most people here she would be right.

"Tessa," she says and holds out her hand.

She has a firm grip and when they shake her cuff flips back so he can see an anti-static bracelet on her wrist.

After that Mikey hangs out with Tessa on his breaks. Mikey watches her building computers, slotting chips into place and connecting the thin wires of the drives. Mikey is quiet at first preferring to answer only if she asks him a question but slowly he grows more comfortable with her until he doesn't hesitate to ask her questions as she works. Tessa is the first person he has ever talked to outside of the bands who knows computers inside and out. When she talks about programming it always makes him realize how limited his self-taught knowledge really is especially when she uses a Derez phrase that he doesn't know. He had tried to teach himself Derez because it's the language the CySchools and the C-Sector works in; another way to keep their jobs even more specialized by requiring that anyone doing it be fluent in their language. He knows that once he gets in he'll have to learn it so he tries to pick up what he can from Tessa although he doesn't want to ask her outright to teach him.

Sometimes when she answers ones of his questions there are things that are hinted that Mikey would like to pursue but he doesn't because they would skirt too close to illegal work that he is trying to avoid doing and if he's wrong he doesn't want her to guess that he knows. She's willing to talk about computers with him but little else. Mikey learns quickly that questions about her life are only answered in the most general way and he feels irrationally frustrated by it. He doesn't mention Tessa to his parents or in the emails he sends to Gerard because he knows they would probably just worry about him.

When he isn't working, with Tessa, or in school, he spends a lot of time wondering if the Agents really are watching him and if they really do know about his hacking. After five months of hearing nothing he manages to convince himself that they likely didn't know. One a Sunday evening he finally decides to try just a very small hack, one he's done before. He slides into the bands, past the surface into the deep bands where he can really work. Getting into his school's system isn't difficult, it's something he has done many times before the Agents showed up. He slides into his file just like always and checks his grades. He tweaks one, just a couple percentage points, because the policy is that the computer is always right. When he makes the application for the scholarship he doesn't want that grade to make it weaker. He slides out of the system as easily as he got in. He presses his hands flat against his thighs and waits for them to stop trembling.

The Agents never show up. He spends a week feeling sick to his stomach with nerves but in the end nothing happens. He is so jumpy and clumsy all week that even his father asks him if he is alright. Gerard sends him a long rambling email about his latest project. In between his explanation of the project Gerard keeps asking if he is alright and Mikey regrets sending his brother such an uncharacteristically disjointed email.

* * *

There is no ceremony when his real training is done. Rob spends the next three days in limbo waiting to be called up. He goes to visit his mother but there are so many things that he cannot tell her that his visit turns awkward. Explaining that his assignment is going to require him to be out of contact for long periods of time makes his mother worry. When he can't tell her what his true assignment is and has to give her explanations that are unsatisfying vague even to his own ears Rob realizes for the first time why the training stressed developing skills to be alone and cutting ties to the family. In the end he fakes a call from the Agency so he can leave early. His mother hugs him and tells him that no matter she will always be proud of him.

* * *

When the store cuts back his hours Mikey is irritated that he won't have as many days to hang around watching Tessa work. The first week Tessa says nothing but the second week in a row when he has not been around regularly Tessa asks him about his absences and Mikey tells her. She shrugs and tells him he's welcome to come around anyway. That is all the encouragement Mikey needs to show up at Tessa's store even on days when he is not working. He never mentions anything to his parents. Tessa finally sighs one day and tells him that if he wants to be more than a scripter he's going to have to learn how to really program not just play around. Mikey takes her up on her offer without hesitation.

He accidently leaves his school notebook at Tessa's shop one warm evening and since the assignment is due the next day he has no choice but to go back for it. Jersey nights have never been safe. He can hear random shouts and the roar of transport motors. The buzz of the streetlights saves the night from ever being quiet. He knows that Tessa is usually late at the shop but when he sees the darkened windows he wonders if this is the night she isn't going to be there.

The backdoor of the shop is open just like always and he can see the faint outline of light from under the half closed office door and there is a faint murmur of voices. The light switches are on the far wall so Mikey steps carefully through the darkened room. Through the gap in the door he can see two people hunched over a computer. Neither of them look like Tessa. He inches closer trying to see the code that is crawling up the screen. He watches in silence straining to hear their words.

Mikey tries to shift to see more of the room when his arm is grabbed and wrenched above his head. He tries to twist away but the grip on his arm tightens and pulls upward until he cries out at the pain of having his arm pulled at such an unnatural angle. He hears movement then a cloth is tied over his eyes and something rough and tasting of salt is shoved in his mouth. His captor shoves him forward and Mikey stumbles along. He hears the swish of a door then he's pushed backward until he stumbles and lands heavily on a chair.

"Don't move," a gruff voice says and Mikey nods.

They tie him into the chair with something that has the smoothness of cabling. He really hopes they haven't gotten Tessa too. The unspoken rule is that with robberies you let them happen and the robbers will let you go. Mikey just hopes he has not managed to find the robbery where the unwitting person stumbling across it dies. This is just another reason he should never have gone out after the sundown but he can't afford to lose the marks for missing the assignment. It takes his brain a moment to fight through his fear to recognize his captors speaking Derez. They speak it quickly enough that Mikey is sure they have to be CyMen. From the occasional word that he can recognize Mikey gets the sinking feeling they aren't robbers but part of the band runners who make it their mission to work against the Agency. As he replays the pieces of code he saw on the screen before they caught him he realizes that they were trying to crack the Jersey registry.

He has never paid the band runners much attention always assuming they were more fringe than anything else. The current system obviously had problems but he's never thought their ideas about complete overthrows were worth paying attention to – it all seemed so farfetched. He wishes he knew more about them especially as it sounds like the conversation is turning to if they should kill him immediately or get rid of him somewhere else. He tries to force the gag out of his mouth but it's wedge in too tightly. If he could just speak he could tell them that he'll never tell anyone, let alone an Agent, about what is happening.

The shock of hearing Tessa's voice is like getting into an ice cold shower. He is used to her voice and it helps him pick out words. She's arguing for letting him go at least he hopes that's what she's saying. He can't tell if it's that or that they should toss him into the bay. Derez has too many words that sound too similar as far as Mikey is concerned. He hears them leaving and then movement in the outer rooms. There is the low rumble of a transport then the sound of something heavy being moved and under all the noise he can hear people talking in Derez. He twists his wrists but can't loosen his bonds. The transport rumbles away and everything is quiet.

Somebody comes back in and closes the door.

"Mikey," Tessa says, "don't scream."

He relaxes at the sound of her voice. If Tessa is here he figures that he is safe. She repeats herself so he nods. When she takes his gag out he can smell the faint sharp smell of burnt plastic on her fingers. Mikey licks at his lips and wonders what he should say to her. When she removes his blindfold he is expecting Tessa to be dressed differently but she's still in the same casual clothing he is used to seeing her in. Her hair is pulled into a braid and her face looks harder without her curls framing it. She leans back against the desk and crosses her legs at the ankle.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asks as though he isn't sitting tied to a chair in her office.

"I forgot my notebook."

She looks at him for a long moment and Mikey finds himself wondering if maybe he hasn't really escaped any danger.

"You're part of the Free-banders?" He blurts out uncomfortable with the silence.

She shrugs, "they think we should kill you but I think you're not going to turn us in."

"I won't." He says vehemently.

"You love your brother right?" She says and Mikey nods without hesitation even though he doesn't see what it has to do with anything.

Tessa smiles at him and it doesn't look pleasant. "If you run to an Agent, and we will know if you do, we'll make his life a living hell. By the time we're done with him you'll be lucky to see him in the Halls."

"Leave him alone," Mikey snaps.

"Just some insurance, I'm taking a big gamble on you kiddo." Tessa says matter-of-factly. "Now I'm going to let you go and we're going to go our separate ways. I'm hoping I've gambled right on you. Now get out."

Mikey bolts from the room all too glad to be out of there.

* * *

When Rob gets the call to come in he knows he'll get his assignment. He comes after hours, after the regulars are out of the Agency and the empty corridors echo with his footsteps unless he makes a conscious effort to walk quietly. The office he reports to is tucked out of the way in the second basement level where no windows are susceptible to tight beams and cameras. The scanner picks up the tag in his pin and lets him through the thick black doors into another corridor lined with closed doors that have no name tags. He counts off four and turns to his left. The door opens as he shifts and inside he can see three people. He doesn't hesitate when he steps through.

Head instructor Green is there sitting just off the side of the desk. The department head, Jamison Redding, the only member of the deep-cover program to be widely known and then by a different assignment; the only one with his face splashed across screens outside the Agency, is behind the desk which is a surprise. Rob was expecting a designate like the woman who had showed up in their class one day. The head is smaller than he looks on the screen with the gently rounded shoulders of somebody who spends a lot of time hunched. He gestures Rob into the chair that faces all three of them. He can't place the third man who is the only one not wearing a uniform.

"Normally we'd start you on something easier but getting an Agent in as soon as possible in imperative and your scores are impressive. Most importantly, Phillip is confident you can do it and," He nods towards Green,, "he's usually right about these things."

Rob inclines his head but doesn't speak. He can hear the whisper of the building's air handling system under the whir of Redding's screen clicking out of hibernation. He brings up a map and points to the city that curls around the edge of one of the Great Lakes.

"We're know the city is jointly controlled by at least two major bosses who have long-standing power sharing agreements. We still don't know how they managed to keep the balance for so long."

He frowns just enough for Rob to know that this lack of information is likely a long standing issue. Instructor Green mirrors Redding's frown. When Redding continues his face is smoothed of any expression.

"Your objective is to work your way into the upper level of one of their networks. The Perri boss is the oldest and when he dies there is going to be power struggle. If you can get on the," Redding smiles slightly, "winning team it would be ideal."

"There is another Agent already in place however you'll have to get in on your own instead of following standard procedure because we can't risk having you both compromised if anything happens."

Rob nods. Redding gestures towards the man in civilian clothes.

"This is Agent Curtis, he's going to be your handler on this. He'll finish briefing you." He hands Rob a data stick, "you have three days to familiarize yourself with the contents of this file, then destroy it. You've got the standard immunity from all crimes committed in pursuing your assignment. Good luck Agent. Prove Philip right."

The edge of the data stick digs into Rob's hand as he stands and salutes Redding and his instructor. Agent Curtis follows him out of the door.

"Call me Dan," the guy says and reaches over to shake his hand. Curtis has a firm grim but his skin is cold. Curtis is taller than him and Rob finds it annoying to have to tilt his head to see his eyes.

"Robert."

"I know, let's go to my office and finish this." Dan says and gestures Rob into one of the smaller offices.

Instead of sitting down Dan perches on the edge of his desk, one foot swinging gently, as though he isn't about to explain the next few years of Rob's life to him. Rob folds his hands in his lap and waits. He has always preferred to let others talk.

"We know they're running one of their major chop shop out of this garage, so we're going to send you in as a mechanic."

"It's going to take time to get involved in the chop part of it." Rob points out.

"We're going to speed that up," Dan says and his smile has an edge of meanness to it.

"The other Agent?"

"He shouldn't be anywhere near there, no you establish yourself and once you're in, we'll take out one of their main mechanics and fortunately you'll be right there to fill his place."

Take out. It makes him wonder, just for a second, if the Agency has its own trained killers. Dan does not acknowledge the fact that Rob is going to be getting in through the death of a civilian even if he is working in a chop shop.

"Your documents are going to be put together tomorrow so you're going to need a name that you'll answer to."

Rob resists the urge to scrub a hand through his hair. Instead he takes a deep breath and lets it out, "Bob, uh, Bryar."

Dan frowns, "Bob is pretty close to Rob."

"I'll answer to it and nobody calls me Bob."

"Bob it is."

* * *

Mikey avoids Tessa for a week. He doesn't know what to say to her and "you'll be lucky to see him in the Halls" keeps echoing in his head. He checks the news bands obsessively to see if anything resembling what he heard that night comes up. He's terrified that if they get caught they'll assume it was him and ruin Gerard's life. He barely stops himself from sending Gerard an email begging him to be extra careful. His parents ask him why he is not going out to work and Mikey tells them that he got the week off because he had an major assignment to do. He knows they will never bother him if they think he is trying to do better in school.

In the end though he summons up his courage and knocks on the back door of the shop instead of just walking in like he would have up until last night. Tessa looks tired when she lets him in.

"Teach me," he says.

"Teach you what?" she asks voice flat as she picks up what Mikey recognizes as a hand scanner.

"How to be more than a scripter."

"Isn't that why you're going to CySchool?"

"I know the odds of getting in with a scholarship as bad. We don't have the money to send me unless I get the major one," Mikey finally says. "I need options if I don't get it."

"That's a hell of a backup plan." She says finally and her voice is still flat.

"Look," he says desperately, "I want to get out, if I don't get it I'm going to be on the Crews."

"Some people would say an honest wage is the best life." She says mildly.

"Do I look like somebody who'd last on the Crews? Teach me, please?"

Tessa sighs, "I'll think about it. Come back tomorrow."

* * *

Otto's, the bar that the guys at the garage frequent, is a dive and Bob would be surprised if it wasn't connected to one of the bosses' networks. He would rather be in the crappy apartment that is part of his cover than drinking piss water beer but he knows the value of appearing friendly especially when he is the new guy who has only gotten through the initial wariness. Lucas elbows him in the ribs.

"Check out the hair on that guy," he nods up toward the bar at a man with a large hallo of curly hair.

"Hey Bob, you a hair man?" Zac asks with a leer.

"I could be," he says without pause.

" He's been checking you out man."

Zac's gaze moves over the man without subtly, "look at that ass."

Bob shrugs. He knows from experience that Zac will go on talking about the merits of the man's ass, which Bob will admit is a nice looking ass, until Lucas cuffs him. Bob has become inured to Zac's descriptions after listening to them while he's been up to his elbows in cars. Sex and cars are the only thing that Zac ever talks about.

"You gonna tap that?" Zac asks reaching across Lucas so he can poke at Bob.

Bob shrugs and takes a pull of his beer.

"You a nun or somethin'? You're dick's gonna fall off if you don't use it ya know."

"Yeah Bryar, why don't you go pick 'im up?" Lucas chimes in which surprises Bob.

He isn't interested in hooking up especially not with anyone who comes into such a dive but as he listens to Zac describing how his latest hook up had had an ass just like the curly haired man's Bob realizes that his lack of obvious sex has made them nervous. Fuck.

Bob looks up at the mirror over the bar and realizes that the man is watching him. He catches Bob's gaze and smiles. Chad's hand slaps against his shoulder.

"Go up and get us another round at least if you're not even going to try and get your dick wet."

The other guys laugh and Bob knows that he needs to at least make a show of trying to hook up. If he'd just done something sooner he realizes he wouldn't be having such a problem now.

When he gets closer to the guy Bob realizes that he isn't quite right for the bar. He is a little too neat and doesn't look like he's in a garage or on construction crew. His clothes look right but close up they're just a bit too expensive for the average patron to afford. The discrepancy between the man and the rest of the patrons is enough to intrigue Bob. He leans against the bar next to him feeling awkward. He requests another round for the table and tries to think of what to say. The Agency's training had suggested hooking up only if absolutely necessary but hadn't gone into specifics. Bob rests his foot on the bar railing and wishes he had more experience at picking up casual hook ups.

"So if I can guess your job can I buy you a drink?" Curly haired guy asks him in a surprisingly high pitched voice.

"Sure."

The guy studies him for a long moment and Bob fights the urge to glance away from his sharp gaze.

"Well, you've got grease under your nails so I'm going with mechanic?" he says but it sounds more like a question.

Bob nods.

"So let me buy you that drink," he says and holds out his hand, "I'm Ray."

"Bob."

Ray's soft hands mark him as an outsider to the bar even more than his neatness so Bob asks, "office job?"

Ray shakes his head, "Nope."

Bob catches Zac's laughing face in the mirror as he watches the waitress dropping the round off at the table. Ray does not strike the chord in his head that tells him he has seen him before but he makes a note to list Ray in his report as a person of interest.

"So you from here?" he asks.

"Naw," Ray says and Bob thinks he hears a touch of an unfamiliar accent.

Ray gets Bob another drink, this time watered vodka instead of flat beer, and they toss back the shot in unison. Ray glances over at him almost as though he is trying to be coy but his gaze is too direct to pull it off.

"You wanna?" Ray asks.

Bob thinks about the table of mechanics that he needs to put at ease and looks back at Ray.

"My place?"

Ray nods and follows him out of the bar. Bob is grateful that Zac didn't catcall him.

In the morning Bob wakes up the sound of his shower running and the gurgle of his automatic coffee maker. He stretches the kinks out of his back that come from having to share a bed when he isn't used to it. There is the pleasant soreness in his body that Bob always associates with sex and he smiles thinking about how Ray looked with Bob's cock sliding into his mouth. Bob dresses because he doesn't want to have to face Ray in his bathrobe especially not when it sounds like Ray is going to be clean. The water shuts off as Bob is putting the water on to boil for his customary oatmeal. He listens to Ray moving around, confident that even if Ray does look around he won't find anything of interest. When he turns back from adding the oatmeal to the boiling water Ray is standing in the doorway. His hair is just as wildly curly as Bob remembers it.

"Morning," Bob finally says and is reminded again of why he has always avoided morning afters.

Ray smiles and wanders over to press a kiss lightly to his mouth. Bob can feel himself flush as Ray pulls away. He focuses on stirring the oatmeal while Ray pours himself coffee. The oatmeal is finally done and Bob pulls two bowls out of the cupboard.

"Want some?"

Ray nods and takes the bowl Bob gives him. They eat in silence that grows slowly less awkward which makes Bob relieved. He checks the clock and knows he has less than a hour to get into the garage. In the harsh light of the kitchen and with a clear head Bob can tell that Ray's clothes are a good deal more expensive than the clothes that somebody in that bar should have been wearing. He'll probably be able to lift a good set of prints for Ray's mug for the Agency to run.

"So, you here for business?" he asks.

"Yeah, off and on."

"You know I'm a mechanic but what about you?"

Ray pauses and then carefully swallows. "I'm a computer consultant."

Bob manages not to spit out his coffee. Of all the answers Bob was expecting that wasn't even on the list. He was expecting an office worker looking for a bit of rough. Consultants are in a class that should never even feel safe coming down to the bar Bob was in last night let alone picking a guy up there and coming back to his place. Even if he hadn't seemed off before this alone would make Ray a person of interest.

"I freelance," Ray says with a shrug after the silence has dragged just a little too long, "but that's just," he shrugs, "work. You been here long?"

Bob shakes his head grateful of the switch in conversation since he doesn't know how to dig into Ray's business without appearing more interested than a one-night stand should warrant.

Later, just before he is about to leave, Ray kisses him in the hallway.

"Can I look you up when I'm in town again?" Ray asks and it's the first time Bob has been able to hear any hesitation in his voice.

"I. . . yeah, alright." Bob finally says just as Ray is starting to fidget.

Ray smiles and pulls him into one last quick kiss. "You're a great time Bob."

Bob doesn't point out that Ray hasn't asked for his details and he hasn't offered them. He doesn't really want Ray showing up again. There is too much off about him and Bob has heard all the horror stories wrapped in the mantel of cautionary tales about undercover Agents who get attached to people. Ray doesn't give Bob his details either.

* * *

Mikey never knows what makes Tessa change her mind. When she had told him she would think about teaching him he had be certain that she was going to refuse when he had returned the next day Tessa hadn't even tried to talk him out of anything instead she had spent the day grilling him and setting him problems to find out what he really knew. Without Gerard at home Mikey spends most of his free time with Tessa who teaches him languages like Python and Haskell to go with the BASIC that he managed to pick up on his own. Mikey is used to using prewritten programs and tweaking them just enough to suit his needs. Tessa shakes her head and tells him that a true coderez would know how to create them from the ground up. At first he writes simple programs for her. The first one he writes is a sloppy and riddled with messy ways to do simple things. She walks him through line by line. As he is listening to her explain Mikey knows, with bone deep certainly, that getting her to teach him was the right decision. She lets him borrow the thick code books she keeps on shelves in the back. He lugs them home with him because they help his experiments along at a better pace that he could have managed on his own. Tessa is a surprisingly good teacher even if she insists that Mikey should know how to work with Whitespace just because Tessa thinks it's hilarious. Years later that knowledge will be part of what saves Mikey and he'll silently thank Tessa for making him learn it although at the time he keeps whining that it is fun but useless for anything worthwhile. Tessa smacks him on the back of the head and tells him to focus if he ever wants to really start playing in the bands.

Mikey wants to tell Gerard about what he's learning. Even though Gerard has been away for what seems like an eternity Mikey has never gotten out of the habit of wanting share things. Although he could never outright tell Gerard what he is learning he still wishes he could make oblique hints. Every time he thinks about it he remembers how Gerard looked when the Agents came and he can't bring himself to even hint. Instead he compromises by telling Gerard about Tessa and how he's learning to how to program. He tells Gerard it will help him get into CySchool which isn't technically false. Even though Gerard has never had his fascination with computers he understands that they mean as much to Mikey as his art does to him. When Gerard sends him pictures of his latest art project Mikey thinks he might have some speculation on exactly what Tessa's teaching is going to allow him to do. The theme of the three pieces is be careful. The next picture his brother sends is of the dark ends of his hair on the floor from when he trimmed it. Mikey emails him back warning him not to run with scissors. It is the closest he is willing to come to saying he got Gerard's message hidden in his art.

December is a miserable month at the best of times but that year is especially bad because not only does Tessa vanish telling him that she'll see him in the new year but Gerard does not come home for the break. He is going to be working over the break so he can have the money to fund his major project. Mikey feels guilty for thinking that if he was just brave enough he could slide into the bands and find a job that would keep Gerard buried in supplies for the whole term. He thinks about the Agents and about how much Tessa hasn't taught him yet. He asks for extra shifts at the store instead.

* * *

The guys are comfortable with him and Bob works hard to keep it that way. The first time he has to check in with Dan he's sick to his stomach and Dan's smirk when he sees the beard Bob is growing doesn't help matters. He tells Dan about how the garage runs and what he's been able to figure out about the chop shop. Dan asks if he's ready to move up the ladder but Bob shakes his head and tells him it's too early. He doesn't mention Ray even though he hasn't heard from him since that one night.

He spends his next shift just waiting to get taken out but nothing happens. Zac and Chad take him out to their dive because he looks "fucking tense". They hook a girl in and pass her off to Bob. He is just buzzed enough on watered shots that he takes her when they pass her off. The girl snaps her gum and grins at him with red lips. She says her name is Delight. They fuck in the alley, her panties pushed aside and skirt bunched up as she wraps her leg around Bob's waist. She shoves one hand under her skirt and he can feel her fingers moving against her clit as he thrusts into her. Afterwards he looks dumbly at the condom in his hand, wondering what to do with it until Delight tosses it in the gutter. He spends the rest of the night trying not to think about Ray.

In the morning he calls his Mother from a payphone on the other side of the city using one of the switch-back numbers the Agency provided. He hears the answering machine click over and wishes just a second that he could really talk to her even though he knows their conversation would be awkward at best.

"I'm okay, I can't make home. I love you." He tells the machine and hangs up.

* * *

Gerard sends him an unusually long email filled with stories about the animals he sees in the park and the people walking their pets through the pigeons. He tells Mikey all about a guy who bumped into him in a coffee shop. "If I didn't know better I'd think he's following me," Gerard writes. He tells Mikey about how he sees the curly haired man at the coffee shop and around the campus. Mikey tries to ignore the uneasy feeling Gerard's tale brings with it when he writes back telling his brother not to be paranoid. There is no way Agents would be interested in Gerard because he knows that Gerard would never do anything as risky as what he is doing. Gerard is already chasing his dream.

The long emails keep coming over the break and Mikey tries not to feel as though the length of the messages is Gerard assuaging his guilt for not being able to come home. Gerard sends him a painting of exploding vegetables with red in sinister smears. It's supposed to be for the news story about one of the Ag transports getting hijacked just outside the boarders of the outlands. Mikey doesn't bother reading the full news report. He is more interested in the sound bite from one of the CEOs of the CySchools talking about the need to limit enrolment. He really hopes they aren't going to do it through raising tuition again.

A week later Tessa reappears looking the same as ever until she moves and Mikey sees that she's limping. When he asks she shrugs it off. He wasn't expecting anything else. Instead she picks up exactly where they left off and Mikey does his best to ignore her slowly healing limp.

Gerard sends him a brief note telling him that his paranoia was justified because curly haired guy, who goes by Manuel, finally bought him coffee and confessed to trying to run into him again. The disbelieving tone of Gerard's note make Mikey smile. His brother has always underestimated himself still he tells Gerard to be careful just in case.

"How would you feel about another teacher?" Tessa asks him when he's bent over a circuit board.

Mikey swings the magnifier away and looks over at her. "I don't think you're a bad teacher."

"There are certain areas where it would be useful to have somebody who is more than just competent teach you." She straightens an already straight stack of drives, "an expert."

Mikey thinks about having another person know what he wants to do for a backup plan. Tessa must trust both of them to bring them together. He exhales slowly and nods. "If you think it best then I would be," he pauses searching for the right words, "grateful to learn more from an expert."

Tessa nods. "Good. I'll talk to him."

* * *

When the number is unknown Bob answers with his customary "yeah?"

"Hey, it's Ray." Says the unfamiliar voice and it takes Bob only a second to match the voice to the face of Ray the consultant.

"I thought you didn't have my number." Bob finally says.

Ray's breath chuffs over the line, "I cribbed it last time."

"Oh."

"Want to get a drink?"

Bob thinks about how he needs to start really working his way into the organization, how he should really go back and put in some over time to show how much he's interested in making money. The bruise on his hand where a wrench slipped is dark against his pale skin, the bottom of it covered by the bandage covering a cut from the jagged edge of an exhaust pipe. He can hear Ray's even breathing on the other end of the phone as though Bob's decision makes no difference to him. Maybe it doesn't. For all he knows Ray has dozens of people he can call for a drink and a fuck. He rotates his neck and feels the vertebra pop.

"Alright." He says and he would swear that Ray breathing hitches just for a second.

The bar that Ray picks is a little more upscale than Otto's and it's the opposite direction from the garage which Bob knows means he's less likely to run into anyone who knows him. He wonders if that was the reason for Ray's choice. In another life he might have ignored that idea as just paranoia but now he ads his suspicion to the mental file he keeps for Ray and does a careful check around the area before entering the bar.

Ray is at a table that's close to the side door and just tucked away enough that Bob could have missed him if he wasn't looking. Ray is drinking something clear that comes with a neon green artificial lime wedge curled at the bottom. He would rather sit across from Ray but the seat beside him offers a better view of the doors so Bob takes it. Ray smiles, wide and bright, as Bob sits. He orders a beer for the serve who appears at the table almost as soon as he's sat.

"So." He says when the silence has dragged on more than he's comfortable with.

"I didn't. . . this isn't a booty call," Bob raises his eyebrows in disbelief and Ray shrugs, "Not just a booty call."

"I could have said no."

"Yeah, but I wanted to try."

Ray taps the back of Bob's hand gently just above the bandage that covers a healing cut, "You're still a mechanic."

He nods and sips his beer. The bottle is cool against his fingers and he wonders why the serve never brought him a glass.

"You're still freelancing."

"Yeah, just here for a couple days."

"You got somebody back home?"

Ray laughs, shakes his head, "Nah, I'm away too much for that to work."

"Must be lonely."

"Not here."

Ray's hand moves to rest, heavy and warm, on his thigh. Bob covers Ray's hand with his own and squeezes gently.

Ray cooks him breakfast unlike the first time. Bob feels a sense of déjà vu as he drinks coffee and watches Ray eat scrambled eggs. The radio is set down low enough that he can't quite hear the news but it provides a good way to fill the silence as they eat. It's comfortable sitting his kitchen with Ray not having to worry about blowing his cover and getting killed for the slip. Ray has no expectations of him and it's relaxing.

He watches Ray scrubbing the dishes even though Bob told him to leave them and wonders why Ray bothered to look him up again. It bugs him that he can't figure out why a guy like Ray would make the effort to look up a mechanic who works at a shady garage. He knows what a consultant like Ray should be making and the sort of people consultants choose to hang around with; people who aren't grubby mechanics. Ray's jacket with its high-end label is hanging next to his old plaid work shirt on the wall. Ray is humming under his breath, not quite loud enough for Bob to place the tune, and it feels weirdly domestic and intimate as if he shouldn't know that Ray hums as he washes the dishes. He ignores the voice in his head, which sounds remarkably like Dan, telling him getting any more involved with Ray is a dangerous idea. Instead he asks when Ray is leaving town.

"Two more days." Ray says without turning around.

"Want to stay with me?" Bob asks before he can lose his nerve and fall back on all the ways asking is a terrible idea.

Ray is quiet for a second before he turns around, smile making the skin around his eyes crinkle, "I'd like that."

* * *

The new teacher Tessa promised him is a guy who looks about Gerard's age. He has wildly curly hair and thick framed glasses that he takes off almost immediately when he enters Tessa's shop. Tessa hugs him tight and when they break apart Mikey thinks their smiles look similar.

"Meet Ray, he's the wizard who's going to take over from me."

Ray laughs and says something in Derez too fast for Mikey to follow. His voice is incongruously high pitched compared to his broad shoulders. Tessa answers and they both look at Mikey expectantly. He shrugs helplessly.

"You'll get better," Ray finally says and his words are accented with what Mikey realizes has to be Derez. It's odd to think that anybody could grow up speaking Derez when it's a language reserved for the CyMen.

Ray isn't a steady presence at the shop like Tessa. Instead he appears, never for more than two weeks, and then vanishes without warning. Tessa never comments on it and the time Mikey asks Ray he says it's just a work thing. Mikey doesn't bother asking again because he knows when a question isn't going to be answered. When he is there Ray teaches him patiently but insists that he speak Derez unless he absolutely can't understand what's happening. It is frustrating at first but Mikey slowly grows more fluent and comfortable with the way Ray's words are more rounded than Tessa's which she attributes to learning Derez out of the country although she never specifies where out of the country.

"You want to try doing a job that pays?" Ray asks him four months later.

Mikey finishes snapping the drive into place before he answers. He hasn't done anything that could land him a record and yank his chance of CySchool out from under him since he started making Tessa teach him. He trusts that Ray and Tessa will make sure he doesn't do anything that will make it easier for the Agents to catch him but at the same time he can't help wondering if he really wants to risk it. He thinks about the way his parents are still fighting in harsh whispers in the evening and Gerard's worries about finding more ways to supplement his income while he's in school. Ray is watching him expectantly and he nods.

"Yeah."

"Good," Ray says, "I'll take your payment and give you hard currency since there isn't time to set you up yet."

It seems like the perfect way to cheat him but Mikey doesn't think that Ray would do that and he agrees without question. His parents will welcome the extra money.

"What's the job?" he asks.

"It's an easy one. Just pulling some information off a server. I'll watch you."

Mikey nods again and takes the print out that Ray hands him. He'll have to make sure it gets burnt soon.

With Ray sitting at his elbow as he pulls the information out the servers of Lionheart Trading Mikey feels calm. Working his way into the system had been easy, exactly the way Ray had taught him. He gets over the blocks without a problem and leaves with the information erasing his cyber-prints as he backs out. The whole operation takes him less than a day. Ray hands him a plain plastic envelop filled with his payment. It feels heavy in his hand and Mikey grins. He likes the tangible feel of the money in his hand instead of just getting to see the changing numbers in his account.

His payment is large enough that Mikey knows he won't be able to give it all to his parents. He sticks a portion in his pocket and hides the rest in his room. He finds his mother staring into the fridge with a worried frown on her face.

"Here," he says and thrusts the wad of currency at her.

She takes it automatically then falters as she realizes what he's given her.

"Oh Mikey," she says.

"I know, but I want to help." He tells her and she throws her arms around him in a tight hug that makes up for his earlier worries about getting caught.

The curly haired man from Gerard's emails has acquired a name, Manuel, but not a face. His brother is frustratingly brief but he sounds happy which eases some of the worry from Mikey's mind especially remembering how lonely Gerard had sounded over the past summer. Gerard sends him a sketch of a wide shouldered figure with curly hair facing away from the viewer. The image feels nagging familiar but Mikey can't place it which bothers him. Gerard tells him about Manuel taking him to the biggest pay-per-view gallery in the city and Mikey smiles.

He's having breakfast when the morning news runs a story about a Lionheart Trading transport getting hijacked. As the announcer explains that the driver died and the hijackers made off with the cargo Mikey feels his breakfast settle like a stone in his gut. A dead person is bad. He forces himself to go through his morning routine instead of running to Tessa's like he wants to do. His mother clucks her tongue and asks him if he's coming down with something. Mikey shakes his head and lets the door shut behind him cutting off her worried suggestion that he should stay in and rest up.

He can hear Ray talking to somebody on the phone when he slams into the shop. Ray nods to him and holds up a hand. He goes into the office where Tessa is searching through a file box.
"Hey Mikey," she says looking up at him, "didn't you put last month's orders in here?"

He nods, "Did you hear?"

She gives him a puzzled look before going back to shuffling through the papers.

"On the news," he tries again as Ray comes in holding a file.

"Found them," Ray says and hands the file to Tessa.

"The news, did you hear the news?" He asks turning to Ray.

"The hijacking thing?" Ray asks.

"Somebody died."

Ray shrugs, "I heard. There's a new version of Stardefender, you want to test it?"

"No," Mikey snaps, "Somebody died and I helped."

Ray looks baffled, "I know you didn't hijack that transport."

"But, you were there, you saw what I got them."

Ray frowns and holds up a finger, "Firstly, you got information, that's it. You didn't know what they'd do with it, and secondly," he holds up another finger, "you have no idea if those people where even the same people who hired you," another finger goes up, "thirdly, if you're serious about this you're going to have to realize that people we work for aren't always the most . . . gentle when it comes to doing things."

"But somebody died, the Agency will want somebody."

Ray shrugs, "They might find one of the hijackers but if you're good enough they aren't going to be able to trace back to you without the help of a superb coderez. I was there Mikey and I'm good enough. The chance of getting caught is so little that you should worry more about the ferry you're on sinking. If it's time to worry, I'll tell you."

Mikey scuffs his toe against the ground. Ray's chastisement makes him feel awkward and stupid. He glares, "somebody still died."

Tessa slams the file drawer shut, "So what?"

"Somebody died," he says helplessly unable to find the words to explain why it bothers him so much.

"People die. There's nothing to do about it so I suggest you get over it." Ray snaps.

Mikey sighs and looks at Ray whose normally cheerful face looks hard. Ray turns on his heel and Mikey looks over at Tessa.

"You think about if you can live with this, but remember it wasn't your fault," she tells him and leaves.

Mikey listens to sound of Tessa and Ray talking in hushed voices as he stares at the blank walls of the office. He thinks about his mother's face when he gave her the money and Gerard's works that won't fit into CorpArt. The odds of getting his scholarship to CySchool vie with the knowledge that if he doesn't get it he has no other talent to fall back on. The pros and cons twist in his head as he thinks about the information he pulled for the hijackers. They leave him alone until he hears the whistle of the kettle that signals Tessa is taking a break.

"You want to come look at Stardefender?" Ray asks from the doorway and Mikey stands up.

Ray waits a week before offering him another job. Mikey thinks about the dead driver's picture that floated in the news feeds and the cost of getting into the City to see Gerard again. Ray's face is blank and it's unspoken that this will be the last offer before Ray disappears. Mikey knows that if he wants to get out, wants to stop, this is the time to do it. If he stops he'll never need to come back, never need to see Ray and Tessa again. He shifts from foot to foot and thinks about the latest picture Gerard had sent him. Tessa is hunched over a consol but he can tell she's waiting for his answer. He knows he can just ignore the news for awhile.

"Alright," he says and Ray nods.

* * *

The guys at the garage have finally started to trust him enough that he's been brought in to the less legal side of the business. In the evenings Bob stays late piecing together the stolen cars into legal machines. The atmosphere of the shop is tenser than in the day and Zac doesn't whistle as he works. When he does his progress report for his handler Dan is pleased with his progress. He tells Bob they'll make the conditions so he can move up the ranks. Bob knows that the plan will be to kill Zac to give him an empty position to take over. He knows it's how the Agency operates and is one of the recommended tactics for the work he doing but it still prickles his conscience.

He doesn't mention any of his issues with killing Zac to Dan at their check-in meeting. Dan has grown a thick moustache since the last time Bob saw him and he finds it distracting. He tells Dan about the disguised Lionheart Trading transport that appeared to in the shop to be remade. Its hold had held residue of a sticky greyish white power. Dan nods and tells him the Agency had assumed the transport would be dumped long before the cargo. He won't tell Bob what was in the cargo even though Bob presses him.

"Rumor has it that Perri has picked up another girlfriend, see if you hear anything about that. We're sending someone in to advance you in the next two weeks be ready for it." Dan says as he taps out a cigarette on the package and lights it.

Bob nods and Dan slaps him gently on the shoulder, "see you in a month."

Ro, a skinny little drifter, appears at the shop looking for work. Zac lets him hang around running errands for him. His features are delicate enough that Bob mistook him for a girl the first time he saw him the back alley. Zac has a soft spot for the kids that come through occasionally and Ro isn't the first one who has hung around the garage. It makes Bob feel bad as he wonders how much longer Zac has left even as he makes himself into Zac's go-to guy - the guy who can take over from Zac.

Bob is taking a smoke break and watching the kid stack up crates for Zac the first time he talks.

"You're not from here," he says.

Bob doesn't say anything and the kid keeps talking. "I'm not from here either. I'm traveling all over, ya know?"

Bob nods. He's seen the punks wandering through the city looking for quick cash to get them to the next city. They're the ones who didn't have the skills to get out and took to wandering the country instead. Ro keeps chattering as he moves the crates into neat piles. He tells Bob about going down the coast, getting work in the orchards, and sleeping on the back of transports. Bob shakes his head and Ro grins. The scorpion tattooed high on his neck flexes as he looks over his shoulder at Bob.

"It's getting too cold up here. How do you guys stand it?"

Bob exhales a cloud of smoke, "I grew a beard."

Ro giggles.

Zac doesn't come in the next day and Bob knows that he's dead. He goes about his day as he normally would. Ro appears looking for work in the afternoon when Bob is smoking outside. Ro bounces on his toes. His lips are pulled back in a grin that doesn't look quite right.

"Where's Zac? Slacking off?" He laughs but it turns into a shiver as the wind whistles down the alley.

"He's not here kid."

"Oh," Ro rubs his hands together and Bob can see the blue-purple color of his nails that signal his chill even more than the shivering.

Bob sighs and tugs off his hoodie. He holds it out to Ro.

"Here, you're freezing." He thrusts the hoodie at Ro who snatches it out of his hand as if he's afraid Bob will re-decide.

It's too big for Ro, hitting him mid thigh with the sleeves falling over his hands, but he smiles sweetly. "Thanks."

"Get out of here, go where it's warm." Bob says and turns back into the garage without waiting for Ro to say anything. If Ro has the street smarts Bob thinks he does the tracker in the hoodie will be deactivated within the hour. He lays back on the creeper and slides under a battered transport trying not to think about how Zac probably would have approved of him giving Ro his hoodie even if he would have teased Bob about it.

Ro does deactivate the tracker and Bob doesn't see him again. He wonders if Ro is moving south into the orchards. When Zac's body is found washed up on the shore of the lake a day later Bob is expecting it. He takes his promotion into Zac's place with a stoic nod.

Part Two

It's just two weeks before Mikey's last year of school is to start when the world is turned upside down.

He wakes from a sound sleep to pounding at the door. He can't hear the usual sounds of his parents going to find out who is banging at the door. He waits but only the steady knocking interrupts the night. He pulls a hoodie on and stumbles up the stairs to investigate rubbing at his eyes under his glasses in an attempt to wake up.

He opens the door to find a man and a woman waiting. The badges on their coats identify them as part of the regional police force. The man's hand is still raised to knock again.

"I'm Officer Ayres, this is Officer Stone, are you Michael James Way?" the woman asks and Mikey can feel the muscles of his neck tense in reaction.

He nods cautiously.

"Can we come in?" Officer Ayres asks and Mikey stands aside wishing his parents hadn't disappeared.

They sit at the kitchen table and Officer Stone says gently, "Michael, we have some bad news."

Everything feels surreal and he can't seem to catch his breath as the Officers gently explain that his parents were pronounced dead on arrival. The tired looking children's services man, Mr. Wake, who walked in behind the Officers, calls him an orphan and it takes Mikey a moment to realize that he is an orphan even though he doesn't feel like one. He's always thought of orphans as children and he doesn't feel like a child. He wonders if anyone has told Gerard yet and if his brother will be coming home. He hopes so. He shakes his head mutely when Mr. Wake asks if he has somewhere to go. He knows better than to bring Tessa under unnecessary scrutiny and there is nowhere else he would want to go. Mr. Wake nods to Officer Stone.

"I'll stay with you then until alternative arrangements can be made."

"I need Gerard," Mikey says and stares at the table top.

Their parents were always going to be there and now they aren't he can't figure out what to do. When Elena died his parents must have done something but he can't remember what. He wants to retreat to Tessa's shop and burrow into the computers. Instead he picks at the loose thread on his cuff and tries not to think about how Mr. Wake is watching him.

"Someone has been sent to inform your brother," Mr. Wake tells him.

Mikey nods and bites his tongue as Mr. Wake begins looking through the cupboards. Instead of helping with the search, he mumbles that he's going back to his room without waiting for Mr. Wake to say anything and on his way to the basement slides the handset into the pocket of his hoodie. He is sure by now that they'll have tracked down his brother but he wants to phone him, wants to hear his voice. He's only phoned Gerard a few times and he has to search for the note with the number written on it.

He can still remember how excited Gerard had been when he'd phoned them with the news that he was moving in with Manuel and that Manuel had a phone connection that could do long-distance. Their mother had worried over Gerard moving in with a boyfriend they'd never met, never even seen pictures of, but Gerard had sounded so happy. Mikey had pressed him on the pictures and when he'd heard that Manuel had explained he couldn't have pictures going through bands because of his job Mikey had been suspicious enough to search him only to find nothing more than the standard over-zealous corp-security protocols. It supported Gerard's explanation that Manuel is just another corporate lackey who has little interest in talking about his unexciting job.

"I can't blame him, I'm going into CorpArt," Gerard had said with a little laugh even though it wasn't that funny.

Mikey had let it rest because Gerard sounded so happy he couldn't bring himself to dig deeper. He looks at the curled piece of paper with Manuel and Gerard's number written on it and sighs. He doesn't really want to make the call. He doesn't want any of it to be real.

He listens to the exchanges click through and does his best to ignore the sound of Mr. Wake in the kitchen. Gerard sounds sleepy when he picks up and Mikey is jolted by the realization that his brother doesn't know.

"Hey," he clears his throat, "Gee, I . . ."

"Mikey?"

"Yeah . . . there was an accident."

"What? Mikey are you okay?"

"I'm fine but the Regionals are here and . . . Mom and Dad are . . . they said they're dead."

"Dead?"

"There was an accident," he repeats.

In halting sentences he tells his brother everything the Officers told him grateful that Gerard doesn't interrupt him. He waits, listening to the sound of Gerard's breathing, not knowing what else to say.

"I. . . This was never supposed to be a problem." Gerard finally says.

"They're supposed to, they said somebody had told you."

"Not yet."

"You have to get here, I can't do this. There's a children's services man here and I can't do anything."

Gerard exhales, "Let me think, I don't know if I've got the money for the tickets down,"

Mikey feels his knees go weak with relief because he still has the money saved from the jobs Ray gave him and it will easily cover Gerard's trip. He tells his brother as much making sure to make it sound as if it's saving from his part time job. It's a mark of how worried Gerard is that he doesn't even protest just agrees with Mikey's plan.

Mr. Wake leaves with a promise to return to check up on Mikey before Gerard arrives and Mikey does his best not to look unsuitably pleased with the man's departure. He knows that it's just procedure but having the children's services man around makes him feel young and stupid like he hasn't since the Agents showed up. He watches Mr. Wake's transport leave and waits for Gerard to show up. He knows that once Gerard is there again things will be better. It's always better when Gerard is with him and he's certain his brother will know what to do.

Ray had disappeared four days earlier, as was his wont, and Mikey knows Tessa won't be concerned if he doesn't show up for the day. He watches the grey morning light brighten the kitchen and retreats to the basement. He listens to the clock tick over and falls into a fitful sleep. He dreams about sinking ferries. In his dreams he watches bright green Ag transports flip, burying Gerard in avalanches of potatoes, and he wakes up fighting against the people who hold him back from Gerard's mangled corpse.

Mikey wakes to the sound of the basement door creaking open and harsh daylight invades the darkness. He blinks twice and focuses on the familiar slump-shouldered silhouette of his brother. Gerard kicks the door shut plunging the room back into its familiar twilight. Mikey sits up letting the blankets pool around his waist.

He rubs at his eyes and Gerard laughs, short and sharp, "I'll go make you coffee."

When he finally sees Gerard in the proper light it brings him up short. Gerard looks nothing like Mikey remembers and it feels like he is seeing a stranger. In his brother's place is a pale man with long black hair who wears a stripped scarf and a leather jacket. It isn't until he says Mikey's name and smiles his same crooked smile that the stranger vanished. Mikey lurches forward and Gerard meets him halfway, pulling him tight against his chest. They hold each other tightly as though they'll float away without an anchor, and Mikey buries his face in Gerard's hair smelling paint and turpentine just like always. Gerard starts to say something but breaks off with a pained noise and Mikey nods. He knows what his brother would say. They stay clinging together until the timer beeps to signal coffee. Mikey reluctantly pulls away and Gerard lets him. He feels safer, more grounded, having Gerard here within touching distance instead of far way in the city.

"Manuel didn't come?" Mikey asks because it's easier to ask that than if his brother knows what to do about their dead parents.

"He's away."

"Away?"

"He. . . sometimes he has to go away for awhile, on business, and I can't get a hold of him. I'll tell him when I get back."

Mikey frowns and Gerard shakes his head, "It's not a problem. It's really good for me because then I can focus."

"I guess."

Gerard smiles, "trust me, he's awesome, you'd like him."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Gerard nods and begins to launch into the description of Manuel's good points that Mikey has already heard before. He finds the repetition comforting.

Mikey is the one who digs out the copy of their parents' will from the box of labelled "Important Papers" in Elena's delicate handwriting. They've put it off as long as they can but they both agree that they need to know, need to be prepared, for when Mr. Wake comes back.

"They aren't going to take you," Gerard tells him fiercely.

Mikey would have laughed before but now he thinks about how Mr. Wake calls him an orphan and worries that they might not have a choice. Gerard brings them both cups of extra strong coffee before they sit down at the table to read through it. Mikey presses himself against Gerard's side and lets the warmth from his brother's body anchor him. He wishes their parents had said something about the will when they were still alive. He makes notes in the back of his school notebook while Gerard reads.

The will makes Gerard Mikey's guardian which is a small mercy because their only other family is their Mother's older sister, Alice, who they haven't seen since Gerard was small and the reason for the estrangement dies with their parents. Mikey is grateful that the will makes no mention of needing to contact Alice because he doesn't like the idea of having to deal with yet more strangers. Mr. Wake returns twice and it is obvious he is less than pleased that Gerard is Mikey's guardian. He talks about responsibility and the burden of having a child as though Mikey is years away from his majority not mere months. Gerard finally chases him off by allowing him to extract Gerard's solemn promise to contact him at once if anything is too much to handle. Mikey doesn't understand why their case is bothering Mr. Wake so much when it will be in his hands less than a year. He knows the answer probably lies in the bands, just waiting for him to find it, but he refrains from sliding into the bands because he knows it won't be relevant information to the problems he and Gerard have pressing at them.

"I could take a year, I think, and be here until you get into CySchool. It wouldn't be a problem," Gerard says and sighs, "that's not. . . you know what I mean."

Gerard only has another year of school left. Mikey can't stand the idea that Gerard would give it up to come back to Jersey and take care of him. Gerard says it isn't a problem, that he doesn't mind, but Mikey knows better. His brother, with his long hair and city clothes, doesn't belong in Jersey anymore. He shakes his head and Gerard frowns.

"It's only a couple months and then it's done, you can't just stop for a whole year because of that, your scholarship isn't going to be there if you do. I know we can't afford to send you without it. You can't waste everything just because of my stupid age thing."

"You could come back, live with me and Manuel and finish out your last year there."

"No." Mikey says fast and hard. Even if he could deal with having to suddenly live with his brother's boyfriend if he moves into the city he'll be unable to apply for the CySchool scholarship and without that he knows he has no ability to get in. He hasn't worked so hard just to blow his chance at even applying. Then there is Tessa and Ray who haven't taught him everything yet. He doesn't want to leave them either but he knows he can't tell Gerard about them. Instead, he lays everything out about CySchool and scholarships to Gerard, over-explaining things in his desperation to make Gerard understand why he can't leave. Gerard's mouth flattens into a tight unhappy line but he all he says is that he has to think about it. Mikey retreats to the basement and looses himself in the bands. He tries to ignore the sound of Gerard pacing then the slam of the door.

Mikey wakes up with his nose pressed uncomfortably against the side of the keyboard. He blinks at the display time. It's later than he thought. He can hear faint sounds through the floor and assumes it means Gerard came back. He creeps up the stairs and quietly peers around the door. Gerard is smoking and his hair is dishevelled as if he's been constantly running his hands through it. The table is covered with papers. Mikey slides into the chair next to him and Gerard looks over before focusing back on the ledger in front of him. They sit in silence. The ledger, filled with their Mother's sharp slanted letters, doesn't look any better the longer Mikey stares at it.

"I won't let you come back here and ruin your life." He finally blurts out as Gerard stubs out his cigarette.

Gerard exhales hard, "Alright, we'll find some other way."

The house is leased and only paid for another month. Mikey goes through the accounts with Gerard for a third time but no matter how they shift the numbers there is no way they can keep up with the payments. There are stress lines around Gerard's mouth but he nods in agreement when Mikey proposes letting it go.

"Where will you go if you stay here?"

"Find an apartment," Mikey answers and wonders what it will be like to live somewhere that isn't the house.

"A minor can't do that."

"I'll work around it, you can sign for it, we'll make it work." Mikey says with certainty, "and when the year is over I'll come to the city if I don't get the scholarship."

Gerard scoffs, "That isn't even a possibility."

Mikey leans his head against Gerard's shoulder, basking in his brother's certainty. He knows it's unlikely he won't get it but the possibility is still there and he can't ignore it. Instead he closes his eyes and listens to Gerard's breathing.

"An apartment is going to be smaller," Gerard says breaking the silence and Mikey rolls his eyes so he can look up at him. Gerard looks unhappy and his gaze darts around the room taking in the years of accumulated clutter.

"We can sell most of this stuff," Mikey says and he doesn't look at Gerard when he says it because he knows how Gerard felt about their parents selling Elena's things.

His brother just nods and bumps his knee with his own. Mikey knows that he should be waiting for Gerard to deal with things but he knows his brother and he knows what needs done. Gerard has always been the dreamer of them and Mikey is secretly glad to see he is still filling that role. He doesn't know what he'd do if Gerard turned into somebody sensible. Gerard lets him make the plans, lets him direct things, and it helps him feel less lost.

* * *

In the time that Bob has been managing the chop shop their output has increased and the bosses have started making noise about putting him in charge of overseeing all of them. Dan couldn't be happier with his progress. He keeps his mouth shut and ears open for new information. The girl Perri picked up is still mostly a mystery to him and he can't see why Dan thinks they need any more information on her when Perri's girlfriends cycle in and out with enough frequency it doesn't cause any comment. She might be a flatlander which is a surprise but other than that Bob has no information to report when he meets Dan for their routine check-in. Bob's stomach roils unhappily just like does every time.

"We hear that Perri is starting to look like an easy target to the other families. If you get contacted don't make any definite moves but leave yourself open to switching sides." Dan orders him and Bob nods.

Afterwards, he goes with the guys back to the bar where he first met Ray. He drinks more than usual and when Chad makes a crack about him needing to get laid Bob rolls with it and picks up a girl. They fuck in the alley just like the first time when the guys had picked up a girl for him and by now it feels routine. The girl leaves teeth marks on his neck and he returns the favor. Dan calls it a bonding ritual and Bob remembers the section in the briefings on how a good undercover agent went through them. He'll have to shower when he gets home and wash the smell of sex off his skin. He hopes the teeth marks will have faded before Ray comes back. He offers the girl a cigarette after and when she leans forward to light it he can see the flame sparkling in her earrings.

"You from here?"

"Here and there." She shrugs but Bob can hear the west coast in her accent.

"Me too," Bob says and smiles.

Chad winks at him when he gets back into the bar, holding the door so the girl can step through before him, and Bob just nods slightly. His reputation for being quiet means he doesn't have to do the bragging that might otherwise be expected. He buys the next round instead and tries not to think about how Zac would have ribbed him.

If Ray has a schedule Bob has yet to figure it out so he is relieved to return to an empty apartment. It's been almost a month and he knows Ray will probably show up soon. He knows it's dangerous to have somebody living with him, especially somebody without a set schedule who hasn't even been vetted by the Agency but he can't stand the idea of having the Agency going through this piece of his life too. He knows Ray isn't involved with the families. He'll never mention Ray to his marks and that will keep both of them safer. Bob sighs and tries not to think about how Ray's clothes are mixed in with his own or how Ray was the one who bought the larger coffee pot that sits on the counter.

He hears the tell tale squeak of the door while he's in the shower and knows that Ray will see the livid mark on his neck. He scrubs over his shoulders again and waits. Just like he always does Ray slides inside, careful to keep most of the warmth in the room. Bob can see the frizzy mass of his hair through the curtain.

"I'm back," he says and Bob wonders if he looks as tired as he sounds.

"Long trip?"

"Yeah, I've got to head out early tomorrow but I wanted to see you." Ray rolls his neck as though it's stiff, "join you?"

Bob wishes he could say no, wishes he didn't have the girl's teeth marks on his neck but he can't do anything about it so he says yes and watches Ray's silhouette through the curtain as he strips.

Ray climbs in behind him and Bob turns around so the water beats against his back. Exhaustion lines pulls around the corners of Ray's eyes but he smiles and leans forward to kiss Bob.

"It's good to be back."

Bob pushes at Ray's shoulder gently and they switch places so the water is darkening Ray's hair and weighing down his curls. He tips his head back and closes his eyes, letting the water slide over his face. Bob turns him around and Ray lets his head drop forward as Bob begins working the soap over Ray's shoulders. Bob finds it disconcerting how Ray's pale skin makes him see the tiny scars on his own hands better.

"Magic hands," Ray sighs as Bob works on a particularly large knot of muscle.

Bob hums and keeps working on the tight muscles in Ray's back. He wonders if Ray will tell him why he's stressed. Probably not. Ray never talks much about his work which suits Bob because otherwise he'd have to tell Ray about the garage and he knows Ray isn't naïve enough not to put the information together to figure out exactly what sort of garage it is.

He watches through the open bathroom door as Ray combs product into his hair. It's relaxing to watch Ray working the thick serum through his hair and even though he's seen Ray do it countless times before it still feels shockingly intimate to Bob. Ray turns to look at him and smiles. Bob tries his best not to be obvious about covering up the mark left by the girl's teeth as he smiles back. He wonders if Ray will get pissed with his lack of fidelity and leave. The thought makes him feel cold.

Ray slips into bed and presses a kiss to Bob's mouth before trailing kisses along his jaw and down his neck until his lips are pressed against the marks from the girl's teeth. Bob's whole body feels tense and tight. Ray nips at them gently and then licks them. A hot wet stripe over Bob's skin.

"I'm sorry," Bob blurts out.

Ray stills and pulls away.

"I'm so sorry," Bob says again and wishes he didn't have to face Ray naked in bed.

"I never asked that of you." Ray finally says.

"I. . .," of all the reactions that was the one Bob hadn't even though possible.

"You're okay with it?" Bob asks jerking his chin down toward the bite mark.

"As long as you're safe? Yeah."

Bob stares and Ray looks back at him steadily as though waiting for him to say more. Bob doesn't know what to say. He was prepared for anger, even prepared for Ray leaving without a word but he didn't think of Ray accepting it even though he's always though Ray probably has other hook ups in other cities.

"I didn't ask you for fidelity and I'm not going to. You've never required it of me." Ray says and he sounds oddly formal as if he's repeating something from memory.

"I'd wondered," Bob says and licks suddenly dry lips.

That makes Ray chuckle, "There's only one mechanic for me."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Now are you done freaking out?"

Bob nods and Ray pulls him into a hard kiss, tongue pressing insistently into his mouth. Bob yields under Ray's hands and mouth, lets Ray suck a bruise over top of the bite mark as he jacks Bob off with quick strokes. Bob can feel Ray's cock sliding against his hip and he twist his wrist enough to give Ray more friction. Ray hums against his skin but doesn't stop sucking at Bob's neck.

Bob comes with a bitten off shout and he feels Ray follow, his come spattering against his belly. Ray gives the bruise one final lick before flopping onto his back. Bob listens to the sync of their breaths as he feels the blood pulse in the bruise Ray has given him.

He's woken in the middle of the night by the sound of sirens. Ray mumbles in his sleep but doesn't wake up. Bob strokes over his back and Ray sighs deeply. Before he can wake Ray up Bob pulls his hand away because experience has taught him that if he keeps touching Ray he will wake up. He watches Ray sleeping in the dim light that filters in from the street and listens to the sound of far off sirens. He can see the lump of Ray's bag on the floor and the lines of their clothes hanging in the closet. It hits him, looking at the shadows of the accumulated detritus on the bedside table that Ray has for all intents being living with him for more than a year. Fuck. A good Agent would never have allowed it to happen but the more Bob thinks about things the more he realizes that he wants Ray around and doesn't want to think about how when the job is finished he's going to have to disappear and hope that Ray will be safe from any retribution when the Agency finally starts picking the Families off.

"I think. . . I think I love you." Bob whispers to Ray's sleeping form because he knows that he'll never say it when they are both awake. It's the sort of attachment he can't admit to, can't allow to bind Ray closer to him, not if he wants Ray to be able to move on when Bob finally has to vanish. Ray snuffles in his sleep and shifts closer to Bob.

In the morning Ray is gone along with his bag. When he gets dressed Bob find that his watch has been replaced by a new one. It's sitting on a scrap of paper with a heart drawn around a U. Bob burns the paper and exchanges his old watch for the one from Ray.

* * *

Mikey doesn't find an apartment instead he finds a roommate. It's easier that way than having to fiddle with the paperwork. His roommate, Frank, is tiny and delicate with a scorpion tattooed high on his neck. He grins widely and bounces on his toes as he talks to Mikey. He's only a year older and fresh out of school. Frank has a job which he calls boring and doesn't seem all that interested in talking about which is just fine with Mikey. Gerard worries his lip but lets Mikey do the talking when they meet Frank for the first time because Mikey is the one who is going to have to live with Frank. Privately Gerard tells Mikey that he's just happy Frank is tiny because then he doesn't have to worry so much. Mikey shrugs and jams the lid down on the last box of stuff to move. Gerard worries too much and now that he's legally Mikey's guardian - only for a few more months as Mikey likes to point out - his worry has only gotten worse. He can't tell Gerard that he's done a shallow scan on Frank and found nothing alarming with bringing up awkward questions. Instead he points out that Frank doesn't seem like the type to start getting overly interested in Mikey's life anyway.

The night before he has to go back to the city Gerard curls around Mikey, smoothing his hand over Mikey's hair, and whispers that everything will be fine in the end. Mikey doesn't say anything just lets the repetition of Gerard's hand in his hair soothe him to sleep. He wakes with Gerard's arm flung over him and the snuffle of Gerard's breathing against his side. He squints at his watch and feels the unpleasant jolt that comes with realizing he's late. He shakes Gerard awake and they both stumble into the apartment's tiny kitchen trying their best to be quiet in case Frank is still sleeping.

* * *

He goes to Tessa's shop the day after Gerard leaves. It's been long enough that he feels nervous walking in through the back door. Tessa is bent over a work bench just like always but Ray is nowhere to be seen. He really hopes he didn't miss one of his visits.

"Hi Mikey."

"Sorry I disappeared."

She shrugs, "I heard about your parents, I'm sorry."

He shifts uncomfortably and nods still unsure of how to say respond. It bothers him that he didn't realize that Tessa likely had alerts set up for him when it's such a basic thing to do.

"You have it sorted out?" she asks.

He nods and changes the subject, "did I miss Ray?"

"No, but come see this worm and then I've got a job if you're interested," she tells him switching over to Derez.

* * *

School has always been a serious job for him but having to go through the ritual of sympathy over his parents again and again is wearing and he wishes it was like the previous year. He could call Gerard, tell him about it, but he doesn't want his brother to worry more than he already is and he knows that if he has to talk Gerard will pick up on his half-truths. He'll email later that will be almost as good and just like old times for them. He wonders if Manuel gets to read his messages to Gerard.

Mikey can smell Chinese food when he opens the door. He isn't surprised. In the time he's been living with Frank he's discovered that Frank has a weird love of the idea of take-out. It's almost as if he's never been able to have it before.

"Hey, I got supper, wanna share?" Frank shouts out.

As long as Mikey lets Frank pick out the bits he doesn't like and doesn't comment on the lack of meat Frank is happy to share with him. It's turned into a routine for them which Mikey finds comforting. It's not the same as eating with his parents was or eating with Tessa and Ray is but it's nicer than eating alone all the time when he's home. Frank's ritual of dishing everything up instead of leaving it in the cartons puzzles Mikey but he never says anything. Sometimes he thinks Frank must have learned how to live from a manual even though he knows that it's an absurd assumption.

"You guys are really close, aren't you?" Frank says just as Mikey is in the middle of chewing a particularly tough piece of broccoli and it's such a non sequitur from Frank's excited review of a movie that Mikey blinks in confusion.

"You and your brother," Frank prompts.

Mikey nods and shallows, "Yeah, he's all I've got."

"You talk about him a lot."

"Oh. He's . . . Gerard."

"It's nice, like I wish I'd had a brother like that." Frank says and there's something in his tone that makes Mikey realize whatever Frank isn't saying is probably going to be the sort of thing that ends up in children's services' files. Frank is studiously looking down at his noodles and Mikey shifts uncomfortably.

"Did I ever tell you about the time Gerard found a unicorn for me?" He asks to break the silence and Frank shakes his head, smiling just a little, so Mikey launches into the tale.

* * *

Bob isn't expecting it when the regional police come into the garage. They take him and Chad down to the precinct. He knows this is going work for his cover but he's still pissed that Dan didn't let him know to be waiting for the pick-up. Chad is vibrating with anger and Bob pushes him against the side of the transport as best he can with his hands cuffed behind his back.

"Stay cool, they don't have anythin', so don't fuck up." Bob growls and pushes himself away just as the first Officer opens the door to haul Chad out.

An Agent who doesn't introduce himself sits in on Bob's questioning. He doesn't say anything but it makes Bob feel better to know that if anything goes wrong the Agent will know what happened. Bob would rather run than get into the prisons. Knowing the Agent is there, knowing that Dan will show up to get him out before that happens makes the tension in his neck ease. He slouches in his chair and says nothing as the Officer in charge asks him question after question.

When the Officer disappears the Agent gives Bob a barely perceptible nod that confirms his assumptions about why the Agent is there. When the Officer returns with claims of what secrets Chad has been spilling Bob just slumps lower and doesn't answer. He knows the Officer is playing them against each other.

The Regionals toss both of them after the maximum hold-without-charge period. Chad is surly but Bob just feels tired. He wants to go back to the apartment and let Ray work the kinks out of his neck instead they both head back to the garage to reassure everyone that things are just fine. He knows it's going to be a long day.

* * *

Even though Frank is a year older and technically done with school he still manages to make Mikey feel dull. Frank decides, after three weeks where Mikey has only left the apartment to go to school or to his job - in reality Tessa's shop - that it is time for him to take action. He knocks on Mikey's door and doesn't pause before poking his head in.

"We're going out, you have to get out." Frank announces.

Mikey hums in an attempt to show he's listening even though he's still concentrating on his homework before his mind processes Frank's words.

"What? No, I'm busy."

"Dude, you haven't done anything fun in weeks. It's not normal."

"I have plans, I need good grades," Mikey points out as if he hasn't told Frank about the CySchool scholarship already.

Frank laughs. "Just one night won't hurt. Com' on please? Please Mikeyway, please?"

Frank's tone has turned wheedling and Mikey closes his book. Frank does a fist pump of victory like a cartoon character.

"It's going to be awesome."

Frank's idea of awesome is to drag Mikey to a basement show. There are kids there that Mikey recognizes from school and people who look closer to Gerard's age. Frank gets greeted with back-slaps and yells which tell Mikey that Frank has been showing up at these shows regularly. It's the first time he's been and it is like another world. People are crowded up together, jostling and laughing too loudly, while beer is passed around in flimsy disposable cups. Frank offers him one but he shakes his head. Everything is too loud and too much after the quiet of his room and Tessa's shop. He watches Frank and the other people who seem at ease trying to pick up the rules from them.

When the music starts Mikey looses himself in it. It's rough music, angrier than the Pumpkins but still music Mikey recognizes from listening with Gerard. It's not as polished but as he watches the musicians over the heads of the thrashing, bouncing crowd he feels like he did the first time Gerard played the Pumpkins for him. He can see Frank in the middle of the crowd. His mouth open as he screams along to the song and he seems to delight in the feeling of the other bodies bumping against him. Mikey closes his eyes and lets the vibration of the bass travel through his body. If only Gerard was with him it would be perfect.

Frank finds him after the bands have played. He's sweaty and grinning wide as he grabs Mikey's hand and drags him outside into the chilly night.

"You have fun?" Frank asks, voice too loud.

Mikey nods even though his ears are ringing.

* * *

Gerard graduates at the end of Mikey's first term and gets a CorpArt job immediately which doesn't surprise Mikey a bit since he knows his brother's art is good enough to hang in Musée although Gerard is shocked. Mikey likes Manuel better when Gerard tells him that his boyfriend had been just as certain of his job prospects as Mikey.

"I'm going to put everything I can away for CySchool," Gerard tells him earnestly in one of their weekly phone calls.

"The scholarship…"

"Will cover most of it but not everything," Gerard interrupts him.

"I wish you could do your art."

"It's not that bad, honest," his brother says like he always does.

Mikey winces just like he always does when Gerard says that because he knows what Gerard is creating in CorpArt and it isn't anything like the art he was sending Mikey pictures of during his student days. He wants to tell Gerard not to worry so much, that he has it mostly taken care of but he still has to find a plausible reason for the money he's been saving up from the jobs Ray and Tessa pass onto him. Instead he changes the subject to Frank and his latest exploits because it makes Gerard laugh and ask, half teasingly, if Frank is being a bad influence.

"You're not my guardian anymore you know?" Mikey chides him.

"I know but you're always going to be my kid brother."

* * *

A non-descript transport pulls up alongside Bob when he's walking home and the back door is popped open.

"Get in," says the man in the back.

Bob doesn't hesitate as he gets in even though his mind is screaming with the possibility that he might be going to his death. He leans back in the seat as the sedan starts moving again and surveys the other occupants of the car. He doesn't recognize the driver. The man who is twisted around in the passenger seat to stare at him looks familiar but Bob can't place him. His skin goes cold when he recognizes the man with the shaved head sitting next to him as Rufus one of Perri's enforces.

"We heard about your trip to the station," Passenger Seat says conversationally.

Bob relaxes just a bit because he's been expecting something like this so he nods. There is no sense in trying to deny it.

"We acquired a copy of your interview, very impressive, but there's just one little thing bothering us," Passenger Seat smiles slightly, "why would an Agent sit in on your interview?"

Bob shrugs and really hopes the Agent who was sent down had the good sense not to let on that Bob was one of their undercover Agents.

"Now if I was a suspicious person I might be wondering if maybe you weren't working on something with them," he gives a little shrug, "I say you can never be too careful, Rufus."

Bob forces himself not to jerk away when Rufus pulls a knife and grabs him by the front of his shirt. The blade flicks into the neck and down, the tip just scrapping lightly over the skin on his chest as Rufus slits his clothing open. Bob makes what he hopes sounds like an angry protesting growl.

"Hold still, Rufus won't be a minute."

Bob does as he's told, keeping quiet, as Rufus runs his hands over his skin, pressing and searching for hidden mics or the tell-tale lump of a tracing implant. He pats down Bob's clothes, fingers deftly rolling seams and cuffs for anything hidden. Rufus finally nods and sits back much to Bob's relief.

"Now that little unpleasantness is out of the way," he pauses and waits for Bob to incline his head in agreement before continuing, "we were very impressed with your performance so far, and we like to reward that in this Family."

* * *

After the first basement show Frank started making a habit of dragging Mikey to shows a few times a month. Frank, Mikey suspects, goes to them with much more frequency since every time it seems as if he knows even more people. Mikey likes to hang back and let the music blank his thoughts out while Frank disappears into the writhing crowd. Afterwards, Frank will find Mikey and ask him with a grin if he had fun. Mikey always says yes. He never tells Frank he wishes that Gerard could be there, that he wishes they would have bothered to go to the shows when they were still at home and their parents were still alive.

Frank seems especially excited for the current show that he's brought Mikey to although he refuses to say why when Mikey presses him.

Instead he grins and shakes his head, "you'll ruin the surprise Mikeyway."

"Are you sure?"

"It's a secret!" Frank exclaims and flings his arms wide while he twirls once.

Mikey laughs.

Mikey stands at his customary place in the back and searches the crowd for Frank but he can't find him. The reason becomes obvious when he sees Frank on the stage holding a guitar. He's grinning fiercely as he looks out over top of the audience. Mikey gives him a thumbs up just in case he wants the support. The band opens with the thrum of the bass twining into the thump of the drums then the guitars come screaming over top. Frank bounces and thrashes around as he plays, hair swinging and back arching as he falls to his knees. Frank is captivating with his wild gyrations and Mikey finds himself pushing forward so he can see Frank better.

After the band finishes Mikey makes a break toward the exit where Frank traditionally finds him. He doesn't have to wait long before Frank comes out tugging on a hoodie as he walks. His hair is still wet with sweat and his cheeks are flushed from exertion.

"You were amazing." Mikey says.

Frank opens his mouth then snaps it shut. He bounces forward and smashes their mouths together. Mikey feels him pull back just a touch to make the kiss more comfortable. Frank kisses intently, as though he wants to make his whole proposition in one kiss, and Mikey yields to him, lets him guide the kiss even as he steadies one hand on Frank's hip. They break apart panting.

"I've wanted to do that for so long," Frank gasps and his grin has just a touch of nervousness to it.

"Really?"

"Yeah, fuck, did I do it wrong?" Frank asks with a frown that reminds Mikey of when he's trying to remember instructions. He doesn't look as gleeful as when he first found Mikey and Mikey reminds himself not to feel guilty for it.

"No?" Mikey says but it sounds more like a question than he meant it to be even to his own ears.

"I. . . I could try again," Frank offers.

"You could."

"Yeah?"

"I'd like that," Mikey says firmly and Frank grins wide and happy.

* * *

Ray appears after an extended absence that has left Bob wondering if he's moved on. He's wearing a watch that costs more than Bob could hope to make in a month and it's a painful reminder to him that Ray shouldn't be involved with somebody like him.

"Hello Stranger, I thought you'd found somebody else," Bob says trying to tease but his tone falls flat.

"I had to get some stuff sorted out," Ray explains without telling him anything of value which relaxes Bob. He's used to Ray's non-explanations.

Ray ignores that Bob is still in his work clothes and pulls him into a hug. Bob stiffens trying to keep his dirty clothes away from Ray. Ray sighs and Bob steps back.

"Let me clean up?" he says as a peace offering.

Ray nods, "Fine, I'll start dinner."

Bob nods and heads toward the bedroom stripping off his dirty shirt as he goes. The familiarity of whole exchange makes him feel calmer and he lets the heat of the shower ease away the tension in his muscles.

"So I have another job in a couple of days that's going to put me out of communication for a couple months." Ray says over their dinner.

Bob hums and waves his hand a little to get Ray to elaborate.

"It's mostly just setting stuff up, but the client is very nervous about security so," Ray shrugs and his tone tells Bob he thinks the client is over reacting.

"This way of telling me you're not leaving me?" Bob says nudging Ray's foot under the table.

"You're the only mechanic for me," Ray says and it's as close as they ever get to acknowledging Bob's late night confession and Ray's note.

"It seems like a long time."

"That's just the way the business is," Ray shrugs apologetically.

Bob can tell Ray is uncomfortable which doesn't surprise him given that from his training on the bands and the people who work them he's positive Ray is involved in something much more sensitive than just setting up a nervous client. He lets Ray switch the topic and fills this new information about Ray's job anyway in his mind because a good Agent would do that even if he has no intention of investigating Ray.

Afterwards, Ray tries to teach him to play Jeu de Tarot again until they're both yawning. Bob peels Ray out of his clothes and stops when the light reveals finger-shaped bruises on his hips. Bob doesn't know what to say so he waits, letting the silence fill the room, as he stares at the marks on Ray's hips. He can't help feeling relieved that Ray has somebody else because that means he won't be alone with Bob vanished. Ray is watching him, face carefully blank, and Bob realizes he's going to have to say something because it's obvious Ray isn't going to and he knows how patient Ray can be when he decides to do something.

"You never asked me for fidelity and I'm not going to ask you for it." Bob says slowly and he can see the slight relaxing of Ray's muscles.

"It doesn't change how I feel about you, both of you," Ray stresses.

Bob blows out a slow breath and thinks about Ray being able to love two people. It's weird but at the same time he likes the idea, likes that Ray has somebody else because Bob knows that one of these days he won't be there for Ray. Ray is watching him and Bob can see the nervous tension coming back as the time ticks over.

"Okay," he says, "that's. . . I can live with that."

Ray smiles and steps forward slowly. Bob huffs and pulls him closer so he can kiss him. He rests his hands on Ray's hips and realizes they fit right over the bruises from Ray's other lover. Ray whimpers as Bob nips at his bottom lip and Bob draws back just enough to whisper against Ray's lips.

"Wanna fuck you."

Ray nods and reaches down to fumble with Bob's belt.

"Is he a mechanic too?" Bob asks as Ray is drawing patterns onto his skin as they're both relaxing in their post-orgasm afterglow.

Ray's movements still for a second but his voice is steady when he answers, "he's an artist."

An artist is the sort of person that Bob can see somebody like Ray being with not like Bob the mechanic.

"Does he know about me?"

"He knows as much about you as you know about him." Ray finally says and by his tone Bob can tell Ray isn't willing to give either of them more information which suits him just fine. The less Ray's artist knows about him the less he has to worry.

"Alright."

They lay in silence and it's the easy silence that Bob is used to with Ray. Finally, he reaches down and strokes along the length of Ray's cock, feels it twitch under his fingers, "will you fuck this time?"

* * *

"You look happier," Ray says.

Mikey nods and tells him about Frank. He stumbles to halt when he realizes just how long he's been talking about what Frank does, how Frank took him to shows and made the first move. Ray is smiling with amusement and Tessa is leaning against the door.

"Young love," she says but it sounds more fond than cutting.

"Now, we have a test for you," Ray says and the subject of Frank gets dropped because when it comes to working the bands there is little they like talking about more. He knows that he'll never bring Frank to shop and he's happy to let the subject drop before he embarrasses himself.

Mikey listens as Ray explains they want Mikey do a practice run where he'll have to physically break in, then hook into a system and leave a backdoor for himself, before getting out.

"With your CySchool plans, we're not going to do this for real but you should try it." Tessa says as Ray hands Mikey a piece of paper with an address and date on it, "you go there at that time, get in, leave the backdoor, and get out again. Ray and I'll be there to get you out if anything goes wrong."

Mikey nods.

"Now, show us what you're going to take with you." Tessa orders.

The place they've selected for Mikey's test is in an old warehouse district with lots of empty buildings. Tools he needs feel heavy in his pockets and there is a thin prickle of sweat along his hairline. He knows Tessa and Ray will be watching but it still feels too real. He trusts them but he knows that not everything can be completely planned for in advance. Gerard would probably call him foolish but he wants to do it. He wants to prove he can do it.

He makes short work of the alarm system, cutting into the band it runs through and disabling it with the jam drive he'd cobbled together earlier in the week under Ray's watchful gaze. The all purpose lock-pick slides easily into the keyhole and the door pops open with a low creak. Mikey winces at the noise and mentally deducts a point for forgetting to oil the hinges. He cracks it open just enough to slip through before shutting it gently behind himself. The interior of the warehouse is dark aside from the pools of light that filter in through the high windows. He flips the night vision monocle, borrowed from Tessa, into place and looks at the warehouse through its greenish filter. He can see stacks of boxes and two doors the led into offices. He picks the door on the far right and it unsurprised to find it locked. The pick sticks and he jiggles it like Tessa taught him. The locking mechanism clicks open and he slides the door open, watching cautiously for any surprises. The system drive sits idling on the desk. He's almost done. The jumper is already in his hand and as he's waking the drive up and ghosting his finger tips over the surface looking for the telltale dimple of a port cover. He presses down when he feels it and lets the cover flip open to reveal the port. The blue glow around the active port lets him easily slide the jumper into it. After that it's only a few minutes of work to load the backdoor program onto the drive and clone the main components onto his jumper. He pulls out, erasing his prints, and keys in the sequence to flip the drive back into idle.

The jumper is secure in his pocket as he relocks the outside door of the warehouse and moves off down the street. A block away a transport pulls up alongside him. He looks in the open window to see Tessa. He slides into the front seat with Tessa and twists so he can see Ray in the back. Ray hands him a portable unit.

"Show us your work."

He slips the jumper in and locates the bands. Tessa slides the transport around a corner and Mikey lets his body move with the force of the turn even as he focuses on the unit resting on his lap. He moves slowly, flipping through the bands until he finds one that's secure enough for his comfort, before he slides into the system drive. He leaves the connection open and passes the unit back to Ray. He listens to Ray work and stares out the window as the buildings flash past.

"Good job," Ray finally says and Mikey feels himself relax.

Tessa gives him a quick pat on the shoulder and he can see the smile curving her lips. He feels like he's past the last test.

* * *

Mikey doesn't love Frank and he's certain that Frank doesn't love him. They have an easy affection that is what Mikey imagines friends with benefits must have which is how he explains things to Gerard. He was expecting his brother to be happy for him but he ends up having to convince Gerard that Frank isn't taking advantage of him and that it won't get in the way of his final term of school. He ends up telling Gerard about Frank's help with his application and how they've gotten to be good friends above everything else. It takes a month for him to finally convince Gerard to be alright with his thing with Frank and from Gerard's comments it sounds like Manuel helped with the convincing. It puts Gerard on the defensive when Mikey points that out and complains that at least Gerard has met Frank whereas he's never even seen Manuel let alone talked to him. Mikey listens to Gerard ramble about timing and money before finally wheedling enough that he gets a promise that the next time Manuel will come with Gerard when he comes back to Jersey.

Frank is fussing around in the kitchen when Mikey gets back from Tessa's after finishing another job. The air smells smoky and he can hear Frank swearing. He finds Frank standing in front of the stove with a determined look on his face. There is a pot in the sink and spatters of red sauce over the stove and cabinets.

"I wanted to try something beyond the basics, this gives defective instructions," Frank tells him glaring at an open cookbook.

Mikey picks up the dish cloth and begins wiping up the sauce.

"This batch will be better," Frank says although his doubtful look belies the conviction of his words.

"Let me taste?" Mikey says and opens his mouth obediently when Frank holds out the spoon.

The sauce is bland and faintly gritty but otherwise edible. He makes a show of licking his lips.

"Good?" Frank asks hopefully and Mike nods.

Frank stops in the middle of regaling Mikey with the tale of his cooking attempt and puts down his spoon. Mikey quickly swallows his mouthful of meat and sauce.

"The texture sucks, doesn't it?" Frank asks.

"It's a little sandy," Mikey tells him finally when it's obvious Frank is waiting for him to render a better judgement than not bad.

Frank sighs, "you could have said something earlier."

"It's not terrible."

"I'll do better next time." Frank says and picks up Mikey's plate ignoring his protesting noise.

Frank dumps everything in the trash and pulls out the cereal. "Here, it's at least edible."

That night Mikey presses Frank's hips down as he slides his mouth over Frank's cock. He rolls his eyes up so he can watch Frank's face as he blows him. He likes seeing Frank's mouth open wide and his eyes close involuntarily as he whimpers. The outlines of the swallows on Frank's hips flex under his fingers as Frank tries to thrust into his mouth. The scar that curls over Frank's left side is a solid ridge against the pads of his fingers. Frank's hands fist and then thump flat against the bed. It's his signal he's close and Mikey slides back until just the heavy head of Frank's cock rests on his tongue. He sucks gently and swallows as Frank comes.

"No, no, let me," Frank says as he pushes Mikey's hand away from his own cock.

Mikey lets him take over. He watches Frank squirm down until his mouth closes, wet and hot, around Mikey's cock. Frank doesn't draw it out, instead giving him a steady suction and letting Mikey thrust as he wants. He tries not to be rough with Frank but by the time he's finished and Frank is licking away the last traces of Mikey's orgasm, Frank's lips are swollen and bruised looking. Frank's grin is the one Mikey has come to associate with him being sated and happy. He curls around Mikey's taller body and lays a gentle kiss on his shoulder.

"Next time I'll make you a better dinner," Frank mumbles and Mikey can't help but laugh and kiss him.

* * *

"Stop phoning your mother," is the first thing Dan tells Bob at their next meeting.

"What?"

"She died last month and as far as everyone knows you've been gone, assumed dead, since you went under, so stop fucking phoning."

"Last month?" Bob repeats in disbelief.

"Yes."

"But, why didn't you tell me?"

"We needed you sharp for the last operation, now pull it together, you're going to get another promotion" Dan tells him, the gentle tone at odds with his order.

"We're going to set you up to look like you're catching a mole," he continues as Bob does his best to focus and not think about how he missed his own mother's death.

Dan sighs and snaps his fingers under Bob's nose. "This is important, we'll have somebody play an Agent so you don't have to worry about not hurting him, if it makes it convincing do it, he'll be paid to look after himself."

Dan finishes outlining the plan which involves Bob making sure he's in position with another trusted member of the organization to see the false Agent meeting with the Agency's hand-picked fall guy. They are recommending that he kill the guy. It's the first time he's going to have to have blood on his hands directly and it makes his usual nausea worse. This wasn't the job he signed up for when he entered the Agency but he can't get out of it now.

"Alright, go through it once more," Bob tells Dan before the silence stretches too far and Dan starts to question his dedication.

* * *

Ray is putting away the groceries that Bob has been meaning to buy for the past week when he walks in the apartment.

"Are you okay?" Ray asks already moving toward him.

Bob wants to say "my mother died and nobody told me" but he can't because Ray doesn't know. Ray pulls him into a hug and Bob is reminded again that Ray is stronger than he looks. He lets Ray hold him and bites his tongue so he doesn't tell Ray the truth. Instead he buries his face in Ray's hair and inhales his familiar scent. Ray's hand strokes up and down his back and Bob closes his eyes.

"It was just a really shitty day," he finally says against the warm skin of Ray's neck.

* * *

There is a hired transport waiting in front of his building when Mikey gets back early. He doesn't think anything of it until he opens the door to find Frank's bag packed by the door and Frank doing what is obviously a final check of the apartment.

"What the fuck?" Mikey asks.

Frank flinches and jerks around to look at him. "You weren't supposed to be here for another two hours."

"You're leaving? Were you even going to leave me a note or were you just going to fucking disappear?" Mikey has to fight to keep from yelling as he stalks toward Frank who is standing frozen in the middle of the living room.

"You were just going to vanish, you fucking coward."

The venom in Mikey's voice seems to shake him and he snaps, "it's not my decision."

"What do you mean?"

"There's stuff," Frank breaks off and shakes his head, "I really like you Mikey but there's stuff you can't know about going on and I can't… it's for your own good okay, I just can't tell you why but I have to go."

"To think I fucking liked you too, you motherfucker. My own good? It's for my own good that you were just going to disappear?

"Yes," Frank yells and tries to shoulder past Mikey to get to his bag but Mikey grabs him. Frank doesn't even hesitate when he twists Mikey's wrist and effortlessly breaks his hold. Mikey cradles his wrist and steps back. He's never though Frank was dangerous but looking at the thin line of his mouth and the set of his shoulders Mikey realizes Frank could hurt him if he wanted. Frank seems to follow his train of thought because he steps back looking sad.

"I know I shouldn't have made a move on you, but I'm not sorry I did because I really liked you but I'm trying to keep you safe here. For your own good, just forget about me." Frank says and he hefts his bag over his shoulder.

"I'll find you."

"Don't," Frank says sharply. "You'll go to CySchool and get out of here. Someday I'll just be a memory, a nice one I hope."

"I'll find you," Mikey repeats stubbornly, "maybe not right away but I'm not going to stop looking until I find you."

Frank checks his watch and grimaces, "I can't stop you but be really fucking careful if you have to, please? For me?"

Mikey nods slowly as Frank walks out the door. He feels short of breath and he doesn't know what to do. He hears the transport drive away and realizes that Frank has really gone.

He spends the rest of the day tossing the apartment looking for anything Frank might have left but there is nothing. As twilight turns into true night he realizes that Frank really isn't going to come back. Ignoring the guilty twinge he gets at using the expensive service, he finally phones Gerard.

"Just talk to me," he asks and curses when his voice wobbles.

"Mikey, what's wrong?"

"Frank left, just, please Gee, talk to me."

* * *

Bob's pulse is thrumming in his ears as he walks down the alley with Dixon, one of bar owners he knows gathers information and runs an illegal gambling den for the Perri family. The set-up with the fake Agent is supposed to be happening almost immediately. He spots the fake Agent first then the set-up snitch and motions for Dixon to be quiet as they move towards the pair. Their conversation carries towards Bob and Dixon. It sounds exactly as Dan described it and Bob feels for the first time that the Agency's plan is going to succeed.

The fake Agent flips out a badge and Bob shifts slightly getting ready to move. On cue the Agent turns to look at them and shouts for the snitch to run. The Agent pulls a gun and Bob takes that as his cue to jump him while Dixon chases after the snitch. The fake Agent is small but wiry and he lands a punch that snaps Bob's head back against the metal of a dumpster. The fake Agent twists his wrist backward and does his best to wrench Bob's elbow out of its socket. Bob slams his forehead into the other man's face and feels the warmth of blood against his skin. Bob feels the bone in his ring finger snap. They roll and Bob catches a glimpse of his face in the street light. He looks familiar and that makes Bob hesitate. It's just tiny hesitation but it's still too long. The other man twists out of his grasp and takes off running. Bob pushes himself to his feet and he can see Dixon at the mouth of the alley dragging the snitch with him. At the opposite end the fake Agent stops and raises his hand. The gun shot is a muffled thwap and the snitch slumps in Dixon's arms. Before he can move the gun fires again and pain rips through Bob's upper arm. He clamps his hand over his bicep and watches the fake Agent turn the corner, disappearing into the night.

"Bob, fuck are you ok?" Dixon asks.

The snitch's body lies at his feet and he steps over it as he moves toward Bob. Bob nods and looks down at the blood seeping between his fingers. Now he knows what Dan meant when he said things would be realistic. Dixon takes in the blood on Bob's hand and his swelling finger.

"We need to get you to a medico, I'm going to call."

Bob nods dumbly and focuses on not moving his elbow anymore than he has to because each movement sends shooting pain through his arm. He lets Dixon cinch a makeshift bandage around the bullet wound and wipe the blood off his hand.

A dark, older-model transport appears shortly and Dixon helps him get in. Bob hears Dixon and the driver tossing the snitch's body in the storage compartment. He leans back and hopes again that everything is going to work out. If this goes wrong he knows he's going to be lucky to get out with his life.

There is a tall woman, wearing a suit with her hair in flatlander style dreadlocks, is in the room where the driver takes him. He mistakes her for the medico until a white-haired man with a round face appears wearing a medico pin.

"Alicia," Dixon says when he enters.

She nods to him and they move toward the door. They don't begin their low voiced conversation until they are almost out of the room. Bob does his best to overhear as the medico begins to disinfect and clean the wound on his arm. It's surprisingly shallow for the amount of blood and Bob watches the woman, Alicia, as he feels the pitch of the needle as the medico beings sewing.

"Dixon tells me you caught a snitch." She says and her accent tells Bob that she's a flatlander in more than just hairstyle.

He nods. Flatlanders have a reputation for being a tough people and if this is the girl Dan says Perri has been keeping around it suddenly makes more sense why she hasn't been cycled out like the others. Dan is going to be ecstatic to find out that Bob can actually give him a report on the girl when they meet again. Bob tries his best to watch her closely without seeming to, memorizing all the details of her appearance.

"Tell me what happened." She orders him and shakes her head when the medico goes to deal with Bob's elbow.

The message is clear and Bob begins his tale. She listens quietly as he tells her about seeing the Agent and the Snitch and overhearing their conversation. Dixon stand quietly at the door and Bob wishes he knew exactly what Alicia has already been told. She asks him questions that he does his best to answer and tries to ignore the throbbing pain of his broken finger and mangled elbow. At long last Alicia nods to the medico and he sets to work.

"We'll talk again," Alicia says and walks out of the door. She nods at Dixon to follow her.

* * *

There has never really been any doubt that Mikey will get the CySchool scholarship. His parents counted on him to get it then lift the family out of Jersey with a good job and even though Gerard never says anything Mikey knows his brother still counts on it. When the envelope comes it doesn't bother him that it's lighter than expected. He waits to open it until he can phone Gerard. His brother is just as excited as he is and waits breathlessly as Mikey rips open the envelope. He pulls out a single sheet of paper, folded neatly in three, and smoothes it out.

"Dear Mr. Way," he reads, "We regret to inform you that you have not been selected… oh fuck. Gee, I didn't," Mikey takes a deep breath, "I didn't get it."

"Are you sure?" Gerard asks tentatively.

"Yeah, fuck, I don't know what to do," Mikey says and feels hot tears of shame pricking at his eyes.

"We'll think of something," Gerard says but his tone isn't reassuring.

"I can't stay in Jersey forever," Mikey says and scrubs at his eyes.

"I know, I know. You won't have to."

"What do I do? I didn't. . . I never thought I wouldn't." Mikey chokes and bites his lip trying to get control over his breathing. He can hear Gerard muttering to himself and he focuses on his brother's voice.

"Come stay with us."

"What?"

"There's nothing in Jersey, come stay with me and Manuel. He won't mind."

"Have you asked him? He's never even met me."

"He's gone on one of his business trips but I know he won't mind. Come stay with us. It'll get you out of Jersey and that's got to be good, right?" Gerard asks hopefully.

Mikey presses his fingers against his eyes and tries to think of any reason to stay. Frank is gone and he can't find him. Tessa is talking about closing the shop and Ray has been disappearing more frequently. He's done enough jobs he can probably work on his own without Tessa and Ray handing them over. He listens to Gerard's harsh breathing on the phone and thinks about how much he misses his brother.

"Yeah, I'll come."

"Do you want me to come down? Help you get packed?"

Mikey desperately wants to say yes but he knows how little time Gerard is allow off from his CorpArt job, "no, I can do it, it's fine."

Gerard makes an unhappy noise but agrees.

It doesn't take Mikey long to pack. He sells most of the stuff in the apartment because it's more expensive to ship it to Gerard and he assumes Gerard will already have it anyway. It's easier to pick out what he wants to keep after the practice they got when their parents died and he feels strange to be grateful that he's only closing down an apartment instead of a house. He carefully packs his computer and gets it sent to Gerard and Manuel's place.

He only has a few people to say his goodbyes to and his first priority is Tessa. The shop is dark and he uses his key to let himself in. The backroom is brightly lit and Tessa is building an auto-jammer on the work bench.

"Hey Mikey, something wrong?" she asks when she looks up.

"I didn't get in." He says and the words still make him feel a hot rush of shame.

Tessa frowns, "Oh Mikey, I'm sorry."

He shrugs, "I'm going to live with my brother, so . . . um . . . this is good bye I guess."

Tessa puts down her soldering pick and stands up so he can pull him into a hug. It's one of the few times she's hugged him and it makes Mikey's breath hitch with suppressed tears. Her hug reminds him of when his mother would hug him after something had gone wrong. She lets him pull away and pretends not to notice that his eyes are watery.

"You can still find me in the bands," she tells him and he nods.

"I think, I mean this was my one chance to be legit and I can't go without that scholarship so," he shifts uncomfortably, "I think I'm going your route."

"Are you sure?"

"I… yeah. I'm from Jersey, there aren't exactly a lot of prospects for me." He points out and fails to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Tessa nods but doesn't contradict him.

"Will you tell Ray?"

"Yeah, I'll do that kiddo, but you know you can find him on the bands too if you want to."

"I know."

"I'll still send you jobs," she says with a smile and Mikey nods.

"My train leaves soon, I need to get back," he says and turns to leave.

"Good luck," Tessa calls after him and he puts his hand up in a backward wave.

* * *

Ray's clothes hang in the closet next to Bob's and his hair products are neatly arranged in the bathroom. He has gotten used to Ray's long absences and, if he's honest with himself, Ray's absences make it easier for him. Ray never tells him about what he does except in the vaguest of terms. Bob knows he should have told Dan about Ray, should have taken Ray's prints and had them run through the system but he hasn't and doesn't plan to do it. He tells himself that he doesn't know how the world of consulting works and there is nothing suspicious about Ray's long absences. Sometimes he almost believes it himself.

The power struggle between the families has been heating up and Bob is extra cautious when he walks home, too aware that he's risen high enough to make a tempting target to anyone campaigning against the Perri's. He'll have to talk to Ray about being careful. Phrasing it in a general enough way that Ray will understand without making him aware of exactly what Bob is involved in will be a problem. He scrubs a hand through the short bristles of his hair and flips the lock on his door.

He can hear the shower running when he gets back from the garage and Ray's shoes are kicked off in the entry. Bob feels a surge of happiness that Ray is back early. He toes his shoes off and walks silently toward the shower stripping his clothes off as he goes. He opens the door quietly and stands for a moment enjoying the sound of Ray humming. He clears his throat and Ray's silhouette turns to face him.

"Join me?" Ray asks.

* * *

The train is filled with the same mix of businessmen and night crew that Mikey remembers from the last time. He resolutely focuses on the blur of scenery outside the windows. The last time he'd made this trip he'd been so happy and now he feels like a failure. He isn't going to be legitimate because he wasn't good enough. His best wasn't good enough to win the scholarship. Gerard was wrong about him. Even just admitting that to himself stings and he swallows convulsively against the lump in his throat. A billboard advertising one of the low end CySchools flashes past. The neon in its design dances before his eyes even though the train has left it behind in an instant.

The Ag barges on the river are as huge as he remembers but the addition of dark-uniformed guards is new. He watches the barges slip past each other and tries not to think about how easily the train could derail and plunge into the river. Two barges almost collide and he watches the crews pushing them away with long poles. He imagines if he was on the shore he would be able to hear them shouting. The barges pass each other so tightly it's almost impossible to see the gap between them. The guards on the decks never move out of the place as they pass each other.

He catches a familiar place name and focuses on the conversation between two men in sombre suits who are sitting just in front of him.

"It's not a good time to go through there, we had to reroute three weeks of shipments."

"Two of our drivers got stopped even though we're paying through the nose to get through there clean."

His companion makes a tisking sound, "power struggle going down there, it's a bad business all 'round."

"In more ways than one," he lowers his voice and Mikey strains to catch his next words, "Perri's failing and there's some internal mess too, seems one of his girls is making a play to lead."

"There's Agents up there too."

"It better get straightened out before we have to do anything drastic."

They both fall silent and he hears the tell-tale beeps of their phones. Mikey remembers Ray mentioning there was good work up there. It's a shock to realize that the work probably involves those power struggles the men were talking about even though he knows Ray isn't doing anything legal when he says work. He worries at a hangnail and watches the blood well up where he's torn it. He's going to be doing the same thing as Ray.

"I'm so sorry," Gerard whispers against his neck as he hugs Mikey hard enough to drive the air from his lungs.

"I failed you," he mutters, as if saying it quietly will make the truth less painful.

"You didn't. I'm still so proud of you, Mikes."

Mikey doesn't say anything just melts into Gerard's embrace and lets himself replay his brothers words in his head. They don't erase the shame he feels but it lessens it when Gerard whispers that things will work out. He pulls away and Mikey ducks his head at the realization that he's been clinging to his brother like a child in the middle of a busy train station. Gerard helps him pick up his luggage, the only things he brought with him from Jersey, and leads him to a hired transport.

Manuel lives in a better area than Mikey expected and he feels shabbily out of place standing on the step as Gerard opens the lock on the door. He's surprised to see the lock isn't a standard residential one and tiny button high in the ceiling that tells him the whole place is fitted with jammers to prevent unauthorized signals from getting out. Mikey adds another point to the tally he keeps of Manuel doing something more being a typical CorpDrone. He follows Gerard through the narrow hallways. His brother's cheeks pink slight when he nods his head at the bedroom he shares with Manuel and Mikey gives Manuel another point in his favour. The spare room that Gerard says is going to be his is empty save for a bed and desk. Mikey doesn't care because the boxes holding his computer are neatly laid out in the middle of the room. He has to restrain himself from falling to his knees to open them immediately.

"It came yesterday, and I know how you like to have your computer so set it up and I'll be in the kitchen. Manuel's teaching me to cook," Gerard tells him with a smile.

Gerard hadn't lied when he'd said Manuel was teaching him and the dinner he's prepared is better than Mikey was expecting. He lets Gerard fill the silence with rambling because he still wants to apologize for his failure and he knows Gerard won't stand for that.

"Manuel's probably going to be back tomorrow," Gerard says happily, "I think you'll like him."

He smiles the way Mikey remembers him doing when he had been looking forward to something for a long time. He hopes Gerard is still smiling after he hears Mikey's plans to make a living.

"We could save up and you could go next year," Gerard offers after dinner.

"I'm not doing that."

"But it's, I mean it's what we've always said you'd do."

"No, they can't teach me anything and you know how difficult it will be to get enough together to put me through for the full degree. It's just a pipe-dream Gee, and you know it."

Gerard looks like he's been slapped and Mikey feels guilty for putting that expression on Gerard's face.

"What are you going to do then?" Gerard asks hesitantly.

Mikey takes a deep breath and reminds himself that it's worked for Ray and Tessa. His plan isn't as foolish as it could be. "I'll be a coderez."

"Mikey that's illegal," Gerard hisses, looking around frantically as if Agents will appear at the very mention of the word.

"I know, calm down, I've been doing it for a bit now."

Gerard sucks in a startled breath and he looks sick, "Don't you remember the Agents?"

"Of course I do, they didn't catch me for it then and I'm better now."

"How could you be better?"

Mikey clenches his hands to keep them from shaking and begins explanation to Gerard about Tessa and forcing her to teach him, and how she brought Ray in to help. Sitting face to face with his brother, Mikey doesn't hesitate to tell him everything. He knows that nothing will be intercepted, no trace can be put on their conversation, and it makes him feel better not to have to leave anything out. Gerard's face is white and his breathing is ragged as Mikey tells him about the practice run in the warehouse. He tells Gerard how he's been skimming through the bands doing jobs to pay for his last year in Jersey to supplement what little Gerard has been able to send him from his CorpArt job. Gerard bolts from the room and he can hear his brother throwing up.

"Gee, it's alright. Please, it's ok." He says even as he holds Gerard's hair back.

Gerard leans back against him and whispers, "Mikey they could lock you up for life. You can't do this."

He doesn't pull away because he knows his brother is scared but he can't do what Gerard wants either. "I'm going to do it, this is my way out. I won't get caught."

"You don't know that."

"Tessa has been doing it for decades, and she calls Ray a wizard with this stuff, he grew up with it, and they think I'm ready to do it." He pets at Gerard's arm, "I know you don't like all the tech but I promise you, I know what I'm doing."

Gerard sighs and curls his fingers around Mikey's wrist, "I still don't have to like it but okay. If you're sure it's what you want I won't stop you."

He lays his check against the crown of Gerard's head, "I'm sure."

"It's not going to stop me looking for something better for you." Gerard tells him and Mikey smiles even though he knows Gerard won't see it.

"That's all I can ask."

* * *

Ray is sitting at the kitchen table reading on a portable unit when Mikey stumbles in looking for coffee in his unfamiliar surroundings. He blinks and Ray stares back at him looking just as surprised as he feels.

"Manuel, you're back." Gerard says happily from behind him.

Gerard pushes past him and walks over to Ray. He bends down, ignoring the unit in Ray's hand, and kisses him gently. Mikey feels as if he's frozen watching the scene unfolding before him. Ray reaches up and cups Gerard's face as he murmurs something too low for Mikey to hear. The intimacy of the gesture shocks Mikey from his frozen state.

"What the fuck?" He ask.

Gerard's eyes go wide with shock "Mikey."

"This is Manuel?" He sneers the name.

"Yeah, Mikey what's wrong?"

"Why don't you tell him, Manuel."

Ray licks his lips and Gerard looks back and forth between the two of them in confusion.

"He's . . . that's Ray. I was telling you about him last night, that Ray."

"What? No, this is Manuel." Gerard says gently and Mikey hates that his brother is siding with Ray.

"Tell him." He yells at Ray.

"Gee, I meant to tell you." Ray says unhappily, staring down at his hands and Mikey is meanly glad that Ray can't look at them.

"You knew he was my brother, what the fuck is going on?" Mikey demands.

"I was just supposed to check you," Ray say apologetically, "It wasn't supposed to be anything but you were funny and sweet and so devoted to Mikey, and I just," he shrugs helplessly, "I just fell for you."

"It wasn't real." Gerard says and his voice sounds thick.

"It was, it was for me." Ray says.

"You spied on my brother." Mikey shouts.

"We had to be sure, if anything happened, we had to be sure he wouldn't turn you in."

"Gee would never do that. How could you even think that?" Mikey's outrage makes his voice rise and Gerard presses his finger tips to his lips as if he doesn't want to risk saying anything.

"I didn't know him then." Ray yells back at Mikey.

"So you couldn't tell him? Fucking weak."

"I was going, it just never seemed like the right time."

Mikey just snorts derisively.

Their fight devolves from there and it only ends when Ray throws up his hands and Mikey sees the silver flash of a bioware implant. It brings him up short because he remembers the on-going debate between Tessa and Ray over the implants. Tessa had always been firm that they were just asking for the Agents to pick you up but Ray had always argued they made everything easier. Seeing the implant in Ray's arm makes Mikey really look at him and he can see how Ray's face is almost gaunt from the implant using up his body's reserves.

"I can't believe you got it, are you doing everything stupid at once?" He yells pointing at the implant where it isn't hidden by Ray's sleeve.

"It's my life, you're as bad as Tessa for fuck's sake," Ray exhales hard through his nose, "I can't . . . this isn't anything to do with you."

"You might as well just tattoo coderez on your face," Mikey snaps.

"You got that from Tessa."

"Well, she's not wrong."

"She's too cautious, she's the one who sent me up to investigate Gerard and you're still siding with her."

Mikey scrubs his hands through his hair in frustration. "It's not that, it's just, it's fucking creepy you never said anything."

"I can't . . . I'll be back." Ray finally says.

Gerard looks at Mikey with wide eyes when the front door slams shut. They stare at each other in silence and Mikey realizes he just ruined Gerard's assumption that Ray had just pursued him because he liked him. He bites his lip and wishes he could take everything back. It seems like he just keeps disappointing his brother.

"He told me he loved me." Gerard finally says.

"He does, Ray wouldn't say something like that if he didn't mean it."

"I've been living with him. I should know him." Gerard points out and Mikey winces at the touch of bitterness in his voice.

"He'll be back." Mikey finally says even though he knows it solves nothing.

Gerard turns away from him and he lets him go. The door to their bedroom closes with a soft thump. Mikey puts his head in his hands and tries not to scream at the unfairness of the whole thing.

He spends the day deep in the bands and avoids Gerard. He hears Ray get back late at night when his eyes are starting to go prickly from staring into the monitor for too long. He tips is head back and listens. The rise and fall of Gerard and Ray's conversation is too low for him to catch the words but he can follow the tone. Gerard is hurt, accusing and Ray is upset. He listens to the tone shift away until it's calmer. Murmuring and then quiet gaps. There's a thump and then his brother's familiar laugh. Gerard has always forgiven him easily and it sounds like his brother has granted Ray the same privilege. Mikey tries his best not to be jealous as he listens to the sounds of his brother and Ray making up. When the noise turn too intimate he jams his headphones on and turns up the volume. He falls asleep listening to the Pumpkins and dreams of the long ago concert only this time Ray stands on Gerard's other side and he's fighting his way toward Frank who gets further away from him the more he fights.

Mikey can feel the tension ratchet up when he walks into the kitchen where Ray and Gerard have their heads bent together as they share a unit. He gets coffee and sits down across from them. He hasn't been on a different side than Gerard for a very long time and it feels wrong. Gerard has a hickey on his neck and he does his best to ignore it. Mike eats breakfast in silence. Ray and Gerard ignore him, talking quietly between themselves in that half formed way Mikey can remember he and Frank having before Frank's abrupt departure.

As he watches Gerard steal Ray's mug he's painful reminded of what he had with Frank and his inability to find him. No matter what Ray's done Mikey can recognize how he feels about Gerard just through his actions. Gerard's mouth crook up slightly and he presses a quick kiss to Ray's cheek before turning back to the unit. His brother's love for Ray is so obvious it makes Mikey ache to realize he could have made Gerard doubt Ray returned his feelings. Ray absently pours Gerard more coffee while he scrolls the page down on the unit. Mikey thinks about how Ray looked when he'd declared his love in their fight and he knows Ray wasn't faking it. It makes Mikey's stomach hurt but he has to acknowledge the fact that Ray hasn't disappointed Gerard like he has. He can count on Ray to make sure his brother is safe, that Gerard gets the life he deserves, the one Mikey was supposed to get him through CySchool. Ray hasn't failed.

"I'm sorry." He says and they look up at him in unison as he stumbles on," I should have handled it better, I just . . . please I'm so sorry."

"I know Mikey." Gerard says with a soft smile and it eases the tension in his neck that Gerard is still able to forgive him so easily.

Ray is silence for so long Mikey is afraid things between them won't be mended but then Gerard elbows him in the side and he blinks.

"I should have told you guys," he offers and Mikey takes it as the peace offering it's meant to be.

"I'm happy for you two," he says and his brother smiles wide while Ray just beams fondly at Gerard.

* * *

Bob has been doing his best to stay neutral in the power struggle that's happening between Alicia and Gavin over control of the Perri family. He listens to the whispers about Gavin's alliances and Alicia's growing web of connections without comment. Gavin has a reputation for a fast temper and faster knife which makes Bob wary of crossing him and wary of joining him. Alicia seems to have old man Perri's backing but it's hard to tell anymore what the old man is thinking. In his more pessimistic moments Bob thinks the old man is delighting in watching the struggle. He reports it all faithfully to Dan who won't give him any indication of which side the Agency is planning to support. One of Gavin's men spends a week tailing him and Bob does his best to stick to a routine. He doesn't deviate from it until he's sure is tail is gone then he does his best to do nothing from it. There have been too many beatings for Bob not to worry that Gavin has decided to help him make a decision on who to support.

When news of the transports getting stopped and searched even though they've paid for their passage reaches him he knows that things are getting serious. The other families are trying to fracture Perri and pick up the pieces afterward. Two chop shops get raided and fifteen guys, mostly loyal to Alicia, get taken in by the Regionals. He wonders if that's the sign he's been waiting for but the next week one of the illegal gambling matches held by Gavin's men gets busted up. Bob holds himself back from making any firm stand and waits for the Agency's signal.

When the driver who took him to the medico appears Bob doesn't hesitate to follow him. It would look too suspicious if he didn't and he's starting to think the Agency won't pick a side until he does. The driver takes him to a warehouse and tells him to go in. The windows are blacked out and he just see a thin crack of light under the door.

When he goes in Alicia and three men are waiting for him. They could pass for CyMen in their plain black suits except that Alicia still has her hair done in flatlander dreadlocks and Bob can see the gentle bulge of weapons in shoulder holsters. There are two more people sitting a little way off next to a row of transports. He recognizes Chad and Lucas from when he first started at the garage when Zac was still there and he was just getting a feel for his cover. They must have chosen a side.

"We want these turned into UAVs," Alicia says nodding to the five transports behind her.

Bob looks at Lucas and Chad. They both nod. It's possible to turn the transports into bastardized versions of urban assault vehicles but if he does that he's going to be picking his side. He thinks about the rumours of Gavin's easy anger and how thoroughly Alicia had interrogated when the Agency had set him up to take out the fake Agent. The watch that Ray bought him his heavy on his wrist as he surveys the tool cabinets and parts bins neatly arranged along the wall.

"Alright," he says and Alicia nods. He's chosen his side and he hopes like hell it's the right one. The Agency will have to deal with it.

* * *

Ray is the one who suggests he take the job. Mikey isn't really enthused about having to meet face to face with a client but Ray says he trusts the source. Mikey tells Ray not to tell Gerard at all because he does not want his brother to go anymore crazy with worry than he already is over Mikey's chosen occupation. Ray nods and his mouth is set in a small unhappy line. He and Mikey both know that Gerard's increasingly constant inebriation is leaves them in a state of waiting for him to say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Mikey knows that meeting at a club makes sense. The only picture he has of his contact shows a girl who looks about his age with blue eyes and a smirking mouth. It would make sense for them both to be a club. Mikey tries not to think about how Frank used to love the clubs. Gerard is snoring in the bedroom when Mikey leaves. He doesn't bother saying good bye.

The club is small and the bass of the music sends vibrations through the soles of Mikey's shoes. It's still rough under the shine of the lights and it seems like the sort of place Frank would have liked. Thinking about Frank on a job is dumb but Mikey can't help it as he watches the people dancing. He closes his eyes for a moment and pushes thoughts of Frank away then he scans the dance floor and the bar looking for the girl. It's hot with all the bodies packed so tight into the space but meeting here is safer than trying to set something up when he can't be sure that her end hasn't been tapped. If it Ray hadn't vouched for the contractor he wouldn't have bothered but Ray did so he's scanning the bands for Agent chatter and waiting for her to show. He recognizes her from the pictures he'd pulled when they first contacted him and he makes his way through the jostling bodies towards her. Her hair is done in the tight dreadlocks favoured by the flatlanders and when she gets close enough he can smell the wax in them. She blinks once at him and lets him slide in to her dance space. She touches him, slides down his body in a way that makes him think weapons search rather than invitation. He lets her knowing she won't find anything. She lets the other dancers push her closer to him and when she speaks, breath hot against his ear, her rounded vowels give her away as a flatlander.

"I need somebody found."

"Who?" He asks as the music changes to a slower beat and she slides his body.

"The Agent in our organization." She whispers against his ear. "Can you do that?"

"I can do that."

She presses against him imitating the intimate teasing slip slide of the people who are dancing without trying to hold a meeting. Her arms whined around his neck and he presses his hips against hers. He can feel muscles rippling under his hands when he grabs her arms.

"Any Agents in the Perri family and we need it fast."

Mikey hums and she pushes him towards the back of the club. He follows her down the narrow corridor and into the back alley. Away from the lights of the club she looks tired and Mikey thinks that not all the dark makeup around her eyes is just for decoration.

"Alright, let's talk rates." She says.

* * *

Ray is waiting when he gets back and Mikey doesn't hesitate to tell him what the job is. Ray's face goes white.

"An Agent, with the Perris?"

"Yeah, why? What's wrong?"

"It's harder getting into the Agency, you want help?"

Mikey shrugs, "I think I can do it but I wouldn't say no, not when it's the first time I'm going to be trying to slide into the Agency's system."

Ray relaxes and nods.

Ray lets him lead, following Mikey as he drops through the bands, a silent shadow. Getting into the Agency takes longer than Mikey expected and he's glad Ray is there to help through one of layer of security that comes with coding he is still shaky on working with. After they are through the security layers, Mikey glides through the system until he finds the keywords he's looking for, Ray a constant shadow at his back.

There are separate layers of files on the Agency's activity with the Perri family and the first undercover agent he finds easily enough it tells him there is more that he is missing. Ray makes a noise of agreement when Mikey tells him and they both start digging deeper. They want to be out as soon as they can before the Agency's own coderez notice them and try to hook them. It's Ray to finds the rest of files hidden deep under the initial layer. He and Mikey pull out quickly, erasing their tracks as they go, and just before they are free Mikey sees the dart of a coderez trying to catch them. He pushes Ray out and sends his own attack back toward the coderez before he pulls free too.

Now that they're out, the only thing that remains is for them to skim the files they brought out and find the information Mikey's client wants. Ray leaves to get himself a snack, needing to refresh the energy his implant used up during their sortie into the Agency's system. Mikey nods and pulls up the files. The first file, the one they were supposed to find, is for a big blond Agent who uses the cover of Bob Bryar, a mechanic who is slowly rising through the ranks. The second Agent has been in longer, using the name Jason Pope, and he's one of Perri's main accountants. Mikey can almost see why the Agency wouldn't want to lose him. He shows what he's found to Ray. Ray stares at the picture of Bob.

"I know him," Ray breaths and his eyes are white around the edges, "they're going to sacrifice him to hide the other Agent. I have to warn him."

"He's an Agent." Mikey pointed out perplexed by Ray's stance.

"I know but I can't just let him take the fall, he's a good guy."

"He's still an Agent."

"I just have to," Ray says stubbornly.

Mikey is interrupted by the ring of the phone. Ray picks it up and listens for a few seconds. His face goes tight with alarm and he makes a clicking noise into the phone before hanging up.

"That was Tessa, she says the Agency caught enough about us to find us within the week, probably sooner, we need to get out."

"How does she know?"

"I can't tell you, just trust her on this."

Mikey nods. If Tessa is wrong he hasn't lost anything but if she's right and he doesn't listen the Agents will lock him up for life. "What do we do?"

"I'm going to make arrangement to get us out of the city but first I have to warn Bob."

"Bob?"

"I . . . It's complicated, Gerard can tell you. I have to go." Ray tells him and Mikey follows him down the hall.

"When Gerard gets back, you guys go here," he pauses in packing his travel bag to scribble down an address for Mikey, "it's a temporary safe house. I'll meet you there and we'll get out of the country."

Ray looks around the room once more before turning to Mikey, "I know this is really abrupt but we need to move fast. Gerard is going to be back in an hour, I need you to wipe the computers here and get rid of anything out of place for a CorpDrone. There isn't much. I'm counting on you to get Gerard out, alright?"

Mikey nods, "Yeah, I can do that. Do you have to warn that Agent?"

"His Agency is going to hang him out of dry, I can't do nothing. Gerard can explain it." Ray says firmly.

Mikey nods. "I'm still sending the files to my client."

"Fine, just give me three hours head start, please Mikey?"

"Alright." Mikey agrees and Ray practically runs out the door as soon as he has Mikey's assurance.

Mikey sets to work pulling down the jammers and setting the computers to wipe clean. He's just dismantling the last jammer when Gerard walk in. He looks up at where Mikey is fiddling with the jammer in the corner of the hall.

"Gee, we have to get out." Mikey says as he concentrates on getting a wire out.

"What?"

"Ray and I did a job, we got burnt. The Agency is going to be coming. We're getting out."

"I thought you said it was safe." Gerard whispers looking sick.

"This wasn't expected, I have a travel bag packed for you, see if anything vital is missing we're leaving as soon as I'm done with this." Mikey orders and waits to see that Gerard is following his instructions before returning to dismantling the jammer.

* * *

The safe house is a tiny apartment in one of the bad districts of the city. It's the sort of place where people never see anything and the surveillance cameras where never installed because of lack of funds. Gerard sticks close to Mikey and he doesn't relax even after Mikey has locked the door.

"Where's Ray?" Gerard demands just like he has since Mikey forced him to leave and promised to tell him in a minute.

"We were looking for undercover Agents, one of the Agents we found was a mechanic called Bob. Ray went to warn him that the Agency is going to sacrifice him to protect their other undercover Agent."

"Oh shit." Gerard whispers.

"What? What about Bob? Ray said you'd explain."

Gerard worries his lip, "don't get mad?"

"Of course I won't Gee."

"Bob is Ray's other lover." Gerard says in a small voice.

"What?"

"It's fine, we both know and we have . . . an agreement about everything, just please don't be mad about this Mikey? It's fine." Gerard pleads wringing his hands.

Mikey sinks down on the bed and presses his fingers to his temples. He really hopes Ray has no more surprises up his sleeve. Gerard touches his shoulder hesitantly.

"Alright, if you're okay with it?"

"Yeah, when is Ray getting here?"

"Soon, we're going to wait for him here and then we're all going to get out of the country." Mikey tells his brother.

"Is he bringing Bob?"

"I don't know. Try and get some sleep, alright? It's going to be a long night."

Gerard pulls him down and curls around him. Mikey lets Gerard clamp his arm over his chest. It feels better to have Gerard holding onto him tightly, as if he'll protect him from everything. He tries not to think about how if Ray had done the job alone he probably wouldn't have gotten caught. Gerard's eyes are closed and his breathing has slowed. Mikey stares at the ceiling and thinks about how glad he is that Frank isn't involved in the whole mess.

* * *

Bob hasn't heard from Ray in almost two weeks which isn't unusual but he isn't expecting to come back to Ray just sitting at his kitchen table. Ray looks tense and when Bob enters he doesn't smile. Ray has one of the quickest smiles that Bob knows and it worries him that Ray hasn't lost the solemn slant to his features. Ray comes to him and kisses him. He kisses hard and if Bob didn't know better he would have said Ray was kissing him as though it as good bye. Ray stays pressed against his chest when he is finished.

"Hey," Bob says holding up one grease stained hand, "I'm dirty, give me a minute?"

Ray steps back and Bob can't help noticing he steps back far enough that Bob can't grab him easily. "I can't stay, you need to sit."

"Ray, what's wrong?"

"Don't ask questions, just sit, alright?" Ray snaps and he glances at the clock again.

Bob sits. Whatever has Ray so agitated has to be important. Ray shoves his hair out his face and Bob catches a glint of metal on his wrist.

"Look, I know you're an Agent." Ray finally says and Bob feels himself go cold.

"What?" He says trying to feign disbelief even though he can tell Ray isn't buying it. "I'm a mechanic."

"Don't, I know and pretty soon your boss is going to know." Ray rubs his hand over his mouth and his shirt sleeve rides up so Bob can see the silver of a bioware implant. That answers his question about how Ray knows.

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because I. . . I don't want you to die."

"Why should I believe you?"

"You don't have to but you should know that your Agency was going to feed you to the wolves to save their other Agent in here." Ray pulls a tiny data drive out of his pocket and hands it to Bob. "It's all in here,"

"You're a coderez," Bob says accusingly.

"Yeah and right now I'm telling you to get the fuck out of here."

Bob stands and tries not to feel hurt that Ray moves toward the door away from him. As an Agent he knows he should be taking Ray in, should turn him over to face his crimes. Ray is watching him warily.

"I gave you everything I've got. You've probably got two hours at most to get out and start running. So just please go, even if it's just to figure things out. You can't be here. I heard about the power struggle in the Perris. There's no way they won't kill you for being an Agent. You have to go," Ray says and by the end he sounds like he's close to begging.

Bob nods. "Alright. I'll go and I'll read this."

Ray smiles for the first time since he's been there and it makes Bob's heart clench. He wants, desperately, to kiss Ray's smile but he thinks about how Ray stays away from him. He knows there's no reason Ray will let him close now. Ray glances at the time again.

"I can't stay."

Ray turns just before he opens the door, "Be safe. If. . . if you decide to run, go west through the GreenCorps if you can't get through the lakes. The Ag transports are a good bet for getting out undetected."

"Ray," He says helplessly.

Ray's hand falls away from the door knob and he darts back toward Bob. Ray's body crashes against his and he gives a soft oomph as Ray kisses him once more. His tongue slides into Bob's mouth and Bob brings his hands up to cradle Ray's hips ignoring the grease on them. Ray pulls away from him hurriedly when he feels Bob's hands on his hips.

"I. . . Bob. If you trust me at all you'll at least be careful with the Agency."

"Where are you going?"

Ray shakes his head, "Don't look for me. I . . . if you run I'll find you."

Ray looks like he wants to say more but in the end he just darts out the door before Bob can say anything. He looks at the data drive on the table. There's a jammer next to it and he realizes that Ray probably put it there. Jammers are expensive and getting a good one is difficult, that Ray left him one tells him how worried Ray really is. He tugs at his beard. If Ray found out he was an Agent he knows he should at least read what's on the drive. He'll run for now.

* * *

Ray looks exhausted when he finally catches up to Mikey and Gerard. The MediaCorps has started running wanted posters for Ray and Mikey in the last hour but nobody feels like bringing it up when Ray finally appears. He explains that they are leaving for the docks and a boat will smuggle them across the lakes and out of the country. It's the fastest way and Mikey is glad that darkness is falling as they make their way toward the docks.

They wait at the appointed spot for Ray contact. Mikey forces himself not to shift from foot to foot. Ray's hair is flat and he just shakes his head when Gerard asks him about Bob. Mikey pretends not to hear them talking. He tries not to dwell on the fact that if he'd never accepted the job to find the Agent they wouldn't be trying to escape and avoid the Agency. Instead, they're huddled in a warehouse waiting for Ray's contact to show up.

The contact turns out to be a short man with long curly red hair who tells them to call him Andy. They follow him onto a sailboat where another man takes them into the cabin and tells them to be quiet. He has to stoop to keep his spiky black hair from brushing against the cabin ceiling.

"Mix and me I'll get out you, don't worry," Andy says with a grin and follows Mix through the hatch.

They stay quiet, listening to the slap of water against the boat's hull, and the creak of ropes. The boat turns and Mikey hears the deep thump of the sails filling with wind. Gerard is pale and his hand is clenched tightly around Ray's. Mikey takes Gerard's other hand and the three of them sit in silence listening for anything that sounds like pursuit. The boat pitches and they lean sideways to compensate for it.

Mix's face appears in the hatch and they all look up. His face is wet and he's wearing rain gear that has rivulets of water running run it. Gerard's hand convulses around Mikey's fingers and he hisses at the sudden increase in pressure.

"You can talk if you want, we'll be across in another two hours." He tells them and pulls the hatch shut again.

"We're going to have to split up." Ray says, voice barely lower than the sound of the wind and the water against the hull.

Gerard makes a protesting noise and holds tighter to Mikey's hand.

"I know Gee, but it's safer. We . . . I can find you later."

"I'll have Ray and you'll be alone." Gerard protests.

"I know but it won't be forever."

"I can always find him in the bands," Ray says and pats Gerard's shoulder with his free hand.

"I don't like it," Gerard says sulkily.

Mikey sighs, "I know but we have to be smart about this, and the three of us are too noticeable. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in the Centres and neither does Ray and neither do you," Mikey smiles but it feels crooked, "we've been apart before, I'll be fine, I promise."

Gerard sighs but nods. He leans against Mikey and Mikey curls around him protectively. Ray watches them both, mouth in a flat unhappy line. Mikey holds his gaze and he nods. Mikey's stomach feels sick and guilty. Gerard should never have had to run, should never have needed to take a CorpArt job but he did and it's because of Mikey. Gerard's art should be hanging in Musée not scribbled on scraps of paper and the skin of Mikey's arm. He couldn't give his brother the life he deserves, couldn't even keep him safe. Ray's arm is curled around Gerard's waist and he feels grateful that at least Gerard will have Ray. He can trust Ray to keep Gerard safe. Ray won't fail him.

Mix and Andy tie the boat in a marina filled with other sailboats. The docks pitch under their feet and the slats are dark from the rain. Andy stays with the boat and Mikey sees Ray hand him the second half of the payment. The rain is cold and Mikey huddles deeper in his coat glad that it's keeping him dry. He can see Gerard tugging his sleeves down so he can cover his hands. Ray's hair is wet and straightened by the weight of the water in it. He tugs his collar up higher. Andy hands him a hat and he jams it on his head. It seems strange to see Ray with a hat but at least he isn't squinting against the rain anymore.

They follow Mix's broad shoulders through the rain, past the sodium-yellow pools of light cast by the dock lights. He unlocks the entry gate and holds it open for them to troop through.

"Good luck," Mix says as he shuts the gate.

Mikey nods to him and watches him vanish down toward the lower level where Andy is waiting for him.

"Time to split," Ray says quietly.

Gerard makes a straggled noise and launches himself at Mikey. He knocks the breath from Mikey's lungs as he squeezes him tightly.

"Be careful, I love you," he chants over and over against Mikey's neck.

"You too." Mikey whispers and tightens his arms around Gerard.

He pulls back first because he knows Gerard doesn't want to leave him. Ray clasps his upper arm and Mikey returns the gesture.

"Take care." Mikey says.

"I will," Ray says to Mikey's unspoken request. "I'll be in the bands if you need us."

Mikey nods and turns away. He doesn't watch Ray and Gerard walk away instead he moves off quickly in the direction where he has a transport arranged to carry him even farther away from the Agency's reach. The lights of the transport are a weak glow ahead. Soon he'll be out. He knows Ray and Gerard will be doing something similar but he forces himself not to think about where they could be going. It's safer for everyone if he doesn't speculate.

After he gets out it will be safer to start taking jobs. Without Ray and Gerard with him, he'll be able to take the jobs that pay better. Those jobs with higher risk. If he gets caught it won't matter. Gerard will still be safe.

Epilogue

Frank curls his knees up to his chest as he waits for the coderez to show up. He has a key waiting for him at the front desk and if he doesn't show up soon Frank is going to assume he bailed. He does another curl then stretches out to his full height, flexing his toes and arching until his back pops pleasantly. He hears the key in the lock and flips off the bed so that he isn't in the directly line of sight from the door. The guy who enters is tall and thin. He is wearing plain black and there is something about his gait that reminds Frank of something. He shifts so he can see the face of the man he's going to be coving and stares. Mikey Way stares back at him.

"Hi," Mikey says blandly.

Frank snaps his mouth shut. If Mikey isn't going to do anything then Frank isn't going to give in first. He thinks about the feel of Mikey's mouth when he kissed him and tries not to wonder if Mikey still kisses like that. Mikey watches him like he is waiting for him to jump him.

Frank finally settles on "This is unexpected."

Mikey smirks, "I told you I'd find you."

"This wasn't quite what I thought you meant."

Mikey shrugs and checks the time, "Job now, talk later?"

"Yeah, but you're telling me how you got into this," Frank agrees and Mikey nods.

He follows Frank over to the table that is covered with blueprints. It's weird to know that Frank is going to be there, is going to be killing people to get him in and get the job done. Frank brushes against his arm as he leans over the blueprints and they both turn at the same time so their faces are close together. For the first time since he split from Gerard and Ray, Mikey feels like things will be alright.