JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on May 8, 2023 15:34:53 GMT
If Destiny had any clue that he still planned on listening to the cell door clanging shut on her doting baby daddy he’d have been out on his ear already. Files chucked out into the street after him – after they’d been picked apart in some search for what evidence he’d actually pulled together (as though he would’ve left that in the office where it could be found). The lie that he’d stop had burned his tongue, but for her sake – and in the name of justice – he’d forced it off of his tongue. Power meant that too many in the world got away with murder, literally, he couldn’t do much about the vast majority of them, but he’d discovered enough about Grey Maddox that JJ figured he could put this one away.
That grin on Lucky’s face as he swore he wasn’t done showed he wasn’t the only one who wanted it either. Maddox had hurt enough people in his short life, his time was running out to do it again. Soon he’d be locked up for 23 hours a day with his own kind, violent scum who didn’t always take too kindly to one another. Hopefully someone’d get tired of that smug face and would do a little work on the sly with a shiv, save the state some money and the rest of them the worry that he’d somehow slip out eventually. Lucky’s siter could find herself a new job, Destiny would end up with a broken heart, but better that than a heart that had been permanently stopped by that son of a bitch.
At Lucky’s order, he’d saluted her, dropping another ”yes ma’am” before he’d done as she’d asked, doing what was undoubtedly Lucy’s job usually. He returned dinner with entertainment, making the kid choke twice – cackling as he’d thumped her on the back – and giving them a view of a world far more exotic than the one outside their windows in this town. He was in his element, showing that he hadn’t slipped into any of his reporting gigs by nepotism – in fact, he’d been fucking glad to do it on his own merit each time, he didn’t need his old man putting his fingerprints over all of this. Not that he’d have recognised any of it if he’d tried. There hadn’t been many family dinners, not the relaxed sort anyway – sit up straight, don’t mess with your food, good lord, what’s wrong with the guinea fowl…. Give him this any day.
JJ scooped up the dishes, stacking them carefully to cart them into the kitchen. He turned to eye the kid, hazel irises shrinking to slits as he mock glared at her. ”Well, losing’s not exactly the word I’d use for my stuff disappearing out of a nice deep pocket…” It’d taken deft little fingers to do that – ones he might’ve put to work like Fagin and the Artful Dodger to get hold of Maddox’s stuff, if he didn’t give a shit about putting anybody else in danger.
Lucky’s order and Lucy’s whine carried back to him as he sluiced off the plates. Not a single one dropped before Lucky made her appearance, drifting in to grin at him like all of this was entertaining. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he grumbled in his head, although he huffed out his amusement as she started rearranging what he’d already set aside to dry. ”I’d say this is pretty mature. I didn’t ask if it was gonna be about the birds and the bees again,” he quipped, that’d be less discussion, more action for after the kid had gone to bed maybe. JJ snorted as Lucky pressed in against him, seeking out a soft spot with those carefully sharpened words. ”Oh, love, they tried with the big talks, failed obviously.” Not that he was worse off for that.
He set the pan in the drying rack, planting his wet hands against the edge of the sink as he looked sideways at her. JJ sighed, all traces of humour gone. He didn’t know for sure if it had been Maddox, although he hadn’t seen a hint of a lie in Destiny’s eyes as she’d hinted at what had happened. Her opinion of Maddox was definitely twisted by love though. ”I don’t know exactly. The day she came back, it was just … she wasn’t pregnant anymore. I didn’t want to ask, but I don’t think it was. I’ve seen battered women before, and it wasn’t that sort of defensiveness over him.” He’d seen them flinch at mention of their abusers, even as they’d defended them. That wasn’t what he’d seen with Destiny, but Maddox was still a monster of sorts and eventually he’d slip, meaning to or not.
The cackle rolled out slowly. JJ twisted his hands slightly, like he could see the cuffs around his wrists. ”Keep me under the thumb and hopefully she can stop me from sliding in his direction. She ordered someone to babysit me just to be sure – it’s not working. It ain’t like I down tools the minute I leave the office.” He pursed his lips, puffed a breath out through it. ”Keep on digging, maybe make a little trip back to England to see what police records I can dig up on him. His sister died, supposedly killed by him, there’s gotta be records about that.” Evidence to pin to Maddox’s forehead.
Picking up the last of the cutlery, JJ gave a quick scrub. The grim was melting away again, like the suds. Ice cream too. Weren’t he a lucky boy. ”Yes … please,” he murmured, some of his parents’ lessons sticking. He rinsed his hands off, not managing to dry them before Lucky pressed into his side again. ”Hard not being an arsehole? Oh, harder than you could imagine,” he cackled. He turned towards her as she curled her hand around his arm, humming lightly. Dinner with the two of them hadn’t been any sort of a hardship. It’d been more fun than he’d been expecting. ”Keep coming around to see my kid? I think I could manage that. She’s a good kid … even if her fingers are light. I fucking knew it.” His fingers curled around the lump of the wallet in her back pocket, fingertips pressing into the firm curve of her arse beneath it. ”Guess I should leave some pocket money for her, while I treat my wife another way, eh?” Smirking, conscious that the kid could appear any moment – but not willing to abstain entirely til she went to bed – JJ dropped his head and kissed her as his grip tightened to pull Lucky into him. Well, he’d end the meal with something creamy and sweet.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Apr 10, 2023 19:31:07 GMT
Reaching for her hand, those pale, delicate fingers tipped in deep red polish, JJ tried to pull the brunette back to the stool where she’d been perched when he’d arrived. ”Come on, Sadie. One drink. I’ll keep my hands to myself, won’t even open my mouth.” He clung onto her while he swiped a finger on his other hand in an X over his heart, adding to the promise with a little twist of his fingers in front of pursed lips. Choir boy wasn’t a look that usually worked on him, but it didn’t stop him from trying. Every now and then one of them fell for it – although his batting average lately was bloody pathetic.
Her heard her humming, felt hopeful right up until she tugged her hand free. She scrubbed her hands over her face the minute she was free of them, her cursing muffled by her palms. ”Third time’s the charm, love!” he called after her. The second was definitely a bust as bad as the first. The bar door slammed shut behind her, but didn’t entirely hide the roar of frustration that came from the other side.
JJ turned back to the bar, huffing out a laugh as the bartender approached with brows raised. He brought his hands up, spreading them out like he could ward off the accusation that it had really had anything to do with him. ”Don’t ask me,” he snorted. He pasted that smile back on though, guile shining right through at the woman as he lifted his glass and shook it at her. ”Another double, please darlin’.” She was narrowing her eyes at him like she knew it was all bullshit, but she headed off to fetch him another vodka and coke at least. If this was the Ruby Slipper he’d likely have had to offer up a kidney first, as some sort of loan against him not causing shit in there again. Get in one single fight and they never forgot it.
Puffing out his breath, he slouched back against the bar, draining the watery last couple of mouthfuls from his glass. A blob of ice slithered between his teeth, gave way in a single crunch as he glanced around the place. In comparison to the club it was practically dead in here. People were tucked away in quiet little knots – a couple sat by the fireplace, three blokes heading for the doors that led out onto the porch, their laughter about as lively as it was gonna get in here. Jesus, if he’d wanted to feel like he was in a morgue he’d have stayed in the office instead of escaping for some air and …
Nope, this last drink was it. He didn’t care if that great ape at the doors of the club tried turning him away, he wasn’t about to stay here, especially not now his one chance of entertainment had bolted again.
The empty glass was swept off the bar, his fresh one set down. ”Thanks love. Let’s round it up.” He fished his card out of his wallet, sliding it across the bar. She winged a brow at him, but just waved as she passed it back a moment later. Sad sacks taking up space at her bar might’ve been a nightly occurrence, his striking out providing no more excitement than a cheer going up from the pool table tucked away at the far end of the bar.
He slid down off his stool, slipping into his jacket before he grabbed his glass and followed in the wake of the three blokes that had slipped outside. He’d knock it back out there, if he found something to stop him falling comatose, then maybe he’d stay. Chances of that were about as slim as Sadie coming back though.
Winter had started to pull its vanishing act, but there was still a nip in the air as he stepped out into the sheltered little area. Tables lined the space, benches up against the rails on the outside, steps going down from either side. The blokes who’d walked out were sat at one end, one of them with eyes on a brunette mid-way along. JJ shot the bloke a smirk as he glanced his way. Was he gonna feel like an arsehole for peeing in some jerk’s Cheerios? Nah. If he struck out there was always the club – like he’d said, third time lucky.
Sipping from his drink, he drifted closer, tilting his head as he spotted her empty glass. The charm was back, the smile broad and warm. ”Looks like you’re running a little low. You want another? I was gonna grab myself one…” Bullshit, but half of what remained in his glass disappeared in a gulp as a shadow slanted across him. JJ half turned towards the bloke who obviously decided he’d overstepped. ”Something up?” he asked the bloke. He squared his shoulders, standing between the brunette and the no-necked thing in front of him. Someone had been hitting the gym just a little too hard, all puffed up, his brain probably atrophied in compensation for those traps.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Mar 19, 2023 19:45:37 GMT
Now she got why he hadn’t tried to eviscerate Maddox through his bird. The slashes he had taken at Destiny by association had cut deep enough that he’d been able to see each wound in those big blue eyes that’d shimmered like lakes at him while he’d sat there for his arse kicking. Guilt had carved itself deep into him then, taking its sodding time to heal too – especially with her hand selected monkey on his back, now he’d passed it along. She’d proved a distraction, just the same way Lucy was now.
JJ continued to stare down at her, only managing to snort when she started picking his parenting skills apart. His lips pursed for a second before he nodded. ”And that’s another for ya – all life lessons are dumb, but you learn ‘em all the same. It’s a parent’s prerogative to toss them out at their kids when they don’t know how else to tell you not to do stuff.” Like listening in. If there was anything you didn’t want a kid to pick up they’d hear it clear as anything. His mum had always sworn that it was a selective deafness, especially on his part. Maybe she hadn’t been wrong.
The wince was faint, the kid’s nosiness something he was glad enough to pass off to his wife. JJ bobbed his head like he was agreeing with whatever nonsense bullshit Lucky was pushing on her daughter. He watched the kid quietly from the corner of his eye until she started to sputter something about alligator’s. Had he honestly been just like that? Probably. Being on the other side of it was painful, the distraction of checking out a blessing when it finally came. He’d chalk all of this up on his long, long list of why he wasn’t about to reproduce any time soon.
It didn’t feel like he’d moved all that far out of his own childhood. You could’ve been to a dozen different warzones, spent bowel liquifying hours with the muzzle of a weapon inches from his head, but the minute a mother told you to jump, you didn’t even ask how high, you just started hopping. He wasn’t the only one who knew it either. He would’ve winked conspiratorially at the kid as he finished griping, but Lucy was already getting a jab in that had him pouting. ”Not your fault, eh?” JJ hummed, shaking his head as he started straightening the cans up, knowing he was gonna be the one putting them in bags on the other side. ”I hope you remember that sharin’ thing when it comes to the washing up.” He didn’t imagine that would hinge on how much he crabbed, like Lucy was suggesting. That was just gonna come with someone else making him dinner – he wasn’t a total bloody heathen after all. He’d been raised with manners, and some had stuck after he’d slithered out from under the old man’s thumb and expectations.
Just as he’d expected the bagging was their job too, with orders from the boss that he resisted meeting with a salute. He hefted the bags into the car, only winced once as he glanced in the rear view and spotted the kid rifling through the back of the car like she was gonna turn up anything more than receipts or chocolate wrappers back there. ”She’s gonna have me cleaned out by the end of dinner,” he puffed. And he’d get his wallet back soon enough after him, even if it was by dangling her upside down by her ankles at the end of it and shaking til it dropped out of wherever the hell she’d put it.
The kid took some bags on the way in at least, keeping a hold on them until they piled out of the elevator and into the apartment. ”I guess that’s far enough,” JJ grumbled, although he carried his into the kitchen, seeming to guilt Lucy into doing the same, by not following her grumbling example. She stowed them up on the counter before she tried to retreat. Nu uh, if he was gonna get called on his complaining then turn about would be fair play. JJ winked at Lucky as she raised her brows at his suggestion. ”Oi,” he grumbled. ”You really want me poking through every cupboard in here? I could you know…” Building up more of a picture of Lucky than he’d gotten so far – a journalist’s prerogative that he’d indulged in more than once.
He still did it, flipping jars and bottles around as he put the groceries Lucy unbagged where she ordered him to – oh, there was definitely more of her mum than just her looks in the girl. ”Yes boss,” JJ muttered quietly every time he stowed something. By the time he was done and Lucy was trailing out – supposedly to do homework, although if she was anything like him it’d be five minutes of that and half an hour of staring at the telly with the sound down low enough that it couldn’t be heard. ”I thought she was the only one giving orders.” He didn’t bitch as he did as Lucky asked though, just fetched the butter and milk without complaint.
It didn’t take Lucky two minutes to bring up their former conversation again. JJ’s gaze stayed on the kid as Lucky murmured to him. ”When little ears aren’t listening, you mean?” he asked lightly. There weren’t much of a question there at all – you didn’t talk about bringing a man to his knees for being a cunt while there were impressionable minds right there. JJ grunted lightly, crossing his arms over his chest. He settled back against the edge of the counter, dragging his eyes away from Lucy finally. ”Yeah, I’m still going after him. I’m not letting that sort of scumbag continue to fuck up lives here, especially not when my sister-in-law’s right in that lion’s den.” Pulling himself back up, he lifted his chin towards the table. ”You got anything else you need my help with?” It was only polite after all.
Sitting around the table for a proper family meal felt a little weird at first – they certainly hadn’t been like that when he was a kid – but the stilted feeling rapidly melted away. This was one for the plus column of having kids, short as it was. He told some of the less gruesome stories of his time on the road – like the time he’d taught a couple of kids not much older than Lucille how to play cricket in Rwanda, and how one of them had smacked the ball he’d lobbed for him right back in his face. The black eye had faded before the sting in his ego had. By the time he’d polished off his bowl the last thing he wanted to do was wash up, but he was up and picking up the dishes anyway. ”I should make you help with this,” he told Lucille, ”I’m gonna take one for the team though. You owe me … and that’s on top of the wallet.” He backed out of the room with his eyes narrowed at her. It hadn’t just been a ploy to get that private conversation either.
The dishes went in the sink, the soap squeezed in with a heavy hand. He went to work on them, bubbles squeezing up between his knuckles. JJ frowned his way through it, rinsing carefully before he set them aside to dry. More than half had been done before he heard footsteps heading back. ”Is it time for the big talk then?” he asked, winging his brows. There wasn’t much of a joke to it, not when they were about to plan Grey Maddox’s downfall, and more than likely, his being canned right on the heels of it.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Feb 15, 2023 20:17:32 GMT
JJ kept his eyes on the kid, his grin frozen in place as the sass came rolling back from her. Jesus, was this what it had been like for his own parents? Never a word that rolled out of his gob that wasn’t smart in that smug bratty way. Truths lobbed like stones from the catapult of that mouth, stinging as they landed without any real intentional aim – least he thought there wasn’t much of that. He hadn’t been that bad. ”We’ll call that a life lesson,” he said sweetly.
Only. The bark of laughter rolled out again. Alright, his wife definitely had it worse than his mother ever had. ”You know an awful lot about what’s in there and what it takes to replace for someone who’s never seen it.” Staring down at her, JJ let his lips curl out of the purse they’d shrunk into, back into a smile. ”Is that what it’s gonna take? A passport with old Lizzie’s face on it and twenty bucks?” Two could play at the bargain game, although adding another twenty to it would be a hundred sodding times easier than trying to convince the embassy that he’d somehow slipped over here without anyone know nine – or ten? – years ago to knock some woman up and disappear again without realising that they’d created this little miracle of life.
That turn of phrase should’ve stung like an ulcer – it’d felt like one was swallowing him up as he’d seen the opposite of one when Destiny had walked back into the rubble he’d turned her relationship into on the front page of her own newspaper. There’d been nothing miraculous about that baby being lost. No sodding miracle for him in a Pulitzer winning story of a serial killer operating on both sides of the Atlantic either. Just that … ugh.
JJ wanted to peel a hand off of the kid’s ear to dig fingers into his gut like he could pull out the bit of him where regret had burned. It should’ve been sat there as a lump under his skin, his conscience growing like a tumour since he’d fetched up here. What he needed was someone to cut it out, it’d be less painful for him, even if it wasn’t for everybody else. He glanced down at the kid, frowned as she hissed and tried to shrug him off. ”It’s difficult finding someone to print your accusations when you get yourself fired for it. That whole ‘go independent, make yourself a blog thing to put the truth out there’s a crock of shit.” Not the journalist he made himself out to be. Another pang right there. ”After she got back from losing one,” JJ grunted quietly. Alright. Forget his gut aching, now it was his balls as she took a swipe at them too. ”If she had been there it wouldn’t have gotten printed at all. That was me picking out my fight.” And it’d been a piss poor one.
New dad. Would Maddox have been called that if Destiny had … nope, he wasn’t gonna go tumbling down that path, ‘specially not with his wallet gone and no way to pay for the six pack and the litre of Kentucky’s cheapest that thought was gonna require. The lines had carved their way deeper between his brows for it. ”Not from your mum there ain’t. From little ears though … there’s gonna be some. It sucks, but that’s another life lesson for ya.” And there was one for him. Sighing, JJ dragged his palm out from under the kid’s, grabbing one of her fingers to yank it. ”Well since you’ve got such a hard … you’re so keen to do it, you can gimme a hand with dragging him down.” It was gonna take more than his big shiny brass pair and his wife definitely had them.
Straightening up, JJ looked down at the kid like she’d sprouted a second head as she took his hand and dragged him towards the exit. Apparently the wallet was gonna be his after dinner treat. ”Alright, let’s go.” Looking like a little family trailing through the shop, although he kept himself at a long enough distance that Lucy couldn’t reach across with her hand other to dip anything else out of his pockets. He wouldn’t put it past her to dip his keys. He’d get the super to let himself into his apartment later and find the place entirely cleaned out.
Of course, that meant it didn’t occur to him that Light Fingered Lucille – honestly, had he just learned his daughter’s name before his wife’s? – was leading them straight out the door without chucking the groceries down the conveyor belt. Innocence shone in his eyes as he hitched his brows at wifey. ”I guess it’s good thing that one of us has still got our hands on our money, eh? No cash and I’ve still gotta work for me dinner? That don’t seem like much of a deal to me,” he mock grumbled to the kid. He started loading up the belt anyway, carefully putting the heavy things up front – he wasn’t that much of an idiot at least. You stuck bottles on top of your bread and what you had was a gross mushy sandwich.
It woulda been his card paying for the groceries – he was on the line for child whatever they were calling it after all – but in lieu of being able to do that, JJ took the bags and lead the way out to the street, where he’d parked his car up outside the coffee bean. He dumped his bag in the boot – the back seat was dangerous with the kid back there. It wasn’t like the town was big enough to need a map, but he still followed the directions back to the apartment building that coulda been a clone of his own, even if they were streets away.
The bags were his to carry again, up in the elevator to an apartment he was glancing around the minute the door opened. His parents had always been given the cushy spots wherever they were stationed. Houses instead of the shitty apartments, yards for him to run around in, staff occasionally. This wasn’t that, but it wasn’t a tip either. He guess Lucille was still old to be making that sort of mess. ”You wanna tell me where to put this away? Kiddo here can help, since I’m guessing that’s usually her job anyway.” And he’d definitely lumped himself in with her in the earning mac and cheese for dinner stakes.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jan 23, 2023 22:33:20 GMT
It was what? JJ stared at her for a moment, his nose wrinkling. Support, of course they wouldn’t use the same word – and he wasn’t gonna admit that support made a whole lot more sense than maintenance – as though you were paying to keep the kid convinced that the status quo was still there. Had the old man even bothered doing that for his first born or had he just washed his hands of the entire thing? Well, when it did inevitably happen, he wasn’t gonna be the apple only falling a couple of inches from the tree. Mistakes learned from and all that.
JJ pooched out his lips, tipping his head back and forth before he shot a grin at the kid. She hadn’t asked for money at all and that had been the problem, hadn’t it? ”Same difference,” he muttered. Neither of them were gonna be paid since short stuff here wasn’t his. This town wasn’t that freaky.
Crouched down, studying her as she made her way towards him, JJ could see that there probably wouldn’t have been much of him in her if he had ended up an unintentional dad, contributing to the great gene pool. Looks wise her mum was there, personality-wise, maybe … He wouldn’t have denied being light fingered a time or two, had certainly never met a line he hadn’t skipped across as a kid. And her gob, Jesus ….
Blue eyes narrowed down like hers, his forearms planted on his knees until she took a swipe at him – like mother like daughter indeed. JJ barked out a laugh, blinking at her. ”Well there was plenty for mac and cheese and the nice bottle of something I was planning on having with dinner until someone dipped their hands in my pocket.” There was that glimmer of hope in his eyes as he looked up at mom. It wasn’t the first time he’d ever mooched dinner on the power of his charm alone, or anything else. A smile and that guileless boyish look could get you everywhere. He bet the kid knew how to play on her own version of it too. ”How about twenty dollars?” he offered. Undoubtedly that was gonna be pushed, the bargain never struck that easily.
Maybe he’d believed it had been in that museum bathroom in a breathless rush at the end. A satisfied married couple smoothing down clothes as they’d left it. The frown lines started to cut deep again. JJ straightened up, one finger held out in that age old signal to wait. ”Woah, woah. I always keep my word. What do you think I didn’t come through on?” He’d taken a swing at Maddox hadn’t he? It wasn’t his fault that the one woman invested in keeping his reputation clean was the one paying his wages, holding his strings. The article had ended up out there and anybody with half a brain would’ve caught the whiff of bullshit about the retraction he’d been forced to write. Grumbling under his breath, he dragged a hand over his stubbled jaw and looked down at the kid. Now she had his wallet and the means to put the boot in herself, like his ego wasn’t bruised enough without little feet stomping all over it. ”I dunno, but I don’t think she’s happy with me,” he stage whispered back. He wasn’t about to tell her how the bargain had been struck, little ears and all of that.
”Bullshit,” JJ announced as he straightened up. He clapped his hands over the kid’s ears, glaring at her mum over the top of her head. He’d done his part both times around, even if she wasn’t gonna give him credit for doing his husbandly duty the first time around. ”I published the article, I wasn’t betting on his girlfriend, y’know, my boss, being back before it got any real traction. I had no choice. It was publish a retraction and a sodding apology or my career’s tanked. I dunno about you, but a pay packet’s just a little necessary if I wanna keep eating mac and cheese. You want me to go for his jugular again?” By the time point his teeth were gonna be blunt, the pitbull like lock he’d tried to get on Maddox loose enough that he was practically gumming at him instead. Cursing under his breath he peeled his hands off of Lucy’s ears and held one out like she was about to deposit his wallet back in it.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Dec 22, 2022 17:14:40 GMT
Now, he hadn’t exactly been a saintly little kid – what only child on a military base filled with all the sorts of things you were warned not to touch would be – but he’d never stolen anything. Ahem. Not that way anyway. If you counted some shitty Yugo in Kosovo, maybe he had, it’d been a go or possibly end up in some shitty gulag hoping the old man could get him out before they worked him to death situation though. In some circles he’d been in, that was considered lucky. He’d seen the things some kids had to do to survive in the shittiest parts of the world. He’d not begrudged losing the fifty dollars in the back pocket of his trousers to some scruffy little thing in a crowd in Grozny – even if that had been all the bargaining money he’d had left. He did bloody begrudge it in the middle of Mystic Falls though.
Like his luck wasn’t shitty enough as it was. JJ almost stopped to bash his brains out against the shelf in front of him – and the boxes of Wheaties that would undoubtedly end up as soft as his sodding brains the minute he poured milk on them. There was no need for any of that here. If anything Mystic Falls was dripping in money, it was what attracted opportunistic leaches like Grey Maddox there in the first place. There was no desperate need for a loaf of bread to stop them starving – something he would’ve bought them if they’d been willing or able to open their mouths. There was just the occasional bad apple (alright, alright, it took one to know one) the store hadn’t gotten around to throwing out yet.
Would the Sheriff give a pickpocket that tiny a slap on the wrist or was Forbes secretly the sort who’d teach them a lesson with a few hours in the cells. It hadn’t worked for him, but hey who knew. Stuff it, with Christmas coming he might even be a little altruistic himself and let the brat go if she handed it back.
JJ took after her, skidding down and around the aisles on her tail, until she got all the way back to mummy. He snorted as the woman turned towards him. Those rotten apples certainly didn’t fall far from the tree, although she’d been a bit more like one of those sharp-sweet apples they had here. The sort that puckered your mouth up, but then had you going back for another bite, lingering sticky on your lips. He might’ve thought the kid had just picked any woman as a cover, but she’d been talking to the girl as he approached and not in that ‘what the bloody hell do you think you’re doing way’.
Sandy brows rose, amusement pulling at his lips for just a second as his hand fell away from his mouth, his order to the kid to hand his wallet back blatantly ignored. He dipped his head a bit, his nose twitching as he wrinkled it with his grin. ”Well,” he drawled. ”She is trouble, so I guess that’d fit. That’s not the way you ask for the child maintenance darlin’.” Not that the kid probably had a clue what that was, she had her pay day, so who cared.
She slipped out from behind her mum though, her voice soft, those brown eyes going all big and shiny like she expected him to be the sort to melt over it. JJ looked at her for a moment, his brows remaining high before he cackled. His grin was broad now. He beckoned her closer with both hands, bending slightly so he was more on her level. ”Well, if you ask your mum real nice I might be,” he offered. ”As long as I get my wallet back. Some of us are old enough that we’ve gotta pay for our own …” Pausing, he looked beyond the girl towards the cart where the kid’s coat – oh, she was a quick change artist too, this wasn’t her first bump and grab – lay over everything else. ”Mac and cheese? Well, you’re eating better than I am. If I offer up a reward for someone helpfully finding my wallet for me am I gonna get an invite to dinner?” He looked up hopefully, his arms still spread like the kid wasn’t canny enough to avoid him. The wallet might’ve been in the cart, but he was willing to bet she’d put it somewhere far safer.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Nov 19, 2022 22:04:09 GMT
It wasn’t exactly brass balls cold, although it could apparently get that way once winter really arrived. Big dumps of snow that probably made the town look picturesque (Mystic Falls’ go to, all of it just a cover really), but that would be a pain in his arse. He hadn’t needed heavy winter boots and down jackets in London, sure as hell hadn’t even double layered it in Africa. He wasn’t there now though and the gust of wind that slipped up the back of his t-shirt as he sat in the square – not only in that, he wasn’t that big a masochist – had JJ considering a trip to Charlottesville for a little shopping tomorrow. It wasn’t like the boss would really notice he was gone, Destiny probably relished those days he was barely in the office. Maybe she’d send his guard dog after him though.
Bloody pain in his arse, a bigger one than this metal chair on the sidewalk outside the coffee bean. What sort of sadist left these things out here after the weather started to turn? What sort of idiot sat out here instead of inside? One who was practically daring his boss ordered shadow to turn up and order him back to the office for daring to keep an eye on the Grey Haven. JJ squirmed on the seat, pushing his laptop away to slump back and stare at the ridiculous lump of steel and glass in the middle of a town that was all tradition. How’d they get that past the town council? Deep pockets, probably, the sort that had stopped the sheriff sniffing around even before he’d had to write the retraction of his article. Not a decent pair of eyes between them.
JJ picked up the cup of coffee the barista had brought out ten minutes ago and wrinkled his nose as he realised there was only a mouthful left. That’d gone quick, three shots of espresso, neat, vanishing in just a couple of mouthfuls. He set it down on its saucer, scowling at the screen as he did. There’d been no use trying to sneak another article through – Destiny had made it clear what was happening if he put one toe out of line and he had no intention of getting kicked from the Daily. Wasn’t like the Courier was gonna be racing to take him on with his reputation trashed by that redaction. Put up with the shackles, or leave. Not much of a choice now, was it?
He shut down the computer, not bothering to close the word file first – what point was there when the bloody thing had just been blank anyway. JJ stuffed it into his bag, waving off the barista through the window as he turned. She’d held up another cup, wiggling it in offer, one brow winging at him – another offer undoubtedly. For a second he stared at her. Brush one off, take the other? Ugggh. He waved that off too, shoving the laptop into his bag before he started off. Chances of him getting more work done at home were just as small. Maybe though. A stop at the supermarket first – coffee he’d have to brew himself, something to shove in the microwave later. The essentials, especially if the place sold booze, not always a guarantee here. One stop shop his arse.
The basket dangled from his fingertips as he strolled through the produce section. Why they did always put it at the front of shops? Did they honestly think you were suddenly gonna stop pigging out on the junk if you spotted the apples before the bags of crisps? Fat chance of that – he did slow down long enough to toss a couple of limes in the basket though, he wasn’t a total pig. JJ strolled the aisles, the coffee stuffed in the basket with bread (always fucking awful here, cakey shit that wouldn’t have flown anywhere else), a couple of them hungry man meals that were slightly more palatable than the dubious Chinese from three days ago that was still stuffed in the fridge. Milk. Cereal … where was the cereal …?
Ha! The only thing they got right here. None of that reduced sugar shit they’d switched over to back home. He crab walked along the aisle, looking back and forth between the neon coloured boxes – Froot Loops (the limes were probably enough to stave off scurvy already), Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms. Bingo. JJ reached up to grab them, felt the bump as he landed back. That shark like nudge and go he’d felt a dozen times in rat runs all over the world. Usually kids, hands small enough to dip into pockets, faces cute enough to look up at him like this one was now. Unlucky for them he didn’t have that biological instinct to preserve the small and cute, fuck primitive thoughts when it was your wallet or passport vanishing into a crowded street. ”Whatcha,” he said slowly, offering up a smile at the kid. ”Oh no, you don’t. Oi!” She’d turned, quick as a damn eel and bolted.
It only took a slap of his back pocket to release he was light now. Fuck. JJ dumped the basket on the floor, bolting after her down the aisle. There was only one way in and out of the place, but he got to the end of the aisle and didn’t see her scurrying out of it on little legs, waving his wallet in the air like a banner. Glancing back and forth between the exit and the rows that stretched away from it, JJ made his way along the end, carefully ducking around each corner until the last one. The kid was there, halfway down, ducking behind a slender figure that wouldn’t have done anything to hide her if she’d been much bigger.
He strode down the aisle after her, baring his teeth in a sharp grin at the kid as he approached. ”Nice try, but you can pass it back now. Come on…” He wiggled his fingers at her, pausing as the woman turned around. Double fuck. JJ huffed a laugh out through his nose, pulling his hand back to drag her knuckles under his nose. ”I’d say I’d hope she wasn’t mine, but that woulda been some sort of a miracle. Take it she’s yours though?” That’d go some way to explaining it. Looked like his wife hadn’t exactly offered up the whole story.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Nov 15, 2022 19:13:24 GMT
’Would it kill you to apologise?’
Absolutely. Of course, he hadn’t told the old man that. He already knew his second born was facetious as fuck and would defend his actions to the last word. He’d inherited that from the General. That need to stand by every single belief he’d ever had, arguing it til he was blue in the face. Was he ever proven wrong? Regu-fucking-larly. The point was though, he wasn’t about to start falling on a sword over it. General Hart wasn’t either, he was a man who rapidly shoved his mistakes behind him and then acted like they didn’t exist – just like his eldest. Out of sight, out of mind and don’t let the guilt bite you on the arse on the way out.
The ’I’m sorry’ had almost choked him as he’d sat in that chair this morning, watching a woman literally hollowed out try and avoid breaking down in front of him. Sorry for her loss, sorry for what that man had done to her – and no matter what Destiny said, he was sure that Grey Maddox had a hand in it – not sorry for trying to blow the lid off of what that red handed arsehole had done here and across two countries.
There’d be no apology from him now, for trying to lodge this blokes brass ones up around his tonsils – it’d been a mutual decision to blow it up. And he wasn’t about to crawl to some fucker picking over his accent. JJ cackled, his middle finger trying to get in on the game as he aimed it at that mug. ”Oh, I know they do mate. Over here at least. They want a bit of the exotic.” His wife had seemed far keener that he put his lips to some other use than flapping, but, eh, the point still stood. ”Who wants to disappear among crowds of idiots like them?” His chin rose, indicating the queue still shuffling around, hoping the bouncers would open up that velvet rope for them. One face in the masses, not making a single wave. Nah. Fuck it.
JJ got to his feet, bracing himself as the bloke took his hand and hauled himself up. Woulda been pathetic if he’d gone straight down like a sack of potatoes, adding more bruises to a face that was gonna look a state in the morning (as though anybody was gonna see it as he crawled under the rock of his apartment and stayed there). His teeth flashed as he knuckled under his nose and then used the shoulder of his t-shirt to staunch it for a moment. ”It’s called English, guessing they don’t speak it too well round here. I’m guessing Doctor Who didn’t get as far as you.” That seemed to be every American’s bench mark for Britishness. ”Lairy – mouthy, flashy, dickish.” Probably described himself as much as anything, but this wasn’t a moment for self-reflection.
It was about trying not to limp on the way to Campbell’s – those twinges in the top of his foot were working their way in, had to remember to lead with the leg next time, ‘specially when a bloke was practically carting cannonballs around with him. A few steps in and it was loosening up, his cackle echoing across the square as his new company nudged him. ”That’s why you don’t keep ‘em around. Have your fun and say see ya later. Keeping ‘em around’s too much trouble.” Wasn’t that the General’s attitude too. ”If I had one, I doubt it. They’d know it was a regular fucking occurrence, yeah?” A magnet for trouble and too dumb to walk away. Although he supposed this had to count as walking away, even if his arse kicker was right there with him.
Anticipating the dulling of the pain in his conscious and his fucking face, JJ bounced up the stairs and practically got tossed back. It ain’t that bad – just a fucking nosebleed bruv – might as well have been talking fucking Swahili for all the owner took notice of it. No sympathy and a couple of ice packs, just stop bleeding on my floor. Go home and sort yourself out. Now it was his balls aching as stomped back out the door. JJ sniffed hard, wishing for a second that he hadn’t before he hawked the clot of spit and blood into the curb.
Holding his hands up, JJ grumbled under his breath. ”Some of us take a bit to recover from a smack in the face,” he griped. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And some of them sashayed along the street like they hadn’t turned eunuch briefly. Sniffing again, JJ licked at his upper lip. Salty. In more ways than one. ”Yeah, fuck it. Let’s give the boys in blue around here something to start bitching about. On me.” Squaring his shoulders, JJ started across the street. Maybe they’d have a pack of tampax too, something enough to staunch the flow and who knew, making the bitch in him would shut up for five minutes with the application of them too.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Oct 8, 2022 14:18:35 GMT
The General would’ve shit a brick over this. That red stain that would move with a tsunami’s speed crawling out of his starched collar and up his face, slowly turning the buttoned down arsehole apoplectic. He’d seen it happen a half dozen times when he’d been growing up, although, until he’d been old enough in his old man’s eyes, he hadn’t let all that anger and disappointment come rolling out at him. By the time he had been JJ had learned not to stand in the firing line for it. Across the other side of the world what was General Hart actually gonna do about his youngest – and only kid if you were to ask (although on occasion JJ imagined he’d deny having any at all) – getting in a scrap. He wasn’t gonna be thrown in the brig here, left to rot until he’d learned his lesson. Ha! More than thirty years and he hadn’t done that yet.
Abraded pride would be what he’d point the finger at later, tossing it out as an excuse for just being a masochistic little shit, although a closer study (one of The General’s favourite life lessons – take a good look at yourself) would reveal an unhealthy amount of guilt in the explosive mix too.
JJ felt the sting of it as he scrambled his way free of the stool (a shitty excuse for one, you wanted something heavier in a place like this, just perfect for swinging at empty heads). A secondary jab to that overinflated part of himself as the bloke tried to swing those equally overinflated, but ultimately empty, sacs at him. He cackled again, bouncing lightly on his toes just once like he was loosening himself up. ”Sounds like you’re talking from experience, bruv. I guess the hair don’t get you everywhere after all.” The mouth did though. JJ paused for a second, remembering the way his wife had been happy enough with his, once he’d sweet talked her into throwing Maddox under the bus, and promising to empty his wallet into one of them delicate little hands on the way out.
His weren’t huge, but they’d dwarfed hers still, now his was swallowed up by the paw of the Yeti here for just a moment before his other slugged him right between those ‘shouldn’t have skipped leg day’ twigs. Aaah, there was the pride again, his ego puffing up with the air this numpty expelled as he doubled over and left himself wide open for that follow up swing that JJ felt through the rough bite of that beard.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Even the late arrival of the bouncers wasn’t enough to stop the laugh of delight from rolling out of him as he lobbed one last blow at the jewels – let’s see him try and win over the ladies when he had an ice pack plastered to his balls for the next week. Had he celebrated too early? Maybe. ”Oi,” he barked as the bloke slipped free with a minnow’s ease, trapping his boot between those, alright maybe they weren’t as weak as they looked, thighs. He squirmed, hoping the bouncers would get him out of the human bear trap he’d left himself in.
Those thick, Hulk fingers fisted in his far shorter hair, his scalp stung for just a heartbeat before the edge of the bar came rushing up and caught him across his nose and cheekbone. The growled words barely registered after that. The world tipped sideways and JJ flailed, weakly kicking out at the bloke like he could deflect him while he crabbed and whined. ”Ask your balls how big I am…” he slurred. The laughter returning as the bouncers descended in force. There was no more room for swinging, even if could tell which of the two blokes he was seeing was the one whose teeth he wanted to knock out, they were held apart so the other hairy bastard could prance in and officially kicked them out. Now the shit bag wanted to work. Fucking ridiculous.
Bootheels skidded across the floor, although, honestly, JJ didn’t put much effort into slowing down the lumps who’d come to drag the trouble out of the place. He went boneless – with a drunk’s wisdom – as they tossed him out. While the Yeti hit the ground, he stumbled a good half dozen metres, before he recovered his balance. At least as far as being able to stay upright by bending over with one hand braced on a knee. The world still whirled a little at the edges – not in the fun way his planned night of drinking would’ve had it doing either. Looking up at the arsehole had him wincing. ”’cept put you on your arse,” he muttered, grumbling as he poked along his cheekbone and at the bridge of his nose. Nothing broken, although blood trickled from one nostril and that bone deep ache under his eye told him he’d be nursing a black eye next morning.
Experimentally, JJ straightened up and then sank down on the floor next to the knob who’d kicked it all off. He scrubbed a hand through his hair, was glad to not feel the sharp sting of hair ripped from the roots - bald spots were harder to hide when you didn’t have the caveman thatch going on. ”Not ‘til your bird gets you back in there tomorrow night…” And not til he’d mea culpa-ed enough to sweet talk the bouncers into forgiving him (the dick behind the bar would obviously take more work). JJ stared at Hairy McLairy, full lips, thankfully not split by the up close and personal moment with the bar, pursed before he snorted and lifted his chin. ”As long as you can walk there. Maybe we can sweet talk the next bartender into giving you a little ice.” Or a rubber ring, anything to take off the pressure the booze wouldn’t manage.
Thankfully the world didn’t pitch again as he got to his feet and offered the bloke his hand for a second time. He wasn’t gonna swing this time, weren’t worth it. ”How ‘bout Campbell’s? They’re a bit less lairy there at least and that owner might have a sweet spot for neanderthals. That bird you mentioned gonna kiss it all better tomorrow?” When he’d be icing his own boo boos, a loner’s self-care and a whole day spent on the couch since he didn’t have an office to go back into. Being persona non-grata was gonna fucking suck.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Sept 21, 2022 15:48:57 GMT
He didn’t like admitting it, but he’d been blind before. JJ lifted the hand not plastered to his wife’s, scritched his fingertips through the scruff of his beard. It wasn’t often mind, and no admission of it was ever gonna pass his lips, but it happened. You could swear to yourself you’d look better the next time, open your eyes more - stuff was still gonna sneak into your blind spot though. Destiny wasn’t his.
Scowling at his wife as he followed her, JJ felt the knot tightening in his stomach. Maybe Destiny knew what her boyfriend was up to, maybe she was trying to protect him, but whether she was actually complicit was another story. There’d been nothing in the stories to say that it was her hand on the knife or the cosh, or whatever it was Maddox had bumped them all off with. ”Oi,” he grumbled, squirming slightly in his suit. ”You think I’m getting all worked up for a woman other than my wife? Pffft.” And he wasn’t. It wasn’t a case of wanting to drag Destiny off to the bathrooms like Lucky was him now. Had he appreciated her when she’d hired him? Maybe. He was more professional than that though, respected her more than that.
Why wouldn’t any of them believe that his motives were pure here? It was like they took one look at him and saw nothing but a walking ball of hormones, swaggering around that constant hard-on.
It was a good thing he had a thick enough skin to avoid the jabs about it, otherwise he might’ve been standing there snivelling instead of meeting her grin, working his thumb in a circle in her palm, a promise of how he was gonna take care of his wife. ”He’d probably have the scars from it. Battle wounds.” Like he’d fought a wild cat to get a ring on her finger. JJ could’ve shown her scars, the ones littering his skin from all those trips out into the field, most not stitched back together all nice and neat like they would’ve been if he’d been permanently on parade like his old man. These hands that weren’t all butter soft and limp. They gripped, lifted, flexed as though he expected another verbal swing at least as he started to line them up - full on gentlemanly if you asked him. The deal would’ve been gentlemanly too (and that wasn’t sexist, this was a woman definitely made for wearing the trousers in any situation), but that first dip into what he’d seen as the payment ended with a whispered request for cash just as she squeezed anaconda like around his hips. JJ laughed low and rough, meeting her smirk with a nod, a wink of one storm cloud eye. ”I’ll make sure you’re paid, love.” And out of his pocket too. He wasn’t charging anything to the Daily for what he was about to do.
She leaned back, looking satisfied with herself as her fingers traced a line down the front of his shirt. JJ felt his belly suck back in beneath - not out of vanity, he didn’t need any of that - but out of that shiver of sensation that followed her touch down. Maybe it shot back out a little fast, but what had he expected of a woman with a meaner right hook than first impressions might suggest? ”Destiny helped him kill a man here?” Fuck. In the not-so-fun sense of the word. JJ felt the wind go out of his sails a little. ”I knew about him, about a couple of the others. I got told … that there was more than one.” Multiple murders in multiple states, the sort of thing the big badges usually got involved in, but they hadn’t started sniffing around him yet.
JJ would’ve stopped her usually, let his hand slip down to still those fingers that were putting the wind back, but God, he was gonna need something after all of this. Destiny was an abused woman, one turning it around on others now, sticking by a bloke with a whole ocean of blood on his hands. ”You’d have to get your brains tested,” JJ rasped. Maybe he should get his looked at, especially since that sudden disconnect in his brain didn’t seem to be bothering the signals being sent straight from his neck, where his wife’s lips and teeth were making short work of his astonishment. His hands slid up, pushing her dress and his sudden dilemma out of the way. He’d asked for the story hadn’t he. ”I guess any husband of yours oughta be used to performing his other duties while his head’s still spinning too, eh?” Oh, and he could. Punch drunk or not, JJ Hart had never backed out of a deal. Hands slipping under the tight curve of her backside, mouth finding hers hotly, JJ started to pony up.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 27, 2022 16:37:41 GMT
This was clumsy and he’d never been that.
JJ sat that uncomfortable chair – did they do that on purpose in all newspaper offices, like they did in cop shops? Make ‘em as uncomfortable as possible and maybe they’d talk – feeling like his size 9s were suddenly clown shoes. Stomping all over everything, kicking it aside without any control over it. Nope, that was bullshit. He’d had control and it’d been a conscious choice to go against his orders. Saying he didn’t was a cop out and he didn’t do that any more than he did clumsy. Forceful, yeah, purposeful, dogged. He’d take it all, but not clumsy, or evasive. If he did something, he’d put his hands up.
And if he’d necessary he’d choke out the apologies his actions deserved, as though they were as dry as the pastries in half the bloody places he’d looked since he’d come to town. Would it kill ‘em all to chill their dough before they shoved their croissants in the oven? Bone dry pastry wasn’t an apology.
Even the good stuff wasn’t much of one.
If he sunk much lower in his seat, his chin would’ve drilled a hole right through that hollow where his collarbones met. He could practically feel the vibration of Destiny’s anger rolling off of her, all that tension crackling in the air like thunder would crack if she let it go at him. They said lightning never struck twice, but they didn’t say how fucking miserable that first strike was, if you managed to survive it. Right now it didn’t look like his career in Mystic Falls would – not unless the Courier was willing to take on the Daily’s scraps of course.
Trying to clamp down on his own nerves, JJ settled his hands in his lap, his jiggling leaving them twitching as he laced them together. Fingers knotted tight, thumbs digging into his knuckles as he tilted his head slightly. With the way her cheeks were heating – slowly rising towards a Vesuvian red – opening his mouth at all might not be a good idea. He wasn’t gonna have his journalistic scruples raked over the coals though, like he was some glory hunting twat whose only aim was getting his headlines on the front page. ”Two sides to every story, but theirs is the wrong side,” he adjusted. That was the gist of it, weren’t it? They weren’t lying but somehow what they’d told him about Grey Maddox and his murderous tendencies was wrong. Like there was a good reason for people to turn up dead around him.
Forget the gist. Fuck. JJ sucked in a deep breath, little lines springing up between his brows as he looked at her across the stretch of her desk. Lucky had been right then, Destiny had maybe known more about it all than he’d given her credit for and he’d been right too – want to have a baby, not be having a baby. That took the wind out of his sails, slumping him down an inch further in his seat as that sick feeling sum higher. ”I think …” he started before he paused. ”Sometimes it’s the people closest to us we go blind to.” Probably not something she wanted to hear, especially from someone whose business it wasn’t but he wasn’t about to believe that this woman condoned killing people whenever you felt like it.
There was that implication again – he was the idiot. He’d listened to bullshit from multiple sources and he was too dumb to see what Destiny could. JJ peeled apart hands that ached now, holding them up to ward her off. ”I didn’t say that. I don’t think you’d do any of that.” She was smart, she had some vision, and she definitely had more backbone than some would’ve given her credit for but this was love and people in love did stupid fucking things.
She had no reciprocal sort of love for him. Even the respect he might’ve had coming in had been ripped into little shreds like he imagined every copy of this paper she could get her hands on would be. JJ hovered there on the edge of his seat, shoulders tense beneath his shirt as she smiled sourly. ”There is one that comes with the job and I take it seriously.” Whether or not he took other parts of the job seriously were debatable, but that, that he focused on and didn’t like thinking he’d fucked up. He’d appreciated his sources, sure, but neither one had flashed him a little flesh just to blind him. He'd tried to do the right thing and it was backfiring on another wave of tears.
JJ cursed under his breath, tugging at the emptied bag to see if he could fish napkins out. He pushed one across the desk, anticipating getting his hand slapped the other way. A huff of disbelief rolled out, leaving him poking the desk top with a finger. ”Why on earth would I have a bias towards him? If you’ve got an explanation. Give it to me. Like they did. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but you can’t tell me that and keeping it all locked tight at the same time.” Evidence. Destiny had demanded it, he’d given her what he could, but not the sources she wanted to drag out of him – if he was gonna turn the whole thing around, surely he deserved the same.
Just as he deserved the fucking guilt that swam up the back of his throat and almost spilled out onto her desktop to really do away with the fucking croissants. JJ clamped his lips together against it, biting back a response that surely wasn’t gonna help anything. Destiny was already breaking on this and it’d been his hand on the hammer that’d put the first cracks through her again. ”That wasn’t my intention,” he spoke hoarsely. His blow had sure as hell landed fucking wrong, like an inept DIYer hitting everything except the fucking nail.
Worry started to claw through the nausea, hardening the lines of his face. He’d always picked apart what people said, trying to find the actual truth in the subtleties but doing that now left him uneasy. Safe Destiny might’ve been but if he’d ruined that safety with his so-called fucking stunt what did that actually mean for her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The words echoed through his head as he slid back, propping his elbows on his knees to drag his hands through his hair. More blame on his shoulders, ready to choke him.
Blue eyes, marred by that fleck of brown, rolled up to look at her while Destiny looked at her computer. JJ licked his lips, let a long breath out through his nose while he gripped the short crop of hair hard. ”I can …” Write the retraction if you give me the other half of the story. That wasn’t just dancing on the knife edge, it was trying to do the splits on it. Wasn’t like he had much safe ground with the threat of firing shoved at him. The Courier it was then, since he wasn’t about to crawl out of town with his tail between his legs leaving his brother and whatever fucking trouble he’d find himself in behind.
Or not.
JJ dipped his head, half hiding that face she couldn’t stand to look at. Somehow it felt like he was getting off easy for supposedly ruining Destiny’s life. She wasn’t all razor blades though, not like her boyfriend. A slap on the wrist on the surface, but what was going to come with that sucker punch later. He pushed himself up out of his seat slowly, body stiff, like that blow could come at any moment. It did, just a little swing, as those tear filled eyes met his and the ghost of the child she’d lost floated there between them. ”I’m already packed. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the second chance.” He wasn’t about to say thank you, like there was anything to be grateful for in the situation.
Slipping around the arm of the chair, JJ started to head for the door, but he stopped halfway there. His lips pursed, his expression flattening back to those sympathetic lines. ”I really am sorry for your loss. Nobody deserves that, not even him.” Maddox had some sort of justice coming to him, but no matter what the situation was the sins of the fathers shouldn’t be laid upon their kids. He nodded slowly, like he was accepting the slap on the arse he’d taken for this, and slipped out. Two minutes later he was heading out of the building, the whispers and judgy glances of everyone else in the office following him like the cloud of stink that should’ve been wrapped around Maddox.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 22, 2022 14:38:13 GMT
All yours!
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 19, 2022 18:18:35 GMT
The first time he’d been dropped from a newspaper, he’d gone out and found the shittiest looking place possible in Ealing. A dozen drinks in and he was numb enough that he hadn’t felt it when he’d swung for some smug fucker’s teeth, not ‘til the next morning when he’d woken up on a bench in a park with some tramp rifling through his pockets, the remains of his liquid dinner on the gravel path beneath him and two of the bloke’s cracked teeth stuck in his knuckles. Luckily there hadn’t been a knock on his door later that day to do him for assault – he was pretty sure he’d just been a mouthy see you next Tuesday until the bloke had gotten tired of it and had swung – he hadn’t stuck around long enough. Keeping a solid head on his shoulders with each termination since had served him well, JJ guessed it was probably only a matter of time though.
By now Destiny had probably broken the story to her partner. A little warning of what was gonna end up on every breakfast table in Maddox’s glossy shithole. If he hadn’t gotten it wrong, and he was pretty fucking sure of that, then JJ Hart had probably gone on the top of his list, written in tiny psycho letters, waiting to be crossed out when he’d vanished like the rest of them. Punishment – which he’d take for the upset he’d caused Destiny, and whatever had happened to the baby (it wasn’t him and he’d keep telling himself that ‘til he fully believed – at Maddox’s hands.
There weren’t much point in getting his arse kicked twice, even if another scar or two – should he survive – would just add to his mystique. Might as well just drink, steeping his stinging pride and slightly deflated confidence in a barrel or something. Retreating home to lick his wounds after. Tomorrow he’d regroup, digging more into that shit bag while he toed the company line and sat around his apartment, twiddling his thumbs until Destiny could stomach him back in the office again. Alright, it’d be more like getting himself sozzled on a daily basis and desperately trying to find himself another tell-all that’d get this town all lit up.
At least the booze was free flowing at home, there were no arseholes looking for a little power trip withholding on him. No ugly mugs all pruned up with whatever internal turmoil had them puckering harder than he was. Maybe he shoulda gone to Campbell’s after all, at least it just took a smile to have the owner turning on the charm there. JJ smiled acerbically at the giant swinging one at the end of the bar, mouthing his own ’might fucking die of thirst before you’re done’. ”Just the fucking way,” he muttered before he took another look at tall, hairy and broody next to him. A flex from him might’ve have a decent pair springing into view. Woulda made a man feel inadequate if he was entirely lacking an ego – which was not his problem.
The sour had definitely sunk deeper than his voice. It creased his own brow, had him tensing in anticipation for the answer to his question to be a fist in his face. This bloke probably wouldn’t have any trouble picking shards of his teeth out of those ham fists come morning. The thin lips didn’t moved, but one foot did, kicking his stool over. JJ scrambled off of it, almost going down as it clattered down on the floor, his feet caught in the legs. Son of a bitch. He kicked it back, his chin coming up like he could make up for the handful of inches sourpuss had over him. JJ cackled, puffing out his chest. ”It’s called being friendly, mate. Although I’m guessing that’s something you ain’t ever had. I was gonna say if I had a pair like yours I could flashed ‘em. Muscles don’t make up for friends though, do they?” Nope, they just meant when that swing came it was gonna hit all the harder. Maybe Maddox wouldn’t have to paste him across the floor after all.
Not looking for a fight lately didn’t mean JJ didn’t know how to fight. Hit ‘em first and hit ‘em dirty and you ended it pretty quickly. Tilting his head like he was suddenly apologetic, he went to extend his hand to the bloke – his left. It hung in the air about level with those manly pecs, fingers spread. A lure that got snatched away as he swung. Not up at that Desperate Dan jaw, low, below the belt, literally, then up at that jaw, the sudden ripple of sound only adding power to the swing. ”Shoulda had brothers mate, they’d have taught you how to share, and knocked the knob out of you,” JJ sing-songed up close as he got a hand in that rat’s nest of hair and yanked down. His knee was coming up, aimed right at that blob of a nose, when the hands grabbed him from behind. Not ready to stop yet, JJ fought against them, a ferret’s agility wriggling him in their hold, giving him the momentum to kick up going for maximum destruction, not a little pain now.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 18, 2022 15:55:14 GMT
IRIS MILLER species: open | age: mid-30s | face claim: Michelle Williams | relationship: Babysitter/shipReserved for Lissa! Babysitting her asshole of a coworker wasn’t exactly on Iris’ list of duties for her new job, but when you’re hungry to make the jump from admin to reporter, you’ll do just about anything. Iris’ history prior to being employed at the Mystic Daily is entirely up to the player. She can be a local, or a newcomer, like JJ himself. The big factor is her ending up working at the Daily now. The species is flexible and so is the age to a point (its gonna take some maturity to deal with this man). The face is fixed (I’m an admitted gif ho). She’s hungry to be a ‘real journalist’, getting to write the stories herself instead of just doing the paperwork around them. Iris is one of those people who can be ultra focused and a real stickler for details. If there’s a rule there she will follow it - especially if it gets her what she wants in life. She’s not a complete hardass though - or entirely immune to JJ’s charms, eventually he will wear her down. JJ’s history at the Daily is a rocky one and it’s his recent behaviour that has gotten him stuck with a babysitter - which he will absolutely hate. In a misguided attempt to both shield his boss from a decidedly dodgy dude and uncover some major shit in Mystic Falls he wrote a tell all story about GREY MADDOX - that just happened to coincide with some tragic circumstances (talk to ANGE , JODI or JULIA for details). The article was published just as DESTINY BACCARI returned to work and after an unpaid suspension JJ’s been placed under Iris’ watchful eye to make sure he doesn’t try and pull that trick again. Nobody said anything about the other tricks, though, right? Watching out for JJ is going to prove a full time job. The man will do anything to make it difficult, although what’s better than a good old enemies to lovers trope? Let a man drive you crazy and in the end you’ll snap in the best way.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 12, 2022 22:09:37 GMT
He hadn’t needed to play any games to get Leah to talk – not that he was above some negotiation so to speak – but with his wife, it had been one from the start. His old man would’ve called playing it silly buggers, but could you really call it that when it was a perfectly reasonable way to get the story you’d started to piece together? Men and women had been experts at it since Eve had first talked Adam into taking a nibble on the apple. You twisted each other around and as long as there was mutual understanding with it there weren’t a problem. Leah had got it, had seemed to enjoy that bit of the night just as much as she’d enjoyed throwing Maddox under the bus. Now, JJ, figured, he’d have had to be an idiot not to take advantage of it.
Same here.
A little bit of spice to the game, a move to sell the whole thing as the big bollocks himself had finally made his appearance in the crowd. At least he’d seen him coming, the bunch of stuffy old buggers seeming to part like the waves for Moses himself. The shoulders of the black tuxedo he wore a shield against Maddox’s shifty eyes. JJ ran his tongue over his lower lip, chasing that taste of champagne and woman as the charmer slipped back into place. All husbandly tenderness while the real topic here was a little spicier. For her part his wife was squeezing his forearms lightly, like they were still in that precious honeymoon period. ”Makes a man a little … gun shy,” he re-emphasised. Maybe it had her drawing some lines too. Lines sprung up between his brows for a moment. Maddox was like the cleaver that thumped down in warning seconds before it swung for your neck.
Maybe it was dangerous telling her what he knew but it was like catching flies, you got more with honey than you did vinegar. JJ was pretty sure the kiss hadn’t buttered her up any, there were other ways though. He grunted low in his throat at her snort, blue eyes narrowing faintly. ”What would you call it then?” he asked hoarsely. Maddox had been sniffing around Destiny long before the bump had appeared, it didn’t mean the baby hadn’t been an extra click on the cuff around her wrist though. Bringing a baby into things always complicated them, it pushed you to do things you’d been on the fence about – the General’s first wife was proof of that.
He could’ve pulled her back as she reached for his hand, making it clear just where he thought Destiny’s position lay in this but it would be idiocy to cut his wife off, if he was about to get lucky here in more ways than one. JJ wormed the tip of his tongue into the pocket of his cheek as she took the glass and downed most of it again. This was about the point a loving husband might’ve suggested she cool it, but fuck that. They’d apparently just get fruity instead … while she whispered every sordid word in his ear.
JJ beamed a smile at an old biddy who looked prudishly over her shoulder at the two of them as bustled off of the makeshift dance floor and towards the bathrooms. She didn’t look back, but he did as they reached the door, curling his hand around the edge of it for a moment to look up and down the hallway behind them. ”I weren’t gonna leave it open,” JJ snorted as he locked it. He wasn’t the sort to get his kicks that way, no matter how much an adrenalin junky he was at times. While his wife checked the stalls, he checked himself in the mirror, unbuttoning his jacket and smoothing a hand down the front of his shirt.
Shuffling back a step as Lucky slipped in, JJ snorted again at the idea Destiny knew and wasn’t letting on. He sniffed faintly, tipping his head to one side. ”When she’s paying the cheque that keeps me here, there’s a bit more give and take. I’ve watched her at work, she don’t seem the sort to be aiding and abetting.” That wasn’t even bringing the baby into it. He was protecting the unborn child as much as he was Destiny, and if he did have a soft spot for his boss, so fucking what.
Ooof.
Reaching for her hand, JJ lifted it, like he was studying her knuckles for some sign of his teeth marks on them. That one had been a smack in the mouth … or lower if his ego was attached to his balls. ”That’s your husband you’re maligning, love.” Fake husband, who was happily using that connection to get himself another source for the story. He’d be able to triangulate it, compare stories enough to discount anything that sour grapes had tossed in.
JJ pursed his lips, puffing out his belly a bit with the deep breath. He settled a hand on it for a heartbeat before he crowded back into he. Hands skimmed down to her hips, boosting her up into the edge of the marble vanity. The corners of his lips tipped up. ”I guess you’re not afraid of the target either. I’m more of a journalist than you’re giving me credit for. I protect my sources. No names, nothing goes in that can’t be verified by at least a handful of people, so there’s no chance of Maddox going after any sort of reprisal.” Of course he could come straight to the man who knew exactly who’d said what, but didn’t mean he’d dob any of them in. ”I can pay,” he said roughly – with the trust fund of course. Fingertips that were more calloused than most of the old codgers working the story desks at the Daily dropped to skim over the warm bare skin of her thigh. ”Or, I can do my husbandly duty and we can use the second oldest currency in the world.” The same as he’d paid Leah with, although he’d gotten the impression that getting revenge alone would’ve been enough for her.
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