Streets of Manhattan

James bit his lip and sighed, "Um Seth was talking to Jake and he might be hurt, I just talked to Ev though and she says she's fine, and for us to meet up here."

***

"I don't know I feel kind of lightheaded, and dizzy and... do you have to shine that in my face?" Jake asked squinting at the phone's light as it hit his face.

"No dude, it was the size of a human." Connor mumbled. "Fine- you go check on him and I'll look for Alexis more.?

Seth groaned in furstration. He was worried about Alexis but honestly, more worried about Jake. But Jake and Evelyn had both said they were fine.

Somehow, it didn't reassure him. Jake was a well-practiced liar. He texted James asking if the two idiots had turned up because he was going to be a bit late.

"I'll come with you." He glanced up at Connor.

***

Luke gaped. Then tried to absorb this. "Okay...." He leaned back against an ancinet mailbox. "Where's Seth and Connor?"

He wondered if they should go check on Jake and Evelyn.

***

Evelyn winced and turned the light downwards so it lit up their feet. "Sorry," she muttered and stepped away from Jake. "I think you might have a mild concussion. If you're still standing, it's a good sign." She rubbed her back as she said this, grimacing. Did he seriously flip people over on occasion?

James shrugged, "They're still at that house at the end of the block, he told me they were going to check the attic or something and told me that we should wait for Jake and Evelyn."

***

Jake kind of tuned out, he shook his head and looked down at Evelyn, "Did I hurt you? I honestly wouldn't have done that to you its just I thought you were like a junkie or something."

Connor nodded. "Lets check the attic now."He said, turning and headed to there.

Seth followed after him. They entered the place by a set of pull-down stairs. Seth scanned the room quickly. "Nothing here," he muttered. He pulled out his phone and shone its torch over the torn boxes lying around. Light entered from a tiny window set in one wall.

He sneezed. "Do you see anything?"

***

Luke sighed and sat down on the curb wearily. "Man i hope they found something..."

***

Evelyn stared up at Jake, and then narrowed her eyes. Then again, she'd thought he was some rapist. "Yeah, well, I wasn't aiming to kill. I just thought I was about to get assaulted by some half-dying, sex-starved hobo." She glanced down at her hand holding the flashlight. Red welts ran where Jake had held on like his life depended on it.

Technically, she'd been close to braining him with the pan again so it might just have. She sighed and glanced up at him again, handing back his phone and pulling out hers. She flicked open James' chat window. "Apparently, they're panicking. Um...." She decided it might be better if they skipped the sheer stupidity of this incident, and told James not to come. She was kind of surprised, though. James sounded genuinely worried.

James nodded wondering if the other two were on their way.

***

Jake sighed, "Um maybe we should go meet with them then, let them know we're alive cause Seth was all freaking out too."

Luke pulled out his phone and texted Evelyn to ask her if she was okay. He held onto the phone and sighed. "What do you suppose happened?"

***

Evelyn pushed herself upright with a pained wince. She figured Jake's torchlight would lead the way.

She shot a glance at him. He was walking sort of weird, like he was about to collapse. Guilt rose in her again. She was really glad she'd found out who her assailant was because she'd planned to grab the pan and hammer it on his skull until he stayed down.

Impulsively, she reached over and grabbed Jake's hand. "I'm sorry. That was just....a really bad reaction. I kind of freaked because I was recalling Brett being a stalkerish type and well..."

"I don't know I think Jake got hit or something, and Evelyn is with him but she's fine." James said trying to push away the worried tone in his voice, sort of feeling bad for how he was acting earlier.

***

Jacob staggered slightly, grabbing onto the old hand rail, and holding his grip onto Evelyn, he hoped he didn't pass out because he knew if he did he'd bring her down with him and he really would hate if he had a concussion right now.

He let out a sharp breath, "Ah, listen Evelyn don't worry alright? I probably would have done worse to you if I didn't know it was you either. So I feel bad too." He said climbing up the stairs.

"He got hit?" Luke asked. He wasn't so much worried for Jake as he was for Evelyn. Jake would be able to handle himself.

***

Evelyn wondered what she'd do if Jake decided to pass out. He really did look kind of pale. She sighed. Time to play Good Samaritan.

Damn it, she thought. This is my fault anyways. She wriggled her hand free of Jake's and used her other hand to hold it instead, ducking under his arm and placing her free arm around his waist. "Do not fall on me. You'll kill us both," she informed him, starting up the stairs.

James nodded waiting for them to show up.

***

Jake was going to comment but he decided not to, he walked up the stairs slowly and when they reached the top he let go of Evelyn, he opened the back door coming outside, he looked back her, "Thanks."

They came back to the fence and he realized that maybe jumping over it wouldn't have been a good idea, he looked at Evelyn and remembered she was wearing a skirt, "How did you get over the fence again?"

She silently pointed at the gate a little ways away, half-concealed behind overgrown shrubbery.

She walked past Jake and shoved the green aside, kicking the gate open, and stepped through. "Where are - oh," she caught sight of the figures down the street. She started toward them, rubbing her shoulder, and then paused to glance at Jake. "Um, can you walk?"

"Nope- Nothing." Connor sighed deeply, ruffling his hair outta frustration.

Jake nodded, taking smaller strides he didn't want to exert himself too much if he really did have a concussion, "Yeah I'm fine."

James spotted Evelyn walking down the street and breathed a sigh of relief, he was glad to see her walking although Jake was walking kind of strange, but he didn't really care too much he was glad that she was okay.

Jake stopped and leaned against a fence, looking at the rest he just nodded a greeting.

"You guys alright?" Ashlee asked worried.

Seth cursed angrily under his breath. "What now?" he asked wearily. e sent James a quick IM telling him they were at a dead end here.

"Maybe one of the other houses?" began and hten froze. His gaze flickered past Connor's shoulder and he walked past him to the tiny winow. It was open an inch. Seth shoved it open the rest of the way and peered out cautiously.

A rope. Someone had climbed out. They'd probably gotten burn marks.

"Motherfucker," Seth breathed, and swung around, darting towards the stairs down to the first floor. "He might be near!" He sent a message to James telling him to watch the second house.

***

Evelyn shot Jake a glance and then just nodded silently, sitting down on the curb as her ankle burned. She suddenly felt ridiculous. She and Jake had pretty much destroyed one-third of the search operation for a freak-out and now both of them were going to have to stay behind. She rubbed her wrists gently, peered at the red fingermarks, not sure what they should tell everyone.

Connor darted after Seth. "Then where's Alexis?!"He asked, shoving his phone in his pocket.

James got a message from Seth and nudged Luke, "Seth said to watch the second house, I think they have him." He put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Luke, "We should go then, and corner the guy?"


"I'll stay here, in case he tries to make a run for it or something I can let you guys know, Ev are you gonna go or do want to stay with me?" Ashlee asked, as she volunteered herself to stay outside.

"I'm coming." Jake said pushing himself off the fence, "No way am I not beating the crap out of him."

Seth called back, "He'll know. I alerted James. Come on!"

The boys darted downstairs and through the backdoor. Seth scanned around.

***

The figure sprinted over the fence between two houses. Luke caught sight of it as he ran with James. "Shit, you cut him off, I'll chase him," he suggested to James.

***

Evelyn glanced up and managed to grab Jake's wrist and answer Ashlee simultaneously, even though Jake's little karate move was giving her severe muscle burn. She held onto him so he couldn't walk off, saying, "No, I can't run at the moment and he has a concussion. Sit down, Sal." She tugged at the lanky Spaniard's arm.

Connor spotted the figure in the distance. "Ah shit- over there!"He said pointing over towards it.

James nodded taking off behind the houses looking for the figure he saw running in attempt to cut him off from getting any further with Alexis.

"A concussion, how in the hell?" Ashlee asked but was cut off--

"I don't have a concussion, just a real bad headache, let me go Evelyn, I'm fine really." He said stubbornly trying to ignore his pounding head, he never sat out from a fight.

Seth decided to hop fences with what he was positive was Brett's fleeting figure. He caught up with Luke after two fence hops and saw the figure hesitate in front of them, in a dead backyard. James had cornered it.

This was going to get ugly. For James, specifically.

Seth swallowed and signaled to Luke and Connor that they should spread out. Luke heaed right, leaped a fence quietly and leaped another to get into the one Brett stood in from the west. James was still holding his ground northward and Seth and Connor brought up the south and west.

And then Brett charged, barreling into James in an attempt to get past. They both went down.

"Fuck, get him!" Seth called, taking the last fence as quickly as he could.

***

Evelyn rolled her eyes. Typical bravado response from a typical male, she concluded. She tightened her grip on Jake's wrist. "You look like you're about to tip over," she said shortly. "Stop trying to be a hero. You're out of commission for a few seconds, it won't kill you."

She was half-lying. She recalled Luke mentioning a concussion once and he'd been bed-ridden for days because he refused to take it seriously and went back to basketball.

Connor took his fence quickly and quickly dove over for Brett, slamming down onto him, trying to hit or pin him down.

James grunted feeling Brett charge into him, along with someone else piling up on top, he thought it might have been one of the guys, and he really wished that they had thought of something more elaborate than dog piling.

James shoved his knee into Brett hearing him grunt and he rolled out from underneath the dog pile.

Jake broke free of Evelyn, "I'm fine and I'm leaving." He took off down the street hopping over the fences he saw the guys go over, each time his feet pounded his head ached even more but adrenaline was taking over more so and he would hope it would stabilize him for the fight ahead.

He could hear all the noise from the house they had managed to corner Brett at, Jake grabbed the fence flipping over it and landing on his feet, he saw the fight and saw what looked like Connor and Brett, he saw that James was picking himself up off the ground.

Jake ran around the other side and reached up picking Brett up by the arms, he watched Connor roll off him gracefully and Jake picked him up and threw him up against the wall.

"I got him!" Jake yelled to the guys trying to pin him against the wall.

"No, Salazar," Brett hissed, catching onto the other boy's slightly dizzy, feverish expression. He swung his arm around and elbowed Jake in the face, not afraid to play dirty. He ducked free, knocking Jake's leg out from under him, sending him downwards.

Seth stopped mid-run, amazed. He couldn't recall Jake getting elbowed quite so easily.It was almost like Jake couldn't seem to tell what he should do next.

Seth intercepted Brett just as the boy punched Jake in the head - hard. "Shit!" Seth caught Brett around the waist, falling to the dirt and then Luke and Connor and James were there, and it was a chaotic mess of arms and legs. He wondered what happened to his roommate and then focused on keeping Brett down.

***

"Oh my God," Evelyn muttered, watching Jake sprint off. There was no way she was going to catch up to him. That idiot was running on a chemical imbalance high. She leaned her elbows on her knees, massaging her forehead. He was going to end up regretting it later.

Connor pinned one arm down with his knee sharply before throwing his elbow hard into Brett's head, hopefully enough to get him to stop struggling but not enough to knock him out. They DID need to somehow tell them where Alexis was...