SHOT in the Back

"Uhm..." Karl glanced around. "Let's go find the bathroom then, shall we?" Karl offered, since he didn't remember where ti was. If Carlotta had even shown them. He was still bad at remembering stuff sometimes. Quite often.
...
He was bad in general.

"You want to take him or should I?" Andrea asked. Max at the moment decided to stand, doing a little bathroom dance. Maybe I shouldn't have let him where the big boy underwear today...

"Do you know where the bathroom is?" Karl asked, glancing down. Oh boy...as if this would get any better or worse...

"Cause I don't..." Karl then finished, looking out the kitchen again.

"I don't know either. 'Lotta!" Andrea called out, hoping the girl would answer.

"I gotta peeeeeeee!" Max whined, locking his legs together. "Where's potty!"

Carlotta poked her head into the kitchen to see a dancing and squealing Max. She didn't know what to say. She'd never really had to dealt with something like this before.

"Um, yes?" she asked, bewildered.

"Bathroom?" Andrea asked, looking slightly panicked. Hold it in a little longer Maxie. Please, please...

"It's just next door," Carlotta said, pointing to the door in between the kitchen and Karl/Andrea's room. "That's the only one down here, but there are three upstairs."

Andrea picked up Max and ran out. "Much appreciated!"

Karl and 'Lotta could heard the bathroom door slammed shut. A few moments past.

"You sure you can by yourself?" Andrea's voice was heard, before a sigh. "I'm going, I'm going." The door closed again as Andrea leaned against it. Close call...

"Families are harder than they look, huh?" Carlotta smiled at Andrea as the older woman all but collapsed against the door in relief. She tilted her head almost knowingly, brown eyes glinting with a joy previously unbeknownst to her.

Andrea sighed, tilting her head so it could thunk against the door. "You have no idea."

The woman had to learn all that she could from books or movies on how to take care of kids, and even then for the most part it was just learning as she went along and instinct. If she didn't have Karl to help her... well, it'd be a whole lot worse than it was.

"You're right, I really don't," Carlotta agreed, taking a leaning position against the opposite wall. She still wasn't entirely used to this house despite moving here three years prior - in fact, she still couldn't really call it home.

She peered at her childhood hero curiously. "You know...you've changed a lot these four years."

Andrea looked over at the teenager. "How so?"

I mean, the hair, yes. And I don't wear many skirts anymore. Don't need to attract attention. The woman thought. She hoped that 'Lotta din't mean she gained weight. She worked off every pound she gained from pregnancy and more, dammit.

Carlotta leaned back to rest her head on the wall. "I don't really know specifically, but... you're different. Lighter. More mature, yeah, but...somehow more free than ever." Carlotta paused to muse. Of course she knew why Andrea had changed. Now, Andrea had someting to protect - something Carlotta had never known. All those people who had moved on...they were all protecting someone. Carlotta, who never had anyone, left behind...

She grinned anyway. "I think the family's really doing you good."

"What's the point of gathering witnesses after you give them this long to get away?" Briggs muttered under his breath, noticing that everyone in the crowd was just someone who had come to watch. He recognised the need for it, but it was pretty obviously a formality. Surely the pigs didn't have anything better to do these days, anyway?

He strolled further away, having decided he'd rather avoid the tedious process when he had heard the sirens. After all, the cops really wouldn't take kindly to someone like him being present, and back in his day, his skin colour would have played a part. He wondered how much had changed. He noticed someone else like him leaving the scene, instantly recognisable by the tattoo taking up some of his face.

"When'd you get released?" he called, surprising even himself. Usually he wasn't one to start conversations, and he couldn't help but wonder if this was further evidence to support his suspicion that he was, against all odds, starting to miss prison.

Siegrain, looked over his shoulder, slightly caught off guard that someone had shouted at him. But as he narrowed his eyes behind his glasses, he recognized the man walking after him - he'd seen him once or twice during recreation time in the yard or when he was being moved around from his cell to somewhere else.

"Just the other day," he answered slowly, realising that the man must have been another recent release from the joint. "...Briggs or something, right?"

"Got it in one," Briggs chuckled. He wasn't too familiar with Siegrain, he realised, but his tattoo made his appearances more memorable, and word on the street was that he was a big shot. Which made him just about the polar opposite of Briggs himself, who was just another stupid kid as far as the food chain went, one who had managed to net himself thirty years in one go, as a fellow inmate had put it to him.

"Siegrain," he nodded, introducing himself properly. "Gotta say I didn't expect to be the first familiar face I ran into to be someone else from the joint. Then again it's probably preferable to someone else from my past."

"I'll go take a look around," Karl said, folding his arms behind his neck as he started to look around the house. Trying to memorize it was going to be a longer task. After all, he didn't have the best memory in the world. Plus, it would give Lotta and Andrea some time alone.

He probably should have taken Max with him...

Andrea smiled at Carlotta. It made her feel good that the girl thought she had changed for the better. Not just for her sake, but for Max and Karl. She tried to leave her past behind.

If the time called for it. Could I really go back to... back to the way I was? The woman though, before shivering. No. I don't want to go back to be like that. Being mad at everything and thinking that the world is full of shit. If I ever did have to... have to kill again, it would be to protect my family, nothing more.

"As you say," Briggs nodded, not really qualified to speak on the matter. He cast a cursory glance back at the crime scene. "Most faces familiar to me are long gone. I have to say, for all I've heard about the 'changes' rocking Marisol, this-" At here he gestured back towards the house. "Is a real blast from the past."

"Yeah," Siegrain agree, "doesn't make much sense does it? The current mayor has done everything in his power to keep things under control and all of a sudden the families go back at it when the month of reelection is announced? Not to mention the cops took way to long, even for Marisol cops. This entire situation just doesn't sit right with me."

Shaking his head, he ruffled his hair a little. "I don't know about you but I could use a drink; something strong preferably. I actually didn't mind getting out of prison when I heard stuff had died down; if I had known this was going to happen as soon as I got out I'd have told 'em to jog on and stay in my cell to rot."

Myrrh shuffeld through the crowd, pushing away the average joes who tried to block his way. Carefully, he approached the scene of the explosion, consciously avoiding the paths of police officers. He probably didn't have the authority to do anything - the Fabloue name meant something on the street, but not under the law. He'd have to be quick about this.

"You know who lived in the house, by any chance? I was too late to see, and this town's a bit different than what I remember from thirty years ago," Briggs wondered, considering whether a drink was a good call. He'd used it as a comforter a lot recently. "Maybe a drink ain't a bad idea. Seems to be very popular in these parts."

Siegrain shrugged, in response to Briggs question. "I think I recognised the dark haired girl from somewhere, but I don't think I knew her personally. I'm guessing the people that came outside with her were her family. Beyond that I know nothing.

"Now how about we find a bar, I'll by the first round. Know anywhere good?"

"Ha, they tore down the projects I grew up in and lived in when I went under. Not sure what's still here and what ain't. But yeah, if it's still the same I think there's one 'bout two blocks away. Pretty cheap, too," Briggs mused, trying to recall. It was surprisingly difficult to remember the geography of the city, a lot harder than he had thought. Old age, he supposed.