[b]Lynn[/b]

They wouldn't fucking get it. They wouldn't fucking get it. She'd been set up. She'd been set up [i]again[/i]. She'd known coming into this it was a terrible idea and she let Keaton talk her into it. How foolish had she been to think Keaton was bound so tightly to her that it was smarter to keep her mouth shut than narc? [i]I have to get clear and ditch this doll,[/i] Lynn thought, her mind feverishly trying to run through possibilities. It had to be the woods. She'd get out of range of the cameras and burn all the evidence. Lynn considered a brief foray into the bathrooms to dump her drugs, but at this point a handful of misappropriated anxiety medication wasn't going to save or damn her ass. [i]You're still that stupid little girl who gets burned,[/i] Lynn cursed herself, rage almost to the point of tears boiling up inside her. [i]You never fucking learn.[/i] Lynn fumbled, taking off her hoodie, red and noticeable as it was, cinching it around her waist. The black t-shirt underneath was from back home: it read [i]Mike's BBQ[/i].

And yet all her anger seemed to be hitting some kind of wall. Radvi had been surprised - really surprised. She'd seen a few too many shitty narc actors in her day to know when somebody was really surprised by the cops and when someone was trying to look surprised. But Anderson had called them all there, which didn't track. Had he brought Paw Patrol too? But why? Just to arrest her? [i]I'll kill him,[/i] Lynn thought. [i]He's sold out.[/i] She should've stayed and slugged his teeth out - but the more Lynn thought, the more that seemed to burn out as well. Archie had been starting to transform - so there's no way he could've expected those two. Could he have called the cops? Lynn's mind raced through all the avenues as she darted through the crowd, thankful once again God cursed her with her stupid little body. While she got pushed around, at least she was darting in-between open gaps in the crowd more easily. If Archie had called the cops, that still didn't track, because why would there just be one? No one else had reacted to the monochrome duo, which didn't track. Surely they would've been all over, unless -

Someone grabbed Lynn from behind and she turned to swing, to take one or two of them with her when they already stumbled away. It was Boat Farmer. He was cradling his hand, burned, she'd burned [i]the hand, Megan curling it close to her. Lynn remembered that hand, the mark of the burn. She'd seen it...she'd seen it the very last day she saw Megan. "Christ, don't - you can't, you can't do that," Lynn said, moving over to her, pulling her sleeves up and grabbing the girl's arm through them.

"Ow! Ow, Lynn, it hurts, it - "

"I know, I know, you can't do that, okay? You can't...you can't sneak up on me. Not here."

Megan nodded, wincing and nodding her head. She was tough. They all were. Lynn glanced around, cursing to herself - but not aloud. She took Megan gently into the side alley, pooling up some snow in her hands and melting it with her breath and the radiant heat of her hands. She let the cold water drip over Megan's hands, the water a cooler touch of lukewarm by the time it touched the burned skin.

"That feels nice," Megan said, smiling. 

The smile untwisted Lynn's stomach. "Good. I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I don't...I don't mean to sometimes. It just..."

"I know." Megan nodded. "Che said to come get you. He said the deal was off."

Lynn gave her a nod, but inwardly cursed again. If there was no deal, that meant there was no hand-off for Lynn to intercept, which meant there was no fucking money that week. Lynn looked down at Megan, skinny, skinny as death, eyes wide and staring up at Lynn with her snow-water hand clutched to her chest. She rubbed at her eyes. A few more hours until the foster parents started to wonder. Enough time to get back across the city. Maybe. She could still lift a wallet, if she was lucky, or find...or find something. "Is your hand okay? I'll take you b-"[/i]

Lynn blinked. She was in the mall. Archie was hurt. Archie was hurt. She'd burned him. Christ. [i]Get it together, Holmes,[/i] she said. [i]You're fucking losing it.[/i] "No, no, no no no," Lynn murmured. Lynn lived in a somewhat constant state of being angry at God for dealing her such a shit hand in life, but moments like this brought it to bear. [i]The fruit of the garden is poisoned,[/i] Che would sometimes say, and she never got what that shit meant until now. "Christ, I didn't...you came up and...." the doll and getting clear had melted out of Lynn's mind. She took a step forward and stopped, biting her lip. [i]You burn everything, you stupid girl.[/i] Lynn reached her hand back and closed her eyes, taking deep, deep breaths. Her hair and eyes slowly settled down to a red. It was a brighter shade than any hair that didn't come out of a bottle, but the flickering glow that normally danced across it was scarcely noticeable. "You - are you okay, Archie? Shit. Fuck. I'm sorry, I didn't..." [i]Damn those black and white bastards. Damn them. Damn Gennedy and this whole station.[/i] Lynn glanced around. It was always a sick joke nobody could kill her without her body stitching it up, but she could never fix anything she fucked up. "Here - you need...you need to run water over that. I..." Lynn's voice trailed off, the words jumbled in her head and throat. [i]I'm sorry I thought you set me up, you big dumb puppy, you don't get how fucked we all are, I'm sorry,[/i] Lynn wanted to say, to just blurt at once and rip the band-aid off, but she couldn't stop looking at his hand, and then his face. 

He had the same look he'd had when Salamandra dragged him across the floor.