handleyourshit | Duplicity Inbox

This is Rosita. I'll hit you back when I can.

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"Because it involves him. Because if I fought someone over you, you'd want to know it, too." She doesn't like being left in the dark. Neither does Carver. "Why don't you want him to know?"

"Because there's nothing for him to do."

It's not, she knows, exactly the full answer but it's the best one she has; it hadn't even occurred to her until Jesus said something, and now everything in her is saying not to.

"I want her to leave him alone. She was forced to hurt him, fine, okay. But he deserves better than to have to keep playing nice with someone after they did. He deserves better than to have her keep poking around in it just because she wants to know more, and he doesn't want to tell anyone."

"Yes. He does." He's not arguing otherwise. "But he has a right to know who's got his back, and what's being done at his back, too, doesn't he?"

"It's not a secret," she protests. If he asked her about it, if Amelia said something or if it came up otherwise, Rosita wouldn't deny it.

"But I don't see why I'd need to go running to tell him either. Especially when talking about it fucked him up twice already on top of the actual thing."

"It doesn't have to be an in depth discussion." He looks at her evenly. "It's okay for him to know you care about him and you've got his back, Ro. It might even be good for him to hear it."

She looks back at him, and this isn't even a hard thing. It's nothing she's ashamed of, nothing she needs back from anyone, nothing even complicated on the face of it really, and still she wants to dig in her heels.

She doesn't know why. "He knows I care about him."

"Then why the hesitance about this? Is it because she's one of Grayson's?" He doubts that. Rosita is from Alexandria, they don't care much about that sort of diplomacy.

And, true to form: "I don't give a fuck if she's one of Grayson's."

In fact it's another part of why she stepped in.

"But he does. It's why he's keeping peace even though he shouldn't have to."

He shrugs. Yeah, he knows. "Okay, so you don't want him to know you warned her away from hurting him again because he's trying to keep the peace?"

"Why does it matter?"

It's a losing tactic and she knows that, but every time she offers something, Jesus hands her back a question.

"Maybe. Yes. Let's go with yes. It's not that I don't want him to know, it's that I don't see a point in specifically going to tell him."

"Because people like knowing they're cared about. If I get into a fight with someone over you, wouldn't you want to know?" Because he'd tell her.

"Just so you know? This behavior right here is why people want to punch you."

She would. But things between her and Jesus are different: if Jesus got into a fight with someone, she'd want to know so she could back him up.

"And it wasn't a fight. I made myself clear, I hit her one time, and we're on the same page now. She says."

He has, for the record, never been punched for this behavior. Not that someone along the line hasn't tried, but Jesus is fast and he pays attention even when he seems relaxed.

He gives her a quizzical look. "You hit her?"

A look that's returned, surprised that he's surprised.

"Yeah? I should've done more, but this isn't home."

Well, he appreciates the restraint and Amelia should too, at least. "She just didn't seem like someone who would take that without escalating."

Rosita shrugs; she would have done it anyway. She's not as forgiving as Jesus. Blood was owed after the way she saw Carver react even after the fact, heard the sound of his voice as he tried to explain and couldn't.

"Turns out we speak the same language after all." Pain was owed to even begin to feel like this could be healed from in a way that didn't end with one or more deaths.

"You're on good terms with her now? She's not going to come after you? Or him, for it?" Because that's the downside to all this: now Amelia knows how far Rosita will go for Carver.

"I don't think she will." Rosita is not someone who shows her cards like this lightly, if she's thinking even remotely straight.

"But that's part of why I need you to keep an eye on them when they have to be in the same building together."

He nods. This part, he's grim about. "I will."

He doubts Amelia will do anything, but you never know, and he doesn't know her.

"That's part of why I'm so pissed about it, you know?"

This is more familiar ground. This feels more like Jesus is back on side with her rather than poking at her decisions.

"She's from a different world than us but she thinks the same way. We're square now. We can move on from it if she keeps to her side of the line and I keep to mine. I liked her when we talked before."

"Is she invited to the get together when we have it?" She's one of Carver's, but Jesus hasn't thought much about the guest list beyond the obvious suspects.

"No."

Rosita's answer is immediate, because she's not one of Carver's, and things are going to be hard enough with just the core people. She expects things to be hard enough.

"Unless it's Carver doing it, no."

That's an easy enough thing to agree with. Carver likely doesn't want to be in the same space as Amelia more than he has to for the Crucible. "Okay. So it's you and me, Carver and Grayson. Vrenille and Vanessa too?"

She nods.

"That's what I was figuring. I think that's enough for moving forward with." She tips her head at him, raising an eyebrow: "You don't want K or Drake there?"

"I do." They're part of this, too. And K, especially, can give them a hand with getting insights.

"I just wasn't sure how big or small you wanted the get together to be, now that Grayson's missing two of his people."