Investigations

"Alright, Junior. We need you jump to this photo from March 15th…"

Jax started to void out whatever the investigator says. He stumbles over and a pair of hands catch him. He turns to find Danny keeping him up.

"You okay?"

"Yeah… I can do another jump."

Danny turns to the investigator. "Let's resume the investigation once Jax's back on his feet."

He looks at the duo with a visible look of disappointment on his face, "Fine. Tomorrow, 7:00 sharp. Don't be late."

"C'mon, J." To Danny's surprise, Jax had fallen asleep. With a sigh, he decides to carry him on his back, all the way out of the police department and into his car. He sets Jax down on the passenger side before starting up the car and driving to their house.

Danny couldn't help but constantly look at the rearview mirror. It's been awhile since he's seen him sleep peacefully. For the past year, it's night after night of nightmares that kept Jax up at night and punished him if he dared fall asleep again.

The ability to jump into the reality and moment of when a photo was taken. It's been an incredible asset to the police in their investigations of unsolved cases. Danny couldn't help but feel guilty about it.

He was the one that brought up Jax's abilities to the police 3 years ago. From that day on, it's been day after day of chiefs and investigators forcing Jax to jump into photos and fill in the missing details to the police.

What's worse is that Jax was only 16 when Danny suggested his abilities to be used as an asset by the police department.

"No 16 year old deserves to witness and experience those tragedies unfold right before their very eyes." Danny muttered to himself. "And I allowed that to happen..."

School by day and junior investigator at night. He thought it would have been fine letting Jax aid the police in their investigations, but now they seemed to look at him like a tool than a person.

He felt like he was doing a poor job at being his legal guardian ever since the arson incident that cost Jax both of his parents. His family were listed as dead to the police but there were no signs of their bodies in the debris, with no photos remotely close to the incident, it was impossible to uncover the truth.

Even if Jax never told him, he knows that his parents have the same abilities as he does, probably survived the fire and lived under a stranger's lives to survive. Unfortunately, it meant that Jax wouldn't have any living biological family left. That when Danny took the responsibility of adopting him.

Once he got his car parked, he started to shake Jax awake. He stirs and drowsily wakes up. Danny walks up to the front door and unlocks it, he could still remember the time before Jax came along. Barely working electronics, worn-out furniture, and the fridge was almost always empty, everything's made a complete 180 since their endless investigations.

"At least the police had the decency to pay for his efforts." He mumbled.

"Did you say something?" Jax asked before yawning.

Danny shakes his head, "It's nothing. You should get some sleep." He said as he ushers him to his bedroom.

"What time are we supposed to be there tomorrow?"

Danny stares at Jax, "What makes you think that we're headed to the police department tomorrow?"

"It's a Sunday. They always want us there on Sunday."

Danny sighs, "7, sharp."

Jax frowns before walking to his bedroom. He can hear a muffled groan before the lights go out.

"Not like this…" Danny finally said.

***

8:32 AM

Jax stirs himself awake as the morning sunlight fills the room. He groggily picks up his phone and immediately loses his drowsiness when he sees the time and his inbox and call log has blown up. He jumps out of bed and rushes outside.

"DANNY! WE'RE-" He cuts himself off when he finds Danny, dressed in his morning robes, sitting by the kitchen table taking a sip of coffee.

"Morning." He casually replied.

"Why aren't you dressed!? We're late!"

"I made some eggs and bacon." He responded as if he didn't hear Jax say anything.

"But-"

"Sit." He sternly demanded.

That caught Jax off guard, he couldn't recall the time that Danny was serious in the morning. Regardless, he complies and sits by the table with him.

"You alright?" Danny asks.

"I think I should be asking you that. What-"

"Finish your breakfast before we can talk."

Jax begrudgingly complied, he quickly devouring the eggs and bacon while Danny stayed silent the entire time.

"There." He said as he slides his empty plate towards Danny. "Now, what's going on?"

"Did you sleep well?"

"Uh… yeah, it's been awhile since I had nightmares."

"That's good."

He stares at Danny for awhile before standing up. "Alright, we should get dressed. They're blowing my phone up with messages."

Danny shakes his head. "No, I should get dressed."

"But-"

"But you want to help me, right?" Danny finished.

He nods.

"And I appreciate it, I always have, J. But you really want to go back there? And jump into another crime scene?" Danny added.

Jax fell silent.

"I've seen it taking a toll on you, J. The nightmares, the paranoia... The chief isn't making this easy for you either." Danny shakes his head, "I only have myself to blame for that and I'm sorry."

"Danny…"

Danny slides a photo to Jax's direction. It's a picture of Danny and another person, although Danny looks visibly younger.

"That's me and my best friend Gideon during our college graduation party. That was 6 years ago." Danny remarked. "Sadly, he ended up in a bad crowd shortly afterwards and… I lost him, forever."

"He seemed pretty happy here." Jax replied.

"That's probably the last time I saw like him like that. But it doesn't have to be that way."

Jax's eyes widen, "Wait, you're not implying that-"

"That's exactly when I'm implying. Gideon was a good guy, J. And he had to go in a way that nobody wanted. You can give him a chance, give yourself a chance."

"I can't do that! I can't take someone else's life from them!"

"He's gone now, J." he replied solemnly, "Even if time went backwards, he'll still end up where he is now."

"But-"

"I'm not forcing you to do it, but this is the better life. A better life than being the victim of the crime every single day."

The sound of knocking echoes the building.

"I know you two are in there! Open up!" The investigator called out before furiously knocking on the door again.

Danny looks at Jax, who's completely lost in thought with the photo in his hands.

"You make your decision in your room." He says in a whisper. "Before that." He pulls Jax into an embrace. "I want you to take care of yourself, no matter what happens."

"I-I will…"

They pull away. Jax nods. "See you soon."

"In a better place." Danny finishes.

As Jax retreats into his room, Danny can hear the investigator ramming into the front door.

"This is how it should be…" he mumbled.