STALEMATE [MAFIA] [MXM] ✓

12: GONE AWAY

Salem makes it to his car just fine, no issues or trouble whatsoever. Once he reaches his Camaro, he sits in his drivers seat and stares at Atlas' knife for a while. He's still shaking, and he doesn't know what to do with it. Should he keep it? He wants to. He wants to have this little piece of Atlas, it feels special because it's something that was given to him since they broke up.

Salem hates it when Atlas gives him hope.

Salem puts the knife in his center console, choosing to forget about it, and drives home. He spends the rest of the weekend alone and miserable, though he does go back to taking his medicine.

It's Tuesday night, right after work, when Salem sees his father for the first time in nearly a week. Salem thinks they'd both been avoiding each other, for whatever reason. Well, Salem had a reason, but there's no way Jack knows Salem was eavesdropping, right? Salem thought he was pretty quiet when he left. He waited for Jack to leave again, presumably to look for him, and snuck out. He didn't think he was seen.

Anyway, Salem jumps in shock at seeing his father seated at the breakfast bar. He has a few files in front of him, but it's nowhere near as cluttered as the time Salem caught him at the kitchen table in the middle of the night. It doesn't appear as though he's looking at any cases this time, either.

"Salem, I need to talk to you for a minute."

Salem pauses in the entranceway to the kitchen, and he still has his work clothes on. His work clothes aren't uncomfortable, it's just a t-shirt and jeans, but he still wants to change. He begrudgingly decides not to, and walks over to the other side of the breakfast bar, across the counter.

He sets his wallet and keys on the counter, but still holds on to them, and stares at Jack in expectation. He can feel tension in the air, but he doesn't know why. Perhaps it's one sided.

Jack clears his throat and fully looks up from all the paperwork. He gets right to the point.

"We have reached a dead end in the Di Angelo investigation, and I've given my officers the ok to have you help out. I'm sure you're wondering why they want you specifically, and—"

"Atlas Di Angelo." Salem states simply, and his father frowns a bit. Salem decides to just come clean about everything, since it would probably be easier. He doesn't like lying to Jack anyway. "I heard your conversation with Catrine."

Jack purses his lips, and he doesn't look upset or surprised or anything, but Salem can tell this information does not please him. He probably already knew, and there were multiple parts of that conversation that Salem was just not meant to hear. Probably ever.

"Well then you probably already know everything I was about to say." Jack doesn't have any discernible emotions on his face, and Salem just nods. He doesn't think his father is upset or disappointed about his eavesdropping, but he can't really tell.

"I know they need help and Atlas is my ex so they think I could give them information or something." Salem says, and he thinks that about sums it up. Jack nods slowly, then looks back down at his papers. He starts to organize them into folders.

"That's right." Jack says, "the question is if you can handle it."

Salem frowns, because there are several ways he could take that. He decides not to guess. "What do you mean?"

Jack sighs, and it's clear he doesn't want to explain this. He stacks the folders up and hands them to Salem, who reluctantly takes them. Hang on, is he gonna have to study for this?

"I mean, do you trust yourself to investigate Atlas? This is going to involve researching his family and talking about your relationship. Do you think you're stable enough to handle that?"