Misc.

breaking bad 1

it was nearing 2am when there was a knock on walter white's door, and though his bedroom was the farthest one from the front door, he was still up in a matter of seconds.

he hadn't always been a light sleeper. he recalled when he had first gotten married how he would sleep through the night undisturbed. he barely stirred, even on the night when there had been a rather unfortunate car accident in front of their house following a crash at their intersection. skyler had woken when the car alarms had gone off, but walter had slept through everything, including the wailing sirens crying right outside their home. 

sleep that deep was a luxury now, and walt hadn't had the privilege of getting any since his cancer diagnosis.

for a brief second after the knock, silence settled back in again and walter wasn't even sure if he'd really heard anything. a moment later, a second one echoed through the quiet home. grumbling, walter got out of bed, tugging on a robe and slippers, shuffling to the front door. 

the house was empty. junior, holly and skyler were all still up at marie and hank's, leaving the home to walt. this of course, was both a blessing and a curse. 

he rubbed his forehead and yawned, making his way to the door peering through the peephole before opening it up at all. you never knew who might want to drop by for a midnight visit.

but he found no man with a gun, just jesse pinkman, knocking frantically, wide-eyed and panicked. upon opening the door to the young man, walter noticed that on top of his paranoid disposition he was shaking and restless, glancing over his shoulder every thirty seconds, unable to stand still for more than a minute. 

"jesse? what the hell are you doing here? it's 2 in the morning, do you know how much of a risk you're posing right now?"

"i'm sorry, i'm sorry, i wouldn't have- it's just- i didn't- i needed somewhere to go and i couldn't go to my folks' place, badger wasn't picking up and i just-" he said fearfully; breathlessly. 

"okay, okay, just- jesse- slow down. slow down, come in. come in, we'll sit down. just breathe." walt told him, giving him space to enter into the home. jesse didn't waste a second, hurrying inside. his chest heaved and he ran his hands through his hair, clasping them behind his head. 

"just sit down, i'll get you some water." walter said, and jesse sat down on the couch, shaking. tears were rolling down his cheeks, though walt wasn't entirely sure if jesse realized he was crying. they would deal with that later. 

walter set the glass of water on a coaster and slid it slowly towards jesse who was still crying silently on his couch. he'd stopped hyperventilating and sat quietly, leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands, balled into a fist. jesse was staring at the floor, hiccupping noiselessly. upon seeing the glass of water, he swallowed and shifted to take a sip. his head was empty, and his body felt numb. 

"alright," walter sighed, sitting in a chair across from the boy. "do you wanna try explaining to me again why you're here." 

jesse remained mute. he stared into space for an awful long time before taking another sip of the water. it seemed whatever had made him upset had passed, and he'd been sorted into a sort of purgatorial state- a hellish bliss where you're disconnected from being, and yet terribly hyperaware of the situation you're in. an only semi-conscious decision to tune in to the world around you. you know you should, but you don't want to and you can't all at the same time. 

jesse flinched at the hand that touched his knee.

"are you with me?" walter asked quietly. jesse nodded. 

"yeah. sorry, mr. white, i'll uh...i'll go." he mumbled. 

"what? no, stay." walter frowned.

"nah, i shouldn't have shown up. it's not a big deal anyways." jesse tried shrugging off.