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The gentle drip drip drip of blood filled the silence. Jon could only stand there, motionless, barely daring to breathe.
He’d only been gone a moment, no more than five minutes. The gory scene before him looked like it was out of a slasher. What once was Leitners head was caved in and so covered in blood that his features were barely recognizable. He was still on that chair, but entirely limp and very, very dead.
The moment stretched on and Jon still couldn’t move. His eyes slowly drifted over to the metal pipe lying at the feet of the bloody corpse. A pipe that would be covered in his fingerprints. Jon had the sudden urge to throw up, the room was spinning around him and it felt as though his legs were made of jelly.
What was he supposed to do? Who had done this? His body made a small jerky movement forward before he could stop himself and stumble back. He couldn’t breathe. He needed to get out of here.
He took one step backwards, then another, then another and before he knew it, he was very nearly running up the stairs to get out of the archives. It was already late in the afternoon and the main entrance hall was empty. He stumbled over to the front door and let the cool February air hit his face.
The sun was covered by clouds and a strong gust of wind ruffled Jon’s hair. He walked, his hands shoved into his pockets because they just wouldn’t stop trembling. He didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know if it would matter.
Surely everyone would think he’d killed the old man. The body was in his office, the murder weapon had his finger prints all over. And hadn’t he sent his assistants away? He was the only one supposed to be down there. Surely leaving like this was only making his situation worse. Yet he didn’t stop walking, his eyes sternly focused ahead but not really seeing anything.
His breath was coming in shallow quick puffs and it didn’t take long until he was so light headed, he had to stop dead in the middle of the sidewalk. He squeezed his eyes shut and slowly sank down by a tall apartment. He forced his breath to even out but now there were tears stinging in the corners of his eyes.
Could he have prevented this? Leitner had told him not to leave, maybe if he had just listened… his head throbbed and a small pained noise slipped through his lips.
He looked up and realized he wasn’t really sure where he was. He’d just been walking, not paying attention. But what did it matter? He couldn’t go home. He couldn’t go back to the institute either. He would be arrested for murder and If they arrested him for murder he would loose any possible chance of figuring out who had actually killed Leitner. And Gertrude…
Leitner said it was Elias, maybe Elias had done this too. But why?
What if they were already looking for him? Where could he hide? It wasn’t like he had any friends to speak of. The thought left a bitter taste on his tongue but it was true. The last time he’d had something like friends was in college.
A thought popped into his head all of a sudden. Georgie.
He hadn’t spoken to her in years and they hadn’t exactly split on great terms, but she was the closest thing he still had to family. And he was so terrified and desperate… there was no one else he could turn to.
His legs had started moving before he’d made any conscious decision. Part of him desperately wanted to see her again, the rational part of his brain was yelling that he was an idiot for even considering going to her.
He didn’t know how long he walked, he didn’t even know how he found her apartment. It was nothing but a blur. Somehow, someway he ended up on her front stoop a few minutes before midnight. She still had that cat shaped pot with red flowers outside her door. He stared at it for a long time, unable to get his body to comply with him and just ring the damn doorbell.
There was warm light coming from under the door and Jon was half frozen in his scraped and dirty work clothes, he’d gotten all messed up running from the thing that wasn’t Sasha.
When he did manage to press the doorbell and heard the muffled ring of it inside, he considered turning and running away for a second. It was a mistake coming here, maybe she wouldn’t even recognize him, or she’d yell at him or hate him or—
The door opened and all his thoughts stilled. Georgie was still just as beautiful as he remembered her being. Her dark curls were pulled back into a puffy ponytail and she had laugh lines around her eyes. Eyes that were staring at him with obvious shock and a little horror.
“Jon?” She asked, sounding a bit uncertain.
“Hi Georgie,” he whispered. His voice came out raspy and more shaky than he expected.
“Oh my god, Jon, you look like hell! What are you doing here?” Georgie asked, concern written all over her face.
“I—uhm,” his brain was short circuiting, “I-i lost my job,” he finally managed, he still sounded hoarse.
“Do you want to come inside? You look like you’re about to get hypothermia.” She stepped aside as she said it.
Her home looked cozy and inviting and the smell drifting out was so familiar and calmed something deep in his chest. He just nodded and averted his eyes before slowly shuffling inside.
Georgie maneuvered him over to the couch with gentle force where he sat down his eyes locked on the ground.
A fuzzy blanket was draped over his shoulders and he heard Georgie prepare a kettle.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
He looked up and saw her leaned against the doorframe to the kitchen. His eyes were stinging again but he didn’t want to cry now.
It didn’t seem to matter that they hadn’t spoken for god only knew how long. It didn’t seem to matter that she was his ex. It didn’t seem to matter that it was very nearly midnight. She was acting as though he belonged here. As though she was glad to see him.
“There was an—employment dispute,” he said lamely, “it was ugly… I can’t go home anymore. I’m so sorry Georgie, I just didn’t know where to go” he curled in on himself a little, feeling like a rather pathetic sorry excuse of a man.
“What kind of ‘employment dispute’ leaves you looking like you were dragged over a dirt road?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I-I didn’t really… I uh, didn’t have an opportunity to change,” he muttered, looking down on his torn dusty shirt a little embarrassed.
“Hold on, I’m sure I have a hoodie or something lying around here.” Georgie disappeared into another room before Jon could stop her and then came back with a big “what the ghost” hoodie and some sweatpants.
Jon chose not to argue about it, just thanked her for the clothes and went to change in the bathroom. It felt good getting into some clean clothes and splashing some warm water on his face.
It was surely only a matter of time before she kicked him out and when that happened… well, then what? He couldn’t go home so he would essentially be homeless. He shook the thought off, that was a problem for later. Right now he would accept as much of Georgies kindness as she was willing to give.
When he walked back into the living room Georgie offered him a steaming mug of tea and smiled at him. He tried to smile back but was largely unsuccessful.
“So you lost your job? And your flat, and it was spectacular enough that you ended up here, without so much as a change of clothes?” She asked. He pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. The image of Leitners mangled corpse seared into his mind. Would they really believe he’d be capable of something like this? Maybe they wouldn’t have, before. But now, after everything they had been through, after everything he had done…
“Jon?” He looked up at her “you’re welcome to stay, as long as you need,” she said softly “no matter what happened between us, I will always care about you.”
There was something heavy clogging Jon’s throat. He took a big sip of his tea, slightly burning his tongue. He didn’t deserve this.
Something jumped up at him and he nearly dropped his mug. A familiar cat was looking up at him with big eyes before making biscuits on his thighs and getting comfortable in his lap.
“Looks like the admiral missed you,” Georgie snickered. The admiral gave a loud purr as If agreeing with her. Jon carefully lowered his hand down on the small cat and stroked his fur. the admiral purred even louder and dissolved into a small puddle of pleasure. “Missed you too buddy,” Jon whispered.
“I’m glad you came,” Georgie said and it sounded so sincere that Jon actually believed her. And when she put an arm around his shoulder he melted into her side with pure exhaustion almost immediately pulling him under. It was almost like old times, cuddled up to her side with the admiral purring between them. And Jon was too tired to resist.