A Round of Drinks - 4

Chapter 4

“Ok then,” Travis said, setting down two cups of coffee and a mug of hot chocolate on the table together with a plate of snacks. “So, you-”

“What kind of bar serves hot chocolate?” Jason asked, interrupting him while he glared at the offending drink he’d been presented with. Then he turned his angry look towards Travis, who simply raised an eyebrow at him.

“Mine,” he answered bluntly. “If you don’t like it, there’s tea, juice and water.”

He was pretty sure if he were to point it out, Jason would deny pouting.

“Anyway,” he continued, turning towards Catherine, who seemed to have been perfectly fine with attention not being on her even if she seemed worried by her son’s attitude too. Especially if the way she seemed to stiffen when his eyes landed on her was any indication. “You want to work here. Do you have experience?” he asked, and he hoped he sounded like he knew what he was doing.

He was unsure of how to go about interviewing someone. He had obviously never done such a thing and he hadn’t looked up anything because he wasn’t hiring new people for the bar. Furthermore, his own employment experiences had never been the most… orthodox, and he was aware of that. However… Jason probably needed this. Both of them did.

How did he know? Because Catherine, within less than five minutes of knowing her, was giving Travis all the red flags someone could give him that he’d pick up on. She tried to look at him but couldn’t seem to manage, she shifted and twitched and tapped with her fingers on her arm or the table and bounced her foot up and down frantically… all done in an effort to keep herself away, if her dropping eyes were anything to go by. She was worryingly pale and there were worryingly dark bags under her eyes. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were barely decent enough not to make her pass for a beggar. She also looked like she could use a meal or ten, to be perfectly honest.

There was also the fact that Jason was a rat. Travis knew enough to be confident in that assessment, even if it had never been “confirmed”. He wasn’t the smartest person around, but he knew a thing or two from having to grow up in Gotham himself. The city had taught him how to pick up on certain cues from people, some better than others.

So, he didn’t want to turn them away. He wasn’t the best person in the world to help the poor and all that shit. He was no Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor with all their charities and such, but… But he did have a heart that he’d never managed to lose, somehow.

Thus…

‘Fuck it,’ he decided, mentally shrugging. ‘I can do it and I want to do it, so I will.’ That was a mentality that had landed him in a lot of trouble before. It was half – maybe entirely – the reason why he’d been kicked out and spent years alone, struggling to survive. But it was better in this case, he knew, because it wasn’t for himself. These were two people that desperately needed a hand, and he knew a thing or two about being in that situation.

So, he did what he’d always wanted someone to do for him.

They probably deserved it more than him too.

And really, it wouldn’t be bad to get some help with the bar. He was stretched a little thin, with the place doing better than he expected. Preparing drinks and waiting tables was a bit much for only one person, especially when he actually had to take time to prepare stuff. Fortunately for him, most of his clients didn’t seem to mind, treating his place like it was one of those taverns that appeared in fantasy stories, with everyone partying and having a generally good time together instead of each staying at their table.

It was nice, but it did make Travis wish he could offer better service. So, here was Mrs. Todd, asking for a job that she was clearly desperate to get. Maybe it was awful of Travis to think so, but he thought it was a great opportunity to get some cheaper working hands. Not like he was going to turn her into a modern day slave, but he wasn’t exactly rolling in money either.

“I worked at a cafe for a few years until last year,” Catherine answered, rubbing her arm and looking down at the cup of coffee that she hadn’t touched yet. Travis noticed how her eyes seemed to barely be able to take it in. “I had to leave that because the boss… I just had to leave that job,” she added, clearly changing her mind about something. On that, Travis decided to not mind that too much. He could come up with a few rough ideas of what might have happened. Maybe she was the problem. Maybe her boss was the problem. In all likelihood, Travis was willing to bet both were the problem.

He didn’t think anyone in the entire city was trustworthy, not even fucking Batman.

He glanced towards Jason, just to check. ‘He’s not angry on his mother’s behalf,’ Travis noted to himself, which he was sure would be a Jason reaction to hearing that. Instead, he looked… uneasy, which meant the options narrowed down a little. ‘It was either her or both.’

Not wanting to give away that he’d figured that out, he looked back at Catherine for a long, silent moment.

“... I also worked at a clothes store after that. It wasn’t for me, though, that’s why-”

“You are lying,” he interrupted, making the woman flinch and grimace.

“I don’t-”

“Don’t lie to me. I don’t like that,” he told her calmly, taking the coffee in front of him and bringing it up to his lips to take a sip. Just as casually, he pulled one of the sandwich cuts on the plate at the center of the table. “So, wanna try again?” he asked, biting on the snack and raising an eyebrow at the woman, who was now fidgeting on her seat.

“I- Mr. Larson…” she stammered before trailing off. Her mouth opened and closed several times, as if her brain was suddenly struggling to come up with the right words. Travis felt bad for that, but he wanted to know what kind of mess he was bringing on himself. Although, to be honest, he was already mostly certain he knew. “I don’t know what to say…” she whispered in the end, looking miserable as she drew into herself.

Jason, to the side, didn’t look much better. He didn’t seem to be sad, or disappointed or surprised though, Travis noticed. He was more frustrated than anything if he was reading the boy right, with his lips pursed and a stubborn clenched jaw. Nothing he knew told him that Jason was a great actor, so he was inclined to believe his observational skills.

“Mrs. Todd,” he started before sighing and taking another sip from his drink. “I need you to be honest with me. This is Gotham. I might have been gone for a while, but I’m pretty sure the fact that everyone has problems here is still very much true,” he reassured as best he could. He didn’t want to make promises, but unless things were very bad… Well, they could be very bad, so… Yeah.

“That’s an understatement, old man,” Jason commented, and Travis wondered if he just couldn’t keep quiet or if he did that on purpose to take some pressure off his mother. Either way, he turned towards the kid and gave him a smirk.

“It’s not my fault you are a baby, kid,” he teased, drawing a scandalized expression from the aforementioned boy.

“Am not!”

“Mhm.” Travis looked pointedly at the empty mug in front of him. “That was quick,” he commented and grinned widely as the boy’s cheek turned red in embarrassment. It was nice to see that he could be a kid still though. “You want another?”

“No,” Jason grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away. If he weren’t in the middle of what was probably the most unorthodox interview in the history of interviews, Travis would have gotten him one anyway. As it was, he had something to deal with at the moment.

“So, Mrs. Todd,” he started, turning towards the woman. At least she looked a little better than before. Maybe his assumption about Jason’s interruption was correct, after all.

However, it seemed that the boy wasn’t done just yet.

“She’s an addict,” Jason said.

[}-o-{]

[Catherine Todd]

She flinched at her son’s words, but didn’t even bother trying to deny it. There was no point, she knew, not once it was out in the open. Instead, all she could do was draw into herself, waiting for the inevitable rejection. Catherine knew how it went when an employer – especially one that was merely a potential one – found out about her problem.

Before that moment, she had hoped. After all, this man had literally employed Jason for a few afternoons, so maybe he would give her a chance? She hated to rely on pity earned through her son, but she was past the point where pride was something to take into account. She just wanted to have enough to feed her son and maybe enough for herself if she was lucky. Most things came second to that.

And maybe enough for-

She cut that thought before it could go further, but she knew it was there, she couldn’t make it go away.

It’d come back.

As it was, Catherine could almost feel the silence that followed weighing on her. It was all her fault that her son needed to look for ways to bring something to the table. It was her fault for not even managing to be a functioning human being for two days straight before falling apart.

She’d tried, she’d tried so much and yet… She could never win that battle.

And now-

“I see,” Larson replied to Jason’s flat statement, his voice giving away nothing just like his expression when Catherine dared to look up. “Of course she is,” the man said then, not with the scorn or disgust that she expected but with… resignation? Looking up, she saw the man massaging his eyelids while letting out a breath.

He didn’t say anything else after that, even after he opened his eyes. Instead, he just picked up his coffee and took a sip. Catherine could only stare at him, not sure if she should even bother feeling hopeful once more. Even the few, so very few, good people she’d found weren’t enough to help her. As Larson said, after all, they were in Gotham and everyone had problems of their own to deal with. Nobody had enough goodness in them to try and help someone that didn’t even seem to want to help themselves.

Someone like Catherine.

“Ok… This is the deal,” Larson said, focusing his eyes on her with an intensity that made her straighten on her seat the smallest bit, despite how drowsy she felt. “I’ll hire you, but if you come to work high or otherwise affected by your… condition, then you are out of here. I won’t pay you for the days you don’t come here either,” he started explaining and the hope Catherine had so desperately tried to keep in check grew out of control.

‘Condition,’ she repeated in her head. When had anyone ever referred to it in such a way instead of calling it – calling her – a problem or something much, much worse instead? If she hadn’t known very well what drugs did to her, Catherine might have wondered if she was high.

“You’ll wait tables, since I don’t have to trust you with the drinks that way, be it preparing them or at all.” She flinched at that, but didn’t try to argue. She’d never had a problem with alcohol, but she knew her position was… weak anyway. There was no point. Besides, this was going ridiculously better than she expected as it was. “If you don’t have anyone to leave the kid with-”

“I’m not a kid!”

“-then you can bring him here. I think he showed that he can behave himself the last few times,” Larson continued, ignoring Jason’s interruption entirely. Instead, the man kept his eyes firmly on Catherine and she didn’t know what to do. No matter what, she knew she wouldn’t be able to escape those amber eyes. “I think that about covers the gist of it, right? Anything to say?”

“That sounds…” She struggled for a moment. What did that sound like? It sounded like a dream, amazing, almost impossible… “... Wonderful,” she settled for in the end, feeling like the English language had failed her spectacularly. “Sir?” Catherine added, grimacing. Should she call him sir? He looked a little younger than her, but men loved to feel like they were in charge and it was the respectful thing to do anyway, wasn’t it?

Larson grimaced with her.

“Please, call me Travis,” Larson- Travis told her, bringing his hands to his temples. “So, about the kid…?” he asked then, trailing off and urging a response with his expression and a tilt of his head.

“I’m not a fucking kid!”

“Language,” Travis said to Jason then, giving the boy a look. Catherine could see it in her son’s expression that the bomb had been set off. “Anyway,” Travis continued then, ignoring the little ball of aggression slowly building next to him. “I have the afternoon free, so how about you two stay here until dinner? I can teach you what you need to know, it’s not that difficult. We can also go over the details for your employment here in the meantime, how does that sound?” he offered, making Jason pause and her look at him, wide-eyed. “I really want to know what you’ll do with the kid while you work, by the way. It’s kind of important.”

“I’m not a kid,” Jason hissed.

“You are kid, kid,” Travis told her son, unimpressed. “Enjoy it while it lasts. Not being a kid sucks,” he added, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. “Mrs. Todd-”

“Call me Catherine… or Cat, if it’s too much of a mouthful,” she interrupted, before realizing that maybe that was a bad idea. “Sorry, I-” she went to apologize, a little panicked.

“It’s fine. Now, if we could finally get to my question, please?” he stopped her, giving her a half amused and half exasperated look. Great, she was already creating problems and he’d… ‘Breathe, Catherine,’ she told herself, taking a deep breath in. ‘Answer the question.’

“I don’t have anyone to leave him with, but maybe I can find someone,” she said, making Travis nod slowly.

“Well, like I said. You can bring him here if you want. I know finding trustworthy people around here is difficult,” Travis commented, drawing a snort from Jason, who in turn earned himself a side-glance from the man across from her. “I also know a bar is no place for a kid, but-”

Jason grumbled something, but Catherine was more surprised that he didn’t actually protest anymore, really. Hell, she’d half expected him to jump at Travis by then. Her son really didn’t like when people insulted or “insulted” him. Maybe those meals the man had given him before had just been that good.

“-if there’s nowhere else you feel would be a good place for him, he can stay here. Not like he hasn’t spent time here already, right?” Travis finished and she stared at him in awed silence for a long time. She didn’t even have the words to respond to that. She’d expected to be kicked out when Jason admitted that she was an addict, maybe with a few insults for the road.

Instead, here the man was, offering her a job anyway with ridiculously good conditions and even a place for her son to be in relative safety while she was busy. It had to be tied for the second best day of Catherine’s life together with every other time she’d met someone willing to help her, because nothing quite topped the first time Jason had called her “mom”. Sniffing, she smiled a watery smile as she went to speak.

“Thank you,” she managed through the knot in her throat. “Truly. You don’t understand… how grateful I am. I’ll do my best not to make you regret this,” she added, trying to mean every word.

Alas, she knew herself. She knew she’d mess up eventually, because that seemed to be about the only thing she could manage to do with any consistency. Her life had been a mistake after the other and even her triumphs soon turned into disasters. Travis was throwing her a lifeline then and there, and she knew she’d set it on fire eventually.

For the moment, however, she’d be thankful for it all the same. 

“Don’t mention it,” he waved off with a smile. “Now, kid, do you want another mug or not?” he asked, turning towards Jason. “Your mother and I will be going over boring stuff for a while.” Now he’d done it. Nobody talked to Jason that much like he was a kid and got away with-

Her son huffed, crossing her arms in front of his chest.

“Whatever.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Travis said, his grin wider than before while Catherine blinked at the two of them. ‘Is this man real or am I more high than I have ever been?’ she couldn’t help but wonder.

If she was actually hallucinating or dreaming though, she never wanted to leave that magical place where she could get a job despite her… “condition” and where Jason didn’t immediately scare or annoy someone off with his lovely attitude. 

“Ok, so, the first thing you need to know about working here is…”

[}-o-{]

[Travis Larson]

“Didn’t think you’d actually get a hot waitress!” one of his regulars of sorts called, making him groan. Not that he didn’t get where the comment had come from. That guy had actually joked once about him getting a hot waitress on top of a TV or music, he remembered. Still, did he have to comment on that?  “You are the best, Travis!”

He dragged a hand over his face. Seriously, the very last thing he needed was Catherine getting the wrong idea about her employment at his place. Besides, Jason was right there too. Sure, the boy didn’t seem very affected, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t.

“I can deal with him if you want,” he offered Catherine when she passed by the counter to pick up a table’s order.

“The-There’s no need, Travis,” she replied, sounding exceedingly awkward. That seemed to be her default that day, which was even worse than she’d been during the interview and that was saying something already. However, she was doing her job, if a little stiffly and nervously. “I can do it.”

“I know you can, Catherine,” he reassured her with an amused smile. “I’ve been watching you and you’ve been doing well. There’s no need to force yourself to deal with idiots though.”

“I heard that!”

“Well, maybe you should try not being an idiot, Jamie!” Joseph called from one of the other tables, drawing laughs from around the bar. God, Travis loved his place more and more by the day. “Don’t make it awkward for the poor woman. She has enough on her plate having to look at your ugly mug!”

Travis caught Catherine smiling shyly at that when she thought nobody was looking. Yeah, he had faith that things would work out. At least, on the good days. He really hoped she wouldn’t mess up. If she had to take a day off or something, he’d let her. He wouldn’t like it but… Well, he didn’t know how to help her get clean or anything like that.

Everyone was, when it came down to it, alone in that fight. People could help you, sure, but all the help in the world would mean nothing if one didn't have it in themselves to do something. So, all he could do was watch, help if the chance appeared, but ultimately it’d all depend on Catherine herself.

Maybe he’d be able to do more once he got to know her better. As it was, he was just a stranger that had given her a job and helped out her kid a few times by making him work in his bar. Not a shining example of great friendship from day one, he imagined, but maybe he could get there with some time. Travis barely knew what he was doing with his own life and job, he’d cut himself some slack on the matter of helping Jason and his mother.

“Well, the offer is still there if you wanna take it,” he told the woman, setting the last of the drinks on the tray for her to take. With an appreciative nod and a somewhat awkward smile, she walked away. She still had to learn how to properly carry the tray, but she’d get the hang of it eventually. Travis hadn’t been great with that himself, when he’d first started learning.

“How’s it going, kid?” he asked, moving to prepare another order and not even turning to look at Jason, who was simply sitting on a stool by the counter of the bar. He’d given the boy some juice – apparently he drew the line with the hot chocolate when there were people around other than his mother and Travis – and he’d called it a day with that.

Part of him worried about what a bored Jason could do if he left him be.

He knew he’d been a little shit at… whatever age Jason was.

“I’m bored,” the boy replied, confirming his fears. “You don’t have anything to do here? No wonder your clients are crazy.”

“I think that’s a Gothamite thing,” Travis commented, drawing a snort from Jason. He smiled and mentally patted himself in the back for that small victory. “But point, I guess this is not a child friendly enough zone for-”

“I’m not a kid,” the aforementioned kid hissed.

“Kid, you are sitting there and pouting-”

“I’m not pouting,” Jason growled.

“-because you don’t have anything to entertain yourself. You couldn’t be more of a kid if you tried,” Travis explained, and if looks could kill, he’d have dropped dead right then and there. “You know what? I have a job for you.”

“What do I get for doing it?” the boy asked instantly and credit where credit was due, even if he was bored out of his mind, Jason wasn’t going to work for free. He was a smart kid like that. Maybe he’d make something out of himself, unlike Travis, trapped in a place he called his own but wasn’t, in the home that had stopped being one and without a real way out, resigned to his fate.

“Dessert,” Travis answered, and he had to hold back a grin at the way the boy’s eyes lit up. “So, here’s your job, kid. You gotta keep an eye on this bunch of crazy idiots.”

“Aw, we love you too, Trav~!” Jess called from a table close by.

“Don’t call me Trav,” he replied, eye twitching. Then he turned back to an amused Jason. He had a feeling he’d have to come up with a way to stop him from calling him Trav. ‘I’m too good for my own… Well, good,’ he lamented to himself before continuing. “Check that they don’t get too crazy, see how much they drink and see if your mother needs any help, yeah? If she does, you call me. You don’t do anything about it yourself, alright?”

“I can do that,” Jason answered, eyes scanning the place as if lives depended on that. Which they could, depending on what happened, but that was very unlikely.

“Good kid,” Travis told him with a grin that only widened when the boy growled back at him. If he thought he’d stop calling him kid, then Jason was just delusional. “Chop chop, kid, that dessert isn’t going to earn itself.”

“I hate you.”

“Sure you do, kid,” Travis replied with a casual nod. “Sure you do.”

He continued working then, smiling to himself. That was… something. It reminded Travis of older times, years and years ago, when he’d been the kid and some friend of his father would mess with him. Never his father though, he’d been too… He had never been one for fun banter and stuff like that.

Then Travis had to go away and the rest was history.

He wondered how they were doing. Were they even still around, or had Gotham finally gotten its littered, bloody claws on them? He almost didn’t know the answer, if he were honest. Because then, at least he could wonder, he could hope.

Still…

“Everything ok, old man?” Jason asked and Travis looked up from the glass he’d been preparing. The boy was looking at him… not surprised, but something like that, he’d even say he looked a little concerned. But why would…? Oh, he was probably showing a little too much on his face.

Swiftly, he rubbed a hand over his face, finishing by running his fingers over his suddenly weary eyelids. Then he finished preparing the order he was working on and set it all up for Catherine to take care of when she came back. With that done, he moved to the sink on one side and washed his face. Afterwards, running his wet fingers through his hair and taking a deep breath in, he calmed himself.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he told Jason, who looked at him skeptically. “I’m not old enough for you to worry about me, kid, and you have a job to do, you know?” he added, making the boy roll his eyes and turn back to what Travis had told him to do.

‘Well, note to self, don’t reminisce too much when on the job,’ he thought to himself letting out a weary sigh through the knot that had formed in his throat. ‘One step at a time, Travis,’ he added, getting back to work.

 [} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, that was a whole chapter and while I shouldn’t be surprised, I still am. I’ve noticed that I don’t do great starting off stories, for the most part. I don’t have anything to move things along just yet as things get settled and I have no plotlines to follow and potentially pull in new threads. Or maybe I’m worrying too much?

I should work on that either way.

But here’s to hoping you guys enjoyed the chapter all the same.

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you exercise? I don’t, but I’m about to go suffe- I mean, go jogging for a bit and try to start a good habit. Wish me luck…

See you.