Dillinger's Got Nothing on Us: The Short Life and Interesting Times of the Jay Gang (1/5)
J2 RPS AU
PG-13
Part 1 of 5
Master post
Art
The early 1930s was a golden age for American gangsters, and everyone knows their names. John Dillinger. Bonnie and Clyde. Pretty Boy Floyd. Machine Gun Kelly. Less well-known, although not unsuccessful, is a group of four men who the local papers dubbed the Jay Gang.
In comparison to the shifting, sometimes family-tree membership rosters of their contemporaries - the Dillinger Gang, the Barrow Gang, the Barkers - the Jay Gang was only ever composed of four men: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Chris Kane, and Chad Michael "Mayhem" Murray. Unlike other gangs of the day, this group was not known by the name of its leader, and none of the members were famous as individuals. It was a year after their first robbery before anyone knew who they were, and they were called "the Jay Gang" because of something one of them yelled in that very first bank.
Also unlike their more famous fellow bank robbers, the Jay Gang did not have a support network of criminal friends, family, and colleagues. They had friends to help and hide them - Steve Carlson, Jason and Krista Manns, Danneel Harris - but they had no one to call if they needed an associate to drive a getaway car, launder stolen money, rent an apartment to hide in, or help knock over a bank. They seem to have worked in a kind of bubble, aware of their contemporaries but completely detached from them.
Perhaps because of this bubble, the birth and much of the life of the Jay Gang is shrouded in mystery. Nothing in their individual histories suggested they would turn to such a major violent crime. Neither Jensen nor Chris had criminal records. Jared and Chad had both served time in a reformatory, for crimes ranging from joyriding to car theft to threatening a man with an unloaded pistol, but had stayed out of documented trouble since then. So what induced them to start robbing banks?
The best that can be said - the most accurate information to be had - is that the four men who would spend a year and a half robbing the banks of the midwest first came together in San Antonio very late in 1932, at a block party partly organized by Chris Kane's sister Jennifer.
December 1932
San Antonio
San Antonio, Jensen thinks, is not Dallas. It's smaller, for one thing. It feels different, for another - more southern, more western. It has, as Chris is fond of pointing out, a lot of pretty girls. It has Chris' sister Jennifer and her husband, instead of Jensen's mom and dad and grandparents. It has the Alamo, to which Jensen drags Chris mostly so he can send his grandfather a postcard to tell him that he did.
What it does not have - any more than does Dallas - is steady work.
Chris and Jensen came out here a few months ago on the theory that they'd have a better chance at employment and that Jennifer and her husband were well-equipped and eager to have them. They've worked a few temporary jobs - a couple days here, a couple days there, a week or two every so often - but nothing long-term, and certainly nothing permanent. Chris has even started talking about fighting again, looking for bare-knuckle bouts in abandoned warehouses and empty lots and the back rooms of bars. It's something he did back in Dallas and in Oklahoma, and while the purses were never quite worth the pain, the boys could sometimes make decent money off bets. Desperate times do indeed call for desperate measures, but Jensen isn't sure they're that desperate yet.
"You know Jennifer would kill us both," he says. "You for doing it and me for letting you."
"Could go to El Paso," Chris muses.
"You go. I'll stay here and keep my nuts intact."
"Take a day or two to get there, couple days to find some fights, a day or two home. We won't even be gone a week. I know a guy - "
"A couple days and a couple days and a couple days is a week. I'm not going with you. If the shit hits the fan, you end up in Mexico, and then your sister will have my head. She scares me."
Besides, it's too close to Christmas, which means it's too close to New Year's Eve, which means that Jennifer, who is helping to organize a neighborhood block party for the Thursday between the two holidays, would notice if the boys went missing. She needs them to fetch and carry and run errands and help her recruit participants and just generally render assistance.
Jensen doesn't mind too much - it keeps him and Chris busy, and he owes Jennifer and her husband a lot for letting him sleep on their spare room and eat their food - but every so often he wishes it was work for money.
He calls his parents on Christmas Day, after lunch, when he knows they'll be home, and very carefully does not tell his mother that he doesn't have a job. His father had already lost his job when Jensen left Dallas and his grandfather only gets a tiny pension, but his sister is actually employed. He's a little embarrassed he hasn't found work, but mostly he doesn't want his mother to worry.
"Put Jennifer on the phone," she says, after fifteen minutes of him making stuff up and her apparently only pretending to believe him. "I thought I taught you not to lie to me."
"Sorry," he says sheepishly. "I don't want you and Dad to worry."
"I'm your mother, Jensen, that's what we do. Now let me wish Jennifer a Merry Christmas."
"Saw through your bullshit, huh," Chris smirks, watching Jensen hand over the phone and sink into the couch.
"She's gonna send me money, Chris. She doesn't have money."
"Tell her not to bankroll us," Chris calls out to his sister. Jennifer flaps her hand at him in the universal signal for "Be quiet, I'm on the phone." He punches Jensen in the shoulder. "El Paso, man."
"Still think it's a bad idea. Besides, we got the block party in a few days. We can't leave until we drink your brother-in-law's beer."
Jennifer's husband, unique among all the Texans Jensen has ever known, does not drink. He does however know the kind of people who can smuggle several cases of Mexican beer and liquers over the border, in preparation for his wife's neighborhood shindig.
On Thursday afternoon, Jennifer sends Chris out to beg, borrow, or buy ice, more coffee, and some cocoa. The plan as she explains it is to doctor the coffee and hot cocoa with the coffee liquer her husband procured. She's still not sure how to offer beer without looking so obviously like she's offering beer. Prohibition is still in effect, after all. Both Jensen and Chris remind her that cops like a good drink as much as anyone else and she shouldn't worry about it.
Jensen is tasked with helping hang paper lanterns on the trees and from front porches, to make the neighborhood look festive. He has never considered himself a short man, but the fact that neither Jennifer nor her husband can find a ladder is making things difficult. He finally has to resort to dumping out an old wooden crate full of tools, hardware, and car parts, and has just arranged it under a tree when someone who sounds like Chris sneaks up behind him and asks "You need some help?"
Surprised, he drops the lantern he was holding. "Dammit, Chris, don't do that." He turns around. It's not Chris. It's someone a lot taller than Chris.
"Who's Chris?" the guy asks. He picks up the lantern and holds it out. Fortunately it hasn't ripped. "I'm Jared. Looks like you need a hand."
Jared is tall - Jensen can kind of look down at him but Jensen is also standing on a crate - and broad-shouldered and good-looking, and his cheerful grin makes him look as if he thinks helping Jensen hang these things is the most exciting activity he could possibly be doing right now.
"No, I got it," Jensen says. "But thanks." He manages to get the lantern on a branch and climbs off the crate. Now he has to look up at the guy, if only a little bit. He glances down and yeah, the guy's wearing cowboy boots with heels. "On second thought, yeah, I can use the help. I'm staying with my friend's sister and she doesn't have a ladder."
"I'll be your ladder. Oh, wait, I got a better idea." He turns and yells "Sandy!" across the street, and a girl with bouncy brown hair and a bright red coat trots over. "You wanna be a ladder?"
"Are you pulling a prank on someone?" she asks, smiling. Her tone is affectionate. Jensen wonders if she's Jared's girlfriend. They don't look alike enough to be related.
"I volunteered to help this guy - " He jabs his thumb in Jensen's direction.
"Jensen," Jensen supplies, suddenly realizing he never introduced himself.
" - Jensen hang lanterns. We can do it if you sit on my shoulders."
"Ok." She holds out her hand for Jensen to shake. "I'm Sandy. It's nice to meet you."
"Me too," Jared adds, still grinning.
"Ok," Jensen says. "Let's do this thing."
While they're hanging lanterns, Jensen learns that Sandy is not actually Jared's girlfriend, that she just got a job as a secretary, that she and Jared have been friends since they were thirteen, and that Jared is very possibly the most cheerful person she's ever met.
Jensen also learns that Jared was caught stealing cars when he was younger, that his best friend Chad once threatened a man with an unloaded pistol for being inappropriate with Chad's sister, that he likes Laurel and Hardy and Bela Lugosi and thinks Mae Clarke is the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and no one can bake a peach pie like his mother.
Jensen is a little disappointed when they hang the final lantern and he realizes he has to go back to Jennifer's house to see if she needs any more help. He really hasn't met many people since he and Chris got here - really hasn't met anyone, in fact - and he's a little surprised but mostly pleased that he feels so comfortable so soon with Jared and Sandy. Well, with Jared, actually.
"You're gonna be at the block party, right?" Jared asks, and then Jensen feels stupid. Of course. It's not like they'll never get another chance to see each other.
"I have to." Jensen grins. "I just hung all these lanterns."
"I think you'll remember that I hung all the lanterns."
"Excuse me," Sandy says, smacking Jared on the arm. "Who sat on your shoulders for two hours, lurching back and forth? It's a good thing I don't get seasick."
"Fine. We hung the lanterns." Jared kisses the top of her head and she smacks his arm again.
"I have to go find my brother and make sure he eats. Don't let Chad get you into too much trouble. It was nice to meet you," she tells Jensen, waving at both him and Jared as she walks off down the street.
"Food would be good," Jared says. "I'll see you later, yeah?"
"Yeah," Jensen agrees. He can feel the corners of his mouth pulling up in half a smile, and for once he's actually grateful to Jennifer for volunteering him to help.
The block party turns out to be, essentially, several streets' worth of open house. People open their front doors, pull tables and chairs onto their lawns or the sidewalk, set up drinks and food and card games, drag record players in front of open windows, and organize games for any kids who might get bored running from house to house. Jensen doesn't know what to credit - sheer bloodymindedness, feminine wiles, neighborliness, the goodwill of the Christmas season - but however they did it, Jennifer and the couple of other women who organized the party managed to coax food and drink and festive decorations out of people with little or no money to spare at a time when good cheer is in short supply. He only counts two houses with their lights off.
A middle-aged widower a few houses down the street from Jennifer's place has put out a giant pot of chili and is ladling it into bowls for his neighbors, and this is where Jensen and Chris run into Jared.
"Jensen, right?" Jared says around a spoon by way of greeting. "Don't my lanterns look good?" He grins.
"Sandy's lanterns," Jensen corrects him. "This is my friend Chris. His sister is the reason I was trying to hang those damn things in the first place. Chris, Jared. Jared, Chris."
Jared points to the two guys standing next to him with his spoon. "Jeff - he's my brother, as if his striking good looks weren't a dead giveaway - "
"Chad Michael Murray," interrupts Jared's other friend, sticking out his hand for Jensen to shake. He's wearing brown gloves, the leather cool and soft against Jensen's palm. "Anything this gorilla told you about me? All true."
"Even the story about the Governor's wife and the cow and the ‘27 Auburn." Jared digs into his chili again. "Did you try this? This is great."
"Four bowls so far," the widower tells Jensen and Chris. Jensen is pretty sure he's met the man before but can't remember his name.
"What? I'm a growing boy."
Jared's brother laughs. "You'll still be growing when you're forty," he says.
"Yes I will. Here, try it," He shoves his half-empty bowl at Jensen, who takes it, surprised.
"You have fun with your new friends," Chris says, slapping Jensen on the back. "I'm gonna go drink some drinks and eat some cake and talk to some pretty girls."
"Mind if I come along?" Jeff asks. "I can't get near anything with my brother around."
"Yeah, sure. Chris Kane, nice to meet you."
Fifteen minutes later Jensen has finished Jared's chili, Jared has been forcibly removed from this particular front lawn, and Chad has fallen off the sidewalk. Jared cannot stop laughing and even though he knows it's rude, Jensen can't either.
They eventually run into Chris again - Jeff having apparently gone home - and the four of them end up at the house of one of Jared's friends from high school, sitting in the kitchen playing cards. Chad whips Chris' ass at poker but Chris gets him back by drinking him under the table - this is not difficult, as Chad is kind of a lightweight - and when Chad is passed out, Chris just rifles through his wallet and takes the money back.
"You can't cheat a Kane at cards," he says.
"A truth universally acknowledged," Jared adds, sagely.
"Damn straight." Then, "What the hell you talking about?"
For some reason Jensen finds this hysterically funny. He has to put his head down on the table, he's laughing so hard. He can hear Jared join him, and by the time he's caught his breath enough that he can lift his head, Chris is laughing at both of them.
"I like you," Chris tells Jared. "You make him laugh." He jabs his thumb in Jensen's direction. "Ready for another round?"
"Damn straight," Jared says, and giggles.
It's so late it's early by the time Jensen and Chris stagger back to Jennifer's house, their arms around each other's shoulders, singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" at the tops of their lungs. Jensen falls face-first onto the couch without even bothering to take off his coat - he's just intending to pull his boots off - and he thinks he can hear Chris telling him get up, man, don't sleep on the couch, but he's unconscious before he can make much sense of it.
He wakes up to a hangover, which is not surprising, and the smell of frying grease and boiling coffee. He falls off the couch, gets tangled in his coat, and eventually stumbles into the kitchen, where Jennifer's husband is cheerfully cracking eggs one-handed into a frying pan.
"Morning, sunshine," he says, waving at a chair with his spatula. "Just in time for eggs and toast. Jennifer went to work" - Jensen thinks he can detect a note of surprise - "and Christian's still in bed. Coffee's ready, help yourself."
Jennifer's husband is not generally very talkative, and after this initial welcome and a question as to whether Jensen wants his eggs over-easy or sunny-side-up (Jensen's stomach doesn't want either, thank you), he shuts up. Jensen dumps milk and some sugar in his coffee and drinks it slowly. He realizes he's sitting at the kitchen table in his coat and boots and the clothes he wore yesterday, but he can't bring himself to care.
By that afternoon his hangover has worn off enough for him to realize he'd like to see Jared again, but has no idea how to find him. It's been a while since Jensen made any new friends he liked enough to pursue - he was a shy boy all through school and only recently, with Chris' prodding, has he been able to get out of his shell enough to approach people, instead of waiting for them to approach him. But asking around in search of a tall boy named Jared who likes to eat and who has a brother named Jeff is still a little more approaching than he's really prepared for.
The problem is solved for him not a couple hours later. He and Chris and Jennifer and her husband have just finished dinner when the doorbell rings. Jennifer gets up to answer it, returning a minute later to tell Jensen it's for him.
It's Jared.
"Uh. Hi," Jensen says, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"I asked around," Jared answers, like that should be obvious. "You were kind of hard to find." Jared is clearly more socially aggressive than Jensen is. Right now, Jensen doesn't mind. "What are you doing tomorrow night?"
"What's tomorrow night?"
"New Year's Eve!" Jared grins. Jensen feels stupid because apparently he no longer knows what day it is.
"Oh. I don't know. Jennifer's having some friends over."
"Come to Chad's house. Well, his dad's house. Hey, that rhymes. He's having a party. There'll be drinking, dancing, pretty girls, cards, noisemakers, hopefully some food.... You'll probably have to put up with his brothers and sister, but they're ok. Bring Chris. Jeff liked him."
"Sounds like fun. Thanks."
"Come by at nine, maybe. Chad has to get rid of his dad," he explains conspiratorially. "Go home whenever you're ready to go home. Chad wants everyone to get dressed up, but you don't have to dress like movie stars or anything. It should be a good time. Have a good night, yeah? I'll see you tomorrow." He turns to leave.
"Jared, wait," Jensen says, stopping him. "Where does Chad live?"
"Oh, of course." Jared smacks himself on the forehead. "207 Keyes Road. It's a couple streets that way - " he waves vaguely west " - and a couple streets down. Do you have a street map? I'm not great with directions. Murray, they're in the phone book."
"Jensen!" Chris calls from inside the house. "Invite your boyfriend in for coffee!" Jensen scrunches up his face and blushes, embarrassed. Jared just laughs.
"Jeff does that to me too," he says. "See you tomorrow night." He waves as he walks away down the street.
"Jesus, Chris," Jensen complains as he goes back inside the house and shuts the door behind him. "He was asking us to a New Year's party."
"You made a friend," Jennifer says, delighted. "Tell me about him," she adds over her shoulder as she carries dirty dishes into the kitchen. Her reaction makes Jensen feel like he's seven years old and just home from his first day at a new school. Why doesn't she do that to her own brother?
"He's, um, kind of pushy."
"Good pushy? Bad pushy?"
"Pushy enough to find me." He shrugs. He guesses that falls under the category of "good pushy". "Drinks, pretty girls, and cards," he tells Chris. "Sounds like your kind of party."
"Might be fun," Chris agrees. "I'm glad you're making friends, man." Jensen rolls his eyes. It's not as if Chris has been out there winning friends and influencing people. "Seriously. You can't stand in my shadow the rest of your life."
"That's funny, shorty." Jensen straightens up as much as he can, so he can look down at Chris a little bit. He really isn't that much taller, but just enough so that he can sometimes tease Chris about being short.
Chris snorts and punches Jensen on the arm. "You didn't spend an hour walking around with the tallest man in San Antonio," he says. "Those boys come from a family of giants, I tell you what."
"You were going to tell me about him," Jennifer calls from the kitchen. "And give me some help in here!"
The next night, as he's getting dressed, Jensen realizes he only has one good suit, as compared to a few decent but fairly ordinary suits. It will have to do. He borrows a silk tie and a nice hat from Jennifer's husband. Chris ties his hair back. Jennifer makes both of them polish their shoes.
"It's a house party, not the Stork Club," Chris mutters.
They walk to Chad's father's house, where Jensen is surprised to see paper lanterns hanging from the front porch, just like the ones he and Jared and Sandy hung for Jennifer all over the neighborhood. They might even be the same ones. The party is already in full swing by the time he and Chris arrive, with people even spilling into the back yard. Chad appears at the door, takes their coats, and points them towards the buffet with its serving platters of baked goods and sandwiches and its giant punch bowl.
"There's Pearl in the kitchen," he whispers. "Tom's brother works for Alamo Foods." And then he vanishes with the coats, leaving Jensen and Chris standing in the front hall. Jensen feels conspicuous. He takes off his hat. This is always the worst part of arriving at a party where you don't really know anyone.
Jared, perhaps unsuprisingly, comes to their rescue.
"Jensen! Chris! I'm so glad you made it!" He grabs each of them in a brief if bone-crushing hug. "I'm completely sober," he adds, grinning. "Just excited. I'll introduce you to everyone."
They meet Jared and Chad's friends, Chad's sister, one of his brothers, and a girl Chad is chasing, a pretty thing named Kenzie who works at her mother's dress shop. They drink punch and eat cake and Sandy even manages to get Chris to dance with her, if just for one song. A girl in a blue dress who introduces herself as Alexis drags Jensen into the cleared-off space that's serving as a dance floor and despite his protestations that he can't dance, no, really, he has two left feet, she keeps him out there for a good twenty minutes.
He finally begs off and ends up at the kitchen table playing cards. The girlfriend of one of Jared's friends is either an exceptionally talented poker player or an exceptionally talented cheat, because she beats Chris three games in a row and he can't even figure out how to be mad at her.
At midnight they toast the new year with black market Pearl beer and Chris, to Jensen's great surprise, kisses him full on the mouth.
"I'll beat your ass, you tell anyone I did that," Chris says, but he's grinning, and Jensen just laughs.
"I know what you wanna do to my ass," he teases. Chris swats at him affectionately.
He gets a kiss on the cheek from Sandy, a kiss from Alexis with the blue dress, a kiss from Chad's little sister, much to Chad's annoyance, and another bear hug from Jared.
"I have this tradition," Jared says. "I always spend New Year's Eve with the people I want to spend the new year with. Thanks for coming."
"It's a good tradition. Thanks for inviting me."
Later on Jensen repeats Jared's tradition to Chris, who agrees that it's a good one and if Jensen was even thinking about spending the next year without him, Chris will tan his hide.
"You and my ass," Jensen says, laughing. "Anyone would think you were interested in it."
He loses Chris to a running poker game and at three in the morning finds himself sitting on the front steps with Jared, talking about movies and cars and their families and Jared's dogs. Jared is wearing the hat Jensen borrowed from Jennifer's husband, and Jensen has Sandy's red scarf draped around his neck. It's an animated conversation, partly because they're talking about things that interest them, but also because it's a new year and they're new friends and they're surrounded by happy, excited people and the two of them are just enjoying each other's company. The fact that they're both well-lubricated with punch and beer and sugar doesn't hurt.
For the first time since he and Chris left Dallas, Jensen is actually really glad he came to San Antonio.
He and Chris close out this party the same way they closed out Jennifer's block party two nights earlier - stumbling back to Jennifer's house as the sky begins to lighten, both of them drunk off their asses, their arms around each other, singing "Auld Lang Syne" loudly but miraculously still in tune. Chris can only remember four lines and keeps interrupting Jensen to tell him that, so they end up singing those same four lines over and over all the way back to the house. Jensen is still wearing Sandy's scarf, but at least he got his hat back.
This time he makes it into the spare bedroom and remembers to take his coat off before he falls onto the bed, his last thought being that if tonight was any indication, 1933 should be a much better year than 1932.
Part Two
PG-13
Part 1 of 5
Master post
Art
The early 1930s was a golden age for American gangsters, and everyone knows their names. John Dillinger. Bonnie and Clyde. Pretty Boy Floyd. Machine Gun Kelly. Less well-known, although not unsuccessful, is a group of four men who the local papers dubbed the Jay Gang.
In comparison to the shifting, sometimes family-tree membership rosters of their contemporaries - the Dillinger Gang, the Barrow Gang, the Barkers - the Jay Gang was only ever composed of four men: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Chris Kane, and Chad Michael "Mayhem" Murray. Unlike other gangs of the day, this group was not known by the name of its leader, and none of the members were famous as individuals. It was a year after their first robbery before anyone knew who they were, and they were called "the Jay Gang" because of something one of them yelled in that very first bank.
Also unlike their more famous fellow bank robbers, the Jay Gang did not have a support network of criminal friends, family, and colleagues. They had friends to help and hide them - Steve Carlson, Jason and Krista Manns, Danneel Harris - but they had no one to call if they needed an associate to drive a getaway car, launder stolen money, rent an apartment to hide in, or help knock over a bank. They seem to have worked in a kind of bubble, aware of their contemporaries but completely detached from them.
Perhaps because of this bubble, the birth and much of the life of the Jay Gang is shrouded in mystery. Nothing in their individual histories suggested they would turn to such a major violent crime. Neither Jensen nor Chris had criminal records. Jared and Chad had both served time in a reformatory, for crimes ranging from joyriding to car theft to threatening a man with an unloaded pistol, but had stayed out of documented trouble since then. So what induced them to start robbing banks?
The best that can be said - the most accurate information to be had - is that the four men who would spend a year and a half robbing the banks of the midwest first came together in San Antonio very late in 1932, at a block party partly organized by Chris Kane's sister Jennifer.
December 1932
San Antonio
San Antonio, Jensen thinks, is not Dallas. It's smaller, for one thing. It feels different, for another - more southern, more western. It has, as Chris is fond of pointing out, a lot of pretty girls. It has Chris' sister Jennifer and her husband, instead of Jensen's mom and dad and grandparents. It has the Alamo, to which Jensen drags Chris mostly so he can send his grandfather a postcard to tell him that he did.
What it does not have - any more than does Dallas - is steady work.
Chris and Jensen came out here a few months ago on the theory that they'd have a better chance at employment and that Jennifer and her husband were well-equipped and eager to have them. They've worked a few temporary jobs - a couple days here, a couple days there, a week or two every so often - but nothing long-term, and certainly nothing permanent. Chris has even started talking about fighting again, looking for bare-knuckle bouts in abandoned warehouses and empty lots and the back rooms of bars. It's something he did back in Dallas and in Oklahoma, and while the purses were never quite worth the pain, the boys could sometimes make decent money off bets. Desperate times do indeed call for desperate measures, but Jensen isn't sure they're that desperate yet.
"You know Jennifer would kill us both," he says. "You for doing it and me for letting you."
"Could go to El Paso," Chris muses.
"You go. I'll stay here and keep my nuts intact."
"Take a day or two to get there, couple days to find some fights, a day or two home. We won't even be gone a week. I know a guy - "
"A couple days and a couple days and a couple days is a week. I'm not going with you. If the shit hits the fan, you end up in Mexico, and then your sister will have my head. She scares me."
Besides, it's too close to Christmas, which means it's too close to New Year's Eve, which means that Jennifer, who is helping to organize a neighborhood block party for the Thursday between the two holidays, would notice if the boys went missing. She needs them to fetch and carry and run errands and help her recruit participants and just generally render assistance.
Jensen doesn't mind too much - it keeps him and Chris busy, and he owes Jennifer and her husband a lot for letting him sleep on their spare room and eat their food - but every so often he wishes it was work for money.
He calls his parents on Christmas Day, after lunch, when he knows they'll be home, and very carefully does not tell his mother that he doesn't have a job. His father had already lost his job when Jensen left Dallas and his grandfather only gets a tiny pension, but his sister is actually employed. He's a little embarrassed he hasn't found work, but mostly he doesn't want his mother to worry.
"Put Jennifer on the phone," she says, after fifteen minutes of him making stuff up and her apparently only pretending to believe him. "I thought I taught you not to lie to me."
"Sorry," he says sheepishly. "I don't want you and Dad to worry."
"I'm your mother, Jensen, that's what we do. Now let me wish Jennifer a Merry Christmas."
"Saw through your bullshit, huh," Chris smirks, watching Jensen hand over the phone and sink into the couch.
"She's gonna send me money, Chris. She doesn't have money."
"Tell her not to bankroll us," Chris calls out to his sister. Jennifer flaps her hand at him in the universal signal for "Be quiet, I'm on the phone." He punches Jensen in the shoulder. "El Paso, man."
"Still think it's a bad idea. Besides, we got the block party in a few days. We can't leave until we drink your brother-in-law's beer."
Jennifer's husband, unique among all the Texans Jensen has ever known, does not drink. He does however know the kind of people who can smuggle several cases of Mexican beer and liquers over the border, in preparation for his wife's neighborhood shindig.
On Thursday afternoon, Jennifer sends Chris out to beg, borrow, or buy ice, more coffee, and some cocoa. The plan as she explains it is to doctor the coffee and hot cocoa with the coffee liquer her husband procured. She's still not sure how to offer beer without looking so obviously like she's offering beer. Prohibition is still in effect, after all. Both Jensen and Chris remind her that cops like a good drink as much as anyone else and she shouldn't worry about it.
Jensen is tasked with helping hang paper lanterns on the trees and from front porches, to make the neighborhood look festive. He has never considered himself a short man, but the fact that neither Jennifer nor her husband can find a ladder is making things difficult. He finally has to resort to dumping out an old wooden crate full of tools, hardware, and car parts, and has just arranged it under a tree when someone who sounds like Chris sneaks up behind him and asks "You need some help?"
Surprised, he drops the lantern he was holding. "Dammit, Chris, don't do that." He turns around. It's not Chris. It's someone a lot taller than Chris.
"Who's Chris?" the guy asks. He picks up the lantern and holds it out. Fortunately it hasn't ripped. "I'm Jared. Looks like you need a hand."
Jared is tall - Jensen can kind of look down at him but Jensen is also standing on a crate - and broad-shouldered and good-looking, and his cheerful grin makes him look as if he thinks helping Jensen hang these things is the most exciting activity he could possibly be doing right now.
"No, I got it," Jensen says. "But thanks." He manages to get the lantern on a branch and climbs off the crate. Now he has to look up at the guy, if only a little bit. He glances down and yeah, the guy's wearing cowboy boots with heels. "On second thought, yeah, I can use the help. I'm staying with my friend's sister and she doesn't have a ladder."
"I'll be your ladder. Oh, wait, I got a better idea." He turns and yells "Sandy!" across the street, and a girl with bouncy brown hair and a bright red coat trots over. "You wanna be a ladder?"
"Are you pulling a prank on someone?" she asks, smiling. Her tone is affectionate. Jensen wonders if she's Jared's girlfriend. They don't look alike enough to be related.
"I volunteered to help this guy - " He jabs his thumb in Jensen's direction.
"Jensen," Jensen supplies, suddenly realizing he never introduced himself.
" - Jensen hang lanterns. We can do it if you sit on my shoulders."
"Ok." She holds out her hand for Jensen to shake. "I'm Sandy. It's nice to meet you."
"Me too," Jared adds, still grinning.
"Ok," Jensen says. "Let's do this thing."
While they're hanging lanterns, Jensen learns that Sandy is not actually Jared's girlfriend, that she just got a job as a secretary, that she and Jared have been friends since they were thirteen, and that Jared is very possibly the most cheerful person she's ever met.
Jensen also learns that Jared was caught stealing cars when he was younger, that his best friend Chad once threatened a man with an unloaded pistol for being inappropriate with Chad's sister, that he likes Laurel and Hardy and Bela Lugosi and thinks Mae Clarke is the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and no one can bake a peach pie like his mother.
Jensen is a little disappointed when they hang the final lantern and he realizes he has to go back to Jennifer's house to see if she needs any more help. He really hasn't met many people since he and Chris got here - really hasn't met anyone, in fact - and he's a little surprised but mostly pleased that he feels so comfortable so soon with Jared and Sandy. Well, with Jared, actually.
"You're gonna be at the block party, right?" Jared asks, and then Jensen feels stupid. Of course. It's not like they'll never get another chance to see each other.
"I have to." Jensen grins. "I just hung all these lanterns."
"I think you'll remember that I hung all the lanterns."
"Excuse me," Sandy says, smacking Jared on the arm. "Who sat on your shoulders for two hours, lurching back and forth? It's a good thing I don't get seasick."
"Fine. We hung the lanterns." Jared kisses the top of her head and she smacks his arm again.
"I have to go find my brother and make sure he eats. Don't let Chad get you into too much trouble. It was nice to meet you," she tells Jensen, waving at both him and Jared as she walks off down the street.
"Food would be good," Jared says. "I'll see you later, yeah?"
"Yeah," Jensen agrees. He can feel the corners of his mouth pulling up in half a smile, and for once he's actually grateful to Jennifer for volunteering him to help.
The block party turns out to be, essentially, several streets' worth of open house. People open their front doors, pull tables and chairs onto their lawns or the sidewalk, set up drinks and food and card games, drag record players in front of open windows, and organize games for any kids who might get bored running from house to house. Jensen doesn't know what to credit - sheer bloodymindedness, feminine wiles, neighborliness, the goodwill of the Christmas season - but however they did it, Jennifer and the couple of other women who organized the party managed to coax food and drink and festive decorations out of people with little or no money to spare at a time when good cheer is in short supply. He only counts two houses with their lights off.
A middle-aged widower a few houses down the street from Jennifer's place has put out a giant pot of chili and is ladling it into bowls for his neighbors, and this is where Jensen and Chris run into Jared.
"Jensen, right?" Jared says around a spoon by way of greeting. "Don't my lanterns look good?" He grins.
"Sandy's lanterns," Jensen corrects him. "This is my friend Chris. His sister is the reason I was trying to hang those damn things in the first place. Chris, Jared. Jared, Chris."
Jared points to the two guys standing next to him with his spoon. "Jeff - he's my brother, as if his striking good looks weren't a dead giveaway - "
"Chad Michael Murray," interrupts Jared's other friend, sticking out his hand for Jensen to shake. He's wearing brown gloves, the leather cool and soft against Jensen's palm. "Anything this gorilla told you about me? All true."
"Even the story about the Governor's wife and the cow and the ‘27 Auburn." Jared digs into his chili again. "Did you try this? This is great."
"Four bowls so far," the widower tells Jensen and Chris. Jensen is pretty sure he's met the man before but can't remember his name.
"What? I'm a growing boy."
Jared's brother laughs. "You'll still be growing when you're forty," he says.
"Yes I will. Here, try it," He shoves his half-empty bowl at Jensen, who takes it, surprised.
"You have fun with your new friends," Chris says, slapping Jensen on the back. "I'm gonna go drink some drinks and eat some cake and talk to some pretty girls."
"Mind if I come along?" Jeff asks. "I can't get near anything with my brother around."
"Yeah, sure. Chris Kane, nice to meet you."
Fifteen minutes later Jensen has finished Jared's chili, Jared has been forcibly removed from this particular front lawn, and Chad has fallen off the sidewalk. Jared cannot stop laughing and even though he knows it's rude, Jensen can't either.
They eventually run into Chris again - Jeff having apparently gone home - and the four of them end up at the house of one of Jared's friends from high school, sitting in the kitchen playing cards. Chad whips Chris' ass at poker but Chris gets him back by drinking him under the table - this is not difficult, as Chad is kind of a lightweight - and when Chad is passed out, Chris just rifles through his wallet and takes the money back.
"You can't cheat a Kane at cards," he says.
"A truth universally acknowledged," Jared adds, sagely.
"Damn straight." Then, "What the hell you talking about?"
For some reason Jensen finds this hysterically funny. He has to put his head down on the table, he's laughing so hard. He can hear Jared join him, and by the time he's caught his breath enough that he can lift his head, Chris is laughing at both of them.
"I like you," Chris tells Jared. "You make him laugh." He jabs his thumb in Jensen's direction. "Ready for another round?"
"Damn straight," Jared says, and giggles.
It's so late it's early by the time Jensen and Chris stagger back to Jennifer's house, their arms around each other's shoulders, singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" at the tops of their lungs. Jensen falls face-first onto the couch without even bothering to take off his coat - he's just intending to pull his boots off - and he thinks he can hear Chris telling him get up, man, don't sleep on the couch, but he's unconscious before he can make much sense of it.
He wakes up to a hangover, which is not surprising, and the smell of frying grease and boiling coffee. He falls off the couch, gets tangled in his coat, and eventually stumbles into the kitchen, where Jennifer's husband is cheerfully cracking eggs one-handed into a frying pan.
"Morning, sunshine," he says, waving at a chair with his spatula. "Just in time for eggs and toast. Jennifer went to work" - Jensen thinks he can detect a note of surprise - "and Christian's still in bed. Coffee's ready, help yourself."
Jennifer's husband is not generally very talkative, and after this initial welcome and a question as to whether Jensen wants his eggs over-easy or sunny-side-up (Jensen's stomach doesn't want either, thank you), he shuts up. Jensen dumps milk and some sugar in his coffee and drinks it slowly. He realizes he's sitting at the kitchen table in his coat and boots and the clothes he wore yesterday, but he can't bring himself to care.
By that afternoon his hangover has worn off enough for him to realize he'd like to see Jared again, but has no idea how to find him. It's been a while since Jensen made any new friends he liked enough to pursue - he was a shy boy all through school and only recently, with Chris' prodding, has he been able to get out of his shell enough to approach people, instead of waiting for them to approach him. But asking around in search of a tall boy named Jared who likes to eat and who has a brother named Jeff is still a little more approaching than he's really prepared for.
The problem is solved for him not a couple hours later. He and Chris and Jennifer and her husband have just finished dinner when the doorbell rings. Jennifer gets up to answer it, returning a minute later to tell Jensen it's for him.
It's Jared.
"Uh. Hi," Jensen says, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"I asked around," Jared answers, like that should be obvious. "You were kind of hard to find." Jared is clearly more socially aggressive than Jensen is. Right now, Jensen doesn't mind. "What are you doing tomorrow night?"
"What's tomorrow night?"
"New Year's Eve!" Jared grins. Jensen feels stupid because apparently he no longer knows what day it is.
"Oh. I don't know. Jennifer's having some friends over."
"Come to Chad's house. Well, his dad's house. Hey, that rhymes. He's having a party. There'll be drinking, dancing, pretty girls, cards, noisemakers, hopefully some food.... You'll probably have to put up with his brothers and sister, but they're ok. Bring Chris. Jeff liked him."
"Sounds like fun. Thanks."
"Come by at nine, maybe. Chad has to get rid of his dad," he explains conspiratorially. "Go home whenever you're ready to go home. Chad wants everyone to get dressed up, but you don't have to dress like movie stars or anything. It should be a good time. Have a good night, yeah? I'll see you tomorrow." He turns to leave.
"Jared, wait," Jensen says, stopping him. "Where does Chad live?"
"Oh, of course." Jared smacks himself on the forehead. "207 Keyes Road. It's a couple streets that way - " he waves vaguely west " - and a couple streets down. Do you have a street map? I'm not great with directions. Murray, they're in the phone book."
"Jensen!" Chris calls from inside the house. "Invite your boyfriend in for coffee!" Jensen scrunches up his face and blushes, embarrassed. Jared just laughs.
"Jeff does that to me too," he says. "See you tomorrow night." He waves as he walks away down the street.
"Jesus, Chris," Jensen complains as he goes back inside the house and shuts the door behind him. "He was asking us to a New Year's party."
"You made a friend," Jennifer says, delighted. "Tell me about him," she adds over her shoulder as she carries dirty dishes into the kitchen. Her reaction makes Jensen feel like he's seven years old and just home from his first day at a new school. Why doesn't she do that to her own brother?
"He's, um, kind of pushy."
"Good pushy? Bad pushy?"
"Pushy enough to find me." He shrugs. He guesses that falls under the category of "good pushy". "Drinks, pretty girls, and cards," he tells Chris. "Sounds like your kind of party."
"Might be fun," Chris agrees. "I'm glad you're making friends, man." Jensen rolls his eyes. It's not as if Chris has been out there winning friends and influencing people. "Seriously. You can't stand in my shadow the rest of your life."
"That's funny, shorty." Jensen straightens up as much as he can, so he can look down at Chris a little bit. He really isn't that much taller, but just enough so that he can sometimes tease Chris about being short.
Chris snorts and punches Jensen on the arm. "You didn't spend an hour walking around with the tallest man in San Antonio," he says. "Those boys come from a family of giants, I tell you what."
"You were going to tell me about him," Jennifer calls from the kitchen. "And give me some help in here!"
The next night, as he's getting dressed, Jensen realizes he only has one good suit, as compared to a few decent but fairly ordinary suits. It will have to do. He borrows a silk tie and a nice hat from Jennifer's husband. Chris ties his hair back. Jennifer makes both of them polish their shoes.
"It's a house party, not the Stork Club," Chris mutters.
They walk to Chad's father's house, where Jensen is surprised to see paper lanterns hanging from the front porch, just like the ones he and Jared and Sandy hung for Jennifer all over the neighborhood. They might even be the same ones. The party is already in full swing by the time he and Chris arrive, with people even spilling into the back yard. Chad appears at the door, takes their coats, and points them towards the buffet with its serving platters of baked goods and sandwiches and its giant punch bowl.
"There's Pearl in the kitchen," he whispers. "Tom's brother works for Alamo Foods." And then he vanishes with the coats, leaving Jensen and Chris standing in the front hall. Jensen feels conspicuous. He takes off his hat. This is always the worst part of arriving at a party where you don't really know anyone.
Jared, perhaps unsuprisingly, comes to their rescue.
"Jensen! Chris! I'm so glad you made it!" He grabs each of them in a brief if bone-crushing hug. "I'm completely sober," he adds, grinning. "Just excited. I'll introduce you to everyone."
They meet Jared and Chad's friends, Chad's sister, one of his brothers, and a girl Chad is chasing, a pretty thing named Kenzie who works at her mother's dress shop. They drink punch and eat cake and Sandy even manages to get Chris to dance with her, if just for one song. A girl in a blue dress who introduces herself as Alexis drags Jensen into the cleared-off space that's serving as a dance floor and despite his protestations that he can't dance, no, really, he has two left feet, she keeps him out there for a good twenty minutes.
He finally begs off and ends up at the kitchen table playing cards. The girlfriend of one of Jared's friends is either an exceptionally talented poker player or an exceptionally talented cheat, because she beats Chris three games in a row and he can't even figure out how to be mad at her.
At midnight they toast the new year with black market Pearl beer and Chris, to Jensen's great surprise, kisses him full on the mouth.
"I'll beat your ass, you tell anyone I did that," Chris says, but he's grinning, and Jensen just laughs.
"I know what you wanna do to my ass," he teases. Chris swats at him affectionately.
He gets a kiss on the cheek from Sandy, a kiss from Alexis with the blue dress, a kiss from Chad's little sister, much to Chad's annoyance, and another bear hug from Jared.
"I have this tradition," Jared says. "I always spend New Year's Eve with the people I want to spend the new year with. Thanks for coming."
"It's a good tradition. Thanks for inviting me."
Later on Jensen repeats Jared's tradition to Chris, who agrees that it's a good one and if Jensen was even thinking about spending the next year without him, Chris will tan his hide.
"You and my ass," Jensen says, laughing. "Anyone would think you were interested in it."
He loses Chris to a running poker game and at three in the morning finds himself sitting on the front steps with Jared, talking about movies and cars and their families and Jared's dogs. Jared is wearing the hat Jensen borrowed from Jennifer's husband, and Jensen has Sandy's red scarf draped around his neck. It's an animated conversation, partly because they're talking about things that interest them, but also because it's a new year and they're new friends and they're surrounded by happy, excited people and the two of them are just enjoying each other's company. The fact that they're both well-lubricated with punch and beer and sugar doesn't hurt.
For the first time since he and Chris left Dallas, Jensen is actually really glad he came to San Antonio.
He and Chris close out this party the same way they closed out Jennifer's block party two nights earlier - stumbling back to Jennifer's house as the sky begins to lighten, both of them drunk off their asses, their arms around each other, singing "Auld Lang Syne" loudly but miraculously still in tune. Chris can only remember four lines and keeps interrupting Jensen to tell him that, so they end up singing those same four lines over and over all the way back to the house. Jensen is still wearing Sandy's scarf, but at least he got his hat back.
This time he makes it into the spare bedroom and remembers to take his coat off before he falls onto the bed, his last thought being that if tonight was any indication, 1933 should be a much better year than 1932.
Part Two