muses_w_remotes | 9.9. Good Will Hunting quote
9.9. "You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief."
| Good Will Hunting
Co-written with taste4freedom
When you get a text message that merely says ‘RYL LNDN HSPTL ER - FCKNG HGE WT - CME KP ME CMPNY’ from your best friend, your arse tends to drop out in panic. Which is exactly what happened when JC received the message when she was in the middle of taking a bath. Griffin was at the Royal London Hospital! She cursed and swore extensively as she rushed around trying to make herself some semblance of decent, not even bothering to dry her hair and dragging it up into a ponytail on top of her head. She pulled on some jeans and a shirt, grabbed her handbag and Jumped into an alley near the back of London’s largest hospital. Her feet made soft slapping sounds from the base of her red Converse shoes as she ran up the alley in the direction of the hospital entrance. Why the fuck was Griffin at the hospital?!
It was dark; her early evening in New York translating to around ten pm in England. That just bode even worse in JC’s gut and she tucked some now drying strands of loose red hair behind her ears that had fallen free from the band as she made her way through the hospital foyer towards the ER. The ER waiting room was busy and there were people sitting around nursing sick bags and bleeding heads all around her. But she was unseeing to most of them as she tried to seek out that familiar worn leather jacket and unruly hair. She spotted it alright; perched on the back of one of the chairs throwing spitballs at an oblivious cleaner across the room. It was only when JC moved closer that she realised David was sitting a couple of chairs away from Griffin, his long legs stretched out in front of him with the way he was slumped in the hard plastic chair and his right arm wrapped in a blue coat nursed to his chest. She squeaked in surprise and swooped on both of them. “I can’t leave you two alone for one day, can I? What is going on?” she demanded.
Griffin smirked and shrugged, punctuating with another spitball aimed at the back of the poor guy’s head. “What ya’ complainin’ ‘bout, darlin'? This is the first time he’s fuckin’ left the Lair in days. Call it bein’ social. Only, now he’s sulkin’ even more.”
JC always just took Griffin and his antics with a grain of salt, so she didn’t pay much mind to him more than throwing him a faintly long-suffering look before she zeroed in on David. She sat in the seat beside him and dropped the Louis Vuitton handbag on the floor that she was road-testing for Razor. “Is it broken?” she asked him, and leant forward to rest her elbows on her knees.
David glanced at her and nodded. “Yeah. Just waiting for a cast… woo,” he added sarcastically as an afterthought, watching a mother and little kid walk by them.
“What happened?” JC prompted and did try to ignore the flat tone in David’s voice. It was impossible, though. It seemed to have taken permanent residence now. David just shot Griffin a glare but merely shrugged in reply to JC’s question, so she turned on the other wayward son of the Jumper community, eyebrow raised expectantly.
Griffin blew a spitball at a poster for contraception and then sniggered. “It’s not my fault. He took a swing at me, I Jumped - as one does - and he smacked the wall instead. It was all highly amusin’.” He leapt off the back of the chair and started to saunter for the waiting room exit. “And on that note, it’s your turn to babysit.”
JC watched Griffin leave with a sigh. “You know, your temper wouldn’t be nearly as sparking if you went to talk to Leah,” she pointed out, deciding there was no longer room for subtlety with David Rice. “Nor would it be as primed if you stopped moping around Griff’s Lair for weeks on end. He’s a bad influence.”
David scrunched his nose up in irritation. “Then why do you keep coming back?” he asked with a small glance before returning his eyes to stare at his feet.
“Because the bastard might be a pain in the arse, but he’s my pain in the arse. We have a love hate thing, as you well know. Life wouldn’t be the same without him Jumping in and out of my life keeping it real,” JC explained and picked up her bag again. “Does it hurt? I have Tylenol. Do you want some?”
David was going to decline but he reluctantly nodded. It hurt like a fucking bitch. “Thanks,” he murmured and exhaled heavily. He used his uninjured hand to rub slowly at his eyes while she dug around in her bag. Unfortunately, she was right on some level. He couldn’t even explain why he lost his temper so badly at Griffin’s goading and ended up trying to take a swing at him. Rationality wasn’t exactly in tact because he didn’t even contemplate that Griff would reflexively Jump out of the way… as one does.
JC handed him a couple of the pills and her yet opened bottle of water. “Can I take a swing at you?” she asked with a small smile. “Or how about just a sharp smack in the back of the head?”
David set the bottle between his knees for a moment to put the pills in his mouth and then picked it up to take a drink and swallow them. He re-capped the bottle and met her eyes. “I know what you’re going to say and no matter how much I try to analyse all this, I keep reaching the same damn result… if I date her, I’m putting her in danger, plain and simple,” he said dully.
JC sighed and rested her hand on his thigh. “You know, I’ve never had a single run-in with a Paladin? Not one. I couldn’t even tell you what their fancy weapons look like. They have never crossed me. You know why they cross Griff? Because he goads them. He puts himself and his life out there as a Jumper so they know exactly what to target and trail. But he has a vendetta and that’s just Griff. He will never get over that until he believes he’s taken every last one of the bastards down,” she snorted, shaking her head. “You and I both know that means he’ll die trying. The worrying part is, David, that you’re taking a similar route to him. Perhaps not with the passionate vendetta Griff harbours, but you put your ability out there. You live off what you get from Jumping and you’re reckless. That’s why you got targeted. Sure, your mom is a Paladin, but she wouldn’t have pursued you unless you put yourself out there. She still gave birth you, David. She still loves you.”
David closed his eyes and tried to keep his anger in check. Yelling in the crowded waiting room would only lead to getting hauled off by security and, as she said, putting himself out there. As much as he wanted to argue the point of his mother’s ‘love’. “You really believe it’s as easy as all that, don’t you?” he mumbled, shaking his head. “It’s not. Just because you’ve evaded them so far, doesn’t mean you will continue to do so.”
“I’m twenty eight years old, David. I’ve known about my ability since I was five and nurtured it ever since. You learnt about yours when you a teenager and from day one made all the wrong moves because you had no one to lead you otherwise. I’m not accusing you of anything here, so don’t go throwing yourself another little pity hard-done by party, Rice. You had a tough break, you had a crap initiation into Jumping. Just like Griff. You had the world at your fucking fingertips and you were just a kid. Of course you were going to make the most of it. How else were you going to survive?” JC paused, watching him closely. “I was different. I was raised by a wonderful family who supported me and understood that I just had this gift. They nurtured it and encouraged me to still lead a normal life… college, a good job, making a living… despite it. I use it for pleasure, not for gain. And there, Rice, is the difference. The Paladins have issues with Jumpers who are freeloaders and take, take, take without giving in return. You might have come to be like this out of sheer necessity, but they don’t give a flying fuck about the hearts and flowers woe-is-me violins of the situation.”
David face was still set in a deep frown. “So, what are you trying to say? I’m a fucking loser and sunshine beams out of your butt?” he asked in annoyance. “That I’m a thief and you’re a perfect little Harvard grad, the apple of mummy and daddy’s eye? Well, congratulations, JC. You win. You get the grand prize! Not having a regiment of murderers tailing your arse!” he ended in a hushed hiss. “Thank you for trying to help me, but your perfect little non-freeloader life versus my thieving bastardry are hardly a recipe for an easy fix here.”
JC watched him for a moment and reached up and gave his forehead a light bit sharp slap. “Snap out of it, Britney,” she said firmly. “What’s next? Shaving your head and fucking the Paparazzi? Damnit it to hell, David. You’re not the same person Griffin introduced me to all those months ago. Quit being a whiny bastard and discuss this with me like a rational human being. Leave the slashed wrists at the door, thank you very much.”
David stared at her in shock for a moment and then couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “What?” he sniggered, shaking his head. He rubbed his hand over his face again. “Fucking hell… I just… Shit. Alright. We’ll do it your way.”
JC nodded succinctly. “I want you to get a job. I want you to pull your head out of your arse and stop feeding off Griff’s vengeful, aggravating bastard routine. So, yes, the Paladins tailed you and wanted you dead. Get over it and start flying under the radar. Find a base you're happy in. I suggest New York near Leah. Why the hell you’re still hanging around in Sydney is beyond me. But the biggest fucking thing, David, is to stop using the Jumping as a way of life and start using it as a hobby. That’s been your biggest mistake from the start. You need to find a foundation for a proper life, love, and stop flitting around like a bug caught in the wind because sooner or later, you’re going to end up smashed against a damn windscreen.” She took his good hand before he could reply. “Don’t let Jumping fuck your chances over with Leah, yeah? Just don’t. Or you’ll end up like Griffin, living in a cave in an undetectable location with no family, no nothing.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” David asked quietly, searching her eyes.
“No, love. I’m the Harvard grad who shoots sunbeams from my arse, remember?” JC said, smirking. She squeezed his hand. “I’m talking because I know you’re more like me than you realise. I think deep down you have the same hopes and dreams, you’re just bewildered how to pull them off. Go to your girl, David. She’ll help you find what you’re looking for. With that, I am talking from experience. New romantic interest on the horizon, call me optimistic and leave it at that.”
David’s smile finally reached his eyes. “Oh yeah? What’s he like?” he asked curiously. “Would you help him find what he’s looking for if he asked you?”
JC smiled. “Darling, I’d try and give him the world if he let me.” She leaned forward and touched his cheek. “Let her, David. Just let her.”
Griffin [theotherjumper], Leah Reynolds [morethanleah] & Jason Street [itwontstopme] referenced with permission
Word Count | 2,029
| Good Will Hunting
Co-written with taste4freedom
When you get a text message that merely says ‘RYL LNDN HSPTL ER - FCKNG HGE WT - CME KP ME CMPNY’ from your best friend, your arse tends to drop out in panic. Which is exactly what happened when JC received the message when she was in the middle of taking a bath. Griffin was at the Royal London Hospital! She cursed and swore extensively as she rushed around trying to make herself some semblance of decent, not even bothering to dry her hair and dragging it up into a ponytail on top of her head. She pulled on some jeans and a shirt, grabbed her handbag and Jumped into an alley near the back of London’s largest hospital. Her feet made soft slapping sounds from the base of her red Converse shoes as she ran up the alley in the direction of the hospital entrance. Why the fuck was Griffin at the hospital?!
It was dark; her early evening in New York translating to around ten pm in England. That just bode even worse in JC’s gut and she tucked some now drying strands of loose red hair behind her ears that had fallen free from the band as she made her way through the hospital foyer towards the ER. The ER waiting room was busy and there were people sitting around nursing sick bags and bleeding heads all around her. But she was unseeing to most of them as she tried to seek out that familiar worn leather jacket and unruly hair. She spotted it alright; perched on the back of one of the chairs throwing spitballs at an oblivious cleaner across the room. It was only when JC moved closer that she realised David was sitting a couple of chairs away from Griffin, his long legs stretched out in front of him with the way he was slumped in the hard plastic chair and his right arm wrapped in a blue coat nursed to his chest. She squeaked in surprise and swooped on both of them. “I can’t leave you two alone for one day, can I? What is going on?” she demanded.
Griffin smirked and shrugged, punctuating with another spitball aimed at the back of the poor guy’s head. “What ya’ complainin’ ‘bout, darlin'? This is the first time he’s fuckin’ left the Lair in days. Call it bein’ social. Only, now he’s sulkin’ even more.”
JC always just took Griffin and his antics with a grain of salt, so she didn’t pay much mind to him more than throwing him a faintly long-suffering look before she zeroed in on David. She sat in the seat beside him and dropped the Louis Vuitton handbag on the floor that she was road-testing for Razor. “Is it broken?” she asked him, and leant forward to rest her elbows on her knees.
David glanced at her and nodded. “Yeah. Just waiting for a cast… woo,” he added sarcastically as an afterthought, watching a mother and little kid walk by them.
“What happened?” JC prompted and did try to ignore the flat tone in David’s voice. It was impossible, though. It seemed to have taken permanent residence now. David just shot Griffin a glare but merely shrugged in reply to JC’s question, so she turned on the other wayward son of the Jumper community, eyebrow raised expectantly.
Griffin blew a spitball at a poster for contraception and then sniggered. “It’s not my fault. He took a swing at me, I Jumped - as one does - and he smacked the wall instead. It was all highly amusin’.” He leapt off the back of the chair and started to saunter for the waiting room exit. “And on that note, it’s your turn to babysit.”
JC watched Griffin leave with a sigh. “You know, your temper wouldn’t be nearly as sparking if you went to talk to Leah,” she pointed out, deciding there was no longer room for subtlety with David Rice. “Nor would it be as primed if you stopped moping around Griff’s Lair for weeks on end. He’s a bad influence.”
David scrunched his nose up in irritation. “Then why do you keep coming back?” he asked with a small glance before returning his eyes to stare at his feet.
“Because the bastard might be a pain in the arse, but he’s my pain in the arse. We have a love hate thing, as you well know. Life wouldn’t be the same without him Jumping in and out of my life keeping it real,” JC explained and picked up her bag again. “Does it hurt? I have Tylenol. Do you want some?”
David was going to decline but he reluctantly nodded. It hurt like a fucking bitch. “Thanks,” he murmured and exhaled heavily. He used his uninjured hand to rub slowly at his eyes while she dug around in her bag. Unfortunately, she was right on some level. He couldn’t even explain why he lost his temper so badly at Griffin’s goading and ended up trying to take a swing at him. Rationality wasn’t exactly in tact because he didn’t even contemplate that Griff would reflexively Jump out of the way… as one does.
JC handed him a couple of the pills and her yet opened bottle of water. “Can I take a swing at you?” she asked with a small smile. “Or how about just a sharp smack in the back of the head?”
David set the bottle between his knees for a moment to put the pills in his mouth and then picked it up to take a drink and swallow them. He re-capped the bottle and met her eyes. “I know what you’re going to say and no matter how much I try to analyse all this, I keep reaching the same damn result… if I date her, I’m putting her in danger, plain and simple,” he said dully.
JC sighed and rested her hand on his thigh. “You know, I’ve never had a single run-in with a Paladin? Not one. I couldn’t even tell you what their fancy weapons look like. They have never crossed me. You know why they cross Griff? Because he goads them. He puts himself and his life out there as a Jumper so they know exactly what to target and trail. But he has a vendetta and that’s just Griff. He will never get over that until he believes he’s taken every last one of the bastards down,” she snorted, shaking her head. “You and I both know that means he’ll die trying. The worrying part is, David, that you’re taking a similar route to him. Perhaps not with the passionate vendetta Griff harbours, but you put your ability out there. You live off what you get from Jumping and you’re reckless. That’s why you got targeted. Sure, your mom is a Paladin, but she wouldn’t have pursued you unless you put yourself out there. She still gave birth you, David. She still loves you.”
David closed his eyes and tried to keep his anger in check. Yelling in the crowded waiting room would only lead to getting hauled off by security and, as she said, putting himself out there. As much as he wanted to argue the point of his mother’s ‘love’. “You really believe it’s as easy as all that, don’t you?” he mumbled, shaking his head. “It’s not. Just because you’ve evaded them so far, doesn’t mean you will continue to do so.”
“I’m twenty eight years old, David. I’ve known about my ability since I was five and nurtured it ever since. You learnt about yours when you a teenager and from day one made all the wrong moves because you had no one to lead you otherwise. I’m not accusing you of anything here, so don’t go throwing yourself another little pity hard-done by party, Rice. You had a tough break, you had a crap initiation into Jumping. Just like Griff. You had the world at your fucking fingertips and you were just a kid. Of course you were going to make the most of it. How else were you going to survive?” JC paused, watching him closely. “I was different. I was raised by a wonderful family who supported me and understood that I just had this gift. They nurtured it and encouraged me to still lead a normal life… college, a good job, making a living… despite it. I use it for pleasure, not for gain. And there, Rice, is the difference. The Paladins have issues with Jumpers who are freeloaders and take, take, take without giving in return. You might have come to be like this out of sheer necessity, but they don’t give a flying fuck about the hearts and flowers woe-is-me violins of the situation.”
David face was still set in a deep frown. “So, what are you trying to say? I’m a fucking loser and sunshine beams out of your butt?” he asked in annoyance. “That I’m a thief and you’re a perfect little Harvard grad, the apple of mummy and daddy’s eye? Well, congratulations, JC. You win. You get the grand prize! Not having a regiment of murderers tailing your arse!” he ended in a hushed hiss. “Thank you for trying to help me, but your perfect little non-freeloader life versus my thieving bastardry are hardly a recipe for an easy fix here.”
JC watched him for a moment and reached up and gave his forehead a light bit sharp slap. “Snap out of it, Britney,” she said firmly. “What’s next? Shaving your head and fucking the Paparazzi? Damnit it to hell, David. You’re not the same person Griffin introduced me to all those months ago. Quit being a whiny bastard and discuss this with me like a rational human being. Leave the slashed wrists at the door, thank you very much.”
David stared at her in shock for a moment and then couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “What?” he sniggered, shaking his head. He rubbed his hand over his face again. “Fucking hell… I just… Shit. Alright. We’ll do it your way.”
JC nodded succinctly. “I want you to get a job. I want you to pull your head out of your arse and stop feeding off Griff’s vengeful, aggravating bastard routine. So, yes, the Paladins tailed you and wanted you dead. Get over it and start flying under the radar. Find a base you're happy in. I suggest New York near Leah. Why the hell you’re still hanging around in Sydney is beyond me. But the biggest fucking thing, David, is to stop using the Jumping as a way of life and start using it as a hobby. That’s been your biggest mistake from the start. You need to find a foundation for a proper life, love, and stop flitting around like a bug caught in the wind because sooner or later, you’re going to end up smashed against a damn windscreen.” She took his good hand before he could reply. “Don’t let Jumping fuck your chances over with Leah, yeah? Just don’t. Or you’ll end up like Griffin, living in a cave in an undetectable location with no family, no nothing.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” David asked quietly, searching her eyes.
“No, love. I’m the Harvard grad who shoots sunbeams from my arse, remember?” JC said, smirking. She squeezed his hand. “I’m talking because I know you’re more like me than you realise. I think deep down you have the same hopes and dreams, you’re just bewildered how to pull them off. Go to your girl, David. She’ll help you find what you’re looking for. With that, I am talking from experience. New romantic interest on the horizon, call me optimistic and leave it at that.”
David’s smile finally reached his eyes. “Oh yeah? What’s he like?” he asked curiously. “Would you help him find what he’s looking for if he asked you?”
JC smiled. “Darling, I’d try and give him the world if he let me.” She leaned forward and touched his cheek. “Let her, David. Just let her.”
Griffin [theotherjumper], Leah Reynolds [morethanleah] & Jason Street [itwontstopme] referenced with permission
Word Count | 2,029