As You Were

The late winter sunshine outside did little to thaw the drifts of snow surrounding Colter. It made the ground shimmer like crystals, it would be utterly beautiful if it weren't for the situation they found themselves in.

Outside the former school house of this dilapidated, forgotten town, an icicle hangs outside of a splintered and boarded up window. The boards allow just enough sunlight through to illuminate a map spread out on a rustic table, and the 'drip, drip, drip' from the melting shard grates heavily on the last nerve of Jake Torres.

Cold, tired, beaten and frustrated, he clenches his teeth like a tiger pacing a cage and glares down at the map like it owed him money. To his side, Leon Valentine stands stoic with an arm braced around his middle and a hand raised to his mouth, chewing his thumb nail down to the quick. There was nothing but tension and anxiety in this miserable little room, it had been almost a week since Isabella, Mia, Valerie and Ripley had left on some hair brained scheme to fetch military uniforms from a Mayors Ball celebrating soldiers. The irony of it all wasn't really lost on Leon. But with his woman and his sister in the clutches of Leanna's men, he'd felt sick for six days and had barely managed to stomach a thing.

It rumbled now, loudly. Loud enough for Jake to cast his eyes sideways and away from the sketched out plans scribbled over the map.

"You should eat." He rumbles quietly, punctuated by a pop from the crackling fire opposite.

Leon only grunts, biting another chunk of nail and then lowering his hand from his mouth to gesture at the map. "So do you think it'll work?"

Standing straight, Jake regards the papers intently. "It'll have to."

Glancing toward the other man, Leon's eyes narrow. "That don't sound too convincin'."

With a sigh, Jake drops the pencil in his hand down on to the table and rubs his temples. He'd almost forgotten what sleep was like, his mind tangled in to as many knots as Leon's stomach. The guilt sat heavily on his shoulders, the knowledge that all of this was because of him and his past and the things he had done an almost impossible weight to bear. He deserved it, perhaps. But the others did not. If this was the last thing he did - and he assumed by now that it would be - he had to try and make sure they didn't pay for his mistakes.

Which was why this train robbery needed to go without a hitch.

"It's a good stretch of rail, the plan is solid." He speaks wearily. "We got good entry points, if we work together like I know we can, we can get on.. get the gold.. and get gone without anybody dyin'. Everyone just.." he draws a deep breath and drops his hands to his sides after running them over his face. "Needs to keep their heads. You and the kid..." he looks to Leon sternly and gestures to Yuliy, who sat by the fire staring in to the flame and rocking ever so slightly. "You get your part done and the dominoes should just start falling."

Leon draws in a deep breath of his own and fends off a wave of nausea, glancing to the kid.

"Need to get his head in the game." Jake comments.

Snorting, Leon looks back to him. "Easier said than done, he's a kid."

"So is Valerie. So is Ripley for that matter. They know what's at stake."

"He's deaf!"

"I'm aware." Jake grunts.

"So none of this makes sense to him! This ain't his fight! He's scared shitless for those kids.."

"We're all scared for our children, you think I'm not?"

Leon sighs, shaking his head. "His world ain't the same as ours. She can't make him do this."

"She can, she is. We have to get him through alive, that's the best we can do."

Huffing, Leon grinds his teeth until his jaw aches. "Who the hell transports that much goddamn gold on a train, anyway?"

Eyebrows bouncing, Jake shrugs a shoulder. "Safer than a stagecoach, even armored."

"Tell that to the five thousand trains you've stripped bare." Leon mutters.

Giving him a sideways look, Jake says nothing for a moment or two and then flops down on to the creaky old bench behind him. "It's a solid plan." He says quietly. "I just need everyone to trust me, which.. I know is askin' a lot right now."

Leon watches him, the stress written all over the other mans face like a novel. He feels his shoulders sag in sympathy, dousing the flames of anger that had been flickering inside him. They were all in the same situation, this man had torn down half of Saint Denis to save him from the noose, it wasn't his fault some madwoman couldn't reconcile the past and move on. They were the same, in many ways. They'd done what they'd had to at the time, and now they paid for it.

He slumps down on to the bench beside him and nods. "We trust you. Just.. don't trust her."

"Yeah, well. It's me she wants in the ground." Jake mumbles. "Hopefully if we pull this off you all get to walk away, she gets her gold and her new life, her men get paid. That's the end of it."

"You think it will be?" Leon asks tentatively.

Jake just slowly nods. "Once I'm dead. Sure."

Staring at him, Leon can't find a single response in him to that. The other man seemed so resigned to his fate that it was more chilling than the icy frosts creeping in under rotting roof tiles. "That cant.."

He begins his rebuttal without really knowing what he was going to say, and is cut off before he gets a chance to find out. The sound of horses and crunching snow, of raised voices and activity suddenly outside. They both look over their shoulders and catch glimpses through the windows. Leanna's men moving around and barking instructions, then the streak of blonde hair that belonged to the woman herself, flashes past the dirty glass and heads toward their door.

Moment's later she bursts inside, walking toward them with clacking heels on dusty floor boards and a smug look on her face.

"Gentlemen.." She addresses them in that sing song tone of hers. "Busy working on our plans, I see?"

Not moving from his seat, Jake simply dips his head in the slightest nod. "Think it's as ready as it'll ever be."

"Good!" She claps her hands together brightly and gestures toward the door. "Then you will brief everybody tonight."

"Everybody?" Leon asks, twisting on the bench a little more.

He's answered by a silhouette moving in to the doorway, followed by three others. His heart flips over in his chest and he bolts to his feet, covering the distance between them in a heartbeat and grabbing Isabella and Valerie, gathering them up in his arms and holding them to him. They cling to him in return and he kisses the tops of their heads as Mia and Ripley filter in behind them.

Jake rises up and crosses to Mia, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her. "Are you alright?" he asks in a low rumble.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Ripley snaps to his side. He arches a brow and looks at her, reaching out to ruffle her hair like he usually did.

She slaps his hand away and stalks across the room to join Yuliy by the fire on the floor. Flopping down and warming her hands by the flame.

Leanna's laughter drifts through the school house and she purses her lips. "Oh, I like her."

Frowning, Jake decides against attempting to communicate further with the moody teenager, returning his attention to Mia.

"I'm okay." She reassures him in a whisper.

Jake just nods, sighing and gathering her up to hold her against his chest. He kisses her hair and murmurs against it. "It's almost over. We'll get her back soon."

"This is making me nauseous." Leanna claps suddenly, a call to attention from everybody as her men filter inside carrying armfuls of soldier uniforms. They're dumped down in to a heap beside the map. "These are the uniforms some of you will use to infiltrate the train. It stops at Annesberg for a personnel change, so - as per Jake's plans - some of you will board there in place of actual soldiers, dispatch them however you see fit and don't get caught. The rest..." she gestures to Jake with a somewhat maniacal grin, "I leave in the hands of our fearless, train heist expert, Jake Torres."

Her voice drips with sarcasm and contempt. Jake's jaw tenses as he glances around the room to the expectant eyes gathered.

"Now?" He asks.

"Is as good a time as any.." Leanna flutters her eyelashes at him and gestures around the room. "Why don't you show us all how the school of Alexander Kilgrave relieves people of their worldly possessions? Just try not to burn anything down in the process. Hm?"

Drawing in a deep breath, he releases Mia gently and gestures toward the map as he crosses over to it. Feeling the eyes of his friends and every one of Leanna's men gathered around them like a shroud. Like walls closing in.

He goes through the plan with a fine tooth comb. All the while, Leanna stands over him with her arms folded and her lips pursed in to a thin, unreadable line.

When he's finished, he fields questions from the others.

How long would it take to get there? How would they get there? How many military will be there? Where will the gold be? Will there be passengers or just guards? What do they do if people resist, which they will?

He answers them all the best that he can, until the well dries up and there's no more questions left to ask.

Leanna claps again, standing on the table to address them all.

"You leave in three days. Use the time wisely. Rest, eat. Remember, the lives of your children rely on this going well. You will be watched. One glimmer of you stepping out of line, I'll have their throats cut and bring you their skins as a reminder.. I always keep my promises."

She flashes a toothy grin toward Jake, then hops down from the table with an assisting hand from one of her loyal men. They part like the red sea to allow her through, but she only travels a handful of steps before stopping in her tracks and considering something for a moment. She suddenly turns, a finger lifted in the air like she had remembered an important point.

"Oh, I almost forgot." She stalks back toward Jake, who stands stoic and never takes his eyes from her as she prowls right up to him. She reaches in to her heavy leather duster and pulls out something that makes the color drain from his face and his knees weaken.

A mask, scratched and battle torn and far too familiar. He hadn't seen it in years.

"W.. where did you..." he manages in a rasp.

"You will wear this." She says without answering him, offering it over. "I want you to look the part."

To his left, Mia's hand drifts over her mouth at the sight of the awful thing as Jake gingerly takes it.

Leanna pulls her hands back, watching him with the mask in his. "I thought it fitting, you compensate me for my pain and suffering while wearing the very thing you butchered my father wearing. That might even be his blood, who knows? You murdered so many with that machete of yours."

Reaching out, she pinches his cheek and clicks her tongue in her mouth. "Get some sleep, killer."

With that she turns away, marching out of the school house and leaving Jake frozen, staring at the mask in his hands. The eyes of his friends all upon him, seeing a glimpse of the man he used to be.

One he'd never wanted them to meet.

"Jake.." Isabella says quietly as the men finally filter out and leave them alone.

He lifts his eyes from the cold metal face staring back at him, looking around the room to the others.

"I'm sorry.." he manages before his throat closes.