“Yeah?” Bette mumbled, her eyes closed, a hand resting on her forehead.

“I-II-I’m sorry to hear that you’re f-fighting with Tina.”

Bette looked up at James with wide eyes before smiling. “Thank you.”

James smiled back, exhaling loudly in accomplishment. “You’re welcome. Okay, I’ll go get what you wanted.”

Bette closed her eyes again as soon as James left. She didn’t really need the past five Peabody grantsshe just needed something to pass the time. Her eyes fluttered open and Bette found herself staring at the post-it note again.

Get rid of it.

———————–

“Jesus fuck!” Tina screamed as she landed on her ass in the dirt, looking up at an old German Shepard. It barked twice, but didn’t move from its spot on the window frame. It just stared at her quizzically. Shane reached Tina first. “Are you okay?”

Tina nodded, not taking her eyes off the dog. “Yeah. Fine. Fuckingdog.”

Shane looked at the dog, smiling. “It’s Jeepers! Here boy, here Jeepers, come on boy!”

Jeepers barked again, slowly jumping out of the car. Tina could see his arthritic hind legs buckle under his weight. She felt bad for Jeepers, even if he had scared the crap out of her. He hobbled over to Shane, his tail wagging as slowly as he walked. Shane bent down to give him a good rub on the head. Jeepers sniffed her hand and then slowly hobbled away, satisfied that his ‘job’ was done.

“Why didn’t you tell me this place had a guard dog?” Tina scolded, still sitting on her ass in the dirt.

“What junkyard doesn’t? Besides, Jeepers really isn’t a ‘guard dog’ anymore. He’s like eighteen years old or something. To tell you the truth, I thought he was dead.”

“How sweet.”

Alice finally made her way to Tina and Shane. “What’s up guys, everything okay?”

“Where were you?” Tina asked, looking up at Alice.

“Welluh” Alice laughed nervously, putting a hand to her hip as she looked around. “Uhthe second you screamed I kinda made a break for it.”

“You booked?” Shane asked, shoving her hands deep into her back pockets.

“You ran away and left us here?”

“Not really! I’m still here ain’t I?” Alice kicked around some dirt with her sneaker. “I came back…you knowwhen I thought it was safe.”

“Way to go Wonder Woman.” Shane muttered, shaking her head.

“Help me up huh?” Tina said to Alice as the started upward. Alice grabbed her arm and pulled, helping her to her feet.

Shane rubbed her eyes for a second and looked at her watch.

“Oh shit.” Alice moaned, causing Shane to look up.

It was then she noticed the small puddle of blood slowly seeping into the dirt.

“Oh fuck.”

To be continued