Hostage Situation

"Shut up. And none of your business." Jamie grumbled, even though it very much was Mercy's business. She stood up.

It was pretty low for Mercy to uninvite her to lunch like that. She knew by now that Jamie didn't always have enough money. It didn't matter, she was going to get it one way or another. That day in the dumpster... how was Jamie supposed to know she was robbing a filthy thief?

"We wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't throw out all your stuff. You keep saying rape, too. Do you have a thing for it? That's gross. Keep up." Jamie pushed off and began skating her way down the hall and out the door to the sidewalk. She set her pace so that Mercy would have to maintain a brisk jog or else be left behind.

"I distinctly remember a situation like that!" Mercy said as she began to jog after Jamie. "H-Hey, slow down ! I don't have skates! if you don't let me follow you then I won't be able to give you back Batman!" She focused on catching up a bit, already panting a softly. "And no, I don't have a THING!" She said and glared at the back of Jamie. "I didn't mean to throw ALL of it out! Just most of it! You have no right to criticize me when you're just a walking failure!" She huffed and looked down. '... Skating failure..." She amended.

Jamie bared her teeth and growled. "You could keep up just fine if you weren't such a stupid fat ass! And if I'm such a failure, how come you're the one who got fired and threw all her stuff in the garbage! Maybe I'll just hang on to the contract for a few weeks and we'll see how good you do with no money. You wouldn't last one night." She shouted. "Now move your ass, you could use the exercise."

Jamie didn't slow down. At least now by much. She stayed far enough in front of Mercy to make her run, and to make sure she was uncomfortable and out of breath, but she didn't go so fast as to outrun her outright.

"It's only a few blocks." She said. In fact it was at least five, and the only times she stopped were to wait for traffic to cross the street, and then she only waited for small gaps in cars before darting across the street, expecting Mercy to follow suit.

She stopped at the start of the last block. Their destination was up ahead in a strip of shops and upscale boutiques. Jamie liked to come to this area to run games and perform. People had plenty of money to blow, and they were usually easily parted with it. She gave Mercy a chance to catch her breath, and watched her while she did while leaning up against the wall of an expensive tailor shop.

"You should get some skates. Or work out." She suggested.

Mercy growled back at Jamie. "You're ass is a million times more fat than mine!" Mercy was practically a stick! She'd never ever been accused of being fat, in fact if she was teased, it was for being TOO skinny! Mercy huffed as she tried to keep up, she was starting to sweat and pant hard now. "You have skates, I have feet!" She whined. "A-And... I do plenty of crunches!" She did. She always thought crunches were the best way to pretend like you were doing exercise without having to do much of it so she did about fifteen or so every other day or two. It made her feel good to be able to squeeze in a "workout" during her busy working day.

"Everyone who contributes to society gets fired every once in a while! I'm sure that Ms. Sinclair was just downsizing! I would say that this economy is affecting everyone but I'm and urchin like you would be the same no matter what state the rest of the world is in!"

Mercy stopped and bent over when Jamie said it was another few blocks. She tried to catch her breath whenever there was a traffic light but then had to make up ground and wore herself out more. This was probably worse than the other day!"I... I can GET a job!" She barked at Jamie. "But I... already HAVE one! I'm not like YOU who has nothing to fall back on!" She growled again when Jamie said she should get skates. Maybe she SHOULD, but that was beside the point. "I WORK OUT!" She shrieked as she stumbled forward. She needed to catch her breath. She knew what Jamie was doing and was done playing her game.

She bent over and huffed and looked as Jamie tried to skate off. "Slow down!" She yelled and stepped next to traffic. She pulled out Batman. "Or... the Bats, gets it!" She eyed Jamie with irritation in her voice. But she was serious. Jamie was slowly making the prospect of grovelling to Lukretia the lesser of two evils.

"Relax, moron, we're here. Almost." Jamie said, trying to ignore Mercy's threat. It was probably a bluff anyway. "And if you did that, you'd be sorry. I'd beat you up, and you probably didn't know but Lukretia..." She tried to think of Lukretia's last name, but couldn't remember how to pronounce it. She tried to make it seem like her hesitation was only a dramatic pause. "...is my mom's brother's wife's sister. She's pretty much my aunt. If I told her some things about you, she'd never ever re-hire you, no matter how much you begged. So, if you want your job, I'm you're only hope."

Of course none of that was true. She wouldn't even beat her up. She tried to keep moving so Mercy wouldn't have time to think about it. She skated up to the door of a shop and braced a foot against the wall to pull it open without rolling around.

Inside was a working salon and spa, the large, wide, rectangular first room filled with two rows of chairs, one row for hair and one for various other treatments. There were three women inside, plus two customers in the chairs. As Jamie entered, the oldest employee, a middle aged woman with a Scottish accent, approached her.

"Good afternoon, dear, do you have an appointment?" She asked politely, despite the fact that she probably knew perfectly well that neither Jamie nor Mercy had an appointment.

Jamie, however, didn't miss a beat. "I did, actually, last week. I left something important here, and you guys were supposed to call me when you found it but you never did. The owner called me this morning, though. Excuse me." She skated past the woman to a door at the far corner of the room. She was through it before anyone could protest.

On the other side was a hallway with two doors on either side and an L-shaped bend at the end. The ambience, which was certainly upscale on the salon side, was exquisitely serene in here. The lighting and the indescribably pleasant smell of the place, the tranquil quiet seemed thicker against the ears, it all helped put Jamie at ease. She went halfway down the hall and stopped.

"Okay, around the corner is like an office or something, and in the desk there's like a filing cabinet thing, and your contract is in there. You just have to go grab it. The office is the owner's and she's never here, so just go quick and get it so we can get out of here." Jamie said in a hushed voice. Being in here made her feel like she had to whisper.

Mercy narrowed her eyes at Jamie and shook the Batman. At this point, Mercy was almost ready to throw down with Jamie and she didn't care if she could win, she just wanted to do some damage and shut that girl's stupid mouth.

Mercy folded her arms under her chest. "Lukretia only has one sister and she's not married. She doesn't even acknowledge the sister she does have as such. Don't lie to me in my own wheelhouse." She said dryly. She knew Jamie was a liar and a cheat but now she wasn't even trying. Was she going to say she knew more about lawyering next? This was ridiculous.

She let out a sigh and followed Jamie into the spa, stashing Batman once more. She looked around. The place was nice. Very nice. Too nice for someone like Jamie to ever be in. Mercy considered, once she was back to beign a paralegal and left this miserable wrestling life she'd been thrust onto, that she'd definitely come here. Maybe she'd even have the thing videotaped and sent to Jamie just to rub it in.

She looked at the girl as Jamie brazenly pushed passed her. Mercy bowed politely. "Please excuse her." She said to the woman as she followed Jamie. Jamie then stopped and instructed her to go into an office and grab her contract out of a filing cabinet. Mercy crossed her arms under her tapped her foot. "Uh huh." She said. "I know you're really dumb but I am not. I just locked you in an office, you think I'm going to fall for my own trick? You are certainly capable of going in there and getting it yourself. Then, after you have it, we can trade off and be done with one another."

"You think I have a key to that office? Are you stupid?" Well, yes, of course she was. "And if I DID lock you in, you could just turn the lock from the inside and leave. Why would I try to lock you in somewhere where I'd have to hold the door and where I'd eventually get arrested? Just shut up and get in there so we can get out of here. I'm... not going in."

Jamie folded her arms and stared right back at Mercy, tapping her foot. She didn't say anything else. Eventually one of them would have to go somewhere, even it was when the cops threw them out.

Mercy narrowed her eyes as Jamie suddenly became obstinate. Why was she so reluctant to go in that office? She kept her arms folded. She looked over Jamie. "Why... won't you go int here?" She asked Her tone wasn't accusatory. She was legitimately curious. "That you say that, makes me less willing to go in there." She added.

Jamie narrowed her eyes. The fact that she had ulterior motives made Mercy's accusations particularly uncomfortable. She didn't need to know about that.

She'd had enough of this playing around. She knelt down and quickly zipped off her roller blades, leaving her in her socks. Then, without warning, she pounced on Mercy and grabbed her by the hair. She dragged her roughly to the door, pulled it open and try to kick her in the butt to force her through.

Inside the office, sitting at the desk, was a woman in her late 20's, somewhat elegant and very fit, but it wasn't who Jamie was expecting. Upon seeing the two of them, the woman raised her eyebrows, but then gave a relaxed smile and leaned back in the high-backed leather chair, put her hands behind her head and her feet on the desk. She spoke with an English accent, sounding very direct and giving the impression of money but without much sophistication.

"'Ello, ladies. Step into my office, yeah? What can I do for you?" She asked, and raked her long, lavender hair out of her face.

Mercy watched carefully as Jamie kicked off her skates. What was she up to? Mercy didn't really understand. While she tired to figure it out, Jamie pounced on her and grabbed her long pink hair. "IEEEYAAAH!" She howled and as she was dragged into the office she balled her fists and swung them stiffly against Jamie's body until she was kicked into the office. She stumbled and fell to her knees. She barely even looked at the woman in the office as she growled at Jamie. Mercy was ready to go. Her cheeks were hot and rosy. Her fists were clenched as she pushed herself up. Jamie would soon feel the wrath of all 119 lbs of paralegal fury that Mercedes Wrenn had to offer!

But then the woman's spoke and Mercy's face went flush. Her head snapped and she looked over at the woman and her lip quivered. What was going on here? She turned back to Jamie and let out a bark. "You said that the owner's never here! I hate you!" She barely seemed to acknowledge the woman who asked for their business. She was tired of Jamie's antics. She needed a stiff drink and a pedicure once she got her contract. She wondered if this spa served alcohol.