<div class="floatleft">(http://www.stereoboard.com/images/artistimages/childish-gambino.jpg)</div><strong>Name: Cole Hawkins (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=250173.msg12434518#msg12434518)</strong><br/><strong>City | Date | Time: San Francisco, California | August 4th, 2017 | Sometime past 2 am</strong><br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning: Jacqueline 'Jackie' Fawkes</strong><br/><strong>Content: Maybe this isn't a trap...maybe.</strong><br/><hr/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: comic sans ms;">Maybe exhaustion and hunger had finally taken him over; maybe the sense of keeping his guard up had been so ingrained in him for such a long time that it had become a bit hard to truly trust anyone, to get himself to open up to others again. But here was Jackie, doing her best to look after him, even after just briefly meeting him. She had gone above the call of duty and well beyond the limits that most people would. And it was at that moment, while still deep in the corners of his mind, that he found himself dropping his backpack onto the floor with a light THUD against Jackie's apartment floor right next to her couch. He seemed to quietly inhale and exhale slowly, taking it in the brief wafting air of food being heated up. He tried, just for a moment, to lower his guard for just a moment. He allowed himself a moment to simply believe that...this was a break for him.<br/><br/>That he could just have a moment of rest...and not worry about anything. No Tac-6. No Cassandra. No running. Just a meal and a shower. Maybe even a place to lay low for a bit, a person to trust. Wouldn't that be...nice for a change? Jackie had set out a plate of food at her dining table for him and Cole shifted over, almost too quickly and too desperately, taking a moment to show a bit of tact and courtesy before he sat down and looked over the leftovers she heated up for him. When was the last time he had Chinese? Did it matter? He grabbed a fork and gave a brief glance up at Jackie, seeing that proud grin upon her face. He gave a silent nod of thanks and then started to shovel food into his mouth.<br/><br/>It was hard not to...every fiber in his body seemed to vibrate as he fed himself for the first time in days and there was a sudden washing of calmness through him. Everything seemed clearing again and all of the worries and stress that he may have carried had drifted into the background; present, but not quite there in the haze. Running on adrenaline was a heck of a thing or was it some other kind of energy that had kept him going for so long. Cole finally paced himself a bit, drinking a bit of tea, dumping a few sugar packs into the earl grey, when it was finally presented to him. It gave him a moment to look at Jackie as she sat across from him, talking once more. He bowed his head when she had mentioned she was going to keep calling him 'Spidey'.<br/><br/>"Cole...." he mumbled, then said with a little more confidence. "You can call me Cole...but Spidey's fine, I guess..." He sipped down some more tea and finished up what was left on his plate. He gazed quietly down at his plate and then looked back up towards her. "Thank you. For this." She had offered him her shower...and he accepted it without embarrassment. He wanted one. He needed one to feel...back to some state of a status quo. He had raised himself out of the chair after taking another couple of sips of tea (it was...warm, like a hug you haven't had in a long time), his hand gently planted down upon the table as if he needed to confirm that this wasn't an illusion. Jackie's striking eyes gazed at him as he looked back towards her. He sighed. <br/><br/>"I feel like I'm being a leech right now," he said softly. "But it's nice to know that there are generous people still in the world..." He looked off for a moment, his mind deep-set on that shower. </span></span>