He stumbles in to Jason's office, his hair askew, his clothes ruffled. Jason looks up calmly, his eyebrow raised in question, his pen stilling on the paper. Max flies in behind Johnny.
"No problem Max."
"Yeah, Max." Johnny's voice is rough and a little higher than usual. "No problem." He laughs after this and plops himself in the chair in front of Jason. Max shoots Jason a look and Jason just shrugs. Max leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.
"What are you doing here?"
Johnny picks up one of the coffee mugs on Jason's desk, ignoring the question, and moves it from hand to hand, his eyes growing larger and then smaller. Jason looks at him carefully.
He can see that his short hair has somehow managed to stick up at odd angles and there are large bags under his eyes, going from black to purple. His eyes themselves are red rimmed and frantic looking. His body has assumed a sort of slouch and his right leg won't stop moving. His body seems to have lost total control of itself.
"Johnny!" Jason shouts his name and Johnny jumps in his chair, dropping the mug on the floor. It cracks cleanly in half. Johnny stares at it before leaning forward and picking up the shards of glass slowly, one by one.
Jason rolls his eyes and sits up in his chair, looking at Johnny's huddled form. Something isn't right.
"Why are you here?"
"Everything breaks, everything falls apart." He mumbles. "I can't help it."
He leans back up and deposits the broken ceramic on Jason's desk as if it were a gift from the God's. He sighs and falls back. "It's what I do."
Jason decides the better way to do this is just play it by ear. He looks at Johnny carefully, squinting his eyes and folding his hands.
Johnny mocks his position, smiling a crooked grin, squinting his eyes obnoxiously.
Jason sighs. "Are you drunk?"
"No."
"High?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Maybe?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
There is a pause and Johnny drops his hands, the smile wiping off his face. "I need you to knock me out." He supplies simply. Jason looks at him.
"What?"
"Hit me in the back of the head, right-" He turns his head and points a finger at the base of his skull. "Here."
There is silence and Johnny drops his hand and looks back at Jason. Jason
merely raises his eyebrows. "You are asking me, to knock you out?"
"I haven't slept in four days."
"Why?"
"Unimportant. Just knock me out and I can get some sleep. It makes sense. Unconscious people don't dream."
"Why would I knock-"
Jason's sentence is cut off by the door slamming open and Lulu striding through. Johnny turns in his seat slightly, sees it her and lets out a loud groan. He faces forward and puts his head in his hands. Lulu looks from Jason, to Johnny, to Jason again, the crease in her forehead deepening.
She drops her bag on the floor and takes a step forward. "What are you doing here?"
She directs it at Johnny but he refuses to take his face out of his hands, like a petulant child in time out for stealing a cookie. She frowns and looks at Jason.
"Why is he here?"
Jason leans back in his chair and scratches his chin, looking at Johnny with a curious stare. "He wants me to knock him out."
"Wait, what?"
"He wants me to hit him in the back of the skull and knock him out."
Johnny lets out another loud groan and buries his face deeper in his hands.
Lulu stares at him, the urge to touch his strained back overwhelming. She reaches out a hand and touches his shoulder and he flinches, bringing his head out of his hands and looking at her accusingly, his eyes wide. He stand sup abruptly, swaying slightly as the blood rushes to his head. She takes a step back.
"You." He points at her.
"Me, what?"
"You drive me fucking insane."
The way he says it makes her want to laugh because honestly, she cannot take him seriously. He is swaying back and forth on his feet and he is pointing at her, his eyes narrowed.
"I'm sorry?"
"You." He repeats and takes a step forward. "With your hair and your smiling and your, uh-" He closes his eyes and puts a hand to his forehead, searching for a word. "Mouth. Your mouth. You drive me fucking insane."
Jason sighs and gets up from behind his desk, walking behind Johnny and pulling out his gun from his back pocket. He turns it in his hand carefully so that the blunt handle is facing Johnny and raises his arm. Lulu barely screams stop before Johnny is slouched forward, Lulu holding his weight the best he can.
"Was that necessary?" She growls, her arms shifting, trying to bring his body closer to hers.
Jason smirks and goes back to behind his desk. "Is that a serious question?"