The Untitled Piper Watson Project

Pay My Bail

Piper's POV~

I nearly dropped the phone. "Mackenzie, what's happened?" He sighed. "I know it sounds bad, but...I was arrested." That time I did drop the phone. I quickly picked it up and pressed it back to my ear, breathless. "What?" "I didn't do it, I swear." I sprang up from my chair and gestured frantically to Jennifer who was on the couch, and she rushed up to me. I shushed her before she could ask what's wrong. "Okay, well what do they think you did?" "I was at the bar with my friends and there were these drunk guys in the street—-" "Wait." I cut him off. "Drunk guys in the street?" I looked at Jen and she bit her lip. "Yeah," Mack said. "One of them had a gun, and he started...shooting." I covered my mouth. "Oh my god, Mack." "I'm fine," he assured me. "he threw the gun across the street, I was too shocked to move. Then I was a suspect." I closed my eyes, which felt heavy. "I'm going down there." I told him. "Mack, I love you." He said nothing for a second, then said: "I love you, too, Pipes." I hung up the phone and grabbed my jacket. "Piper, I don't think you should go alone." Jen warned. I put on my boots and stomped towards the door. "Hold down the fort, Jen. Mack needs me." 

I sped to the Boston Police Department and walked fast inside. I looked around, not knowing what to do. I went to the guy sitting at a desk in the front, surrounded by other people sitting around, trying to post bail for their loved ones. I saw a hooker handcuffed to a chair. There was a lady arguing with the guy at the front desk. "I don't care if he had coke, I want him out now." The lady barked. The guy at the front desk had his eyes glued to his computer screen, uninterested. "He's being charged with possession and he's not going anywhere but prison, sweetheart." The lady groaned and slammed her fist on the desk, causing the cop to jump slightly. "I'm not finished here." she spat. She spun around and plopped right down in the chair next to the hooker. I shuddered. I approached the cop at the desk and folded my hands on the desk. "Help you?" the cop asked blandly. I cleared my throat. "Um, I need to post bail for someone." He clicked the mouse on his computer. "Name?" "Um, Mackenzie Gibbons." The cop typed the name and narrowed his eyes. He spun his chair forward to look at me. "Yeah, bail isn't being posted for him right now, he's a suspect in a murder investigation."

"Yeah and he was wrongly accused." I said. "He didn't do anything wrong so I'm asking: how much to bail him out?" The cop leaned back in his chair. "We also looked at his records and seeing he has a violent history—-" "That automatically makes him a suspect?" I snapped. "Ma'am—-" "No!" I pounded my fist on his desk harder than the lady from before. He jumped again. "This is bullshit!" I cried out. "As a citizen of the United States of America, and as someone who knows how it feels to be judged by the person you once were, I think I deserve a little more respect!" The woman from before gave me a thumbs up and a head nod and the man behind the desk coughed. "What is it you needed, ma'am?" I spread my hands out on the desk and glared at him. "Mackenzie Gibbons. Bail. How much?" The man crossed his arms. "Before you try to bail anyone out, I'm going to need to see some ID." I sighed, pulled out my wallet, and held up my driver's license. He squinted at the card and looked up at me. "You're Piper Watson?" I rubbed my head, exasperated because now my fame was making it impossible to be taken seriously. "Last I checked, yeah."

The man leaned over his desk. "Listen, Ms. Watson, regular charge for a bail like that, would be around $10,000, seeing as he didn't do anything as you say and there's been no trial." I scoffed. "There needs to be a trial? Look, how do I get him out of this entirely?" "Normally, $10,000." The cop said. "But for you, I'm willing to lower it to $7,000." I knitted my eyebrows together. "How come?" He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "My daughters are huge fans. If you give me an autograph for them, I'll accept bail for $7,000." I eyed the cop and the paper. I picked up the pen and signed my name on the paper with a heart next to it. I pulled out my wallet and held out my credit card. "Now your end of the bargain." He took the card and nodded. "Of course. Your friend is lucky to have someone going out of their way for them like you." He handed me the card back and picked up the phone. "Release Mackenzie Gibbons, please. His bail's been paid." The cop gave me a plastic bag which had a phone and keys. Mack's things. There was a door just by the desk, behind which was a hallway that stretched into what I assumed were jail cells.

Mack soon appeared in the hall, and the door opened with a buzz. The cop that led him out closed the door, and there was another buzz. He looked okay, still wearing his clothes, his hair fluffed up and shooting in all directions. His eyes though looked tired. Tired and sad. Mack's eyes were a deep blue and appeared as if they belonged to a soul that had lived for eternity. The eyes are the windows to the soul, after all. However when he saw me, he was happier. He embraced me in a hug and I gave him the bag with his stuff. "My car—-" Mack began. I cut him off. "I took care of it. It's home. I paid your bail and everything, it's okay." Mack looked around uneasily and we walked out of the station. We drove in silence, and the tension that filled the air was the kind of tension that shouldn't exist. "I feel bad." Mack said after awhile. "I screw up and you fix it. It's not right." I kept my eyes on the road, trying to come up with the words that will clear his doubt. "We help each other." I said. "It's okay to need help sometimes. When Sam died, you were there for me. You got arrested and I was there for you. That's how relationships work, right?" He leaned against the window. "Well, it seems like it's more you helping me than me helping you. The only thing I seem to do is hurt you."

"You were confused." I insisted. "You had no idea what you were capable of and you were afraid and you were trying to prevent hurting me. But you actually did hurt me by going away ironically, but we're together now. We live together and I feel happy with you. All the time." Mack smiled. "I'm happy with you, too." With one hand on the wheel, I reached over and interlaced Mack's fingers with mine. "We can both put the past behind us." I continued. "That is, if you want to." We finally got home and got out of the car. "I don't want to." Mack said. "I need to." I opened the front door and Jen ran into my arms. "Piper, I was worried something was wrong." I patted her back. "I'm fine, Jennifer. You can go home now." Jen turned towards the door. "Of course. Hi, Mack." She hugged him as well and then left, speeding away in her BMW. Mack kissed my cheek and pulled me up the stairs. "I'm tired." I whined. "So am I." Mack agreed. "The guy next to me in the cell had cocaine, it wasn't fun." We changed into our pajamas and went to bed, both of us extremely exhausted, but Mack still slid his arms around me so we could spoon.