brutal | grayson hawthorne

a drop lol

***
Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls
***

Liz and Grayson never got to share that bed since the two of them and Jameson stayed up the whole night trying to make sense of the information they'd collected.

Avery texted in the morning to say that the next location they needed to scope out was the Hawthorne's ski cabin in True North, Colorado.

This time, however, the ride over was filled with Jameson, Liz, and Grayson talking over each other as they realized they all had too much to say.

All three were wearing sunglasses despite the fact that they'd closed all the window covers as soon as they boarded, and Liz is sure Jameson just took his fifth ibuprofen as Grayson nurses his third cup of coffee.

They had the whole jet to themselves, obviously, but the three just settle in the corner, Liz and Grayson next to each other, facing Jameson who took the aisle seat across from Grayson. A deck of cards is messily splayed out on the table in front of them, but their game of poker was long forgotten since they started to debrief.

"What are we even looking for in Colorado?" Jameson shifts the conversation after it became clear that they could not figure out for the life of them what was going through Toby's mind when he set the house on fire. Did he want to kill all his friends? Did he want to kill himself? Was he just being silly? Was it a game of Drink or Dare?

"Something that relates back to Skye," Grayson leans back in his seat, probably grateful for the change in tone as he doesn't have to keep thinking about his asshole of a father. "It'll be somewhere in the cabin."

"A compass," Liz has pulled up her picture of the will and put her phone on the table so they can all look at the specific wording of Tobias Hawthorne's old will.

"Shit," Jameson winces at the aggressive sound Liz's phone makes as it hits the table, hangovers not forgotten.

***

"How are you feeling?" Liz walks into Grayson's room in the cabin, drying her hair with her towel after she got back from her shower in the room beside his, watching him take out some snow gloves from his dresser.

"Like the next time you ask me that I'm never going to talk to you again," he answers, immediately going over to Liz who holds her arms out for a hug.

Sheffield Grayson didn't leave immediately after dropping the bomb of information that was the fact that Toby might've started the fire. He stayed to say a bunch of bullshit about how Colin was the closest thing he'll ever have to a son, and Liz took a step forward to deck him right then and there, but Jameson shoved him out the door before she could.

"You know what he said was bullshit, Gray," Liz comforts with her hands through his hair, his head resting on top of hers. "He's just an asshole."

"The old man disinherited the entire family around the same time Skye got pregnant with me," Grayson heart is beating fast against Liz's cheek. "Was Toby really the straw that broke the camel's back - or was I?"

"You're doing it again," Liz pulls away slightly, putting her hands firmly on his shoulders and staring him down as he looks at her with a kind of sad, lost puppy dog look. "You don't always have to bear the weight of the world - or your family - on your shoulders. The old man loved you," she assures.

"We were his chance to do something right," Grayson refers to him and his brothers. "And look how disappointed he was in the end - in Jameson and in me."

"That's not true," Liz doesn't know what else to say around the ache in her heart for him. For them.

"He knew we would break everything we touch-"

"Stop that," she knows what it's like to spiral like that, but luckily Jameson and Avery walk into the room just as Liz and Grayson pull apart.

"Look what I found," Jameson says in a sing-songy voice, brandishing a picture frame that Avery snatched out of his hand as soon as she got an opening. "I know," he looks at Liz and Grayson's slightly widened eyes that he found something of significance so soon. "I really am just that good."

Liz steps forward to see what Avery is examining, but stops when Jameson points two fingers at her and Grayson. "And I challenge you two," his gaze is solemn, "to a Drop."

Liz is a little hazy on the rules, since the game was outlawed when she was around 14 because of too many broken bones, but her, Jameson, and Grayson go over it in the SUV on the way there so there's no confusion when they're seconds away from falling to their deaths.

"If I were to call 'drop', Jameson clarifies, "then both of you go down."

"If one of us goes down and the other doesn't, the other has to wait 30 seconds before they can go," Liz continues. "While you would just wait 15 seconds from the first person."

"And if both of us go you wait 15 seconds, and if neither of us go, you go and we save ourselves from breaking any bones," Grayson finishes summing it up.

***

Xander joined the group at some point in the game, so they did 2v2 rounds, Liz not realizing how much she hated the game until she remembered how annoying Xander was with his strategies.

Luckily, however, for putting up with him as long as she did, he, in exchange, offered her some information about the picture frame Jameson found.

It was of young Zara and Skye, a man with messy hair in the middle of the two, all grinning at the camera. Apparently, the man's name is Jake Nash, and he has some connection to both Skye and Zara, not just in the way that he's Nash's father.

This is what Liz and Grayson are discussing after they established Xander won the drop, but Liz was a close second, and while Jameson and Xander went off to do their own thing, Liz and Grayson are sitting in his room, Uno cards between them, Liz having changed into more comfy sleeping shorts and a t-shirt that she has no idea where she got it from, but is pretty sure she packed it into her bag from Grayson's the night before.

"Nash didn't really care," Grayson says putting down a +2 card. "About his father, I mean."

"Hm," Liz isn't sure how he wants her to respond and puts down her own +2.

"I guess it doesn't really matter," Grayson has another +2. "It's not like anyone other than the old man raised us anyway."

"Yeah," Liz puts down another one of her own +2s.

"I just wish I didn't get my hopes up, y'know?" +2. "I didn't think he would welcome me with open arms or anything, but he didn't have to be such a douchebag."

"Yeah, that sucked." +2.

"Whatever, though, I'm over it." +2.

"That's good." +2.

"Uno," Grayson puts down his last card, a +2. "You owe me a soda."

"I have something else," Liz leans forward and kisses him.

a/n:
forever winter by taylor swift