Fix Me, Fix You: A Jesse Pinkman Story

Chapter Fourteen

Jesse smiled humbly in front of his completed custom cypress cabinets, the first project he had taken the lead on, as he showed Coop, Linda, and Lia the finished product. The cabinets were fairly simple, not like the intricate carved ones that his boss had built before, but he thought they were beautiful and strong, and he was very proud of them.

"Ooh!" Lia chirped as she bounced up and down. "Pretty!"

Jesse smiled at her, appreciative of her childlike, yet genuine, praise.

"Well I'll be damned, kid," Coop began. "You did one helluva job!"

"Oh, Jesse! It's beautiful!" Linda commended as she walked over and hugged him joyfully. "You should be so proud of yourself."

"Thank you," Jesse replied earnestly, truly proud of his work.

The deadline for the cabinets had been pushed back a few days due to the hurricane, but once the bad weather ended, he got right back to work and continued working until his project was completed.

Jesse found it very relieving to see how quickly life moved on after a hurricane passed. When the storm headed up to Arkansas, where it dissipated over land, and the electricity came back on, the Quinn family went on with their lives. They spent nearly a full day cleaning up the debris of trash, tree branches, and leaves in the yard, but once that was taken care of, life continued as normal. And he was thankful for that; he was thrilled to get back to the peaceful, calm life he had built.

Though he'd never forget his first hurricane.

"The customers are going to love it, kid," Coop said as he and Jesse loaded the cabinets into the back of his truck later. "You did a great job."

"Thanks," Jesse replied, helping secure the piece. "Thanks for letting me lead this one."

Coop shut the tailgate of his truck then patted Jesse on the back and smiled, knowing he was appreciative of the added responsibility. "Take the rest of the day off, son. You deserve it."

Jesse nodded, still smiling, and watched as Coop got into his truck and headed down the gravel road to deliver the cabinets to their customers. Even though his boss had told him to take the rest of the day off, he headed back into the shop to at least clean up so Coop wouldn't have to later.

He swept up the scrapped wood chips and dust, cleaned all the tools, organized all the stray boards of wood, and put everything back where it belonged. Just as he was finishing up, something whizzed by, buzzing in his ear.

Reflexively, he swatted the air near his face and watched as a fly landed on the desk in front of him. He narrowed his eyes at it then very slowly pulled the rag out of his back pocket. In one swift movement, he slapped the towel down on the table to squash the insect.

He lifted the rag to see if he was successful, but the fly was gone, buzzing around him and the shop, as if to show off the fact that he had survived the intended attack.

Jesse followed the bug around the shop, swatting at it with the rag as it hummed through the air, but he never came close to knocking it to the ground. He grabbed a magazine from Coop's desk and rolled it up then waited for the fly to land on a flat surface.

When it finally settled on a piece of plywood within his reach, he slammed the magazine down, grunting from the exertion. But the bug buzzed loudly as it flew by his face, unharmed.

"God dammit!" Jesse shouted, gripping the magazine in his hand tightly.

Suddenly, Jesse saw Mr. White in his mind. It startled him. The magazine slowly fell from his hand, hitting the ground with a slight smack, as he pictured Mr. White – or Walt, or Walter, or Heisenberg, or whoever the hell his "partner" was that day – as he chased a fly throughout their extensive underground lab a couple years back.