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Standing still as the keys dangle swaying side to side in her hand her heart races. The tears start immediately despite her silence. The old wooden doorway and the marquee that hadn't been altered since the night before everything had gone to shit. She'd stayed away for so long for the same reason she hadn't sold the club; Jesse. A double edged sword in her life. They'd had a you jump I jump relationship but he wasn't there smiling upon her return like Jack was to greet Rose. Her feet take her up the staircase to her room and the circle bed with roaring twenties decor a la scarface. Gaudy, classy, Jesse. Her tears subside as she heads to his desk the cops had torn it apart leaving their treasures in evidence boxes. Elle had paid Wade to take care of the club and he'd put everything back just how she'd remembered.
"I just wish I could have said goodbye" Elle mumbles feeling Jesse and his influence all around her.
She could see him sitting at the Grand Piano in her room, the record player going as he sits pretending to play as he lip sinks, a doppelgänger of the late great Sinatra.
"Ellie you're too extraordinary to be regular"
"Dollface you're still young save that outfit for the nursing home"
"My muse, my darling, my love we don't worry and we especially don't cry - misery brings wrinkles"
Elle smiles at the thought of it all. No one understood their relationship and how could they. They'd been each others everything but had never been anything more than platonic. Jesse got off through being creative and a good chase - but those blue eyes and old Hollywood style charm wooed most prospects. There were few things in this world Jesse hated more than being bored so he'd leave them alone. That was until Rinna came into the picture.
The creaky floorboard snaps out of her thoughts causing her to turn and face Tre as he leans in the doorway looking around.
"This is how you lived huh?" He asks with a rainy smile. It was the complete opposite of your apartment.
"Yeah, these were Jesses workbooks and this ones Jesses journals could you put them in the trunk for me?" Elle asks smiling through the pain.
"I got you" he responds as she steps towards the closet. "Are you okay" Tre asks with concern., he'd never seen her like this, as she contemplated everything so tentatively. Her next step forward, where she looked how she felt.
"No" Elle admits for the first time as she takes out an outfit Jesse had designed for her. The one she'd never worn. "I wasn't strong enough for him Tre. I didn't stand up, keep the show going, stay light like he'd have wanted, I didn't organize the funeral there were no fireworks, I didn't write the eulogy - I couldn't even sit through it." Elle in this form was different to anything he'd seen or known of her. This was the Elle that was with Luca and was drawn to trouble, the emancipated Elle that drank and danced until her feet stopped.
He wondered if Jesse's version of Elle and the one she seemed to love and could coexist with the woman he did.
"Docs are an hour drive we don't have much time left here" Tre whispers reminding her of there agreement and she nods.
"Help me get dressed please"
"This him?" Tre asks looking at a black and white polaroid of Jesse and Elle stuck into her vintage vanity. Her smile is bright and he can't recall her ever being that happy around him.
"Yeah" Elle smiles remembering it had been from their first party.
"He looks familiar"
"Like Sinatra?" Elle nods it'd kept the lights on a few times.
"The singer, yeah Nana loved that guy" Tre smiles.
"Jesse milked the resemblance, got us extra money when we were just getting started" Elle laughs at their hustles.
"You don't have to meet with Luca alright, he can be taken care of" Tre holds Elle protectively afraid to lose her to sadness or see her completely broken.
"I've been running for too long Tre, this is who I am. I'm a happy girl, troublesome from time to time, far from perfect but if you love me now. You'd love her more; I know I do" Elle smiles in reflection as Tre looks her over in her period costume suit.
"Not the way she dresses" Tre admits making her laugh and she leans forward to peck his lips. She fixes her Ascott before sitting on his lap and leaning on his shoulder. Tre's arms wrap around her instinctively.
"Even though it hurts to be here, its better than pretending none of this happened. I don't know what Luca thinks Tre but I'm not going to forgive him for what he's done and allowed Rinna to do, and I'll never forgive her for screwing over a man who loved her" Elles words are unwavering and Tre sees an expression Black knows all too well in her eyes.
"Its whatever you want"
"You and to start fresh, put this behind us after tonight. But I have to honour Jesses memory and create a legacy like he wanted so I might be here a lot. I need a studio, somewhere to work - sort through his things"
"We can turn your apartment into a studio and we can live in mine" Tre interrupts not having it.
"Ok" Elle smiles before touching the gold chain on his neck.
"What is it?"
"Promise you'll let me deal with Luca unless I ask otherwise?" Elles eyes look into his and they're in disagreement. Tre swallows shaking his head in refusal. He never wanted for her to be in the same vicinity as Luca again.
"I'll try my best and thats the best I can do" he mutters and Elle rises from his lap getting a jewelry box she puts an old ring on her finger and an old necklace. Its not her style.
"Jesses, for good luck - he wasn't wearing them that morning" Elle explains looking herself over now ready to go.
