Everyone Can Hear

           Both the men's grins faded and their faces went pale. "You wanna talk to her?-" one of them men asked. They were even more shocked when they saw Lasso nod. Now they both had to make a decision, who was going to go get the boss. They both knew the moment she got angry whichever one of them that got the courage to talk to her would be dead. They quietly whispered amongst themselves, trying to decide who should go. Lasso watched this with amusement, seen these big brute soldiers go pale at the thought of talking to their boss. "What?...I thought you two were big and brave..." Lasso chuckled but groaned due to the pain. He laid his head back against the wall until the pain settled to a dull ache once more. When he looked at the guards again they were doing Rock Paper Scissors to see who would have to talk to their boss. Lasso was shocked. He wondered how much Cypher had changed to the point where these two big brute men so scared to just talk to her. When one finally lost he sighed and stepped out of the room.

        "How bad is she?.." Lasso asked and the guard looked at him confused. "What do you mean." He snapped and Lasso sighed. "How long have you known your boss..." He asked and the guard stopped to think. "About a year, why does it matter." He growled at the chained man and Lasso was quiet. "Hey!" He was impatient to know why he was asked. "Do you even know her name" he asked and the guard slowly shook his head. "Why does that matter." He snapped and Lasso shrugged. They heard quick footsteps in the hall and the guard stepped out of the way. Cypher walked through the door and motioned for the guard to leave. The other guard was standing in the hallway and the first guard joined him. The door slammed shut and Cypher was alone with Lasso.

         Lasso looked up at his old friend. "Really let herself go" Lasso thought and studied her for a moment. Her hair was just passed her ears but it was choppy and knotted, he guessed she cut it herself with a hunting knife in the middle of another melt down. Dark circles were under her eyes and she looked pale, a long scar dragged from above her right eyebrow down to her chin. Her eye was a cloudy white, probably blind in that one. She wore the same black shirt, cargo pants and black trench coat. She glared down at him, whatever goofy personality he last saw from her seemed to be long dead now. "Long time no see.." his eyes finally met hers. He was still struggling a little to breathe but not as much. She remained silent for the moment so he just continued on. "You've been here these past years huh?..." he asked and she nodded. "Why..." he asked her and her gaze dropped to the floor. She looked lost in her thoughts, not sure how to answer the question. Finally she simply shrugged and looked him in the eyes again. Her glare didn't return. He couldn't tell what emotion she was trying to show, he didn't think she really knew either. To Lasso she looked dazed, but he couldn't tell.

        "Why did you come back." She snapped, her voice was a raspy and raw. He wondered if her voice was damaged from heavy smoking or the amount of screaming she does. He guessed both. "Well...I just tagged along with Mama if I'm being honest..." he admitted and leaned his head back. He had a dull ache in his head from one of the guards hitting his head against a wall while trying to chain him up. "I thought you hated your dad..." he sighed. That caught her attention. She tensed up at the thought of her father again. "I do." She growled at him and he softly grinned. "But you look just like him...shit you even got the scar to match...." He chuckled quietly. "Shut up." She demanded but he went on. "You even started up his business again..looks like you want to be just like him huh..." he looked at her again and saw her hands were shaking and clutched tightly into fists till her knuckles were white. It wasn't hard for him to get under her skin since he knew exactly what she hates to hear.

        "I'm better then him." She snapped and he tilted his head. "Worse actually....you've made this place more painful I will say..." he shrugged. "What do you want." She sighed, trying to change the subject. "To walk out of here and you take this place down...that too much?" He grinned softly at her and she started to pace around a little. She was clutching her sleeves, that's something he'd never seen her do. "All this after two deaths?... seems a little drastic don't you?" Lasso continued and noticed her grimace. She began to walk to the door. "Ret would be disappointed you know. So would Jet." He said and she froze right before reaching the door. Lasso quietly sat there waiting for a response but she just stood there frozen. "What about your mom? What would she say?" Lasso pressed on and Cypher growled. "Leave my mom out of this!" She shouted and turned, throwing a knife at him. It stuck into the wall inches from his head. He had tugged a sensitive heart string.

       Mama was able to hear Cypher shout from the other room and that got her attention. Shiny's head perked up as well, he had heard it too. They couldn't hear anything Lasso was saying but they just heard Cypher yelling. They didn't have to hear him to know Lasso was in the room. He was the only one who would be brutal enough to bring her mom up in a conversation. They silently listened, wondering what was going to be said next.

         He did not flinch. Not when she yelled, not when the knife was thrown. He kept her gaze on her. He noticed her nose was bleeding. "How do you think they'd feel seeing you again?" He asked her, his voice louder now. "Seeing the monster you turned out to be." He kept pressing, ignore the fact that she had began yelling, screaming at him to shut up. Lasso yelled over her. Cypher finally threw a punch at his head but he ducked. She spun and kicked him instead. Her heel hit his lower jaw and knocked his head to the side, leaving a gash along his jawline that began to bleed. He got knocked onto his side and laid there for a moment. He struggled back onto his knees and spit out a tooth and blood. "Should've just taken the damn punch..." he mumbled to himself. He heard a soft click and looked up into the barrel of Cypher's pistol.

         Mama and Shiny were wide eyed. They had heard every word of that fight. Lasso had to yell over Cypher to get her to actually hear him. They always forget how loud Lasso can get, he's normally just snippy. Mama was listening to Cypher mainly. She sounded panicked, or was it desperate? Her mind was still all jumbled from the initial blow so thinking was difficult. All she knew is that there was no anger in Cypher's voice that time. They all jumped at the sound of a gunshot from the other room. "No!!" Shiny screamed and tried to yank free of his chain. He froze when he saw one of the guards begin to approach him. Once the guard saw he stopped he stepped back again.

Cypher stormed out of the room and shoved passed the two guards that were in the hall. Neither of them questioned a thing. They just went back inside and stood by the door again. The Latino man at the moment was lying on the ground, blood pooling around him.