Chapter Text
// 2 months later //
Jaime felt his body shuffle stiffly at his post at the door, thanking Oliver silently for the near military grade earplugs to lessen the pounding beat of the bass. His sharp eyes roamed over the two levels of the club to the best of his ability, checking in with the other bouncers and making sure that they are indeed doing their job. For some inexplicable reason, Oliver made him the ‘head bouncer’ which he explained as ‘Your new job Jaime-boy is to boss the other bouncers around’ which Jaime is still confused about but he accepted the post to the best of his social skills. The other bouncers seem to steer clear of him unless the question about upcoming schedules or asking for days off or days shifted around came up, Jaime doesn’t partially mind they’re not friendly but it does get lonely. He quickly averted his eyes from the other bouncers as he saw people congregate on the far back of the dance floor, a little too aggressive for a group of friends. He squares up his shoulders and held his head high as he lethally walked towards the group, getting into the mindset of not Jaime, hell not even Bucky, but as the Soldier which is easier to slip in and out nowadays.
He stalked over to the overly large group, gruffly shoving people apart as he asserted himself as a security guard of sorts, causing people to scatter but leaving a good amount in the group. In the middle of the gathering stood a tall and slender drag queen who was chest to chest with a club goer who was currently screaming in the drag queens face, behind the tall drag queen was another one on the floor holding her face, two other queens crouching next to her and comforting her while glaring at the screaming club goer. Before the club goer could touch the standing drag queen with his outstretched hand Jaime got between them, forcing the club goer to stumble backwards into the jeering crowd of people.
“Is there a problem sir?”, Jaime felt himself ask, his voice deep and raspy as he stared dead eyed into the drunk man’s eyes, the stench of alcohol strong as the man panted from the stumble.
“This…this fuckin’ faggot tricked me! I thought he was a woman an’ suddenly it got a deep voice!” the drunkard ramble as he tried to right himself from his crouched position, his eyes wild and hair a glittery mess.
Jaime felt himself sigh loudly as he stepped forward and grabbed the man by one of his arms to help him up, he then started to usher him to the entrance of the club and steadily ignoring the wasted man’s protest of Jaime’s less than gentle treatment of him. Jaime nodded at the other bouncers that observed as he dealt with the drunk, knowing that later they will give a report to Oliver about his handling of the situation and the people involved. When he got to the entrance he ignored the bouncer stationed at the door as he exited the building, the cool air of New York blew right in his face as he frog marched the man to the curb. He let go of the man after turning him around to face Jaime and the club, the bright neon lights of the club illuminating behind Jaime and making him appear bigger than usual as Jaime pointed behind him.
“Listen bub I don’t know if ya know but, this is a drag queen club where, ya know, drag queens perform. I get that you’ve probably never seen or even heard of them but that don’t mean ya got to be disrespectful ya know? I’m going to have to put you on the shit list for now, unless you really want to go back and in that case? Going to have to talk to the head boss around here who don’t deal with nonsense ya know? Have a good night man”, Jaime gruffly stated as he turned away from the confused drunk and walked stiffly back into the club, nodding the doorman bouncer sharply.
He felted himself loosen slightly as he made his way further into the club towards the drag queens, relieved that the situation was handled as safely as possible without blood or piss getting on him again. He bee lined towards the tall drag queen, who was now comforting her friend that was on the floor, she was wiping away blood while talking softly to her before noticing that Jaime was heading their way again. She stood up abruptly from her crouched pose and blocked Jaime from the injured drag queen, her light green eyes blazing in the dark club as she confronted him.
“Don’t cha worry miss, he’s been kicked out and will probably be blacklisted from entering until further notice. No need to get defensive.” Jaime said calmly as he raised his hands in a defensive gesture, putting himself in a vulnerable position openly.
The drag queen made a face, suspicion strong in her eyes as she eyeballed him up and down. Finally, she relaxed a bit and backed off a little, something Jaime was thankful for since his nerves were a tad raw. Jaime realized that this was his first conflict since he has gotten here 2 months ago, and he wasn’t very keen getting into another fight but with another employee. Realizing that she was losing Jaime’s interested the drag queen scowled and spoke very loudly towards him, ignoring that he was only a foot away.
“Listen here mista, I appreciate your concern and your actions but I could have taken him! Just because I dress as a female don’t mean I don’t know how to fight! I had him on the ropes!”, she proclaimed loudly, arms crossed and scowl clearly shown on her face.
Jaime felt his face go cold, sweat beading down his forehead as her words echoed through his head, a memory digging up from the dark empty depths of his mind. ‘I had ‘em on the ropes Buck!’ a deep voice rang out in his head, repeating over and over again until it became white noise, then an ear-piercing whine that felt like his brain was getting fried from the thought. His hands started to shake severely as he breathes got shallow and sharper as the moments passed by. He snapped out of his spiraling thoughts as he felt a hand on his shoulder, the long thin fingers pressing sharply into his flesh shoulder as a southern voice rang out.
“Now Sugar, there’s no need to get hostile with the bouncers, they’re here for a reason yanno. Now if you will excuse me I’m going to take Jaime to my room so he can cool himself off, please behave yourselves and CALL the bouncers if there’s trouble instead of trying to solve it yourself.” Oliver reminded them sternly as he steered Jaime away from the large group gathering around them from the drag queen’s outburst.
Jaime felt like it he was outside of his body, everything was blurry and muffled, the bright lights dulled until they looked hazy and fog like and the noise had been reduced to low background noise. It felt a lot like drowning. He struggled to follow the slender hand that was tugging his flesh one, a solid presence in the fog that covered his mind as he tried to ignore the high pitch whining noise and the feeling of being fried alive. He felt his body being lowered down onto a soft but firm surface and the slender hand leaving, he felt his body floating in the air, but the need to move his flesh hand is strong. Suddenly a word cut through the fog.
“Wiped-“, and then everything in his body shut down without a thought.
****
Oliver stared in slight horror as Jaime’s body began to jerk violently on his couch his eyes half lidded, and his eyeballs rolled back as he body moved mindlessly out of his unconscious control. Oliver knew better than to touch someone having an epilepsy attack, but he was sorely tempted to hug the shit out of him and maybe call Finn to comfort him. Unfortunately seeing as Finn refuses modern technology because he’s a beautiful paranoid bastard on the run from the government, Oliver had to wait it out. He sat on the floor by the couch holding Jaime’s hand as the violent jerking slowed down to twitches before stopping all together, Jaime’s head resting on its side peacefully. Oliver grabbed Jaime’s wrist and checked his pulse immediately after he calmed, reaching towards his face and checking his eyes as well to make sure he doesn’t have to call that sketchy back alleyway doctor he knew. Noting that Jaime only looked pale and didn’t suffer from any other symptoms Oliver sat back down harshly to the floor, breathing in relief. Wiping a hand down his face harshly Oliver stood up harshly and made his way to the kitchen, aware that when Jaime wakes up he would probably be hungry as hell.
“Damn kid, never listenin’ to me when I say he can take a break anytime. If this shit continues Finn will have my hide and feed the rest of me to those damn street urchins he collects”, Oliver mumbled as he moved automatically in the kitchen.
Oliver made several sub sandwiches for Jaime, sliding them onto a plate and placing them in the fridge alongside his iced tea, a personal favorite. He then made his way to his bedroom and collapsed on the messy bed headfirst, Oliver groaned as he sunk into his sinfully soft sheets and soft mattress that relived some pressure from his body. He laid there thinking about the events of the evening, starting from when the club opened, doing taxes, and helping his right-hand man during a panic attack.
‘Well, maybe now the Queens will finally use the bouncer service I have, I hate spending money smoothing over complaining patrons’, Oliver mused as he turned to lay on his back, now eyeballing the ceiling.
‘After Jaime wakes up, we need another etiquette talk about self-care and having a healthy mentality when working in crowded areas’, he continued to muse as he stared blankly at the ceiling.
“Well that’s a problem for tomorrow me”, Oliver suddenly declared out loud. He then closed his eyes and was knocked out for the evening.
***
Jaime woke with a start on an insanely uncomfortable springy sofa, wincing slightly as the springs dug relentlessly into his back. He rose slowly and surely, eyes roaming over the entire room as he gathered his thoughts. As soon as he was as sure footed as he was going to get with his sore back and slight headache, he began to meticulously comb through the living room/kitchen space as quietly as he could with the squeaky floor boards. He opened the fridge cautiously, blinking silently as a giant stack of subs were laying on a plate with his fake name on a glittery card were laying on top. He tilted his head as he extracted the plate and placed it on the small table, right next to multiple bottles of water, he then sat down on the single chair and stared at the food.
So.
What should he do? Eat the subs? Look for more clues? Honestly Jaime was confused but the longer he stared at the subs, the hungrier he got. So he made up his mind, he reached for one and took a bite.
Not bad.