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The City was the City. It wasn't Rapture. There was a sky and sun. Which was better than Rapture.

The curses were a pain but... It wasn't Rapture.

On this particular day Alec walked into a bar with his limp looking for somewhere to sit and maybe someone to talk to. It was crowded and busy but he spotted an empty seat at the bar. Hobbling over to it he slid into the seat and gave the man next to him a short nod of greeting.

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"Atlantic City's okay. Depends on when you go, I guess."

He brightens considerably when Alec mentions a son. "You've got a son? So do I. How old's yours?"

"It's different. Which is why I wanted to go."

Alec smiles. "I do. He's eleven now... how did he get to be eleven? How old is yours?"

Of course Alec digs out a picture of Drew. He has one. It's him, Rose, Drew and Andrew looking, in theory, like a happy family.

"He's, shit, four now. Does this mean I gotta be concerned about him bein' eleven before I know it?"

He smiles at Alec's picture, then pulls out a picture of his own, of course, a picture of him and Tommy and Angela, looking just as happy as Alec's picture.

"Probably. Drew's stop seeing girls as icky... I don't know how to feel about that one," Alec says.

He looks at the picture. "He's a nice looking boy. Looks smart."

"Tommy's kinda a charmer, too. Yeah, he's a smart kid -- takes after his mom. She..."

He pauses, then shakes his head. "Anyway, never mind. You got a good lookin' son there, too."

"Drew... he's got my hair unfortunately... but he takes after his mom too. ... At least... in most parts." His voice cracks just briefly and he shakes his own head.

"She... it's stupid... she this stupid not war killed her. They were looking for me and she got caught in the crossfire." Normally he wouldn't say anything but he's tired. Jimmy's a stranger with some commonality. And sometimes strangers are just safe.

"That's..."

Jimmy's silent for a moment, and then, for a brief, paranoid second, he thinks someone might be playing a trick on him, a cruel trick, the kind that involves sending someone here to fuck with his mind, to refer to situations that are exactly like his own. Then he remembers that they're in the City, and there's nobody from home who knows him here, nobody except Al, and he wouldn't do something like that.

"That's what happened to Angela, too. They wanted to shoot me, but they... those fuckers got her instead."

Oddly, Alec gets the same paranoid second. Or perhaps not oddly. They've had too many similar circumstances which made them semi similar men.

"Shit man, that's... just ... if you want to kill someone. You should kill them. Don't bother with other people."

"Believe me, I'm gonna kill every single one of those motherfuckers. I already started with some of 'em, the guys that're to blame for it all. The fuckers who pulled the trigger're gonna be next. I ain't gonna rest until every one of 'em is dead 'n dumped in the fuckin' ocean."

"Good! I wish I could do that." There's an savagery in his voice that surprises him.

"So why can't you? You might as well. Ain't like you got anythin' to lose, right?"

"I don't know who did it for starters," Alec says. "There's so many different factions. I've got an idea, but I'm not sure. Also my father's not letting me go anywhere. I'm too much of a security risk."

"If you've got an idea, you should go after those guys first. Find out if they really did it or not."

"By myself?" Alec asks, looking bemused at the idea.

"Sure, if there's nobody else you trust to help you."

He gives a bark of laughter. "Trust? I haven't been able to trust anyone in years. Not my own father and not Drew's mother."

"Yeah, so then you do it by yourself."

"And then just work my way up to the top guy?"

"Exactly. Take it slow. One at a time. Right up to the top."

Alec's fingers tap nervously on the bar top. "I'm just afraid of who the guy on the top is. I've got a feeling, but nothing confirmed."

He shakes his head. "This would be so much easier if my father would just open up the city."

"You won't know until you try, right? You gotta do it. You gotta give those guys what's comin' to 'em."

"Yeah. And if I don't more people'll keep on coming after me."

Not that this would stop them but whatever.

"So your only choice is to kill all of 'em."

Killing everyone isn't always the best option, but at the moment, the idea appeals to him.

It really is an appealing idea. Alec's managed to subdue a lot of his violent tendencies over the years but...

"What's the worst that could happen? I mean, besides dying?"

"Death's about it. What've you got left to lose, at this point?"