Breaking Bad: The Aftermath | Part Three

She began to read.

As she read the letter that her departed husband had left for her, she couldn’t hold back the tears.

Dear Skyler,

If you’re reading this, I’m dead. That’s that out of the way. Now, you know the large amount of money that I made doing what I did, but there was more. I didn’t want you to know about it because there’s a chance the DEA would have taken it. This money hasn’t been through the car wash, so no tax has been deducted.

I’m sure by this point you know about where the rest of the money has gone but, on the off chance that you don’t, I have given it to Gretchen and Elliot, not to keep, to give to Walt Jr and Holly when they are 18. I gave them nine million. Well, I gave some to two kids as… reassurance… shall we say.

I can only hope that you will be happy with decision that I have made. However, if you are not, I will never be able to stop you from taking the money back from them. All I ask, is that if you do decide that you want this money, please hold back enough from Walt Jr and Holly, that’s all.

That’s it, Skyler. All I have left to say is that I’m sorry. Sorry for all the damage that I have caused to you and our family, sorry that I will never be able to see our children grow up, and I’m sorry that I can’t ever be with you, in your company again.

Please Skyler, please live the happiest life that you can. I love you.

Walter Hartwell White.

As Skyler finished reading the letter, she looked over to Holly, where she was laying in her crib, again she wished that she was like Holly, not knowing what Walt had done, wishing that everything was back to normal, wishing that she had her husband back with her.

As the tears began to once again flood her eyes, she heard a key being slid into the lock of the front door. This signalled that her son, Walt Jr. had returned from school.

Skyler quickly wiped the tears away from her eyes, she wanted to appear strong for her son. Looking back down at the tear stained letter she had just read, Skyler snatched it up and stuffed it into her pocket, just in time for Walt Jr. to walk through the door of the kitchen.

“Hi, Flynn” Skyler said to her son as appeared at the door “Hi “ he replied, a tone of sadness in his voice. Skyler knew that Jr. was trying to be brave for his mother, to show her that if he could see the bright side, so could she. But Skyler knew that, deep down, Jr. was missing his father greatly.

“I got these on the way home.” Jr. said to Skyler in a much cheery tone. He was holding two large pizzas. “They’re pepperoni, your favourite.” Skyler smiled back at Jr. and said “Thank you.” Her voice faltered as she did so.

They passed the night away by eating pizza, Holly eating baby food, and watching television. Occasionally having to hastily change the channel when “The Drug King-Pin Walter White” was mentioned.

Several hours has passed before Walt Jr. took Holly to her bedroom, and then went himself, leaving Skyler alone once again in the kitchen.

The kitchen was now only lit by a small lamp on the table Skyler was sitting at. She could feel the darkness around the room beginning to close in on her. Slowly fading, everything went pitch black. Her head fell to the table with a bang.

When the light came back, she sat upright and looked around the room, she felt different. When her eyes had adjusted to the brightness, she realized that she was no longer in the kitchen of her apartment. Skyler sat in the chair for a while, trying to work out where she was. Had she been kidnapped and being held hostage? No, she was not tied to the chair, if she wanted to, she would be able to stand with ease. Had everything been a dream? It can’t have been, it’s not possible.

Skyler realized that she was in a room that she had never seen before. She stood up out of the chair and walked over to the wall to the right of her. She could see a piece of paper taped to it, with a small table below, on top of which sat a telephone.

Looking at the paper, she could see that on the piece of paper there was a number, she new it. But where from? Skyler paused for a moment, but then reached down to the telephone. Just has her hand touched the smooth plastic, Skyler felt a surge backwards, as though she was being pulled from behind.

Everything went black once more.

Skyler’s eyes opened sharply, the side of her head was throbbing. She was back in the kitchen of her apartment. Still, the room was dark, being lit only by the small light sitting on top of the table. She tried hard to remember what she had just seen. Again, Skyler sat upright. Looking around the room, she noticed the phone sitting on her table. Now, she was able to remember.

From her pocket, she first pulled our Walt’s letter to her and threw it hastily on the table. Reaching into her pocket again, she found the other piece of paper. Looking down upon it, she read the number. It was the same as the one in the other room that she had been in. Badger.

The revelation that Walt had left her one last letter has made her completely forget about wanting to see Jesse. But this seemed to be some sort of reminder, something that made her more determined than ever to find him.  Skyler dialled the number into the phone that she was reading off of the paper that Saul had given her, and listened to the dial tone.

A man answered. “Hello?” “Badger?” Skyler replied in a soft voice. “Yeah, that’s me. What do you want?” Badger replied to Skyler. “You’re a friend of Jesse Pinkman’s?” Skyler said back “I need you to tell me where he is.”

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The name Breaking Bad are licensed and owned by Sony Entertainment. Along with the following characters:

• Walter White
• Skyler White
• Holly White
• Walter White Jr.
• Jesse Pinkman
• Saul Goodman
• Brandon “Badger” Mayhew
• Gretchen Schwartz
• Elliot Schwartz

Breaking Bad – The Aftermath | Part Two

“Saul, we need to talk”.

Again, without waiting for Saul to reply, she hung up the phone and threw it onto the ripped passenger seat beside her. Reaching again into the glove compartment, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lighted the first one she found. Skyler sat there for a long timing, smoking the cigarette, thinking about what she was going to say to Saul.

After throwing the cigarette butt out of her window, she put the car into drive and pulled away from the morgue. Skyler reached the highway when she heard her phone ring. Pulling it up, the name “Saul Goodman” prominently displayed on the screen, she answered.

“I’ve told you Skyler, I’m not your lawyer any more. I’m packed and I’m leaving” Saul Goodman yelled, without waiting for Skyler to speak first. “In understand, ” Skyler replied to the furious man on the other end of the line “I just need you to put me in touch with a few people. That’s all.” There were a few moments hesitation from Saul, before he eventually replied “Okay. Come into my office.” Skyler once again tossed her phone onto the passenger seat, flicked the radio on and drove to meet Saul.

Pulling up outside of the dilapidated solicitor’s office, Skyler could see Saul inside the reception room. He was running to and forth, picking up and putting down boxes of all sizes.  The door to the building was bearing a sign displaying the word “Closed” in a very striking font. Wondering what Saul was going to do with when he left, she opened her door and stepped out.

Saul must have seen her walking up to his door, because before she could reach out to grab the handle, it moved away from her as Saul had pulled the door from the opposite side. The “Closed” sign rattled noisily as it tapped against the window.

“Get in quick, ” Saul said in an almost inaudible whisper whilst looking around to see if anyone was looking in their direction “I don’t want anyone to see you here.” He practically pulled Skyler into the waiting room before slamming and locking the door behind them.

“You can’t stay long” Saul was speaking in a normal, albeit nervous, voice now that they were out-of-earshot of any nosy passers-by “I have a plane to catch.” Skyler began to speak to Saul, as though she did not hear what he had just said to her. “I need you to put me in touch with Jesse Pinkman”

“Skyler, I..” He realized what he was about to say, and changed into a much more sympathetic voice “I haven’t, no one has, heard from him since Walt, your husband, died. “Skyler did not break eye contact with Saul “But you have his phone number?” In the same sympathetic tone Saul said “No. The number I have doesn’t work anymore.”

Skyler looked visibly disappointed at this news. But her voice did not reflect this. “You must know someone who’ll be in contact with him?” Saul looked slightly annoyed with Skyler as he began to pace around the small room. It took him a while to reply, but he eventually said “It might be a long shot, but there’s a kid named Badger who used to do a bit of work with Pinkman. I can give you his number.” Skyler smiled at this piece of information, and replied “Badger?” “Yes, “Saul replied “Stupid street name, don’t know his real one.”

Saul moved over to the door that led into his office. “I’ll go find it.” Without saying another word, he opened the door and walked through, leaving Skyler alone in the small waiting room of the office.

Several minutes passed before Saul re-appeared back through the door. He was brandishing two pieces of paper. One, Skyler could see, had a name and a hastily sprawled number on it, and the other, to Skyler looked like a letter. “Here” Saul said as he reached Skyler, holding out the pieces of paper for her to take “While I was in there, I remembered something that Walter wanted me to give you, if he ever… You know. Do you want to use my phone?” Skyler looked at the pieces of paper for a while, before replying “No, I’ve got to pick up Holly from day care.”

“Okay” Saul replied and walked her over to the door and unlocked and opened it. Skyler walked out of the office and to her car, Saul was looking around to make sure that no-one was watching them. As Skyler slid the key into the lock of her car, she turned and looked back at Saul. “Thanks, ” she said, in a sincere tone “for everything that you have done for me and my family.” Saul smiled back at her but did not reply. He seemed to have forgotten about looking around for anyone spying on them. Skyler sat in her car, switched on the ignition, drove out of the car park and onto the road.

Saul did not move back inside of his office until he could no longer see the back of Skyler’s car. He felt both relieved and sad. Relieved that he would no longer be working with any of the White family, but sad that this was and end of a chapter in his life. A life that he was going to take far, far away from here.

Skyler pulled up outside of a large house on the corner of a friendly looking street. Once more, she reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a pack of mints, popping one of them in her mouth to mask the smell of cigarettes. She got out of the car and walked up to the house.

Ten minutes later, she was walking out with Holly in her arms. Although she did not want to be away from her while she was so young, she also did not want her to come with her to the morgue. She opened the back door and sat Holly into her baby-seat, carefully ensuring that she was correctly strapped in. Closing the door, she looked around at her surroundings, she used to live in a nice neighbourhood like this, before everything went bad.

She got into the car, noticing all the things on the passenger seat, she quickly shoved them back into the glove compartment and drove off, back to their apartment.

Once she had fed and bathed Holly, she sat at the table looking at her in the crib. Skyler wished she felt the same as her daughter, who knew nothing about what her father had done, nothing about what had happened to him. Skyler longed for this feeling once more.

Skyler pulled over the phone that was sitting on the table, whilst also retrieving the pieces of paper from her pocket. She was about to dial the number when she saw the letter. She began to read.

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The name Breaking Bad are licensed and owned by Sony Entertainment. Along with the following characters:

• Walter White
• Skyler White
• Holly White
• Jesse Pinkman
• Saul Goodman
• Brandon “Badger” Mayhew

Breaking Bad – The Aftermath | Part One

As Skyler approached the two white double doors in front of her, she had a moment of hesitation. Completely stopping in her tracks, she stood, looking around her at the car park. A man dressed in a grey jumper, with black trousers and shoes stood leaning against a wall, below a sign that read the words “Morgue”.

Spotting Skyler, the man began to walk towards her. “Are you ready?” He said as he approached the spot Skyler was standing. She didn’t say anything back, but simply nodded to the man and began to walk again, in the direction of the two double doors.

After entering the morgue and walking down a flight of stairs, they were greeted by a man wearing a bright white lab coat. For the first time since entering the building, Skyler became aware of her surroundings.

The corridor that they were standing was almost completely white. There were various signs on the walls telling the viewer to wash their hands before entering any of the rooms branching off from the corridor they were standing in. Also in the corridor, the was one chair with a table sitting next to it, on top of which were a number of neatly arranged magazines.

“Hello Skyler. I understand that this is a hard thing to do.” Skyler stopped looking around at the walls and stared straight at the man speaking to her. “Why do I need to do this? You know who he is, so I don’t see why I need to be here” Skyler replied to the man in a voice containing a mixture of sadness and anger. Her voice was hoarse, as though she had been crying for a long period of time.

“We need a blood relation to officially identify the body. I’m sorry it had to be you, I can see you don’t want to be here” The man replied to Skyler, in a more sympathetic tone that he had used before. Skyler did not say anything to this, but looked down. She spotted that the man was wearing a badge with his own face on, and the name “Dr. Jason Cline” next to it.

Noticing that Skyler no longer wanted to talk about this looked over at the man who had walked Skyler into the morgue. “Steve,” he said to him “could you stay here?” The man motioned to Jason that this was not a problem, and sat on the chair that was beside him. He began to flip through one of the magazines from the table situated next to the chair.

Dr. Cline opened the door and held it for Skyler. Without looking at the doctor she walked through the door into the small, cold room on the other side. At the opposite end of the room to the door, there was a metal table, on top of which was a body shaped lump that was covered by a white sheet.

“Do you want to wait a little while before I show you the body, or do you want to do it now?” Cline said to Skyler. “No,” Skyler said back “let’s get this over with.” The two of them walked over to the table. The Doctor raised his arm over the part of the lump that was shaped like the head, and gripped the sheet. “Are you sure?” Again, Skyler did not reply, but simply nodded back. This time however, she did not look down, her eyes were fixed just below the hand of the Doctor.

Seeing her nod, the Doctor slowly pulled down the sheet. First, Skyler could see a shaved head appear, then eyes, nose, a mouth. In what felt like an eternity, Skyler could finally see the full face of head dead husband. This was the first time that she had seen Walts face in two days.

Walts face was far paler than it usually was, his eyes were sunken into his head and his lips were not as pink as they usually were.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the Doctor turn and look at her. She tried to speak, but no words would come out of her mouth. “It’s okay, take your time” Dr. Cline said, clearly seeing that this was hard for Skyler.

Five minutes had passed before Jason spoke once more. “Is this him?” he asked tentatively. “Yes” Skyler replied. “I need some fresh air.” “Of course” the Doctor said.

They walked out of the room, once more into the corridor where the man was sitting. He had flicked through all of the magazines and was now playing a game on his phone. Upon seeing Skyler and Jason, he put the phone away and stood up.

“Do you think you’ll want to come back and see him again?” the Doctor said to Skyler. “No, ” she replied “I just want to go home.” With that Dr. Jason Cline said thank you to both of them, and walked back into room in which Walt was lying. Both of them walked along the corridor, through the reception area of the morgue and out into the fresh air.

“Jack?” Skyler said, turning to the man next to her “Why did you have to come with me?” The man, looked at Skyler and said back “They sent me to make sure you actually went in. You did stop halfway to the door, I guess they thought you might not do it.” Skyler turned to Jack, gave a sad sort of smile and walked over to her car. Jack remained were he was.

Skyler unlocked the door to her beaten, old car and sat inside. Reaching over to the clove compartment on the passenger side, she pulled out a mobile phone. Skyler opened up her contacts and scrolled to “S”. Upon finding the same she wanted, she dialled. Several rings of the phone, the receiver picked up.

Without waiting for the person on the other end to speak, Skyler said “Saul, we need to talk”.

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The name Breaking Bad are licensed and owned by Sony Entertainment. Along with the following characters:

• Walter White
• Skyler White
• Saul Goodman