April 26th, 1989

You feel yourself starting to wake up, and you slowly rise from your bed, the remnants of last night's dream floating around in your head. Something about a bear, a tiger, a zebra, and a pair of swans. Odd.

Pulling yourself to your feet, you see that it's quite early in the morning. 6 AM, to be exact. As you'd expect, Rarity is still soundly asleep.

Your thoughts turn to last night's events, and you do your best to rush quietly to the living room. There, the woman is still asleep on the couch, breathing evenly.

You also notice that the cookies you set out are gone, only a few crumbs left on the plate. Well, at least she didn't call the cops or anything, especially since the phone was right there next to her.

...You didn't really think this through, did you.

Pushing your own momentary stupidity aside, you go to the kitchen, since you could probably go ahead and make yourself some breakfast. Whatever is gonna happen, it's probably best to not do it on an empty stomach.

Just as you're finishing off a bowl of cereal, you hear the woman groaning softly, in that way people do when they've just woken up. Still without a plan of any kind, you head back over to the couch, and pull up a chair. Hopefully that will make you look less threatening.

Though, if she remembers last night, that won't help at all.

Slowly, she begins to stir, twisting and turning on your couch. Soon, her eyes open, and she takes in the dim blue early-morning light groggily. Her eyes roam around the room, before falling onto you.

Her grogginess disappears in an instant, and her eyes go wide. It looks like she wants to scream, but no sound comes out.

Not wanting her to panic, you politely ask for her to calm down, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible.

Thankfully, your brief stint as a pseudo-father seems to have helped with that, as she stops panicking, but now has a deeply worried expression on her face.

"Wh- Where am I?" she finally asks. You notice that her voice is a lot less slurred, now. The drugs were probably out of her system by now.

You tell her that you found her in a terrible state, and took her into your apartment, to make sure that she was okay.

Her eyes dart around the room. "Wait, but... I remember... that I was-"

Suddenly, her eyes widen again, and she looks at you in horror. "You...!"

Looks like she's remembering your actions the night before. You can't think of anything to say, so you just stay quiet, looking away. Namely, at the phone, as if it would ring you up for a new assignment any moment now.

Thankfully, she seems to calm down on her own, though her next question shows that she was still on edge.

"Are you going to... kill me?"

You simply tell her no. You then quietly add that, if you were, you would've done it back there.

While the answer disturbs her slightly, it seems that she agrees somewhat, as she slumps down a bit, looking more confused than anything.

Silence passes between the two of you for what feels like hours, before she finally begins to speak again. "...Thank yo-"

"Father?"

Your blood runs cold at the sound of Rarity's voice coming from your bedroom. Thankfully, your body is blocking the unicorn from the woman's view, but you knew that respite wouldn't last long.

Once more, the woman's eyes widen, but for an entirely different reason. "You have a daughter?" she softly asks, in mild disbelief.

You tell her that you kinda do, just as Rarity walked around you, into her view.

The silence that then permeated the room could've been cut with a knife, disemboweled, then had its throat slashed, it was so thick.

Eventually, the woman says something. "What...?"

Her eyes fly towards the empty plate, then at you, then back at the plate. "Did- Did you drug me?!"

This isn't good, she's getting panicked again.

You tell her no, that the cookies were completely clean, and that she's not hallucinating right now.

It doesn't work very well. "I can't believe you, you fuc-"

Some fatherly instinct in you triggers, and you cut off her cursing with a semi-loud shout. You then ask her to not curse in front of the kid.

Oddly, that outburst seems to have done a better job of calming her down, as she now just sits gaping at Rarity, who looks slightly uncomfortable under her gaze.

"Wait, so that's... a real..."

Her sentence hangs unfinished, as an odd look of realization comes across her face. At the same time, Rarity tilts her head in confusion.

"A real what?"

Her voice seems to shake the woman out of whatever trance she was in, and she blinks, before looking back at Rarity. "Uh... hello?"

At the greeting, Rarity gives a shy smile. "H- Hello..."

Oh man that's cute.

Silence once again takes over the air, and you softly nudge Rarity to continue.

"I- I'm Rarity."

The woman hesitates, before telling you both her own name. "I'm..."

You can't help but nod slightly after you hear her name. It suits her. You then take the opportunity to tell her your own name.

There's another pause, before Rarity speaks again. "Are you my mother?"

You manage to choke on your own throat, while the woman just looks completely confused, both at Rarity and at you.

Eventually, though, she chuckles, which leads to you adding your own laughter as well.

Rarity pouts slightly. "I was being serious!"

You quiet your chuckling, and tell her that she's probably not her mom, which she backs up.

After that, the woman tried to stand up, only to wince heavily as she held her head and almost fell back down. You were there quickly to make sure she was alright.

"I'm fine, it's just... my head... ow..."

As you help her lay back down, you tell her that she'll probably need to rest for a bit, until her health comes back. After that, she was free to leave if she wanted.

She agreed, and rested her head back on the pillow.

Your stomach then makes sure to remind you that you haven't eaten breakfast yet, so you go to the kitchen to see what you have. Thankfully, you have more than enough toaster waffles for the three of you, and you all manage to have probably the strangest breakfast you've ever had, including the ones with the child unicorn.

As you watch, Rarity and the woman seem to get along rather well, despite the latter's occasional disbelieving stare. Unlike you, it seems that she's unfazed by magic, likely because she's just accepting the weird turn her life has taken.

Your eyes meet, and for a split second, you see her the same way you saw her last night: broken, defeated, used.

You feel like she sees you from that time, too: wearing a blood-soaked chicken mask.

The moment passes, though, and you both start laughing as Rarity tries to eat a whole waffle in one bite.

Maybe things would work out, after all.

Not bad for a crazed killer, if you say so yourself.

Author's Note

So, Hotline Miami 2 came out, and with it came the issue of the lore of even the first game being drastically changed.
That being said, I've decided to not stray from my original plan for this fic. What that means is that Jacket shall remain the mild amnesiac psychopath we used to assume he was, rather than what 2 revealed him to be.