roughcutgem | So let's chat.

Entry tags:

jason au

So let's chat.

Who: Beryl, Danny, Nat?
When: The day after her (failed) kidnapping.
What: A chat with an ex-spook.

She settled in chair, eying the oddly calm man across from her. He was still handcuffed but he wore them well, like they were just a formality and hell who knew they might be for him. They were being civilized in one of the rooms at the Circus, chairs, tables, he even had an untouched burger in a bag. She looked him up and down, trying to get a read on him, but he just came across as...mild. Forgettable. "That's a terrifying skill," she admitted easily as Nat leaned against her back, arms draping over her shoulders. She could feel the half angry, half stressed rumble through his bones and lifted one of his wrists to her lips to nip gently in reassurance.

"A useful one though," Danny noted mildly. "Sadly a born skill not a learned one. You're looking well."

"I shake shit well." Like hell was this guy learning about Khem's healing ability.

"Of course," he nodded easily. "And now you have questions. There isn't much I can tell you you don't already guess though."

She smiled sharply, "then just tell me everything. Better details than assumptions when you're willing to throw bodies at me."

Danny laughed softly, then stopped as he noticed Nat tense, "sorry, wasn't mocking anyone. Where do I start?"

"Who you are, who you work for, and then the details of this 'job'." Beryl was firm on that, tugging Nat's arm gently until he rested his chin on her head.

"And then?"

"And then I think things over." Simple as that.

Danny considered that then nodded, "Alright. I was CIA once upon a time, don't bother looking for records, it's not how my division worked. When I retired I was approached with an offer to work for a private outfit. I didn't like their moral standards and declined, so my girlfriend was killed and my daughter was taken. Every time I complete a mission now I get proof of life." Simple, stark, but utterly honest.

Beryl snorted, passing a pad of paper. "your name, her name, etc."

THAT made him narrow his eyes but he finally complied, "she's seven now. I haven't seen her in person in six years," he admitted quietly. "You can access pictures of her at the address I've listed, I move all proof of life to secondary servers so friends can run facial recognition for me." But more eyes were better. I DO maintain several covers and aliases though, one of which is the reporting job. The article is real, and well written if I do say so myself."

"I don't give a fuck about the article."

"He does," Danny noted easily, glancing at Nat. "But anyway. My 'boss' is someone better than me. He calls himself Maison, he's NOT CIA but he had to have come from a similar global outfit I'm sure. He one damn step ahead every time. And this job is a high ticket one. Retrieve a runaway child, whether she agrees or not. Two million down payment. Thirteen mil on delivery, any condition, injury...preferred," he spat, hating that. He had been slotted to join a GOOD company, one that rescued people from being trafficked, and pulled kids out of cults...

...instead this and he hated it.

Utterly.

"He's not a vamp, my boss. I know that. Fucked if I know anything else about his biology though. I can swing the setback, he won't kill my daughter because I failed, and I made sure to hire people who DESERVED dying for the grab because it was fucked from the start honestly. None of this felt at all right, especially since I had to ID you from cane scars on your back and the aged branding scar," he growled.

Beryl blinked, considering that, "most don't know what they are." Old, faded scars now. Amorphous.

"I got reference pics when they were fresh." Just. Saying. "Your blood relatives are a horror show."

"I'm aware." Very.

He sighed, getting his composure back, "and I imagine your cousin isn't dead like they said." Wishful thinking on their part.

"I don't have a cousin."

"Yeah, he's alive, good on him," he nodded. "They don't want anything to do with him, don't worry."

She tensed at that, seriously considering if they just needed this guy dead but..."we let you live what are your intentions?"

"Well, figuring out this mess with you and yours, they'll hire someone else if we fail," he admitted. "Apparently they...lost their house slave and that means they need a new one."

"Glad she's gone," Beryl sighed. "Auntie had a rough life."

"...yeah." That was a very grim agreement.

Yeah.

"Eat. We're not going to fucking kill you today," she sighed, standing. "I need to discuss things." With Nat. And others maybe.

Danny nodded, poking the hamburger bag finally. "Alright, you know where I'll be."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He blinked and flushed furiously. "I...well yeah, we pretty much are through the bond already, right? But...it's not important to me if you didn't want to, but if it could help..." His lip quirked into an uncertain smile. "If you wanted, of course I would want to."

Way to utterly derail her Nat! "No idea if it would but fuck yes. Any way you want to be bound to me is amazing." How not?! She never had some wedding dress dream or childhood illusions of a happy family throwing rice but...legal and everything? Hot damn.

"World's going to be be so fucking jealous."

That smile widened until his face practically glowed with it. "Yeah? You really want to?" A small laugh escaped: this wasn't anything near what he'd expected from today. "I don't really care about the world as long as we can be together."

She beamed, full pointed teeth and all, "of course babe. Every way you'll have me I am down for." Utterly. How not?! "NO one else I'd ever want over you." Not how it was suppose to go no, but wasn't it a nice break of warm fuzzies in the middle of bad shit?

"Really means we need to shit them down hard though. So. Less than legal road trip?" she laughed harshly.

He carefully nuzzled under her chin. "If you say that's the only way we're going to stop them, I'll do whatever you want." He paused, willing his own opinion out haltingly. "Can we...I don't know how you want to do...getting married? I know we helped Jason and Khem and all, but...I don't know how to do this. Or how you want to do this? But...can we get the paper before we go? I...want at least that if...if we end up having to deal with cops."

She craned her neck, inviting further nibbling, and sighed softly as she slowly tried to relax against him, "babe, if you wake up Jason and Khem to be our witnesses we can absolutely go to the courthouse today to do that. I'd say Eric but I'm not always sure he's legal anywhere..." she chuckled softly. "We can cover the costs easy, it's just basic paperwork processing fees and shit. We want to change any names? I mean I'm not attached to my last, don't know if you are to yours?"

He rubbed his face enthusiastically along her jawline, giving the tiniest of nibbles. His breath was warm against her ear when he chuckled. "I wouldn't have to wake Jason up: the minute Khem hears she's gonna rip Jason out of bed. Not that he wouldn't be excited, 'cuz I know he will be."

He thought about that for a moment. "It was my mom's name...you don't have to change or anything but I...I want to keep her name."

"Then cool babe, I take yours." Easy peasy. "I can get all the relevant name change shit done easier too." She was good with paperwork.

"You know that our friends are all going to throw an impromptu wedding party right?"

"Thank you, babe," he breathed against her.

He pulled back enough to look into her eyes with concern. "Is that ok? With you, I mean, for a party? I never really thought about having a wedding so I'm ok with whatever you want to do."

"...babe, have you ever tried telling these people not to celebrate?" she chuckled. "I'm cool as long as they do don't end up doing stupid shit and feed us!" Absolutely! "Should you tell your pard?"

He flashed a brilliant smile. "Are you kidding? I'm telling everyone!"

She laughed finally, pulling his head up for a kiss, "my happy leopard hmmm?" She liked seeing him that way over how tense he'd been in the interview room as it were.

He went willingly, if not eagerly, in for the kiss. "I'll be happier when it's just us and I know they can't take you away from me or hurt you," he admitted softly against her lips.

"I know babe. I wish I'd seen this coming, I thought, stupidly, they wrote me off as unsalvageable." More the fool her. "I admit though, we drop them...might be worth it to ask that Danny guy in there how we can get our hands on the assets not on public record. They owe use, Lani and I."

Nathaniel glanced back towards the room they came from and tried to stifle the small growl in his throat. "You sure we can trust him?"

She followed his gaze, expression dark and foreboding for a moment, "I'm sure he wants out. He feels cornered, and sad. We may as well take advantage of his less than legal knowledge and pass him on to people who can use him better, and maybe find his kid."

"The Rodere?" he asked. They didn't mind Nathaniel much, but they didn't like anyone nearly as much as they liked Khemrys. "Won't that take time?"

She tilted her head, considering, "honestly he is kind of tailor made to be Rodere," she admitted after a moment. "We should call Rafael honestly."

Nathaniel's eyes actually hardened a bit at that. "To work with them, not to be one of them, right?"

No, he was taking Dan's "betrayal" very personally.

"Not my call babe, but they do speak the same language. A lot of ex-spooks in the rodere, which means we may actually get further with a translator and negotiator on hand."

Fuck.

Nathaniel growled softly in a sulk. "I hope they don't," he muttered.

She sighed and turned to wrap her arms around him in kind, "babe, I know it's bad and weird. But he's a weapon, not a person, and I prefer that weapon in friendlier hands. Better if we can get my personal shit settled and then said weapon in responsible hands okay?"

He considered that, then nodded, but he held onto his sulk a bit longer. "Ok. I'll always follow your lead, so let's...call Rafael." He raised his eyebrows pleadingly. "And once they're doing their thing we can go get our paper?"

"...I call Rafael, you go talk to JC or Asher, make sure we don't surprise them by inviting an alpha in? No fucking clue where all those boundary lines are myself," she chuckled. "And means you can give them the good news?"

Nathaniel nodded. "I don't think he'll mind: they worked out their issues after Jean Claude came to power." His smile bounced back onto his face. "But yeah, I'll go tell them and then come find you, ok?"

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