A Return To The Way (Pt. 4)
--- Mercer ---
“So how much did they manage to ship off before we got here?” He asked Betty after they’d loaded the last of the drugs into an old ems truck.
“From what I can tell we’re down about fifteen percent of what we should’ve gotten.” Betty answered looking over a clipboard. “Not so much to break us but enough that we’re going to have to tighten our belts a bit to get through to the next shipment.”
“Damn.” He grimaced, knowing that he could’ve knocked this all out in a day if he wasn’t deeply under equipped from the explosion. “You sure you’ll be able to make it? I can always pull a few strings to help patch things along?”
“Nah, this is nothing compared to the bad old days.” Betty assured him. “During the riots if a shipment was lost it’d stay lost, barring the one in six times Vigilance would pass through the Way back then. And even then we’d get maybe half the shipment by the time he got it back to us.”
“Still…” He hated the idea of some poor kid getting shorted for any reason.
The old doctor swatted him with the clipboard. “Don’t worry about it, even if I pulled a favor with the Vigils it would’ve taken them this long to find the shipment. You did as good as could be expected.”
“I’m aware.” He sighed, knowing that beating himself up was a waste of time but still unable to help himself. (Need to distract myself…)
“How’re the girls settling in?” Betty asked him, pulling a cigarette out.
“Hmm? Oh, they’re holding up about as well as could be expected.” He shrugged, before offering her a light with the lighter he carried despite not smoking himself. “Got them about as settled as I can back home. Got them books, TV, their own room… which hit them even harder than it did me when I got off the streets.” (At least I spent the time bouncing on my bed rather than freaking out over how soft the carpet is.)
“Yeah, that’s about what I was expecting.” Betty admitted, sighing out a cloud of smoke. “How are they doing mentally?”
“They’re adjusting better than I’d expect from most.” He frowned. “Bell more so than Scarlet, but that might just be her being better at hiding it given how she’s quieter. Scarlet on the other hand… she’s antsy if I leave her alone for too long, but I don’t think she’ll run off on her own.”
“Malcontent are… adaptable to unpleasant circumstances.” The old doctor assured him before making a face. “Though that might just be desensitization to the experimentation, or their other selves forcing them to push through it all. Any idea on the personalities they’re dealing with?”
“Scarlet’s definitely got something… primal, one of the more animalistic ones.” He figured. “Gives her good instincts, but it’s also probably why she gets so antsy so fast. Bell on the other hand… I haven’t put together what it is yet but I don’t think she likes it.” He’d overheard enough before taking Scarlet out for her ‘hunt’ to put that together.
“That’s neither uncommon nor healthy…” Betty grimaced.
“Yeah…” It’d been enough to make him consider going to his uncle for help given how the older man was both a Malcontent and much better with troubled teens, but (that involves a whole can of worms that would probably just end in him kicking my kick ass and giving me the same speech Betty did about manning up.)
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
They were both silent for a moment before Betty eventually sighed and pulled out a couple of candies from her pocket and tossed them at him.
“You know you don’t need to give me candy to cheer me up?” He told Betty. “I mean I’m a grown ass man and everything.” (Not that’s going to stop me from eating these suckers.)
“No, you’re a grown ass bitch.” Betty corrected him as she wrote something down on the clipboard before tearing off a piece of paper and handing it to him. “But I promised if you actually put an effort into helping the girls I’d give you the supplier for my candy when you finished my errands.”
“Yeeesss!” He grinned, knowing that this would let him finally one up Safeguard’s treat giving game. All other issues forgotten in the face of his pettiness towards the Vigils.
---
With a bit of pep in his step at (finally) having something to hold over Safeguard’s head that the himbo would actually care about he made his way back home ready to share his ill-gotten gains with the girls. Figuring that given how they basically lived off of the corpses of their enemies they could probably do with some super nutritional candy. (Which is probably why Betty gave me so many extras.)
The moment he stepped through the front door he felt something off in the air. The kind of off that told him if he took one wrong step it would end in his death. The kind of off that, (is actually pretty common for me. Though this one has a distinct… familial edge…)
“Damn it, did mom send assassins after me again?” He asked the world around him, knowing that depending on who she sent he’d only receive an answer from the blue bitch. (Who I can bribe into not attacking me.)
“If only you were that lucky.” A familiar voice commented from the living room.
“Oh.” He smiled upon seeing a familiar blonde before spotting Scarlet and Bell watching curiously behind her. At which point he realized, “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit.” Julie nodded, walking up to him with a smile that promised pain. Or sexy times. (Sometimes both.)
The fact that he also spotted her suitcase in the hall, reminded him that she’d probably had to lug that all over the way as she tried to track down their new place of residence after their previous one had gone up in flames. Alongside most of their things. Half of which were her things. Things she was probably pissed about losing.
(Right, so… damage control.) “First and foremost. I did not blow up our apartment, and I had no idea someone was going to try and blow it up when it was blown up.” He told her. “It’s just I was helping a homeless kid and people apparently wanted to blow her up. So they did, meaning it's not my fault this time!”
Bell gave Scarlet a concerned look and Scarlet’s face twisted in a way that told him she wasn’t sure how to take that comment.
(Well at least they’ve learned not to attack guests?) He tried to think positively in these more stressful moments of life.
“That’s all fine and dandy.” Julie assured him, stepping close enough to (sexily) pin him against the door as she slowly thumbed his helmet off. “I just have one quick question…”
“Sure?” He asked, getting too many mixed signals to figure out where this was going. (I mean it’s been a minute and she gets affectionate when we haven’t seen each other in a while…)
(You’re lying to yourself and you know it.)
(A man can dream!)
Julie gave him a smile as she ran her thumb over his lips. “So, Mercer, husband, love of my life, and my personal fetish sex toy,” He felt a knife against a place he did not like feeling a knife. (Groin knife means bad! Groin knife means bad!) “Mind telling me why in the month I’ve been gone you went ahead and let two -honestly kind of cute- teenage girls move in with you?”