Sinners of the Way: The Back Alley Doctor

--- Mercer ---

As soon as he stepped into her office Betty spun to face him before giving him a distinctly unimpressed look from her office chair. “So, tell me why it is you thought leaving two highly traumatized teenagers by themselves in my clinic was a good idea?”

“Well… technically they weren’t alone. They had each other.” He pointed out more to buy himself time than for having that as his actual answer. “And your clinic is arguably the safest place in the Way -more than twenty meters from me- after that time you burned a cigarette into a gangster’s face when they tried to rob you.”

He felt like adding the fact that he’d gone on a little rampage in the following week in which he crippled and hospitalized said gang while making sure everyone knew why, would do the opposite of helping his point.

Betty inhaled before exhaling as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “You really are like your father, you know that?”

“Fuck you too.” He scowled, legitimately insulted by that slander.

The doctor that had known him since he was in kindergarten, gave him another look. “How often did he leave you in my clinic for hours at a time? Do you remember how that used to make you feel?”

(Alone. Hurt. Not good enough. Angry. Pissed.)

“To be fair, that was back when you still gave me candy everytime I came here.” He jokingly argued not wanting to unpack any of those memories within the next decade, before legitimately thinking about what he’d said. “Actually, did you slip crack into that shit because those suckers were unnaturally good.” (Even better than the shit Safeguard carries on him.)

Betty sighed and gave him an irritated frown. “Don’t deflect or distract me. I’ve dealt with your family too long to fall for that. You were always pissed about being left here, and I doubt those girls were much better. Especially when you throw in their clear trauma with doctors prior, something that made it clear that if I hadn’t dealt with so many traumatized kids over the years I would not have been able to keep them from running when you left them with a doctor.”

He couldn’t help but grimace at that, since (Yeah, I did notice how shifty they were the first time we were here…)

“That Bell girl was down almost the entire time she was here, and I was too busy to clean up your mess on that one.” Betty told him.

“I don’t need you to clean up my messes.” He frowned. “Besides I doubt I’m what set them off, I haven’t even known them a week yet. They’ve probably got other things on their mind.” (Such as remembering the trauma from the labs I found them in…)

Betty rolled her eyes. “You know as well as I how easy it is for a traumatized child to latch onto an adult who appears to give a damn about them.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yeah…” He did, and he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Especially since he knew Betty was angling for him to adopt the girls the same way his family had adopted so many others. (Though I don’t know why she’s so adamant about these two over all the other kids I’ve brought here over the years…)

Given the overlap in their jobs, he’d brought over hundred kids to her at one point or another, especially since given her clinic’s status as a landmark of the Way pretty much anyone from Sinner’s Way could find the place to pick up their kids, or for the kids to be picked up by someone the doctor trusted to take them off her hands and treat them right.

(So what makes these girls so different from all of them? Is it because they’re Malcontent? Because I’m the only willing to drop a bodycount that she’s willing to trust a kid with?)

Betty let him stew for a moment before eventually shaking her head. “Right, well you’ll either learn your lesson or you're not going to listen to what I’ve said.” His family’s doctor gave him a look. “Just like your father.”

He hissed at her, and briefly disregarded his own stance on having powers to wish he could spit acid at the doctor, just like that one snake Traveler his mom worked with could.

Betty gave a huff of amusement before assuming a more professional air. “Anyway, if you’d shown up earlier I would’ve gotten straight to our more professional business instead of the personal stuff. A shipment of drugs for the clinic is missing, and well given how this shipment is a little less than legal Deviant drugs. It’s not the kind of thing I can just re-order with ease.”

“This shipment through Vincent or someone else?” He asked, knowing that while their resident smuggler was the man their… associates went to when they needed something from out of the city, they all also had contacts more suited to their personal specialties.

“I got the drugs from one of my regular suppliers, they said the shipment was stolen by a rival so they’ll probably end up on the streets if you don’t find them.” Betty answered, before pulling out a file and adding that, “I did order something from Vincent that I’m going to need you to find quick though.”

“What do you need?” As he accepted the file and found several photos within.

“There’s a kid that needs a transplant. Parents can’t afford it, but given how they live in the Way I’m giving them our… discount procedure.” Betty explained. “Problem is the heart was caught by the police trying to earn back points after the Vigils one-upped them on that smuggling op a while back.”

He scoffed, snapping the folder shut. “You mean, they’re trying to cover up the fact they were covering for it.”

One of the first things any criminal operation in the city did was get at least a dozen cops on their payroll. A task that was significantly easier than it should be, and typically worth every dollar spent in information, evidence disposal, arrest of rivals, or even the occasional murder if you tipped well enough.

“Pretty much.” Betty agreed, having seen it all before. “Anyway, I’m going to need that heart back by the end of the week, and while I could find a way to get it out of evidence. I can’t do that before they transfer it to an actual hospital or they've let the heart rot.”

“Might luck out with them selling it to the highest bidder, in which case they’d keep it longer.” He threw out more to play devil’s advocate than refuse the job. (After all, we both know I won’t.) “I’ll get this taken care of as soon as I’m able.”

“Good.” Betty nodded before spinning her chair back to her desk.

Taking that as his cue to leave he started towards the door only for Betty to stop him, “I ordered those candies from this potion maker a few blocks over. She slips a weak calming agent into it as well as some compressed nutritional formula, helps with that malnutrition you and a bunch of other kids had. Get things done fast enough and if the kids are still alive, I’ll give you her number.”

“Sure thing.” He grinned, already thinking of rubbing his superior candy in Safeguard’s face the next time the Vigil decided to annoy him. (Not that I needed another reason to smash some dickhead’s skull, but candy makes for a sweet little bonus.)