Home of the New Orleans Grifter

I'm Blake, I'm a grifter. Years ago, I unknowingly benefited from the misfortune of others. To make up for my past misdeeds and blindness, I now work to make sure no one's trust is ever taken advantage of by their boss, or the people who handle their money, again. I've seen first hand how far some men will go to protect and take what they think is rightfully theirs, and I know how easily the wealthy can use the system in their favor. I'm willing to help those who can't or don't know how to help themselves against the people who have money and power. I help provide Leverage.

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Holy sh-” Meg lept out of her skin and her heart jumped up to her throat. She gripped the sink and tried to bring her heart rate back down. She glanced at Blake and noticed that his arms were crossed and he seemed upset about something. Probably over something she did. 

“Morning…” she muttered. 

He would have to get in line with everyone else. 

“I think I’m good, thanks though. I’m going to have to do a quick change before going back to Pinnacle.” she went back to her bandages and filled the small trash can with bloodied gauze. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was momentarily buffeted by the rage and hurt coursing through him before they faded away and replaced by a feeling of utter exhaustion. He was tired of everything surrounding this damnable job and everything going on between him and Meg. More and more it felt like there was a chasm between them that continued to widen despite their, admittedly infrequent, attempts to bridge the gap. 

He loved Meg with every fiber of his being but he occasionally wondered if she felt the same. He’d thought that when she’d given him a copy of the key to her apartment it had meant she returned his feelings with the same intensity.  His arms slackened as he suddenly wondered if this job might have caused Meg’s feelings for him to lessen. He mentally shook himself because the job was more important than what was going on in their personal lives. They could deal with the more personal stuff when this was all over.

He rubbed his eyes as he pushed off the door frame with his shoulder. If he crawled into bed now he could maybe get a couple hours of sleep before he had to turn up at the office. He was really tempted to call in sick but, knew he couldn’t because of the job. 

“So, is radio silence going to be the norm now? Or is it standard for hitters to only contact their team if they’re in trouble?” He wasn’t trying to pick a fight he honestly wanted to know so he could avoid staying up all night worrying again.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg froze. Radio silence. Did he know that she had his com turned off? Did he figure it out? Did Aidan tell him? She tried to focus on her remaining bandages, but she couldn’t help herself; she glanced up to gauge Blake’s expression. He was upset, of course, but not the level she had predicted if he had found out about his com. 

“I fell asleep at the 21st before I had a chance to contact you, Blake, sorry. If you were that worried, though, why didn’t you contact me? Or the bar to see if I was there? Or George?” She threw the last of her bandages in the trash before looking back up to Blake, not missing how tired he looked. This fucking job had to end. And soon. “I have to hop in the shower before my shift starts.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I thought that maybe you were in danger or were with Atticus and calling you would result in something bad happening. I also  didn’t want to make   Maq and Danny worry about it if they didn’t know where you were or were unaware that anything might be wrong..” He cracked a faint smile. “And I was worried that if I woke George from his sleep he would kill me and then go out to find you if even he didn’t know where you were.”

Blake shrugged faintly. When he’d been worried Meg was dead or in trouble he’d given himself some pretty convincing arguments to not call anyone, though now that Meg was safe most seemed a tad dumb.

“My reasoning sounded better in my head ten minutes ago.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg smirked at the thought of Blake and George being face-to-face without her there playing referee. The thought included Blake running for cover while George tried to lob things at his head. 

“I’m sure the thought was very reasonable and not at all connected to the fact that you look like you didn’t get any sleep last night.” Meg mused as she pecked Blake on the cheek, hoping he couldn’t smell the vodka on her. Meg stripped down and got in the shower. She continued as the water sprayed over her exhausted and sore body. “Why don’t you sleep a little? Call in sick and work the job from here? Surely those numbers will get us enough info to send Mr. Mansfield behind bars for the rest of his life.” 

~

Bethany approached Pinnacle, Inc with a furrowed brow. Meg Prescott had been on her mind all morning, and it wasn’t the sexy flirty kind she preferred. Getting her call in the middle of the night was concerning enough, but after seeing her harrowed figure, bloodied knuckles especially, it was hard not to be worried about the woman’s safety. Her brows furrowed further when she noticed that there were guards all around the first floor. She recognized a few of them, so she decided to take a deep breath and act as naturally as she could. 

“What’s up, Müller?” she asked the guard she knew the best. Müller had probably been there the longest and was infamously known as the gossip amongst the guards that Bethany had gotten to know. 

“No idea. Big ol’ boss brought us all in here late last night.” 

“What for?” Bethany tried to act like she was only interested in it for gossip purposes, but she couldn’t help but think about how it had to do with Meg and this Officer Morrison. 

“Whatever it is, it’s big,” Müller shrugged. “He’s been up in his office ranting and raving about it all fucking night.”

“Really? What else do you know?” 

“Nothing. Not a fucking clue as to what all this is about. As soon as he realized we were within earshot, he ordered us to take a hike. Been down here for two fucking hours doing diddly shit.” Müller then curled up his lip in annoyance before adding. “You know, I wasn’t even supposed to work tonight? Prescott called me in, sounding all frazzled and demanded I work tonight and keep close to the big boss.” 

“She did?” Bethany thought for a moment and realized that Prescott was smarter than she gave her credit. Müller was a gossip, everyone knew that, but he also always had his phone on him, in case his husband needed him for something. One that someone could add a wiretap to. 

“Yeah. Said something about Smith having an allergy emergency and that I was next in rotation.” Müller shrugged. 

“That’s too bad…” Bethany nodded sympathetically, but her mind was working double time trying to keep up with Prescott’s planning. If she was going to help, she had to figure out Prescott’s angle and overall plan. “I should probably get to work.” 

~ 

Atticus Mansfield had had one hell of a night. After Morrison’s unfortunate falling out, the only thing he could think about was Prescott. She had kept a brave face, but something about Morrison had spooked her. He had known that Prescott’s father had been a cop, but nothing beyond that. Something wasn’t right with her, and after several hours of obsessing about it, he couldn’t take it anymore and he came into the office.

He didn’t like calling for aid, but this was something that required more information. Atticus was forced to call the two employees he trusted when it came to recon and clean up. In the hours that they had spent in his office, the only thing that they had collected on Prescott was a cop’s death, an engagement, and a company called Leverage, Inc. 

“So I pay you how much a year and we still don’t have any information on who the fuck this Leverage, Inc is?” he snarled to the skyping monitors. There wasn’t a time that the three of them had ever been in the same room for obvious reasons. Pinnacle, like any diamond worth anything, was built on blood and market manipulation. No need to incriminate himself if anything went south. 

“Whoever runs the company apparently pays more money than you do on their online security.” his hacker-for-hire replied, unaffected by Atticus’ waning patience. After years of looking through people’s digital dirty laundry for him, the hacker had gotten used to Atticus’ prickly demeanor. 

“Well, whatever the fuck Leverage, Inc is, it’s not Pinnacle. That means Prescott needs to be eliminated.” 

“Sir, whoever she is, she’s smart, talented, and clearly knows what she’s doing.” interjected the other monitor calmly. 

“Is there a point?” Atticus growled at the monitor. 

“She’s been putting teams together for you for almost two months now. Do you really think she came in without one herself?”

Atticus paused for a moment, digesting his words. 

“Sir, I just got something.” 

“Go on.” Atticus nodded. 

“Leverage is a ghost company, really. Not really import/export as much as a service company. It’s…” the hacker squinted at his screen and Atticus could hear more clicking from his keyboard, “It’s a company that literally takes down other companies. It goes in, finds incriminating evidence, and then disappears without a trace, usually leaving the heads of the companies with the feds. There are news articles all listing the companies they’ve taken down. Some sort of Good Samaritan bullshit.” 

“Do you want us to take her out?” the other monitor asked. 

“No, like you said, she’s most likely got a team with her.” Atticus shook his head. “No, for now, we act like nothing’s changed. But get me a site and we’ll take her there for questioning once you’re done.”

“The usual arrangements?” 

“Yeah, the usual.” Atticus paused. “Wait, how did you say the cop died?”

“Her father? Car drove off a bridge up in Boston.” the hacker answered.  

“Make sure the site has access to water, then.” 

“That’s kinda fucked up, you know?” the hacker admitted, but he shrunk under Atticus’ glare, “Then again, you don’t pay me to give a shit about that kind of thing, so I’ll shut up now.” 

Atticus turned off the monitors and took in the moment of silence after hours of mitigating the Prescott problem. There was so much work to be done. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I certainly hope they will,” Blake muttered doing his best to ignore how his heart fluttered in fear and the small voice in his head that whispered that his father would somehow get away.

No, they would put his father behind bars and they could put this whole thing behind them and things could get back to normal for Meg and him. He had to put all of his faith in this team and in the belief that they would succeed.

“You sure you can’t lie down for even a few minutes? I know you said you slept at the 21st but I have sat on that couch and that could not have been very restful.” 

[megprescott-hitter]

“No, Blake, I can’t.” Meg snapped before taking a mental step back. Why was she so angry? She opened the shower curtain and gave Blake an apologetic look. “Sorry, Blake… That was… I don’t even know what that was… But I gotta go in and review the schedules and training logs at Pinnacle. If I don’t go in it’ll look suspicious, and I think I have a lead to finally close this up.” 

Meg turned the water off and paused. She could still feel the heat of anger bubbling in her chest, but where was it coming from? 

“Would you mind brewing some coffee? I think I need to take some with me…” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake prided himself on not being thrown by much in this line of work. But, when Meg snapped at him with nothing except anger and steel in her voice, he flinched. Sure, she’d been annyoed at him before but, he’d never been on the recieving end of the tone that was typically reserved for their marks up until now. Even when she apologized, he still couldn’t forget the brief moment of alarm he had felt. He wanted to ask her about what exactly it was his father had her doing. He wanted to ask if there was anything he could do on his end to help her. He wanted… well he wanted to do a lot of thing. However, he was pretty sure he still knew Meg well enough to know that any further prying would cause her to blow up at him again.

So, all he said was on single word as he pushed off of the door frame and d turned to leave. “Sure.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg sighed and leaned her forehead on the cool bathroom tile. The water spraying on her back matched the rhythm to the pounding in her head as her mind dozed to her mantra for the job. Just a little bit longer and then things will go back to normal… Just a little bit longer… Just a little bit… longer…

Meg then hurried around the apartment drying her hair, slapping concealer and foundation on her face, before trying to put together her bag of notes and information. Lastly, she made her way over to the kitchen and without a word to Blake grabbed her coffee. She was still feeling ashamed from snapping at him earlier, so she didn’t look at him. She made her way to the door before stopping herself. Leaving without saying anything wasn’t fair to Blake. 

“Blake, we’re gonna get him,” she told him before leaving the apartment to go back into the lion’s den. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake moved a bit mechanically as he put the filter in the coffee maker, then the grounds, then the water and finally turned the coffee maker on. As the machine burbled and the smell of coffee filled the air, Blake took the tea he’d made earlier and placed it in a large contained her placed in the refrigerator. Turning to the nearby cabinet, he pulled out a travel mug Meg could put her coffee in and placed it on the counter next to the coffeepot. With all the minor distractions done, Blake was left with nothing to keep him from acknowledging the worries and thoughts churning in his mind as he waited for Meg to emerge.

He kept trying to pass Meg’s anger towards him off as her merely being tired from the job. Granted, all of them were tired and stressed, though neither he nor Aiden nor George had done quite as much for the job as Meg had. So, he could logically pass it off as her being tired from taking on most of the responsibilities of the job herself. But, he couldn’t help but feel like this was caused by her being around his father so much.

‘Atticus is poison,’ he thought as he heard the shower turn off and Meg exit the bathroom. Blake didn’t regret taking this job, his father needed to be taken down before he became an even bigger problem but, he couldn’t help but wonder if he should have kept Meg from participating. 

His thoughts stuttered to a halt when Meg came into the kitchen and breezed past him like he wasn’t there. For the third time in 24 hours, Meg succeeded in making him feel like he barely even registered as a blip on her radar. The feeling did not ease at all when she paused at the door to let him know they would get his father.

“Sure,” he said to the closed door. 

Shoving off the counter, he made his way to the bedroom and after a quick call, saying he was sick, crawled into bed.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg walked into Pinnacle attempting to make it straight to her office without grabbing anyone’s attention, her poor behavior towards Blake still stinging in her head. But as soon as her foot walked in the front door, Bethany was frantically waving her over. Worried that there was another fire for her to put out, she beelined over.

“Subtle. They teach you that at Quantico?” Meg quipped impatiently.

“Screw subtlety, I think you’ve been made,” Bethany muttered back. Meg looked Bethany over before letting out another tired sigh. “Mansfield’s been here all night doing God-knows-what.”

“Did you look into Morrison?”

“Yes, and I agree he looks suspicious,” Bethany confirmed with a nod. “That history between him and Pinnacle is too close for comfort. I’ve sent it up the chain. I’m worried about you, though.”

“That’s sweet. I’ve got a job to finish.”

“But-”

“Bethany, as soon as Prescott comes in, I want her sent straight to my office.” Mansfield interrupted over the office phone. Prescott and Bethany both looked at each other.

“Of course, sir, I’ll send her right up!” Bethany called back cheerily.

“I’ll drop my stuff off and then head up,” Meg assured Bethany. Bethany, however, did not look convinced.

“Listen, be careful, would you?”

~

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Meg knocked on the grandiose office door.

“Ah, yes, Prescott, please take a seat.” Mansfield gestured tiredly to the chair in front of his obscenely large desk. Meg saw the prim and the posh, but Mansfield’s exhausted look made her think twice about what Bethany had said. “I wanted to talk to you about last night. I put you in a position, and I could feel your discomfort. I don’t want whatever you were feeling to get in the way of your work here at Pinnacle. Especially since this isn’t your first rodeo and you should know to expect those kinds of assignments while working here. Do not make me regret hiring you, Prescott.”

“Understood, sir.”

“I want you in-house today, just to make sure you’ve moved past last night. Do some observations in the training gym, catch up on performance reports, things like that.”

“Of course, sir. I can absolutely do that.”

“Alright, that will be all. Dismissed.”

Mansfield waved Meg out. Meg made her way out of Mansfield’s office and into her own, sighing a mild relief that she didn’t just get murdered. She closed the door behind her before pacing back and forth across the carpeted floor. The office, however, was not lavish or extended as Mansfield’s, so the amount of pacing space was limited. Knowing she needed to talk this out, she went to her bag and grabbed her bug scrambler. She turned it on to deter anyone from overhearing her conversation before dialing the one person she knew would have the next step.

“George, something’s not right about this, can you double check Mansfield’s activity from last night?”

“Meggie… I haven’t been able to get any eyes or ears on last night.”

“What?” Meg’s pacing stopped immediately. “What happened to the bugs we planted? Blake’s virus from accounting? Aren’t you supposed to have eyes and ears on everything?”

“Someone completely shut me out last night. I have everything back up and running, but from the Morrison fiasco-”

“Okay, it was not a fiasco-”

“Meggie, you froze before almost beating a cop to death. Would you prefer me to use the term ‘trainwreck’? ‘Meltdown’? ‘Disaster’? Just let me finish, dammit.” George paused to make sure Meg wasn’t going to continue. Her fuming silence seemed to be good enough so he continued. “From the Morrison… incident on to this morning, I’ve got nothing.”

“Fuuuuuuck. Fuck… Shiiiiit. Fuck. Shit.”

“Really, Meggie?”

“We might have to pull the plug on this. FBI confirmed Mansfield’s been here all night working on something and we don’t have jack on what the fuck it was. I’m pretty much burnt out and Mansfield is already pulling me from active duty for last night.”

“Maybe Adrian can push his agenda more so Masnfield shares what it was he was working on.”

“Maybe.” Meg mused.

“Just call Blake and have him plan it out with Adrian.”

“Right. Yeah… I can totally do that.” Meg trailed off awkwardly thinking about how the morning went with Blake.

“I swear to God, Meggie, if you and Blake can’t fucking work this shit out I’m going to shoot you both.”

“Understood. Yep. I’ll call him during my lunch break. Got it.” Meg quickly assured George before hanging up. It was going to be a long day indeed.

[blakeraymond-grifter]

‘Aiden frowned deeply as he bid Blake goodnight and hung up his phone. His protege sounded exhausted for the few minutes it had taken to relay Meg and George’s instructions to press Atticus for more information from the corporate end. When Blake had first begun speaking, Aiden had wondered if Meg had told him about having his comm turned off and the events that had happened during the radio silence. However, he soon realized that something else was the cause of his boneheaded protege’s weariness as there was an absence of anger and hurt. He assumed that Blake and Meg had a fight about something no doubt brought on by the stress of the job, but he didn’t dig too deeply into it as their relationship was their thing to deal with. 

Aside from that, the fact that they wanted more information without wanting anything specific made the hair on Aiden’s neck stand on end. Something was going on but either George and Meg didn’t want to let Blake and him in on it or they didn’t even know what was going on. Neither scenario was appealing to Aiden, but he would see what he could do and talk with Meg if she and the curmudgeon continued to keep them in the dark.

Pulling out Grantson Burkhart’s phone, Aiden dialed the number for Atticus’ office. 

“Mr. Mansfield’s office,” came the voice of Atticus’ secretary.

“Its Grantson Burkhart I need to speak with Atticus about an urgent matter.”

“I’m sorry but Mr. Mansfield has asked to not be disturbed today for any reason,” she said apologetically.

Aiden’s frown deepened. This combined with the evasiveness from Meg and George was making him a bit nervous.

“I need to speak with him. Now,” he insisted.

“I’m sorry sir but I really can’t put you through.”

Aiden let his actual annoyance into his snarl as he hung up the phone. The moment the call disconnected, he dialed  Brian Nicholson‘s personal number.

“Brian Nicholson,” the man greeted.

“Nicholson,” Aiden snarled in his southern accent. “Why can’t I get in contact with Atticus?”

“What’s going on?” The younger man asked alarmed.

“One of my accounting people just came to me with possible proof that someone is embezzling my money. I wanted to speak with Mr. Mansfield since he has firsthand experience with this to have his people look at this information to make sure its not an error and that someone is actually stealing from me. BUT I CAN”T GET A HOLD OF HIM!” Yelling that last bit might have been a bit over the top, but hopefully, it would spur Nicholson into action.

“Let me see if I can speak with him, hold on.”

Aiden spent the next few minutes listening to hold music, while also sending a short email off to Jesse asking his other protege to look into Atticus’ movements from his end.

“Grantson, I’m sorry.” came Brian’s voice as the hold music cut out. “I can’t get a hold of Atticus either.” The other man’s voice sounded adequately apologetic, though Aiden thought he heard some bafflement as well.

“Well, who can get a hold of him?”

“I can try some of the other directors to see if they can get ahold of him or if they might be able to lend you a hand.”

“Do it,” Aiden barked, feeling equally as antsy as his persona was. What could Atticus be up to that prevented even his Board of Directors speaking with him?

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Holy sh-” Meg lept out of her skin and her heart jumped up to her throat. She gripped the sink and tried to bring her heart rate back down. She glanced at Blake and noticed that his arms were crossed and he seemed upset about something. Probably over something she did. 

“Morning…” she muttered. 

He would have to get in line with everyone else. 

“I think I’m good, thanks though. I’m going to have to do a quick change before going back to Pinnacle.” she went back to her bandages and filled the small trash can with bloodied gauze. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was momentarily buffeted by the rage and hurt coursing through him before they faded away and replaced by a feeling of utter exhaustion. He was tired of everything surrounding this damnable job and everything going on between him and Meg. More and more it felt like there was a chasm between them that continued to widen despite their, admittedly infrequent, attempts to bridge the gap. 

He loved Meg with every fiber of his being but he occasionally wondered if she felt the same. He’d thought that when she’d given him a copy of the key to her apartment it had meant she returned his feelings with the same intensity.  His arms slackened as he suddenly wondered if this job might have caused Meg’s feelings for him to lessen. He mentally shook himself because the job was more important than what was going on in their personal lives. They could deal with the more personal stuff when this was all over.

He rubbed his eyes as he pushed off the door frame with his shoulder. If he crawled into bed now he could maybe get a couple hours of sleep before he had to turn up at the office. He was really tempted to call in sick but, knew he couldn’t because of the job. 

“So, is radio silence going to be the norm now? Or is it standard for hitters to only contact their team if they’re in trouble?” He wasn’t trying to pick a fight he honestly wanted to know so he could avoid staying up all night worrying again.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg froze. Radio silence. Did he know that she had his com turned off? Did he figure it out? Did Aidan tell him? She tried to focus on her remaining bandages, but she couldn’t help herself; she glanced up to gauge Blake’s expression. He was upset, of course, but not the level she had predicted if he had found out about his com. 

“I fell asleep at the 21st before I had a chance to contact you, Blake, sorry. If you were that worried, though, why didn’t you contact me? Or the bar to see if I was there? Or George?” She threw the last of her bandages in the trash before looking back up to Blake, not missing how tired he looked. This fucking job had to end. And soon. “I have to hop in the shower before my shift starts.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I thought that maybe you were in danger or were with Atticus and calling you would result in something bad happening. I also  didn’t want to make   Maq and Danny worry about it if they didn’t know where you were or were unaware that anything might be wrong..” He cracked a faint smile. “And I was worried that if I woke George from his sleep he would kill me and then go out to find you if even he didn’t know where you were.”

Blake shrugged faintly. When he’d been worried Meg was dead or in trouble he’d given himself some pretty convincing arguments to not call anyone, though now that Meg was safe most seemed a tad dumb.

“My reasoning sounded better in my head ten minutes ago.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg smirked at the thought of Blake and George being face-to-face without her there playing referee. The thought included Blake running for cover while George tried to lob things at his head. 

“I’m sure the thought was very reasonable and not at all connected to the fact that you look like you didn’t get any sleep last night.” Meg mused as she pecked Blake on the cheek, hoping he couldn’t smell the vodka on her. Meg stripped down and got in the shower. She continued as the water sprayed over her exhausted and sore body. “Why don’t you sleep a little? Call in sick and work the job from here? Surely those numbers will get us enough info to send Mr. Mansfield behind bars for the rest of his life.” 

~

Bethany approached Pinnacle, Inc with a furrowed brow. Meg Prescott had been on her mind all morning, and it wasn’t the sexy flirty kind she preferred. Getting her call in the middle of the night was concerning enough, but after seeing her harrowed figure, bloodied knuckles especially, it was hard not to be worried about the woman’s safety. Her brows furrowed further when she noticed that there were guards all around the first floor. She recognized a few of them, so she decided to take a deep breath and act as naturally as she could. 

“What’s up, Müller?” she asked the guard she knew the best. Müller had probably been there the longest and was infamously known as the gossip amongst the guards that Bethany had gotten to know. 

“No idea. Big ol’ boss brought us all in here late last night.” 

“What for?” Bethany tried to act like she was only interested in it for gossip purposes, but she couldn’t help but think about how it had to do with Meg and this Officer Morrison. 

“Whatever it is, it’s big,” Müller shrugged. “He’s been up in his office ranting and raving about it all fucking night.”

“Really? What else do you know?” 

“Nothing. Not a fucking clue as to what all this is about. As soon as he realized we were within earshot, he ordered us to take a hike. Been down here for two fucking hours doing diddly shit.” Müller then curled up his lip in annoyance before adding. “You know, I wasn’t even supposed to work tonight? Prescott called me in, sounding all frazzled and demanded I work tonight and keep close to the big boss.” 

“She did?” Bethany thought for a moment and realized that Prescott was smarter than she gave her credit. Müller was a gossip, everyone knew that, but he also always had his phone on him, in case his husband needed him for something. One that someone could add a wiretap to. 

“Yeah. Said something about Smith having an allergy emergency and that I was next in rotation.” Müller shrugged. 

“That’s too bad…” Bethany nodded sympathetically, but her mind was working double time trying to keep up with Prescott’s planning. If she was going to help, she had to figure out Prescott’s angle and overall plan. “I should probably get to work.” 

~ 

Atticus Mansfield had had one hell of a night. After Morrison’s unfortunate falling out, the only thing he could think about was Prescott. She had kept a brave face, but something about Morrison had spooked her. He had known that Prescott’s father had been a cop, but nothing beyond that. Something wasn’t right with her, and after several hours of obsessing about it, he couldn’t take it anymore and he came into the office.

He didn’t like calling for aid, but this was something that required more information. Atticus was forced to call the two employees he trusted when it came to recon and clean up. In the hours that they had spent in his office, the only thing that they had collected on Prescott was a cop’s death, an engagement, and a company called Leverage, Inc. 

“So I pay you how much a year and we still don’t have any information on who the fuck this Leverage, Inc is?” he snarled to the skyping monitors. There wasn’t a time that the three of them had ever been in the same room for obvious reasons. Pinnacle, like any diamond worth anything, was built on blood and market manipulation. No need to incriminate himself if anything went south. 

“Whoever runs the company apparently pays more money than you do on their online security.” his hacker-for-hire replied, unaffected by Atticus’ waning patience. After years of looking through people’s digital dirty laundry for him, the hacker had gotten used to Atticus’ prickly demeanor. 

“Well, whatever the fuck Leverage, Inc is, it’s not Pinnacle. That means Prescott needs to be eliminated.” 

“Sir, whoever she is, she’s smart, talented, and clearly knows what she’s doing.” interjected the other monitor calmly. 

“Is there a point?” Atticus growled at the monitor. 

“She’s been putting teams together for you for almost two months now. Do you really think she came in without one herself?”

Atticus paused for a moment, digesting his words. 

“Sir, I just got something.” 

“Go on.” Atticus nodded. 

“Leverage is a ghost company, really. Not really import/export as much as a service company. It’s…” the hacker squinted at his screen and Atticus could hear more clicking from his keyboard, “It’s a company that literally takes down other companies. It goes in, finds incriminating evidence, and then disappears without a trace, usually leaving the heads of the companies with the feds. There are news articles all listing the companies they’ve taken down. Some sort of Good Samaritan bullshit.” 

“Do you want us to take her out?” the other monitor asked. 

“No, like you said, she’s most likely got a team with her.” Atticus shook his head. “No, for now, we act like nothing’s changed. But get me a site and we’ll take her there for questioning once you’re done.”

“The usual arrangements?” 

“Yeah, the usual.” Atticus paused. “Wait, how did you say the cop died?”

“Her father? Car drove off a bridge up in Boston.” the hacker answered.  

“Make sure the site has access to water, then.” 

“That’s kinda fucked up, you know?” the hacker admitted, but he shrunk under Atticus’ glare, “Then again, you don’t pay me to give a shit about that kind of thing, so I’ll shut up now.” 

Atticus turned off the monitors and took in the moment of silence after hours of mitigating the Prescott problem. There was so much work to be done. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I certainly hope they will,” Blake muttered doing his best to ignore how his heart fluttered in fear and the small voice in his head that whispered that his father would somehow get away.

No, they would put his father behind bars and they could put this whole thing behind them and things could get back to normal for Meg and him. He had to put all of his faith in this team and in the belief that they would succeed.

“You sure you can’t lie down for even a few minutes? I know you said you slept at the 21st but I have sat on that couch and that could not have been very restful.” 

[megprescott-hitter]

“No, Blake, I can’t.” Meg snapped before taking a mental step back. Why was she so angry? She opened the shower curtain and gave Blake an apologetic look. “Sorry, Blake… That was… I don’t even know what that was… But I gotta go in and review the schedules and training logs at Pinnacle. If I don’t go in it’ll look suspicious, and I think I have a lead to finally close this up.” 

Meg turned the water off and paused. She could still feel the heat of anger bubbling in her chest, but where was it coming from? 

“Would you mind brewing some coffee? I think I need to take some with me…” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake prided himself on not being thrown by much in this line of work. But, when Meg snapped at him with nothing except anger and steel in her voice, he flinched. Sure, she’d been annyoed at him before but, he’d never been on the recieving end of the tone that was typically reserved for their marks up until now. Even when she apologized, he still couldn’t forget the brief moment of alarm he had felt. He wanted to ask her about what exactly it was his father had her doing. He wanted to ask if there was anything he could do on his end to help her. He wanted… well he wanted to do a lot of thing. However, he was pretty sure he still knew Meg well enough to know that any further prying would cause her to blow up at him again.

So, all he said was on single word as he pushed off of the door frame and d turned to leave. “Sure.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg sighed and leaned her forehead on the cool bathroom tile. The water spraying on her back matched the rhythm to the pounding in her head as her mind dozed to her mantra for the job. Just a little bit longer and then things will go back to normal… Just a little bit longer… Just a little bit… longer…

Meg then hurried around the apartment drying her hair, slapping concealer and foundation on her face, before trying to put together her bag of notes and information. Lastly, she made her way over to the kitchen and without a word to Blake grabbed her coffee. She was still feeling ashamed from snapping at him earlier, so she didn’t look at him. She made her way to the door before stopping herself. Leaving without saying anything wasn’t fair to Blake. 

“Blake, we’re gonna get him,” she told him before leaving the apartment to go back into the lion’s den. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake moved a bit mechanically as he put the filter in the coffee maker, then the grounds, then the water and finally turned the coffee maker on. As the machine burbled and the smell of coffee filled the air, Blake took the tea he’d made earlier and placed it in a large contained her placed in the refrigerator. Turning to the nearby cabinet, he pulled out a travel mug Meg could put her coffee in and placed it on the counter next to the coffeepot. With all the minor distractions done, Blake was left with nothing to keep him from acknowledging the worries and thoughts churning in his mind as he waited for Meg to emerge.

He kept trying to pass Meg’s anger towards him off as her merely being tired from the job. Granted, all of them were tired and stressed, though neither he nor Aiden nor George had done quite as much for the job as Meg had. So, he could logically pass it off as her being tired from taking on most of the responsibilities of the job herself. But, he couldn’t help but feel like this was caused by her being around his father so much.

‘Atticus is poison,’ he thought as he heard the shower turn off and Meg exit the bathroom. Blake didn’t regret taking this job, his father needed to be taken down before he became an even bigger problem but, he couldn’t help but wonder if he should have kept Meg from participating. 

His thoughts stuttered to a halt when Meg came into the kitchen and breezed past him like he wasn’t there. For the third time in 24 hours, Meg succeeded in making him feel like he barely even registered as a blip on her radar. The feeling did not ease at all when she paused at the door to let him know they would get his father.

“Sure,” he said to the closed door. 

Shoving off the counter, he made his way to the bedroom and after a quick call, saying he was sick, crawled into bed.

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Holy sh-” Meg lept out of her skin and her heart jumped up to her throat. She gripped the sink and tried to bring her heart rate back down. She glanced at Blake and noticed that his arms were crossed and he seemed upset about something. Probably over something she did. 

“Morning…” she muttered. 

He would have to get in line with everyone else. 

“I think I’m good, thanks though. I’m going to have to do a quick change before going back to Pinnacle.” she went back to her bandages and filled the small trash can with bloodied gauze. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was momentarily buffeted by the rage and hurt coursing through him before they faded away and replaced by a feeling of utter exhaustion. He was tired of everything surrounding this damnable job and everything going on between him and Meg. More and more it felt like there was a chasm between them that continued to widen despite their, admittedly infrequent, attempts to bridge the gap. 

He loved Meg with every fiber of his being but he occasionally wondered if she felt the same. He’d thought that when she’d given him a copy of the key to her apartment it had meant she returned his feelings with the same intensity.  His arms slackened as he suddenly wondered if this job might have caused Meg’s feelings for him to lessen. He mentally shook himself because the job was more important than what was going on in their personal lives. They could deal with the more personal stuff when this was all over.

He rubbed his eyes as he pushed off the door frame with his shoulder. If he crawled into bed now he could maybe get a couple hours of sleep before he had to turn up at the office. He was really tempted to call in sick but, knew he couldn’t because of the job. 

“So, is radio silence going to be the norm now? Or is it standard for hitters to only contact their team if they’re in trouble?” He wasn’t trying to pick a fight he honestly wanted to know so he could avoid staying up all night worrying again.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg froze. Radio silence. Did he know that she had his com turned off? Did he figure it out? Did Aidan tell him? She tried to focus on her remaining bandages, but she couldn’t help herself; she glanced up to gauge Blake’s expression. He was upset, of course, but not the level she had predicted if he had found out about his com. 

“I fell asleep at the 21st before I had a chance to contact you, Blake, sorry. If you were that worried, though, why didn’t you contact me? Or the bar to see if I was there? Or George?” She threw the last of her bandages in the trash before looking back up to Blake, not missing how tired he looked. This fucking job had to end. And soon. “I have to hop in the shower before my shift starts.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I thought that maybe you were in danger or were with Atticus and calling you would result in something bad happening. I also  didn’t want to make   Maq and Danny worry about it if they didn’t know where you were or were unaware that anything might be wrong..” He cracked a faint smile. “And I was worried that if I woke George from his sleep he would kill me and then go out to find you if even he didn’t know where you were.”

Blake shrugged faintly. When he’d been worried Meg was dead or in trouble he’d given himself some pretty convincing arguments to not call anyone, though now that Meg was safe most seemed a tad dumb.

“My reasoning sounded better in my head ten minutes ago.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg smirked at the thought of Blake and George being face-to-face without her there playing referee. The thought included Blake running for cover while George tried to lob things at his head. 

“I’m sure the thought was very reasonable and not at all connected to the fact that you look like you didn’t get any sleep last night.” Meg mused as she pecked Blake on the cheek, hoping he couldn’t smell the vodka on her. Meg stripped down and got in the shower. She continued as the water sprayed over her exhausted and sore body. “Why don’t you sleep a little? Call in sick and work the job from here? Surely those numbers will get us enough info to send Mr. Mansfield behind bars for the rest of his life.” 

~

Bethany approached Pinnacle, Inc with a furrowed brow. Meg Prescott had been on her mind all morning, and it wasn’t the sexy flirty kind she preferred. Getting her call in the middle of the night was concerning enough, but after seeing her harrowed figure, bloodied knuckles especially, it was hard not to be worried about the woman’s safety. Her brows furrowed further when she noticed that there were guards all around the first floor. She recognized a few of them, so she decided to take a deep breath and act as naturally as she could. 

“What’s up, Müller?” she asked the guard she knew the best. Müller had probably been there the longest and was infamously known as the gossip amongst the guards that Bethany had gotten to know. 

“No idea. Big ol’ boss brought us all in here late last night.” 

“What for?” Bethany tried to act like she was only interested in it for gossip purposes, but she couldn’t help but think about how it had to do with Meg and this Officer Morrison. 

“Whatever it is, it’s big,” Müller shrugged. “He’s been up in his office ranting and raving about it all fucking night.”

“Really? What else do you know?” 

“Nothing. Not a fucking clue as to what all this is about. As soon as he realized we were within earshot, he ordered us to take a hike. Been down here for two fucking hours doing diddly shit.” Müller then curled up his lip in annoyance before adding. “You know, I wasn’t even supposed to work tonight? Prescott called me in, sounding all frazzled and demanded I work tonight and keep close to the big boss.” 

“She did?” Bethany thought for a moment and realized that Prescott was smarter than she gave her credit. Müller was a gossip, everyone knew that, but he also always had his phone on him, in case his husband needed him for something. One that someone could add a wiretap to. 

“Yeah. Said something about Smith having an allergy emergency and that I was next in rotation.” Müller shrugged. 

“That’s too bad…” Bethany nodded sympathetically, but her mind was working double time trying to keep up with Prescott’s planning. If she was going to help, she had to figure out Prescott’s angle and overall plan. “I should probably get to work.” 

~ 

Atticus Mansfield had had one hell of a night. After Morrison’s unfortunate falling out, the only thing he could think about was Prescott. She had kept a brave face, but something about Morrison had spooked her. He had known that Prescott’s father had been a cop, but nothing beyond that. Something wasn’t right with her, and after several hours of obsessing about it, he couldn’t take it anymore and he came into the office.

He didn’t like calling for aid, but this was something that required more information. Atticus was forced to call the two employees he trusted when it came to recon and clean up. In the hours that they had spent in his office, the only thing that they had collected on Prescott was a cop’s death, an engagement, and a company called Leverage, Inc. 

“So I pay you how much a year and we still don’t have any information on who the fuck this Leverage, Inc is?” he snarled to the skyping monitors. There wasn’t a time that the three of them had ever been in the same room for obvious reasons. Pinnacle, like any diamond worth anything, was built on blood and market manipulation. No need to incriminate himself if anything went south. 

“Whoever runs the company apparently pays more money than you do on their online security.” his hacker-for-hire replied, unaffected by Atticus’ waning patience. After years of looking through people’s digital dirty laundry for him, the hacker had gotten used to Atticus’ prickly demeanor. 

“Well, whatever the fuck Leverage, Inc is, it’s not Pinnacle. That means Prescott needs to be eliminated.” 

“Sir, whoever she is, she’s smart, talented, and clearly knows what she’s doing.” interjected the other monitor calmly. 

“Is there a point?” Atticus growled at the monitor. 

“She’s been putting teams together for you for almost two months now. Do you really think she came in without one herself?”

Atticus paused for a moment, digesting his words. 

“Sir, I just got something.” 

“Go on.” Atticus nodded. 

“Leverage is a ghost company, really. Not really import/export as much as a service company. It’s…” the hacker squinted at his screen and Atticus could hear more clicking from his keyboard, “It’s a company that literally takes down other companies. It goes in, finds incriminating evidence, and then disappears without a trace, usually leaving the heads of the companies with the feds. There are news articles all listing the companies they’ve taken down. Some sort of Good Samaritan bullshit.” 

“Do you want us to take her out?” the other monitor asked. 

“No, like you said, she’s most likely got a team with her.” Atticus shook his head. “No, for now, we act like nothing’s changed. But get me a site and we’ll take her there for questioning once you’re done.”

“The usual arrangements?” 

“Yeah, the usual.” Atticus paused. “Wait, how did you say the cop died?”

“Her father? Car drove off a bridge up in Boston.” the hacker answered.  

“Make sure the site has access to water, then.” 

“That’s kinda fucked up, you know?” the hacker admitted, but he shrunk under Atticus’ glare, “Then again, you don’t pay me to give a shit about that kind of thing, so I’ll shut up now.” 

Atticus turned off the monitors and took in the moment of silence after hours of mitigating the Prescott problem. There was so much work to be done. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I certainly hope they will,” Blake muttered doing his best to ignore how his heart fluttered in fear and the small voice in his head that whispered that his father would somehow get away.

No, they would put his father behind bars and they could put this whole thing behind them and things could get back to normal for Meg and him. He had to put all of his faith in this team and in the belief that they would succeed.

“You sure you can’t lie down for even a few minutes? I know you said you slept at the 21st but I have sat on that couch and that could not have been very restful.” 

[megprescott-hitter]

“No, Blake, I can’t.” Meg snapped before taking a mental step back. Why was she so angry? She opened the shower curtain and gave Blake an apologetic look. “Sorry, Blake… That was… I don’t even know what that was… But I gotta go in and review the schedules and training logs at Pinnacle. If I don’t go in it’ll look suspicious, and I think I have a lead to finally close this up.” 

Meg turned the water off and paused. She could still feel the heat of anger bubbling in her chest, but where was it coming from? 

“Would you mind brewing some coffee? I think I need to take some with me…” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake prided himself on not being thrown by much in this line of work. But, when Meg snapped at him with nothing except anger and steel in her voice, he flinched. Sure, she’d been annyoed at him before but, he’d never been on the recieving end of the tone that was typically reserved for their marks up until now. Even when she apologized, he still couldn’t forget the brief moment of alarm he had felt. He wanted to ask her about what exactly it was his father had her doing. He wanted to ask if there was anything he could do on his end to help her. He wanted... well he wanted to do a lot of thing. However, he was pretty sure he still knew Meg well enough to know that any further prying would cause her to blow up at him again.

So, all he said was on single word as he pushed off of the door frame and d turned to leave. “Sure.”

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Holy sh-” Meg lept out of her skin and her heart jumped up to her throat. She gripped the sink and tried to bring her heart rate back down. She glanced at Blake and noticed that his arms were crossed and he seemed upset about something. Probably over something she did. 

“Morning…” she muttered. 

He would have to get in line with everyone else. 

“I think I’m good, thanks though. I’m going to have to do a quick change before going back to Pinnacle.” she went back to her bandages and filled the small trash can with bloodied gauze. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was momentarily buffeted by the rage and hurt coursing through him before they faded away and replaced by a feeling of utter exhaustion. He was tired of everything surrounding this damnable job and everything going on between him and Meg. More and more it felt like there was a chasm between them that continued to widen despite their, admittedly infrequent, attempts to bridge the gap. 

He loved Meg with every fiber of his being but he occasionally wondered if she felt the same. He’d thought that when she’d given him a copy of the key to her apartment it had meant she returned his feelings with the same intensity.  His arms slackened as he suddenly wondered if this job might have caused Meg’s feelings for him to lessen. He mentally shook himself because the job was more important than what was going on in their personal lives. They could deal with the more personal stuff when this was all over.

He rubbed his eyes as he pushed off the door frame with his shoulder. If he crawled into bed now he could maybe get a couple hours of sleep before he had to turn up at the office. He was really tempted to call in sick but, knew he couldn’t because of the job. 

“So, is radio silence going to be the norm now? Or is it standard for hitters to only contact their team if they’re in trouble?” He wasn’t trying to pick a fight he honestly wanted to know so he could avoid staying up all night worrying again.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg froze. Radio silence. Did he know that she had his com turned off? Did he figure it out? Did Aidan tell him? She tried to focus on her remaining bandages, but she couldn’t help herself; she glanced up to gauge Blake’s expression. He was upset, of course, but not the level she had predicted if he had found out about his com. 

“I fell asleep at the 21st before I had a chance to contact you, Blake, sorry. If you were that worried, though, why didn’t you contact me? Or the bar to see if I was there? Or George?” She threw the last of her bandages in the trash before looking back up to Blake, not missing how tired he looked. This fucking job had to end. And soon. “I have to hop in the shower before my shift starts.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I thought that maybe you were in danger or were with Atticus and calling you would result in something bad happening. I also  didn’t want to make   Maq and Danny worry about it if they didn’t know where you were or were unaware that anything might be wrong..” He cracked a faint smile. “And I was worried that if I woke George from his sleep he would kill me and then go out to find you if even he didn’t know where you were.”

Blake shrugged faintly. When he’d been worried Meg was dead or in trouble he’d given himself some pretty convincing arguments to not call anyone, though now that Meg was safe most seemed a tad dumb.

“My reasoning sounded better in my head ten minutes ago.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg smirked at the thought of Blake and George being face-to-face without her there playing referee. The thought included Blake running for cover while George tried to lob things at his head. 

“I’m sure the thought was very reasonable and not at all connected to the fact that you look like you didn’t get any sleep last night.” Meg mused as she pecked Blake on the cheek, hoping he couldn’t smell the vodka on her. Meg stripped down and got in the shower. She continued as the water sprayed over her exhausted and sore body. “Why don’t you sleep a little? Call in sick and work the job from here? Surely those numbers will get us enough info to send Mr. Mansfield behind bars for the rest of his life.” 

~

Bethany approached Pinnacle, Inc with a furrowed brow. Meg Prescott had been on her mind all morning, and it wasn’t the sexy flirty kind she preferred. Getting her call in the middle of the night was concerning enough, but after seeing her harrowed figure, bloodied knuckles especially, it was hard not to be worried about the woman’s safety. Her brows furrowed further when she noticed that there were guards all around the first floor. She recognized a few of them, so she decided to take a deep breath and act as naturally as she could. 

“What’s up, Müller?” she asked the guard she knew the best. Müller had probably been there the longest and was infamously known as the gossip amongst the guards that Bethany had gotten to know. 

“No idea. Big ol’ boss brought us all in here late last night.” 

“What for?” Bethany tried to act like she was only interested in it for gossip purposes, but she couldn’t help but think about how it had to do with Meg and this Officer Morrison. 

“Whatever it is, it’s big,” Müller shrugged. “He’s been up in his office ranting and raving about it all fucking night.”

“Really? What else do you know?” 

“Nothing. Not a fucking clue as to what all this is about. As soon as he realized we were within earshot, he ordered us to take a hike. Been down here for two fucking hours doing diddly shit.” Müller then curled up his lip in annoyance before adding. “You know, I wasn’t even supposed to work tonight? Prescott called me in, sounding all frazzled and demanded I work tonight and keep close to the big boss.” 

“She did?” Bethany thought for a moment and realized that Prescott was smarter than she gave her credit. Müller was a gossip, everyone knew that, but he also always had his phone on him, in case his husband needed him for something. One that someone could add a wiretap to. 

“Yeah. Said something about Smith having an allergy emergency and that I was next in rotation.” Müller shrugged. 

“That’s too bad…” Bethany nodded sympathetically, but her mind was working double time trying to keep up with Prescott’s planning. If she was going to help, she had to figure out Prescott’s angle and overall plan. “I should probably get to work.” 

~ 

Atticus Mansfield had had one hell of a night. After Morrison’s unfortunate falling out, the only thing he could think about was Prescott. She had kept a brave face, but something about Morrison had spooked her. He had known that Prescott’s father had been a cop, but nothing beyond that. Something wasn’t right with her, and after several hours of obsessing about it, he couldn’t take it anymore and he came into the office.

He didn’t like calling for aid, but this was something that required more information. Atticus was forced to call the two employees he trusted when it came to recon and clean up. In the hours that they had spent in his office, the only thing that they had collected on Prescott was a cop’s death, an engagement, and a company called Leverage, Inc. 

“So I pay you how much a year and we still don’t have any information on who the fuck this Leverage, Inc is?” he snarled to the skyping monitors. There wasn’t a time that the three of them had ever been in the same room for obvious reasons. Pinnacle, like any diamond worth anything, was built on blood and market manipulation. No need to incriminate himself if anything went south. 

“Whoever runs the company apparently pays more money than you do on their online security.” his hacker-for-hire replied, unaffected by Atticus’ waning patience. After years of looking through people’s digital dirty laundry for him, the hacker had gotten used to Atticus’ prickly demeanor. 

“Well, whatever the fuck Leverage, Inc is, it’s not Pinnacle. That means Prescott needs to be eliminated.” 

“Sir, whoever she is, she’s smart, talented, and clearly knows what she’s doing.” interjected the other monitor calmly. 

“Is there a point?” Atticus growled at the monitor. 

“She’s been putting teams together for you for almost two months now. Do you really think she came in without one herself?”

Atticus paused for a moment, digesting his words. 

“Sir, I just got something.” 

“Go on.” Atticus nodded. 

“Leverage is a ghost company, really. Not really import/export as much as a service company. It’s…” the hacker squinted at his screen and Atticus could hear more clicking from his keyboard, “It’s a company that literally takes down other companies. It goes in, finds incriminating evidence, and then disappears without a trace, usually leaving the heads of the companies with the feds. There are news articles all listing the companies they’ve taken down. Some sort of Good Samaritan bullshit.” 

“Do you want us to take her out?” the other monitor asked. 

“No, like you said, she’s most likely got a team with her.” Atticus shook his head. “No, for now, we act like nothing’s changed. But get me a site and we’ll take her there for questioning once you’re done.”

“The usual arrangements?” 

“Yeah, the usual.” Atticus paused. “Wait, how did you say the cop died?”

“Her father? Car drove off a bridge up in Boston.” the hacker answered.  

“Make sure the site has access to water, then.” 

“That’s kinda fucked up, you know?” the hacker admitted, but he shrunk under Atticus’ glare, “Then again, you don’t pay me to give a shit about that kind of thing, so I’ll shut up now.” 

Atticus turned off the monitors and took in the moment of silence after hours of mitigating the Prescott problem. There was so much work to be done. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I certainly hope they will,” Blake muttered doing his best to ignore how his heart fluttered in fear and the small voice in his head that whispered that his father would somehow get away.

No, they would put his father behind bars and they could put this whole thing behind them and things could get back to normal for Meg and him. He had to put all of his faith in this team and in the belief that they would succeed.

“You sure you can’t lie down for even a few minutes? I know you said you slept at the 21st but I have sat on that couch and that could not have been very restful.” 

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Holy sh-” Meg lept out of her skin and her heart jumped up to her throat. She gripped the sink and tried to bring her heart rate back down. She glanced at Blake and noticed that his arms were crossed and he seemed upset about something. Probably over something she did. 

“Morning…” she muttered. 

He would have to get in line with everyone else. 

“I think I’m good, thanks though. I’m going to have to do a quick change before going back to Pinnacle.” she went back to her bandages and filled the small trash can with bloodied gauze. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was momentarily buffeted by the rage and hurt coursing through him before they faded away and replaced by a feeling of utter exhaustion. He was tired of everything surrounding this damnable job and everything going on between him and Meg. More and more it felt like there was a chasm between them that continued to widen despite their, admittedly infrequent, attempts to bridge the gap. 

He loved Meg with every fiber of his being but he occasionally wondered if she felt the same. He’d thought that when she’d given him a copy of the key to her apartment it had meant she returned his feelings with the same intensity.  His arms slackened as he suddenly wondered if this job might have caused Meg’s feelings for him to lessen. He mentally shook himself because the job was more important than what was going on in their personal lives. They could deal with the more personal stuff when this was all over.

He rubbed his eyes as he pushed off the door frame with his shoulder. If he crawled into bed now he could maybe get a couple hours of sleep before he had to turn up at the office. He was really tempted to call in sick but, knew he couldn’t because of the job. 

“So, is radio silence going to be the norm now? Or is it standard for hitters to only contact their team if they’re in trouble?” He wasn’t trying to pick a fight he honestly wanted to know so he could avoid staying up all night worrying again.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg froze. Radio silence. Did he know that she had his com turned off? Did he figure it out? Did Aidan tell him? She tried to focus on her remaining bandages, but she couldn’t help herself; she glanced up to gauge Blake’s expression. He was upset, of course, but not the level she had predicted if he had found out about his com. 

“I fell asleep at the 21st before I had a chance to contact you, Blake, sorry. If you were that worried, though, why didn’t you contact me? Or the bar to see if I was there? Or George?” She threw the last of her bandages in the trash before looking back up to Blake, not missing how tired he looked. This fucking job had to end. And soon. “I have to hop in the shower before my shift starts.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I thought that maybe you were in danger or were with Atticus and calling you would result in something bad happening. I also  didn’t want to make   Maq and Danny worry about it if they didn’t know where you were or were unaware that anything might be wrong..” He cracked a faint smile. “And I was worried that if I woke George from his sleep he would kill me and then go out to find you if even he didn’t know where you were.”

Blake shrugged faintly. When he’d been worried Meg was dead or in trouble he’d given himself some pretty convincing arguments to not call anyone, though now that Meg was safe most seemed a tad dumb.

“My reasoning sounded better in my head ten minutes ago.”

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Holy sh-” Meg lept out of her skin and her heart jumped up to her throat. She gripped the sink and tried to bring her heart rate back down. She glanced at Blake and noticed that his arms were crossed and he seemed upset about something. Probably over something she did. 

“Morning…” she muttered. 

He would have to get in line with everyone else. 

“I think I’m good, thanks though. I’m going to have to do a quick change before going back to Pinnacle.” she went back to her bandages and filled the small trash can with bloodied gauze. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was momentarily buffeted by the rage and hurt coursing through him before they faded away and replaced by a feeling of utter exhaustion. He was tired of everything surrounding this damnable job and everything going on between him and Meg. More and more it felt like there was a chasm between them that continued to widen despite their, admittedly infrequent, attempts to bridge the gap. 

He loved Meg with every fiber of his being but he occasionally wondered if she felt the same. He’d thought that when she’d given him a copy of the key to her apartment it had meant she returned his feelings with the same intensity.  His arms slackened as he suddenly wondered if this job might have caused Meg’s feelings for him to lessen. He mentally shook himself because the job was more important than what was going on in their personal lives. They could deal with the more personal stuff when this was all over.

He rubbed his eyes as he pushed off the door frame with his shoulder. If he crawled into bed now he could maybe get a couple hours of sleep before he had to turn up at the office. He was really tempted to call in sick but, knew he couldn’t because of the job. 

“So, is radio silence going to be the norm now? Or is it standard for hitters to only contact their team if they’re in trouble?” He wasn’t trying to pick a fight he honestly wanted to know so he could avoid staying up all night worrying again.

[megprescott-hitter]

Word Travels Fast (pt. 2)

After a few hours of exhausted sleep, Meg started to set up her flat to accommodate for Blake and Douglas. She had “borrowed” some cork boards from work to spread out the evidence that she had furiously been collecting over the past few days. 

She grabbed a hair band from her dresser, but as she touched her hair to get it out of her face, her hands came away with an oily sheen.

“Ew, gross.” Meg muttered and she immediately changed her game plan to take a shower. 

The repetitive water beating against her skin left her with a soothing sensation. She stepped out feeling refreshed, but as she passed the bathroom mirror, paused. She wiped the fogginess away from the mirror and sighed at the sight of her scars. From abusive homes to quidditch to auror missions her body had taken quite the beating. Sighing, she grabbed her cane that had been resting on the counter and moved to more productive thoughts like when her temporary partners would be showing up and how to best manage her time before then.

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Ringing bells pulled Blake from his sleep. Blinking sleepily, he sits up and with a murmured word and wave of his hand turns off the alarm. Running a hand through his hair, he yawns as he stands and makes his way to his bathroom to take a shower. Minutes later he reemerges, fully awake and running a towel through his damp hair and over his body. Tossing the towel into the nearby clothes hamper, he moved towards his closet and begins pulling out a clean change of clothes. Once dressed, he moved back into the bathroom and using an enchanted blade, evened out the stubble on his jaw and chin. Just as he finished, a loud knocking came at the door to his flat.

“Breakfast,” Douglas greets, holding up a number of containers as Blake opened the door.

Blake shook his head as he ushers his partner inside, bemused at the other man’s energy this early in the morning. Yes, Blake could function on nearly no sleep but he was never this hyperactive.

“I hope you got enough for Meg,” he said as he closed and locked the door.

“Of course I did! Who do you think I am?” His partner asked in a mock hurt tone. “You’ve got her address right?”

Blake nodded and grabbed Douglas’ arm. With a crack, they apparated from Blake’s flat and appeared outside Meg’s.

“Delivery!” Douglas called, too cheerfully for how little sleep he likely got, and knocked on Meg’s door.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg froze in her towel. She tried to tell herself that she had not just heard Douglas cry out in his overly-friendly manner, but her hopes died when she also heard the knock. 

“Fuck.” 

She frantically looked around her room, but she hadn’t even set clothes out for herself. The only thing available was her robe. That barely covered anything. 

“Fuuuuuuuck.” she groaned to herself as she threw it on. Throwing her hair up in a towel, she grabbed her cane and went to the door. 

“Hi. I’m not… Well, I’m not quite decent, so, um… if you’ll wait in the kitchen… I’ll just…” she stumbled over her words as she awkwardly pointed to her small kitchenette. “I’m going to put some clothes on and pretend I didn’t just word vomit everywhere.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stood in shock as Meg disappeared into her bedroom. Of all the things he’d thought might happen, seeing Meg nearly naked had not graced his mind long enough for it to be on his list of things that wouldn’t be happening. Now that it had happened, the sight of Meg’s bare skin amplified the feelings that had been reawakened since Meg had been assigned to work with him and Douglas. Said man made a noise of strangled surprise and Blake had the sudden and violent urge to slam his fist into Douglas’ face.

“Well,” the redheaded man said, moving into the kitchenette. “That was... unexpected.”

Blake nodded faintly as he tamped down on the urge to punch his partner and followed Douglas.  

A slightly awkward silence fell over the two men as they set out the food and began eating.

[bestof-fassbender]

Michael Fassbender / The Snowman

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg shuffled down her apartment hallway repeating her mental checklist:

1. Take a shower 2. Put clean bandages on 3. Make coffee 4. Do a full face of makeup to hide dark circles 5. Go to work

If she could do those four things without passing out on her bed, she would be able to make it through the day. She opened her door and immediately dropped her bag on the floor and threw her jacket on the couch before making her way to the bathroom. She stopped at the sink and began to carefully unwrap her soiled bandages. Meg mentally kicked herself because the crimson bandages should have been changed hours ago, so now her hands were starting to become infected. The gooey pus and blood were making the removal of the bandages painful. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake stared incredulously at the door Meg had just walked through. Had she really not noticed him standing in the kitchen or his things on the coffee table? Looking at her jacket flung haphazardly onto the couch, it certainly seemed that was the case. A small part of him reasoned that he should feel relieved that she was okay and she had come back, The rest of him was furious and outraged that she hadn’t seemed to spare him any mind. Didn’t she care that he had been up all night worrying that she might have been hurt or captured by his father? Had she even bothered to spare a thought that he might be panicking a little over not hearing from her for hours now? Or had she been so wrapped up in whatever his father had ordered her to do that she didn’t care to think about anything else?

Setting his mug down on the counter, Blake padded through the living room to the hall Meg had walked through moments before. He didn’t try to mask the sound of his approach, not that he even really knew how to move silently, as he moved towards the bathroom. 

Peering inside, he was momentarily taken aback when he caught sight of Meg’s hands but the sight of the injury only fueled his annoyance over her radio silence. Had she deemed it unnecessary to let him know she had been injured? Or maybe she had thought he couldn’t handle knowing what his father had ordered her to do?

“Need help?” He asked blandly, leaning aginast the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

[megprescott-hitter]

The Big One™

The dizzy pounding inside her skull brought Meg out of her blackened stupor. She didn’t remember much after coming to the 21st, but Danny, in true friend form, was sitting across from her, overflowing out of Meg’s office chair with her pregnant belly. She was holding a water bottle and her pill bottle. 

“What the actual fuck happened last night?” Meg groaned before seeing the dried blood crusted over her hands. “Shit, I didn’t hit Aidan, did I?!” 

“No, he left with all his teeth,” Danny assured her before handing her the water bottle and her pain meds. Silence fell as Meg sat up and took her meds while the memories of the night crept back into her brain. 

“Danny, I don’t think I can close this job,” Meg admitted quietly. 

“Hm.” Danny mused, “That sucks.” 

“Not helping Danny,” Meg muttered as she held her pounding head in her hands. 

“Well, I tried helping, and you just ignored me.” Danny shot back angrily. Meg didn’t have a retort, so Danny continued. “You have three other people on your team and you actively decided to push all of them away.” 

“Okay, well, I can’t exactly go to Blake because he’s already overwhelmed with the fact that it’s his parents and Aidan-” Meg started to argue, but Danny cut her off. 

“No! You just didn’t want to be out of control! Not going to Blake, I can sympathize, but you could have easily gone to George or Aidan. You were assigned the job and you didn’t want to hand over the reins to someone else. Especially someone Blake brought in.”

“That’s not…” Meg trailed off, but her hungover brain couldn’t work for a comeback. 

“Oh, tell yourself whatever you want, Meg, but you’ve been fucking up this job because you wanted to make sure Blake knew you could take care of it. Being the considerate girlfriend has blinded you to all the other resources you have at your disposal.” 

“Never thought I’d hear you ever agree with George, Danny…” Meg murmured barely above a whisper. 

“That’s how much you fucked up, Meg. I’m agreeing with George, of all fucking people.” 

“So if I fucked up so much, how do I un-fuck it up?” 

“Oh, so now you want my advice?” 

“Well, I’m listening, aren’t I?” Meg snapped. The friends looked at each other for a moment before Danny sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. If you can’t close the job, find someone who can. Don’t you have an FBI contact also looking into Mansfield?”

“Yeah, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” 

“As opposed to your other options?” Danny spat back. “You clearly don’t trust anyone, which is why you’re hungover on your office couch at 4am.”

Meg looked at Danny, blinked, then snatched her phone to confirm that it was, indeed, 4am. 

“Why the hell are you here if it’s 4am?!” she practically shouted at Danny. 

“Couldn’t sleep because of this awful parasite,” Danny told her, rubbing her enlarged stomach, and Meg almost believed her. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about how much this job was slowly suffocating everyone around her. 

“Everyone’s getting vacation time after this job is over,” Meg told her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. 

“Where are you going?” Danny demanded. 

“To see how far I can throw this FBI agent….” 

~

“What the fuck happened to you? You look awful.” Bethany told Meg as she walked up to the agent. It took less than an hour to get together a half-assed file on the cop and to set up a meetup with Bethany at an abandoned coffee shop. 

“Look into John Morrison. Cop who’ll be reported missing soon. He’s dirty and has been turning a blind eye on embezzling charges for Mr. Mansfield.” Meg told Bethany, ignoring her accurate observations. She dropped the file off on the table and turned to leave. Bethany stood up and grabbed Meg’s hand, causing her to flinch in pain. 

“Hold up. Are you safe?” she demanded while Meg tried to take her hand back. 

“If you find my body, I can confirm it was not suicide,” Meg replied. 

Meg was only partially kidding. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake did his best to focus on the numbers and figures on the page before him instead of checking his phone for what was likely the hundredth time that night. He let out a sigh of frustration a moment later when he realized he kept reading the same line over and over again. Giving in to his urge, Blake picks his phone up and thumbs it on, checking for any new messages. Just like all the other times, he had checked his phone there weren’t any.

Fear clawed its way through his stomach like a burrowing beast. Had something happened to Meg? Usually, she was home by now or would have at least contacted him somehow to let him know she was alright but would be late. Had his father done something to her? Or had Atticus called her in for a last minute job? Blake wanted to call her or try to contact her over the comms but, what if his father had confiscated her phone as a security measure? If he called or texted her and his father saw it how long would it be before his father’s goons showed up here to use him as leverage against Meg? Even the most loyal goon had to know having anyone in their lives they were close to would give Atticus leverage over them. Even a coded message might be too risky to send.

‘And comms can easily be intercepted,’ Blake thought rubbing his fingers over the “souvenirs” Taylor had left him.

Either way, any attempts he made to reach out to her could very well put Meg and this whole job in danger. So, he would wait, worry and keep himself busy. Shoving his phone into his pocket, Blake rose from the couch and made his way to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

[megprescott-hitter]

Macrofractures

[blakeraymond-grifter]

megprescott-hitter:

“Smart response…” Meg grunted taking another swig from her glass. Aidan moved to sit down and Meg sat further back in her chair, expecting another lecture. She was mildly surprised by how soft his voice was. However, she had been around Blake too long to take that tone as Aidan’s true feelings. 

“Tonight….” she paused, choosing her words as carefully as she could with her vodka-addled brain. “Mr. Mansfield gave me a pair of custom carbon fiber brass knuckles so that I could do a specific job for him. There was a… cop on his payroll that had been causing problems for Mr. Mansfield, and we went to meet him. The… cop pulled a gun and I…” she trailed off and raised her bloodied hands to finish the sentiment. “He’s still alive and I removed any trace of Mr. Mansfield and myself from the scene.”

Aiden hummed faintly as he thought back to all he’d been able to hear over the comms earlier that evening. From what he could remember what Meg was saying matched up near perfectly. Blake’s father and Meg had met up with the corrupt cop, a struggle had ensued that only ended when Atticus snapped her out of it just before she’d killed the cop. Then Meg had been tasked with cleaning up the scene.

“May I ask what caused the encounter to escalate?” He asked, giving Meg an inquisitive look. “You obviously anticipated things getting violent,” Aiden refrained from verbalizing the ‘Because you asked Blake’s comm to be turned off’ but he was sure that even in her vodka addled mind Meg could hear it. “But, from what I heard it seemed to become even more violent than you’d thought. Was it the gun? Or was it because he was a dirty cop? Or was it because of something else?” Or did Meg even understand herself why she’d almost beaten the man to death? 

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg paused mid gulp at Aidan’s next question before gingerly setting the glass down on the table, minding the papers still spread out. She pumped her aching hands and sat back in her chair once more. As Aidan listed out her potential motives for her violent reaction, her focus turned to her soiling bandages. 

“Why do you need to know?” she asked, her voice tight and thin. Her sunken eyes rose slowly to pierce the older grifter. “Surely a man of your skills has already figured out every motivation I could ever possibly have, so you just want the satisfaction of me saying it.” 

“In fact, from what little I know of you, Aidan,” she continued, her tone growing louder with her annoyance. “I can assume that every motivation that you have in this job is in regards to Blake. Your ‘boneheaded protege’, if I remember correctly from our last conversation. Therefore, I can put together that you had a problem with the fact that I asked to turn Blake’s com off. So let’s not dress this up as idle curiosity for my well-being Aidan. If I ended up dead tomorrow from this job, you wouldn’t give two shits save for how it might affect Blake.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“You’re right,” Aiden said calmly. “I have figured out what I believe to be all of your motivations for doing what you did. However, I would still like to know your own reasons.”

He let out a breath. “We are supposed to be a team. You, me, my boneheaded protege and that George fellow you’ve got monitoring comms and looking up information,” a faint smile appeared on his face. “And very occasionally Jesse when we need a more thorough divulging of Atticus’ information.” His expression grew serious once more. “But, you have taken on more responsibilities than anyone else and you have been keeping things from us. This, I suppose, is fine because all of us have things about us that we don’t tell anyone else even those we trust most until forced to. Or at least it would be if we weren’t so isolated on his job.”

Aiden mulled over the words he needed to say next, mindful of Maq’s warning to not heap too much upon Meg. “Turning off your comms to spare Blake having to listen to you become his father’s goon, even if its a con, is understandable. But, how can I trust that you won’t turn you comm off so none of us can hear what’s going on because Atticus has asked you to do something Moreau might have ordered his men to do? What happens if you do that, get hurt, and are somehow not able to get your comm back online? How are we supposed to come to your aid? Or, at least in the case of your cover being blown, how do we know we need to get out and regroup?”

“Yes, I will admit to being concerned about Blake and his mental health. But, in this instance, I am also concerned about the consequences your actions might have for the rest of us, and especially on you.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg sat back in her chair and stared evenly as Aiden went on about her shortcomings and how it was going to effect them all as if the same thoughts hadn’t entered her own brain. 

“Aiden, I know I have not known Blake long enough to truly understand the depths of your relationship with him, but I’m not drunk enough to listen to this unnecessary lecture.” Meg told Aidan once he had finished. “I mean, do you really think that I enjoyed my evening? That I… somehow came up with this convoluted plan to screw us all over? That I relish in my history with Mor-” Meg had to stop mid-name to catch her breath. Tears had begun forming in the corners of her eyes. “I have been the backbone of this team since the beginning of the job.” she paused before darkly chuckling at her unintended pun. “I guess ‘backbone’ wasn’t the best choice of words… but I have planned every aspect of this job because I know Blake’s wouldn’t be able to handle it. The only reason you were even invited to assist is because it made Blake feel better about the whole thing.” she downed the remains of her glass and continued while pouring herself another shot. “So when you tell me that you’re concerned about how you’re going to trust me and that you’re concerned about the repercussions of my actions, I just think you’re full of shit. A grifter talking about trust? Keeping information from your partners? As if that isn’t how you all live and breathe?” Meg’s hands balled into fists so tightly, the limited amount of healing skin broke apart again and began to bleed through the bandages. The crimson began to drip on the table, but the hitter didn’t seem to notice. “Don’t lecture me on trust Aidan. The reason I’m taking on more responsibilities is because I’m all out of spare trust.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Yes, grifters likeBlake and I lie, bluff and stretch the truth as much as we can until it looks like a piece of chewed gum. But, in order for us to work together without problem, you have to at least trust that everything Blake and I do, every lie we tell during this con is geared towards the group’s success. I can understand why you wouldn’t trust me since I am a stranger but I would have hoped you would at least trust Blake enough to know that he would ask for my help because of my skill and not solely because of my personal relationship with him. Plus, I am sure George could find out all the information about me if you asked him to.” 

Aiden briefly glanced at the drops of crimson on the table before looking back at Meg. “Now, I know the way this whole job started wasn’t exactly ideal and I’ve no doubt that Blake would have liked to have been able to tell you about his past long before making any move against his father. So, I can see why your faith in him has wavered and I understand being distrustful of me as you know nothing about me.”

His eyes focused once more at the tiny pool of blood forming on the table and fished a handkerchief out of his pocket. “But, I ask that you at least put some small amount of trust in our ability and that we have your back. Because frankly if you don’t I have to wonder how we’ll get through this since I have a feeling that after tonight you don’t have much trust in yourself, now do you?” He asked holding the handkerchief out to her.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg raised an eyebrow at the handkerchief before noticing her bleeding hands. The hitter studied them for a moment before turning her attention back to Aidan.

“Apparently your feelings would know more than me on that,” Meg muttered without taking the olive branch. “It was a good talk, Aidan. About as productive as I expected.” 

She stood up and grabbed her jacket before teetering out the door. She passed Maq who raised a concerned eyebrow but knew better than to comment. 

“I’m sleeping in the office tonight,” she informed him before moving to the back to her office. Without even taking a moment to rebandage her hands, she flopped on the couch and passed out. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Aiden shook his head faintly as he shoved his handkerchief back into his pocket. They were all on shaky ground and while both he and Meg could see it, neither wanted to make Balke aware of this fact as that could very well cause the ground to fall out from beneath them. If it weren’t for Blake he would pack his things and leave but, now he had to stay if only to make sure the fallout wasn’t too bad. He still wasn’t sure if Blake and Meg’s relationship would survive this. He hoped it would as they were good for one another but he could easily see things falling apart when the stress becomes too much. 

Aiden pulled his phone out as he exited the room, glancing up long enough to nod at the bartender as he passed. Should he tell Blake everything going on with Meg? Should he only tell him about the incident with the comms? Should he tell his protege about Meg’s injuries acting up? Would anything he revealed not hurt Blake more because it came from him and not Meg?

You two should consider taking a long vacation when this is all over. He texted Blake instead.

Meg and I have talked about that a couple times already but we haven’t decided where. Came the response a few minutes later.

‘At least he’s thinking about something other than the job on occasion,’ Aiden thought as he typed out a reply.

It couldn’t hurt to talk to her about it more. Never hurts to think about what comes after the job.

He hoped that just getting the two to talk to each other more would lead to them actually talking about their issues than stifling them. 

[megprescott-hitter]

Word Travels Fast (pt. 2)

After a few hours of exhausted sleep, Meg started to set up her flat to accommodate for Blake and Douglas. She had “borrowed” some cork boards from work to spread out the evidence that she had furiously been collecting over the past few days. 

She grabbed a hair band from her dresser, but as she touched her hair to get it out of her face, her hands came away with an oily sheen.

“Ew, gross.” Meg muttered and she immediately changed her game plan to take a shower. 

The repetitive water beating against her skin left her with a soothing sensation. She stepped out feeling refreshed, but as she passed the bathroom mirror, paused. She wiped the fogginess away from the mirror and sighed at the sight of her scars. From abusive homes to quidditch to auror missions her body had taken quite the beating. Sighing, she grabbed her cane that had been resting on the counter and moved to more productive thoughts like when her temporary partners would be showing up and how to best manage her time before then.

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Ringing bells pulled Blake from his sleep. Blinking sleepily, he sits up and with a murmured word and wave of his hand turns off the alarm. Running a hand through his hair, he yawns as he stands and makes his way to his bathroom to take a shower. Minutes later he reemerges, fully awake and running a towel through his damp hair and over his body. Tossing the towel into the nearby clothes hamper, he moved towards his closet and begins pulling out a clean change of clothes. Once dressed, he moved back into the bathroom and using an enchanted blade, evened out the stubble on his jaw and chin. Just as he finished, a loud knocking came at the door to his flat.

“Breakfast,” Douglas greets, holding up a number of containers as Blake opened the door.

Blake shook his head as he ushers his partner inside, bemused at the other man’s energy this early in the morning. Yes, Blake could function on nearly no sleep but he was never this hyperactive.

“I hope you got enough for Meg,” he said as he closed and locked the door.

“Of course I did! Who do you think I am?” His partner asked in a mock hurt tone. “You’ve got her address right?”

Blake nodded and grabbed Douglas’ arm. With a crack, they apparated from Blake’s flat and appeared outside Meg’s.

“Delivery!” Douglas called, too cheerfully for how little sleep he likely got, and knocked on Meg’s door.

[megprescott-hitter]

Macrofractures

[blakeraymond-grifter]

megprescott-hitter:

“Smart response…” Meg grunted taking another swig from her glass. Aidan moved to sit down and Meg sat further back in her chair, expecting another lecture. She was mildly surprised by how soft his voice was. However, she had been around Blake too long to take that tone as Aidan’s true feelings. 

“Tonight….” she paused, choosing her words as carefully as she could with her vodka-addled brain. “Mr. Mansfield gave me a pair of custom carbon fiber brass knuckles so that I could do a specific job for him. There was a… cop on his payroll that had been causing problems for Mr. Mansfield, and we went to meet him. The… cop pulled a gun and I…” she trailed off and raised her bloodied hands to finish the sentiment. “He’s still alive and I removed any trace of Mr. Mansfield and myself from the scene.”

Aiden hummed faintly as he thought back to all he’d been able to hear over the comms earlier that evening. From what he could remember what Meg was saying matched up near perfectly. Blake’s father and Meg had met up with the corrupt cop, a struggle had ensued that only ended when Atticus snapped her out of it just before she’d killed the cop. Then Meg had been tasked with cleaning up the scene.

“May I ask what caused the encounter to escalate?” He asked, giving Meg an inquisitive look. “You obviously anticipated things getting violent,” Aiden refrained from verbalizing the ‘Because you asked Blake’s comm to be turned off’ but he was sure that even in her vodka addled mind Meg could hear it. “But, from what I heard it seemed to become even more violent than you’d thought. Was it the gun? Or was it because he was a dirty cop? Or was it because of something else?” Or did Meg even understand herself why she’d almost beaten the man to death? 

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg paused mid gulp at Aidan’s next question before gingerly setting the glass down on the table, minding the papers still spread out. She pumped her aching hands and sat back in her chair once more. As Aidan listed out her potential motives for her violent reaction, her focus turned to her soiling bandages. 

“Why do you need to know?” she asked, her voice tight and thin. Her sunken eyes rose slowly to pierce the older grifter. “Surely a man of your skills has already figured out every motivation I could ever possibly have, so you just want the satisfaction of me saying it.” 

“In fact, from what little I know of you, Aidan,” she continued, her tone growing louder with her annoyance. “I can assume that every motivation that you have in this job is in regards to Blake. Your ‘boneheaded protege’, if I remember correctly from our last conversation. Therefore, I can put together that you had a problem with the fact that I asked to turn Blake’s com off. So let’s not dress this up as idle curiosity for my well-being Aidan. If I ended up dead tomorrow from this job, you wouldn’t give two shits save for how it might affect Blake.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“You’re right,” Aiden said calmly. “I have figured out what I believe to be all of your motivations for doing what you did. However, I would still like to know your own reasons.”

He let out a breath. “We are supposed to be a team. You, me, my boneheaded protege and that George fellow you’ve got monitoring comms and looking up information,” a faint smile appeared on his face. “And very occasionally Jesse when we need a more thorough divulging of Atticus’ information.” His expression grew serious once more. “But, you have taken on more responsibilities than anyone else and you have been keeping things from us. This, I suppose, is fine because all of us have things about us that we don’t tell anyone else even those we trust most until forced to. Or at least it would be if we weren’t so isolated on his job.”

Aiden mulled over the words he needed to say next, mindful of Maq’s warning to not heap too much upon Meg. “Turning off your comms to spare Blake having to listen to you become his father’s goon, even if its a con, is understandable. But, how can I trust that you won’t turn you comm off so none of us can hear what’s going on because Atticus has asked you to do something Moreau might have ordered his men to do? What happens if you do that, get hurt, and are somehow not able to get your comm back online? How are we supposed to come to your aid? Or, at least in the case of your cover being blown, how do we know we need to get out and regroup?”

“Yes, I will admit to being concerned about Blake and his mental health. But, in this instance, I am also concerned about the consequences your actions might have for the rest of us, and especially on you.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg sat back in her chair and stared evenly as Aiden went on about her shortcomings and how it was going to effect them all as if the same thoughts hadn’t entered her own brain. 

“Aiden, I know I have not known Blake long enough to truly understand the depths of your relationship with him, but I’m not drunk enough to listen to this unnecessary lecture.” Meg told Aidan once he had finished. “I mean, do you really think that I enjoyed my evening? That I… somehow came up with this convoluted plan to screw us all over? That I relish in my history with Mor-” Meg had to stop mid-name to catch her breath. Tears had begun forming in the corners of her eyes. “I have been the backbone of this team since the beginning of the job.” she paused before darkly chuckling at her unintended pun. “I guess ‘backbone’ wasn’t the best choice of words… but I have planned every aspect of this job because I know Blake’s wouldn’t be able to handle it. The only reason you were even invited to assist is because it made Blake feel better about the whole thing.” she downed the remains of her glass and continued while pouring herself another shot. “So when you tell me that you’re concerned about how you’re going to trust me and that you’re concerned about the repercussions of my actions, I just think you’re full of shit. A grifter talking about trust? Keeping information from your partners? As if that isn’t how you all live and breathe?” Meg’s hands balled into fists so tightly, the limited amount of healing skin broke apart again and began to bleed through the bandages. The crimson began to drip on the table, but the hitter didn’t seem to notice. “Don’t lecture me on trust Aidan. The reason I’m taking on more responsibilities is because I’m all out of spare trust.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Yes, grifters likeBlake and I lie, bluff and stretch the truth as much as we can until it looks like a piece of chewed gum. But, in order for us to work together without problem, you have to at least trust that everything Blake and I do, every lie we tell during this con is geared towards the group’s success. I can understand why you wouldn’t trust me since I am a stranger but I would have hoped you would at least trust Blake enough to know that he would ask for my help because of my skill and not solely because of my personal relationship with him. Plus, I am sure George could find out all the information about me if you asked him to.” 

Aiden briefly glanced at the drops of crimson on the table before looking back at Meg. “Now, I know the way this whole job started wasn’t exactly ideal and I’ve no doubt that Blake would have liked to have been able to tell you about his past long before making any move against his father. So, I can see why your faith in him has wavered and I understand being distrustful of me as you know nothing about me.”

His eyes focused once more at the tiny pool of blood forming on the table and fished a handkerchief out of his pocket. “But, I ask that you at least put some small amount of trust in our ability and that we have your back. Because frankly if you don’t I have to wonder how we’ll get through this since I have a feeling that after tonight you don’t have much trust in yourself, now do you?” He asked holding the handkerchief out to her.

[megprescott-hitter]

Macrofractures

[blakeraymond-grifter]

megprescott-hitter:

“Smart response…” Meg grunted taking another swig from her glass. Aidan moved to sit down and Meg sat further back in her chair, expecting another lecture. She was mildly surprised by how soft his voice was. However, she had been around Blake too long to take that tone as Aidan’s true feelings. 

“Tonight….” she paused, choosing her words as carefully as she could with her vodka-addled brain. “Mr. Mansfield gave me a pair of custom carbon fiber brass knuckles so that I could do a specific job for him. There was a… cop on his payroll that had been causing problems for Mr. Mansfield, and we went to meet him. The… cop pulled a gun and I…” she trailed off and raised her bloodied hands to finish the sentiment. “He’s still alive and I removed any trace of Mr. Mansfield and myself from the scene.”

Aiden hummed faintly as he thought back to all he’d been able to hear over the comms earlier that evening. From what he could remember what Meg was saying matched up near perfectly. Blake’s father and Meg had met up with the corrupt cop, a struggle had ensued that only ended when Atticus snapped her out of it just before she’d killed the cop. Then Meg had been tasked with cleaning up the scene.

“May I ask what caused the encounter to escalate?” He asked, giving Meg an inquisitive look. “You obviously anticipated things getting violent,” Aiden refrained from verbalizing the ‘Because you asked Blake’s comm to be turned off’ but he was sure that even in her vodka addled mind Meg could hear it. “But, from what I heard it seemed to become even more violent than you’d thought. Was it the gun? Or was it because he was a dirty cop? Or was it because of something else?” Or did Meg even understand herself why she’d almost beaten the man to death? 

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg paused mid gulp at Aidan’s next question before gingerly setting the glass down on the table, minding the papers still spread out. She pumped her aching hands and sat back in her chair once more. As Aidan listed out her potential motives for her violent reaction, her focus turned to her soiling bandages. 

“Why do you need to know?” she asked, her voice tight and thin. Her sunken eyes rose slowly to pierce the older grifter. “Surely a man of your skills has already figured out every motivation I could ever possibly have, so you just want the satisfaction of me saying it.” 

“In fact, from what little I know of you, Aidan,” she continued, her tone growing louder with her annoyance. “I can assume that every motivation that you have in this job is in regards to Blake. Your ‘boneheaded protege’, if I remember correctly from our last conversation. Therefore, I can put together that you had a problem with the fact that I asked to turn Blake’s com off. So let’s not dress this up as idle curiosity for my well-being Aidan. If I ended up dead tomorrow from this job, you wouldn’t give two shits save for how it might affect Blake.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“You’re right,” Aiden said calmly. “I have figured out what I believe to be all of your motivations for doing what you did. However, I would still like to know your own reasons.”

He let out a breath. “We are supposed to be a team. You, me, my boneheaded protege and that George fellow you’ve got monitoring comms and looking up information,” a faint smile appeared on his face. “And very occasionally Jesse when we need a more thorough divulging of Atticus’ information.” His expression grew serious once more. “But, you have taken on more responsibilities than anyone else and you have been keeping things from us. This, I suppose, is fine because all of us have things about us that we don’t tell anyone else even those we trust most until forced to. Or at least it would be if we weren’t so isolated on his job.”

Aiden mulled over the words he needed to say next, mindful of Maq’s warning to not heap too much upon Meg. “Turning off your comms to spare Blake having to listen to you become his father’s goon, even if its a con, is understandable. But, how can I trust that you won’t turn you comm off so none of us can hear what’s going on because Atticus has asked you to do something Moreau might have ordered his men to do? What happens if you do that, get hurt, and are somehow not able to get your comm back online? How are we supposed to come to your aid? Or, at least in the case of your cover being blown, how do we know we need to get out and regroup?”

“Yes, I will admit to being concerned about Blake and his mental health. But, in this instance, I am also concerned about the consequences your actions might have for the rest of us, and especially on you.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Word Travels Fast

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake nodded faintly, pulling out one of his enchanted pieces of paper and began writing a brief note containing the address and that it was urgent he met them there as quickly as possible. Knowing Douglas, he was certain the other man would still be awake and alert enough to notice the paper appearing out of this air. If he wasn’t, then Blake would have to break out his mini howlers. 

“It’s either that or we walk.” He quipped as he took Meg’s arm in his. The familiar sensation of being pulled through a straw washed over him as they apparated away and appeared at the funeral home with a crack. “These places always give me the creeps,” Blake muttered, taking a moment to take stock of their surroundings.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg had to put her hand over her mouth to keep her from spewing her dinner in the grass. 

“A little warning next time…?” she moaned after she swallowed the gastric acid and steadied herself with her cane. She took in their surroundings before pointing to the work house where there were glowing windows indicating someone was there. “We should start there.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Sorry?” Blake said with an apologetic shrug. 

He did feel a little guilty about not giving her a heads up, especially since she couldn’t walk without the assistance of a cane. What if they’d appeared without the cane? He supposed he could transfigure something into a temporary solution, but that wouldn’t change the fact that his excitement would have likely resulted in embarrassment for Meg.

“I was really excited about this lead.” He explained, hoping it would smooth over any ruffled feathers.

A quiet popping sound to their left indicated someone else apparating into the area. Blake tensed for a moment, before registering that it was Douglas.

“Did I miss anything?” The other man asked as he approached them.

Blake shook his head. “No, we were just about to investigate the workhouse.” He nodded in the direction of the building Meg had mentioned a moment ago.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave an breathless chuckle at Blake’s enthusiasm. 

“Don’t worry about it, I think I’ll make it….” she assured him as Douglas showed up. She straightened up and took a few unsteady steps towards the boys. “In case Blake didn’t include why we’re here, I might have found a connection between our missing Mr. Orson and the floo powder case. I have some evidence that states that Orson Jr. was brought back from the dead and all the suspicious behavior we’ve been investigating was actually the Jr., not the Sr. This was where they were buried after the car accident. At the very least, we can at least confirm that either the Orsons are back from the dead and try to find them, or resting peacefully and we go back to square one.” Meg frowned at their options. “I honestly don’t know which one I would prefer…” 

~~~

“Definitely ministry. Apparated less than two minutes ago.” one of the grave workers reported to the seemingly empty room. 

“Are they ours?” the shadows asked in a million low whispers. 

“Doesn’t look like it. Two males and a crippled woman.” 

The shadows paused.

“The woman. Describe her.”

“Petite, red head, walking with a cane, seems like apparating didn’t agree with her….” the worker described, but trailed off as the shadows gave a vexed hiss. 

“Prescott…” they wheezed in annoyance. “You’ll have reinforcements momentarily. Expect a fight, don’t let anyone near the tombs, and if necessary kill them. We don’t need any more delays.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Brought back from the dead? Hopefully, these guys aren’t actually linked with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s Death Eaters or we’ll have a lot of trouble further down the line,” Douglas murmured.

“No kidding,” Blake said, his voice barely above a whisper. He thanked whatever deity was watching over them that his father was already in Azkaban or else those with the power to resurrect people would be far more ambitious in their plans.

“Well the, shall we go knock on their door and have a friendly chat?” Douglas flashed them a bright smile and jogged over to the door.

“Bloody Gryffindors,” Blake sighed as he moved to follow his partner at a much slower pace.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Fucking Gryffindors…” Meg muttered as she made her way over in a more realistic pace. Still a ways off, she turned to Blake. “Thank you for believing me, by the way. I’m not sure if the people in my previous position would have…” 

~

“Lead them in the opposite direction and ambush them.” the shadows instructed before falling silent as Douglas entered in the building. 

“May I help you?” the grave yard worker asked innocently. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I’m used to starting investigations with less or more obscure ideas,” Blake said with a faint shrug.

~

“You may,” Douglas said as he approached the graveyard worker.  My colleagues and I,” he turned to look over his shoulder, frowning when he saw Blake and Meg were still outside. Douglas made a hurry up motion before turning back to the worker, “Were hoping we might be pointed towards a specific grave.”

“Of course,” the graveyard worker gave Douglas a blinding smile as Blake and Meg came through the door. “May I have the name?” He asked, summoning a large leather bound book. 

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave Doug a disapproving look as they caught up.

“You do remember I’m a cripple, right? I can’t exactly jog places to keep up with you.” she reprimanded before turning to the worker. “Yes, the names are Mary and Alfred Orson. We are running an investigation and seeing the graves are instrumental.” she pulled out her credentials with the ministry to push her point. “My colleague’s zeal might have overpowered his sense of protocol.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Douglas had the decency to look a little ashamed at Meg’s words.

“Ah, I see,” the graveyard worker murmured. “Your colleague merely said you were looking for someone. Not that it was part of a Ministry backed investigation. One moment please.” 

He set the large book down and waved his wand over it muttering a spell under his breath. The book opened itself two-thirds of the way through its mass of papers.

“Let’s see here.” The worker ran his finger down the page. “Oakley, Oliver, O’Mally. Ah here it is, Orson.” He turned the book so Blake, Douglas and Meg could see where his finger was pointing. “It looks like they were buried in plot four of section seven in quadrant three.” 

[megprescott-hitter]

“Perfect.” Meg offered a polite smile as she ignored the fact that the deceased were organized not unlike produce. “Would you mind showing us where the plots are?”

“Of course.” 

The four of them walked around the cemetery, and Meg was making a mental map in case their guide left them to attend to his duties. Over the next several minutes, the worker was attempting nervous conversation. Meg chalked it up to not being used to guests. Grave yard workers weren’t exactly trained to entertain. However, when they stopped at the edge of the cemetery where a grove of trees boxed them in, Meg furrowed her brow. 

“Excuse me, is this where the plots are?” she asked, unease filling her senses. 

“No.” the worker responded, looking off into the grove instead of at them. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?” 

Wizards and witches emerged from the grove, surrounding the trio. The grave worker apparated with a *pop*, leaving the trio alone to fend for themselves. Meg reached to her waist before remembering that she still wasn’t allowed her wand for active duty. 

“Next time I say I have a hunch, just punch me.” she muttered to the other two. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Deal!” Douglas said the same moment Blake shouted “Protego horribilis!” 

The two men moved, so they were facing opposite directions, with their backs to Meg, as the area surrounding the three lit up from the impacts of spells and curses on the shield charm. The second there was a pause in the onslaught Blake dropped the shield.

“Confringo,” Douglas cried. The ground about a foot away from him exploded knocking back three of the approaching attackers. They landed in a crumpled heap, injured but not dead.

“Immobulus!“ Two more of the attackers, these ones advancing towards Blake, froze halfway through casting spells of their own. His eyes widened as a witch came around her two frozen compatriots and sent a ‘Crucio’ towards him. “Protego,” he cried out just in time to deflect the curse.

“Avada-”

“Expelliarmus!” Douglas yelled followed with a “Stupefy!” and another attacker fell to the ground stunned and wandless. “You know Blake,” he yelled over his shoulder. “This might be a good time for you to test out that new spell you were working on.” 

“You know I would really rather not get kicked off of Experimental Charms Committee only just got on it a month ago,” Blake shot back as a jinx flew past his ear.

“Oh come on you know you’re the darling of the committee! I doubt they’d give you more than a slap on the wrist if you killed all of us. Besides, wouldn’t you rather this fight be over now rather than risk these chumps killing us?”  Douglas called as he threw up a quick ‘ Protego’ to deflect an oncoming stunning spell.

“Fine,” Blake said with a sigh. “Stand back.” He made a swish-flick-flick motion with his wand and hissed, “bellua umbra!”

A large gout of flame erupted from the tip of his wand that took the form of a giant snake. The remaining attackers that were still able to move ran screaming as the giant flaming snake chased them into the grove.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg was suddenly slack jawed and taken back to the Hogwarts Dueling Club as she watched Blake’s incredible wand work. However, it was clear that he had honed his already apt skills as Meg watched in amazement at the enormous serpent chased off to defend the trio. However, as Doug and Blake were concentrating on handling the majority of the attackers, Meg turned and realized there was a second wave. They all raised their wands…

“NO!” Meg cried out as she moved between the guys and the others. She suddenly felt something stir inside her core. Magic pulsed out of her in a wave of red lightning as the second wave of attackers were thrown back, not stirring once they had landed on the unforgiving ground. A moment passed, and Meg stumbled back slightly, feeling drained of all energy. She leaned on her cane, but also on a gravestone just to her right. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was conscious of but did nothing to rectify his mouth hanging open in shock. His wand was frozen in mid-air having been halfway through the motion that would have raised another shield.

“No offense mate but I think she needs your spot on the Committee,” Douglas murmured, sounding utterly in awe of what he’d just witnessed.

“None taken,” Blake said faintly. He continued staring in awe for a second longer before snapping out of his daze. “Homenum Revelio,” he muttered, having learned his lesson on assuming there only being one group.

Looking around, he could see the spell marking all of the unconscious or petrified attackers but could see no others.

“Looks like that’s the last of them,” he said moving over to Meg. “We should send word to the Ministry that we help carting these lovely people off to holding cells.” He quickly scanned Meg for signs she was more than just fatigued. “And you may need to visit St. Mungo’s to make sure you didn’t worsen your injuries.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg nodded in begrudging agreement. Her spine felt as if tiny needles were creeping from her bones through her veins as she slid down the gravestone to the ground. She grumpily threw her cane in the grass next to her and took in some slow breaths. 

“If I don’t get my fucking wand back after this, I swear to God I’m going to murder someone.” 

~ “I’m sorry, but we can’t issue your wand to you at this time. If you would like to make the request once you’ve fully recovered, the application will be made available once you’re released from St. Mungo’s.” Triggs read to an infuriated Meg. 

Once the Ministry had gathered the perpetrators, Meg had been immediately ushered to St. Mungo’s where the Healers insisted on keeping her for the night to monitor. Meg’s spine and surrounding muscles had been strained in the exertion of magic. However, Meg’s application for her wand had been sent before they left the graveyard, and Triggs had picked up their reply on his way to visit her. 

“I cannot believe that those motherfucking putrescent shit smears are seriously going to continue to bench me! I mean, the cane is bad enough, but to completely tie my hands from magic? I mean, the amount of brainless decisions that those maggot-eating cock suckers have made are toeing the line between delusional and dying to have a lawsuit…” Meg trailed off as Triggs’ face began to creep into a smile. “What?”

“I basically called your reaction, that’s all. Especially since that’s not what they said. I have your wand right here and you’re cleared to use it.” Triggs pulled out Meg’s wand from his pocket and showed Meg the paperwork saying she was cleared to use magic again. 

“Could you not have stopped me before I insulted our branch of government?” Meg sighed as she took her wand and looked at it fondly. 

“You were on a roll.” Triggs shrugged.

“Thanks for grabbing this for me.” 

“Of course. What are partners for?” Triggs smiled as he turned to leave. “But I want to add that I’m getting a little worried that the only time we talk nowadays is when you’re all banged up in the hospital.”

“What can I say? Trouble usually has a way of finding me.” Meg called after him. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I know you didn’t get yourself hurt just days after I got engaged.”

Blake looked up from The Daily Prophet issue he’d been idly flipping through. “So you did say yes,” He said, grinning as Morgana approached him. “I told Jesse you would.”

She gave him an unimpressed look. “Seriously, what did you do?” She asked after they’d lapsed into silence.

“I did nothing. I am merely waiting for someone.”

Morgana gives him a disbelieving look. “Who? I would have been notified if Kole had been hurt and if either Jesse or that partner of yours had been hurt you would be waiting outside their room rather than here.” She gestured at the waiting room around them.

“If you must know,” Blake began with a sigh. “The auror that got injured was tasked with helping me and Douglas with our investigation.”

“And she injured herself again.”

“Not injured just,” he hesitated and looked around the room. He wanted to tell Morgana about the fight and Meg releasing a wave of nonverbal and wandless magic, pick the brain of the person who knew more about magic theory than he did but, this was not the place. “Let’s just say she overtaxed herself and this is merely a precaution.”

Morgana sent him another disbelieving look but didn’t push any further. “I need to get back to my rounds. Do try not to cause more trouble.”

“I’ll try,” He said with a laugh.

“If you’re still here when I have my dinner break we can grab something from the cafeteria.”

“Mmm hospital food sounds appetizing.”

Morgana huffed out a laugh as she rolled her eyes and walked away.

[megprescott-hitter]

The hustle and bustle of St. Mungo’s continued through the night into the early morning when the sun’s rays began to dance along the clean white walls. The night shift left, and the morning shift arrived. 

Meg was woken up to morning check ups and prodding healers, leaving her slightly grumpy. 

“We’ll check in again around lunch time. If you’re still stable at that point, we’ll probably let you leave.” one of the healers told her. “I would take this opportunity to catch up on some more sleep, though.” 

“Right.” Meg replied with a roll of her eyes. The Healer smirked and left to find Blake still in the waiting room. 

“Blake Raymond, right? I’m surprised to still see you here.” he greeted, curiosity hanging on his words. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake looked up at the sound of his name. The quite conversation he had been having with Morgana coming to a pause as the Healer approached them. 

“I’m keeping this one entertained during her lunch break,” he said nodding at the woman seated next to him.

Morgana let out an unladylike snort of amusement and disbelief. “More like you’re using me as an excuse to stay here until you hear a word about that injured Auror you’ve been partnered with.”

“Who says I can’t do both?” Blake asked, grinning as Morgana rolled her eyes.

“Do you mean Meg Prescott?” The Healer asked, getting a nod of confirmation from both Blake and Morgana. “Have you been here all night? You must be exhausted.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

At the Healer’s disbelieving look Morgana piped up. “Blake has developed a rather bad habit of pulling multiple all-nighters in a row while working on cases or inventing a new spell. It’s gotten to the point where running on four hours of sleep over a 48 hour period is normal for him.” She gave Blake an annoyed look. “A habit which I have told him multiple times is not healthy.”

“Healthy smealthy, I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Blake said lightly waving her concerns off with a hand.

“Which will be sooner rather than later if you don’t sleep.”

“Um, Meg is currently awake if you want to go see her,” the Healer cut in as the teasing was starting to turn into a full-blown argument between the two friends.

“Oh sure thanks,” Blake said, taking the out that was given to him. He was just tired enough that he did not want to get into an argument iwth Morgana just yet.

“No problem. Go down this hall and then take a left and a right and her room will be the third one down on the right.”

Blake waved his thanks as he stood and began following the Healer’s directions. Upon reaching Meg’s room he knocked on her door.

“Meg?” He called.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg looked up from some of her paperwork as her name was called out. She furrowed her brow when she saw who the voice belonged to. 

“Blake? Have you… you haven’t been here all night, have you?” she asked brusquely as she noticed that he was wearing the same clothes he had the night before. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Might have,” Blake said with a shrug as he entered Meg’s hospital room. “A friend of mine works here as a healer and I got to talking to her for a bit. Plus, I wanted to ask about that thing you did.”

He made an explosion gesture with both of his hands as he nudged the door closed with his foot. “Any idea how you did that or what caused it? Because I have read a lot on magical theory and spells and I have only read about people who were rumored to be able to cast such a massive spell wordlessly and wandlessly.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave a slight disappointed sigh when Blake explained the real motivation of him being there. Magic theory. Something Meg didn’t really have a passion for. 

“You’re asking me as if I have the faintest idea.” Meg told Blake. “I saw the second wave of wizards and knew that you needed back up. I felt…” she pursed her lips, trying to pinpoint the sensation. “I don’t know. I guess I just felt useless, and then something just ignited in me and it just happened.” she glanced at her newly obtained wand before shaking her head. “But now that I have my wand back, we should refocus on the fact that apparently I was on to something with that cemetery. You can poke and prod me like everyone else after we get Orson.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake frowned slightly in concern and confusion. Concern because he was unsure if the blast Meg had produced had not hurt her in some way as well. He was sure the Mediwizards had done a thorough check up but considering what she had just done was nearly unheard of Blake worried that they might not know what to look for. Not to mention the fact that he immensely disagreed with the Ministry’s decision to give Meg her wand back even though she was still injured from the attack that brought her to the Investigation Department. A part of him, the very small part that remained of the child who idolized his father, wondered if the Ministry was hoping Meg would get herself killed in the process of taking down Orson. But, that made no sense. After all, why would the ministry want to lose one of their best Aurors? 

Barely giving the paranoid thought consideration Blake dismissed it to focus on the confusion he felt. Why had Meg seemed disappointed when he asked about the blast? Did she think he was being overly concerned about her wellbeing? He knew she was an Auror and by trade, they were expected to be tough but surely he was allowed to be concerned for her as a friend. Blake’s stomach dipped slightly as it suddenly hit him that Meg might not view him the same way. After all, they had only just reunited years after leaving Hogwarts a couple days ago and aside from their fifth year, they’d interacted so infrequently they could maybe be considered acquaintances. Acquaintances who had slept together but acquaintances nonetheless. So, perhaps Meg had not even thought about them being anything more than partners in the investigation. Partners who would once again part ways once the investigation was over. Blake was surprised by the amount of hurt he felt at the thought of Meg and him parting ways once more.

“If you’re sure you’re up for it,” Blake murmured quietly, pushing down the hurt he felt. He needed to focus on this investigation, his feelings could be dealt with later. “I’ll get Douglas to gather everything the Ministry has on the cemetery. Do you know when you’ll be released?”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg sat back and took a hard look at Blake. There was something in his voice that made her readjust her attention from her papers. 

“You don’t think I should be released yet.” 

It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t an accusation. She tilted her head and read on his face that she was right. She sighed as she pushed her papers to the other side of the bed.

“Listen, Blake, I don’t like being here and the Healers know what they’re doing. I’m to be released after lunch once they’ve done one last check up to make sure my magic is…” she shrugged at the lack of a term to use. “Under control. That and to make sure that my back isn’t going to snap in half. However, what we should be focusing on is the fact that Orson Jr. could very well be bringing people back from the dead, which could lead us down a very bad path very quickly. If Douglas could get that information, that would be great.” pausing, she sighed. “But if it makes you feel better, we can meet at my flat instead of the office so I can rest a bit while Douglas is getting that information.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake shrugged sheepishly at having his thoughts read so easily by Meg. She had a point, the healers wouldn’t release her unless they felt she was healthy enough to be. And he fully acknowledged it but, because he did not fully understand what happened in the graveyard he couldn’t help but be worried. 

“Actually, it would make me feel a bit better,” he said with no shame. There was little point in denying it since Meg clearly knew how he felt about the matter already. “What’s your address?” He asked pulling out one of his enchanted slips of paper and a quill.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave her address before insisting that Blake get some rest too. 

“I can’t imagine that you got a lot of rest with those uncomfortable chairs in the waiting area…” she mused as a thank you.

Lunch came and went and the Healers, with no evidence saying otherwise, gave Meg her leave. Finally equipped with her wand, she immediately apparated back to her flat. 

“Home sweet flat…” she muttered to herself as she opened the door to find her mess right where she had left it. However, now that she had her wand back, cleaning up took less than ten minutes. She slumped on her bed and almost immediately passed out, but not before pondering the reasoning behind her seemingly incredible magic.

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake huffed out a laugh as he pocketed Meg’s address. 

“I’ve slept in worse places,” he said with a faint shrug. 

Specifically the old offices the Investigation Department had been using when he’d first joined. Offices he’d been forced to sleep at frequently in the early days when he’d had to work twice as hard on solving the worst cases to prove he wasn’t his father’s son. Something he still occasionally had to do but, less frequently now that Douglas was his partner.

He wiggled his fingers in a wave goodbye before apparating home. Appearing in his flat’s kitchen, Blake made himself some toast and tea. Scarfing both down as he kicked off his shoes. Setting his mug in the sink, he made his way to the bedroom and began pulling his clothes off. Stripped down to his boxers, Blake murmured a quiet ‘Certum tempus’ and set an alarm five hours from then and crawled into bed.

Five hours later, he awoke to his alarm and after showering and making himself breakfast Blake began reviewing all the information he had on the Orsen case. Waiting for the appointed time he was supposed to meet up with Meg and Douglas. 

[megprescott-hitter]

Macrofractures

[blakeraymond-grifter]

megprescott-hitter:

“Smart response…” Meg grunted taking another swig from her glass. Aidan moved to sit down and Meg sat further back in her chair, expecting another lecture. She was mildly surprised by how soft his voice was. However, she had been around Blake too long to take that tone as Aidan’s true feelings. 

“Tonight….” she paused, choosing her words as carefully as she could with her vodka-addled brain. “Mr. Mansfield gave me a pair of custom carbon fiber brass knuckles so that I could do a specific job for him. There was a… cop on his payroll that had been causing problems for Mr. Mansfield, and we went to meet him. The… cop pulled a gun and I…” she trailed off and raised her bloodied hands to finish the sentiment. “He’s still alive and I removed any trace of Mr. Mansfield and myself from the scene.”

Aiden hummed faintly as he thought back to all he’d been able to hear over the comms earlier that evening. From what he could remember what Meg was saying matched up near perfectly. Blake’s father and Meg had met up with the corrupt cop, a struggle had ensued that only ended when Atticus snapped her out of it just before she’d killed the cop. Then Meg had been tasked with cleaning up the scene.

“May I ask what caused the encounter to escalate?” He asked, giving Meg an inquisitive look. “You obviously anticipated things getting violent,” Aiden refrained from verbalizing the ‘Because you asked Blake’s comm to be turned off’ but he was sure that even in her vodka addled mind Meg could hear it. “But, from what I heard it seemed to become even more violent than you’d thought. Was it the gun? Or was it because he was a dirty cop? Or was it because of something else?” Or did Meg even understand herself why she’d almost beaten the man to death? 

[megprescott-hitter]

Word Travels Fast

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake nodded faintly, pulling out one of his enchanted pieces of paper and began writing a brief note containing the address and that it was urgent he met them there as quickly as possible. Knowing Douglas, he was certain the other man would still be awake and alert enough to notice the paper appearing out of this air. If he wasn’t, then Blake would have to break out his mini howlers. 

“It’s either that or we walk.” He quipped as he took Meg’s arm in his. The familiar sensation of being pulled through a straw washed over him as they apparated away and appeared at the funeral home with a crack. “These places always give me the creeps,” Blake muttered, taking a moment to take stock of their surroundings.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg had to put her hand over her mouth to keep her from spewing her dinner in the grass. 

“A little warning next time…?” she moaned after she swallowed the gastric acid and steadied herself with her cane. She took in their surroundings before pointing to the work house where there were glowing windows indicating someone was there. “We should start there.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Sorry?” Blake said with an apologetic shrug. 

He did feel a little guilty about not giving her a heads up, especially since she couldn’t walk without the assistance of a cane. What if they’d appeared without the cane? He supposed he could transfigure something into a temporary solution, but that wouldn’t change the fact that his excitement would have likely resulted in embarrassment for Meg.

“I was really excited about this lead.” He explained, hoping it would smooth over any ruffled feathers.

A quiet popping sound to their left indicated someone else apparating into the area. Blake tensed for a moment, before registering that it was Douglas.

“Did I miss anything?” The other man asked as he approached them.

Blake shook his head. “No, we were just about to investigate the workhouse.” He nodded in the direction of the building Meg had mentioned a moment ago.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave an breathless chuckle at Blake’s enthusiasm. 

“Don’t worry about it, I think I’ll make it….” she assured him as Douglas showed up. She straightened up and took a few unsteady steps towards the boys. “In case Blake didn’t include why we’re here, I might have found a connection between our missing Mr. Orson and the floo powder case. I have some evidence that states that Orson Jr. was brought back from the dead and all the suspicious behavior we’ve been investigating was actually the Jr., not the Sr. This was where they were buried after the car accident. At the very least, we can at least confirm that either the Orsons are back from the dead and try to find them, or resting peacefully and we go back to square one.” Meg frowned at their options. “I honestly don’t know which one I would prefer…” 

~~~

“Definitely ministry. Apparated less than two minutes ago.” one of the grave workers reported to the seemingly empty room. 

“Are they ours?” the shadows asked in a million low whispers. 

“Doesn’t look like it. Two males and a crippled woman.” 

The shadows paused.

“The woman. Describe her.”

“Petite, red head, walking with a cane, seems like apparating didn’t agree with her….” the worker described, but trailed off as the shadows gave a vexed hiss. 

“Prescott…” they wheezed in annoyance. “You’ll have reinforcements momentarily. Expect a fight, don’t let anyone near the tombs, and if necessary kill them. We don’t need any more delays.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Brought back from the dead? Hopefully, these guys aren’t actually linked with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s Death Eaters or we’ll have a lot of trouble further down the line,” Douglas murmured.

“No kidding,” Blake said, his voice barely above a whisper. He thanked whatever deity was watching over them that his father was already in Azkaban or else those with the power to resurrect people would be far more ambitious in their plans.

“Well the, shall we go knock on their door and have a friendly chat?” Douglas flashed them a bright smile and jogged over to the door.

“Bloody Gryffindors,” Blake sighed as he moved to follow his partner at a much slower pace.

[megprescott-hitter]

“Fucking Gryffindors…” Meg muttered as she made her way over in a more realistic pace. Still a ways off, she turned to Blake. “Thank you for believing me, by the way. I’m not sure if the people in my previous position would have…” 

~

“Lead them in the opposite direction and ambush them.” the shadows instructed before falling silent as Douglas entered in the building. 

“May I help you?” the grave yard worker asked innocently. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I’m used to starting investigations with less or more obscure ideas,” Blake said with a faint shrug.

~

“You may,” Douglas said as he approached the graveyard worker.  My colleagues and I,” he turned to look over his shoulder, frowning when he saw Blake and Meg were still outside. Douglas made a hurry up motion before turning back to the worker, “Were hoping we might be pointed towards a specific grave.”

“Of course,” the graveyard worker gave Douglas a blinding smile as Blake and Meg came through the door. “May I have the name?” He asked, summoning a large leather bound book. 

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave Doug a disapproving look as they caught up.

“You do remember I’m a cripple, right? I can’t exactly jog places to keep up with you.” she reprimanded before turning to the worker. “Yes, the names are Mary and Alfred Orson. We are running an investigation and seeing the graves are instrumental.” she pulled out her credentials with the ministry to push her point. “My colleague’s zeal might have overpowered his sense of protocol.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Douglas had the decency to look a little ashamed at Meg’s words.

“Ah, I see,” the graveyard worker murmured. “Your colleague merely said you were looking for someone. Not that it was part of a Ministry backed investigation. One moment please.” 

He set the large book down and waved his wand over it muttering a spell under his breath. The book opened itself two-thirds of the way through its mass of papers.

“Let’s see here.” The worker ran his finger down the page. “Oakley, Oliver, O’Mally. Ah here it is, Orson.” He turned the book so Blake, Douglas and Meg could see where his finger was pointing. “It looks like they were buried in plot four of section seven in quadrant three.” 

[megprescott-hitter]

“Perfect.” Meg offered a polite smile as she ignored the fact that the deceased were organized not unlike produce. “Would you mind showing us where the plots are?”

“Of course.” 

The four of them walked around the cemetery, and Meg was making a mental map in case their guide left them to attend to his duties. Over the next several minutes, the worker was attempting nervous conversation. Meg chalked it up to not being used to guests. Grave yard workers weren’t exactly trained to entertain. However, when they stopped at the edge of the cemetery where a grove of trees boxed them in, Meg furrowed her brow. 

“Excuse me, is this where the plots are?” she asked, unease filling her senses. 

“No.” the worker responded, looking off into the grove instead of at them. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?” 

Wizards and witches emerged from the grove, surrounding the trio. The grave worker apparated with a *pop*, leaving the trio alone to fend for themselves. Meg reached to her waist before remembering that she still wasn’t allowed her wand for active duty. 

“Next time I say I have a hunch, just punch me.” she muttered to the other two. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Deal!” Douglas said the same moment Blake shouted “Protego horribilis!” 

The two men moved, so they were facing opposite directions, with their backs to Meg, as the area surrounding the three lit up from the impacts of spells and curses on the shield charm. The second there was a pause in the onslaught Blake dropped the shield.

“Confringo,” Douglas cried. The ground about a foot away from him exploded knocking back three of the approaching attackers. They landed in a crumpled heap, injured but not dead.

“Immobulus!“ Two more of the attackers, these ones advancing towards Blake, froze halfway through casting spells of their own. His eyes widened as a witch came around her two frozen compatriots and sent a ‘Crucio’ towards him. “Protego,” he cried out just in time to deflect the curse.

“Avada-”

“Expelliarmus!” Douglas yelled followed with a “Stupefy!” and another attacker fell to the ground stunned and wandless. “You know Blake,” he yelled over his shoulder. “This might be a good time for you to test out that new spell you were working on.” 

“You know I would really rather not get kicked off of Experimental Charms Committee only just got on it a month ago,” Blake shot back as a jinx flew past his ear.

“Oh come on you know you’re the darling of the committee! I doubt they’d give you more than a slap on the wrist if you killed all of us. Besides, wouldn’t you rather this fight be over now rather than risk these chumps killing us?”  Douglas called as he threw up a quick ‘ Protego’ to deflect an oncoming stunning spell.

“Fine,” Blake said with a sigh. “Stand back.” He made a swish-flick-flick motion with his wand and hissed, “bellua umbra!”

A large gout of flame erupted from the tip of his wand that took the form of a giant snake. The remaining attackers that were still able to move ran screaming as the giant flaming snake chased them into the grove.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg was suddenly slack jawed and taken back to the Hogwarts Dueling Club as she watched Blake’s incredible wand work. However, it was clear that he had honed his already apt skills as Meg watched in amazement at the enormous serpent chased off to defend the trio. However, as Doug and Blake were concentrating on handling the majority of the attackers, Meg turned and realized there was a second wave. They all raised their wands…

“NO!” Meg cried out as she moved between the guys and the others. She suddenly felt something stir inside her core. Magic pulsed out of her in a wave of red lightning as the second wave of attackers were thrown back, not stirring once they had landed on the unforgiving ground. A moment passed, and Meg stumbled back slightly, feeling drained of all energy. She leaned on her cane, but also on a gravestone just to her right. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake was conscious of but did nothing to rectify his mouth hanging open in shock. His wand was frozen in mid-air having been halfway through the motion that would have raised another shield.

“No offense mate but I think she needs your spot on the Committee,” Douglas murmured, sounding utterly in awe of what he’d just witnessed.

“None taken,” Blake said faintly. He continued staring in awe for a second longer before snapping out of his daze. “Homenum Revelio,” he muttered, having learned his lesson on assuming there only being one group.

Looking around, he could see the spell marking all of the unconscious or petrified attackers but could see no others.

“Looks like that’s the last of them,” he said moving over to Meg. “We should send word to the Ministry that we help carting these lovely people off to holding cells.” He quickly scanned Meg for signs she was more than just fatigued. “And you may need to visit St. Mungo’s to make sure you didn’t worsen your injuries.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg nodded in begrudging agreement. Her spine felt as if tiny needles were creeping from her bones through her veins as she slid down the gravestone to the ground. She grumpily threw her cane in the grass next to her and took in some slow breaths. 

“If I don’t get my fucking wand back after this, I swear to God I’m going to murder someone.” 

~ “I’m sorry, but we can’t issue your wand to you at this time. If you would like to make the request once you’ve fully recovered, the application will be made available once you’re released from St. Mungo’s.” Triggs read to an infuriated Meg. 

Once the Ministry had gathered the perpetrators, Meg had been immediately ushered to St. Mungo’s where the Healers insisted on keeping her for the night to monitor. Meg’s spine and surrounding muscles had been strained in the exertion of magic. However, Meg’s application for her wand had been sent before they left the graveyard, and Triggs had picked up their reply on his way to visit her. 

“I cannot believe that those motherfucking putrescent shit smears are seriously going to continue to bench me! I mean, the cane is bad enough, but to completely tie my hands from magic? I mean, the amount of brainless decisions that those maggot-eating cock suckers have made are toeing the line between delusional and dying to have a lawsuit…” Meg trailed off as Triggs’ face began to creep into a smile. “What?”

“I basically called your reaction, that’s all. Especially since that’s not what they said. I have your wand right here and you’re cleared to use it.” Triggs pulled out Meg’s wand from his pocket and showed Meg the paperwork saying she was cleared to use magic again. 

“Could you not have stopped me before I insulted our branch of government?” Meg sighed as she took her wand and looked at it fondly. 

“You were on a roll.” Triggs shrugged.

“Thanks for grabbing this for me.” 

“Of course. What are partners for?” Triggs smiled as he turned to leave. “But I want to add that I’m getting a little worried that the only time we talk nowadays is when you’re all banged up in the hospital.”

“What can I say? Trouble usually has a way of finding me.” Meg called after him. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“I know you didn’t get yourself hurt just days after I got engaged.”

Blake looked up from The Daily Prophet issue he’d been idly flipping through. “So you did say yes,” He said, grinning as Morgana approached him. “I told Jesse you would.”

She gave him an unimpressed look. “Seriously, what did you do?” She asked after they’d lapsed into silence.

“I did nothing. I am merely waiting for someone.”

Morgana gives him a disbelieving look. “Who? I would have been notified if Kole had been hurt and if either Jesse or that partner of yours had been hurt you would be waiting outside their room rather than here.” She gestured at the waiting room around them.

“If you must know,” Blake began with a sigh. “The auror that got injured was tasked with helping me and Douglas with our investigation.”

“And she injured herself again.”

“Not injured just,” he hesitated and looked around the room. He wanted to tell Morgana about the fight and Meg releasing a wave of nonverbal and wandless magic, pick the brain of the person who knew more about magic theory than he did but, this was not the place. “Let’s just say she overtaxed herself and this is merely a precaution.”

Morgana sent him another disbelieving look but didn’t push any further. “I need to get back to my rounds. Do try not to cause more trouble.”

“I’ll try,” He said with a laugh.

“If you’re still here when I have my dinner break we can grab something from the cafeteria.”

“Mmm hospital food sounds appetizing.”

Morgana huffed out a laugh as she rolled her eyes and walked away.

[megprescott-hitter]

The hustle and bustle of St. Mungo’s continued through the night into the early morning when the sun’s rays began to dance along the clean white walls. The night shift left, and the morning shift arrived. 

Meg was woken up to morning check ups and prodding healers, leaving her slightly grumpy. 

“We’ll check in again around lunch time. If you’re still stable at that point, we’ll probably let you leave.” one of the healers told her. “I would take this opportunity to catch up on some more sleep, though.” 

“Right.” Meg replied with a roll of her eyes. The Healer smirked and left to find Blake still in the waiting room. 

“Blake Raymond, right? I’m surprised to still see you here.” he greeted, curiosity hanging on his words. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake looked up at the sound of his name. The quite conversation he had been having with Morgana coming to a pause as the Healer approached them. 

“I’m keeping this one entertained during her lunch break,” he said nodding at the woman seated next to him.

Morgana let out an unladylike snort of amusement and disbelief. “More like you’re using me as an excuse to stay here until you hear a word about that injured Auror you’ve been partnered with.”

“Who says I can’t do both?” Blake asked, grinning as Morgana rolled her eyes.

“Do you mean Meg Prescott?” The Healer asked, getting a nod of confirmation from both Blake and Morgana. “Have you been here all night? You must be exhausted.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

At the Healer’s disbelieving look Morgana piped up. “Blake has developed a rather bad habit of pulling multiple all-nighters in a row while working on cases or inventing a new spell. It’s gotten to the point where running on four hours of sleep over a 48 hour period is normal for him.” She gave Blake an annoyed look. “A habit which I have told him multiple times is not healthy.”

“Healthy smealthy, I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Blake said lightly waving her concerns off with a hand.

“Which will be sooner rather than later if you don’t sleep.”

“Um, Meg is currently awake if you want to go see her,” the Healer cut in as the teasing was starting to turn into a full-blown argument between the two friends.

“Oh sure thanks,” Blake said, taking the out that was given to him. He was just tired enough that he did not want to get into an argument iwth Morgana just yet.

“No problem. Go down this hall and then take a left and a right and her room will be the third one down on the right.”

Blake waved his thanks as he stood and began following the Healer’s directions. Upon reaching Meg’s room he knocked on her door.

“Meg?” He called.

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg looked up from some of her paperwork as her name was called out. She furrowed her brow when she saw who the voice belonged to. 

“Blake? Have you… you haven’t been here all night, have you?” she asked brusquely as she noticed that he was wearing the same clothes he had the night before. 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

“Might have,” Blake said with a shrug as he entered Meg’s hospital room. “A friend of mine works here as a healer and I got to talking to her for a bit. Plus, I wanted to ask about that thing you did.”

He made an explosion gesture with both of his hands as he nudged the door closed with his foot. “Any idea how you did that or what caused it? Because I have read a lot on magical theory and spells and I have only read about people who were rumored to be able to cast such a massive spell wordlessly and wandlessly.”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg gave a slight disappointed sigh when Blake explained the real motivation of him being there. Magic theory. Something Meg didn’t really have a passion for. 

“You’re asking me as if I have the faintest idea.” Meg told Blake. “I saw the second wave of wizards and knew that you needed back up. I felt…” she pursed her lips, trying to pinpoint the sensation. “I don’t know. I guess I just felt useless, and then something just ignited in me and it just happened.” she glanced at her newly obtained wand before shaking her head. “But now that I have my wand back, we should refocus on the fact that apparently I was on to something with that cemetery. You can poke and prod me like everyone else after we get Orson.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake frowned slightly in concern and confusion. Concern because he was unsure if the blast Meg had produced had not hurt her in some way as well. He was sure the Mediwizards had done a thorough check up but considering what she had just done was nearly unheard of Blake worried that they might not know what to look for. Not to mention the fact that he immensely disagreed with the Ministry’s decision to give Meg her wand back even though she was still injured from the attack that brought her to the Investigation Department. A part of him, the very small part that remained of the child who idolized his father, wondered if the Ministry was hoping Meg would get herself killed in the process of taking down Orson. But, that made no sense. After all, why would the ministry want to lose one of their best Aurors? 

Barely giving the paranoid thought consideration Blake dismissed it to focus on the confusion he felt. Why had Meg seemed disappointed when he asked about the blast? Did she think he was being overly concerned about her wellbeing? He knew she was an Auror and by trade, they were expected to be tough but surely he was allowed to be concerned for her as a friend. Blake’s stomach dipped slightly as it suddenly hit him that Meg might not view him the same way. After all, they had only just reunited years after leaving Hogwarts a couple days ago and aside from their fifth year, they’d interacted so infrequently they could maybe be considered acquaintances. Acquaintances who had slept together but acquaintances nonetheless. So, perhaps Meg had not even thought about them being anything more than partners in the investigation. Partners who would once again part ways once the investigation was over. Blake was surprised by the amount of hurt he felt at the thought of Meg and him parting ways once more.

“If you’re sure you’re up for it,” Blake murmured quietly, pushing down the hurt he felt. He needed to focus on this investigation, his feelings could be dealt with later. “I’ll get Douglas to gather everything the Ministry has on the cemetery. Do you know when you’ll be released?”

[megprescott-hitter]

Meg sat back and took a hard look at Blake. There was something in his voice that made her readjust her attention from her papers. 

“You don’t think I should be released yet.” 

It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t an accusation. She tilted her head and read on his face that she was right. She sighed as she pushed her papers to the other side of the bed.

“Listen, Blake, I don’t like being here and the Healers know what they’re doing. I’m to be released after lunch once they’ve done one last check up to make sure my magic is…” she shrugged at the lack of a term to use. “Under control. That and to make sure that my back isn’t going to snap in half. However, what we should be focusing on is the fact that Orson Jr. could very well be bringing people back from the dead, which could lead us down a very bad path very quickly. If Douglas could get that information, that would be great.” pausing, she sighed. “But if it makes you feel better, we can meet at my flat instead of the office so I can rest a bit while Douglas is getting that information.” 

[blakeraymond-grifter]

Blake shrugged sheepishly at having his thoughts read so easily by Meg. She had a point, the healers wouldn’t release her unless they felt she was healthy enough to be. And he fully acknowledged it but, because he did not fully understand what happened in the graveyard he couldn’t help but be worried. 

“Actually, it would make me feel a bit better,” he said with no shame. There was little point in denying it since Meg clearly knew how he felt about the matter already. “What’s your address?” He asked pulling out one of his enchanted slips of paper and a quill.