Gross. But hey, at least yours are safe. Um…mind if I stop by tomorrow? I want to be able to actually spend some time with them. They can meet Aiden, be the proper bad influence he needs. I agree with you, though. Roo would not be a good combination with them. She’s already nosy and messed up as it is. It’d be the end of the world if she stuck that nose where it wasn’t supposed to go. I’m glad he met them. Do they know who he is or are you keeping it quiet? I’m glad you’re okay too. You are okay, right? No serious injuries? Life threatening ones, anyway? You’ll bounce back from all this right?
Sure, stop by whenever. I'm kind of keeping them under lock, because I would rather not have Jack kill me so I won't be doing any real work for a while. [laughs] Lucy would probably try to teach her how to pick a lock or tell her the right way to kill someone in one hit. [frowns] They know Jack as their dad. I'll tell them who he is when they're older. It would be too confusing to them now if I tried to explain everything. Yeah, I'm fine. I got a few cuts and bruises, but I'll live. Nothing that won't heal.
And this is a good idea because…why? I feel like this is somehow going to backfire and you’re going to get yourself pulled into more shit. In other news, I’m happy you get to see the kids. And when do I get to see the cuties? And what about Banzai?
It's not, but they're taking everyone to deal with this. I was lucky to not have to take the babies with me. That family multiplies like fucking rabbits. You can see them whenever you want. I'm staying out of Scar's apartment for a while, because I don't think that the three of them plus Roo would be a good idea. [scrunches her nose] Banzai's seen them. He met them a couple of days ago while I was recovering.
Well, I've got mine, then I have Jack's daughter. She got kidnapped, and I owed him a favor, so I had to go help pull her out. Fucking sucked, but I get to spend time with my kids for a few weeks.
Banzai was busy packing his bags for him and Lula when he felt his phone Buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out, before looking down at the small screen. He read the words and sucked in a breath before looking over at the sleeping figure in the bed. He chewed his cheek and quickly wrote Meg back.
I'm on my way.
He quickly grabbed his wallet and shoved it into his back pocket before heading out of the room. He moved quickly and swiftly to Meg’s apartment. He had a nervous feeling in his stomach about what was going to happen in the next minutes of his life. He found himself in front of her door and stared at the wood for several long moments before he rose his hand and knocked three times on her door waiting for someone to answer. When a little girl opened it up he frowned clearly confused before entering. “Meg?”
"Come on in, Zai," she called. The small brunette child bounced back across the room and landed on Meg's leg's. Meg groaned as she felt Lucy's bony little bottom dug into a bruise on her thigh. Her boys were settled behind the couch, peeking around the sides at the man that had just come through the door. She could hear them whispering to each other in Portuguese, sizing him up just the way she had taught them. She would have let them stay back there for longer, but she really needed this to be over as soon as possible. The whole idea of this added stress that she did not need on top of her injuries. But she owed Banzai this much. Not any further than that, but...
"Come on out, Chitlins. Αυτό πρέπει να είναι πάνω από σύντομα. Η μαμά δεν αισθάνεται καλά." Charlie crept out first, always the braver of the two boys and stalked forward with a swagger that would have made Jack proud. The boys had blue eyes like their mother and dishwater blond hair like her dad that Meg hoped they would grow out of as they got older. They were both a little short for their age - with Henry about an inch taller than Charie - but all the men in Meg's family were giants. They would probably just grow into a proper height. Other than the height difference, the two of them were identical.
"Meu nome é-" Meg poked his shoulder and the brown haired boy rolled his eyes and switched to English. "My name is Charlie. That's Henry." He pointed to his younger brother still hiding behind the couch. "Who are you?"
Something was wrong… But what? This was supposed to be an easy in, easy out job. There was not supposed to be anything but a weak little man hidden in the hovel. But… something felt off. Something that Meg just couldn’t quite put her finger on. There was something else.
Snap!
~
She awoke suddenly from a dreamless, almost comatose state. She would have been grateful for the lack of nightmares if it were not for the rope sturdily lashing her to a metal chair. The metal was no longer cool against her skin, which meant that she had been there for a while. There was a throbbing against the back of her head. She would have to get checked out for a concussion once she was out of her. As the fog cleared from her vision, she was able to focus on a man before her. Not really a man, but a boy. Scared, by the looks of it. Poor thing probably hadn’t hurt a fly in all his life. A half smile crossed her face as she looked at him. He was about the same age that she had been when she started out.
“Who- Who are you and how did you find us?” he asked, his voice and stance wavering as he stepped towards her. Her lips curled into a wry smile and crossed her legs to give as much of an air of indifference as she could.
As she was coming up with a clever come back, little Lucy came running up and threw her thin arms around Meg’s neck. “Auntie Meg!” she giggled. “What are you doing tied up to a chair? Are you playing like Jack and Peg used to?”
A lump rose in Meg’s throat as she thought about Jack and the bitch that had ripped out his heart and stomped it into a million pieces, but she swallowed it and smiled at the young girl. “Yes, little Lucy. This man and I are going to play a game for a little bit. Why don’t you go and play somewhere else, then you and I can leave when I’m done? If you’re good, we can go shooting. How does that sound?”
Lucy giggled again and planted a sloppy kiss on Meg’s cheek. “I’ll be good, Auntie Meg! I promise!”
Meg smiled and watched the girl bounce off into another room. She counted to three as soon as the child was out of sight, then turned back to face the man, still frozen stiff where he had been when the child entered the room. Her smile worked its way back onto her lips as she watched emotions play across his face. “You have no idea what you’re doing, kid, do you.” It wasn’t a question. She knew he was new to this. With the exception of Jack and Valarie – and perhaps Lucy – no one had ever been started out young enough to know what they were doing. He sputtered a contradiction, but she ignored him. She had more important things to think about. Like how to get herself out of this mess.
She attempted to untangle herself from the ropes, talking to distract him from the movements of her arms. “That’s what I thought.” She smirked. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re going to threaten me a little, tell me that if I tell anyone that this place is here you’ll kill me, then you’re going to let me go. You don’t know what you’re doing, and hurting Lucy or me would be a very bad choice.”
The kid shifted his gaze from her and turned to look at the corner of the room. Something was back there that she could not see. Meg leaned as far forward as she could, in an attempt to get a good look at whatever was back there, but immediately regretted it.
“I can take over now, John,” a deep voice growled. “You failed. We’ll talk about what happens later. For now, go play with the brat.” The boy scurried out of the room towards the direction that Lucy had wandered off to.
Meg swallowed a string of curse words and attempted to keep any traces of fear off of her face. The man that had taken over for John was hulking. Larger than anyone she had ever seen before and definitely scarier. He had a long scar down his face, extending from the edge of his left eye down across his lips and to the bottom of his chin. His eyes were almost black, and his hair a bright blond. He had to be a good foot taller than her, and his muscular build made him feel even taller. He was a brute of a man. He wore a shirt that had, at one time, probably been white, but was now splattered with a rusty brown that Meg knew to be blood. This man was terrifying her already and, if he was the man that she believed him to be, she was truly fucked.
She took a deep breath in and attempted to flush all fear from her system. This was just a man. He couldn’t do anything to her that she had not already bourn worse. She had given birth twice. How could he do any worse?
His voice was a quiet rumble as he spoke. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re going to tell me your exact relation to the Cruz family, and how your found us, or I’ll rip each one of those piercings out of your body.” He bent over until his face was level with hers and smiled, something animalistic hidden behind his lips. “And we both know your pretty little face isn’t the only thing pierced.”
With what sarcasm and resolve she could muster, Meg smiled at the man. “Can I at least get a gag before we start? I wouldn’t scare the little girl if I were you. She’ll be a lot less help to you if she thinks you hurt me.”
~
“How nice it was of your friends to leave me something to play with!” The man laughed as Meg writhed beneath him, but held her still with a large hand. “Don’t wiggle, we wouldn’t want to ruin my little art project!”
Tears streamed down her face and Meg screamed. Earlier she had hoped that wherever Lucy was being kept was soundproof, but she no longer cared. All she wanted was to know that she would soon be out of this mess. She was even willing to take death as an out. Meg looked down at her stomach and almost passed out at the sight of all of the blood that was pouring from her flesh. The man had taken a pre-existing scar of hers, something from years ago that had caused a lot of heart break and even more stitches, and carved it’s counterpart into her flesh to create a large X.
He boomed with laughter as he watched her reaction, then leaned in to her ear. “That’s where my knife will go when this is all over. X marks the spot, right?” His warm breath tickled her ear and he stroked her cheek as he stood back up to his full height. “Do you know how long it takes to die of a stomach wound like that? Twenty minutes. Longer, if I leave the knife in. Now, you don’t want a long death, do you?”
With tears streaming down her face, she lifted her gaze to his. “I’ll tell you,” she whimpered. He smiled triumphantly and leaned down towards her again. She wasn’t even sure if she could get her voice above a whimper, but she had to try. She just couldn’t take this anymore. With his ear close, she turned her head and whispered, “Go to hell, fucker.”
His hand struck her hard against the cheek and he screamed out in anger. Then his head exploded. Brain matter and blood and bone blew all over Meg. She didn’t even have the strength to be disgusted with the way that he had died, she was just glad that he was – in fact – dead. She wasn’t sure how long it took the sniper to get down from her nest atop the rafters and back down to Meg, but it wouldn’t matter if she wasn’t able to get out of there soon. She was beginning to feel dizzy with all of the blood loss.
“It took you long enough,” she mumbled as Valarie cut the bonds around her wrists and ankles.
The other girl took no time in freeing Meg, then setting her knife against the damaged girl’s throat. “What did you tell him?” she demanded. Meg could feel the cold metal of the blade pressing in to her throat. It would break skin if Valarie was not careful.
“I didn’t tell him anything!” she squeaked, trying to pull away from the knife. Valarie’s knife pushed harder into her skin and Meg felt the skin on her throat split. “I swear, I didn’t!”
The mobster stared at Meg for a moment, barely moving a muscle, then pulled her knife away and stood. “Where is Lucy?” Meg pointed towards the direction the girl had disappeared to and grabbed her throat in an attempt to stop any more blood from leaving her body. Valarie had been careful to not nick any arteries, but that did not make the pain any less.
It wasn’t long before Valarie had returned with a Lucy sleeping in her arms. “Happy now?” Meg asked. Valarie simply grunted a reply, and Meg stood. Or, tried to stand. She covered her mouth to stop the shriek that had attempted to make it’s way out of her lips. If she woke the sleeping child, Meg would be in a world of pain. More-so than she was now. But she was weak and in too much pain to get anywhere on her own. And sleep sounded like such a good idea. She would just close her eyes for a moment… Meg could hear the sound of a phone call being made, but did not care enough to open her eyes and find out what was going on.
However, she soon felt herself being lifted and carried in strong arms. She opened her eyes to slits and saw the face of her good friend Josh carrying her. “I need you to call Landon,” she whispered to him. “I need a doctor, but I cannot be in the system. If he whines, remind him that he still owes me for getting his ass out of that Brazilian jail.
~
It was almost three days before Meg woke up again, and when she did she found that she wanted to go right back to sleep. She awoke in a room that she recognized to be none other than the bedroom of Valarie’s murderous grandmother. The woman was either out of town or pissed off that her bedroom was taken from her. Meg hoped, for both her sake and for everyone else’s sakes, that the woman was out of town. She was angry when she was getting her way, and a thousand times worse when she was not.
Ah, at least her days of sleep had been dreamless. But perhaps that was the drugs coursing through her veins. Meg could see that she was hooked up to a whole mess of wires and tubes, most of which she wanted out of her body. But instead of pulling them all out on her own like she had last time, Meg decided to scream until someone came to her aid. It only took about five seconds for someone to come bursting through the door. Meg was greeted with the sight of a very frightened, then annoyed looking lackey. Probably one of Valarie and Jack’s many cousins. “Hey, kid,” she said. “Go get Valarie for me. Say… Say I’m dying or something.”
“Nice try, Greek,” Valarie shoved past the kid and walked into the room. “You can go, Damien. Thanks for watching her.” She walked over to Meg and started pulling the tubes and wires from her body. The older woman was the same way, in that she did not enjoy most foreign objects in her body.
“What,” Meg smirked. “Did you guys take shifts making sure I wasn’t dying or something?”
“Or something,” the older woman replied, sitting next to Meg on the bed. Meg watched Valarie play with one of her blonde dreads for a moment before speaking.
“We’re even now, right?” she asked, a little nervous about the answer.
“For a while. Just until you fuck up again and need me or Jack to bail you out.”
If it were anyone else, Meg would have corrected the poor grammar. But Valarie would just as soon stab Meg as she would accept a correction about her person. The whole Cruz family were a very proud people. “So what’s wrong with me?” Meg asked.
“Well, there’s the obvious things,” Valarie pointed to each hurt as she spoke. “You have a broken arm, a whole mess of bruises and little cuts, and that gash on your stomach. Townsend patched that up, but he said you shouldn’t strain yourself for a while. He doesn’t want you to rip a stitch.” The blonde leaned back on the bed and toyed with something attached to one of her dreadlocks. “Then you have a couple broken ribs, and apparently there’s something wrong with your heart.”
Meg rolled her eyes then turned them up to the ceiling. “Yeah, I have a murmur. It happened in high school, after Jack finally graduated. I fucked up and ended up in the hospital. That was the little present that my body left me from that trip. It’s not all that bad, though. At least that won’t kill me.” Meg joked, but she wasn’t all that sure it wouldn’t. There was something really wrong with her heart. It was the same thing that was wrong with her mother’s heart, and her mother’s before that. It was very rare that women of Meg’s Greek lineage lived past 30. And yet they had not been able to figure out to not procreate. At least Meg had been lucky enough to have boys. All she could hope for was that they would not carry on whatever she had been cursed with to their daughters, should they have children.
The pathetic girl in the pink frilly bed turned her attention back to her friend lying on the bed and staring at her. “What?” she finally questioned.
“You don’t weigh much anymore, do you,” Valarie commented, surveying Meg.
“I lost all of the baby weight over the last few years,” Meg replied simply, shrugging as she did so.
“You lost the baby weight after the babies,” Valarie retorted. “Don’t fucking lie to me, Greek. Jack told me that you stop eating when you’re stressed. Even Doctor Townsend noticed how thin you are.”
Meg sighed. She hated that man, but he was the best that her strict ‘no paperwork’ policy had to offer. “He was probably just noticing my lack of tits and ass. He really liked those at one time.”
“Yeah, he’s kinda creepy, isn’t he,” the blonde smiled. “But that’s not the answer I was looking for.”
Meg groaned and plopped her head back on the pillow. “Can I at least get a cigarette before the interrogation?”
“You’re right next to an oxygen tank, so no.” Meg frowned as she looked beside her, then Valarie explained. “Doc Townsend wanted to be sure that we had all the bases covered. He didn’t want to have to owe you anymore, I guess.”
Meg growled. “Fine, just… please don’t tell Jack any of this. I really don’t need his input on any of this.”
Valarie noded. “So why weren’t you eating?”
“I was, just… I was stressed out. I was dating this guy that I loved, and our relationship was just stressful. I was happy most of the time, but sometimes…” She shrugged. She didn’t want to go in to the whole thing with Valarie, but she had a feeling that she was going to anyway.
“Yeah, yeah, men suck.” She pulled a mopey face then gave Meg an unamused look. “I don’t believe that was it. Hell, you dated Jack and you were almost healthy. Aside from the drinking, but that’s pretty much required if you’re going to be a part of this family.”
Meg smiled and looked around the room she had been staying in. “I’m surprised your Gran hasn’t died of liver failure yet, with the way she drinks.”
“You and me both,” Valarie replied. “Most of us can’t wait for her to keel over and die. It’s like she’s staying alive just to spite us.”
Meg could definitely believe that would have happened. The woman tried at any chance that she got to kill everyone around her, including her own family. It was like a rite of passage in the Cruz family to have Gran attempt to murder you. Meg had experienced it first when she was 18, with a knife thrown at her head. Her next experience with it was when she turned 19. She had been in Chicago to visit her best friend and get away from the hell-hole boarding school she was living in. The woman had attempted to shoot her in the head when Meg had walked through the front door, but Gran was far too drunk and instead shot the wall next to Meg. She could still remember the sound of the bullet whizzing past her ear.
Valarie stood from the bed and Meg took note of the seriousness in her tone. “We’re going to need you to take the kids while we deal with this problem.”
“All of them?” Meg questioned, a little worried. The Cruz family liked to fuck a lot and because of that had many many children among them. Most of them babies.
“Just Charlie, Henry, and Lucy,” Valalrie clarified. “The babies are going with Lou.”
“I need a drink.” Meg attempted to sit up, but the other woman shoved hard against her shoulder and forced her back down onto the bed.
“You’ll rip a stitch. Lie the fuck back down.” She walked over to a desk and pulled out a bottle of dark rum.
After Valarie took a drink, Meg accepted the bottle and drank a little herself. The kids at the circus was going to be hell. “You know this is a circus, right? With circus freaks and violent offenders and rejects?”
“You’re one to talk.” Valarie commented quietly. “Lucy can handle herself, and the twins have you to watch over them. Just don’t let them near anyone else, and it should be fine.”
Meg shook her head, then gestured to her body. “Do you not see the state of me?”
Valarie smiled. “Ah, you’ll live. Just avoid strenuous activity.” She gave Meg a falsely apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but that means no sex.”
Meg sneered and drank again. “I already wasn’t having sex.”
Valarie laughed in disbelief. “Meghan Carte, the girl that could talk an asexual freak into bed, isn’t having sex? Hell must have frozen over.”
“Ha ha ha, yeah you’re so fucking funny.”
A horn honked from outside and Valarie opened a lace curtain about an inch to get a look outside. “That’s Josh,” she explained. “ He’s taking you and the kids to the tarmac. Just take care of the kids, yeah? Make sure no one gets their hands on Lucy again. Jack’ll have your head if she gets hurt.”
“I know,” Meg assured her. “I’ll be careful with them. The guy I live with might be willing to help, if his daughter decides to not be a total shit while they’re there. She actually kind of reminds me of Lucy, if Lucy used shitty manipulation techniques.”
Valarie smiled proudly. “Good thing Luce is smarter than that.”
The kid from earlier walked back into the room and looked at Meg, then asked, “You packed?”
“Everyone’s things are over there.” Valarie said, pointing to a pile of bags next to the door. “You pick her up and I’ll go get the little ones.”
“I can walk,” Meg grumbled, attempting to stand on her own. Just as she had almost sat up, Valarie shoved her shoulder back into the bed.
“Damian, carry her,” she ordered. “Tell Josh that she can walk at the airport, but Townsend doesn’t want her ripping her stitches, and she wants to avoid the hospital.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Damien gave his cousin a salute and Valarie threw the nearest object, a lace pillow, directly at his head. Damien laughed and bent down to pick Meg up.
Meg grumbled as he picked her up, but knew better than to struggle. “This is goddamn pathetic,” she moped as Damien put her in the front seat of the car.
“You’re the one that wanted to avoid the hospitals,” Josh commented from the driver seat.
“Shut the fuck up and drive us to the tarmac,” she ordered. She pulled on a fake smile as the kids all piled into the back seat. She could be falsely pleasant for the little ones. At the very least, they deserved that for being forced to go to the hell that Meg now lived in. “Are you kiddos ready to go visit a circus?”
A chorus of excited voices came from the back of the car and Meg’s smile turned real for a moment. At the very least, she got to be with her kids for a while.
Meg shot a quick text to the birth father of Charlie and Henry.
The boys are here. I'm in my old apartment, because Scar's is too
small for all of us. - Meg
She would not move much while Banzai was here. Her body could not take the added stress, plus Lucy was happily camped out on her lap, reading some book on guns that Valarie had given her at her last birthday. Meg watched her boys play on the rug and bicker back and forth about nothing at all in Portuguese. Part of her hoped that this meeting went well, but another part hoped that her sons would be indifferent to Banzai. She didn't want them to hate him. That would be a cruel truth to have in his life. But she didn't have much time to think about it, as she soon heard a knock on her apartment door. "Lucy, por favor, vá abrir a porta. Todo mundo se lembra de falar Inglês. Este homem não entende Português."
She then laid back on the couch, careful to not pull any stitches, and watched the young girl open the door.
Banzai: Because it's you. I don't know how your mind works. But you have a strange .. . persona.
Banzai: And I don't care. I just want to see them.
Meg: Whatever. I'll let you know when we get back. Their first language is Portuguese, though, so you might want to brush up on any Spanish you know. They can speak English but don't usually choose to.
Banzai: They're coming? This week . . is this a stunt your pulling Meg. And of course I want to see them. I've told you that.
Meg: Why the fuck would I use them as a stunt? I don't want them at the circus at all, but their guardians need to do some things that they can't do with kids around, so I'm taking the kids.
