Disclaimer: I don't own the movie "Drive Angry." Everything belongs to whoever owns them, my wishful thinking aside.
Authors Note #1: I started writing this a while ago and then lost steam for it. Now I am back and determined to get it dusted off and completed.
Disclaimer: couple of years post movie, gore, blood, canon appropriate violence, adult language, drama, angst, romance, mild sexual content, slow burn, enemies to friends to lovers.
Feed me Faith
Chapter One
"Hello," he greeted mildly. Completely shell-shocked. Looking down at himself like the freckles on his thighs were revelations rather than embarrassingly coltish curiosities. Squinting upwards until his eyes reflected the blue of the sky. Crinkling softly in the corners before one hand came up to shade them awkwardly - like he wasn't used to the action and muscle memory had failed him.
She didn't think she had a problem until the filthy, soot-streaked shape inside the charred circle of dirt and grass on her front lawn moved. Uncoiling cautiously, despite the warning she gave in the form of a cocking shotgun. Moving slowly, like every action was possibly combustible, until the shape raised his head and oh-
He looked up at her without the banal mask she remembered. Smudged with dirt and ash, with a blank expression that followed the cant of her hips as she tilted her stance and tapped the point of her boot into his thigh. Hair streaked a premature grey with hell-char and upset earth. Coating the divots of his collarbone - thick and filthy - as the Accountant's cock stayed soft, but sizable, in the crease of his lap.
Figured he'd have a dick to match his personality
"What did you do to get undouchified?" she finally hazarded, lowering the muzzle of the shotgun in inches as the man's face didn't so much as twitch. Looking up at her with such an open expression that it threatened to make her uncomfortable. Finding almost nothing familiar as she watched filthy lips part and a parched tongue flick out.
"So sorry, but- who are you?" the Accountant asked politely, or at least tried to. Voice unsteady and croaking in a way that had her turning on her heel before she remembered they weren't exactly friends. More like enemies, sort of. Refusing to overthink things as she snatched one her empties from the night before and filled it up with the garden hose. Feeling awkward and off-kilter as the weight of his eyes followed her across the lawn. Noting every action. Every curl of her bare toes in the dew-wet grass. But for once, not like a predator studying its prey.
No, this was different.
It was like he was seeing it all for the first time.
Which didn't make any damn sense, but here they were.
"Piper, my name Piper," she told him, handing him the bottle with an encouraging tilt of amber-tinted glass. "Honestly, I didn't think you could forget. What happened to you anyway?"
She trailed off when she realized he was just staring at the bottle like a fucking moron. Like he didn't know what to do with it even as his tongue chased the salt-tracks of sweat already beading down from his forehead in the afternoon heat.
"Seriously?" she muttered, part disbelieving, part flat-out disturbed as she crouched down and held it up for him. Nudging surprisingly gently at the parted seam of his lips before she started to tip it.
Once the first few trickles made tracks he took to the mouth of the bottle like anything. Swallowing greedily - sloppy - one arm trying to twitch up and grab it.
"Easy, you'll make yourself sick," she cautioned, flinching slightly when she realized she could practically feel the heat - either from hell or an oncoming fever - radiating from his skin. "It ain't going no where, slow down- hey, I said slow!"
His lashes fluttered, long and dark like something out of a movie as he looked up at her. Throat working through the last swallow before he started wavering backwards. Half collapsing back on his elbows as his chest shuddered - breathing hard.
"Thank- thank you," he managed, sounding a bit more like his old self, at least in tone. Effort that was mostly ruined considering he looked like he was about to pass out at any moment. Expression more confused than hunted as kept his eyes only on her.
"What happened?" she asked again. "Is Milton-"
He shook his head, hands curling into the blackened grass like a tell anyways. Enough for her to get the just of it. Whatever had happened? It was big. Big enough that the man who'd called himself The Accountant, who was in charge of every damned soul there was, was at her mercy. Naked as a jaybird with no idea how or even why he'd gotten here.
Fucking great.
She blew out a frustrated breath. Chewing on her lower lip before finally committing to the awkward crouch and let herself fold down beside him. Sitting cross-legged on the other side of the charred circle as the fading stench of sulfur threatened to make her wretch.
"Look, if you're in some kind of trouble, some heaven and hell, angels and demons bullshit- I can't help you. The baby is napping and I-"
He cocked his head.
It was so similar to how he'd been back on the road, chasing after her and Milton, she nearly flipped herself backwards. Half-convinced it'd been some sort of act and he was about to drag her under by the ankles. Screaming bloody fucking murder the entire way.
But instead of any of that, the sudden and very distinct gurgle of an empty stomach aired between them. The sound making him frown as he looked down at himself. Hand and pressing weakly against the trembling, slim-fitted muscles of his belly like nothing in his life had ever prepared him for the feeling.
She was still trying to process it when he looked over at her. Innocent, but absolutely habit-forming as she bit off a curse. Expression banal and open, expecting nothing and everything as she thumped her head into her hands and cursed again.
Unfuckingbelievable.
It took forever to coax him into eating, but eventually he took to her runny egg scramble and some of the potato hash Webster had left in the freezer the last time he'd been down the same way he'd taken to the water outside. Violently and grateful.
"We met a while back," she told him from the other side of the kitchen. Coffee stone cold but too lazy to go over and nuke it as she took a sip of it every so often, just to keep the nerves down. Leaning up against the counter as she eyed the angle of the blanket still piled in his lap after she'd tossed his naked ass into one of the shitty kitchen chairs. "You really don't remember?"
He jumped slightly, startling himself when his fork scraped across his empty plate.
"Apparently not," she answered with a sigh. Setting her cup down a bit harder than necessary when a sleepy cry issued from the baby's room. "Stay here."
By the time she'd changed Amber-May's diaper and got her settled, the Accountant was slack and dead asleep in the kitchen chair. One hand swaying into empty space, the other loose around the folds of the blanket in his lap. Barely preserving the last shreds of his modesty- if you could call it that.
She waited until sundown before she finally eased him awake enough to drag him over to the couch. Trying and failing not to be bothered by the fact that the man's bare ass was sinking into the cushions of the second-hand couch she'd actually grown fond of over the past year and a half.
She didn't sleep that night.
Instead she watched the shadows move across his face. Remembering the moment in the tower above Jonah King's compound when he'd shoved her behind him. Protecting her in a way she'd neither understood nor appreciated until much later. Wondering what could take the closest thing she figured there was to a god and leave him weaker than a newborn lamb.
She didn't want to know.
But at the same time, she knew it was too late for back-stepping.
She figured if this situation was a pile of shit, it was one they'd all stepped in.
Herself included.
He was still on her god damned couch the next morning.
She blinked herself awake, wincing as she eased the crick in her neck into something a bit less painful. Yawning as sore muscles protested the same way the chair she'd spent the night in creaked. All dry wood and bad tempered as she slowly got to her feet.
Still, he didn't move.
Hell, it was only the rise and fall of his chest that showed he was even still breathing.
She frowned, eying the pale trail of chest hair that escaped into the blankets. Mentally calculating how long it had been since she'd gotten laid before she rolled her eyes skyward. Already able to hear her mother's screech rebounding inside her head as he slept on, none the wiser.
It took her longer than it should have to pull herself away and get ready for the day.
She'd just finished feeding the baby from the highchair by the window when she glanced over and found him watching. Sitting upright on the couch, pale skin almost translucent with the glow of the sun peeking through the blinds.
"Look who's finally up," she hummed cautiously, swinging the baby over her hip with an ease she would have never imagined just over a year ago. Back when her life was a mess and she could barely afford to put gas in the car until Webster forced her straight and made her come live with him for nearly half a year. Helping her with Amber-May and all the fucking bills that comes with babies and being on your own in the world. "We thought you'd sleep till the second coming, yes we did."
Amber-May just gurgled happily. Letting out a rude burp when she bounced her, jiggling her baby fat as the little girl squealed with laughter like the entire affair was just the best thing ever.
"Unless that's right now? Which- if it is, I've got to say, you have crap timing."
The Accountant just stared. Blinking slow like a sphinx.
She rolled her eyes.
"Here" she offered, gesturing at a pile of clothes she figured might fit. A weird mixture of Webster's odds and ends and a few one night stands who'd left about a set of clothes between them. "They aren't what you're used to, but they're clean. Better than walkin' around naked anyway. The bathroom is down the hall. So, for gods sake, have a fucking shower, you're filthy. And if you think I am helpin' you with that you've got another thing coming. You'll figure it out. Hot water takes about a minute, so watch you don't get scalded."
Her skin itched under the weight of his gaze as she criss-crossed the apartment. Grabbing her keys and making sure the oven was off, all while trying to tie up her uniform apron one-handed.
"You can stay here today, I guess. I work till six and pick-up Amber-May from the sitters, so you'll probably be on your own till quarter to seven. You so much as break a plate and I'll have your balls. This place might be a shithole, but it is my shithole, got it?"
He had his damn head cocked again, so she figured that was it. Leaning down to pick up Amber-May in her carrier before-
"Thank you," he murmured. Sincere and quiet in a way that made her still. One hand frozen on the door knob as she wondered exactly what that meant coming from someone like him.
"Your welcome," she returned, for lack of anything better to say. Unknowingly setting the bell curve for a whole new future neither of them were prepared for.
A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. Stay tuned for the next chapter.
