Dave

Thursday January 16

10:08 AM

I was eating breakfast in the safe house I shared with Mindy when she stormed in, brandishing today's paper.

"They released that cunt- loving, son of a fucking shit-faced bitch asshole on a motherfucking technicality!" she shrieked. I winced and tried to read the headline she was waving around.

"Which cunt-loving, son of a fucking shit-faced bitch asshole are we talking about?" I asked. It was a fair question; we had put a lot of cunt loving, son of a fucking shit-faced bitch assholes in prison. Too many if you asked my bloodthirsty girlfriend.

"Chris Di- fucking- Mico." She slammed the paper on the table and glared at me.

"You think I should've killed him." I made it a statement, taking another sip of coffee.

"For fucks sake, Dave! There's no fucking technicalities that will get you out of hell!"

"That we know of," I muttered, because she was sexy when she got mad.

"Fuck you, Dave. This is important."

It also turned me on the way she said 'fuck you, Dave'.

"I wish you would." I said, a bit louder. Her eyes grew all molten and horny and I grinned to myself, thinking- not for the first time- that all those fan websites were right, now Kick- Ass was fucking Mindy.

"Why aren't you in school, Min?"

"Did you not fucking hear me?" she said, her voice a bit more breathy than she wanted. "Your shit-for-brains 'arrest Chris' idea failed. Now we have to go waste the bitch."

I stood up and approached her slowly, always cautious of her favorite game, which she liked to call 'sneak attack' and I like to call 'not while in the fucking shower, Mindy!'

"We will visit him, baby." I promised, grabbing her chin and lowering my mouth to kiss her lightly. "But you need to go back to school, don't you have a physics test today?"

"Fuck physics." She said, leaning up kiss me again.

"That's another thing we can do tonight," I said, preventing her from kissing me again. If I let her I wouldn't be able to stop myself from taking her on the kitchen floor and then she would definitely miss school.

So instead I grabbed my car keys and dragged her to the car. "I can drive myself, you know." She huffed, staring longingly at her purple motorcycle.

"That's Hit-Girls, not Mindy's." I reminded her.

Mindy muttered to herself but got into our entirely normal car. "Buckle your seatbelt." I ordered. She crossed her arms and glared at me mutinously and crossed her arms.

I chuckled and leaned over to buckle her in my self, letting my fingers linger around her breasts until her eyes closed and her arms dropped. I cleared my throat and leaned back. "Now was that so hard?"

She opened one eyelid, "Bitch."

I couldn't resist kissing her one last time before sending her back to school; her dirty talking just drove me crazy.

As I drove home I thought about how my relationship with Mindy had changed from terror and awe to big brother protectiveness. When that shifted to romantic interest and lust it terrified me because I was twenty-two and she was fifteen and the most important person in my life and I had never felt so strongly about anyone in my life. I still wasn't all that comfortable with our age difference, but I knew that it would gradually lose importance, as we grew older. If we grew older.

If Mindy was right about Chris, he was going to be coming for us, and we had to be ready.

I pulled up to the safe house planning to spend the afternoon researching him so Mindy and I could pay him a visit and remind him to stay on the straight and narrow. Or we could kill him, which would work too.

Along with teaching me to fight and shoot, Mindy had taught me how to do my homework, so when I sat down to the computer with a bowl of cereal I was expecting to have all the information we needed by the time Mindy got home so we could pay Chris a little visit.

But I couldn't find anything on him; no matter how hard I looked.

I was still searching when Mindy slammed the door and joined me. "What have you found?" she asked, wrinkling her nose at the warm bowl of discolored milk.

I sighed and leaned back blinking my tired eyes and shoving the computer away from me in disgust. "Nothing,"

"Nothing!" Mindy's eyebrows shot up. "What the fuck do you mean? There's always something."

I shrugged, "Not this time."

"You're fucking useless," Mindy griped, plopping down on my lap and pulling the laptop closer. "I guess I have to do it all myself."

"Mm mm," I agreed, slipping my hands under her shirt and around her waist, leaning my head against her back and closing my eyes, enjoying her scent. I smiled slightly a few minutes later as she began to gradually stiffen with frustration as she, too, couldn't find everything.

My legs were starting to fall asleep when she finally turned away from the computer. "This is ridiculous!" she snapped, blowing her honey-colored hair out of her eyes. "I couldn't find anything!" she leapt off my lap and began to pace.

I moved my legs to get the circulation back, watching her levelly. "I told you so,"

"You know what, Dave?"

"Shut the fuck up?" I supplied, her lips twitched, exactly the response I was looking for.

"Shut the fuck up," she agreed, mouth settling back into a scowl. "Fuck it," she muttered, storming out of the room. I scrambled after her and followed her into the war room, where our costumes stood waiting besides our weapons.

Without looking at me she stripped and began pulling on her armor. "What are you doing?" I asked, automatically changing with her. We hadn't been on patrol with out each other in years, so it was weird to see her in costume when I wasn't.

"I'm going to the source." She said, finally looking at me. "You don't have to come with me." She flipped her wig onto her head.

"Fuck that," I scowled as I pulled on my mask, which prevented her from seeing it, but I was sure she could hear it in my voice.

She shrugged. "Fine, but no bitching about my methods."

My lips thinned at this. Mindy believed in persuading people with negative reinforcement, which sometimes bothered me and I usually didn't allow it. But on important missions when time was of the essence…

I just wasn't sure now was one of those times.

But she was already out the door before I had time to argue with her. I followed her out the door.

We took the Mist Mobile, which I found painfully ironic, although I didn't dare to share the joke with Mindy. We had long since modified the car so it no longer spewed red vapor, but the name had stuck.

Mindy took us down to the docks, we didn't speak in the car, but the silence was comfortable, we had worked together long enough to not have to go over most plans or fill the space between us with small talk.

We parked in the shadowy part of the lot and closed the doors quietly. I walked around her side of the car and gripped her arm, careful to let her know I was coming. I had learned to walk so quietly even she couldn't hear, which was a source of pride for me, but I still knew it wasn't a good idea to surprise her when she wore her mask.

I brushed my lips carefully over her cheek and let her go. Her fingers found mine, lingered, and then we separated, silent warning to be careful given.

Despite his time in jail, Chris' businesses had done well, so well, in fact, he had gone international. These docks were his, and so were the workers.

They sat under a single guttering streetlight, playing cards on top of an overturned bucket as they watched the cargo. They were very low on the food chain and most likely didn't know much, but they were replaceable and would be DiMico's first pick to coerce into illegal activities.

My job was simple, set up Mindy's interrogation room. After a last look at those poor bastards, I returned to the car for the supplies. I covered the floor of a nearby abandoned warehouse with plastic wrap and a single chair, well illuminated by bright, white lights.

It didn't really matter if Hit-Girls victim saw her, even if he survived to tell his friends, it would only reinforce her reputation. Once I was set, I glided back to the shadows and listened to make sure she didn't need help lugging one of the men back here.

The sounds of surprise and the thud of flesh hitting flesh soon filled my ears and I joined my partner as she laid the last one out. "Which one?" I asked her, keeping my voice low so it didn't carry too far over the still water.

She pointed at the biggest one. Behind my mask, I rolled my eyes. Of course she would make this as hard as possible for me. Her lips twitched as if she could hear my thoughts. For an instant I wanted to kiss her. But then I sighed and heaved the dead weight of the man over my shoulders in a fireman's carry. God, he must weigh three hundred pounds!

Once I was sure I wasn't going to collapse or pass out, I stumbled over the warehouse, which I'd picked to be close by, but now seemed very, very far away and dumped him in the center of the plastic sheeting.

"You're getting fat," Hit-Girl commented snidely as I gasped for breath.

"Yeah?" I gasped. "I'll show you just how fat I am when we get home."

She nudged the goon over with her foot. "Promises, promises," she sighed. "Now help me get him in the chair."

"Now who's getting fat?" I asked as we struggled to lift him. Mindy snarled at me angrily, which made me laugh, because it reminded me that a girl was a girl was a girl when it came to fat jokes, no matter if their hobbies included torture and lost fighting styles.

"You don't want to see this," she said after a minute, unsheathing her knives to avoid meeting my eyes. "You should check the others, make sure they aren't getting curious."

My good mood died instantly at the thought of what my girlfriend was about to do. Suddenly, I couldn't bring myself to look at her either. "Yeah," I muttered, "I'll do that."

"Dave…"

"No names!" I snapped, shocked at her mistake, the goon could wake up anytime. Or maybe she is so sure he wont be able to tell anyone anyway. That thought also left me cold; I had killed plenty in my life, but never, ever in cold blood or when it wasn't completely necessary to Mindy's safety or my own.

I turned and left the warehouse.

But I couldn't get away from the screams.

I sat on the edge of the dock and tossed stones into the water as I waited for Mindy to finish.

The men began to stir a few minutes later, but I ignored them as they spotted me and began creeping over, looking for their missing buddy. I heard them muttering about making me tell them where he was and planning out their attack.

I waited until they had split up and were five feet on either side of me. "Just go home, guys." I counseled, tossing another stone into the water with a plop. Another scream tore up the night.

I was so tired of violence; I didn't want to hurt those poor bastards who had a cunt for a boss. I would though, if they made a move on me or in Mindy's direction. "Please, just let it go." I said, turning to face them.

They stumbled, uncertain now that they had seen who I was and that I knew they were coming.

I slid my hand back to grip my baton, which sent them on their way quick enough to suit me. I sighed and lay down, blinking up at the stars.

The screams died down after a while, and I crept back to the warehouse to help Mindy clean up.

I found the poor shit collapsed on the wreckage of the chair and Mindy pounding her unprotected fists into the concrete.

I crossed the room and gripped her from behind, lifting her off her feet and ignoring the crack in my rib where she elbowed me. "That hurt," I told her and she drew her gun, leaned around me and blew her victims head off. "Dammit, Mindy!" I snapped, "That wasn't necessary!"

"Trust me, it was. He talked about the women he raped more than DiMico's whereabouts."

"Oh," I said, swallowing my distaste. Mindy was shaking with tension and frustration. She had made it her mission to stop the Motherfucker at all costs, and it had been bad enough when I had persuaded her to let him go to prison. But the man had been the cause of her father's death, and mine as well.

So I wrapped her in my arms, and led her back to the car. "We'll get him," I promised, kissing her hands.

"You'll help me?" she asked, sounding soft and utterly unlike the part of her that everyone else saw in her.

"Of course I will," I told her, smiling at her.

My smile faded when she didn't immediately move to take the drivers side. "You don't want to drive?" I asked, tossing the keys from one hand to the other.

"Don't be such a pussy," she snapped, snatching the keys from me. I smiled at her and opened the passenger seat door.

Maybe I couldn't bring our fathers back from the dead, but I- we could sure as hell make the murderer pay.