I don´t own any of the Expendables characters. Please read and review.

Late on a Friday afternoon, Tool watched Barney enter the tattoo shop.

„Hey, brother, how you´re doing ?"

„Hey."

Despite the short answer, the Expendables leader looked quite relaxed.

„I brought you the stuff you wanted", he told Tool.

„Great, man, thanks. They had everything in stock ?"

„Yeah."

Tool sat back and looked at his latest draft.

„Pepper called today."

„Pepper ? Pepper O´Riley ?"

„Yeah." Tool nodded. „Three times."

„I gave her my number ..."

„...after the funeral."

Tool sat back, sighing.

„I know."

„She´s alright ?" Barney inquired.

Tool shrugged.

„She didn´t say much. But..."

The phone rang, interrupting him.

„That´s probably her again", the tattoo artist said with a shrug, picking up the phone.

„Hey Barney, it´s me, Pepper!"

„Hey, girl, how are you ?"

„I am good. Could be better, but good. Happy birthday, darling!"

Barney threw Tool an irritated look.

„Well, uh, thanks..."

Tool listend in on the for him one-sided call, eyebrows raised.

„We´re gonna go for your traditional birthday dinner ? This time without Victor then ?"

Barney exchanged a confused look with Tool and made a helpless gesture.

„Yeah, sure."

„You´re up for a drink before dinner ? So at five at Danny´s beach bar ?"

„Yeah, why not."

„Great! See you there then ?"

„Five o´clock, darlin´ !"

„Great! Bye!"

„Bye."

Barney handed Tool the phone back.

„What the hell was that all about ?" Tool inquired.

„Seems that you forgot my birthday", Barney told him, looking nonplussed.

„Your birthday ?"

„There is trouble", Barney told him. „Or I celebrated my birthday for decades at the wrong day."

When Barney arrived at the meeting point, Pepper was already there.

She sat on one of several stone cubes which served as a boundary between the quai and the water and had turned her back to him, still, he recognized her immediately from her delicate built as well as from her upright posture.

The picture reminded him somehow on the first time he had met her, about twenty years ago. Back then, she had sat on a bench with her back to him as well, a dainty figure in jeans and a white blouse.

Pepper turned and spotted him, waving a hand.

He nodded casually back and watched her getting up. The breeze made her dark hair stream out behind her.

Back then, she had held her only some weeks old baby son in her arms. Barney had met Jesse O´Riley three months ago at the funeral of his father, who had been a brother in arms to Barney. Back then, Barney had realized in surprise that the boy was a grown-up now, and a member of the Marine Corps, the proud young man a spitting image of his father, with the only difference that he had inherited his mother´s jade green eyes.

„Hey!" he said.

„Hey", she answered in return, stumbling rather stormily in his embrace.

When she parted from him, he found that she looked haunted.

„What´s wrong ?" he asked, skipping all further welcome.

„Take me for a ride", she only said.

Barney Ross had seen a lot over the years and thought of himself as hard to surprise. But the mysterious phone call and the insistent tone she had asked him in to take her for a ride had left him puzzled. Though she might look like it, Pepper was everything else than a helpless frail beauty and she had surely no tendency to panic.

He realized belatedly that she had obviously planned their ride, wearing rugged boots to the jeans and a leather jacket over the blouse. After a short exchange of words at the first red light, he headed out of town, trying to remember when he had given a woman a ride the last time.

Now, with her small form softly pressed against his back and her hands at his sides, he found that she was an agreeable pillion rider. He realized somewhat belatedly that of all the things that should possibly have crossed his mind, this was the most unimportant, but most agreeable one.

He found them a lonely patch of beach and parked the bike. She did her best to scramble down from it as graceful as possible.

She took a step forward the moment he put his helmet aside and hugged him surprisingly tightly.

„You´re up for a walk ?" she asked, glancing around.

„Sure", he nodded.

They wandered slowly down the beach. Pepper had taken her boots of and let the waves wash over her feet occasionally despite the fact that the day wasn´t that warm, carrying the jacket in one and the boots in the other hand.

„See, I knew Victor´s house, sure, but I wouldn´t have noticed small changes there. It was Jesse who wondered about the rather messy workshop, and thinking about it, he was right, it was unusual for him to leave it anything else than neat and tidy."

„He´s surely right with that!" Barney confirmed, remembering Victor´s exaggerated sense of order. „When did you realize that someone had broken into your house ?"

„The same day it happened, I guess, two weeks ago. As I said, they were damn careful. There were only the smallest hints that someone had searched the house, but when I had become suspicious, there were several to be found. The police couldn´t find any fingerprints, nobody had seen anything...the usual."

„And did they take anything with them ?"

„Nothing. Not the money, no jewelry, nothing else as far as I can say. Everything was there."

She stopped walking, turning to him.

„Please don´t think I´ve gone nuts or something, but I think I am followed as well."

„And you think this is related to some of Victor´s business ?"

She frowned.

„I can´t imagine anything else. But you know how it is, we separated years ago. I have no idea what business he´s been in lately. The last think I know is that he tried to get away from too many low priced jobs to fewer but more lucrative ones."

„Leaving the low priced jobs for you", he concluded correctly.

She nodded, the begin of a smile playing around the edges of her mouth.

„Is Jesse still in town ?" Barney asked, thoughtful.

„No, he´s at sea. Duty callin´."

„You think he has any idea what Victor may have had cookin´ ?"

„No. Victor made it clear, at least to me and surely to Phil as well, that he didn´t wanted him involved in any side business...neither his nor mine. He didn´t want to endanger the boys´ future or career in any way."

Barney nodded. It confirmed his assumption.

She brushed a strand of dark hair out of her face.

„I am not paranoid, Barney, but I´ll become if this doesn´t stop! I don´t scare easy, but by now, I stopped sleeping in my own bed and I hardly dare to talk to somebody on the phone!"

She turned away to take a deep breath, trying hard to suppress the by now rising tears.

Barney rubbed the back of his neck for a moment.

„So what do you want me to do ?" he asked.

She tried a smile, and despite the dark circles around her eyes and even on the edge of tears, looking at her, Barney could tell easily how it had happened that a tough guy like Victor „the Beast" O´Riley had fallen for a back then hardly seventeen year old girl.

„Help me", she begged him quietly.