A/N: I seriously thought of this when I connected the dots between Deadshot in the movie and what happened to Trickster and Pied Piper in Countdown to Final Crisis. I've always loved The Rogues, and seeing Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad was just awesome. The DCEU has been taking liberties with timelines (which I have been perfectly fine with. I actually like seeing this take on these characters) so I figured I could too.
Basically, for the sake of this story let's just say that what happened to Trickster in Countdown happened before the events of the movie. If you aren't familiar with Countdown, that's cool, this story should still be understandable.
And I should probably say this now, but this may be OOC. I saw the movie months ago, so some characteristics or little details may be wrong. I'm hoping I don't make too many mistakes though, and hopefully no major ones...Oh, and Joker hasn't gotten Harley out of prison yet. Just thought I'd get that out there.
It had been a few months after the whole Enchantress incident before Amanda Waller had dared to use Task Force X for a mission again. There was a meta-human running around and causing trouble, and Waller had reason to believe that she knew the identity of the meta. The problem was that who she suspected was an apparently normal person of high power who was well-loved by the people, and she had no proof. She had decided to send Task Force X to get him because if things went wrong then she would have somebody around to take the fall for her. After all, the citizens wouldn't think twice about blaming a couple of dangerous criminals for anything bad that might happen, even if it wasn't their fault.
Rick Flag had once again been tasked with leading/supervising the mission. He had been reluctant to accept at first, but had agreed to do what Waller wanted if she met a few small requests of his own. The first was that June would have nothing to do with this mission. He had almost lost her once, Rick wasn't about to let it happen again.
Rick's second request had been one that he could barely believe himself that he had made. He wanted the original Task Force team to be a part of this mission...all of the members that were remaining, that is. Waller hadn't been pleased with this request, but she had eventually agreed to it.
She reminded him though that if any of them set one two over the line that he was to set off the explosions in their heads (he had been given a new remote detonator). Rick had reluctantly agreed, because he knew that it was his job. He swore to himself that he wouldn't use the detonator unless it was absolutely necessary.
It was easy to convince most of the old team to go out on another mission. The majority of them agreed in an instant if it meant getting out of the prison for a bit and (basically) given the chance to do whatever they wanted...as long as it had something to do with the task at hand. Not to mention the fact that when the mission was over something would be done for each of them to make prison life easier and more comfortable. Why wouldn't they want to help?
That was something that Rick would have to ask Captain Boomerang later, because the Australian had been the hardest to convince. He didn't want to do something for the government and get nothing in return. Ironically, Boomerang was the one person that Waller had been the most against including on the mission. She believed that he was too much of a loose cannon. Rick agreed with that to an extent, but he also knew that it would be much harder to accomplish this particular mission without him.
The man they were had recently spent a few weeks in Central City before leaving abruptly. Right now they didn't have any information about whether or not the meta-human they suspected he was had caused any trouble. Unfortunately, the one man in Central City who would know that something had happened was Leonard Snart, AKA Captain Cold, the leader of The Rogues.
Captain Cold was extremely protective of his team and his city. Even though he was a master criminal he still tried to keep other criminals and meta's that he didn't approve of away from his city. If anybody knew if a meta had caused trouble recently, he would. The problem was that Rick suspected that even if Captain Cold did have the information they were looking for, he wouldn't give it up so easily. He might though, if someone on their team was a member of his Rogues gallery, and that's why they needed Boomerang for this mission.
Captain Boomerang had been difficult to convince, but he had changed his mind immediately after learning that they would be going to Central City to talk to his old teammates. He still demanded that when all this was over he get something for his efforts though. He didn't want to risk his life and get nothing in return again. Rick swore that he would do what he could, though he couldn't make any promises.
It took so much time to arrange everything and get the okay to leave that Rick was sure that the mission itself would take less time than the preparation. By the time they actually left for Central City Rick was already done with the entire mission. They hadn't even started yet and he was ready for a break. Fortunately, he was given such an opportunity.
The first thing they had done was have Captain Boomerang contact Captain Cold to arrange a meeting. The ice villain had reluctantly agreed to meet them at a local bar, which was a common hang out for the criminals of Central City. They still had a fair amount of time before the meeting was supposed to happen, and Rick figured there would be no harm in getting to the bar a little early to relax and have a few drinks.
A few minutes later they were all sitting in a booth at the bar. Harley was sipping at her martini with an expression on her face that just screamed 'I own this place, deal with it'. Boomerang was drinking straight out of a bottle, but everybody was too buzzed to even care. Just as long as he shared it when their shots ran out. Rick and Deadshot both just had shots. Killer Croc...honestly, Rick had no idea what that guy was drinking, he was too busy marveling at the fact that nobody else in the bar seemed to even gar that there was a crocodile man in the building. Like this was a perfectly normal Saturday night for them.
After they had all had enough drinks to relax they all began to be open and blunt with each other, just like they had at the end of their last mission. It just happened naturally, and even though it was really weird that they were all sitting around drinking at a bar like a couple of friends, it still felt completely normal.
"I keep on forgetting how nice drinking is?" Rick said as he downed his third shot.
Harley raised an eyebrow at him and smirked slightly. "What, you military guys think you're too good for some alcohol?"
Rick snorted as he snatched the bottle out of Boomerang's hand and topped his glass again. "Trust me, that couldn't be further from the truth." When he had been in the forces all the soldiers spent more free time at a bar screwing around than anywhere else. "We just didn't do it when on the job...which is when we all needed a drink the most."
"I'll drink to that." Deadshot held out his glass, which Rick filled.
"If you hate your job so much why don't you just quit?" Harley tilted her head and rested it against her chin. "Life's too short to do something that sucks for a living."
"I love my job." Rick defended as he lifted his glass. "My superiors on the other hand…"
"Yeah, that Waller bitch is a pain in the arse." Boomerang muttered. He took back his bottle and scowled at how much of his drink was missing from it.
"My one regret is that I ever let myself get tied in with her." Rick glared slightly at his drink. He shot down the rest of it and looked at the team. "What about you guys? You have any regrets with your work?" Even criminals who lived in the moment had to have mistakes from their past that they wished they could take back.
Boomerang took a swig from his bottle and then looked at it thoughtfully. "I shouldn't've left Central. I can handle things on my own, but it's a hell of a lot more fun to work with The Rogues sometimes."
"Yeah, I bet." Harley said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. She had heard of the Central City Rogues, just like all of them had, and even though they weren't considered all that threatening they were certainly decent criminals, and much more interesting than most others were. In her opinion, if you were going to be a part of a team they should at least be fun. She turned towards Deadshot, who had a deep and almost sorrowful look in his eyes. "And what about you? Any terrible regrets from your past?"
Floyd sighed and shook his head. "There was this one job. I considered not even accepting it, but I did."
Harley leaned forward in her seat. "Why wouldn't you accept the job?"
Floyd took a drink from his glass. "The one I was hired to kill was young, barely more than a kid, and it was his parents who wanted him dead. They just couldn't stand the thought of him being gay."
Boomerang frowned at his drink. "It's people like that who really don't deserve to be parents. In my book, they're worse than criminals." Of course, that wasn't saying much, as Boomerang was quite proud of being a criminal, but they all understood what he meant.
"Exactly." Floyd couldn't agree more. He himself had a daughter, and it sickened him that other parents could actually hate their children so much that they would actually want them dead.
"So you regret killing some queer?" Harley raised her eyebrows. Floyd narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head.
"He wasn't the one who died. There was this other kid who got in the way of my shot." Floyd said. The table fell into silence. Captain Boomerang froze, his bottle at his lips.
"You killed the wrong person?" Rick frowned. "I thought you said you never missed a target before."
"I don't count that job because it got cancelled." Floyd said irritably. "The parents had a change of heart shortly after that. They even paid me double for my trouble, but I'll never forget the look of pure hate on the rich kid's face when he caught sight of me and figured out what I had done."
Captain Boomerang clutched at his bottle tighter. He heard Harley start talking to Deadshot about how he shouldn't be living in the past or some shit like that, but he blocked it out. He wondered how many rich, gay, disowned kids had a good friend who was shot by an assassin right in front of them. It couldn't be that common of a thing to happen. This was all just sounding like a huge coincidence.
"What was the kid's name?" Boomerang asked in a serious tone that he rarely used. "The one who was supposed to die?"
Floyd looked at him curiously. He opened his mouth to answer, but right at that moment the door to the bar was opened and a man entered. He seemed like any other customer, except the second he set foot in the place he took a unique looking gun out of it's holster at his leg and fired it into the air. Instead of firing bullets it let out a frozen shot of ice.
"Everybody out!" The man who was likely Captain Cold shouted to the full bar. In an instant the people began filing out. Cold smirked in satisfaction and turned towards their table, which nobody had moved from.
"So it's true." Cold said as he toyed with his gun. "Georgie's found a new team to run with."
"So have you, Lenny." Boomerang retorted. Cold's eyes narrowed slightly, but not in anger.
"I'm still playing the same game I always have." Cold said. "A few of my players have changed is all."
"And who says I'm not doin' the same?" Boomerang gestured to the rest of his new team. Cold eyed them all warily.
"I thought this wouldn't be a one on one meet up." captain Cold muttered to himself. He smirked slightly and walked back towards the door to the bar. "Good thing I brought my own team with me." He pushed the door open and a half a dozen people entered behind him. All of them seemed to be armed in one way or another.
Rick and the rest of his team tensed at the sight of these strangers. He reached for the gun he kept by his side and he could see out of the corner of his eye that Deadshot was doing the same. Boomerang was the only one that didn't look concerned. In fact, he almost looked happy to see these guys...or, at least, as happy as Captain Boomerang could look.
"Owen? That you?" Boomerang stared at the red haired young adult who was the only Rogue who didn't seem either bored or cautious about being there. He smiled, actually genuinely smiled. "You've changed a lot."
"Yeah, I ain't an ankle-biter anymore." Owen grinned cockily. "It's good to see you though, Dad."
Boomerang felt the other members of his new team staring at him in shock. He turned and scowled at them. "What're you lot lookin' at?"
"That's your kid?" Rick gestured at towards the redhead, who frowned slightly.
"Yeah, what of it?" Boomerang took a drink from his bottle.
"So it would've been nice to know." Rick frowned. He knew for a fact that he had seen the records of all of these guys and their relatives, and nowhere did it say that George 'Digger' Harkness had a son. "Is he your biological kid?" Maybe it was a non official thing. Like, Boomerang was just a fatherly figure for Owen or something.
Boomerang and Owen both looked at him strangely. "'Course he is." Boomerang said as though it was a stupid question. Rick frowned and thought to himself. He knew there had to be some reason for there to be no record of Harkness having a kid.
While this conversation had been going on Floyd looked back towards the other Rogues. He had heard of this team before, but he wasn't familiar enough with them to know all of their names, let alone know who was who when they were wearing civilian clothing. Two of the older guys who were about Boomerang's and Captain Cold's age headed straight for the bar, dragging a blonde and eccentric looking young man who was even younger than Owen behind him. The one female Rogue, Yellow Skater or something like that, slid into the seat next to Harley and immediately began to strike up conversation with her.
The one Rogue that caught Floyd's eye though was young if his stance and stature was anything to go by. Probably in his twenties. He could probably narrow it down more, except the kid was wearing a hoodie over his head. The kid seemed to be eyeing them one by one. When he turned towards Floyd their eyes met and both men froze.
"Shit." Floyd hissed as he instantly recognized the kid before him. Based on the way the kid's eyes reflected shock, horror, and straight up hatred, he was sure the recognition was mutual.
"You!" The kid whose name was Hartley shouted out, nothing but fury in his tone. He reached in his pocket for something, probably a weapon of sorts, but his hand was stayed by Captain Cold who looked at him sternly.
"What are you doing, Hartley?" Cold asked. "I told you guys, we're not here for a fight."
"It's him." Hartley growled. Even from his seat Floyd could see that the younger man was shaking badly. "He did it. He…"
"What did he do?" Cold's eyes flashed dangerously. Boomerang paused in his drinking slightly to listen better to what was going on.
"He killed James!" Hartley cried out. Instantly all of the Rogues except for Owen and the blonde kid at the bar brought out their weapons and had them aimed at Floyd. Having anticipated something like this Floyd reached for his own gun and was about to get to his feet, but a sharp curved blade against his neck stopped him in his tracks.
"Don' even think about it, mate." Captain Boomerang growled as a warning, he held his iconic weapon against Floyd's neck. He sounded more sober than any of them had ever heard before, and his eyes were cold and calculating. He looked more serious than Floyd had ever seen him before. Floyd let go of his gun and held up his hands.
"Look, can we all just calm down and talk about this?" Floyd suggested calmly. His easy tone had the opposite effect on Hartley than he had wanted.
"There's nothing to talk about, you goddamn murderer!" Hartley all but screamed. He would have attacked Floyd by now if it weren't for the fact that Captain Cold was holding him back. Still, it was a struggle. Even though Hartley was the one that Floyd knew he really needed to apologize to, the kid wasn't in any state to listen to him, and their conversation wouldn't get anywhere with him freaking out.
Captain Cold realized the exact same thing. He looked towards his companions at the bar. "Mick, Sam, get Hartley out of here." He shoved the younger man towards the other Rogues, who grabbed him before he could lunge forward. The second he was out of the room Captain Cold turned towards Floyd, who really wasn't concerned about him at the moment. It was kind of hard to focus on anything other than the bladed boomerang at his neck.
"Okay, I don't know what the hell is going on here, but it needs to stop." Rick said seriously. He brought out the detonator for the explosives in their heads and all the members of his team froze. But Captain Boomerang still didn't loosen his grip.
"Don't be stupid, Harkness." Rick warned. "You know I will have no choice if you kill him."
"I don' care." Boomerang said lowly. He pressed the boomerang tighter against Floyd's throat, causing it to draw blood. Rick frowned, his hand hovering over the detonator. Floyd closed his eyes. He didn't know what Rick thought he was trying to do. Boomerang wasn't exactly a guy that could be reasoned with. If he really wanted to kill Floyd, than he would do it, consequences be damned.
"Boomy." The guys all turned towards Harley when she spoke in that surprisingly gentle voice. She laid a hand on his arm. "Don't do this now. Not in front of your kid." Boomerang scowled and tightened his grip. Floyd could feel his hand shaking and was sure that he was finished. Without warning though Captain Boomerang let out a loud shout of frustration and threw his boomerang harshly towards the opposite wall.
Boomerang pushed himself out of the booth and stormed outside. His new team stared after him, wondering what the heck had just happened. The members of his old team that remained in the room stood stiffly and awkwardly, as though they weren't sure what to do either.
"Hang on." Harley got to her feet. "I'll talk to him." She held out her hand and caught the boomerang that their teammate had thrown as it came back towards them. None of them thought that it was a very good idea, but none of them wanted to talk to a moody, killer Captain Boomerang, so they let her go.
It really wasn't hard to find Captain Boomerang. He was seriously just leaning against the outside wall, fiddling with his remaining boomerang. Harley approached him and held out his weapon as a kind of a peace tribute. Boomerang (Harley was going to start calling him 'Digger. It was better than calling him by the same name as his weapons) glanced in her direction and then continued glaring out at nothing.
"Whatta you wan'?" Digger asked roughly as he snatched back his weapon. Harley shrugged and leaned against the wall next to him.
"Just making sure you're not killing anybody out here without me." Harley grinned mischievously with a twinkle in her eyes. Her smile dimmed slightly a moment later. "So, you wanna talk about what happened in there? You're not usually like that."
Digger snorted. "Nah, I am, ye just don't know me well enough to know it." He tried to take another swig from his bottle, but frowned when he saw that it was empty. Groaning in irritation he smashed the bottle against the wall and slumped to the ground. He looked seriously pathetic. "Ye know when 'e said tha' 'e killed tha' boy an' didn' mean'ta?" Digger asked, his accent coming in sharper than it normally did.
"Was that kid a friend of yours?" Harley asked as she sat down on the cement next to Digger. He snorted at her question.
"Nah, we weren' mates, he was a righ' pain in the arse." Digger said. He shook his head. "He was a wonky larrikin...a crazy trickster." He changed his wording when he saw Harley's confused expression. "He was always messin' around with us an' acted like such a brat."
"Sounds like fun." Harley smiled to herself. She loved a guy who knew how to have a good time. Especially when it was the kind of good time that drove others mad. "What kind of things did he do?"
Digger snorted to himself. "One time he knocked us all out with some kinda gas and then tied us up. He wouldn't let us go until we had watched a full season of that My Little Pony shit."
Harley smirked. "And how often did you watch the show after that?"
"...Every day until I left." Digger muttered.
"So you're a pony fan." Harley laughed. Yeah, that sounded about right. "I bet your friend was pretty smug about that."
"He was." Digger confirmed. "He loved teasin' me 'bout it, even though 'e was the one who sucked me into it in the first place." Harley was beginning to like this kid more and more by the second. "He's the one who gave me Pinky."
Harley frowned slightly. She wasn't a watcher of My Little Pony herself, but she was familiar enough with the show to know that Pinky was the name of one of the ponies. She also knew that unicorns were popular characters in the show. "That's why you're obsessed with that pink unicorn?"
Digger nodded. "He couldn't get his hands on a doll from the show itself, so he settled with Pinky. It was meant ta be a joke, bu'..."
"But it became more." Harley guessed. "Especially after he died."
"Tha' kid gave gifts all the time, bu' half of 'em exploded. This was probably the only real gift I go' from 'im." Digger clenched at his boomerangs. "I''s not fair. He wasn' supposed ta die. No' like tha'."
"I know." Harley said sympathetically. Even though she was a criminal and definitely wasn't afraid of hurting or killing people, she still recognized how unfair it was one someone has their life taken away prematurely. None of them (except maybe Rick) had been bothered so far by the fact that Floyd was an assassin, but things were probably different for Digger now that he actually knew somebody their teammate had killed, and known him well.
"You know he was just doing his job though, right?" Harley reminded Digger. "Same as all of us."
"Yeah, I know." Digger halfheartedly threw one of his boomerangs and watched as it came flying back. He caught it with ease. "Doesn' mean I have ta like it."
"No, I guess not." Harley admitted. She got to her feet and held out her hand. Digger stared tiredly up at her. "Come on, I think you need some more drinks." And a certain pink unicorn that she suspected was currently in Rick's bag, just in case.
Digger scowled but did indeed take her hand. She pulled him up to his feet, which was harder to do than it looked, since he was doing absolutely nothing to help, and lead him back inside the bar. The place looked the exact same as they had left it a few minutes before. Her team was still seated at the table, looking confused by the turn of events. The blond kid in the corner seemed amused by the tension in the room, though Harley didn't think he understood what it was for. That Golden Glider chick had taken over Harley's spot and was even sipping at her martini...how bold of her. The Captain Cold guy still had his gun trained on Floyd, though she wasn't sure if it was just meant to be a warning or if he was going to be doing something with it. Then there was Owen, who was standing around looking confused about the entire situation.
"Hey, Rick." Harley approached their so called supervisor. "You got Digger's doll?"
"You mean the unicorn?" Rick bent down and unzipped his bag slightly. "Yeah, I got it...why?"
"I think he needs it." Harley said simply. Rick looked dubious, but after looking towards Digger he changed his mind. The pink unicorn coll was completely harmless, no weapons hidden inside (they had checked), and Boomerang definitely seemed to like it. Who knows? Maybe it would do something to ground him and help him to bother to think rationally for once. Or, at the very least it would distract him long enough to make him forget that he wanted to kill Deadshot.
Rick took the unicorn out of his bag and Owen's eyes flashed dangerously when he saw them. "What've ya got that for?" He snatched it away from Rick and glared murderously at him. "What's the point in keepin' this away from him?"
"It's so they can control him, honey." Harley took Pinky away from Owen and handed it to Digger, who clung to it like it was a lifeline. Captain Cold looked annoyed by his reliance on his pink unicorn, but he said nothing about it. Cold turned towards Rick.
"I think you guys need to get out of Central." His tone made it clear that they should all be grateful to be getting a warning. Rick frowned. From what he had heard The Rogues were always seen as joke villains who were more of nuisances than real threats. But he had seen what Boomerang could do, and he had a feeling that Captain Cold, who was much more stable, could do a lot worse.
"We can't leave until we got the information that we came for." Rick insisted. Cold frowned.
"Yeah, there was a new meta screwing up things a few weeks ago." He confirmed. "Right around when your boy was in town. Can you leave now?"
"Yeah, we're leaving." Rick got to his feet. His team finished the last of their drinks and followed his lead. He turned towards Boomerang, who hadn't moved.
"Come on, Harkness, we're going." Rick said tensely. Cold glared at him and looked at his old teammate.
"You don't have to go." Captain Cold said to Boomerang. "There's always room with The Rogues if you're interested, as long as you're willing to follow the rules this time." Boomerang scratched at his neck.
"Nah, I wouldn't wanna overshadow Owen." He gestured towards Rick and his new team. "I'd better go with this lot."
"Fine." Cold said in a snappish tone. "But watch your back. We can't save your ass if you get yourself in trouble."
"I can take care of myself, Cold." Boomerang said in an irritated tone. He walked towards his new team. When he got within arms length of Deadshot his hand that wasn't holding his pony snapped up and once again Floyd found himself with a knife like boomerang at his neck. Captain Boomerang glared coldly at him.
"If ya ever hurt one of my mates again…" Boomerang's threat trailed off, but Floyd got the gist of it. He didn't exactly feel threatened by this guy, but he knew that if they were going to be a team they needed to be able to work together. Besides, he didn't currently have plans to off any of The Rogues. They were safe...for now.
"I won't stir the waters if you don't." Floyd said, because he really couldn't be the only one to make any effort her. Working well as a team took effort on everybody's part, not just his.
Boomerang grunted and reluctantly lowered his weapon. He hugged his unicorn tightly. He looked at Captain Cold. "You'll talk ta Hart, right?"
"Of course." Captain Cold said. He didn't necessarily want to, he believed that if anybody should talk to Hartley it should be Digger, but considering he was leaving with his team that wasn't an option. If Digger stayed behind to talk to Hartley than the rest of his new team, including Deadshot, would have to linger for awhile longer as well, and that was the last thing any of them wanted. "I'll keep an eye on Owen while you're gone. He's been spending a lot of with heroes lately."
"I don't need someone to 'keep an eye on me'." Owen groaned. "And I've only been hanging out with Kara, no big deal."
"Kara, eh?" Digger raised an eyebrow. "Now this I gotta hear about."
"If you started writing me, maybe I'd tell you about her." Owen said. Both he and Digger looked at Rick who sighed.
"Yeah, I'll see what I can do." Rick was fairly certain that he could convince Waller to let Boomerang and his kid exchange letters, but honestly he couldn't know for sure. That woman was just full of surprises. "Now can we go? We have things to do." Like find the man who they still didn't know for sure was actually a meta...yeah, this wasn't going to be a fun or straight forward mission.
"Alright, Mr. Bossy-pants, we're leaving." Harley followed behind Rick. Killer Croc pushed himself away from the table, grunted at The Rogue's who were staring at him, and followed her lead. Floyd and Boomerang stared at each other in an almost challenging way. Finally Boomerang got bored and broke eye contact first. He went outside with the others. Floyd shook his head and made to do the same, but Captain Cold grabbed his arm before he could get out.
"I'm warning you right now, if you hurt George at all there will be a whole line of people lining up to kill you." Captain Cold said in a low, threatening tone. "We've lost one teammate thanks to you, and we don't need another." The ice villain shoved Floyd away and aimed his cold gun at him. "Now get out of here, and don't even think about coming back to my city again."
Floyd glared at Captain Cold, he hated being threatened, but he walked away because this wasn't a fight that would be worth getting into right now. He decided that he didn't like Central City much. The criminals were crazy and he only had bad memories from this place. He couldn't wait to leave, and if he ever had to come back here it would be to soon.
"Come on, we're wasting time." Rick herded them all over to their transportation. When Captain Boomerang tried to get in he held him back. "Are things okay with you and Deadshot?" Rick needed to know right now if this thing between them would affect the mission.
Boomerang clung tightly to Pinky and glared at the sky. "Nothin's okay...bu' I won' kill 'em."
"That's all I'm asking." Rick said as he let Boomerang join the others. Honestly, he didn't need his crew to be best friends, they just needed to be willing to work together. They could hate each others guts all they liked, just so long as they were professional about it. Rick didn't know if Captain Boomerang could be professional about anything, but the man was full of surprises, he may be able to look past all of this.
"Stay the hell away from me ya bloody bastard!" Rick groaned when he heard the shouting. Twenty seconds was all it took for Boomerang to lose his temper. It was a new record. Rick didn't need three guesses to know who he was screaming at.
"Alright, that's enough!" Rick shouted. He couldn't believe he was resorted to separating criminals like they were a couple of children.
He knew this was going to be a long mission.
A/N: And believe it or not, this is just a oneshot. There won't be anymore chapters for this story. I know the points of views switched around so often, I hope it wasn't too confusing.