So this is my first RED fanfiction and it was requested by Shantygordon, so I hope you find this Shanty, it's dedicated to you! Hope everyone else likes it to. Enjoy and I'll probably be updating chapters every few days or so, hopefully.
"Large cappuccino, extra frothy with a cheese and bacon melt, table four!" Someone from the kitchen yelled as the items were brought forwards. Turning around with a tray I picked up the two plates and carefully placed them on before carrying them forwards. It's funny, this is exactly the kind of meal my dad would have ordered.
"Good morning, here's your drink and your panini, if there's anything else you need please don't hesitate to…" When the newspaper folded down I looked up and my mouth fell open when I saw a familiar yet strange face. "Dad?"
"Hey baby." He said softly and instantly my mouth clamped shut.
"No. Oh no you are not going to interfere with this job, it's taken me weeks to find another after you totalled my chances in the last one! Remember? You trashed the place just because my ex-boyfriend was in the same room trying to kiss me goodbye." Glowering at him I shoved the panini across the table then sighed impatiently. "What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded as I tucked a stray lock of black hair back behind my ear.
"I need your help." Rolling my eyes I glanced around at the slow moving café before back at my dad. Frank Moses. Tagged RED by the government, the best badass father any girl could want, too bad he was a little too badass, especially when boyfriends were involved.
"It's been two months since you last called." I informed him and he looked down, unable to meet my gaze. My eyes softened slightly and I risked another glance around before taking the seat opposite him. For a moment there was an awkward silence where he sipped his drink then inspected the food cautiously.
"Dad, dad, its fine. Alright?" To prove my point I took the sandwich from the plate and bit into it despite my dad's protests. He could be a little too overprotective sometimes and by that, I mean a lot. "So who's trying to kill you this time?" He sighed, looking at me with a slight frown.
"Everyone."
"When is it not?" He shrugged in agreement then took a bite from the cheesy bacon, glancing around. Eyes fixated on him I sighed. "Marvin, can you please stop trying to hide behind there? You're scaring the couple at table seven." Slowly a figure crept into view wearing a low hat, large overcoat and his clear blue eyes darted nervously around the place.
Turning to look at him I stuck out my foot and dragged a chair to the table. "Come sit with us." He sat down and I smiled, reaching over to hug him. "How you been Marvin?"
"Good apart from the fact I died and everyone's trying to kill me." He muttered monotonously and I grinned.
"You died again? What, isn't this like the seventh time now?" He shrugged slowly with a slightly innocent look on his face.
"I don't know." Turning back to dad I sighed.
"Look dad, whatever is going on, whoever is trying to get you, you'll figure something out without me." Reaching across I took his hand. "I made a promise myself not to get back into this sort of thing and so did you. Dammit dad you're retired! You promised me you'd make more time for me and Sarah. I still haven't even met her yet, by the way, so you should probably do something about that." My eyes slid slowly towards the counter where a new customer had just come in, wearing a loose black shirt tucked over and into his pants.
"Oh hell no, you've got to be kidding me." Marvin looked around to where I was discreetly looking then he paled visibly. As the guy slowly began to turn dad suddenly yelled.
"Get down!" Springing across the table he slammed into me, knocking both Marvin and I backwards to the ground as bullets began to hit the wall where we had just been sitting.
"Dad! I'm so going to kill you for this!" I bellowed as I pushed him off me then crawled forwards and grabbed my waitressing tray. Rolling onto my side I flung it forwards like a Frisbee as everyone screamed, either running to the door or coming out of hiding to shoot at us too. The tray hit the guy at the counter square in the face but I had already rolled forwards and locked my legs around another agent, sweeping him to the floor before taking his gun and whacking it across his face.
Checking the mag I looked back to dad and Marvin as they finished off the other agents. "Nice." I mused at the gun then looked up at Pete, the guy who owned the place. "Sorry about the mess. Please don't fire me?" I asked hopefully but he simply stared, trembling like a leaf before screaming.
"Get out! Get out! Don't come back! You're so fired Natalia!" Ouch man, that hurt. Dad gripped my arm and pulled me up as Pete made a bolt for the back. I glared at him.
"Alright, since I have nothing better to do now anyway, let's go save your ass, okay?" I armed the gun, pulling back the barrel before holding it up to the side of my face. "This way." I led them through the kitchen, yelling for all the chefs to keep down as we took the stairs up to the roof.
"Where's your car?" I demanded at dad as we stopped at the fire escape door.
"Couple of streets down." He answered, listening. "All clear?" I peeked out the window but saw nothing.
"Clear. I'll go first." Kicking the door open I stepped out and aimed, checking the surroundings before whistling to dad.
"You know, most daddies pay for their daughters to go to ballet class or gymnastics, Frank, not teach them how to fight and shoot guns." Marvin said as we headed forwards at a steady pace towards the ladder leading down into the street.
"Wha-she wanted to learn!" Dad defended as I stuffed the gun into my jeans then looked over the edge. "She asked me to teach her."
"Doesn't mean you actually agree, no wonder you're not teaching Sarah anything." I looked to dad with an amused look.
"She's interested is she?" He stammered, mouth opening and closing uselessly as I looked to Marvin who rolled his eyes. "You better keep her, dad, I like the sound of this one. She'll be good for you. Now, moving on." I flung myself over the side and gripped the edge of the ladder, sliding down easily until after a few moments my feet hit the ground again.
When Marvin and dad had joined me I gripped his arm. "By the way, dad, I did want to go to ballet class." I informed him then turned on my heel, sneakers squeaking before following Marvin, leaving a bewildered Frank Moses behind me.
"Why me?" He complained. "Why do all women hate me?" I couldn't supress a grin as I listened to him complain as he hurried to catch up. "Nat, come on, Nat, don't be like this. Baby please talk to me." He begged as I ignored him. "What have I done now? Why are you angry at me? I'm sorry I came to you and asked for help but I don't have anyone else I can trust more than you." He paused. "Apart from Marvin and Sarah." Spinning around in the middle of the street I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him.
"You know what dad? I'm not mad, I'm just upset." He nodded his head, telling me he was listening.
"Oh jeez." Marvin groaned then stepped away to give us some space.
"I'm not mad because I am so tired of trying to feel something towards you, anything at all! You did a great job raising me on your own but you pushed me more than you needed to. You were always teaching me to be more like you though you refused to let me follow in your footsteps. When I got older and started to date, you were always there breathing down my neck and scaring them all away because they were all too scared to fight back. Now I never see you. Ever. It's like…I don't know. It's like you don't even care anymore."
"Baby, it's not like that at all. I thought you wanted space." Dad tried to explain but I glared at him, making him fall silent.
"There's a difference between giving some space and not talking to me for two months solid!" Throwing my hands up in the air I growled then rubbed my head, trying to get my thoughts into some sort of coherent manner. "You're either too caring or don't care at all. I'm not sure which I prefer." Glancing back to Marvin I stepped a little closer to dad. "Look, I'll help you however I can. Whether it's simply having your back or keeping Sarah safe, I don't mind. However after this, I want you to promise me that you'll try harder to be the dad that I need. I need you in my life because it's so damn lonely without you there. Can you promise me that, dad?"
His eyes bore into mine and when he nodded, I knew he meant it. "I can baby. I promise I'll try." Opening his arms I stepped closer to him, allowing him to hug me, tucking my head onto his shoulder. "God you're so beautiful. Just like your mother." I blinked in surprise. Dad never talked about mom. "I know I've messed up too many times to count but you will always have me there, whether you can see me or not. I'll never abandon you."
"Not like mom." I muttered under my breath and he tensed before relaxing again. Before he could speak Marvin interrupted.
"Look I know this is a massive leap in this seriously messed up father daughter relationship but I think we need to get going if we want this relationship to remain intact before some more of those agents decide to blow a hole in it." He said monotonously and I laughed.
"I've missed you guys. Come on then, lead the way." Marvin led us into an empty street where a pretty woman leaned against a car, looking slightly miffed at being left behind. Instantly I beamed and strode ahead. "Hi!" I called and she looked up, instantly her eyes widened.
"Are you-? Is she?" Sarah asked dad as I reached her and pulled her into a hug.
"I'm Natalia, you must be Sarah." She smiled as I pulled back from our hug. "It's so good to finally meet you. Dad hasn't told me much but I'm glad we finally met."
"Yeah you too. You're his favourite pass time topic." Sarah said, shooting a look to dad. "He's a little overprotective of you too, isn't he?" Rolling my eyes I nodded.
"You have no idea."
"Well then, I think we should get talking. I have a feeling you and I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, seeing as your dad couldn't make the arrangements for us to meet earlier and under a less…life threatening situation." I got into the back with Sarah and instantly I found that I liked her very much, she was gutsy and very sweet.
"Dad hasn't given you a gun, has he?" I asked and Sarah shook her head. Pulling the gun from my back pocket dad turned and frowned.
"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" He demanded with a worried tone and expression but I merely grinned.
"It's a simple concept, you aim and fire. Pull back to arm." I demonstrated. "Once you're clean out, you pull the mag out downwards, grab a fresh one then slide it back up." I reloaded to show her. "Slap it up with your palm to make sure it's locked in then pull back the barrel to arm." Finishing off I held it out to her. Dad made a small sound of protest but Sarah was already grinning and taking the gun from my hands.
"Your daughter is way cooler than you are Frank." Sarah informed him as she pulled out the mag, reloaded then yanked back the barrel.
"Not so hard, you don't need to tear it off." I said as she mock aimed the gun towards Frank's head. Chuckling I pushed it away from where she was aiming it.
"Just in case." After a moment she handed it back to me.
"Yeah maybe I should get one with a safety lock." She decided as she shifted in her seat, tugging on the belt that strapped across her and continuing to wriggle until she was comfortable.
After a long silence I decided to finally ask what in hell's name was going on. "What the heck is going on, dad, Marvin? Either of you care to enlighten me?" Marvin glanced back through the mirror at me so I gave him a stone dead look to assure him I was not going to mess around the well. I wanted the answers now before I threw him down into the water below.
"Ninety six hours ago someone posted a document online that said that you and I took part in an operation called Nightshade back in seventy nine." He said whilst looking at dad who merely nodded his head once with a deep frown of concentration.
"That's why you fake died?" Sarah asked with a slight ring of uncertainty.
"Yep. The cheddar went through the roof."
"So everybody's after you for something they think you know that you don't even know at all?"
"Classic pin up." I sighed. "Set someone else up for the blame and they go after that person instead of you. Who could have done it though?" Glancing at her feet she picked up a jar containing two rather venomous spiders.
"Oh my god, spiders!"
"Ah, be careful with that. They're deadly." I warned her and she shot me a sidelong panicked look before hastily but carefully putting them down and lifting her feet off the floor.
"Listen honey, you need to get to ground and its best that I don't know where." Dad said as he looked back at Sarah who arched an eyebrow comically at him.
"Yeah I'm not going anywhere." Reaching back dad handed her a thick wad of cash and her eyes lit up.
"Cash only, no calls, no contact."
"Ooh thanks!" She said as she pocketed the money then leaned forwards. "Look." She finally sighed. "I'm not hanging out in some bunker while you slink around and save the planet with Marvin and your daughter." She paused for a minute then frowned. "Hang on a second, how come she doesn't have to go hide in a bunker?"
"Because I need her with me, she's good at the sort of thing we do. I taught her myself." Sarah stared then looked at me so I offered a weak smile.
"Guilty."
"Oh man, that's so unfair." Sarah muttered under her breath.
"Sarah, Sarah look at me." Dad reached forwards and cupped Sarah's chin, making her look back at him. "It's hard for me to be the kind of guy I need to be right now and do the kind of things I'm going to have to do with you there."
"This is going to be good for us." She kissed his forehead and I smirked slightly, looking out the window to hide my expression. "Let's face it Columbo, things were getting a little stale."
"Wow, mommy just slapped daddy at the dinner table." Marvin mused lightly and I couldn't help but cackle.
"She's got you there dad." He shot me an unforgiving look.
"With the two of you paired up together, I'm actually afraid I'm not going to live through this." Sarah and I gave each other a secret smile of plotting until we both heard something screaming and banging from behind. Sarah blinked as I frowned, leaning back to listen closer.
"Is-is there a human being in the trunk?" She asked.
"Yep." Marvin nodded simply, unfazed by the sound.
"Who is it, Marvin?" Dad asked with a hard expression.
"It's uh…he's a senior director of military intelligence. I've been caramelising his onions for a few days."
"Caramelising how?" Marvin shifted uncomfortably.
"Three tabs of acid and a lot of rats." He said and I honestly did not know whether he was joking or not.
"You're…kidding…right?" I asked but Marvin just shot me a blank look. "Damn."
So tell me guys, what did y'all think? Hope it's okay and please R+R for me, bye!