DISCLAIMER: Yeah, don't own it, but I'll be damned if I didn't order the movies off line only to find out they were releasing a box set of the friggin' things --
Howdy hullo!
Happy holidays!! Hope all's well with everyone, and that everyone's enjoying the holidays so far. I also hope that those who still do take exams remember to take the time to relax… By reading this, bwahaha… But anyway, enjoy as always, and I love to hear back from you. So have a restful break, dear readers, and I hope that you all enjoy the chapter : )
Fun fact of boredom: This is the only chapter I've ever written in a different state (not really fun, but if you knew how very little I get out of my own state you'd understand the significance of it).
Chapter Six: Someone Saved my Life Tonight
"What the hell… You're staying at the guy's place, you ate with him… What are you gonna do next—him!? What's it gonna take you to wipe this guy out, Kiko!?" Hatcher demanded from the shadows while Yukiko merely looked onward coolly, her hands in her pockets and a cigarette dangling from her mouth. "Look what I'm giving you…"
"I know, but there's something else I need. The deal ain't sweet enough…"
"Jesus, I oughta pay someone to kill YOU!"
"That'd be damn near impossible, Hatch. I'm one of the best…"
"And now, you're my best," Hatcher said with a smile, reaching out and squeezing her shoulder. "You're mine, Kiko. You realize, I friggin' own you…And as long as I own you, you do what the hell I tell you to, which means off that little rat bastard!"
While this conspired, Heiji remained hidden in a nearby shrub in the back of the Lupin-Zenigata household. He had on him his headphones, and also carried with him a satellite, to pick up Yukiko and Hatcher's exchange even more clearly.
"I… I'll do it… I just need a little more time, is all…"
"I've given you nothing but time, faith, and money, and now I'm thinkin' it was a mistake to give you any of that…" Hatcher turned away from her gruffly and headed to the shadows of the back of the yard. "You got three days to wipe him out, or I'll make you more than half-blind!"
Yukiko's teeth gritted at this, and she watched as best as she could as Hatcher submerged himself into the shadows, and practically jumped as she heard a rustling from where Heiji stay hidden.
"Who the hell's there?" she demanded, jumping from the porch and toward the bush, her gun drawn in case she had to make a quick decision. She pushed aside some of the plants carefully, but found no one.
As she left, Heiji was glad she hadn't looked upward in the tree on the side of the house, the same tree he was currently hidden in. He carefully hopped down, wiped his forehead and then shakily put away his equipment. It was when he was putting away his headset he felt the gun to the back of his head.
"You really think I'm stupid, don't you?" Yukiko said with a Jigen-like frown of intensity as she stood over him, a freshly lit cigarette between her lips. "You must think I'm a moron if you didn't think I'd think you'd go up in the tree for cover. Only questions are now did Toshiro send you and exactly how much of that did you hear?"
"I saw a guy out here with you, I thought it could have been Toshiro," answered Heiji as he made as much contact with her eyes as possible. "And I know you're under contract to kill someone, I'm just not sure who…"
"And that's the only reason you're still alive," Yukiko replied, but failed to ease her grip on her weapon. "I'll give you the opportunity to forget this, but only because I don't have the right materials to hide a body right now."
"Yukiko, I know that you don't get along with Toshiro that much, but… Whatever it is, he can help you, I'm sure. We all can," Heiji explained while looking about for a quick exit.
"I can help myself. I don't need anyone," Yukiko said with a growl. "Teaming up with Fuji, getting married, going along with all of this for years, it was all a mistake."
"So your daughter was a mistake, too?"
"The only good one I've made," Yukiko replied, pulling back the trigger.
"What're you guys doing?" both turned their heads suddenly to Dako, who stood on the porch with Avery's hand clutching hers. Both were dressed in pajamas, and Avery held a glass of water much too large for his tiny hand.
"We…." Heiji rose and pushed away the butt of Yukiko's gun, and smiled at the children. "Yukiko was outside smoking, though she heard someone, and she came out to investigate, and, well, found me!"
"But… What were you doing outside?" Dako continued.
Yukiko eyed Heiji worriedly, and he only smiled and shrugged. "I was having trouble getting a signal on my computer…."
"Oh…. Well, Dad and Pop have one you can use, upstairs," Dako added, pointing to the house.
"Yeah, I'll do just that…"
"We'll be in in a minute," Yukiko added with a smile and a nod.
"Yeah… Just… Don't do anything weird…. Well, try…." Dako said unassuredly, tugging Avery along into the kitchen and then quickly shutting the door.
"You say anything and you're dead," Yukiko warned Heiji, placing her gun in her holster and turning away from him.
"He must not have married you for the brains," Heiji added as Yukiko headed back into the house after the children and completely ignoring Ishikawa in the process.
Upstairs, Jared, too, had awoken from his sugar-induced sleep, yawned, stretched and headed down the hall to the bathroom, "Heh, I don't need any rubber sheets, I'll show them…." He muttered confidently to himself as he headed into the bathroom and moments later ventured back out, victorious. As he trudged back down the hall, he became aware of what sounded like a sobbing, and peaked into the guest bedroom, where he found Ryo curled up on her bed with her head upon her knees. "Umm… You… You okay?"
"Huh?" Ryo sniffed and immediately began to wipe her face as she became aware of Jared's presence. "Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine…."
"You don't cry because you're fine…" Jared added, stepping closer to her cautiously. "Um, you want a drink or something? Milk's pretty good, and we've always got a ton of it, for some reason…"
"If your dad could mix it with Bourbon, I don't think he'd drink anything else," Ryo said with a chuckle, wiping her reddened eyes and smiling. "Your name's Jared, right?"
"Um, yeah…"
"You can take a seat, if you want, Jared," Ryo patted the area on the bed beside her and smiled, and Jared uneasily followed her instructions and seated himself next to her. "You look a lot like your dad…"
"I get that a lot… Even my mom used to tell me that…"
"What happened to your mom?"
"I dunno," Jared admitted with a shrug. "I haven't seen her in a while…. She just kinda left, but she always liked doing that…"
"So did your dad, when he was younger…. But I think he's all done running, now, lucky for you," Ryo said with a slight chuckle, leaning back against the headboard.
"Weren't you his girlfriend before he went, all… Ya know…?"
"Yeah, I… I was… We were engaged, actually…."
"Jeeze, glad that didn't happen…" Jared said with a shake of the head and a sigh of relief. Ryo gave a puzzled look at this, and he explained in a stutter. "You're nice, it's just that if he'd of married you, there wouldn't be a me, or Dako, or Ave… It's kinda weird having Pop and Dad, but I just tell people that one's my uncle… Usually Dad… They don't ask as many questions, then."
"You get picked on a lot for it?"
"Not really… I just… I don't tell a lot of people, which is probably bad, I know, but…"
"You do what you have to to get by," Ryo said, a smile coming across her lips as she spoke. "I used to be a little embarrassed when I was little, too, but… It was mainly because my Dad was so much older…"
"Grandpa Jigen's, like, ancient! Not like Ojiisan ancient, but he's oldddddd!"
"Yeah, he's pretty old," Ryo chuckled, and glanced down at her numerous golden bracelets. "Hey, I want you to do something for me, Jared…"
"Huh? What's that?"
"Give this to a girl you like, okay?" Ryo unclasped the bracelet at the very end of the row on her left arm and then passed it to the young boy, who read over in the inscription inside.
"This is from Pop… Indy?" he muttered. "You… You ran the Indy 500?!"
"I was eighteen, and he was waiting at the sidelines when I won it…" she replied, rubbing her arm and then looking over the remaining bracelets. "He gave me all of these… They're all major races I've won…"
"I just thought you liked to wear a lot of jewelry," Jared muttered, placing the bracelet in his pant pocket for safety and then hopping off the bed. "Dad and Pop said not to bother you too much, so I better get going before they catch me. I'm already in trouble for not studying when I should be…."
She watched with a smile as he exited nervously, and then allowed herself to finally relax as she rested with her back to the headboard, all the meanwhile, Jared journeyed back to his room. Along the way, he saw Dako walking down the opposite side of the hall, and stepped in front of her in order to stop her.
"….Can I help you?" she asked with an unamused look. Avery had already awoken her, and the last thing she needed now was someone else stopping her on the trek back to her bedroom.
"Here. Urm, hold this for me, will ya?" he removed the bracelet from his pocket, and then placed it on Dako's wrist. It barely stayed there due to the small size of her hands, and she looked it over curiously.
"Did you steal this?" she asked accusingly, her eyes shifting away from the bracelet to him.
"N-no! Ryo just wanted me to look after it, but I think you'd be the more responsible one out of us," Jared stuttered, looking away from her and toward his bedroom. "I'm… Gonna head to bed, now…"
"Yeah… Don't forget to put those sheets on your bed!" Dako called.
"I don't need those!" Jared yelled angrily, and then slammed the door on his way back into his bedroom.
"Heh… He's got good taste, though…" Dako muttered as she glanced at the bracelet and then continued on to her room.
Yukiko had escaped once more, this time with the help of a rope she kept with her in her jacket. She looked upward at the house, and then broke into a run, not exactly where she was headed. She saw Ryo through the guest bedroom window for a moment, but then vanished into the shadows before her sister could get a good look at the fleeing gunwoman and blow her otherwise quiet exit. She wanted no bells and whistles and certainly no one fighting over her leaving, so her only option had been to escape like a rouge teenager.
'Spain's too obvious… Maybe run away to Japan for a little while, and let this all fly over… But if I don't kill him, Hatcher'll find someone else, I friggin' know it! And Hatch would go after Saiyuri, too…' she thought to herself as she hurriedly along down the street of the rural Paris outskirts, her hands in her pockets in order to retrieve some warmth. She had gone into panic mode once again, and had only time to grab her gun and fedora and head out. She no longer wanted to deal with people, or the underworld. She just wanted to run back to the days of the shooting range with her father, or even before that, when her mother would have her sit in the diner where she worked long hours while Yukiko merely colored away.
"Waitress… That ain't a bad life… I'd look good in the uniform, and my balance ain't too bad…" Yukiko muttered, not even stopping to remove a cigarette from her pack and then reaching for her lighter. She cursed as she found it was out of fluid, then tossed the silver Zippo to the ground while calculating the closest route to the airport.
She suddenly felt a breeze behind her, and turned about, gun drawn. She looked to the snow-covered sidewalk and saw that not only were there footprints, the Zippo was now placed gently upon a bench. Yukiko nearly gulped down her cigarette, then turned back around, nearly running into the chest of a much taller man. Taking a few steps back, she realized it was Toshiro, who looked downward at her silently and coldly. He looked as though he were about to attack her, and Yukiko reacted to his sudden presence the only way she knew how.
Yukiko shook for a few more moments before collapsing, and Toshiro was quick to rush to her and then lift her into his arms. His expression turned to worry as he looked her over, and he then disappeared from the street as silently as he had arrived.
When Yukiko awoke, the first thing she noticed was the warmth. As she became more aware of her surroundings, she gasped and sat up in the bed, bunching the covers around herself and then looking around for any clues as to where she might be. It was now daytime, and from what she could tell, it was a small cottage. She became aware of yells coming from outside, and wrapped herself in one of the sheets before heading to the window.
Half of Toshiro's gi was down, revealing his right shoulder (the same one that bore the two bullets he had taken for Yukiko years previous) as he slashed through the bales of hay circling him. From the area surrounding him, Yukiko could only guess they were in a forest of some kind. She turned around to look around the room, and only found one of his kimonos, a dark blue one, "Christ, this is gonna look huge on me…." Indeed she did look like a child wearing her father's kimono as she wrapped it about herself and tied the sash, and then headed out to watch the samurai.
He didn't notice her for a moment or two as he chopped through another bale of hay, making a clean slice, but then sheathed his swords as he noticed her, and headed to her.
"You… You dyed your hair again…" she said quietly, noting the bright-red hue.
"Nah, I just got so pissed that it turned this color," he said with a smirk, adjusting his gi and then looking her over for a few moments. "That's a good look for you…"
"I'm sure you had an even better look," Yukiko replied, folding her arms and watching as Toshiro's face slightly reddened, and he cleared his throat and headed back inside with her following close behind.
"How long have I been out? Since last night?"
"Two days," Toshiro answered as he poured himself a cup of tea in the small French-style kitchen and then poured one for her, passing her the delicate cup and looking curiously at the horrified expression on her face. "What, not an Earl Grey fan?"
"I've only got one more day," Yukiko muttered, setting the tea cup down on the table and slumping into one of the wooden chairs.
"For what?"
"Nothing, you… You wouldn't be interested, okay?"
"If I weren't, I wouldn't be asking you, now would I?" Toshiro countered while Yukiko rose and pulled the kimono tighter.
"What'd you do with my suit?"
"It's at the cleaner's, still… The damn thing looked awful…" Toshiro murmured. "I should've thrown it away on you…"
"You do that and I'll kill you, you—"
"Who's Hatcher?" Toshiro asked quickly, beating Yukiko to any writhing comments she would have otherwise made about him. Her face fell, and she grew pale, seating herself once more and only looking downward quietly. "Yukiko, I…"
He reached over and placed his hands upon her shoulders, and she leaned forward and began to break once more, "Listen, if all you're looking for is, damn it, I don't know what you want! God, whatever it is, just do it, okay? I don't care anymore… I just don't care…"
"I wanna help you," he bent down and kissed her on the forehead gently. "I don't know who that guy is, what he or you are involved in, nor do I really honestly want to know. But I do want to help you, Yuki… Jeeze, you're not the girl who used to tell me to shove it, anymore… I miss that… What happened to you?"
"I just… I screwed up a lot of things really bad," she leaned inward and embraced him, much to Toshiro's surprise, and he sat her on his lap as he eased her onto the kitchen floor with him. "I… Jesus, I've made everyone friggin' hate me…"
"They don't…"
"Yeah, yeah they do…"
"I don't," he said quietly, and she stopped and looked upward to him. "I… I went back to the theater for a little while… There was even a girl there…"
"What happened with her, eh? You guys seeing one another, yet?"
"She told me she loved me… And I had to let her down easy…"
"Why do you do that crap to yourself?! You've got everything going for you, and you screw it up because of me."
"Eh, I've been doing that since I was nine," he chuckled. "I've known you and dealt with you for nearly thirty years, Yukiko Yazuka/Jigen/Ishikawa/Jigen… You throw fits, I know that. And I ain't gonna let another one screw up everything I've been working for. Now… C'mon, just tell me what's wrong, and I'll see what I can do. You'll have the Rat Clan and the Ishikawa Clan behind you…"
"I promised Hatcher I'd kill Lupin the Fourth… The, the old Lupin the Fourth," she said quietly. "And that I'd have Leo dead by tomorrow…"
"…Jesus, Yukiko…."
A Paris Hospital, the room of Victor Lupin:
"So, nothing at all?"
"I'm really sorry, dear… The rater that he's going, though…" the nurse sighed and looked to Ryo apologetically. "We may need you here a little later to sort out some forms…"
"What…? What kind of forms?" Ryo wondered aloud, now growing more frantic. "Like… Like death forms?! Like forms that give those crap doctors permission to peck over him like a vulture?! How heartless do you think I am?!" she yelled, and lunged for the nurse, but Fuji and Leo quickly caught her and drug her away from the spooked nurse. "I'm not going to let you do that crap to him! He'll be fine!"
"Ryo…" Leo took her by the shoulders and sighed. "Maybe you should… I don't know, call a priest… If you want, Max is nearly qualified to be a Rabbi, and he could say a few prayers…"
Max, from the corner of the hospital waiting room, looked upward at his partner and hoped it wouldn't come to this, mainly due to the fact that most of the prayers he remembered were Hanukkah or wedding-themed.
"He's going to be all right!" Ryo shouted, pushing Leo back. "He's not going to leave me, all right?! Victor's not like you, he doesn't leave people he promises to love!"
"Ryo-san…" Fuji quietly approached her friend. "It…. It's gonna happen to us all, someday…"
"Oh, so the jerk who got caught losing it to another guy on his parents' bed gets a clean bill of health, but my husband's going to die?!" Ryo laughed in disbelief, oblivious to Max's embarrassed silence and Fuji's gaping mouth. "Oh… And don't go looking so friggin' stunned, Fuji… You're even worse than him… You're the whore who did my brother and nearly ended his marriage… At least Max was looking for a little love… You're the worst of all, though, Ari… You fool us all… Time and time again… You should've died a long time ago. I wish you were the one there instead of him. I really do…"
She then stormed back into Victor's room, leaving the room in complete silence, save for small whimpers which sounded from Ryo. Leo sat down and reached out to Max, taking his hand and holding it, "She's just upset… We'd be like that if it were us…"
"….You're the only one who I ever told that to… About me and Jake…." Max said quietly, looking upward to Leo with glassy eyes and then pulling his hand away. He rose after several attempts, pushing away any help Leo went to assist him, and then headed out to the smoking area of the hospital.
"…I'd like to say that it'll get better once Victor comes out of it," Fuji said quietly. "But… I'm not sure if it will."
"Shut up for once in your life, Fuji… You're the one I told that to, and I trusted you with it," Leo muttered to his sister.
"You need to tell him, Ari… It's what's fair. Even if he hates you, you need to tell him," Fuji said quietly. "And… If he's the Max I know, he'll still love you…"
"Listen, if I wanted to hear someone read me off fortune cookies, I'd go to Odori…"
"Where're you heading to now?"
"…To tell him the whole truth… About Charely… About everything…." Leo sighed, tilting his head down and then trudging to the glass doors which Max had exited through moments previous. Fuji sighed, placed her hands in her pockets, and then glanced in the hospital room.
"…I pissed them off pretty bad, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but… They'll still love you," Fuji sighed as she looked over Victor and reached upward, brushing back the buzzcut and smirking. "He wasn't always a bastard… A lot of things made him that way. His dad was a grade-A, jerk, but his mom's an angel… He grew up having to defend her, though…. He was her eyes to the world, and her best little guard…. Hehe.. He was always so protective of people he loved, or he seemed that way, at least."
"He is…" Ryo grasped onto his hand and kissed it, then looked upward to Fuji. "Could you…. Maybe…"
"I'll let them know you're sorry," Fuji said with a nod.
"Thanks," Ryo wiped her eyes with her free hand, and smiled lightly as Fuji walked around to the other side of the bed and embraced her gently. Fuji then headed out, a serene look upon her face, which soon vanished as she heard shots fired. She then drew her gun, pulled her jacket over her head, and ran toward the smoking balcony, where she had heard the shots.
A cottage in the French forest:
"So, that's all of it, right?" Toshiro had switched from tea to a bottle of Chardonnay he had found in the refrigerator, and Yukiko only sighed from the bathroom. Toshiro rose from the bed and set the bottle down, then headed towards the bathroom. "Ugh, crap, I thought you were done… Sorry…" he quickly turned away after glancing in and seeing her still in the bathtub, with a surprised look upon her face.
"Ain't nothing you haven't seen before," Yukiko muttered, wringing out her hair and sitting up a bit in the tub.
"I know, but…"
"Heh, then give me a minute and I'll get a towel," Yukiko shooed him away, and Toshiro sighed in relief and waited in the bedroom until she emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped about herself. "Better?"
"Not really," Toshiro answered with a weak smile. "Urm, why don't you take a seat and I'll grab that kimono…"
"Heh, Mr. Ishikawa, your face is matching your hair," Yukiko smirked, and Toshiro only gave a chuckle and headed to his suitcase, pulling out a black suit bag and hat box.
"Hey, who usually stays here?" she called from the bedroom.
"Urm, one of my sisters," Toshiro answered. "She graduated, and she's a translator here now…"
"Don't say…" from the bedroom, Yukiko now had the closet doors open and was scanning through the clothing, occasionally pulling out a outfit and looking it over curiously.
"You… Urm… You'd look good in that one," Toshiro said half-jokingly as he watched her look over a red, thick-strapped and short dress.
"Don't push it," she placed the dress back in the closet, and turned around to face Toshiro, pulling the towel closer to herself and examining the suit bag. She took it from him, laid it on the bed, and unzipped it, her eyes flying wide as she noticed that instead of her gray suit before her there looked back at her her white suit. Toshiro placed a hand on her shoulder, and Yukiko jumped in surprise, her shock continuing as he produced her white fedora.
"I saved your stuff for you…" he answered sheepishly. "Actually… Saiyuri wouldn't let me toss it out, even at my most pissed…"
Yukiko took the hat and smiled as she looked it over, and set it down upon the yellow comforter of the bed, "You know, I…. I'm not quite sure if I want to start with… I'm not sure… I… Maybe we could start off as friends? You make it really hard to hate you when you're so damned nice to me all of the time. Plus you're about the only one right now who doesn't think I'm some kind of a whore."
"I think I can do friends right now," Toshiro said with a confident smile, bending down but instead his lips meeting with one of her fingers.
"Friends, remember?"
"You make it hard sometimes," he said with a smirk, backing away from her and turning to exit the room. "I'm gonna clean up breakfast, then we'll head out…."
"Take this with you!" Yukiko called, tossing him the towel, and Toshiro glanced upward only briefly, his face turning red.
"Aw, crap! Ugh, sorry…" he tripped over his sandals on his way to the kitchen, muttering to himself. "This ain't gonna be easy," he said to himself with a sigh as he headed toward the kitchen.
He was doing the dishes when she walked out, dressed in her old white suit. It was hard to believe that the already small suit was large on her, and Toshiro paused for a moment as he looked her over with a smile of approval, "You look great…"
"You're a crappy liar," Yukiko said with a chuckle, removing a cigarette from her pack and watching as Toshiro took the cigarette and put it in his own mouth.
"This stuff isn't good for you and… Are you wearing makeup?" he wondered aloud, removing the cigarette from his own mouth and leaning in to take a better look at her.
"Erm… My phone's ringing…"
"Yeah, friggin' right…"
"No, really," she pulled out her vibrating phone and turned away from his to answer. "Hello? Yeah… Yeah? Oh, crap! Be right there!" she quickly hung up the phone and looked to him with wide-eyed rush in her face. "Hatcher's trying to make his own moves, now. He's attacking them at the hospital."
"That's not too far a ride from here…" Toshiro set aside his dish towel and headed to the front door.
"Don't you mean a drive?"
"Nope, ride," he smiled and reached for his key, and raised an eyebrow as he noticed Yukiko chuckling. "Erm, what's wrong?"
"You might wanna take off the apron, Julia Childe," Yukiko reached around his back and untied the white frilled apron, then helped him pull it over his head.
"You are wearing makeup!" Toshiro laughed. "What, are you trying to impress me?"
"I just look tired; don't flatter yourself," Yukiko quickly answered, heading out of the house with Toshiro following behind. She groaned as she laid eyes on the yellow Vespa, and Toshiro merely smiled and patted her on the shoulder.
"Just like old times… Except, well, you didn't wear makeup…"
"Would you quiet about the friggin' makeup already and drive!? I've got an old bastard to kill…"
The Paris Hospital:
"Max, you all right?!" Leo gasped, grabbing onto the fallen Zenigata's arm and shaking while doing so. Bullets had been fired, and Max had pushed down his husband onto the concrete, saving them both from a barrage of bullets. He had watched the gray-haired gunman then run off, and they had managed to crawl behind a large flowerbed and get out of his sight in case he decided to come back with even more fire.
"Get off of me," Max snapped, pushing away from Leo and beginning to right himself on his crutch. Leo attempted to help once more, but Max only slapped him away. The rest of the gang had gathered outside at this point, including Ryo. It was uncomfortable watching Zenigata rise without any help and much struggle, and Fuji knew form the sick feeling in her stomach that Leo had told him.
"Max, I…"
"Just go home, get your stuff, and leave," Max said in a hiss after finally standing, albeit on shaking legs. "Because it's not your home anymore—At least until you grow up."
Leo tried not to pay attention to the group of thieves standing in the background, looking onward in solemn silence, but it was obvious from the red on his face that he knew of their presence. Max hobbled past them, turning about and spitting out venomously, "Don't you people have friggin' lives!? …The hell… And they always said I was the immature one!"
He headed to the elevator, and no one attempted to stop him, not even Leo, and Leo Lupin watched as Max entered the elevator, quickly shut the doors, and was gone. The Lupin gang then slowly drew their attention back to them, and his mouth opened to speak, but no words came out. Only more shots, as Hatcher had returned with more ammo, and now continued to fire at him. Leo ducked down out of instinct, although he considered allowing a few of the bullets to pierce him.
There was silence a few moments after that, except for the shots from Fuji's Walther ringing out, and then there came the sound of an engine. All looked about in mild confusion, and even Hatcher drew his weapon back, wondering what had them so surprised.
"…Kiko?" he muttered as the stairwell door burst open, and out zoomed a familiar red Vespa, with a red-headed samurai at the handlebars and a petite woman in a white suit gripping onto him with one hand while in the other she held a magnum. They screeched to a halt, and all watched for a few stunned moments of silence, to which Yukiko only gave a smug smile.
"What, you never seen a broad with a gun before?" she smiled, and Fuji's look of confusion broke into one, as well.
"Glad to have you back, Yuki…" she whispered right before Hatcher fired another shot, grazing the Lupin daughter. She, Ryo, and now Yukiko drew their guns, only to find him vanished.
"Jesus, this is all my fault…" Leo muttered.
"Nah, if anyone's it's mine… I'm the one who was supposed to kill you," Yukiko shrugged, reloading her magnum.
"What?!" Leo yelped.
"Could we possibly talk about this over tea later?" Ally snapped, "That bum doesn't seem like the kind to just retreat…"
"He isn't, trust me…" Yukiko replied, looking about the roof tensely. She nearly shot at her sister as Ryo's cell phone went off, and all quietly listened as Ryo answered the phone and her face lined with terror.
"He's here, all right…" she said in a whisper, shutting her phone. "He's, urm… He's in Victor's hospital room… He said he wants you, Yuki…"
Yukiko looked over her shoulder to Toshiro, but Leo quickly interjected, "Damn it, no, this stops right here. I'm the one he wants, so I'm going to give him just that…. All this over some stupid piece of art…. And they call me screwed up with my priorities…."
"Ari…" Fuji placed a hand on his shoulder, but he was quick to shrug this off.
"Fuji, I just screwed myself out of anything possibly good. I've officially got nothing left, now," Leo's eyes were lit with a fierceness his sister had not seen in years, and this made Fuji understandably frightened of what he might do. The last time Fuji had seen this fierce determination was during the one time he had dared to go up against their father—Ari had lost, but had put up quite a fight in the process.
"…Okay…. You're going to have backup, though," Fuji replied, trying to match his sternness. "Ally, Toshiro…."
"You even try and I'll arrest you, Fuji, and make sure they toss out the key," Leo returned, heading down the stairs with his weapon drawn.
He practically jumped from flight to flight of stairs, rushing down the hall and drowning out the screams of the surprised nurses that he passed down the hall, as well as the alarm that went off soon after. He found Victor's room, and found Hatcher, but much to his sudden horror he found a crutch at Hatcher's feet as the gray-haired man sat with a gun beside the comatose Victor.
"….What'd you do to him?" Leo looked above his glasses to Hatcher, who merely remained smiling smugly.
"Nothing, yet… I think what you're trying to ask me is what I've done with him," Hatcher chuckled. "You know, for a linguist, your English really sucks when you're angry…. I just want what's mine, Lupin…"
"I don't know where it is!" Leo snapped. "It's just a stupid statue!"
"Na-ah… It's a porcelain doll, and it's got something very precious in it…" Hatcher explained. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have to kidnap your boyfriend and this poor son of a bitch sure as hell wouldn't have gotten shot!"
"….I don't understand…"
"Doesn't really surprise me," Hatcher jumped to his feet and kicked aside the crutch into the corner of t he hospital room and approached Leo, his gun now focused off of Victor. "It's stuffed with blue pearls, you idiot!"
"…Blue… Wait, those don't…"
"What the hell do you know?" Hatcher snorted. "They do exist, but they only come from one part of the Indian Ocean… I could make friggin' millions off them, I wouldn't have to jackass around with pillow-biters who dress like Goddamn Captain Kangaroo!"
"You… You put him in a coma…. And you crippled my husband… Just for… Some stupid jewelry…" Leo whispered, and removed his glasses, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. His shoulders than began to bob, and Hatcher frowned as Leo broke into full laughter.
"What the… Don't laugh at me… I said don't laugh at me!" Hatcher barked, but Leo could not quit. He had to fight back tears from the laughter as he struggled to speak.
"You mean you… Ha ha! Oh… Oh my God… Hehee…. That's the punchline—Pearls? God, and I thought Max had a crap sense of humor… HAHA!"
"Stop laughing at me you Goddamn queer!" Hatcher was red in the face as Leo continued his laughter, and aimed the gun at Lupin, but Leo's laughing immediately ceased, as did Hatcher's rage.
In the right light, Leo looked remarkably like his father the moment he pointed the gun at the stunned Hatcher. The look on his face showed vacancy, though, the same vacancy he bore almost a decade ago when that officer had been shot, and he had been to blame.
The Lupin gang was there to watch as the shot was fired, and all remained still as Victor did in his bed as Hatcher clutched his chest, looked down at the blood and sunk to his knees, and then finally to the floor.
No cops came, for Heiji had picked up and rerouted the emergency call to his own phone, and this had given time for Odori, Jordan, Toshiro, and Ally to arrive at the scene dressed up in police uniforms, while Fuji and Ryo ran downstairs to lend aide to Leo.
He had no fired the shot. Leo simply let his own Walther slip out of his hand as he looked over Hatcher, while Yukiko stood in the hallway with her pistol still smoking.
She placed it back in its holster quietly as Leo too sunk to the floor, and placed his arms over his hands. The sound he emitted was ungodly, and on many levels even inhuman. It was a wail, followed by successive smaller ones, and Fuji and Ryo remained frozen in confusion as Yukiko turned her head and looked down the hall to see Toshiro helping a hobbling Max walk to the hospital room.
"I found him in a storage closet," Toshiro explained. "He had nearly kicked his way out…"
Max's annoyed expression transformed into worry as he heard the sounds emitting from Victor's room, and he hobbled over, gripping onto the molding of the doorframe for support and then looking down at Leo. He slowly eased himself onto the floor and managed to crawl over to Lupin, and then simply and quietly placed his arms about him from behind.
"You're okay…." Max said in a husky tone.
"I… I was gonna kill him… I… I mean, I…."
"Shh… You're fine…." Max began to slowly rock him back and forth, and placed his own cheek next to Leo's. "We'll all be fine…"
"I… I'm so sorry…."
"It's all right…. Leo, we're all all right…." Max reassured him quietly from the floor as the rest of the gang looked onward in silence.
A few weeks later:
"It's kinda cool having an uncle who's not like, five feet tall," Jared commented as he passed Jordan another high-hanging ornament to place on the top of the tree, which the blond did so with ease while Odori and Natasha worked on a popcorn chain while sitting on the couch. "Did you play basketball or something?"
"No, I'm a surfer…"
"Cool! Could you teach me?!"
"I could, but knowing your parents, they'd kill me…" Jordan replied with a smirk.
"That's okay, if they knew half the stuff I did, I'd be dead!"
"Like what?"
"Yeah, right," Jared snorted. "If I told you, you'd tell on me."
"So… This is your first Hanukkah?" Natasha said with a smile, glancing at Odori.
"Yes…. Very…. Very first," Odori nodded in her ever-improving English as she strung another piece of popcorn onto the thread.
"Okay, now, where's the angel, star of David… Whatever you guys put on top?" Jordan asked as he bent down to face Jared.
"Urm…. I…. I dunno…." Jared admitted after some thought. "I think it's in the garage…"
"Ugh…. Well, let's take a look in the black pit of despair, shall we?" Jordan smiled as he lifted the young boy up, sending Jared into a wild giggle.
"You picked a good one," Natasha said to Odori with a smile as Jordan and Jared made their way into the garage. "He's cute and he looks like the type who'd give you a billion kids!"
"A… billion?"
"A ton… Like maybe, six or seven…"
The needle then went into Odori's index finger, rather deeply, but her pained reaction was delayed as she mused the thought of being the mother of half a dozen tall children in silent fear.
While Natasha attempted to quell the bleeding from the living room, Jared and Jordan were in the garage, sorting through numerous cardboard boxes laying about. Jordan unfolded a poster for a few moments and looked over the poster of Jude Law curiously before putting it back as he heard a triumphant Jared.
"Here, this has gotta be it!" said the young boy confidently, handing the doll in the green flowing gown to Jordan.
"Wow…. She's pretty heavy, Jared, and she doesn't look a lot like an angel…."
"Maybe it's how the French make angels," Jared shrugged, and Jordan found no reason not to accept this theory, so the red-headed porcelain doll was put atop the tree, right beside the Baby's First Christmas ornament.
"Looks great!" Jared said with a wide smile as he looked over to his sister, who was concentrating setting the table for dinner while Avery followed Fujiko's every move in the kitchen.
It was when Natasha heard cursing and smelt the familiar smell of smoke that she left the bleeding Odori's side to stop the flaming wreckage that had been squab, and Jared excitedly ran behind her to get a good look at the damage. This left Jordan and Odori alone in the living room with only the Christmas tree and Odori's pain for company. Namiko had been assigned the task of aiding Dako, while Zenigata and Lupin had taken Max to retrieve Leo from his temporary home.
"How many children were we planning on?" Odori inquired after a moment.
"We're planning on more kids?" Jordan returned with a few clueless blinks, and Odori was about to speak when there came a call for her help in the kitchen.
"We'll talk once I quell the flames," Odori announced, leaving Jared there to breath a sigh of relief. He glanced upward to the 'angel' for a few moments, noticing how the dress almost made a pair of fins, but disregarded this as minor when the question of children was once again on the horizon.