It Takes One to Raise One

Sequel to the incredibly long titled No One Takes Down Hit Girl But Hit Girl. Welcome and thank you for reading and reviewing. Title courtesy of Makokam. I'll try to update this more often, really. Thanks to SuperCasshern for extensive assistance in choosing a gun for Dave.

I stared up into the sky and tried to get a bit more comfortable on my towel. And I thought about what had gotten me here.

OK. Let's clear something up from last time first. I do know what it means to be brave. I went on what was basically a suicide mission after Daddy was killed. I knew I'd probably die but as long as I took D'Amico with me, I didn't care. I'm always willing to give whatever I have to or make whatever sacrifice is needed to complete a mission.

By contrast, you could probably argue that Dave going out that second time wasn't so much brave as totally fucking insane. Suicidal even…

Fuck fuckety fuck fuck fuck. I called my mission to kill D'Amico suicidal too, didn't I?

Shit. I guess we were both pretty nuts to keep this all going and to be who we were. Or to label vigilante justice as being a super hero. But hey, what's that Shakespeare quote? "'To thine own self be true?" It's who we were and I'm not going to apologize again.

Hey, stop laughing at the Shakespeare quote. I read!

OK, I didn't read it. But I saw the fucking movie!

Fuck. I twisted again. God damn bikini was trying to crawl up my butt again.

Yes. Bikini. Calm down, I'll explain it eventually.

My mind is a little messed up right now. And I was feeling nervous. It wasn't just because I was wearing a bikini. Every lead on the street that might have helped us to find the Motherfucker was a trap. His thugs had tried to ambush us four times. Only Dave's supreme paranoia had let us catch the last trap before we ended up as shark food. He had pounded into my head that we should assume anyone wearing white was probably going to try to kill us because storm trooper armor is white. All because part of Chris's derangement makes him think he is 'The Emperor'. Turned out that Dave was right when three seemingly off duty hospital orderlies dressed all in white sharing a joint in a back alley tried to kill us. Good thing that their aim was about as bad as a storm trooper…

So the days and nights just kept going by and blended together. We weren't getting any closer to finding The Motherfucker. Every week or so he'd have his goons commit some sort of minor trouble. Always nowhere near us so we'd spend the next few days combing the area and finding squat. The cops were getting pretty anxious because each and every one of the crimes was up on Youtube instantly. He was making them look like complete morons. And the nights were getting short and body armor is really tough to wear when it's 95+ degrees out with what seemed like 1000% humidity. It was a sucky time to look for someone.

To top it all off, Bethany wasn't doing that well with the split living arrangement. After all of the excitement about spending time at Miranda's wore off, she started asking us every night if we really had to go out. She even tried to play sick a few times. One night she made herself sick and while the 'eruption' was spectacular, the cleanup was not. She was sullen and moped around most of the time. I didn't know what to do.

At first I tried to smother her with attention and then I tried to give her space. Neither one helped. She wouldn't work out with me and wouldn't even talk to Dave. All she really wanted to do was cuddle. And then Miranda made the craziest suggestion that I could have ever thought of. I took it so badly that she actually had to dive for cover after seeing the look on my face. Two knives chased her though the air but I wasn't actually trying to hit her so all was fine. It was more the principle of the thing. But eventually I calmed down and tried to rationally explain why it was impossible.

She suggested that Dave and I take Bethany on a vacation.

After my initial protests about our responsibilities were shot down by both Dave and Miranda, I had to dig in. They made me admit that while our mission was to make the city safer, it wasn't our sole responsibility. There were other people out there too. We had Bethany in our life now and she deserved as normal a childhood as possible. She at least deserved one better than she'd had so far. I tried to stall Dave and Miranda by suggesting that once Chris was caught we could celebrate. They logically pointed out that it could be days, weeks, even years until that happened and then even once that threat was over, a new one would probably rear its ugly head. They said that eventually we'd need to take a break and now was as good a time as any. I held out for two more days until they pulled the ultimate in evil tricks. They told Bethany that we were 'thinking about a vacation.'

I lasted maybe 13 seconds after that. Because Bethany did something she hadn't done in weeks. She smiled. And to truly put the last nail in the coffin, she explained that she'd never been on a vacation before.

Not fucking fair guys.

So, I gave in, went online, and booked tickets to Disneyland. I'd never been on a real vacation either; might as well do it right.

Bethany and I went shopping for all the things we needed, with Miranda coming along to tell us exactly what that was. It probably sounds dumb to say that we needed Miranda along to help us shop, but we did. My experience in this field was pretty limited and Bethany's real mom had never had the money to do anything special. I had no clue what a little girl would need for a vacation and even needed Miranda's help figuring out what I would wear. I mean, I'd dressed up a few times, and loved dressing sexy for Dave in the safe house but this was going to be in public. And I didn't do 'public' all that well. Miranda helped with all of that and even had a few brilliant ideas, like not bothering to buy sunscreen and shampoo until we got there so we wouldn't have to fuck around with taking liquids through airport security. The stuff would be more expensive there, but I really didn't give a fuck.

Bathing suit shopping was painful. Bethany wanted to try on everything in the store but eventually settled on a 'Frozen' suit. I tried to pick out something modest and Miranda just laughed at me, put the one piece suit back on the rack, and handed me something that was made of triangles and floss. I handed it right back. She shoved it back at me and after a fierce negotiation, we settled on a normal bikini. I drew the line at a thong. This was a family vacation, damnit!

The only person who got to see that much of my ass was Dave. Well, also a couple of guys in the store who got a good peek when Bethany pulled my dressing room door open while I was still changing. The only thing that saved their testicles from a beating was that they politely looked away after the initial shock and that I immediately collapsed on the floor in a ball trying to cover the important bits up. Miranda busted up laughing and since I didn't have my knives with me, I didn't have to decide if I'd 'accidentally' hit her with one. I settled on the first suit that seemed to fit. This, of course, was a mistake because while it looks great on me, as soon as it gets wet it seems to believe it belongs in the crack of my ass. It would have been easier to have given in and bought the thong.

My swimsuit has been the only real problem with the vacation so far. And I suppose I could go buy another suit in the gift shop if this one drives me too nuts. But Dave, Bethany, and I have spent two wonderful days at Disney so far and are taking a day off at the hotel before we decide if we want a few more days or if we move onto Universal now. The variety sounded cool to Dave and me, but for a little girl, it's hard to compete with princesses. Bethany even got to have a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa on the first day. She was so excited that I thought she was going to explode. We all screamed together on the rides and stuffed ourselves with complete junk food. It'll take me weeks to work off those calories.

Shifting on the towel again, I pulled out my phone and dialed Miranda.

"I hate to admit it, but you were absolutely right. We needed this vacation." I said once Miranda had answered. "Anything going nuts while we're away?"

"Nope. Everything is calm. Actually, I'm kind of bored." Miranda replied.

"Do you want to come join us?" I asked.

"I'd love to, but I can't afford it." She replied, sounding a bit evasive.

"Bullshit." I said. This earned me a dirty look from another mother sitting a few feet away and I silently reminded myself that this was not the place for language. I also made a mental note to again remind Bethany that she should stop telling the ride operators that it was 'fucking great' when they helped her out at the end. The startled looks were amusing though. "Look, unless you're dead or something, I expect to see a charge for first class airfare to Disneyland on that credit card I gave you for emergencies within the next ten minutes. Don't shop around. Just find a flight and get over here."

"But…" She protested.

"Look, the only 'butt' involved here is mine trying to escape this stupid bikini. Call Marty and if he can go, buy him a ticket too. The vacation is nice, but it would be even better with friends." I laughed a bit to cover my embarrassment.

Embarrass. What an accurate word…

"You just want me to babysit so you and Dave can go out on your own!" Miranda accused, joining in my laughter.

"Nah, they have babysitting services here. Hell, they have EVERYTHING here. Well, almost everything. Look, I forgot my iPad. If it helps your conscience, pretend you're doing me a big favor by grabbing it and bringing it along. Just get out here and join us! Look, just agree already so I can get off the phone. Dave and Bethany will be back with lunch in a few minutes and I want it to be a surprise."

"Umm. Look, I'm not supposed to… I really shouldn't. I… OK. Fine. I'll meet you. And I do promise you, you're right. It'll be a surprise." Miranda finally said.

Her tone was kind of strange, but seeing Dave's tousled hair in the distance, I mumbled a 'goodbye' and shoved my phone back into hiding. This was going to be fun.

Bethany wheedled us into doing one more day at Disney and so I texted Miranda and Marty to meet us for dinner at one of the fancy restaurants inside. Their flight would get in about noon so it wouldn't be too difficult for her to get there in time and even give them a couple of hours by herself first.

I was just about dying holding the secret in as we finished the last ride and walked over to the restaurant. I scanned the area looking for our friends, hoping that I could spot them before Dave and Bethany did and make the surprise memorable.

Nothing. No sign of them. OK, maybe they were running late…. I checked my phone. Still no replies to my earlier queries on if they'd gotten in OK. I texted Miranda again. 'Where are you?!' No immediate reply. OK – time to cover.

Dave, Bethany and I went in and found our table. I mumbled to the waiter that the rest of our party wasn't here yet so that Bethany wouldn't know someone was coming. Dave noticed though and he pulled me aside.

"Don't tell me that Anna and Elsa called back to accept your $5000 bribe to join us at dinner. I thought they said it wasn't allowed."

"It's not that. I… Look, it was supposed to be a surprise, but I asked Marty and Miranda to fly down to join us. They were supposed to be waiting outside."

"Maybe they're running late?" There was something strange in his manner but he didn't seem that worried.

"Maybe. But I checked and their plane landed on time six hours ago. And I haven't gotten any message from them since they said they were on the way to the airport."

"I'm sure they're fine." He said calmly. "Probably just got caught up in everything."

We went ahead and had dinner. Dave seemed strangely distracted but not worried. And he wasn't talking. I fought to keep Bethany from noticing. After dessert, Dave insisted that we head over to the hotel but I wanted to go off by myself to try to figure out what was going on. I finally agreed to follow and meet him there before 7. He said that he'd tell the front desk where I should find him. That seemed odd but I was so worried about Miranda and Marty that I agreed. Before he left, he again insistent that I get there absolutely no later than 7. Finally, he left and I checked my phone, even rebooting it in case it was having problems but no messages made it through. I called their homes. No answer. I called the airline and verified that the websites claims that the flight had arrived on time were correct. They wouldn't tell me if the tickets had been used or if Miranda or Marty were on the plane. 'We don't give out that kind of information' they claimed.

Fuck!

Fine. I'd meet Dave as I had agreed. There had to be some sort of explanation for all of this.

Just as I started to leave, I remembered asking Miranda to grab the iPad for me. Hah! I logged into the "Find iPhone' app to try to track it. After a few seconds, it brought up a map with a little pin showing where it was. 'California'. OK, good, they made it. I zoomed in. 'Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel'. Excellent. They were close. Maybe her phone had just died or something. I started walking and hit the zoom button one more time.

The little pin was kind of behind the hotel. There was a little label that I couldn't quite read.

One more zoom and I could read it.

"Wedding Garden"

HOLY FUCK!