Friday night

The House

"You know, if you guys were actually paying me for my visits, I might actually be able to give up working!" Dr Bennett commented as she headed home. "You staying Chloe?"

"Yeah, Mom!"

"Thought so!"


The girl was lying on the couch.

She had a large gauze pad on the side of her head, where the bullet had gouged its path. She was, up to this point, unconscious and had been for the past two hours, but she was now starting to stir. She opened her eyes, which were brown and which went suddenly wide at the sight of me standing over her.

"How you doing?" I asked politely.

The girl put her hand up to her head and then froze.

"Nice wig, by the way."

The girl actually had shoulder length brown hair, which she had tucked away under the short black wig. My revelation made her look rather despondent.

"You are safe here; 'Leon' isn't it?" I asked.

The girl bit her lip before replying.

"I go by 'The Heir', professionally."

"The heir to what?" I queried.

"I am the heir to 'The Professional'," The girl stated, simply and without bravado or unnecessary emphasis.

Now I recognised that name. Daddy had mentioned him some years ago, although I understood that he had ceased operating a couple of years before today. 'The Professional' was an assassin and a very good one.

No matter who you were, if 'The Professional' was after you – you were dead, end of story!


"You have an interesting taste in weapons," The blonde girl continued, holding up one of my pistols. "Beretta 92FS with a custom compensator; a heavy weapon, but accurate."

My head was reeling and throbbing with the pain; but I was still able to see that the pistol was unloaded and that the slide was locked back. I was not sure if I should be worried or not. Was I safe? I decided to take a chance.

"Am I speaking with the purple assassin, Hit Girl?" I asked tentatively.

"Anything's possible," The girl replied, nonchalantly inserting a magazine into the Beretta and releasing the slide. I cringed at the sound of the slide racking forward, as the pistol was then pointed directly at me.

Next, the girl reached over to a table and produced a suppressor – my suppressor! The girl proceeded to screw the suppressor onto the muzzle of the Beretta; now I was feeling worried. It was actually interesting to watch, the girl was obviously an expert with weapons; she handled the Beretta very much as he had.

I started to shake as I gazed into the large gaping hole that was the muzzle. The pistol was pointed directly between my eyes. I focussed on the slim finger that gently caressed the trigger and took up the slack, gently squeezing until the trigger broke and I screamed –

"Shit hit your shorts?" The blonde girl asked, smiling as she removed the, thankfully empty, magazine and made the weapon safe.

It took me a minute to get my faculties back together!

"That was not nice, Hit Girl!" I said as casually as I could.

"What were you doing there?" Hit Girl demanded, rapidly changing subject and inserted an obviously loaded magazine.

"Probably the same as you and your team."

"Who were you targeting?"

"Robert Rath."

Hit Girl grinned before replying. "Not Electra or Miguel?"

Fuck! "Okay, we watch the same movies!" I replied.

"We do..." Hit Girl replied, racking back the slide and this time I heard the round being stripped from the magazine.

"Okay, okay – His name was Reed and that' all I knew. He's dead, contract closed."

"Thank you," Hit Girl replied. "I'm Mindy, and you are?"

I was still eyeing the pistol in her hands, cocked and ready to fire.

"I'm Mathilda," I replied. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Mindy – I'd like to say that I'd heard a lot about you – but only rumours."

"I have to say that I know nothing about you; but I am aware of 'The Professional'. He still alive?"

I bit my lip as I replied. "No – he died a couple of years ago..."

"I'm sorry – I know how it feels to lose somebody close to you..."

We both just looked at each other, neither speaking for several minutes, but Hit Girl or rather Mindy, made the Beretta safe again.


"How you two doing; making out yet?" Dave asked, coming into the living room.

We both glared at him and he flinched a little.

"Just kidding!" Dave commented, grinning.

"Dave, meet Mathilda – Mathilda, meet Dave."

"Hi Dave."

"Hi Mathilda. Mindy being a bitch?" Dave asked with a smile.

I scowled.

"So is Dave your boyfriend?" Mathilda asked.

I felt myself blushing.

"Oh, I see – sorry!"


"She is quite hot, really – I like the hair – ouch, fuck! What was that for?"

"My hair not good enough for you?" Chloe demanded, having just hit Alex around the head.

"I was only saying, snarky bitch!"

"She's too old for you, so wind in your hormones!" Dave advised with a laugh.

"We keeping her?" Chloe asked.

"Mathilda is not a pet dog, Chloe!" I groaned. "It is up to Mathilda what she wants to do. She will need a few days to recover from the injury – she still has some double vision. She will be our house guest for a while, please be nice."

"Okay – bitchy!" Chloe retorted.

"Why did I ever volunteer for this shit?" Dave chuckled wearily.

Chloe and Alex vanished; I could hear them arguing as they went upstairs. Mathilda was fast asleep on the couch. I had told her that she could stay as long as she wanted. Apparently, she lived at some school or other, out on the edge of the City. There was no way that she could go back there, not with a big bump to the head!

Why was I feeling generous? The girl had obvious potential, especially considering who her mentor had been – Mathilda had been tight lipped about how 'The Professional' had died and I did not push it, not yet at least.

Did I trust her? Not really, but the girl had no choice and I had taken away her weapons. I had a distinct feeling that she only used firearms and had not learnt the finer points of hand-to-hand combat.

At least not yet.


The following morning
Saturday

The House

"What's up with you?"

"I think I just saw something that I shouldn't have!" Alex mumbled – he looked a little bit shocked.

"You've lost me..." I replied, pulling on my trousers.

As I often did at the weekend, I had stayed the night. Before anybody starts getting ideas, Alex's room had bunk beds and I slept on the bottom, while Alex slept on the top. Alex looked down at me and he looked kinda strange.

"I just went to the toilet and the door was part open, so I went in and –," Alex began.

"What could have been so bad that – oh!" I replied, an idea forming in my mind.

"She was naked – completely and wow –!"

"You've seen me naked," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but Mathilda – wow –!"

"What was so 'wow'?" I asked angrily. "And think before you answer, if you want to live!"

"She just stood there and actually turned so I could get a better look; she didn't seem bothered."

"So – you enjoyed it?" I asked, scowling.

"Just a bit!" Alex replied.

"All the blood went south, did it?"

"Most of it, yeah."

Just then Mathilda appeared in the doorway; she was wrapped in a towel.

"Sorry, Alex – I forgot to lock the door."

I didn't believe a fucking word of it! Was I feeling jealous? Maybe – she did have bigger tits and more curves than I had. But then Alex was a teenaged boy and probably couldn't control himself when a naked girl appeared in front of him!

"He'll get over it!" I said, smiling.

"How old are you, Mathilda?" Alex asked.

"I'm fifteen; my birthday was the middle of March. You?"

"I'm thirteen; I'm November. Chloe will be thirteen in couple of months; August."

I glared at Alex for giving away my age, not that it mattered any. Yes, I was the only one here who wasn't yet a teenager.


"Problem?" Mindy asked at breakfast.

I just grinned and smirked sideways at Mathilda, who grinned back. Mindy, looked at Dave, who just shook his head. Then she looked at Alex who seemed to squirm in his chair.

"Alex got a little more than he bargained for when he went for a piss, this morning!" I explained cryptically and watched as Alex blushed red.

"Oh – tell me more!" Mindy said, enjoying the scent of gossip and potential humiliation for Alex.

"Alex got an eyeful of tits and certain other regions!" I explained further, looking towards Mathilda.

Mindy looked at the deeply uncomfortable Alex and the grinning Mathilda.

I thought you were used to seeing naked girls?" Mindy asked with a big grin. "Mathilda got bigger tits – is that it, Alexander?"

"Yeah!" Alex murmured, blushing a darker shade of red.


I had called the school to let them know that something had come up.

They were not happy about it, but knew that there was not point arguing with me when my mind was made up.

Would I have been injured if Hit Girl and her team had not been there? Was it their fault? No, that was my foggy mind telling me that. I felt safe around these people – Mindy was more than a little nuts; but then I wasn't exactly one hundred percent sane, either – who was in that job!

I seemed to have hit it off with Chloe – despite flashing everything for her boyfriend to gawk at. I wasn't particularly bothered who saw me naked; I had nothing particularly special to show anyhow, although Alex seemed to think differently!

I had wondered if they might let me join their team. Over the months since Leon's death – almost two years now, I had been trying to plan out my future. Tony had begrudgingly given me some easy clients – I didn't need the money; Leon had taken care of that, but I did need the practice. Tony readily supplied me with equipment, but he would not help train me in any way.

I felt comfortable around Dave, too – I knew nothing much about boys. I never really fitted in much with the other girls at the school, but I got on with them okay. They all knew that I was 'different' and had some habits that seemed weird to them, but normal to me. Maybe I would seem normal to these people.

I looked at the ceiling.

"I think I will be okay here, Leon."