Lackadaisy: Heller the Bodyguard

by Purkso Livin

Speakeasy gunman Mordecai Heller is suddenly ordered to be the bodyguard for a young woman. Not only that, the averse to romance and interpersonal relationships tuxedo cat has to pretend to be in a relationship with her on those same orders. While the idea certainly makes Mordecai extremely uncomfortable, will he come to enjoy his time spent with his charge?

12. Chapter 12

AN: Here we are at the longest chapter of Heller the Bodyguard as well as the penultimate chapter. As you can tell from the chapter title, Lackadaisy will be under attack. Mr Henry's traitorous bodyguards, Will and Doug, are conspiring with Marigold Club to get rid of Clara along with all of Lackadaisy. Of all the chapters in this story, this one is my personal favorite. I couldn't bear to split this chapter into two, it all fit together so beautifully. Anyway, read on to see how Lackadaisy fares.

Ch 12: Lackadaisy Under Attack

The main room of Lackadaisy has been cleared of all its customers, Mitzi informing them all that trouble was on its way and to come back the next night when it's all taken care of. All of the tables have been overturned and set into a line to provide cover for those defending the main door. Ivy and Mitzi are behind the tables with the rest of the band members (all feeling uncertain of their chances), while Zib stands by the slightly open door looking up the stairs at the backside of Little Daisy Café's secret entrance.

Mitzi looks around at everyone in the room. "If anybody wants out, now's your chance." When no one moves, the older woman focuses on Ivy. "Can you do this?"

Though the young flapper nods, the fear is obvious.

"Keep this in mind. If you're staying, you have to shoot. Those coming in won't hesitate to kill you if you don't."

Zib looks back. "Ivy! Can you handle it if Rocky brings his cousin back?!"

Ivy had been secretly distressed when Mitzi told Rocky to find Freckle and hopefully get him to help out. While she's still scared of his violent side, the young girl doesn't want to appear weak in front of the others. "I'll be fine."

Meanwhile…

Pulling up in front of Little Daisy Café is a large group of cars. Exiting the cars is a near army of hired guns led by Nico Savoy and Doug.

The cowboy glances at his co-leader with annoyance. "Wish I was paired with your little sister."

While Nico generally doesn't care who Serafine takes to bed, this guy is one he hopes she doesn't. The former boxer can't stand him. "She'd kill you. You annoy her."

"Reckon I could convince her I'd be fun."

Nico has to keep himself from punching Doug right in the face. After all, he has the best aim amongst them. "Let's get this over with."

The group enters the café.

Meanwhile…

Another group of thugs is approaching the garage where the other entrance to Lackadaisy is. Leading them are Serafine and Will.

The suit wearing woman notices a rope wrapped around her co-leader's waist with a box hanging from it. "What's in the box?"

Will smirks. "A present for the princess. I'll give it to her if I'm the one who gets to her first. She can…enjoy it…before I kill her."

The men following after the leaders have to stop themselves from laughing. They already lost one very unlucky and stupid guy who got his neck snapped for daring to laugh at Will's high pitched voice.

Serafine, one of the few not amused by her co-leader's voice, grins at the implication that the box's contents are something to torture Clara Henry with. While the Cajun woman is loyal to her older brother and would never abandon him, if something happened to Nico, she'd be willing to work with Will long term quite happily. She'd just have to get rid of Doug since she hates that cowboy. "I think I'm gonna like working with you, Chère."

Will glances at Serafine and smiles. "Same here."

Meanwhile…

Waiting in the unlit garage are Mordecai and Viktor. Though neither are in peak physical condition (Viktor due to his knees and Mordecai still healing from his gunshot wounds), the pair are still the most dangerous ones present at Lackadaisy.

Viktor has spent a good portion of the waiting time ranting about Ivy being involved with this whole situation. In his native tongue, he told Mordecai (who really only understands a small portion of what he says) that Ivy's just a little girl not meant to be around such violence.

Mordecai is silently stewing over the fact that Clara insisted on being involved in this. At the very least, he convinced her to stay under the trapdoor at the bottom of the stairs. Still, if just one gunman gets to his fiancée, it isn't just her life on the line. Their unborn child would also be at risk. Not wanting to distress himself too much before the enemy comes, Mordecai chooses to focus on something else. "I must warn you of something, Viktor."

"What?" the one eyed man asks with his Slovakian accent quite pronounced now.

"Do you remember my physical description of the Savoys?"

"I do."

"If one or both of them comes in through this entrance, they can see in the dark."

The red furred Slovakian growls out of frustration. "Is bad."

"Quite."

Soon after, the pair is on the defensive as the door into the garage is kicked down.

Meanwhile…

Rocky quietly opens the window to his cousin's bedroom. He's far from welcome inside his aunt's house during the daytime, so getting caught at night would be an absolute nightmare in the making. Seeing Freckle lying in bed facing away from him, the brown tabby calls out to him in as low a voice as possible. "Freckle."

No answer.

'Must be asleep.' Rocky reaches a hand out to shake him awake.

"Go away, Rocky."

The brown tabby pulls his hand back. "Oh, you're awake. That's good."

"I said go away."

"You don't mean that. Look, I know what happened."

Freckle rolls over to face his cousin. "Then you know why I can't go back."

"So Ivy saw your wild side. It's not the end of the world."

The orange tabby sits up. "Rocky, she thinks I'm a monster. That's something I secretly thought about myself for years."

"I think monster's a bit of an exaggeration."

"In the moment, when I use a gun, I feel so much aggression and bloodlust. Once all that has passed, the guilt sets in and it eats at me. I keep taking lives and it brings me one step closer to Hell each time." Freckle glares at his cousin. "And you don't care."

That accusation shocks Rocky. "What?"

The orange tabby stands. "We were raised together, Rocky. You were the only one that'd play with me back when we were little kids. You weren't just a cousin to me. You were also my best friend…and my brother.'

The brown tabby never suspected his little cousin ever thought those things. "Freckle."

The younger man points at his elder cousin. "You still used me. You knew how I felt on all this and you roped me into speakeasy business just so you could keep your job. I was nothing more than a tool to you."

Rocky shakes his head. "No, I—"

"Now that Ivy's afraid of me, I don't have a reason to stick around anymore. When I had finally figured you out, I lost all respect for you."

The brown tabby's ears flatten down.

Freckle turns back to his bed. "I think you should leave, Rocky…and don't come back." The orange tabby throws himself down onto the bed.

Rocky is struggling not to cry. "Okay, I'll go…but let me say this before I do though. I'd never originally intended to involve you in Lackadaisy's business. I came here to the house that day to drop off laundry for Aunt Nina to do. Your mom told me how you didn't make it with the police academy and were wasting away in here. So, as a favor to her, I got you out of this house and helped you the best way I knew how."

"Having me help you set fire to some pig farmers' barn and house was helping me?"

"The house was an accident. Besides, those guys were Marigold Club. Bad news for all of us." Realizing he's off topic, Rocky course corrects. "Anyway, that's all I originally planned to have you do. It was a surprise and a half when you showed up at Lackadaisy that night."

"Well, when you took me to lunch at Little Daisy, that's where I met Ivy. She told me she thought I was cute, gave me a Lackadaisy pin, and invited me there."

"Couldn't resist her?"

"Ivy was the first girl to ever look at me like I was…a man."

Rocky ignores his jealousy at that and continues. "That's when you got involved with the shootout with those same pig farmers from earlier."

Freckle shivers. "That's when I first tried to remove myself from all that. You decided to show up and convince me to work there."

"Ms M sort of asked to bring you on board after seeing your capabilities."

"You scared me into thinking I'd be a hobo if I didn't take the job since I needed one."

"I was also scared you'd turn yourself in and bust everyone at Lackadaisy doing so."

Freckle scoffs. "Worried about your own tail."

"That's only half right. You know, when Aunt Nina kicked me out of the house, I had no choice but to leave St Louis and travel the whole country looking for work. Being a cook caused so many fires. Working at the circus as an escape artist didn't last since they felt I was too much trouble to keep around there. That's when I ran into Ms M, Zib, and the whole band. They took me in, allowed me to use my natural skills with the violin, and even gave me a way to come back to St Louis after so long away. When Ms M married Atlas, it meant that the band could stay long term and I was free to stay in my hometown. I was so scared when Mr M kicked the bucket and Lackadaisy started falling apart. I volunteered to get the hooch in an attempt to keep from being forced to leave the city again, even though I'm no good in a fight and the last time I tried using a gun left a notch in my ear."

Freckle feels guilt. "All this because you took the fall for me over…that."

Rocky lets out a half hearted chuckle. "I chose to do that, Cousin. The people here, your mom among them, already saw me as a no good troublemaker. They saw…that…as just the next logical step. I never had a bright future ahead of me anyway. You did. Even now, I still believe that."

The orange tabby is trembling from those words as his cousin heads for the window.

"I hope you get that great life…little brother."

Holding back tears, Freckle watches as his cousin starts going out the window. "Are you really going back there?"

"They're my friends. I can't let them face an attack from Marigold Club alone."

That makes the orange tabby sit up. "What?"

Unaware of his cousin's confusion, Rocky continues on. "Even if I'm completely useless and they all just tolerate me, I can't abandon Ms M, Zib, Ivy, or any of them."

Hearing that Ivy's involved, Freckle's stomach feels as if it got twisted into several knots.

Getting ready to descend from the window, the brown tabby forces a grin. "No matter the end result of tonight, I'll always love you." Rocky reaches the ground and starts heading for his car, fear growing with every step. Suddenly, he's grabbed by his sleeve and dragged towards the car by a sprinting Freckle.

The orange tabby pretty much throws his cousin at the driver's door. "Start the car now!" Freckle slides across the hood and gets in through the passenger's door. When the engine comes to life, he screams "FLOOR IT!" at the brown tabby.

The car speeds off.

Meanwhile…

Mordecai and Viktor are shooting every thug that comes in through the open garage door. Unknown to them though, one incredibly dangerous individual has managed to sneak inside.

Serafine Savoy came in right behind a guy who got gunned down and hid herself against a wall in the dark. Able to see in these conditions, she already knows where the trapdoor is. Her plan is to look for Clara and hold her hostage against Mordecai. She also very much wants to see Will use whatever's in the box against the young blonde. Serafine slowly makes her way over to the trapdoor so neither Mordecai or Viktor will see her movements in the dark. The suit wearing woman eventually makes it to the trapdoor and opens it. She gets surprised by what she sees.

Clara Henry is standing right at the bottom of the stairs in the lit cavern pointing a gun up at the trapdoor. Recognizing the woman that frightened her two months ago, the blonde fires the gun.

Serafine gets hit in the left shoulder. The impact makes her drop her rifle and release the trapdoor to close again. Enraged at getting shot, the greasy haired woman silently vows to shoot the rich girl dead and dance on her corpse. Suddenly, a gun is pointed into the back of her head.

"Serafine Savoy," comes the voice of Mordecai Heller. "This is for far too many offenses to waste my breath listing." Pulling the trigger, he ends one half of the Savoy siblings.

The lights are turned on, the thug who did this getting shot right after.

Will comes rushing in holding two thugs up in front of him.

Mordecai and Viktor shoot at the brown tom, but their bullets only sink into the two thugs he's using as shields.

Once close enough to Viktor, Will drops the bodies and throws a punch.

Worried for the one eyed Slovak, Mordecai aims his gun at his attacker.

"MINE!" Viktor roars at the tuxedo cat before engaging in a brawl with Will.

Just then, there's furious knocking from beneath the trapdoor. "Mordecai?!"

The tuxedo cat crouches down by the trapdoor. "Clara, I do not believe you should come up here."

"Still enemies coming in?"

"Only Will. He is focused on Viktor."

"I'm coming up." Clara opens the trapdoor and climbs into the garage.

Mordecai chooses to ignore just how much his fiancée's stubbornness is aggravating him right now. "Help me to move the bodies. We do not wish to draw outside attention."

While Viktor and Will are caught up in their brawl, Clara and Mordecai move the corpses away from the open garage door and off to the side.

The young blonde is choosing to focus on the fact that she's helping her fiancé and all his coworkers keep out of legal trouble. It's the only thing stopping her from freaking out over all of the dead bodies she's touching.

Mordecai is keeping an eye on the brawl between the two large men. 'Viktor and Will are evenly matched. That can only mean if I had not kneecapped Viktor, Will would have lost a long time before this.'

The red furred Slovak gets a lucky punch in right at his opponent's jaw, which forces the brown tom to hit the wall.

The box tied to Will's waist gets sent flying, landing right at Mordecai's feet.

Having moved all the bodies and set the door back up with Clara's help, the tuxedo cat is free to pick up the small box and look inside. "Viktor!"

The one eyed Slovak stops, having been ready to go in for the kill against his opponent.

Mordecai approaches the dazed Will and holds the open box out to him. "Explain."

Once the brown tom's eyes regain their focus, seeing the box in the tuxedo cat's hand fills him with fear.

"I demand an answer. Why were you carrying a box containing a black widow spider?"

Hearing this, Clara covers her mouth and whimpers.

Instead of answering, Will looks away.

Suspicions confirmed, Mordecai is filled with rage. "You intended to emotionally torture Clara with her greatest fear before killing her!" He throws the box down to the floor and stomps furiously on it, destroying the spider inside.

The usually threatening Will is now trembling.

Mordecai really wants to make the despicable man in front of him suffer for what he was going to do. However, remembering his fiancée's presence, the tuxedo cat decides to go another route. "Viktor, I intend to take Clara out of here. Once we are gone, deal with this filth however you see fit. All I ask is that you make it slow and painful."

The one eyed Slovak smirks. "Slow and painful, I can do."

Mordecai guides Clara to the trapdoor, opens it for her, and has her go down the staircase. Ignoring Will's blubbering and pleas to spare him, the tuxedo cat closes the trapdoor behind him. Once the screams of pain start, Mordecai holds Clara tight to comfort her as he leads her through the caverns.

Though the young woman is distressed at the thought of the torture that's going on in the garage right now, she knows there's more trouble to deal with. "We should help the others."

"Of course."

The couple makes their way to Lackadaisy's main room, which they find in chaos.

The line of tables are no more, having been kicked or thrown around. The corpses of lots of Marigold thugs are all over, yet Lackadaisy hasn't had a single fatality. A few of the members of the jazz band have been rendered unable to keep shooting, so they've taken refuge just behind the bar and are keeping Zib supplied with guns and ammo.

The saxophonist, thanks to his lessons with Freckle, is turning out to be a great shot. The majority of the bodies are his doing. He's keeping an eye on everyone to make certain that none of his people get picked off, especially Ivy and Mitzi.

Ivy has managed to take refuge behind the stage curtain. She hasn't made any fatal shots, but she has injured a few. When she does hit someone, the young flapper has to take a little time hiding behind the curtain to recover. Actually hurting someone has an effect on the brunette.

Mitzi, the closest to the cavern doorway, notices Mordecai and Clara. "Viktor?"

"Dealing out punishment," the tuxedo cat informs his boss.

The older woman looks around the room again.

Out of all the remaining Marigold Club thugs, Nico Savoy is proving to be trouble. He's not even taking cover, yet no one seems able to get him. The large man is practically chasing the remaining band members still capable of shooting around the room.

Mitzi rushes to the cavern doorway. "Take over!" she shouts to Mordecai and Clara.

"Cover me," the tuxedo cat says to his fiancée before going in.

The tide greatly shifts in Lackadaisy's favor thanks to Mordecai's presence. Enemy thugs get picked off right and left.

Clara even shoots whenever someone aims at her man.

Despite this, Nico Savoy remains completely unharmed. He even manages to capture the band member he was chasing after and starts choking him.

Just then, Mitzi returns with Viktor lumbering behind her. "Savoy!"

The former boxer looks over.

"Wanna join your sister on the other side?!"

Taking that as his cue, Viktor throws the body of Serafine Savoy onto the floor.

Nico stares in horror at his little sister's lifeless body. His grip slackens on the jazz guy's throat and the lucky man falls to the floor, gasping for air. Nico's face twists into fury born from grief, aiming his murderous intent at Mitzi. He lets out a roar and charges.

Mitzi pulls out her gun and pulls the trigger…only to find the chamber empty. She forgot to reload. As Nico Savoy gets closer, the older woman realizes she can't escape this. 'I'm gonna die.'

Suddenly, Zib is in front of Mitzi and he puts a bullet right between Nico's eyes, sending the large man's body reeling backwards to the floor. Breathing heavily with relief, the jazz cat in red turns to the woman he just saved and reaches into his pocket. "Don't forget the bullets." He places six in her hand.

In this moment, Mitzi feels drawn to Zib in a way she hasn't been in years. She smiles as she reloads her gun. "I won't.'

Everyone starts to relax as there isn't a living Marigold thug in sight, when…

"AAAHHH!"

All in the room look up at the stage and are left horrified.

Standing up there is Doug holding onto Ivy with a gun pointed right at her head. "Mighty reckless of y'all leaving a pretty thing like this all by her lonesome!" He sniffs the girl's hair.

Everybody is worried and angry, especially Viktor who growls.

"Now, if nobody wants to see the little lady's brains splattered, y'all are gonna have to be letting me walk right on out the door." Doug starts walking off the stage dragging Ivy along with him.

No one makes a move, knowing it'd just put the young woman at risk.

As Doug starts passing by with Ivy, Clara whispers to Mordecai. "He won't let her go. I know he'll either kill her out of spite or take her with him to…violate her later."

Realizing his fiancée is right, Mordecai thinks fast. "Doug, there is no version of this that leads to you living your life peacefully."

"Quit talking, Jew!" Doug shouts at the tuxedo cat.

"Mr Henry will discover your betrayal."

The cream colored tom smirks. "I ain't got a clue what you're talking bout."

"Your recently deceased partner had a black widow spider in his possession. That seems rather specific, would you not agree?"

Doug growls. "Dammit, Will. Had to try playing with your prey."

"Once you leave this building, you shall forever be on the run from Bartholomew Henry. That shall only end once you are inevitably caught and you receive an agonizing death." Seeing the panic in the cowboy's eyes and wanting to prevent him from doing something drastic, which could even be choosing to kill Ivy, Mordecai makes his offer. "Does a duel not seem better as an ending to your life?"

Hearing those words, the cream colored tom stops moving. He starts thinking it over. "A duel?"

"You said yourself the day we first met how you wished the two of us would engage in a true duel of gunmen. Would you not wish to satisfy your curiosity over which of us is better?"

Doug smirks. "You're right, Partner. A duel does sound better. Everybody else, y'all be clearing out now!"

"What?!" Viktor screams out in his thick Slovakian accent.

"I ain't trusting any of y'all not to try pulling a fast one on me!" Doug then kisses Ivy on her cheek, making the girl shiver with fear and disgust. "Don't y'all go forgetting now that I got the little lady."

With that, Mitzi and Zib drag the reluctant Viktor into the caverns. At the same time, the rest of the members of the jazz band go out the main door.

Clara grabs Mordecai's arm. "Don't do this. Last time, you tied with Doug. That's when you were at perfect health. You'll die this time."

The tuxedo cat places a hand on top of the white cat's without looking at her. "If I do not go through with this, we forfeit Miss Pepper's life."

An impatient Doug growls. "We doing this?!"

Mordecai pulls away from Clara. "Please get to safety…and tell our child just how much I wished I could have met them."

The young blonde is about ready to cry.

"WAIT!" Rushing in through the main door is Freckle. "I'm first!"

Ivy blinks at the orange tabby's presence. "Freckle."

Doug laughs hearing that. "This little boy with the goofiest name is figuring to challenge me?!"

Freckle crosses his arm. "My name is Calvin and only two people call me that nickname. My cousin and my girlfriend."

Before, Ivy would've adored hearing the orange tabby calling her that. Now, she's not so sure she wants it.

Doug laughs again. "This pretty thing's your girlfriend?! Sorry, but this beauty here's in need of a man, not a boy." He licks Ivy's neck, making the poor girl whimper.

Freckle really has to hold his anger back. He doesn't want the cowboy to know about his other side. Not yet at least. "I challenge you for the first match. Call it practice."

The cream colored tom scoffs. "What'll you be shooting? A slingshot? Gonna shoot off your mouth?"

"Is that big talk supposed to scare me? Sounds more like you're scared to take on a 'little boy'."

"Cocky little shit, huh? Fine. You've got yourself a duel."

Clara takes this opportunity to drag Mordecai towards the cavern doorway where Viktor, Zib, and Mitzi are watching the proceedings.

Without looking away from Doug, Freckle calls out "Rocky!"

From the main door, the brown tabby throws a gun to his cousin.

The orange tabby catches it, checks to see that it has bullets inside, and returns his gaze to the cowboy. "I'm ready when you are. Just let Ivy go."

Doug chuckles. "Seems you really do know guns, Kid. Mighty shame to kill off a young talent." He pushes the young flapper towards the main door.

Ivy rushes past Freckle, the two not even looking at each other. She takes refuge with the musicians sans Zib behind the main door.

Doug smirks at the orange tabby. "I'm counting off! Three…two…one…DRAW!"

Quick as a flash, Freckle aims his gun up and shoots out some of the lights.

The cowboy is momentarily rattled by the semi darkness that comes about. Looking back to his opponent, he finds the orange tabby has vanished. "Coward! This ain't how duels work!"

Freckle's voice seems to echo throughout the room in response. "Not my fault if I've got no idea what the rules are!"

From this point on, Doug goes through absolute hell. He hears the orange tabby cackling at him over and over. Glasses and empty bottles get thrown at him from the room's darker areas. The cowboy wastes shots when he hears noises that turned out to be set up and Freckle had been somewhere else completely. It all serves to make Doug paranoid.

"What is he doing?" Viktor asks, not aware of the orange tabby's violent side.

"I believe Doug has sufficiently angered Mr McMurray," Mordecai says with unease.

"Meaning?" asks an already unsettled Clara.

"Calvin's basically playing with him," Mitzi informs the young blonde.

Zib quickly lights up a cigarette to calm himself from the coming nightmare.

Doug backs up against a table on its side.

"BOO!"

The cowboy jumps forward with a fearful yell, turns, and tries shooting at the maniacally grinning face of Freckle.

The orange tabby just leaps away, his form near monkey like. He kicks off of a pillar and disappears back into the darkness with a cackle.

All this reminding her a little too much of the earlier incident with Agent Drago, Ivy turns from the door to leave Lackadaisy entirely.

Rocky grabs his friend's arm. "Ivy, wait!"

"For what, Rocky?! How can you expect me not to be afraid of this side of him?!"

Remembering just how devastated his cousin had been at the young flapper's fear earlier, the brown tabby puts everything he has into his next words. "Please. I'm begging you, be brave enough to see this through. I think you'll discover something important."

Ivy sees the other jazz cats looking at Rocky like he's even crazier than usual. Looking at her friend for herself, the desperation in his eyes shines through. "Okay." She chooses to stay.

Doug has just wasted another bullet on another ruse. He's hyperventilating. 'This kid's a monster. He's treating me like a toy.' Turning around, the cowboy finds the still grinning face of Freckle right in front of him. The cream colored tom jumps back with a scream and he pulls the trigger of his gun…only to hear an empty click.

"Uh oh," Freckle says with a playful tilt of his head. "No more bullets for you, Cowboy." When Doug tries to throw his gun at him, the orange tabby catches it in midair and tosses it away into a dark area. "You know, I used to feel guilty when I killed someone."

The cowboy starts backing away as the younger man approaches.

"Then, you and the last guy that I dealt with made the same exact mistake that made it all go away."

Doug grabs a chair and tries to swing it at Freckle.

The orange tabby ducks, kicks the cowboy hard enough to make him fall on his back, and continues forward with a look of anger. "You threatened Ivy!"

The young flapper observing is completely surprised by those words.

As the cowering Doug crawls backwards to try getting away from his tormentor, Freckle keeps talking. "No matter how dangerous things get, Ivy does everything she can to help out all her friends here! She just cares that much about everybody! Ivy gives a place like this a heart!" The orange tabby's face twists with horrible fury at the cowboy. "AND YOU TRIED TO TAKE THAT AWAY!"

Doug backs into the base of the stage, whimpering at the approaching reaper of death that is known as Freckle.

The orange tabby pulls his gun out. "Whatever she might think of me, my new goal is to get rid of guys like you who'd dare hurt Ivy!" He points his gun at the cowboy. "Because I love her!"

With one shot, Doug is no more.

Now that the deed is done, Freckle's arm goes limp, his gun falls to the floor, and he goes down to his knees. The young man suddenly feels completely lost.

"Freckle?" comes a girl's voice.

The orange tabby looks up to see Ivy.

In this moment, looking into the young man's eyes, the equally young flapper can tell that he's scared. 'How…could I ever have been afraid of him?' Ivy grabs his face and gives him the biggest kiss.

Freckle isn't entirely sure what this means, but he'll enjoy it while he can.

The pair are interrupted by someone clearing their throat. That somebody turns out to be Viktor. He hides it well, but the older man's very amused when Ivy gives him an angry glare and Freckle has a look of terror. On one hand, the one eyed Slovak is pretty worried about the young flapper committing herself to a guy with so much madness inside. On the other hand, Freckle is clearly devoted to Ivy no matter what. So, Viktor shrugs.

The brunette hugs the orange tabby tightly. "Yay! Viktor approves of you, Freckle!"

As everyone else approaches, Mordecai decides to get an answer to a question he has had for a while. "Miss Pepper, why do you call Mr McMurray Freckle?"

"Rocky calls him that and I think it's cute."

Realizing what's about to happen, Freckle glares at his cousin. "Rocky, don't you dare!"

The brown tabby grins. "Sorry, Dear Cousin. The curious audience outnumbers you. So you see, when we were little kids, I shaved his face completely bald. Right on his cheek was the tiniest of freckles."

The first one to laugh is Viktor. Then, just about everyone else joins in. The only people not laughing are Freckle (who just feels embarrassed) and Mordecai (though he is smirking).

After everybody finally calms down, Zib speaks up. "Not trying to bring down the mood or anything, but don't we still have someone else to deal with?"

Mitzi immediately frowns. "Asa Sweet."

Ivy hugs Freckle, not wanting him to have to leave for another possible gunfight. "Do we really have to go gunning for him right now?"

Rocky points a finger directly upward. "We can't allow for that vile villain to escape and attempt to fight us another day!"

Clara suddenly smiles. "Actually, I have an idea."

AN: Lots to talk about here. First, about the late Serafine and Will's interaction. Whether that was attraction or just them enjoying each other's sadistic sides, I'll leave up to reader interpretation. Second, the incident that got Rocky kicked out of his aunt Jeanine's house. Tracy Butler herself has alluded to something happening and that Rocky likely took the fall for it to spare Freckle from punishment. I haven't the slightest idea what that could be and decided not to think up anything, so I left it a mystery. Also, the exact events of what Rocky did when traveling around the country are somewhat of a guess on my part. Next, the tale of how Freckle earned his nickname is one hundred percent true. Tracy made a side comic showing this off. Go to the Lackadaisy site or other comic sites where Lackadaisy is available to read to see for yourselves. Finally, what is Clara's idea of how to deal with Asa Sweet? Read the last chapter coming on Wednesday to find out, as well as to see how this whole story concludes. See you then!