(A/N: Hey everybody, chapter 6 is ready to go, now before we get started i just want to give a special shout out to one of you who I've seen to be very active in the comments for this fanfic, Rose tiger thank you for your support especially, in fact thank you all for your support for this fanfic, I honestly only started this as a kind of hobby and didn't really expect anyone to actually read my story but it still makes me happy that someone out there is reading my work and that they like it and it actually gives me confidence to keep writing again as I haven't tried writing anything sense high school, I've always loved writing out fantasies and I always will I suppose, okay now that I've finished telling my little bore story let's get to the really one.)
Chapter 6: A miraculous discovery
Gabriel sat in his office for days trying to think of a way to apologize to his son for what he'd done, but no matter what he thought of or what he tried everything seemed to fail. Adrien seemed to actually avoid his father rather than even wish him a good day as he went off to school. He'd also stay out at the hospital to visit Dallas and see how he was doing. He was still mad at Dallas for there earlier fight from the week before but he was willing to give him a chance for reconciliation, especially after he learned that he wasn't such a bad guy, more or less just misunderstood.
"Natalie, are you sure you have the right room?" Gabriel asked as he was slightly nervous about what he was about to do.
"Yes sir, I've personally discovered which room that this Dallas character is staying in. But are you sure you want to meet him sir? You don't even know him." She asked just as hopeful that he was doing the right thing as he was.
"If I'm going to make up for what I've done to my son then I'll need the help of his newest friend, hopefully Adrien is mad enough that he doesn't want to talk about me in front of him." Gabriel said with a hopeful expression.
Because of his recent confrontation with Adrien, Gabriel had canceled several of his appointments with a number of his most important clients, he even put off time as Hawkmoth to try and fix things between them. He'd groan so desperate that he was willing to talk to a child that he didn't even know to try and fix his relationship with his son. Adrien had recently started helping Dallas with his physical therapy, which both boys were making horrible jokes about just about every day. Most of which were slightly dirty. Adrien was just leaving the hospital when his father and Natalie had just pulled up in the limo to the hospital but Adrien didn't even notice that they had. Gabriel rarely saw his son before he became Hawkmoth and now that he'd hit his son he began to see even less of him, he started eating in his room alone and no where else, he would stay out with friends up until midnight when he was asleep, everything that he was now doing was just to avoid contact with his father.
"There he is…" Gabriel said with a slightly depressed tone of voice. "He's actually smiling, that's the first time I've seen him smile all week. Why did I have to go that far Natalie? Why did I have to hit my own son?" He began to criticize himself. "First I neglect him, to try and save his mother of course but never had the heart to tell him. Then I go and strike him, and for no better reason than he talked back to me, I'm a failure Natalie, a failure as a father and as a man." He buried his face into his hand and shed a tear, Natalie put a hand on his shoulder and simply said.
"Sir, don't forget this is why we're here. To fix everything, or at the very least fix this mess between you and your son."
He nodded his head then they both left the car and went inside the building. On the third floor Dallas was sitting up right in his bed and talking to his parole officer about the charges of assaulting a police officer and escaping police custody. "I'm afraid it's not as simple as it was before Mr. Jones, this time you'll be facing the full extent of the law for what you've done." She said as she closed her brief case.
"Well yeah I gathered that but can't you just have me deported back to the states to have me tried there?" Dallas requested seeing it as a better option than what he had before him as he still was being hunted by the Romani rollers for what he'd done to them.
"While that would be the case under normal pretenses you've caused enough trouble here that the courts would rather see you tried here in France, also based on your last escape attempt we believe it too risky to allow you to go back to the states even under police guard." She replied as she explained the graveness of this situation to him.
Dallas began to have a mini freak out inside his head, he was hoping that he would be deported and sent far away from France where he would hopefully be able to formulate a plan to hide from the rollers. "But what if…they come to get me?" Dallas asked her hoping that she would be able to help arrange for police protection at the very least.
"I'm afraid that's above my pay-grade, you'll need to talk to the police about that." She said as she stood up and left. Dallas just sat there in the bed just freaking out, how am I going to get out of this one? He thought to himself, for once he was in trouble and he couldn't just run and hide like he'd always done.
"Mr. Jones, you have more visitors." A nurse announced to him. Walking in through the doorway were two people he didn't recognize, a man who appeared to be in his early forties dressed in a very sharp gray designer suit and a woman dressed in a full black designer suit holding a day planner under her arm, he had no idea who they were but he could tell that they weren't with the rollers.
"Hello Dallas…" Gabriel greeted him as warmly as he could. Dallas was wary of these two individuals but he had a feeling that they meant him no harm. "I'm Gabriel Agreste, this is my son's agent Natalie." Dallas then let his guard down a bit more as he had the same last name as his semi new friend.
"Nice to meet you sir, but if you're here for your son I'm afraid you just missed him. Left about ten minutes ago if I'm not mistaken." Dallas announced to them, to which Gabriel aptly replied.
"I know, I just saw him leave, but I'm actually here for you Mr. Jones." Dallas was suddenly confused then he simply asked.
"Okay? Why would you want to talk to me for? You don't even know me." Gabriel then took a moment to collect himself then said.
"I need your help. You see…I've…not been the best kind of father of late…" He looked away from Dallas with a sad expression.
"Oh please, whatever you've done was nothing compared to all the crap my old man put me through." Dallas said with some resentment present towards his own father, then Gabriel simply asked.
"So your father made the mistake of hitting his own child as well?" Dallas was caught off guard by this then said.
"Okay maybe not that, but he still didn't win any father of the year awards while he was around. But your clearly not here to hear about my little sob stories, you came here for your own reasons right? And from what I've gathered here sense you already put it so elegantly you fucked up royally and you have no idea of how to fix it so you want me to help you out correct?" He summed up to a fine point.
"Yes…I did something horrible to my son and I regret it every single day now that I've done it, perhaps I never would've done it if I…wasn't so distant with him of late." Dallas sensed that there was more to it than he was letting on but he wasn't going to press him for it.
"Okay…and why is it your distant from him, is it because of work?" Dallas tried to get a grasp on the situation.
"Something like that yes. I don't want to do this to him but…he just wouldn't understand that what I'm doing is for him." Gabriel confessed but only slightly, he couldn't trust Dallas with the truth of his true nature.
"So what is it your trying to do for him exactly?" Dallas asked thinking that maybe he could get a bit more of a fix on the situation that was driving this wedge between him and his son.
"I…I would rather not say if you don't mind, I've been pursuing this for quite some time and it's been very difficult doing it on my own, especially sense the specialist I was working with is no longer with us, and on a more personal note…I'm not even sure if it will work and I don't wish to get my son's hopes up." Dallas started to understand what was going on to a point.
"I think I get what your saying, but whatever it is your working on I think you should at least put it on hold until you know for sure that it will work out, or at the very least try and talk with your son about it first so that he gets what's going on." But Gabriel was quick to disagree.
"Weren't you listening? I can't tell him about this, he just wouldn't understand what I'm trying to do." He half yelled at Dallas, who just groaned and said.
"Dude seriously do you want my help or not? I'm just trying to get a sense of what your son has to go through all day." Dallas retorted as Gabriel just sighed, he then chose to tell Dallas of the normal everyday problems with Adrien, how he had very little freedom and how he barely ever saw his friends outside of school, and worse yet that he barely was aloud out of the house due to his father's over baring nature, and that now because of what Gabriel had done Adrien was just going out and staying out late with his friends and didn't even bother to call and let his father know about it. Dallas just summarized that the solution was so simple. "Okay Mr. Agreste, if you want your son to actually talk to you again you need to let him have a bit more air to breathe because if I'm catching what your throwing than part of his sudden rebellion against you is due to your own bull crap, for starters you need to actually spend less time doing what ever it is your doing behind closed doors, hopefully not trying to summon the devil…" He joked a little bit. "And spend more time trying to make up for lost time that he wants with you. Sure he might be mad right now but if you give him what he wants, which is the right to live his life, than he'll come around and when that happens you go in and start fresh. Also allow him to invite over some people he's friends with after school, and above all else, stop forcing him to do things to boost your image, trust me when I say this man, no kid want's to just do stuff like that for there parents all the time. If you can do all of that then I can almost guarantee that he'll forgive you for being a dick, and also for slapping him which by the way...not cool dude."
Gabriel then stood up from his seat and smiled, then he extended his hand to Dallas and said. "Thank you Dallas, you have no idea how much this means to me."
Dallas took his had and gave it a good firm shake. "Well at least your actually trying to be a good father, sure you might be doing it the wrong way but I'd like to believe that your doing it for the right reasons, unlike my old man." Dallas replied with a noticeable hint of anger in his voice.
Gabriel was about to ask what he meant but it was at that point a nurse came in and said. "I'm sorry sir and ma'am but you'll have to leave now, visiting hours are over."
Gabriel nodded his head at her then turned back to Dallas and said. "Thank you again Dallas, I hope that I can repay you for what you've done for me." As they were leaving Gabriel overheard the nurse having a little chat with Dallas.
"You know I read a little something in the News paper today, about your father Dr. Clearlake…" Gabriel stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of that name. "I read that he discovered some ancient burial site almost a hundred miles away from Machu Picchu." She said as she gave Dallas his dinner.
"I think you might have him confused with my uncle, Dr. Max Clearlake is long dead while Dr. Seth Clearlake is still very much alive…not that he was much better than my father." Dallas laminated as he ate his dinner, Gabriel stopped Natalie and put a finger to his mouth as if to say be quiet, and so he stayed close to the door and just listened to the conversation.
"I don't think I follow you." The nurse replied sounding confused.
"Let's just say my dad wasn't really the man that everyone who met him made him out to be." Dallas stated feeling more anger toward his father.
"What, you mean he was a bad person?" The nurse guessed, Dallas then looked at her and said with a stern look on his face. "Something like that."
Then the nursed asked curiously. "So what kind of things did he do?"
Dallas then looked away and said. "He did a lot of bad things while he was still around, wanted me to be apart of it all too."
The nurse looked shocked at this sudden reveal. "But I don't understand, I thought he was an archeologist." She said with surprise.
Then Dallas turned to her and said. "Archeologist…or master thief? Everyone in the US was familiar with the great Dr. Maxwell Clearlake the scientist, but no one ever knew about his hidden dark side. He was more than a god damn scientist, he was a criminal and he wanted me and my brother to follow in his footsteps, clearly that didn't work out for him though mainly because that bastard's dead and my brother's in jail now and to top it all off my uncle didn't even care that my mother died about three years later, or that I had no one else to take care of me so he just let the state take me and put me in the foster system, and here I am today with a bullet wound in my gut awaiting trial where I am almost certain that I'll be killed by the Romani rollers after I'm carted off to jail, but hay at least I had a good run."
Gabriel suddenly began to put his mind to work on the way back home, Dr Clearlake…had sons? I never would've thought he'd have the time to raise a family, he thought to himself.
As soon as they'd arrived Gabriel went strait to his office and combed through his old business records. "Sir, I'm not trying to disturb you but is this really the time to be going over old files?" Natalie asked rather confused.
"I only need a second Natalie, where is it, where is…ah there you are." Gabriel said as he pulled out the exact file he was looking for.
"Sir, what is that?" Natalie asked as she got closer to investigate.
"Not long after we'd found the miraculous and the book I started to search for someone who could decipher the characters as it was written in an ancient form of mandarin, a form that very few people can read these days. So I enlisted the aid of an archeologist to help and that archeologist was non other than one Dr. Maxwell Clearlake, he specialized in deciphering ancient scripts and text and identifying artifacts from era's long gone. He managed to teach me how to decipher part of it, until he was killed by police it Saint Louise during what appeared to be a heist he was trying to pull." Gabriel explained everything to Natalie as he flipped through the file.
"Did you know that he was a thief though sir?" She asked hoping that he didn't actually take the risk of hiring a thief.
"He was an archeologist Natalie, in a way their all thieves, weather it's robbing a grave or a bank vault their all thieves." He aptly replied. "After he died though I tried to enlist the aid of his brother to take his place, but sadly he declined as he specialized rather in the cultures of the past rather than their languages, I thought that would be the end of it until today." Gabriel put the file back in his desk then picked up the phone.
"Who are you calling?" Natalie asked still very confused.
"Dallas said he was in foster care, so I'm going to take him in as my new foster son." He began to dial up the number for child services. "Hello, my name is Gabriel Agreste and I'd like to join the foster care program as a care taker, yes…yes…absolutely…of course, we'll have it this Friday, thank you and have a pleasant day." Gabriel hung up the phone then picked it up again and dialed a new number.
"Who are you calling now?" Natalie asked again.
"He also said that he was in trouble with the law, so I'm going to ask a friend to help get him out of trouble." The phone rang a few times then the person he was calling answered.
"Mayor Bourgeois's office?" The mayor announced.
"Good after noon Mr. Mayor…" Gabriel greeted.
"Ah Gabriel you old bastard how are you?" The mayor greeted back.
"I'm doing well thank you for asking, listen…I need to ask for a favor." Gabriel began to lay out his request. "There's a young man in the hospital by the name of Dallas Jones who I'd like to take under my wing, you see he's found himself in a position that he doesn't much care being in with the law and I was hoping that you could pardon him from his past endeavors as I'd rather not let what small future he has slip away from him." Gabriel laminated flatly.
Mayor Bourgeois thought about it then asked. "I don't suppose you know what it is he's done do you?"
Gabriel could sense that he was being hesitant with this. "I'm afraid I don't have all the details but I do know that he may have joined a gang and now he's going to be tried and more than likely put away and I'd rather not let that happen." He said in hopes that would persuade him.
"Well I'm not really sure if I can just pardon him without a guarantee that he'll go straight…" The mayor said starting to decline, until Gabriel sweetened the deal.
"If I'm not mistaken I believe that Chloe is going to prom this year, I could work it into my schedule to make her a dress, absolutely free of charge." He knew that the mayor would cave when it came to his daughter getting a prom dress, she'd been looking for the best one she could sense she became a senior, and on a side note she'd been giving her father hell about it too.
"Well…in that case I'll see what I can do Gabriel, but no promises." That was actually the mayors way of saying you've got a deal.
"Thank you very much Mr. Mayor, do give my regards to your family." He hung up the phone again then stood up from his desk then started towards the door. "Natalie, get your miraculous, your going to need it." He said as he made his way to the front door.
"But sir shouldn't you be trying to fix your relationship with your son?" Natalie asked concerningly.
"All in due time my dear, right now were going to pay a little visit, to Antonio Lorenzo." Meanwhile on the south side of Paris Antonio Lorenzo was in the middle of a bit of R&R after a long day of being irritated with pie charts and budget losses due to all the encounters he'd had to deal with from Ladybug and Cat Noir. "Silvia, a little lower." He was laid out on a masseuse table receiving a massage for his over stressed back, then all of a sudden he heard the sound of guns going off. "Oh for…what now?" He growled as he sat up from the table, he stood up wrapping a towel around his waste as he walked over to the door to see what was going on, but just as he did the door was kicked inward and off the hinges as it fell on top of him. "What the hell…" He raged. "Do you have any idea of who I am?" He roared as he threw the door off of himself.
"I'd advise you to watch what you say around my employer Mr. Lorenzo…" Lorenzo looked up and saw two figures standing before him, a man in a purple suit with a full head mask holding a cane and a woman in a blue feathered dress holding a fighting fan. Lorenzo didn't recognize the woman but he knew very well who the man was. "Because if your don't want to end up like you men outside you would do well to be respectful to my lord." Mayura said as she closed her fan.
Lorenzo was not one to scare easily, but he'd be a fool not to fear Hawkmoth. "Y-Y-Your Hawkmoth…" He stuttered as he began to shake in fear.
"Figure that out on your own I see." Hawkmoth stated with sarcasm as he got closer to Lorenzo. "YOU…" He pointed his cane at the masseuse who was shivering in fear in the corner of Lorenzo's office. "Leave us." She didn't hesitate to do as he commanded and just ran out of the office and to the nearest exit. "Now then Mr. Lorenzo…" Hawkmoth knelt down to his level and began to lay out his demand. "I have a small request I'd like to make, call off your hit on Dallas Jones and I will let you live, refuse…" Hawkmoth stood back up then drew the sword from his cane the used it to slice Lorenzo's desk in two without effort. This startled Lorenzo quite a bit, he'd seen what Ladybug and Cat Noir could do but he knew that they would never kill, but Hawkmoth was a different story, he was more than willing to take a life to get what he wanted. "Need I say more?" Hawkmoth said with a sinister smile.
Lorenzo didn't need any convincing that Hawkmoth meant business, he gulped then said a bit shaky. "Y-Y-Y-Yeah…no problem, I'll call off the hit just…don't do nothing to me."
Hawkmoth slowly put his sword away then said. "Of course Mr. Lorenzo, I had no true desire to kill you anyway." He began to walk out the door with Mayura in tow, but before they left Lorenzo quickly asked.
"Hey just a second, why do you care about the kid so much?" Both villains stopped then looked back at Lorenzo, then Hawkmoth said.
"That…is none of your concern, and if I told you then I would have to kill you." They then continued onward towards the exit past all the dead bodies of gangsters either with sword wounds, broken necks or even shot to death with their own guns, needless to say this is one vendetta that Lorenzo wouldn't dare avenge for himself, not against the likes of Hawkmoth or Mayura. Just before they got back to the car both Gabriel and Natalie had transformed back to their normal selves and entered the car where the gorilla was waiting for them. "You see my friend, I told you that Lorenzo could be a peaceful man." Gabriel said as he made himself comfortable in the back seat of the Limo. "Now that we've laid the ground work we can focus on my newest tasks, but first…" Gabriel picked up the car phone and dialed a number, he didn't have to wait too long for someone to answer. "Yes I'd like to have a table reserved for three this weekend, 10 o'clock sharp at the earliest convenience. Thank you, and you as well sir." He hung up the phone with a genuine smile. "Natalie, I think I may have fixed things with my son."
Natalie was hopeful that this would work, but she had her doubts of course, she new that Adrien would need time to forgive his father for what he'd done but she wouldn't count him out just yet. "I'm sure you have sir, or at least you've started down the right path for it." She said as she placed her hand on his shoulder.
Four days later Dallas was out of the hospital and back in police lock up, he still thought that he was as good as dead, when someone opened up his cell door. "Good news Jones, someone posted your bail." Officer Roger said as he ushered him to leave his cell.
"Posted by who?" Dallas asked wary if this was a trap.
"Who ever this woman works for." Officer Roger stated as he pointed to his right.
That's when Natalie walked in and said. "Hello again Dallas."
Dallas then began to relax as he already knew who she was. "Oh it's you, so how did it go with my man Adrien?" He asked curiously.
"It's still a work in progress but I would like to believe that Mr. Agreste is gaining some head way." She answered without a hint of emotion, to which Dallas made a remark.
"Well don't look too happy about it your face will freeze up like that." She just glared at him then said.
"Please come with me." Then she led him up stares and outside to the car.
"So where are you taking me? Not my grave I hope." He joked as they got closer to the car, then he bumped into someone, he was about to tell them to watch where they were going when he saw just how big they were. "Whoooa-hoo-hoe. You are a big one, mainly out of curiosity how much do you bench press because you look like the kind of guy who pulls cars with his teeth as a hobby." He joked while at the same time being respectful, but the gorilla said nothing as always and just opened the car door for Dallas and Natalie. "Okay, strong silent type, not a problem." Then he whispered to Natalie. "What's with king Kong over here?"
Natalie then answered. "He's Mr. Agreste's personal bodyguard, now he's your personal bodyguard as well."
Dallas was put off by that remark and asked yet again. "And why do I need a bodyguard? Also you never told me where we were going."
Natalie then said. "Isn't it obvious, we're going home."
(A/N: Alright folks that's it for now, what did you guys think? Please let me know in the comments below, in the next chapter of WOS, Dallas finds that he likes his new home, he notices that things with Adrien's father are still a bit sensitive, he has to wear a new set of clothes, and he is enrolled at school with Adrien but things don't really go as smoothly as everyone would like it to be when Dallas purposefully exposes his past to everyone, will this forever damage his chances to make new friends or will it help in the long run? Find out in the next chapter everyone.)
