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.

Sometimes my life feels like God wants to wrap up one part of my life before he'll move on to working on another. That was how things were with Bethany. She seemed to adjust as well as any six year old really can adjust to her mother passing away so we just focused on the future. We trained for a few days and I started helping her to build up some muscle mass. She'd need it if she was ever going to manage to fight someone without using a weapon. Hell, even with one, she needed the strength and stability to control it. Since hand to hand fighting probably wasn't in her immediate future, I'd also started training her with the smallest .22 caliber pistol that I could find. Her wrists weren't strong enough to handle it for more than a few shots at a time but her aim was decent.

Dave's graduation was on Saturday. Like most high schools, his had let the seniors out about a week early so that they had time to take care of things before the big day. And also because most of the seniors would have skipped those last few days anyway once they were sure they were going to graduate. The excitement around graduation was kind of bittersweet for both of us. Dave knew most of his peers were moving onto futures that didn't involve getting the shit beaten out of you on a regular basis and I was fixated on the fact that I'd never get a graduation day. Sure, I was well on my way to finishing my GED. But that was mostly to prove to myself that I could do it, I mean, it wasn't like I'd need to have it to put on a resume. And even if Dave did make a big deal of it and throw me a party when I finally finished (like the one I was throwing for him), it still wouldn't be the same as walking up to get a diploma. Dave noticed how upset the idea was making me and tried to make excuses for why he couldn't go to the ceremony. I told him "Tough shit, at least I can experience it vicariously through you." And I meant it. Also, I was proud that I used 'vicariously' correctly in a sentence. It proved the GED workbooks weren't a total waste of time.

On Friday night, I had some errands to run to get ready for our celebration on Saturday. And Bethany was going nuts over the idea that she was ready for a patrol. I'd tried to explain that patrolling was 99% boredom matched up with 1% of excitement, but she wasn't buying it. So, I agreed that Dave would take her out. Hopefully four or five hours of wandering through cold empty alleys would persuade her that the conditioning work I was trying to get her to do was worth the effort. I wasn't worried about them because Dave wasn't going to go anywhere that was too dangerous. It was a good compromise.

I was surprised to find Dave sitting on the couch when I got back. He and Bethany had left before me and they hadn't planned to be back until much later. But there he was. Sitting on the couch and fuming. I hadn't been sure exactly how to describe 'fuming' on one of my GED tests but trust me, if I had been able to just attach a picture of Dave right now, I'd have gotten a perfect score. "Where's Bethany?" I asked.

"In our room. I couldn't send her to her own room because it isn't done yet. So I sent her to our room. She's not to come out until she's thought about what she's done."

I put the bags with party supplies down on the counter and looked at him. "Seriously Dave? Thought about what she did? What in the fuck happened? You look like shit."

"She happened." Dave said. "She's just a little fucking copy of you, but without your good qualities." Man, he was pissed.

I decided to take the comment as a compliment instead of an insult and sat down next to him. "OK." I said. "What happened?"

"Well, we were patrolling like you and I agreed. At first, it was just little stuff. 'Quit walking so slow, you stupid little bitch' and 'Stop pulling at your mask, asshole. I don't care if it itches.' That kind of shit."

"You said those things to her? She's just a little girl!"

"Me? No! " He grumbled. "She said those things to me! Constantly. At least you generally give up after the first ten minutes or so."

I relaxed and smothered a giggle. "OK, then what happened?"

Dave continued. "Well, our arguing finally generated an unfriendly audience. Three thugs came around a corner and pulled knives on us. They said my ass was grass because of what I'd done to D'Amico and then told me that the, quote, 'tiny little cunt rag better get herself lost so that the big boys could play.' As you can imaging, that really upset Bethany. I had to hold her back while she screamed about how she was going to kill the cocksuckers for insulting her. I kept saying 'No' and tried to stand between her and the thugs. She kept saying 'Yes.' and started waving that little pistol that you gave her around. Honestly, the assholes with the knives don't know what to do and it might have been funny if it had stopped there. But they didn't leave and so I finally gave up and told her that she can fire a warning shot at them. Maybe that would make her happy and we could go home. She smiled with glee and, quick as a wink, shot the biggest one in the head!" Dave took a breath. "That's not a damn warning shot!" he shouted at the bedroom door.

A muffled voice from the bedroom shouted back. "It was so a warning shot, asshole!"

Dave turned toward the door. "No, it wasn't! Warning shots are supposed to miss."

Bethany opened the door and stared at him defiantly. "Why the fuck would I miss? That would have just warned them that I couldn't shoot for shit! I gave them a real warning shot and it made them run!" Bethany grinned at him in triumph.

I decided to join the conversation. "I'm a little confused. He was dead; he couldn't run."

Bethany walked down to the couch. "Well, HE wasn't the one I was warning. He deserved to die for calling me a cunt rag. I was warning the other two fuckers about what would happen to them if they kept pissing me off. It worked!"

Oh my god, Dave was right. Bethany did think like me. I grinned. And it was fucking glorious!

Dave saw my grin. "You'd have done the same damn thing!" he accused.

"Probably." I admitted. "Except that I'd have shot all three and then told you to shove your 'warning shot' up your ass."

Bethany burst into giggles and I joined her pretty quickly. Dave just stared at us helplessly. "I can't believe I agreed to live with you two lunatics." With that, he pushed off from the couch walked over to the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

Bethany and I both yelled at the door. "Don't come back out until you've thought about what you've done!"