Under New Management
Word Count: 3,030
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: I'm actually going to call this gen. At least... I tried to make it that way.
Spoilers: up to 1x11.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: Everything changes when the Hawks get a new owner.
Author's Note: So this one kind of changed where things were going, but... um... it works?

New Threats

"Here you go, Doctor D."

Dani took the paper from TK's hand and unfolded it, looking down and frowning. This wasn't—it couldn't be real. He knew better than this. There was no way she could accept this. She shook her head, tried to hand it back. "I can't take this."

"Yes, you can," he insisted, closing her hand around the check. "You need this."

She shook her head again. "No, TK. I can't accept that."

"Look, Doc, it ain't no secret that you got fired. We all know. And we all know you got bills to pay. We know that you're taking care of us on your own dime. The Hawks aren't paying you anymore. You gotta pay for your house and feed your kids. I'm still your patient. I should pay."

"You need your money to buy the team."

"But that's not going to happen right away. You need to take this for your house payment. It's due before we'll get the team, so you need it. Now. Just take it, please. I talked it over with Nico. He told me it wasn't a big enough amount to keep us from buying the team."

Dani looked up from the check. That wasn't a big amount? It seemed big enough to her. "Wait. When did you talk to Nico?"

TK laughed. "I got another late night visit. He's freaking creepy, you know, when he does that. But I was able to give him good news—got three more guys on our side, and we should be glad because one of them just got Nike, so he's in the money."

"That's great news, Terrence, but I don't think I can—"

"Take it. You need it. Nico said it would be enough," TK told her, and Dani frowned again. She didn't want to know how Nico knew how much she needed for her house payment or that he'd shared that with TK. "It's totally bugging you that I've seen him and you haven't, isn't it?"

She made a face. "I had five players in my office today telling me how Duggan lost it when his car wasn't where he thought he parked it. I am concerned about the environment of fear that surrounds the team right now—Why are you laughing?"

"Dude, Doc, that was totally Nico. He moved the guy's car two spots over and totally messed with his head. The tech guy couldn't even find where he'd done it on the tapes, but we all know that he did. It's just little things. Screws with the pit bull's head, though."

Dani rubbed her forehead. She had another TK headache, but it wasn't only TK's fault. "Nico is insane."

TK grinned. "And it's great."

"You know she's not going to be happy that you're spying on her, right?" Ray Jay asked as Dani watched her daughter with a new boy. Something didn't quite feel right about it after the ones she'd met before—if she didn't know better, she'd say the kid wasn't Lindsay's type, but he had her laughing, so Dani had to be overreacting somehow.

"I'm not spying," she began defensively. "I'm just—"

"Spying, Mom. It's spying."

She wanted to deny it, but she couldn't really find the words, so she didn't try again. She was worried about Lindsay—she always would. It seemed like this was too soon after the boy who had cheated on her. She was probably going to end up hurt worse than before, and Dani didn't want to see that happen. "I never met him before."

"He's not a senior."

"He looks like a body builder. He's huge. There's no way that he's only fifteen years old," Dani said, frowning uneasily. The boy did seem sweet, a teddy bear despite his size, and he was actually trying to keep Lindsay focused on her homework, which was no small feat.

"Some guys get big, you know. They end up having their growth spurt all the way to their adult size and then stop instead of getting another one in their early twenties," Ray Jay reminded her, and Dani narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. He'd been in her books again, hadn't he?

"Let me guess. The size doesn't matter book?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. At least he's not cheating on her and doesn't have purple hair and piercings, right?"

Dani sighed. She supposed she'd never feel right about anyone dating her daughter. Her little girl. Then again, she'd actually liked the one that cheated on Lindsay, more the fool her.

"How's the whole buying the team thing going?"

Dani turned to her son and folded her arms over her chest. "Exactly what has TK told you?"

"Hey, it's not like I told anyone," Ray Jay objected. "TK told me it was a secret—and I swear that he only told me because I wouldn't stop bugging him about the trade he was going to take. He finally said that if this plan you and that guy Nico had worked that he wouldn't be going anywhere and that he'd be his own boss."

"Not quite. TK would only own part of the team, and I think a few of the other players would be investing more and have more 'shares,' as it were, though no one has a controlling interest—and all of that just went over your head, didn't it?"

"Not all of it. He's not the boss. No one is."

Someone was going to have to be, actually. They'd have to have one spokesperson who had the final say. The players were probably used to the coach being that person, but Dani was pretty sure that Parnell would want no part of it—and the players mostly agreed that they wanted him back. Parnell wouldn't want that, though. They'd have to find someone or hire someone to fill that role. Maybe a former player with good business sense? Nico would know who would be best for the job. Briefly, Dani thought about him in that role, but he wouldn't agree to that, either. He preferred working behind-the-scenes, fixing things. He wouldn't want to be in any other role.

"Yeah," Dani agreed. She dug out her phone and sent off a text to Nico. He might not be answering her calls, but maybe he'd have an answer for that one.

"Yo, Mattie D," TK called as he walked up to him, clapping him on the back. "Practice went well today, don't you think?"

The trainer gave him a dark look. "What about that went well? Half the equipment is missing, and someone toilet papered our field. We spent the entire time cleaning it up and didn't get any practice done. I don't know why you're smiling. Duggan was yelling at you the whole time."

"'Cause this just proves that what he calls security is crap," TK said, smiling. The other man shook his head. TK had to admit—the trainer had become one giant drag since this whole thing started. He was always worried about something. Duggan finding out. Duggan hurting one of the players. Duggan yelling. Maybe Mattie was just plain old scared. "Come on, dog. Someone TP'd the yard. If you think about it, it's funny as hell."

Mattie D grabbed TK's arm. "What is wrong with you? Why would vandalism be funny?"

TK looked at him. Was the other man kidding? What part of TP wasn't funny? Well, not when he started missing catches because he missed a toilet paper roll, but he hadn't told anyone besides Doctor D about that. It didn't matter. What did matter was that only one person could really have gotten past all of Duggan's thugs and done it, but Nico was the last person anyone would have suspected of TP-ing a field. "Because it pissed off Duggan, that's why."

"He's going to get pushed too far, you do realize that, right, TK?"

"So?" TK asked. "Let him go over that damn edge. Sooner he's out of here the better."

"The sooner who is out of here the better?" a cold voice demanded from behind him, and Mattie shook his head as TK turned to face Duggan with a huge smile. The pit bull looked pretty damn pissed, but TK still wasn't worried. His money was on Nico. Even when he'd looked like shit, the dark man had something going there that made him the scarier one. Besides, Duggan had to have some poor kid follow him around and use all the toys—the phone, the iPad, the laptop—for him, but Nico understood all that tech crap, too. He had that going for him, and he'd already proved that he could be one hell of a sneaky bastard with some really messed up ideas about how he fought the war with Duggan.

He even seemed to have a sense of humor about the whole thing, and that was awesome. TK loved it. He was enjoying every minute of it. He didn't care how loud Duggan yelled or how much he tried to threaten them. It was too much fun watching Nico piss him off.

"Oh, you know, Shane Givens," TK answered with a shrug. He really didn't have a beef with the Crunchberry anymore, but Duggan probably didn't know that. "I hear he's going to get traded to Dallas. Hey, maybe he'll get together with Denise again."

Mattie D groaned. TK just smiled. Duggan looked annoyed. "You know, now that the field is clear, you should run some laps around it. Say a hundred, to start with."

"Hey," Mattie D objected immediately. "I'm the trainer. I assign the laps if they're needed. Or the coach does."

"Then assign them," Duggan ordered. Mattie D shook his head.

"Doesn't matter anyway. No can do, bro," TK said. "Got an appointment with my therapist."

"The team no longer has a therapist."

"But I do. And I pay her myself, so there's nothing you can do about it," TK told him, grinning even wider as he walked away. He couldn't wait to tell Doctor D about the TP.

"Ms. Santino."

Dani adjusted her grip on the door handle and tried not to give into the panicked urge telling her to shut it right in his face. It was hard not to be afraid. Dani wasn't someone that intimidated easily, but she couldn't help remembering the way that Nico had sounded when she asked him about Duggan. Nico didn't show fear, didn't let much past the mask—other than that bitch—but there had been a definite thing to his tone that worried her.

"Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Duggan?"

"I want to know why my players keep coming to see you. Your services were terminated."

"By the Hawks. The players are free to see me if they so desire. There is nothing in their contracts forbidding that," she said, starting to close the door. He shoved it back so hard it went out of her hand and banged against the wall, leaving a mark. She turned back to him coldly. "Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?"

"You will cease to see any players from the Hawks starting today."

"Oh, I will, will I?" she asked, taking a step forward and getting in his personal space. He was not going to intimidate her. "I don't think so. You have no right to come here to my home and attempt to tell me who I will and will not see as a patient. You will leave, now, before I call the police."

"The door is just a start, Ms. Santino. I warned you."

She smiled. "Yes, so you have. And you know the thing about bullies, Mr. Duggan? They're always the ones that are really scared. That's why they choose someone younger and smaller to pick on. But guess what? I'm not scared. I'm not even impressed. You can take your threats and fear and get off my doorstep."

"You'll be sorry you ignored my warnings."

"And you'll be sorry you ignored my free psychological advice. You'd do well to make some lifestyle changes—unless I'm mistaken and you actually like the way that all of this violence and anger has shaped your face," she told him. He glared at her. "Even though I'm a therapist and not a plastic surgeon, it's still Doctor Santino. Remember that the next time you think you'll try to threaten me."

She closed the door behind him; her heart racing. She forced herself to walk calmly to the kitchen. She went into the pantry and shut the door behind her before she finally gave into the tremors, wrapping her arms around her legs as she shook.

"Did he hurt you?"

Nico knew it wasn't going to help, his opening of the door, at least not at first, since that would start the panic all over again, but he couldn't leave it shut right now. She looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes, and he waited for her to recognize him and relax a bit. Though he'd intended to follow Duggan, he needed to know exactly what the other man had done first. Then he would know how to react and just how far to take the next step.

"Dr. Santino, did he hurt you?" Nico repeated, getting her to focus on him.

She managed to shake her head. "No, no, he didn't hurt me. I half-expected him to breakdown the door after I shut it, but he didn't come after me. I provoked him, but he didn't come after me. Oh, that may have been one of the stupidest things that I've ever done."

"Standing up to Duggan? That's debatable," Nico told her, offering her his hand. She took it and let him help her back onto her feet. "What did he want?"

"He told me that I couldn't keep helping the team, even if the Hawks weren't paying for it."

"He's trying to control the players. I'm sure he's looked into finding someone like Laz who will be the 'yes man' he needs and will set that person up in an office at the stadium so that the players have even less freedom."

She listened to that with disgust. "He'll spy on the team in therapy."

"That is what you thought I did."

She shook her head, rubbing her arms as she paced a little. "From what I've been hearing about Duggan, compared to him, you're a saint."

"Hardly. There's plenty of bad decisions and even blood on my hands," Nico disagreed. He was not about to let her consider him a hero in this. He didn't deserve it. Most of this was his fault to begin with. "Duggan and I... are more alike than I care to admit."

"Don't say that. Don't you dare. You can't be like him."

Nico shook his head. "You don't rule through fear without first establishing the reign of terror. You know that the team feared me. Most people who know me fear me. You came in at the end of a twenty year employment for me. The myth was well-established by then. What Duggan is doing now is establishing his own."

"But you're not Duggan. You actually care."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because..." She stopped and frowned at him. "Nico, why are you doing this? Trying to take away my trust in you when I'm already shaken and vulnerable? When I need to trust you the most? Damn it, I wish this was already over."

"There is a far simpler solution to all of this than what we've been doing," he reminded her. She seemed confused, though she shouldn't be. The answer had been there all along. "I could go to Gabriella, ask for my job back. She'd give it to me in a heartbeat. All of this could be undone."

"That's not an option."

"Yes, it is. You know as well as I do that part of the reason for keeping the whole thing a secret is because if the team knew that this was really about her and me that none of them would trust me with anything. I have been able to fix this from the beginning. I could have stopped it from happening in the first place."

"At what cost, Nico? I'm not exactly fond of the analogy, but you'd be selling your soul if you did, and you know it," Santino insisted. "You can't go back. We knew that before this started. You have your line in the sand, and I damn well want you to stick to it. Giving in is not an option. We have a plan, we will see it through to the end."

"No matter who gets hurt in the process?" Nico asked quietly. He had to disillusion her. The plan was by no means perfect in the first place, and Duggan was a game-changer. Nico had known that someone would be hired in his place, and Duggan had been on the short list, though if they'd been lucky, it would have been one of the others. "Duggan has no scruples. The threat was no joke. Are you prepared to risk your children for my line in the sand?"

Santino stared at him. "My children? No. No one ever said my children—"

"They were always a part of this, whether you realized it or not. I knew. Lindsay's new boyfriend was not introduced to her by chance, nor was Ray Jay's new friend. Those measures are most likely inadequate when it comes to Duggan," Nico informed her. "Are you still certain about this?"

Santino glared at him, her body tense with restrained anger. "Get. Out."