A day late! You have my apologies! It's another plotty chapter but if you're familiar with how Hero Time stories go you can probably predict what that means for the next couple of chapters ; ) We're getting close, guys! Eight chapters left!

Special thanks to icefrozenover, washingtonstub, analiarvb, thepheonixqueen, cobaltqueen, Enmuse, Yin, notatroll7, and a-taller-tale on AO3 and tumblr for the wonderful feed back! I truly appreciate it more than you know.

Double Time
Chapter Sixteen: Time to Take Charge

There were probably less dramatic ways to get into Church's apartment, but Washington was running too short on time to act outside of his own instincts. So he went with the picking of the lock on the window and lifting it open so as to perch on the ledge as dusk settled behind him.

The usual.

By the time Church actually paused from typing at his computer, as if finally aware of another presence, Washington had thought of at least half a dozen ways any sort of villain or regular robber probably could have dismantled him. And it certainly wasn't because they had known each other for six months and the level of aggression between being Tucker's boyfriend and being Tucker's best friend had only proved to mount itself higher.

Church nearly leaped out of his seat when he saw Wash, hand over his chest as his head leaned back. He was running fans loudly to apparently cool down his robotic body. "Jesus Fucking Christ," he half-shouted. "You are, quite possibly, the worst fucking sight in the world for anyone with a remotely questionable past and maybe-not-so-great present record. Just so you're aware."

"Consider me aware," Wash replied, continuing into the apartment as if acknowledgement served as invitation — which it practically did in Blood Gulch anymore.

Narrowing his eyes, Church crossed his arms and leaned back into his seat. "If you're here to ask me for another updated superhero suit, you can fucking forget it. Tucker still owes me, like, three bar hops before the current disaster you're wearing is paid off."

"You consider your own work a disaster?" Wash asked casually, raising his brow.

Caught off guard, Church opened his mouth, closed it, muttered a bit. "I… that's. No. Obviously. Just that… you. And your… like, corniness. It infects any design. And I hate it. Shut up," he finally spat out. "What're you here for?"

"I'm wondering if you've seen Tex," Wash explained lowly.

As expected, Church pulled a full body flinch at the bare mention of his ex.

"Why? You guys having another hatefest sponsored by your animosity toward me? Again?" Church demanded angrily.

"No, of course not. That only happened once," Wash replied casually.

"You're such a fucking dick, I don't know how Tucker puts up with you," Church responded, somewhat aghast. "Like it's amazing. Do you have any idea what a fucking saint he has to be for that?"

"I'm aware," Wash replied flatly. "But this is about Tex. Have you seen her? I've only gotten texts and phone calls from her for the better part of a month and none of those have been more than… cryptic, at best."

For a moment, Church looked at Wash puzzled. Then it just went to smug.

"Wow. Cryptic. How horrible. Would hate to be around someone who only spoke in cryptic codes all the goddamn time for the sake of being dramatic and secretive," Church replied before turning back to his computer.

"You're pissed that I exist and changed up whatever groove that Blood Gulch had before, I get it," Wash replied with an aggravated sigh. "You want nothing to ever change and your misery to be the only thing that matters. But that's just too bad, Church, because I'm around, and with a possible future mayor who is actually interested in bringing back a sense of real status quo to the city, these are things that are going to be good and they're hopefully going to be permanent." Knowing that the aggressive route was going to get him nowhere with Church's legendary stubbornness, Wash reached up and pinched his brow and sighed. "Look, you and I both care about Tex not being in trouble and I'm worried about how little I've seen of her lately. Especially with things being… questionable with new heroes popping up, and the Reds getting more active on my orders around Blood Gulch. I just want to know she's okay."

"Wow, must suck to not see Tex for ages and have to worry about the worst for her. I feel so bad for you right now I could barf," Church returned angrily.

"So you've not seen Tex," Wash surmised.

"Oh, I've seen her plenty while you played House," Church responded. "Who do you think I'm codebreaking for at the moment? Just the lawls? She's been up my ass getting shit out of me for whatever nonsense she's been playing for months now. Dunno why you're not included. Probably for the best. She's probably aware what a nuisance you are."

Caught off guard, Wash neared Church. "What? You two are working together? On what—"

"I don't know," Church groaned before catching himself and shaking his head. "Actually, I know. I totally know because I totally asked why I was doing this instead of just… y'know, following her orders without question. But because she respected me so totally much by asking me to do this for her, I don't have to tell you. She obviously wants to keep it to herself."

Washington stared at Church for a moment before rushing to the back of his computer chair and attempting to lean in over his shoulder.

"Hey! What the hell! Back off!" Church cried out over dramatically, pulling against Wash to no avail.

"Just let me see what you're working on—" Wash said before seeing that there were multiple black windows all across the computer screen with white, green, blue, and red text in brackets that continued to fly out at speeds that nearly crossed Wash's eyes. He leaned back and away from the screen entirely.

"What the hell's that?" he asked, shocked.

"Codebreaking, the fuck did you think it looked like?" Church asked, taking the initiative to shove Wash further away from him though, with his strength, it did little other than causing his own chair to roll away from his station. Church then erupted into a series of frustrated, mewling noises that never quite formed words before he threw up his arms and glared at Wash. "Would you just fucking leave already?"

"No, I haven't gotten everything I'm here for," Wash said simply.

"Oh my god you are the worst superhero," Church groaned, clapping his hands over his face and dragging them down dramatically. "What, Wash? What do you want from me other than my sanity? Which you are doing wonders for making me lose entirely."

Ignoring the dramatics, Wash looked intently toward Church. "I want you — whenever you take time off from… all of this — to head over to my apartment and completely redo the security system."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Church cried out in annoyance. "I'm not a fucking handyman, Wash!"

"It's not a favor and it's not a request," Wash answered.

"Your people skills are astoundingly inept," Church continued to insult.

"It's a safety precaution for Tucker and Junior," Wash went on without pause. "The stuff I've gotten into… it's making me nervous. Nervous enough that I'm questioning the validity of the security system as it stands now. I think that whatever's coming is going to be worse than what I've prepared for, and I think there's reason to believe that I've been watched and followed to the point that Tucker and Junior's security has been jeopardized."

Taking a moment to let the words wash over him, Church leaned back and narrowed his eyes once more. "You're… What are you involved with?"

"I don't know, but it could go to the top, and with as chummy as at least one of our mayoral candidates are with Felix—"

"Dude, what the fuck's wrong with Felix?" Church scoffed. "Did he save your ass too many times? Embarrass poor widdle kitty cat?"

"He found us in a park and threatened us about six hours ago," Wash replied critically.

"Whoa," Church said, brows raised. "Did you deserve it?"

"Did Tucker?" Wash snapped, beginning to lose his cool.

"I mean, he did make the choice to fuck you against my better judgment so," Church responded with a rotation of his hand.

"You might be the worst friend a person could have," Wash reveled out loud.

"Wrong, asshole! I'm the best friend a person could have because I'm going to pull your asses out of the fire and go look over your security system and what not and then give Tucker relationship advice. Again. For ten hours. Again," Church replied, shutting off his computer after a final line of text that was incomprehensible to Wash. "And probably suffer the wrath of my ex-girlfriend for putting off her shit… again. I'm like the most selfless motehrfucker in this entire goddamn world, and it's about time someone around here recognized me for it."

"You're doing a good job of recognizing yourself," Wash amended. "Are you heading over right now?"

"No, I'm stopping everything in my tracks for a pizza I can't eat — of course I'm heading over there, you just said my best friend is about to get himself damseled. I'm either going to stop that shit or I'm going to enjoy watching it unfold," Church said wryly.

"Good, tell Tucker I'll be home late," Wash said, heading for the window.

"Wait a second, Washington," Church called out, drawing the hero's attention again.

"What?"

"Mayor reestablishing a good status quo… mayoral candidate with a suspicious relationship to the guy who's threatening you," Church listed off his fingers. "Do you… have some kinda political angle in all of this going on, too? Hm?"

"What's it matter?" Wash asked. "I'm calling balls and strikes and Kimball's got questionable company and policies."

Church's brows raised again. "Kimball, hm? Interesting. Interesting. You know, this really is something you should talk to your boy…. Nope. Still can't say that word for you two. Anyway, hope you talk to Tucker about it because that'll be an amazing one. I would actually sit in the room and watch that one."

"Tucker's not for Kimball," Wash said with a shake of his head.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha," Church called out in bland succession before heading for his door. "Oh, yeah. Definitely going to be in the room for that one."

Wash scrutinized the robot as he made his way out but shook his head and left all the same. There was a lot to do that night, and Tucker's annoying friends were something to deal with at a later date.