-AN-

I'd like to say I know exactly where this story is going to end up, but I'm not really sure yet. But I do know chaos gremlin Rebecca antagonizing Kiwi is my love right now. Be warned, limey content in this chapter but nothing explicit. So Onward!

-Story Start-

David had to admit, watching over Lucy while she dived was not the most exciting thing in the world. Bath full of ice and her body on display while she was plugged into her deep dive port, David was instead relaxing back on their bed. Close enough to come running if the computers started screaming warnings, but still above anything to catch if a swarm of AVs were headed their way. Not that he believed that would be happening any time soon. Lucy was good at this and knew better than to leave tracks. He was also itching to check on Rebecca and the others but he figured he should trust them. Plus there was bound to be a story later with those three.

As usual when his thoughts were starting to focus, a call came in. Seeing V's id, David fought down a sigh and answered, "Hey V, what's up?"

"Ever hear of a place called the clouds?"

Pausing to think about it, he was pretty sure either Falco or Pilar had mentioned the place once. Definitely not somewhere he was interested in these days. "What're you interested in that place for, I know you might be hard up but we can get you a girl if ya need it that bad."

"Wa-what? No! The woman I'm looking for, the one that gave me the job, she works at clouds."

That made a lot more sense then, David wasn't going to knock other's idea of fun but sometimes it was fun, "Ah, okay, had me worried their for a sec, should have lead with that first."

Growling before letting it go, V got back on topic, "Anyway, I'm headed there later to look around. Think you could tag along for an assist, just in case things get hairy?"

Not knowing how long Lucy would be but knowing Rebecca said she'd be back later on, David figured he could help the guy out, "Sure thing, you want a small team or just me?"

"Just you and me should be enough, I'm just looking for clues, asking questions. Just want some backup in case I gotta beat the shit outta someone."

That wasn't to bad, and David was up for a fight or two today. "Sure thing, give me a time and I'll be there." After V gave him both a time and a location, they ended the call and David went back to being bored. Or at least he would have, had sloshing noise from the bathroom distracted him. Sitting up a little straighter, his girlfriend walked into view. Scrubbing a hand through her hair with a groan and twisting her neck to work out the kinks this way and that, she finally locked eyes with him, "That was quick."

Still naked and slightly wet, Lucy collapsed on top of the man and whined, "It's been 3 hours, that's not exactly a short time." Rolling left and right drying herself on David's clothes to his laughing protests, she finally settled down and sighed, "I have some news though."

Pulling the woman fully into his lap, David nodded, "Okay, what's the word then." She was so small and light he idly noted.

"Well our friend V? Arasaka wants him back bad. Way more than they wanted you. There's a bounty on his head." Looking up to the man who rolled his eyes and shook his head, Lucy went on, "But, funny enough, some long standing engineers are packing up and running for the hills. And some deeper digging shows they were working on the save your soul program. We might be able to track one or two, get some answers for V."

Gratefully hugging the woman to his chest, David sighed, "Well there's some news at least. I'll pass that along to him later when we meet up." Looking down and seeing the unasked question in her eyes, David continued, "V called while you were on the net, he's looking for his client, gotta hit up the Clouds. Wants some backup, just in case."

"And he called you?"

"Hey, I can do stealthy." Seeing the deadpan look the woman was giving him, David reiterated his point, "I can!"

Lucy got comfortable in his chest, "I'll keep at eye on the news. I'm sure I'll see an update there before I get a call from you."

"Brat."

"You love me."

With a swish of an opening door and a laugh the third member of their relationship made herself known. "I'm baaack!"

Both of them looked over the rim on the stairs to spy a slightly singed and haggard Rebecca. She was all smiles and happiness regardless of looking like she had been through a firefight. And as she stepped fully inside to allow the door to close she tossed her bag of weapons into their safe room and looked up at them in agitation. "What?" That both Lucy and David answered in unison was left alone.

"I go out to get blown up running a mission, and you two are here being all lovey dovey? No fair no fair! I deserve cuddles and lovey dovey kisses too!" Throwing up an accusing finger, the pink and yellow eyed girl was only half serious. She spotted the still slightly wet Lucy and David still being fully dressed, so she figured she must have gotten back at the right time.

Watching the short girl bound up the stairs, shucking her large jacket and pulling out her customary ponytails, she took a final leap to land on the bed beside the others. Sighing and getting comfortable, it was David who looked her over and was satisfied that she at least didn't have any injuries. "So mission went okay?"

"Oh yeah, just fine. Well, Kiwi exploded a car and killed a bunch of Raffen, but that's all. Falco's nomad buddy was actually pretty chill for an old dude."

Lucy giggled and paid full attention to the shorter girl, "I'm sure Kiwi didn't mean to explode a car."

"You should have seen it, it was-"

David tuned both girls out as he let his mind wander, eyes turning upwards to the ceiling. As much as he wanted to say things would be alright as long as they were careful. This was Arasaka they were talking about. One wrong move could see all of them in the river or worse, in some lab as experiments. That wasn't something on his list of things to do in this lifetime. Though, if V's story about Johnny Silverhand was true, they'd be able to get them in the next if they really wanted. Wasn't that a trip to think about. Getting sucked outta your own skull and turned into a construct? Absolutely sounded like a cursed life and David would rather eat a bullet that let a corp play with his soul for an eternity. Feeling someone poke him in the cheek, he looked down to see a now fully naked Rebecca pressing herself into his side.

"Hey hey, you spaced out, you good? Not losing it are you?" In the back of her mind she was still worried about him. Sure he had lightened up his chrome, but sometimes she or Lucy still caught him spacing out in a world of his own. Sure there were no more tremors affecting him, but that didn't mean his mind wasn't still scrambled.

Watching Lucy smile as she rolled out of bed and head downstairs, David pulled the smaller girl up and into his lap. Idly he appreciated the bright pink tattoos against her pale skin, "I'm good, just thinking about this save you soul business. Could you imagine being able to live forever like that?"

Wiggling her hips and getting grinning at David's contorting face, Rebecca stretched her arms above her head, "Live forever in this shit hole? Rather not. Sure those rich shit heads probably get a sweet deal out of it, but us? Nah. Let me have my fun while we can and then move on. Unless we can fix this crazy world there's no way I'd wanna live forever in it." Placing both of her modified hands on his chest and leering down at him, she caressed his chest, "Now, no more work or crazy corpo shit. I think I deserve a reward for doing a good job and not blowing up half of Night City."

Rolling his eyes but trailing his hands up and down her sides, David nodded, "Yes yes, you've been a good girl so you deserve a reward." He had time, it wasn't even 2pm yet and Megabuilding H8 wasn't to far away. As his hands worked on her thighs he developed his own grin at the goofy look forming on her face, "Still funny how sensitive you are."

"Don't ruin the moment you ass."

Down below the slowly heating up pair, Lucy had made her way down the stairs as was opening the door to their storage room. Sighing at Rebecca's half hearted attempt at putting stuff away(tossing a bag on the floor) the netrunner took the time to empty the bag out properly. Hanging weapons along their storage rack and reloading a single bullet into the magazine for Rebecca's favorite rifle. "She held back a lot today." Finishing her self imposed task and sitting back for a moment, Lucy enjoyed the coolness of the room against her bare skin. As much as their little thruple was turning out to be a good thing for all of them. She knew that whether the shorter girl admitted it or not, she needed some alone time with the man. And Lucy was finding that when it came to them, she wasn't the jealous type. She and Rebecca had agreed that this was it though, no one else would be sinking their teeth into the muscle head edgerunner from here on. And thinking more she still hadn't had a chance to try and convince Rebecca to leave the city with them. At this point, the moon while a dream, wasn't what was important. What was important was all of them being together. Of course if Rebecca decided she'd go with them, well, that was all for the better. Turning and heading out the door to get herself some tea from the kitchen, suddenly craving the stuff a lot recently, a fairly loud moan hit her ears. Feeling like teasing the pair Lucy looked up to see a head of green hair leaned back and frozen in place. "Don't break her Davi!" Seeing the girl suddenly disappear and David come up himself, he shot her a grin and a thumbs up, before lowering himself and returning to the task at hand. A delighted squeal rising through the apartment. Lucy shook her head and returned to her current quest for tea. At least for now their little family was happy and stable which Lucy admitted to herself that she would do a lot to make sure it would stay that way. And as she stood there, naked and watching their instant machine working on a prepack container of tea mix, she really hoped they wouldn't regret offering to help this newbie merc. Not that she would be able to change David's mind about it, honor and promises being a big thing to him after all. Time would tell but she'd grab both of her loved ones and leave this city in the dust if the need came. Kiwi's long ago words of advice floated through her mind, of only relying and trusting herself, and she discarded them finally. There were people she could trust she decided. And as she finally had her tea and turned back to the stairs, both were about to see some of her own brand of gratitude.

-b-

David had been in establishments like The Clouds before, clubs like Lizzie's came to mind. But this place was very ritzy and gave the merc the feel that a lot of lonely corpos spent their money here. Considering his own life now he wouldn't ever consider it, but he could get it. The city had a habit of breaking the bonds between people, made it hard to connect with anyone. Some place like here that offered a connection, even if it was fake, was still a godsend to someone's mental stability. Though, as he turned back to a muttering V who had finished putting his gun away in the establishments weapon locker, he decided maybe this guy needed a little help on that front too. "Is it healthy to be talking to yourself like that?"

Scoffing and pointing at his port, V walked past David, "You try having a century old asshole in your head criticizing everything you do."

David shrugged, hands in his pockets, "I mean, you're here and he's a collection of code, at least one of you in ahead in the life decisions department." Watching V wince and pause half a step, David was curious, "What'd he say?"

"Eat my ass. His words."

Grinning and looking around, Dave nodded, "At least he's spirited."

Groaning at the pun V spotted the room marked as his, "We both agree that was horrible."

"Aw, we'll be calling you twins before this is all over." Getting a single finger salute for his trouble, David waved the guy off and pointed towards a door, "Here's mine, let's ask around quietly and meet back in 10." Getting a nod from V, David took a deep breath and walked into the booth that opened automatically for him. Inside was a woman with darker skin but bright red and gold hair and matching bikini.

"Come, sit, let's chat." Something was off with her voice and as he paid more attention her eyes really had an odd shine to them. So shaking his head David uttered the safe word, the room brightening up and the girl jolted in place while David sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey, what the hell, we haven't even started." This voice was more authentic and David pegged her and maybe from somewhere south in the city.

"I still need to talk, but about something a little more real." Holding up a shard with a decent amount of eddies, David mimed that she could have it, "What can you tell me about a girl here, Evelyn Parker? I'm not an ex or anything, but she asked for a job to be done and then bounced, gotta figure out how to get her stuff to her." Not the truth, but not a complete lie either, the best kind.

Scoffing but thinking it over, the black woman finally relented after a few moments and snatched the shard from David who held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't know much about her, but I know that she apparently beat the shit out of a client recently. Knowing our boss, he shipped her off to get, fixed."

Heart sinking and thinking the worst David turned fully to her, crossing his legs on the bed, "Please tell me that doesn't mean skavs."

Shrugging the woman didn't have a definitive answer for him, "It's Mr. Forest, so it could be. All I know is if you get sent off by him, you probably aren't coming back." She watched at the brawler of a man finally stood and headed for the door, "That it then?"

Nodding David didn't look back, "No offense but my own input would be pretty upset with me if I did anything else. They were already pretty upset with me coming here in the first place." Saying his peace he walked outside and waited for V to show up, which after a few more minutes the older man did so with a thoughtful look on his face, "Got some info?"

"Yeah, com'on, Evelyn was in another booth nearby recently." Walking along and avoiding some of the other patrons, V and David both came upon a booth that was warded off with police tape. Inside was equipment for scanning the room along with some left over police equipment that they would most likely be coming back for, some of it looking like a hologram projector.

Leaning over the guy David whistled as they made their way inside properly, "Well someone got the shit kicked outta them." Blinking and changing his vision, David scanned the area, "Blood on the wall."

V sighed and fiddled with the projector which after a moment came to life. Together the two mercs got to watch as indeed it was Evelyn who was here, though her freak out and assault on her client wasn't expected. "What do ya think?"

David looked around before looking at a subtle port on the wall next to the bed, "Chance of a virus or something? Or maybe she finally lost it?"

"That suddenly after we just shit the bed on a job with Arasaka?" V's incredulous look had David conceding the point.

"What the next move?" David was already turning to leave the booth with V behind him.

"There's another guy here who knew Evelyn, Tom, works in the VIP area. Gotta get to him." They both were walking towards the end of the main room, now towards the VIP lounge. "No idea how to get past the bouncer though."

David grinned, "I have an idea. How much time do you think we'll need?"

V shrugged, "Hopefully no more than another 30 minutes."

"Watch this." David saw the bathrooms next to the stairway and headed in there first. Thankfully no one was in there and all of the stalls were empty. It was clean too, perk of being a nicer place. Turning back around and leaning out the door David whistled to the bouncer, "Hey buddy, I got a guy zonked out in here, wanna grab him?"

Sighing and rolling his eyes the bouncer turned to come see the issue, "I keep telling the girls upfront to start checking these idiots for drugs." Man said nothing else as David let him into the bathroom in front of him, door closing behind them both. "Which stall?"

Winding up a fist with a grin David was smug, "This one." While he had gone lighter on his chrome, he still hit like a truck. His fist rocked into the back of the mans skull and he was out before he his the floor. David took his time to drag him into the last stall and lock the door, jumping over top and casually walking back out to meet a confused looking V. "He's taking a nap."

"You really are a meathead." Taking the stairs V enjoyed the scandalized look on David's face.

"I do what works."

"Well Johnny agrees with you on this one, so take that for whatever it is." They reached the top of the stairs and noticed a very posh looking bar space and smaller more personal booths up here. V spotted Tom's booth and turned back to David, "I'm gonna go talk to the guy, wait for me at the bar would ya?"

"Sure sure, have fun." David sauntered up to the bar while V disappeared into the booth next to it. Ordering a drink and settling in to wait, David was almost bummed it was going so well so far. He was used to firefights and chaos by now. Probably shouldn't jinx it however. Knocking on the for luck and earning himself an odd look from the bartender, David waved him off as he took a sip or his drink. Fruity and heavy on the alcohol, just what he needed today.

By the time David finished his first drink and was considering his second, V was tapping him on the shoulder and leaning close, "Gotta get in the back."

Idly looking to his left at the bouncer in front of the employee only door, David shrugged, "How do ya wanna do that and keep quiet?"

V's eyes were already glowing, "I'm no pro, but I can cause a distraction. Get ready to move." Focusing on a tv across the way, V released several deamon programs at once. One of which caused the tv to erupt into static.

"Oh what the hell." The bouncer thought about it for a moment before walking across the room to see if he could make anything of the tv. Behind him and unnoticed, David and V slipped into the back rooms. From there they did their best to sneak through as quietly as they could, following an empty hallway that eventually had an open door on their right that opened into a locker room.

"Hey look, Parker's locker." V was already striding over and pulling it open to have a look around. David was watching the door and waiting for some guard to come through. Listening to V rifle around and wishing he had his gun, David sighed as he heard V stop moving. "Found something."

Looking back, David saw V slot in a shard and go blank for a moment, before coming back and popping the shard back out, "She was here alright, but Woodman sent her off somewhere. Gotta find him to get some real answers."

David looked around again before seeing another hallway branch off to their left. "Maybe up ahead?"

"Can't hurt, let's go." V pulled ahead and they both edged along the hall before looking around the corner. Again no one was present, but they did see a wood door there towards the end, Woodman's name on the plate. "There we go." David followed along behind him as V strode up and opened the door passing inside with all of the swagger of someone who should be there.

"I'm not supposed to be disturbed, go away-" Looking up, the massive yet bald man took in the appearance of the two mercs and sighed, "Jon's are not supposed to be back here. What the hell do you want."

V took the time to sit in the chair on the other side of the desk, ignoring everything about the office except for the big man in front of him, "Looking for one of your girls, Evelyn Parker. Know where she is?"

Looking them over some more and putting his sandwich down, Woodman sighed and steepled his fingers together, "And what if I do, I can't go giving that information to every dick that walks in here. Bad for business that."

Thinking about it for a moment, V got the message enough, "Well, I have some nonviolent business with her. And I need to see her, so how about this, I pay you to tell me where she is, and hopefully I make sure she makes it back to you unharmed."

Not really caring about the girl, but absolutely wanting to make sure nothing came back to him, Woodman was ready to kick these two out, "I won't be part of a murder."

Raising his hands and smiling V waved that off, "No murder, like I said, all nonviolent. Just need to talk to her and give her something she asked for. That's it." Seeing Woodman thinking about it some more, V tried to sweeten it, "Pays worth it."

Finally caving after a minute Woodman offered a hand to V, "Fine. Eds, now." Shaking the young man's hand and getting a decent amount he considered satisfactory, Wood leaned back in his large and very comfy chair. "After her meltdown I sent her off to a ripper on Jig-Jig street. Name's Fingers. Said he could either unscramble her brain or make her not my problem anymore. And word of advice, don't relax around that asshole for even a moment. A real slimy bastard that one." Motioning to the door behind him Woodman turned back to his computer, "Of course you didn't hear it from me, but I better not ever see you two again. Got it?"

David was already walking past him as he was well and ready to be out of here. "Don't have to tell me twice." It was taking a lot for him not to punch a hole through the businessman, but wanting to walk out of here in one piece made that decision a little easier.

Standing and walking with David, V frowned, "Sure thing, let's make sure we never meet again." Both men were quiet as a previously locked elevator opened up for them before they had even reached it. Going inside and taking it down back to the lobby, it wasn't long before both men were re-armed and out of the Clouds, both lost in their own thoughts.

While V seemed to be most likely talking with his personal mind demon, David was looking out over the city as they road one of the main elevators back to the ground floor. Sometimes he forgot just how little people valued other lives here. To throw a girl away after a hack attack and just consider her broken goods at that point. Yeah, if he ever saw Woodman in the future he might have to introduce him to his arm cannon.

V sighed and pushed away from the wall, "I'm gonna head to Jig-Jig. I should be fine with a ripperdoc on my own. I'll call you if anything crazy comes up."

Nodding David shook V's hand as their elevator hit the ground floor, "Stay safe alright. Lucy thinks she may have some leads on the relic too so we might have an update for you soon." Both making their plans and going their separate ways, this at least for once was a mostly peaceful mission for David. Hah, take that girls, he could be sneaky if he wanted!

-AN-

A slower chapter this time to set up V while we get some slice of life from David/Lucy/Rebecca. Next chapter will be a little more Nomad centric.