"You're just another brick and I'm a sledgehammer,"
Deadshot
A witch.
Lena is a witch.
No. He thinks. She's possessed by an ancient witch. For three months.
Harley stands behind the bar, making everyone a drink of their choice. Apparently, Quinn used to do bartending when she was doing grad school. No surprise there.
"Alrighty, sugah," Harley said, sounding cheery. "So what you havin tonight?"
"Shot of bourbon," Deadshot answers, his eyes staring at the counter. "And keep them comin."
"You got it, pal." Harley said, looking for the bottle of bourbon on the shelves. When she finds the bottle, she pours it into a shot glass and slides it into Deadshot's hands.
He took a sip, the charred oak taste of the alcohol coated his tongue. It reminds him of taking cough syrup when he was a kid. It left a hint of vanilla/cinnamon aftertaste. He looks at Harley, noticing how her make-up with slightly runny from being in the rain along with a gash on her forehead and a bruise on her cheek.
"Did you get that from the crash?" Deadshot asks her. "Or did he do that before the crash?"
She stiffens at the question. "The crash."
He shakes his head at her. "Geez what's with everyone and the lyin? This has got to stop. I know we are the bad guys…but even bad guys can be honest."
"I'm not lyin." Harley said, defensively, pouring him another shot of bourbon.
"What the hell did that clown do to you?" Deadshot questions. "I don't know you at all but I have a feeling you were a much different person before you met the clown."
She didn't say anything back to him for a moment. "My Puddin' loves me."
"That's not love, Harley…" He said, taking another sip of bourbon.
Taking a deep breath, she puts on her cheery smile again, looking over to Killer Croc, who was sitting at one of the stool tables.
"Whatcha what?" She asks him.
"He looks like a Bloody Mary type of guy." Boomerang said. "Like literally a woman named Mary who happens to be bloody. Am I right, mate?"
Croc shook his head. "Naw. Drinks dull the mind."
"Exactly." Deadshot says. He gestures at Harley to fill his glass again. "You really want a sharp mind after seeing those things? The duller the better."
"Okay. Beer."
"Goody." Harley said, looks at Diablo. "What about you hot stuff?"
"Water."
"Coming from the man who can set the world on fire," Harley adds. "That's a good idea, honey."
Deadshot raises his shot glass. "Here's to honor among thieves." He said merrily as they clink their glasses together.
"I'm not a thief," Katana said in a low soft tone.
It took Deadshot by surprise. This was the first time he ever heard the woman talk that wasn't in Japanese or giving the Squad a death glare. He looks back to Harley.
"Oh. She's not a thief." He said in a hush whisper. Taking his third shot, he laughs out loud. "Whelp, we almost pulled it off. Despite what everyone thought."
He pours another shot and takes a quick sip. "Easy there, cowboy," Harley said.
"Worst part of it is, they're going to blame us for the whole thing." He pauses. "They don't need no one knowin' the truth. We're the cover-up. The patsies. Don't forget. We're the bad guys."
"That's so true," Harley adds. "It is all perspective."
"Say mate," Capt. Boomerang began. "When you were tryin to beat Flag into a bloody pulp, you said something a gal named Lena? Who's she?"
"None of your concern." Deadshot said to him.
"C'mon. She has to be a big deal to you to lose it like that," Capt. Boomerang said.
"Look Boomer," Deadshot says, looking at him. "just drop it. I don't want to talk about her. Especially not with you."
"Okay, okay, mate." Capt. Boomerang laughs. "No need to kill me."
He quickly changes the topic, not wanting to think about her. "For about two sweet seconds, I had hope."
Diablo slams down his glass of water. "You had hope, huh? Hope don't stop the wheel from turning, my brother."
"Hm, so you preaching now?" Deadshot questions.
"It's coming back around for you." Diablo tells him. "How many people you killed, man?"
Deadshot gives him a sour look. "You don't ask nobody a question like that, ese."
"You ain't never whacked down no women. No kids."
Deadshot held up his glass, but only stares at it. "I do not kill women or children."
Diablo leans in close, whispering, but loud enough for every one of them to hear.
"I did."
Everyone turns to stare at him. Diablo places his glass at the palm of his hand, then a flaming figure came to life. It was a woman, swaying back and forth.
"See, I was born with the Devil's gift." He said. "Kept it hidden most of my life, but the older I got, the stronger it got. So I start using it for business. The more power on the street I got…the more fire power I got. Like that shit went hand in hand."
There was a sense of empowerment in his tone. Diablo pauses for a minute, as if he wanted to add dramatic effect to his story.
"My old lady. You know she used to pray for me." Diablo explains. "Even when I didn't want it." He stares at the fiery figure intensely. "God didn't give me this gift. Why should He take it away?"
"When I get mad, I-I lost control. You know, I just… I didn't want to hurt her nor my kids." The fiery figure stops swaying and falls to her knees, looking as if she was choking. "I dunno what I did."
The fiery figure vanishes, becoming nothing but thick black smoke. "Until it's done. "
No one said a word. Deadshot looks at his glass absent minded. He didn't know what to say anymore. Especially to a man who admitted killing his own wife and children. He felt his eyes threaten to shed tears.
"And the kids?" Boomerang asks.
Harley looks at Boomerang. "He killed them." Her voice was small and sad. "Didn't you?"
She leans closer to Diablo. "You have to own that shit. Own it!"
Diablo looks away from her. She leans closer to him. "What did you that was goin happen? Huh? What, you were just gonna couch little league and make car payments?"
For a moment, Deadshot could see the psychiatrist she once been, before the clown killed that part of her.
"Hey, Harley, relax." Deadshot tells her.
"No." She snaps at him, turning her attention back to Diablo. "What you thought you could be normal? Normal is a setting on a dyer. People like us, don't get to be normal."
Boomerang stares at her. "Why is it a knife fight every time you open your mouth? Outside you're amazing…but inside you're ugly."
"We are all," Harley looks back at Croc. "Expect him. He's ugly on the outside too."
Croc cracks a grin at her. "Not me shorty." He removes his hoodie. "I'm beautiful."
She gives back at him. "Yeah, you are."
They heard a door open and turn towards it. Flag was entering the bar. His hair and clothes was wet from standing out in the pouring rain. His jaw was red and a bit swollen, starting to turn a bit purple. He didn't say a word to anyone. He looks at Deadshot and goes to sit next to him.
"We don't want you here." Harley tells him.
Flag didn't speak to her, looking back at the other before pouring himself a glass of whiskey and drank it down. He looks at Deadshot.
"You get to the part in the binder saying I was sleeping with her?"
Deadshot nods. "Yeah. I never been with a witch before, what's that like? I mean I been with my girl before she got all witchy."
Flag remains quiet.
"Apparently that's why the creatures chase him all the time. Cause the witch is scared of him." Deadshot explains. He looks over to Boomerang. "So you wanna know why I wanted to kill him? This girl Lena...she's my girl and it turns out she's possessed by a witch, the sister witch of his witch. And Flag knew about all this time."
"So the demon lady that was trying to kill you…that was your girlfriend?" Boomerang questions. "Well, mate…er…she's a catch."
Deadshot glares at Boomerang, looking back at Harley. "And to answer your question earlier...yeah I been in love before. I just don't deserve it. Not her love."
"I'm sorry. I feel guilty about the whole." Flag said.
"You kept her away from me." Deadshot accuses him. "You knew about Lena this entire time and didn't tell me. You gave me all that crap about being a murderer with your self-righteousness bullshit."
"I get it. I know." Flag said. "The only woman I've ever love is trapped inside that monster."
"Yeah well so is mines." Deadshot snaps. "Lena is trapped too. How the hell did she get involved with Waller? Why did she?"
"Because of you."
Deadshot stares at him.
"She agreed to do Task Force X for you to see your daughter." Flag pulls out several mailed letters from one of his vest pockets. All of them addressed to Floyd Lawton with the return address from Zoe Lawton. "Your daughter write to you every day. Every single day."
Deadshot looks at the envelopes, his fingers barely grazing over the paper. Flag places a silver locket on top of the envelopes. He recognizes it as Lena's locket. The one he gave her. The one she promised him she'll never take off. The chain of it was broken.
"The witch ripped it off her neck before.."
Flag gets up to leave. Deadshot grabbed him by the vest and spun him around.
"You had these the whole time?" He questions him. "You had letters from my daughter the whole time? You had Lena's locket and didn't tell me?"
Flag only looks down in shame. A part of him wants to finish beating the crap out of him. But what go would that do?
"I'm sorry." He said. "I take full responsibility."
"I'm gonna get you there." Deadshot said. "And we're gonna end this. I'll carry your ass if I have to. Cause this shit is gonna be like a chapter in the Bible. Everybody's gonna know what we did. Lena is going to know I didn't abandon her and that I'm gonna save her. And my daughter is gonna know that her daddy is not a piece of shit."