Five days later
Thursday

It was very dark and it was cold.

The thug aimed his gun at the man, who had just climbed into his car; the man in the car was about to drive off, when he saw the gun that was pointed at his head and put his hands up. The thug started to threaten the man, but was cut short when a very sharp and very shiny blade appeared at his throat.

"Good evening!" A voice growled, almost pleasantly.

The thug slowly turned his head, to his right and followed the shiny blade, to the purple hilt that was held by the black and purple armoured gauntlet. He continued to follow the slim, armoured, arm before finding the masked face that gazed at him with sheer malice.

"This is my neighbourhood, cunt and you and your kind, are not welcome! It is against my better judgement, but I am going to let you live... So that you can spread the word about this neighbourhood!" The monstrous form growled vehemently.

Then far more menacingly: "It... Is... Protected!"

The thug dropped the gun and ran, while the man in the car nodded his thanks and rapidly drove off.

..._...

"You enjoyed that, didn't you!" I stated, with a chuckle.

"Just wanted to check that I could still instil fear!" Hit Girl replied, with a smile and walked back down the sidewalk, towards me.

There was general applause from nearby doorways and Hit Girl bowed to the crowd, as she stowed her Katana. She was lapping it all up! Marty had let us know that the neighbourhood, where his apartment was located, had been having a few problems with some rather unsavoury people. Mindy immediately jumped at the chance to perform some form of Community Service, especially as this was where her apartment block was located anyway!

Next, we patrolled the neighbourhood; I let Hit Girl take the lead, as she seemed to be enjoying herself and it felt good to be dealing with street-level thugs instead of the Russian Mafia! The next target was a drug dealer; Hit Girl's favourite form of scum!

I had to give the dealer credit; the moment he saw Hit Girl, he ran and left everything behind! Mindy had, somewhat reluctantly, agreed not to kill anybody tonight: as long as they all complied with her requests to leave the neighbourhood of course!

It seemed that Hit Girl's reputation as a bad-ass, had preceded her!

We continued to checkout the alleys and streets, looking for people who were up to no good and depressingly, it didn't take long!

"What the fuck are you doing?" I growled and picked up the hooded miscreant, who was trying in vain to break into a car, by the scruff of their neck.

"Oh crap!" The kid groaned and hung motionless.

I was a bit shocked at the voice and the language and almost dropped the kid. I shoved the hood back and saw that it was a young girl, a very young girl.

"How old are you?" I growled.

"Ten, bitch!" The girl replied, grudgingly.

I heard Kick-Ass laughing!

"Talk about deja-vu!" Kick-Ass commented.

"You can fuck right off!" I retorted angrily, as I understood what he meant. "She is not me!"

"Short, female, foul-mouthed... Should I go on?" Kick-Ass chuckled. "I have more, much more!"

I ignored the asshole!

"Look kid. This is my neighbourhood and I am not having any trouble in my neighbourhood!" I growled. "You got that?"

"Yeah, I damn well got that!" The girl replied, exaggerating the last two words.

I dropped the girl tot he sidewalk and she ran off. I turned to Kick-Ass and could almost see the dorky grin beneath his mask!

"Not one fucking word!"

Mercifully, the rest of the evening was uneventful.

It seemed that Hit Girl's message had spread like wild fire and it seemed that anybody who so much as thought about breaking the law, wisely came up with something else to do with their time, this evening!

I spent the walk back to the motorcycles winding up Hit Girl and at one stage was very grateful to be wearing full body armour, as I could almost see the steam rising from Hit Girl as she got angrier and angrier! Finally she just swung her armoured gauntlet into my stomach and winded me; it could have been worse, much worse!

The following morning
Friday, West Ridge

There was a knock on the door.

Strange, it was only eight in the morning, I thought. I was alone in the house, as Dave had gone out to see Marty. I answered the door and got a bit of a shock!

"Josh!" I exclaimed. "You should be at school!"

Something didn't seem right, Josh looked very uncomfortable and didn't answer; he just stood there.

"Come in!" I said. "Were you looking for Dave?"

"No, I wanted to talk to you," Josh said and looked even more uncomfortable.

We both sat down in the living room.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to talk to Dave; I think I feel more comfortable talking with you," Josh explained.

Oh Shit!

This is something that I am not good at! Ask me to do something easy, like killing a man with a Big Mac and I wouldn't bat an eyelid; but ask me to cope with upset teenagers and I'm completely lost and haven't a fucking clue.

"I had a bad night last night. Jack and Natalie don't know and I don't want them to know, either," Josh said pointedly.

"Okay, tell me about it," I said.

"I had a very nasty nightmare, involving my father and how he died... It really shook me up..." Josh faltered and it was now my turn to feel really uncomfortable, as Josh started to cry and I mean Niagara bloody Falls! It occurred to me that Josh had probably never actually talked to anybody about his father's death. It also occurred to me that we must be close to the first anniversary of his father's death and also of Josh, himself, going into the coma. I knew for a fact, that the first anniversary of my Daddy's death did not go well! Admittedly my way of coping involved blood and lots of it!

Sophia came in, wondering what all the commotion was and cuddled in next to Josh. For now, I just held Josh and let him cry; just like Dave did with me.

..._...

About an hour later, Josh and I were drinking coffee and talking in the kitchen. I had sent a discrete text to Dave, suggesting that he stay away from the house for now.

I had let Josh cry and talk about his Dad; I asked him questions about his Dad and Josh was happy to answer them. I learnt a lot of things that I never knew! For example, Josh's Dad was an ex-Royal Marines Commando, which meant that he had been a member of what was, arguably, one of the top fighting organisations, in the world. The Royal Marines Commando were elite troops, but Josh's Dad had passed selection for the next step up! The next step up was the Special Boat Service or SBS. These troops were very secretive and were often the first ashore during an amphibious assault. Those troops were seriously scary, even to me; those guys would have eaten Mother Russia as a starter, in five seconds flat!

This was where Josh had learnt most of his skills, including the preference for his Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knives. I told Josh that he could always come and talk to me, no matter what. I also told him that things would be difficult, as he got closer to the anniversary, but that I would do my best to help him. He apologised for going all wimpy and crying; he was a little embarrassed too! I told him that it didn't matter and that shit happens, we lead a difficult life, both mentally, physically and emotionally; we needed each other for support.

"You gonna head to school, then?" I asked, finally.

"I should do... Yeah, I will," Josh replied. "Thanks Mindy!"

"I'll call Jack and tell him that your're staying here tonight, okay?"

"Okay! I think breaking into your safehouse was the best thing I've ever done!" Josh replied and smiled for the first time that morning.

"I could disagree, considering I don't actually have that safehouse any more!" I growled and Josh grabbed his bag and left laughing.

..._...

Now I had cheered Josh up and he had gone to school, I sent a text to Dave to tell him that he could come home. I then called Jack and mentioned that Josh would be staying with us tonight, but said nothing else about what had actually happened.

It was actually good to talk with Josh; up until now I had never really had the chance for a one-on-one chat. He's actually a good lad to chat with and I felt pleased that he had felt able to talk with me about such a personal thing, as his Dad's death.

When Dave got back, I explained what had happened. I had asked Josh if it was all right for me to tell Dave and he said that it would be fine, but nobody else and definitely not Chloe. I respected Josh enough, not to go against his wishes, even if I did disagree with them.