That evening
Friday
Safehouse A

The boy and his sister were now being guarded by Hawk, Jackal and Kick-Ass. Hawk and Jackal had cleared out their apartment and were now holding them in one of D'Amicos SUVs, until I was ready for them. I had driven Beast back to the safehouse, with the soon to be ex-Shadow.

"Chloe, get into the armoury and strip out of that armour, then come back here," I said quietly.

I think I was unnerving Chloe, as I hadn't said a single word to her on the way back to the safehouse in Beast. I had completely ignored everything that she had tried to say to me, including her attempts at excuses. I had noticed the scared look on her face as she disappeared into the armoury. While she got out of the combat suit, I called Dr Bennett.

"Chloe is safe," I said calmly. "I have her at Safehouse A."

"Thank God! Thank you Mindy! Is she okay?"

"She's okay... For the moment," I replied darkly. "She went out on her own; that I cannot forgive!"

"Oh! I see," Dr Bennett said, as she caught on.

"Her days as a vigilante may be well and truly over," I said.

..._...

Chloe reappeared from the armoury; she wore just t-shirt and shorts.

"You let me down, Chloe! You let us all down!" I said quietly. "I have no tolerance for somebody who puts their entire team at risk and doesn't think, before going into action. I no longer want you here; it's a shame because you had a lot of potential!"

Chloe didn't reply or even cry, as I had expected her to. I was expecting her to beg for forgiveness, but she just looked at me, with eyes that begged for forgiveness.

"It's over Chloe... However, those two have seen your face! I may have need of you, later. Go get some proper clothes on and wait upstairs," I said coldly and felt very sad.

I was still really pissed off!

Something in the back of my mind told me that I had been too hard on Chloe, but my Hit Girl side said that I hadn't been hard enough! Dave was, understandably, annoyed when he got back and found out that I had kicked Chloe out, but he had decided not to argue about it, at least not right now. That just meant I would get an ear full tonight!

Hawk, Jackal and Kick-Ass deposited the two kids on the mat. They sat cross-legged and neither offered any resistance; I could sense their fear.

"Can you two hear me?" I growled, ominously.

"Yes!" Both replied.

"Names!"

"Cameron King."

"Natasha King."

"Okay! Why did you take Shadow hostage?"

"We didn't know it was her; she scared us. She was black as the night, we thought... We were scared. My sister smacked her with a large piece of metal," Cameron explained fearfully. The British accent. These two were so out of their depth!

"We're really sorry..." Natasha started.

"I don't give a fucking crap about how sorry you are!" I growled loudly and both kids screamed.

I looked at Kick-Ass and he shook his head slowly. We've already got one British nut; why not two more! I went behind Natasha and untied her blindfold, then released her hands and helped her to her feet. I nodded at Kick-Ass to do the same for the boy. Natasha looked up at me, gratefully and smiled. Fuck! I'm starting to feel fucking guilty now!

"I won't hurt you, I promise," I said. "Unless, of course, you tell anybody anything about Shadow or us!"

The boy blinked in the bright lights and nodded acceptance, as did the girl.

"You two hungry?" I asked and smiled. I had noticed the meagre attempts at food, the two had had at their apartment.

"Yeah! We had money, but our ATM cards stopped working some weeks ago. We ran out of cash," Cameron explained dejectedly, as I led them both upstairs to the kitchen. I microwaved a couple of crappy frozen meals, but the two kids wolfed them down.

"Tell us about yourselves," I suggested. "You're obviously British!"

Natasha explained that they were brother and sister, which we had kinda worked out, but also fraternal twins and that they had grown up in London, England. They were now orphans and had remained in the United States, as wards of the state. Their father had died of natural causes while they were in the US. There were no remaining relatives in the UK, so they had been allowed to remain until something was arranged for them at home. That had been almost five months ago, they seemed to have been almost forgotten. They had absconded from foster care, while in Seattle and made their way east, towards home in the UK. Their father had left them plenty of money, unfortunately their funds had been frozen, after they had been on the run for less than a week. They were both only sixteen.

I had a feeling that there was more to the story, but didn't push.

"So you want to get back to the UK?" Kick-Ass asked.

"We did, but ultimately we can't now; we have no money and our passports will be blocked! If we hand ourselves in, we get ourselves stuck back into foster care!" Cameron replied.

"You two trustworthy?" I asked.

"We try!" Natasha replied, with a guilty smile. A genuinely honest answer and the same that I would have given!

"You know the drill; you speak to anyone, we kill you! But I want to trust you. Can I?" I asked seriously.

"Yes you can, Hit Girl!" Cameron replied and Natasha nodded.

"Look, I can put you both up in an apartment, for now. But you must stay there and not go out, you understand? I need time to think about what to do with you," I said. "Plus you both really need a shower!"

The two kids looked excited and a little embarrassed.

That evening
South Cottage Grove

We waited till well after dark and then I took the two kids, with Kick-Ass, to the safehouse at South Cottage Grove and stuck them in apartment 301.

"Now, behave! No wild parties! No trashing the place! I'll send somebody around later with some food and your kit, okay! Don't open the door to anybody. Our guy will have a key and will say he's from Fusion," I said and left the two kids to settle in.

..._...

An hour later I returned to apartment 301, but this time with Chloe.

When I had gone upstairs, at the safehouse, I had found Chloe sitting on her bed and it was obvious that she had been crying. Dave had warned me to be hard, but not too hard, on her. We all owed her our lives, in one way or another and especially me. But for now, I needed Chloe to drop some items off, to Cameron and Natasha.

Apartment 301

I used a key to enter the apartment and was met by two scared faces.

"It's okay!" I said and smiled. The two kids promptly relaxed, as soon as they recognised me and I dumped their packs and some bags onto the kitchen table.

"Food in those two bags, plus your own stuff from that shit apartment!" I explained.

Both kids had taken showers and were now wrapped in towels. Cameron looked quite muscular; I looked away quickly!

"Get something to eat and get some sleep and we'll probably see you both in a day or two. Anything else you need?" I asked.

"No. Thank you very much and thank Hit Girl and Kick-Ass for us," Natasha said and she looked very grateful. "We're really sorry we hurt you!"

"Don't sweat it!" I replied. "Night!"