The next day...
Saturday, May 24th, 2014
The week of hell was finally over.
A lot of bad things had happened, and a lot of good people had died.
But a lot of bad people died, too, and that had included one who had very much deserved to die, so much, much, more, than the rest.
Finally, Chris D'Amico was no more.
Even better, Mindy thought, both she and Dave had put him out of his misery. Mindy had got revenge for his shooting her three times in the chest and Dave had implemented the coup de grâce with a brilliant choice of words. Shame Chris had not been fully aware of the true significance, of those words, she thought.
On top of that Chris had left them a small gift.
It seemed that Chris and his watchdogs had just left their vehicle and Dave had found the keys when he had searched the pocket of one of the watchdogs. They had continued around the warehouse and found a parked SUV. So, they had seized it as loot; well Chris wasn't going to need it anymore as he had kinda lost his head.
The SUV was a beauty; it was another Land Rover product; a brand-new Range Rover, in black. Even better it was armoured. Thank you, Chris D'Amico!
It was now time to recover and move on.
The Safehouse
Mindy awoke to a knocking on the door of our bedroom.
"Mindy, Dave!"
It was Chloe.
Mindy looked at the clock. It was half past seven, in the fucking morning!
"Shadow, do you really want to die!" Mindy yelled.
"Never gonna happen!" Chloe responded as she grinned at Mindy from the open door. "I just thought I should knock in case you two were 'busy'."
"'Busy'? You mean Dave might be fucking me?" Mindy asked, with an evil smirk.
Chloe blushed.
"Sorry, Chloe. Couldn't resist fuckin' with ya!" Mindy laughed.
"You really are an evil bitch, Mindy," Dave commented from beside Mindy.
"So, what happened? It's all over the news: Chris D'Amico is dead! Apparently, they found the body early this morning...," Chloe explained, then stared directly at Mindy. "They then found the head a little while later."
Mindy felt her face warming up.
"So," she said, quietly. "I got carried away!"
"She severed his head 'just to be sure' and then kicked it, like a fucking soccer ball," Dave elaborated.
"So cool! How do you feel now that Chris is no more?" Chloe asked as she looking at Dave and Mindy.
"Pretty damn good!" Dave replied.
"Almost as good as the first time I had sex with Dave!" Mindy mused without thinking.
Both Chloe and Mindy blushed that time.
"That good was it," Chloe asked, facetiously.
"Oh yeah!" Mindy replied as she giggled and buried her face into Dave's chest, and Dave's face started to burn.
"What is the fucking racket?" Marty demanded, coming into the room. "Oh, hi Chloe!"
"Morning, Marty!"
They all got up and showered, before getting breakfast.
Dave cooked a massive meal, and they sat down and went through the previous day's activities, explaining everything to Chloe. She was quite shocked about Marty almost getting killed, along with Hawk. But Chloe did point out, that without Hawk, they might never have been in a position to kill Chris.
Mindy had to agree with her logic. They owed Hawk and more than a little. But they still had their reservations about her as she seemed very good at getting herself into shit.
Anyway, they decided that they needed a rest; time to recover, as their bodies were exhausted after seven straight days of activity. Not to mention that Mindy had a hole in her left arm, and she had been involved in a motorcycle crash. That was the most depressing bit about the entire episode; her Ducati was wrecked.
"Oh, I almost forgot to ask! Why the fuck is there a big black, rather cool looking, SUV parked downstairs?" Chloe exclaimed.
"You saw that did you?" Dave replied with a smirk.
"I'm not fucking blind!" Chloe responded.
"Wow, young Chloe has developed a really foul mouth," Mindy commented.
"Little rich coming from you," Marty responded, delicately.
Mindy scowled at Marty, then smiled.
"Okay, I'm not the best person to complain about profanity," she responded as she smirked at Chloe.
"The SUV was a gift..., from Chris D'Amico," Dave explained. "Well, he didn't exactly need it anymore."
"I hope it's not gonna have another lame name, like 'Speedy'," Chloe groaned.
"Yes, that name was lame," Dave said. "I actually thought of calling it 'The Beast'."
"Why not just 'Beast'?" Chloe suggested.
They all agreed on 'Beast'.
Marty would transfer the 'FUSION' plates to the new vehicle and fit the relevant communications equipment.
Abby turned up later that morning, and after going loopy over Beast and hearing about the past events, she got to work with Marty, checking out the new SUV.
They were both very impressed, from the geek point of view. The armour was to Level IV and would stop 7.62-millimetre rounds. There was also a good set of run-flat tyres and Chris had thoughtfully left a small armoury in the trunk.
Chloe went out to see Kyle, while Dave and Mindy went out to get some fresh air, without having to worry about being attacked by an archer.
Dave suggested going via his work, so we drove over to Plainfield.
..._...
"Hi Dave," Roger said.
"Hi, Roger. This is my partner, Mindy. Mindy, this is Roger, my boss!" Dave said.
"Hi, Roger," Mindy offered with a smile.
"Wow!" Roger commented. "You never told me how hot Mindy was."
Mindy felt herself blushing.
"Ignore him, Mindy, he'll chase anything with tits," Dave advised with a laugh.
"I know; Mindy's off limits," Roger said, somewhat dejectedly as he wandered off.
"I'll be back in a minute..., go drool over some guns," Dave teased.
Mindy glared at him, but she had to admit, though, that there was a damned nice selection there and she did kinda enjoy checking guns out.
She was checking out a good selection of Smith & Wesson pistols, when she heard her name.
..._...
"Mindy, how are ya? I thought I saw Dave."
Mindy turned around to find Kim.
"Hi, Kim, I'm doing fine, you?"
"A bit shattered; been a hard week." Kim said.
"Tell me about it!" Mindy commented. "It's been 'The Week of Hell'."
"Want a coffee?" Kim asked. "I'm just about due for a break."
"Why not?" Mindy replied as she could not think of a good excuse to decline and she really could do with a drink.
..._...
They sat and chatted for about half an hour, before Dave reappeared.
"You two seem to be enjoying yourselves," Dave commented. "Should I be worried?"
"Maybe," Mindy replied with a grin.
"Okay," Dave said, slowly.
"We should have Kim over for a meal," Mindy suggested.
"Don't see why not," Dave replied.
"How about Monday evening?" Mindy suggested.
"Don't see a problem with that," Kim replied.
"We'll see you then and I'll text you the address," Dave said.
The following morning...
Sunday, May 25th
West Ridge
Dave woke up late, to find that Mindy had got up already.
He showered and dressed, before he headed downstairs, but as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he heard giggling, a lot of giggling! He looked over into the living room and saw Chloe and Mindy rolling around the couch, very nearly pissing themselves with laughter.
"What are you two watching?" he inquired.
It was a minute before Chloe could talk.
"Family Guy; they're showing it all day!" Chloe managed before she disintegrated into laughter.
"Fuck this!" Dave decided.
He enjoyed Family Guy, just as much as the next guy, but he could not listen to those two giggling all day so I headed out to the garage; he would get breakfast out – the fucking laughter was getting louder.
"Can I join you?" Marty asked desperately as he appeared in the garage.
"Please do!"
..._...
After breakfast, Marty and Dave went out to have a look at the apartment blocks that Mindy was interested in buying.
The two apartment blocks were very different.
The first apartment block was just under five miles east of the centre of Chicago. It had seventeen units that were a mixture of one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units. It was also close to the Pink Line. The area was not the best, but it was relatively safe and of course they could make it much safer. Marty was interested in having an apartment there, due to its proximity to the university.
The second apartment block was about nine miles south of the centre of Chicago and about four miles to the east of the safehouse. It was a lot larger than the first apartment block, with twenty-five units, which were a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Currently, the entire block was empty, but they expected that to change, easily enough. The block was on a nice leafy, tree-lined street, in a nicer part of Chicago and near to the Red Line. They intended to convert one or two of the units into a second, and maybe a third, safehouse.
Mindy had made offers and they were awaiting a response, which they had been advised could take another few weeks. Marty had found a reputable agent who could handle the apartments and tenants for us.
Marty had thoroughly checked out the properties, to make sure that there would be no surprises.
..._...
By the time Dave and Marty got back home, it was almost four in the afternoon.
They parked in the garage and went into the house. Not surprisingly, the two girls were still giggling and laughing away, in the living room. Dave noticed that Sophia was asleep on the couch on the lower floor; she must have had enough of all the giggling. Marty went up to his room and Dave joined Sophia to train.
He had been training for about twenty minutes when Marty appeared and asked to join in. That was a bit of a surprise, but Mindy had hinted the other day about Marty wanting to join in more with Fusion, when we were out and about. It had occurred to Dave that they did have Abby to provide technical support, which would free up Marty to come out with them. Admittedly, both Abby and Marty would need trained to bring them up to scratch.
Marty was training Abby in everything she would need to know about the technical side of Fusion. Marty would need a lot of physical training before he could go out as a vigilante. Yes, he had been out before, but nothing major, and the warehouse the previous year, well that had just been a total free for all. Marty had managed very well the other day when he had come out to help at Chris' headquarters. He had managed to kill some watchdogs that day, too, and he had seemed to enjoy it.
Dave had to admit, though, that he had spent almost his entire life with Marty and his friend had always been a little overweight. He could not quite imagine him being fit enough to fight the way Mindy and he did. However, Mindy had turned Dave around and that had been no small task. He also could not quite imagine Marty using Taekwondo either. Maybe he would be a weapons guy, more than a martial arts guy, Dave considered.
Dave suggested a few warmup movements for Marty to start with, then went back to his own training. Forty minutes later Marty was dripping sweat and he looked completely exhausted. Dave smiled; Marty was really putting a lot into this.
He was obviously serious.
The next day...
Monday, May 26th
West Ridge
They made preparations for dinner that evening.
Dave had acquired a large ham, and Mindy was going to cook it with Dave's help. Marty was going to be out with some new friends of his, so it would just be the three of them. Preparing the food was a bit of a nightmare, but they got it done and of course, Mindy was very good with knives.
Kim was expected to arrive about six that evening.
Once the food was safely cooking, Mindy went to get changed while Dave got things ready in the dining room.
..._...
Kim arrived on time, at six.
Dave invited her in, and they sat down in the living room while they waited for the food to finish cooking. Strangely, Sophia seemed to be okay with Kim; usually, Sophia was a little wary of strangers. It was as if Sophia already knew Kim, which was impossible. They chatted for about twenty minutes before the food was ready.
Dave served the food and the three friends sat at the table in the dining room and started eating.
"Kim, tell us about yourself. What did you do before you started at the gun store?" Mindy asked.
"Well, I originally spent time as a flight attendant, with Delta, and got to see the world; well bits of it anyway!" Kim replied.
"Anywhere nice?" Dave asked.
"London was good and I enjoyed the longer trips to Tokyo, but they were very tiring. The best was probably to Australia; I liked Melbourne," Kim explained.
"What did you do after that?" Mindy asked.
"I joined the Chicago PD," Kim replied.
Dave and I exchanged a glance at that comment.
"I spent some time at District twenty-one, after the academy. I enjoyed pounding the streets; had a few close calls and then I finally got injured a few months ago and decided it was time to leave and move on," Kim replied.
"How were you injured?" Dave asked.
"I got shot in the leg; it took a while to heal, but I decided enough was enough. Now, though, I miss the excitement of chasing bad guys and feeling good when I put somebody away, or help somebody out," Kim explained.
"Must be nice," Mindy commented, trying to keep a straight face.
"What is it you do, Mindy?" Kim asked.
"I spend my time providing training for people in Taekwondo, Aikido, and also general fitness," she replied.
"That would explain why you and Dave look so trim," Kim commented, eyeing up Dave.
Mindy saw Dave smirk at her..., 'Ass!' she thought.
The rest of the evening went well, and they all enjoyed the meal.
Afterwards, they had coffee in the living room, and Mindy was sure that Kim was trying to come onto Dave.
Mindy and Dave decided that they wanted to have a Fusion celebration.
The intention was to have a night out; just the four of them. Mindy called Chloe and advised her that we would pick her up at seven in the evening, on Friday, and she should dress smartly. Mindy said she would have a surprise for Dave but would not tell him what she would be wearing, but she insisted that both Marty and Dave wore a suit.
Dave had told Mindy about Marty training on Sunday, and she had told Dave about what Marty had said the previous week. They talked about him joining the operators, the fighting side of Fusion. Dave believed that he could be an asset, but only once he was physically fit of course. Marty joined them daily, when they trained and Mindy had set out a training schedule for him, to gradually increase his fitness and they said that they would allow him a few weeks before they took him out jogging. He also joined them each day when they walked Sophia.
Mindy's wound was healing nicely, but she still needed a lot more time before it healed completely. Dave also knew that it was hurting Mindy a lot more than she would admit, but that was just typical Mindy. Mindy had become more determined to improve her blade skills and had spent many hours with either a katana or her tanto. Dave had also noticed a change in her, since she had killed Chris; she seemed happier, a lot happier. Chris D'Amico as Red Mist was a stain on Hit Girl; a failure for Hit Girl. Now he had helped remove that stain and erase that failure. He also felt that we were now closer, much closer than ever before.
The one thing that concerned Mindy the most, though, over and above the injury, was the loss of her pride and joy, the purple Ducati Panigale. Dave knew that she missed the machine, more than anything else; it had been a part of her.
Mindy had not spoken about the Ducati at all since the night it was wrecked, but Dave knew she missed it hugely.
Updated: May 2024