Alpha, Beta But Never an Omega
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Chapter 23: False Alarms in the Building
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Slade was sorely disappointed during the physical.
"Just a minor infection. Did he have any food intolerance or allergies listed?"
One. Alcohol.
Dick groaned as he was handed the dull looking bottle of antibiotics. "I'm going to turn into a health nut like you at this rate. If I ever go to another gala –
"Calm down. You just drank yourself silly, nothing more than that."
"I was…" Dick thought it was his new heat, so had Slade. "The doctor prescribed a better suppression drug also; can't have you pebbling in March if you make it to the capital building as said OMEGA."
"You…I told you." Dick scratched his head as he picked up his cell to find a dozen messages on it. "How long was I sick for?"
"About four and a half days. You'll be returning to work tomorrow, free as a…" Slade cut that part out, knowing it was only partly true. The fact his heat had been a false stir up was infuriating at best. An infection was only natural.
Lubricant didn't come from the anus, only mucus. ( I have a leaky gut post op thing that hates fodmaps and crunchy things. Otherwise, same pseudo sibo until I eat greens and herbs and bone broth or yogurt to counter it in a few days. It's a half sibo because it clears quickly. Noted, it should NOT be treated with antibiotics but this doctor is typical just take this drug, doc. Sorry all you patriots. I am fir the matriarchy here. The USA blows with our message and I'm for non for profit myself. Useless system intended for profit to drive more illness up for that fact. Fun fact, anyone you see in congress? Not a clean bill of health. Very upsetting but typical of its history with food and safety measures. I lost my gallbladder from undereating, mind you. Ate too healthy and it basically sat there. I think bad chicken set it off and heat exhaustion due to hyperthyroidism in our old apartment. That thing was meant for demolition derby.)
"Ah, did we…have anyone else check up on me? I bet these messages are prime to read about now."
"Go ahead." Slade shrugged and went to see to his own tasks in the kitchen. "I'll prep you a lunch for tomorrow if you do decide to quit being a shut in –
"Shut it, please." Dick drawled, clicking a few taps onto his smart screen before the voicemail required a password to get in. He did his best to read Slade's lips as he really was in a better mood than last week. He, thought?
~ You have….seventeen; unread messages. First message –
Whoa…
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~ This is Officer Liu…Ryan? I got this from Ted in the main offices, he said you were out with a bug. Everyone else has high hopes for your recovery and I swear it wasn't the potluck! Teddy and Baron said hello, and Rodriguez said she stopped by. Had no idea you were staying with family. Would love to get to know you better, when you're better.~
~ End of message. Next unread message…~
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~ If you are going back to finish your degree this term, please press star- nine now to speak to ~
~ Message deleted. Next unread message.~
~ Fellow Havenites. ( Important!) I'm asking for your help to allow a new police reform in Blud –
~ Message deleted. Next unread message…~
~ Mr. Ryan O'Hara! You've just won the chance to be selected-
~ Message deleted. Next unread message. ~
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~Hey…it's…..Rodriguez,here. Listen. I wanna talk to you about the man who's looking out for you. Give me a call, something isn't sitting right ...I'm sorry you're recovering but this may be urgent. We just busted open the Blockbuster case abd a drug rung was going to get that raid this weekend. Hope you're not too wobbly to do a gal a solid and stand by, Hermano. We all miss you, be safe. See ya soon.~
"She is a problem, Dick."
"She's also a way in. She may even know what I don't as a senior officer. I have to get –
"Into the same trouble as Red X?"
"No." Ryan frowned at the merc. "As Ryan, as the man she can trust. If this Blockbuster case has me looped into it, I'm set. Don't y –
Slade got up from the bar chair he'd installed in the kitchenette. "No. You don't get it either, Dick. While you were playing your games, I did some intel of my own via our new friend."
"Friend?"
Dick turned to the window as if Slade had meant…wait, they had two visits??
"WHO?" He jumped down the older man's throat. "Who is our mole on the inside, are they even one?"
"Even better." Slade smugly smirked and went to the stove where the poor man's soup was going along just fine. "You'll be going to work, and she'll see you on one of your outings as Nightwing. By then, you may just tolerate her a bit more than you have been."
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Rodriguez went by her cell and pieces of that moment came to her, again and again. She couldn't stay put, so she went out after clocking; door shut and her keys jingling off her belt. It was the worst place for them, yet she trusted her high instinct for danger. She'd found this city after the academy. Her aunt had a reputation in Steel, so it was easy to get the grade and make her Papi proud. Her own brother though was the real reason She'd taken the job here. He was missing for months and she had a hunch it was something he'd run into as a poster boy omega with a drug addiction on those streets.
Trafficked was the word…her little brother just out of high school, Emanuel. He was in over his head. Gangs, all of those things she'd been warned about in her high school, but not his. He didn't stay to tell his parents about the changes. The bullying. The addiction to things they said to stray from as an Omega.
This was her chance to keep looking, no matter how long it took. That was why, when they let that sassy ex- FBI woman in with her heels and a way back to the clubs where cops weren't allowed, Rodriguez did the only one thing she could.
She'd asked for help. Catalina was from these streets and she'd come back after being discharged from her service in the FBI at twenty five, it was a stretch of time that Miss. Flores didn't like. How the woman eyed their new member Ryan so often. Like he was an omega, and not something else. Not a person, Rodriguez had sniffed out.
She smelled his confidence, yet nothing more. As a beta herself, it made sense that the alpha Flores would get hot and bothered and see their new boy as a piece of hard candy. After all, alphas and ruts were why some days even Commissioner Valentine needed her space or time off from work.
But, Flores and that….man with the eye patch…something smelled foul as she got into her car and sat down. Huffing into her hands, it was pretty cold as she warmed up the car with the defroster. "I don't like it, but…he's going to be back. I know so." She told herself with her breath in puffs of white from the cold.
"I know so…"
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Catalina's feet moved to the door if a seedy, run-down post she called her pad. It wasn't to be cozy, it was to cover her tracks from an old boss.
She made sure to put her eyes on the door even as the lights flickered above, not barely enough to see. She managed, clocking it shut before the light to her tiny apartment kitchen went on with a "tap."
"Ah…!"
"Sit down, Cat."
She didn't have to move so quick. He'd gotten her name, her face. Even sending a damned spy in on her.
Hwang.
"Eddie, any news?" She sheepishly walked around the issue; her dues.
"A lot, and you missed the deadline-
"I didn't…" She stopped herself. The Asian American make sat with his eyes on the woman who had nearly double crossed Deathstroke. She was also reading of that other alpha.
"I smelled it, he's here. In this city?"
"I don't know. A…he isn't here I guess to be a threat."
"He's a walking time bomb." Eddie sighed and rolled his eyes. "Cat…That guy AND the bat are local. We all know, but you could be the first."
"They don't want a fight, I just said. Batman is out of sight, out of flipping mind." She told her ex-partner. "How is your little mole?" Cat asked as she went to get comfortable at the same table. "Burrowing just as deep after my catch?"
"That Ryan kid is a pick, but he's got a weird scent, you said."
"Beta – omega hybrid. A fucking prime. I want to know why he's even allowed on the force, why Wilson is picking a scrawny brat up to toss him into the line of duty like that at all. He obviously wants something, otherwise, why bother?"
"Why now, the question is." Eddie pursed his lips and thought, leaning into his fist as he tried to act smarter than her.
"You think they…"
She stopped. "Does Block - head know?"
"Nope." Hwang shook his head. "And no one needs to know. It's our con, your revenge. You get the hero, and we get the crap that BB stole so we can get some payback in a big fat check from his meaty fingers…ugh... If you want, you can always join us?"
"Block - head has me on a bit of a leash, ya see. And…I'm doing this to put them both out of commission." Politely refused the ex FBI woman.
"Your new fixation? The kid is an –
"Nope." She looked up and leaned over, knowingly giving Eddie a reason to drop his jaw. "No…him??"
"Say nothing." She whispered back. "I'll handle the mobster. Who knows? Maybe, Ryan will propose as my omega – alternative in the near future…" She was interested in finding out, and also getting back at the man that had ruined her first. BB was going way down.
"Desmond had better lock his windows tonight." Cat cracked her knuckles as Eddie leaned back contently to see what she was thinking. "I think, we can make use of them both. How about you?"
"What about Liu and that lazy "cop- posse" of Haven's finest?" Cat raised an eye to the proposal, quickly. "That's in the bag, once I convince Valentine to step out of my way."
"Leave it to my partner to keep them out of the way. Ah, and…if you fall in love by the way, deal's off." Eddie went to the door, letting his warning linger as Cat stood up to spit back at him in his smug face. "It's not love if he's allowed to die! I'm doing this for myself."
"Sure you are, and I'm doing this because of the back payments that Desmond needs to own up to." Snorted Hwang. "Get the hell out of Blud if anything goes wrong. If the bat is looking for one of his leads, I'd rather be in the center of the Bermuda triangle than stick around this stink hole."
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( So, collabs are to be careful here:
Deathstroke,Nightwing and Midnighter
Liu, Catalina and Eddie Hwang
Batman, Jason Todd , Alfred and the bat clan, Midnighter and Apollo
Damian Wayne, Harley Quinn , Cat woman and Poison Ivy , possibly Jason and Midnighter
Tarantula ( Flores), Blockbuster, ?_
This is because I did say that I'd make the backstory more to get into the Nightwing/Catalina trope, however, I don't want to wait so Liu will be the con partner of Hwang who do dirty underworld dealings in Blud and are working with Catalina to get more dirt on the cops to get her revenge against the man that made a mess of her record. She did have a father I put but that's not the whole story. She got out, yet went rogue after she was taken off a homicide case that WAS her father, the fact she pulled a Grayson is why she us working with Desmond to erase him. She's supposed to use Ryan to get the Intel and Nightwing she actively knows that he is the cop in question and a hybrid omega - beta. When Hwang said to her "don't fall in love," that was because he saw right through her desire to be someone else for a change. She is also years older than Dick. While Liu will only be twenty-three and still act as different on a scam as in the office. She's kind and cool but, her real goal is to ruin the police and put dirt on Desmond to pay up. I'm working on that part. Watching a lot of Jentry Chau and I love it!!