After the fires before the flood, my sweet baby, I need fresh blood

[47redbirds]

Mike is a number of things. Secretive, oddly retentive about the chore wheel, Brigg's second-in-command, and smart as a whip. He also trusts Billy. Maybe not implicitly, but he does. It's been a while since Billy's first task, and while he still stays by Mike's side for the most part, the crew's beginning to respect him, too. Not just Johnny--Jakes had made a point to shake his hand after a particularly hairy getaway between him and the Chechens.

Mike starts drinking with Billy after a good run. He's damn good at pool and can hold his beer for someone who looks so straight-laced, even with scruff. Boy-band or not, the only personal thing that wound up causing a stir outside what they do is Mike punching someone in The Drop because they were harassing a girl. For a criminal, he's oddly well put together.

It's one o'clock in the morning when Mike texts him. It's nothing but an address to a motel and a room number, but when Mike texts it's mandatory Billy shows up. Another exercise, maybe. Another deal. The whole Graceland group had been very careful with Mike--most of the stuff he was a part in he either never got to actually see the transaction or it was far too minor. Not all the heat is off of him, it seems, but he's trusted. Mike trusts him enough to send him the text. It's the room to the corner, and it's run down and shitty. When Mike opens the door, it looks like he hasn't slept in days despite the fact that Billy was asked to get him out of bed since Paige wasn't there. He's also smoking, which is both disconcerting and never seen before.

There's something else, though, and it's not just his hair pushed back from his face. The white tank top he's wearing is spattered with red liquid, as is his chin. His hands are covered, even the one holding the cigarette while he exhales and lets the other in. It's blood.

Once Mike closes the door, it's immediately apparent why: there's a girl in the bathtub, the tiles covered as someone stabbed her more than a few times, and on the bed a man. What is probably a man judging from the fact that he's naked--his face has been mangled, it seems, by a rather large number of bullets to the face as well as a champagne bottle.

Mike takes another drag of the cigarette.

"Thanks for meeting me here."

Comments

[heroeswork]

Billy left with Charlie, a little confused. He still had sleep in his eyes and hadn't really had breakfast, and everyone got to the coffee before him. He didn't even have shoes on, not even sandals. So he makes no attempt to hide his confusion at her sudden question.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair, letting out a sigh. "I'd be glad to tell you everything," or whatever it was he could come up with to cover the weirdness, "But you mind if I at least get my shoes first?"

[47redbirds]

"Yeah, fine, hurry up," Charlie waits, and Mike and Briggs have already slunk off somewhere else, breakfast in hand.

Chuck's in Billy's car already, sunglasses on, looking halfway between annoyed and stoic like always. She's in the passenger's seat, bag on her lap, sunglasses perched on her head. When Billy slides in she smiles, though strained, and immediately starts:

"You want to let me in on what happened in the kitchen?" So slight, so hard to pick up on but Chuck got it. She got it right away because she knew Mike so well. Briggs, too.

[heroeswork]

Billy took his time getting dressed. But he didn't go for the full look he usually went for. He flat out didn't have the energy for it. But he at least swapped for a pair of baggy khaki shorts and a dark polo shirt. He slipped on his sandals. But by then, he still didn't have an idea of what he'd tell Charlie about whatever weirdness he was picking up on. He doubted she'd accept them being tired to excuse it. She was too observant for her own good.

By the time he grabbed his keys, he decided to be semi-honest. No details, but a rough sketch. Definitely no mention of Whistler. That would devastate Charlie. But it was still a surprise to be hit with the question the moment he sat down behind the wheel. He looked uncertain for a moment, delaying as he got himself settled.

With a heavy sigh he said, "How much do you know about what happened last night?" They'd obviously been told something, but he didn't know what.

[47redbirds]

"I know Mikey was following the usual order to have two people on a scene before clean-up crew, he chose you, and it was your first, but here's the thing I'm not getting, it's that Briggs and Mikey are hungover."

She motions for the other to go to her destination, a usual place most of them just referred to as Orlando's as another unknown inside nickname.

"It means our boys had a chat. Chats with Mike and Briggs aren't good."

[heroeswork]

Billy gave a slight shrug, following her directions without really thinking. Half the time he didn't know what the places were he drove people to. He followed directions, noted locations, and didn't know what went on inside.

"Oh you'd know a lot more about their chats than I would. Word only came down that my ban on the upper level's been lifted." He glanced toward with a vague smile. "Personally, I retired after we got back. A shower, a bit of a walk, and then I was out like a light. Guess your boys have a vastly different method of decompressing than me."

[47redbirds]

Charlie gives the other a hard look, but the annoyance is gone. Instead, it's replaced by a complete and utter blunt stare of 'I know, dipshit,' and she leans back in the car.

"Whatever you said shook Mike enough that he actually had a heart-to-heart with Briggs. I just want to know my boys are alright," She says curtly, "Just want to make sure he's that affected by something good. Your act was great this morning but Mike looked like you'd shot him in the gut, so I figure something's up. You wanna fill me in?"

[heroeswork]

Billy's shoulders sagged. He'd thought he could slip out from under Charlie's scrutiny with some vague words and trying to act like it was no big deal. Because his charm never worked on her. But she was too good. And Mike couldn't put on a mask over this. That worried him. In a way he didn't quite understand. In a way that somewhat scared him.

The truth. He'd decided on the truth.

"One thing I've not told anyone is I've got this issue with blood. My only phobia. And what Mike called me for, well, I'm sure you know. It wasn't pretty. And Mike, he was scary. On a level I'd never seen before. After, he seemed pretty shaken that he forced me into that. As you can imagine, I wasn't in the best shape to console him for it after."

[47redbirds]

Charlie was quiet. Her being quite was a fairly terse thing as she mulled over what she wanted to say. With Mike, it was easy silences. Ones that normally lead to the bodyguard staring out the window and daydreaming like he was in high school as they drove.

"He's gotta keep that wall up and so do you," She said finally, "If you guys lose your shit we're going to be stabbing ourselves in the foot. You want to know what I think?" No, but Charlie's going to say it anyway:

"It's Briggs. He pushes and pushes and is so freaking goal oriented I could just kick him in the goddamn balls. This shit happens because Briggs doesn't give a shit if people are ready, he insists on his goddamn rules."

Not Briggs. Mike. But Charlie doesn't even let up: "Billy, you ever see Mikey like that you snap him out of it or so help me God, but you're the only other sane person here and we need that. Desperately. I thought it was just going to be me all my life."

They're already pretty close to Orlando's, and Charlie seems to already be getting ready.

[heroeswork]

That was in no way what Billy was expecting to hear. He'd felt like he would be alone in figuring this out. In dealing with Mike. That if Mike had this scary side, it was something that was just a truth he needed to deal with. That it was his core rather than a shield.

He looked to Charlie, obviously confused. "I honestly tried," he admitted. "Best I could, at least. You've not seen me around blood. But he only got worse, and I was honestly frightened he'd pull a gun on me if I didn't just swallow it. What could I possibly do to shake him out of it?"

[47redbirds]

"I don't know but he sure as hell warmed up to you. If Paige leaves I'm the only girl and if you leave I'm the only common sense, and you can't leave me with Tuturro and Jakes to deal with."

There it was, a small smile. "I'll be a few hours, so you can take chauffeur duty and cram it for today. Seriously." She pauses, reaches over to stroke his cheek with her thumb.

"And you tell anyone I'm being this nice to you I kick you in the balls, Scotty. Especially Johnny." A quick kiss on the cheek, a strangely motherly and particularly New-York-Italian thing to do, and smiles.

"Don't forget to talk to someone, you can't keep secrets bottled in forever, Billy." And with that, she opens the door and heads to her day.

(Hope this is okay. Over ride him going back if you had other plans)

[heroeswork]

Charlie's words sunk in deeper than he'd expected. He thanked her as she scooted out and he promised that he'd talk to someone. He found himself incredibly grateful for her gesture, knowing what such small signs of affection meant from someone like her.

He didn't go back to his team. Nor did he return to the house. Instead, he drove. Aimlessly. Thinking. He shouldn't be so conflicted. This was a job. These were bad people. They were to be taken down from the inside, locked up, people saved. And yet...he felt twisted up inside. Even more than the night before. Now it was his turn to feel guilty. Was there a way he could have pulled Mike out of that strange state? Was it just a shield, like the wall he himself had put up? He kept returning to one simple fact: were these the people who needed to be saved?

And there was that kiss. The one thing that haunted him more than the blood. How had he missed that? How had he been so wrong?

Eventually, he found his way to a coffee shop where he was able to pull his laptop from the trunk and make a report. A straight-forward, clinical assessment of the night's events and the confirmation that he'd finally advanced within the group. He phrased it as having just received the news and had not had time to explore the upper level of the house.

He remained there until he got notice from Charlie to pick her up. He hadn't made good on his promise to talk to someone, but he didn't need to. He didn't bottle these things up. He knew better. He just needed to let them go. But there were a few things he couldn't let go until he spoke to Mike again. So he waited for Charlie, right where he'd dropped her off, anxious to get back home. Hoping Mike would be there.

It's perfect!

[47redbirds]

The house, as it normally is in the middle of the day, is empty. Each member of the group had their specialties, after all--as much as they were a family, they were a well run organization, too. Extremely well run. Most of that was thanks to Mike.

The man in question is in the living room, the TV on and playing some oprah-like daytime talk show. The coffee table had been cleared out, specifically because of the large map of what looks like The city over a map of southern United States and Mexico. There's a few other sheets--what looks like a strangely official police report on Whistler and a few others.

No. Those are real. Mike managed to get a hold of them, somehow. He's got a red marker in his mouth like a cigarette, a green one between his fingers that he's tapping against the table. Glance up once the door opens, but once he sees it's Billy his attention is tersely back to whatever project he's doing.

"Hey."

In the background, the audience member gets a free copy of the guest speakers book. The crowd goes wild.

[heroeswork]

The entire ride back, there one thing that really started to nag at him. It wasn't the blood, it wasn't the kiss, it wasn't even Charlie's words specifically. It was the simple fact that Billy had misread everything. First the fact that Mike had that cold, twisted side, and the fact that Billy had assumed to that to be the "real" Mike. The fact that he had been genuinely terrified of the guy. Billy had faced mobsters and drug kings and all manner of awful and terrifying people. He'd been held captive by the enemy and didn't even know if his team could get there in time. And still he hadn't been afraid. Not like he'd been when Mike asked if he was going to run.

In forcing himself to look at it that way, look at himself, he was able to see it. See that it wasn't just that he was opening up to this strange family. See why it was so very hard to put the lid back on the box he kept his heart in, and why this had all hit him so hard. This had happened once before. Only instead of an ex-Quantico second in command, it had been a Harvard-bound boss's daughter. It wasn't an easy realization to come to or to handle. But now he knew what he was dealing with.

Billy was glad to find Mike alone in the house. He moved into the room, hands in his pockets, taking it all in. The map, the reports, even the TV. But for once, his mind wasn't on the job.

"Hey..." He said, softly.

With Charlie's words ringing in his head, he acted. He moved to the couch and in one move plucked the pen from Mike's lips and sat beside him. His fingers went into the other's hair and pulled him close for the kiss he'd refused last night.

[47redbirds]

He's not sure what he's expecting. Another talk, maybe, but mainly a stilted, forced conversation that ended with Billy either using the TV or heading into his room. He tries to focus on his work, tries to focus on something that's not Billy's presence. It doesn't work.

But Billy sits down and Mike doesn't even want to look at him, for fear he'll ruin whatever's happening. That's when Billy touched him, drew him in.

Mike's eyes widened, but only briefly before they fluttered closed. He immediately leaned forward, not only into the kiss but into Billy, and the marker in his hand was dropped as he shifts. He doesn't want to think about what this means, but his hands start running up Billy's arms and to his shoulders, soft and exploratory.

They shouldn't be doing this.

[heroeswork]

Billy put everything he had into that kiss. All of his skill and experience. His passion, his fear, his regret. For that brief moment, his entire focus was Mike and Mike alone. And in feeling those hands on his arms, feeling Mike lean into him, he was at last able to truly relax. And let everything go.

Slowly, he pulled back. His thumbs caressing Mike's cheeks as he did. He searched the other's eyes, quiet and almost content. He didn't say anything, because for a moment, he didn't know what to say. There were things he knew that should be said, but for just that moment, he couldn't think of what they were.

[47redbirds]

Billy may look content, but Mike was not. He was confused, now, and it showed. For someone who's an alarmingly good liar and incredibly good with tactics, he seems to wear his heart on his sleeve an awful lot. Especially around Billy.

Now he wants this though. Is it because Mike had given him space? No. It was something else--because Billy stated that he was going to be professional and not... This.

That thumb across his cheek, though. Mike looks down at it, reaches up to grab it. Touch. Touch was comforting, something he enjoyed.

"...Thank you," He says eventually, fingers running over the other's knuckles. "Whatever changed your mind, thank you."

[heroeswork]

"Chuck can be very...persuasive," Billy said with a soft smile. "I just needed a different perspective."

His hands slipped down to Mike's shoulders, holding them tight. "And you've no reason to fret. I'm far more resilient than you give me credit for. But should I find you in a state like I did last night in that hotel, I'll not let it stand." He tilted his head forward, looking Mike straight in the eye, his eyebrows raised. "I'm not gonna be afraid of anything you say." A smile brightened his face, before he added, "I can be incredibly stubborn when I need to be."

[47redbirds]

"Charlie knew." Of course Charlie knew, and Mike seemed to need that bit to snap back into reality, to reel himself in. He clears his throat, shifting away. Not out of spite, but rather because he knows they shouldn't be doing this even if he wants to. He still hasn't even apologized for that kiss.

"Have you seen this house? I think we all have issues with stubbornness." Because that's easier than talking about this, talking about his feelings. It wasn't a mistake, and it was reciprocated, but..Now what? Mike still felt guilty for doing that to Billy, even if it was completely necessary and he was in a state. His gaze returns to the map.

"Help me get this guy, Billy. For Charlie."

[heroeswork]

"I will, but first..." Billy reached over to fold the map, so Mike couldn't look at it anymore. "...you're gonna clear your head. You'll just be spinning your wheels if you keep pushing yourself."

He was so accustomed to consoling the frightened and encouraging the uncertain that in seeing Mike's state he'd assumed it was the opposite. That Mike was beyond that. But he saw now that it was no different. That Mike needed that same push, that same comfort.

"Besides." He looked at Mike. "If I've been promoted as it were, doesn't that mean I'm due a tour of the upstairs?" Another smile. He had plans. Obvious plans.

[47redbirds]

Mike immediately protested the moment those hands were over the map. No, he needed to figure it out now. This shit couldn't wait, it was important. It all was. The team before himself, the objective before anything else, and Billy just casually telling him he needs to rest?

Hungover or not (though thankfully gravol and tylenol helped that), Mike still needed to push through this. It was his job, and...

Oh.

Well.

"I'm trying to convince Briggs to give you Lauren's old room," Lauren, who hadn't even been mentioned once, but Mike didn't seem to notice that. He's slamming back the glass of water he has and putting it on the table next to the police file. Rising out of the couch to head upstairs. "So far he's not going for it."

[heroeswork]

Billy just shrugged as he gathered up the map and reports. The last thing they needed was Charlie finding it and wanting to know what Whistler had to do with anything. It also gave him a chance to glance over them. They were the real deal. Mike had contacts, it seemed.

Tucking all of it under his arm, Billy got to his feet, and offered his hand to Mike. "Guess he doesn't trust me all that much," he said casually. "Down here's better, anyway. Closer to the kitchen."

[47redbirds]

"Oh, he trusts you plenty. It's me that didn't. Consider that shit that happened as a shitty form of initiation or something," he says offhandedly. Easier to deal with if it's a joke. Still, he heads upstairs and opens his rooms door.

It's blue. Blue and standard, and alarmingly neat, just like the rest if Mikes personality. No posters, but a picture of him and the gang. Quite a few actually--there's also one with Briggs and they look about 19, sitting on a stoop with a bottle of alcohol, both of them grinning.

There's also a picture of a crime scene, body covered by a sheet. Evidence markers. The photographer caught in a cracked window.

There's quite a lot of books, though. Ornithology, a surprising amount of law books, some crime thrillers. One that was about the Buddhist center of philosophy, no doubt Briggs' gift. DVDs, all of them Oscar winners, most of them drama or thrillers. A guitar. More pictures of Paige and him, mostly. A laptop--the regulars.

"My room, next to Paige and Jakes. Briggs is down the hall. Bathrooms first door on your left."

He lets the door close with a soft click. Staring straight at billy.

[heroeswork]

Billy stepped into the room, looking it over what a rather bland expression. There wasn't much to look at, but he didn't expect anything lavish from someone like Mike. Not much in the way of personal effects. The photo of the crime scene was a draw, though. As he dropped the map and papers somewhere that seemed suitable, he leaned closer to look at it. Rather morbid, even for Mike.

As the door shut, Billy stood up properly, looking to Mike. An eyebrow lifted and he smiled. "So much for the tour?"

[47redbirds]

Mikes brow raises, too, and he almost matches that smile. Not quite as jovial, but certainly mischievous.

"Maybe later," he states. Takes a few steps towards Billy, smile turning into a smirk. This? This he can do. This means Billy's back. Billy's trusting him again. Currently? His shoulders are broad and he's closing the gap between them, hand moving up to touch the side if the other's face, leaning in to kiss him again.

[heroeswork]

Billy returned the kiss, far more gently than before. His hand slid around to Mike's lower back, pulling him closer. His head tilted and he melted against Mike. He was still exhausted, propped up by too much coffee. But it didn't drag so hard against him as it did earlier. Because he'd been wrong. He'd never been so very glad to be wrong. It meant his initial read on Mike hadn't be wrong. It meant there might still be a chance to save Mike from this grizzly lifestyle.

Slowly, he guided Mike toward the bed. Moving and nudging him. It was all for the wholesome goal of getting Mike to lay down. So he could rest. Since it appeared as though he'd slept even less than Billy.