She was going to tie him down and have a long, drawn out discussion about using the thing between his ears for more than just a placeholder for what might have been a thought. Diego ran hot, which in most cases suited her just fine, but when it came to plans and doing things, it ended up being catastrophic. Busting through windows instead of using a door. Attacking first and figuring out shit later. Maybe there was a reason that she'd been selected as his other half. Not that she was necessarily the best in decision making, but she had a cooler thought process. She was patient. Had to be, to sit in the rain on a fire escape for hours to get a single image if needed. She was a hunter. He was a force of nature.
He could be as mad at her as he wanted to be. His wants didn't supersede the way things needed to be done to work. Claire knew the woman herself and had a better idea of how to handle things, how tricky they were. For all that Diego saw marks on her, Claire would know how long they'd been showing up and how badly it affected her. Diego saw a flash of her day, an hour or two at a time. A work colleague who had training in how to spot and report domestic abuse, child abuse, sex trafficking, had a better chance of knowing when to say something and when to wait until they had to be involved. Diego was also just... a man. A man who'd been raised to use actions instead of words, and this was how he looked after people.
All the more reason to truss him up and throw him in a cold shower.
Claire relayed back to Jessica what had happened with Danny, Colleen, and Diego, and Jess figured it was going to be a long night. She didn't bother trying to reach Diego through their bond; all she was getting was vibrations of anger of different flavors, so she went through the sources she knew to find said cop, Officer Jack McKinnon of the illustrious NYPD, figured out his station house, then where he was living and the name of his son. It was easy enough after that to get the school, and then she debated on which course to take. Talk to the dad and give him a one on one, or try to convince someone to leave an abuser.
Sticky. Leaving would be easy if she was the mother, or, easier. With no biological tie to the boy, and that being the reason for her reaching out in the first place, that gave the cop all the power. She didn't have a mask and a growly voice to go jumping bad cops in alleys and scaring the shit out of them into pretending to be decent people, so that left her with Mary. She knew what the woman looked like, and she opted to just go and wait in plain view at the front of the building. If the cop pulled up first, she'd just say she was waiting for a client. If Mary did, then she'd try to have a talk with her.
It was his own fault, leaving his phone at home for no one to contact him on. He didn't have a clue that Claire had given Jessica the same information and tabs on him. Yet it shouldn't surprise Diego after the backlash his friends gave him over going without a device to communicate with. Not that Danny or Colleen didn't find a way to slip a cell phone into a coat pocket and give Jessica the number.
The rain came down like a cold shower but it did little to clear away the fog of anger and frustration from Diego. He yanked the hood of the trench coat over his head, tipping his chin down for shelter from the rain. The tense vigilante ran down into a subway station and used the available maps in an effort to pinpoint the address.
"Why does this city have so many damn streets?" he grumbled to himself. Or so he thought. There was a hearty chuckle behind him. Diego pivoted to find what seemed like a blind man with a walking stick who apparently heard him. "I used to feel the same way about forty years ago when I first came here. If you tell me the place you're looking for, I can probably tell you how to get there."
Diego held a wary scowl. "You know every address in the city?"
"Just about. I was a mail carrier for thirty years. I've spent the last ten getting used to the dark after some damage from the towers falling became more than my eyes could handle anymore. Subways are safer than the streets up top, as far as I'm concerned. So where are you trying to go?"
The older gentleman made sense but Diego's face didn't change. Yet he did spit out the address.
"Take the 6 to 51st then walk to Lexington and 53rd for the E. It'll take you to Hell's Kitchen. That's where the address is you're looking for. A lot of Irish there so you should see a lot of stuff for St Paddy's." With that, the man tipped his head and continued walking.
Diego knew that Mary couldn't be too far from where the school was but hadn't imagined she'd be in the vicinity of where Jessica used to live. "Thanks," he muttered after the blind man who raised his free hand in acknowledgment in a gesture of waiving him off as if the gratitude wasn't necessary. Number Two did like that about New Yorkers.
It took a little over half an hour of travel which seemed too short and too long all at once. He couldn't think of a good plan on how to intervene. Diego couldn't think of a scenario that worked other than to jump in if the asshole tried raising a hand to Mary or Charlie. That was it. That was his whole plan. Spend however many nights camped out until something happened. Number Two sunk into his seat with a shake of his head in frustration.
Before he knew it, Diego was on the street and a few blocks from the building in question. His eyes caught someone standing in front but the rain made details difficult to make out from the distance. There was something familiar but he kept a vigilant eye on all of his surroundings. It took a block of walking to realize that he knew the silhouette. His jaw clenched, opting to turn down a street and find his way to the back of the building instead.
She'd moved so that she was under an overhang when the rain started. Umbrellas were for wusses. She felt something like a twang go through her bond, but she was still a little peeved at the way Diego had handled this morning. And her frustration about it was frustrating her, because his going hot was something that she loved about him. How very much he threw himself into everything. How much he felt and how deeply it ran. But that deep heat also ran through a wellspring of trauma, and Mr. Hargreeves had never taken the time to sort that shit out, either by himself or with someone else. So he reacted in the moment instead of thinking shit through.
It was going to get him killed, and that was the icy thread of panic that kept prodding at her whenever he was out by himself at night. There were too many fucked up enhanced people around, too much alien tech, too much weirdness he didn't have to deal with back in his world, and it just steamrolled through this city like a seasonal thing. He had her memories, but she wondered if he'd thought about the alien invasion. The decimation of the city from it. The fact there was a god of thunder that occasionally came to be a pain in the ass, or the whole alien planet that had relocated to fucking Norway.
She looked up just as a raindrop slithered through the crack of the awning above her and hit with a splat just above her eye. "Motherfucker," she hissed, wiping at it, then continuing to look out at the street.
Was she worried about an abused kid and his stepmom? Of course, but they were lower on her list than her hot-headed mate. So she'd do what she could to fix the situation and then decide if she wanted to deal with Diego tonight or maybe take a night off to let him think about it. To let her think about it. There hadn't been much in the way of space at night between them since he'd crash landed in her life. Maybe her abrasiveness was finally wearing through that haze of the honeymoon stage for him.
She saw a figure coming up from a couple blocks away. Two figures; one tall and anxious and one smaller and vulnerable. Shit. She felt herself tense up, keeping an eye out for the abusive prick while she waited for Mary and Charlie to come along.
As he walked, something vibrated in the front of his raincoat. His already scrunched face in anger furrowed even deeper as he felt for the device. He watched in the distance as Jessica seemed distracted by someone in the opposite direction. It looked like Mary and Charlie. Diego looked to the device that had a text message on it.
"Fucking, Rand." The mutter was quiet while reading the message.
Looks like you made it. Just squeeze both the buttons on the sides and we'll come help if you need us. The guy you're looking for is Jack McKinnon.
Diego silenced the phone and the screen, slipping it into the pocket it had been in. McKinnon. Mary hadn't used the name. He wasn't sure if she kept her maiden name or hid her married one for his class. Thoughts continued to run through his mind but no clear plan came together.
"Mary, get your ass in here and quit talkin' to that degenerate!"
The voice got his attention and Diego quickly headed back toward the front of the building. Jessica might have been called worse but he didn't like hearing it.
"Buzz off, Lady! You don't wanna make Jack mad! My brother's a cop and he'll throw your ass in jail! Damn it, Mary! Didn't that social worker showing up teach you enough of a lesson? Don't tell me this is another one! That's it, I'm calling Jack!"
Mary shook her head profusely, guiding Charlie into the building. Diego couldn't hear her voice over the rain unlike the asshole who had been yelling from the window on the second floor. The knife thrower picked up a piece of broken sidewalk that was a couple of inches and threw it into the open window, receiving a satisfying yelp in response.
"You fuckin' bitch! What kind of social worker throws rocks?! You broke my goddamn phone! I'm coming down there and teaching you a fuckin' lesson myself!"
And THAT was the reason he wanted his soulmate to stay out of the situation. Diego pulled open the trench and held a knife in each hand as he hurried up to the front of the building. It wasn't as if Jessica couldn't defend herself, he didn't want her to get mixed up with having to teach a cop a lesson. Especially when the lesson was possibly being an amputee. Now they had to deal with an extra asshole.
The closer that Diego got, the more intensely focused he became. He had no idea if the brother shared the same apartment or if Mary was just being watched now by relatives. Number Two could easily be walking into a hornet's nest but he wasn't fazed. His objective remained to get the victims to safety by any means necessary.
Little did he realize the commotion could provide Mary enough of a distraction to pack her and Charlie's things. Maybe something Jessica said convinced her to take the chance. Unfortunately, none of those thoughts came to mind as Diego saw red. He somehow missed there being someone behind him.
"Hey, Asshole! Didn't anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?" A voice cackled at him as he spun around. Shots rang out and knives dropped to the ground. Number Two held hands out in front of him, somehow redirecting the rounds into the parked car next to them. "What the--"
Diego had no idea if the man was Jack or yet another sibling. A quick strike to the throat stopped any further conversation. Before the one threatening trouble could come downstairs, the vigilante flung the shooter into the side of the nearby building--knocking him out cold in the process. Hargreeves quickly picked up the dropped knives and continued toward Jones.
"I'm going up to get Mary and Charlie. Find a ride out of here," he barked while walking toward her.
"Who the fuck are you? You're not getting anybody! --What did you do to Liam?!"
Sadly, Diego learned that he hadn't laid out Jack. Apparently his relatives thought they could carry guns or were also cops. He didn't give it much thought as his wrath was now aimed at the idiot yelling in front of Jessica.
Irritation flared in Jessica as she saw Diego coming in hot. Any attempt at making this a covert operation went out the window as her soulmate flung rocks and fists at the relatives left as guard dogs for Mary and her charge. While Diego was busy and Mary was standing there in shock, Charlie gaping at the unrestrained violence, Jessica decided that a hard lesson was due. "Look, lady, I don't know you and you sure as shit don't know me, but what you're doing is absolutely bugshit stupid. There are resources for domestic violence. There are ways to get you and the kid out, especially with your dickshit of a husband being stupid enough to leave a medical trail that anyone with five cents and a cell phone can find out all on their own. You want to save the kid? Save yourself. There are places you can go to hide out until the right brass knocks his ass out. I promise you, you'll feel a whole hell of a lot worse if you stay and suffer for his sake if you walk in on a dead body. Or he walks in on yours. That's not saving shit. So we're going to get the hell out of here and sort this out. And I don't want to hear any bullshit about you don't really want to. You got him-," she said, tipping her head back to indicate Diego, "all worked up over you and the kid, so go grab what you need and then we're gone."
Mary gave her a blank look for a moment before something stony fell over her face and she grabbed Charlie and ran into the building. Jessica watched Diego take care of what needed taking care of, though she was still silently pissed off at everything going on the way it had, and when whichever McKinnon or kin of came close, she snapped a punch at his face, hard enough to make the man's head snap back, his eyes roll into his head, and for him to collapse in a crumpled heap. Hard enough to knock out, but not to kill. She'd figured that limit out awhile ago. Then she just stood and glared at Diego, waiting for his pet project to come out with her kid as she gave him the finger, then went to go stand in front of a cab to get it to stop.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
He could be as mad at her as he wanted to be. His wants didn't supersede the way things needed to be done to work. Claire knew the woman herself and had a better idea of how to handle things, how tricky they were. For all that Diego saw marks on her, Claire would know how long they'd been showing up and how badly it affected her. Diego saw a flash of her day, an hour or two at a time. A work colleague who had training in how to spot and report domestic abuse, child abuse, sex trafficking, had a better chance of knowing when to say something and when to wait until they had to be involved. Diego was also just... a man. A man who'd been raised to use actions instead of words, and this was how he looked after people.
All the more reason to truss him up and throw him in a cold shower.
Claire relayed back to Jessica what had happened with Danny, Colleen, and Diego, and Jess figured it was going to be a long night. She didn't bother trying to reach Diego through their bond; all she was getting was vibrations of anger of different flavors, so she went through the sources she knew to find said cop, Officer Jack McKinnon of the illustrious NYPD, figured out his station house, then where he was living and the name of his son. It was easy enough after that to get the school, and then she debated on which course to take. Talk to the dad and give him a one on one, or try to convince someone to leave an abuser.
Sticky. Leaving would be easy if she was the mother, or, easier. With no biological tie to the boy, and that being the reason for her reaching out in the first place, that gave the cop all the power. She didn't have a mask and a growly voice to go jumping bad cops in alleys and scaring the shit out of them into pretending to be decent people, so that left her with Mary. She knew what the woman looked like, and she opted to just go and wait in plain view at the front of the building. If the cop pulled up first, she'd just say she was waiting for a client. If Mary did, then she'd try to have a talk with her.
no subject
The rain came down like a cold shower but it did little to clear away the fog of anger and frustration from Diego. He yanked the hood of the trench coat over his head, tipping his chin down for shelter from the rain. The tense vigilante ran down into a subway station and used the available maps in an effort to pinpoint the address.
"Why does this city have so many damn streets?" he grumbled to himself. Or so he thought. There was a hearty chuckle behind him. Diego pivoted to find what seemed like a blind man with a walking stick who apparently heard him. "I used to feel the same way about forty years ago when I first came here. If you tell me the place you're looking for, I can probably tell you how to get there."
Diego held a wary scowl. "You know every address in the city?"
"Just about. I was a mail carrier for thirty years. I've spent the last ten getting used to the dark after some damage from the towers falling became more than my eyes could handle anymore. Subways are safer than the streets up top, as far as I'm concerned. So where are you trying to go?"
The older gentleman made sense but Diego's face didn't change. Yet he did spit out the address.
"Take the 6 to 51st then walk to Lexington and 53rd for the E. It'll take you to Hell's Kitchen. That's where the address is you're looking for. A lot of Irish there so you should see a lot of stuff for St Paddy's." With that, the man tipped his head and continued walking.
Diego knew that Mary couldn't be too far from where the school was but hadn't imagined she'd be in the vicinity of where Jessica used to live. "Thanks," he muttered after the blind man who raised his free hand in acknowledgment in a gesture of waiving him off as if the gratitude wasn't necessary. Number Two did like that about New Yorkers.
It took a little over half an hour of travel which seemed too short and too long all at once. He couldn't think of a good plan on how to intervene. Diego couldn't think of a scenario that worked other than to jump in if the asshole tried raising a hand to Mary or Charlie. That was it. That was his whole plan. Spend however many nights camped out until something happened. Number Two sunk into his seat with a shake of his head in frustration.
Before he knew it, Diego was on the street and a few blocks from the building in question. His eyes caught someone standing in front but the rain made details difficult to make out from the distance. There was something familiar but he kept a vigilant eye on all of his surroundings. It took a block of walking to realize that he knew the silhouette. His jaw clenched, opting to turn down a street and find his way to the back of the building instead.
no subject
It was going to get him killed, and that was the icy thread of panic that kept prodding at her whenever he was out by himself at night. There were too many fucked up enhanced people around, too much alien tech, too much weirdness he didn't have to deal with back in his world, and it just steamrolled through this city like a seasonal thing. He had her memories, but she wondered if he'd thought about the alien invasion. The decimation of the city from it. The fact there was a god of thunder that occasionally came to be a pain in the ass, or the whole alien planet that had relocated to fucking Norway.
She looked up just as a raindrop slithered through the crack of the awning above her and hit with a splat just above her eye. "Motherfucker," she hissed, wiping at it, then continuing to look out at the street.
Was she worried about an abused kid and his stepmom? Of course, but they were lower on her list than her hot-headed mate. So she'd do what she could to fix the situation and then decide if she wanted to deal with Diego tonight or maybe take a night off to let him think about it. To let her think about it. There hadn't been much in the way of space at night between them since he'd crash landed in her life. Maybe her abrasiveness was finally wearing through that haze of the honeymoon stage for him.
She saw a figure coming up from a couple blocks away. Two figures; one tall and anxious and one smaller and vulnerable. Shit. She felt herself tense up, keeping an eye out for the abusive prick while she waited for Mary and Charlie to come along.
no subject
"Fucking, Rand." The mutter was quiet while reading the message.
Looks like you made it. Just squeeze both the buttons on the sides and we'll come help if you need us. The guy you're looking for is Jack McKinnon.
Diego silenced the phone and the screen, slipping it into the pocket it had been in. McKinnon. Mary hadn't used the name. He wasn't sure if she kept her maiden name or hid her married one for his class. Thoughts continued to run through his mind but no clear plan came together.
"Mary, get your ass in here and quit talkin' to that degenerate!"
The voice got his attention and Diego quickly headed back toward the front of the building. Jessica might have been called worse but he didn't like hearing it.
"Buzz off, Lady! You don't wanna make Jack mad! My brother's a cop and he'll throw your ass in jail! Damn it, Mary! Didn't that social worker showing up teach you enough of a lesson? Don't tell me this is another one! That's it, I'm calling Jack!"
Mary shook her head profusely, guiding Charlie into the building. Diego couldn't hear her voice over the rain unlike the asshole who had been yelling from the window on the second floor. The knife thrower picked up a piece of broken sidewalk that was a couple of inches and threw it into the open window, receiving a satisfying yelp in response.
"You fuckin' bitch! What kind of social worker throws rocks?! You broke my goddamn phone! I'm coming down there and teaching you a fuckin' lesson myself!"
And THAT was the reason he wanted his soulmate to stay out of the situation. Diego pulled open the trench and held a knife in each hand as he hurried up to the front of the building. It wasn't as if Jessica couldn't defend herself, he didn't want her to get mixed up with having to teach a cop a lesson. Especially when the lesson was possibly being an amputee. Now they had to deal with an extra asshole.
The closer that Diego got, the more intensely focused he became. He had no idea if the brother shared the same apartment or if Mary was just being watched now by relatives. Number Two could easily be walking into a hornet's nest but he wasn't fazed. His objective remained to get the victims to safety by any means necessary.
Little did he realize the commotion could provide Mary enough of a distraction to pack her and Charlie's things. Maybe something Jessica said convinced her to take the chance. Unfortunately, none of those thoughts came to mind as Diego saw red. He somehow missed there being someone behind him.
"Hey, Asshole! Didn't anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?" A voice cackled at him as he spun around. Shots rang out and knives dropped to the ground. Number Two held hands out in front of him, somehow redirecting the rounds into the parked car next to them. "What the--"
Diego had no idea if the man was Jack or yet another sibling. A quick strike to the throat stopped any further conversation. Before the one threatening trouble could come downstairs, the vigilante flung the shooter into the side of the nearby building--knocking him out cold in the process. Hargreeves quickly picked up the dropped knives and continued toward Jones.
"I'm going up to get Mary and Charlie. Find a ride out of here," he barked while walking toward her.
"Who the fuck are you? You're not getting anybody! --What did you do to Liam?!"
Sadly, Diego learned that he hadn't laid out Jack. Apparently his relatives thought they could carry guns or were also cops. He didn't give it much thought as his wrath was now aimed at the idiot yelling in front of Jessica.
no subject
Mary gave her a blank look for a moment before something stony fell over her face and she grabbed Charlie and ran into the building. Jessica watched Diego take care of what needed taking care of, though she was still silently pissed off at everything going on the way it had, and when whichever McKinnon or kin of came close, she snapped a punch at his face, hard enough to make the man's head snap back, his eyes roll into his head, and for him to collapse in a crumpled heap. Hard enough to knock out, but not to kill. She'd figured that limit out awhile ago. Then she just stood and glared at Diego, waiting for his pet project to come out with her kid as she gave him the finger, then went to go stand in front of a cab to get it to stop.