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[nottheboss]

State your name and what you want.

Comments

text

[cactusy]

Harold has a mission for us

I can pick you up

Re: text

[nottheboss]

He told me.

[He doubts Harold told her about one part of Bossie's assignment but that can be a fun surprise]

I'm ready when you are.

text

[cactusy]

15 minutes.

[And sure enough, right on time, she'll pull up in front of the subway entrance in John and Harold's car. Bear is sitting in the backseat.]

[nottheboss]

He hopes there won't be trouble. Kind of. He'd love a good fight, but if Harold's sending them to scope the place--and the person--out then it'd be one hell of a fight he bets.

So he's got his uniform on but he doesn't wear the mask, just keeps it strapped to his thigh. And he has weapons, but not anything too crazy.

He grins at the dog, reaching back to greet him before he pulls the seatbelt on. "You excited?" He asks Shaw.

[cactusy]

Shaw is awake, alert, and in fresh clothes: in other words, functional. But she gives Bossie the most unimpressed look at that question, and chooses not to dignify it with an answer.

Bear, on the other hand, readily accepts pets, and when Bossie withdraws, he sticks his head into the front seat between them. He's certainly excited to be going on a mission.

"You ever been to this place before?" Shaw asks, pulling away from the curb. "Apparently it's a monastery."

[nottheboss]

"No," he shakes his head, scratching between Bear's ears. "When I leave the subway I usually try to get to the woods."

Lately he's been investigating caves. "Any idea if he's got people living with him?"

[cactusy]

"My guess is yeah, most people here do. Clive Rosenfeld's the one we're focusing on, though."

[nottheboss]

"Why him? What'd he do to Harold?" He hadn't asked Harold because you don't question orders, and he'd already pissed off the commander once. This is atonement as much as whatever punishment Harold has designs on later.

[cactusy]

Shaw snorts quietly, shaking her head. "He's being tight-lipped about this one; he barely told me anything."

Which she has mixed feelings about. On the one hand, a distraction is a distraction, and she's genuinely relieved to have a mission to focus on, even if it is one that's unlikely to involve a good firefight. But on the other hand, she's used to Harold giving her all the intel related to a particular number, and the lack of inclusion is notable. She feels uncomfortably like she's been relegated to the position that Fusco used to be in: one of someone who's useful to send off on errands, but who can't be trusted with the bigger picture.

[nottheboss]

Bossie nods; Pope never told them shit either. He's used to it. It is, as always, a relief to find the ways Harold does mirror Pope. He and Carver talk about how different things are here, how maybe they can be different too, but he feels better with what's familiar.

"I got the sense he doesn't want us to get violent with this one if we can help it." He purses his lips. "Which makes me wonder why he's sending me but hey, I can fake a smile and some small talk if Clive finds us snooping around and gets touchy about it."

[cactusy]

"We're just there to take pictures," Shaw says, repeating the cover story. "Documenting anomalies."

She glances over at Bossie.

"We're both going because we need a distraction."

[nottheboss]

He picks up his camera, really looking at it for the first time. If that's the cover story, he needs to actually figure out how the thing works. He twists around, takes a picture of Bear.

"If you'd told me you needed a distraction I could've come up with something."

[cactusy]

"I'm not really in the mood," she says, as Bear licks first Bossie's hand and then the camera lens.

[nottheboss]

"You don't even know what I would have come up with," he protests, and ruffles Bear's fur. "But it probably wouldn't have been as satisfying as a mission."

[cactusy]

"I've used that line enough times myself to know it only ever means one thing," she says - too worn out to be properly light, but still clearly not annoyed or offended.

[nottheboss]

"Oh I found a Shaw-approved line, huh?" He takes a picture of her profile as she drives. "You're more suave than I am."

[cactusy]

"I do pretty good." She makes no protest at the camera, though Bear's snout does photobomb. He gets a pat for that. Good boy. "Harold tell you he was worried about you?"

[nottheboss]

"No," he says, alarmed. "I'm good. I'm solid."

There's nothing to worry about. No reason to doubt him.

Doubt leads only to exile and a fiery death. Judas, he thinks, and remembers tying a traitor to a tree and watching it burn.

[cactusy]

"No, uh-- not like that."

Technically, this shouldn't be surprising; it's the same reaction that Carver had had a few months ago. She needs to remember that for all their personality differences, those two come out of the same environment.

"I mean he cares about you. He's not thinking about kicking you to the curb."

[nottheboss]

His hands are sweating in his gloves.

"No I'm prettysure it's crossed his mind." He grimaces, fidgets."I fucked up, Shaw."

[cactusy]

Using her peripheral vision to keep her eyes on the road, Shaw sloooowly turns her head to face him, giving him a good three seconds of a dead-on unimpressed look.

"Tell me you're not just talking about being a dick to a kid online."

[nottheboss]

"I didn't think it was that big a deal either!" But it was. To Harold, anyway.

[cactusy]

"I mean, it definitely sounds like it was a stupid argument," she says, turning back to the road. "But what he's worried about is you using other people to self-destruct."

[nottheboss]

"Me making fun of some bitch ass kid isn't me self destructing," he says, frowning. "I was just having a laugh."

[cactusy]

Hmmmm.

"Not trying to goad someone into attacking you because you think you deserve it, or something like that?"