FI2 2

 

               “What the hell is that old man doing up here anyway?” Danny sat on the edge of JJ’s desk, glaring at no one in particular. “And why’d he bring Hilde up?”

               “I think Hilde’s nice.” JJ said absent-mindedly, sorting through some paperwork. He was only half paying attention to Danny anyway, he’d heard this rant before.

               “NICE?!” Danny practically shrieked, clapping a hand down on the papers he was currently sifting through. “What about her is nice?”

               “Her attitude and personality?”

               “Jamie!” Danny whined.

               “You know you’re bring unreasonable. Why don’t you like her?”

               “I just don’t.”

               “Spoiled brat.”

               She stuck her tongue out at him. The other cops sweatdropped. Dee leaned back in his chair, ignoring his work like usual. “What is your dad like anyway, Danny?”

               “Hmm? Daddy? He’s nice, I suppose.”

               “He spoils her rotten.” JJ proclaimed.

               “I find it a bit odd that your dad just let you move up here by yourself.” Josh mused. “Normally those cartel guys are so careful about everything.”

               “Actually.” Danny considered. “Daddy was more angry about the fact that I was moving up here with Jamie than the fact I was moving here at all.”

               “Eh?” Dee grinned. “What, was he worried JJ was going to hit on you?”

               “Nope. Daddy’s far more perceptive than that…” She glared down at JJ. “Didn’t help that you started flirting with Alex.”

               JJ grinned.

               “Who’s Alex?” Ryo asked, rolling up his papers and hitting Dee. “Get back to work.”

               “Ow!” Dee sulked but dutifully returned to sludging through all the red tape he had built up.

               “My brother.”

               “He’s REALLY cute.” Was JJ’s contribution.

               Josh blinked. “You didn’t tell me you had a brother.”

               “I didn’t?” She blinked. “That’s odd…”

               JJ snickered. “That’s because she-” Danny hit him. “Stop that!”

               “Leave Josh alone…”

               “Is he older or younger than you?” Ryo was curious.

               She made a face. “He’s Hilde’s son.”

               Ryo looked confused. JJ yanked his papers free of Danny’s grasp and returned to work. “Her father married Hilde after Danny’s mom died.”

               “So he’s younger?”

               “Not that much. Only a couple, three years.” She shrugged. “He actually looks older than me.”

               “Well, you look like you’re barely legal to drink so that probably isn’t to hard for him.”

               She grinned and winked. “I wear my years well, it would seem.”

               “How old are you?”

               “25.”

               “No kidding?”

               “Nope. I don’t lie about my age, not yet.”

               “So he’s…”

               “23.” Danny blinked as she began to ring. “Who could be calling me now?” She pulled her cell phone out of a pocket and turned it on. “Hihi! Danny here.”

               ‘Hey, Danny, it’s me.’

               “Sean!” Danny grinned. “How did everything go?”

               ‘Fine. Are you still at the station?”

               “Yep.”

               ‘Could you tell Jamie that Hilde’s going out to dinner with us tonight. His cell’s off.’

               Danny glared at JJ. “You didn’t tell me you were going to dinner with Sean.”

               JJ sweatdropped. “I…forgot?”
               ‘Oh, he’s right there huh. Could you hand the phone over to him for a minute?’

               “Not yet. Did you happen to ask if Alex came up too?”

               ‘Damn! Knew I forgot something. I’ll ask Hilde later.’

               “How could you forget something like that?”

               ‘Sorry…look, I’ve really got to talk to Jamie. Could you put him on?’

               She sighed. “Fine, fine. Don’t know why you bothered calling me if you just wanted to talk to him though.”

               ‘I told you, he had his phone turned off.’

               “How sweet.” She made a face then tossed the phone to JJ who yelped and fumbled with it. “Danny!”

               “Sean wants to talk to you.”

               “Sean?” JJ immediately focused on the conversation over the phone. “Hey, Sean!”

               Danny made a face. “I wonder if he’s just switched obsessions.”

               Dee shrugged. “Long as it isn’t me.”

               “That isn’t very responsible of you.”

               Ryo sighed. “He’s not a very responsible type of guy.”

               Danny laughed as Dee protested. She winked. “Guess it’s a good thing he has you around to handle that kind of thing, hmm?”
               Ryo sighed. “I guess.”

               Danny looked over at Josh, who was looking a bit worried. “What’s wrong?”

               “I didn’t know you had a brother…”

               “That changes things?”

               “A lot…Fathers I can handle, but brothers…”

               She sweatdropped. “That seems a bit backwards to me. He’s not like you and Brett, you know.”

               “I know. Brothers are even more protective of sisters then they are other brothers.”

               “He’s actually really sweet.”

               “Except when he’s putting bullets in people’s heads.” JJ commented.

               Danny nodded. “OK, except for than.”

               “Aw hell!”

               “He can aim too.” JJ smirked, then frowned into the receiver. “No, I’m not teasing Josh…Really!”

               Josh snarled. “I’m not a damned sharpshooter, I don’t have to shoot a fly off a wall at forty paces.”

               “Even JJ isn’t that good.”

               “How about your brother?”

               “He doesn’t usually shoot, so I wouldn’t know.”

               “Not usually?” Josh was obviously curious to know just what Alex did.

               “He tends to deal with the inside stuff.” She replied calmly.

               “Inside stuff? Not that!”

               “What?” Dee blinked.

               “Snitches and the like?”

               She nodded. Josh shuddered. “If he does that he’s not nice.”

               “He is!”

               “What’re you talking about?” Dee frowned. Josh mimed shooting someone at about knee level. “I mean the execution type stuff. On police informants and the like.”

               “That’s not all he does.” Danny sweatdropped. “He mainly helps daddy out. Our people tend to be pretty loyal.”

               “What a surprise.” Josh muttered. “I can never stand guys like that.”

               “What’s that supposed to mean?”

               “I’ve yet to meet anyone who could shoot his own guys who wasn’t a total bastard.”

                “He’s only done it a couple times. They were extreme cases too.”

               “Still…” Josh was obviously upset about this revelation.

               She sniffed. “Well, I like him.”

               “That’s nice sweetie.”

               She made a face at him. “We’ve got dinner with daddy at seven, don’t forget.”

               “I won’t, I won’t. Your brother going to be there?”

               “Daddy didn’t mention it.”

               “Would he?”

               “Probably.”

               “Probably?”
               “If he thought Alex would be there he’d mention it.”

               Josh made a face. “I don’t like this. Not at all.”

               “At least give Alex a chance. He’s a real sweetie. He even likes Jamie.”

               “And god knows that’s hard.”

               JJ glared at him. “Bastard…No, no! I wasn’t talking to you, Mr. Breit.”

               Josh snickered. Danny hit him on the shoulder. “Ask Daddy if Alex is up here.”

               “I’m getting there, Danny… Yes sir, she’s right here…” He made a face and handed the phone back to Danny. “Your father wants to talk to you again.”

               She blinked. “What do you want, Daddy?”

               ‘Nothing, really. I’d just rather talk to you then that idiot Adams.’

               “Daddy!” Danny made a face. “I like Jamie.”

               ‘I wonder about you sometimes dear.’

               “That’s just mean.”

               ‘What’re you doing down at the station, anyways? That moron didn’t actually arrest you, did he?’

               “No, Daddy, Jamie didn’t do anything. I’m here because I want to be.”

               ‘…That isn’t funny darling, now tell me the truth.’

               “It is the truth!”

               ‘…You’re going back to Miami with me.’

               “Don’t get started on that again Daddy. You know I can’t leave right now. Sean would never agree to it either and I’m not leaving him behind.” She made a face. “I’ll tell you what, tomorrow evening why don’t you go get drunk with Josh and Dee and Randy…”

               ‘Who the hell are Dee and Randy?’

               “Didn’t Sean tell you anything?”

               ‘He was busy filling me in about Laura.’

               “…”

               ‘So who’s Dee?’

               ‘Araa? Dee, isn’t that he guy Jamie’s so interested in?’ Hilde’s voice was muffled in the background.

               ‘…I refuse.’

               Danny sighed. “Things have changed a bit, Daddy. Besides, it was Jamie who liked Dee, not the other way around.”

               ‘That’s totally understandable.’

               “Be nice…”

               There was a brief scuffle before Hilde cut in on the conversation. ‘Now, dear, why don’t you fill me in on everything.’

               “You stay out of it!” Danny glared at the phone, anger immediately spiking.

               ‘Don’t be silly, as long as I’m here I might as well-’

               “I said stay out of it! I mean it! You leave Sean and all the others alone!”

               Hilde sounded hurt. ‘Danny…’

               “Put my father back on the line or I’m hanging up.”

               Sean took the phone. ‘Danny…’

               Danny sniffed. “I said dad…you’ll do though.”

               ‘Gee, thanks. Why can’t you just be nice to Hilde?’

               “Stay out of it, Sean.”

               A sigh. ‘If you insist…Listen, your brother’s coming up on the next plane. We were headed to the airport but-’

               “We’ll get him!” Danny’s mood swung back to perky as quickly as it’d left. “What time and where?”

               ‘He’ll be in at Laguardia in two hours.’

               “I’ll be there!” Danny was practically bouncing. “I haven’t seen him in forever.”

               ‘…Your dad wants you to bring Josh with you.’

               She looked down at Josh who sighed and nodded. “He says he’ll go.”

               ‘He’s right there too?’ Another scuffle as her father took the phone. ‘Danny, put that Josh boy on the line.’

               “He was here earlier, you know.”

               ‘Insolent girl, why didn’t you tell me?’

               “You didn’t ask. Anyway, here you go.” She covered the receiver and spoke quietly. “Dirk Breit.”

               Josh nodded and took the phone. “Hello, Mr. Breit?”

               “So Alex is coming up?” JJ asked.

               Danny nodded. JJ grinned. “Can I go too?”

               Dee held up a hand. “I wanna go too. Wanna meet this brother of yours.”

               Ryo frowned. “Dee, you still have work to do!”

               “He comes in in two hours, can you get off that quickly?”

               Dee winked. “Don’t worry…”

*             *               *

               Ryo sighed, walking down the corridors of Laguardia airport. “I can’t believe I actually lied to the commissioner to get out of work.”

               Dee grinned. “What’s wrong with that? We weren’t doing that much back at the station anyway.”

               “Speak for yourself.” Ryo frowned. “You need to take work more seriously!”

               Danny laughed. “He wouldn’t be Dee then, now would he?”

               “Hey!” Dee looked affronted. “I can be serious.”

               “If you say so.” Danny went back to watching the arrival listings.

               Dee pouted, grabbing Ryo from behind. “What, you don’t like me the way that I am?”

               Ryo struggled half-heartedly. “I didn’t say that.”

               Dee grinned, nuzzling Ryo’s cheek. “Oh, really?”

               “Dee!” Ryo blushed. “Stop that! We’re in public!”

               “Hee, Ryo, you’re so cute when you blush.” Dee smirked.

               “Dee!” Ryo’s blush darkened.

               “HEY!” JJ yelled, startling them. He glared, obviously a bit upset. “I said, we have to get down to gate 9. Aren’t you paying attention?”

               “No.” Dee admitted. Ryo elbowed him. “We’ll be right along.”

               They managed to make it to the gate without too much trouble, although they did have a couple issues with security due to the fact that they were all carrying guns. Multiple guns in Josh’s case. The guards had been uncompromising and made the two civilians hand their guns over to Ryo. Then they warned them to ‘be careful’ while they were in the airport. Strangely enough they’d seemed to be talking to Dee and JJ at that point too…

               Anyway, they made it down to the gate with only minor amounts of trouble. They were actually early, the flight wasn’t due in for another half hour. Josh sat in one of the chairs, Danny in his lap, JJ sitting beside them. Dee pulled Ryo into his lap, sitting in the chairs facing the other three. “So what’s this Alex guy look like?”

               Danny considered. “He doesn’t look much like me…”

               JJ grinned and launched into a description. “Auburn brown hair, where he got that from with two blond parents I don’t know, gorgeous blue eyes, he’s tall and kind of wiry, tends to favor dark clothing.”

               Danny made a face at JJ. “I’m not so sure I like the fact you can provide such a description so easily.”

               JJ smirked at her. “Well, he is cute.”

               Danny sniffed.

               Ryo frowned, shifting on Dee’s lap to a more comfortable position. “We still don’t know why they’re here, do we?”

               “Well, Daddy did mention that he’d been asking Sean about Laura.”

               “Wouldn’t he have come up about that before?”

               “I doubt it. From what I could make of it he didn’t really plan on seeing me, so I think he just came up to ask Sean. He wouldn’t do that until Sean had had awhile to recover from what happened.”

               “So why’s your brother here?”

               “Probably to see Danny.” JJ offered. “I bet that’s part of why Dirk’s up here too.”

               Dee frowned. “Anyone else thirsty?”

               “I’ll go with you.” Danny offered. Ryo waved her off. “no, we can handle it.”

               Danny smiled. “OK. I’ll take a mocha.”

               “Espresso.”

               Josh made a face at JJ. “You don’t need one.”

               “I like espressos.”

               “Well, I’ll take…Hmm…If they have soda get me a coke or a rootbeer.”

               Dee nodded. “OK, mocha, espresso and a coke. Got it.” He and Ryo stood and walked off.

               Danny smiled. “They’re so cute together.”

               JJ sniffed. “I don’t think so.”

               Danny kicked Josh before he could say anything.

               Dee and Ryo returned about five minutes later with the drinks and new people. Sean blinked. “Jamie, what’re you all doing here? I thought it would just be Danny and Josh. Didn’t you have to work?”

               “Sean!” JJ pounced. Sean wobbled. “Jamie! I’m carrying coffee!”

               “Oops! Sorry!” JJ apologized, grabbing the coffee and handing it off to Dee. “What’re you doing here?”

               Sean sweatdropped. “Well, I figured it would be nicer if Hil-”

               “AHHH! You!”

               Sean sighed. “Oh dear…”

               Danny glared at Hilde, who sweatdropped. “What’re you doing here?”

               Dirk frowned at her. “We.” He stressed the plural. “Are here to pick up Alex.”

               Danny sniffed. “I’m leaving then.”

               Josh gaped. “But we just got here? Aren’t you even going to say hello?”

               Danny shook her head. “I’m not staying here with her!”

               Sean groaned. “Oh god.”

               Jamie frowned. “Why’d you bring them?”

               “Hilde wanted to make sure someone was here, she wasn’t sure Danny would get here in time.” Sean sweatdropped. “I really wish you’d told me you were coming. It’s bad enough with just-”

               Dirk turned. “Sean, what’re…YOU!” He pointed at JJ. “What the hell are you doing here?”

               Danny scowled. “Daddy! Leave Jamie alone!”

               Sean looked like he wished he could melt into the floor, or bash his head in on a wall,  or just be anywhere but there. He looked over at Dee and Ryo who were still carrying the coffee and looking confused. “Guess Alex won’t have any trouble finding us. You might want to sit down, this’ll take awhile.”

               JJ let Sean go, glaring right back at Dirk. “I’m here with Danny!”

               “Daniela,” Dirk stressed her real name. “Doesn’t need a two-bit cop like you.”

               JJ fumed. Before he could say anything Sean put a hand on his shoulder. “Shouldn’t you introduce the others?”

               Dee and Ryo were currently staring in shock at Danny, who looked about ready to really stalk out as she glared at Hilde. Dirk turned his attention over to them as Sean whispered frantically in JJ’s ear, trying to calm him down. Dirk frowned. “And who might you be?”

               “I’m Dee Laytner.”

               “Randy McLane. Nice to meet you.”

               Dirk frowned. “More cops?”

               “Yeah.”

               Dirk shook his head and turned back to Danny. “She’s really gotten herself in an interesting situation here. Daniela!”

               “What?” She immediately cut off what she was saying as he called her.

               “Remember you’re in public, dear.”

               She sniffed and turned her back on Hilde. Dirk sighed, then focused on Josh, who looked about as shocked as Dee and Ryo were. “You must be Josh Raven.”

               “Yeah…”

               Dirk sighed as he watched Josh watch Danny with slightly scared eyes. Sean smiled. “You’ll have to forgive Josh. I think Danny’s behavior’s surprised him.”

               “She does have a rather intense hatred of Hilde, now doesn’t she?” He shrugged then spoke in a louder voice. “I recommend that we all at least try to appear human for when Alex arrives. He may already know about your impressive fits of rage darling but you should at least be civil. He hasn’t seen you in years, who knows he may believe you’ve changed.”

               Danny made a face but didn’t retort. She didn’t say anything, actually, which was in itself highly unusual. Hilde merely turned back to her husband. When she spoke her voice was cool and controlled. “Perhaps I should wait in the car.”

               “If you wish.” He shrugged. Then he smiled. “Daniela, come give your father a hug.”

               She turned and actually smiled, running over to glomp him. “I missed you Daddy.”

               “I missed you too sweetie. Did you absolutely have to move up here to New York? You know how I hate this place.”

               “Laura insisted.”

               “…I see…” He looked back over his shoulder at Sean, still hugging Danny. “How is everything going, anyway?”

               Sean smiled. “It’s going good, actually. Been very busy lately. Between me and Josh and Brett we’ve got everything covered easily.”

               Dirk nodded. “Good. I was going to recommend a good assistant.” He smiled. “But I see that’s taken care of.”

               JJ and Hilde watched the father-daughter pair with identically emotionless expressions on their face. However when Sean patted JJ on the arm the cop smiled and attached himself to Sean’s arm. Sean blinked. “Jamie…”

               JJ went back to watching the pair, now a bit angry. Sean sighed. Josh, Dee and Ryo were just confused, watching everyone.

               Then the plane arrived…

 

End Ch. 2