Who: Leon & Revy What: Revy locates a kidnapped Leon When: This past weekend Where: A house in a shoddy neighborhood Rating/Warnings: Violence, language, lots of blood Status: Complete!
The room was dark when Leon cracked open his eyes. His hands were chained behind him, his head hurt like a motherfucker, and if had no idea where in the hell he was. It smelled musky, as though he was in a basement, and once his eyes managed to adjust to the darkness he was able to confirm as much by a quick glance around.
That didn’t answer the question of how, exactly, he’d managed to get himself chained to the wall in a basement though. He thought back, mentally reviewing all that had happened. Last he’d remembered, he’d been drinking with Liv. Then he’d gone out for a cigarette, and… and then nothing. He frowned to himself.
“So you’re finally awake, Detective,” a female voice called from the top of the stairs, and Leon turned his head slightly so he could look at her from the corner of his eye. She had dark curly hair that fell past her shoulders, and a face that was lined with years of heartache and trouble, though now she was looking almost amused. Something about her was familiar, but he didn’t recognize her. He looked straight ahead again, saying nothing.
He heard her walking down the stairs, heels clicking on each step she took. “Cat got your tongue?” the woman asked, coming closer to him. “Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
Leon had a lot he wanted to say to her. Like who the fuck was she, where the fuck was he, and why the hell had she kidnapped him. But he didn’t say anything, instead looking straight ahead as though he could see through her to the wall behind.
She backhanded him, her wedding ring making a stinging mark on his face. “Not going to offer me your condolences Detective?”
Leon blinked, and took another look at her. There was something in the back of his memory. Had she been at a trial at sometime? Yes, he was sure that that was where he knew her from. He’d arrested someone, and she’d been there.
“Considering you have me chained to a chair, I’m going to go with no,” Leon snapped, unable to hold his tongue anymore. “Even less so since I don’t know who the fuck you ar-” His setence was cut off by her backhanding him again.
“Shane Whittmore,” she barked, and recognition finally dawned on Leon. He’d arrested the man after he’d done a sloppy job of killing his drug dealer, and last month Leon had heard that the man had been killed while in prison. A couple seconds later, he remembered the woman as his wife.
“There we go,” she said, seeing the recognition in his eyes. “You locked my husband up to rot, and he’s dead because of you. And now I’m going to do the same thing. You’ll sit down here and rot, and then you’ll die.”
“Darleen,” Leon said slowly. “You know I’m a cop. They’ll find me.”
“You’ll be dead long before then,” she said, and then she turned and left, leaving him alone in the dark.
* * *
Leon wasn’t sure how long she’d had him locked up. All he knew was that it was nearly unbearably boring. He’d tried pulling on the chains until his wrists bled, but he couldn’t spot anything in the basement at all that would let him escape, let alone anything that was within reach. She’d done a good job of keeping him hidden. There was small window, possibly large enough for him to squeeze through if he could get to it, but as he couldn’t, he spent most of his time staring out of it and hoping someone would pass by. Not that it seemed very likely.
At least, not until he saw the small child there. It took him a moment to realize that it was mostly likely a bird, some kind of sparrow maybe.
“Hey!” he called. “Hey you!” The bird looked around until it spotted him, and then it smiled, pressing its face up against the glass.
“Are you talking to me?”
“No, to the cat right behind you,” Leon snapped. Of course he was talking to the stupid bird; there was no one else around. But the bird seemed deaf to sarcasm, and in a flurry of feathers it had flown away and Leon was left to swear at himself for a few minutes. At least, until it came back.
“That wasn’t very nice,” the bird chided him.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Leon sighed. He wasn’t really - it wasn’t his fault that it was bird-brained - but he needed its help and antagonizing it further seemed counterproductive. “Anyway, I need you to find someone for me. It’s really, really important. Maybe you could even recruit some of your bird friends to help. Can you do that?” he asked.
The bird nodded. “Sure I can,” it chirped.
It would be best if it got him Logan, or another police officer. Maybe even Sharon or Veronica. Definitely not Revy. But before he knew what he was doing, he was describing a foul-mouthed, rude woman, with brown hair and tattoos. And then the sparrow was gone, and Leon was left alone again.
Maybe not the most humane choice in a savior, but probably the most ruthlesss and fucking efficient of them all - Revy had taken notice of Leon’s absence, and that was enough to raise blood red flags of something’s wrong.
Feelers had been sent out, surprisingly subtle and not so very ‘in your face.’ For now. Liv had given her a few details of the night the two of them had out but after that, the fucker was gone, and she didn’t want to suddenly alarm the masses of her boyfriend’s disappearance. Friends would worry and meddle in and be careful about the police tape and a thing called laws, but if the sinking gut feeling that weighed heavily on her was correct (it always was), there was trouble amiss. A fuckton of it, and if she was going to make sure the goddamn idiot came out of it safe, then she was going to make sure it was her that handled it.
Final straw had been getting harassed by a fucking bird at her window. Steve, the rat that’d been a subject to Leon’s Dr. Dolittle abilities had reacted oddly, and that’s when she knew it was a sign - the sign. Shame she couldn’t speak their language and get a clue as to a damn address; she’d get it, regardless. Connections had been exploited behind the scenes, the unsavory kind that’d send her law-enforcing boyfriend into a bad episode of vegetarian constipation, and it wasn’t long until she got the who and where.
There was a why, too, but the reason was irrelevant.
Revy had enough sense to not approach the shithole of a house in broad daylight; she had sat, watched, and waited, burning through an entire pack of cigarettes until the best time came. Empty streets, dormant neighbors. Precautions had been taken and she’d made sure her jollyroger firearms were equipped with silencers to avoid a blowout ruckus.
Get him out without the cops being tipped off by a disturbance. Silence wasn’t her virtue, yet you best bet your ass the challenge was accepted.
Unless he’s dead was that dreadful, nagging thought at the edges of her mind. It made her gut coil and briefly, she saw red. Revy shoved it out of her mind, exited her vehicle, and turned the corner from where she parked. It was a dank house with weeds overwhelming the front, dirt darkening every crevice and corner, and she’d walked up to it like she lived there.
A gun was taken from her jacket and there was barely a metallic ping erupting from it. Sparks were lit for a millisecond, the wooden splintered, and the doorknob was loose, allowing her entrance.
Then she closed the door behind her without a care that it would give away her presence. It shut with a slam. A kind warning from a killer.
Dina had been sitting in the living room, a half-drank beer at her side and the TV playing, more background noise than anything. Now that she had him, she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the cop anymore. Ideally, she’d have liked to keep him locked up in her basement for months before she finally ended his life, but she knew that wasn’t a very good option. After all, people would be looking for him. It might take a while before they realized the drunk was missing, but they’d realize it eventually and come looking for him.
Moving him was too dangerous, but she had some time to figure it out. At least, she assumed she did. But then she heard her front door slam shut. Her first thought was that the detective had somehow managed to escape and was running down the street now, she she grabbed the gun she always kept close at hand and ran toward the door, almost barrelling into the Asian woman who was now in her house.
She stopped herself suddenly, and fired her gun before she had aimed it, making a clean hole in the door behind Revy. She didn’t know the woman, and she didn’t look like a cop, but Dina didn’t know who else would have barged into her house.
Bitch was awake. Even better. Otherwise Revy had plans to drag her around by the hair and torture Leon’s whereabouts out of her, but she was damn sure he was in this house. A basement or attic, somewhere meant to store secrets, and she wasn’t going to shoot the woman dead until found out what kind of state he was in.
Alive, then she’d do it quick. Maybe.
Dead, and she’d take her goddamn time. There’d been strides taken to suppress that bloodlust, that thrill for violence and death, but it was a slippery slope. Almost like falling back into an addiction she was trying to get rehabilitated for - she didn’t know if she could ever shake off that part of her but, fuck, at least she’d learn how to tame it.
Tonight, though, this warhound was loose. Snarling, teeth bared, ready to be used like razors.
The gunshot blared loudly but it was like a long lost song to her ears. In a split second that second gun was drawn, both muzzles shoved into the woman’s face. One was still hot from the bullet that took down the doorknob.
“Think about it, cunt, I shot your fucking door - it was the sound of me closing it that let you know I’m here,” Revy seethed. “So let’s just say I know how to work these babies, and I won’t mind blowing your brains out to make art on your wall. Understood?”
Dina paled when she was met with duel pistols pointed at her face, and her eyes were drawn to the door behind Revy. She couldn’t see where Revy had shot the door handle, but she wasn’t about to doubt the woman. It was possible she could get another shot off before Revy returned fire, but she didn’t like her chances. She weighed her options, and then dropped her gun, the clatter muffled by her carpet.
“Who the hell are you?” Dina spat, trying and failing to hid the quiver in her voice.
Revy could smell the fear, and she had a grin that opened up like a wound. “The very pissed off girlfriend of a cop you took,” she said, her voice rough like sandpaper, then deepened with a rumble of a growl. Her eyes flashed - eyes of a rabid dog as someone once described, but let’s just say she was relatively leashed at the moment. “Depending on what you did with him I’ll think about playing nice, and if I don’t like what you did to him…”
One muzzle of a gun was pressed to her nose. Hard. “You and I are going to have a long, long night.”
Dina swallowed heavily. Out of all the things she’d been expecting, the detective’s homicidal girlfriend showing up in her house was not one of them. “He - he’s fine,” she stammered, taking a step back so she didn’t feel the cold steel against her face again.
As it was, Leon was dozing lightly where he was sitting against the wall, though he woke up when he heard the door to the basement opening. The most he’d seen of Dina was her standing at the top of the rickety staircase to make sure he was still where she left him, and he wasn’t entirely sure if that was better or worse than the alternative. “You bringing food this time?” he called up the stairs.
Atta bitch. Revy had brought ammo to spare, too, fuckin’ dozens if this wasn’t going to go her way - but regardless, she was a dead woman, whether Leon was alive or not. Like a shadow she followed Dina close, dangerously close, making sure the presence of the gun was met and then -
“Better than food,” came her voice, relieved at the mere sound of his but of course she had to make a goddamn entrance. By slamming her foot behind the kindapper’s knees to send her tumbling down the old steps. “Rescue’s come, ya damsel, and you better be in one piece, Orcot.”
Leon’s relief at hearing Revy’s voice disappeared quickly as Dina screamed and tumbled noisily down the stairs. He winced, though he couldn’t bring himself to feel much sympathy as she screamed curses up the stairs. Her leg seemed to be twisted at an unnatural angle, but she obviously deserved at least a broken leg. And probably to stew in the basement for a long time until she managed to climb back up the stairs to call an ambulance.
“God, you get sexier every time I see you,” he said, raising his voice above the cursing, and looking up the stairs at his savior, who was silhouetted in the lights upstairs, and missing when Dina wrapped her hand around the handle of a screw driver.
Revy hardly gave a rat’s ass (Steve’s, specifically) about Dina at the moment, not with how the dipstick tumbled down the stairs - she was distracted, you see, approaching the chained Leon and giving him a quick lookover.
“You fucked up your wrists trying to get loose,” she mumbled, assessing him for any further injuries and keeping tally; she might be pissed enough to make sure the bitch suffered for those too. “Try not to get a boner in chains, will you? I don’t have a key so I’m shooting you loose. And after this the next thing I’m shooting is her, you can cry about it later.”
Leon twisted to get a good look at his wrists. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d rubbed them raw in his attempts to wiggle free, but it seemed pretty obvious now. The guys at work were never going to let him live that down. He frowned sharply at her pronouncement of shooting both him loose and shooting the woman at the bottom of the stairs.
At least he knew that Revy was a good enough shot that she wasn’t going to shoot him while breaking him free. “We can talk about that second part later,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut in anticipation of the gunshot.
There was no talking about the second part. That decision was already made whether he liked it or not but what the fuck ever, the priority was to get him loose. Gun cocked, finger on the trigger, and there wasn’t even much of a noise when the bullets fired - maybe a click, the breath of the firearm, but she had the silencers on for a reason. To keep unwanted attention the hell away.
Revy stuffed the jollyrogers back into their holsters for a minute to help him get loose of the shattered metal, and to be a pillar of support of he needed to lean his weight on her. “See? You’re alive,” she smirked, already guessing there was a sliver of doubt whether or not she’d make him bleed - the only recoil was the shrapnel from the steel, it nicked her a bit from the close proximity and probably him a bit but not enough to whine about it. “You okay? Got the strength to move on your own?”
Leon winced a little when the shrapnel hit his cheek, but otherwise ignored it. Really, he was more preoccupied with bringing his arms in front of him for the first time since he’d been brought there and attempting to rub some feeling back into them. “I think so,” Leon said. His legs still worked at least - he’d made sure to keep moving them now and then while he was chained their so that if the opportunity to escape arose, he’d actually be able to make use of it.
He tucked his feet under him, and rose unsteadily to his feet. As he rose, he looked over at Dina, wondering how he could possibly save her from Revy’s vengeance while at the same time wondering just how much he actually wanted to save her.
She’d heard Revy’s proclamation of ending her life though, and had evidently decided that she was going to attempt to save herself. It must have taken some strength of will to move that broken ankle so that it wouldn’t get in the way when she pushed off with her good ankle, diving at Revy with the screwdriver clutched in her hand like a knife.
That wasn’t unsurprising. Revy might have ignored the fact that she was there but it didn’t stop her from picking up on the movement, and unfortunate for Dana her reflexes were trained to act quickly, and her instincts were of a killer’s - but it also didn’t take a goddamn pro to whirl around and grip Dana’s wrist before she had the chance to grab that screwdriver and stick it in deep.
“Hey, bitch,” she grinned, wide and sinister, and there was a twist and a couple cracks with the way she was handling the woman. “Today’s your lucky day, he’s alive, so I don’t have to bleed you out like he fucking wasn’t - but do you seriously treat all your damn house guests like this?”
With one hand free, she pulled out one of her rogers and shoved it against her nose. Putting a bullet into someone’s temple was standard, but putting one square in the center of someone’s face was outright funny. An an assurance that they’d be extra, extra dead.
Revy didn’t waste another breath. The trigger was pulled, and crimson splattered everywhere, even on her.
Leon had seen some grisly crime scenes in his day, though he’d usually had a chance to prepare himself before witnessing them. He’d even seen people being shot before, though never quite like this. His stomach churned as hot blood splattered against him, and he braced himself against the wall, his arm tingling painfully, bent at the waist, and heaved. For once, he was glad his stomach was empty, because all that came up was a mouthful of bile, which he spat noisly on the ground.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, rubbing his hand against the back of his mouth. He took in a steadying breath, and then looked at the scene in front of him. “For fuck’s sake, Revy.” This was going to take some cleaning up. He wondered distantly if Revy knew a clean-up crew here in the Orange County, and decided he was probably better off not knowing. “Give me a goddamn cigarette.”
Man, this basement was a fucking mess. Revy made a face moreso about him tossing his cookies, not the carnage she was responsible for - the bitch kidnapped her boyfriend for a couple days then tried stabbing her with a screwdriver? That bullet to the face was well-fucking-deserved.
“Self-defense,” she shrugged, holstering her weapon again, and pulling a wrinkled box of cigarettes out. Her own face matched his, speckled in blood, but she looked as calm as a could be - in her element. She put two cigarettes in her mouth, lit the ends and puffed, and handed him one. “I didn’t know if what I was walking into, if you were dead or alive. And considering what she did to you, don’t tell me she didn’t deserve this.”
There was no scowl, no venomous drip of anger in her words. But fuck, she was relieved he was okay.
Leon opened his mouth to tell Revy exactly that, but the words didn’t come. Instead, he take the smoke and sucked in an angry breath. The nicotine in his lungs, he could already feel the annoyance at Revy ebb away. How many hours had it been since his last cigarette? He wasn’t even sure. He’d gone out for one when he’d been out with Liv, but he hadn’t gotten in more than a couple of lungfuls before he was unceremoniously delivered to Dina’s house.
No, he couldn’t tell her that Dina didn’t deserve it, because more than once the thought had crossed his mind. Besides, he’d sent that stupid sparrow after Revy instead of one of his equally capable and far less vicious friends. His gaze softened. “Well, I’m okay,” he said. “No harm done.” He steeled his stomach,and looked around the room. “To me, at least,” he amended, looking at the ruined face of his captor. “You got my tweet?” he asked, half grinning at his own joke.
Revy could have kissed him if he didn’t have fuckin’ puke mouth. A sentiment she’d save for later, then, when they were cleaned up. Her hand did find his, though, and she squeezed it tight.
Then contemplated punching him for the pun. Whatever the hell that was.
“Shut the fuck up,” she mumbled around the cigarette, but a rumbly chuckle did follow those words. Meanwhile, her eyes assessed the macabre mess around them and did wonder how the hell they were going to spin this. Chang came to the rescue in New York because that was his territory, and he just happened not have stepped out for business. West coast resources were scarce.
Kit, maybe? That bitch still had her fingers dipped in some shady shit - why not?
Smoke blew from her mouth. “Let’s get you out of here. You need a shower, you’re ripe,” she snarked. “I’ll call in a favor.”
The pins and needles in his arms was slowly starting to fade, and he managed what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. “Thanks, you’re too kind,” he said dryly. He tried to ignore the feeling of relief that passed through him at the idea of her calling in a favour. That was really not the kind of thing an officer of the law should be looking forward to, but he was nevertheless.
“I think we could really use that trip to Hawaii sometime soon,” he said, running his other hand down his face, feeling the stubble that had already grown there.
Ah, that’s right. They had talked about a vacation. Both of them had been too busy enjoying the ‘newness’ of their relationship to go forth with that but she was damn sure that after this stunt, it was overdue. “Let’s get on that when you get settled - I want to drink rum out of a fucking pineapple while some foreign man rubs my back,” she huffed. “What’s the story you want to spin to your pals, though? I asked Liv if she’d seen you but apparently you disappeared after you went out for a smoke - and I really doubt you want to tell them that you got kidnapped, and your girlfriend had to shoot a bitch in the face to save you.”
Unless he actually did. It’s not like she felt like she had much to hide, but Revy knew how skirting outside the lines of established law irked him. He wanted to play by the book, and sometimes to survive it just couldn’t always happen.
Leon frowned deeply to himself. He hadn’t even thought of a story to tell his friends. Of course, he’d been half expecting to haul the woman in in cuffs. He probably should have realized that was less likely once he’d sent for Revy’s help. He couldn’t tell anyone what had happened, because even manslaughter carried a sentence, and given Revy’s it likely wouldn’t be a short one, assuming that they’d even believe it. He thought about it as he walked up the stairs and away from the blood drenched basement. The smell of blood didn’t leave right away, and he realized belatedly that that was because he, and Revy in particular, were covered in the stuff.
“I could say I went on a bender,” he said slowly. He hadn’t done it before, but it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that he’d decided to drink himself into a stupor over the last couple of days. Besides, he couldn’t think of any other excuse.
A bender. Really? Revy’s nose wrinkled. “I guess that’s not the worst idea,” she muttered after a minute, shutting the basement door behind her - rot in shit hell, Dina. Maybe Kit would do this neighborhood a favor and burn it to the ground once she poked at her old friend for a favor.
Her arm circled his waist from the back. It was a mix of a hug and some extra support considering his more weakened state, but she wanted to get him home, cleaned and fed. She’d even go on an excursion to find the best fucking veggie burgers in the goddamn county once they were settled. “Don’t know if they believe it, but we’ll see.”
Revy was never the kind of woman Leon had imagined himself to be with, but with her support behind him he couldn’t imagine anyone else he’d rather have by his side right now. She might not be blonde and glamorous, but there was no one else out there who would support him like she did. He leaned into her, and laid his hands overtop of hers, and closed his eyes to better focus on the feel of her against him instead of the horror they’d left behind in the basement.
He took a steadying breath. “Come on. Let’s get out of this place. I think I could go for the biggest steak we can find tonight.” Fuck it. He could have died. He deserved something bloody on his plate.