"Your father's gone a-hunting."

[privateinvestigations]

Who: Clint Chevalier, Euan Fitzpatrick, Mark Campbell, James Campbell and Hunter Alexander
What: Revenge is best served murderous
Where: Chevalier-Cole-Ashwood joint, NYC
When: After this and this

Clint had his baby son expertly nursed against his shoulder when he opened the door to his pals. Normally, he would arrange a meeting like this away from home, but he was on solo daddy duty that evening. "Come in. Sorry, my hands are fucking full at the moment. Ange and Lex are away on some dirty lesbo weekend for an anniversary or some shit, and Linc's on a location shoot in Hawaii. I'm left holding the rugrat. Don't worry, he only understands sprog-speak, so your secrets're fucking safe. But I can't put him down, or he'll scream the fucking place to rubble. I dunno what's up with him, but he's a moody shit today."

He had tried everything since Angela and Lexie left at lunchtime, but all he had succeeded in was getting Zephyr to nap for about 3.4 minutes and crap his diaper what felt like about 12 times in the last hour. He was quiet and calm if Clint held him, and all hell broke loose when he tried to put him down for too long. But he was under strict orders to try to stick to a feeding schedule, at least, even if everything else went to shit. Clint wasn't quite as clueless of the process of parenthood as he used to be, but he still felt like his skills paled in comparison to those made to do this job. Like all three of the dudes arriving now to talk about a really fucking sensitive subject. Clint wasn't sure he would have the stamina Mark did to handle all he did with his kid. Clint felt sick to his stomach when he worried about what Zephyr might be like when he grew up, hoping like hell it was nothing like him, even if the kid was looking more and more like him by the day.

"You look rough, bud. I know it's not usually allowed on the menu, but if you want a drink, I'm happy to cough up. You look like you need it," Clint commented as Mark came in with his brother, James. This was some really fucking serious business and Clint wasn't surprised Mark needed back-up. He probably wasn't going to deal well with what Clint revealed here, that he had found out instigating some heavy digging into the situation that was the biological mother of Mark's kid. He nodded to Euan as he passed. "I take it all this is well off the fucking record?"

Comments

[agentcampbell]

Never had James hoped a kid's sexuality could play more in his favour than right now. Sasha had been well and truly part of their family by the time he officially came out as on the asexual-spectrum, so a lot of them had done their learning about it right along with him. James was no exception. He talked to Sasha a lot about it, and had learned some days, Sasha had a general desire for sex with Justin, but other days, he didn't really have any urge for it at all. Things like porn or extended sex scenes in movies made him uncomfortable, and you'd never find him in a strip bar. His exception was Justin, everything else he had no desire for, and never had. But it wasn't the asexual side of his sexuality James was hoping would win out here, he was hoping the part where he only had a desire for Justin might have been dialled down the night Justin was psychotic. In saying that, he had heard the way Sasha had tried to intervene on Justin with the drugs, so he was pretty sure he would've done anything if he thought it might help prevent Justin getting more hurt than he already was. He watched Mark out on the balcony, and as soon as he saw him light up that cigarette, he knew his big brother wasn't coping with any of this. He would keep holding it together as long as he had to, but James knew he had to make sure Mark had any help he needed too.

He didn't ask what Sasha said because he knew Sasha would probably be mortified if he thought anyone was discussing his sex life in any significant way. It would've been why Mark left the room to make the call to start with, and as awful as the situation was, it didn't matter to why they were meeting here today. That was collateral damage to what Justin's mother did, not the root cause of anything. "I care how. I agree, get the bitch burned, but I don't want it coming back on Justin or Mark. Our fucking family have been through enough. It's got to look like natural causes, and I want both your snitches, or connections, or whatever else you have tapped into for information bled dry so no one can put it back on either of them. I'd say aim to make it look like suicide, but nothing would be more o fa kick in the guts to Justin's suffering than that. Natural causes, or find someone willing to go down for the murder to reduce a plea for a loved one. Not an accident, it can be tracked. Not suicide. And I want to be kept informed the whole way. But I don't want anyone else in our family dragged down to it."

[livefortoday]

Hunter wasn't qualified to weigh in on any of this, but he was no wilting flower. If someone did to the people he loved what Justin's mother had done to him, he would be shelling out whatever it took to get them gone too. But he had to intercept here. "Okay, sorry, but I need to butt-in for a minute because I have to go back to the hospital and care for Justin's mental health, so I need to know firstly, what Sasha said, and secondly, if any of the outfall of this will filter back to him in a certain way so I can pre-empt the best care for him. If he and Sasha had any sort of unprotected sex, I'm going to have to tell Justin about it. He's already seeming like he's going to ask to see Sasha when we thought he might not want visitors. I need to know from Mark the best way to go about navigating that with him because we all know blindsiding him is the worst thing we can do. My duty of care here is to Justin, and he's currently in primary mental healthcare on suicide watch. I don't want anyone here to think I'm palming off the rest of the stuff. I'm not. But his life is immediately in my hands here, and Sasha's by default."

Still, he was trying to keep up with what was going on here. "My question is, Justin already asked Clint to get rid of his mother, and he's an intelligent kid. Really intelligent. Some people, for some abhorrent reason, think mental health means brain damaged or intellectually incapacitated, and nothing could be further from the truth in this case. I think the fact he even approached Clint in the way he did without going to anyone else here in this room is indicative of how smart he is, because each of you have professional ladders to tumble a significant distance from. He wasn't psychotic when he asked Clint to do this. I've asked Clint about Justin's demeanour during that meeting, and even if he was spiralling, he had complete clarity in what he was requesting. You don't think he's going want to know what happened if she suddenly turns up dead? I don't know enough about his history with her to know how this will impact on him and his mental health is extremely volatile right now."

[privateinvestigations]

"Butt in all you need, bud. You're the one who can fucking think the clearest of us all with this case. We've all got kids, we ain't medical professionals. That's why you're here, Mark wants you to butt in any fucking time you need. We're thinking about the poor kid in a different way. But you... you see what happens when we don't get to kids soon enough and cunts like that bitch in the slammer are left to destroy them." Clint was still pacing, rubbing Zephyr's back. By this point, he didn't know if he was the one comforting his kid, or if the fact he was nursing him was keeping him calm. Whatever it was, in this moment, he was starkly aware how much time Mark had missed with his son. Clint only had his a very short while, but he couldn't imagine staring his death in the face. It made him feel sick to think about. He had felt bad enough when Ange and the baby had been at risk when he was born, and that was a natural cause, not this what Mark had to try to navigate when he probably felt like he was losing his mind.

He was nodding at what Hunter was saying. "Justin's got his dad's brain. Maybe some fucking mental illness can cancel out smarts, but not bipolar. He knew what he was coming to me for. And he knew fucking why. That doesn't mean he's ever gonna be able to verbalise why. Maybe wanting him to'll be too damn much. We all want the cunt dead, why shouldn't he? If he's remembering the full story, maybe all he wants is peace and freedom from her. I ain't no fucking mental health professional, fuck knows no one'd give me that job, but I think with this particular kid, who we've all seen crash and burn, the benefits of what we do'll far out way the drawbacks. The risks. Sounds to me, that as long as she's alive and wants revenge on Mark, she ain't gonna stop and she ain't got no qualms harming a seriously sick kid for her own gain either. Didn't seem to matter to him how she was destroyed, just so long as she was gone outta his life... outta his head."

[lovesguinness]

"Aye, look... I gotta kid who's Positive, and I can tell ya'll that I went t'hell and back w'him when w'were findin' out, and that was before he was even m'kid. I get what it's like t'have sick kids and it's seriously the fuckin' hardest thing a parent can do. Ya' fuck it up all o'er the place tryin' t'just get it right, and even then, ya' got no clue what should be right and what shouldn't. And I know the fuckin' justice system in this fuckin' country is up the fuckin's shite and then some. The cunt's always gonna find a way t'try t'fuck him up. I think it's revenge she's wantin'. And probably fuckin' money. Kid's loaded, she'll probably be thinkin' he owes her. I don't think it's gonna get us any further forward if we sit back and let the system take o'er. So, even if I'm gonna turn a blind eye, ya' don't need me t'tell ya' what I'd do if I was in this position, mate. I done the same f'my kids. And I'd do it all o'er again if I had't." Euan shook his head, because it was atrocious they even had to be discussing this at all. As if the kid's potential self-imposed death sentence wasn't a battle enough for him to cope with.

He gestured to Hunter. "Hunter's right. I've seen horrifically fucked up kids been through less trauma than this kid, and there'll never be goin' back f'em. Right fuckin' messed up, some o'em endin' up rapists or mass murderers 'cause they didn't get the help for the mess in their heads when they needed it the most. That's the difference here. The kid has bucketloads o'help and many folk who love 'im dearly. That's gonna keep him alive the best it can, but I don't think he's gonna survive draggin' the cunt through another court case. Months and months on end o'im tryin' t'wait out the end result, just t'see if she'll get some fuckin' extended sentence. Then what? She tries to fuckin' get t'him again in another year? Make whatever call ya' need t'make as a dad, mate. Forget the fact ya' a fuckin' attorney. That ain't the more important job here. Justice ain't the most important outcome. Ya' kid still havin' life's breath is. Alright? We've all got ya' back. And if ya' want Clint t'take care o'it without ya' input t'focus on ya' kid, just say the word."

[aussielawyer]

Mark had gratitude beyond words every day that he had mates who understood the difficult task of parenting a kid with issues. There were many times they offered sound advice when he was poised to fuck up out of anger or plain distress about missing so many years of Justin's life. Years that were filled with abuse and neglect, and pain that kept an undiagnosed mental illness exacerbated and life-threatening. He knew it was a miracle Justin ever found him. Barely hanging onto his life, but he was one of the best things Mark ever did. But Justin's batshit crazy mother stole those vital years from him. He could've known the kid since he was born, but she chose to instead take her fucked up anger towards him out on the kid. He was starting to realise there was a reason he didn't remember sleeping with her, even if she had a reputation for being a slut on campus. There was a good chance she roofied him, he knew that. And closing in on two decades later, he still felt stupid for it. But he was a cocky SOB back then, basking in the glory of being the top of his Ivy League class and destined for greatness. He shouldered the blame that was his.

He nodded, trying to form some semblance of organised chaos on his head. But maybe it was impossible to organise because it was so fucking incomprehensible that someone would want to harm an innocent child. That would always be an incomprehensible fact. It just made you lose your shit and cripple your brain from working succinctly when the innocent child was yours, that you made and would sacrifice your own life to protect. "Okay. Get it done. And if it can be a slow and painful death, even better. Not that anything will make up for torturing a kid for fifteen straight years of his life, but small mercies. Make it clean and untraceable. I want to know when it's done."