“No,” Bitch spoke.  “I don’t need babysitting, and I’m getting annoyed being badgered by you two.  Taylor goes with you.  I’m going to stay here and pack up.”

Fair enough.

…if this were Lisa I’d suspect her of trying to set something up. I’m still slightly suspicious, but that’s not really Rachel’s style as far as I’m aware, and again, I’m inclined to believe what she says.

“Not a good idea,” Brian said, with a shake of his head, “If you get attacked in the meantime-”

“-I have Brutus, Judas and Angelica.  I managed on my own for years, dealt with people tougher than those fuckers.  If there’s trouble, I run.”

Valid point.

“And if they take one of your dogs hostage?” I asked her.  “One of the ones you can’t use your power on, yet?”

A dark look passed over her face as she considered that.  “Then I run… and I get revenge another day, on my terms.”

Well. As long as you’re confident that you’ll actually do that, I guess.

Brian tapped his foot for a few seconds.  “Okay.  If there’s trouble, it’ll be good to have Taylor at my back.  If and when I get hold of Coil, I’m going to see about getting you some trucks, and people to drive them.  In the meantime, stay alert, and don’t get yourself killed.”

Good luck.

“I couldn’t get Lisa or Alec, before,” I replied.  “You think something’s up?”

He nodded, “Maybe.  You stay here with Rachel.  I’m going to go check on the others.”

Hm, this sounds like trouble. Possibly localized to wherever Coil, Lisa and Alec are, but… wait, no. I was going to say it was possibly localized to where Taylor, Brian and Rachel are, but that doesn’t make sense – Taylor wouldn’t be able to contact Brian any more than she would Lisa and Alec if there was something blocking telecommunications from the doghouse.

But if it’s at the other end, it seems to apply to both Coil and the two other Undersiders. That seems a bit odd to me, or maybe suspicious – Lisa and Alec probably wouldn’t go somewhere with Coil all of a sudden without telling the other three, and anyone who would specifically target both Coil and two of the Undersiders in one operation likely knows about the employment relationship to some extent…

There are a few people who are known to do so – the Travellers, Circus and Trainwreck. Circus in particular seems to have a rather vocal disdain for the Undersiders. Honestly, though, I doubt any of them are behind whatever this is.

We do have one suspect who has something against Coil and likely views the Undersiders as an obstacle: Kaiser. And if any opponent of Coil is to have found out about the relationship between Coil and the Undersiders, I would expect it to be Kaiser.

That said – we don’t know for sure yet that this isn’t  an issue that covers a larger area that just happens to include the locations of Lisa, Alec and Coil but not those of Taylor and Brian at the time of their messages.

“Thank you, though,” I told her.  “I’ll, uh, I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Don’t care if you do.”

Fair enough.

We crossed the building’s interior and Bitch unlocked the door to let Brian inside.  For a second, I thought her bluntness would lead to her telling Brian outright that I liked him, but it wasn’t the case.

I don’t think she cares enough to.

It’s somewhat unclear how much she actually doesn’t care about things, but she’s usually rather straightforward (even if she’s not quite on the same lane as most others) and honest, so I’m inclined to believe her most of the time.

She was more focused on keeping the more unruly dogs from slipping outside and stopping them from barking at the new visitor than on our discussion.

“I can’t get hold of Coil,” Brian informed us.

Hm. Well, he’s a busy guy, I suppose. And hey, this gives Rachel some time to reconsider.

“I-uh, what?” I stammered.  Relief mixed with embarrassment, and the abrupt change of topic left me struggling to get my thoughts in order.

Oh, I think the embarrassment is only gonna get stronger from here if Rachel should choose to elabradorate.

“It’s what guys want.  Tell him you’re available if he ever wants to fuck.  He’ll accept right away, or he’ll start thinking about you as a possibility and he’ll take you up on it later.”

Ahaha

“That’s-  It’s more complicated than that.”

“It’s complicated because people make it complicated.  Just cut the bullshit and go for it.”

That’s a very Rachel way to look at it, which I suppose is the point.

Hm, I wonder if she and Newter would get along if they got to know each other better.

“I don’t think you’re wrong about there needing to be less expectations and rules and rituals around dating, bullshit, as you put it, but I don’t think I can do what you’re suggesting.”

“Whatever.”

“Eh, your loss.”

But yeah, I think there’s some truth to this too.

I realized, belatedly, that she’d actually offered me advice.  As… I struggled to find the word.  As misdirected as her suggestion might have been, especially with Brian, it was probably the most blatant gesture of goodwill I had seen from her, next to her telling Armsmaster that she thought I could kick his ass.

Yeah, that was a quite friendly gesture.

Heh, we’ve gotten romance advice from both Lisa and Rachel now. I wonder if we’re going to get some from Alec too before Taylor/Brian hopefully becomes a Thing.

Of course. She thinks like a dog, she sees romance like a dog… Straight to the doggy style.

That much being clear doesn’t mean it’s not hilarious, though!

She turned to head back inside.  A horrible thought struck me at that moment.

“Do… do you like him?” I asked her.

Oh boy.

Let’s hope not.

She turned her head to give me an angry look, one I couldn’t read in the slightest.

That… could go either way. She could be angry because Taylor is right, or she could be angry because Taylor is wrong.

That said… why include this if she’s wrong?

“Because if you do,” I hurried to add, as I started to walk after her, “Hey, you were here first.  I’ll back off and keep my mouth shut if you want to make a move.”

Seems fair enough.

There were about five seconds where she was very quiet.  My pulse pounded in my throat.  Why did I care so much about this?

“You should offer to sleep with him.”

Ahahahahaha

He smiled, “Good.  I don’t think I can hop this fence without getting on the bad side of those dogs, so I’m going to meet you around at the front door.  I’ll call Coil on the way”

Heh, nice one on bringing up Coil immediately after Rachel decided she needed a thing Coil offered her. Is he going to play up that he’s about to tell Coil no thanks to all the offers, including the one he made to Rachel, in the hopes that she’ll change her mind on the spot?

“Alright,” I said.  As he turned to leave, I raised my hand in the lamest little goodbye wave ever.  Even though I was pretty sure he didn’t see it, I was left mentally kicking myself for doing it.

Ahahaha

I glanced at Bitch, who was giving me a peculiar look.

“What?” I asked her, feeling painfully self conscious.

Ahahahaha even Rachel is recognizing it now isn’t she

“You like him.”

“N-,” I started.  Before I went on to protest, I had to stop myself.

Yeah, no, protesting isn’t gonna help you.

Bitch would appreciate straightforwardness and honesty more than anything else.  I wasn’t sure I could afford to come across as dishonest or two faced, with her.  “…Yeah.  I do.”

D’aw.

She drummed her fingers against her thigh, looking back toward the building.

Looks like you’ve at least got her thinking.

“We are going to deal with them?” she made the question a challenge.

“Yes,” Brian spoke.  “I don’t like that these guys are moving into this area.

Nice. Withdraw from this battle, but don’t give up on the war.

The War of the Docks is building up on multiple fronts, like we honestly knew it would ever since Interlude 2.

I don’t like that they’d go so far as to attack a member of our group.  If we don’t do something to respond soon, it’s going to hurt our rep.  We need reputation, it protects us, gives people reason to think twice before they fuck with us.”

Such as by trying to chase them out of a neighborhood.

“No, man, the E88 tried that and look what the Undersiders did to them!”

Bitch nodded.  “Okay.”

Brian quirked an eyebrow, “Okay what?”

Okay, you’re leaving?

“I’ll go, and the dogs come with.”

Nice. It’s time to find a new doghouse.

Oh hey, didn’t someone offer to make you one recently?

“I can handle myself.”

I sighed a little and planted my shovel in the ground.  I had to think of a way to convince her.  If I lost my patience in the face of her stubbornness, she would win the argument, and we would all lose.

The “you get to punch me if I piss you off” thing is still in effect, right?

“I know.  But isn’t it better to rely on us?  To actually handle this instead of going it alone, hiding and letting those fuckers have the power?”

“I’m not hiding,” she gave me an angry look.  “I’m protecting-”

You’re gonna have a hard time protecting anything on your own if the E88 scale this up.

Brian interrupted her, “Protecting your dogs would mean taking them somewhere safe.”

She shook her head violently.  “No.  I do that, the fuckers win.”

Ah, yes, there it is.

It’s stubbornness and pride versus the caring for her dogs, and so far the former actually seems to be winning out.

“I’ve been there,” I told her.  “Really, I know what you mean.

Even if my ultimate prediction was wrong, I’m going to take this as proof that I was at least partially right about the logic that led me there.

But our number one priority is keeping you and those dogs safe.  Once we’ve handled that, we can focus on dealing with any threats.”

Though I suppose “protecting a friend” should’ve been in the other column.