Ch.1Part3

About halfway through my recount of what happened, I noticed that the only person actively listening was the nice, cute agent. The others had started to fan out across the area, murmuring into their walkie-talkie things. Tough Guy…I mean, Leo, had walked right over to the body of the gross potential rapist, and was checking his pulse. “He’s alive,” He announced to us all, as though this was a triumph. I guess it should have been. I wasn’t exactly highly educated in the workings of the judicial system, but I knew that even in self-defense, killing was not something taken lightly. Still, I have to admit, it would have been oddly satisfying to find out that I had killed the bastard. Of course, I didn’t voice any of this, which was for the better, because I could see from the change in Leo’s face as he stared at the face of my victim that he wouldn’t have heard a word I said. He paled, his mouth open in absolute shock as he stared through the blood, at the guy’s face. It didn’t seem very remarkable to me. My attacker was hideous, of course, with scruff covering the lower half of his face, and a nose just a little too big for the rest of him. I guess the most distinctive thing about him was the scar I obviously hadn’t noticed before, that lay slashed out across his left cheek—it was jagged and rough, and it didn’t look completely healed. The scar seemed to be in the shape of “M”. As I stepped forward to take a closer look, a female agent, pretty, with long blonde hair, pulled me back gently and whispered, “I wouldn’t go over there.” Leo slowly rose from his crouch, as though he both just aged and gotten younger—now that his initial reaction to whatever shocked him was wearing off, he looked elated. “Devin,” he said quietly, looking at the nice guy still standing by my side. “It’s // him //. The bastard.” For the first time in our 15 minute relationship (give or take), I finally saw Tough Guy smile. To be honest, it was kind of a creepy thing to smile over an unconscious rapist, but I suppose he was just pleased that the guy was taken down. An act of civil duty. Out of all the crime shows I’d ever seen though, I had never seen a 6’5 agent with a gun start // giggling //over a potential murder and rape. And that’s exactly what he was doing, too. His eyes were gleaming and he was fucking laughing, and it was the most unprofessional thing I’d ever seen or heard of, not including my sister falling in love with her boss and breaking up his 15 year marriage. // That’s // another story. My thoughts came crashing back to reality, when suddenly Leo—this immensely scary, intimidating, rude guy (so far), ran over to me, with his arms spread out. I started to hide behind the blonde agent, thinking my face was about to meet one of his 100 lb. fists, but I didn’t get away fast enough, and I was, to my surprise and disgust, wrapped up in a huge bear hug, my feet lifted completely off the ground. “What the // fuck //?” I yelped, looking towards Blonde Girl and Devin for help. To my indignation, neither of them made any move to save me. In fact they both looked…amused? Fuck this. I started flailing and kicking my arms and legs to free myself—the irony that I could easily escape from a knifed murderer, yet couldn’t get myself out of a hug, did not escape me. Finally, the psycho set me down, and I made sure to make a big show of inspecting my limbs for possible damage. I was about to start yelling again, but for some reason I stopped myself after seeing his face. He was // crying //. I started to calm down, getting less mad and more exasperated by this whole display of affairs. This was officially the most pathetic thing I’d ever seen or been a part of, and I was looking forward to escaping as soon as possible. I wondered if there were any cabs still running at this hour. I quickly realized though, that that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. Leo was looking at me like I’d just invented water, and Blondie and Devin were still smirking and giving me shifty looks. “What was that, creeper?” I stared Leo down, almost challenging him to even try to touch me again. “You are a federal agent, and I’m a common civilian in society! Trés inappropriate! I’ve been through enough trauma for one night!” Even as I said all this though, I realized that I was being unfair, and unnecessarily harsh. Just the fact that I was able to see this in // myself // was a sign that I was seriously out of line, but because for the most part, I think I’m awesome. Still, this didn’t mean I was about to apologize. I compromised by just shutting up, which was hard enough for me. At least some good came out of my bitchiness—Leo seemed to come to his senses, and without another word, he walked away in the direction that they all originally came in. He still looked slightly stunned though. Unfortunately, it seemed like I’d completely turned off one of my allies as well. Blondie gave me a scathing look and then walked away too—I suppose to comfort Tough Guy. God, this was weird. I looked hopefully at Devin, thinking maybe he would at least stand by me. They can’t all just abandon a victim, can they? It seemed I was right. He didn’t leave, but he did sort of give me this unfortunate, disappointed look. “I know I don’t know you… but that was kinda overboard. I know he’s intimidating, but…that was the first time I’ve seen him smile in all the two years I’ve worked with him. And…you ruined it.” Great. Kick a girl while she’s down. “Look,” I sighed, “I’m sorry. But why was he so freaking // happy // anyway?” He looked past me, running a hand through his hair, at the guy I’d attacked. A couple EMTs had arrived, and they were started to load him onto a stretcher, and into an ambulance. It could have just been my imagination, but it looked like they were taking their sweet time to carry him to medical safety, which was fine with me. I’d think they should just leave him there, if I wasn’t half convinced the guy would wake up and start preying on women again. “That guy,” Devin started, at barely a whisper, “is public enemy number one, in Leo’s eyes. He and his team are known as The Cutthroats, and they’ve been terrorizing New York for about 6 months. And until now we’ve had barely any leads.” “Okayyy,” I said slowly, not exactly comprehending. “So they’re bad people. You guys deal with those for a living. Why is // this //group,// this // guy so…special to him?” He looked at me like he was suppressing a sadness that he’d known for a while. “Leo had a daughter…until a few months ago. Until this guy raped…and murdered her.”