✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Splinter Cell [Fast and Furious 07]✔

03

Past Year....

Slowly, Shaw pulled into a vacant factory lot, turned off the engine, and looked over at Charlie. When he unbuckled his seat belt, she jumped immediately, causing him to chuckle and get out, amused by her behavior.
Nothing? Without further ado, Owen's brother walked over to one of the empty buildings and disappeared inside. Disbelieving, Charlie blinked and stared after him, perplexed. This guy was just going to leave her here without doing anything to her? No, she could bet that something else was about to happen. Even if it was just the car blowing up.

Shit!

Charlie unbuckled her seatbelt, got out of the car, and backed away from it. Car bomb. He couldn't get rid of her any easier. Keeping her eyes on the car, she backed away from it and headed for the building. So far, so good. Thirteen... fourteen... fifteen meters, nothing. Maybe she was being too paranoid. All right, she was alive, but for how long?

When Charlie joined Shaw on the empty factory floor, all she saw was him sitting at a table with a laptop. Uncertain, she sat down with him, watched him, and then peered over the edge of the laptop.

"No matter how you used to work, that's not how it works this time," Charlie Shaw slowly pulled the laptop away so that she could still get her fingers away in time before he broke them, "Even though the newspapers reported it and the police have records of it, they don't show us what happened. We don't even know who was involved."

"And you think you'll find something?", Shaw thought Charlie was so stupid, or why did he find this hilarious now, "You may have known Owen and his past, but you didn't know mine. So let me do my job. My way."

"I don't have to, to know this can be helpful. You men are always so full of yourselves, it borders on self-indulgence," Charlie puffed, turning over the laptop with a series of videos taken the night of the accident, "It'll take a while to go through them all, but surely some of these amateur videographers have recorded something useful."

"Possibly," Shaw scanned the page, nodding in the direction Charlie had come from a few minutes ago, "By the way, in case you hadn't noticed, you're not being restrained. That means you can move around freely. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"What I wanted was a family that felt real. Blood alone doesn't make a family. Not many people understand that. It may be that Owen wasn't perfect, any more than I am, but at least we made something of it. In the end, though, he wanted too much, and we both know how that ended. You're not the only one who's lost a loved one," Charlie reached out indecisively to the short-haired man and began to smile faintly, "Charlie.... I want to know what happened as much as you do. Do it on your own or I'm in. Small comment. Women can be helpful and are often underestimated."

"Will you shut up if I say yes?" grumbling, Owen's brother looked up and then right back at the screen, "Deckard."

The asshole might not be as big of an asshole as he first thought. After all, he was Owen's brother. Maybe an asshole, but not a big one after all. Wait and see.

One week later....

O

r did. Cracking his fingers, Shaw walked around Charlie as she lay on the floor, spitting blood and trying to get up. She could still feel each of his blows, each spot throbbing wildly.

"So hitting women, you don't have a problem with that," Charlie coughs, rolling onto his back and putting a hand on his right rib, "do you do this often or was this your first time?"

"You said you wanted to learn how to defend yourself," Shaw replied unimpressed, waving Charlie up so they could both continue, "Pull yourself together and get up."

"Oh, go fuck yourself. I've had enough. I didn't want to be crippled," Charlie staggered and stood up, holding on to the nearest pillar to keep from going down, "from now on you're on your own again. I'm out. One more hit and I won't be able to get up."

"What was your job anyway?" wanted to know Deckard, stopping and watching Charlie try not to fall while walking.

"He knew what he had in me," luckily the car keys were still on the table, Charlie grabbed them and waved as he headed for the exit, "Some things take brains, skill and experience rather than brute force."
That was the last time Charlie saw or spoke to Shaw. And to be honest, it had been just fine with her. Even a week later, when she was finally back home, her body still ached. All the purple and blue bruises aside.