The car ride was silent, she didn't know why they took his car when they both lived a few minutes away. The last place she wanted to go to was probably seeing Hughie in person, she didn't know why but she had a feeling that if Hughie saw her with him, he'd be wondering if something bad was happening.
"Now you come in with me and act as if you don't know me, alrigh'?"
"I don't know you."
Butcher knows she's telling the truth, but he just ignored it. "Good lass." He parked the car on the curb, and they got out. Hughie was doing inventory, putting items away and dusting off the TVs that would never really be bought because they were too expensive. He looked miserable and Brooklyn felt terrible, she just wanted to give him a hug.
Before they stepped inside, Butcher opens the door for her because well got to make it look good. She thanks him anyways, looking up when she hears the little bell above the door ring. Hughie turns around and just smiles at her, it's fake and she knows it but she doesn't say anything about it. She keeps an eye on Butcher, making sure he doesn't do anything stupid because she had a feeling that was his specialty – doing stupid shit. He just went over to the teddy bear that was on display, it was for nanny cams and Brooklyn just faulters as she wonders what he's going to say to Hughie when he comes over to him.
Hughie doesn't seem to care anymore when people come in here to buy cameras for weird creepy shit. He doesn't judge, he just helps people buy them and rush them out of the store. It won't be that easy for Butcher though. "You interested in a nanny cam?" Hughie asked, hands in his pockets as he watches the brunette in the brown leather trench coat look at the white bear, Brooklyn is just in the back looking at video games for her Switch as she listens to Hughie. "'Cause we're actually running a special on that... uhm it's a pretty popular bear, there's cameras in the eyes—"
Butcher's cockney accent is quick to be heard. "—Tell me," he pauses for a sec before choosing his next few words, "how many nannies shake their babies?" he asked as if he was legitimately wondering, Brooklyn is wondering why she went with this psycho to supposedly help Hughie but she had to wait and see.
"Uhm, I'm sorry?" Hughie is just as confused as Brooklyn is.
Butcher continues. "You know, a good... hard shake, like..." he shakes the bear to represent what he's saying and Brooklyn just heads over a bit closer, "like tryin' to get ketchup outta bottle?" he turns around to face Hughie. "One percent? Less?"
"I-I don't really know..."
Hughie looks at Brooklyn to see if she sees what he's hearing. Why do the weirdos always come in at night? "Funny that..." Butcher says, "They sell a billion dollars' worth of that shit worldwide," he continues as he puts the bear down, getting closer to Hughie as he looks over at Brooklyn. "Goes to show you, doesn't it? The bollocks people will believe." Hughie starts to wonder if this guy is here for a nanny cam, "If you get them scared enough."
"Cool, cool. Hey Brooklyn, do you, uh, do you need any help?" Hughie asks, trying to get away from this guy because he was starting to wonder if he should call the cops.
"Nah, I'm – I'm good."
Butcher told her to act like she doesn't know him but he blows her cover anyways. Was it ever a cover? "No, Hughie, she doesn't need any help because she and I we're both 'ere to help you." Hughie looks at Brooklyn with a raised eyebrow and then at this guy. "The names Butcher, Billy Butcher." He takes out a fake FBI badge, Brooklyn has watched enough shows to know a fake badge when she sees it. However, Hughie believes this man to be with the government and looks at Brooklyn. "She's internin' with me, goin' for a ride along." Brooklyn gives Hughie a smile that reads 'yep' but her eyes say 'I have no idea who this man is, help me' but doesn't get it and she wished he did. "I was thinking that you and me should have a little bit of a chat."
×××
Walking down the streets of New York, Brooklyn keeps her hands in her pockets as she follows behind Hughie and Butcher. Hughie looks at Brooklyn, wondering what she was doing interning for a guy like this? He didn't even realize she was into law, he knew she was a creative type always drawing and creating content – he only knew this because he followed her on Facebook – and yet here she was, doing things he didn't know she did.
"When did you take an interest in law?"
Brooklyn looks at him with a raised eyebrow, not even noticing that Butcher was looking at her over his shoulder. "Oh, you know, always been interested in it..." she lies but makes her voice sound genuine, she was good at lying under pressure... or at least she thinks she is. Lying made her uncomfortable and especially if she was lying to a friend. "Adrenaline junkie and all that." No-one hears Butcher snicker at her words.
Hughie, still a little unsure about Butcher, turns to look up at him. "Y-You're a fed?" he asked, making sure he heard that part right. He didn't look like a federal agent; he looked more like a homeless person who hadn't had a decent hair cut in a few years. "You don't sound like a fed." He added, Brooklyn hadn't taken that into consideration, but she just waited to see what Butcher had to say about that.
"What, I can't immigrate?" he retorts back, Brooklyn smiles as Butcher responded. "There's a giant green slapper with her ass in the harbor that says different." It took Brooklyn a little while to realize he was talking about the Statue of Liberty and he had a point there.
Bringing up another good point, Hughie continues to get some answers out of Butcher. "You don't really look like one either." He says.
Butcher looked at him again. "No? What do I look like?"
Brooklyn was the one who answered this time. "Like you're starring in a porn version of The Matrix." Hughie and Butcher both stopped walking and looked at her. Hughie nodded in agreement and Butcher just let out a little offended huff, but kind of amused she said something like that.
Convincing the kid that he was indeed a fed agent and that Brooklyn was there for a tag along they all continued walking towards God knows where Butcher was leading them too. "Well, it's all right there in black and white."
"Okay..." Hughie says with a low sigh, "Uh, what exactly can I do for you?" he as confused as to why he was here, why someone like Butcher needed a guy like Hughie or a tag along like Brooklyn. Brooklyn listens closely to what Butcher has to say because Hughie was asking a question she had been meaning to ask.
The answer that came was unexpected. "No, you got it all wrong, Hughie. It's what we can do for you." Butcher looks at Brooklyn and then at Hughie, indicating that Brooklyn was a part of this. Well, she was, just not the part she wanted. She was willing to help Hughie out with his Robin situation emotionally but whatever Billy Butcher had planned seemed to be something far greater than what she thought.
"You see, you ain't alone, son," Butcher explains, "it 'appens a lot more often than you think. Supes lose hundreds of people each year to collateral damage."
Brooklyn interjects but before she can ask Butcher what he was trying to get at Hughie cuts in. "No. Come on, that'd be all over the news."
"He has a point." Brooklyn says after Hughie's observation. "People would be screaming bloody murder if that happened." She added on.
Butcher takes that into consideration but ignores it. "Yeah, look, there might be the odd mention of it now and again, like with Robin," Hughie stopped walking as he looked at Butcher with an expression that read 'how dare you bring her into this' and Brooklyn just stopped to keep Hughie from strangling Butcher. "But there's a fuck-sight more that happens," He added, Hughie looked a little bit more relaxed but still confused, "that just gets swept right under the rug."
With a curious expression on his face, Hughie just looks a little sad and defeated that Vought International would do something like that. Keep the truth from them. The truth about Robin, the truth about so many other incidents that might have had happened like his. "Why?" Hughie asked, Brooklyn looks at him solemnly. Wouldn't they all like an honest answer?
×××
a/n - coming up with titles for chapters is hard so i'm just using lyrics from the playlist even if they don't match up with the theme of the chapter. anyways, this took longer than i thought to write. i'm watching the episodes as i go along with the chapters.
