{SPN J2 Big Bang} Gunmetal Dawn - Chapter 6
Fic Title: Gunmetal Dawn
Author name: deannawol
Artist name: grayscaled
Genre: RPS AU
Pairing: Jensen/Jared
Rating: NC-17 / R
Word count: 66,666
Warnings: Slash (M/M) relationship, oral sex, violence, language, angst .
Summary: J2 Cyberpunk AU; Three years ago, Christian Kane betrayed Jared Padalecki and killed most of his family. Mercenary Jensen Ackles saved him and his younger sister Megan and brought them to live with them out in the wilds of Texas. Jared's been training and is finally ready to take Kane on to win back his family's corporate empire. However, the course of true love never runs smoothly and in regaining what he's lost, he's put everything he loves in jeopardy, including his partner and lover, Jensen. A J2 Romance in a Cyberpunk AU setting.
Link to Fic Masterpost: Link
Link to Art Masterpost: Link
Previous Chapter
It was chaos, so much fucking chaos and Chad was living it up, right in the middle of everything. Jared had brought him in, moved his entire fucking apartment into a shiny new office high in Padalecki towers and given him a staff. Chad was a manager now. He had a budget and people. Okay, they were just data miners and techies but they answered to him. And the toys… They’d given him so many shiny new pieces of tech, including a fully equipped, fully fibre-optic, fully dedicated line that brought the entire internet to his computer. All of it, including the bits that nobody wanted to see.
Weird thing was that it wasn’t Jared’s idea to bring him outta the combat zone. No, it was JD’s, backed up by Jensen. Course, it wasn’t until JD just happened to drop by his office - holy shit, he had an office now - to have a quiet chat that Chad finally had enough of the equation to put all the pieces together.
“We need to talk,” he’d said, which made Chad’s eyebrow climb into his hairline.
Chad had to admit to feeling a little like a former virgin just after getting fucked after prom only to be told that it had been swell but…
“What can I do for ya, Doe? Shit, I guess I gotta call you JD now you’re back in the Ivory Towers, yeah?” he asked, using his hands to turn his wheelchair around until he was facing the older man.
Yeah, sure he was needling JD but damn it the man had lied him for months and he wasn’t exactly feeling charitable to him. Wasn’t exactly feeling much of anything besides used when it came to the man in front of him. Most johns at least left a tip.
“About those recordings…” he started, letting his fingers run over the knick knacks that Chad had brought with him, “… I’m gonna need a copy.”
“Sure, no problem,” Chad smiled. Time to show JD that he was not his tame runner anymore. “Why?”
He was the head of technology in one of the largest corporations in the city, said so on his door. And only Jared could order him around.
“Sorry?”
Chad looked up, “Why do you want it?”
JD frowned and Chad could read him like a wide open book. JD Morgan just wasn’t used to people saying no to him. And that an ungrateful little data runner was standing up to him, asking questions? Well, that wasn’t sitting well at all. It was the small twitch at the corner of his eye that gave it away. Wouldn’t have been noticeable, except it pulled on the scars.
“I just need to check a couple of things, don’t wanna take your time. Thought I’d contract it out, see if anything came of it.”
“No problem, man. I got loads of free time,” Chad beamed, “I got me some minions now. Only thing I gotta do with my day is hack porn sites. Lemme cue it up. So what you wanna check?”
“I just wonder if we could have another shot at cleaning up that audio file,” JD reached behind him, closing the door, “I have a ...bad feeling ‘bout something and I can’t help but think that there might be a clue there. So if you could take another listen…”
“Sure thing, JD,” Chad agreed, “With the shit I got in here, should be a breeze, yeah? But I gotta warn you, can’t get nothin’ from nothin’, man.”
“Just take a look?” JD dropped his voice a touch, leaning in, “Just lookin’ out for Jay, ya know? Wanna make sure he’s good. Been through a lot in the last couple of years. Deserves a little peace and quiet.”
Chad bit back a laugh. Peace and quiet while running a multi-billion dollar company? Yeah, sure, and if anyone believed that then Chad had timeshares in a Unicorn farm that he was looking to offload. But he nodded and smiled at the heavily armed man in front of him.
“And, I know you wouldn’t say anything but still… Not a word, okay?” JD said.
“You got it, man.”
JD looked him in the eye for a long minute before turning and walking out. Chad let out a breath he hadn’t quite been holding and slumped back in his chair. Something about that whole encounter seemed off to him. Looked like JD had forgotten that first and foremost, Chad was working for Jared. Not the company, not anyone else. Sure, he’d have another go at the audio, clean it up good as he could but if there was something on it that Jared needed to know. Chad was wheeling himself up there soon as he found it and spilling his guts to his boy.
“Geeks and Geekettes, I got a couple of things I gotta get done,” he yelled into the other room, to where his minions sat, “Unplug me if ya gotta but if it’s anything short of full mainframe meltdown, I’m gonna be pissed and… I dunno, fire your asses!”
A handful of ‘yeah, boss’s came back and a couple of acknowledging emails. About the best he could expect. Picking up his interface plugs, Chad leaned forward, free hand groping the nape of his neck to feel for his dataport. Didn’t matter how many times he did this, it always took a couple of tries to get the jacks hooked up. He would have gone for the easier wrist slots but the docs said that with where the bullet had gotten him he was looking at intermittent loses of conductivity if he did and last thing he wanted was to be in the middle of a data run and to lose his feed. It was bad enough that there was a constant tingle in his fingers that he couldn’t do a damned thing to get rid of. Didn’t stop him from pulling out a keyboard most of the time but on the bad days - and today was fairly bad - he needed to resort to the full interface.
His vision went dark as he clicked the jacks in, and then data, reams of data started scrolling past as his neural network shook hands with his workstation. Sleek black windows appeared in front of him and minimised when their code was done, and finally, one screen settled on the top, a cursor flashing regularly just waiting for input.
His eyes flickered over the environment, pulling out menus running code pieces. He pulled up the audio file and listened to the recorded crackles, watching the various frequency readings. Isolating each individually, he played them, amping the volume up and flattening out the interference patterns. It was tough work, time consuming in the extreme and left him with a level of annoyance that made him want to chuck the whole thing, but damn it, JD’s words kept haunting him.
Jared had been through Hell and he wanted his best friend to be happy, to be safe. And really, when you got down to it, this was no different from the background search he’d done on one Jensen Ackles, soon as he found out his real name, adding all the information to the file that he’d had on Winchester.
There was nothing on the audio file, not even after he’d pulled all the tracks apart but that didn’t mean he was giving up. He pulled out the vid files and blasted the sound up as high as it would go, boosting it and pushing it through reconstructors. Synching the two vid feeds, he could finally make out the conversation.
"I don't want him coming back. You understand?"
"What about Jay?"
"It's my decision on this. That bastard crawls back into the city, the first thing he's going to do is take Jay out. Can't let that happen."
Thoughtful, Chad played the clip again before encrypting it and saving it on one of his own secured servers on the other side of the city. Trusting this to servers he hadn’t personally built and secured? Not a damned chance. Paranoia was more than just a hobby to a net runner, it was a fucking way of life. JD’s own tame runners would be watching, reporting but they didn’t have a hope at catching up with him.
He copied the audio track, the torn apart but totally useless audio track, to a data chip before shutting down the software and disconnecting himself. He sat there for a moment, still plugged in. It didn’t take a degree in psychology to put the pieces together. Kane had been dragged out into the middle of the wilderness and at the very least dumped, but Chad’s gut and his brain were saying that the solution had been a little more permanent and honestly, he couldn’t blame Jensen. If Chad had been there, the bastard would never have made it out of the parking lot.
Jared, even though he’d been a merc for over two years, still thought with his heart, not his wallet. Deep in his heart, he still thought that people were generally good. Not the back stabbing bastards that they actually were. Sure, Chad was cynical, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t right. The hearts and puppies memories that Jared had of Dallas were as much fucking fantasy now as they were back then. Chad remembered the club nights, the security, the panic buttons. Sure, there were some amazing highs but they’d had huge targets on their backs wherever they went and bodyguards ready to throw themselves in the way. He didn’t know what sort of rose-tinted optics Jared was looking through, but if Jensen was watching his back and making sure he lived ‘til dawn, then that was good.
‘Course, that didn’t mean that he was going to give Jensen a free ride on this. There was a fucking sword hanging over that boy's head by the name of Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The man was never very far from Jared, practically pulling his strings as Jared tried to get to grips with all the petty politics.
Pulling his ‘plugs out, he tucked them away and rolled his way out from behind the desk. He made his way out to the outer office and thumbed through the letters on his PA’s desk as she finished up a phone call.
“Hey,” he said when she hung up, “Can you locate Jensen Ackles for me?”
She nodded and tapped at her computer for a second before turning back and smiling, “Mr. Ackles is in the gym on level seven currently. Do you want your messages, sir?”
He shook his head. He was aware that secretaries had to remind their bosses of things like that but did she have to act like someone had programmed her? Twice now, when he’d said yes, she’d cheerfully told him that he had no messages. If she wasn’t so damned hot, he’d fire her.
“If Morgan comes looking for me, tell him that I’ve just stepped out. Be back in an hour or two.”
She nodded perkily. Chad rolled away, heading down to the gym. He’d gotten an offer for a motorized chair when he’d come on board with Padalecki Microcybernetics but he’d blasted that idea straight off the table. He needed the exercise.
The lift dinged open and he pushed his way down the hallway, peering around doors until he found the Ackles clan, or rather the three clan members who hadn’t hightailed it back to the family camp. The gym was simple, just a couple of weight machines at the back, a punching bag and a large martial arts mat. Jensen was sitting with his back against the wall shouting encouragement as his younger sister beat the living hell out of the bag that Josh was holding.
Chad had to admit that Mackenzie Ackles was quite possibly one of the strangest and most terrifying women on the planet, second only to his own mother. Long black hair, tied off into a scorpion braid, enough kohl around her eyes to keep any three cosmetics companies in business, dark lipstick and silver vampire fangs. He didn’t know if it was just the vampires that freaked him, the whole gothic look or the fact that the girl wouldn’t hesitate to tear a chunk outta someone if they even looked at her wrong.
Rumour was that she’d done it once already since she and Megan had walked back into the building hand in hand. Course, rumour also had it that she’d faced down JD and told him where to shove his plans for Megan’s security. So far, she’d sat in on every meeting that had been on Megan’s calendar and several that weren’t. Didn’t hurt that the girl had a head for numbers and a bullshit detector that was pulling up just short of Chad’s own and that wasn’t an accolade that Chad handed out to just anybody.
Right now, he wasn’t exactly sure what had her pissed but from the lumps she was tearing outta the bag, he was just happy that it wasn’t him. Even though he was easily double her size, and all of it muscle, Josh looked to be having a tough time just keeping the bag still.
He watched for another minute before rolling over to where Jensen sat and pulling up beside him. Jensen raised an eyebrow and handed him a water. He took it, twisted the cap off and downed half in one go. Chad watched him out of the corner of his eye. Jensen was impressive. Even he had to admit that. Six feet one of solid fucking merc and every inch of that behind Jared. Couldn’t ask for better than that. Competent, lethal and loyal. Just what Jared needed. And not a trace of the cockiness that Morgan had. Talked to everyone, said good morning, found out their names. One of the good guys, here, one of the few good guys left in the building and for that Chad kinda owed him one.
“You okay?” Jensen asked and Chad could hear the concern in his voice.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just…” he paused, “… a tough day.”
“Yeah?”
“Some days are rougher than others,” Chad watched Josh getting pushed back two steps as a particularly vicious kick from Mackenzie connected with the bag. “She picturing someone’s face on that or is it just a ‘red-day’?”
“Jeez,” Jensen winced, “I know Jay said you had the tact of a ninety year old but a word of warning, man, don’t say that anywhere near her.”
“What can I say? I like living dangerously!”
“There’s dangerous and then there’s suicidal,” Jensen grinned, “So you come down here to work out? You want a spotter?”
Chad shook his head. This conversation had been a lot easier in his head but fuck it, this needed to happen.
“JD found my office earlier, wanted a copy of the audio feed from the night in the motel,” Chad watched Jensen carefully.
“Oh? He give you a reason why?” Jensen asked, his face carefully masked as he watched the sparring.
“Yeah, he’s looking for dirt on you.”
Jensen didn’t look up, “He find any?”
“The audio file is clean,” Chad saw Jensen’s shoulder drop a millimetre, “But I managed to get something off the video files. Took a bit of work but…”
“JD have it yet?”
“Nope,” Chad shook his head, “Not sure I’m planning on handing it over. Guess that’s up to you?”
“Me?” Jensen didn’t look up but he was definitely surprised.
“Hell of a way to settle a grudge, a quick trip to the desert and a nine mil send-off” Chad remarked.
“Not sure I follow,” Jensen was keeping his careful mask in place but Chad was starting to detect a couple of cracks in the armour.
“I did some checking and I gotta say, three and a half years is a long time to wait for payback, even if she was a friend. Ya know it was the talk of the streets when you took the deal with Kane, then flipped on him to save Jay’s life,” he held up a hand as Jensen made to answer, “I’m not saying that you’re wrong to do it. Hell, if I wasn’t trapped in this chair, I’d have tracked him down and done it myself. But hiding it, now that’s just a recipe ready to blow up in your face.”
Jensen said nothing at first but then softly, he said, “It wasn’t for her.”
Chad needled a little more, “Yeah, sure it wasn’t.”
There was the start of a fire in those green eyes now, “It wasn’t! Sure, she was why I took his money and screwed him but after that… It was all about Jay. Keeping him safe. Making sure that he was okay,” he scrubbed a hand through his hair and took a deep breath, “You can call it what you want, but we both know that the second Kane wanders back inside the city limits of Dallas, he’s gonna be spreading his money around and getting everyone he can buy out on the street and they’re all gonna be gunning for Jay. They’re going to be taking every damned shot they can and trying to kill him. I can’t, I won’t let that happen.”
Chad watched him, and smiled. There was a heat behind the words that warmed Chad right through. There was conviction, emotion, everything that Chad wanted to see from Jensen.
“That’s what I needed,” Chad turned his chair slightly until he was looking right at Jensen, “You gotta know that JD is looking to pull up every piece of dirt he can on you. This is only going to be the latest thing that he thinks might give him leverage. You gotta watch him close. He’s had three years to work this dream into a reality and now that he’s got all the pieces on the board, he’s going for the title shot. And way I figure it, you’re just a pawn on his board. And every good player knows that a pawn is the first piece sacrificed if you wanna get the Queen home.”
Jensen frowned, “I’m not sure that…”
Chad waved him off, “Ignore the metaphors, I only play chess with computers. Lose every time. Important thing is that he’s gonna be the power behind the chair and he isn’t gonna stop to think about your feelings as he pushes you out the door.”
Jensen opened his mouth to answer, then closed it, leaning back against the wall again.
“Come on, you telling me you haven’t seen those looks he’s thrown your way every time you even try to step up to the plate?” Chad leaned forward, “You never seen the proud looks he has when Jay trots out one of his lines? I gotta say, man, you’re not exactly living up to my expectations here.”
“I’m shattered,” Jensen rolled his eyes.
“Nah, man, think about it. You walked in here with a posse of family and took the building. Everyone knows who you are. They know you got enough family to replace the whole of security if you just make a call. They know who Mackenzie is too,” he shrugged, “Not quite the same reason, but I guarantee that there is not a person in the building that is gonna cross her. No one is gonna try to push her away from Megan. Not unless they want a free sex change, ya know?” He chuckled, “You? You’re different. Don’t think anyone knows what to make of you. You’re there, right behind Jay all the time but you’re not there with him. You’re his muscle. You’re the one making sure that no one is gonna get ideas but you’re stuck somewhere between his man and his partner. They’re not sure who you are. JD… Well, JD is right there all the time, the mentor, the father figure. He’s in the room with Jared, trying to broker deals, trying to get things moving. You’re not. Looks like he’s the bigger figure in Jay’s life. Get on JD’s good side and you’ve won the battle. That’s what people are thinking. The Corp world is politics by another name. You need to get in good with the powers to get things moving and they see you, they just see someone holding Jay’s coat. You may wanna work on that.”
“It’s on my to-do list,” Jensen said wryly.
Chad shook his head, “Maybe it should be top of your list. ‘Cause you got a hell of a lot of people here all on Jay’s side, just waiting for a good reason to throw down behind you. You just gotta step up.”
“Where do you stand on this?” Jensen asked.
Chad looked out at Josh and Mackenzie and smiled, “I’m behind Jay. Hundred percent.”
“And between JD or me?” he asked.
“C'mon man, I can’t tell you all my secrets. People would start talking and I’m just not that kinda guy,” Chad smiled as he turned his chair, pushing himself towards the door.
“Chad,” Jensen called after him, “What about the file? Are you gonna hand it over to JD?”
Chad paused for a second and looked over his shoulder, “What file?”
Next Chapter
Author name: deannawol
Artist name: grayscaled
Genre: RPS AU
Pairing: Jensen/Jared
Rating: NC-17 / R
Word count: 66,666
Warnings: Slash (M/M) relationship, oral sex, violence, language, angst .
Summary: J2 Cyberpunk AU; Three years ago, Christian Kane betrayed Jared Padalecki and killed most of his family. Mercenary Jensen Ackles saved him and his younger sister Megan and brought them to live with them out in the wilds of Texas. Jared's been training and is finally ready to take Kane on to win back his family's corporate empire. However, the course of true love never runs smoothly and in regaining what he's lost, he's put everything he loves in jeopardy, including his partner and lover, Jensen. A J2 Romance in a Cyberpunk AU setting.
Link to Fic Masterpost: Link
Link to Art Masterpost: Link
Previous Chapter
It was chaos, so much fucking chaos and Chad was living it up, right in the middle of everything. Jared had brought him in, moved his entire fucking apartment into a shiny new office high in Padalecki towers and given him a staff. Chad was a manager now. He had a budget and people. Okay, they were just data miners and techies but they answered to him. And the toys… They’d given him so many shiny new pieces of tech, including a fully equipped, fully fibre-optic, fully dedicated line that brought the entire internet to his computer. All of it, including the bits that nobody wanted to see.
Weird thing was that it wasn’t Jared’s idea to bring him outta the combat zone. No, it was JD’s, backed up by Jensen. Course, it wasn’t until JD just happened to drop by his office - holy shit, he had an office now - to have a quiet chat that Chad finally had enough of the equation to put all the pieces together.
“We need to talk,” he’d said, which made Chad’s eyebrow climb into his hairline.
Chad had to admit to feeling a little like a former virgin just after getting fucked after prom only to be told that it had been swell but…
“What can I do for ya, Doe? Shit, I guess I gotta call you JD now you’re back in the Ivory Towers, yeah?” he asked, using his hands to turn his wheelchair around until he was facing the older man.
Yeah, sure he was needling JD but damn it the man had lied him for months and he wasn’t exactly feeling charitable to him. Wasn’t exactly feeling much of anything besides used when it came to the man in front of him. Most johns at least left a tip.
“About those recordings…” he started, letting his fingers run over the knick knacks that Chad had brought with him, “… I’m gonna need a copy.”
“Sure, no problem,” Chad smiled. Time to show JD that he was not his tame runner anymore. “Why?”
He was the head of technology in one of the largest corporations in the city, said so on his door. And only Jared could order him around.
“Sorry?”
Chad looked up, “Why do you want it?”
JD frowned and Chad could read him like a wide open book. JD Morgan just wasn’t used to people saying no to him. And that an ungrateful little data runner was standing up to him, asking questions? Well, that wasn’t sitting well at all. It was the small twitch at the corner of his eye that gave it away. Wouldn’t have been noticeable, except it pulled on the scars.
“I just need to check a couple of things, don’t wanna take your time. Thought I’d contract it out, see if anything came of it.”
“No problem, man. I got loads of free time,” Chad beamed, “I got me some minions now. Only thing I gotta do with my day is hack porn sites. Lemme cue it up. So what you wanna check?”
“I just wonder if we could have another shot at cleaning up that audio file,” JD reached behind him, closing the door, “I have a ...bad feeling ‘bout something and I can’t help but think that there might be a clue there. So if you could take another listen…”
“Sure thing, JD,” Chad agreed, “With the shit I got in here, should be a breeze, yeah? But I gotta warn you, can’t get nothin’ from nothin’, man.”
“Just take a look?” JD dropped his voice a touch, leaning in, “Just lookin’ out for Jay, ya know? Wanna make sure he’s good. Been through a lot in the last couple of years. Deserves a little peace and quiet.”
Chad bit back a laugh. Peace and quiet while running a multi-billion dollar company? Yeah, sure, and if anyone believed that then Chad had timeshares in a Unicorn farm that he was looking to offload. But he nodded and smiled at the heavily armed man in front of him.
“And, I know you wouldn’t say anything but still… Not a word, okay?” JD said.
“You got it, man.”
JD looked him in the eye for a long minute before turning and walking out. Chad let out a breath he hadn’t quite been holding and slumped back in his chair. Something about that whole encounter seemed off to him. Looked like JD had forgotten that first and foremost, Chad was working for Jared. Not the company, not anyone else. Sure, he’d have another go at the audio, clean it up good as he could but if there was something on it that Jared needed to know. Chad was wheeling himself up there soon as he found it and spilling his guts to his boy.
“Geeks and Geekettes, I got a couple of things I gotta get done,” he yelled into the other room, to where his minions sat, “Unplug me if ya gotta but if it’s anything short of full mainframe meltdown, I’m gonna be pissed and… I dunno, fire your asses!”
A handful of ‘yeah, boss’s came back and a couple of acknowledging emails. About the best he could expect. Picking up his interface plugs, Chad leaned forward, free hand groping the nape of his neck to feel for his dataport. Didn’t matter how many times he did this, it always took a couple of tries to get the jacks hooked up. He would have gone for the easier wrist slots but the docs said that with where the bullet had gotten him he was looking at intermittent loses of conductivity if he did and last thing he wanted was to be in the middle of a data run and to lose his feed. It was bad enough that there was a constant tingle in his fingers that he couldn’t do a damned thing to get rid of. Didn’t stop him from pulling out a keyboard most of the time but on the bad days - and today was fairly bad - he needed to resort to the full interface.
His vision went dark as he clicked the jacks in, and then data, reams of data started scrolling past as his neural network shook hands with his workstation. Sleek black windows appeared in front of him and minimised when their code was done, and finally, one screen settled on the top, a cursor flashing regularly just waiting for input.
His eyes flickered over the environment, pulling out menus running code pieces. He pulled up the audio file and listened to the recorded crackles, watching the various frequency readings. Isolating each individually, he played them, amping the volume up and flattening out the interference patterns. It was tough work, time consuming in the extreme and left him with a level of annoyance that made him want to chuck the whole thing, but damn it, JD’s words kept haunting him.
Jared had been through Hell and he wanted his best friend to be happy, to be safe. And really, when you got down to it, this was no different from the background search he’d done on one Jensen Ackles, soon as he found out his real name, adding all the information to the file that he’d had on Winchester.
There was nothing on the audio file, not even after he’d pulled all the tracks apart but that didn’t mean he was giving up. He pulled out the vid files and blasted the sound up as high as it would go, boosting it and pushing it through reconstructors. Synching the two vid feeds, he could finally make out the conversation.
"I don't want him coming back. You understand?"
"What about Jay?"
"It's my decision on this. That bastard crawls back into the city, the first thing he's going to do is take Jay out. Can't let that happen."
Thoughtful, Chad played the clip again before encrypting it and saving it on one of his own secured servers on the other side of the city. Trusting this to servers he hadn’t personally built and secured? Not a damned chance. Paranoia was more than just a hobby to a net runner, it was a fucking way of life. JD’s own tame runners would be watching, reporting but they didn’t have a hope at catching up with him.
He copied the audio track, the torn apart but totally useless audio track, to a data chip before shutting down the software and disconnecting himself. He sat there for a moment, still plugged in. It didn’t take a degree in psychology to put the pieces together. Kane had been dragged out into the middle of the wilderness and at the very least dumped, but Chad’s gut and his brain were saying that the solution had been a little more permanent and honestly, he couldn’t blame Jensen. If Chad had been there, the bastard would never have made it out of the parking lot.
Jared, even though he’d been a merc for over two years, still thought with his heart, not his wallet. Deep in his heart, he still thought that people were generally good. Not the back stabbing bastards that they actually were. Sure, Chad was cynical, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t right. The hearts and puppies memories that Jared had of Dallas were as much fucking fantasy now as they were back then. Chad remembered the club nights, the security, the panic buttons. Sure, there were some amazing highs but they’d had huge targets on their backs wherever they went and bodyguards ready to throw themselves in the way. He didn’t know what sort of rose-tinted optics Jared was looking through, but if Jensen was watching his back and making sure he lived ‘til dawn, then that was good.
‘Course, that didn’t mean that he was going to give Jensen a free ride on this. There was a fucking sword hanging over that boy's head by the name of Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The man was never very far from Jared, practically pulling his strings as Jared tried to get to grips with all the petty politics.
Pulling his ‘plugs out, he tucked them away and rolled his way out from behind the desk. He made his way out to the outer office and thumbed through the letters on his PA’s desk as she finished up a phone call.
“Hey,” he said when she hung up, “Can you locate Jensen Ackles for me?”
She nodded and tapped at her computer for a second before turning back and smiling, “Mr. Ackles is in the gym on level seven currently. Do you want your messages, sir?”
He shook his head. He was aware that secretaries had to remind their bosses of things like that but did she have to act like someone had programmed her? Twice now, when he’d said yes, she’d cheerfully told him that he had no messages. If she wasn’t so damned hot, he’d fire her.
“If Morgan comes looking for me, tell him that I’ve just stepped out. Be back in an hour or two.”
She nodded perkily. Chad rolled away, heading down to the gym. He’d gotten an offer for a motorized chair when he’d come on board with Padalecki Microcybernetics but he’d blasted that idea straight off the table. He needed the exercise.
The lift dinged open and he pushed his way down the hallway, peering around doors until he found the Ackles clan, or rather the three clan members who hadn’t hightailed it back to the family camp. The gym was simple, just a couple of weight machines at the back, a punching bag and a large martial arts mat. Jensen was sitting with his back against the wall shouting encouragement as his younger sister beat the living hell out of the bag that Josh was holding.
Chad had to admit that Mackenzie Ackles was quite possibly one of the strangest and most terrifying women on the planet, second only to his own mother. Long black hair, tied off into a scorpion braid, enough kohl around her eyes to keep any three cosmetics companies in business, dark lipstick and silver vampire fangs. He didn’t know if it was just the vampires that freaked him, the whole gothic look or the fact that the girl wouldn’t hesitate to tear a chunk outta someone if they even looked at her wrong.
Rumour was that she’d done it once already since she and Megan had walked back into the building hand in hand. Course, rumour also had it that she’d faced down JD and told him where to shove his plans for Megan’s security. So far, she’d sat in on every meeting that had been on Megan’s calendar and several that weren’t. Didn’t hurt that the girl had a head for numbers and a bullshit detector that was pulling up just short of Chad’s own and that wasn’t an accolade that Chad handed out to just anybody.
Right now, he wasn’t exactly sure what had her pissed but from the lumps she was tearing outta the bag, he was just happy that it wasn’t him. Even though he was easily double her size, and all of it muscle, Josh looked to be having a tough time just keeping the bag still.
He watched for another minute before rolling over to where Jensen sat and pulling up beside him. Jensen raised an eyebrow and handed him a water. He took it, twisted the cap off and downed half in one go. Chad watched him out of the corner of his eye. Jensen was impressive. Even he had to admit that. Six feet one of solid fucking merc and every inch of that behind Jared. Couldn’t ask for better than that. Competent, lethal and loyal. Just what Jared needed. And not a trace of the cockiness that Morgan had. Talked to everyone, said good morning, found out their names. One of the good guys, here, one of the few good guys left in the building and for that Chad kinda owed him one.
“You okay?” Jensen asked and Chad could hear the concern in his voice.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just…” he paused, “… a tough day.”
“Yeah?”
“Some days are rougher than others,” Chad watched Josh getting pushed back two steps as a particularly vicious kick from Mackenzie connected with the bag. “She picturing someone’s face on that or is it just a ‘red-day’?”
“Jeez,” Jensen winced, “I know Jay said you had the tact of a ninety year old but a word of warning, man, don’t say that anywhere near her.”
“What can I say? I like living dangerously!”
“There’s dangerous and then there’s suicidal,” Jensen grinned, “So you come down here to work out? You want a spotter?”
Chad shook his head. This conversation had been a lot easier in his head but fuck it, this needed to happen.
“JD found my office earlier, wanted a copy of the audio feed from the night in the motel,” Chad watched Jensen carefully.
“Oh? He give you a reason why?” Jensen asked, his face carefully masked as he watched the sparring.
“Yeah, he’s looking for dirt on you.”
Jensen didn’t look up, “He find any?”
“The audio file is clean,” Chad saw Jensen’s shoulder drop a millimetre, “But I managed to get something off the video files. Took a bit of work but…”
“JD have it yet?”
“Nope,” Chad shook his head, “Not sure I’m planning on handing it over. Guess that’s up to you?”
“Me?” Jensen didn’t look up but he was definitely surprised.
“Hell of a way to settle a grudge, a quick trip to the desert and a nine mil send-off” Chad remarked.
“Not sure I follow,” Jensen was keeping his careful mask in place but Chad was starting to detect a couple of cracks in the armour.
“I did some checking and I gotta say, three and a half years is a long time to wait for payback, even if she was a friend. Ya know it was the talk of the streets when you took the deal with Kane, then flipped on him to save Jay’s life,” he held up a hand as Jensen made to answer, “I’m not saying that you’re wrong to do it. Hell, if I wasn’t trapped in this chair, I’d have tracked him down and done it myself. But hiding it, now that’s just a recipe ready to blow up in your face.”
Jensen said nothing at first but then softly, he said, “It wasn’t for her.”
Chad needled a little more, “Yeah, sure it wasn’t.”
There was the start of a fire in those green eyes now, “It wasn’t! Sure, she was why I took his money and screwed him but after that… It was all about Jay. Keeping him safe. Making sure that he was okay,” he scrubbed a hand through his hair and took a deep breath, “You can call it what you want, but we both know that the second Kane wanders back inside the city limits of Dallas, he’s gonna be spreading his money around and getting everyone he can buy out on the street and they’re all gonna be gunning for Jay. They’re going to be taking every damned shot they can and trying to kill him. I can’t, I won’t let that happen.”
Chad watched him, and smiled. There was a heat behind the words that warmed Chad right through. There was conviction, emotion, everything that Chad wanted to see from Jensen.
“That’s what I needed,” Chad turned his chair slightly until he was looking right at Jensen, “You gotta know that JD is looking to pull up every piece of dirt he can on you. This is only going to be the latest thing that he thinks might give him leverage. You gotta watch him close. He’s had three years to work this dream into a reality and now that he’s got all the pieces on the board, he’s going for the title shot. And way I figure it, you’re just a pawn on his board. And every good player knows that a pawn is the first piece sacrificed if you wanna get the Queen home.”
Jensen frowned, “I’m not sure that…”
Chad waved him off, “Ignore the metaphors, I only play chess with computers. Lose every time. Important thing is that he’s gonna be the power behind the chair and he isn’t gonna stop to think about your feelings as he pushes you out the door.”
Jensen opened his mouth to answer, then closed it, leaning back against the wall again.
“Come on, you telling me you haven’t seen those looks he’s thrown your way every time you even try to step up to the plate?” Chad leaned forward, “You never seen the proud looks he has when Jay trots out one of his lines? I gotta say, man, you’re not exactly living up to my expectations here.”
“I’m shattered,” Jensen rolled his eyes.
“Nah, man, think about it. You walked in here with a posse of family and took the building. Everyone knows who you are. They know you got enough family to replace the whole of security if you just make a call. They know who Mackenzie is too,” he shrugged, “Not quite the same reason, but I guarantee that there is not a person in the building that is gonna cross her. No one is gonna try to push her away from Megan. Not unless they want a free sex change, ya know?” He chuckled, “You? You’re different. Don’t think anyone knows what to make of you. You’re there, right behind Jay all the time but you’re not there with him. You’re his muscle. You’re the one making sure that no one is gonna get ideas but you’re stuck somewhere between his man and his partner. They’re not sure who you are. JD… Well, JD is right there all the time, the mentor, the father figure. He’s in the room with Jared, trying to broker deals, trying to get things moving. You’re not. Looks like he’s the bigger figure in Jay’s life. Get on JD’s good side and you’ve won the battle. That’s what people are thinking. The Corp world is politics by another name. You need to get in good with the powers to get things moving and they see you, they just see someone holding Jay’s coat. You may wanna work on that.”
“It’s on my to-do list,” Jensen said wryly.
Chad shook his head, “Maybe it should be top of your list. ‘Cause you got a hell of a lot of people here all on Jay’s side, just waiting for a good reason to throw down behind you. You just gotta step up.”
“Where do you stand on this?” Jensen asked.
Chad looked out at Josh and Mackenzie and smiled, “I’m behind Jay. Hundred percent.”
“And between JD or me?” he asked.
“C'mon man, I can’t tell you all my secrets. People would start talking and I’m just not that kinda guy,” Chad smiled as he turned his chair, pushing himself towards the door.
“Chad,” Jensen called after him, “What about the file? Are you gonna hand it over to JD?”
Chad paused for a second and looked over his shoulder, “What file?”
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