"Maybe A Tune (It's More Like A Siren)." (Baby Driver) PG
Title: Maybe A Tune (It's More Like A Siren).(On Archive Of Our Own)
Author:
lannamichaels
Fandom: Baby Driver
Series: Merge Point
Pairing: Baby/Doc (Baby Driver)
Rating: PG
A/N: Soundtrack: Rona Kenan - Waltz (title track); Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee
Summary: No one is allowed to know that Doc is dead.
No one is allowed to know that Doc is dead. He'd left strict instructions and drilled Baby on them multiple times. Baby's got a long list of things that have to be done before anyone knows that Doc's out of the game.
The first thing Baby does is destroy his own blackmail file. He flips through it a little before he does, mostly just shaking his head at what Doc had decided was incriminating. He'd never known Doc to be sentimental, but there's nothing even in here that could get Baby the death penalty, and that's bullshit, Baby knows there's enough for that.
The next thing Baby does is make extra copies of all of Doc's blackmail files. Doc had highlighted a few of the files for release to certain parties, but Baby decides, fuck it, he's sending out all of them. Doc had put together some contacts, and Baby adds in some more, everyone he can think of. Doc had wanted some chaos to follow his death. Fuck that. Baby's going to make a fucking funeral pyre.
Doc might have promised some of these guys they'd be safe, but fuck that, if Doc didn't want Baby to use his initiative and piss all over his plans, he should have destroyed the files himself, or made someone else the goddamn executor of his goddamn estate. But he picked Baby. And now he's just going to have to fucking posthumously deal with that.
The last thing on Doc's list is making sure his sister Martha and her son Sam aren't caught up in the fires that Baby's about to start. No problem with that. Doc had done it all himself years ago to keep them from being too connected with him. Everyone who knows that Sam had come along on some jobs as a kid are either dead or, well, are Baby. And Baby himself hasn't had any contact with Sam since Sam's senior year of college. They'd had a really mystifying conversation that Baby still doesn't really understand, and after that, as far as Baby knows, Sam's only ever spoken to Doc on the phone. And Doc'd always kicked Baby out of the room when Sam called. All Baby knows it's that Sam practices family law in Milwaukee. His mom moved out to be closer to him five years ago. There's nothing left of them in Atlanta. There's no trace of them for anyone to find.
All even Baby has about them is a phone number that goes to a voice mail box. Baby leave a terse message: Doc's dead. He doesn't expect to hear back from them, and he doesn't.
And then Baby triages the files and starts sending them out. Some go to the press. Others the FBI, the DEA, the SEC. Everyone he can think of. It doesn't matter. He's got copies.
Doc's phone starts ringing almost immediately. Doc was usually the one to get in touch with people, so not too many people have his number, but the ones who do have it are scared. Baby had targeted them first, after all. Baby blandly promises to pass along their messages to Doc and hangs up. There's advantages to having been Doc's shadow for so long. Baby figures it'll take a few more days for his victims to start getting scared enough to start taking matters into their own hands, so he ramps up the pace.
Baby isn't in the mood to pay lip service to honor among thieves. He's targeting everyone. Everyone Doc's worked with in the last thirty years. Everyone who's ever paid Doc off. Everyone who ever gave him information.
It's not explicit, but there's an undercurrent to all of Doc's instructions. Doc expected that Baby would take over for him, become the new him. And Baby has, in his way, become a version of Doc. He's doing what he wants and not caring who dies because of it. He's not killing anyone himself, but he's damn sure recklessly endangering a lot of people who don't deserve it, who didn't have other good choices other than do what Doc said. And Baby isn't bothered enough to care, isn't bothered enough to not do it.
He'd seen Doc cut people off, he's seen Doc kill people who failed him and set others up to the cops. Baby's just doing that to all of them. He's not better than Doc. Doc had done a calculus to decide who was useful and who wasn't. Baby's not any better just because he's doing this out of incandescent rage. He knows he's to blame for a lot of the way his life has gone. But with Doc deader and deader every day, Baby's just getting angrier and angrier. Everyone who is involved, sure, they didn't ruin his life, but they sure ruined a lot of other lives in the process.
Everyone needs to pay for this and Baby's doing what he can to make that happen. He's not Doc and he's burning his bridges faster than he can take advantage of them, but fuck everything. Baby's fulfilling Doc's last wishes, but he's putting his own spin on them. And if Doc wouldn't have liked that, well, too fucking bad.
Baby's keeping himself out of the files not out of any real self-preservation, but because he wants to live long enough to see it all destroyed. He's not different. He was Doc's loyal dog, kicked too much to know any better, but still as fucking guilty as the rest of them. In the beginning, Doc had tried to keep him distracted from what he was doing, but even then, Baby knew. He knows fucking exactly what he's doing, and it's not being anyone his mom or Joe would have ever been proud of. But maybe they'd be proud of him for finally saying no. None of this should have ever fucking happened, but it did, and now it needs to burn.
Doc wanted to set him up as his successor? Bullshit. Doc should have seen this coming. They're similar enough, Baby supposes. But even things that come together eventually come apart. Baby's like Doc would have been, if Doc had had someone like Doc in his life constantly since he was a kid. If Doc had wanted a real successor, he'd've given it to someone else. But he gave it to Baby. That must mean he'd wanted it destroyed. And if he hadn't? Well, he should've asked Baby instead of giving him instructions and orders. Because Baby's not doing it.
Doc used to be pretty scathing about people who would chicken out at the end, people who'd do the planning, who'd commit to it, and then they'd just look the job in the eye and falter. Doc would rather have people who straight up failed than the ones who turned coward because it got too much for them. But this isn't wimping out. It's seeing Doc's legacy all the way to the end, because his legacy is Baby, and Baby wasn't the one who picked this life for himself.
Baby's not deluded. He knows this doesn't mean things are going to stop. But he'll have his revenge the way he can have it, and this is the only way he can have it. He couldn't have ever raised a hand to Doc, but he'll fucking destroy everything Doc built and salt the goddamn ground. It's too late for Doc to punish him for disobedience.
Most people his age wound up in debt to colleges or credit card companies. Baby just got lucky, he guesses. Doc's rules were simple. Do what he said or else. And Baby's the posterboy for doing exactly what Doc told him to do and not a step beyond that. Well, now he's taking that step. Doc wanted some limited posthumous revenge, a little reminder from beyond the grave. Baby's just going to succeed more than Doc wanted him to.
Baby vaguely remembers being a kid, when he'd drive for the hell of it, for the thrill. He feels some of that now, that sheer abandon, that freedom. It's just another word for nothing left to lose, isn't it? And it's true, he's got nothing left. Doc had made himself Baby's entire life and now he's gone. So fuck it. Baby doesn't have much longer to live but he's going to go out in style.
There's gonna be a lot of people gunning for him after this. Baby knows he won't be able to outrun them forever. But until then, he's got what makes him happy: he's got a fast car, he's got the open road ahead of him, and he's got nowhere to be and no one to obey. It's not a recipe for a long life, but he's going to make himself enjoy every minute of it.
This entry was originally posted at https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/994423.html.