OOM: William Evans Visits Miami

[luvs_yogurt]

Michael's on his way to the door, his polo shirt and jeans dusty from training with Duncan and a lasso out by the stables most of the morning and a pair of new work gloves hanging out of his pocket already showing signs of wear. He's got a lot on his mind, not the least of which is a small list of items he's on his way to retrieve before heading out to Ellen's world again to fight robots - because that's something that happens now that Milliways has become a considerable part of his life. Spy, cowboy, futuristic robot slayer... why the hell not. Sure beats posing as another millionaire playboy looking to score hot guns.

But then there's also the question of if he should go ahead and start working on the matter of finding this spy that's responsible for his burn notice before the guy finds him... assuming they don't already have a target on his back when he goes through the door.

It's those thoughts that make it so he doesn't even see William when he brushes past him; "Excuse me..." he mutters in a soft, distracted tone - not stopping his steady steps.

Comments

[luvs_yogurt]

"Shit..." Michael swears under his breath as the close in on their destination, watching the entirely too familiar red and blue lights of Dade county's finest go up as he slides through another light. "The problem with driving like that is it's sort of really illegal - even when the chances of actually hurting someone are slim to none."

He takes another tight turn and slows down just enough to tuck the car into a semi-full parking lot, immediately killing the engine. "So it's kind of a dumb thing to do when you've got a loaded weapon and two guys with no legal ID in the car." He laughs under his breath, closing his eyes as he lets out a breathy sigh. "No worries, they didn't even get a make and model. Just need to wait it out until the pass."

Michael knows a good deal of what he's saying is over William's head - but he also knows the kid catches on real fast. He was blowing off steam - because going real fast feels really good sometimes.

[not_his_pa]

"Hell, they won't come lookin'?"

He's not sure why what they did was that wrong, but he trusts Michael. Though he doesn't know why an ID would be that important.

[luvs_yogurt]

"Nah, this late... in this neighborhood, they'll assume it was teenagers joyriding and wait for a stolen car to be called in." He laughs again, watching the marked car roll past the parking lot with the lights on but no siren.

"So, dinner and then fuel and then back to my place." He offers a weak smile, waiting a long moment before turning the key again.

[not_his_pa]

"Joyridin', like stealin' a horse just to gallop with it?"

That seems sort of stupid if you're not running from something.

[luvs_yogurt]

"Exactly," he nods, "kids with nothing better to do and no sense sometimes steal cars and get stupid with them... sort of like I just did, except this is my car and I'm trained to drive like that and statistically much less likely to end up hurting someone by driving like a maniac."

He turned the key again, backing out of the lot at a much safer, legal speed.

"For me it's kind of like that rush you get when you push a horse as fast as it'll go to where you can't even see where you're going and you know it's dangerous but at the same time it just feels amazing."

[not_his_pa]

"What happens if they get caught?"

Horse thieves aren't looked on kindly in William's world.

[luvs_yogurt]

"In Miami? Not much. If they've got a criminal record or other charges or run with a gang or something, they usually get arrested and might even do jail time. Usually, though, it gets tied up in court over damages and put into the system. The problem is, the way the world is right now people are getting a bit crazy - they can get away with things like they never could back in your day. It's not as simple as having a few too many and throwing a punch at a guy that looks at you funny."

He narrows his eyes as they pull into the fast food parking lot - three cars deep in the drive thru at the late hour. "Now, any punk that wants to start trouble has access to guns and other bullies that don't respect anything but fear and violence. And it's not just on a local level; governments treat each other the same way."

[not_his_pa]

"So you get worse fights while little stuff doesn't have much done about it? Wars must be even worse too?"

That doesn't seem like a good way to life.

[luvs_yogurt]

"Think of it this way," he looks over at him with a steely, serious look; "imagine the war you know but with the ability to kill hundreds, even thousands of people with the push of a button."

He looks back to the road; "We just keep inventing faster and less emotional ways to kill each other." The thought is more than a lot of spies would ever admit to, but somewhat reluctantly he adds; "Guys like me are trained to work with information, and only fight when we have to, but sometimes stealing a briefcase full of more money than a small country produces in a year is just as deadly as putting a gun to someone's head. We like to pretend that everything we do is above board and helping our people... but when it comes down to it I know they never told me why I was doing the things they had me do."

[not_his_pa]

"Like what created the mess of Ellen's world?"

William's quiet and almost asks a question about why Michael does what he does but that feels rude.

[luvs_yogurt]

After a quiet pause to collect his own thoughts on the matter, Michael nods slowly.

"Yeah, we have the technology to do that... have had for a while, but it's becoming more common."

He won't go into the horrors and the stuff he's seen first hand, that's enough to warp people that watch the daily news, suffice to say things could get really ugly really fast.

"The only thing stopping it is agreements between politicians to not use it - and money. Lots of stupid, ultimately worthless money."

[not_his_pa]

"Hell, sounds a mess,"

Things are bad in his time too just it doesn't seem to be on the same scale.

[luvs_yogurt]

"It is," he shrugs as they pull up closer to the speaker; "that's why I do what I do. I can't save the world, but I guess I always kind of hoped I was doing something to make it a little better."

He doesn't pause, it's too deep to think about right now, before asking; "I'm assuming I should order for you?"

[not_his_pa]

"Yeah, whatever you think I'd like and I know how that is. I want to do what I can to make things better but know I probably ain't goin' to be able to do that much,"

He's seen how it broke his father just trying to keep their family afloat.

[luvs_yogurt]

The thought weighs a little heavily on his mind as he orders a couple burgers and fries and sodas - and then pulls forward another car length before responding; "What you do is the most important job, William." He looks over at him again, trying not to show the slight wetness of his normally hard eyes; "You take care of your family. Believe me, when I was your age I had the option of joining the Army or staying with my family... it's only this last year I've started wondering how it would have gone if I didn't leave."

[not_his_pa]

"Oh,"

He looks down at his hat since that means a lot, he tries his hardest but it feels like there's always something he can't do right.

[luvs_yogurt]

"If I've got the situation as figured out as I think I do..." his voice drops a little lower as they roll up to the window and he reaches across to retrieve a fifty dollar bill from the glovebox where an envelope with several inside sits on top of his gun. "They need you and you do a lot better job than most guys would."

He gets the impression William's a much better son and brother than he ever was or would be.

"We're not far from my place, we can eat there - these are a little messy for the car."

[not_his_pa]

"Yeah, think eating in the car wouldn't do well. Thanks,"

It's for the food and for thinking he's doing a good job.

[luvs_yogurt]

"Any time," on all accounts.

It's a short trip, only a few miles to the nightclub that's gone dark and quiet at the late hour and when he gets out to open the gate it takes a couple extra minutes where it just looks like he's staring up the stairs before he gets back in the car and pulls the Charger inside.

"Let me go up first," he cautions, getting out quickly to head up the stairs - eyes searching meticulously for any sign of something nasty on the other side of the door.

[not_his_pa]

"Course, you want me to do anythin'?"

He gets out and tenses, he'll fight beside Michael or do whatever needs doing though he doesn't have a gun.

[luvs_yogurt]

He shakes his head and when he reaches the top of the stairs performs a full check of the door before very slowly opening it - checking the pressure for any sort of resistance.

The place is, thankfully, just as he left it. Which isn't to say much, it's still the loft.

"Clear," he calls down, nodding for William to bring up their dinner as he makes a quick effort to clear away some of the paperwork on the counter by the kitchen for a place to sit.

"It's not much," he says when he sees William's hat poke through the door; "but it's cheap and has what I need."

[not_his_pa]

The loft's about the size of William's cabin just arranged differently and he nods,

"It's nice, I think its a little bigger than our place. Where should I put these?"

[luvs_yogurt]

"It's not bad, but compared to some of the places I've been in out here? It feels like a hole in the wall."

Gesturing toward the counter, he makes for the opposite direction toward a second set of stairs leading to a small platform with a desk and a sofa and a large crate overlooking the bed. "Over there, go ahead and dig in, I'll be right down - I just want to check what I have here and see if I have to make a phone call tonight."

[not_his_pa]

"I can wait,"

He starts setting the food out and trying to figure out what's in each container.

[luvs_yogurt]

Michael rolls his eyes, it's always the polite ones - Sam would have eaten both of theirs in the car on the way in, and carts the crate down to his bed. Cracking open the top he goes over what's still in it.

He'd been a little quicker than normal when he went through it with Emma while they were preparing their job, this time he's got a lot more time to work with as he inventories a handful of pistols - four 9mm, one .44 - and two larger guns, a riot shotgun and Fiona's old sniper rifle. As he'd hoped, she left it behind clean and intact with the scope and tripod nestled neatly beside it in the box.

"Perfect... now, I just have to figure out where my ex-girlfriend hid the grenades."