✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ War Dogs [The Punisher | Frank Castle]✔

─⌖❖ 08

(flashback chapter)

This had been more than a small breakthrough in the Dollmaker case. During the last crime he had been interrupted by something and therefore had not been able to finish his work. Whatever had disturbed him made sure that he could not kill his victim. Badly injured and barely conscious, the woman was found and taken to the hospital, where she was placed under police protection. Too bad the woman was able to describe the doll maker.

"Agent?", on his way to the colleagues, who were at the moment matching all databases with the sketch, Page was stopped by a younger colleague, who was accompanied by a man in a suit, "Quantico."

"Not exactly," the man corrected directly, extending his hand to Page, "Maxim Boltag. I was last at Quantico two years ago. There were some agents there who felt they were in over their heads with the case here and reported their concerns."

"Never in your life have you been to Quantico.... Page, sorry," Page laughed good-humoredly and shook the new colleague's hand, "No one can tell me that."

"Always these prejudices by all appearances," it wasn't the first time Maxim had heard this, "I don't want to offend you but you seem to me like you wouldn't last two days and yet here you are, which means you completed the training there with flying colors. How appearances can be deceiving."

"With flying colors, I wouldn't exactly say," not at all, when Page compared her degree to her dad's, "In the end, I didn't even finish in the top ten. Which was never my goal. You should see Agent Killian to get familiar with the case."

─⌖❖⌖─

One last searching glance at the clipboard in her lap and the visit was ready to go. Whistling, Page blew out the air and looked up at the hospital from the passenger seat, being watched by Mike, anything but thrilled. This could go wrong very quickly. One wrong word, one wrong look, and it was over.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," although Mike tried to build Page up, he himself knew what a thread the coming encounter was hanging by, "We're going to find the abductees."

"That's not what I'm about," Page fought back directly, pulling a book out of the glove compartment that she had almost forgotten about, "I'm more worried about it working."

"It'll be over," gently Mike stroked a strand behind her ear and leaned over to kiss Page on the cheek, but at the same moment she tilted her head to the side, "I'm not like you. With whom you think all this has left you cold. Five weeks ago we broke up, in that time I thought and it was a crappy idea. Are you just going to throw away, the last few years?"

"Mike..... it's not about the last time," clueless as to where Page should even begin, she ran her hand through her hair and shook it out, "Don't you feel like we're getting further and further apart? Like right now. It's like we don't even know each other anymore. Be honest, it was the inevitable that we realized soon enough, so we were spared a lot."

As a parting gesture, Page rubbed his thumb across his cheek, smiled encouragingly at Mike and got out. He made it sound like it was an easy decision for her. A root canal isn't exactly pleasant either, but if it has to be, it has to be. Inevitable. Only she couldn't tell him that in the form that it was like having a root canal. The separation seemed to take more out of him than she had initially believed.