Never Fear

31

As far as establishments went for living in. Living in an old run down newsagents was all right. Never ran out of reading material, the long line of snacks and sweet treats were all right too. If anything they were a perk.

"Honestly? You couldn't choose somewhere better?" A voice quipped.

Thomas Elliot frowned from behind the counter, there were enough cigarettes still stacked here to make a smokers dream come true and keep them stocked up for years.

"Excuse me?! Hello! Earth to, Hush, anyone home-" the woman in question, one Pippa Grey, got silenced by a hand grabbing hold of her collar and the grip tightening so much that it restricted her speech as well as her breathing.

"Shut up." Sliding his eyes over to her, he shoved her away and wiped his hand on his jacket before putting both his hands in his pockets. "Why are you complaining? I bet here has running water, hot water at that. Does this not amuse you? Or do you prefer having to wash in water which has Lord knows what in it, and that's come from Lord knows where?"

"I get your point." Pippa muttered sourly while walking off from him and taking to flicking through the magazines. "What's the deal with this place being abandoned though? I mean, all the stock is still here."

"Gang crimes are high in this part of the city."

"Well," Pippa's face popped over the top of the magazine rack. "I guess no one would try breaking in here with you inhabiting the place would they?"

"Exactly." Thomas nodded. "Get the bags," he turned away and disappeared through a door. This building was more spacious than it first seemed.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mockin' bird. If that mockin' bird won't sing. Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring." By this time, when the seemingly irritating rhyme was being spoken quietly from the shadows of the entrance, Thomas had reappeared.

Leaning against the counter, Thomas idly watched Pippa shuffle away from the magazines and appear near him. "Friend of yours?"

"No."

"Oh, I forgot, friends and Thomas Elliot don't go hand in hand do they?" Pippa shrugged, Thomas narrowed his eyes at her.

"Would you like a bullet to the head, dear?"

"I'll pass."

"What do you want, Crane?" Thomas asked bluntly when the man in question appeared in the doorway carrying a seemingly dead woman. "Wow, you really know how to...how shall I put it?" Thomas put a finger to his chin in thought. "Entertain the ladies."

"Like you do?" Pippa muttered and dodged out of the way of a hit. She grinned and waved her hands at him.

"Would you believe your help?"

"No."

"I want your help. You will help because if you don't I shall happily tell the good men and women in the police department, that it is in fact you who is responsible for the missing patients." Jonathan smiled, "Missing patients in several hospitals and of course, Arkham Asylum too."

"How will those men and women react when an escapee tells them this information?"

"Simple," Jonathan shrugged. "If I go down, you're coming too. So is your girlfriend."

"I'm not-" Pippa voiced pathetically only to have Thomas lift a hand up to silence her.

"So will yours. And I have to say Professor, the way she looks right now, I don't think she'd last long in jail."

"If she dies, I'll simply detonate the bombs Willow made. I positioned four, each on the corners of this very building." Jonathan shrugged awkwardly with the load in his arms, the woman now known as Willow muttered something and opened her eyes only to shut them again.