Of Gangs and Groceries
Gwydion and T4

Chapter 11

Hitomi backed up to the door, fingering the handle, ready to jet if need be.

"Aw, come on, there's no need for that," he said, noticing her apprehension, "I thought we were friends now. We've gotten so close over the short time we've known each other."

"What do you want?" Though she couldn't really make out the shadowy figure, she knew the voice to be Dragon's. She wasn't afraid for herself per se, but she didn't really want a run in with him. She was tired.

"Oh, you know, just checking up on old friends, and I thought I'd stop by to see how you were doing."

"Hn? I'm fine," she replied shortly, confused at his reason for being here. Was he mocking her? She passed the first apartment door in the hallway, slowly making her way toward him.

He stood, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. "Good." He paused, watching her walk toward him. "Though I really was hoping that - Allen? - would be dropping you off after work. Where is he, hm? I was really hoping he and I could have a little chat," he replied, glancing behind her.

"He's not here." She stopped walking, knowing what kind of chat he wanted to have with Allen and planning to keep her friend as far away from Dragon as she could. In a tired out but mocking tone, she added, "But, if you have a message for him, I'd surely pass it along next time I see him." She smiled hollowly like she did to the cheerleader customer earlier that day.

He gazed at Hitomi who was more or less standing in front of him. "That's a shame. I had really wanted to deliver this message to him personally. Somehow I think it would lose some of it's... punch if you delivered it for me." He walked up to her and put a smirk on his face.

She looked up at his face. "Oh," she began, playing along, "I wouldn't want you to waste your precious time in finding him. I'm sure someone such as yourself has many appointments to keep, bags to pack, and carts to round up. Please, don't trouble yourself with such small tasks as taking a message to Allen." She patted him on the shoulder as she turned, stepped around the gang leader, and started upstairs before he had a chance to say anything in retort.

Dragon quickly turned, jumped up the few stairs in one leap, and stopped her. "I'd suggest you tell that boyfriend of yours that he'd better watch his step. If he even so much as shows his face around here again, I can guarantee that it won't be his precious car that will be disfigured!"

She spun around and looked down at Dragon who was now two steps below her. "He's not my boyfriend," she clarified. Then, she leaned over, looking him in the eyes, and in a harsh whisper continued with "But, if you even hurt one of my friends, oh, you'll come to regret it." Suddenly, she thought she saw the door open, distracting her for a second. The uncovered forty watt bulb shined in such a way that she thought she saw eyes looking at her. The door shut abruptly. She must have been imagining things. With that, she smiled down at the gang leader and turned to continue up the stairs.

He followed her up the stairs. "Will I now? And just what would you do to me, huh?" he asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

Without looking at him, she replied rather good-naturedly, "Let's just say that you wouldn't be seeing much except the scenes of a four star cell in the state penitentiary."

"Just try it. I dare you," was the reply, his smirk never fading.

"Oh no," she ironically smirked back. She turned and looked at him, putting her left hand on his shoulder again. "You just try me." After patting his head like he were a little boy, she continued to her apartment.

Irritated, Dragon reached out to grab her arm to get the last word in, but retracted it, thinking otherwise.

"See you tomorrow!" Hitomi called back, almost a little too sweetly, turning out of sight to head up the next flight of stairs.

Dragon sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Yeah, see you," he mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair. He then pushed himself away from the wall and headed back down the stairs.

Hitomi proceeded to her room where she pulled the cell phone out to tell Allen yet again how important it was that he stay away. She hoped he'd listen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where is she, boss?" a nasally voice asked.

"It wasn't the opportune time," Dilandau replied, still wondering about earlier, the flame from his lighter flickering in the dim light of their hideout.

"When? When?" another groupie asked just a little too excitedly.

"Shut up, already! I gotta think this through." It was going to be hard, kidnapping Dragon's girl and all. Who knew that Whitey spent so much time with her anyway? Just earlier this evening when he peaked in and saw them on the steps and Dragon all up and close and personal and face to face and all... Luckily neither of them had seen him in the doorway. Finally, with a final click of his lighter, he announced, "We'll go tonight while she's asleep."

Migel, who had been with Dilandau earlier, took him aside. "Dilandau, sir, do you really think that's a good time?"

"Are you doubting me?" replied the gang leader, eyes narrow.

"Well, no! It's just that, if Dragon and the girl really are, you know, that close..."

His boss gave him a look that said, "Your point?"

"You know," Migel coughed, insinuating the situation they might find in Hitomi's apartment late at night.

"If you're implying that Whitey may be accompanying the wench, then don't you think that'd be an added bonus? Why bother nabbing the girl when we can simply crush him right then and there?" he replied, a cruel smirk sliding across his face as stroked the scar on his cheek.

"Yes, sir." answered Migel as he left his boss in order to prepare himself for that night's escapades.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After pulling the black tennis shoes and socks off her tired feet, Hitomi readied herself for bed by brushing her teeth and hair and changing into her bedclothes. The oversized red t-shirt with faded lettering that once boldly boasted "I save lives - I give blood" hung so low that it just about covered her striped, off-brand shorts. The heat of the day hadn't dissipated much, and it was already 11 pm. The craziness of late August weather! Sighing for joy at the thought of being still and sleeping, she pulled a sheet over herself, soon to discard it, wishing for air conditioning. However, despite the gruesome heat, she soon fell to sleep, a very dreamless, deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He fidgeted with the lock. The dang thing just wouldn't crack. It's not like he had never done this before. Dilandau frowned in annoyance as he watched Migel mess with the lock on the old Taurus. Not too sure what color it was, maybe green, maybe black, the gang leader waited. His car was out of gas and he didn't particularly want to drive it into enemy territory even if it weren't broad daylight. So, the answer? Have Migel hotwire this old piece of trash. Whoever's it was would be thankful for the insurance over the hunk of junk anyway he mused. "Hurry up!" he hissed at his subordinate.

"Yes, sir."

It luckily didn't take him much longer, and the two were soon on their way to Hitomi's apartment

"This one'll be much easier," Migel assured in a whisper, standing outside her door with a small metal tool and a flashlight. Dilandau nodded and looked down the hallway both directions. Thus far, they had gone undetected. In fact, Dragon's warehouse was looking pretty quiet tonight - not even a light on in the joint or at least there wasn't one he could see from the alley.

The door swung open with a creak. The room was dark, and it took the their eyes time to adjust. They saw the old, narrow bed at the other side of the room, below the cracked window. Migel stood watch, hoping that they had not caught her and Dragon in anything awkward, as Dilandau made his way across the room carefully. When he reached the bed, he held the gun out toward her head. "Wake up."

She moaned and looked up at him. As her eyes focused, they became wide and her mouth dropped. Sitting up, she stared at him.

"Get out of bed. You're coming with us."

She stood. Everything in her head pushed her to yell out for help, but she couldn't bring herself to. He had the gun only two feet from her chest. He motioned with the gun for her to head toward the door. Just as she made her way around the table, Migel caught sight of her.

"Uh, boss?" he asked in an aside.

"What?" The gang leader turned his cold stare to his subordinate.

"Shouldn't she put on some shoes at least?" Migel had always been somewhat of a softy at heart. Not to mention the one time he had stepped on the nail... Well, shoes just seemed like a good idea to him.

Irritated, Dilandau growled and pushed her back into the room. "Make it fast."

Hitomi, unsure, slipped her shabby black tennis shoes back on her happily bare feet. The old shoes molded too well to the shape of her feet. She followed Migel out the door, wishing she had somehow thought of a tricky way to bring the cell phone with her. If only she had paid more attention to the slight of hand tricks and the magic kit she was given in third grade...

"We're just going to go for a little ride, okay, wench?" Dilandau, putting his gun inside his jacket and his left arm around her shoulders ushered her out to the car, looking at her just a little too intently. In the alley light, the Taurus looked green for sure - not that it mattered. Hitomi was pushed into the backseat where the gang leader sat next to her, his lighter out once again. Migel drove them back after hotwiring the car for the second time. This time, he already knew the car's sweet spot, so it went much faster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We need a packer on lane 6 please, packer on 6."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," muttered Van under his breath as he headed to the unoccupied lane. Without bothering to ask what kind of bags the customer wanted, he quickly pulled open a plastic one and began throwing in random items. It had been far too busy all day long, especially considering that the meat sale had just ended. After so many people bearing chicken breasts, pork loins, and ground beef had come through the last few days, he was amazed at how many people still needed food.

"Hey, where is Hitomi, anyway?" whined the cashier, an annoyed expression on her overly tanned - read as "lobster red" - face.

He soon heard the cashier at lane 7 speak. "Huh? Hitomi? I don't know, she hasn't been in today, has she? Why?"

"Well, she was supposed to take me off ten minutes ago! I am so starving! And no one at the front desk seems to even care! Hello!? I have worked for 3 hours already! I want to go on my lunch break!" the girl pouted as she began to ring up the next order, not even bothering to acknowledge the elderly man's presence.

Already tired of her mouth, Van quickly moved away from the lane, feigning a near-bursting bladder. As soon as he was out of sight, he managed to slip away to the bagger's "secret hiding place". With a deep sigh he sat down and leaned his head back against the wall. The insane number of customers had been bad enough, but to have to listen to that annoying teenaged drama queen would have been pure torture.

"So little Miss Perfect has skipped out today, huh?" he said to no one with an amused smile. Granted, it didn't seem like her style, but then again, perhaps she had simply talked to that Allen guy again after he had made the, uh, "comment" about his possible well being and had decided to finally just go stay with him.

"One less problem for me to deal with..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She wasn't sure to be scared or not. As she reflected on the past few weeks, things like this were happening all the time, and she always came out okay, right? But, now, in this empty, dirty room, she wasn't so sure. There was a guard posted in a folding chair on the other side of the door; she could hear him say things to other gang members as they passed. On the way in, she had noticed that the gang’s hideout was a small old, run-down, apartment building on the other side of town. As she stared at the once white wall, she prayed that everything would work out okay this time too and that this would be the end of the whole mess. If she got out... No, when she got out, maybe it would be a good idea to take Allen up on his offer. Her thoughts ran through all sorts of possibilities. It wouldn’t be giving in, would it? Maybe she should get a different job or move far away or something. She couldn’t help feeling as if she had lost not only comfort, but pride and dignity. But, this certainly wasn’t a dignified place to be. How long would she be here? Why was she here? She was hungry. What time was it anyway?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'd like double paper, please."

"You got that, Van?" asked Millerna icily as she began to slide the groceries (which had taken up two full carts, by the way) across the counter. "Not plastic, ok? Get it right this time!" When the cashier heard no annoyed grunt in reply, she glanced down to where her bagger should have been standing only to find him gone. "Van!? He'd better be getting another cart..." she muttered to herself as she looked toward the entrance. A bright orange color caught her eye.

There stood Van messing with the staple ridden vest. When he noticed her staring at him, fuming, he simply pointed at the vest, made the best innocent look he could, and walked out the door to start his hour of carts. Granted, he was about ten minutes early, but it wasn't too hard to grab the vest away from Gaddes who had been finishing his own hour.

Ignoring Millerna's rude hand gesture, the bagger looked around outside. Apparently Gaddes had just decided to start his cart hour when Van had decided to steal the vest. Carts were everywhere. Not only were the cart stalls all full, but the parking lot itself was strewn with random carts. Letting out a low groan, Van headed to the nearest stall to begin his sure to be long hour.

Twenty minutes sweatier, the bagger at last made it to the other side of the parking lot. As he headed toward the other cart stall, an elderly lady had just finished emptying her cart and was looking expectantly at the bagger in the orange vest. Quickly avoiding her gaze, he kept walking, not wanting to pick up a single cart on a very busy day, wasting an entire trip. As she started calling out "Excuse me, young man?" He increased his pace and looked the other way, not realizing he was about to walk into another customer.

"Oh, well hello there! You're just in time!" cried a large and rather jolly looking man right as Van was about to crash into him. Startled, the bagger looked at the newcomer just as a cart was pushed into his stomach. "I appreciate it!" called the man as he entered his car.

Muttering under his breath, Van grabbed the cart and wheeled it around. Right in front of him stood the old lady, a sour look on her face. With an incredibly fake smile, he said, "Would you like me to get that for you?"

Without a word, the woman simply turned around, leaving the cart right in the path of the oncoming car. Grabbing the cart roughly, he put the two carts together and headed back toward the grocery store. As he rounded the corner to the door, he overheard the customer service workers as they chatted on their break. The telltale smell of cigarette smoke wafted over, even overriding the lovely odor of his B.O., as he grumbled over the woes of carts.

"Yeah, this isn't like her. To skip out on work and all."

"Well, she did just disappear that one day... if you know what I mean..."

"Hey! Since when did you start believing the gossip of those dumb baggers?"

Van growled at that insult, but continued past.

"Plus," the woman on the defensive added, "she seems to really need this job, ya know?"

"I don't know. All I know is that three skips equals a suspension." The voice had a certain edge of warning.

Van muttered to himself, "A suspension, huh? Doesn't sound too bad."

A loud car horn caused his attention to come sharply back to his current duty. A beat up, rusty Pinto sped past, only about a foot away from him. From the passenger's seat window came hoots of laughter as he glared after the car. But as the Pinto started to billow black smoke, the laughter stopped abruptly. The bagger smirked as he steered the carts into the store and made his way back outside into the heat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's not too late that she'd be asleep, but she should be off work now, right? He hadn't talked to her yesterday. She was always so tired that all she seemed to do was work and sleep, work and sleep. Nonetheless, he decided to try the cell phone. After hearing it ring once, he heard his own voice: "You've reached Allen. Please leave a message."

The voice mail? He hung up suddenly, dejected. Why did she never leave the dang cell phone on? He just wanted to make sure she was okay, ya know, just talk for a while. Besides, weekends always seemed to be the times when the most trouble brewed. He knew Saturdays were crazy days at work, and she was always tired after them. Anyway, he'd certainly see her tomorrow at church to check up on her. She would never miss seeing Momaru.

But he couldn't wait. He pressed redial on his portable phone, plopping himself on his expensive, leather couch, readying himself to leave a long, heartfelt message or at least something that might get Hitomi to call back.

"You've reached Allen. Please leave a message."

"Uh, hi, Hitomi. I was just calling to see how you were doing and all... I guess maybe you're asleep or at work still, but I really thought you'd be off by now. Yeah, so call me back when you get the chance." There was a long, awkward pause. It was weird talking to himself, but he had more he wanted to say. Instead, he stalled with: "Oh yeah, Momaru's doing really well. He was actually reading a book today. What was it called now? Uh... something about... about... oh, I don't know. He said you gave it to him for his birthday. Something about a boat and a girl named Charlotte or something. Maybe it was Charlene? Anyhow, he said he'd already read it a couple times, but that he was going to read it again. Yeah, so..." Another pause. "Be sure to call me back when you get the chance. I'll be around. If not, I'll see you at church tomorrow. We'll be there. Oh, and in the future, just leave the phone on more often, okay?" A short pause ensued until he felt a rush to hang up on this long monologue. "Stay safe, okay? I miss you."

He pressed the 'end' button on his phone, and it turned off with a beep. He stayed on the couch, thinking of Hitomi, hoping she was okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door slammed open, and Hitomi was briskly awakened from her disturbing sleep. A brown paper bag was thrown on the floor; the door was shut. After eyeing the bag, she opened it to find a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a coke. She looked at it wearily. What if it was somehow poisoned? She picked up the sandwich and sniffed it. It smelled okay. And what good would it do them to poison her anyway? If they wanted to get rid of her, they could just storm in here right now and put a gun to her head or something. Ten seconds of debating was all it took for her to decide that she'd chance it.

After a bite, she mumbled with peanut butter stuck to the roof of her mouth, "Not bad..." She had been hoping for creamy peanut butter, but was greeted with the familiar crunch of peanuts. She shrugged, too hungry to care.

to be continued...

A/N: I do apologize for how late this chapter was in coming! Things just got more hectic than I'd expected over the weekend for one, but as for the rest of the summer, I ended up working 2 jobs, leaving little time for fanfics... But as I've said before, we will never give up on this story! And we are already working on the climax, so fear not! But yeah, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!