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The man was too polite to outright ask why AJ had approached him to introduce himself, but his eyes were skeptical enough to light a rebellious fire in the EMT.
"You have a handkerchief, and I'm hoping you'll give it to me."
Clearly not what he'd been expecting, Mr. Nagle rocked back on his heels.
"And why should I be giving something like that to you?"
"You're not giving it to me. You'll be gifting it to the lovely Miss Melissa. Just over there?"
"Oh. We are acquainted." Sounded like rich people problems or history there. AJ bulldozed on all the same.
"I think she's playing a stupid game with me, and I'd like to up the ante."
He barked out a laugh. "My handkerchief will do that?"
"I'm willing to roll the dice and find out, otherwise I wouldn't be here."
"You have spunk. I'll give you that."
"But not your handkerchief?"
"Everything has its price... AJ, was it?"

According to Melissa, it was not just sufficient, but absolutely perfect. Good. He wasn't keen on making pointless deals with devils.

And his reward was immediate. He found it telling that the bartender addressed Melissa first. And after all the rapport AJ'd wasted on reading his nametag, too.

He eyed the spot, which was admittedly still a touch damp, but in far better shape than he'd ever expected to see his jacket again.

"Thanks, Marco." His arms slipped into the silky tailored interior and AJ did the middle button, off by a hole in his excitement to be put back together. "How's it look?"

At the quip about his jacket theft AJ gave sad pouty lips. But... what if it was jacket theft? Her assessment that he was the same size as the help was, frankly, insulting.

"With these guns?" He scoffed. Scoffed! And more importantly, while she waved hello and made eyes at the big fat purses, he poured. He tried not to rely on anything as a crutch, but tonight he might not make it without.

She was already scoffing back. See? They did speak the same language.

> ”What can I say? You caught me.”

Wait... what?

She explained and the gears in his head slipped a few times before the teeth caught.

"Oh. I'm being punked. Cool." He threw back the shot like an expert despite being anything but. It burned all the way up in his sinus cavity and he grimaced. Yeah. He was still pretty sure he was being punked.

Because if his jacket was some pawn in a rich guy's side quest game within an award ceremony, AJ was fairly sure he'd entered one of the circles of Christian hell. Maybe the cold one, since he was jacketless.

AJ rolled the rum bottle between his hands, unsure if he actually wanted another shot or a different alcohol or to jump out the window. The warmth that one shot ignited in his chest was more than enough to give him the chutzpah to fight, though. He had to be here. So he should make the most of it.

"If you're not taking me for the fool, tell me how to make you win before checks are passed out." That was the best way forward, wasn't it? Let her have her crazy rich person game. Let her take the crown. Let him earn his dignity back before the check and the pictures happened.

Yup. He shook his head at the desk jockey. "His job is important. The way he comports himself is… less so." Was that judgey? Yeah. AJ was a judgey bitch.

Melissa, a ditz name. But there was something funny about her. Grabbing his jacket to shake his hands anyway? It turned semi-awkward into semi-amused. She wiped her hand on his other hand which might have felt a bit dismissive if this whole thing weren't so absurd.

"Yeah that was a whole drink, I think?" Between the two of them, her hand was dried. Poor AJ was not fixed so simply.

She suggested he lie to avoid embarrassment and he shook his head again, still amused that their perspectives were so vastly different.

"If I lie to save face, that shifts the embarrassment from me to them, but only for today. Only if I get away with it. In a room full of people I have to work with by some degree? It's just not worth the risk." Unless he was willing to change professions…

If he was feeling petty, he might show up in one of their offices in uniform… of course that was all dependant on them recognizing him. Who really looked at the wait staff that closely?

Melissa beckoned him over toward the bar. He still had a check to accept. Much as he didn't want to, he had to get himself put back together before then. AJ made an effort to be better than the hypothetical racists he wouldn't lie to: he gave eye contact and noticed the shiny silver name tag on the bartenders spiffy vest.

"Hey Marco, I'm guessing you get this a lot, but does the club soda thing actually work? Is it gonna help me clean up?" AJ spread his jacket out on the bar and turned to show off his still-wet back spot. By the way Marco sucked in air through his teeth…? He was guessing the prognosis was not good.

Donnie was still out of action. The shoulder wound had been a through and through gsw, but between the wound itself and physical therapy, AJ's partner was a man without full mobility. He couldn't drive the wagon. He was on desk and dispatch duty only, the ultimate insult. And that put AJ in a very awkward space. He'd run as a back up, filling in when duos fell apart, but... the whole point was that they worked as a team. Filling in was at best a short-term solution.

So his hours were down in a job that already didn't pay great. When his scheduling supervisor floated the idea of a party by him, a party that he'd get paid to attend, AJ jumped at the chance.

As it turned out, they weren't covering the tux rental. He would still break even, but only because he insisted that being a token brown man forced on his best behavior to hobnob with C and D-list celebrities in the medical field deserved hazard pay.

He was vain, AJ knew this, but he didn't really see it in action until he was trying to chat up the residency admissions counselor for the best funded hospital around. He was... frumpy. AJ had figured that no one could make a tux look frumpy, but with a bulging middle and a flop of hair combed over the top? Yeah. Even a tuxedo could look frumpy. It was difficult to focus on what could be a potentially life-altering conversation. He just kept imagining all the health complications indicated by his sallow skin and liver spots.

"...difficult to find young people who are willing to stick it out. I know that the attending doctors can be a mite rough, but-"

"It's a high pressure situation, I'm sure." He smiled mangnanimously and sipped a tonic water.,He was trying to focus on the words, not the bad hair. "Much like emergency services, I'll wager you're dealing with underfunding and overcrowd-!"

Someone bumped him from behind and AJ felt a spill of cold, even through his dashing burgundy-on-black floral jaquard tuxedo jacket. He yelped a bit and very nearly spilled it forward onto his conversational partner. He excused himself from buttering up the desk jockey and turned toward the spiller, a tall woman-- taller than him. She was young for the crowd gathered here, some of the fossils made even AJ look young. But most eye-catching of all was the red.

Red dress, young beautiful woman in a room full of doctors? AJ smelled a gold digger, but smiled reassuringly at her anyway. He had no gold to dig, no matter how good he cleaned up in a rental.

Augh! It was rented!

"Are you alright, Miss?" She looked fit and healthy enough on her heels. Hopefully no one had been ungentlemanly toward her. AJ peeled off his jacket to inspect the damage, leaving only a small damp spot where his white shirt stuck to his skin on his back.

He could see the ambulance entrance. He could just make out the figured of two waiting ER intake doctors or nurses, maybe interns. Nobody liked night shift emergency room shifts. That's when the real crazies came out.

Like the samurai riding the top of the ambulance, throwing out a hand full of glittering something and puncturing the roof of the back box with her sword.

Yeah. Exactly like that kind of crazy.

AJ swerved, but it was beyond too late. The ambulance rocked back and forth as it's front tires popped in quick succession and the back left tire blew, leaving him with only one wheel not riding the rims.

He jerked and compensated and then tried to compensate again as the ambulance fight him with its uneven carriage.

He could SEE the ER intake. He could see it! Right there!

The ambulance rolled to a stop, just a few years short. Whatever the intake staff saw made hardened medical staff hesitate.

She was likely already dead back there. They'd been delayed and Chelsea hasn't had any time to spare.

"Why?" it was so… so senseless. AJ hit the steering wheel and scrambled out the driver's door.

"Hurt Donnie and I will never forgive you." He had nothing and they both know it. No leverage. Nothing. Chelsea, he knew, was a lost cause. He couldn't even argue there.

But he would watch. He owed her that much at least. If it was his fault...? He'd watch.

He'd fixed the hand and then abandoned the man to the samurai's mercy. The legs still worked. Maybe he shouldn't have taken away the gun... given him a fighting chance...?

"Load her up."

He hadn't heard the words so much as felt Donnie's arm tugging and read his lips. "Shut up, idiot."

"No. You." He wasn't wearing a bullet proof vest or anything, he'd just gotten rather lucky. Through and through, upper trapezius. His shirt was a goner, the wound was bleeding like crazy and AJ mashed on it until he was satisfied he could tape it tightly enough. Donnie was gonna be okay. He'd only stayed down because he'd wanted to live. Also, it probably hurt.

And the fool was shoving AJ up so they could both load Chelsea into the back of the wagon, pale as the sheet she lay on top of and moist with a gleam of sweat. Shock was here. Her eyes were rolling around like a spooked horse's. AJ would normally be in the back, but with Donnie's arm... he shoved his partner in to lock the gurney wheels and secure the back doors. He took the wheel.

The driver's side door slammed shut and he noticed in the side view mirror... the samurai. He dropped the radio and the booklet into the passenger's seat where he'd been trying to decipher the correct codes, and turned over the engine instead.

"HOPE YOU"RE BUCKLED UP." AJ slammed his seatbelt into place and floored it, sirens on, so he might break as many laws as possible to get away.