#DanTheMan

He stood up, sock-footed on the warehouse floor. "Reckon it's time to say goodbye, then," he announced to no one in particular. He glanced over at Gavin, looking him in the eyes. He wanted to judge just how miffed Gavin was at him before speaking. He took a couple of steps towards him.

Looking into Gavin's eyes, he suddenly had nothing to say. Too much had happened between them, and though there were so many things to talk about, Dan couldn't seem to manage it. Instead, he just said, "See you around, B," though they both knew they'd never see each other again. He made a move to clap Gavin on the shoulder but aborted it partway through, sticking his hand in his pocket. 

He turned to Barabra, then, and again, he wasn't sure what to say. They didn't know each other that well, it was true, and she'd lied to him from the very beginning. But still, she'd defended him to Michael and never been anything but nice to him. "Sorry about all of this," he said, smiling weakly. "You know, if all of this madness never existed, I recon we'd've been good mates." Then he leaned forward and hugged her, loosely, and a bit awkwardly, the way you might hug a distant relative at a family gathering. The real reason he did so, however, was to whisper quietly enough that only she heard, "You're too good for this kind of life, Babs. You're above it." He pulled back, smiling again. "Farewell, lovely Barbara." He winked at her, and then turned away.

Pushing back from her desk, she moved to rejoin the group. As she walked by Michael and Gavin, she paused.

He rolled his eyes a bit when Jack went to comfort Barbara, though he himself felt like doing so. Something about the big ginger bloke just annoyed him.

"Barbara," he called after her, "give me a cool name, yeah? I’ve been Dan all my life, it’d be cool to be a bit more exotic." He was making light of the situation, trying to make it seem as though his existence was wiped so regularly that he was used to it by now, but privately, he felt a bit sick. Starting over in Los Santos had been hard, and he’d still been him. This was going to be unimaginable.

This is what Dan was thinking as he listened to the bloke talk. It irked him that he was so matter-of-fact about Dan's death, but he understood it. That was just this life. He wondered about Barbara, how she'd gotten caught up in all of this. How the hell did she handle it? Certainly not well, her outburst earlier had shown that.

His ears perked up a bit when Geoff mentioned the military. He made sure not to let on that he retained a bit of hope for getting out of this alive, though. He didn't want to seem cocky. He didn't want to seem anything.

Keeping his features a mask of submission and resignation, Dan turned his eyes to the ginger bloke who was speaking, the other boss. He looked even less intimidating than the first. He was more than paunchy--he was fat. He was tubby and round-faced and bearded. He had smile lines. He looked...huggable.

Christ, Dan thought. These people were so normal, it was easy to forget what they did, who they were. He wondered if they forgot it themselves.

The second bloke got down on his level then, forcing Dan to meet his eyes. When he wiggled his fingers, Dan blinked. Two options: you don't exist, or you really don't exist.

He looked around the room; Gavin stood by Michael, looking just as tired as Geoff, drawn, and maybe--was he imagining it?--a little scared; Michael was furious, but he hid it well; the head bloke was watching Dan expectantly; the ginger, of course, was right in front of Dan's face. Dan turned a little bit so he could see Barbara, and he met her gaze. She didn't fit into this picture, just like she didn't fit into this world. She was too good for it. Dan had no doubt that every single person in this room was able and willing to kill except for her. Barbara was in way over her head, but he didn't think she knew it.

anonymous: gavin or dan

And then Michael was yelling, and it was like watching a tsunami. It looks like a little wave a first, and before you know it it's hitting you in the fucking face. Before he knew it, Dan was shoved at Barbara, jerked back and forth by the cuffs, and Michael had whipped a gun out  and was pointing it at him. 

You never got used to it, really. He'd had a gun pointed at him before, but it had always been in a different sort of setting. It had never been in an American street, cuffed, standing between a friend and someone he knew hated his guts. But the feeling was still the same. The flood of adrenaline, the spike of his heart rate, the sound of his heart beating in his ears. 

He calmly stepped to the side, minding that he didn't seem as though he was trying to pull away from Michael, so that he stood directly between Barbara and Michael. He didn't know Michael well enough to know what he was and wasn't capable of, and he didn't want anyone else's life to be in mortal danger. 

"Michael, I don't think even you know what I know. Please, calm down. Put the gun away. You don't want to attract any attention right near your damn warehouse. That'd blow your cover just like me tattling would, okay? The all night dry cleaning place is still open and I will scream like a bitch, I swear to God. Please just put the gun away."

Not waiting for Michael to respond, he continued in the same calm, measured voice, "Barbara, I know that you work for this crime family or crew or whatever you might call it. You do something with computers. Gavin is a conman of sorts, I think, and Michael is the muscle, for lack of a better word. Ray is also involved, and Lindsay, though I don't know much about them. The base of operations is here, at this warehouse. And Gavin's new family runs the whole thing, I believe. But that's just guesswork, mostly."

He paused for a second, steadying his breathing again before continuing. "You want to know what else I know? I know that I care about you, and I care about Gavin, and I have no reason to blow your covers and get you thrown in prison or worse. That's what I know. That's all I know."

"Remember when Gavin and I went to clean up those fucking people who were after you? What if we just fucking let that be? What if we fucking just fuckin’ allowed that? I didn’t have to fucking do that for you, did I Barbara?" Michael glared.

Michael pushed himself away and got out of the car, pushing his seat up so Dan could get out as well. 

Michael frowned at no one and continued driving. At least his car was fast. At least they’d be there soon and then Geoff could decide if he stayed or went. He didn’t really feel like hearing from Gavin why Dan was in this place in the first place. Michael probably shouldn’t have met up with him at all. It just made Dan a larger liability. Could have just explained he had a boyfriend and that was all there was to it.

But now it was just.. 

But no. He was always going to figure it out.