gunner

Where: Gunner’s Place Who: @gunnerhqs

Catalina doesn’t stay over after sex, there was no reason to because meaningless sex was easy for her and her one night stands and friends were benefits were usually easy to deal with. They both came here to do what they wanted and now that it was over, she had no reason to stay. “Thanks for the shower.” She tried to dry her hair as much as she could with the towel but she knew it was gonna take awhile and honestly, she didn’t want to over-stay her welcome here. “I’ll text you when we can have fun again.” She leaned over on the bed in order to kiss him, a smirk forming on her lips. Dropping the towel that was around her waist, Catalina never bothered to hide the fading bruises around her body from fighting, when people see them they always worry too much but when they know she can kick ass, it usually shuts them down. Walking around to her clothes on the floor, she picked up her bra and put it on. “Or you can text me, can’t promise I’ll be free though.” 

Gunner placed an arm behind his head, leaning back against the headrest with a smirk on his face. “You’re welcome, anytime,” he told her, watching as she approached him. “Do.” He kissed her back, watching her with a small grin, though the bruises on her body brought his thoughts back to Emily fighting, he let out a small inaudible sigh, trying to push those thoughts away again. “Oh really, you’re not gonna make yourself free for me? I’ll believe it when I see it,” he teased, sitting up in the bed, his eyes still lingering on her. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something, an offer, you might say.” 

A long week necessitated taking a step back at times, which is what Andy found herself doing when some other doctors said they should go out. She arrived a few minutes later than planned, having gotten held up at work, and therefore held up on her way home to make herself look human again, and thus held up on her way to the bar itself. Still, when she walked in and spotted a familiar face, she couldn’t help but smile. “It’s been a long week, what can I say?” she joked easily,, taking the seat next to her friend. “Besides, I heard this place serves the best worst beer in Charming so I had to see for myself.”

The man let out a soft chuckle, taking a sip from his beer before placing it back down on the counter. “Best worst beer around in my opinion,” he commented, turning his head to look at her. “Long week? What exactly happened then? Get one too many patients?” he teased, though he knew the Devil’s and Wolves’ being around town didn’t really help with keeping patient numbers down in Charming. 

Kimberly wasn’t prepared for Gunner to mention him and was taken aback, she looked around the shop and stepped closer to him, “You think I don’t know that?!” She hissed quietly. “None of this would be happening if he was still here! You know what would’ve happened? He would’ve been here, flirting with me as if we weren’t already in a relationship in order to make me laugh.” Kimberly took a very big breath, she wasn’t going to cry at work. “He would’ve asked about Emily as if he didn’t see her yesterday, he would’ve gotten you into trouble and I would’ve had to patch you two up, the four of us would’ve gone to some drive-through to grab something to eat.” It took everything in her to not raise her voice. “You don’t get to tell me what would’ve happened if Liam was here.” Her throat was closing by the second but she was fighting her urge to sink into her knees, she was stronger than that. “That night…” She couldn’t meet Gunner’s eyes “I lost him, I’m not gonna lose her to a fighting ring and I’m not going to lose her by disagreeing with her about this, if she’s going to fight, I’m gonna be there to make sure she’s still alive by the end of that fight.” It was guilt, it wasn’t that Kimberly wanted Emily to fight, but it was guilt that she couldn’t save Liam.

“And you don’t get to tell me how to deal with this situation,” he replied, looking over his shoulder again. “I’m not gonna hear all this bull. I’d rather her know that I hate this idea- I’d rather her know that she’s going against my wishes doing this, because if she thought that I approved, then she’d feel more comfortable doing it. I don’t want her getting hurt, I don’t care if she hates me right now, I don’t care if she thinks its unfair, I don’t give a shit about any of that, but I do want to stop her from getting involved in any of this, because- yeah it starts with fighting, but then she gets dragged into more of it, and more, until she’s fully involved and then what?” He knew that he’d never spoken about that night with either of them, he’d frequently avoided the topic- avoided them. “You know what he said to me that night, you wanna know what he said? He told me to protect you, both of you, so yeah, I’m not sorry that I don’t take your opinion on what Knuckles would think, because I know he’d disapprove of this- and so I disapprove of this.” 

“You know I don’t really care if you didn’t come to me right away, right? But ever since what happened I’d like to make sure everyone is safe and sound, even when it comes to after a small run so for my own piece of mind, come to see me next time and if not you, send one of the prospects to tell me that it all went smoothly.” Elias explained to Gunner, trying to convey why this was important for him. “I figured as much.” Elias nodded slowly and sat down in front of Gunner. “Come on, mijo, tell me everything.” He had the patience to sit down with anyone in his group, from the prospects to his vice and of course it wasn’t any different with the man he saw as his own flesh and blood. “

“Only for your piece of mind,” he commented, putting down his drink again. He knew that the other was right, usually he would send a prospect, but it just completely went from his head today. He looked down into his glass at the mention of telling him everything, and spoke as he did. “Emily’s has signed up to the underground fighting ring,” he shook his head, leaning back in his chair. “And everything I seem to do only pushes her further into it. I’ve literally tried everything but she’s so fucking stubborn,” he ran a hand against his forehead. 

“Why wouldn’t I?” Sam asked, struggling to stop herself from bursting out laughing. She knew this was a serious situation, at least in Gunner’s eyes, but the absolute blatant look of disapproval on his face was enough to make her want to crack up. “Oh, spare me the holier than thou bullshit,” Sam said with a roll of her eyes. “Emily’s a big girl. You know, it’s rich that you’re saying you respect her when you can’t even let her make decisions like this for herself. If you truly respected her, Gunner, you’d let her do what she wanted – and FYI, this is what she wanted, because she came to me. I invited her a long ass time ago, so her accepting that invitation proved that she believes she’s ready. Come on, it’s not like she’s gonna get that hurt. She can handle it.”

“Because she’s evidently making reckless decisions at the moment and we- as people who care for her- should be trying to stop her not helping her with them,” he explained, knowing that the other wasn’t taking this situation as seriously as he was. “This is grief talking, it isn’t really Emily. There is no way she’d even consider doing this if Knuckles was alive, and yet here she is.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s on you if she gets hurt. She’s not ready for this.” 

“Now, why the hell would I ask her not to fight when I was the one who invited her to fight in my ring in the first place?” Samantha asked, raising an eyebrow at Gunner. While the two were friends, her gym, and the underground fight club was business. In the same way she didn’t dip her hands in Devil’s business, she would have expected him to do the same with the ring. “This– This whole overprotective… shtick you got going on for her? When’s that going to end, huh? When she turns 40? Maybe 50?”

“You what?” Gunner folded his arms over, adjusting his weight as he looked at her, his face stern. “You invited her?” He had no idea what would have prompted her to do that. If anything Emily needed to get away from this life, not get more involved. He narrowed his eyes at Sam as she questioned him. “Overprotective?” he scoffed. “I respect Emily enough to know that she doesn’t belong in this lifestyle. She’s gonna end up in trouble and I don’t want that for her.”

Kimberly raised an eyebrow, it’s a damn good thing they’re at work or she would just be pissed at him again. “How’s Em? I don’t think that’s any of your business anymore, Gunner.” She shrugged. “You want to know how she’s doing, go to her, tell her you support her and stop ignoring her.” For her it was as simple as it could be at this point. “You can continue to act like a wall with me, it doesn’t matter because I can’t make you talk to me, but Emily…” Emily was her best friend and if Kimberly could bring her some sort of happiness right now, she’ll do it. “I know you want to protect her, okay? But fighting her will only make her do it more, that’s how Emily’s doing.” 

Gunner shook his head as Kim began to speak, he’d only wanted to know how she was, he didn’t want a lecture, when he believed that he was doing the right thing. “No. No I’m not gonna sit by while she gets hurt Kim, we’ve been over this a thousand fucking times,” he stressed, turning to look over his shoulder as he lowered his voice. “You really agree with this? You’re happy to let her do this- I don’t even think the thought would’ve her brain if Knuckles was here- and yet here I am, trying to do the good thing- trying to protect her, and I’m the one getting shit for it?” 

“You got distracted.” Elias repeated calmly, he could sense the bullshit coming from a mile away. “Gunner, I wasn’t born yesterday.” Did he really care though that Gunner didn’t come to see him? Not really, but he like consistency, they go on a run and come back to tell him it was done and that everyone was fine because if anything went wrong on side run, they would’ve called him a long time ago. “That’s good to know because the last thing I need is you dying on us because that will turn into the perfect excuse why you couldn’t come see me after the run.” Elias gave him a smirk, “I’m assuming you had a bad day if you’re drinking, who’s it about?” And Elias would bet all his money that it’s about Emily. 

“I needed a drink,” he told the other. He had nothing to hide and in fairness, he had been distracted by the thought of a drink. Gunner let a low laugh slip from his lips as the other made the joke, a smile rising on his lips briefly before he rose his glass to his mouth again as he was questioned. There were many things playing on his mind, but the main thing was Emily, no matter how hard he seemed try, no one agreed, and he was sabotage her in every way that he could, paying people off, trying to get fights cancelled, everything, but nothing was working. “At this point, it could be about many things,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Just some stuff with Emily.”

oh sweet baby jesus on a cherry mantle he was saved. he really thought he was going to have to walk all the way back into town on foot, and that just wasn’t a good look. that, and he wasn’t so sure he had the stamina to lug his gear back. “oh do you? that would be great. I can pay them…I mean, obviously I can pay them. because they’d be providing a service and we live in a society that exchanged services for money and that’s how that works—i don’t know why i’m explaining that to you, you know how it goes.” he lifted a hand up to scratch at the back of his head. it probably wasn’t a cool idea to start explaining the very basics of capitalism on a first meeting. strike that, the first few sentences he said to the guy. wally raised his eyebrows at the question, thankful he had something else to pry him off this tangent. “oh, right, yeah. i’m wally, by the way. and uh, i was collecting specimens for—uh, well i work for this research company so i’m supposed to go around and empty the traps and then you know, get them into the next town, and then come back and reset the traps and uh…” his eyes slipped back to his car. “i kinda got a cooler of live bugs in the back.” he held up a hand, fully realizing that it was a bit of a strange thing to say. he didn’t want to sound like some psycho with a bug truck. “but they’re totally harmless! just, you know, local insects. real stand up grasshopper types. we’re doing some pesticide research.”

As the other continued to talk he started to regret the offer more, though he listened to what he was saying, but he wasn’t taking in exactly what the guy was saying. The bugs thing caught his attention again. He didn’t even realise that was thing, in fact, he half believed that the other was making it up on the spot, it didn’t sound like a real thing. “Right, kid, I gotta give you some advice,” he spoke once the other had finished speaking. “You shoulda stopped speaking after that would be great. The rest of it wasn’t necessary.” Gunner leaned his arm against his open window ledge. “Get in- or are you wanting to stay with your bugs?” 

It wasn’t a very busy day at the shop, people were coming and going, sending in their cars or coming in to pick them up and as always Kimberly did her best to manage all the costumers without the other workers be distracted by someone asking them a question instead of letting them work. “Sir, your car will be ready in fifteen minutes, you can wait over there.” She pointed with a smile on her face, as she looked back she saw Gunner coming towards her. 

“Gunner.” Kimberly didn’t know if she was greeting him or simply saying his name, but she was unsurprised by his behavior at this point, she was hoping that after their texts and talk on Valentine’s that he would at least acknowledge her but alas, that wasn’t the case, he’s back to his small talk. “Not really, just another usual day.” Kimberly shrugged, she knew that after this shift she gets to sleep maybe an hour before clocking into her EMT shift. “How are you? You need something from the shop or are you going inside?”

Gunner nodded his head as she said his name. This whole situation was new for the man. He knew that everyone had lost someone that day, he knew that him pushing people away wasn’t going to help anyone, but he also knew that he didn’t want to drag anyone else into this, and so it just made sense to him. 

“I was just going inside,” he told her, folding his arms, taking a second to pause before he spoke again. “How’s Emily?” He knew that he could her himself, but they’d been arguing every time they’d come into contact with each other, so he thought it best to avoid her. 

One of the members of the Devil’s pointed towards the clubhouse, he was looking for Gunner, who lately has been a pain in the ass to deal with but Elias understood why, even though it didn’t stop him from fighting the urge to be displeased with the man. In the past few months everyone has been on edge, more and more conversation about what they’re going to do, when are they going to do it and all of it for a revenge scheme that Elias wanted just as much but, they needed to be smart and right now most of the members were blind to their own anger.

“I’m good.” Elias shook his head as the man in front of him offered him a drink. “You were supposed to come see me after you came back from the run and yet here you are, drinking your sorrow away.” His voice was calm, he wasn’t angry with Gunner whatsoever. “How did the run go?” Elias assumed it went fine, given that the man was here and not injured or scaring the shit out of some poor prospect 

“You sure? I got a whole bottle,” he gestured over to the bottle. As soon as Elias spoke again, Gunner’s eyes went back to his drink, raising it to his lips to take a sip before looking back over at the other. “I got distracted,” he replied with a raise of his eyebrows. That wasn’t entirely true, but it was the best excuse he had. He knew that he should’ve gone to talk to Elias, but he’d only say the same as he always did, the run went good, no problems. He would’ve bumped into him at some point. “Well, I’m not dead, so that’s always a positive... It was fine. Everything went smoothly,” he told him, placing down his drink again. 

“Ah. I was wondering when you’d come around,” Sam said, opting for a friendly smile as soon as she looked up from the new stationary bikes they had just installed, though she could already tell by the look on his face that this wasn’t going to be just a friendly chat. “Why don’t we go talk in my office?” Sam asked, gesturing towards one of her employees to finish the rest of the set up as she led the way to her office out back, away from all the noise of the punching bags and upbeat music from the bluetooth speakers overhead. “I take it this isn’t you asking how I’ve been, huh?” Sam asked, as soon as she sat herself down. 

“Yeah, well I thought it was about time,” he replied. Had she been told by Emily or had rumours of his efforts to stop her from fighting travelled around? He didn’t particularly care either way, nodding his head as she suggested they go to her office, not wanting to cause any sort of scene in the gym, that wasn’t his intention. He followed her silently, shutting the door behind them. “No,” he folded his arms over looking down at her. “It’s about Emily. I want you to convince her not to fight.” 

Gunner had perched himself in the clubhouse, drowning any thoughts with a bottle of whatever had looked the most appealing on the shelf. He had gone on a successful gun-run earlier that day, so he knew that it didn’t matter if he got drunk now. 

Hearing the door open, he looked up to greet whoever was walking in, raising the bottle towards them. “You want a drink?” As he focused his eyes, he realised it was Elias. 

@eliasramirez​

Usually Gunner would visit the gym for a workout, but not today. He strolled in, spotting Sam in the corner, making a beeline straight for her, stopping just short of her, folding his arms over. “I need to talk to you.” 

@sammartinez​

He spotted Andy entering the bar, pleased to see a friendly face, a distraction. He caught her eye as she looked around, raising the edges of his lips into a half smile, beckoning her over. “Funny, catching you in place like this,” he joked, again, pleased for the company.

@andyruiz​

Unsurprisingly, it was extremely difficult for him to avoid her, and today, as he walked up towards the garage, he spotted her in the distance, knowing that after their last interaction he needed to at least acknowledge her. “Hey,” he nodded, planting himself a few steps away from her, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Busy today?” 

@myerskim​

Location: street just outside of town

Open to: anyone

wally had many regrets in his life. they varied by the day and the situation, but today his main regret was that he’d never bothered learning anything more about a car than that you had to put gas in it to make it go. he’d pulled over to the side of the road when smoke started billowing out of the front hood, and now he was standing in the middle of the road, trying to signal down the next person who happened to drive by. when he saw headlights, he waved his hands and stood directly in the middle of the road (risk seemed to be less than the payoff, right?) “hey there,” he shouted, skip-hopping to the side as the car slowed. “yeah, hi, uh—so the car is fucked, as they say. or at least to me because i don’t know anything about cars. i mean i know that kitty litter can help ya get your tires out of a snow bank but that doesn’t really help me…here.” he looked back toward his smoking engine and then to the person that he’d stopped. “uh, d’ya know anything about cars? or could you maybe give me a lift?”

Gunner was wary as soon as he spotted the guy in the distance, it could be nothing, but it wasn’t unlikely that this could be some sort of ambush. He slowed the car, cautious as he did, raising an eyebrow at the other as he began to speak. He seemed harmless enough, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t with others, but Gunner spoke anyway. Surely, no other gangs would be stupid enough to start something. “I can’t help with much, but I got a couple of friends over at Charming Auto, I can call ‘em to come check it out. Whatcha doing out here anyways kid?”