Alpha Meet

Who: Brett and Clayton
Where: Random Restaurant
When: Night

The sky was dark by the time Clayton got to the place Eris had told him to meet Mr. Trent. He had made it to the restaurant with a few minutes to spare. Enough time for him to be acceptably early, but not enough to seem eager. In a two faced town like this, appearance was everything, and Clayton was sure he already had a bad reputation with Eris’s partner. He didn’t want to make it any worse. Going to One More Round earlier in the day had helped him a little. Meeting Elle had reminded him that he could still help those who needed it, and that he wasn’t the complete worthless asshole he felt like when it came to Eris.

When he mumbled his reservation to the waiter, he was led through a mildly busy room to a table facing away from the door. That didn’t exactly make Clayton jump for joy. He liked to be able to see everything when he was edgy, the table made him feel caged in. With a slight frown he sunk into the chair and waited for what he guessed would be one of his bosses to arrive. He wasn’t exactly enthused about this meeting. Eris had depended on no one else but him for over a decade, to know that someone else had earned enough of her trust to make her want to share veto power over him was a little intimidating. Not to mention the personal relationship she may or may not be having with this guy. Eris didn’t have personal relationships, but the fact that she thought highly of this guy was enough to make his blood boil.. He scowled at the door with no small amount of anxiety as he waited for ‘Mr. Trent.’

Brett on the other hand, was being late on purpose. He wanted to ensure that Marshall had had time to get there and stew a little before he arrived, even if it meant giving up the better angle at the table as a result. He knew he was here because Eris had asked him to be, but that didn’t mean that he had to be predisposed to liking or trusting this guy. And, objectively, he didn’t trust Marshall. he had big issues with the way he’d behaved and the reasons he’d behaved in that way. He’d thought that through, considered it at length.

What he hadn’t so much thought about or examined in detail was his other motivator in all of this: jealousy. He was about to go meet a guy who’d had Eris’ right hand for over a decade. Who’d been there with her for all that time, and who - even though he’d pretty much betrayed her, passive with that action or not - had just had to ask and she’d taken steps to let him back into her life. She’d said she wanted him to act as doorkeeper to that, but Brett couldn’t help but feel like she wanted him to say yes, that Clayton was fine.

And so it was that, objectively and subjectively, Brett looked unimpressed as he was led to the table and sat down, giving his drinks order to the waitress and then turning to Marshall, face stoney, waiting for him to speak.

“So, I know who you are and you know who I am. I assume Eris has filled you in on who I was and what I want. How are we going to do this? “ He asked not beating around the bush. Clayton figured that it would be best to get that out of the way as soon as possible. He recognized Brett from the old days. He had seen him a few times before and now at least he had a name to go with the face.

He could feel the tension between them, testosterone fueled and dangerous, and he knew that this wasn’t going to be easy. He even thought he might have to plead his case to Brett harder than he did with Eris. Which considering the fact that he had only spent a few seconds with this guy and already hated him, wasn’t such a good thing. He sighed and waited for Brett’s reply.

Brett raised an eyebrow. “Well, how about you start with what exactly you want from this?” he asked, with equal bluntness. “Because she told me about your whole ‘I’ll work for free’ line and the big question’s gotta be: why the fuck would you want to do that?” Brett was nothing, after all, if not highly cynical.

“I want to try and make up for screwing her over.” Clayton said simply. And it was just as simple as that. Sure he wouldn’t mind being closer to her but on the whole he felt completely guilty for leaving Eris in her time of need. It was completely uncharacteristic of him. He regretted absolutely nothing. Ever. So, this feeling in the pit of his stomach that radiated through out his whole body, was completely foreign and unappreciated. “I’d do it for two reasons. One, I screwed her over, big time. I owe her. Two, I really don’t need the money that badly.” He admitted grudgingly. He had worked with Eris for over a decade. During most of that time, he spent very little of his well earned money. He could afford to work off the clock for her for a while.

“Why don’t you need the money?” Brett asked, pursuing that line of enquiry. It was something that still came naturally to him, though it had been some years now since he’d been a cop. That frame of mind never really disappeared.

Clayton bit his lip and shook his head. He knew he had to be cooperative but he was getting irritated by Brett’s quick inquiry. “Because I have a shit ton of money that I never spent. I worked for Eris for over a decade. She paid me good money. I barely spent a quarter of it. Do the math.” He said with a bit of a snarky tone.

Brett wasn’t in the mood to be light and jovial with this guy - not that he was ever in the mood to be so with anyone ever, all things considered. “Marshall - I know shit about you, other than you had a job and you screwed that up. You were employed to protect someone and you weren’t there one night when you were being paid to be there. And as a result your client was raped, beaten and almost murdered. That is what I know about you. I don’t know shit about what you were being paid in the role that led to that failure, I don’t know if it was barely enough to get by, or a king’s fucking ransom. So don’t tell me to ‘do the math’. If you want another chance - you need to convince me that (a) the shit you pulled is never fucking going to happen again. And (b), that this isn’t some kind of fucking cover for some job you’ve been given by the Syndicate. I don’t trust you, Marshall, and unless you give me reason to then at the end of tonight, you and I are going our own separate ways and she’ll take my decision on shit,” he told the other guy, meeting the snarky tone with blunt unamused-ness.

A grimace crossed Clayton’s face as he forced himself to listen to Brett. He knew he fucked up. He had already been over that with Eris. He was irritated that he had to prove himself to Brett. The feeling only grew as Brett said that Eris would take his side over Clayton’s. Why the hell should she? She was a grown woman and could think very clearly for herself. It irritated Clayton and made him extremely jealous “First of all. I know I fucked up. It was a bullshit mistake. I was an idiot and I thought that someone finally gave a shit about me so I left my post. It was the one and only time I had ever done so in all the time I worked for Eris. Ask her, or any of the other girls that worked for her for that matter. NO ONE got hurt when I was on duty. The only reason I even considered leaving Eris for a minute was the fact that she treated me like shit for years and I took it. Someone finally pointed out the mind games she was playing and coaxed me away. The reason I came back to take that crap all over again is because even thought she screwed with my head on a daily basis, she was still the best damn boss I have ever had and I owe
the woman. Because of me, her life will never be the same again. I want to help repair some of the damage i did...no that isn’t right. I want to atone for what I did. As for being sent? That’s complete horseshit. If I wanted to hurt her I could have done so a long time ago. They wouldn’t need me to go under cover for that. I know a lot about her and I wouldn’t have to go under cover to tell them things.” He said just as seriously. He didn’t make a comment about how he wasn’t so sure Eris would take Brett’s side, or about how he could still watch over her if he really wanted to. Permission or no permission he was in this.

“If you come on board, I will be watching every move you make,” Brett told him, though his tone didn’t say much about whether that was an offer or not. His natural, default position was not to trust, and almost every bone in this body was telling him to show this guy the door, just because, but they couldn’t live like that. He couldn’t always be there - the whole episode with Andrei had proved that very definitely. So, he wasn’t going with instinct on this one.

“I wouldn’t expect any less.” Clayton grumbled grudgingly. If he was going to be in on this, he would rather work with someone who was truly looking out for Eris then someone who didn’t give a damn. Clayton was not the type to hold things in, he usually said what was on his mind so his next words were neither blunt and honest. “I don’t like this. I don’t like the fact that I need fucking permission to do my damn job, but I’ll man up and be a big boy about it because I fucked up. I don’t know you and I don’t know why Eris chose you as a partner. More importantly, I don’t care.”

“Right now, you don’t have a job,” Brett reminded him. “You gave that job up the night you left her. I’d look at this as an interview for a new position. For a start, you definitely ain’t getting your old job back. We take you on, and it’ll be to watch the girls, not Eris. She doesn’t trust you enough for that. Just keep reality in mind. We are the employers, you are the employee. We have no obligation to employ you. So, if you don’t like the terms - go find employment elsewhere.”

Brett had a point, a very valid point. He didn’t have his old job and he wasn’t the same person he had been back then. Clayton still didn’t like the fact that Brett had to point it out to him. “I know. Eris told me the same thing. I don’t expect that. I know I’m the employee. With the exception of the worst mistake of my fucking life, I am very professional. I don’t sleep with clients, I don’t take one more jobs than I can handle, and I make sure that everything stays safe. I protected the girls then, I can do it now.” He said, not mentioning that he had been watching Eris from afar for quite some time now and that he didn’t need an official job to protect her.

“Fine, then you can start tomorrow. Do you know where the offices are located?” he asked. He would give this guy and chance and they’d see how it went from there. For all Eris had told him that this was his decision, as far as he was concerned, she’d asked him, and therefore Marshall would get more of a chance than Brett would have bee likely to give him under any other circumstances. If nothing else, that would show people that he wasn’t as jealous of matters in the past than maybe they would think. Maybe. Possibly he was just trying to prove that to himself.

“Thanks.” He said grudgingly. It could have gone a lot worse than it did and Clayton had the feeling that he was getting off easy. He also knew that whatever was clashing between them wasn’t over yet. He nodded his head and turned his thoughts back to Clayton. “ Yeah I know where they are. I’ll be there.” He said. Clayton knew that this little meeting was pretty much over and he really didn’t have to stay and play kiss ass with Trent. He had a feeling that Trent wouldn’t care for it too much and he really didn’t feel like it. So, he stood up and shelled out a few bucks for the drinks he had consumed and a tip for the server. Before he left he looked back at Trent. “Thanks again. I feel like I have to do this. So, thanks for at least giving me a shot.” He said,surprising himself. He hadn’t meant to thank Trent at all but when he opened his mouth the truth had poured out.

“Fine, well - are you intending to eat, or should we call this meeting over?” Brett asked, since neither of them had really even looked at the menu.

“Yeah, I see no point in suffering through awkward chit chat. We talked about what we needed to say. No offense or anything.” He said rolling from foot to foot.

Brett didn’t answer that, instead standing and leaving a few bills on the table, regardless of the fact they’d not actually ordered anything. They’d taken up space, and Brett was busy developing a reputation in restaurants for being a good customer. That kind of thing could be useful for the future. “Then I’ll leave you to it,” he said, before turning and heading out.