gaining ground

Who: Dodge and Pepper
Where: Dodge's stoop/under the Sixth Street Bridge
When: Midday

The morning meeting with Maddy had put him in a bad mood, but in the end he'd pushed it aside. That was something he could deal with later. Right now, Pepper needed him to be Dodge, which is what he was doing. Between the previous evening and this morning he'd recruited a solid band of boys to take on the guy who'd moved into her space and by midday they were all loitering around Dodge's stoop in some way shape or form, a few playing catch with a found ball, two more lounging on the stairs, the rest milling about talking to one another. There were six in total, not including Dodge, Roach and Mud. Dodge was above them all, balancing on the wide railing of the stoop at the top of the stairs, back leaning against the wall of the building while he waited for Pepper to arrive.

There was no backing out of it, Pepper knew as she headed towards the meeting place with Dodge. That didn't mean she had to like it - she could never be happy about depending upon anyone else. Especially (and perversely) someone as ready and willing to help as Dodge was. So, she was wrapped up in her coat, her cap pulled low over her eyes and her shoulders hunched as she rounded the corner. And there they all were, all waiting.

She pulled herself upright, determined that, even if she didn't like having to do this, she wasn't going to look at all scared. The consequences would be what they'd be, but Pepper wasn't going to be one of life's victims. She widened her stride and walked up to the group, full of bravado. "Morning guys - we going then?" she asked, looking over the group.

Dodge spotted her first, but then only he, Mud and Roach, really knew who they were waiting for. The sight of her made him both equal parts scowl and smile. As happy as he was to see she'd lived out the night it was hard to forget what she'd said the day before, how she'd led him to believe Maddy was choosing the whore house when she hadn't. Knowing that she'd changed her mind probably wouldn't have changed his reaction any, but he didn't like the fact that Pepper had put his thoughts down the wrong path.

He was able to even the emotions out to a tricky smile, pushing off the wall and walking the length of the railing before dropping easily to the stoop and down the stairs to meet her. "We were born ready Pepper. Lead the way."

She nodded, turning and walking down the road again, looking back over her shoulder at the boys. "This way then - look lively," she said, knowing that she was probably bordering on being condescending (or she would have known that if she'd known that word) but feeling the need to put forward a front of bravado in this particular circumstance.

Dodge smirked just a little behind her back, quelling any comments from the boys with nothing more than a look and then moved to fall into step beside her, while they followed behind, doing their best to look lively. It wasn't hard for them though, he'd picked these boys because they'd do well in a fight, and most of them lived for a good fight. The prospect of running headlong into one had them in more than a good mood. "Do you have a plan?" Dodge asked once he was next to her, tone quiet enough to not carry behind them.

She looked over at him, trying not to betray the fact that, really, she's expected him to have the plan. After all, he was the one with the gang. If she'd had a plan, she could have put this whole thing together on her own. She was planless - but, of course, she wasn't going to let him know that - she had a reputation to protect. "Course I have! What - don't you?" she teased, taunting him. "Bet you don't, do you? bet you've not thought about it at all - just let your guys do that for you. Bet you can't come up with anything!"

Dodge bit back the smile again. "You think I'd let these meatheads do my thinking for me? I'd get nowhere that way." Of course he had his own plan, but he wanted to let Pepper lead this whole operation, hence why he'd asked. "I came up with a few things, but I didn't want to cramp your style."

pepper looked over, giving him a look that was doubtful and questioning at the same time, with an edge of superiority. She was internally impressed she'd managed to pull it off. "Yeah - go on. What'd'ya got?" she challenged, happy that it looked like he was falling for her bluff.

Dodge was also impressed by the look, the smile slipping this time. "Well if it was me, I'd go in just you and me first. Maybe Mud too, since he's the smallest here. The others will be there, but not visible ya know? You tell the guy to get out, now, that it's your space and such. If he does it, we're good. If he doesn't, the others will know their cue." They always did. All the guy had to do was swing one punch in Dodge's general direction and they'd be out of the woodwork, that was how it worked.

"What's Mud being the smallest got to do with anything?" Pepper asked him. Tactics wasn't anything she'd ever really considered. "Why not go in with the biggest and be all threatening and everything? You go in with small, isn't the guy just going to laugh? He was a big guy," she added.

"You never show your whole hand at once," Dodge told her. "We go in the three of us, and the guy probably laughs, thinking what could we do, then we have the element of surprise in our favor." Dodge never showed his full hand. There was always and ace up his sleeve. "That way, when we take him out, he remembers you aren't one to be reckoned with, not the big guys that you brought with you."

Pepper wasn't convinced about that, but she was willing to go with it, so she shrugged. "Fine - we'll give your plan a go," she said, as though it was nothing to her. Then again, she didn't have a plan to counter with, and she was really hoping that he didn't call her on what her idea would be, so she accepted his without an argument.

"If you're good with it I'm good with it," he told her, wondering if she'd had plan at all. Dodge had a good feeling this would work, it'd worked before, just with smaller people. As for putting himself out in the open he wasn't too worried, Mud was tougher than he looked, even if he'd been hit by a girl more than once, and for what it was worth, Dodge could hold his own alright. "DG came back this morning," Dodge said casually as they approached the bridge.

Pepper looked sideways at him. "You two talking again now then? You give her a chance to speak?" she asked, wondering if he had, or if he'd just made his mind up and been unwilling to listen to anything anyone else had to say.

"I listened," Dodge told her, answering the second question first. "She told me what she felt, what she wanted." He paused, letting that just sort of hang there for a little while. Shoving his hands in his pockets he glanced from Pepper then down at the ground in front of them. "It's not fixed though, not yet at least."

"Course not - you threatened to cut her off. Things like that don't get fixed over night," Pepper said, bullishly. She was strangely glad things weren't magically fixed. She would have been really worried if they were - because if Dodge thought they were fixed, that probably meant that Maddy had just given the guy exactly what he wanted, and Pepper would have hated someone to give up their independence like that. For Pepper, it didn't matter so much on the subject: it was the principle of the thing.

"And she told me I was just as bad as a collection of pedophiles," Dodge pointed out, again not feeling like he should be considered at fault. "That I only told her not to do it because I was jealous and not because it was a bad idea. That hurt." An admission he was surprised he made out loud. They were at the bridge now and Dodge rallied his group together, explaining the plan. "Ready when you are pretty girl," he told Pepper when he was done.

Pepper might actually have had something to say about his observations, but she was effectively cut off as Dodge gathered his group around him. She stayed silent as he talked to them, mulling over what he'd said, then thrusting it aside as he continued on. When he called her that though, at the end, she scowled at him and stalked off. He knew, he knew how much she hated that, but yet still he tried it, every time. If she didn't need him and his right now, then she would have punched him, just to try and teach him a lesson. But she did, so she just headed off towards her space under the bridge.

Dodge was relieved it worked out like it did, not having to hear what Pepper thought of what he'd said. He wasn't even sure why he said it in the first place and hearing her reaction wasn't something he was prepared for anyway. Her scowl brought that playful smirk back to his features and he tagged along behind her with Mud in tow while the others fanned out.

Dodge's behaviour gave Pepper enough of an anger boost that she stormed all the way under the bridge and up to the guy who was lounging in her space before the reality of taking on a guy twice her size really hit home and she pulled up short, hoping that Dodge and Mud were right behind her. Possibly that they would just keep on going. After all, last time she'd tried to stand up to this guy, he'd beat her out from under the bridge and sent her scampering, and she didn't scare easy.

They were on her heels, one on either side, just behind, showing that she was in charge, but they were right there. When Pepper stopped short her arm brushed against Dodge, given his close proximity. "I think you're lost buddy," Mud said in his teasing tough guy voice, jumping forward to kick the guy's legs lightly. Pepper hadn't been kidding, he was a big, and Dodge was pretty certain that even though this would work? They'd all come out of it a little bruised.

The guy, Charlie, lay there, sprawled out like he owned the place. He liked his new spot - middle of the bridge, out of the worst of the wind and the rain. When you got to his age and stature, it was right that you should have the best available. The streets were harsh - survival of the fittest, and he was fitter than some little chit of a girl who'd just been lucky that he hadn't decided to keep her around. She could have provided him with some fun, kept him nice and warm on those long, cold winter's nights. He'd even offered that to her - that they could share. And she'd kicked him - fucking hurt as well. Yeah, she was just lucky that he hadn't forced the issue. Course, she'd run off before he'd got over the pain there.

He looked up as someone spoke. Oh look, girlie was back with a few friends. Wasn't that nice. "Don't think so, laddie, got myself right at home," he drawled, the sounds of the cheap whiskey he'd purloined and drank earlier on rasping in his voice.

"That's where you're wrong," Dodge pointed out shifting so he was less in the shadows and adjusting the fedora just so out of nervous habit. He recognized this guy and heard the booze on his voice. Dodge gave nothing more than half a glance and Mud's second kick landed much harder than the first. This would be the hardest part of the game, drawing Charlie out of the space and into the open.

Charlie hadn't paid much call to the first kick that had been landed on him - half the time, things like that were nothing more than a physical hello. The second one, though, he got that one. "Why you little rat," he said, leaping to his feet with surprising speed and grabbing Mud by the ear. pepper jumped back - she knew how quick this guy was. That's what had landed her with bruises in the first place. Normally she was good at dodging out the way, but she'd not been quick enough that time.

Mud yelped in pain and surprise, but held his ground. Charlie's speed caught Dodge off guard, but when Pepper stepped back, Dodge stepped in front of her protectively. At least the bastard was up and moving, that was what Dodge wanted. Charlie was distracted with Mud enough that Dodge had time to swing, a low left hook that connected pretty squarely with Charlie's ribs.

Charlie didn't much appreciate being got at from two sides at once and he turned on Dodge with a roar, a fist coming round with a clear and serious view to just knock the little shit off his feet. He wasn't playing games - if some group of kids wanted to come and pick a fight with him, then he'd give them a hiding they weren't going to forget in a hurry, that was for sure.

Dodge should have expected the punch but still he wasn't as prepared for it as he could have been and it caught him hard on the cheek. He staggered back a few steps, purposely falling into the open. His face hurt more than a little, but he needed a little bit extra to really get the boys riled up. Another glance to the now abandoned Mud and the smaller boy laid another fast punch to Charlie's kidney.

Pepper fell back as the boys started in on the man. She'd been on the receiving end of the punches the guy was throwing about and she didn't want to get another one. She'd way in - but possibly not til he was more beat down than he was now.

Charlie growled in pain but pushed Mud out of the way, lunging towards Dodge, who, as soon as Charlie was in the open, gave the signal. The others poured out of their hiding places, with Roach in the lead. Dodge couldn't help but smirk, before trying for another kick, then scrambling out of the way, next to Pepper. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Pepper told him as she kept half an eye on Charlie being laid into by the gang of boys. She refused to let it show that the violent display sickened her. She was hard - she'd grown up on the streets, she'd seen it all before. that was the image she portrayed, and it was true - but that didn't mean she'd developed an immunity to it. She would do. One day. She had to.

Dodge nodded, pulling himself up straight while he watched the carnage. His boys were good at what they did, and as big as Charlie was he didn't stand a chance against eight or nine of them. He let it go on for a few minutes, watching the way the fight progressed, waiting for that moment that he was satisfied. When it came he whistled loudly, enough to pull the boys to a stop, though the two or three that had hands on Charlie, didn't let go of the man. He was a mess, bloody, beaten. Dodge moved so the man could see him properly. "Still think you're not lost?" he asked with a devilish smirk. "This is Pepper's place, not yours. And don't think for a second that she doesn't have people who she can bring in to remind you of that again."

Charlie said nothing, just gave them all a sneer that showed a bloody mouth and a new space where not ten minutes before there'd been a tooth. Then he shambled off, muttering obscenities to himself.

Pepper looked around her former 'home', very aware of the presence of Dodge and his gang and the fact that they'd be after thanks. She could feel it and she knew it was owed. She swallowed and then hurried forward instead of turning back to them, starting to tidy her place back other way it had been, fussing so she didn't have to give those thanks, not just yet.

While Pepper tended to her space, Dodge tended to his boys. For the most part they were alright, a little bruised here and there, but having the upper hand had helped and they'd managed to come out on top.

She cleared all the crap from her space, hating the idea that someone else had been there for days. Bottles and newspapers and general garbage were strewn everywhere. Plus the place stank. She'd have to get some water from somewhere, clean it out. Dirt was one thing, but it smelt like the guy had been using her place as a toilet. It was disgusting. Eventually, though, she'd done all she'd be able to do for the time being and she turned back to the others. "So - thanks guys," she said, not looking at anyone in particular as she did so. Definitely, she could have been more graceful about it.

The collection of guys half acknowledged her thanks, but they were already going over the fight, who'd done what, trying to one-up one another like guys do. Dodge couldn't help but smile at the situation, turning back towards Pepper. "Don't worry about it. Glad it worked out. You want Roach to loiter about just in case he comes back?"

Pepper considered that, then shook her head. "No - it's okay. I'm sure he won't and I'm sure you guys have better things to do," she told Dodge. She didn't want to be into him for any more than she felt like she was now. She knew she owed him, and big time.

"We'd be flexible if you needed the help," Dodge reassured her, watching as the boys started to head off, and looking back at her. He flashed her a big grin, adjusting his fedora so the bruise that was starting to show up under his eye was more in shadow. "I'll see ya around pretty girl," he said before walking off.