"No, much as he is fascinating to talk about." Harvey? He was already trying to think of any people with that name he might know. Just who was Edward hooking up with now? Of course, he also knew better than to poke at it too much. If Jon needed to, he might rant to him about it at some point. It had happened before. Just as he had ranted about Sam trying to go out with Maya. What a joke that was. He might have to rant about that again soon.
Right now, however, there were more serious matters. "Nothing about drugs, no. Your people are behaving themselves, as far as I can tell."
So there was that, he supposed. "Those Koreans came to my club. Not sure if you've heard about it. They are trying to set up a trafficking ring in the city. Police asked for my cooperation to investigate in my club. Gene Hunt came to ask, Sam was with him. So I said yes, obviously. I'm all for working with the police. Fabric of society and all that."
"Cheon, right? Fucking piece of shit, that one. I tried to warn him to stay away from me but he didn't understand a fucking thing I said. I had to get his wee little twink boy to translate for me." He knew he had a strong accent and he got it but he really needed that Cheon guy to understand that snatching up young girls in his area wasn't acceptable. They were usually from families he protected and it looked bad for his rep and his business.
"So what did Hunt the cunt do? Fuck it up and now Cheon is angrier than ever?" He wouldn't be at all surprised. He let out a low whistle. "The things you do to be close to Sam. That lad has no idea how much power he has over you."
And yet, he probably didn't even really think about it.
"No, Sam doesn't know. He's just fixated on what a manipulative bastard I am. Doesn't realise he can wrap me around his little finger." Not that Barty was complaining about Sam's lack of awareness in that area, he didn't exactly enjoy having such an obvious weak spot. Luckily only Jonathan truly knew about it. Or not so lucky, he supposed. "I reckon Cheon and his people caught on somehow. Probably because one of the undercover cops they used was Sam and Sam can't do undercover work."
He just exuded 'cop', it was kind of obvious. "I tried warning Sam. That had the obvious effect, obviously."
He did regret that. Not only because of how much Sam hated that he had been right. "Cheon took Sam to intimidate him. Get blackmail material. He drugged him, he raped him, he left him cuffed to his own shitty bed. All of this on film, of course." Barty leaned back, looking at Jonathan. "So I'm going to destroy him."
"DI Tyler is the most coppy copper to ever cop. He's fucking screaming nark all the time. Why does he keep doing undercover." Seemed like a stupid decision to him, one he was sure that Barty had warned out. Of course Tyler got done in, he was making himself a target. As usual.
Jonathan leaned back and wondered how the hell he'd handle that shit with Edward. He didn't even know. Cut Cheon's balls off and make him eat them, probably.
"Sorry about your lad, son." Jonathan offered as he picked up his drink and sipped it. "How do I help?"
"Fuck if I know." Barty smiled in self-derision, shaking his head. "Small, annoyingly rational part of me that is aware that Sam isn't officially with me, hasn't been in a long time, and so I don't have any grounds to take this as a war declaration. On the other hand, there's the part of me that just thinks about the man I love sobbing in my arms and what I want to do is skin anyone who's even remotely involved alive."
That seemed decently rational still. "Practically speaking, I need the footage first of all. Any copies of it too. All of it destroyed. That's what Sam is focused on, that's what he trusted me with. I'm not as good with tech as your Ed, so that might be something I need help handling. But I want no one to actually see the footage. You see the dilemma."
Barty ran a hand through his hair and then sighed, reaching for his glass and taking a sip. "I want revenge too. I don't care whether Cheon knew. No one touches what's mine."
"I'll tell my Ed then and you can talk to him. He can find anything, he can get into anything and he used to do stuff with revenge porn before. Mostly use it against others but you know - experience." Some people sucked and Edward had some fun videos to keep them away. He got out his phone and sent Edward a quick text about a job, maybe he'd see it when he stopped fucking Harvey.
"I think you can stake a claim. Sam is yours. As much yours as anything else. If you wanna go after him, I'm down." Jonathan wasn't just a manager type that sent people off and they handled his shit. Jonathan was a traveller's son and a hands on type. He'd happily beat the shit out of another gangster with Barty.
He considered it for a moment and then turned to Barty, smiling. "We could go chat to our new mate, Cheon. See if he can understand us."
"Just make sure he doesn't view any of it. Not that I-- I don't assume that he'd want to see it. But I know he might be tempted to use it against Sam." Sam being a cop, the whitest of white hats, all of that. "And if he does that, then we'll have war."
Which he really wanted to avoid, but he knew that he'd do anything to avenge Sam. Anything to hurt people that hurt his Sam. And he also knew that Jonathan would protect Edward, even if he'd brought it on himself. They were both predictable when it came to how they felt about their respective men.
"I want to have a nice long talk with Cheon. I just want to be sure the footage is secure first, so nothing can escalate." He didn't want his rightful revenge to backfire. "I want him dead. I just want that death to be painful."
And, yes, ideally he should also avoid things getting out of hand and kickstarting a gang war by killing off Cheon. Still, hard to care. All he had to do was remember what he had felt while holding a sobbing Sam in his arms.
"Then I guess, boyo, me and you will have to have a nice talk with Cheon together. Just so you don't off him before my Eddie can work. Then we can see where we go next. He's trafficking our people, hurting our property and we're not a fan. No reason we can't shake him up a bit." It seemed like the smart thing to do. It was how gangsters expressed displeasure. Jonathan had his tooth cut out by a rival gang leader as a warning once and in some ways, he appreciated it.
It stopped things from escalating too fast and allowed him time to pay respects, be careful and get his revenge when the timing lined up perfect.
"You got time right now? Tomorrow?" He supposed he probably ought to do this with Jonathan, who might rein him in before he went too far. It wasn't as if he could really lay official claim on Sam, so the whole situation was needlessly complicated, as far as gang politics were concerned. "It's not good business anyway. He's brought the cops into my establishment. I did like how much Sam hated that. Didn't like it otherwise. Always dampens the atmosphere a bit."
He frowned, checking his phone. "Part of me wants to cuff Sam to the bed again before he goes into work. I told him that the drug's not out of his system yet, but he won't believe me."
"Depending on dosage of normal meth? You're looking at 2 to 3 days of shit. With a high, strong dose then you're in for a hell of a week. He should be signed off until Monday." But he knew Sam as well as Barty knew Sam and there was no way in hell that Sam would take that much time off work. He had been in this city for a while and he rarely saw Sam off duty.
He finished his drink and then threw his arms out. "Wanna go today? I got nothing on, I cleared my day for you. You wanna use it productively or we could just drink and whine all day."
"Oh, I have plenty to whine about too. I found him cuffed to the bed and in a daze and then I proceeded to be ever so well behaved. Unlocked the cuffs and helped him shower. I had to get in the shower with him because of the state he was in and then he was just sobbing in my arms. But did I take advantage and kiss him? No." Which he still wasn't certain about how good a move that was, tactically speaking. "We just got into a whole conversation about how controlling and manipulative I am and how he hates when I am right about things. I'm not sure how well it went, on the whole."
He supposed it had been a mixed bag. "He was so vulnerable. I really should have gone for it, shouldn't I?" Damn. That was going to be a 'what if' scenario in his head for a while. "You don't get much out of behaving like a gentleman."
"I think you probably did the smart thing in the long run but you could have gone for it and stood a chance. You would have been able to make it work, just harder, and you could already have kissed him." Jonathan explained as he leaned back and pondered what he would have done. Made a move, no doubt there. Fear, pain, upset and neediness - a big turn on for him.
"I would have kissed him." No shock there. "Especially if he cried."
"Of course you would have. I love how you complain about how dramatic Ed gets, but we all know that's at least half the draw for you. Sam was sobbing as I held him. Shaking. It's less of a turn-on for me, it just made me angry." Possessive and protective, he couldn't deny that. Hadn't even tried denying it either. "I've told Sam how I felt and what my thoughts were. I reckon that's the most honest I've ever been with him. Nothing to hide any more now. And he essentially told me to destroy the footage for him. He doesn't want to know about it, but he wants it gone."
That was a concession for Sam, he supposed. Accepting that sometimes the crooked way was the most direct way. "He said that he loves and hates that I fix things for him."
"Oh, I complain cause I can but I wouldn't change Edward. I wouldn't change his self hate, his anxiety, his endless need for attention or his new boyfriend even. That's just Edward. I don't pretend. I love his drama as much as you love how strict Sam is with himself, with you and all of us rotten bastards. It's annoying but it's them." Jonathan knew his poison and he gladly picked it every time but that didn't mean he wouldn't be upset by the effects sometimes.
"I think it's conflicting for him. It must be nice but he knows it's always illegal and our DI Tyler hates breaking the rules." The luxury of your problems fixed came at a moral price. A tricky thing indeed. "He likes that you can take care of him and he hates he needs it."
"He gets himself in over his head. He's no good at going undercover, but he has to do things himself or he thinks they won't be done properly." Which, to be fair, was sometimes accurate. "I do love him for it. He's always himself. That's why I behaved. I think it's the best way to make him conflicted. That I can be good even when I'm bad."
A bit of grey introduced into his ever so black and white way of thinking. "Although I'm different from you when it comes to the new potential partner. I don't want anyone to think they can touch Sam. Even if it's a poor woman who doesn't realise how gay he is."
"Different strokes and all that. Some people care about other aspects more or less. It's the way it is, I suppose." Jonathan dismissed lazily as he got out his phone and idly texted Edward as he talked. "I'm telling my Edward he has a computer job tonight. We'll have the footage as soon as we can. So the question is, you wanna go talk to Cheon before or after I've got my boy to do his thing."
He didn't mind, he just wanted to plan out his day and how stressed he was expecting to be. He was hoping he could be back in the evening to see his horse win on the telly. He sold a bloody good one last month and it was in a derby. Fuck knows how.
"I should probably wait until tomorrow. Just in case." In case of what? Two things he was concerned over, one being that Sam might hit him up over the drug still doing things to him. If his damsel was in distress and actually reaching out right now, he did not want to miss out. Not now when it actually seemed as if they could possibly get back together.
Then there was his other thought. "I'm not sure I won't show my hand with this. If Cheon suspects that this is tied to what he did to DI Tyler, it could make things worse unless Ed's already dealt with the footage."
"I told Edward to get his arse back here so we'll have it sorted by tonight. Just keep your phone about and I'll call when we have it." Jonathan promised, wondering when Edward could pull it off by. Then again, he was a fast little bugger so he didn't doubt he could. "I can do tomorrow evening, after I've finished arranging my family and giving out the jobs. All that boring bullshit."
Jonathan pulled out a cigarette and smiled at Barty. "I hope your damsel calls. This time, take the in and make a damn move."
"I'll see. You know, he's just waiting to be proven right with how I'm nothing but a puppet-master. And since I am nothing but a puppet-master, I know I have to play things right." He grinned, looking at his phone once more before shrugging and getting to his feet. "Thanks for your help, Jon. I'll owe you after all this."
He always made good on any favours he owed. Simply better for business. "What I really want is to give Gene Hunt a bit of a headache after all this. I blame him. Sam wouldn't have been in this position if he wasn't... Well. All that DCI Hunt is."
"Everything is always DCI Hunt's fault. I could name 100 balls ups that man has caused. Fucking disgrace, ain't he?" Jonathan shook his head in mock disbelief. He did blame Hunt but he kind of liked him. He was a prick but a fun prick. His out-dated style of talk, his aggression, his yelling - very traveller. And boy did Gene hate when he told him that.
"I think the cause of all of Manchesters's issues is a toss up between DCI Hunt or our favourite lawyer, Tally. Take your pick, honestly. From opposite sides, they're fucking this city up." Jonathan laughed. "I love it."
"Ah, yeah. Tally. I think Sam hates no one more than him." So maybe Barty should not have slept with him, but it had been fun at the time so he could not bring himself to truly regret it. Perhaps he would, in future, should Sam ever find out about it. "Did you know that he wanted to question your people on the trafficking? DCI Hunt, that is. So I've got a feeling that he's itching for it, you must have pissed him off somehow."
No surprise there. "He hates me because he's platonically in love with Sam, but his hatred for you is red hot as well."
"It's the drugs. He hates drugs. Makes him an unstoppable bull in a China shop. And you know me, I love a good chemical." Jonathan was responsible for most of the drugs in this city and he knew how much Gene hated him for it. He also didn't much like his involvement in the boxing world either. In general, Gene just had a lot of reasons to hate his guts.
"I just ignore it. Look, sometimes people hate you. And you don't really give a shit yourself. That's my current situation." He was happy to just smile at Gene and act a friend, despite the hate.
"I enjoy it. Honestly, I think it will end up working in my favour. Sooner or later, Sam is going to be so pissed at Gene over something that he'll come have sex with me just because Gene doesn't want him to." It was a strange play, but he also strangely didn't doubt for a moment that it would work. "As for you, seems as if he just keeps your people locked up for a few hours every now and then. Although Tally has made that a lot more of a hassle for them too."
Good time to be a criminal in the city, honestly. "One last question. Do you have any advice on how to deal with what Sam has in his system?"
"Hydrate, avoid stress, sleep a lot and-- oh." Jonathan got up and left without much explanation. He did that often so he didn't doubt for a second that Barty would know he'd come back. And he did, about five minutes later, holding a cut off blister pack of two pills. "One today, one tomorrow. It's quetiapine. Antipsychotics are good against meth, so are benzos but I would recommend at his dose, this. He should take them with water."
He set them down and slid them over to Barty. "Let me know how he does on them. I'm curious. And make sure he doesn't drive after taking them, they're sedative."
"He won't avoid stress or sleep a lot, but I'll see about the hydration." Also something Sam was notoriously bad at. No surprise there. He was bad at anything that didn't directly pertain to police work. He took the pills from Jonathan and nodded, trusting that his friend knew his boundaries well enough to not be conducting any strange experiments here. "It's supposed to be very addictive, aye? I need to make sure he doesn't think to ever try again."
Seemed like a slippery slope for a workaholic like Sam.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Right now, however, there were more serious matters. "Nothing about drugs, no. Your people are behaving themselves, as far as I can tell."
So there was that, he supposed. "Those Koreans came to my club. Not sure if you've heard about it. They are trying to set up a trafficking ring in the city. Police asked for my cooperation to investigate in my club. Gene Hunt came to ask, Sam was with him. So I said yes, obviously. I'm all for working with the police. Fabric of society and all that."
no subject
"So what did Hunt the cunt do? Fuck it up and now Cheon is angrier than ever?" He wouldn't be at all surprised. He let out a low whistle. "The things you do to be close to Sam. That lad has no idea how much power he has over you."
And yet, he probably didn't even really think about it.
no subject
He just exuded 'cop', it was kind of obvious. "I tried warning Sam. That had the obvious effect, obviously."
He did regret that. Not only because of how much Sam hated that he had been right. "Cheon took Sam to intimidate him. Get blackmail material. He drugged him, he raped him, he left him cuffed to his own shitty bed. All of this on film, of course." Barty leaned back, looking at Jonathan. "So I'm going to destroy him."
no subject
Jonathan leaned back and wondered how the hell he'd handle that shit with Edward. He didn't even know. Cut Cheon's balls off and make him eat them, probably.
"Sorry about your lad, son." Jonathan offered as he picked up his drink and sipped it. "How do I help?"
no subject
That seemed decently rational still. "Practically speaking, I need the footage first of all. Any copies of it too. All of it destroyed. That's what Sam is focused on, that's what he trusted me with. I'm not as good with tech as your Ed, so that might be something I need help handling. But I want no one to actually see the footage. You see the dilemma."
Barty ran a hand through his hair and then sighed, reaching for his glass and taking a sip. "I want revenge too. I don't care whether Cheon knew. No one touches what's mine."
no subject
"I think you can stake a claim. Sam is yours. As much yours as anything else. If you wanna go after him, I'm down." Jonathan wasn't just a manager type that sent people off and they handled his shit. Jonathan was a traveller's son and a hands on type. He'd happily beat the shit out of another gangster with Barty.
He considered it for a moment and then turned to Barty, smiling. "We could go chat to our new mate, Cheon. See if he can understand us."
no subject
Which he really wanted to avoid, but he knew that he'd do anything to avenge Sam. Anything to hurt people that hurt his Sam. And he also knew that Jonathan would protect Edward, even if he'd brought it on himself. They were both predictable when it came to how they felt about their respective men.
"I want to have a nice long talk with Cheon. I just want to be sure the footage is secure first, so nothing can escalate." He didn't want his rightful revenge to backfire. "I want him dead. I just want that death to be painful."
And, yes, ideally he should also avoid things getting out of hand and kickstarting a gang war by killing off Cheon. Still, hard to care. All he had to do was remember what he had felt while holding a sobbing Sam in his arms.
no subject
It stopped things from escalating too fast and allowed him time to pay respects, be careful and get his revenge when the timing lined up perfect.
"What do you think? Shall we have a chat?"
no subject
He frowned, checking his phone. "Part of me wants to cuff Sam to the bed again before he goes into work. I told him that the drug's not out of his system yet, but he won't believe me."
no subject
He finished his drink and then threw his arms out. "Wanna go today? I got nothing on, I cleared my day for you. You wanna use it productively or we could just drink and whine all day."
no subject
He supposed it had been a mixed bag. "He was so vulnerable. I really should have gone for it, shouldn't I?" Damn. That was going to be a 'what if' scenario in his head for a while. "You don't get much out of behaving like a gentleman."
no subject
"I would have kissed him." No shock there. "Especially if he cried."
no subject
That was a concession for Sam, he supposed. Accepting that sometimes the crooked way was the most direct way. "He said that he loves and hates that I fix things for him."
no subject
"I think it's conflicting for him. It must be nice but he knows it's always illegal and our DI Tyler hates breaking the rules." The luxury of your problems fixed came at a moral price. A tricky thing indeed. "He likes that you can take care of him and he hates he needs it."
no subject
A bit of grey introduced into his ever so black and white way of thinking. "Although I'm different from you when it comes to the new potential partner. I don't want anyone to think they can touch Sam. Even if it's a poor woman who doesn't realise how gay he is."
no subject
He didn't mind, he just wanted to plan out his day and how stressed he was expecting to be. He was hoping he could be back in the evening to see his horse win on the telly. He sold a bloody good one last month and it was in a derby. Fuck knows how.
no subject
Then there was his other thought. "I'm not sure I won't show my hand with this. If Cheon suspects that this is tied to what he did to DI Tyler, it could make things worse unless Ed's already dealt with the footage."
no subject
Jonathan pulled out a cigarette and smiled at Barty. "I hope your damsel calls. This time, take the in and make a damn move."
no subject
He always made good on any favours he owed. Simply better for business. "What I really want is to give Gene Hunt a bit of a headache after all this. I blame him. Sam wouldn't have been in this position if he wasn't... Well. All that DCI Hunt is."
no subject
"I think the cause of all of Manchesters's issues is a toss up between DCI Hunt or our favourite lawyer, Tally. Take your pick, honestly. From opposite sides, they're fucking this city up." Jonathan laughed. "I love it."
no subject
No surprise there. "He hates me because he's platonically in love with Sam, but his hatred for you is red hot as well."
no subject
"I just ignore it. Look, sometimes people hate you. And you don't really give a shit yourself. That's my current situation." He was happy to just smile at Gene and act a friend, despite the hate.
no subject
Good time to be a criminal in the city, honestly. "One last question. Do you have any advice on how to deal with what Sam has in his system?"
no subject
He set them down and slid them over to Barty. "Let me know how he does on them. I'm curious. And make sure he doesn't drive after taking them, they're sedative."
no subject
Seemed like a slippery slope for a workaholic like Sam.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)