Work Text:
Untitled Hustle fic
by Anne Marsh
"Has Danny got in?" Mickey asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Dunno. Rest of us did, and we was pissed off our rears."
"Not as bad as Danny." Stacy laughed. "There isn't usually that much singing in a bar with no karaoke machine! I suppose we're all lucky he didn't start stripping off."
"Bugger." Mickey sighed and sank into his chair. Albert came in with milk and newspaper, looking altogether too bright and chipper for someone who'd been out with the rest of them, after all, and for a long time, everyone nursed their coffees and their hangovers in silence.
"Danny still sleeping it off?" Albert was the one to inquire this time.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him since last night." Mickey groaned. "For all I know-- or *care*-- he's sleeping it off in an alley somewhere."
It was Ash who remembered, and he swore colourfully.
"What?" Stacy asked, one hand at her temple.
"Danny. Well, he's carrying half the money, isn't he? So he'd better have got home last night, or else."
"That's it, I'm dragging him out of bed myself." Mickey growled, exiting. He stormed back in seconds later.
"Well?"
"He's not there, and that bed hasn't been slept in all night. The bloody fool's gone out and got himself mugged, mark my words, not enough sense to-- Let's go, we've got to find him."
---/-/---
When they did find him, even their worst case scenarios paled and went to be sick in a corner.
"Who would do this to him?" Stacy breathed the words out and grabbed onto the nearest shoulder.
"He tried to fight back, that must've been it." Ash patted her hair with one hand, the other on Albert's elbow. All three watched Mickey drop to his knees at Danny's side.
"This is bad,"
"We *know* it's bad, Michael, what--"
"No-- I mean-- He's still got the money."
"WHAT?"
"This wasn't a mugging. It was personal." He swallowed bile and closed his eyes, turned his head, but it didn't remove the bloodstained and battered picture from his mind.
"I've got an ambulance on it's way," Albert pocketed his mobile phone and stepped forward, touching Mickey's shoulder. "He's still breathing, he'll be okay."
"Someone did this to *Danny*-- not to someone with money, to *Danny*."
"The important thing is, he'll be fine."
"If I *ever* find who did this,"
"Michael, these aren't people we should mess with-- if this is the kind of retribution they take out--"
"I'm not talking about a con. If I ever find who did this, they'll really pay."
"Michael..."
"Where is that ambulance? What do they think this is? I HAVE AN EMERGENCY HERE!"
---/-/---
Family only. The words sounded hollow and unfamiliar. Everything about the clean, white, antiseptic hospital was disorienting, a world away from the grimy alley and poor broken-doll Danny lying amongst the rubbish cans...
"But we *are* his family," Stacy insisted, and Mickey was glad someone was following this conversation, with this doctor.
"I'm afraid it has to be--"
"I'm his uncle." Albert interrupted. "His, ah, father's older brother."
"And I'm on his mum's side." Ash nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"I'm his sister-in-law. His parents and his brother died in a traffic accident, we're all the family he's got now, and-- and--" She turned on the waterworks. "Now that Reggie's gone, Danny's all the family *I've* got!"
"All right, I'll put you on the list, you'll have to go in one at a time, and only for a few minutes-- What about him?"
Mickey was vaguely aware that he'd been pointed at, but had missed the question, lost in his own thoughts. He should have made *sure* Danny got back with the rest of him. What kind of man was he, letting his crew wander the streets at night, totally pissed, all alone? He
could have been killed, and where was Mickey when it happened? In bed, probably! It was, he reckoned, enough to make you sick.
"Michael is Danny's domestic partner." Stacy answered, with all the ease and grace of a consummate and professional liar. "That is allowed, isn't it?"
"Yes, of course, of course. Ah, Mr.--"
"Stone." She supplied.
"Mr. Stone?" The doctor beckoned.
"Yeah?" Mickey croaked, turning.
"You can see him now, just for a few minutes I'm afraid. The nurse will come and get you when your time is up."
"Thanks." He nodded, slipping into Danny's room.
"Well." Albert raised an eyebrow, watching carefully as the doctor left, out of sight, out of earshot... "That went well."
"Yes, I thought so."
"He bought it-- we're going on the list." Ash nodded.
"I must admit, I thought there would be a bigger fuss..." Stacy glanced towards the door.
"He's in shock." Albert said sagely. "There'll be plenty of time later for him to shout about it."
"And you'll get it from Danny when he wakes up and hears what you've done-- he won't be able to flirt with any of his nurses now, you know that."
"It'll be good for him." She smiled. "Besides, I don't care how much he yells so long as he does it *soon*."
end part 1