Work Text:
Their evening was going absolutely wonderfully. A wonderful dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall bistro in the middle of New York City, then a walk through Greenwich Village in the twilight. And the company was the best part, though Joe would have to admit he was slightly biased. Nicky was the best dinner mate that had ever existed.
See? Biased.
They were just starting to turn towards the apartment they’d borrowed from Booker for this little vacation when they heard shouting. Without even taking a second to glance at one another, both men tore down the street in the direction of the noise.
Rounding the corner, they came upon the source of the noise. A woman, lying on the ground, her limp hand still stretched towards her young son, now in the arms of two masked men. One held the proverbial smoking gun. The other looked to have hastily covered the child’s mouth, to keep him from making more noise.
Moving almost as one, the two immortals darted towards the masked men. Nicky disarmed the gunman with a practiced move, before punching him unconscious with one punch. Distracted by his partner getting his ass handed to him, the other man didn’t see Joe come up and reach to pull the child away in time to do anything about it.
The second man stumbled back, the counterweight of the kid gone, leaving him off balance. Joe set the child, no more than five, on his feet, before seeing a NYPD SUV skidding to a stop. He quickly gained Nicky’s attention.
“We need to go habibi !”
The sniper gave a quick nod.
To the child, Joe quickly kneeled down in front of him. “You see that car? Run to it. Run and don’t look back, ok?”
The little boy nodded, scared out of his mind, but did exactly as Joe instructed, running straight to the officers scrambling out of the SUV.
Joe and Nicky took their leave, weaving through the alleys that they had been in and out of for many years.