Archive of Our Own ^beta

People kept threatening Mark’s Chief, and he was sick of it.

Oh sure, he and Ironside had a tough start. They had a rocky beginning and several rough patches. Part of it was that Mark wasn’t used to having a real parent in his life. His biological father had been in prison for years now. He didn’t know how to deal with the worry and arguing.

However, they had found their equilibrium, and Ironside was just as good at balancing out his moments of self-pity as Mark was for Ironside.

His favorite moments were when Ed and Eve had finished up for the day and gone home. The case was solved, their hunger was sated, and they had a few quiet hours before Ironside retired to bed. Sometimes they played darts, sometimes they watched a football game, and sometimes they sat and talked.

Those moments where he saw Ironside as a regular person. A person who got scared when he was in pain. Mark knew that Ironside was in constant pain. There was no way for him to handle the aches and pains that came with living in the uncomfortable chair, and even the physical therapy and massages wouldn’t help the permanent nerve damage.

Most of all, those moments were when Mark genuinely felt like he had a father figure to look up to. With all of the good and bad that came with it. Ironside cared for him, checked up on him, looked after him, and ensured that his life and work were working. However, he tended to fuss, was overprotective, overbearing, and when he got worried, became impossible to deal with. Mark truly wouldn’t have him any other way.

Which is the reason that Mark is utterly sick of people threatening and hurting his Chief.

The problem was that the Chief did nothing to deter the people who kept taking him hostage. He says that the obvious ploys are often the best, but offering a disabled man as a prime hostage was too apparent for Mark’s tastes. Too dangerous as well.

Mark hates that it works. It works every single time, and beyond a few bruises, nothing horrible has happened to any of the four of them. However, he knows that it’s only a matter of time before Ironside is hurt really badly or maybe even killed. It twists Mark’s stomach into knots, and he gets short with the Chief. Every time Ironside uses himself as bait and leaves their cases with a close brush with death, part of Mark’s heart dies a little.

More than that, it makes him angry. Angry at Ironside and mad at everyone who dares to think they get to do anything to his Chief. That is his Chief, and nobody gets to fuck with him.

So, Mark is going to do all that he can. He’ll drive the Chief around, warn him when he's about to do something foolish, and chase him into dangerous situations. After all, he’s not sure what else he can do.