Work Text:
25 YEARS AGO
Cisco slumped heavily into the vacant tattooing chair while he waited for Rick to finish up with his current customer. He glanced over at the person being tattooed and noticed a familiar tattoo crawling up their neck.
“You one of Darley’s boys?”
The person snapped their head around to look at him, their face adorned with under-eye tattoos and a snarl. “Not any more.”
“Oh, right, the-“ Cisco snapped, both as an attempt to remember and as a sort of general encompassing gesture for everything that had happened to Bones and Billy Darley and their gang. The former Darley gang member snorted contemptuously and turned back to Rick.
“Wait-“ Cisco said after a second, his brain and his mouth moving at different speeds. “But the Darleys were- I thought that guy- how did you get out?”
There was a taut silence as Rick wiped down and bandaged the forearm he’d been tattooing, then the person slunk out of their chair and practically lunged at Cisco, gripping the chair above his shoulders and hissing in his face.
“Don’t ever mention them again.”
Cisco watched them go, then turned to Rick who, for his part, had begun wiping down his machine and resetting it for Cisco’s ink. At Cisco’s look Rick shook his head.
“Man, I just tattoo ‘im,” he said. “I’m at the crossroads of three gang territories, I know better than to ask questions.” Cisco grunted and, at Rick’s gesture, sat back and rolled up his sleeve.
When his arm had been freshly inked and bandaged, Cisco stepped outside, squinting a little in the Tennessee sun. He kept his steps casual as he walked towards the biker bar they called base, but he stayed on alert.
At the corner at the other end of the block from the base, he saw them again. He sized them up as he approached quietly. Loose-fitting clothes hanging over a too-skinny frame, smudged eyeliner at the corner of one eye, a patchy buzzcut revealing a white scar in a line behind their ear, and a stance that clearly implied they were selling themself but were incredibly wary about it.
“Hey,” Cisco said as he got to them and they spun around. “I wanted to say sorry about that.”
Their eyes narrowed. Their gaze flicked just beyond his ear and Cisco knew they were checking his base to see if they were being surveilled.
“I mean it,” Cisco insisted. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. Name’s Cisco. What’s yours?”
He held out a hand but it was met only with scorn. “Either you’re here to threaten me or because you want sex. Either way, you don’t need a name.”
“Fair enough,” Cisco said, and put his hands in his pockets. “In that case, how much would I owe you for an hour?”
They stared at him, but when he kept looking back at them steadily, they sighed and shrugged one shoulder. “$200. Come with me.”
Cisco sat at the edge of the bed in the shitty motel room and watched his partner-for-the-hour roll a spliff. They were both still naked and Cisco felt vaguely sticky, but there were still ten minutes left of his $200 and he didn’t feel like putting his jeans back on just yet.
When they’d finished rolling and taken their first drag, Cisco spoke again. “Are you okay?”
They cut their eyes at him, their flat expression emphasized by hollow cheeks and the dagger-shaped tattoos under their eye. “You’re not that big.”
Cisco scoffed. “Not that; I meant are you safe?”
They took a long drag, staring out the window before answering. “Safe as I can be, I guess. The tattoo comes with a reputation, anyway.”
Cisco nodded. He stretched lazily before getting up and putting his clothes on from where he’d tossed them on the floor. He glanced over to see his soon-to-be-former bed partner looking him over appraisingly while he dressed. “Well,” he said as he pulled his boots back on, “if you ever need anything, come to the Iron Rose or find one of the Roaring Bulls and ask for Cisco Wojciechowski. They’ll protect you even if I can’t.”
Their affect remained as flat as it had been for their whole encounter, but Cisco could tell as he glanced back at them that they were stunned. A clump of ash fell from their spliff to the stained carpet. “Why?” they asked finally. “You already paid to fuck me, is this you trying to get some sort of permanent arrangement out of me?”
“No, not at all!” Cisco crossed to sit back on the bed and looked at them steadily. “I honestly wasn’t even planning to fuck you when we came up here, but, well. You are attractive.”
They snorted. “That’s kind of the point.”
“Seriously though, I want to make sure you’re okay. You look…well. I know what you must’ve been through after everything, and if there’s anything I can do. I just want to help.”
They looked at each other for a long moment, and Cisco’s companion took a long drag that burned down the spliff almost to the filter before they responded. “Okay,” they said quietly. “I’ll keep you in mind.”
Cisco nodded and almost went in for a kiss out of instinct, but something in their face warned him off and he squeezed their bare shoulder gently before getting up. He walked to the hotel room door and put his hand on the knob before looking back at them. “I hope I’ll see you around,” he said quietly, and waited for them to quirk their lips up almost into a smile before he pulled open the door and made his way back out onto the streets.
PRESENT DAY
Mickey Haller sat heavily on a bench and stared unseeingly at the creek in front of him. I need to go think, he’d told Lorna and Cisco before heading out of the office, and set out to clear his head. This case wasn’t the hardest one he’d had by any means, but gang-related cases always meant an overwhelming lack of information because nobody wanted to say anything. This was an especially difficult case because it was tied to a prior case involving a non-gang member where the civilian had suddenly refused to give testimony the prosecution had been relying on, so there was a lot of misinformation to sift through in addition to their lack of eyewitness statements or any other solid evidence.
Mickey covered his face with his hands, pressing the heels of his palms just below his eye sockets. He hated doing this but he knew it was going to be a lot of long nights for him, Lorna, and Cisco.
“You Mickey Haller?” a woman’s voice came from next to him. He raised his head to see a woman with greying brown hair and a leanness that spoke to a long life on the streets standing next to his bench. Her voice was deep and had a smoker’s rasp to it and she had a dragon tattoo crawling up her neck, drawing attention to a long scar behind her ear and the three smaller tattoos she had under one eye. She seemed uncomfortable standing there, glancing over Mickey’s shoulder every so often, but she’d sought him out and clearly knew who he was, so he stood and faced her properly.
“Mickey Haller, yes. Can I help you?”
“More like you need me to help you,” the woman said. She twisted her hand in the fabric just above the hem of her cheetah print slip dress. “You’re representing Noe Diosangre, yeah?”
“I am,” Mickey said cautiously. The woman nodded, once, sharply.
“He wasn’t involved in those killings and I have proof. Or. Not proof, but I have information on who did.”
Mickey straightened up, suddenly more alert. “You have a way to verify this? Can you tell me more?”
The woman glanced around them again. “Not here.”
“Of course; my office,” Mickey extended his hand to usher her down the path. “It’s not even a block from here.”
The woman seemed initially reluctant, but, having no other option near them, followed him back to the office.
Lorna and Cisco both poked their heads out of the conference room when Mickey opened the door to his offices with the woman in tow.
“We may have a lead,” Mickey announced, gesturing to her. “This is…I’m so sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Mickey!” Lorna chided him.
The woman was standing very close to the door and seemed on the verge of bolting back out of it. She was looking specifically at Cisco with an alarmed look on her otherwise expressionless face, but her gaze flickered back over to Mickey when he addressed her. “Spink,” she said, then glanced back at Cisco. “Spink Wakowski.”
Lorna gasped and clutched Cisco’s arm excitedly. “That sounds like your last name!” she said. “Maybe the two of you are related!”
Spink made a strangled noise at that and Cisco looked at her strangely.
“Spink,” Mickey nodded. “Why don’t you come into our conference room and you can tell us what you know?”
Mickey and Lorna both sat at the table with Spink, notepads out and ready. Cisco stood leaned against the doorframe; not threatening, exactly, but Mickey knew his bodyguarding instincts weren’t easily turned off. It had saved his life before, so even though he didn’t think Spink posed any sort of threat he didn’t try to call Cisco off.
“So, Spink,” Mickey said when they were all ready, “what do you have to tell us?”
Spink looked faintly nervous but she took a deep breath and smoothed her hands over the tabletop. “I help run a clean needle swap in Culver City,” she began. “I also…sell information. When it’s needed. I have connections and I hear things, and sometimes gangs pay me to tell them things. Or to tell other people things. And, of course, there’s things I don’t tell.” She took a deep breath and a hint of a Southern drawl became more pronounced in her voice. “Noe Diosangre is a young man I’ve come to know in my work. Typical story; kicked out young, turned to drugs, got dragged into a gang. He does gopher work, mainly; too scrawny for hits, too smart for grunt work, too unappealing to most for…streetwalking. He works for the Poppies, officially, but they sell his services to a couple other gangs in the area as needed. K2K was one of them. He never did more than messenger work for them, though, and he wasn’t even working for them when everything went down.”
“Can you tell us more about that? About what went down?” Mickey asked, looking up from his notepad. Spink nodded briefly.
“Some exec, Murray something, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and his daughter was caught in a hit and run. Random accident but he took it personal. Found out it was someone in K2K, bought some guns out in Little Rock where no one asks a lot of questions, shot up the whole gang. He died, too, got got by one of them before they passed, and some opportunistic street kid claimed he saw Noe leaving the building after. I happen to know for a fact he couldn’t’ve, though, for he was helping me at the exchange that day. We have a…well. Someone once offered to help me out of a bad situation when I was near his age, so I try to do the same if I take a shine to someone in a similar situation.” Mickey looked at her just in time to see her gaze flicker briefly to Cisco before returning to stare at the cluttered conference table. “So that’s what I have. The Poppies’d be happy to be rid of him permanently if you know what I mean, him trying to get on the narrow ain’t exactly on their agenda, but I’d like to get him out of everything clean. So when I heard he’d gotten a good lawyer and found out your name…well. Then you know what happened.”
Spink crossed her arms over her chest defensively and Mickey heard a thunk from her boots against the table as she did the same with her legs. She took a deep breath. “You can get him out, yeah? Only…well,” and her gaze inexplicably went to Cisco again, searching his face briefly before staring steadily back at Mickey. “I was in a situation once that wasn’t dissimilar, and I want him to get out cleaner than I did.” One of her hands went briefly to the dragon tattoo at her neck before she pulled it away again. Mickey heard Cisco shift behind him.
“We’re going to do our best to help him,” Mickey said, and did his best to sound reassuring. “I always try to do right by my clients, and to have someone vouch for him like this, well. It means a lot.” He stood from the table and Spink looked uncomfortable but stood as well. Mickey put out a hand to usher her towards the door and she did, skirting Cisco awkwardly. “Thank you for the information you’ve given us. If we need to follow up with you to verify anything or get further details, how can we contact you?”
Spink’s shoulders hunched in on themselves and she cleared her throat. “Uh, well there’s only one needle swap in Culver City proper, so you could look me up there I guess. I don’t…I don’t really use a phone.”
Mickey nodded. “We’ll do that then. Do you need a ride anywhere? I could have my driver take you.” Izzy glanced up from her phone and made eye contact with Spink.
Spink shook her head vigorously. “It’s fine. I have…business, anyway.”
“Alright,” Mickey agreed. “Well, thank you again, Spink. Stay safe.” And with that, and one final look towards Cisco and Lorna who were standing together in the doorway to the conference room, Spink slunk out of his offices.
When the door had closed behind her, Mickey turned towards Lorna and Cisco. “Well.”
“That was quite a story,” Cisco said, and his tone heavily implied he didn’t believe her.
“It was,” Mickey agreed. “Check her out, will you Cisco?”
“What?” Lorna said disbelievingly. “You don’t think she was lying, do you? Why would she lie about that?”
“Why does anyone lie about anything?” Mickey said. “Anyway, we should always verify anything like this. Especially because she already admitted she sells information, maybe someone paid her to sell that story to us.”
Cisco nodded, and went to pull his jacket on. Lorna shook her head but went back into the conference room to continue going through their notes on the case. Mickey followed her, sighing internally at the long day still ahead of them.
It took until the next morning for Cisco to come back with information.
Lorna and Mickey both startled when he came into the conference room. He slammed a dossier down on the table with a thunderous look and said simply, “No.”
“No?” Mickey repeated.
“No. We are not dealing with this woman.” Mickey and Lorna stared at him in shock. Cisco was very rarely visibly angry, and even less often so in front of Lorna, so to see him so enraged was deeply alarming.
Mickey and Lorna reached for the file simultaneously and flipped it open. Lorna pulled out the top page, a mugshot of a much younger Spink with buzzed hair and an abstract tattoo on her neck where the dragon sat now with some information printed at the bottom. “Spink Wakowski, formerly known as James Berghoff,” she read, and looked up at Cisco with wide eyes. “Cisco if this is because she’s a trans woman I swear to god-“
“What? No, of course not!” Cisco shook his head. “Look at her known associations.”
Mickey picked up one of the sheets he’d been sorting through. “First known association was with the Darley gang out of Tennessee; only surviving member of the gang after their confrontation with financial advisor Nicholas Hume and family. Involved in heroin making and distribution with the Darleys and others…then involved in interstate drug trafficking…more multiple shootings…” Mickey shook his head slightly as he looked through more of the papers. “Looks like she’s been involved with most of the major gangs across the US, usually ones that move heroin. A lot of death here, too; a lot of the gangs she’s known to have associated with had a large number of their members die right before she moved on.”
Cisco sat down heavily in one of the chairs and spread his hands in a gesture to indicate that was exactly his point.
Lorna picked up another sheet Mickey hadn’t gotten to yet and squinted at the bottom. “She hasn’t been associated with a gang in years, though,” she said, and pointed at the paper. “Look at this: assumed to have moved to the LA area six years ago, no record of any criminal activity, and here’s a phone number to the clean needle swap she mentioned.” She looked back up at Cisco but he was shaking his head.
“I still don’t like it,” he said. “That whole business with the Darleys was when I was still running with the Bulls, and I remember it pretty well. There were kids involved, the sons of that other guy, and most of the gang were young too. It was a messy business and I don’t want nothing to do with any of it, and especially not if it puts you two at risk. ‘Sides, I-“ but he cut himself off sharply, pressing his lips together. “I just…I don’t trust her, is all.”
“Cisco,” Mickey started slowly. “I know you don’t like her, but she seems to be who she says she is, so I think we should see if there’s any other information she can give us. Even if she can just show us around the area that would be helpful.”
Lorna was still staring at Cisco with her eyes widened as if to see him better. “Cisco, do you know Spink? Like, personally?”
Cisco turned his head to the ceiling but couldn’t completely hide the flush that crept above his beard.
“Cisco?” Mickey asked incredulously.
“I, uh,” Cisco hedged, “I may have met her in Tennessee. Once. But I don’t know if she remembers me at all, so-“
“Oh, she remembers you,” Lorna and Mickey said together. Cisco raised an eyebrow. “She definitely remembers you,” Lorna said, and Mickey nodded.
“She kept looking at you,” he agreed. Cisco looked a little wrong-footed and was speechless for a moment.
“Well, uh, fine,” he said finally, “but I still don’t like it.”
“Your disapproval is noted,” Mickey said drily, and got up to leave, sliding the dossier on Spink into his briefcase before heading out of the office.
Lorna declined to go with them to Culver City, so Mickey and Cisco dismounted from Cisco’s bike alone a block from the needle swap. Cisco had said it would draw less attention than any of Mickey’s cars, and would be safer if he left his Road Saints vest on top of it, but the truth of these didn’t help Mickey feel any less shaky as they walked to find Spink.
The needle swap was very unassuming as they approached; so much so Mickey was afraid they had the wrong place. A couple of haggard looking young people eyed them warily as they entered, but Cisco walked with purpose and Mickey followed.
They found Spink behind what seemed to be an intake desk, deep in conversation with a man in his very early twenties, if that. They both turned at their approach and the young man rocketed out of his chair.
“Mr. Haller?” he said, bewildered.
“Hi, Noe.”
“You here about my case? I thought you said you needed more info before you’d have anything for me?” Noe rubbed his upper arm in a nervous gesture.
“Yes, well, that’s why we’re here actually, to ask Ms. Wakowski a little more about what she has to tell us,” Mickey gestured to her as he spoke and did not miss the way Cisco and Spink both flinched when he said her last name.
“You…you talked to them?” Noe turned to her, a note of what could have been either hope or despair in his voice.
“Yesterday,” she said, her voice hard, “and I thought that was the end of it. What do y’all want with me again?”
“Is there a room we can talk privately?” Mickey asked.
Spink took a long moment to answer, and when she did her eyes were only on Cisco. “Sure,” she said finally. “Let’s go to my office. Noe, mind the sheet, would you?”
Spink’s office, such as it was, was a small windowless room full of boxes of reams of paper, sealed medical supplies, and other various supplies that were needed but didn’t require specialized storage. She found two metal folding chairs for Cisco and Mickey and perched on one of the only relatively clear spots on the desk that was wedged into the room.
“So,” she said when they were all sitting. “You looked me up, I’m guessing. And you’re here now because…?”
Cisco sighed and leaned forward, taking Mickey somewhat by surprise. “What happened to you, Spink?”
A rapid fire series of emotions and expressions crossed Spink’s face. She leaned back, arms crossed protectively. “What’re you talking about.”
“It was you, right?” Cisco pressed. “What happened? You never called or nothing, and then come to find out, you’ve left a trail of bodies across the US? Why? What happened to you?”
The complicated emotions crossed Spink’s face again, but this time they coalesced into rage and she pushed off the desk to get in Cisco’s face. “Never called?” she hissed. “Never called, Cisco? How about I went into the
Iron Rose not a month after we met, roughed up like you wouldn’t believe, only to get told you weren’t around no more before they treated me like worse than a whore than you did? How about when I tried to find out where you were I got run out of town and only just got myself out whole and not in a ditch?” Her voice was nearly a shout now, she was shaking furiously, and as Mickey watched on in shock it looked like Cisco was about to cry. “How about I went to the only place I heard whispers that could’ve been you only to have another goddamn massacre happen around me, and had that over and over again? It was only when I changed my name and took your goddamn last name as near as I could remember it that someone mentioned Los Angeles and I fought to get my way here. And even then, anyone here I ask won’t speak of you and would rather end a conversation with a fist than an answer?” Her voice cracked and shook as she gripped Cisco’s lapels in two white-knuckled fists. “You’re a damn impossible man to find, Cisco Wojciechowski, so don’t tell me I never fucking called you.”
Cisco stood up and wrapped his arms around Spink as she sobbed. He bowed his head but Mickey could still see a few teardrops hit her greying hair. Mickey didn’t think he’d ever seen Cisco cry - he wasn’t sure if even Lorna had - so he turned around as much as he could in the cramped room to give them some semblance of privacy.
Cisco and Spink finally separated when Spink’s sobs had subsided, and Mickey turned to see Cisco smoothing his hands over Spink’s hair before she backed away to lean against the desk again.
“So. You still need more information from me after that?” She sniffed once. Mickey graciously did not mention it, or that Cisco’s eyes were still a little glassy.
“Yes, if you could,” he said instead. “Anything with solid dates or times, eyewitnesses, whatever you have that could help Noe.”
She nodded and looked up towards the ceiling, one steel-toed boot digging into the carpet as she thought. “Eyewitnesses you won’t get many of,” she said after a moment. “Most anyone down here knows anything was probably high when they saw it, and no one’ll take a second look at a witness once they see the track marks. In terms of times and dates…well, fuck knows my memory’s shot but we keep a log of whenever anyone runs the swap ‘sides me and Julie. So we should have proof of Noe being here whenever all that K2K nonsense went down. Besides that, I only know what I’ve heard, and I sure as hell ain’t testifying about that because that’s a surefire way to lose the reputation I’ve got.”
“Could we get a written anonymized statement from you? Would that work, Mickey?” Cisco asked.
“I’ll see about getting that admitted as evidence, but it would certainly help our investigation if nothing else.”
Spink nodded once, sharply. “I don’t know what else I can give, but this is already more than I should so I need your promises that you’ll keep Noe safe. People like us…don’t get treated too kindly on the streets. And despite some having good intentions,” here she glanced pointedly at Cisco, and to Mickey’s continued shock Cisco actually flinched. “There’s not much people do to actually protect us. So you gotta promise you’ll keep him out of trouble.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Mickey promised. “I’m sure I know someone with a transitional program who can get Noe working for himself and not a gang.”
Spink nodded again and Mickey knew that was all the thanks he would get from her. “Let’s get you a look at those logs, then.”
Lorna stood up from her desk as soon as Mickey and Cisco returned and followed them into the conference room. “Well?” she said expectantly.
“She was able to give us some good stuff to go on,” Cisco said gruffly. “Hopefully it’ll give us enough to throw doubt on the prosecution’s case.”
“And…?”
“And everything else, I think you and Cisco need to talk about alone.” Mickey ushered them out and closed the door behind them. He sat down and started putting together all the information Spink had given them with the rest of their case, only glancing up once to see Lorna and Cisco deep in their private conversation.
The trial came around and, as promised, it was a very difficult case. Nearly everyone that could’ve testified in Noe’s favor was dead, and those that weren’t refused to testify. So it was down to vague allusions and expert opinions that boiled down to nothing more than hearsay. The only thing that held any weight were the sign-in logs from Spink’s needle swap, and they turned out to be key in getting Noe a verdict of not guilty. There were caveats, of course, but Spink had slunk in in time to hear the verdict, and seeing the way she hugged Noe was worth all of it.
“You’re welcome to come celebrate with us, you know,” Mickey said. “It’s a little tradition we have; nothing fancy, but we’d be happy to have you join. It’s a little place I know around the corner from here.”
Spink looked nervous, eyeing Lorna and Cisco warily. “I don’t know…” she hedged. “I don’t…I don’t drink.”
“That’s okay, neither do I,” Mickey said, and extended an arm to usher her to join the group. Noe grabbed her arm in excitement when he saw her coming to join them.
Despite her worry, Spink fit in well with them. Her expression didn’t change much but it was clear how much she cared about Noe, and Mickey could see her opening up more to Cisco the more he invited her in to the conversation.
“Did you know Lorna and I are going to get married?” Mickey heard him say at one point, and Spink crooked a sardonic eyebrow at them.
“Well I’m sure there’s at least one way you’re going to make her very happy.” Lorna crowed with laughter at that.
As they were beginning to wind down and Spink began looking nervy again, Cisco gave Mickey a look and he walked over to join them.
“You know, Spink, your information was invaluable to us in this case,” Mickey began.
“Yeah, we wouldn’t have been able to get a lot of this stuff without you.”
Spink dug her heel into the ground and looked away awkwardly.
“It would be great if we could get your help with stuff like this more often.”
“I’d pay you, of course,” Mickey added. “And there’s no pressure either way; I don’t want to take you from your job and I know investigating probably isn’t exactly what you want to do.”
“Plus, I’m already a pretty great investigator,” Cisco cut in, and Spink snorted.
“True. But I did want to offer, if you ever wanted to help out with anything at all, you could be an unofficial part of our team.” Spink was silent for a long moment so Mickey edited slightly. “Or at least, would you be willing to be someone we could contact if we have questions you might be willing to answer?”
With a long look at Cisco, Spink finally nodded slowly. “I can tell you what I can. Just don’t go expecting me to run around the city for you; I got responsibilities now.”
“Of course,” Mickey said.
“I’ll get Cisco’s phone number,” she continued, and he looked startled. “Then I hear something I’ll call him, or if you got another situation like Noe you can call me.”
“That’s great! And of course you’re welcome at the office any time, even if it’s not work related.”
Spink looked from him to Cisco, and Cisco nodded. “As long as it won’t endanger you you should come visit. Or I’d…like to see you socially as well. Catch up with you. And you can get to know Lorna as well, she likes you.”
In the beginnings of twilight it was a little hard to tell, but Mickey was pretty sure he saw Spink’s cheeks color a little bit, and when she spoke it was very quiet but full of feeling. “Yeah, I’d…I’d like that.”
Mickey let the moment linger before saying anything else. “Well, in that case, we’ll see you again soon, Spink,” he said. He clapped her lightly on the shoulder and she briefly pressed her fingertips to the back of his hand. “Thank you for your help. And good night, Cisco, Lorna,” he called. They called back their goodbyes and he started to make his way to his car. As he left, though, he turned briefly to see Spink lunge suddenly at Cisco to grab him in a hug. He pressed a brief kiss into her hair before she let go, and Lorna swooped in for a hug as well.
Mickey smiled to himself as he got in his car to drive home. Another case well done.