Every day is one day closer to the dirt, so you got to go hard. - Greg Jackson
"They gonna pay!"
It was something BA had said many, many times. This was different. This time he was talking to Toby, remembering what happened to his own father...
Those fools had paid, all right. Just like they always did. And Face had made sure they got paid. Just like always. And BA had ended up on a plane, doped to the gills. Just like always.
Now he sat in his apartment, staring at an untouched glass of milk, warm now. The guys properly 'repaid' for the plane, the military evaded one more time, bad guys where they belonged. BA working with his kids, Hannibal working his acting jobs, Murdock back in the nuthouse, Face working out new scams... Everything back to normal.
Except it didn't feel normal anymore. Something was missing.
Maybe it was the waiting. Over a month and not even a "turn down" client had shown up. BA hated these slow times. It happened every now and again, and it always caused problems. Long down times meant Murdock got bored - and that was never good, even when he was locked up. Hannibal got sloppy watching out for Lynch, and Face's scams got more and more wild.
BA just got angrier. He loved working with 'his' kids, but seeing all those scumbags constantly trying to turn them down the wrong path... There was only so much he could do without drawing unwanted attention and not being able to bang a few heads together drove him nuts.
But that wasn't the real problem. One of his kids was in trouble. Jason had already been a hard case at all of ten years old, but after BA started working with him, things seemed to be turning around. Then BA had ended up in Zulabwe, and Jason got lost. Even after BA's return, the boy had only shown up sporadically, and hadn't been seen for over a week. Then today they found out he was in Juvie on a burglary charge.
That wasn't how things were supposed to work. BA was supposed to help these kids, just like the team helped all those other folks. They were supposed to win, dammit! It brought back the same feelings he'd had when his father had gotten beaten so badly - the fear, the anger, the frustration at being helpless, to fix things for his father. That's why he'd gone along with that whole scheme of Hannibal's, all those years ago. No disappearing into the city, no hiding out. No - they could still be the good guys.
Yeah, working with the kids was great, but it wasn't enough. It just wasn't. Maybe he couldn't help Jason right now, but he could make sure others didn't make those same decisions in the future. Screw this down time. Just because they didn't have any paying clients didn't mean the team didn't have work to do. Real work, with real results.
He'd find out who turned Jason, and the team would take care of them.
"They gonna pay!"