What a healthy marriage looks like

From 100 to 10

Mick was fucked. He was in the middle of a barren warehouse with a sniper-bot. There was no cover near him and he didn't think he could run fast enough to avoid the timer, so all he could do was sit. He wondered where Caroline was in that moment. He wondered if she was sad, or scared, or lonely- or hurt. His blood boiled and he swore to himself that no matter what, he was gonna fuckin' kill Grey Mann. Part of him hoped Caroline wouldn't come, if only to keep her safe- but part of him knew she would. It was his wife, after all. As he was thinking all this, a little girl stomped into the warehouse, quite a distance from Mick, throwing down some paper before sitting down and scribbling on it furiously. Mick looked around, but Grey Mann wasn't anywhere to be seen. He shouted, "Ey!" She did not look up. He tried again "Ey!" From across the warehouse, she said, "My daddy said to come talk to you- But I don't want to." Mick quirked a brow, "Who's your dad?", "Grey." That was startling. Grey was over a hundred years old and this kid looked to be about six. Mick shuttered at the thought before shouting back, "Why'd he ask you to talk to me?", "I don't know, but you're scary and I don't want to talk to you." Now that sounded about right. He responded, "Well, I can't do much from here so you're safe from me." She looked at him and then looked away, "You said you were gonna rip my daddy's throat out." He winced. He didn't realize she heard that, "I might. Yeah." She turned so she was sitting away from him and shouted, "Then I don't wanna talk to you!" They both sat there for a moment, then Mick asked, "...Why are you still sittin' there then?" She thought about it, then looked over her shoulder at him, "Actually, my daddy said to not come talk to you... But he kicked me out of his workshop and I didn't want to be alone." Mick felt his heart involuntarily leap towards the child, but he reigned back his empathy because like it or not, she was one of his captors too. He asked, "What's your name?", "What's your name?!" She countered snarkily. "I'm Mick." She furrowed her little eyebrows at his serious response and looked back to her papers, "I knew that... I'm Olivia.", "Nice to meet you Olivia. I wish it were under better circumstances." She turned back around and glared at him, "My daddy says you're an assassin. Is that true?", "It is.", "So, you kill people and stuff?", "Yep." She stood up and walked a little closer before sitting down again, "Have you killed a lot of people?", "I have, yeah.", "Like a lot- a lot?", "Like-" He spread his arms out, "A lot." Olivia's eyes went wide, "That's a lot. So- does that mean you're also a serial killer?" Mick was taken aback by that, but he tempered himself and shook his head, "No. I get paid to kill these people.", "I thought a serial killer was someone who killed-" She spread her arms out, "A lot of people. That makes you a serial killer.", "I'm an assassin. Serial killers don't get paid to kill, they just do it for fun." She thought about it, "But you said you were gonna rip my daddy's throat out. Are you gonna get paid for that?", "...Maybe, but I'd get paid a different kind of way.", "Like what?", "Like... Keepin' my wife safe." Now Olivia was confused, "How is that getting paid?", "It's..." He really didn't know how to respond to that, "It's complicated." Olivia huffed and got up, "You're just like daddy. I can understand stuff! It's not too complicated, Olivia!" She mimicked from her memory, "You're just too stupid to explain!" She started stomping away and Mick called after her, "Wait- Uh, Yeah I am." She turned around, "What?" He shrugged, "Yeah, I don't know how to explain that." She eyed him cautiously and moved a little closer, "You... You think I'm right?", "I mean- Yeah." She nodded to herself and smiled, "Daddy never thinks I'm right. He's always like, 'It's complicated, Olivia!', 'You wouldn't understand, Olivia!', 'Let Daddy work, Olivia!' and then he mixes the negative in his equation and doesn't understand why his formula came out all wrong. UGH! He's so dumb... But he's not dumb... But he is... I don't know." She bent forward and planted her hands on the ground, kicking her legs into the air before she stood back up and smiled at him, "Did you see my handstand?" It looked more like an octopus trying to drown itself, but Mick nodded, "Yep. Nice handstand.", "I've been practicing.", "I can tell." She smiled at him and did it again as Mick asked, "Do you have a mum?", "Daddy says my mom was a robot." Mick raised his eyebrows, "A robot? Does that mean you're a robot?", "No, Stupid! Daddy says I'm 'The first human homunculus developed in an artificial environment'.", "So... He made you?", "Duh! I just said that! You're not scary, you're dumb." Before he could respond to that, Grey came in and shouted, "Olivia! What did I say?!" She ran over to him, "You said 'I'm trying to work, Olivia! Go play somewhere else!'." He sighed, "I also said, 'Don't talk to the man' and what are you doing? You're talking to the man." Olivia got grumpy again and Grey turned his attention to Mick, "Well, I guess you've met my daughter. Still no word from your wife, but let me extend you the same courtesy you did for me..." He set a hand on Olivia's shoulder and growled, "If you lay a hand on her I will personally assure that both you and your wife die slow and painful deaths. Is that understood?" Mick wanted to yell a lot of choice words at him, but Olivia was right there so he bit his tongue and nodded. Grey nodded back and ushered Olivia to the doors saying, "You said my formula was incorrect, sweetheart?" She looked up at him excitedly and then Mick's view was blocked by the door. He sat back in the chair, thinking about all that and hoping beyond anything that Caroline was okay.