A Man of Service A John Wick Fanfic

Chapter 12

T/W – adult situations, use of guns, implied violence, tension

Kate became apprehensive when it was apparent that Winston wasn't taking her to his room. He walked as if it was a Sunday stroll but his eyes were on high alert. At one point, he almost crushed Kate's hand that he was holding.

Her stomach turned with all the tension and she begged Winston to take her to a bathroom. Kate ran into the stall and vomited all the food in her system. When she went to clean up, she saw a very worn, defeated, broken woman staring back at her from the mirror. It was at that moment Kate decided that she just couldn't sleep with Winston. She couldn't. Her heart, her body she gave willingly to John and she wouldn't compromise that for a piece of information. Kate had to come up with Plan B.

She exited the bathroom and Winston was still there, his hands locked behind his back. He took Kate by the elbow and moved her forward.

"Winston," she began.

"Quiet," Winston whispered to her. "Quiet, please."

"No, I have to tell you something....,"

Taking her to an area way down in the bowels of the building, they came before a type of bunker, closed in by a huge, thick door, similar to a bank vault.

"What the hell?" Kate looked at him.

"Quiet."

Winston went about clearing the security settings on the door; hand print, pass code, keycard, then swirled the huge circular wheel to open the door. He practically threw Kate in and closed the door behind him. It was then he took a clearing breath.

Kate looked around and became even more frightened. This was a place where no one would hear her scream. It was a room with walls covered with guns and other mechanics to deal with a war. Winston was going to kill her, Kate told herself. He certainly wasn't beyond shooting his friends---where did she stand? What chance did she have?

Winston silently walked around her to a desk at the far end of the room, picking up a phone and speaking softly into it. Was this going to be the last moments of her life? She remembered an old saying, "If you're going to fail, it's best to be caught trying" so she straightened her back and walked toward Winston.

"What the hell is going on? Let me out of this bunker or whatever it is," she demanded, hands on her hips. "I'm not staying here, Winston."

He ignored her but raised a hand as if to indicate for her to wait as he dialed another number on the phone. Kate couldn't hear what he was saying as he turned his back to her. She walked confidently over to the handguns and took one off the wall, aiming it in Winston's direction. Calmly she waited for him to finish his conversation and face her again. She'd seen enough P.I. and police television shows to stand and hold the gun correctly.

Winston seemed unmoved by Kate's stance.

"You're going to shoot me?" he asked calmly.

"No," she admitted. "I just want you to let me out of here."

"Do you really know how to handle a gun?"

"You want me to show you?" she replied, assuredly. "Knowledge is power, you know."

"Let me explain. It's not what you think."

"I think you've kidnapped me and are probably going to kill me if I don't fight for myself."

"Yes, I have been a brute, and I apologize, but it was just for show," Winston admitted, walking towards her, his hands open in front of him. "Give me the gun before it kills someone. Like me."

She quietly handed it over to Winston. "What do you mean 'it was just for show'?"

Charon entered the bunker with John's dog at his heels and they both walked over to Kate.

"Ms. Callaghan," he greeted warmly.

Kate only stared at him, shocked by his friendliness and petted the dog's head. "Can someone explain to me what's going on before my brain explodes?"

Winston reached out and tried to gently touch her cheek, but Kate jerked back away from him, her eyes wide open in fear, her fists clenched.

"I'm sorry, Kate, really, but all this was necessary," Winston told her softly.

John woke up in unfamiliar surroundings, his body aching, his head throbbing, with IV's running into his veins. He partially remembered being carted to an audience with the Bowery King and both of them pledging revenge against the High Table, but not much else. Then he recalled looking into Kate's worried face and telling her to go back, to go back where he had left her. Knowing Kate, he was desperately concerned that she did the opposite and remained in New York, leaving herself open to Winston and Tortorelli.

While Kate had a strong constitution, her naivety was going to get her in trouble, maybe killed. She led with her heart, not her head, and that was no way to stay alive against the likes of her former boyfriend and now Winston.

John had to find her and get her out of harm's way, if she was still alive. His pledge against the High Table that he gave to the Bowery King was going to have to wait. He had to get to her. He would deal with Winston later.

His head felt like someone had it in a vice as he tried to sit up. Looking down at his bare chest, it was completely covered with dark, angry bruises and contusions, but no gun shots. There were no bullet holes that he could discern, but 4 pin point purple and red hematomas where he assumed he had been shot by Winston. The bullet proof vest he had worn during the battle forced by the adjudicator had saved his life.

As he sat with his legs over the make-shift bed, his hands automatically went to his head and he bowed it forward into his hands. His heart beat pumped in his chest and in his mind he saw Kate, waving at him from the driveway at the house in Chicago, both of them pretending for the other that everything was going to be okay.

"Lay back down, Mr. Wick. You have a severe concussion and aren't going anywhere."

A man John assumed was the doctor for the Bowery King approached and helped him put his head back on the pillow.

"Where am I?" he groaned, his voice deep and gravelly. John was struggling against the light in the room and was glad when the doctor turned off the lamp.

"You're safe as far as I know," he answered, unemotionally. "I'm Doctor Dennis. The King sent for me to take care of you. You've been out for 2 days. Your body needs time to heal so I recommend you stay in this bed until I tell you to get up."

"I have to go find someone...." John answered quickly.

The doctor put something in his IV tube and John felt his body go limp and the pain in his head ease.

"Nap time for you, Mr. Wick."

John's eyes closed but his mind was still working. Kate, he had to find Kate.