A view to a kill (John and Maverick)

John had been reading through some of the things he had managed to collect from his family home before the entire world went to shit. His mother, a decorated police officers, had left a lot of classified information lying around when the zombies had started to close in apparently. Hence why he was reading about one hell of a twisted man who was up to his eyeballs in drugs, guns and prostitution.

Both of legal ages and... none legal ages.

He gripped the sniper rifle tightly in anger and squeezed off a shot. Half the grounds away a zombie fell to the ground, his head simply disappearing. At this kind of range John had absolutely no problems with the blood he'd caused to explode out the zombie's head.

He sighed as he reloaded, looking over the papers again. More specifically his surname.

Maverick wandered up to the area that John was based in for the time being, he needed to be up here for some time to look out for any masses of zombies coming near, although she didn't think that they were going to pose a problem unless they found that there was a food source there, so maybe they should move into the back of the palace permenantly. With a small sigh she stepped near to John and handed him a water.

"Here." she stated, waiting for him to take it from her, they both needed to make sure that they stayed hydrated.

Seeing that he was reading something, Maverick peered at it, and her eyes flashed, what the fuck was this guy doing reading about her father like he had some sort of fucking police file about him? Glaring at John she waited silently for some sort of explaination before she found the words to speak;

"What the fuck is this?" she asked, scattering the papers slightly as she shoved them.

John was lining up another shot when he heard Maverick making her way closer to him. He chose to ignore her for a second before taking the shot. He cursed lightly when he missed and greatfully took the bottle of water,

"Thanks." he chuckled, "My hands were beginning to get a little bit shaky."

When she seemed to peer over at what he was reading he knew that she was not going to be best pleased. After all, it was her father and he was reading a police report about him and his criminal activities. He frowned when she scattered the papers before collecting them up carefully,

"This is the last piece of work my mother had before she was killed by a zombie." he told her calmly, looking up at her, "My mother was a high ranking police officer in the Met. The case she was working on... was about your father. I think we should talk about this."

Maverick merely stared at John when he told her that this paperwork was his mothers intrusion into her fathers life, and she felt a prickling of anger beginning to come into her mind, whatever this conversation was going to bring up, was not going to be pleasant and she could sense that already, her fathers world was dark, and by extention so was hers.

"Why the fuck do we need to talk about this shit?" she growled, the swearing this time was angry, not one of her light hearted joking occassions "Just read your fucking papers then you'll know all about it!"

Turning around she began to pace up and down the room that they were in she was getting more and more wound up by this, the least John could have done was to ask her about this not get all his information from papers before even consulting her about how uncomfortable it made her feel.

"So, whatcha think of my daddy then Mr. Shepard, was a nasty son of a bitch wasn't he?" she snarled.

John could see that Maverick was getting visibly upset by the fact that her father had been under investigation by the police. He probably would have been too if it had been his father but something told John that Maverick knew about some of the things her father had been up to. He paused,

"We need to talk about it because it's obviously affecting you." he told her simply, trying to keep calm in the face of what he saw as undeserved anger, "I won't know all about it. I won't even know most of it. I can understand why you didn't want to tell me about it and I didn't even know until I saw the file's surname..."

When she began to pace John began to clean the rifle he had been using. Just for his fingers to keep doing something. After a few seconds he got frustrated and just set the thing down. He sighed,

"What do I think about him? I've never met him so I can't comment." he replied calmly, "But he seems to have been involved in some less than stellar activities if the police did their homework right. Child prostituion being the main one to stop me saying hi to the guy in the street."

Maverick frowned and she couldn't help but try to calm herself down, the mention of one of the things that her father had done, more specifically the area of business that he had placed her into, shocked her into silence and her anger immediately dissipated and she merely felt herself diving into an emotionless state, which she so often did when the memories were brought up.

"Just ask whatever the fuck you want to know and then I can get the hell out of here." she muttered, taking out her gun, flicking the safety on, off, on and then off as she tried to work out her frustrations by keeping her fingers busy.

She couldn't help but get flashed of memory back from those few weeks she had spent in one of those places, although she hoped that one day in the future they would be replaced by other memories, happy memories, but with the world as it was now, she merely hoped they would be replaced with other memories of violence.

"Well go on!" she snapped.

John sighed a little bit. This wasn't a good sign. Maverick looked like she'd gone from being nuclear level angry at him to emotionless in five seconds flat but to be honest she wasn't emotionless at all. She was just looking very, very upset,

"I wanted to know whether or not all of these charges they were planning to bring against him were true..." he paused as he noticed her playing with her gun's safety, "I can guess by your reaction that one of them is."

He looked at her calmly, not being baited by her anger. After all, she sounded angry half the time anyway. There really wasn't that much of a difference to him. Of course the fact that she was flicking the safety on and off a gun wasn't reassuring,

"Were you involved in any of these things he's accused of?"

Maverick didn't really know how to react, the last time she had spoken to anyone about her fathers business, it was her mother and she had died years ago and so she had kept things inside of her, not telling anybody what she thought, what she had been afraid of, that she wished that she could be free from the world that her father brought with him...and now she was being asked, she didn't want to talk to anyone about it.

When she was asked if she was involved in any of his businesses, she frowned gently and she wasn't sure how to react to this question either, she thought that it would be the best option to tell the truth, wasn't like he was going to arrest him now, he was dead after all, there was no point.

"I was involved in one of his businesses." she stated "Not by choice, but then again your family being as fucked up as mine was, you can't really help being affected by their work and what they do."

Placing her gun on the table Maverick frowned; "Calm the fuck down I'm not going to shoot you."

John could plainly see that Maverick was uncomfortable with this topic but the fact was that if they didn't have it out now she'd never trust him again. Most likely this would lead to them into a situation where they'd have to trust each other, they wouldn't and they'd get themselves killed. Or worse, turned.

When she said that she was in one of the businesses, but not through choice, his mind began racing. Drug? No she'd have to choose at some point. Gun? Same again. Racketeering? Peep pressure maybe but still had a choice. No. It had to be the most unsavoury thing on the list. He didn't draw attention to it yet, knowing that if she cared about talking it through she'd tell him,

"I suppose every child is effected by their parents jobs." he agreed quietly before chuckling hollowly, "Look at me. I'm doing my mother's job here despite the fact that there's nothing to do about it now."

He chuckled slightly and shrugged a little bit,

"Angry woman playing with a gun. I'm sane so that gets me a bit nervous."

Maverick sat down and she ran her hands through her hair, and she couldn't help but think that he was looking for some sort of cheery conversation about the issue at hand which was something that he wasn't going to get from her. This topic was far from pleasant and she really just wanted to make sure that she got this over with as soon as possible.

"It's hardly doing your mothers job, you're just asking me stuff and I'm answering you willingly, in the old world, you'd have got jack shit out of me, just so you know. I'm loyal to my blood." she stated.

Seeing that he still had the sense to be nervous around her Maverick smirked; "At least you've got one thing going for you, you know when to and when not to make me pissed off, especially when I have a gun on hand."

Looking around the room once more, surrounded by all this luxary was so different to the dark, dank stark and dirty rooms she had lived in for a whole three weeks under her fathers command, she was only 13 at the time, what was she supposed to do when it came to something like what she was put through?

"Go on, I told you to ask your questions. You must have more or are we done here?"

John knew that whatever had happened to her was not something that she liked to talk about at all. On the other hand he knew, intellectually, that she had to talk about it otherwise it would consume her. He sighed a little bit before nodding,

"Yes but if you can told me you were part of some of the murders he was tied to then I might have become a bit harder..." he muttered before smiling, "But you didn't, I didn't have to and that's all that matters."

He smirked a little bit and waved it off,

"Yes well I was getting the feeling that I was prey in front of a predator with the way you were looking at me." he teased her lightly before chuckling, "But now I'm alright again."

He raised an eyebrow,

"I said I wanted to talk about this. Not that I have a lot of questions about it." he replied casually before frowning, "I wanted to ask you if you wanted to tell me anything about this whole thing."

Maverick raised her eyebrow when she was asked if she wanted to tell him anything about what had happened, it was quite simple to her, she didn;t want to talk about it so she didn't. If she ever wanted to discuss it she would do, and the only reason she was doing so now was because she was being pressured into it, she felt like she had to talk about it with John so he'd leave her alone.

"No, I dont really want to talk about it John, but it seems as if you arent going to let me leave this fucking room until you think I've told you enough." she frowned, steepling her fingers together as she thought about what she would be comfortable telling John about her past, about her fathers business.

With a small sigh, she began to talk and she hoped that this would be enough for John;

"Not that it matters now but, my father had several shops in the red light district in France and in Britain, he offered all services I've ever heard of and I happened to be placed into one of those shops without my fucking consent." she stated.

John frowned a little bit. She seemed to think very low of him right now. As if it was his curiosity alone that was making him ask her to relieve some rather painful moments. It wasn't though. He needed to know that she was going to be alright, reliable even. He couldn't true her if she was going to put a shot in his back because of their family connections, even if he thought it was unlikely,

"You're not confined here Maverick and I'm not going to guilt you into staying if you don't want to." he told her with the same frown, "The fact that you think I'm forcing you to do anything suggests we both need more time to learn things about each other."

He paused. He had deduced, correctly it seemed, that her father had involved her in the child prostitution part of his business but thinking about it and having it confirmed were two very different things,

"How old were you?"

Maverick's eyes flashed and she shook her head, sending her hair flying as she did so, standing up she leant against the wall and she couldn't believe this guy in front of her, he was acting like such a spoilt brat at this moment in time, just because she wasn't ready to talk about everything that had happened to her, didn't mean she was a fucking time bomb ready to go off.

"You know, if you want to take that shit attitude John you can just fucking leave, this partnership is over. Just cause I'm not comfortable talking about the SHIT that has gone down in my life with near enough a complete stranger, I am not going to fucking turn into a psycho and kill you while you sleep." she growled.

Turning around she was getting more and more angry now, what kind of guy asked that question when he could see she was already uncomfortable with the topic.

"For your information I was thirteen at the time, I was in the place for three weeks until a replacement came through, I was thrown into a room with seven other fucking people, hardly fed, hardly given anything to drink, serving ugly ass clients all day long without my fucking consent only to be brought out of the place and hired by my fathers friends for a night of 'entertainment'. I was chained up, gagged, all that fucking kinky ass shit. Is that enough sharing for you or you want me to go deeper into details huh? How dirty the rooms were, the shouts and screams in the middle of the fucking night, some of them mine...or are you done now? Can you appreciate your cushy ass life now you know what the people your Mum were locking up were doing to their own families, huh?"

With that she snatched up her gun and she stalked towards the exit of the room.

"I don't want to see your fucking face you rich ass bastard." she swore as she stood in the doorway.

John frowned to keep himself from scowling. She was going to ruin what they had here because he wanted to know more about her? Granted it was a darker side of her and not a pleasant one at all but still, did what they'd done mean nothing to her?

"What shit attitude Maverick?" he asked her, trying to maintain his calm, "All I want to do is know the person who has my back. Is that so wrong of me? You didn't have to answer, I would have understood."

He took a deep breath to calm himself down. She had been through a traumatic event, series of events, and it was not something she liked to talk about obviously. It was painful for her to think about and especially to talk about with someone who was, almost a complete stranger.

"You didn't have to answer Maverick, I only expressed some curiosity about you and your family. I didn't know it would be such a bad childhood, I couldn't have known." he told her quietly, before shaking his head and picking up his own rifle, "I don't want to leave Maverick. I don't want this partnership to end because I like you. But if you want me to go... I'll go."

Maverick turned and she had the same look in her eyes the time that she and John had first met in the waxworks, she was not happy, and she was probably the most angry that he would have ever seen her, if looks could have killed this one would have done, and she felt like stabbing him through the eye with her hunting knife.

"I told you I didn't want to talk about it Shepard, but you kept pushing and pushing til you got what you wanted, you just want to finish your mums precious last case." she snorted and her hand holding the gun tightened until he knuckles were white.

Her eyes quiet now with an angry calm, Maverick continued;

"And there you sit frowning at me you bastard while I tell you things that you want to fucking know. You got a problem with the way I talk to you then just fuck off, I don't need you, I was doing fine on my own."

Once again Maverick's eyes flashed; "You didn't FUCKING know, what the papers right there didn't give you enough of a fucking clue that my family life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows?! I would have told you, when I was ready, I ain't ready, you could sense that but you pushed anyway." she growled "Just leave me the fuck alone while I calm down."