May 13th

Tink’s main home nowadays was the Bella Hotel and it was certainly where she felt most at ease. Some of the girls thought that she was a bitch, and it was certainly a first appearance that could be made, but those who knew her knew that she protected the girls as much as she sometimes intentionally intimidated them, she was not an abusive person when she had no need to be.

However, it was her grandmother’s home, completely away from the Pierrott Girls both in terms of location and the fact that she was Gabrielle, not Tink, that she had spent the last couple of nights. Harley had her number if she was needed, Tink was careful enough that the number was listed under Elise, Harley’s out of costume name, and she had left no loose ends for someone else to pick up. The fact was that her grandmother needed caring for, and that was no chore either, Tink had liked her.

Granny had been the only member of her father’s family, her family as a whole, not to turn her back on the pair of them for her mixed birth, and Gabrielle had latched on to her as children will do when it comes to the one source of love and comfort after a trauma such as she had been through. She had spent much of today curled up on the couch with a book that she had meant to read between getting her grandma something to eat or drink or helping her to the bathroom. She had spoken to Harley when she had taken a morning walk just to check in and she should be good here for the next couple of days.

Dusk had come about and the skies were darkening as Tink had set about cooking the evening meal. The kitchen was easily within calling distance should she be needed , even over the soft music that she had playing. It was somewhat soothing to be here away from the other life she had found herself in for a while, as much as she wouldn’t give up what she had. At least it was soothing until there was a splintering of wood, a shattering of glass and raised voices in the front room. Caught by surprise, it was a moment before Gabrielle was able to react, then there was a thud of fists upon flesh and she distinctly heard the word Tink. Almost on autopliot, she grabbed a knife from the magnetic strip, she had throwing knives tucked away, but she didn’t want her grandmother seeing them if she didn’t need to, and she hurried into the front room. The scene that met her threatened to overwhelm her as it was so similar to what she had seen when her father had been badly beaten in front of her eyes, her grandmother was unconscious and bruised, but she pushed it aside, with five SWAT in the room, one of them still shouting in her grandmother’s face, she couldn’t let that affect her, she threw the kitchen knife, even with it not having the balance of a throwing blade, but it scattered harmlessly off of the body armour, she had made a rare mistake and the sofa she dived behind to avoid the gunfire that mistake had attracted barely did more than not let them see that she was withdrawing another lethal blade, she only just kept back a scream as a bullet ripped into her forearm, tearing a hole into it and sticking there. She would not give them the satisfaction of her voicing her pain.

The idea seemed to be hit and run and three of the men were out of the room when the gunfire stopped, one was just leaving and the third...well, he had a blade stuck into his neck, Tink with her usual deadly accuracy, had found a chink in his armour and she was satisfied to see that it was the one that had been screaming at her grandmother. Holding back tears, she looked on the floor of the ruined front room to see a piece of paper, a message scrawled upon it in lime green lipstick, ‘No one is safe’. The colour and the certain knowledge that whoever had set this up knew about her dragged out a half sob, and then her insides went cold as she realised what else that meant. She scrambled for her phone as she checked on her grandmother, punching in a number and barely waiting for the phone to stop ringing, “Elise, you need to clear the girls out of the hotel, now. It might not be safe.” Harley should have picked up two things straight away, Tink had used her out of costume name and had made a point of doing so, she didn’t know if it was safe where she was to call her Harley, then there was the pain in her voice, someone had done something worse to her than Harley had ever done. Her breathing, usually tightly controlled whatever happened, was ragged, she needed help, but her first thought had been to warn her to get the girls safe, “And...do you know a doctor not connected to the hospital? I don’t trust anyone I would get calling 911 right now and it’s not just me that needs it.” That could only mean one thing as well, Harley knew where she was and the only person she would be with.

Tink began to push down her panic as she heard Harley's voice, it was a rare emotion for her and not one that she had to struggle to overcome now that she had been able to reach her, well not overcome, simply ignore that it was there for the moment. She checked her grandmother's breathing and heart, the first was steady which was a relief, her heart was beating quickly though. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to calm her down, she didn't want to watch her have a heart attack. She answered Harley's question, “Bullet to my forearm, it's gone in deep, from a rifle, five point something or other, going to hurt to take out but I can manage it. Gran was hit, not with a bullet, I mean one of them yelled at her and hit her.” The vexation in her voice showed there and it was rare that she showed a hint of anger, “He's dead, I managed to slot a knife in the gap between his helmet and flesh, but there were others, I counted five when I got there.” Knife, she would need to remove that, and do something with the body, preferably before grandma woke up. She tried to piece together what had happened, “I don't know exactly, I was in the kitchen and the front window was smashed, I walked in on SWAT with rifles yelling at grandma. They took some potshots at me and left, I think they figured they'd hit me when I was behind the couch, I don't know how only one bullet got me.” She winced, she couldn't help it, “Someone dropped a note written in lime green...I had to call.” That was all she was willing to say about that over the phone, Harley knew that it was her colour. She didn't know how anyone could know about her, she was careful, her unique skin and eyes were both hidden, as was her hair, she took varying routes both in regards to the Bella Hotel and grandma's home, there was only possibly her height, quite barring access to every camera in the city, that could have linked Gabrielle Johnson to Tink.

When Harley had run off to get the other girls safe, Tink had told her to be careful, then when she rang off, she checked her grandma's breathing and pulse again. She had been hit in the face, so Tink checked her jaw, it wasn't broken but there was a nasty bruise forming, a hairline fracture couldn't be ruled out either. Satisfied that her grandma wasn't going to die, or just yet anyway, she still needed to get her seen by a doctor, she dragged the SWAT member's body to the shed outside the back, removed the knife from his neck, wiped it with a cloth and secreted both away on her person. The pain this caused her arm was almost unbearable and she had to see to that next. There was no local anaesthetic in the house and the pills there were only going to make her drowsy, not good. She looked around, found a bottle of whiskey and downed a swig of it. She then found a belt to bite down upon, there was no use cracking her teeth from the pain that she was going to be in and she couldn't afford to be too loud either. Forceps, or rather tweezers, were easy enough to find, all that was left was to try and use them.

She winced, stifling a cry as she widened the wound a little with the forceps before dipping them inside of her arm. She couldn't see what was going on, she simply stuck them in until they hit the bullet and tried to get them around it. She bit hard on the leather of the belt, not being able to help voicing her pain, as muffled as it was, as pain and nausea washed over her. She would not faint, she was determined of that. Eventually, after what seemed a lifetime, she got the bullet out and dropped it on the floor. The front room was in a sorry state, bullets had ripped into the couch, into the wall, smashed a picture. And that was before the window was looked at. She found a roll of bandage, that was easy enough, and wrapped it as tightly around her arm as she could, it was bleeding heavily with the poking about that she had done and she was feeling a little on the faint side. She would need to call this Linda Crane at some point, but she had to do what she could first, she was too independent for her own good.

Not too independent, however, to go to the front door and let Harley in, even if she hjad her hand on a knife handle in case anyone else had followed her. Her face was pained, and she was still in a state of shock. Harley had not seen Tink vulnerable before, she did not do vulnerable, period. But with the whole situation, both physically and mentally, she was not in the best state that Harley had ever seen her in, not solely for her own sake, but for her grandma and for the girls that she considered family, “Thanks for coming.” She wouldn't cry, she wasn't going to let herself, at all, but things felt just a little better with Harley there, “Are the girls safe?”