3, 2, 1 – wield the Axe

Take your favorite DL character and write him waking up from a crazy dream? It can be either something comical or something nightmarish, maybe the dream could even be in relation to other roles he’s played e.g. Charlie dreams about Brody or vice versa.’ 

This is our own go at the prompt from last month.

Disclaimer – Life, Charlie Crews and assorted other characters mentioned therefrom; Billions, Bobby and assorted other characters mentioned therefrom; Homeland, Brody, Tom and Mike do not belong to us and Paul does not belong to us either…Unfortunately. They belong to NBC, Showtime (Billions and Homeland) and BBC respectively. No copyright infringement or money making scheme intended. This is purely for reading enjoyment.

As/N You will definitely need your imagination for this one…enjoy!

As his eyes open he feels them widen in reflection of how he’s feeling so many things all at once. His vision is cloudy and blurry so he shakes his head to try and clear it. His limbs feel heavy even though he hasn’t done anything taxing and he’s breathing heavy as though he had run a marathon. He’s sweating, afraid and he’s shivering, but warm at the same time. The more he begins to waken he realises what he’d been dreaming or rather he realises it was all quite strange and delightful, heart-warming, but tragic, dangerous and exciting all in the one go. He realises he doesn’t want to lose these details. This is something new. Maybe he can write a play or a script. The adrenaline pumping through his veins allows him to ignore the heavy feeling in his limbs. Knowing that time is of the essence he jumps out of bed and not bothering to get dressed Paul flies out his bedroom door, down the hall towards his office. He pushes his office door open with such force that he only just manages to get over the threshold and out of the way before it swings back on him. He clambers over everything in the way of his route to his desk and promptly clears everything off of it scattering his belongings in every direction and not caring where they land as long as they are off of his desk and not restricting his ability to deal with his current thoughts. Finally finding his typewriter under the chaos Paul begins to frantically type. He needs to get this on paper before he loses all the details and he can already feel them slipping away from him like water through his fingers or a fog in his mind which is appropriate given that he is now trying to remember his dream and the different characters in it…

Several beer bottles divested of their contents and filled with his urine later Paul finishes typing his last sentence. He’d already decided that only one of these characters would gain his undivided attention to form some project. He had no clue what that project would be yet, but it would be something. For the present moment he had a decision to make, which character to choose? Paul lifts up the pieces of paper with the summary of his dreams as best as he could remember them thoughts and feelings too and begins to read.

Their children are playing happily together on the floor completely oblivious, their wives relaxing on the couch and talking about everything but work. The personal chef may as well have taken the knife to the two men left facing each other at the table rather than the dinner.

With dinner out of the way, Bobby feels that business should now be added to the menu.

“A peace offering”, he says passing a box across the table to Chuck.

Eyes narrowed and tension in every line of Chuck’s face he puts his hands on the box and pulls it towards him examining it with upmost suspicion.

Outwardly Bobby awaits the assessment of his gift with the cool demeanour developed over the years, but underneath mirth bubbles as he watches Rhoades’s antics. It is quite possibly very wrong to take so much delight in winding someone up so much, but he makes it so easy.

As Rhoades opens the box Bobby can practically see the rush of blood indicating fury and colouring his face. Bobby feels no need to engage Rhoades in a staring contest. Petty though it may be, as far as he is concerned, he’s already won this round, but he’s pretty sure that Rhoades is thinking about how he is going to bury him. They fall back into silence, it being the only respite from their resentment at being in each other’s company. When Wendy says something about getting the children home to bed, Rhoades jumps to attention as desperate to leave as Bobby is to see the back of him.

Bobby busies himself clearing the table as the shoes and jackets are found, put on and the goodbyes are said and hugs dished out.

“Come on, Bobby, come say goodbye”, Lara implores him. He gladly makes a show of hugging Wendy just to irritate Rhoades, but Christ, he hoped he wasn’t expected to hug him. Circumventing any such disturbing suggestion Bobby thrusts the box into Rhoades hands, “you forgot this.” He smiles because he knows it will anger Rhoades further and sure enough there’s a vein in his neck that looks ready to burst every bit as much as his eyes look ready to pop out of his head. Taking great delight in hearing his door thud shut behind Rhoades, he doesn’t hear Rhoades answer to Wendy’s question of what Bobby had given him.

“What did you give him?” he turns to face his own enquiries from every fiery inch of his wife.

“Something that will remind him of me every time he looks at it”, he says reaching for her, playful now that the unwanted guest has gone.

“And what would that be?”

He smirks, leaning closer, “a measuring tape”.

“You are evil”, she laughs into his chest, but asks “are you sure it was a good idea to give him something to remind him of you? He hates you enough as it is.” She pulls herself out of his grasp. “I’m going to check the kids are getting ready for bed.”

As he takes in the view of her walking up the hall he knows she is right. It probably wasn’t a good idea. He’s a numbers man and 81-0 does not make good reading. The odds on him making it 81-1 are not great, but he does so ever like a challenge.

Paul finds himself wondering why Bobby and Rhoades hate each other. He only knew that they do because he had felt it as Bobby.

A real dislike of Rhoades, an ambitious if not slightly malicious desire to get the better of him and just a tiny fraction of fear to accompany his irritation of the man…“a measuring tape” Paul picks up page number 2 still chuckling to himself. So immature and yet funny.

“It seems fine to me”, Charlie shrugs his shoulders peeling some fruit Ted did not know the name of and spilling the juice down his t-shirt.

“Charlie”, Ted sighs in exasperation, “that is because you can’t add up.”

“Say that again?” Reese moves into full on predator mode. Ever since that day in the orange grove she had gone from reluctant to acknowledge she even liked Charlie to reluctant to hide it. She scared him slightly, but nonetheless Ted was not for backing down from this given his freedom is at stake. Life is only more important than freedom when you actually have the latter. It had been bad enough going to prison for his own financial malpractice never mind potentially going to prison for someone else’s.

“Did I mention highly illegal?” Ted adds, ignoring Reese’s attempt at intimidation and realising that has caught their attention continues before either of them can interrupt. “And yes, I know this because I was a fraudster and, okay, so I’m not a hard ass like either of you and it wasn’t particularly smart getting caught, but would it kill you to be a bit more respectful? I’m the numbers guy around here. I’m the one that makes sure Charlie can waste as much money as he likes on cars, girls and fruit and still have enough to buy LA if he wants.”

Charlie looks up from his now soaked t-shirt, “But, I don’t want to buy LA.”

Ted pinches the bridge of his nose willing himself to maintain focus. “Duly noted, Charlie. My point is that Bobby Axelrod cannot be trusted. He’s got red lights flagging all over the shop. There are plenty of other people who can invest for you who are less risky to deal with.

“So, he’s dodgy then?” Reese probes.

“Very!” Ted emphasises relieved they seem to be getting the point.

“Likely to have fingers in political pies across the country?”

“No doubt.”

“What about LA?” Reese pushes.

“Possi…b…ly” Ted trails off suspicious at the smile on her face.

“We, Crews, you were right about something for a change. Your friend has his uses.”

Ted is feeling blindsided. He has no idea what is going on.

“Crews, Ted all but just told us that name we found in Micky Rayborne’s papers is absolutely dodgy and…CREWS! What in the hell are you doing?” Reese barks loudly at him.

Charlie looks up at Reese and Ted with the air of a child caught stealing sweets. “Crreeewwss” Reese draws his name out slowly and deliberately using it to emphasise disgust “are you licking your t-shirt?”

He shrugs his shoulders, “I spilt some of the juice on it.”

“Crews, you are disgusting.”

“I’ve licked worse.”

“I don’t want to hear about your exploits, Crews” Reese warns.

“I was talking about when I was in prison.”

Paul sits up straighter. Why is Bobby Axelrod appearing in the Charlie Crews dream? Why had Ted been in prison? For that matter why had Charlie been in prison and why did Bobby Axelrod have red flags against his name? He wrote these questions down in case he needed them later…wait a minute…Axelrod…who in the hell came up with that name?

Paul contemplates for a few seconds whether or not to bother with the third. The first and second had given him a lot to think about and he was keen to explore it, but maybe the third would hold some link like the second.

Silence could be both a blessing and a curse. It is necessary to try and ensure you do not give away your position. It could play tricks on you after a while once you are desperate to hear a comforting sound, but instead every little rustle or movement threatens danger instead of comfort. It heightens your senses and makes you alert to everything. Like right now. His nerves are strung tightly and he jumps at the retching sound that suddenly pierces the air next to him.

Brody looks through the darkness to see Tom puking his guts up. He isn’t sure how that works. They hadn’t eaten for days. His own stomach is aching, a combination of having had nothing for quite some time and being scared out of his mind. Still, how there could be anything in there for Tom to bring up he didn’t know.

“What are you laughing at?”, Tom growls wiping sick off his face.

Brody looks at him and shrugs. He hadn’t been aware he’d laughed out loud at the stupid things his mind is focusing on.

Tom wipes the sick off of himself, “look, I’ve been thinking…”

“Is that what that sound disturbing me was?”

Tom lets out a laugh of his own though the despair etched in it could not be missed.

Brody feels it too, but does not want to acknowledge it for fear he will freeze when his ability to function matters most. It is what it is. They have no choice.

“I was thinking that when they come for us we have two options aside from taking out as many of them as we can.”

Brody nods his head. He knows where this is going as he’d been thinking about it himself, but he lets Tom continue uninterrupted.

“We can keep going until we’ve used everything we have and risk them taking us alive, or we can…we can…”

“take ourselves out”, Brody finishes for Tom. “We have enough C4 to do the job. Maybe take a few more of them too.”

Tom has his head in his hands and silence falls between them.

Minutes pass and the silence scratches at Brody’s resistance.

Tom suddenly explodes in rage. “Where did that intelligence come from? They sent us…” he stands up and starts kicking at everything near him, “right…” getting louder with every kick “INTO A “TRAP!” Tom reaches for something to throw. Brody is on his feet and tackling Tom to the floor before Tom knows what has hit him.

“Get off me, Brody.” The venom in Tom’s tone might have scared most people, but not him and not now. When you know you’re dead not much will scare you except how long it might take.

“Let it go and then I’ll get off you. You’ll give us away too soon.”

“Too soon, too SOON? Do you see where we are? The crap we are in?”

“We are screwed” Brody answers angrily, “But the others aren’t. We do our bit and they get home.”

“Why the hell do they get to go home and I don’t?” Brody sits up off of Tom, taking the block of C4 out of his reach as he does so. Tom’s eyes are burning with anger and resentment, but above all fear.

“Huh, why? WHY? My boy, Brody, my little boy. I’ve hardly had a chance to hold him.”

Brody watches his friend falling apart in front of him with his sobbing the only sound around them. It scares him because if you asked he would say that Tom is the braver of the two of them.

“No smart answer to that question, Sergeant?”, Tom spits out Brody’s rank as though it were an insult.

Brody pulls his eyes away from Tom, uncomfortable, as though he suddenly realises he is intruding on the grief of another. He picks up his binoculars and returns to observing the area.

“BRODY!”

Brody hears the angry voice of Mike over the radio. He ignores it and continues methodically checking that he and Tom have what they need.

“BRODY!”

Brody continues to ignore the call of his name.

“That’s it we’re going back for them.” Mikes voice along with a rabble of approval and disapproval echoes over Brody’s radio.

Sighing, Brody reaches for the radio. Trust Mike to make things more difficult than they have to be.

“Mike, I’m here.”

There’s silence before the crackle “what in the hell are you doing?”

Brody pinches the bridge of his nose. He did not need this, did not want this and did not ask for this.

“I take it the rest of them have arrived to you safely.”

“Yes! We’re coming back for you both”, Mike replies stubbornly.

“No you aren’t. You’re getting the hell out of here.”

“Why do you always have to be the hero?” Mike rages.

“If this is being a hero then it is severely overrated”, Brody retorts coldly.

“Brody…” Mike’s voice is pleading.

“Look after them for us, Mike.”

Brody ends the communication and switches off his radio. He looks up at nothing in particular though sees Tom’s terrified face staring back at him. They were going to lose everything and they were lost to everyone. They both knew it. They could only hope it would be over quick.

Paul now understood why he had awoken afraid and feeling weighed down. Clearly Brody and Tom were about to die for some cause. Paul liked a certain type of danger, but this was just asking for trouble. Brody and his friend sound very brave and all that, but Paul wouldn’t like to die so afraid and lonely.

3. Goodbye to Brody and then were

2. Charlie like fruit, girls and has lots of money. So, they had a couple of things in common, but…really Paul had known since Bobby had not only popped up in his own dream sequence, but Charlie’s that he was the one.

1. Investor, risk taker, arrogant…hot wife and a nemesis that made him want to take even more risks. Financial malpractice. Fingers in political pies. There was an undercurrent of something else there as well. It was ruthlessness.

Wield the Axe…

Happy weekend everyone. See you next month.