Follow Mary's plan

"Well, everything you've suggested has worked out well so far," Grant says with a sigh. "So you and Jaz can be the away team, I guess."

"Aye, Captain," Mary says with a smile.

"Why'd you say Mel, Olivia, and I should be the building team?"

"Well, you three know the building. Abby does too, but she can't be trusted, obviously. And Amanda, I think, should stay here to keep an eye on her and start planning any security changes to the apartment. She knows it best, after all."

Amanda nods. "I can do that. It's easy enough to change the electronic stuff...and I have manuals for the backups and so on."

"Great," Mary says. "Then it's decided?" Grant nods, and the other claimed women around the table do, too. "Then let's get to work."

Twenty minutes later, she and Jaz slip out the front door of the apartment building and head out on foot - not walking too fast, but moving purposefully down the street. This far out from the center of town, on a sunny Saturday, they don't see anyone moving about on the street immediately. In fact, it's almost eerily quiet: the city has settled down after its initial spasm of ****.

"A lot of people are probably hiding," Mary mutters. A distant, feminine scream cuts the air and both of their heads turn sharply toward the sound, but they don't slow their pace. "And for good reason..."

"I'm glad I was claimed by Grant," Jaz says firmly. "I mean, I guess the way he did it was kind of a dick move. But all things considered, I think he had to do it that way...how could he know I wasn't a threat? The most important thing was keeping him safe, obviously. I don't blame him for what he did."

"Of course not," Mary agrees, and she means it even as a smaller part of her brain murmurs in the back of her mind, Classic rationalization. "He didn't even mean to claim me. He's a really good person, at heart."

"Do you think..." Jaz bites her lip. "Do you think that's going to be a problem? Long-term?"

Mary shakes her head. "I have confidence in him," she says with a small smile, remembering the feel of Grant's erection, firm beneath her hand, and the moaning, sucking sounds she'd heard through the apartment's bedroom door as she'd leaned against it, listening with one hand stroking herself through her sweatpants. "Grant...has been such a wallflower for such a long time. I think that as he realizes what this new reality offers him, he'll start to become who he was always meant to be." A shiver of delight runs through her body at the thought.

Twenty minutes later they've made it into a slightly more run-down neighborhood, and Jaz leads Mary to a small store with grated windows that and a sign that reads KING ST PAWN SHOP. A little bell tinkles as they creep inside. Jaz mutters, "Just gotta see if he's..."

"Aight, hold up!" a voice bellows from the back of the store. Both women freeze as a burly Black man in his late 40s emerges from a doorway behind the counter. He holds a sawn-off shotgun in both hands, sweeping it toward them. "Now, if you think you're gonna - "

"Mikey!" Jaz yelps. "It's me!"

"Jaz?!" The man squints. He has small eyes set in a fleshy face covered by a salt-and-pepper beard. "God damn! You scared the bajeezus out of me." He lowers the shotgun. "What the hell are you doing here, girl? It's not safe out on those streets, and especially not for you! Or your friend." He nods at Mary.

"Safety's why we came here," Mary says, lowering her hands slowly. "Jaz said you might be able to get us some weapons..." Actually, Jaz had said that there might be some weapons to be grabbed here. But Mary feels no need to inform him of the distinction.

Mikey snorts. "I do indeed have some firearms, yes. But what the hell d'you want those for? You gonna shoot your way outta the city?"

"No," Jaz says. "We're going to defend what's ours."

His eyebrows climb up toward his bald head. "'Ours?' What're you hangin' onto, then?"

"Not us. The man we're with," Mary says calmly. "He's going to be someone important in the new world. We're working to shore up his position now." She smiles at him. "He wouldn't be a bad person to know, in the long run. You look like you could stand to move up in the world..."

"Don't gimme that," Mikey grunts. He squints at them suspiciously. "So some asshole claimed you two, is that what you're saying? Damn..."

"Disappointed?" Jaz asks wryly.

"I'm older than you, not dead," he says with a shrug. "And this claiming, there's no way to undo it?"

"No," Mary says firmly.

"So in that case, what the hell have you got that I should give you some guns, huh? Way things're going, there's gonna be a lot of people looking for a piece." Mikey folds his arms, frowning at them imperiously.