Dom the Bartender's Story

"Lookin' for Gabby," the man grunted. He plunged a hand into his back pocket, withdrawing a few folded-up squares of paper. He shook them open like a handkerchief. Loose block handwritten capitals wandered around the page of what appeared to be some sort of typed questionnaire. "Name's Dom. I got a .. meeting."

Dom's eyes wandered behind the bar, combing the stacked glasses, ascending bottles of liquor, the sink, the menu board, everything. A terse, yet wistful expression darted across his stony features.

"Looks a li'l diff'rent," Dom stuffed his arms across his chest, continuing his appraising stare. He thrust his chin out, aggressively, but approvingly. "Still feels the same."

He clapped his eyes to the cubits resting on the bar, turning his head just slightly to see the uniformed patron leave.

"Achen, eh?" the ex-bartender muttered, sharing with Gabby a dry, knowing smirk.

Blinking in absolute confusion, Gabrielle tried to remember whether or not she had made an appointment with the fellow sitting in front of her. He introduced himself as Dom and the name didn’t sound familiar, so she finally just shrugged a little. Grabbing a stool that was inches away from her, she slid it beneath her tush and sat down, letting both elbows rest on the counter. This way she was sitting directly in front of him, but the position still allowed herself to see the door.

“Well, it so happens that I’m the very Gabrielle you seek, Dom. I don’t recall making an appointment with you though. What can I do for you?” Peeking over at the paper, she arched her brow and merely shrugged when he mentioned Aschen.

“Neh… let’s move on from that subject, hmm? Talking about the Aschen tends to cause me a lot of trouble and right now I can’t stomach another visit from his holiness.” Sighing, she resisted the urge to bang her head against the counter.

Gabrielle glanced over towards the soldiers, watching them grow louder and louder. Well, at least they weren’t being crude towards women and being otherwise obnoxious. Maybe things were about to turn around for the sixteen year old. Taking the pieces of paper as they were slid over to her, she glanced over them carefully while listening to his request. Oh, he wanted a job. Well, that certainly made sense. What was with the influx of old employees coming back? It wasn’t that she truly minded, but several of them had been lackluster in actually doing their job, so now she was less willing to just rehire them back immediately,

“Alright… well, here’s the issue.” Lord where did she even start? “I have room, yes, but I’ve had several employees return and ask for a job and then they sort of never show up to actually work. Or, they show up and do work, but end up causing me a ton of grief. I’m not in the mood for drama and if you’re not willing to actually show up to the bar and work, then don’t waste my time.” Glancing back towards the Marines, she flexed her jaw a little.

“Can ya’ll keep it down a smidge? I’m trying to conduct a damned interview right now!” Returning her attention back to Dom, Gabby thought about his previous comment about the Aschen,

“I don’t know what your views are on the different races that might stalk through the door, but we’re not treating them any different, even if they are the Aschen. Most of them are dicks like their …” Gabrielle pauses, coughing while not quite saying who she meant, “but, we’re not going to just look for a reason to kick them out. So, if that’s going to be a problem for you, you need to voice that. If there are problems with the Aschen soldiers, or anyone for that matter, the security will take care of it and especially if it’s the Aschen, I am to be notified immediately as I have this agreement with Mollem to let him know.” Sighing, she tried to make sure to touch on all the points that had been brought up in the last few days.

Gabrielle scrunched up her nose, pretty certain she had hit a certain nerve with the man. Well, it didn’t matter because it most definitely needed to be said. She had grown tired of individuals being all gung-ho to do the job and then all of a sudden stop showing up. Mentally making a note that she needed to fire some people, Gabby was glad to hear that he seemed to have a firm head on his shoulders or however that saying went. She didn’t want to hire someone that was going to kick out another person just because they looked at them wrong. Ignoring his question for the time, she merely stared at him with her brownish-lavender eyes, both arms crossing against her chest before releasing a single word,

“Hn.” She said nothing less and let him finish up whatever else he had to say. After sitting a few minutes, silently mulling everything over, she glanced back down at what had been handled to her and finally smiled towards him,

“You’d be surprised at how many times I heard someone say they wanted to work, but never show back up. That is why I might sound a smidge hesitant. However, you seem to be exactly what I’m looking for so, you’re hired. When can you start? The sooner the better as my other employees seem to think work is optional.”

Renée wasn’t really sure how Gabrielle would take her bringing home Liam, but honestly, she didn’t really care. In fact, as she walked with the child towards Gambit’s, she began to list all of the reasons why it was necessary for her to do exactly what she was doing that very moment. She already had a room up in the hotel part of the building that housed the bar and she knew without a doubt that it would be easy to move into a suite that had a two rooms separate from each other, a living room, dining area, and of course a kitchen. It would be absolutely perfect and she was proud at how well she was handling the sudden change in her life. Smiling down at Liam, she hoped that he wouldn’t feel too out of place with her,

“First thing we’ll do tomorrow is buy you some clothes and boy stuff. I don’t know what all kids like now days, so you might have to school me a little bit, okay? My hotel room is your hotel room. You’ll have your own space and everything. Eventually of course we’ll move into an apartment, but right now, I need to keep an eye on my baby sister as she runs the bar. Sound savvy?” her voice was a tad chipper and she hoped he didn’t sense the nervousness in it. This was a huge step for her.

Finally relaxing a little as the reached Gambit’s, she pushed open the door and immediately tensed up. There were people inside, doing what patrons did best in a bar, drink, and she noticed a new hire standing behind the bar with a rag over his shoulder. Studying him silently, she just shrugged and led Liam over to where Gabrielle happened to be standing. This was the first time the two of them had been in the same room with each other since she had been shot by their mother’s assassin and she had no idea how the brunette was going to react.

“Err… hey, sis. This is Liam and well, I sort of just adopted him. Surprise? Also, glad you made it back from Langara all in one piece.” Standing awkwardly, she thought about hugging Gabby, but opted to not do anything until she was sure she wasn’t going to get screamed at.

---

Gabrielle nodded towards Dom, glad that he was willing to immediately start working. When he mentioned something about an apron, she could only shrug in confusion, having seen absolutely no one wear anything like that except the cooks and dishwashers of course. But, whatever he wanted to wear, as long as it was appropriate, was fine with her. Scrunching up her nose, she slid off the stool, heading over to the office in order to place the papers he had given her in somewhere a little more confidential. She and her sister were the only two that were allowed inside and in fact, were the other two with keys. Shutting the door back behind her, she turned just as the door opened. Her eyes widened at the sight of Renée waltzing in with a juvenile trailing along with her,

“What de hell…?” her voice wasn’t loud enough for anyone else to hear it, save for perhaps someone with good hearing and she walked over to meet her sister near the bar counter.
Listening to the female talk, she found it difficult to think of a response and instead shifted her attention towards Liam, studying him silently. Finally, she just grinned and stepped forward to hug Renée,

“’Course I made it back in one piece. You seem to forget how awesome I am.” Pausing, she glanced again at Liam, “welcome to the family, Liam. I hope you realize how weird NeNe is, but I’m sure you’ll cope somehow. You can call me Auntie Gabby or just Gabby or Gabrielle, whichever you’re more comfortable with. Oh, please don’t think this is because of you, hun, okay?” Turning around to face her sister, Gabrielle cocked back her fist and nailed the older girl right in the jaw with enough force to knock her flat on her butt,

“That’s for making me believe you were dead all this time, you buttface!” Scowling, she helped her sis back up and hugged her tightly once again. Yeah, weird was putting it lightly.

As they walked, it occurred to Liam this was currently the most positive relationship he has had in over a year again. Ever since his exile, to be exact. Liam wasn't even sure if he could remember how to live properly, and he didn't grow up in a city either. Still, better then breaking in to homes and apartments of people on vacation.

"If it makes you feel better, I don't either. And demons don't care about fashion, they barely care about clothes". Liam noted, then adding "Sounds good though". Liam then spent a good minute trying to remember since he last changed his clothes. They weren't turn or anything, but that's because one of his wards is a clothing repair ward. His clothing keeps healing of any damage. Either way, he couldn't remember, which also made him realize how long since he had taken a bath. But, he had Wards to deal with those issues too. Liam really had warded himself all to hell. And then some. They ranged from canceling out smell to explosion and fire protection.

As he watched things unplay, he couldn't help but be amused slightly. He had spent over a year with no comedic relief. This was as close as it could get for him. "Alright. Wow. And I thought I had complicated relationships with people. And demons. Anyways, thanks. Names Liam".

He wasn't sure whether to mention Zamikar or not. On one hand, it might scare her off or get Reneè hit again. On the other hand, the occasional demonic Bounty Hunter might come and attack, maybe a few Hellspawns if they were unlucky. He wasn't quite sure what to say, so he waited for things to play out.