“You’ll need to be honest with me,” Mary spoke, her face hard set in solemnity.

The finality in her tone shook the complacence from Gerald’s mirth and his playful mood became sombre.

He had strolled in after not seeing his beautiful fiancèe for two days and spent the ride over surpressing his excitement.

“Sh— Shoot Mary. You know I’ll tell you anything you want, as long as you ask,” He chuckled, a hand rubbing in back of his neck nervously.

“Were you at the Bank Heist yestersay?”

Memories of a large bank and armed robbers, of crying hostages and a thankfully swift turnaround filtered his mind and Gerald swallowed the lump in his throat as he answered with a single nod.

This was a conversation he had been dreading to have since he realised he loved her and he was unsure of how well this would go.

“Was it you?” She whisphered.

“Yes—,”

“You monster! Those are innocent people! And their hard earned money!” She screamed incredeously. “Why would you resort to this? It’s not like you’re poor!”

“Mary, baby, please. I— I didn’t want to at first but I was good and my friend encouraged me to do things I was good at and I—,” He babbled to defend himself.

“That doesn’t mean you rob a bank!” Mary heaved in frustration shortly after she threw out those words.

“What?— I didn’t— Oh god, no baby. I— I didn’t rob a bank.” Gerald had pulled a stubborn Mary into his arms, engulfing her frame in a tight embrace.

“Listen to me, okay. No more yelling and just let me tell you. Please?” He whisphered into her hair and waited until he felt her nod, her forehead rubbing against his large chest.

“I didn’t rob a bank. I was there to defuse the situation.”

“Why would _you_ be the one to defuse the situation?” Her eyes narrowed and suddenly it felt like she didn’t even know him.

“Hey! I have training and it’s kind of my thing. Super-heroing. Isn’t it neat?” He tried to play it off playfully but Mary wasn’t having any of it, pulling herself away from him.

“Super-heroing? What even is that? What are you doing out there, Ger?”

“Okay, I just— Okay. Let me start from the beginning.” He pleaded. Mary crossed her arms then uncrossed them. She pouted, not knowing how to feel.

“I’m waiting.”

“When I was seventeen, I joined the military fresh out of high school. It was a swift charge through basic training and into specialised individual training. I became an army officer, then a leader and eventually I was trusted to lead a small recon team into an enemy base.”

Gerald had guided Mary to the couch as he spoke, sinking into the flea-market loveseat they bought together with the house and pulled her next to him. She quickly snuggled into his side.

“I can’t say much about it but I was the only person to come home from that. It— I failed my first big mission and that was it. My superiors had me backlogged until I was transferred away but people talk and everyone already knew. No one wanted to be led by someone that killed their team. It was like a bad omen.”

Mary soothing hand rubbed the centre of his chest, brows furrowed in sadness for him. He wondered if she could feel his heart stuttering at her touch and gave her a soft smile.

“I’m okay. My direct superior had me do solo recon missions. Mostly undercover security and I was really good at what I did. A particular client— someone with a lot of clout had requested me often and soon I just became his personal bodyguard. He paid better than the military so I jumped at the offer.”

“It was—,” He took a deep breath, suddenly not wanting to talk anymore. “It was good at the beginning. Then suddenly, I would find blanks in my memory. I would wake up in places I didn’t remember sleeping in, sometimes in places I’ve never seen before. I started noticing my room being strategically touched and my nose started irritating me more and more.”

“I won’t bore you with my meltdown. Nor the fact that I almost demolished my client’s house to the ground… It turns out, he had been experimenting on me.” Gerald choked, the memory more potent the longer he lingered on it. It was the foul darkness of his past that he rarely thought about.

“Every night, since I’ve been his bodyguard, he had released a scentless gas into my room during my sleep that knocked me completely into a coma. Then he had pumped me with some type of serum that pushed past the mental barrier that limits us from using our body to the absolute limit. I actually don’t know too much, you know I failed science.” He joked, and Mary gave him a sympathetic laugh, hoping it would relax him as he spoke. It doesn’t. But he loved that she tried.

“Then he gave me a steroid or an excelorant that allowed my body to keep up with those limits and finally the voodoo magicky thing he did that completely overrid my concious control with hypnosis. After he had successfully did this and I had survived the ordeal— Yeah baby girl, the asshole didn’t even think I’d survive.” He spat when Mary’s face morphed into horror.

“… He hired me. Kept me in his house and monitored my progress. Then he would send me out. Retrieving items. Kidnapping targets. K-kill enemies…” He hesitated to look at her and relaxed when she squeezed his hand in understanding.

“How did you break away?” She asked quietly.

“I didn’t do anything. He died. His mansion was sweeped and his research notes were found and investigated. They had me in a holding cell and interrogated for days until they believed that I was innocent. Then I still had to go to therapy and get my life together. I was stuck for a long time.”

“Eventually… I got a quiet job at a cafe and met my manager, an aloof beauty that I fell hopelessly in love with.” He squeezed her close to him.

“That—,” She flushed. “You still haven’t explained the bank thing!” Mary accused exasperatedly.

“Oh yeah. I knew I forgot something.” He teased.

“The bank thing… Well after I started working at the cafe, I started going to the gym close by. I met this real kooky kid that somehow always knew when some crime would happen. But apparently, he couldn’t intervene. And that’s were I came in! Since I had this super strength and stuff, I joined his heroing group and he calls me over when he needs me.”

“The bank heist wasn’t suppose to be one of my jobs but I was close so I got there first and apparantly you were there to! But I didn’t see you… I thought you went to your dad’s—,”

“Boogey Man.” Mary commanded.

Gerald’s body straighted exponentially, his face fixed forward and his eyes glazed over. Mary only huffed in annoyance, her body flopped back over the arm of the love seat in an awkward stretch then she sat up.

“A kooky guy, he said.” Mary laughed softly. “If that all powerful being knew what his little vigilante thought of him.”

That being said, her father was careless with this one. Letting himself get killed and exposed. It knocked their plans back by almost a year. Mary looked over her puppet, affectionately tousling his brown hair.

“You exposed me too early. I was happy to play your little wife for a bit. I didn’t think you’d be the little chess piece I was looking for.”

Mary had spent the months after her father’s disappearance in hiding. Their enemies were plentiful and she could only bid her time in wait.

When his death was announced and her father’s piece did not return on command, she could only improvise. The only known suspect was her father’s bodyguard, who, according to her father’s lawyer had moved to a small town across state for his mental well-being. She bought a cafe and honestly just hid there while she figured out what to do.

Gerald was a very sweet lover, a nice distraction while she figured out what to do. It never occured to her that he was the piece she was looking for. If anything, her eye had been on the… ‘kooky guy’. Gerald did not scream ‘ultimate super soldier’, it was her blunder that kept him under her nose for a whole year.

Still, the ‘kooky guy’ has a type of prophetic ability? Hoepfully, he doesn’t see where she hits him.

“Boogey Man, every time you’re given a mission, report it to me.”

Mary paused. She contemplated whether she could have both, a super soldier and a fiancè.

“Nah.” Mary denied.

She shouldn’t date a man she could completely control. It would make things… mild. After all, the aggressive I hate you’s and the making up in bed was the best part of being in love.

“If anything, I kind of wish the trigger word didn’t register. It was an impulsive call out after all,” Mary sighed. “Woe is me.”