Under New Management
Word Count: 2,769
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: I'm actually going to call this gen. At least... I tried to make it that way.
Spoilers: up to 1x11.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: Everything changes when the Hawks get a new owner.
Author's Note: So that covers everything I wanted to do with this story. :)

New Order

"I believe I have something of yours," Nico began, holding Duggan's watch over his shoulder. The shorter man snarled and reached for it, trying to pull it from Nico's hand. Nico refused to let it go. "No. You want this back? We have things to discuss."

"Careles." Duggan spat his name like an insult. "I knew I should have dumped you in the river back in Pittsburgh."

"You never should have come to New York. You violated the terms of our agreement, and though I imagine I've made no small nuisance of myself to you, that is only the beginning of what we both know that I'm capable of."

"You moved my car."

"Yes.

"You took my watch."

"Yes."

"You toilet papered the field."

"Does that sound like me?"

"No, you son-of-a—"

"Don't insult my mother. She has nothing to do with this, and I'll break your arm if you do," Nico warned. Duggan glared at him. "Please. We've had this out before. I won then, and I'll win again. If you want to fight me, go ahead. But you'll never get the rest of what I took back. You won't get the peace of mind of knowing exactly which of those moments in the last few weeks was your paranoia and which were me actively messing with your head."

Duggan continued to glare. "The security system?"

"Which one?"

"All of them."

"Yes."

"The beer?"

"You don't want to know what was really in the bottles, no."

"My dog."

"The ASPCA wants to talk to you about that one."

"Cut the crap, Careles. You and I both know what this is really coming down to, and I'm not going to let you get that smug smile on your face," Duggan said, reaching out and grabbing hold of Nico's suit. Nico looked down at his hand and met his eyes. Duggan's gun was in his right jacket pocket, as Nico had suspected. "Where are the books?"

"Now those you really should have left in Pittsburgh. Things get lost in transit, you know."

"I am not playing games, here," Duggan warned. "You know what's in those books. And you know what I'd be willing to do to get them back."

"You hurt my team. You threatened my friends. You would have used children. You're a coward, Duggan, and I won't give you the books back. In fact, as I understand it, they have been a most fascinating read for the FBI. Threats, intimidation, rigged fights, murder... The one that would worry me the most, though is the racketeering charges. The wrong people are going to think that you talked."

"They'd get thrown out of court. Can't prove a damn thing with them."

"Do I look like a lawyer, Duggan? The mob will take care of that. Oh, and tell Spinetti hi. It's been too long."

"Don't you dare move, Careles. You were a fool, coming here in the middle of the day—sunlight supposed to scare me? I don't think so. But you came alone. I have a full team of men who obey my orders."

"Ah, but the thing about them is that they're all mercenaries. The Hawks pay their bills. And I happen to control the Hawks now," Nico said. He nodded at Duggan's look. "Yes, you can say it. That bitch sold you out. So... not only are these my employees now... I also learned the value of cultivating loyalty that was not based on money, and while you may think I am alone, I'm not."

Nico watched Xeno walk up behind Duggan.

"What would you like us to do to him, Mr. Careles?"

"Well, first Mr. Duggan is going to drop the gun from his pocket, and then we're going to make sure that he makes it to his meeting with the FBI," Nico answered with smile. "Duggan, the gun?"

Hate filled Duggan's eyes, but he dropped the gun on the ground. "This isn't over, Careles."

"No, I think it is."

Dani barely managed to hear the doorbell over the loud party that had overtaken her house. She wasn't sure when her house became the Hawks' gathering ground, but they seemed to come here whenever they wanted to get together. The house was nowhere near big enough for the kind of party the guys wanted to have to celebrate buying the team, but none of them were willing to listen to her, and so she'd been invaded.

She made her way through the crowded house and to the front door, stopping to wonder if it was the police. That might actually be a relief at this point. She took a breath and opened the door. Seeing the new arrival, she had to smile. "Nico. You're late. How does it feel to be king of the kingdom?"

"If you mean there's some advantage to the top office, it's only the ability to see just how much of a mess things really are," he said, looking tired. She frowned. Exactly what had he been up to? He looked past her into the house. "You have quite a crowd."

"Except the man who should be here because he did all the work."

"Not all of it. You, TK, and Donnally got the team on board. That was not me," Nico disagreed. "No one would ever choose me as the life of a party, besides which I have far too much left to do. I made some progress, but it's nowhere near enough."

"Right. So the progress would be...?"

"Well, to begin with, I had to fire half the security staff, put the rest on probation, restore the former security staff to their positions, fire the inadequate cleaning crew that is run by kleptomaniacs, rehire the old company that had been vetted and never caused problems before, order supplies that were badly out of stock, and reassign the offices," Nico explained. He rubbed his forehead a little. "I need to meet with Coach Parnell to resign his contract and discuss the assistant coaches because I believe at least one of them should be terminated given the behavior they all displayed during his absence—Donnally being a notable exception. He may even want to move Donnally up into one of the vacated positions. That is his decision to make, though. His coaching staff should be people he trusts."

"Yes, of course," Dani agreed. That could be good news for Matt. "It sounds like you've gotten pretty far already. You could probably use a break."

"I know that most of the team considers it a forgone conclusion that you will resume your work as the team's therapist, but I need to know that you do, in fact, wish to do so, and I have some—"

"Yes, I still want to work with the team. The guys have been great," she interrupted. She wasn't going to deal with any of the legal matters just yet. "I will come by and sign anything you want if you answer a question first. And I mean an honest answer, not an evasion."

He frowned. "What?"

"How did it feel? Standing up to her? Sticking it to her like that?"

He looked down. "While in some ways that conversation was... extremely beneficial for my self-esteem, there is a part of me that does not like hurting her—if I even managed to do so. The entire exercise was one that reminded me not only of why I do what I do but how good I am at doing it. So, yes, the answer I believe you're looking for is that my self-confidence has been restored. Even a bit of my pride. Or too much. That remains to be seen."

"I'm glad." She really was. Even though she was angry with him for what he'd done when it came to Lindsay and Ray Jay, at least he'd thought of doing something to protect her kids, unlike Dani, who had somehow imagined that Duggan wouldn't go after them for some inexplicable reason.

"It is also a relief to be... free of her," Nico went on. "I have no doubts that when she's recovered from this, she may make another attempt, but I do not see myself giving into her. If I could resist when she was destroying the team, then there is no reason to think I'd given in when she has less to bargain with."

"What about Juliette?"

Nico looked at her. Dani shrugged. "Yeah, I heard her ask you about Juliette. Who is Juliette?"

"Her daughter. Another weakness of mine. Also the friend you told me I was enabling."

Dani remembered that conversation. She'd been rushed, but she was glad to know that even that little bit had helped. "You think she'll try and use Juliette against you?"

"Both Gabriella and Marshall cut Juliette off. It is to her credit that she finally turned her life around, and she has followed her program despite leaving rehab. However, I know her mother to be a poor influence on her—Gabriella has many of the same problems—and I would appreciate it if you would consider working with her. I did tell her to contact you."

Though her schedule was already rather full with the team, she knew she no longer had to worry about anyone Marshall Pittman would send her way with demands to "fix," and helping Juliette would help Nico and stick it to that bitch. "I'd like to see her."

"Thank you."

"Nico, why are you here?" Dani couldn't help asking him. He frowned at her. "Well, by your own admission, you're not here to party. I can't sign any papers right now because I can't think straight, and I know you didn't come to answer my questions about how it went, so... why?"

"There are still some things that I need to—"

"Nico! What is up, dog? Look who it is, guys! The man of the hour! Late to the big party, but that's okay, we'll fix that," TK said, coming up and pushing past Dani as he greeted Nico with a hug that Dani swore made Nico flinch. Before she could call him on it, though, more of the team had pushed past her and surrounded Nico, the linebackers moving him inside despite his objections.

Dani followed them, closing the door behind her. She wished she'd been able to get that answer from Nico, though. She wanted to know why he'd come. She would have expected him to stay as far away from the party as he could.

"Enough," Nico finally raised his voice to be heard over the entire team that seemed to be around him. They stared at him in confusion, shock, and even a bit of fear. He was used to that. "You do not need to congratulate me, and I think we'd all agree that I am not a party person. So, rather than let me ruin your evening, I will give you one more reason to celebrate, and then I'm going to go."

"What? You can't leave, Nico," TK immediately protested. "The night is young, the party just got started—though Doctor D said we needed to move on if we wanted alcohol and women—but you can't go. You're the man who did it all."

"No. I had an idea that other people went along with. TK and Doctor Santino did most of the work. You all had to come together and agree to it. In the end, my efforts were minimal, and they really only offset what started when I left."

"Dude, take the compliment already," TK said, shaking him. Nico looked at his hands and then at his face.

"Terrence, remove your hand from my arm, or I will do it for you," he ordered, and TK lifted his hands, holding them up in apology. "Thank you. Now if you will excuse me—Right, before I go. You will all be pleased to know that Duggan has been... forcibly removed from the Hawks property and will not set foot there again. As I understand it, the federal authorities are very interested in his activities."

"All right, Nico!" TK cheered, leading the rest of the team in a new round of celebration. More hugs and high fives went through the group.

While they were still preoccupied, Nico slipped away, circling around to get to the stairs. He walked up and stopped at the door. He should knock, but he did not want to waste time. He opened the door, and the figure on the bed did not look up.

"Go away, Ray Jay. I already told you that I didn't want to party."

"That is your choice. I've never been fond of parties, either," Nico told her, and this time she sat up. Her hair was a mess, and she'd definitely been crying. She brushed off her cheek and glared at him.

"I don't know what you think you're doing here, creep, but you can get the hell out. Now."

"I will leave, but not until I've said what I came to say. You are free to disregard it, but you can make that judgment after I finish," Nico said, and she frowned but refrained from further hysterics. "You believe that I hired Elliot, that everything you knew of him was a lie."

"It is!"

Nico shook his head. He took out a piece of paper and set it next to her. "This is Elliot's transcript from before I arranged for him to switch schools. If you note the marks and comments under his grades, you'll see what I did."

"He was in high level classes. What was he doing in my math class?"

"You were failing, weren't you?" Nico asked. She didn't answer. "What I found in Elliot was a strong body and a sharp mind. I asked him to get close to you, yes. As your tutor, nothing more. There was enough security around you when you were at home, but you'd been assigned mandatory tutoring sessions. Rather than get an adult that you would never accept, I asked Elliot to do it. He was additional security for those tutoring hours only. Whatever friendship developed from that—although based partially on a lie of omission—had nothing to do with me or Duggan and everything to do with who you are and who he is."

She picked up the transcript and frowned, not sure if she believed what Nico had said. He pointed to the paper. "That's information even I shouldn't have. You should get rid of it."

Nico left the room, closing the door behind him. He put his hand on the stairwell started to descend again. The party was still in full force, but somehow in the middle of it, he heard Santino's voice. "So... that's what you came to do? To tell my daughter it wasn't all a lie?"

He took the last step, now on the ground floor, and turned to look at the doctor. "An attempt to fix some of the collateral damage, yes. She was never meant to find out like that—the need for additional protection was never supposed to last as long as it did. I did not and would not hire anyone to pretend to love your daughter."

Santino smiled as she came down the rest of the stairs. "And why weren't you reassuring my son about his new friendship?"

"Because he never developed romantic feelings for Nick. In fact, they still hate each other, but they're on the same football team, so they have a bond that I don't think I'll ever understand, nor do I want to," Nico answered. He looked at his watch—his own, this time. Though he'd considered keeping Duggan's, he wanted the man to have that reminder of how close Nico had gotten and what he could have done. "I have to go. There's still a lot for me to do."

Santino stepped forward and hugged him, and Nico tried to extract himself, but he did not get away before she kissed his cheek. "You are a far better man than you want to admit, Nico Careles."