CHAPTER TWO
" Til the sandman, he comes
Sleep with one eye open "

          "I LOOK STUPID," BEAR GRUMBLES.
"You look fine."

David and Bear wore the same clothes as he took them to a street. They wore black hoodies, pants, hats, and sunglasses. Bear made a tiny ponytail for her short hair, so it didn't get in her way. David gave her a flimsy flip phone to use.

"Look, you need to stand there." He points to a building roof. "So he can see you there." A diner. "I'll be up there." The diner roof. "Drop your phone and this note on the roof. Once he goes to you, you get out of there and wait until I get back in the car. You and I will be on a three-way call, you pretend you're talking to him——"

"He's gonna think I'm you?"
"Yeah, that's the idea."
"I look nothing like you."

"It doesn't matter, he doesn't know what I look like."

"Speak for yourself. He's gonna think you're this built-bodied man, not slim jim over here. It's basically cat-fishing."

"Okay, insult me more please, not like we have something important to do here."

"You're threatening me with a good time here."
"Get out of the car."

The girl just rolled her eyes as she took the folded note and exited the car to go to her assigned building. To her, it was stupid to do this. But she knew how David was, he loves the dramatic.

As she made her way, she put on the sunglasses and the hoodie, she began to think about the man they were trying to get.

Frank Castle, formerly known as 'The Punisher', who killed a lot of people and stood trial for some reason (she never looked into), has now been on the run for a little while. He was a Marine and was a father and husband but his family passed away.

She didn't exactly know why Frank was needed for David, only that he was the key to getting him to his family. Bear did trust David in this, she trusted him a lot.

When being underground with someone for a bit, you bond a lot with the time. David liked her sarcasm and she liked his goofy nature. His only priority was his family and she respected that, she felt good to know that she was helping him out and having him out of the shithole he didn't really deserve to be in.

Reaching to the roof door, she called David who immediately answered.
"You ready, Care Bear?"

"Fuck yeah." She walks to the edge, where she faces the diner. "Do I look badass?"

"Sure."
"That's the most unenthusiastic 'sure'."
"I'm not assuming you. Now, mute yourself, I'm calling."

Bear perked her lips as she hit the mute button, taking serval steps back to make sure Frank couldn't tell her lips weren't syncing to the words right.

As the phone rang, the girl couldn't help but feel some kind of excitement. She could finally be on the front line, doing something, taking action, it gave her some adrenaline just thinking about it.

Finally, the phone was answered.
"You got the wrong guy."

The voice was low, rough like sandpaper, but also had a smooth fit to it. She didn't expect his voice to be like that, he sure shocked her a little.

Bear licked her lips as she began to slowly and lowly mouth to David's words. "Yeah, I don't think so. Unless I'm not talking to Frank Castle. You know, let's not waste time. You're Frank Castle, right? Frank Castle, the dead man?"

"Makes two of us now," Frank responds.

"You're more right than you know. You're not the only ghost in this town, Frank. Hey, did you ever get that disk that I left for you at your house?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I got it."

"Did you watch it?"

"'Micro.' What is that? Is that-Is that some sort of name?"

"Sure. That'll do for now."

"You got something you want to discuss with me, why don't you... Why don't you come on down here from that roof, huh? Buy you a cup of coffee, take about it."

Shit, she thought, even if it shouldn't be a surprise.

"You know, I don't think that would end so well," David answers, "You need to understand first. You need to really know why you can't kill me. Then we can meet."

He ends the phone call and Bear jumps off also. She took a deep breath and wiggled her toes as she was preparing to run. Her eyes were glued to the diner, watching for a figure that could even resemble Castle.

There, a man in all black with a bag in hand, came out. He was staring directly at her like a hawk, which made her smirk. Once a big truck passed him, he bolted toward her.

Immediately, Bear tossed the phone on the note and ran out to the edge of the roof, on the other side, and jumped to the roof in front of her. She tumbled a land, as she did jumped to another roof once again. The girl didn't stop as she scurried to the fire escape, she didn't stop as her feet touched the sidewalk. She ran out toward the building, and to get out of sight, stood behind a big SUV.

Crouching and breathing deeply, she took off her jacket, hat, and sunglasses, while looking to see if it worked. Bear never did see Frank, but she did see David on the roof of the diner. With a small smirk, he was waving and gave a 'phone' hand signal, before leaving the roof with ease.

Bear held a chuckle to herself.
That was cold, she admitted to herself, stupid but cold.

⛧°｡⋆༺♱༻⋆｡°⛧

FOR a job well done, that next day, Bear went out and grabbed the two of them pizza. Not frozen store-bought ones that can sometimes taste like cardboard, but made-from-scratch pizza.

Bear only really had pizza once a long time ago, when David first came to the warehouse basement. She loved it when she first bite into it, it seemed like a shame that none of her siblings weren't able to try it; seeing her devour her half of the pizza, he let her take some of his stray pieces left.

And for that extra work of disguising herself to make a believable man, she grabbed herself a box of caprisuns.

As she entered the basement, the girl hollers, "Who's you're good friend that grabbed the best food for you?"

David chuckles, "Pizza, for what?"

"For finding Castle, it's been almost a year. Do you know how much time and effort was spent? Hence, victory pizza."

David knew that this victory would be short-lived, as their plan hadn't even begun just yet. Finding and getting Frank Castle's attention was just the start, the rest that would follow would be more difficult than finding a dead man.

Though, he wanted her to have this. The man grabbed a box cutter and split the pizza box in half, as Bear separated the pizza into even halves. She opened her other box and punched a hole with her straw, to drink her caprisun.

The two ate their pizza, happily, with Bear engulfing herself in the food and David wishing he was eating with his family.

"You know what movie surprised me Tuesday?" Bear talks, "Pretty in Pink."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because she goes back to that guy. The dude broke her heart and she just goes back to him in like two seconds."

"What, you prefer her to be with Ducky?"

"Nah, I don't see it either. Chick just needed to be single. Why do movies do that? Have to put the girl with the guy?"

"Misogyny."

"Is there a movie where the girl is single and happy in the end?"

"Yeah," He tries to list off the top of his head. "Clueless... Mean girls."

She hums in response, reminding herself to watch them later on. Bear asks, "How do you know a lot about movies?"

"My wife, she showed me them. Then my daughter used to, but now, she's more into books."

"I wish I could read."
"You can read."

"Not very good," She replied, "My education was very limited."

"So, if I give you a book to read, you wouldn't read it?"

"I mean, I would. Just the matter of when, maybe like, 6 months?"

David just shakes his head as he gives the girl his leftovers. Bear just snickers, covering the pieces and putting them in the fridge for later.

"Bear!" He calls, "Bear! Bear!"

She furrowed her brows as she jogged to his computer desk station. "What's going on?"

"Castle, that asshole, he's there. He's there!"

"There? There where? I——" As she put herself to see the screens, she saw Frank, clear as day, in front of a red car next to a woman.

He was at David's place. He was next to David's wife. How did he know? How the hell did he find them?

"Bear, please." He grabs her by the shoulders to look directly at him. "You need to go and protect my family."

"Davi——"
"Bear, please, I-I can't let them get hurt. You can take him. If he tries anything, I need you to be there and beat the crap out of him."

The girl didn't necessarily have a choice on the matter. If she didn't go, David would go ballistic and do something majorly stupid and risk his family from getting hurt.

So Bear ran.

She ran out of the basement and into the street. The girl was a fast runner, with the wind whistling in her ear and feeling it on her face. She hightailed it passed the streets to his house, where she had been before.

She knew where she was going, she was good in her sense of direction. David would want her to check on them from afar, despite having watched the cameras on the inside. It was always on occasion when his paranoia got the better of him.

It took her around a 10-minute nonstop run to get to where the house was. It was a nice, quiet suburban neighborhood, the Liebermans lived in. She walked, checking her surroundings, as she got a closer look at this supposed 'accident'.

The red car was still in the driveway, with a busted to-go flimsy coffee cup that was spilled. 'Accident' it looked like, Frank was 'hit' by Sarah.

No one was outside, he must've been invited inside before she could get there. She couldn't hear any screaming or yelling, which seemed positive.

Her mind was then distracted by a very familiar car rolling behind her. Her brown eyes widened in annoyance, seeing David fucking Lieberman in his small crappy blue car.

He parked a little past the house, realizing Bear had already got there.
The girl stomped toward the car as the man made the tiniest crack open on the window.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She questioned, "I ran all this way over here for you!"

"And you took too long," He defends, "I couldn't wait, okay, he's in there."

David pulled out his phone and began calling Frank's number. Bear just crossed her arms, obviously pissed that she hustled all this way just for him to show up, risking to be seen.

Of course, Frank didn't answer. David tried again with the same result.

"You need to leave," She tells him, "If Frank sees you, it's on sight."

But he didn't seem to hear her, as David pulled out a gun from his door pocket. Bear scolds quietly, "Put this shit away!"

Once again, he didn't listen. David's mind was only preoccupied with Frank and his family. The man tried to get out of the car, but Bear immediately slammed the door shut, refusing to let him out.

Suddenly, the Lieberman's front door was open. The girl held her breath as she pretended to act normal and got into the passenger's side of the car.
As she closed the door, the two heard Frank and Sarah talking.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mrs. Lieberman asked.

"As good as new," Frank assured, "Thank you for the, uh, for the coffee. Take care of yourself."

Of course, with David and Bear's luck, Frank Castle was making his way toward their car. The girl orders, "Drive."

"No," He denies, trying to hide away from the man's view.

"Your wife is okay! We came here for that, and she's perfectly fucking okay. Now, drive!"

"Not yet."

"Well if he comes charging after you, you better believe I'm not helping your scrawny ass."

Behind them, a car horn honked. The two turned (including Frank) to see Sarah in the car with a whacked-out garage door that refused to open fully.
Frank went back to her and offered to fix it, and she said yes.

Seeing that he was going to stay with her, Lieberman looked toward Bear, with a pleading look on his face. She immediately knew what he was asking.

"You're fucking kidding me."

"Just until he's gone."

"What am I gonna do, huh? Hide behind a tree?"

"I don't know, but I need my family safe. I am begging you, just watch him."

She always hated when he begged. It made him look like a kicked puppy asking for a hug from its owner. It was a small process of convincing the girl. First, you get her annoyed then you get her to sympathize.

"Fuck you," She hisses, "You owe me."

"Thank you, Teddy Bear."

The teen got out of the car and walked out to the street on the driver's side, making sure David left the street and away from here. She turned over and jogged to the Lieberman's next-door neighbor's backyard, jumping over the small wooden fence.

She was graced with not meeting a guard dog when landing on the grass. The girl prayed that no one was home, or if they were, they wouldn't notice an unknown buff teen spying on the neighbor like some kind of pervert.

Bear didn't go fully into the backyard and mostly stuck with the side of the house, for less likely to be seen. The fence that divided the two was weak but stable enough for another year or two. She looked into the hole in the fence which barely showed Frank.

But knowing she could hear them, having a simple conversation, Bear figured that she could hear if Sarah was in distress.

So the girl sat down on the grass, bored in listening to Frank tinker with the garage door and lowly hum a song that was in his head, while Sarah popped in a few times to ask if he was okay.

This was not how she expected her new-found adventure to be. Sitting, waiting, and barely paying attention, wasn't her forté. Action and fighting, were right up her alley, yet this ain't her alley.

All Bear could think about was the cold pizza that was calling her name and would be devoured once she got home.