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Jay tugged at his navy Henley for the fourth time, catching his reflection in the hotel's marble-walled lobby. The shirt fit well enough, not clingy but not loose either, matched with dark jeans and his leather jacket. Comfortable but put-together. After the last date, he wanted today to feel... normal. Whatever the hell normal meant when you were going on a date with a mercenary who could make bullets forget how to fly straight.
The elevator chimed, and out walked Domino looking like trouble in the best possible way. Black skinny jeans, combat boots, and a fitted crimson sweater that made her pale skin seem to glow under the lobby lights. Those mismatched eyes of hers caught sight of the bouquet in his hands and immediately lit up.
"Well now, aren't you just the sweetest thing?" she drawled, accepting the white and black roses with theatrical surprise. "Flowers and everything. What's next, honney? You gonna pull out a ring and make an honest woman outta me?"
Jay grinned, offering his arm like some old-fashioned gentleman. "Figured I'd test my luck. 'Sides, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Oh, honey," Domino laughed, sliding her arm through his with ease, "those are what we in the business call 'famous last words.' But I appreciate a man who likes to live dangerously."
"Central Park," Jay said as they headed for the exit. "Picnic blanket, good food, and absolutely zero folks in masks."
"Now you're just showin' off," she teased, but he caught how her shoulders loosened up a bit. Even someone like Domino needed normal every now and then.
Early noon in New York could be perfect when it wanted to be, and today it was showing off. Crisp air that carried the smell of changing leaves, golden sunlight filtering through the tree canopy like nature's own spotlight show. Jay had picked Sheep Meadow on purpose as it was far enough from the main walkways to feel private but still public enough to be safe.
They spread their blanket under a cluster of oak trees, Manhattan's skyline visible in the distance. Jay unpacked sandwiches from Katz's Deli, proper pastrami & none of that processed garbage, real potato salad from this little place in Brooklyn, and two bottles of craft beer.
"Alright," Domino said, settling cross-legged on the blanket, "this is nice. Real nice. Which means I'm waitin' for the other shoe to drop. When do the ninjas show up?"
"No ninjas," Jay promised, popping open her beer and passing it over. "Scout's honor."
"Were you actually a Boy Scout?"
"About three weeks. Turns out I wasn't too keen on following rules, even as a kid."
Domino's laugh was bright and genuine. "Well, that sure explains a few things. Though I gotta say, your camping skills have improved some. This beats the hell outta the fancy diner with the longest break."
They ate slow and easy, trading stories that danced carefully around the more dangerous parts of their lives.
"So there I was," she said, gesturing with half a pastrami sandwich, "hangin' upside down from a helicopter, trying to disable the rotor while the pilot kept doing barrel rolls like he was auditioning for the damn Blue Angels. And the whole time, my employer's screamin' through the comm that he needs the helicopter intact 'cause it's apparently some vintage model worth more than my yearly take."
"Please tell me you didn't—"
"Oh, I absolutely did. Good news was, we landed safe. Bad news was, we landed smack dab in the middle of his prize-winning rose garden." She grinned like a cat with cream. "Some clients just got no sense of priorities."
Jay was mid-laugh when his danger sense hit him like a sledgehammer to the skull. The familiar tingle exploded into a full-blown alarm. His beer bottle slipped from fingers that suddenly felt numb, amber liquid soaking into the blanket.
"Jay?" Domino's voice sounded as if it were coming from under the water. "Sugar, what's wrong?"
He forced himself to focus through the sensory overload, his stolen mental processing from Sage kicking in to analyze the threat patterns. Multiple assailants, high-velocity projectiles, coordinated attack- this wasn't some random street violence. This was professional.
"We gotta move," he said, already reaching for his phone. "Now."
His thumb found Reed's emergency contact as he hauled Domino to her feet, his danger sense painting trajectories of incoming hurt across his mental map. Reed picked up on the first ring.
"Jay? What's—"
"Central Park, Sheep Meadow," Jay said, scanning the area while pulling Domino toward a cluster of bigger trees. "Multiple hostiles in a coordinated attack. Civilians are about to get hurt badly. How fast can you get here?"
"Two minutes." Reed's voice went sharp and focused. "Find cover."
Jay's Comic Perk was already processing the scene, cataloging details his conscious mind had missed. That family on their own blanket fifty yards away- dark-haired guy with military posture, beautiful brunette laughing at something one of the kids had said, two little ones playing with a frisbee. The man's bearing, the way he held himself, the careful positioning that let him watch approach routes while looking relaxed...
Frank Castle, but not the Punisher yet. Just a guy enjoying a wonderful afternoon with his wife, Maria, his daughter Lisa, and his son Frank Jr.
"Aw, shit," Jay breathed, understanding washing over him.
"Jay, talk to me," Domino said, her own combat instincts fully online now. "What're we lookin' at?"
Jay opened his mouth to answer just as the first gunshots cracked across the meadow.
Gunfire erupted from three directions- a coordinated ambush designed to leave no witnesses. Muzzle flashes bloomed from the tree line as what looked like rival gangs, caught up in their own territorial pissing match, turned a family picnic into a war zone.
But Jay's danger sense had painted Frank Castle's family right at the center of the crossfire, and he realized with certainty that some of these bullets weren't random. Someone had used the gang violence as cover for a targeted hit.
"Get down!" Jay tackled Domino behind a thick oak tree as bark exploded around them like wooden shrapnel. But even as they hit the dirt, his eyes stayed locked on the Castle family, watching Frank's Marine training kick in as he threw his body over his wife and kids.
It wasn't gonna be enough.
Domino's probability powers kicked in without her even thinking about it, warping chance around their position like an invisible shield. Bullets that should've punched right through them hit tree trunks instead, bounced off randomly placed park benches, or somehow got tangled up in the string of some kid's lost balloon. But her power couldn't cover the whole damn meadow, and the Castle family was fifty yards of killing ground away.
"The family," Jay gasped, his danger sense screaming warnings as he watched blood bloom across Maria Castle's yellow sundress like a horrible flower. "I gotta—"
"Are you outta your damn mind?" Domino grabbed his jacket as he started to move. "That's a kill zone out there!"
More gunfire erupted, and Jay saw little Frank Jr. stumble, his small body crumpling as his father's anguished scream cut through the chaos like a knife. Lisa was down too, her dark hair spreading across the grass like spilled ink.
Jay's vision tunneled. Every instinct screamed at him to run away from the danger. Bullets were already tracking toward their position, and he understood with cold certainty that some of these shooters were specifically hunting him.
A familiar whine cut through the air- repulsors charging up. The Fantasticar descended like some blue and silver angel, Reed Richards at the controls while Johnny Storm blazed alongside it, his flame form bright against the afternoon sky.
"It's clobberin' time!" Ben Grimm's voice boomed as he leaped from the moving vehicle, two tons of orange rock landing with an impact that shook the ground and sent gang members flying like scattered bowling pins. His massive stone fists turned armed thugs into airborne projectiles.
Johnny swooped low, precisely controlled flame bursts disabling weapons without cooking the idiots holding them. "Stay down, morons! The Human Torch is having a really bad day!"
Susan Storm materialized beside their tree, her force fields spreading to deflect the remaining gunfire. Her blue eyes met Jay's with clear understanding.
"I'll cover you," she said simply. "Go save them."
Jay ran with Susan, and when he reached the bloodied family used every ounce of his stamina to heal and get them out of mortal danger at least.
Exhaustion hit him like a physical wall as he finally stopped pouring his healing Aura into Frank Jr.'s small, still form. The little boy's breathing had steadied, the bullet wounds closed up tight, and internal bleeding stopped. But the process had drained Jay worse than any healing he'd ever attempted, as the damage had been extensive, requiring him to essentially rebuild damaged organs while working in the middle of active gunfire.
His hands shook as he moved to check on Maria and Lisa. Both alive, both breathing steady, both whole. The holes in Maria's yellow sundress remained, but the flesh beneath was unmarked, flawless.
Maria stirred first, her eyes fluttering open with that confused, disoriented look of someone who'd been dying a minute before.
"Lisa?" she whispered, immediately reaching for her daughter.
"She's okay," Jay managed, his voice raw from the effort. "They're all okay."
Frank Castle's eyes snapped open with the awareness of a career soldier, instantly cataloguing threats and checking the tactical situation. But when his gaze fell on his family, who were alive, breathing, and safe, something broke open in his chest. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he gathered them close, his big hands shaking as he touched their faces, their hair, confirming the impossible reality.
"How?" he whispered, looking at Jay with an expression of desperate gratitude that cut right through to the bone. "How did you—?"
"Paramedics are coming," Jay interrupted, exhausted and unable to meet those haunted eyes. "Get 'em to a hospital. They need full workups. Make sure everything's still working right. I could only do so much in these conditions."
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