Louis was enjoying the weekend in luxury. Hot chocolate in a mug, wearing his leopard print fluffy robe, relaxed to the max in his recliner and looking up at the wall-mounted television. It was free from the noises and smells of the shop. He had his phone set on silent and while he heard a buzz from time to time, he was too relaxed to reach over and pick it up.

There was a sudden and loud thumping on the front door. Louis nearly fell out of his chair, his cup of hot chocolate clinking against its saucer as he tried to keep it level. "Jesus!" He set the hot chocolate down on a small table beside his recliner. The knocking continued. Hell, it wasn't knocking it sounded like someone was throwing themselves against the door. He could see the door shaking and the doorknob jiggling.

"Let me in!"

Louis knew that voice. He hurried to the door and opened it quickly only to see Joe fall forwards on the floor with a voice cracked yell. Queenie flew in to land by the hot chocolate mug to yell into it. "What the hell happened to your nose!?" Louis noticed the blood that had run down Joe's nose bridge and the variety of forming bruises of his face which meant that he had been on the ground earlier.

"Queenie bit me! But that's not what matters!" Joe pushed himself up off the floor slowly. "Close the door, you fuck! Maybe I'm being followed."

Louis did as told and locked the door. He also readjusted his bathrobe's waist tie. "did you hit on a girl who already had a guy? Come on and talk Joseph! What got you in trouble?"

Joe shrugged "Nothing. I didn't do shit. I ate a burger and drank a beer. Ate from waffle fries and wanted to go to the park with Queenie but no! Two assholes had to wanna beat me up for no reason." He sighed.

"You must have done something." Louis gestured for Joe to come to the kitchen and have a sit-down. He looked at his friend's face bruises and poked around at the gash that Queenie had left on Joe's face. He opened the cupboard and began to search for his first aid things.

"They targeted me." Joe sat down backwards on a chair and rested his chin on the backrest. "They knew I'm with either with the snakes...but how."

Louis looked back over his shoulder, "Well we do carry the brand of the snake, Joe." He sat in a chair as well and started to clean the blood off of his friend's face. "Queenie got you good, but I'll close this up for you. I used to work ER but it got to me."

Joe closed his eyes as his friend wiped the blood off his face, "I was wearing my jacket, Louis! B-besides! Those two have never stepped foot in our shop, I know it." He felt Louis's fingers testing the gash's ability to close by pinching the edges together. It stung but not that bad. "They mentioned a name though. It was Leon. Have you ever heard that name before?"

Louis shook his head. "I don't know of any Leons. Even if I did, he doesn't belong to us if they did this to you. The Rosy Anacondas or even the Black Vipers must have done something they thought was better for the community." He paused his nursing to looked into Joe's eyes. "Joseph. I think its time for us to actually arm ourselves. We've been mostly a communication line for the other gangs and watchdogs but never truly had much of our own defense."

"You think!? I was lucky I decided to carry my knife with me. Without it, I don't know if I could have beat them." Joe kneaded his fingers on his forehead and temples. "Louis.."

Louis took out some super glue from his first aid kit, "This might sound stupid but a few dots of this'll work like liquid stitches. I could do normal stitches but why put you through the pin of a needle going through such sensitive skin." He uncapped the glue. "Hold still." Then he carefully dabbed small amounts and closed the cut as neatly as possible. "Done and I'll get the R.A.s to deliver some firepower to us. They have more than enough to spare."

Joe opened up his eyes when Louis said he was done treating the cute. "The Rose Anacondas...you know they don't do anything for free. We'll owe them."

Louis began to pack up his first aid kit but gave Joe a bottle of painkillers. He made sure Joe took one for now with a glass of water. "Heh, it doesn't matter. It's like asking a sister to lend you some money. We can just pay for them later. Besides, the Black Vipers are doing enough as it is since they moved here. They found a drug runner and are investigating his contacts. Maybe we'll find who's in charge soon enough and get rid of all those rats from our turf." He placed the first aid box back on the shelf. "Did you want some hot chocolate?"

"Yea, I could use something warm n sweet." Joe hugged the chair's backrest, "I'm not hungry though, I honestly just ate. Queenie ate too so she'll be fine with just water."

"You know you can crash here if you need to, I don't mind." Louis handed Joe a mug of chocolate with a smile, "I know you're hurt, battered, n bruised but I want you to come to work with me on Monday. Not to work though! At least not unless you want to and you're not hurting yourself. I want you there so me n Vern can make sure nothing happens to you and that you're not too hurt to take care of yourself later."

Joe took a sip from the hot chocolate, "This is delicious, you'll have to make some more for me to take to work on monday and if I feel good enough I'll work. You know I have nothing better to do." He got up and pointed towards the living room "Let us watch something fun on your television..I'll text Vern what happened."

Louis followed Joe back to the living room and watched over him to make sure his friend was alright from the obvious blows he had received to the face. He looked into Joseph's eyes, not that it was difficult to see that the pupils were fine and evenly sized. "I'll get in contact with the Rosy anacondas then. Elmira and Piers can probably get us sorted before the end of the upcoming week." He picked up his phone, searching for Piers and began a call all the while he stepped into his bedroom to get dressed. "Piers, its Louis. I need a favor..can you get me and my two boys some heaters?... Yes, Dagmar bumpers would be perfect additions. Thank you. Drop them off at the shop when you can."