2020-06-23 - Dad-In-Chief

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Dad? I just saw the news. Where are you? Are you ok?

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : (a few minutes later) Yeah. I'm fine. At work, I'm fine.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Reminds me though, do you know how to use a gun?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Thank God. I'm so sorry to hear about Thackery. I didn't know him very well. Met him a few times in the aftermath and followup with my mother, but that was really it. Were you close?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : what? No! I can set people on fire with my brain dad, a gun seems a little redundant.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Thatchery. And no, not particularly close.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Oh, fuck, right. I guess there's that.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : and apparently taser people with a dirty look. And I guess throw shit at them from a distance now. Did August tell you about that?

Ruiz can't help but grin to himself at that. His kid, a regular chip off the old block, wrecking shit and taking names. Oh, she's messaging him again. He reaches for his phone to respond.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Huh? Oh, uh. I don't recall.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Anyway, I need you to be careful. Extra careful, for the next little while. Yeah?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Is the fuckhead that killed the Chief gonna come for you? Because you know I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you right?

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : I don't know. And we can't talk about this over the phone, even if I did.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Sunday is Father's Day. Iggy and I will bring you some dinner and we can all talk then, together. I'll feel better seeing you're ok with my own two eyes. Poking you in the brain just gives me nosebleeds.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Fuck, it is? You uh. You don't have to do that. I've not exactly been a father to you, all these years.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : You've been more of a parent to me than the one that was with me the first 13 years of my life. If I had to do it, I wouldn't. I don't like being told what to do. I want to do it, ya big schmuck

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Blame Itzhak for the Schmuck thing. I learned that from him!

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : It does sound like some sort of Yiddish thing he'd say.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Totally does.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : How's your boy recovering, by the way?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : slow and steady. He's working so hard at PT. I can't just fucking heal it all up anymore and that's freaking me out more than a little bit. I can make it heal up faster, in stages, but one shot a day, and that's it. If more than one person gets hurt, and gets more than one injury, I'm not going to be all that much help. August said it was because of something that happened at that Asylum. We need to get that fixed, ASAP. I won't be able to fix Iggy's leg unless we get back to where we were with the shaper stuff.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : That fucking asylum. I guess we'll have to do things the old fashioned way, until and unless things go back to how they were, then.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Yeah, and carefully. When old man Roen breaks out analogies to Doctor Fucking Manhattan, I know it's pretty bad.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Who is Doctor Manhattan, dare I ask?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Manhattan That.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : It's a naked fucking blue guy, I don't get it.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : He is also capable of manipulating reality as he sees fit, he's basically a construct of pure power.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : ..who is a naked fucking blue guy.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Who comes up with this shit?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : If you can undo existence on a whim, I guess you don't really need pants, pops.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Yeah, why not let your dick swing in the wind if you're all that, I gotcha

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Anyway, uh, yeah. I should be free Sunday. If you want to drop by.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : We'll be there, when you home from work?

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Should be home around two or so. Not officially in that day, but I've got some paperwork to finish up. You don't mind if Rosencrantz joins us, yeah? He's uh, he lives with me now.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Itz is family, of course I don't mind. Is uh, Is Joe living there too?

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : No, why?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Just curious. I don't think Itz has ever lived with anyone but family before. I'm surprised is all. Proud as fuck of him for it though. That's serious growth.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : (after a couple of minutes) I love that big jerk a lot, you know.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : I know. I can tell. And that makes me damn proud of you too, Dad. I love you both.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Lo mismo va para ti, pajarito.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : I'll see you Sunday, okay?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : See you Sunday.