It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

Spoiler-free Summary: Things go somewhat differently on the train
Full Summary: Andre saves Michael from being shot on the train. That doesn’t mean there are no consequences for what’s happened
Warning(s): Spanking; AU; spoilers for the whole movie; some violence

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Andre reached out, taking the gun as Michael handed it to him. He nodded to the younger man. “You’re making the right choice. Trusting me. I’ll make sure you’re safe,” he promised.

Michael dropped his hand slowly from the gun, his eyes darting around the train carriage. He raised his eyes slowly to Andre’s face and took a deep breath, opening his mouth.

Some instinct warned Andre. An itch between his shoulder blades. The sound of a door sliding open behind him. And he was moving before he thought. Moving without conscious decision. Throwing himself forward and into Michael, sending them both toppling to the floor of the train carriage just as a shot was fired above his head.

Michael stared up at Andre, eyes wide with fear. “I thought you were going to protect me!”

Andre ignored the comment and raised himself to one knee, turning in one swift movement and aiming his gun at the door. Aiming it at Burns. “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

She seemed frozen in shock, aiming her gun at him, eyes darting between him and Michael. Finally, she uttered, sounding dazed, “He was gonna shoot you.”

Andre didn’t look down at Michael; didn’t check to see the look of shock he knew would be on the kid’s face. Keeping in position, so that she couldn’t shoot Michael without running the risk of hitting him, he aimed the gun at her head. “See this gun here?” He nodded to it. “That’s not mine. That’s the one he just handed over to me. How did you think he was going to shoot me without a gun in his hand?”

Burns’ eyes were darting around wildly. It was like she didn’t know what to do with herself, now that her attempt to shoot Michael had failed.

“She’s on the take,” Michael muttered. “A dirty cop.” His hand shifted towards his jacket pocket, before he seemed to think better of it. “There’re badge numbers on the drives. Cops who’re working with criminals.” He shook his head and a note of disbelief crept into his voice as he whispered, “We walked straight into a situation way over our heads.”

Andre didn’t allow himself to react outwardly to what the younger man was saying. He stood up slowly, keeping his eyes and gun trained on Burns. He began to advance on her, keeping his body between her and Michael. “That true?” he asked her directly.

“Of course it’s not!” She focused on him now. “You gonna trust the word of a cop killer over another officer?”

“Something about this stinks. Has done from the beginning,” Andre stated. “I got two trigger-happy officers firing off in a bar. Claiming the suspect was drawing on them. Now you’re here, trying to claim the same thing? And if I hadn’t realised you were there, you would have killed Michael too. Swept all of this under the rug, nice and tidy.” He stared hard at her, his gun not wavering. “Try and tell me that I’m wrong.”

“Fuck.” She shook her head sharply; focused the gun on him, though the barrel wavered. “I’m sorry, but you’re good. Too good.”

She was going to shoot him. Or try, at least. Their guns were trained on each other. It was just the two of them. No colleagues or allies. Just a battle of wills. To see who was the stronger.

Andre was the one who broke the silence. “If you shoot him now, you’ll have to shoot me too. Because I won’t stay silent. Those flash drives? He’s copied them. Left them in a safe place, with instructions for the information to be released should anything happen to him. Either way, you’ll destroy your life.”

Burns raised her eyes to his, her face pale and haunted. Dark circles under her eyes made it clear she’d been under stress a lot longer than just the start of this case.

Softening his voice, Andre said, “You have a daughter who needs you in her life. You haven’t crossed the point of no return yet. You haven’t gone too far over the line. And you don’t have to. You don’t have to be taken away from your daughter.”

The gun wavered in her hand even more and her whole body tensed. Then, slowly, she lowered it. Turned the gun over in her hand and held it out to him.

Andre took the weapon from her with a nod. “You made the right choice.” He took the bullets out of her gun, dropping the clip into his ammunition belt, and placed the empty weapon on one of the seats. Then, he walked over to Michael, who was sitting up now. He crouched down next to him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Michael eyed Burns as she walked over to join them. “You sure about trusting her?”

“We’re the best chance you have at getting out of here alive.” Burns indicated herself and Andre. “Dirty cops or not, you and your partner killed an awful lot of our colleagues. Everyone would want revenge even if you didn’t add the drugs into the mix.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.” Michael’s voice was very low.

“They’re not gonna care about that,” Burns responded. “As far as they’re all concerned, you’re just as guilty as Ray. And they want to see you go down as well.” She looked searchingly at Andre. “You’ve got till the end of the line to make a plan.”

“I have a plan. But I need you to give us some privacy,” Andre answered.

Burns nodded. “I’ll go and calm down the rest of the passengers. There’s no phone signal here. That’s probably for the best. Our colleagues won’t be able to get through to either of us.” She walked to the door and stepped through it after pressing the button to open it, heading through to the next carriage.

“She’s right,” Michael whispered, his voice shaky. “Even with both of you protecting me, how many people have died already? I’m just going to be another casualty added to all of this.”

“I won’t let that happen.” Andre placed his hand on Michael’s shoulder and squeezed gently.

Michael looked up at him hopelessly. “How’re you going to save me?”

Andre used his grip on Michael’s shoulder to pull the younger man to his feet. He stepped over to one of the seats and sat down, pulling Michael down across his lap.

“Oomph.” Michael’s breath came out in a rush of air as his stomach hit Andre’s legs and his hands shot out automatically to catch his balance. His feet came to rest on the floor and he twisted his head round to stare up at Andre. “What are you doing?!”

“I’m not going to let you die. But you’re not escaping without consequences for the poor choices you made.” Andre lifted his hand and brought it down with a dull thwap on the seat of Michael’s pants. Without hesitating, he did it again. And then a third time, quickly settling into a rhythm of swats that covered Michael’s entire bottom, down to the tops of his thighs.

Michael was quiet and still over Andre’s lap, like he was in shock. He remained like that as Andre delivered two full circuits of swats, then began to squirm and writhe in place. “You can’t do this to me!”

“You made some appallingly bad choices that resulted in a lot of people dying. And maybe most of them were crooked and criminals, but that doesn’t mean they should have died for it,” Andre scolded. “When things settle down for you, you’re going to start hurting from the guilt. It’s going to affect you.”

“How do you know that?” Michael’s voice hitched slightly.

“I’ve killed people,” Andre answered honestly. “Never without just cause, but it’s something that changes you, deep inside. I was asked to come on this case because I bring in cop killers. My colleagues told me they expected me to take you and Ray out.”

“But you didn’t kill me,” Michael whispered. “You saved me.”

“Ray told me that you weren’t like him. He told me that as he lay dying. Even then, his last words, his last thoughts, were about you.” Andre reached under Michael, undid his pants and tugged them down, resuming the spanking with only the thin layer of briefs between his hand and the younger man’s butt. “I’m making a decision to save you. To stick my neck out for you.”

Michael’s body slumped over Andre’s lap as he started to cry.

Andre delivered a few more smacks to Michael’s sit spots and uncovered thighs, then tugged his pants back into place and helped him to stand up. He placed his hands on Michael’s shoulders. “This is going to be hard, but I need you to trust me.”

Michael reached his hands back and gave his bottom a quick rub before he nodded. “I don’t think I have any other choice than to trust you,” he admitted. “I think you’re the best chance of survival I’ve got.”

“I’m the only chance of survival you’ve got.” Andre kept one hand on Michael’s shoulder as he headed towards the door, guiding the younger man with him, heading in the same direction Burns had taken.

The End