"You may sit down, Dean" Tony ordered as he found Dean standing nervously near his desk. The boss walked to a small cart, he picked up a crystal bottle full of liquor and poured it into two glasses. As Dean finally sat down, although on the edge of the armchair, since he didn't feel at ease to actually get comfortable on that, Tony handed him the glass. The racer gulped and took it, then he looked back at the boss, who was smiling at him.

"Wo... won't Winner join us? He planned everything after all" Dean asked. He didn't want to be the center of the conversation, he wanted to be nothing more than a shadow ignored by everyone, but no, Tony wasn't going to let that happen. Tony wanted Dean to be the protagonist of the conversation, a new jewel he could add to his large collection of trophies.

"No, he's already worked for me quite remarkably, so I will just ask an assistant to transfer the money to his bank account. I noticed that you didn't feel at ease in the basement, I can't blame you though. Anyone who doesn't know the entire backstory would easily get disgusted and call me a cruel bastard, am I right?"

"I... I wouldn't dare to..." Dean gulped again and stuttered. Tony smile grew wider, he enjoyed so much playing with his preys before devouring them.

"You see, I needed to threaten Babe to force him to surrender, but I can assure you that nothing wrong is going to happen to him, don't worry. A friend of mine is willing to take charge of him and help him recover, so that he stops being a threat to society"

"I see, sir..." Dean didn't believe a single word, but he was paralyzed by fear.

"Very good. Dean, Winner told me that hard work doesn't scare you, so I suppose that you prefer to earn your money rather than just receiving it passively. I would like to offer you a position as racer in my team, since the last one decided to cancel his contract... private reason, you know. Well, I'll give you one week to decide, you can come here whenever you want"

"Thank you, sir... but may I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, I will be more than glad to help you if I can"

"Could you tell me the name of your friend? I think that seeing a friendly face would surely help Babe recover and..."

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid I can't do so. If we really want to help Babe adapt to his new peaceful life, he will have to move on from his past one. But if there are other matters I can help you with, feel free to ask" Tony replied still smiling. That simply confirmed that he was sincere when he said those things to Babe in the basement and that he just tried to clean his reputation with Dean with such a stupid lie.

"Thank you again, sir..." Dean added, his mind racing faster than Babe's car as he tried to figure out a way to help his friend, knowing that the way he got hurt was nothing compared to what Babe was going to face.

"You may leave now, Winner will show you the exit"