2 The Insulin Fairy
Avery's suit was black and allowed her to blend into the night as she leapt from building to building on her way to meet Jorge. When she arrived, she made sure the coast was clear before retracting the suit and walked over to him with a smile.
"Hey, Jorge. Ready to rock?" she asked.
"What I'm ready for is to sleep this off when the night is over. Last time, we were up until 4 AM," he complained. "This whole process is too complicated."
That was undeniable. Since big trucks had limits on New York City roads, they had to take a bunch of little trips traveling back and forth using a much smaller car while leaving the semi at the truck stop as a home base.
Driving back and forth, especially with traffic, took ages. At least Jorge had a great taste in music. They usually rocked out while they went to help keep them awake.
"I'll bring you cream puffs after work on Monday," Avery promised as she patted him on the shoulder.
He cracked a smile. "That's something to look forward to at least. Let's go."
It ended up being an even longer night than usual. The list covered people in all five of the boroughs and that involved an awful lot of driving. Her suit sped up the process a bit if there were deliveries to be made in the same area. And often there were. Poor neighborhoods tended to have greater need.
The list Angelo gave her to work off of consisted of diabetics who recently lost their insurance or were in debt and couldn't pay for their insulin. Even with insurance, the price was ridiculous. Why? Because Hunsacher was behind most of the health insurance companies.
It was terrifying how much they controlled. People at large didn't know because Nolan Hunsacher went to great pains to keep the extent of his empire hidden.
Avery hated the man with every fiber of her being but, unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do about him currently. She didn't believe in killing and neither had her father. Besides, if he died, one of his underlings would simply take his place. That wouldn't fix the problem.
He had no such qualms, which was how her father and Horatio died after trying to fight things the noble way in addition to behind the scenes. That hadn't worked so their successors worked solely in the dark. The legal system favored people with money so doing this "the right way" wouldn't work.
So many suits had been filed against Hunsacher's various holdings over the years and not one of them stuck. Sometimes they got fined but what was a measly fine to a trillion-dollar corporation?
Avery did her best not to get caught on deliveries. It wouldn't do for a villain to be seen doing something good even though that was the whole point of their mission. Helping people Hunsacher was suppressing while trying to figure out how to dismantle it.
Sometimes it couldn't be helped but the people were always so grateful they agreed to keep her secret. They undeniably needed the insulin and couldn't pay for it so why would they rat her out? She was saving lives by doing this.
On one of her last deliveries of the night—could it really be considered night if it was past 6 AM?—she got busted trying to leave through an open window by a little boy who couldn't be more than six years old. His face lit up when he saw the box.
"Are you the Insulin Fairy?" he asked innocently.
Avery barely stopped herself from laughing. That was so cute! "Yeah. I'm the Insulin Fairy. You can't tell anyone you saw me though, okay?"
"Can I at least tell my mom? She's the one that told me about you. She said it was our secret and that we needed to pray for you every night because you're our hero. She'll be really excited if she knew I saw you."
Her heart warmed at further proof that her efforts were appreciated. This family consisted of a single mother with three children, including one with diabetes. She had to choose between feeding her kids, paying rent, and getting the insulin her son desperately needed.
Avery couldn't help with the first two problems but she could help with the third. And she did. She stole insulin from different places every month and they had been on her list for nearly a year now.
"Go ahead. But no one else! Like your mom said, it's a secret."
The boy nodded earnestly. "Thanks, Insulin Fairy."
With her work done, she slipped back out the window. The sun was coming up so they needed to finish this quickly.
Two deliveries later, Avery and Jorge parted ways and she barely had energy to shower before pulling the blackout curtains closed and flopping into bed. She was so exhausted she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
Her sleep schedule was wrecked every weekend but that didn't change the fact that she had to go back to work on Tuesday. Since the bakery she worked at was open seven days a week, she had Sundays and Mondays off. Not knowing how long they would take, she always planned her heists for Saturday nights so it wouldn't interfere with her job.
She was a cake decorator by trade and didn't have the resources necessary to be a villain full time. Her father may have paid off the apartment she had been raised in before he died but she had other bills.
Everyone in their network both in and out of New York—they had operatives in most major cities in the country—had day jobs and tried taking down Hunsacher in their free time. Angelo was a software developer. Jorge was a trucker. They all had bills to pay too.
When Avery woke up, she saw she had three missed texts from her best friend and bakery coworker Vanessa La Fontaine and groaned. She always wanted to hang out on Sundays since it was one of her days off as well and it would be suspicious if Avery said no too often. She really didn't want to go anywhere this time though.
'I'm kind of dead. Are you cool with coming over and watching chick flicks?'
Vanessa responded immediately. 'I can never say no to chick flicks! I'll even bring over the good cheddar flavoring to put on the popcorn'
'You're an angel'
'I know' her friend replied with a smug face emoji.
Avery groaned and rolled out of bed. It was nearly 4 PM. Being in her pajamas after saying she felt dead wouldn't be too weird but she didn't want Vanessa to know she barely woke up.
She heated up some leftovers and ravenously devoured them before brushing her teeth and looking through her movie collection to see if there was anything specific she was in the mood for. Though there were always streaming service movies too.
She loved sweet, fluffy romances but they depressed her at the same time because that was never going to happen with Mercury or whoever he was when he wasn't in costume. They were on opposite sides of the law and he thought she was her father.
Those two had been nemeses for about a year and a half before he died. She took up the mantle using the same suit and same voice changer so it was a reasonable assumption to make.
