Title: Keeping up with the Johnsons

Author: QueenWillie

Pairing: Daniel/Wilhelmina

Rating : R for language; poss NC17 later

Disclaimer: I. DO. NOT. OWN. THEM

Timeline: Takes place after, Blackout!.

Marc and Betty looked at each other across their desks and rolled their eyes as the raised voices reached their ears. Marc stood from the desk and closed the glass door of their office, leaned his back against it and sighed, tipping his head backwards.

'This is getting unbearable.'

Betty cupped her head in her hands, leaning her elbows on the table. 'I know, I mean, it's always been bad; but lately we can't seem to go a day without World War Three starting.'

He quirked an eyebrow at her; 'World War Three? You stay up all night coming up with that analogy?'

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. 'And you would have said?'

'Something wittier than that.' He walked to his desk and slumped down in the chair. 'What are we going to do? We can't keep working like this.'

Betty shrugged, 'We confront them, tell them their attitude is not conducive to a harmonious working environment.'

'Ok, and while Daniel is thanking you for your peppy little speech, I'll be picking my nads up off the sidewalk when Willie rips 'em off and tosses them from her window.' He said, sarcastically.

'That would be difficult, seen as you clearly don't have a pair.' She countered.

He gasped. 'Snap!'

A particularly loud, incoherent yell, made the glass walls of the office quake, the two Junior Editors looked towards the room they knew the tirade was coming from.

'Okay, you're right. Not today though, let's get the cover shoot out the way. If nothing changes by tomorrow, then we'll talk to them; agreed?

Betty nodded slowly. 'Agreed.' She looked toward the door again, 'I don't think one day's going to make a difference. It'll take divine intervention to force those two to get along.'

xXx

'For the thousandth time Wilhelmina: I AM COVERING THE SHOOT!'

'You can say it until that ugly purple vein on your neck explodes, it doesn't change the fact that this is MY CONCEPT!'

They were standing in her office, in their now familiar stance, at a face off. She stood in front of her desk, hands on hips, trying, and failing, to keep her cool. Daniel stood only a few feet from her, feet solid on the ground, arms folded in defiance. 'Your concept? YOURS!' He laughed. 'Willie I was the one who suggested we shoot downtown, I was the one who...'

'So you choose the location and suddenly it's your concept? I was the one who picked the models, chose the clothes, and what else?' She pretended to think, tapping her temple. 'Oh yes, THE WHOLE FUCKING IDEA!'

He swallowed, looking down, knowing he was losing; he refused to give in however. 'Look Wilhelmina, if you want to come to the shoot, then come to the shoot. I know it must be frustrating not to have any new ideas of your own, to feel all tapped out.' He smiled at her; 'If you want I'll even let you take the credit for this one.'

She took one step towards him. 'Tapped out? I've seen Mexican street vendors with more creative ability than you. I will be at that shoot. At MY shoot, and if you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of my God damn way!' She stormed out of her office.

A few seconds later she marched back in. 'Why the hell am I leaving? This is my office, GET OUT!' She pointed to the door.

He swivelled on his feet, keeping his arms folded and smirked, loving that he could get her so wound up. It was one of the few pleasures he had left in his life. He leaned into her as he walked past. 'Don't worry about it. Forgetfulness, it comes with age.'

She spun on her heel as he left, anger boiling through her. Her eyes darted around the office, through the glass. She couldn't see who she was looking for, no matter though, he would hear her. 'MARC!'

xXx

Later that afternoon, Wilhelmina was standing on the sidewalk in downtown New York. A vast area before her had been cordoned off for the shoot; the clothes and the models shone brightly against the grey background of the city. That had been precisely what she was thinking when she had came up with her "Diamond in the rough" concept. Just as she was instructing the models to change positions for the final fifty frames to be taken, a town car screeched up beside her. She rolled her eyes when the door flew open and an irate Daniel Meade stepped out.

'What the hell? Wilhelmina!' He slammed the door behind him.

She calmly turned to face him with her hands on her hips. 'Daniel, nice of you to join us.'

He stalked towards her. 'The shoot was supposed to take place at three o'clock!'

'Oh dear, we had to change it to one o'clock, didn't Marc tell you?' She asked, feigning innocence.

'I'm not going to let you walk all over me Wilhelmina; we are in this 50/50!' He grabbed a call sheet from a nearby intern and walked up to the photographer. 'Okay, where are we?' He tried to rein in his anger until after the shoot.

The photographer straightened up from his crouched position and looked towards the models. 'Okay girls and boys, that's a wrap.'

Daniel rolled his head back on his shoulder and took a deep breath; he threw the call sheet to the ground and marched towards a smiling Wilhelmina. 'This is below the belt Willie.' He growled.

She took a step into his personal space. 'I don't think so Daniel. When you learn to give credit where credit's due then maybe I'll consider keeping you in the loop. You stood there this morning and spouted all your moronic bull about me being tapped out...well, I have a proposition for you.'

He snorted and looked around, folding his arms. 'I'm listening.'

'We clearly can't work together.'

He clapped his hands together. 'You're resigning?' He joked.

'Will you let me speak!' She yelled at him; and took notice of the rest of the staff turning to face them, taking in the scene. She grabbed his bicep and pulled him with her as she walked out of earshot, down an alleyway at the side. She wrinkled her nose as the smell of rotting garbage invaded her nostrils.

'Okay, speak.' Daniel told her, looking somewhere over her head; not really wanting to pay her any attention.

'I'll do this entire issue.'

He heard something in his neck click as he swiftly lowered his gaze to hers. 'WHAT? No, I told you we're in this toge..'

'LET ME FINISH!' She closed her eyes and tried to stop herself from wringing his neck. 'I will do this one, and you get complete control of the next one, no input from me whatsoever.'

He uncrossed his arms. 'None?'

She shook her head, 'Not one word.'

'Then what?'

'We see whose issue sells the best, the one with the most numbers takes on final creative control of the magazine. We'll still share the title, but only one of us will have final say.'

He clenched his jaw, nodding slowly, letting the idea wash over him. He stuck out his hand. 'Deal.'

She smirked and shook it. 'You sure about this? Your first solo issue didn't exactly do great?' He asked, deliberately to annoy her.

'I learn from my mistakes Daniel, can you say the same?' She raised her eyebrow.

She launched into a scathing attack on his performance as an Editor and as a man. He wasn't listening to her though, the words coming out her mouth had became nothing but white noise to him as he looked further down the alley, squinting.

There was a young man, dressed all in black, pulling something out of a side door of one of the building backing onto the alley. He was looking around nervously, Daniel couldn't see what it was he was transporting, but it was big. He was vaguely aware of Wilhelmina's voice beginning to rise. Eyes still on the scene further down the alley, and without thinking, he clamped his hand over her mouth. 'Shut up.' He hissed.

Her eyes widened in anger at the audacity of his actions, she brought her hand up to his wrist and wrenched his palm from her mouth, she was about to rebuke him for daring to touch her when she saw his eyes were not on her, she turned her head to follow his gaze and took in the sight of the young man dragging his heavy cargo over to a dumpster. As the man tried to lift the black bag, it burst open and a human arm lolled out the opening. The arm moved sluggishly, the body inside was still alive.

Wilhelmina gasped and Daniel once again brought his hand to cover her mouth, this time she was in too much shock to protest. The man in black panicked when he saw his quarry was still alive, he reached inside his jacket and produced a small metal object. He aimed inside the bag on the ground and fired the gun.

'FUCK!' Daniel exclaimed.

The shooter heard his expletive and turned to the source of the noise, his beady eyes darting back and forth as he clocked the man and woman partially hidden at the opening to the alleyway. He swung his firearm in their direction and squeezed the trigger repeatedly.

Daniel, still holding Wilhelmina, turned his body and tucked her to him, shielding her. He pulled her closer to the wall so they were obscured by the railings of a fire escape. He kept them pressed to the wall as he heard the shots ring by them. He heard a clicking sound from the bottom of the narrow gully and surmised the man was still trying to fire at them with an empty barrel. Seizing the opportunity, he backed off from the wall and grabbed Willies wrist, pulling her out the alleyway back into the busy street.

The area that had been set aside for their cover shoot was now empty, the staff and models having being transported away. Daniel furtively looked up and down the street and heaved in relief when he saw the town car still parked at the kerb. Running to it, he opened the door and pushed Wilhelmina inside before jumping in next to her. As he swung the door closed he looked around in time to see the man who had fired at them, run out the alley in pursuit.

'DRIVE!' Daniel yelled at the driver, who instantly revved the engine to life and pulled away.

He was breathing heavily and he turned to Wilhelmina who was staring ahead in shock. 'Are you ok?' He asked her.

She nodded stoically; Daniel noted a smear of blood on her arm. 'Oh shit...shit, did he hit you?' He panicked and lifted her arm.

'What? No...no, I scraped it against the wall when you pushed me.' Her voice was monotonous and she still seemed to be staring into space.

He placed her arm back down on the leather surface of the seat. 'Sorry.'

She turned to look at him and opened her mouth to speak; to tell him he didn't have to be sorry, he protected her, he saved her life. Instead she snapped it shut again and returned her stare to the front.

'Back to the office sir?' The driver asked from the front.

Daniel stared out the window. 'No, take us to the nearest police station.'

He looked to Wilhelmina for a reaction; she remained staring ahead, resolute.

xXx

'The cars are back from the shoot. Alyssa said the two of them nearly came to blows again.' Amanda leaned over her desk, playing with Marc's tie.

He slumped his head forward, onto the surface. 'I knew Willie shouldn't have changed the schedule, but what could I do?'

'I don't think it matters sweetie, they would have blown up at each other anyway; it is the Slater/Meade way of doing things after all.'

He brought his arm up to lie across the desk and rested his head on it. 'I know, but Mandy, I really think it's just a matter of time before we have another murder scandal in this office; and to be honest I always thought it would be Willie who would whack Daniel but he's had this glint in his eye recently.'

Amanda folded her arms on the surface and leaned forward. 'Aw baby don't worry, you can't kill the undead.'

Marc attempted a smile, Betty chose this moment to join them at the desk, followed by Claire Meade. 'The cars are back?' Betty asked.

Marc nodded. 'Where are Daniel and Wilhelmina?' Claire interjected.

Marc straightened up; 'They're not in their offices?'

Claire shook her head, 'I have a meeting with them both and they're not answering their cells.'

Marc started to wheeze. 'Oh God, I knew it. They're in the morgue, they finally did it, they killed each other.'

Claire rolled her eyes. 'I see you've inherited your boss's sense of drama.' She drawled.

'And I see your son has inherited your murderous impulses.' He shot back.

Claire smirked. 'Oh calm down, they'll be fine. I spoke to one of the girls from the shoot. They had an argument and went away to talk it out. They probably just missed their town car. I'll call him again.' She reached for her phone.

Amanda stared forward, eyes suddenly glazed. 'Or...they got into this really big fight and got right in each other's face.' She started gesturing madly with her hands; 'And it got really loud and intense and suddenly BAM!' She made a pushing motion with her hands. 'Up against a wall, clothes ripping...' She pretended to rip at her own outfit. 'All the tension comes pouring out and they do the bad thing up against some dirty downtown wall.'

She smiled, eyes wide as she played out her daydream and then slowly came back to reality; smile fading as she saw the three incredulous looks directed at her. She sat back down and looked at her computed screen, clicking on the mouse and looking sheepish 'Or they missed their town car.'

Claire shook her head, bewildered and pressed redial on her phone. After two rings it picked up. 'Daniel, where the hell are you and Wilhelmina? I've been waiting fo...' Her voice trailed off as she listened to the other end of the call. After a minute or so she hung up, wordlessly.

'Well?' Betty asked.

'That...uh...that wasn't Daniel. It was Officer Harper from the 34th precinct. Daniel's being held for questioning.'

'What! What for?' Betty exploded.

'He couldn't tell me.'

'Oh God, I knew it, he's killed her!' Marc yelled, dramatically.

Claire shook her head. 'She's there too.'

Marc sagged in relief. 'What could have happened? Why would they both there?'

Amanda smiled and nodded exaggeratedly. 'Indecent exposure.'

xXx

'And then he turned to us and fired.'

The officer in front of Daniel made notes on the pad in front of him. 'And is this what you saw too, Miss?' He directed the question at Wilhelmina who nodded her head, slowly.

'For the purposes of the tape could you vocalize your answers please?'

She cleared her throat. 'Yes.'

Daniel looked at her, she had hardly said a word since they had arrived there, let Daniel answer all the questions, and he was confused by it. Yes, what they had just witnessed was shocking, but Wilhelmina was not one to retreat inside her shell. The officer looked at her also; 'Are you okay? Would you like some water?'

Wilhelmina didn't answer, Daniel turned to the officer. 'Could you give us a minute please?'

The officer nodded. 'Interview suspended at 3.42pm.' He leaned forward and stopped the tape, before exiting the room.

Daniel turned in his seat. 'Wilhelmina, what's wrong?'

She shook her head. 'Nothing.'

'You need to tell them what you saw.'

'I am.'

He shook his head, puzzled by her demeanour, this was not the Wilhelmina Slater he knew. He was about to press her further when the door reopened and the officer came back in the room, he placed a glass of water in front of Wilhelmina; she simply stared at it, watching the rivulets of condensation run down the outside of the glass.

'Are we good?' The officer asked. Daniel nodded and the officer pressed the recorder. 'Interview recommenced at 3.46pm'

'So Miss Slater, you corroborate Mr Meade's version of events?'

She nodded and then remembered about the tape. 'Yes.'

The officer looked to Daniel. 'A squad car has been sent to the scene but no body was recovered, there was a substantial amount of blood however. Your guy probably got spooked when he knew he had been seen and moved it somewhere else. You say you only saw the arm, but the person was definitely alive before the final shot?'

'Yes.' Daniel confirmed.

'And the victim African-American?'

'Yes.' He nodded.

'But you cannot ascertain whether it was male or female?'

Daniel shook his head. 'No.'

'It was female.' A small voice from beside him said. Daniel slowly faced her. Wilhelmina was, for the first time, looking up into the officers eyes.

'Could you repeat that?' He asked her.

'It was a woman.' She stated again.

'How do you know, we didn't see a face.' Daniel asked.

'I did.' Her voice sounded hollow. 'When he pulled out the gun...her uh, her hand reached up around the back and tried to pull at it...I saw her face.'

The officer looked at Daniel who flapped his mouth noiselessly. 'I...I was looking at the gun. I didn't know.'

'Miss Slater, is there anything else you can tell me? Can you give me an approximate age of the victim?'

Willie looked straight into his eyes and nodded. 'About nineteen, twenty years old I'd say...about the same as my daughter.' She finished on a whisper.

Daniel leaned back in his chair and exhaled, running a hand down his face. 'Shit.' He whispered, now he knew why she had been so strange since the incident.

'Is there anything else?' The police man asked.

'No.'

A knock at the door interrupted them and another officer came in with a binder, placing it on the desk.

'Okay, we're gonna leave you for a while, these are mug shots of all the men matching your description who have been in trouble in the area. Hopefully you'll see your guy. We'll also compile one of all the missing women in the area who match your description Miss Slater.' He nodded at them and left them alone in the room.

Daniel watched her as she pulled the binder close to her and opened it, she began scanning the pictures on each page. 'Willie?'

'I'm fine Daniel.'

He nodded to himself, knowing not to push her. He watched her methodically turn each page. 'Daniel?' She sat back in the chair, looking at the book, her finger pressed against a picture. Daniel leaned across and looked at it, then up at her.

'That's him.'

xXx

'You're kidding? No, no way, absolutely not gonna happen.'

Daniel was amazed at how quickly she had reverted to type, pacing the room. Fighting with the authorities.

'I'm afraid you don't have a choice.' The officer in front of her replied.

Daniel sighed. 'Willie, I know it sucks but...'

'Sucks! Sucks? No Daniel it doesn't suck, it's a nightmare, it's a complete joke; one that is not going to happen.'

'Ms Slater, if you and Mr Meade are both certain that this is the man you saw then it's for your own good.'

She threw her hands up in the air. 'How! How could he possibly even know who we are? We hardly run in the same circles.'

'You and Mr Meade are two of the most photographed people in the city. You're never out of the media. I'm guessing he already knows exactly who you are.'

'What if I refuse...to testify I mean?' She stopped pacing and stood with her arms folded.

'Willie!' Daniel exclaimed. 'You would let a murderer walk free?'

She huffed and rolled her eyes. 'No.' She conceded. 'Isn't there any other way?'

The officer nodded. 'Sure.' Wilhelmina brightened at the prospect. 'You and Mr Meade can go get measured for your body bags.'

She glared at him and Daniel swallowed a laugh. 'Look.' The officer continued. 'Your guy is small time, but he's a runner for a much bigger fish; one we're building a case against.'

'What kinda stuff we talking about here?' Daniel asked.

'Pretty much everything you can think of. Drugs, prostitution, money laundering, hired thugs...'

'Can we tell our families, colleagues? We run a business together.'

'We'll let them know the situation but I'm afraid no contact is allowed. I can have messages passed along before you leave.'

'And where exactly are we leaving for?'

The officer grinned as a man dressed in a brown suit entered. 'This is Detective West, he has all the details.'

The older man leaned in and shook hands with Daniel and Wilhelmina. 'We have to keep you in the tri-state area; we'll be moving you to a suburban area of Harford, Connecticut.'

'Connecticut?' Wilhelmina shouted.

'It's the area our researchers found your magazine had the lowest sales, you'll have less chance of being recognised out there.' The Detective reasoned.

'Wonderful, so not only am I being shipped to the sticks, but I'm going to an area where bad taste thrives.'

'It's the suburbs Willie, not the sticks.' Daniel tried to placate her.

'Potayto, potahto Daniel.' She fumed.

The Detective smiled at their back and forth. 'Well your dynamic should certainly help you keep in character.'

'Excuse me?' Willie asked, eyes narrowed.

Detective West opened the folder and read from it. 'As of now you are Bob and Leigh Johnson, married for eight years; no kids. Bob you work from home as an accountant and support your wife.'

Daniel shot forward in his chair. 'Back up, we're MARRIED?'

The detective grinned. 'It's a respectable neighbourhood, can't have you two living in sin now, can we?'

Daniel leaned back, sighing. 'Marvellous.'

The officers in the room and Detective West all snickered at his reaction. 'Look, hopefully it won't be for too long, once we track down our suspect and have him in custody, you're free to come back. It really is for your own safety. You have pretty much free reign in the town of Hartford. All we ask is that you check in with us nightly and a plain clothed officer will visit you weekly to keep you updated. Your only stipulations are that you do not reveal your identity to anyone, you do not contact friends or family and under no circumstances must you enter New York.'

The officer next to him interjected. 'You might want to keep the domestics to a minimum as well, don't draw any unnecessary attention to yourselves; as far as the rest of the community should be aware, you're a happily married couple.'

Daniel looked over to Wilhelmina, she was leaning against the wall, her arms folded and jaw clenched so tight he was sure he would hear her teeth crunch any minute. The detective followed his gaze and smirked at Willie's demeanour. 'Miss Slater, any thoughts?'

She tuned to glare into his eyes. 'Kill me.'

Daniel snorted. 'So when do we leave?'

'Pretty much now. We have houses set up in several neighbourhoods for this very reason. Everything is awaiting your arrival, you'll find all you need there; Clothes, furnishings and we'll have a community officer stock up the kitchen.'

'I'll need to write a letter to people at the magazine, outlining what needs done.' Wilhelmina snapped.

One of the officers stood up. 'Sure, come with me and I'll set you up with everything you need.'

Wilhelmina walked to the door with him, just as she was about to leave Daniel called after her. 'Hurry back, sweetheart.'

She stopped in her tracks and turned to glare at him. She narrowed her eyes and set her lips in a line before storming from the room.

Daniel turned to the detective and sighed dramatically; 'I think the honeymoon's over.'