Chapter 1
~*~*~*~
And I am here still waiting
Though I still have my doubts
I am damaged at best
Like you've already figured out
I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
~ Broken by Lifehouse
~*~*~*~
It all began with a broken copier.
If the copier had been working, he wouldn't have had to go to the seventeenth floor to use the one in White Collar Division. If he hadn't gone to White Collar, he never would have had to wait in line to use their copier. If he hadn't been waiting in line, he never would have seen her…
~*~*~*~
Two days earlier…
Sitting at the conference table, Martin, Danny and Viv separated and stacked the last six case reports that the team had recently closed. After an exhaustive string of cases, there was a lull in disappearances of the citizens of New York, which allowed time for the agents to catch up on their case reports. Since the loss of Elena to White Collar after Danny and she got married, the one thing suffering the consequences was the paperwork. The only ones not burdened with the task were Jack, who as SAC, wouldn't normally be bothered with such things until they had given their reports to him, and Sam, who took the day off in order to take Finn to see his pediatrician.
It was a remarkably boring day for the team and for this fact alone, Martin was extremely annoyed. He was hoping for some distraction from all the holiday merriment as Christmas was a little over a week away. Normally, he loved Christmas: the anticipation of giving and receiving gifts, the decorations, the food, and the gathering of loved ones. But this year it only served to remind him how much he didn't have to celebrate. His parents were going to Paris to visit some old college friends so that left him visiting his family in Long Island. Normally it would be just as pleasant but since his cousin Jamie recently had the new baby, the house was crowded with mostly her husband Ron's family. Since he didn't exactly exude the persona of the carefree playboy bachelor, he wasn't relishing the opportunity to explain to a bunch of strangers why he didn't have a wife or family of his own to celebrate the holiday with.
Add to the fact that everyone else on the team was preparing for some sort of exciting holiday event, it only served to dampen his spirits.
Jack was cheerfully anticipating having both his daughters home for Christmas. Hannah was still living with him, the two reaching an agreement to continue working on their relationship. Kate was going to fly in from Chicago and stay with them until after the New Year. For the first time in ages, Jack was all smiles as he worked, excited to have both his girls for a significant chunk of time. And while he admitted nothing, it didn't escape the team's attention that he was spending more time meeting with Dr. Clare Bryson so that only enhanced his cheerier demeanor. Of course, it was also noticed that he would stop by and see Dr. Lisa Harris as well although they doubted that it was business-related. Particularly since when Danny asked Lisa what she was doing for the holidays, she hedged, not willing to divulge exactly what she was going to be doing or more importantly, with whom. Of course, maybe Jack was being cautious since Lisa was the first hint of a romantic relationship since the dissolution of his relationship with Sam.
The team had been relieved to see both Jack and Sam returned to status quo soon after their break-up – actually, to those in the know, it was technically their second break-up. While some members of the team were not surprised, namely Viv, others were taken aback that it had ended the way it had. No one was more surprised than Martin. As much as it stung to see Sam dating Jack, sealing his nagging doubts when they had dated that she wasn't really committed to making a real relationship work with him and he was the proverbial rebound guy, what was more surprising was to find that after all those years of Jack and Sam dancing around the subject and finally giving it a shot, it had ended with very little fanfare or even remorse. While part of him did gain some satisfaction that Samantha was still sorting out her issues, it didn't ease the hurt that he was another name on her list of failed relationships. He could only pray that Brian would fare better for the sake of Finn.
As for Sam herself, she had been walking around jollier than anyone had ever witnessed or believed possible. She was eagerly anticipating hosting Christmas for her mom, sister and brother-in-law as well as the family that had adopted Emily's son, Adam. He was in full remission for almost two years in great thanks to a bone marrow donation from Sam's mom so his adoptive family felt it was time for Adam to know his biological family. It was also a big deal since this marked the first time that Sam was bringing Brian into the Spade family fold.
Viv was hosting the holiday for Marcus' parents who were flying in from Indiana and Reggie was driving in from Ohio with some of his college roommates. It was quite funny to see how giddy Viv became at any mention of her getting to see her only son again since he had left for Ohio State University. For a mother and son who often bickered, there was a connection that felt noticeably lost to Vivian when her only child moved far away.
And the biggest event was Danny and Elena celebrating their first Christmas as husband and wife. After they'd had their small civil ceremony, it was promptly followed by multiple parties hosted by any and all family members who were unable to attend. So they wanted to make their first Christmas as special and intimate as possible for them as a married couple as well as mark Danny's first holiday as a stepfather. Martin knew that Danny was already going out of his way to try and track down everything on Sofie's Santa List. He had managed to knock off all but one thing so far and the final item seemed as elusive as Ahab's white whale. Sofie wanted the season's hottest new toy for young girls: an Ariel and the Avengers doll. It was a doll based on a cartoon of a young girl who has super powers and uses them to fight evil. So as with any good marketing campaign, every girl between the ages of five and eleven wanted one which made them as hard to find as weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
As happy as Martin was for his friends, it only highlighted the fact that he was the only one on the team who had nothing significant in his life to mark the holiday. To anyone else it looked like his life was going status quo but he knew that while nothing had been gained this last year, a lot was lost. For him it was yet another year where he had no one special to celebrate the holiday with, no special meeting of families, no one special to shop for, and nowhere special to be. And this holiday he was keenly aware of all that was missing in his life and how he yearned for more, to find that one woman to love who also loved him in return. But as much as he did want that, he knew that his solitary life was a predicament of his own doing as well. He had been reluctant to get involved with anyone since his ill-fated romance with Kim Marcus the previous May. Any woman he did encounter was only to satisfy his basest needs and never amounted to more than a series of random 'dates' because he was unable to commit to anything more than the most superficial level of a relationship. Kim had left his trust and faith broken, and he was unsure how to put the pieces back together.
"Earth to Martin," Danny said as he waved his hand in front of Martin's face. "Hello?"
Jarred from his introspection, Martin shook himself free of his thoughts. "Yeah?"
"Do you have copies of the financials from the Ackles and Padalecki cases?"
"Um, let me check." Flipping through his files, Martin found his reports and opened them up. "No, I still have to make them." He rolled his chair back and stood up. "I'll go do it now."
Looking up, Viv shook her head with a wry smile. "Copier is broken." She straightened up her files in a complete stack before reaching for another one. "You're gonna have to use one in another department."
Grinning, Danny rolled his own chair back and said, "I'll go with you. We can use the one up in White Collar."
"You just want to go see Elena," Martin quipped when an idea occurred to him. He held out the file for Danny. "Tell you what, as long as you're up there why don't you make the copies for me?"
Danny's hands flew up, as if he didn't want to touch the folder for fear of it being contaminated. "Hey, I'm only offering to keep you company. Not do your job."
Rolling his eyes, Martin turned and started down the hallway towards the elevator with Danny in tow. "Aren't you generous? Heaven forbid I get lonely traveling up five floors."
Chuckling, Danny playfully patted Martin on the back. "I am a giver."
They rode up the seventeenth floor talking about other places Danny could try and hunt down the elusive gift for Sofie. He joked that if it comes down to it, he was willing to go to Queens and see if he can find a guy that has one that may have 'fallen off a truck.' The elevator stopped and the two men exited to a floor that mirrored their own, the only exception being the people who sat behind the desks and what sorts of cases they investigated.
After directing him towards the copy room, Danny announced that as long as he was here he would go see if Elena was around and to just come get him when he was done. Chuckling softly, Martin nodded in agreement as he continued on down the hall to the copier. He peeked into the copy room and saw that there were already three people ahead of him. So resigning himself to his place in line, he tucked the folders under his arm and leaned against the wall outside the doorway to wait. He glanced around, seeing another ordinary day at the office as agents moved around talking, sitting at their desks with either their eyes fixed on their monitors or reading through paperwork, or just sipping coffee as they chatted with their co-workers. He heard some laughter and his attention was drawn down the hall to a clerk from the mailroom chatting with an escorting agent from downstairs as they boarded the elevator.
And that's when he saw her.
It happened so fast he almost missed her. He felt his legs sway, threatening to buckle, as time slowed and his eyes went wide watching each step she took down the adjacent hallway on the other side of the building. He found himself soaking in the sight of her: her long dark chocolate hair, her lithe, petite frame, her perfect nose resting on her heart-shaped face, and the smoothest olive skin he ever touched… when just as quickly as she appeared she was gone.
He gulped knowing that there was no doubt in his mind that he just saw Kim Marcus.
Before he could even comprehend what was happening, his feet had already started walking down the hallway to seek her out like a lion stalking its prey. His mind was reeling, wondering why she was here and more importantly how? He picked up his pace so that he was practically jogging down the hallway and turned the corner where she had disappeared. He was moving so fast in his leather shoes that it almost caused him to skid over the freshly waxed linoleum floor so he grabbed hold of the wall to steady himself. He righted himself just in time to see Kim being escorted into one of the conference rooms, the door closing shut behind her. Through the bank of windows, he watched as she was approached by an agent he didn't know, the two becoming engaged in a quiet discussion. Feeling like a voyeur, he studied her as he walked slowly to the door, cataloging the subtle changes since he had last seen her. She had cut her hair. There were wisps and layers framing her face but it was still just as long, falling to the middle of her back. Involuntarily, his fingers twitched remembering the feel of the silky smooth strands running through his hand. His eyes remained trained on her back as he kept walking towards the closed door, mentally willing her to turn around and look at him.
His gaze was so firmly locked on Kim that he didn't even notice SAC Mitch Delmar headed his way until he intercepted him.
"And just where do you think you're going, Fitzgerald?" Delmar asked as he held out his meaty arm, blocking Martin's path.
Delmar was a large man in every sense of the word. He towered at six foot three and a good two hundred and fifty pounds. As a result, every part of him was gigantic: from his size thirteen feet to his large bulbous head. Even the strands of his curly head of hair seemed abnormally larger than normal which probably wouldn't be as noticeable if it weren't for the fact that he was an extremely hairy dude. Even the hair on his fingers looked like they required a daily brushing. It was all of these factors combined that garnered Delmar the nickname, Sasquatch.
But today, Martin couldn't be bothered with Sasquatch's interference so with his focus still on Kim, he asked, "What is she doing here?" When no reply was forthcoming, he managed to break his gaze free of her long brown hair and turn to face Delmar. "What the hell is going on?"
"I think you should head back downstairs," Delmar deflected, deceit evident in his eyes. "This doesn't concern you."
Squaring his shoulders and clenching his jaw, Martin pressed on, "You have Kim Marcus in an interview room." With his eyes darting between Kim and Delmar, he continued, "She was my arrest and I insist on knowing what is happening."
"It's none of your business why I am talking to her," he countered, stepping up and getting in Martin's face. "This is a case that does not involve a missing person so back it up and take an elevator ride back down to the twelfth floor."
Undeterred, Martin decided to push back. "If you don't tell me why the Bank Robbery Task Force is meeting with a suspect awaiting trial, I will go above your head and we both know I have the connections to do it."
Delmar's lips twitched, threatening to chuckle. "Somehow I doubt your connections will do you any good since it was the Deputy Director who specifically requested that you be kept out of the loop."
Martin felt like the earth opened up beneath him. "My father is involved?" He shook his head and sighed heavily. "Of course he is." To his credit, Delmar had the decency to look guilty. Opting for another tactic, Martin released a heavy breath and said, "Look, I know you know…" his eyes once again sought Kim out but she was still facing away from him, "…how invested I am in her case. Please just tell me what's going on. We can keep it between us."
Delmar studied Martin's pleading expression and it was clear he was warring on how to respond. After a long pause, he relented. "What the hell, you already know she's here." He put his hand on Martin's shoulder and guided him to the opposite wall so they could talk quietly. It didn't escape Martin's attention that it also kept Kim out of his eye line. "She's helping us in an operation to apprehend Jimmy Wright, her old partner in the bank robberies."
Furrowing his brow, Martin shook his head confused. "I don't understand, she already agreed to testify against him. Why are you talking to her here and now?" He went quiet, considering. "Were you able to locate Jimmy? Because last I heard she didn't have a line on where he disappeared to after he ran off with the money."
Delmar gnawed on his lower lip, considering how to best answer. "It's a little more complicated than just the older robberies."
Frustrated and edgy, Martin shook his head. "You're talking in circles." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned in, giving the SAC a hard look. "Just tell me what's going on."
Sighing heavily, Delmar took a step back and started towards his office. "Alright, follow me."
Martin got in step behind the SAC, casting a final look into the conference room in time to catch Kim's profile. She was nodding her head at something the agent was saying, completely oblivious to Martin's presence. Taking it as a sign to let her be for now, he lowered his head and continued on to Delmar's office.
Once inside, Delmar shut his door and motioned for him to sit. The back of the chair was stiff and unforgiving, so Martin leaned forward, his legs spread and his elbows resting on his knees. "Alright, I'm here. Talk."
Delmar stepped behind his desk, picked up a folder and began, "We've been working with local police departments in various cities where a series of banks were robbed all with matching MO's in the last few months." He handed Martin the folder. "We have reason to believe that the robberies are being orchestrated by Jimmy Wright."
Surprised, Martin accepted the folder but made no move to open it. "So you think Jimmy is back to robbing banks?"
Sitting down, Delmar leaned back in his worn leather chair and explained, "That's the thing: in all of these incidents it was the bank manager who performed the actual robbery."
Exasperated, Martin motioned with his hands. "Circling again…"
Taking a breath, Delmar sat forward and rested his hands on his desk. "What happens is a team of three men wearing ski masks break into the home of the bank manager after a bank holiday – Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving," he motioned to the decorations around the office, "Christmas. Typically, the deposits are larger after the bank has been closed since there was no one there to process the funds." Delmar looked at him to see if he understood and Martin nodded to continue since he was fully versed in how a bank operates. "What happens is they hold the manager's family hostage and threaten to kill everyone if the manager doesn't go to the bank, skim as much as possible from the vault and bring it back to them. In each case, the manager reported that he or she was instructed to open the bank as if it were business as usual and slowly remove money from the teller's cages as well as the main vault and ATM. Then before closing, they had to make up some excuse to leave before final balances were performed and bring the money back to the house. If they did as instructed, the family would be let go."
"How can they possibly know how much money they would get? For all they know, the manager can only get their hands on a few thousand," Martin asked, finally opening up the file. "Seems like a lot of risk for little guarantee."
"It seems to be working because all but one heist hauled in at least a three-hundred grand a piece."
"And the one that didn't?" Martin asked as he skimmed the pages in the file. When there was no immediate answer, he looked up to see Delmar's grim expression. "What happened?"
Delmar reached over and picked up another file and handed it to Martin as he darkly replied, "This is the only one where the manager was only able to get her hands on around nine thousand."
Flipping it open, Martin saw grisly crime scene photos of a murdered family: husband, wife, and two teenage daughters. Shaking his head at the senselessness of it all, he asked, "Why'd he pick that bank if the haul wasn't going to be as lucrative?"
"Well, on any other day it wouldn't have been very difficult for the manager to get her hands on the loot but on the day of the robbery, a bank auditor made a surprise visit." Delmar lowered his head and frowned. "It was virtually impossible for the manager to get her hands on any money without it being noticed. Hell, I'm surprised she got her hands on the nine grand."
Disgusted, Martin snapped the folder shut and tossed it back onto the desk. "So he killed the family when she came back with less than he wanted."
"That's the thing, according to the coroner's report the husband and kids were killed half way through the manager's shift at work."
"Why'd he kill them before the deadline?"
"My guess is he knew he wasn't going to get all the money he was expecting."
"How would he know?"
"See, each of the bank managers interviewed all shared the exact same scenario: the break-in, reporting to work and then a phone call every half hour with instructions on how much money to get and from which vault."
Slumping back into his seat, Martin rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, understanding where he was going. "So you're thinking that he has eyes on the inside that knew the comings and goings of the deposits? How's that possible?"
"There's the rub," Delmar responded, leaning back in his chair. "Of the seven banks robbed, there is no discernable connection. Each bank was in a different city with a different staff. No correlation." He shrugged. "We can't figure out how he does it."
"What about tapping into the video surveillance?" Martin suggested.
Delmar shook his head. "We checked but there is no sign that they were hacked."
"What makes you think Jimmy's the one involved and how does Kim figure into this? They all occurred after she and Jimmy parted ways," Martin countered, feeling strange that he suddenly felt defensive about the implication of Kim being involved in something like this.
Delmar hesitated. "We have footage of Jimmy in the last bank robbed the day before the heist. I know in my gut he's the guy."
Martin scoffed, "That's circumstantial at best and you know it."
"Which is why we concocted an undercover operation," Delmar explained, his eyes watching Martin carefully, gauging for a reaction. "We got some intel from a criminal informant in Pennsylvania that Jimmy is headed back to New York for one last big score. So we have made it known that one bank in particular is expecting record-breaking deposits. It's located on the corner of a major avenue with high-end department stores that will be open late on Christmas Eve. At that particular branch, we'll have an agent working undercover as the bank manager."
Neurons began firing in Martin's head, starting to make the connections but needed confirmation all the same. "And what's Kim's role in all of this?"
"I told you, she's working with us to catch Jimmy."
"How?" Martin asked, his brow furrowing into a deeper frown as he tried to figure out Kim's role in all of this.
"She's going undercover as the wife of a bank manager."
Martin stood up, suddenly feeling protective of the very woman he himself shot and arrested. "So you're using her as bait?"
"She's the best hope we have of making sure that Jimmy selects our bank to target," Delmar firmly replied, tapping his index finger on his desktop. "Think about it. He doesn't even know that she'd been arrested," he shot Martin a pointed look, "your father was very careful in keeping her arrest as quiet as possible." Shifting in his seat, he continued, "So by having her pose as the wife of the bank manager, it will be too tempting for him to resist. He'll think that she is happily married to someone completely ignorant of her past so he can blackmail her into being a willing accomplice. He knows she would never flip on him because it would destroy her own life in the process."
Shaking his head, Martin grabbed the back end of the chair and squeezed it so tight his knuckles turned white. "This is crazy. How can you be sure he won't just kill her when the job is done so he can cover all his loose ends? You're risking her life for a slight chance that your scenario will work."
"She'll be under 24-hour surveillance. Cameras will be placed strategically throughout the house where she and our undercover agent will be living. Plus, we rented the place directly behind where I will have a team of agents working around the clock to monitor things."
Martin looked away, his gut twisting as he considered all the flaws in the plan. Taking a breath and returning his attention to Delmar, he asked, "And what does she get in return?"
Licking his chapped lips, Delmar sighed. "The DA agreed to a deal: in exchange for her full cooperation and testimony against Wright, she will get a reduced sentence to time served and three years parole."
Martin stood there thinking that it was a great deal for her – impossible to refuse. She could start again; get a second chance. Despite it all, the idea of her rotting in prison weighed down his heart and left a sour taste in his mouth. He found himself hoping that this plan would work because in the end, after all was said and done he still had feelings for the woman and wanted her to be okay.
Straightening up, Martin declared, "I want in on the case."
Delmar adamantly shook his head. "No way. The Deputy Director was very clear on this issue. I shouldn't have even told you all that I did."
"Look, I started all of this by arresting Kim and I should be involved in how it ends," Martin retorted, his heart already thundering in his chest as he considered the ramifications of what he was saying. Resolved, he determinedly added, "I have to be."
Delmar slowly shook his head and softly stammered out, "I… I don't think…"
Cutting Delmar off, Martin stated sharply, "Forget about what my father told you. I'll talk to him. I'll get him to agree." Leaning in close, he gave Delmar a hard, unflinching look. "You have to let me in on this – I started it and I need to be the one to finish it."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N: Big thanks to Anmodo for all her beta help. Any remaining mistakes are likely the result of my inability to not stop tweaking right before posting.
Thanks to all of you who are willing to read this fic. I am always grateful to anyone willing to read one of my stories. Thanks so much.
