A/N: After a great deal of thought, plotting and trash can basketball, I bring to you the next chapter of Reconstruction! (PS: If you'd really like to see a chapter devoted to Justin's adventures related to this chapter, let me know. I haven't decided how "deep" I'll go into that right now.)
The doorbell rang at six pm on Saturday, shortly after Justin and Laura returned from their shopping trip. Justin had been teasing Derek about making him go for fittings while Laura and Petra debated if Petra would need more formal clothes as the four worked together to get dinner ready.
The doorbell cut through their teasing and laughter like a knife and set the twins off. Recently put to bed, their enthusiastic cries were the harbingers of a long night. Derek and Petra hurried up the stairs to calm the babies while Justin headed for the door. Laura, at Derek's suggestion, stayed back in the kitchen to mind dinner.
There were few good reasons for someone to ring the doorbell at 6 pm in Justin's mind, and he kept that firmly in mind when he flung the door open. Two men in suits stood on the doorstep, one was of average height, with brown hair, blue eyes, and a nose that had been broken and never set correctly. The other was taller, with grey hair, brown eyes, and wrinkles that looked more like laugh lines than frown lines.
"Can't you read?" Justin demanded.
"Excuse me?" The grey haired man asked, clearly startled.
Justin pointed at the door, where a laminated sign said DO NOT RING DOORBELL AFTER 5:30 PM AND 8:00 AM AS IT WILL WAKE THE BABIES.
"We have a pair of five months old in the house," Justin said. "You woke them up. What do you want?"
"Justin," Laura said sharply, "go deal with dinner. I'll handle our guests."
Justin stared at her for a moment, then nodded and headed for the kitchen. If Laura thought it would keep him from listening in, she didn't know him as well as he thought she did.
Laura waited for Justin to enter the kitchen before giving the men a polite smile, "My apologies. My… friend is a bit overprotective. Can I help you with something?"
The tall one held up a badge, "I'm Special Agent Eric Carter, this is my partner Special Agent Lucas Finch, we're with the FBI. We were looking for Laura Hale."
"I'm Laura Hale," Laura said after a moment. "Won't you come in?"
"You're Ms. Hale," Finch said.
Laura stared at the man, "I am the eldest daughter of Talia Hale, named after my paternal great-aunt. I am also eighteen years old, Agent Finch. Surely you were made aware of that when you were given your instructions."
"You'll have to pardon Finch," Carter said, "he suffers from foot in mouth disease around lovely women."
Laura felt herself blush, but she met Carter's eyes firmly, "That's a dangerous habit for an FBI agent to have."
"We're working on it," Carter said.
Laura realized she was blocking the door and moved, "Sorry, come in. Have a seat in the living room. What's this all about?"
Carter nodded slightly as he accepted Laura's directions to the living room, "First, I do want to say that we're sorry for your loss. You'll have to understand, we were looking for you before your name crossed my desk."
"I wasn't aware that I'd done something wrong," Laura said.
"No," Carter said, "it's nothing like that. It's more that your mother was listed as a next of kin for a cousin of yours, Amanda Hale?"
Laura frowned for a moment, and then gasped as she remembered the tempestuous blond haired girl who had screamed at her mother and aunt with the kind of language that would have gotten Laura both a soapy mouth and an extended sparring session with the Alpha. "Amanda? You know where she is?" She took a steadying breath as she took a seat in the living room. "I mean, you have to understand, I haven't seen Amanda in five years, not since she had a falling out with our parents. I wanted to find her, after, but I didn't know where to begin."
"You haven't heard from her at all?" Carter pressed.
"No," Laura said, "I mean, I doubt she'd be able to find us here, but if she wanted to, she, surely she'd know to contact Mr. Whitmore back home if she needed to get in contact."
"I don't think she will," Finch said dryly.
"She's…," Laura hesitated.
"The last we knew, she was alive," Carter said. "Are you at all familiar with your cousin's life in the past five years?"
Laura bit her lip, then shook her head, "After the fight they had? Amanda's name was taboo around the house. I learned three of my favorite swear words from that fight. If anyone knew anything about what Amanda was up to, it wasn't repeated in my hearing."
"Well, five years ago a woman we can now confirm to be Amanda Hale was listed as a suspect in a series of hijackings in the Los Angeles area. The heists were perpetrated by precision drivers, who took control of semi trucks carrying hundreds of thousands in electronics. At the time, she favored the name Tasha Barton, and was a known street racer for a man named Dominic Toretto. According to reports, they considered themselves a team." Carter said, "An undercover officer was inserted into Team Toretto to find the people behind the hijackings, but the operation was blown after the truck driver of their last truck went after them with a shot gun. The team scattered and vanished. Tasha Barton was believed to have also crossed the border, while records show that Amanda Hale remained in LA, going to school and living as if she'd never heard of street racing."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Laura asked.
"Eight months ago, Dominic Toretto was arrested in the aftermath of a blown op to take down a drug trafficker in southern California. He was sentenced to twenty-five to life. He never made it to Lompoc, instead a team of precision drivers caused the prison bus to wreck on the highway and Toretto was removed from the wreckage. We picked up prints to match with the hijacking, those linked to Tasha Barton. Two months ago, those same prints showed up in Brazil, linked to a train robbery and the death of three DEA agents, along with Toretto and three known associates. A Diplomatic Security Service team was dispatched to apprehend the group. While most of the team was caught in the crossfire of Toretto's gang and a local crime lord and died, the leader, Agent Hobbs, returned empty handed, but with conclusive evidence linking Tasha Barton and Amanda Hale."
"So, she's wanted for something?" Laura said slowly.
"Questioning in the matter of the DEA agents' deaths, and for the break out of Dominic Toretto from the prison bus," Carter said.
"And what do you want from me?" Laura said, thinking through all the possible options available to her.
"You must understand, Ms. Hale, these are very serious charges," Carter said, "if Amanda were to contact you, you might even find yourself charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive."
"Well now," Laura said, "I wouldn't want that. But I'm still not clear on what you want from me?"
"Simply to let us know if Amanda Hale were to contact you," Carter said, "I understand that she's family and it might be difficult for you, but she must face trial for what she's done."
Laura sniffed and drew herself up, "Amanda Hale is hardly my family, Agent Carter. From what I recall from her rather memorable departure, she wished to be done with all of us and my mother heartily agreed with her. Should I hear from her, or should my brother Derek hear from her, you may be certain that we will be in your office within twenty-four hours to give you chapter and verse."
Carter glanced at Finch, and then turned back to her, "Ms. Hale, I was given to understand you had a different view of family."
Laura smiled tightly, "My family is dead, Agent Carter. They were trapped in their home during a fire and left to burn. It was called an accident, an electric fire, by the arson investigator, and no one has ever explained to me how every door in the house came to be jammed shut, forcing my family into the basement where they died. My definition of family changed a lot since that day. If Amanda were still part of my family, she would either be in a grave in Beacon Hills or in this house right now, not off breaking laws and helping to kill federal agents."
"I understand," Carter said.
"Now," Laura stood, "if there's nothing else, gentlemen, I have two babies to help wrangle and dinner to get on the table."
"There's nothing else," Carter said and offered Laura a card, "If you need to tell me anything, anything at all."
"I'll call," Laura said, shoving the card in her pocket.
She watched the Agents leave from the front door, locking it only when they were out of sight.
"Justin," she said, staring out the window unseeing.
"I'll get the search running now," Justin said, "I'll let you know what I come up with."
"Thank you."
