Well here we go with the next one. Actually this is a two parted one shot. After 5x10 and the discovery Rebecca is a MI5 agent this idea came up. This is too good to let it go especially because it gave us a fantastic reason to do something in the sequel of this one shot series. So here our take on how Neal finds out about it.
Oh and for those who wait for a one shot about last weeks episode. We are working on it. Please be patient.
"Come on, Becca, we want to go," Neal hurried her.
"I am not hungry," she replied standing in front of the window of their hotel room.
"What's up with you? You hide here since we arrived in Frankfurt."
"Nothing, I am just no feeling well."
"It's still about what happened in Lebanon?"
"No...," she turned around with a sad smile, "It's not about what happened."
"So?"
"I... I guess I am coming down with something."
"We can order from the room service," Neal suggested and pulled her into an embrace.
"Maybe I do it later. You and Moz need to get out before you go crazy. He is probably waiting impatiently for you downstairs."
"You really don't want to join in? Some fresh air could help."
Rebecca looked down to her feet and took a deep breath.
"Why not? You are right," she gave in.
"Great. We wait downstairs, ok?"
"Sure..."
With a last thoughtful glance at her Neal went down to meet Mozzie in the foyer. His friend was already running up and down.
"There you are, Neal. What took you so long?"
"Becca..."
"She doesn't come with us again?"
"No, she comes but..."
"She is acting weird since we came here," Mozzie finished the sentence.
"She does and I don't think it's a cold."
"She is hiding something."
"I hoped you wouldn't say that." Neal frowned.
"You have no idea?"
"No, she just acts strange. She is jumpy and refuses to go outside."
"Maybe it's because of the recent events."
"What do you mean, Moz?"
"Maybe she still needs to arrange herself with being back to the way we used to work. She did a lot of your parts the last months."
"We will see. I would like to know what's wrong with her."
"She will talk to you when she is ready, mon frère."
"Or when it's too late."
A few minutes later Rebecca came down. Both men realized she looked very pale and uncomfortable.
"Sorry you had to wait."
"It's okay. Let's go out and find something nice for lunch."
Neal took Rebecca by her hand and it worried him he quite had to drag her behind them.
"There is a very fantastic Vietnamese restaurant not far from here."
"Sounds good. What do you think, Becca?"
She only nodded and put her sunglasses on when they stepped outside.
"Becca, it's pretty cloudy today. Why the sunglasses?"
"I have a serious headache."
On their way to the restaurant they did some window shopping. In front of an antique store Mozzie got pretty excited.
"Let's go inside."
"I thought we wanted to go for lunch," Rebecca said annoyed.
"Just a few minutes."
While Mozzie went into the store Neal and Rebecca waited outside. He pulled her close and looked at her.
"Is really everything okay?"
"Yes, I'm not feeling well the last days. It's nothing serious, Neal. Don't worry."
"Becca, you know you can tell me everything if something bothers you."
"I know but it's nothing. I guess the last weeks had been a bit tough on me. And it's strange here."
"Why?"
"I understand why they call it little Manhattan but it makes me miss New York so much."
"I know. I feel the same but let's enjoy our time here."
"I try to..."
Neal cupped her face with his hands and kissed her.
"Go and follow Mozzie inside," she added with a slight chuckle.
"Why?"
"I saw that you looked with a longing on these old cuff links."
"You know me way too well."
They kissed again before Neal turned around.
"Don't you want to come inside too?" he asked at the door.
"No, it's okay."
As soon Neal had vanished into the store Rebecca took a deep breath when she saw that man crossing the street coming towards her.
"Rachel? What are you doing here?"
She frowned because she hadn't heard that name for years.
"Steven, just leave. Those times are long gone."
"Are you having a new assignment here? You went back? I haven't heard from you in ages."
"I won't tell you. I left that life behind me a long time ago. I paid the price for it and it took me long enough to get a normal life. Go and don't tell anyone you saw me here. By the way what are you doing here?"
"If you would be a real civilian I couldn't tell you but I'm here for an assignment with the BND. We're suspecting some salafists to plan assaults."
"Well then good luck with that."
"Rachel, we could really need someone with your knowledge for those operations."
"I burnt all my aliases. When I got into trouble I wanted them to help me. Do you know what they did? They tried to trade my head and left me. I was accused of being a double agent like I would have betrayed the Empire and the MI5. You never asked yourself why I vanished in an instant? Just forget that you saw me here. I have nothing to do with them anymore."
"Neal...?"
"What's up, Moz? Did you find something interesting?"
"Yes, but it's not antique. Do you know who this guy is talking to Becca?"
"What?"
"Looks they're arguing about something."
"Maybe that's why she refused to go out."
"An ex boyfriend?"
"She never told me she was in Germany at some point in her life. I need to check that."
"Rachel, you can't run from who you are."
"I was never happy to be that person. Being her was like being a slave."
"And you think you're free now? I saw your scared look when I crossed the street. You're running from your real self. No matter how many bridges you burn a part of you will always be Rachel Turner."
"Becca, is everything okay?"
"Neal..."
When she turned around with an audible sense of shock in her voice Steven took the chance to leave unnoticed.
"Who was that guy?"
"Uhm, no one... just being stupid and trying to annoy me..."
"He called you Rachel. Do you know him?"
"He was mistaking me for someone else. No, I've never seen him before. I don't feel well, Neal. I think I better go back to the hotel to catch some sleep."
"Rebecca, wait. Talk to me. What is wrong?"
"Nothing. This was just too much for me today. I... just enjoy your lunch. We can talk later."
Neal tried to grab her arm but Rebecca turned around and quite ran away.
"What was happening?"
"Moz, I have no idea. Something has tipped her off."
"Who was that guy?"
"I don't know but he called her Rachel and it looked like they know each other. I need to talk to her."
"Neal, you know how stubborn she can be. If you follow her now she won't tell anything. Just give her some time to calm down."
"Maybe you're right."
"We get some food now and she brigets her favorite dish later."
"It's for the better I guess."
"It is and now let us go," Mozzie pushed Neal down the street.
"Mozzie?"
"What now my friend?"
Neal stopped and nodded towards a man ahead of them.
"That guy talked to Becca."
"You want to confront him now. I don't think this is a good idea."
"Why?"
"Because it shows you don't trust her and probably she is right and the guy mistook her for someone else."
"Moz, they were talking English..."
"So?" Mozzie tilted his head.
"Have you met a single German outside the hotel who speaks proper English without their particular accent?"
"Doesn't mean there aren't some."
"He had a British accent."
"Ok, that's a go. Why didn't you say that earlier?"
Upset he followed Neal but both stopped after a few steps because the guy was gone.
"I didn't expect that."
"Me neither, Moz. It's enough. I want an answer."
"Neal, we just talked about it," Mozzie yelled after his friend but Neal didn't listen, "Well this means take out for three."
Only a little later Neal arrived back at the hotel. When he stepped into their room he thought they got robbed because everything laid spread and messed up on the ground.
"Becca?"
She didn't react but he could hear some noises out of the bathroom. Carefully he crossed the room and pushed the door open to find Rebecca sitting on the ground crying. He knelt down in front of her.
"What's wrong?"
"Everything...," she sobbed.
"Is it about that guy from the antiques shop?"
"Yes...no... I can't stay."
Rebecca got up and tried to get past Neal but he held her back.
"What?"
"It was stupid. I should have known better."
"Known what better?"
Rebecca broke free and started to gather her clothes. Close to lose his patience Neal followed her and made her stop.
"Talk to me, Becca."
"You won't understand. I don't understand myself. I was stupid. I got taught better than that."
"Taught? What are you speaking about?"
Rebecca threw a shirt into her bag and sighed. With a serious face she looked up to Neal.
"I wasn't always the nerdy bookworm you fell in love with."
"I don't get it," Neal told clueless and worried.
"You don't have to. I am sorry, Neal."
"Sorry for what?"
"I have to go. This is goodbye."
"What? I thought we are back for good. I promised you to never do something stupid and careless again."
She went around the bed and kissed him.
"It's not about you. It's about me. I thought the time of hiding was past but I was deadly mistaken. I am sorry. I am not who you think I am."
"Who are you then?"
He felt a pinch at his arm but ignored it.
"I am Rachel Turner, a well trained retired MI5 agent.
Neal felt how everything got blurry and stared at her wide eyed in confusion and hurt.
"What...?"
"I love you. It's better that way."
With the mother of all headaches Neal woke up again. Confused he looked around. The room was still a mess, Rebecca was gone and someone knocked on the door with impatient knocks.
"Neal? Becca? Are you ok?"
With a groan Neal got up and opened the door.
"What took you so long? I was close to break in. Where is Rebecca? And why is the whole room looking so...?"
"She's gone, Moz."
"Did you have a fight?"
"No, she...uhm, she sedated me and then left."
"Why?"
Neal sat down on the bed and shook his head.
"What happened?"
"She said she isn't who I think she is."
"I don't get it."
"She isn't Rebecca Lowe. She said her name is Rachel Turner and that she's a retired MI5 agent."
"What?" Mozzie shrieked, "Mon frère, I think she must have heavily drugged you. You're ridiculous. Rebecca is an agent for the British Empire?"
"She said so."
"Are you sure?"
"I wasn't dreaming it. She conned us, everyone of us."
"So that guy who approached her could have been another agent?"
"I don't know. Damn, my head hurts."
"But I vetted her. How could she...?"
"Moz, if she worked for the MI5, she knows how to put up a perfect vita no one ever would get suspicious about. I don't know why she did this."
"Did we ever do something that might got them...?"
"I don't know and it doesn't matter anymore. Rebecca, …, Rachel or whoever she is... she's gone. We should also leave. We don't know if she's onto us or anything else."
"Neal, if she would be on an assignment to hunt us down she had plenty of opportunities to get that done. And you said yourself she mentioned she's retired."
"I can't believe she did this."
"What? Sedate you? Maybe we've told her too many stories about how weird you behave when you got drugged."
"It's not the time for jokes. I mean, she lied to me all the time. She looked into my eyes and told me she loves me. And I never got the suspicion she conned me."
"Maybe because she didn't con you. Neal, if she's a retired agent it is understandable she uses another name."
"I've been so stupid. I felt bad I didn't tell her the truth about me from the start and apparently she knew who I was all the time and she never dared to come clean to me."
"We can't be sure she knew. You remember? June and I were at her apartment and I looked closer there was nothing out of the unusual."
"You really think she would keep evidence so close?"
"You've got a point. What now?"
"We also grab our stuff and leave."
"Why?"
"Because she knows we are here."
Mozzie wanted to say something but saw everything he would have had to say would fall on deaf ears.
Rebecca sat in the train to Moscow in front of her laptop. For a thousandth time she wanted to write Neal an e-mail to explain herself but couldn't bring herself to type a single word. Whatever she wanted to say she knew Neal wouldn't read it and less believe she was telling the truth. She simply stared at her desktop picture showing the three of them in front of the Eiffel tower. With tears in her eyes her mind wandered off.
"Rachel Turner?" a middle aged man called out. She got up cuffed like a high security criminal flanked by two of her former colleagues. They guided her into the huge room her trial should take place even if she knew it was all a farce. Her mentor sat next to her handler and both men looked sad and disappointed. She couldn't help herself and smiled. They taught her to trust no one except them and now they were the reason she ended up there.
"Rachel Turner, you have been charged with treason, selling confidential information to several enemies of the British Empire and corruption. Do you want to speak up in defense?"
"What ever I have to say doesn't matter," she spoke strong with a glance to the people she trusted. She still didn't know who of them had traded her head but she was sure it was only a matter of time till she found out.
"Your hearing will be in one week from now. Be prepared."
She was brought to a cell. Some minutes later her assigned partner came to her.
"What do you want, Michael?"
"I wanted to tell you I know you got framed. I try to find something to clear you."
"You won't find it. I know who did it and you won't get them."
"Who?"
"Those you learn to trust."
"The new family?"
"However you want to put it," she sighed and fell onto the small bed.
"Why do you know it?"
"The only logical possibility. They assigned me to that operation and sent me without back up."
"It was a set up."
"That's why you are the analyst."
"Hang on, Rachel. We will get you out."
"Good luck, Mick. You will need it."
Three weeks later she was back in the United Stares, her name cleared, her mentor arrested and charged for so many things it was hard to keep track and she retired with an nearly unused name. She didn't care why they gave her one of her old aliases for her new life. Probably to make her remember where she came from. But now she sat in her New Yorker apartment and was ready to forget about Rachel. With a broad smile she looked at her mirror image showing her new self.
"Hi, I am Rebecca Lowe."
The train stopped with a hard break and Rebecca hit against the little table in front of her.
"Damn, what's that about?"
Like the other passengers she looked through the window to see if she could see the reason for this stop in the middle of nowhere. An announcement came through the speakers but she couldn't understand it since it was Czech.
"Excuse me, could you tell me what happened?" she asked a fellow passenger but got only a weird gaze in response.
"Something blocks the way," a man two seats away explained with a heavy accent.
"Great, just what I needed."
Annoyed she fell back into her seat and prepared herself for a long night. The next moment a bright light broke through the night. Confused how help could be there so fast and suspicious about it Rebecca packed her stuff ready to leave in case she needed.
"Rebecca?"
She froze in panic the moment her name got called out.
"Rebecca Lowe? I know you are in there. Please come out."
Her panic got smaller when she realized it was Mozzie. She only asked herself if Neal was there too. A part of her hoped it the other one scolded her for becoming so weak. The passengers in her wagon looked at her because they realized it could only because of her.
"Becca, don't make it more complicated. I will stand the whole night here till you come out."
With a sigh she got her stuff and went to the door. She climbed out of the train and was ready to rip Mozzie's head off.
"Mozzie you frickin' idiot!" she yelled towards the light.
"Could say the same about you," he chuckled and switched off the light.
"Yeah but I didn't make such a mess," she growled angry.
"If you would only know."
"So?"
"Neal …"
"I don't want to know. I left and I have my reasons."
"He told me and I did a little digging. You left them over three years ago."
"Since you already know everything I can go back and take my train," she turned on her heels but the train just started to roll again.
"I am sorry, girl, I can't let that happen and I prefer not get killed by you," Mozzie said with a slight panic.
"Moz, that's futile. I made my decision."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Yeah, great start. 'Oh Neal, I don't mind you being a criminal because I am a retired MI5 agent who gut suspected of different crimes against her country.' You both would have run as fast as you can thinking I work with the FBI or someone else."
"You are probably right," he climbed down the pick up and sat down on its cargo area, "But it wouldn't hurt Neal so much like it does now. He locked himself up in his hotel room in Budapest."
"He would be hurt no matter when or how I would have explained it. I didn't think about it till I met that former colleague in Frankfurt. I was Rebecca and it quite felt like I had never been anyone else."
"And suddenly you were reminded you weren't it your whole life. The reality caught up on you."
"You seem to be familiar with it. How did you find me?"
"Sweetheart, you may be trained by the British Empire but I am trained by spending my life on the street since I was twelve. You can't hide from me," Mozzie said and shook his head, "Okay and you made it easy for me. Using anagrams of your name wasn't the smartest move."
"What did I do?" Rebecca blinked surprised.
"You didn't realize it? Well Freud would say you wanted me to find you."
"Maybe."
She climbed up and sat down next to Mozzie.
"You know I can't come back no matter how much I would love to."
"You can if you want. Why did you retire?"
"Neal isn't the only one who got deceived and betrayed by those he trusted and loved."
"Your mother wasn't a civilian."
"No, she retired before she met my father but the moment she knew about me she decided I should follow her footsteps. Because of my dad we moved every few years. I got sent to self defense classes as soon as I was old enough. While he only wanted to be sure I was safe and taught me what I needed to know to take care of myself, my mom always kept it in the back of her mind what I should learn to be valuable for the agency."
"Sounds like a weird childhood."
"You have no idea, Moz. I always felt like a slave or servant until I retired. I pushed my real past away so hard I really forgot about it."
"Until a week ago."
"Yeah..."
"You need to talk to Neal."
"I can't. You can't fix a broken heart. He won't want me now or later."
"Because you had to kill."
"I am not proud of it."
"If you would be you would be still working for them."
"Not after what they had done."
"Why didn't you tell after we started running?"
"How? Neal would have pushed me away then. I knew he deserved the truth but I couldn't. Living this life as Rebecca Lowe allowed me for the first time to really fall in love and be loved in return. What Neal told me about his past and growing up in Witsec... it was... I felt... I understood so good this feeling of being lost and not knowing who you really are... I messed up. He won't forgive me. Please drive me to the next train station. He's better off without me."
"And then? Neither you nor Neal will be happy."
"I'm used to this. I know how to survive out there."
"So does Neal but I'm afraid he will do some stupid things to get over you."
"I think it can't get more stupid than the things he pulled off the last months."
"You have no idea. Come with me. I'll bring you to him and you explain everything."
"Neal won't listen to me."
"You don't know that. As you said at least he deserves the truth. And if he wouldn't love you he wouldn't be so devastated since you left."
"How bad is it?"
"Well I think he knows every wine cellar in Budapest right now."
"He is drinking?"
"Mostly or silently brooding."
"You think he would listen?"
"We can try."
"You won't let me go unless I talked to him?"
"No," Mozzie smiled broadly.