Chapter Ten

"Love is love, even if you're not supposed to be together."
Grey's Anatomy

.

She kept tabs on him through Mozzie and some other not quite as savory channels. It was some time later that she got word from one of her contacts higher up in the bureaucracy than she ever really cared to dwell on – except to ensure she always had enough to cover herself – of an artist the authorities were calling Blue Eyes. She didn't even bother to fight the smile that spread across her face.

Apparently he was winning the hearts of officers and agents all over the country with the gifts he'd leave and the packages he'd send while they staked out his supposed position or arrived at his alleged previous place of residence just that bit too late.

She laughed at that development, because she knew she wasn't the only one to have fallen for Neal Caffrey's charm at one point or another.

He'd hold the world in the palm of his hand one day, and though she'd never admit it, she hoped he'd be holding her hand with his other.

.

Mozzie was good enough to pre-warn her about the Kate situation before she was due to cross paths with them for a job on the East Coast.

Neal seemed smitten with her; that much was obvious. For his sake, she put whatever personal feelings she had aside. Not to mention the fact that at the end of the day, she was a professional if nothing else, and damn good at her job too.

She tried to be civil to the girl; nice, even; but it was clear from the get-go that the two were never going to get along like Neal wanted. She rolled her eyes at him when he threw his hands up in the air, apparently exasperated by their constant butting-of-heads.

"I don't know what you expected," she merely remarked then. "You know I don't tolerate minimum standards, and this is beginning to feel like amateur hour."

She scooped up her bag from the seat next to her and pushed back the chair as she stood.

"Alex!" he tried, holding out his hand for her to wait, eyes beseeching her to hear him out.

"Call me when you actually have a plan in place that will work," she directed at Neal.

She patted him on the chest when he jumped from his place to try and stop her, and willed herself not to tug her hand out of his grip immediately when he lifted his and slipped his fingers over hers. From the corner of her eye, Alex watched a frown mar Kate's otherwise gorgeous features, as Neal plucked the origami flower from her grasp, her number written neatly on the underside of one of the folds.

"Maybe then I'll have time for you," she told him simply and walked out, letting the door go behind her.

.

"He'd choose me," Kate's voice reached her from the other end of the corridor, tone matter-of-fact. "If I asked him, you know he'd choose me."

"And therein lies the difference between us, Kate," she replied, her lips pulled into a half-frown as she swiveled on her heel to face the other woman. "I'd never ask him to choose."

The younger narrowed her eyes, understanding the implications of her own words.

"And if you loved him as he seems to think you do," Alex continued. "You'd never ask him to give up what we have, no matter what you think you might have."

Kate's glare never wavered and she advanced on her position and said, "You can't win. You won't. He loves me."

The elder closed whatever distance there was between them, her eyes hard, her expression just as unyielding as she stared the other woman down.

"Yes, he does," Alex awarded her, though her tone was cold. "But if you don't stop toying with his heartstrings like this is some elaborate game you're both involved in, I will destroy you before you have the chance to do the same to him."

"You destroy me and that will destroy him, Alex, you know it will," Kate retorted, and despite her feelings for the other woman, the elder could detect the honest regret that mingled with the truth in her words.

"Is that so?" she coolly raised an eyebrow. "Care to test your little theory?"

Kate wasn't a violent woman by nature, neither was Alex for that matter, but she could see the contempt plainly on the other woman's face and it seriously made her wonder what exactly it would take to push Kate over that particular edge?

"You wouldn't dare," Kate seethed.

Alex's eyes glinted dangerously in the rationed light, as she calmly retorted, "Now who doesn't want to play the game?"

And with that she turned on her heel and left the other alone in the dark corridor.

.

After she'd removed herself from the job, they had used another as a fill-in. She knew he wasn't a replacement; you couldn't replace what you couldn't define.

There was a whole fiasco, as Mozzie put it, with Kate and Neal and Keller not long after they'd done the job and she'd walked out that day. She drew in a heavy breath, and willed herself not to succumb to the gnawing at her chest that made her want to answer Mozzie's pleas to go and try diffuse the situation somewhat.

"I gave him a life of his own," she told her old friend, and exhaled slowly. "I can't have him ruling mine as well."

The conversation ended with Mozzie heaving a weighted sigh that made her want to retract everything she'd said and done and simply be there for Neal. Except, she couldn't. She had her own life, and he had his and it was time she started looking out for herself again, herself and no one else.

.

Copenhagen and sneaking into the Amalienborg Palace, to hang out with the royal family and possibly acquire a certain music box, was merely a blip on her otherwise perfectly self-centered schedule. The jump from the gate-house that left her hospitalized against her wishes and a scar on her arm that she doubted would ever fade, due to the bone breaking through the skin, ensured that.

Kate's immediate return to his side after he'd all-but abandoned her to white walls and the smell of antiseptic then gave way to word of a lengthy prison stay on his part. Although it physically pained her to hear of him being locked up, a talent like his intentionally being kept from the world, a small part of her couldn't help but rejoicing at the karma of it all.

She didn't don a wig and glasses and sit in the stalls for his hearing, nor did she avert her gaze from the cameras and chance the security gates to visit him in prison.

The message was clear: you burn me; I burn you.

That sealed the deal on her self-inflicted exile from the boy she'd once saved a lifetime ago.

TBC…

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you thought :)
Steph
xxx