Faith was quiet for so long, Cat thought she'd upset her. "I'm sorry," she said as the light of the coffee shop appeared ahead. "That was way out of line." Like most of the things she'd done lately.
"Nah." Faith's smile was strained. "You're good; just…just seems to be a night for thinkin' about the past."
"Faith, forget I asked, OK?" Cat felt her tension rise in time with Faith's. Why the Hell did she keep pushing? It was none of her business, and she had known since she was eight that Faith didn't talk about herself. Damn Alina for egging her on.
Slowing until they were barely moving, Faith ran a hand through her hair. "Tara asked me the same question last night, tiger. You working for the witch now?" She managed a better grin when Cat stared at her in wide-eyed shock. "Yeah, that's the way I looked at her. Like she'd fucking lost her mind. Me? A Domme?"
"So then you just play the big, bad Slayer for me?" That would be more than fine with Cat. Maybe Faith did remember their link. A little. Subconsciously.
"Somebody has to keep you in line," Faith said seriously. "But me? I ain't Dominant material." She seemed both completely certain of that – and very sad. "I've done things, tiger. Things that… Dominants need control; I don't have it. Not like T or Maura or Buffy. Subs should be able to trust their Domme."
It was suddenly very hard to breathe. What had happened to Faith? Cat ached at the desolation in Faith's eyes, at the self-doubt coloring her voice. She had a momentary and completely inappropriate desire to wrap Faith in a hug.
She mastered the need with difficulty. Her hands went into her pockets and away from temptation. "You're all bark and no bite, Faith," she said, injecting as much sarcasm as possible into the remark.
When Faith's head whipped around and she glared, Cat took off. She knew Faith could outrun her; there had been a Slayer in her Police Academy class. Cat knew just how fast they could move. Still, she wasn't giving Faith a stationary target. Maybe it was surprise that slowed Faith. Cat was barely a half-step ahead as they careened into the coffee shop. "Not to mention, you're slow."
"Bitch," Faith muttered as the barista watched them suspiciously. She probably thought they were drunk and trying to sober up. Cat snickered as Faith flashed a super bright smile and gave their order. Then she turned around and pointed. "Ain't no call to be mean, tiger. You keep that up, I'll have to show you what a Slayer can do."
Dear God. Cat sucked in a deep breath and held it as her body heated. To keep from throwing herself at Faith and begging for that "show", Cat met Faith's eyes and managed to smirk. "You and what army? Or will you bring your Alpha Domme to help you? She's got what it takes. You? Not by a long shot."
With a grumbled curse, Faith spun around and accepted the cardboard carriers of coffee.
Cat watched, the scene reminding her of another conversation with Faith.
"I don't have to do what you say!" Cat argued loudly. "What are you going to do from…from wherever you are?"
They'd been arguing back and forth for almost an hour. It had gotten so heated at one point that Cat's mother had poked her head into the room because Cat had actually been yelling out loud – and not just in her mind. Cat didn't care. She wasn't backing down.
The voice in her head was quiet. However, waves of frustration and disappointment rolled through the link. "Little cat, I ain't going to ask you again. The doc said you need to take your meds and sleep. Watchin' TV isn't sleeping."
Cat crossed her arms over her chest and blinked heavy, gritty eyes at the television. She was tired, and she wanted to sleep. But she wouldn't. She wasn't giving in to Faith's stupid order. She… Cat yawned. "I'm not tired," she lied, knowing Faith would sense the lie and get angrier. If she was going to make Faith mad, then she'd do it right. "You want me to sleep? Make me."
Present Day Faith didn't sulk quite as noticeably as she had that long-ago day. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying Cat's ability to give as well as take. She handed Cat one of the coffee carriers. They left the coffee shop side-by-side and silent. Cat could have walked for hours with Faith by her side.
Unfortunately, the station house appeared far too soon. Her footsteps lagged.
"Standin' out here won't solve the problem, tiger." Faith raised an eyebrow and tilted her head at the building. "Time to get back to work."
Time to endure more glares from Jane. To face more worried glances from Tara. To realize, over and over, just how much she'd screwed up the day before.
"Geez, get inside already," Faith said. Her free hand gripped the back of Cat's neck. It was warm and solid – and Cat shivered as Faith guided her into the station house. "I didn't think you were a coward. What are ya' afraid of?"
"Nothing," Cat lied and prayed the Faith wouldn't notice.
Her luck continued to suck. "You're full of shit, tiger. But we're here so I guess it don't matter. Too late for you to run for the door. Not that you'd get too far with me hangin' on to you." Faith stroked Cat's neck with her fingers in what was probably supposed to be a warning.
It turned Cat's bones into old rubber bands. She stumbled through the bullpen and into the conference room.
"You drive to New York for the coffee?" Jane asked the second they crossed the threshold.
Cat stiffened immediately. She might have responded in kind if Faith hadn't beaten her to it. "Must've been a run on caffeine. Had to wait while they made a new pot," Faith answered smoothly. "Got you covered now." She set the coffee carrier on the table, pulling out the two mugs for her and Tara.
Concentrating on handing out the rest of the mugs, Cat got a grip on her anger. She had to let it go. Frost was gone, probably grabbing a nap. She headed for his empty chair; if nothing else, she could watch the database search for Alina. Names and pictures appeared and disappeared in rapid succession. A list of possible matches lined a column on the far left of the screen. Cat reached for the mouse and double-clicked on the list.
A new window opened, allowing her to examine the possible matches. None of the grainy DMV photos showed Alina, however. Cat closed the window and watched the program continue to run. Now what? It was two in the morning, and they were dead in the water. Or were they?
"Faith, if you and Tara staked out the Legion bar, would you be able to tell if there were vampires inside?" Marie had indicated it was early when Cat left. Maybe some of the VIPs were still there.
Faith glanced up from her spot at Tara's feet. "Depends. You said the real party was downstairs. Don't know if I can sense anything if they're too far down. Me and T'll give it a try, though."
At Tara's name, Cat looked up to find Tara watching her. This time, Cat didn't look away. She held Tara's eyes for a moment. "I'm fine," she tried to say with just that look. "Really." When Tara's lip curled in her usual half-smile, Cat dropped her eyes and relaxed. The message had been received and accepted.
"Detective Rizzoli, we'll let you know what we find," Tara said. She grabbed Faith's hand. "Let's see how good you really are, Slayer. I've listened to you boast about your mad skills for years. Put up or shut up."
Cat laughed as Faith swaggered out the door. "T, you ain't seen nothing yet."
Once they were gone, the only sound in the room was the whir of the laptop's fan motor and Jane's jaw-breaking yawn. It was enough to send Cat into a sympathetic yawning fit. "You got anything for me?" she asked when she could breathe.
"No. Not much we can do right now." Jane stood and stretched. "Maura's picking me up in a few. We're heading home for a couple of hours."
Going home sounded good. Cat got up and slipped back into her jacket. "Think I'll follow your lead." There was something she needed to do first, though. "Jane…"
Jane turned. "Yeah? You remember something else?" Of course, her first thought would be the case.
"No. I…Look, I know I should have reported in yesterday." It was hard for Cat to keep talking. As much as she knew she needed to apologize, a tendril of resentment remained. "The thing with Tara, it got to me. More than I wanted to admit." Everything inside Cat screamed at her to stop - except one tiny voice that sounded a lot like Faith. That voice urged her to tell Jane the truth. "I went solo because I needed to prove that I could. To you, to the team." The words tasted like ashes in her mouth. "To me."
If Jane knew what it cost Cat to say that, it didn't show. Her expression remained neutral. "Don't do it again," she said clearly. "Get some sleep. We'll meet back here at seven."
"No hits on the names. Sorry, Cat," Frost announced. "We do have a little good news, though. Tracking Jonathan Stewart's financials finally paid off. The Council's records on him are way better than ours. He used shell companies, but it looks like he purchased four bars in Boston over the last two years. The one in North End, one in Beacon Hill, another off of Exeter in Back Bay. The final location in out near Tufts Medical Center."
The Beacon Hill location was the only one Marie had mentioned. It had to be the heart of the Legion operation. Cat stared at the map Frost had projected onto the wall.
Jane was studying it, too. "Tara, did you find anything last night?"
"A faint trace," Tara answered. She nudged Faith. "But I'm not the expert."
Faith smirked. "Ain't what you said last night. I remember you doubting my skills." Receiving a tap on the head from Tara, she sobered. "Anyway, the area was pretty empty when we got there. I caught a couple of signatures. Old. And not in the bar. I couldn't tell if they'd come from the bar, though."
"Probably not a blood bar. Even with good security, Faith would have picked up on that kind of vampire traffic. I ran a scan on magical energy, too. With the money being pumped into these locations – and the murders – I wanted to be sure we didn't have another kind of problem." Tara had everyone's attention. It was rare to hear even Council representatives talk openly about magic. "There was nothing."
That left them right where they'd been earlier this morning. "What about…" Cat's cell phone buzzed, and she broke off. The Caller ID showed an unknown number. "Frost?"
"Ready," he responded.
She tapped the Accept button on her phone's touchpad. "This is Cat."
"Good morning. How did you enjoy the evening?" Alina asked. Her mood must have improved from the night before. She was back to friendly and cheerful.
Waving for Frost to begin the recording and trace, Cat launched into the act she'd rehearsed with Jane. "Not what I expected." She let a hint of distrust creep into her voice. "Are you playing me? I thought there would be…more."
Some of Alina's cheer was absent when she responded. "I invited you to meet our Founder. What more were you looking for?"
"One of the guests. Marie? She mentioned workshops and some big thing in Beacon Hill." Cat waited, sweat trickling down the middle of her back. She had to let Alina make the next move. If she pushed too hard, she might lose Alina's budding trust.
Unfortunately, Alina didn't say anything, and Cat decided to back off. "Look. I get it. You don't know me from Adam. I just…We talked about it yesterday. I can't do this anymore. I can't sit back and accept what's going on in my life without fighting back."
"There's nothing wrong with that, Cat. I wasn't judging," Alina said, breaking her silence. "You've already leapfrogged a lot of the usual steps for a recruit." Cat gripped the phone so tightly her fingers ached. "But I don't want you to get discouraged. It's short notice…if you're free tonight, there's a workshop at one of our member's homes."
Bingo. Cat paced back and forth in the conference room. "What time? I've got a lot of paperwork on my desk." She wanted to scream "Yes! Yes, I'll be there!" Pretending to be unsure of what she wanted might kill her.
"The workshop starts at seven." There was a rustle in the background. New voices. Alina sounded like she'd turned away from the phone when she continued. "I'll leave your name with the workshop organizer in case you can make it." She rattled off the address and disconnected the call.
A cheer exploded through the room
"Good job, Cat." Jane was ready to forgive now that Cat was back to being a team player. "Did we get anything?" she fired at Frost.
He worked on his computer for a minute. "The call originated downtown, near the corners of Purchase and Oliver." The projector screen lit with an exterior shot of a three-story building. "Alina was calling from here, Madison Streeter Investments." The screen changed again, and a headshot of Alina appeared. "This is Allison Parker, Senior Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions."
"Not who I would have suspected of being a recruiter," Maura murmured. She waved a hand at Alina's picture. "What's more astonishing is that I know her. We sit on the boards of several charities together. I've always found her very logical and interested in the community. Jane, you met her at the Cystic Fibrosis Dinner last month. Her submissive is a surgeon at Mass General."
Jane ignored all of Maura's comments except one. "Can you call some of your cronies," Maura grimaced at the description, "and discreetly poke around? I need to know as much as you can dig up about Ms. Parker."
Everything was moving quickly now. Frost was back at the computer trying to trace the rest of the Living with Loss group through Allison Parker or her firm. Jane and Maura were in a heated discussion about how best to utilize Maura's connections.
All of it came to a halt when Tara cleared her throat. "Cat will need to be wired for tonight, correct?"
"Of course. I'll get the…" Jane started.
"No," Tara disagreed firmly. "Even I know that normal listening devices are often discovered. I won't…We can't let Cat go into this meeting if that's a risk. I'll have one of the local Council members bring a few of our covert listening devices. I've already had our head of security create an alias for her. The Legion won't let her in without running a background check." She stared fiercely at Cat, who shifted uneasily under the intense attention. "As long as we're all working together on this, we follow Slayer Rule Number One: don't get dead."