Chapter 13: What Happened?
"What the actual fuck?" Rebecca pulled her hand from Myka's death grip, holding her wrist, vaguely wondering if it was going to bruise.
Myka ignored her, closing the bedroom door behind them before turning to look seriously at her closest friend.
"Look, Mykes, I love ya, and dom you is super sexy, but I'm not really in the mood tonight, so if you don't mind, I think I'd just like to talk." She sighed as she kicked off her heels, tucking her feet up on Myka's bed before pulling one of the pillows on her lap, letting her head fall against the wall with a dull thud. It was silent for a long moment, causing Rebecca to open one of her eyes to watch Myka worry her hands together, "Okay, forget my news, divulge woman."
Myka rolled her eyes. For once, her first instinct hadn't been to run and complain to Rebecca or Pete. No, what she wanted to do was call Emily and vent. She couldn't really understand the urge, and besides there were a few problems with that. For one, she didn't have the other woman's mobile number. It wasn't as if she could just show up at Instinct, not when she took the night off for a date that went horribly, especially when said date often frequented the club.
Not to mention the fact that it was an undercover operation for the Warehouse.
So instead, she waited up until Rebecca came through the front door before pouncing on her, grabbing her hand and dragging her up to the bedroom without so much as a proper greeting.
Before Myka could open her mouth to explain, the sound of "Wait, wait, wait," drifted to them as well as the sound of footsteps. Claudia tripped into Myka's room, catching herself at the last minute on the door handle.
Myka gave her a look that was half glare, have inquisitive, it personified the sentiment of, "What the hell do you want?"
"What?" Claudia rolled her eyes as she walked the rest of the way into the room, "You're gonna talk about your date right? Well, this saves me from having to sit in my room and listen into it through your bio-feed, now you can actually hear my comments. Hey, do you think I could think of an inter-team communications thing? Maybe through our AIs?"
"You watch our bio-feeds?" Myka asked, face flushing as she thought through everything Claudia must've watched. Who else was watching?
"That's kinda my job Mykes," Claudia said in a duh tone, Rebecca shrugging in agreement as the two redheads sat side by side on the bed now, "Anyway, enough about me, let's hear about you and your date with Kurt."
"Date?" Pete yawned from the door way before lumbering in and collapsing onto the foot of Myka's bed, eyes already closed.
"No, Pete, please, do come in," Myka waved dramatically from the door to Pete's current prostrate form.
"Who went on a date?" Pete went on, ignoring Myka's sarcastic grumblings.
"Myka did," Rebecca clarified.
"What? No way!" Pete sat up on his elbows.
Rebecca nodded, wide eyed while humming the affirmative, "She hasn't told us much yet, but I've gathered from her tone and attitude that it did not go well."
"Wow, why am I friends with any of you?" Myka huffed before collapsing into her computer chair, pulling her feet up to her chest.
"Aw, come on, Myka, you know we love you," Pete gave her his puppy dog eyes, though they looked strange, upside down as it was at his angle, "Tell us how your date went."
"Well, for starters, it wasn't a real date," Myka rolled her eyes, "It's part of my undercover work, you know? He's involved with the Brotherhood, more specifically MacPherson. I was doing my job, trying to get close. I thought it was going well, at least our first date went okay…"
"Okay, okay, back up," Rebecca leaned forward, "What happened on the first non-date?"
"Well, he had been asking me out for a while, and when I finally gave him my number he called me a couple hours after my shift at the bar ended, and we went out for lunch. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't as horrible as I expected it to be. Mostly because I got some information out of him. Did you know MacPherson has a daughter?"
"That's not in the files." Pete's brow furrowed, "I mean, I didn't exactly read them or anything, but it's not, is it?"
"No, it's not. I didn't find out much about her except that she's in her late twenties. Other than that, all I was able to get from him the first date was that he worked directly for MacPherson. I only agreed to the second date because I figured I could get more form him since he was beginning to trust me. I had only just learned that the third leader, Wells, he hasn't been playing the game as long as the rest. Only about seven years, while the other two have been involved for decades." Myka sighed, "Then his phone rang and it all got… weird. He drove me home, before we even got our food, and left me at the door step."
The other three agents looked to one another, "You don't think he found you out, do you?"
"What?" Myka shot back to her feet, pacing back and forth, "No, he couldn't have! My back story is solid, I haven't slipped. I haven't even begun really digging yet! I've just been working at Instinct, listening to the drunks, and I haven't even gotten any solid leads from that!"
"Maybe he just didn't like you?" Pete suggested, earning a glare from Myka and a smack to the back of the head from Rebecca, "Ow! Hey, hey, hey, I'm just saying, maybe the date didn't go as well as you thought it went. No offense, Mykes, but dating alone is tricky-,"
Claudia snorted, "This coming from a guy who's online dating profile, under good qualities filled in, 'I eat a lot of pineapple,' followed by several winkey emoticons."
"How did you find that?" Pete sat straight up.
"You may have heard I'm a hacker?" Claudia dead panned, "Got locked up for it, then recruited by our lovely government? Any of this ringing a bell?"
"Is nothing sacred anymore?" Pete collapsed back on to his back, throwing an arm over his face.
"Can we focus for a minute here?" Myka snapped, and her three teammates mumbled apologies, "Great, okay, I don't think it's because he's not into me, I mean he kissed me on the porch before he left."
"You kissed him?" Pete made a face.
"He kissed me," Myka clarified, "I didn't even have a chance to react before he was in his car driving off."
"That is weird," Rebecca nodded, "Do you think something came up for him? Like work wise? Could something big be going down and that's why he just up and left?"
"Have you guys heard anything big going down with MacPherson or Sykes?" Myka looked to them, tilting her head while trying to remember if she had heard something she had just written off. Why had he said he couldn't see her anymore?
"I know I'm finally getting that gentlemen's club…" Rebecca offered, "Well, Becks is getting her club, with the full backing of Sykes. I should be getting a meeting with him soon. But I haven't really heard anything about MacPherson or his men. Pete?"
The only man in the room shrugged, "I've been trailing after Amanda, the only thing I've heard from her are complaints at needing a babysitter twenty four seven. And I swear to god, if I have to drive her home one more time after a night of fending off drunken, horny men, I am going to lock her up somewhere."
"Wow, Pete, jealous much?" Claudia quirked an eyebrow at him.
"What?" He pulled back, "No! For the last time, I do not like her like that!"
"Mmhmm," the women nodded with faux sincerity.
"That's it," Pete struggled to his feet, "I'm out. I'm gonna go try and get some sleep before Amanda can call me for some ridiculous request."
Claudia made a whipping noise and Pete flipped her the bird over his shoulder.
Their laughter died down shortly after the door slammed behind him, and Rebecca's eyes slowly slipped shut as Claudia play with a loose thread on the blanket and Myka stared for a while out the window.
"You know who might know what's going on in the Brotherhood?" Claudia ventured carefully, waiting for Myka to tilt her head at her before continuing, "That bartender you work with? Emily Lake? She is a bar tender after all, and she's been doing it longer than you have. She's probably heard something tonight about what might be happening."
Myka's stomach flipped strangely, her brows furrowing over her eyes, "I don't want to get her involved in this, she already puts herself in the middle of it as it is. I don't want her to get hurt because of me."
Claudia pursed her lips, trying to think of a good argument, "Yeah, but maybe we can justify protecting her, ya know? If she helps with the investigation, that can be the excuse you use for why you have to hang around her more." Claudia hoped she wasn't being too obvious in her attempts to get Myka and Emily to spend more time together.
Sure, they were on a job, they were trying to tear down this giant mob from the inside out, but that didn't mean there wasn't time for love in their lives. Claudia didn't know much about love or family and she only very recently began to experience what it was like to have friends, but she wasn't blind. She could see that there was something real between the two women, and she wasn't going to just sit by and let this go.
Thankfully, Myka started nodding with her, "You're right. I should talk to her. What time is it?" She pat her pockets in search of her phone.
"It is," Claudia looked down at the old watch adorning her wrist, "just after four am."
Myka grabber her jacket off the back of the chair, searching for her boots, "Instinct will just be closing, maybe if I hurry I can catch her." She was trying to stamp down the butterflies that always seemed to come alive in her at the promise of seeing Emily.
"Go, go, go," Claudia shooed fighting a smile.
"See ya," Myka called over her shoulder, "Stay off my feed, Claud!" she shouted from the stairs.
Claudia huffed and rolled her eyes, before allowing them to close, "I'm tired anyway." She yawned before falling asleep almost immediately, neither Rebecca nor Claudia bothering to go find their own beds.
HG sighed heavily as she turned the key in the lock, the action taking longer than usual due to her current state of mind.
"What is up with you lately?" Clair shifted from one foot to the other, fighting the urge to yawn as she buried her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket, "Messing with MacPherson and Sykes is one thing, but the crazy girlfriend act you pulled when talking about Bering?"
Helena grimaced, "Perhaps if they think I'm becoming unhinged, they shall be more likely to listen to me. I mean," she turned on her heel, pocketing her key and facing her body guard and friend, "The last time I became over protected of someone it started a war between the families."
"Right, that you did," Clair smiled sadly, "Speak of the devil," her eyes snapped up.
HG spun around to see Myka Bering slowly approaching hands shoved in to the pockets of ridiculously tight jeans, a shy smile adorning her face when they made eye contact.
"Myka," She choked out before remembering she was supposed to be faking an American accent, she coughed and tried again, "Hello, Myka, what brings you down here?"
Myka shrugged, coming to a stop in front of them, "Would you believe me if I said I was in the neighborhood?"
Clair rolled her eyes, but Helena chuckled.
"Actually," the woman rubbed the back of her neck as she kicked the toe of her boot into the ground, "I had a crappy date tonight, and I wanted to complain to a friend about it, and I realized you're really the only friend I have…"
A lovely blush spread from her neck over her cheeks, dark enough that HG could see it even with what little light was available at the hour, "I'm flattered." HG smiled.
"I'll take that as my cue to go find Wolly," Clair took a step back, "I'll see you at home, Emily." She tried not to put much emphasis on the fake name, but she had often expressed to HG the stupidity of keeping her identity secret, especially with how some of the connected patrons of Instinct treated her.
But there were secrets HG had that even Clair wasn't privy to. She had known her for seven years, had seen her through some dark benders, heard the drunken rages that didn't always make sense, and she knew very little on what caused them.
Now alone under the dim light over the head of Instinct's entrance.
"How was the date?" HG asked to fill the silence that had grown heavy around them.
Myka's face twisted slightly, shifting from one foot to the other, she was clearly uncomfortable, "It was cut rather short actually."
"Oh?" HG's voice rose an octave.
"Yeah, that's actually why I wanted to talk to you." There was something wrong in her tone, and immediately HG felt herself tense. Did she know? Did that moron Kurt say something to her?
That wasn't possible though, Kurt had no idea who Emily Lake really was… did he?
"Perhaps, we should go somewhere to talk?" She forced her voice to remain light.
Myka nodded, her shoulders relaxing ever so slightly, "Sounds good to me."
At the light she saw in the green eyes watching her so closely, HG was suddenly struck with an idea and went back to her club door.
"In here?" Myka questioned, following closely behind.
"No, I just need to grab something." She assured her, going to a back room used as a locker room by the employees.
"What's this?" Myka quirked an eyebrow when HG placed the object she had been after in her hands.
"Don't tell me you've never ridden on a motorcycle." Helena challenged with a smirk she knew Myka wouldn't be able to pass up on.
She took the bait, "There's a first time for everything."
AN: Sorry about the lack of updates last week, my significant other is being shipped out in eight days so we are spending as much time as possible together before then.