Daniel had tried to make himself busy in the living room while Wilhelmina gave her description to the police in the kitchen. So far he had found 3 dollars and 29 cents in loose change, secreted under the cushions of the sofa and chairs, along with gum, a pen lid and something furry which he had launched out the front door as far as he could and then sprinted upstairs to scrub his hands.
He was now pacing the room, pausing intermittently to listen at the door; although he could never hear anything. He did another lap of the room and stopped in his usual spot and leaned towards the door again, pressing against it as he heard voices behind it for the first time. His body gave away as someone opened the door and he found his head connecting with the photo-fit artist's chest.
"Mr Meade." The man acknowledged him curtly, before moving past him.
Seconds later, Officer Richards crossed the threshold behind him; he nodded to Daniel. "I think we got what we need, we've emailed the composite to our guys in NY, we'll be in touch if it pans out."
Daniel nodded in reply, but he wasn't looking at the man, he was staring over his shoulder; into the kitchen where Wilhelmina sat completely still, her back to him. The man in his path moved past him and Daniel caught the swinging door before it had time to close, never taking his eyes off her prone form. He didn't even turn his head to pay attention to the opening and closing of the front door as the uninvited guests left.
Once he heard the sound of an engine starting, and saw the glow of the headlights distort the colours on the wall beside him, he took a few steps inside the room and stopped a few feet from her. When she didn't respond, to the sound of him approaching, he kept walking until he was next to her. He pulled the nearest chair and brought it close to her, he sat down and looked at her face for the first time since entering the room. She was completely impassive, not catatonic exactly, but emotionless and staring at her own reflection in the French window in front of her.
Daniel didn't speak to her, he didn't even say her name to get her attention. He just continued to star at her, he knew she was thinking of that girl, and of her own; Nico. She might wear the armour of the emotionally impenetrable bitch but even she had to have some modicum of human sentiment. He shifted his gaze from her face and instead he too looked at the reflection she seemed mesmerised by.
"I'm a terrible person Daniel."
"No you're not."
She laughed, properly laughed and shook her head, looking down into her lap. "Yes I am, and you know it, you're just offering up the text book response you would say to someone after they say something self depreciating...we both know what I am."
Daniel took a deep breath, he saw the truth in her words but he also knew himself, he knew he wouldn't have let himself get in so deep if they didn't even have a glimmer of humanity within them. "But even you said that the face you put out there, the woman the world knows, is a role."
"No I didn't Daniel, you did. I know who I am, always have and I've come too far to start regretting it now. I don't want you kidding yourself, this..." She waved a hand in between them. "...I don't know, whatever, it's not brought out some previously concealed good heart."
"But you...Willie you're obviously so down right now because thinking of that girl has made you think of Nico."
"Daniel..." Her voice had a warning behind it, she still didn't want him peering inside her head.
"No just shut up and listen to me." He pulled his chair closer to her. "You can sit there all you want and try and convince me you're completely devoid of feeling, but I know better now. Wilhelmina I've had to live with you, for over six weeks I've shared every aspect of your life, that may not sound like a lot; but for us it's about six weeks longer than anyone would ever think we could last."
He smiled at her and put a hand on top of hers on the table, she smiled back and placed her other hand on top of them both. "Ok, now you shut up and listen to me. The woman everyone reads about, the one you've worked with for four years and the one who will stop at NOTHING to get what she wants? That's me, that's all me. I relish it Daniel, I enjoy feeling the change in the air when I approach and people notice me. I love watching those little faces twist in fear when they cross me. I don't think anyone is good enough to have the right to stand in my path and I will take anyone down who tries...as you well know."
She felt Daniel's hand slipping out from in between hers and she held it tighter. "No Daniel, you need to hear this. You're right, I was thinking of Nico, but do you want to know what I was thinking? I was thinking maybe I never should have had her." She smirked ruefully when she saw a brief look of horror flash over his face. "There, what do you think of me know? I was thinking, maybe I shouldn't have had the daughter that did nothing but resent me her entire life and tried to betray me in the most awful way. Whatever I did in my life Daniel, I was always loyal to my parents, I may not have been mother of the year but I did everything I could to provide for that girl and she knew it. She manipulated me and her father into giving her everything she ever wanted in some sort of never ending tug of war, she knew how to play us from the day we divorced. I tried to be a Mom, she made me an enemy. I think of that girl we saw and I see my child...I told my daughter I never wanted to see her face again; and what sickens me is, that's still how I feel. After seeing that girl...Daniel I should want to find her, make sure she's ok, but I don't. I don't want to risk being pulled back into her lies and letting her play me again. I'm blind when it comes to her." She laughed a little, bitterly. "What does that say about me?"
Daniel regarded her closely, she had tried to shock him with her word, of that he was sure, and she had somewhat succeeded. But he still wasn't entirely convinced. "She's your kid Willie. I think it's a parent's natural instinct to be blind to their kid's faults. I know my Mom spent a large portion of her life making excuses for me and Alex. You though, Willie you've made yourself into this...I dunno, unmanageable force to be reckoned with, no one dares cross you and the fact that she did it, your own flesh and blood and you never saw it coming..."
"Makes it worse than if it were anyone else, because I made her that way." She finished the sentence and saw him nodding from the corner of her eye. She sighed, "Maybe you're right, you're kinda good at this you know, worryingly good."
"I'm a sucker for Oprah."
She laughed at him. "Even if you are right Daniel, it doesn't mean what I've said isn't true. Granted I'm marginally less poisonous towards the people I care about, but I still enjoy being the villain, I always have."
"I know...and I know why."
Wilhelmina rolled her eyes upwards. "Do share, Mr Winfrey."
"Being the bad guy; pretending you enjoy this image, you will now more than likely have to the day you die, means you don't have to let anyone in...and on the rare occasions you do, if they hurt you, you can put on your battle gear and pretend they never got through in the first place. It stops you being normal."
"Daniel, why are you doing this? Why are you of all people trying to crack through my psyche and figure out what makes me tick? Why are you trying to make me feel better about what I am? Everything I've just said to you, on top of everything I've ever done to you...and I'm not sorry Daniel, I'd do it all over again if I had to."
"I know." He said hollowly, his thumb absent-mindedly rubbing circles over the back of her hand.
"So why?"
Wilhelmina watched him intently, he tilted his head and smiled at her. "You're honest..." He continued over her derisive laughter. "You are, maybe not in the widely recognised term of the word. You know who you are and what you want and you don't apologise for it."
"Okay, I'll give you that I guess."
"You challenge me."
"Tell me something I don't know."
"No, not like that, not the way you used to. You always challenge me to work and best myself, just to prove you wrong; but more than that now, you challenge me on every level Willie. You make me realise that life isn't all black and white, good and bad, there's plenty of room for grey area, and you make me realise if you open yourself to things you never thought you could...it can be better than you ever imagined."
"You're talking like my boyfriend." She forced a chuckle, trying to lighten the atmosphere that had set in around them.
"I'm taking like someone who cares about you, and who knows you better than he thought he could."
She shook her head. "Why? Daniel I get what happened here, two people stuck with only each other for company; the physical changes pretty much explain themselves. Don't kid either one of us into thinking you care about me. Don't-"
He shut her up abruptly by bringing his lips against hers harshly. After the momentary surprise had passed, she responded to his lips moving over hers and moaned lightly into the kiss. A hand sank through her hair as she wrapped a hand around his nape, each pulling the other closer. When the need to breathe became too much, Daniel pulled away and rested his forehead against hers, listening to them breathing in unison.
"Willie...we're talking round in circles here. I don't think either one of us can explain it, but why do we need to?"
"Because it's..."
"Stop it, stop making excuses." He stood up and held his hand out to her. "Get up."
"Where are we going?"
"What kind of husband doesn't know how to cheer his own wife up?" He smirked.
She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet. "I find it worrying that I need to remind you, you're not actually my husband Daniel."
"We've had six weeks of great sex and three and a half years of fighting like hell...that's a marriage if ever I heard it."
xXx
Marc was holding the picture which Claire had handed him. "This doesn't make sense." He screwed up his face at the image staring up at him. Amanda snatched it, Betty then snatched it from her and Marc snatched it back yet again. He held it up at arm's length so all three could see and compared it to the crying, pacing woman beyond the glass.
"That's definitely her." Betty sighed in confusion.
"Yeah I'd say so, except for the one small detail of her being alive." Marc countered.
"Maybe she survived?" Amanda offered.
"Does she show any signs of having a bullet in her head to you?" Marc sneered at her.
"Ooh Ooh! A twin!" Betty exclaimed waving her hands.
Marc and Amanda looked at each other, both pondering Betty's idea. "I guess that's logical...which in our little Modieverse means it's the least probable answer."
Claire's heels clicked slowly as she approached them with her arms folded. She joined the trio, standing in a line, all staring at the tear-stained face of the young woman through the glass. An officer leaned in and asked her a question and, as if a lightbulb had went off, she began gesturing emphatically and pointing to the room her boyfriend was being held in.
Moments later, the door to the opposite office opened and the young man who had been being questioned for hours, bolted past the officers. Claire and the others gave an involuntary jump of fright and looked at each other in bewilderment when the police didn't automatically seize him. The man ran into the conference room and hugged his girlfriend to him tightly.
Detective Harper walked forlornly into the room. One hand deep in his pockets and the other rubbing his weary face.
"What in God's name is going on!" Claire demanded, striding up to him.
"I think you should all hear this." He nodded his head to indicate the couple still embracing in the conference room, and walked slowly back to the glass office.
Claire, Marc and Betty all exchanged glances before hurrying after her; all too preoccupied to tell Amanda to keep away and she happily skipped after them, glad to be included.
The four of them sat on one side of the large circular conference table, all staring wearily at the couple seated on the other side, flanked by the silent police officers.
"Are we supposed to guess?" Claire snapped.
"It appears there has been a case of...there's been a mistake." An Officer spoke.
"Daniel and Wilhelmina gave wrong descriptions?" Marc offered half-heartedly, knowing if there was one thing you could count on Wilhelmina Slater for, it was an eye for detail.
"Not exactly." Detective Harper cleared his throat. "We've had a long talk. It appears young Mr Walker here has been rather foolish, b-"
"FOOLISH!" The interruption jumped from Claire's mouth.
"BUT!" He cut back in. "He's no killer."
"Explain." She growled, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms.
Harper extended his hand to the young man sat on his right, indicating he should take it from here. The supposed gunman seemed to be shaking and his hands twisted and trembled in front of him. His girlfriend reached over and squeezed it and they gave each other a reassuring smile.
"Ms Meade, I'm sure you know I came here today at my Mom's request, to help with an article about how I turned my life away from the streets and focussed it into something more...something with substance."
"How touching, and what exactly does that have to do with you shooting at my son!"
"Everything, Ms Meade, I enrolled in school...I'm a Film and Media student."
"So?" Marc and Amanda asked as Claire and Betty squeezed their eyes closed and leaned back in realisation.
"I was making a film for class, Jo, my girlfriend was helping me. If your friends had looked up on the fire escape, they would have seen my classmate filming us."
Claire spluttered and shot forward. "You shot at them!"
At this, the young man had the good grace to look ashamed. "Blanks...I saw them, I was so pumped up. I just reacted, thought it would look good on film, score some extra credit you know. I didn't think anything like this would ever happen, I thought they would just get outta there and go back to their lives. I'm so sorry."
"Sorry! You're sorry that two people have, for almost two months, had their lives disrupted, thought they saw someone die and that someone was after them? You're sorry that my son has been away from the people who care about him most and been trapped with the last person he should ever spend a prolonged period of time with? All so you could scrape a passing grade at some community college!"
"I thought you said you believed the man involved had ties to a larger operation." Betty directed the question at the police.
It was Detective Harpers turn to look embarrassed. "We have our guy under surveillance, including a number of restaurants in the city which we believe he is using as a front for an elaborate money laundering syndicate. Mr Walker was seen frequenting each premises regularly. Unfortunately for us, it appears it was totally legitimate."
"I've been bussin' tables, pretty much anywhere I can, trying to make some extra money for school, you know?"
A silence fell around them all, the young couple were still in shock and clearly a little frightened but ultimately relieved after the manhandling they had both received. The police all sat rigid, their faces set in thin lines as they tried to mask their embarrassment, especially Harper, who had been the head of the task force and sent the witnesses into hiding. Claire looked at them all in turn; feeling intense anger at the stupidity of the naive young students and the sheer idiocy of NYPD's finest, well aware Daniel and Wilhelmina could sue their asses off. She quashed it all down though and tried to focus on the positive. "Well...at least no one actually died."
"Not yet at least" Marc quipped. "But I can't say for sure what will happen when you tell Wilhelmina she's been kept away from two issues of Mode...playing Mrs to Daniel's Mr for nothing."
Despite herself, Claire laughed. "What now?"
Harper smiled and leaned forward. "Let's bring your boy home."
xXx
"You, Daniel Meade, are an idiot."
"What? Oh come on, I know you like it." He waggled his eyebrows.
"And, pray tell, how do you know such an intimate thing about me?"
Daniel shrugged. "My Dad told me."
Wilhelmina's eyebrows shot up. "How deeply disturbing."
"And..." He continued, laughing. "He told me how good you were at it."
"Again...disturbing. As touching yet creepy as I find it that you had these little father/son chats about me; it's been a while since I gave this a go, I might be a little rusty."
"Well I'm sure as soon as you get the leather in your hands it will all come rushing back, anyway; it can't have been that long."
"Well I tried it once with Connor but he wasn't really into it."
"Well I'm game." He grinned
"Daniel I'm really not sure about this...this is a little too much for us."
He groaned in annoyance, "Willie can you stop pretending like you're not going to give in. I know how much you want it, I can see it in your eyes, can we just start riding for god's sake?"
"Daniel..."
"Just get on the horse Willie!"
Wilhelmina narrowed her eyes and looked at the beast before her. Fifteen, maybe sixteen, hands she thought as she patted its soft brown flank. In a move, which came so familiar to her she felt as if it were yesterday and not years ago that she had last done it, she placed her foot in the stirrup and effortlessly swung her leg over and settled in the saddle. She ran her fingers through the downy fetlocks of the animal, so similar to the many horses she had owned, and turned to watch Daniel.
He was attempting to climb up on his own, bigger, horse; at least seventeen hands, Willie mused, and he was failing miserably. She let out a snort of laughter as Daniel's eyes widened when the stable owner wedged his shoulder under Daniel's thigh and planted hands, the size of catcher's mitts, on each of his ass cheeks, heaving him onto the horse.
"You got an hour." He grunted and ambled away.
Daniel stared forward, eyes on stalks and mouth open, Willie openly laughed at his incredulity. "It's not funny!" He whined.
"Daniel Meade getting molested by Old MacDonald? Funny in my book." She grinned.
He chuckled at her, feeling rather pleased with his little idea, at how he was getting to know her and not caring how it overcomplicated matters.
Wilhelmina wanted to take the reins and dig her heels in, bringing the horse to a canter before breaking off into a full gallop, like she always used to when she was younger, when dealing with all her family's eccentricities and soul crushing expectations proved too much for her; but Daniel's attempt to mount the horse gave her the impression he'd fall off in a second if left to his own devices.
Of all the things she could do with Daniel Meade, she never thought horseback riding would be on the list; then again, neither was living with, sleeping with or generally getting along with him. This was so NOT them, that no one would ever believe it, she was just glad they were in a muddy field, if a sunset or a beach had somehow been thrown into the mix she would think she had died and was living out some sad movie cliché. Right now she didn't even care that he was pulling them deeper and deeper into this thing they'd promised to walk away from. She pulled on the reins and her horse began to walk slowly down the track.
"You won't race off without me will you?" Daniel asked her nervously.
"No, don't worry. She smirked over her shoulder. "We'll take it slow."
xXx
When they returned to the house, it was to find a dark yet inviting home. Daniel stood at the door and watched Willie walk the length of the room. He definitely wasn't imagining it, she looked lighter somehow, now that the tension and awkward revelations which had presented themselves that morning has dissipated. She was no longer walking in the rigid way she used to, that always made Daniel think she must have a rod up her ass, her hips didn't sway quite as forcefully as usual. She was relaxed, he had relaxed her, and it unnerved him how much that made him happy.
"What?" She asked, smiling, when she caught him staring at her. She was too tired and, dare she say it, happy, to snap at him for the goofy look he was giving her.
"Nothing." He answered softly as he closed the door and walked for her. When he was within arm's reach, he pulled her to him by her wrist and pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss lasted longer than they had ever let it in the past, the heat that usually consumed them at this point was now bubbling gently on the back burner, they remained content with the languid pace of their lips against each other, exploring each other at their leisure.
The moment Daniel heard the soft groan escape her, he pushed himself against her and increased the pressure of their kiss. Wilhelmina began to respond eagerly; the shrill ring of the phone broke through their haze.
"Ignore it." Daniel murmured, never ceasing his contact with her.
"We can't." Her voice was muffled as her protests were swallowed by his kiss. "It'll be the station checking in." She pulled away from him. "We need to know if the kid they caught is our guy."
Daniel released her from his hold, they stared at each other as the phone continued to ring; each very aware that the outcome of this call could lead them home sooner rather than later, where this would be nothing more than a memory they could revisit alone, but never together.
Wilhelmina leaned her head in. "I'll be upstairs." She whispered, kissing his, now full, lips lightly. "Don't be long."
He followed her with his eyes until she was out of sight, cursing the NYPD, and then snatched up the phone. "Hello, we're fine, thanks for checking, bu-bye." He tried to hang up before they could speak.
"MR MEADE!" The disembodied voice yelled.
He reluctantly brought it back to his ear. "What?" He half snapped, half sighed. Anybody watching would have been able to see him visibly deflate when he heard the speaker on the other end.
"It's good news, you're going home. You'll need to attend a debriefing at some point after you've returned to the city, so we can explain...uh...everything." The voice paused, awaiting a positive reaction; none came. "We can send a squad car to bring you back to the city, but it won't be until tomorrow evening, you're free to make your own way back to the city if you prefer to leave before that."
Daniel hesitated, and stammered. "Uh...er...no...no we'll get a town car sent from our office."
"Sure thing, just remember to check in with us at some point, and just remember...we were always looking out for you best interests; better safe than sorry and all that."
Daniel nodded, not caring he couldn't be seen, barely even listening; he definitely missed the inflection in the other man's voice. He held the receiver to his ear long after he heard the click in his ear, telling him the call had disconnected, only replacing it in the cradle when the line began beeping loudly in his ear.
He took longer than normal walking up the stairs, his footsteps falling heavily on each one as he tried to figure out how to tell her they could leave, that this was over. Daniel looked down, pinching the bridge of his nose, and pushed the door open. "Willie..." He looked up and the words fell away.
Wilhelmina was lying on top of the bed, wearing only her deep blue matching underwear, the black lace trim of the garments framing her form perfectly.
"What did they say?"
Daniel shut the door with his foot and kneeled on the edge of the bed, he crawled up her body and began lowering the straps of the bra, kissing the shoulders he left bare.
"Daniel?" She grabbed his wrist, stilling him. He looked up into her questioning eyes; more blue today than yesterday, yesterday when he studied them, he could have sworn they were green. He smirked at the amount of attention he now paid to her every detail.
"It wasn't our guy."