**Shoot Me Straight, The Brother's Osborne**
Tex arrived at Chandler's office a little out of breath. Man, he had thought he was fit but three floors without an elevator was still a slog. He was getting too old for this. Once thing was for certain, he was glad he'd quit smoking, even if it had been due to lack of access, rather than choice. He had almost forgotten the taste of fine Turkish tobacco. Almost.
Kara looked up as he panted his way through the door, dark circles under her eyes. "If you're still making it up and down these stairs without getting out of breath these days, I'm going to have to admit I'm getting old." He drawled.
Her answering smile was like pure sunshine. "Ha, between the lack of lung capacity and the back pain I wasn't sure I'd make it either!"
"How much longer until we get to meet this kid and you get to breath easy again?"
"Just six weeks. Six very long weeks." She gave the baby an absent minded pat. He didn't remember Claire doing that with Kathleen but then again, he was away for much of her pregnancy, just like Danny was away now.
Tex leaned in and kissed her cheek drawing an embarrassed flush to her usually composed face. "Well, I for one can't wait to meet him or her." Leaning back he noticed the lines of tension around her mouth and frowned. Commander Green seemed able to handle anything but she wasn't looking her best today. The long ago forgotten guilt of missing most of Claire's pregnancy with Kat sprung to life like a smoldering fire creeping under new kindling. "If you need some help, anytime, you just let me know."
He could have sworn she cringed. He supposed that was only fair. A strong woman like Kara didn't want to be reminded that she wasn't superwoman. He leaned against her desk with a sigh. At least he had offered. "Now, do you know what this meeting is about? Slattery and I usually take coffee at 1100 for a daily update on the President's security situation, and I don't know if I should tell him I'm not going to make it or what."
"Oh, you can go right on in. They're waiting for you." She crossed to the adjoining door and rapped sharply on the wooden panel. "Tex is here sir." She announced. Tex didn't hear what Chandler said in response but it didn't matter because Kara turned and ushered him inside anyway.
CMC Jeter, Chandler, Slattery, and Judge Siskin were sitting at the small conference table. The bright morning light streaming through the windows put Tex at somewhat of a disadvantage as he could hardly see their faces. "Tex." Chandler nodded to him without standing. "Kara, can you shut the outer door to the office and then join us please?"
Kara knew that Chandler was trying to set her up for a more permanent desk job after the baby came as some kind of informational specialist, and she wasn't sure she really wanted the job, especially if it meant sitting in on conversations like the one that was about to happen. A lead weight had settled deep down in the pit of her stomach when Tex showed up this morning and it seemed to be getting heavier. Some part of her had been hoping it was all a mistake, but when he'd glanced nervously toward the outer doors, as if sizing up his chance of escape, she'd known the truth. He was the one. The lead weight became an elephant on her chest. She hated that she had to now consider her friend as a potential threat. She really didn't want to believe Tex would ever hurt any of them but he had better have a good explanation for what he was doing.
As she went to close the doors Tex began to banter with the group. "Gee, If I'd have known the pretty judge was going to be here I might have dressed a little nicer." The very same charm that might have worked on her before had her feeling annoyed now. Sexist remarks were hardly the way to butter up a federal judge. Chandler wasn't having it either. "Sit down Tex."
The CNO launched into an explanation of what they knew. He explained that they had intercepted three series of messages and that they had cracked the code. They knew that several states had banded together with most of Mexico to form the Mexicali Federation or MCF and that the messages were intended for someone in the Pacific. They knew that the messages indicated the President's location. As he spoke, Tex sat calmly nodding in agreement with everything Chandler said. Kara marveled at his apparent serenity. Part of her wanted to rail at him for endangering Danny, Burk, and the President while another part wanted to shout at him to defend himself.
Chandler concluded by saying "We know you were the one that sent the messages Tex. I think it's time you explain to us who you really are and who you are working for."
Tex leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I suppose this is the point where I have to decide if I should tell you all or leave it with my name, rank, and number."
"You do that and I'll get you a one way ticket back to where we found you." Slattery scowled. "But I think it's safe to say that we have considered you an asset and we'd rather not have to do that."
Tex scratched his chin and remained silent for a moment. "Alright, I've been expecting this day to come up eventually and to be honest, I'd just assume come clean with you." Kara gripped the edges of her seat, willing him to be on their side after all.
He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, staring down at his dusty boots as he spoke. "Name's Kenneth Justin Nolan, you won't find a rank and serial number for me anymore. I've been off the books since I went to Somalia in '93 but at that point I was a Ranger, Sergeant. Spent some years in that part of the world, guess you could sum it up as I was working for the CIA." He gave a little shrug. The only person who looked surprised was Judge Siskin. The rest of them knew that the national security onion had many layers. Now that he had started, Tex just kept talking. "Moved off to the north for a while. Came home about seventeen years ago thinking I'd had enough, started drawing a pension. But as you know, home life wasn't for me. Shortly after Kat was born I got sucked back in. Been a part of the war on terror in one way or another since the start."
He sat back. "Aannd, now I am here."
"Mmhm." Chander's lips were pressed firmly and his gaze was narrowed. "You're going to have to do better than that Tex. Who did you work for the last seventeen years and why the security job at Gitmo?"
"Come on now Commodore. Do you mean to tell me you thought a regular ol' security guard just showed up with my kind of skills?" The two men met eye to eye. Kara tensed, part of her glad to see Tex sticking up for himself.
"Nope." The word hung in the air between them for a moment until Tom leaned over the desk and scowled at Tex's carefully neutral stare. "But I still want to know what you were doing in Gitmo and what you're doing now releasing the President, and my teams', locations."
Tex slumped back in his chair. "I have to admit I'm a little surprised you cracked my code with only three messages Tom. How do I know that you know enough to find the recipient? Like you said when we met, we're all on the same team here. Maybe I should be asking you who you're working for? And if I'm asking questions, why so many people here? You and I might do better to discuss this in private. You might not want what I have to say to go public."
Chandler had no patience for his stalling. "Jeter and Slattery are helping develop the plan to deal with MCF. Judge Siskin is looking for clues as to the authority the MCF claims. Foster already knows what the message says. She cracked the code."
Kara couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed the paper Slattery was holding, a printout of the messages she and Val had carefully extracted from thousands of lines of computer code, and slapped it on the table.
"Read it yourself. We know what the messages you sent by this method since January say. And we know that recently you've added details about Danny and Burk's teams. What we want to know now is who you sent them to and why! Those guys trusted you Tex. If they are in danger then we have to know." She felt five pairs of eyes widen in surprise at her outburst and blinked her tears back in. "We trusted you. I trusted you."
Tex ducked his head. "I'm sorry Kara." He skimmed the sheet quickly and placed the paper back on the table, slouching in his chair and laying one ankle across a knee. "If you know this than you know about as much as I do." Her frustration blew out of her with his heavy sigh. Were they really going to have to lock up Tex?
Slattery and Chandler exchanged a confused glance. But Jeter took the news in stride. "You mean to tell us you don't know?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to tell you." He tapped his finger on the top of the sheet. "My ex-wife was my handler. We might have been estranged since shortly after Kat was born, but we were a damn good team. The last few years we'd mostly communicated by email and embedded messages."
"Embedded messages?' Judge Siskin's voice was reedy and thin, as if she was struggling to believe what she was hearing.
"Yeah, you put a coded message in a webpage or social media post. To the two people involved it means something but to everyone else it looks like normal stuff. So if she tweeted she wasn't feeling well and had a doctor's appointment after lunch, I'd go to the hospital and await a contact in the afternoon. If she said she had just gotten a good book I'd go to the library. That kind of thing." Judge Siskin nodded but her eyes were wide and she hastily scratched a note in her book. "It's pretty standard practice these days."
Tex swept a hand through his hair and continued. "Yeah, so back in March, I was in Ar Raqqah working on figuring out how ISIL was funding a training camp near there and my ex-wife posted that she was going to put in a garden this year and she sure missed the days when she had a man around to help. Well, we didn't have many codes but I knew that one meant I was supposed to hightail it home so I dropped everything and left. I got as far as Istanbul when I got picked up by Interpol." Eying Judge Siskin he said "That kind of thing happens all the time when you're in deep cover, no big deal, figured they would spend a day talking and then drop me someplace big and anonymous like Rome or Amsterdam. But no, they slap me in cuffs and three very uncomfortable flights later I'm standing in front of a full bird colonel being told I had to be moved and for the short term they would like me to work in Camp 7.
Judge Siskins looked up from where she was furiously taking notes. "At the off site detention facility, at Gitmo, where you met with the Nathan James in October?"
"Yeah, that hellhole. Our Syrian friend Amir, you remember him? Well, I was the one who brought him in, back in November 2013, after working 15 months to get deep enough in his structure to nab him in the first place. They thought he had some intel they needed to identify some of ISIL's funding sources and they didn't think he knew I was the one who'd given him up. Thought they'd bring me in as a prisoner and get me to soften him up a bit. That guy who was guarding the truck that blew when you arrived? That guy got to me before Amir had a chance to do any permanent damage, but I spent most of April in the infirmary recuperating from the second to worse beating I've ever taken. Thought they'd send me home since the gig was up, but then the flu broke out and all hell with it."
"And setting the prisoners free?" Kara could see that Judge Siskin was constructing a kind of timeline down her pad.
"Yeah, we weren't that dumb. Originally it was 14 prisoners, 14 guards. News of the flu leaked out to the Army pretty early. We were hearing rumors that whole battalions were going incommunicado in the Middle East but no one believed it until Cuba closed its borders. The higher ups stocked the warehouse and told us the staff were being isolated. The writing was on the wall. Everyone with any say left and those who didn't rank high enough to die at home stayed. Jokes on them though, huh?"
He slouched back in his chair. Slattery mirrored his motion. "But the prisoners?"
"Ahh, you don't care about that." Tex hedged. Kara held her breath, knowing that with no one left to naysay him, everything rode on what Tex said.
Judge Siskin pushed her glasses up her nose. "Well, if we're going to craft a pardon we might as well be complete. Tell us about the prisoners."
Tex glanced at Jeter and Chandler but they both just waited expectantly. "Well, maybe we were a little stupid. The guards decided we could stay isolated in Camp 7 a long time but we didn't factor in what would happen in the main camp. Once we went three days without contact we figured the main camp had been abandoned like us. We thought we might wait a few weeks and then leave, find some unoccupied housing, live out the rest of our lives on the beach."
He slapped his palm flat on the table. "The men that get put in a place like that, they ain't your ordinary criminals. They know how to organize, how to fight. The main camp had a few hundred prisoners. And of course the guards, who went home and into the town every night got sick first. By then, the prisoners knew what was going on. They overpowered the remaining guards and escaped. But, say what you will about them, those ISIS and Taliban fighters are loyal too. They came to Camp 7 to break out their leadership."
"And this is when you set Amir and the others free?" Asked Slattery, clearly offended by the idea.
"Well, not quite. We ignored the main camp for a while, thought we could wait them out and then we'd go on living in isolation. But then they broke through our outer fence and we knew we had to do something before they infected us too. That's when the remaining guards made the deal with Amir and his buddies. They'd help us maintain zero contact and we'd all share the supplies."
"So what happened? Why'd they break the plan for mutual survival?" Kara tried to imagine that moment when, knowing most of the world was dying, that they needed to turn to their prisoners for help against a threat they'd never imagined. She couldn't fathom the fear that survivors of those dark times must have felt. Her hand absently patted the rise of her belly and it comforted her, knowing hope was just beneath her skin.
"I shot Amir's son. He had been in the main camp. Amir was an asshole but he was an educated and cultured one. The kid, well he was brought in when he was under 18 years old and he'd turned out to be a vicious son of a bitch. Wanted to infect us all before he died as a last act of terrorism. He started promising the sick guys they would get 40 virgins in heaven if they spent their last days infecting stuff with spit, shit, snot, jizz, blood, whatever and throwing it over the fence. He was trying to convince Amir to turn on us. We'd agreed that no one, no matter how important, came in our boundaries. That was how we were going to stay alive, uninfected. Amir wasn't going to turn but that didn't stop junior and he had numbers on his side." He raked a hand over his beard. "I couldn't let it happen. I didn't want to die drowning in my own blood. But all the same, I would have been dead within a week if you guys hadn't shown up."
"I will admit, I had the sense that you were down to the wire when you agreed to come with us so readily." Chandler said.
"I was fixing to try and escape that very night. Figured I'd best head down to the marina, find me a well stocked yacht, and try my hand at fishing for a living."
Kara tried not to squirm in her seat. The baby had chosen this moment to kick her bladder but she desperately wanted to understand Tex's actions so she crossed her legs and willed herself to think of deserts.
Slattery reached for the insulated coffee pot in the middle of the table and eyed Tex as he poured. "So when were you contacted again?"
"When I left y'all in Baltimore. I reached out to my ex and found out they were down in Jackson. My instructions were to rejoin the Nathan James, that she'd contact me in 2 days. When she didn't, I got worried."
Slattery tapped the table with his finger. "You told us your ex was dead just a few weeks ago. How the heck can we trust anything you're saying?"
Tex canted a brow. "Kathleen can probably confirm." After Chandler nodded he continued. "When she didn't contact me and I headed out from Florida I found where they had holed up a while. Not having a way to get new orders, I went looking for Kat. She had her mother's computer. As soon as I got connected I received instructions to use the EM method to keep them appraised of the President and Dr. Scott's locations. I guessed I was still in the game and I started following orders. Same thing we always do."
Chandler ran a hand down his face. "So, you are following orders but you don't know who they come from?"
"Oh come on, you know how this works. I'm not supposed to know where they come from. My job is to execute, plain and simple. They had all the right codes and protocols so I did my job and followed orders."
Kara winced as she remembered saying nearly the same thing to Dr. Scott only a few months ago. But she desperately needed to believe that Tex was still on their side. Especially now when Danny's team was incommunicado and so many of their friends were out in the field, possibly in danger. Someone had to make a decision. "We all know there's nothing plain and simple about you Tex, so why don't you tell us what you think might be going on. Who do you think is tracking the President's, and our, activities?"
"Ah, I knew you'd be the one to see the light." He patted Kara's knee and she couldn't help a small smile in return. Believing in him felt right. "Here's what I think. Based on the time stamps on the messages that I receive, whoever it is has to be in the Pacific somewhere. They have at least one other informant other than me, but that person is back in the Norfolk area. They also have international connections so we would do well to court their favor."
Slattery turned his coffee mug around and around inside the cage of his large hands. "But how do we know they aren't actually with the MCF? They could be dropping enough crumbs to get you to feed them intel on us all the while planning how to move into our organization."
Tex nodded. "I've been asking myself that too. And I've come to two conclusions. First, If they were aligned with the MCF, they would be asking me for more details about the President's security and our defenses, but they haven't. They just want to know where he is and what our activities are in regards to spreading the cure. If they had a person locally they could get the same information they are asking from me without any subterfuge. Secondly, they have recently asked very specific questions about what we know about the MCF's coverage on the west coast. So although they might know more about what is going on, I don't think they are inside the MCF at all."
Judge Siskin, who until this point had been furiously scribbling notes on her timeline leaned forward. "What kind of specific questions? Anything that offers a clue to how the MCF is organized."
"Well they've asked if we can tell if the MCF has done any work to reopen the ports in San Francisco or San Diego. Ah, but I do know something about how they are organized." He nodded to the judge. "But I don't know it from my contact. Cracking into organizations being sort of my specialty and all." They waited for him to go on. "You got a map?"
Chandler stretched one long arm over the back of his chair and snagged a small map from the table behind him. He placed it on the table and they all leaned over it. Since Kara couldn't lean very comfortably she observed the heads around her. If she hadn't known why they were all here the meeting could be mistaken for a mission planning session at this point. The thought helped diffuse some of her anxiety over Tex's revelations, although the muscles in her back still felt locked up tight.
"OK. Well we already know that whoever is leading the MCF is in the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez area. The US closed the border with Mexico very early on but as people fell sick it was almost impossible to maintain quarantine. Michener said there were three safe zones in El Paso but none in Ciudad Juarez so my guess is that rioting broke down the borders and the cities emptied out for a while." He looked over the group. "Now, history tells us that if you want to start a small organization, defy national borders, and achieve control relatively quickly you can do all that with two things. Step one is to take control of a critical resource. In this case, water. Step two is to find people willing to take orders in exchange for access to your critical resource. That's it. Time and again that's been how uprisings get momentum. Sure you need to talk a good game but ultimately, how do dictators come into and maintain power? They get people to buy in on the basis of their perceived needs." Heads nodded.
Judge Siskin sat up gaping in Tex's direction, obvious astonishment that he could offer such an astute socio-political observation apparent from the way she stared. "What? Don't be fooled by the cover on this book. I do have a master's degree in political science from Stanford you know." She flushed but didn't comment.
"Now I figure whoever is doin' this is operating out of Fort Bliss because they would have had to bring it into their organization early on if they had any hope of remaining centered in El Paso. And even more, since they've made the motto of the MCF Todos Por Todos...that's everything for everybody for those of you who don't speak the lingo, my guess is that the leader of the force side of things, who may or may not be the political figurehead as well, was once with GAFE...who's motto is Todos Por Mexico."
Slattery's jaw was clamped firm. Chandler turned a skeptical eye on Tex. "You got all that from the fact they are based out of El Paso?"
He patted his chest in the area of his heart. "This is what I do Commodore."
Kara had been considering his words carefully. "It makes sense. My brother worked out of Fort Bliss. They've got a lot of heavy artillery there. And the water...well there is a huge disparity between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez on that account. El Paso has centralized control of all the water on the US side because they use a desalinization plant that distributes to both Fort Bliss and the municipality, but Ciudad Juarez has heavier water usage owing to its larger population but they have been relying on overpumping the aquifer for years."
Slattery hung his face in his hands. "So we're looking at another Baltimore situation? Tom, we gotta get eyes on this."
"Agreed. But first we need to know more about Tex." Chandler gave Tex an icy stare that brooked no dallying. "You still haven't answered my question. Who is the contact? And how do you know they have another informant?"
"As I said before, I don't know who the contact is. Although based on the kind of palms they were able to grease in my pre-Flu work they are heavy on the brass. My best guess is that they are not in the El Paso area but rather somewhere on the fringes of MCF territory like Colorado or Northern Cali. An organization like the MCF comes into power by taking control of a resource, but expansion into areas where they don't already have control is more difficult. There are two options, recruit people before attempting to move in to soften the resistance, or project their power by aligning with local groups and making it impossible for people to match their strength. My guess is that they used the strength approach initially, capitalizing on the resources of Fort Bliss and the organization of the international drug cartels to rapidly assume control of the areas the cartels already operated in. Now, they are spread far more thin so they are back to giving people something they need in order to get them to come over to their side. The contact, who ever they are, has been warning me about this kind of activity, which is why I say he's an observer on the geographical fringe, not in an established MCF area."
Kara's mind was blown. The way Tex spoke the MCF sounded much more like a fully realized government than the loose network of rebels she had been envisioning. She thought about the way the midwife had admonished her that stress was not good for her blood pressure and therefore not good for the baby. For the last month she'd been stressing about the fact that someone, possibly hundreds of miles away, wanted to know about the President's trip to Chicago. Now she wasn't sure if knowing the truth made it worse or better. "Why didn't you tell us this any sooner?"
"What, just come out and ask nicely if I could report the President's whisky to an unknown operator? Would you have gone for it?"
She acknowledged his point, pursing her lips and shaking her head ruefully. "So what are your current orders from the unknown contact then?"
Tex uncrossed his legs and sat up straight to look her straight in the eye and she was reminded that for all his easy going ways, he was a highly capable field operator. Underneath that charm was a man who could be ruthless and deadly if the task required it. "Well now, this is the part where I remind you all that before I put all my cards on the table, I need something in return."
Slattery slammed his mug onto the tabletop with a resounding thud. "How about we don't shoot you for treason. Is that enough?"
Kara was surprised that it was Judge Siskin who stepped in, rather than Chandler. "Commander Slattery, while I appreciate your frustration, there is by no means enough evidence for any such thing. And we need the information that Mr. Nolan can provide." She set her pad on the table and shifted her glasses to rest on her frosted curls so she could focus on Tex from across the table. "Now, Mr. Nolan. What are you asking for?"
"I am on your side. Believe me. I have given up almost everything for love of country and love of what's right and I'm not going to stop now." Kara recalled how he had mourned losing touch with Kat when they were in the vaccination trial. Knowing him for several months, and knowing what it meant to him to have Kat back, she didn't doubt his sincerity. "I want to turn this on it's head. Stay in contact and continue to supply my contact, but begin to probe for intel we can use on the MCF." Tex set both feet on the floor and turned to look Tom straight in the eye. "I will put myself under your command, as a known double agent of sorts, if that's what it takes."
Judge Siskin and Slattery looked to Chandler expectantly. Kara watched as Tex held Chandler's gaze. "Kara?"
She startled when he said her name. "Yes Sir?"
"You will track all of Tex's communication from here on out. Tex, consider Kara your new handler on our end. Continue as you have with this mystery person but every communication in or out gets reported to Kara." She hadn't been expecting that. She knew Chandler trusted her judgment, but still, she'd expected him to say he wanted her to pass on everything to him or maybe Mike. If anything, this conversation had convinced her that Mike would certainly make a better spymaster. Because when push came to shove, she still believed in Tex.
"I am assuming sir that you want us to collect as much as we can on the MCF's expansion as possible?" She asked Chandler, already running through ideas in her head.
"Yes, we especially want to understand how they are organized, communicating, and what their next target is." Chandler turned to Judge Siskin. "Linda, we'll need to brief the President on this, but before that, I want you to sus out what the constitutional ramifications are. Tex, are you willing to agree to all this?"
Everyone in the room held their breath. "Do you really need to ask me if I want to do everything I can to stop a puppet government from trying to secede with half the country, possibly colluding with a foreign cartel, and keeping nearly half our population from receiving the Doc's cure? I'd hope you know me better than that Commodore." Despite his easy confidence, Kara noticed that Tex picked at the sole of one boot. She'd never seen him fidget before.
After a long pause, during which Tom swung his gaze from Tex, to the window, and then back to Tex with a long sigh, he proclaimed, "You're right, I do know you better than that. But as far as anyone outside this room knows, you are leaving St. Louis in disgrace. I want you on the road tonight. You're going to Texarkana to meet our newest Senator, Roberta Price. That way, if your contact wants info on the President, you won't have it."
Tex brightened visibly at the prospect of continuing to work. "You don't think she's on the up and up?"
Judge Siskin snorted. "She hides in the woodwork until Michener starts publicizing that he's looking to convene a congress in June. Then she says she can't come to St. Louis except for the congress because she's appointed herself as acting Governor of both Texas and Arkansas? She's either lazy or scheming if you ask me. Problem is, her identity does appear to check out so until we have an election, she is coming into the fold."
Tom nodded once. "Go to Texarkana, play the disgruntled employee or whatever to get in her good graces, and figure out where her loyalties really are." Everyone stood as Tom pushed back from his desk. Kara had to wedge her hips under her heavy load to heave out of the chair. The nervous sweat she'd broken into as she listened to Tex's story left her pits damp and muscles limp. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go find something heavy to punch or kick for a few hours until dinner." He left a vacuum in his wake as he strode from the room without looking back.
Tex had the good sense to look relieved but he hung back until only he and Kara were in the room. "Hey KF without the C?"
She didn't know what to say to him. "Yeah?" She turned and saw that he was rubbing the same boot he'd been fidgeting with earlier against the polished wooden floor. His downcast eyes twisted something deep inside her. The overwhelming sense longing tinged with betrayal that lodged in her throat reminded of her of the last time she saw her brother Eric, knowing he was leaving of his own free will. When they had last said goodbye she had felt such a jumble of envy that he was going someplace exotic combined with resentment that he was leaving her to deal with Debbie that she hadn't been able to tell him how much she loved him and worried over his dangerous missions.
"I just want to say-"
She threw herself into his arms. "You don't need to say anything Tex. You and me, we're good."
He squeezed her gently. "You don't know how much that means to me." He stepped back, brushing at one eye. "But I actually wanted to ask you something."
"Anything Tex. I owe you my everything." She had to swipe a tear away herself. She hadn't worried when Tex went into the field before, but this time there was no plan for when he'd come back and that fact turned her blood to sludge. She'd gotten used to the idea of him looking out for her and Flutter.
He shook his head, long hair waving as he did. "People always say that when exactly the opposite is true. You, Danny, this baby, you have been a gift in my life and my best hope is that you learn from my mistakes and do better with your family than I did with mine." She could only nod, afraid the lump in her throat would turn to full body sobs if she said a thing. "I need you to send Kat in to talk with me. I'm going to go tonight, like Chandler said, but once I have a position set up in Price's organization, I'm coming back for Kathleen. And if she doesn't want to go with me, I need to know she's got a safe place here. I know the kid can take care of herself but that doesn't mean she doesn't need people to be there for her, the way I keep failing to be."
Kara hugged him again. "She's going to go with you." A hiccuping sob broke through her resolve not to cry as she realized that in the end, he wouldn't leave alone. "But regardless, if either of you need me, I will always have your back."
"Thanks Kara. Can you send her in here now, so that I can break the news in private?"