Episode 7, Chpt 3

*Al Phillips is from the 4th episode, he's the one who killed Jo, in case anyone forgot.

Current Time, Philadelphia

GIULLIANO'S RESTAURANT, NIGHT

Two men in expensive leather jackets stood just inside the entrance to the otherwise empty restaurant. Next to them was their bodyguard.

"He was never a very punctual man." said Peitrov.

"Are you sure he's coming? He's got a lot of people after him. Might be afraid to come out of his rabbit hole." said his assistant.

"He'll come. From what I hear, there is very little danger of him being recognized by the police. He looks different now."

"How different?" his assistant asked.

The three men turned to see two people walking through the door.

"Very different." said Peitrov. "How can I be sure it is you?" he said to the now very different looking Al Phillips.

"'Cause I say so." said Spitz, who was with Phillips.

Phillips held his hand up to silence Spitz, then back down. Peitrov then noticed Phillips hand, seeing the severe scaring from the burn.(ALBERT

"You'll have to take my word for it Mika."

"Forgive my caution, but the Albert Phillips who stands before me now is not the same Albert Phillips I once knew.

"The Albert Phillips you once knew was a bitter rival of the Peitrov family. He now comes to the table with you ready to discuss a merger."

Mika reaches how to shake Phillips' hand.

"Come, drink!"

They all sat down at the table. Unnoticed outside the window was Elizabeth. She had her bluetooth in her ear, was talking to Sam.

"Wow, you'd think it was a shifter if it wasn't for the rumors of him having plastic surgery." she said.

"You're sure it's him?" Sam asked.

"From what they're saying, yeah. I find this late-night meeting, I thought it looked pretty shady, maybe even our type of thing...wasn't expecting to find our runaway Phillips. You should see this guy. No wonder we couldn't find him."

"Yeah well, it's what happens when someone has a demon on their side. The scarring from the explosion probably put him halfway there.
How many men are you going to have to go through to grab him?"

"Five, including our old pal, Frankie Spitz, by the way. Spitz walks away on a technicality. Phillips escapes police custody. I really wish they were possesses or something, killing them would save us a lot of trouble.

"Well for now, how about we just stick to the snatch and grab. We need to question Phillips about his demon boss and then put him back in jail. Just keep watching, I'll be there soon." Sam said, hanging up the phone.

All of a sudden Elizabeth turned her attention back to the restaurant as she heard yelling in Russian.

"No, my was you who contacted me." said Peitrov.

"That's bull. You reached out to us." said Spitz.

Peitrov stood up. "If you did not contact us, and we did not contact you ..."

"Let's get the hell out of here." said Phillips quietly, standing up. As they turn to go, they see two figures outside of the window. They start running as bullets shatter the windows.

"Holy..." started Elizabeth, who was on the opposite side as the men who were shooting at the group. She hid behind one of the columns.

Phillips had managed to dive behind the bar. Finally the gunmen took off. Elizabeth pulled out her gun, heading inside.

She looked inside the restaurant, Peitrov and his men were all dead. Spitz was no where to be found. She started to head towards the bar to check on Phillips, when she heard someone behind her.

"Freeze." Reese started, before recognizing Elizabeth.

"Oh." he said.

"Well hello to you too." she said, smiling.

"The owner gave me the heads-up on a high-level meet. I thought maybe Phillips..."

"You thought right" Elizabeth interrupted. "You thought right. One of these bodies belongs to him, but you won't recognize him."

"Which one is he?" Reese asked.

"Behind the bar."

Reese rushed towards the bar and looked behind it.

"He's not here."

"Damn it. He got away." said Elizabeth.

Reese sighs and looks away, he almost looks relieved.

"That's a bad thing, right?" asked Elizabeth.

Reese looked at her. "Yeah, yeah. Of course it's a bad thing. All right, look, I got to call this thing in, so keep me posted if you hear anything, all right?"

"Yeah." she said, and walked out so she could meet up with Sam.

Elizabeth's Apartment, Same Night.

"I'm telling you, it was more like a sigh of relief." said Elizabeth. Sam and her were sitting around her computer, she'd uploaded the photo she took with her phone of the new Al Phillips.

"Maybe Reese just wants to bring Phillips in alive." Sam reasoned.

"It was more than that, though. It was like Reese was afraid to find Phillips there.

"Well, he escaped under Reese's watch. Could be it got personal for him."

"No, it's personal for us. It was Jaimie's mother who Al killed, and we helped put him away so he could waltz out of prison?"

"I'm sure Reese blames himself for that."

"He's impossible to read."

They both looked up as Jaimie walked over to them having just gotten back from a study session.

"Looks creepy. Who is he?" asked Jaimie.

"A shoplifter." Elizabeth said. "He stole, um ... shoes. Very expensive shoes. Don't worry. I'll hunt him down."

"Since when is that your job?" Jaimie asked.

"Reese, he asked for help."

"Ah. Ok, well I'm going to go finish my homework."

"I see you're wearing your new comm set." said Sam. He'd managed to get them all comm sets, so that communication could be easier between them without having to call each other all the time.

"You kidding, I slept in this thing."

"Yeah we know you did" said Elizabeth. "Heard the snoring through my comm link."

Jaimie just glared at her, and then headed to Elizabeth's extra bedroom. Once out of earshot, Sam looked at Elizabeth.

"Really? Shoes..."

"What, I didn't want her to know we found Phililps. She's been obsessing since he escaped."

Yeah, I know, and she's just starting to get over it, so we'll tell her after we catch him." said Sam.

Spitz's office, Night

It was like shooting fish in a damn barrel, and you miss. What the hell do I pay you for, huh?" Spitz yelled into the phone. "Listen, you two better hide good, because when I find you, I'm going to kill you."

"What do you want done?" asked the man who appeared before him.

"I want Al Phillips dead. He's getting older and can't get jobs done, and I'm going to be a much better leader than he is, but I don't want my fingerprints on it. You got a rep for taking care of these kind of things."

"I get the job done, always." said the man.

"Good. Phillips boss is your boss, can you assure me that he won't kill me for this?"

"My boss has no use for Phillips anymore. You could be usefull."

"Great. So we shake on it then?" asked Spitz.

"No. I need soemthing in return."

"What's that?"

"My boss wants me to make sure that you work for him now. There is no getting out of it. You do as he says. You try to leave, you die."

"Ok." said Spitz.

The man's eyes turned black, and Spitz smiled. They proceded to make the deal.

Street, Night

Detective Reese walks down the sidewalk, glancing behind him to see if anyone is following him. He walks up to the two bodyguards leaning against a car. One of them takes out a blindfold. Reese just looks at it.

"Is that necessary?" Reese asked. He then took the blindfold and put it on. He gave his gun to the bodyguard, and got in the car.

Phillips Office

"You've got company." said Spitz, talking to Al Phillips.

"I'm expecting him." said Phillips.

"He's a cop." said Spitz.

"He's my son."

"You're the boss. But if you don't mind, I'll skip the family reunion. I got some things to take care of."

"I'm sure you do." said Phillips.

The bodyguards brought Reese in, and pulled the blindfold off.

"Junior." said Spitz, sarcastically. He then walked out the door.

"Give him his gun back." Phillips ordered the guards. They gave Reese his gun, and headed out the door.

"You've changed." said Reese.

"It was necessary. I wasn't even sure that you would agree to come, not without handcuffs and a S.W.A.T. Team" said Phillips.

"I came for mom's sake, not yours. So why am I here?"

"Because you're the only one that I can trust."

"Right." Reese rolled his eyes. "You must really be in sad shape."

"I need your help. Your mother can't take it anymore. She wants me to retire."

"Oh, please, she's been begging you to retire for years. Why this time?"

"Because I'm tired of the fight."

"I'm going to tell you what...turn yourself in, offer up state's evidence. Do something right for a change, and then maybe I will think
about helping you."

"All right."

"All right, what?" Reese looked a little confused.

"I'll do it."

"You realize witness protection won't happen unless you give up a whole hell of a lot in return."

"In my line of work, a lot of guys turn Judas. I always hoped that I wouldn't have to, but I guess it's inevitable."

"You're serious? You really want to do this?"

"Want and need are two different things." Phillips stated. As soon as Phillips said it, he saw something on the security cameras. Reese looked over as well. There was a man in a black coat on the first floor. The two bodyguards who were standing at the door tried to stop him, but ended up with snapped necks.

"Is there another way out of here?" asked Reese.

"False back in the closet. It leads down to the back..." Phillips started. Reese interrupted him by grabbing him and heading out the back door.

Elizabeth's Apartment

"It's Reese." said Elizabeth, checking her phone.

"Maybe he found our 'shoe' shoplifter." said Sam.

"He's at a hotel on 6th near Vernon." said Elizabeth. "I'll keep you posted".

Jaimie came into the room right as Elizabeth said this. As soon as Elizabeth was out the door, Jaimie turned to Sam.

"All right, Sam, who is he?" she demanded.

"No one you need to worry about." he answered.

"Sam. Who. Is. He?"

Sam sighed, realizing he couldn't lie to her anymore.

Hotel room, night.

"What's up? Did you find him?" Elizabeth asked as Reese let her in the door.

He motions her behind him. Elizabeth turned to Phillips and smirked.

"Look who's here. What do you say we break in that new face of yours, give you a taste of what you put Jo through. Maybe jail won't seem so
bad."

"Come here." Reese said to her, pulling her to the side. "We're not bringing him in."

"The hell we're not." She said back, angry.

"He's going to turn state's evidence."

"Yeah right."

"He can name every drug dealer and hit man in this city, we can solve cases decades old. We can put away..."

"I don't give a damn." Elizabeth interrupted.

"Forget it Jesse. Get her out of here." said Phillips.

She glared at Phillips. "Yes, please try."

"Liz"

"You know what he did." She said.

"Yeah, but I also know how valuable he is alive. We need to protect him, and the killer is your kind of case."

"Why? What aren't you telling me?" she asked.

Phillips shoved himself forward into their space.

"Look, I don't need her help." Phillips looked at Elizabeth. She was about to knock him out. Reese turned to Al.

"You back off!" Reese shouted at Al. He then turned back to Elizabeth as Phillips backed away towards the bed. "Look Liz, you don't understand."

"Then help me understand. Why are you doing this? What's he got on you?"

"It's not like that." Reese said.

"Then tell me what it's like. Tell me what the hell is going on. Otherwise, I'm taking him down myself, do you understand? And you can't do anything to stop me!"

"He's my father!" Reese yelled back at her.

Elizabeth stopped her rant.

"What?" she whispered.

"He's my father." Reese whispered back. Elizabeth was in shock. She didn't say anything else for a minute.

"I need to think. Stay here." she said, and walked out the door.