Chapter 37, was originally Chapter 36, but I swapped chapters.
Note: Rewatch Season 1 Episode 5, In the Light, to get the references. It's one of my fave episodes, lots of foreboding for the rest of the seasons.
Joan juggles running down threats daily at the DPD, being a single-mother, overseeing Kravec's interrogation for the second time, and now she had to figure out a way to hide Annie from one of the most connected and resourceful men in D.C. Getting Annie out of the hospital was going to be a walk in the park compared to keeping her underground until she was well enough to travel on her own.
After a long day that started with meeting Annie when she arrived at Walter Reed, Joan relieves her nanny, wolfs down dinner and gives Mac his last feeding and a bath. She puts him in his pajamas, then secures him into his car seat inside her Mercedes S class sedan. Joan tucks a blanket into the carseat along with an envelope and says, "Mommy's taking her buddy for a long drive."
The open roads and soft sounds of lullabies playing afforded Joan plenty of time to think about Annie. Did the agency ask too much of Annie? Probably. She replayed their conversation. Annie was right, she had sacrificed everything for this country, for the agency, for Auggie, and for Joan and Arthur. Joan felt she should have gone to bat for Annie and been more of a mentor to her. Now was the time to support Annie even if it meant saying good-bye indefinitely.
It was nearly 2100 when Joan arrived at her destination. It was dark and she knew to avoid the traps in the private road. She turned off the car and lifted the carseat out. Little Mac was sleeping soundly. Joan approached the cabin with caution, but didn't feel it necessary to ready her firearm. The front door swung open before Joan reached the landing of the porch.
While he was not happy to see someone from Langley at his door, Christopher McCauley always respected Joan and his former lover Vanessa Sinclair had worked with Joan in Nairobi about 20 years ago when they were fresh off the Farm. He saw her holding the carseat in the cold night air. He rolls his eyes and motions Joan inside as he says, "I'm guessing this isn't official since you brought your kid under the cover of darkness. Congratulations by the way."
Chris scans his property before he enters the house after Joan.
"It's good to see you Chris," says Joan as she gives him a big hug. "It's been too too long. Still paranoid I see."
Chris puts the kettle on and says, "Old habits die hard. Have a seat."
"I'll be brief, I have to get back home and get some sleep. Do you remember Annie Walker?"
"Of course I do. She was good, very good for a newbie, figured she'd go far despite my advice. What's happened?"
"She's in trouble and I need you to help hide her and then help her out of the country."
Chris definitely remembers Annie, she was the catalyst that got his life back on track after five years of wallowing. She said, holing up and flyfishing wasn't the answer to his problems. After she talked him out of killing Hasaan Waleed, the man who killed his lover, he embarked on a second career helping his community, he became an EMT and fireman. He even met a nurse who seemed to understand him and his past. She was a veteran who treated injured soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. She understood loss too, her first husband was KIA in Iraq.
Chris shakes his head, "No, I can't, I have a wife and a kid now. I told myself after Waleed that I was done for good."
"You haven't read her in on your life as an operative?"
"She knows some of it, but that's not the point, I told Annie, I didn't want to stand in the mud anymore and this sounds like an awful lot of mud."
"Give me two minutes to tell about Annie and if you are still unwilling to help, I'll leave and you'll never hear from me again."
Chris turns off the stove when the kettle whistles and pours hot water into two mugs. "You have until we finish our tea."
He was intrigued, he did like Annie Walker very much in the short interaction he had with her. He remembers their conversations vividly. He saw her potential to be a great agent, she was foolish enough to want it, but also good enough to go far and it looked like working for the agency took a toll on her if she needed to run.
"I'll just cut right to it, Annie will need a safe place and some medical care to recover from some pretty bad injuries. You're an EMT and firefighter so I figure you'll have the basic skills and access to medications to treat her wounds. Chris, this next part is highly classified info and I could lose my job for telling someone outside the agency."
Chris nods intrigued.
Joan continues, "I'm hoping learning this changes your mind, Annie was the one who took out Henry Wilcox. He didn't die in some random mugging in a back alley in Hong Kong."
Chris loathed Wilcox, he blamed him for Vanessa Sinclair's death, though he didn't pull the trigger, he created the situation in which Waleed killed Vanessa. Chris had figured there was more to Henry's death, but to hear that Annie was the one who took him out not only impressed him, but also made him indebted to her.
"Annie gave up a lot to hunt Henry down and it put her in a dark place. Now she's in an even darker place after being captured and tortured by a former member of the FSB."
"I wish she listened to my advice."
"Which was what?"
"You sent her here six years ago to get my help. She was all idealistic and eager to prove herself, I told her to think about how muddy she would get and to get out before she got too dirty."
"So will you help us, help her get out of the mud?"
"You're good Joan, she was good just like you, she was the only one who got me to come in and she used the same tactics," said Chris referring to Vanessa and his personal vendetta against Henry Wilcox.
"I'm sorry about Vanessa, she had a crush on you when we started together you know? You were this weathered and experienced operative, she was head over heels."
"Yeah she told me."
"So this means you'll help?"
Chris is not convinced yet, he's weighing the costs of getting back into the claws of the CIA, still wary, even of Joan.
Joan goes on, "She's not the same dogged nascent operative who was sent on a fool's mission. She's in a bad place Chris, physically and emotionally."
Chris nods and lets out a deep breath. "I'll do it, but I have conditions. You'll have to get her here. I'm on kid shift this week while my wife works her night shifts and I work during the day. And I won't lie to my wife. I'll have to let her in on this, I'll need her help and skills as a former trauma nurse if Annie is in as bad shape as you say. She can be trusted. She's tough, did boot camp, served in Afghanistan too." Joan nods.
"I have a way to get her to the vicinity. A man named Ben Mercer will be in touch with you, this is going to go down in the next day or two."
"Mercer?"
"Yeah, you're familiar with him, how can I put him in touch with you?"
"I didn't know him personally, but I know he took out Waleed, makes him my instant buddy."
"That was classified. Annie told you?"
"Chris writes down a frequency, have him use this to make contact."
"Thank you Chris" Joan says. "Still have some tea left, glad to know I can "turn" an asset after all these years out of the field."
Joan goes over to Mac's carseat and takes out an envelope tucked under the blanket. She returns to the table and slides it over to Chris.
"It's not much, but it's something for you and your family, for helping Annie."
Chris puts his hands up and pushes the envelope back across the table. It looked to be about 50K.
"I don't want the CIA's dirty money."
"Chris, this is totally off the books, it's not the CIA's money, it's my money from Arthur's life insurance."
Note: A reminder that I had Arthur die at the start of this long story b/c it was written while Season 5 was on the mid-season hiatus and I really thought Arthur was the real target behind the motorcade bombing. Back then I operated under the assumption that Belenko was after Arthur b/c of Joan's dealings in the Balkans.I thought about revising the whole story to resurrect Arthur when it turned out to be about Auggie, but that would require a whole lot of revision.
"All the same to me Joan, Arthur died because of his job working for the CIA, the agency paid for his policy, how's that money not linked to Langley? I'm not doing this for any reward Joan. I'm doing it to help the person who helped me see that there was light and hope, who helped me wash away the mud and if I can do that for Annie, I will."
Joan sighs, "Keep it here, it might come in handy for any supplies and equipment or give it to Annie, she'll need all she can to set up a new life. I'm still working on Annie's papers and passport, go bag. I'll get those to you or Ben somehow."
Chris looks at Mac.
"He's cute, they're always cute when sleeping aren't they? Kids they change the equation."
"Yeah they do and they're cute until they wake up at 2am, repeatedly."
"One more thing Chris, Annie's boyfriend won't give up looking for her, you'll have to be careful, he's a force to reckon with and while I doubt he'll make any connection between you and Annie, I can't be sure. He might show up here. Make sure you cover all your tracks."
"Oh this just gets better Joan, you waited until I agreed to tell me that? Who is this man?"
"Ryan McQuaid, owner of McQuaid Securities, former Captain in the US Navy, part of Seal Team 6, Gold Squadron. He's a good man, but Annie can't stay in D.C. and she thinks leaving is in his best interest."
"Shit, I know McQuaid, a little, he was on some missions the Khartoum office worked with the JSOC. He's a good guy."
"So you know what you need to do to hide Annie."
"Like I said, old habits die hard, I still got some game Joan."
"I better head home then and get some sleep."
Joan gives Chris a hug, he walks her to her car.
"Bye Joan."
"Thank you Chris, if you ever need anything, my private line is written on the back of the envelope. I really appreciate what you're about to do for Annie."
Chris watches Joan drive off his property. He has to prepare for a long talk with his wife Theresa when she got home around midnight. She was very understanding, but he hadn't told her the details about his life as a CIA Operative and then Station Chief.
He checks on his daughter, takes his baby monitor and walks deeper into his property to a smaller two room cabin. It was his workshop and contained all his woodwork carving projects, hunting and flyfishing equipment. He built it when Theresa was pregnant with their daughter Eleanor, his wife said they couldn't have all those chisels, hooks and lines lying about the house, not to mention the shotguns and rifles. When he built it, he included state of the art security and surveillance equipment to guard his home and family, he also built an underground bunker stocked with enough food to last months. He let go of prepping the bunker after Ellie was born, preferring to spend time with her while he worked on his hobbies. The front room was now a play area for Ellie, she often napped there while he read or worked on a carving. But now was the time to prepare the bunker for his first guest. He also turned on his short wave radio, he had to await contact from Ben Mercer. Truthfully his blood was pumping, he had seen his share of mundane problems as an EMT and firefighter, but this was a whole different level of action. Maybe he did miss clandestine work afterall.
Chris and Ben would go on to become fast friends. When they meet, they bond over fly fishing one of Ben's childhood hobbies, lost loves, a desire to reconcile their violent pasts working for the greater good with the gray areas and their joint mission to help a mutual friend Annie Walker. It would be a friendship that lasted for the rest of their lives.