Hi all. A crossover idea that I started a few months ago and just decided to post now. Just so you know, I'm using the film version of Homefront, not the book, so that's why Phil's wife's name is not the same as it is in the book as I made it up. They changed the daughter's name, so I figured might as well change the wife's name too.
I hope you guys like this story! :)
October 2017
Kate Macer drummed her fingers on her desk, listening to the sound of traffic outside the window, and wondered if she was nuts. Her phone lighting up with yet another text from her mother indicated that she just might be. She gave a groan and pushed her hand into her forehead, gripping her hair tightly with her fingers. She nudged the phone out of her line of sight with her other hand. She'd answer her mother later. Right now, she needed to convince herself that she wasn't crazy.
She'd come back home of all places. Home. Was she mental? Did she really want her mother pestering her 24/7 and in her face about why she hadn't met a decent man yet? What the hell had she been thinking?! The answer, of course, was quite obvious.
She'd been scared. After everything that happened with Alejandro Gillick and Matt Graver, she had been scared the cartel would come after her, so she left. It hadn't taken much, and her mother had been thrilled to hear she'd transferred back to the D.C. office. Kate had moved into a different role within the FBI too, no longer interested in doing kidnap response. Look at the trouble it had gotten her into. She didn't want any more trouble. Hell, she had contemplated leaving the FBI altogether, but she didn't know what else she'd do.
Her phone lit up again. She saw it in her peripheral vision. If she ignored it for too long, her mother would call her and claim she'd almost reported her missing. It was best to answer her before that happened. She picked up her phone and read the five messages waiting there for her.
5:13pm: Are you coming for dinner tonight? I'm making a roast!
5:16pm: Your brother is bringing one of his friends...maybe you'll hit it off with him?
5:23pm: Do you mind bringing some milk? I've run out.
5:30pm: Are you getting my messages, Katie?
5:43pm: I'm getting worried! Katie?
"Urgh," Kate moaned, cringing inside. Her mother had gotten her brother involved in trying to set her up, and it appeared he was more than eager to help out. The bastard. She'd punch him in the face later.
5:49pm: Can't tonight. Busy at work, she texted back and hoped it would be enough. A new text came in about ten seconds later.
5:49pm: You're always busy! You have to make time for family! her mother insisted.
5:49pm: Don't bail, sis. It'll only make it worse, her brother wrote at the same time. He added a smiley face. She gritted her teeth. Sean was the favorite in the family; everyone knew it. Her other brother and sister pointed it out all the time. Sometimes Kate hated being one of four siblings. At least she wasn't the oldest or the youngest. She was lost in the middle. Beth was the oldest, and Jamie was the youngest. No surprise that he got away with a lot of shit if Sean wasn't around. Her parents, Leah and Oliver, had a soft spot for the boys it seemed.
5:49pm: Bite me, she wrote him back now and put her phone away before she could see any more responses. She ignored her mother's message. It would be a never ending battle if she responded. She reached to turn her lamp off and stood up, grabbing her coat from the back of her chair and slinging it on in one easy motion. She put her phone in her back pocket and picked up her keys. She had lied, of course. She was going home to her apartment to sit in the dark and eat an entire pizza by herself. Well, she might share with her new buddy, Rascal. Tired of being alone entirely, she had picked up a rescue from the shelter. Rascal was some kind of collie mix with a half dark brown, half light brown face and an ear that stayed up with the tip folded over while the other stayed down. The rest of his fur was patches of light and dark brown. He was a medium sized dog with a hearty appetite and a sixth sense as to when Kate needed to be comforted. She loved Rascal.
"Okay, okay!" she laughed when she went into her apartment only to be pounced on by her furry friend, who had been waiting by the door. "I'm five minutes late. I'm sorry." She bent to scratch his ears while trying to take off her boots. He scampered away after a moment, standing pointedly at his food dish.
"Straight to the heart of the matter, eh?" Kate asked, giving the dog a look. He licked his lips in response. She laughed again. He had quite the personality for a dog.
Once he was fed and she had cooked her frozen pizza, she sat with it and a beer in front of the television and studiously ignored all the new texts her mother had sent her about why she was missing out on the best night ever and how she should have made time for them. She didn't care.
Rascal came and begged, and she caved and threw him some pepperoni and sausage from her pizza. He eventually pushed his way onto the couch and cuddled half in her lap, and she stroked his ears and fur absently. This was her life now, and she was just fine with it.
...
Phil Broker was staring at his daughter's cell phone on the island counter at the message that had just popped up. He couldn't see what the message said, of course. She had changed that setting after he had made too many comments on what people were writing her. It wasn't his fault that he didn't understand half of the short forms for things. TTFN, LOL, LMAO, IKR, G2G, BRB, ROFL, STFU, LMK, WTF...some were a head scratcher for him and others were appalling to know that his daughter could talk like that. He got inventive and created his own when messaging her (WDYTYD or What Do You Think You're Doing, IST or I Saw That, and NBA or No Boys Allowed, to name a few), which had earned him a foot stomp and a telling off about her privacy followed by her hiding her messages on the home screen. He seriously regretted giving her a cell phone now.
The evidence before him just proved his case. The name on the message was a boy's name. A boy. There was a boy writing his daughter. God help him. No, scratch that. God help that boy if he hurt his daughter.
"Have you seen my phone?" Maddy asked just then, making him jump and wear a guilty expression on his face even though he hadn't seen a damn thing.
"Right here where you left it," he gestured, taking a step away from it and going to finish cooking dinner. She gave him a suspicious look as she picked it up and sat on the bar stool. Phil glanced to see her face getting a blush to it as she read the message, and all of his alarm bells went off in his head. What could the boy have possibly written her that would make her face look like that?! He was going to have to crack into the phone later and find out himself. How inventive could her password be, anyway?
"Dad?" Maddy said, breaking into his thoughts.
"Yea?"
"Fire." She pointed. He lurched back to look at the stove, and she was right. He put it out in seconds.
"You don't mind Cajun style, do you?" he asked her.
"I'm not hungry," she replied, sliding off the stool and walking away, still texting. He clenched his jaw. This was a new phase for her, this not being hungry thing. She was fourteen now, fifteen in a few months, and he felt like she was slipping away from him to a place he had no knowledge of and no idea how to bring her back. He missed the old days where she looked at him like a hero. Now she looked at him like he was an obnoxious adult who annoyed her.
"You're gonna eat something!" he called. Her door slamming shut was the only response he got. He growled in frustration. Luther the black cat jumped up onto the counter at this point, twitching his tail as he stared at Phil.
"You already ate," Phil said, pointing the spatula at the cat. Luther tried to bat it with his paw, making Phil yank it back.
Being a single father really sucked sometimes.
The Next Day
Kate got to the office early. She always did. She always stayed late too. It was the tell of a person who had no life, spending all of their time at work.
Today, though, her boss was waiting for her, which surprised her. Normally Ryan Thatcher snuck in about twenty minutes late and blamed traffic. She took her coat off and turned on her office light as he hovered by the door.
"Having a good morning?" he asked her.
"What do you have for me?" she countered, getting to the point. She didn't do chit chat.
"Right. Well, it's kind of a joint case," he started.
"With who?"
"DEA."
"Why are we involved?"
"There was a murder."
Kate gave him a level stare, and he almost seemed to cower from it. Ryan was a bit of a wimp it seemed. She had no idea how he had earned Boss status when a simple look from her made him look as though he wanted to crawl under his desk.
"Okay. Why is your face looking like that?" she asked, gesturing. "It's like you have bad news to give me or something."
"Well, it's just that you'll be given a partner from the DEA."
"No," Kate said instantly, making Ryan flinch.
"I knew you'd say that," he said with a small laugh. "But you have to." He was getting some of his assertiveness back now it seemed.
"I have to?" she repeated. The wind left his sails a little bit at her tone, but he soldiered on.
"It's an undercover assignment," he went on. Kate raised both of her eyebrows at him, but he ignored her. "There's a suspected drug trafficking thing going on in a suburban area, but we don't know where for sure, and it's too risky to go in guns blazing. This has to be subtle."
"Nuh uh," Kate said, shaking her head. "I'm not going undercover with someone I don't know, much less in a place like that."
"It's already done," Ryan said. "Sorry."
"And you're just telling me now?"
"It was made final just before you got here." Ryan looked like he was holding his breath, waiting for her response. There was no way out of it, or so it seemed.
"And how long am I to be undercover?" Kate demanded. "I have a dog..."
"Bring it!" Ryan exclaimed excitedly. "That will really help your cover!"
Kate knew there was no point in arguing. She exhaled sharply and crossed her arms.
"Fine," she said. "Who is my partner?"
...
Phil had gone into work that day expecting the usual kind of day. After Danny T had died in prison, there was no need to hide anymore. The business with Gator in Louisiana had settled, and the DEA had asked Phil if he wanted to come back. He had agreed but indicated a new location would be best. Too many people in Louisiana knew about him now, thanks to Gator, so they offered him a spot in D.C., and he had accepted. Maddy had been upset about the move, but she had gotten over it once she made a bunch of new friends. She'd changed before his eyes, and some days he regretted moving her out of the country. Maybe she would have stayed the same if they hadn't moved.
"Broker," his boss, Ted Munce, called after Phil hooked his ball cap behind the door.
"Yea?" Phil said back, moving the door out of the way so he could see Ted approaching him. "What's up?"
"Got a joint investigation with the FBI going down," Ted said. "Undercover assignment. Your name was brought up, being one of the best and all."
"Ted..."
"Don't tell the others I said that," the older man grinned. His hair was snow white and his forehead full of wrinkles, but the man still had one hell of a punch and made grown men cower if they pissed him off. Phil knew better than to cross him.
"I won't," Phil chuckled. "But I can't do undercover. I've got Maddy."
"I wouldn't ask you to do this if I thought I didn't need the best," Ted reasoned. He leaned on the doorway and looked at Phil earnestly. "With you on the case, it'll go a lot quicker."
"Flattery will only get you so far," Phil pointed out.
"Come on. I'm sure Maddy would love to stay at a friend's place for a bit. You could use the break I'm sure," Ted added. "A week tops."
"A week?!"
"Tops," Ted nodded. Phil thought about it hard. If he left Maddy with a friend, who knew what kind of teenage viciousness he'd get back. Then again, if he was gone for a week, maybe she would miss him and want to spend time with him. It was foolish thinking, but that was just how desperate Phil was to get a glimpse of the old Maddy again.
"All right," he said eventually. "I can make it work."
"I knew you'd do it," Ted beamed. He clapped Phil on the arm and went off to his office. Phil went to sit at his desk and looked at the photos of Maddy and his deceased wife, Rebecca, on his desk.
"Beck," he said, looking at her. "I could use some advice right about now. How do I get our girl back?" She just smiled at him, and he smiled wistfully back. It had been six years since they'd lost her, but he still felt the pain of it at times. He picked up his phone and called the mother of Maddy's best friend to make arrangements.
A Few Hours Later
Kate was sitting in the boardroom when the DEA guy came in. She studied him quickly. He was a hair taller than she was with a closely shaved head, hazel eyes, and a five o'clock shadow. He was in blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a brown leather coat. His aviators were tucked in the front pocket of his coat. He was looking at her with the same investigative look that she was sure she had on her face as well.
"Kate, this is Phil Broker," Ryan introduced. "He's going to be your partner on this one."
"Charmed," Kate said in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Likewise," Phil said back, matching her tone. He sat across from her at the table, turning his attention towards Ryan.
"Is he really DEA? Or is he a CIA spook pretending to be DEA in order to break all the rules and put my life at risk?" Kate asked, and she felt Phil turning his head to look at her in surprise. She ignored him. Ryan scratched the back of his head.
"He's DEA," Ryan said. "Right, Phil?"
"That's right," Phil agreed.
"Graver said he was DOD," Kate pointed out. She knew Ryan knew what had happened back at the Arizona office. "We all believed that too."
"I'm not CIA," Phil said irritably.
"Right," Ryan said, looking back and forth between them. "If he says he isn't, then he isn't. So, we've got a dead body of a well known snitch, Marcy Wells. We've got a batch of drugs rumored to be made by the notorious Tony Ricci, and we've got a suspected location of where they're being stored awaiting transfer for trafficking but no hard evidence."
"You want us to confirm this location," Kate said. She buried her irritation that Ryan had dismissed her so easily.
"Yes. Discreetly," Ryan added. "We don't want them packing up and taking off before we nail them."
"You think Tony popped Marcy?" Phil asked. Kate felt slightly annoyed. She wanted to be the one asking the questions here. She also didn't like the term "popped."
"She was found in the area where this drug hideout is rumored to be. We think she found out where and was on her way to tell us. Her phone was in her hand," Ryan finished, looking sad. Marcy was one of their most relied on informants after all. It was a big loss.
"Okay, so we go in, find the place, and report back to you," Kate summarized. "That's it?"
"Yup. We got a house lined up for you," Ryan said, handing her a key before tossing a second one to Phil, "and you can do what you want with your back stories, but you are going in as a married couple."
"What?!" Kate practically exploded. "Ryan, that was not part of the deal..."
"I don't make the rules!" Ryan said back loudly, holding up his hands. "It's a week, tops. You can do it, Kate."
"I didn't say I couldn't..." she started.
"Best of luck, and try not to bung it up," Ryan told them both, cutting her off. He clapped his hands together and was about to leave when Kate saw the address of their supposed new home. Her heart stopped.
"Ryan," she said. "I can't do this."
"What now? Kate, it's not that bad," Ryan said in a whine. He was growing impatient with her.
"Not because of that!" Kate said angrily, knowing he thought it was about the whole marriage thing. She jabbed her finger at the paper. "Because of that! My parents live in this same suburb as of five months ago. I can't just move in with a new 'husband' and not have my parents realize it's fake!"
"Sell it," Ryan said to her strongly.
"And say what? That I got married in Vegas on the weekend?!" she exclaimed.
"So just be two people who moved in together then!" Ryan shot back. "Forget the married part!"
"They know I bloody well don't have a boyfriend!" Kate yelled at him. Phil was watching with an amused expression, which Kate wanted to smack off.
"Tell them he was a secret boyfriend because they're too nosy! I have faith in you, Kate. You can sell this and pull it off no problem at all," Ryan said strongly. "Your parents being there sells your story even more! It's great! No one will be the wiser. Now get going before the bad guys get away!"
"But they know I'm an FBI agent, Ryan," Kate said, frustrated. "My mother is the foghorn of all our personal lives in every neighborhood she's ever lived in. This one won't be an exception!"
"They've been there only five months. I doubt it," Ryan said.
"You don't know my mother," she insisted.
"I have complete faith in you, Kate," Ryan said, saluting her and going out the door.
Kate's fingers twitched, and she resisted pulling out her gun and shooting him in the ass on his way out. She seethed inside. How the hell was she going to convince her mother, the next Sherlock Holmes, that Phil was her secret boyfriend?! And one she was moving in with no less?! How was she supposed to stop her mother from bragging about her being an FBI agent to everyone in the neighborhood, if she hadn't already? It would be a very quick undercover job if that was true. She'd have to ask her mother and find out. Discreetly. Oh, this was already so hard and annoying.
"Shall we?" Phil asked, making her look at him. She stood up without a word and went to her office to collect her things. Ryan had at least given her the chance to go home, pack, and bring Rascal with her to work. The dog was happy to see her and even went to give Phil a curious sniff.
"I think your owner could learn a thing or two about being friendly from you," Phil commented to Rascal as he patted the dog's head heartily.
"Stuff it," Kate snapped, walking past him. "Come on, Rascal." This was going to be the absolute worst week of her life.
...
Phil was still trying to figure Kate out. Her initial reaction of him hadn't been great. He'd seen her give him the x-ray once over when he'd walked into the room. He'd done the same thing back. She was very close to his height with brown hair that reached her shoulders and blue eyes. Something about those eyes told him she'd been hurt and would be damned if she got hurt again. Her stiff, tough as hell attitude confirmed it for him. He was going to have fun getting her to loosen up.
He'd followed her to the house in his truck. When he parked and got out, he looked around the neighborhood and took in as much as he could. A few people passing by gave them curious looks.
"Oh my God," Kate was groaning. She dashed into the house as fast as she could. Phil went in behind her and gave her a curious look as she paced.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"They're right across the street!" she hissed, pointing at the window.
"Who is?"
"My parents!" she managed to say.
"Seriously?" Phil asked, looking. He could see a woman standing in her window across the street watching him. She waved enthusiastically upon seeing him, and he lifted his hand to wave back.
"Oh my God," Kate was moaning still. And pacing. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."
"Um," Phil said as he watched the woman come out the front door. "Kate?"
"What?"
"She's coming over."
"No, she isn't," Kate said, aghast. She halted in her tracks.
"She's fast," Phil noted as Kate's mother reached their driveway in no time.
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit," Kate chanted as she panicked. "Shit!" Phil went over to her and grabbed her arms tightly, making her give him a startled look.
"Calm down," he ordered.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" she snapped, smacking his hands off of her.
"Okay. Fine. How about, we've got this?" he suggested.
"You don't understand," Kate tried. There was sudden knocking on the door followed by a "yoo hoo!" and more tapping.
"Tell me later," he urged. "Just go with this, okay?"
"She'll know..."
He put his arm around her and pulled her to the door. Before Kate could stop him, he pulled it open.