The Long Game
Part 2
Author's Note: For this first but there will be some establishing chapters and then the chapters will jump ahead in time more often. This is part of the establishing chapters. Please review.
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"Thanks hon," Liz said as she took the sub from Don's hands and kissed his cheek.
"You're welcome butternut," Don said with a snicker. "But these are all FBI movers, so you don't need to act in front of them."
"Oh," Liz said, her face reddening.
"But that raises a good point, I don't really like cutesy names," Don said unwrapping his sub and sitting down on a stool to dig in.
"You may not," Liz said as she rounded the counter and grabbed a stool next to him. "But Don Hughes might."
Don had a mouthful of sub when he mumbled. "He doesn't either."
Liz laughed and unwrapped her sub and started to eat. FBI movers were bringing in a light wood dining table and chairs. Liz quite liked picking out all the furniture for the place from the seizure catalogue, criminals had some really good taste. She looked to the door and saw the large teak wardrobe being carried into the master bedroom.
"So, Liz," Don started. "Where did we meet?"
"Bar?" Liz asked with a raised eyebrow. "Online dating app?"
"Boring," Don said. "And the online app is traceable."
Liz continued to eat and so did Don. Their backgrounds were written to some extent, like the date they got married, birthdates, last address, work information, but other smaller details were left for them to develop and become familiar with.
"College?" Liz asked.
"If I took out a senior in high school in my final year," Don said with a raised eyebrow.
"Right," Liz said.
"Ok, Mr. Genius, where did we meet?"
"You got into a car accident three years ago, and I was the insurance adjustor for the other party," Don said. "I asked you out."
"Isn't that a conflict of interest?" Liz asked.
"Which makes it interesting," Don said.
Liz nodded, he was right.
"You're 34 now, so we met when you were 31 and I was 27," Liz said. "But we married in 2010…"
"We married six months after meeting," Don said. "It comes across as romantic."
"It is," Liz said.
"It's stupid," Don said before he reached for his drink. "Who the hell gets married after six months?"
"Tom and I did," Liz said.
"Oh," Don cleared his throat.
They ate in silence for a few minutes.
"I'm sorry," Don finally said. "I'm sure you and Tom just knew. But, I've never just known anything like that."
Liz nodded.
"The idea is that we get to know our neighbors, but not so well that they want to come over or be friends with us," Don said. "Friendly but aloof."
Liz nodded.
"What night during this next week do you want to spend here?" Don asked.
"Are we picking a night?" Liz asked.
"We need to rotate them," Don said. "Sometimes it'll be just you, sometimes just me, sometimes both of us."
"Tuesday?" Liz asked.
"Okay, I'll do Wednesday. And, I've got two fleet cars that we'll park in our spots and move occasionally," Don said.
"What are our two cars?" Liz asked.
"I've got a Ford Escape and a Chevy Cruz," Don said. "I drove the Cruz here and parked it. We'll get the Escape tomorrow. An agent is driving it over for us tonight and leaving in a nearby overnight lot. We'll drive it into New York for the wedding pictures tomorrow."
Liz nodded.
She finished her sandwich and balled up the paper. Don took it from her and threw it out with his as they watched the FBI movers bring in the king bed for the master bedroom.
"Big enough?" Don asked.
"If I am going to have a bed to myself, I want a big bed," Liz chuckled.
"We better start unpacking," Don said as he walked toward the master bedroom.
Liz followed him.
"I thought you were going to sleep in the second bedroom," She said as she saw him hanging a couple suits in the master closet.
"I am, when you are here," Don said. "But I don't know any married couple that keeps their things in two rooms, do you?"
"Right," Liz said.
Don and she unpacked their clothes, both fake from the FBI, and real from their own closets, and placed their toiletries in the master washroom, shoes in the front closet, coats in the closet, and bedding in the linen closet. The crew continued to bring in all the large furniture and place it around the apartment, making the large, converted warehouse look more homey.
"Shit," Liz said as she walked toward Don who was putting plates away in the kitchen.
"What?" He asked.
"I forgot curtains," Liz said as she looked toward the huge windows. "I focused on furniture and plates and stuff, but we literally have a wall of windows open to the building across the street."
She was right, almost the entire front wall of their apartment from one end to the other was windows, including the bedrooms. The windows were the huge warehouse-style windows.
"After the weekend look back at the catalogue and get them to bring them out and hang them," Don said. "We can survive a weekend without curtains, and besides, even when we have them, we want them open a lot while we're here."
Liz looked at him confused.
"We want the people across the street to see us," Don said. "Do you know anyone who always has their curtains closed? That would draw attention."
"How many times have you been undercover?"
"Probably a dozen times," Don said. "The longest was for a few months."
Liz nodded, he thought about this differently then she did because of his experience.
"Don, this is the last load coming in," a mover said as he approached Ressler.
"Thanks Craig," Don said. "We will need some curtains hung next week but can you walk us through the switches?"
Craig nodded and gestured with his head for them to follow him.
"Switches?" Liz asked.
Craig handed Liz and Don each a new cell phone and they walked into the master washroom.
"It's the AT HOME app," he said as he gestured for them to open their phones.
Don clicked the app and saw the list of items they could control. He hit master toilet and it went off next to them.
"We can remotely flush?" Liz asked.
"This place was chosen for a few reasons, one was the thick walls so your neighbors wouldn't really know if you were home like in the new builds where you can hear the TV show your neighbor is watching and the conversation they are having. But certain things like flushes and water running you need to still have happen."
Liz nodded and pressed master shower and it came on with cold water.
"The shower is timed for 7 minutes," Craig explained.
Don walked out of the master and watched the kitchen sink come on when he pressed the button.
"When you are in DC for a few days, you should both remotely operate as if you were having a shower in the morning, going to the washroom at night and in the morning…that sort of thing," Craig explained.
They both nodded.
"We have circulating timers on some lights that are set centrally," Craig explained. "If you are here for a night, just turn them off with the light button and the cycle will reset in 24 hours."
Don and Liz nodded.
"That's about it," Craig said with a smile. "Enjoy the honeymoon."
Don chuckled and whacked him on the back good naturedly.
"Wedding is tomorrow," Don said.
Craig smiled at the pair of them and left with the rest of the crew. It was coming up on 5pm and Don was done for the day but knew he and Liz needed to perform still.
"We need to walk down to the local pizza place and get something for dinner," Don said.
"Can't we just have it delivered?" Liz asked him, she was tired and needed to get up early with him tomorrow for their trip into NYC for their fake wedding.
"We need to be seen in the neighborhood," Don said.
Liz took a deep breath and nodded going for her fall jacket in the closet and locking up before she and Don started down the hallway.
"Elevator?" Liz asked as he stopped in front of it and pressed the button. They were only on the third floor, the stairs seemed more reasonable.
Don leaned in and whispered. "More likely to encounter people in the elevator."
She nodded and they waited. When it opened, he was right. A woman and her baby as well as two men and their large dog were inside.
Don took Liz's hand in his and walked into the elevator with her smiling at everyone. She tried not to shift her hand in his, but it felt weird. Tom's hands were smaller and boney. Ressler's were meaty and large.
Everyone exited on the main floor and walked toward the exit, the woman bouncing the baby on the way to the parking lot and the two men with the dog holding hands and walking toward a nearby park.
"I'm thinking the pizza should be good in Little Italy," Don said as they continued to walk hand in hand. "What do you want on it?"
Liz tried to match his walking pace and not squirm with their hands.
"Liz?"
"Huh?"
"What's wrong?" Don asked.
"Nothing," Liz lied.
He looked at her strangely.
"You do realize that being married means a certain amount of physical contact, right?" Don asked her.
She nodded.
"Then what?" He asked.
"Your hand feels different from Tom's," she said with a shake of her head. "I know, it's stupid…"
Don took a deep breath and said nothing. He knew this was a mistake.
They walked in silence, Don trying to look in love and Liz trying to not look awkward. Don ordered a margherita pizza when they got to the pizza place, while she waited outside at a patio table.
He carried out two seltzer drinks and plunked one down in front of her and one in front of him. If they were going to believable as a couple, they were going to have to work harder at this. Good undercover work was always a blend of truth and lie.
"Tell me about your high school boyfriend," Don said as he sat down.
Liz smiled and looked around, besides a few teens sitting at another table, they were relatively alone.
"Dwight Thurmbunker," Liz said.
"I'm sorry?" Don asked as he leaned in chuckling. "That can't be a real name."
Liz laughed. "It really is."
"Okay, this I gotta hear," Don said as he sat back in his chair and waited.
"He was a computer whiz," Liz said. "I've always had a thing for glasses on a man…"
Don looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Anyways," Liz said. "We were both part of the student newspaper and he did all the layouts. I wrote cutting edge stories like 'why the cafeteria stopped carrying chocolate muffins'"
Don barked a laugh.
"And one night we were working late to meet the deadline and he kissed me," Liz said reminiscing. "It was awkward and strange, and we dated senior year."
"I hope the kissing got better," Don said.
"A little," Liz giggled. "Not much."
Don smiled broadly.
"But he was my first boyfriend and it was…nice," Liz said.
"Nice?" Don winced.
"What's wrong with nice?" Liz asked.
"Trust me, no man wants to be described as 'nice'", Don said as he leaned forward.
Liz shook her head and laughed. "Well, that's my best description of Dwight."
"I'm looking him up when we get back into the office Monday," Don said. "I want to see where the nice guy is."
"Don't!" Liz said as she swatted at him playfully. "That's an abuse of your power."
"What's access for if I can't use it to look up your old nice boyfriends?" Don teased.
They sat and drank their seltzers and looked at the people walking past with dogs and kids on a crisp fall evening where the weather was still nice to be outside as long as you had on a coat.
"Okay, your high school girlfriend?" Liz asked.
"Which one?" Don waggled his eyebrows.
"You were a player?" Liz asked, surprised.
"Not a player, that implies using people," Don said. "I didn't do that."
"How many girlfriends did you have in high school?" Liz asked.
Don looked up and started to count.
"Are you kidding me?" She asked surprised.
"My friends called me the serial monogamist," Don smiled at her.
Liz looked at him surprised.
"Eight? Maybe nine?" Don asked.
"Well, we don't have time for all of those explanations," Liz joked. "Tell me about the best one and the worst one."
Don started to laugh and his neck went red.
"Go on," Liz encouraged.
"Best one was Georgia," Don said with a wide smile.
"Georgia?" Liz asked, surprised Don had ever dated anyone named Georgia.
"Georgia Dunn," Don said.
"Why was she the best?" Liz asked.
"Let's just say that we were very in sync with each other physically," Don said, being kind with his description of sex.
"So, it was hot between the sheets?" Liz asked, not being so subtle.
Don's neck went very red, and he ducked his head. Liz hadn't seen him that embarrassed before.
"Yeah, let's go with that," Don said.
"When did you date her?" Liz asked.
"Sophomore year," Don said.
"Wow, young," Liz said, starting to think of what all her psych knowledge said about a man who had a robust sexual experience at a young age said about Don.
"We were a fire that burnt out pretty quickly," Don said. "We were only together a few months."
Liz nodded. "And the worst?"
Don started to chuckle.
"What?" Liz asked.
"This EMO girl," Don said with a shake of his head. "Fiona Mercer. She was fucking nuts."
"You dated an EMO?" Liz asked.
"Yeah," Don said as he shifted in his seat. "I liked her 'fuck you' attitude and her fishnets."
"Okay, so she was nuts?" Liz asked.
"Took a baseball bat to my car," Don said remembering the incident of his mother calling the police and he and his brother running outside to pull the bat from her hands.
"What did you do?" Liz asked, knowing there was more to the story.
"I cancelled on her one night and one of her friends saw me having a burger with another girl," Don said. "She flipped out."
"So, you cheated on her?" Liz asked, suddenly feeling for the baseball bat wielding EMO.
"It was my cousin, Callie, she was in town for the weekend from University," Don said. "Up from U Michigan to stay with me and my brother and mom. She was homesick but her family was in Idaho, so my mom told her to come stay with us whenever she wanted."
"Holy shit," Liz chuckled. "Oh my god, I know it's not funny, but…"
"So, then, I broke up with Fiona," Don said. "She was kinda nuts, but I thought it was part of her EMO thing, but really, she was certifiable."
"Wow," Liz said. "Your high school years were a lot more fun than mine. I couldn't wait to leave."
"I had a lot of fun in high school," Don admitted. "But I was happy to leave too. I don't get these people that say high school was the best years of their life…seriously? Acne, girlfriend drama, math class, detention, no real freedom…no thank you."
Liz smiled. "I agree."
Don looked across at her and smiled. "Look, it's not going to happen overnight, but eventually this will get comfortable."
She gave him a small smile and nodded.
"Hughes?!" a man yelled from the door and Don got up to get their pizza.
To be continued….