"Hey, Mrs. Bristow," Francie said to her as soon as she stepped into the house.
"Hello, Francie," she replied with a smile on her face. She had given up years ago trying to get her daughter's friends to use her first name. "Is Jack or Sydney home?"
"Sydney," the woman who had been her daughter's best friend since middle school answered. "Do you want to join us for dinner? We ordered Chinese, and I know we'll have plenty left over."
Charlie, her boyfriend, laughed. "Yeah, Francie's eyes are always bigger than her stomach. Which is really funny when you think about the fact that she makes her living deciding how much a room full of people can eat."
Francie rolled her eyes. "I don't decide on the amount. I just help prepare it and serve it." She leaned over and kissed him.
Laura smiled. She had always felt like a part of Sydney's group of friends. Except for their formal way of addressing her, they had always made her feel welcomed. "No, I think I'll wait for Jack. We haven't eaten together in over a week, and I would like to be able to do it tonight."
"You two are the most romantic people I know," Francie said as she reached up and took down some plates.
Shaking her head, Laura disagreed. "Jack's the romantic one; I'm the lucky one."
"Hey, Mrs. Bristow." Will walked into the house behind her. "Sorry I'm late," he told his friends. "Litvack called; I had to rewrite a whole piece in the parking lot." He sat the huge bag of food down on the counter. "There's a woman in Marina Del Ray who's eating newspapers."
"She's eating it?" Laura and Francie asked at the same time.
"She's pregnant and apparently it's a condition some women get before they--" Will made a motion towards his stomach.
"Eating newspaper is a condition?" Francie asked and Laura shook her head. Ah, the young and childless. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out two beers.
She offered one to Will as he finished telling his story, "Yeah, yeah. This is what I write about. This is how I make a living. And Litvack says my writing's too judgmental and I'm like, 'Well, who cares? She's not going to read it anyway; she's going to swallow it.'"
All of the young people laughed while Laura smiled at an old memory. "Chocolate-covered octopus." Three pairs of eyes shifted their focus to her. She sipped on her beer. "When I was pregnant with Sydney, I craved chocolate-covered octopus all the time." Everyone stared at her with pale faces. She laughed and looked at Francie. "Wait until you're pregnant. If you're lucky, you'll crave something normal like liver." She looked at the two young men. "And if you're lucky, you won't be like Jack and be forced to sit across from a woman eating chocolate-covered octopus as you try to eat your own dinner."
Will grinned sheepishly. "Okay, so maybe I was a little judgmental."
Laura held up her hand, holding her index finger and thumb an inch apart. "Just a little. But I liked the story, and I look forward to reading it tomorrow."
"Well, I'll probably still be rewriting it for the next few days. Maybe it will be in Friday's paper," he answered.
"Just as long as you are free Thursday night," Francie said as she pulled out the last carton of food. She had ordered a lot of food.
"What's happening Thursday night?"
Francie looked over at Charlie. With a smile on her face, she answered, "You are required at dinner Thursday. We are celebrating Charlie's offer."
"An offer?" Laura took a step closer. "From where?"
Charlie answered with a shrug. "Fleming Letterman. That's corporate law. Downtown office."
"That's wonderful," Laura said as she gave him a hug.
Will agreed with her. He shook Charlie's hand. "Congratulations." Laura noticed that Charlie's answering thanks lacked a certain enthusiasm.
"Go get Sydney," Francie was telling Will. "I'm starving."
Laura saw a strange expression cross Will's face. He nodded and headed towards her daughter's bedroom. She wondered why--Shaking her head, she told herself to stop being an agent. Not everyone had a secret agenda. Not everyone was like herself.
She watched as Charlie and Francie started dipping out the same amount of food from the same cartons. "Developing the same tastes already?"
They looked up at her and then down at their matching plates. Francie laughed. "Yeah, I guess living together does make you eat alike."
"For the most part." Laura looked down at the empty bottle of beer in her hands. "I hated beer when I first started dating Jack, but it seemed like that was all his friends had to offer back then."
Laura could remember standing around, laughing with people that she had been busy judging. Stupid Americans. She hated them and she hated their beer--a nasty and vile drink in her opinion. Then, somehow, she managed to fall in love with a man she thought she hated. And fell in love with his beverage choices, too. And his country.
"I'm going to go see what's keeping Will and Sydney. You all enjoy your dinner," she told them as she tossed the bottle into the recycle bin.
"You, too, Mrs. Bristow."
As she approached Sydney's bedroom door, she heard Will's voice. He was talking with a passion he didn't usually show. "C'mon, you know me. You know I can't let this go!"
Sydney also sounded a little upset. "Will, come on!"
"You took Amy's passport!" Laura gasped, finally understanding why her daughter had colored her hair and how she had gotten to Taipei. She had known that the report Sydney had given Sloane had been a lie.
"I know."
"You took her credit card!" Sydney must have been desperate to include Will in any way. He never let something go until he had the answers he needed. She thought about Sydney's face the night she had told her that her life was a lie, that she worked for the very people she thought she had been fighting against. Sydney had been devastated and desperate.
"I know what happened!" Sydney answered Will.
"You disappeared!" Even Laura hadn't known where she was. But Sydney had called Jack, told him that she was going on vacation. When Jack told her about Sydney's phone call, her heart had started beating again. Sydney had escaped from Security Section. At least for a little while longer.
Will was telling Sydney that he couldn't forget when Sydney's pager went off. Laura's teeth grounded together. Sydney had barely gone back to duty, and Sloane was already taking advantage of her. "It's the bank," Sydney announced. She was probably thankful for the distraction.
Will--when it came to pursuing something important to him--had always reminded Laura of a dog with a bone. "What was going on with Danny? Because he must've been in some kind of trouble--"
Oh, Will, Laura thought. Danny was a sweet man who treated my daughter like gold. The only mistake he made was falling love with a woman who had a secret. Just like Jack.
Laura could still remember rushing over to that apartment after Sloane had told her. The plane tickets had been in her hand when she walked into that bathroom. Looking down at the body in the bathtub, Laura had not been able to feel anything. Numbness had filled her body. Then, she heard Sydney returning home. Hiding in the closet, she felt the numbness being jack hammered out of her as she listened to her daughter's screams.
"I need you to do something," Sydney was saying to her friend.
Laura could hear the resignation in Will's voice; he knew what Sydney wanted. "You need me to shut up. I know!"
"I need you to accept what I've already told you."
Laura held her breath when she heard Sydney's words. What had she told Will? She couldn't have made the same mistake twice. Danny was dead because she had talked about SD-6.
She breathed in deeply when she heard Will's reply. "You haven't told me anything. You're being so vague!"
Vague for your security, Laura thought. Vague like I've been for almost thirty years.
"I lost my mind a little," Sydney said. "I started imagining things." Not a great excuse, but there wasn't an easy way to explain suddenly needing someone else's passport and credit card.
Will the Bulldog persisted. "Whatever the hell you're talking about, maybe you're not imagining it. Syd, this is what I do. I might be able to find something that the police overlooked!"
Laura closed her eyes against the image of Will's body in a bathtub, covered in blood. Her fingernails dug into her palms.
"Stop it!" Sydney was seeing the same image. Laura could hear it in her voice. "I'm trying to move on here. I need your help to do that. Okay?"
Her smile was sad as she thought about the traits her daughter had inherited from her. A lot of Sydney was Jack in female form. Laura had always loved seeing their close relationship, but tonight she had learned that her daughter knew how to manipulate the men in her life just like her mother. Use their own weaknesses against them. Will hated to hurt anyone. Investigating the story hurt Sydney. Therefore, he would drop it.
She could only hope that Sloane never found out that he had a hint of interest in Danny's death. Sydney could not afford to lose anyone else. She couldn't afford to lose anyone else either. Taking in and exhaling a deep breath, she put on what she thought of as her spy face--"never let them see you sweat" was her motto in the world of intelligence.
She took two steps back and cleared her throat as she began walking towards Sydney's room. Will looked embarrassed, then he looked relieved after he examined her face and saw no hint that she had overheard his conversation with Sydney. Her daughter, however, had a look on her face that told Laura that she knew that her mother had been eavesdropping.
"Francie is starving, you two," she told them with a smile on her face. It hurt.
Will looked down and shuffled from foot to foot. "Yeah, we were just talking."
Laura put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "Well, you had better get to the kitchen before Francie comes after you, because I bet it won't be pretty if she does."
Will nodded and started heading towards the kitchen. "Yeah, I guess we'd better."
Sydney started to follow him. "Oh," she said, turning around to face her mother. "Dad called earlier and said he would be home late again."
"Oh," Laura replied. Her spy mask almost fell. She really needed him right now, and he would be here for her if he knew, but she couldn't tell him. "I was hoping we could have dinner tonight."
"You can eat with us, Mrs. Bristow," Will said, repeating Francie's earlier offer. "Francie always orders way too much."
"True," Sydney agreed with a cool voice. "She always does." Laura could tell by the look on Sydney's face that she didn't want her to accept the invitation.
Laura's smile wobbled for a moment, but years of lying came in handy as she said, "I'm not really hungry right now. I may come in and grab something later. Now, go enjoy yourselves."
The two left her alone, and she pretended to herself that it was okay.
***