Who Sent the CD? (during Season 5 08)

"It's gotta be Lawrence," Moira said, agreeing as usual with Luke. "June told him she didn't trust him and that weird New Bethlehem plan, so he proved that he was trustworthy by sending her a video of Hannah."

Rita had another idea. "What if it was Tabitha MacKenzie? June said she seemed nice enough; maybe she didn't want her daughter getting married so young, and would prefer it if Hannah were out of Gilead."

"But Tabitha MacKenzie wouldn't send that video to June," Luke countered. "She'd send it to the US Embassy or something. She probably doesn't even know our address here."

"And she would have had to have someone computer-savvy enough to imbed the video with the extra information they sent, the geo-tags and all," Moira added. "Women in Gilead don't even have access to a computer. Or a video camera. I still say Lawrence."

June stopped pushing her food around on her fork and interrupted them. "Guys, if you want to know who sent me the CD, why don't you just ask me? I'm right here."

"Okay," Luke said gamely, "who do you think it was?"

"Someone who knows I love Hannah, and cares enough about me to take the risk of filming her. He was out in the open; she looked right at the camera." June tilted her head. "There are only four people in the world who love me and know I love Hannah. Three of them are at this table. And the other one's in Gilead." She rolled her eyes at Luke's bewildered expression. It's not fucking rocket science, Luke. She turned to her daughter's highchair. "Who lives in Gilead and loves you?" she asked Nichole.

" 'Irst daddy," she answered promptly.

"That's right, your first daddy." She looked at the others, trying not to be smug. "Easy."

"And Hannah," Nichole added.

"Yes. Your big sister Hannah doesn't know you yet, but she's gonna love you so much when she finally gets to meet you," she assured her daughter.

"No, see, I thought of Nick, but…it can't be him." Luke sounded confident. "He'd want you in New Bethlehem. 'Cause there, he'd have easy access to Nichole, maybe even come over for a booty-call if you'd let him."

Rita looked uncomfortably at June, who caught her eye. They shared a sympathetic look. Nick had been Rita's first guess as well, but she didn't want to articulate the thought in front of June's husband. He was jealous enough as is.

Moira, missing the glance, smirked at Luke. "June wouldn't let him anywhere near her, you know that. She loves you, not the sperm donor."

June was getting really tired of those two talking about her as if she wasn't there, and truly angry at their casual dismissal of Nick…whom they knew nothing about. She slammed her fork and knife down on the table and said with conviction, "Look, both of you, that is enough. Enough. Nichole listens to everything you say, and she's old enough now to understand what's going on. So you're going to stop insulting her father from now on."

"I'm her father," Luke protested weakly. They hadn't had this fight yet, and he really didn't want to.

"You are NOT her father," June insisted, raising her voice enough that Nichole leaned away from her mommy. The little girl much preferred a calm atmosphere, always sensitive to anger. The loud anti-refugee crowds outside their home frequently brought her to tears.

June went on, glaring at Luke and Moira. "He is not into booty calls, he's not a sperm donor. He's Nichole's father, and he loves her, so you two will respect that. He's doing his best to help Hannah too, Luke, and you should be fucking grateful to him for that, for helping your daughter. He went to that school to film her, or sent someone he trusts, then sent me that CD, all at great personal risk to himself, so that we could get Hannah out. The same way he collected all that intel on her in Colorado. It's not about him; he doesn't care about his safety or his own desires. He just…." She trailed off. How to explain that Nick loved her, would do anything for her?

"Look, Nick wants me to be happy, and he knows I cannot be happy without Hannah free. He obviously doesn't trust the whole idea behind New Bethlehem, and wants me to stay away. But as long as Lawrence is dangling that carrot of Hannah in New Bethlehem in front of me, Nick knows I'll be tempted to go back. So he has to get Hannah out. And since he can't do that on his own, he sent us that metadata so that we could send the US Army to do it for him. He's done more for her than…." She stopped there. Than you've done, Luke, is what she wanted to say, but she'd hurt him enough. She had seen the hurt in his eyes when she'd finally exploded and said he'd done 'fucking nothing' for his daughter in the last seven years. "Than Mark Tuello has done," she finished.

Luke said nothing. Moira took a bite of her dinner, chewed thoughtfully. "Okay. I'm sorry for dissing your ex. I'll try to be more respectful of him." She didn't sound genuine to June's ears. More like indulgent. Patronizing.

"Nick's not my ex," she corrected quietly. June had kissed him more recently than she'd kissed her husband, in fact, and with a lot more passion. But she wasn't about to share that. "He's…very important to me. I know you don't like him, and I can't explain our relationship to you." Moira had once been her best friend, her closest confidant. But if June told her about the love that she had for Nick, Moira would certainly now go straight to Luke and rat her out. June couldn't open up to either of them without breaking Luke's heart. Thus they still were almost completely in the dark about Nick. June had once tried to explain things to Luke, via that cassette she'd made almost two years previously; it had gone right over her husband's head. He didn't want to know.

"I don't like Nick Blaine because I don't like Commanders and I don't like Eyes," Moira said flatly.

"I get that. But he's…not like that. He's on my side." June glanced at Luke. He was watching her, stone-faced.

He'd rather Hannah stay in Gilead than have Nick get her out. That's how jealous he is.

June picked up her fork again and resumed eating. The conversation was over.