Meghan Skylar Ross

Arrangements had been made permitting her to stay overnight at the nursing home with their grandmother on occasion. Meghan's older brother did a lot, but not everything, to keep her away from his habits. Such efforts were for not on the nights she stayed with him and his best friend since he now had custody of her. For the past five years, she was his responsibility.

The age difference was notably abnormal as it wasn't the average two to three years between siblings. There was almost twelve years between them. Because of that age difference, Mike Ross was the closest thing she had to a father that Dad slipped out sometimes.

With the knowledge that her brother was illegally taking tests for people all day, and probably getting high after, Meghan left her school on her bike an hour into her classes and headed for the home as she did every day. Like her brother, she also had the eidetic memory. It just took her a little longer to recall anything.

"Meghan? You're early?" her grandmother commented.

"Uhhh… I may have gotten suspended…"

"What happened?"

Meghan sighed before telling her grandmother of the week's previous strikes against her, all leading up to the eventual result of being banished from school grounds for the next two weeks. "I swear, it wasn't my fault this time, Grammy. The principal agreed, but I was one strike from suspension, and participated in the fight, so he gave it to me anyway…"

"Does Michael know?" Edith asked.

"Not yet. He doesn't check his messages that often. Unless one of us tells him, I might be back at school by the time he hears about it."

Meghan pulled a textbook from her backpack. She decided to work on a few of her many past-due and incomplete assignments before her brother read about those in his emails as well.

Edith let out a heavy sigh. Due to the respect her grandchildren had for her, she could dole out Meghan's punishment and Mike wouldn't have batted an eye at their grandmother doing his job for him. To Edith, her choice was fair. She grounded Meghan for the duration of the teen's suspension. Though the promise that it would be extended if she let someone else tell her brother loomed over her head.

"I'll have to wait until tomorrow. He's got work and then plans with Trevor later. Could I stay here tonight? He doesn't trust me to be alone."

"Can you blame him? You don't exactly have the best track record."

Meghan let a moment of silence pass before expressing something she only ever thought and never said aloud.

"I wish I knew them. I know Mike never felt like an orphan, but I can't say the same," Meghan said. Her head was down as if ashamed for having such a thought after seventeen years.

She spent the rest of the day completing as many assignments as she could before a nurse came through for the midnight rounds to turn the light off. Meghan packed her books away, got ready for bed, then made herself as comfortable as she could on the tile floor.

Before she could close her eyes for the night, she checked her cell phone to see several messages and missed calls from her brother. Her already souring mood grew.

Why do I have an email from every one of your teachers asking me where your assignments are and why they're five weeks late?

Suspended?! An hour into the day? Did you pull the fire alarm again?!

I swear, if Grammy hasn't already grounded you for at least two weeks, I'll do it myself.

You can't be drawing attention to yourself! What if the Marshalls heard about it?

She sighed in slight relief. At least he wasn't asking her where she'd been all day. But the Marshall part reminded her they weren't out of the woods.

Mike wasn't perfect. She knew that. He just wanted her to be better than he was. Even after he'd caught her lighting a joint when she was fifteen, two years after he'd taken over as her guardian.

To keep her guardian from breaking down the doors while under the influence, Meghan replied: I'm at the home. She said I'm grounded for two weeks, but I think you're the one deciding the more specific details. I was going to tell you tomorrow provided you hadn't checked your messages yet.

She didn't have to tell him anything. The school did it for her.

Meghan woke to a nurse tapping her foot. It was one of the regulars who was aware of the arrangement, just not the drug detail.

It was Mike's routine. He'd go to his best friend's place after a day of faking tests. Together, they'd get high, or drunk… sometimes both. Trevor, said friend, would eat week old food and say it was the best he'd ever had and proceed in his attempts to get Mike involved even more dangerous than taking tests for someone and getting paid for it.

"I take on real software projects. I have clients who bring me briefcases filled with cash, and I hand them identical briefcases with vacuum-sealed bud," Trevor, said as if trying to convince him that it's not as dangerous or hard as Mike thought.

"So, what do you need me for?"

"Well, I have a client coming in from out of town. I can't meet him, and I need someone I can trust to make the drop. It's totally safe."

"Trevor, a person is more likely to die while dealing drugs than they would be on death row… in Texas," Mike replied as he leaned against the wall.

"Wait. What are you talking about?"

"It's from Freakonomics…" The dumbfounded look on Trevor's face told him the man didn't get it. "Do you read anything that I give you? It doesn't matter. You have to find somebody else. Can't do that to Meghan and I'm not interested."

"Not interested in what?" a new voice asked. It belonged to Jenny, Trevor's girlfriend, who chose to walk through the door in time to hear that there was something Mike wasn't interested in. She didn't hear the other part, which Mike was grateful for. Unlike Meghan, Jenny didn't know what Trevor really did for a living.

"Trevor's trying to set me up," Mike answered. He liked Jenny from the beginning, but he's had to act like he was fine with Trevor beating him to her five years prior. Not once did Meghan pick on him for losing the girl to his morally compromised friend.

Jenny was excited, at first thinking it was because of a date. When informed it was a job, she thought she'd have more time with Trevor, and that writing code would challenge Mike.

He couldn't bring himself to tell her what the job really was. It wasn't just because of Trevor's presence and what honesty would do to the couple relationship, but what it would do to either friendship… and he didn't want to lose them.

"All right. I got to go. I got get up early to see my grandmother, pay them another month. And get Meghan home."

Mike's visit had come to an end, and Meghan was saying she'd be back the following day. He didn't know his sister had heard how much money they would need to get Edith into full care and not be moved to a state facility. He couldn't do that to her after everything she'd done to take care of him and his siblings. Their older brother helped where he could and when he could. And Meghan barely knew him.

A family friend had told their older brother about his biological father just before his eighteenth birthday. He left when she was one year old. And Mike was twelve. What he knew of his half-sister, he learned from Mozzie, Kate, and Alex until he entered the work release program and started working for the man who caught him. The siblings suddenly had more contact, but it was only when Neal said it was safe to talk or meet, when he wasn't in the presence of FBI agents.

"I won't put her in a state facility," Mike declared. He was about to walk toward his exit and wait for Meghan when the doctor said, "Then I'm afraid you'll have to come up with twenty-five thousand dollars."

"How the hell are we going to come up with twenty-five thousand dollars?" Meghan exclaimed. He may not have known she eavesdropped, but he wasn't surprised.

He took his phone from his pocket. It was the only solution he could think of now that his dream job was out of the question; being a bike messenger paid, but not nearly enough to cover this in one payment, and taking the tests… He'd have to take twenty-five or up the fee, and that's only if the client paid the full price, satisfied with their grade or not.

"Trevor," he started.

"No… Dad, you can't do this! There must be another way! Neal? Mozz? Alex?

"I'm in."

"What is wrong with you?!"

"One-time deal. I want twenty-five. Take it or leave it."

"You gave me grief about the Marshalls last night… Now you are the one who will put us back on their radar. You'll go to jail, and they'll move me. Why was I even in there, Mike? The only connections we had to that case are dead."

Mike heard, but he wasn't listening to her. He had to hear the drop details… "That's a hell of a lot to ask, man… Okay?"

When he hung up, Meghan was nowhere to be seen. There was a text though. He laughed as he read. To an outsider, anyone would think she meant every word.

I'm not bailing you out this time.

Since when did I become the grownup? That's your job.

Have fun going to prison. I'll see you when the Marshalls let me.

Meghan stayed out of sight of the bike racks. She followed Mike to the hotel. She watched as he looked it to the public rack. With a briefcase in hand, he walked into the building without even looking around to check his surroundings… something she always did when she had stupidly done a deal for Trevor.

She slipped through the door, following the rules of a tail. Thirty feet behind, and out of sight as much as possible.

Both had noticed the associate interviews. Rather than follow him all the way to the drop and risk everything for both, she opted to stay on the first floor. Meghan walked into the section of the interviews where a secretary either sat or walked around. It seemed like a rather boring task to the woman until she was given the go-ahead to give every applicant a hard time. Her boss was looking another me as he put it.

Oh, this is gonna be good, Meghan thought. If Dad comes this way, he's going to have a response no one will be prepared for. She laughed at the inability of each applicant as they thought they were answering the woman's off the wall questions as if their reason for being there was obvious.

Answers like:

Because I have an appointment

I was late to puberty

were used, and neither female was impressed.

"And what are you doing here? I don't have a woman interviewing on today's list."

Meghan looked down to the name plate on the desk. All it said was Donna. "Donna? Like a title? There's no surname…" Donna cleared her throat, still waiting for an answer. "Oh, right. Sorry. I'm just waiting for my dad. He's using the restroom before his interview." Donna motioned to a chair that was out of the way for Meghan to sit in while she waited for Mike to make his appearance. "He'll have your clever response when he gets here. I'll put this on your desk, so you'll know it wasn't prepared." She laid her cellphone down on the flat surface and went to the seat against the door.

He was nearly out of breath. Undercover police who had been waiting for the drop and chased him through the stairwell.

Meghan heard familiar coughs as Donna called twice for a Rick Sorkin. She hoped he wouldn't notice her. She wasn't supposed to be there after all.

"Rick Sorkin?" She watch as Mike pointed to himself as if asking if Donna was talking to him. "Excuse me, Mr. Sorkin, you are five minutes late. Is there a reason why I should let you in?"

Mike walked into the room on the off chance he had been followed down that hall. "Look, I'm just trying to ditch the cops, okay?" he chance a glance toward the wall over his shoulder where Meghan occupied a chair. "I don't… I don't really… care if you… let me in or not." Then he turned to Meghan, barely hearing Donna say the Mr. Specter would be available shortly or ask if she could get him a water or a coffee. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to be home."

"I couldn't let you do this. You have no idea what you're doing."

"Oh, and you do?" Mike already knew the answer, but he didn't care. He just took her hand in his and led her into the interview. He was nervous. And When Mike was nervous, he did one of two things: throw up, or talk nonstop. Being nervous and knowing not going on had a different reaction. He'd go near mute. What didn't help was the briefcase popping open and the contents falling all over the floor.

Fortunately, this was Mike's wheelhouse. The guy holding the interviews kept things going even after what was now known as the incident. He wanted to know the story.

"I'm going home after serpico isn't circling. And by the way, Home isn't home." Meghan went back out to the line of interviewees. She removed her cell phone from the desk and placed it in her pocket.

Home isn't home? She heard through the door as Harvey closed it behind her. Is that code for something?

Now she was regretting her decision to leave. Meghan wanted to what they were saying about her. It was probably the standard conversational responses brother and sister had developed should anyone find them. Mike would act like she was a friend's sister and was staying with him for a day or two.

She wouldn't have outed his memory. That wasn't her place.

Traffic took forever to thin out even a little bit for Meghan's cab to reach their designated meeting spot. No cameras could see them. She would wait in the shadows until one of three known voices told her she could come out. And boy, was she glad it was Neal. Mozzie and Alex were great, even fun, but this was a family moment.

"You told him to talk to me about it?" Meghan nodded. "And he went to Trevor instead."

"Yeah… And it didn't go well. Nothing Trevor plans goes well for Mike. He hasn't learned that in twenty-two years… Neal, I was one when you left… You and Grammy were the closest things I had to parents… what happened? No one will tell me."

Neal hung his head. He knew she had questions. He was just surprised it took her three years to ask them. "Do you remember Ellen?"

"Yeah, I do. She'd give me candy when Grammy wasn't looking."

Neal chuckled. "And Grammy had fits because you couldn't fall asleep you were so hyped up on sugar." He sobered up to continue the story. "Ellen told me something about my biological father. She was his partner. You know how Mike's dream was to become a lawyer? Well, I always wanted to join the police force like my dad. This will answer another question you have yet to ask me out lout. My dad was accused of murder. Mom, Ellen, and I were entered into WITSEC. For two years, I thought she'd checked out. Then she met James. They married in secret and had Mike. James had brought her back to reality before then. Shortly after Mike was born, we were moved to New York."

"Okaay… That tells me why I'm in the program, but it doesn't tell me why I'm still in it and why Mike is afraid the Marshalls will take me away. My only connection to that case is you, and I highly doubt these people are still looking for your name after thirty plus years."

"What has he been up to that he should be afraid of that?"

"He should probably be the one to tell you that… as for what I did… just listen to the police scanner for fire alarms being pulled for no reason." Meghan glanced at him sheepishly.

"Are you telling me my little sister is a teenaged felon?" Neal grinned.

Meghan lawyered up. She'd only done it the one time. Criminal charges were dropped to a school suspension after security footage showed she didn't know the alarm was behind her. Her backpack had somehow managed to catch it as she walked away.

A quick peek at her vibrating phone told her Mike got the job.

"Well, at least one of you got your wish. Mike's going to be a lawyer." Another message came through. "Maybe you'll get one of yours, too. His new boss wants him to cut off all contact with Trevor… Could I stay with you for a couple of days? He's supposed to go to Harvard so he can check out their program, cover his bases."

"Sorry, Kid. You'll have to go with him. Peter doesn't know about the two of you and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Would Mozz let me stay at Tuesday or Wednesday?"

"How do you know about them? Wait. I thought Mike got expelled from college. He can't be a lawyer. This had better last at the very least until you're a legal adult. Marshalls can't do anything to you if you opt out of the system then."

"Yeah… about that."

"Meghan Skyler," he drew out.

"Geez, you sound like Grammy. They don't know we're still in New York. They think we got moved after you left. Trevor said he knew someone who could make it look like we'd been relocated, and Mike jumped on it. We've still been using Ross, and no one's questioned it."

Mike went to pick Meghan up from the designated meeting spot. He followed the same routine as Meghan. Hid in the shadows. Waiting for the signal. He finally came up to them when he got the all clear.

He made his job announcement and his plans. Meghan asked if she could stay behind.

"Not unless Neal or Mozzie can put up with your antics… She told you about the fire alarm, right?"

"Said it was an accident," Neal replied.

"Accident? And you believed her?" Neal shrugged. He didn't he had reason not to. Mike looked her in the eye. "How did you con a professional con?"

"Practice?"

"It was no accident. Security caught her on camera, hand on the lever. She doesn't carry a backpack," Mike said to Neal.

"Guess I'm going to Boston," Meghan mumbled, hiding her eyes so she didn't have to look at either brother's glare.