Chapter 2

There were two forms an ambush could take.

Well, technically if someone wanted to get picky they could be categorized into a lot more but for her purposes Tess had them narrowed down to two.

Military and political.

Each had their own strengths, their own weaknesses, advantages and liabilities and she thoroughly enjoyed both, at least when she was on the ambushers side anyway. But her favourite were the political kind. Not only was there less chance of someone she loved getting killed there was little better in her mind than getting your opponent right where you wanted them, in that perfect spot where they had no choice but to give into your demands but without pushing so far they felt like resorting to violence. It was a thin line, knowing how much honey to use, how much vinegar, how much napalm, but she was damn good at riding it. The fact that the majority of her opponents ended up being middle-aged white men made those victories even sweeter and it was with a small pang of regret that she reminded herself today wasn't likely to be one of those fights.

Born and raised in a predominantly Black neighbourhood in Atlanta Samantha Miller had graduated as valedictorian of her high school before going on to study Sociology and Criminal Justice at the U of A, with a minor in Black history. She'd entered the police academy just three months after her graduation, and had been climbing the ladder ever since. Not in the greasy, throw others under the bus to get a leg up kind of way but with hard work, dedication and no small amount of talent; she was passionate, determined and focused, and her views on police reform echoed Tess's own closely. She'd make a good ally for the Intelligence unit, assuming Voight could put aside his understandably warranted distrust of authority and at least some of his… darker inclinations, which also mirrored Tess's, though in a way she didn't think anyone was going to expect. But though he would undoubtedly feature in it this conversation wasn't about Voight.

It was about her and Sam, and what kind of understanding the two women might come to.

Tess didn't actually want to ambush her, it was hardly the best way to start a partnership but she hadn't wanted to go through the traditional channels either. Partly because she liked to keep these kinds of meetings off the record and partly because she wanted to make sure the other woman had a clear understanding of who she was dealing with. The deputy was well-placed enough to have her own connections and as luck would have it they actually knew a few of the same people, which Tess was hoping was going to play into her favour. Her reputation as an operative, hell as a person was varied to say the least but whether she was viewed positively or otherwise it was understood that she was someone who stood her ground, whatever the cost. But news of her retirement was still fresh and so far being met with… mixed reactions. Those who believed it anyway, or who wondered how far it extended.

That included herself.

The click of heels down the hall caught her attention and she straightened, turning to watch the door as they came steadily closer. She'd had to time this visit carefully, the deputy superintendent was a busy woman, it was barely past 10am and she'd already had three meetings this morning, and they only had a few minutes before her fourth so Tess took the last few seconds before she walked into her office to ready herself. Four breaths, quick but steady and then the door swung open and Samantha Miller paused on the threshold, one perfectly manicured brow raising as a mildly startled but altogether unsurprised smile tugged at her lips.

"Ms. Danvers, I presume."

"You presume correctly."

The older woman looked her over as she shut the door and headed to her desk, giving her boots an appreciative glance that made her own grin grow. Their outfits weren't dissimilar, the deputy's sharp black suit was a more professional version of her own charcoal gray linen pants and sapphire silk blouse but there was a distinct difference between them, two different airs of authority they wanted to convey. The power of position vs the power of person.

She preferred the latter, but at least they both had good taste.

"I was wondering when I was going to get a visit."

"Well I wanted to give you time to settle in."

"Kind of you."

"I try." She replied with a light shrug, the flicker in Sam's eyes easing some of the tightness in her stomach- she trusted that Tess was telling the truth on that. How she felt about how those efforts might play out was another thing, but it was a good place to start. And she knew another. "So who did you talk to?"

"Matt Gaines, among others."

Ah, Matty.

One of her favourite federal goons. Good man, but a talker. Sometimes to his detriment. And others.

"Please tell me he didn't tell you about Seoul. Cause I know it's a good story but it is technically a matter of national security and if he keeps blabbing it to everyone…" She trailed off with a slight shake of the head but her eyes stayed on the deputy, assessing everything from the spark of curiosity to the smirk that tugged at her lips.

"He told me about Bogota."

Well fuck.

She could ask for clarification, she'd spent a lot of time in Columbia and had had more than a few dustups there but somehow she already knew which story Matt had shared. And it wasn't necessarily a bad one, just… maybe not the first one she would have gone with.

"And?"

"And I think taking down an entire human trafficking ring singlehandedly in a single day is quite the feat. Commendable. But nowhere near the level of destruction I'd like to see in this city."

That was fair.

She had blown up a container ship in the Tumeco port. And there had been a couple of spectacular car chases; Tess liked to joke she'd been channeling Dominic Toretto that night. Or Vin Diesel, either way it had been a blast, not that she was going to share that particular sentiment.

"I didn't do it alone. And while I would be lying if I said I could guarantee nothing like that would happen here I do think it's fair to point out that whatever damage I've ever caused has usually been far less compared to what it could have been without my involvement. And I make reparations in ways the rest of my colleagues do not."

"Usually?" Sam asked dryly, with enough of a hint of humour that her own lips quirked up.

"Well you'll never hear me claim I'm infallible."

She made a small noise in response, not exactly in disagreement but then she had a right to be wary. As the Deputy Superintendent of Chicago's Police Department she was one of the city's most public figures, a responsibility Tess didn't have to bear.

"And what about your colleagues here?"

"Technically I don't have colleagues anymore, I have friends. And I have a lot of them but something tells me the ones you're most concerned with are your co-workers, specifically a certain unit?"

"I have concerns about a lot of things, your 'friends' included. But yes, right now I want to know what your plans are for Sergeant Voight and the Intelligence unit."

"I don't have plans for them."

The brow rose again and this time Tess matched it, taking a few steps closer as she did, not so much that she invaded the other woman's space but enough that they both straightened- she might be drawing a line here but she would like it if they were on the same side.

"I'll protect them, however and from whoever I need to. And that includes and extends to you. What I won't do is protect the system. Matty may have told you that I've got a lot of experience tearing down the old world? Building a new one means I've also got a lot of experience in making old white men come around to my way of thinking." Her jaunty smile and wink had Sam suppressing her own wry grin and the tension in their stances eased, enough that she felt that was a good place to end things.

Well, maybe there was one more comment she could make.

It might help, though it might not, but it wasn't likely to hurt. At least, it wasn't likely to come as a surprise. Plus it would be a good lesson for the superintendent not just in who Tess was but in what she was capable of.

She dipped her chin, pleased to find that Sam dipped hers right back then headed for the door, pausing on the threshold to look back over her shoulder. "Besides, once we get Hank Voight to change the way he polices, the rest of the department will follow."

She saw the instant recognition, after all it had only been a week ago that the deputy had said that to the man himself, in this very office, and though her lips pursed as she put together how Tess knew that she didn't seem too bothered by it. She didn't seem entirely pleased with it either but clearly Matt had given enough of a good word on her behalf that she trusted the surveillance was as much for her own benefit as it was for Tess's. So with one final smile and a good-natured salute she slipped out into the hall, past the very confused secretary and into the stairwell at the far end.

Well.

That had gone pretty well.

She hadn't really expected it to go badly but it was still nice to have a bit of the pressure off her shoulders, and she was glad she had good news to report back to Jay. She was in the middle of debating if she should stop by the precinct to tell him in person, and loop Voight in at the same time, she had promised to keep him involved, when an alarm sounded on her phone that turned the light, happy feeling inside her to a block of ice. She had a lot of ringtones, one for everyone she knew, and almost every kind of occasion and this shrill, incessant beeping was her least favourite. Not because it was a horrible noise, though it was, but because it was the most serious. The most dire. In seconds she had her phone in her hand, her heart dropping as she took in the alert, the warrant for her friend's arrest that had just been sent out and the two teams of Chinese secret police poised to enter her apartment building to follow through on it. And there was her friend, sitting completely unawares on her couch watching K-dramas. It only took another second before Tess had her on the phone, quickly glancing up and down the stairwell to make sure she was alone.

"He-"

"Ling they're coming."

"Now?" Shock filled the other woman's voice but Tess watched as she ran to her bedroom, grabbing the go-bag they'd stored there two years ago when they'd moved her from Beijing to Hong-Kong. The city-state was supposed to have been safer for her journalist friend, free from the ramifications of political dissidence seen on the mainland but clearly that wasn't true anymore.

She should have seen this coming.

"Coming in the front and back entrances. They've stalled the elevators and they're making their way up the staircases- they're already on the third floor. Head to the roof, quick and quiet just like we practiced. I'll be with you every step of the way."

There was a covered fire escape that she would use to get down, a tight fit with her cats Misu and Mushu in her backpack but Ling was a determined woman. She'd make her way to the transit station down the block which she'd take to the port where she'd meet up with Tess's contact Bai, who would put her on a ship to Kaohsiung, Taiwan and from there she would use her fake ids to get a flight to… somewhere. They'd talk about that once she was on the boat.

All that mattered until then was keeping her safe- the complete reordering of her life would have to come later.

Tess was messaging Bai to let him know to get things ready even as she directed Ling, keeping her voice at a low murmur not only so as to steady her friend but to remain unnoticed by any passerby, all those regular people who were completely unaware of the dangerous situation unfolding halfway around the world. Except given that this building was full of people who upheld that same system, even if a slightly more democratic variation of it, maybe they weren't so ignorant. Or innocent. That thought sparked a familiar righteous anger that she had to tamp down fast- this was not the place. Still her body did seem to vibrate when she at last slipped her phone back into her pocket but that could've been from the sudden surge in adrenaline. She had gotten Ling safely onto the subway but it would take another half hour before she made it to Bai.

She needed to get to the Tower.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd pushed herself this close to the brink of exhaustion this quickly.

She'd be able to once she got a little more of her brain functioning back but for the time being it had been all she could do to curl up behind the wheel and let Cas drive her home. Even now she didn't have the energy to actually lift her feet as she made her way down the dock, instead shuffling along as she alternated between yawning and wincing; her head was pounding, her eyes burning, but then that was normal after spending twelve-ish hours in front of computer screens.

Ling had made it to Kaohsiung a few hours ago, with the police back in Hong Kong still puzzling over her disappearance. And now that she was on a plane to Toronto there wasn't much they'd be able to do. Not unless they were intent on starting an international incident anyway and while she wouldn't put that past them for at least the foreseeable future Tess felt comfortable saying Ling was safe. Reasonably so anyway. And she'd be keeping a close eye to make sure of that, she'd already set up everything she-

Fuck.

She missed the step onto the little portico and stumbled straight into the door, smacking her shoulder against the wood with a groan that turned into a pathetic sounding chuckle. It was a really good thing Jay wasn't home yet. He'd be worried out of his mind if he saw her in this state.

She really hadn't meant to let it get this bad.

It hadn't taken long after she'd gotten to the Tower to connect with Ling and arrange the rest of her travels but once she'd started thinking of all the things that needed to be done for her she'd started thinking about all her other friends, all the people she hadn't been keeping that close an eye on. Not since Jay had come back into her life. Sure she had Cas to oversee that stuff but those people relied on her, trusted her to keep them safe. How could she honour that promise if she wasn't putting one hundred percent of herself into keeping it?

The muffled sound of meowing caught her attention and Tess realized she was still leaning against the door, resting quite a bit more of her body weight against it than she'd meant to.

Fuck she was tired.

But she couldn't sleep. Not yet.

Her body might be at its limit but her mind was still wired and if she wanted any chance of rest tonight she needed to shut it down. With a quick push she opened the door and trudged upstairs, muttering reassurances to Aelin who trailed after her, yelling as she so often did whenever Tess came home late or injured before taking up her perch on the little step leading to the washing machine, still grumbling as Tess stripped off her clothes and stumbled into the shower. The rush of hot water stole her breath but she relished it, sinking down onto the bench she'd installed for just these kinds of moments, quickly losing herself to the heat and the merciful release that came with it. It only felt like she sat there a few minutes, and maybe that was all it was but that didn't really matter when a frantic shout shattered the peace she'd only just started sinking into.

"Tess?!"

Fuck.

She had just enough time to push herself to her feet, almost falling in her haste to turn off the water and then the shower door was thrown open and she did, her ankle twisting as she was yanked out but Jay caught her. He had her in his arms in an instant and in the next he had her on the deck, the cool night air stinging so sharply it stole her breath; her brain was struggling to catch up to reality but Tess knew enough to know she'd fucked up.

Big time.

"Jay, Jay it's okay. It's okay, look at me, I'm okay."

The fuck you are.

He didn't say it but the sentiment was clear in his eyes, the mossy green darkened with fear and guilt, so much it felt like she would drown in it. But she wouldn't.

She couldn't.

"Look at me. Am I hurt? Am I hurt?" She asked again when he gave her a dumbfounded look, like the answer should be obvious.

Maybe to him it was, maybe to most people it would be but Tess wasn't most people. And maybe Jay started to remember that because the hands that had been moving over her desperately started to slow, becoming more methodical in their search so she let him look, let him see that she was fine, she wasn't hurt, wasn't damaged. But maybe that was too much to hope for because when his eyes came back to hers…

Tess wanted to feel bad.

And she did, she hated hurting him but she wasn't going to feel guilty.

She just wasn't.