Author´s note: Thank you once more for jennkyle and noro for their reviews and to everyone else who might be reading silently. While reviews are much appreciated, I know you are there and hope you´re enjoying the story. We´re slowly nearing the point now where everything comes together, getting close to the storm so to say.

Chapter 37

Connecting the dots

The first thing she noticed when her senses returned and her thoughts started a confusing and dizzying dance around simple questions – What happened? Where am I? What the hell hapened? – was a prodding, thrumming headache and a bitter taste at the root of her tongue. With a groan she tried to sit up, clenching her eyes shut as the world threatened to tilt to the side.

"What the fuck…?"

"Easy there, kid." The voice almost made her jump, a triggered and not alltogether pleasant memory, the voice of someone used to keep his voice down in a conspiratory hush. Then it rushed back to her. The gas station. The man with the shark like grin. The other one with the beetle eyes. The way that the owner of that diner had rolled his eyes back in an almost exasperated surprise, a second after he had been shot, half a second before he sank to the ground. Why would she even remember things with that clarity?

A moment later she felt a hand on her arm and followed the intuition to brush it off, simple, basic insticts kicking in with every moment that added another puzzle to her jumbled memory, forming a fuller picture. She had been taken. Fucking abducted! She fought the nausea and sat up straight, trying to bolt away, jumping out of bed and attempting a lunge at the door. She had been laying on some motel bed. What kind of creepy fuck would take her to a motel? And one of the more shabbier kinds too as she noticed. The curtains were drawn. Not a lot of light. Thin walls as well probably. Some shabby, cheap print on the wall next to the… her legs gave way and she crashed to the ground with a grunt.

"Wait, wait, wait. Kimi!" Beetle eyed guy was there a second later, crouching next to her, helping her up.

"Let..me go…" her voice sounded lulled. Like she had drunk too much. She had little to object when he heaved her into an armchair that had probable seen its best times under the Eisenhower administration, her head so dizzy she had to let it happen. A moment later she felt him push a glass of water into her hand. "Drink. No worries, there´s nothing in it. It´s just water." And against better judgement, she drank.

The headache added some in intensity as she tilted her head back and gave a painful grunt again when she set the glass down, blinking her eyes and trying to stay calm, her heart thudding. Be logical, Kimi, she told herself. If he wanted you dead, you´d be dead already If he was some sort of government spy you´d find yourself in a room with a table and chair and a bright light shining into your face while some old fart in a suit sat across from you ready to ask uncomfortable questions. Right, another voice added, the twisted, odd part of her that loved to think the worst of things, or he´s some insane axe killer who likes to have his fun before he kills you. She blinked again, drank once more, then raised her eyes.

The man was sitting on the bed, looking at her intently with a gaze that was intimidating all in itself and bore the disturbing traces of a wild beast, but nothing that seemed too threatening right now. He had introduced himself as Finn she remembered now. The Finn? Her hacker contact? Could that be possible. Oh that was just her luck, right? Because if he was Finn, that meant she was in a bad situation all the same. It meant someone out there knew about the news she had leaked. Someone deep, deep into that swamp. Probably even someone who was involved with whoever had killed Jerry Grant.

"You screwed me over." she said, clamping her hand around the glass, feeling anger rise inside her as she fought the headache down. "You gave me that tip and then somehow they found me. Fuck you."

His headshake was immediate. „That didn´t go as planned, I promise." he said in an urgent voice. "I didn´t want to place you in danger. When we last chatted I didn´t even know about your identity."

"Well, you found that out pretty fast didn´t you?" The nerve this guy had.

„If I hadn´t you´d be dead now. Or worse." he insisted and reached over to the nightstand. She felt herself stiffen in fear for a second before she noticed it wasn´t a weapon he was reaching for, but a pack of aspirins. Anticipating her anxiety, he held it up for her to see, popped one of the white pills out of the plastic and handed it to her. "I´m really sorry I had to drag you off like this." he said and Kimi noticed he didn´t even meet her eye when he said this. Was he… sorry? Really? She was almost ready to believe it. This man´s emotions were as raw as any she had ever seen and she was not too bad at reading people. Her own family was screwed up enough for her to have learned to identify when an apology was sincere. This one seemed to be. "I had to get you out of there quickly."

"Or what, the cops would´ve come? Good." She made it sound like this would indeed have been the better option but he saw right throuh her. They were both hackers she realised, they both knew better than to wish for the authorities to get involved with any of their business.

"Not good." he gave back. "they would have asked questions. Questions you know you would not have wanted to answer. And they would not have been able to keep you safe."

"Oh and like you can?" she snapped. "What the hell did you get me into, Finn? Or…whatever your name is."

"My name is Huck," he said, his voice low.

She merely raised an eyebrow. "Witty," she then said and swallowed the aspirin with a big gulp of water. This time, she took some more time to process her most immediate thoughts before she set the glass down again. She wasn´t sure what to do so she decided that at least for now she could see this guy as a neutral force. One to carefully watch because neutral could easily swing the bad way as well as the good, but not an immediate threat. Plus, there seemed to be such a rat´s tail behind all of this that…

"I am your friend in this, Kimi. You have to believe me in this."

She gave him an annoyed, dismissive glance. She knew she was good at those. "Who was that guy at the gas station?" she asked. "The old dude. He told me his name was Eli."

"He was looking for you." Finn… Huck…Huckleberry for all she cared…said.

"Well he didn´t seem very threatening to me." she said raising her eyebrows. "I could´ve dealt with him."

He got to his feet, didn´t even chuckle, walked over to a chair near the door where, as she noticed now, lay her coat, still wet from the rain. "No." he said. "there was someone else. Someone who shot the owner oft he diner. He must have been with him."

"And who was he then?" She watched him suspiciously when he reached into her coat pocket. "Hey, will you stay away from my stuff?"

He ignored her and fished out the purse she had nicked from the man at the gas station while he had been to the restroom, tossed it over to her. "Take a look."

She caught the thing, opened it. As she had guessed the guy wasn´t doing too bad for himself. There were two credit cards and about 200 dollars in cash. She took the money and unceremoniously stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans, not even bothering what her alleged saviour thought of it. That was the least this old jerk owed her. Then she fished for the man´s ID. Stared at the name.

"Rowan Bishop." She looked up. Surprised. "This is….the man I leaked information about."

"Yes." Huck gave back. "He probably has a dozen identities, we were just lucky this is the one he was carrying with him today."

"I…didn´t leak his name to CNN." she said. „I just gave the name to the FBI. Before I contacted the reporter."

Huck took a moment to look what she thought was somewhat impressed. "Good." He drawled the word in an ominous, almost comical way and she understood what it meant. Had she leaked the name, Bishop would have made sure to lose that ID as soon as the name was uttered on television, knowing that identity was no longer safe. And she´d not have had any proof this was the same man. She would not have trusted Finn…Huck. The realisation of what it all meant trickled into her mind like ice water, freezing her spine. "He…is the one that killed the president´s son?"

In that moment a phone rang and Huck was at it before she could even blink an eye. She could not tell who he was talking to, but there was a pause while a voice on the other end seemed to speak in hurried words. There was some background noise, too, faint, but still distinct. Then he said:

"She´s safe, Liv. The girl´s with me. And there´s a team here, taking care for the rest."

Another brief moment, then, without a goodbye, he hung up and held the phone out to her. "Call your mum," he said. "tell her you´re staying with a friend for a few days. I´ll need to take you somewhere safe."

She wanted to protest, but there was some feeling in her gut telling her that she was in danger, still was, and that this man might be the only one who could help her. She raised her eyebrows sceptically. "I won´t be coming with you unless I know it´s safe."

He sighed. Nodded. It felt like it was an accomplishment to make this man agree to a compromise. "Can you trust me for five more minutes?" he asked, already walking over to the shabby desk,reaching for a flat laptop there. "If you don´t trust me in ten, I´ll let you go."

"Okay…"

She waited, watched as he opened the laptop and started to type like a maniac, the screen facing away from her. He was hacking, no doubt about it. She kept quiet. After a little more than 7 or 8 minutes, he closed the laptop, took his phone and dialed a number. Waited. A voice on the other end. Silence on his.

"Sir. I am really sorry for this, but I have someone here who needs our help."

Silence again while the person on the other end talked. There seemed to be a bit of a debate going on. "She won´t trust me if and I need to get her away from here." Another pause. Then he reached the phone out to her. She took it, hesitatingly, frowning and still watching him. Really, she wondered, he´d have to pull off quite the stunt to make her trust him enough to let herself be whisked away to some alleged secure location. "Hello? Who´s there?" she asked into the phone, making her voice sound snappy.

The man on the other end was calm and spoke with a soft, determined, friendly baritone. She recognised him at once, feeling the hair on her neck stand on end when he talked "I am really sorry to put you through all this. Unfortunately, as our friend so brazenly announced, you will have to trust him, all right? I promise you we will keep you out of danger. You did us a great service today."

Huck gave no indicator of bemusement or triumph, he was already busy packing their things while she was trying to find her breath.

"Mr…President?"

OoOoOoOoO

Fitz hung up the phone, looking at the device in mild irritation, meeting Liv´s gaze as he pocketed it. They had just stepped out of the private cabin to meet with the rest of the staff when the call came.

"Can you believe he hacked my phone?"

She gave a small smile, one that wasn´t quite relaxed he could tell, but at least she was trying to give the impression that one less thing to worry about with the whistleblower under Huck´s protection, gave her at least a little peace of mind. He knew that wasn´t so. "Good thing he is on our side." she said, trying to sound chipper but merely sounding tense. "At least we know she is safe and your father can´t get to her." he tried, hushing his voice as they started to walk down towards the rear of the aircraft. At least that was off his mind, he thought. They only had a few hours until Air Force One would touch down in Brussels where everything would have to be perfect. The meeting with president Masri just had to go well.