The BFF Job

Chapter Two

Eliot stepped into Nate's apartment. Parker and Hardison had their heads together at the bar looking at something on the computer. Nate sat with a cup of coffee on the sofa. He didn't like when the room was quiet when he walked in.

"What are you three up to?" He went to the coffee pot. No one said anything. "Really people, I'm not in the mood." Parker looked at him. He was defiantly not in the mood.

"I asked Hardison to look into some things for your friend." Her voice was just above a whisper.

"Parker I told you about her in confidence." She looked at him with her soulful eyes.

"She's hurting Eliot. Anyone could see that. She came to ask for help." She turned the screen to him and he saw McKenna. Sitting at McRoy's with a drink in front of her.

"She's in trouble?" Eliot looked at Hardison.

"Her husband was a cop. NYPD. She's a paramedic. Last week he was killed in the line of duty. It was all well and good until they pulled his files. It showed years of corruption. Long before they were married. They suspended her with pay until they could work things out but it doesn't look good."

"How can they suspend her when she's not even involved?"

"Whoever set up her husband made sure she was implicated?" Eliot looked at the computer screen."

"How do we know he was set up?" Nate stood and looked at the three people in his kitchen. Hardison looked at his boss.

"Not even the dirtiest cop leaves a trail this big." Eliot was out the door before anyone said another word.

0/0/0/0/0/0/0

"How deep?" McKenna looked up from her drink.

"What?"

"How deep are you in this thing with your husband?" She ran her hand though her hair.

"Jimmy was so clean he squeaked. He wasn't the best cop on the beat but he tried. Something happen about a month before he died. His temperament changed. He wasn't the man I married." Eliot sat down. "I think he found out about my past." She looked at him with soulful eyes. "I found the file when I went though his things in his closet." Pulling a file from her bag, she handed it to him. He opened the file. It was full of articles on the murder of Simon LaForce ten years ago.

"There is no way he could of know it was you." Eliot had made sure of that. He had cleaned up the mess before it had a chance of implicating Jodi or Kenna.

"Someone found out. Eliot I live everyday knowing that I killed a man. A man that raped and beat my mother and my sisters and nearly killed my best friend. It doesn't make it any easier but I know that I did what I had to do. I should have walked right into the sheriff's station that night and turned myself in but you know what the department was like back then. I would have been sent to a work camp for twenty years without parole."

"So you hid all these years and made a good life. Never told a soul. The only ones who knew were me, you and Jodi. Then along came someone to blow it all. Who would want to hurt you like that?" Eliot stared her down. She could do a lot of things but lying to him wasn't one of them. "Who else knew about Simon Kenna?"

"My mother." She whispered. Eliot swore under his breath. Joelle Hawks was about as trustworthy as a fox in a hen house.

"Who told her?"

"Simon." Eliot brows furrowed into a frown.

"How did a dead man tell your mother who killed him?" Kenna pulled a picture out of the file and there was a crime scene photo. The one that Joelle had been shown the night Simon died. Next to him was the knife that killed him. The knife that he had given her before he ran off. Pearl handled and silver glistening from the flash of the camera.

"Only two people knew I carried that knife everywhere. You and her. I trust you a hell of a lot more then I trust her."

"Why would she wait ten years to expose you?"

"I don't know and I don't care. I really don't care about Jimmy or what he did or didn't do. I just want to get out from under this investigation before I lose what's left of my life Eliot."

"You didn't love your husband?" Kenna looked down at her drink. She never really loved much in her life. The Spencer's had shown her the only love she'd ever really known.

"Jimmy wasn't like the other men I'd known. He was soft spoken and hard to read. He…intrieged me when we met. He was complicated and simple all at the same time." She swallowed hard. "He was there when I needed someone and I guess I got caught up in a dream I had." She laughed. "You and Jodi were the only ones who knew the real me. I lost you both because of a stupid choice." Eliot took her hand.

"You never lost us Kenna. We're still here. I'm still here." She looked up at him. His eyes had always soothed her pain away and tonight wasn't any different.

"Jodi said you were different now. That life had made you hard. I don't see that."

"Just wait. He'll be back." She smiled. Eliot Spencer had been her hero for a very long time and now she needed him to be that hero again. Just one time for old time sake.

"Thank you for coming to find me." He looked at her sheepishly.

"You can thank my friends." He pointed up to the camera in the corner. "They wouldn't let you get too far till we talked." Kenna smiled.

"I'm glad you have such nosey friends." Eliot shook his head.

"You ain't seen nothing yet."

/o/o/o/o/

Eliot opened Nate's door and ushered Kenna in. Three of the four members of his team sat on the couch. Hardison and Nate stood.

"Kenna Hawks, Hardison, Nate and Parker. Ahh…Sophie is doing some recon so she'll be here later." McKenna shook the teams hand and smiled a small smile. She was glad Eliot found somewhere to belong.

"So how much did Eliot tell you about my past?" Parker mumbled everything and the others said nothing. She sat on the chair facing them.

"I was four the first time I remember my mother bringing home a man other then my father. I was the youngest of six kids. My sister's were fourteen, twelve and eight. I heard things no child should here when she brought dates home. My sister's cried for hours after they left." Curling her legs under her, she felt Eliot's hand on her shoulder. "I knew I was safe till I was twelve. Mom never let them touch her girls before then. I met Jodi, Eliot's sister when I was in the second grade. She was in the first grade but we ate lunch together and we became great friends." Eliot remembered the waif of a child she was.

"She looked so sad the day Jodi brought her home. I thought she would fall over with a stiff wind."

"My mother never really cared where I was or who I was with so the next few years I spent every waking hour at the Spencer's. The three of us spent a lot of time in that old barn." She looked at Eliot. She would never tell them why the barn became their haven. Holly Spencer was an angle. The men she dated were devil spawned. "Then one night when I was ten Elliot brought me home and found out what my mother was doing to my sisters. He took me back home and I never really went back to my mother's house after that. Eliot taught me a lot about taking care of myself if any of those men tried to have me"

"Wasn't there anyone you could call? Child Welfare or something?" Parker asked. Eliot looked at his quiet side kick. He could tell that she related to the story being told. She might never admit it but he could tell. They were all a little bit broken.

"It was a small town. The gossip was bad enough but if we got taken away I'm sure mom's boyfriends would come after us. "Eliot had gone and got her a cup of coffee and handed it to her. "Thanks."

"We found out later that one of her 'dates' was the local sheriff. He would have buried things so deep no one would have found out the truth." Eliot was back at Kenna's side.

"We were wild back then. Eliot and Jodi's mother tried but she had her own life and the three of us together…well we were a force." She smiled. Her southern drawl coming out just a little. "I was sixteen. Eliot had left Kentucky for greener pastures and me and Jodi…well we got wilder. I didn't like feeling out of control so I never drank more than a beer or two but sometimes…" She stopped. Looking at Eliot to see if she could go on.

"You can tell them."

"Jodi would disappear for days. Her mom tried to get her some help but…Eliot leaving left us both a little out of sorts. One night she called me from Lexington and asked me to come get her. I didn't have a car and it was nearly forty miles but I hitched a ride and got there just as a man was picking Jodi up off the floor. I knew he dated my mother. He had taken advantage of my both my sisters who were still at home. He took one look at me and dropped Jodi. I never let him catch me home in all the years he'd been lurking around. I picked up Jodi and found her mom's keys and headed out." Kenna swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"We kind of know the rest if you feel you can't go one." Nate looked at Kenna and Eliot.

"No. It's been too many years without being said out loud. The car broke down about six miles from the Spencer's. Jodi and I took the back fields and tried to get home but Simon cut us off. He had Jodi pinned and he had his gun out. I only had the knife Eliot had given me for my last birthday. I stabbed him in the neck and he bled out before he could even turn around to fire at me. Jodi and I ran home as fast as we could. I made sure she was safe and I called Eliot and told him what happened. I left Kentucky that night and never looked back."

"Did you clean it up?" Nate looked at Eliot.

"I did what I had to do. Simon LaForce was a predator. I found out later he was wanted for statutory rape in six counties in Kentucky and the whole state of Tennessee was looking to hang the son of a bitch. Kenna did the world a favor."

"So now how does this tie into your problems with the NYPD." Kenna liked Nate. He pulled no punches. He got to the point.

"The Jimmy I knew wasn't corrupt. He got a file of the murder a few weeks before he died and I think he was looking into it. But my future lies in the hands of the Internal Affairs department. They've found nothing but a few files of old cases that might have been tampered with but other than that there is no paper trial. No money in overseas accounts."

"Yet they froze everything?"

"Everything that was in both our names, which wasn't much. He never asked why but I think he knew that sharing scared me. He never pushed for us to go ahead with buying a house or any big investments. We paid our bills and put the rest in savings. I had a few things in my name that was considered my run money. I don't think he knew about that till he got the file on Simon's murder."

"Run money?" Parker asked.

"If I needed a fast getaway it was there."

"Did he…hurt you?" The anger was apparent in Eliot's voice.

"No. He never touched me. But I had to make sure I had an out. You taught me that." Eliot, Jodi and Kenna had practically raised each other. He taught them to stand up and fight and they taught him compassion. It was a good trade. She watched her back even now. "I just want to clear my name. If I have to do the time for Simon I will but I wasn't involved in anything Jimmy is being accused of." Hardison had pulled up all the files on Jimmy McClain.

"According to these reports he had his hand in a whole lot of pots. Murder, drugs, extortion. If it was wrong he got caught doing it so to speak." Kenna stood and looked at the screens in front of her. It had all the charges, files and things they had on Jimmy. "They found more. When I left they just had the one bribery charge and some petty corruption charges." Shaking her head she crossed her arms over her chest. "Why him. Why now."

"That's what we're going to find out for you." Eliot came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Kenna I promise we'll figure this out." He hopped that he could keep this promise because he never quite forgave himself for breaking the last promise he had made to her.

(FLASHBACK)

The moon was full and the sky glistened with stars. He just turned sixteen and he had to get out of this town. The place was smothering him. Jodi had taken it hard and he knew Kenna wouldn't take it any better. She was fourteen and he knew she was going to be a heartbreaker. It was breaking his heart to tell her that he had to go but in the end it was the best for all of them. He would make a better life and send for them for them later.

"You look sad cowboy." Kenna sat next to him on the barn roof.

"I have to get out of this place kid. I know I promised you I'd wait but I just can't take it anymore." The look on her face nearly did him in but she took a deep breath and smiled.

"I know. I met the latest and greatest last night. I figured it wouldn't be long and you would have to go." She took his hand and held it. "Just be safe and make the right choices." He laughed. He had told her that not too long ago when she said she liked a boy in her math class.

"You and Jodi stay in school and when I get settled I will come for the both of you." Kenna smiled. Eliot needed to worry more about him and less about them but he would never just leave them.

"You go and make your mark on this world and don't worry about us." Eliot knew that she was going to play it tuff like she always did.

"I promise…I will come back for you." Kenna squeezed his hand and closed her eyes and wished the best for her friend.

(Present Day)

Kenna was curled up on his couch as he put coffee on the next morning. Parker was sitting on the bar stool. He never asked how or why she was there but she seemed to know he needed to talk to someone.

"How's she doing?"

"Better than I expected."

"How about you?"

"I don't know what to feel." He handed her a cup of coffee. "She always brought out something in me I was afraid of."

"You're afraid of her?" Parker giggled. Eliot looked at her. He threw a towel at her and started breakfast.