The BFF Job

Chapter Three

Kenna woke up to the smell of coffee. She wasn't a morning person and she never had been. Eliot had always been a night owl too. She wanted to know what changed.

"How'd you sleep?" She was startled to see Parker at the end of the couch.

"Fine." Sitting up she saw Eliot at the stove.

"Parker, did you wake her up?"

"I didn't. She quit snoring ten minutes ago." Kenna smiled.

"I was getting up." Putting her feet under her she watched Eliot.

"Did he always like to cook?" Parker asked.

"He took Home Ec because the teacher had double ds." Eliot shook his head but didn't turn around.

"It's always about the double ds." Parker replied

"I can hear you." He said with a little laugh.

.

"Some things never change." Kenna liked Parker a lot. She was like a brilliant child and she seemed to bring out something in Eliot that might of gotten lost after he left Kentucky.

"Do you two ever sleep?" She asked looking to Eliot then to Parker.

"Sleeps over rated." They both said at the same time. Kenna saw something in them that she had missed since Eliot had gone away that summer so many years ago. The feeling of belonging. Of a friendship that could never be explained to anyone but each other. That's what they had so many years ago. It was something she wanted back. She wondered if Eliot had room for another lost soul.

"Thanks again for everything you guys are doing for me. When they started investigating Jimmy I didn't really have a clue what to do. I called Jodi. She told me to come home." Eliot turned from the stove and looked at his old friend.

"How is my baby sister?" He put eggs on three plates and grabbed some toast out of the oven.

"Good. She's still seeing Charlie from the garage."

"He's good to her?" Kenna saw the flash of worry across his face and then it was gone.

"Best man in the county." She answered.

"Breakfast ladies." Kenna and Parker went to the table and the three of them sat down to eat.

"Eliot, I need you at Nat's." Hardison said though the earpiece Eliot hadn't removed from his ear after an early morning recon.

"You guys finish up." Eliot got up. "I'll be right back." He shot Parker a look that didn't get passed Kenna. He left his breakfast and the two women and headed across the hall.

"Does he always just take off like that?" Kenna asked.

"Now and then." Was all Parker said.

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"What do you have?" Eliot charged into Nate's apartment.

"You're not going to like it." Hardison answered.

"Yeah well give it to me any way."

"Seems Detective James McCain had a few secrets not even IAD found." Eliot looked at the picture on the screens in front of him. It was Kenna's husband with another woman and three kids.

"So he was married before."

"This picture was taken six weeks ago. Right before his death." Eliot looked at Hardison. "Yeah, I thought you'd be pissed." Some more files appeared on the screen. "He had a whole other life on Staten Island. Kids, wife, a mortgage."

"That's why he kept things with Kenna the way he did. He had another family to support." How was that possible in this day and age Eliot didn't know. "If Kenna was…how did…does the department know about this?"

"It looks like they just might and that's why they started the investigation."

"Then why didn't they tell me about the other woman?" Kenna had come in and no one had heard her. Eliot stood up.

"Kenna…" He reached for her but she shrugged him off.

"Why haven't they told me about her?"

"That's what we need to find out." Nate came from his bedroom. "There is a reason why they aren't telling you about her so we to need to know if she knows about you." Kenna looked at the older man.

"How do we do that?"

"It's all about the insurance." Nate knew it all when it came to down to it all that matter was they payout in the end. Eliot looked at the older man and then back at Kenna.

"They never said anything to you that this might be because he had another family?" She shook her head. "Kenna this isn't your fault." She looked at him. Her eyes blazing.

"I'm smarter than this Eliot. How did I not see this?" She walked to the window and watched the snow falling over the city. "I need to know how much more was kept from me."

"We're already on it." Hardison said as he typed in a few more things. Eliot came up behind Kenna. He didn't touch her but he leaned in and whispered in her ear.

"If he wasn't already dead, I would kill the bastard." She smiled and leaned back, closing her eyes.

"One dead body between us is enough." Laughing he took her in his arms and Kenna felt safe for the first time in years.

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Parker packed light no matter where she was going. It was easier that way. She sat in Eliot living room waiting on Kenna to come back from Nate's. It was the first time she had been alone in Eliot's apartment in a long time. She never really noticed its sparse decorations and it unhomey feeling.

"Why are you lurking in my apartment?" Eliot stood by his bedroom door.

"I'm not lurking."

"It sure looks like lurking."

"I'm waiting. Not lurking." Eliot looked at his friend.

"Okay, your waiting."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"She hasn't been okay since Simon tried to kill her and Jodi." He leaned against the wall. "I should have taken them both out of there after that."

"You didn't know what was going to happen." He shook his head.

"I knew something would happen sooner or later. If it wasn't Simon it would have been something else. I was the one person they could depend on and I blew it."

"You had to. That place…you said it was bad."

"It was bad for all of us." Again Kenna snuck up on them. "He came back when we needed him the most." She grabbed her bag and headed back down the hall. "Nate said it's time to go." Parker looked at the older woman and knew that there was more between her and her friend then anyone would ever know.

"Maybe we should stop talking about this when she's not in the room." Parker looked Eliot.

"Maybe." Grabbing his bag they all headed out to the airport.

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New York was more beautiful than ever when the snow was falling. Sophie was meeting them at the hotel in a few hours. Till then Nate was going to make a visit to the other widow McClain. Kenna took Parker and Eliot to what was left of her apartment she had shared with Jimmy. It was torn up from the living to the back bedroom.

"Not the best at putting things back where they found them are they?"

"Everything that links me to him is gone Eliot. Pictures, papers…all gone." He looked around the small apartment.

"How about your lease?"

"Jimmy had the place before we got married. We never got around to putting me on the lease." There was a knock. Eliot stopped Kenna from going to the door. He went and opened it. Standing in the hall was a little old man.

"Miss Kenna…I'm sorry. They…they had a warrant."

"It's okay Charlie. I knew they were coming."

"I know this is a bad time Miss Kenna…the rent…it was never paid and Mr. Jimmy never put you on the lease…" Kenna looked at the old man.

"I'll be out by then end of the week Charlie."

"I'm sorry again." He nodded and left. Eliot closed the door.

"They haven't got to the old man yet. He can prove you lived here."

"He can prove I lived here, not that I was married to the man." Kenna went into the bedroom and tried to sort out what was left of her life. Parker watched her go and started to say something but Eliot put his hand up.

"Just keep your mouth shut and we stay out of trouble." Parker smiled and started cleaning up the mess in the living room."

O/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o

Nate stood in front of a large two story brick house. Hardison was in the van down the block.

"Isn't it protocol for a squad to be parked outside a fall officer's house till the funeral?" Nate asked Hardison.

"It's been a week. Maybe he's done been buried."

"In all those files did we see anything on the funeral arrangements?"

"Just a whole lot of pending." Nate knocked on the door. A pretty brunette woman answered the door.

"Hello. Nate Gunderson from the insurance company that represents the police department."

"Hello."

"Mrs. James McClain I presume."

"That would be me."

"I'm sorry for you loss. The department and our company will do everything in its power to see that this goes as smoothly as possible."

"My loss?"

"Your husband James." She glared at him.

"James? Jimmy isn't dead. He's in the back mowing the lawn."

"I didn't see that one coming." Hardison said in Nate's ear.

"I'm sorry; there must have been a mix up in the paper work. So sorry to have bothered you." Nate turned and headed back toward the van. "Get us out of here now." Hardison met him at the curb and they headed to the hotel.

"Now what?"

"It seems the NYPD has a few secrets."

"Nate you know as well as I do they have a whole lot of secrets but this one is the one we need to work on."

"Let's get everyone up to speed on this and see what we can do to solve our little dilemma."

"And don't forget we have to keep Eliot from killing the not so dead Detective McClain."

"Please don't remind me." Nate leaned back and closed his eyes. This was going to be way harder then he imagined.

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I hope your still reading….thanks if you still are