BFF Job

Chapter Five

Kenna woke up like she did yesterday, with Parker watching her. Sitting up she looked for Eliot.

"He went for coffee." Parker answered without her saying a word.

"How did you sleep?" Kenna decided that she should get to know the people closest to Eliot now.

"I don't sleep much."

"I gathered."

"What about you?"

"Yeah…not too bad."

"Can I ask you something?" Parker asked her new…associate? Friend?

"Sure. The worse I can do is not answer, right?"

"Right." Parker smiled. "We're you and Eliot…you know…dating before he left Kentucky." Kenna laughed.

"Parker, me and Eliot…"

"No Parker, we never dated." Eliot came into the room and slammed the door. "We did a lot of things but dating was not one of them." He answered gruffly. Throwing her a pint of milk, a box of cereal , and a spoon as he set down the coffee in his hand.

"Don't sound so happy about." Kenna smiled at him when he handed her a cup a coffee.

"You wouldn't like me happy darlin'. It's not my style." Parker was amazed at the banter between the two old friends.

"You could handle me Spencer." Kenna took a sip of her coffee. "You remembered." He looked at her.

"Something's just stick in your head." Parker opened her cereal and watched the two silently.

"Admit it Eliot…I'm always in your head." He pursed his lips they way he always did when he knew that what someone was saying was right. Turning to his own coffee Eliot took a deep breath.

"Nate said they have something. We need to get going on this before everything goes south." Parker got up and took her cereal next door leaving Eliot and Kenna alone.

"I'll be gone as soon as this is over Eliot." He turned and looked at her.

"Yeah, you and I are really good at gone." He said. "Pro's even."

"Guess we can thank our daddies for that." Standing up she grabbed her bag and headed to the bathroom. "I'll be out in a few minutes.

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

The screen came to life in front of the six people in the room.

"Okay this is what I got from everything I got from the NYPD and Jimmy McClain's records." Hardison stood. "He's been on and off the cities payroll for about twenty years. Stints in rehab and family medical leave fill in the missing time he wasn't working. I looked up those hit and run reports and he didn't work any of them. The last one with the witness was never filed so I looked up that detective." A picture flashed up on the screen. "Detective Jackson Mann. Been on the force fourteen years. He's what's known as a closer. If a case can't be solved, they bring in Mann and he close's it. He's found over a dozen needles in haystacks. Unsolvable crimes are his game."

"I never met him. I just saw him at the scene that day. He looked at me and asked me what the woman had told me. We exchanged a few words and that was it. He never even asked me my name. That's when I told him if he needed to get a hold of me he could reach me though Jimmy. He said…you must be Mary. I thought you were a nurse….he just turned and left." Kenna crossed her arms over her chest like she done a million times before. It was a way she protected herself.

"So maybe Mann went to Jimmy…said 'Hey I met your wife today' and then things went south from there." Nate said as he watched Kenna start to pace.

"Someone finding out about Kenna wasn't the trigger though." Eliot added.

"No something else. Jimmy isn't involved. Other than a whole lot of dept Jimmy's clean. His bigamy messed up someone else's party." Hardison pushed another button. "This guy." An older man appeared on the screen. "Deputy Chief Samson 'Spike' Delaplant. I ran the hit and run dates to every electronic datebook the NYPD. They guy had a meeting within a ten block radius within three hours of the accidents."

"So this is a cover up for a big police muckity muck?" Parker asked from the corner.

"That's what it looks like." Hardison answers. Nate looked at his crew and the young woman that he knew meant the world to his hitter.

"Okay then." Nate stood. "We need to find out what other extracurricular activities this guy is into and find out why keeping Kenna quiet the way he did was necessary." The wheels were turning in Nate's head. Eliot could almost see them. "Kenna I think you need to visit your husband. Maybe he's got an idea why you took the fall for this." Nate said. "Eliot, take her to see Jimmy." He looked at the rest of the team. "The rest of us will figure out our next step." Eliot nodded and grabbed his jacket and lead Kenna out to the truck.

o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o

"How are you holding up?" Eliot asked when they got on the toll way.

"Better than I thought I would." She smiled. "Thank you for being here for me Eliot."

"You know I'm always here for you McKenna."

"I'm sorry I wasn't the same kind of friend." She looked at him. "I know what you've been though. I wish I could say I understand why you didn't call me.

"You were working on your own life."

"I wouldn't have a life if it wasn't for you Eliot." Kenna curled her legs under her like she did as a child. "You gave me a life. Why wouldn't you let me help get yours back on track?"

"Does it look like I don't have a life? I have a job and friends."

"You think this is a life? Being the muscle for thieves and hackers is not a life." He shook his head.

"You never complained when I was your muscle."

"You never had to. You wanted to."

"What makes you think I don't want to be the muscle for Nate and the others?"

"Do you?"

"We do good things for good people Kenna." She knew he was right. Parker had filled her in on some of the jobs they had done over the years. She wanted to make sure Eliot was happy with the way his life was going.

"That's all I wanted to hear Eliot. That you are happy." He was as happy as he could be with what he had been though in his life. Someday when he was comfortable in his own skin again he might tell Kenna what he'd seen and done over the years but not now. Not yet. They were quiet till they pulled up in front of Jimmy McClain's other life.

"You don't have to do this Kenna. I can go in there and take care of things for you." Eliot looked at the house.

"If you go in there by yourself Eliot I will visit you in jail the next time I'm in town." She got out and headed toward the house. Eliot followed a few feet behind. Kenna rang the bell. A tall brunette opened the door. "Hello…is Jimmy home?" She said a lot calmer then she felt.

"Yes, he is. You are?"

"A friend. I was in the neighborhood and I thought I would drop in." The older woman looked Kenna up and down.

"Do you work with Jim?" The woman asked.

"Paramedic. We worked a case a few months back."

"He's in the garage out back." Kenna nodded and turned going back down the steps followed by Eliot. They went around the house and the sound of an old Styx song wavered from around the corner. Jimmy was under the hood of a classic mustang.

"Give the word and I'll slam that hood down so hard he won't wake up for a week." Eliot whispered in her ear. Kenna smiled.

"Let's see what he has to say first." Eliot frowned but turned his earpiece on so the others could hear the conversation between Kenna and her so called husband. "Jimmy?" The man looked up and saw who was calling his name.

"Kenna." He looked at her. "I thought you were dead." Eliot looked at the man…then at Kenna.

"They told me you were dead too." Kenna answered.

"Who's your friend?"

"Jodie's brother Eliot. He was in town. Though he'd kill a bigamist just for fun. You're lucky I talked him out of it." Eliot smirked. He liked the sassy Kenna.

"I didn't know what they had going. They told me that hit and run driver took you out. They said they were keeping it quiet because they couldn't catch them."

"Your 'wife' dies and you don't even question it?" Eliot growled under his breath.

"They said you were…a killer. That you killed a man when you were a kid. They thought it was someone coming for revenge."

"Who the hell is 'they'?" Kenna stood with her arms crossed. She was pissed. He could tell by the look in her eye that the guy had about five minutes before she blew.

"IAD. The brass said it was…cold blooded and that…I should run and not look back." Then her fists were balled up; her feet were planted in a fighter's stance.

"So you threw me under the bus? Did you ever love me? Or did you just marry me because Sarah got tired of your bull shit?" He looked scared. The man was a twenty year police vet and he looked scared of the woman standing in front of him. The knife was out of her boot and Jimmy was up against the work bench before Eliot had a chance to take another breath.

"KENNA!" Eliot was fast but Kenna was faster. The knife was up against the cop's throat. "McKenna Shane Hawks back the hell off now!"

"Eliot get her out of there now." Nate yelled in the hitter's ear.

"What the hell do you thing I'm doing?" He yelled back. "Baby give me the knife." He whispered.

"You're the one who wanted to kill the bastard." She turned and looked at him. Her brown eyes were full of fire. A fire he'd never seen before. "I'm just saving you the trouble."

"Darlin' you know I'm up to torturing the son of a bitch till he's nothing but a pile of shit but it won't clear your name. That's what we're he for, remember?" He looked at the man who was about an inch from wetting himself. "Let's get what we can from him and get the hell out of here. We'll leave him to his wife." Kenna turned to see Sarah McClain standing near the garage door.

"Why did you let me hang?"

"To save my marriage." She took a deep breath and stood straight up. Eliot sighed in relief. Kenna lifted her leg and replaced the knife.

"It's under control Nate." Eliot said.

"Let's keep it that way." Nate replied.

"I'm sorry Sarah." Kenna looked at the woman just before her knee cam up and hit Jimmy solidly between the legs. She turned back to Eliot and headed to the car.

"Remind not to piss you off." He followed behind her. "We're headed back". Eliot said to Nate.

"Damage control?"

"Let's just say McClain won't be walking upright for a very long time."

/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o/o

"What the hell were you thinking back there?" Eliot shouted at Kenna as they drove down the highway.

"I just wanted him to tell me why." She whispered.

"Kenna I know that this has been hard on you but if you want our help you have to keep that temper of yours in check."

"You used to like my temper." Kenna answered, not looking at him.

"Yeah well you're a little old for temper tantrums to be cute anymore." Eliot growled out. "I should have taken you over my knee a long time ago girl."

"Gotta love when your big brother mentality comes to the surface."

"You've seen what my big brother mentality can do so maybe you might want to back the attitude off a few degrees."

Back at the hotel the four other members of the Leverage crew were listing to the banter between Eliot and Kenna.

"Do you think they were always like this?" Hardison asked the others.

"They were just kids back then." Nate returned. "They didn't have what they have now."

"What's different?" Parker asked.

"Chemistry!' The other three answered in unison.

"Shut up, all of you!" Eliot screamed as he switched off his ear bud.

I hope you still like this. I do my best but sometimes it's just for myself! Again I own nothing but Kenna.