Claire had been crying somewhat frantically when her parents made it back to the grave-site. She clutched onto Sam tightly, even a few seconds after her father's arms had reached for her and she'd started to wail 'Daddy' over the frantic gasps and sniffs.
Michael had dropped back into a chair running his hands over soft dark locks whispering and mumbling to her.
"I've got you Baby Girl." He sighed, as her fingers finally relaxed against his neck. "I've got you."
Sam told the minister to go on and start through his clenched throat. The man didn't hear him until Jesse stepped in and relayed the message in a stronger tone. Fiona had gone stoic again. Her hand clamped firmly on Michael's shoulder as she stood.
She looked angry, Nate thought. Maybe she should be. Maybe someone should be angry.
At Michael, or their mother or at the whole damned situation. He wasn't really sure which, beside him his wife snorted before leaning in and whispering.
"Fatten a calf.." She said wryly. "The prodigal son has returned yet again."
He didn't have the energy to explain to her that didn't make sense. It was slaughter a fatten calf. Not fatten it. It was already fat. He looked at his round children and winced.
"Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," When the preacher started speaking the words seemed louder in his head then they should be. Nate's eyes dropped to his brother. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."
He thought, for the first time in a long time, about what it must mean to be Michael Westen. Maybe for the first time ever it didn't seem appealing.
"For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
Nate looked at his own wife, baby on her hip eyes faced forward at the minister. At the end of the day, she was tactless and over indulgent. At the end of the day she was also loyal, and kind and she thought he could do anything he put his mind to. At the end of the day they put their children to sleep and sat on the couch watching movies and talking about which of the limos needed to be serviced and which of the drivers needed to be praised or reprimanded.
He'd never been faced with stopping a war or freeing hostages. He'd never had to kiss his two day old baby goodbye or hear about his mother's death in a telegram. At the end of the day, he was at home. With is children. With Ruth. And it was.. nice.
"O death, where is thy victory? Oh death, where is thy sting?'"
It was almost a strange sensation not to be jealous of his brother. It was not entirely pleasant to find himself feeling sorry for him.
…...
I told them that you were the perfect son. That you always wrote me, you called me all the time, and that the most important thing to you was family. I told them that. And they wrote it down.
"Michael?" He closed his eyes, bringing himself back to the present, turning his head to look at his wife, standing in the doorway of her bedroom looking in at him. "Hi."
His lips cracked into a smile and he reached out his hand to her. She slid onto his lap, crossing her arms behind his head. He rubbed the base of her skull with one hand while tracing the subtle curve of her lap with the other and narrowing his eyes.
"We 100% sure now?" He asked her, a hint of playfulness in his usual flat tone.
"Five months sure." She bent and straightened her fingers gently against his neck. She looked tired, but somehow serene. "I was going to do something creative Michael. Sam and I were bouncing around ideas of how to tell you when Claire slipped up and ruined it." She shook her head. "It's not like I was trying to hide it." He grinned slowly tipping his head down to look at her pointedly. She shook her head with a grin. "This time."
He took a long breath and let it out slowly. She leaned in a little closer, kissing him quickly.
"Are you happy?" She asked with a familiar insecurity he thought he'd long since banished in her voice. "I mean it was a happy surprise right?" He framed her small face with his large hands and nodded at her before kissing her again.
"Happy.." He muttered as she pulled him in for a tight hug. "Terrified."
"It worked out okay the last time didn't it?" The security was back in her tone and he let his eyes shut in relief as he nodded into her shoulder.
She started to straighten up, but he wouldn't let go, burrowing deeper into the crook of her neck. She slid her palms over the back of his head and sighed, knowing they needed to talk about the elephant in the room, but not wanting to.
She knew he was trying to give her a few moments, just for them and she appreciated that. It gave her time to get her strength up. Collect her bearings now that one of her landmarks had suddenly disappeared. She knew Michael's emotional connection to his his mother was stronger, but her own was more constant. More necessary. Madelyn Westen had been the mother she longed for, the sister she'd lost and the friend she'd never let herself have. And now she was dead. And Fiona found herself alone once again.
Not alone. She though, feeling the faint flutter kicks of her baby and the hot breath of her husband on the nape of her neck. Not really alone. She forced him back, pressing her fingertips to his cheeks and looking him over.
"You should rest." She decided. "Sam and Nate took the kids to get ice cream and Jesse's letting Ruth help him garden in the back yard." She made a face.
"I'm okay." He argued weakly, but she was already pulling him to the bed, climbing backwards across the sheets on her knees. His face broke into his actual smile at her insistence. This.. this was why he'd fallen in love with Fiona years ago. She simply would not take no for an answer.
"She invited half the funeral goers for dinner tonight. You'll need the rest." She sang as he laid on his side she shimmied her body off the other edge of the bed and pressed her arms forward to hold her gaze level with his. "We might have to kill her later." He widened his eyes and nodded as she pushed up and sat next to him. He curved into a C until his head rested on her thigh. "She was sick Michael, but I didn't think she was going to-." She whispered stopping her words and the strokes she'd began through his hair at the same time. "She'd known for a few months and she didn't tell me. I think Sam knew." She took a shaky breath and he wrapped his hand around her knee, slowly watching his thumb caress her kneecap as she spoke. "I'm pretty sure Sam knew. Then Jesse.. I guess no one bothered to think I might need a warning." She huffed. "She had a really hard time breathing.. um.. a few days ago and Sam took her to Mercy and.. she never came home."
He pressed his eyes shut.
"I didn't go Michael." She whispered. "Sam said she wasn't.. um.. awake.. so I didn't-."
" 's okay, Fi."
"Is it?" She sniffed, "She would have thrown a fit Michael!" He grinned a little, she would have. "She would have wanted me to drop everything and rush-."
"Fiona I was in Kor-e-a. I'm the one guilty of not being there, not you." He said, rolling off her lap and opening his arms to her. She dropped gratefully into them. "She would have wanted you there.. but she wouldn't have expected you there." He clarified. "Hell she would have wanted all of us there, weeping with lit candles." His wife snickered. "And if that's what she expected she should have given us a little more notice." He told her evenly.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with out her Michael." Fiona whimpered breathlessly.
…...
"Are you guys gonna be okay?" Nate asked suddenly, spinning on his heals to look at Axe. Sam wrinkled his eyebrows in surprise before putting on his game face.
"Sure." He smiled. "We'll be fine."
"How?" Nate insisted shaking his head. "I mean. It's basically just you and Fi now. How are you going to work a job? And who's going to watch after my niece and keep her safe from the bad guys while you're out riding Miami of all the drug-lords and con artists? And Fi's pregnant for God sakes she can't be out there.. doing.. what you guys do." He kept shaking his head. "And you know you're not a young guy Sam."
Sam looked at Claire silently licking at her frozen yogurt while her cousins laughed and played with laps full of chocolate sundae's and sprinkles.
"How you gonna keep Claire in that school with the good security and the smart people curriculum and stuff?"
Sam lowered his head and put his hands in his pockets.
"Mike sends money." He told him.
"And when he gets caught up in North Korea's war?" Nate continued. "Will his top secret pension pay for the massive amount of therapy Claire's going to need when Fiona goes completely nuts and blows up half of Miami?"
"Hey hey!"
"I'm not saying he's the dead beat dad that my wife tries to make him out to be, but she does have a point Sam. Michael is.. he's all about Michael. Even if he doesn't mean to be. Who's looking out for Fi and Claire and the baby now that Mom's.." He stopped looking down at his feet.
"I am." Sam said calmly. "I am." He clapped his hand on Nate's arm in very paternal gesture. "She was so proud." He grinned. "Of who you became. Of your family." Nate snorted.
"She thought Ruth was a rude and that my kids were fat little foul mouths."
"But they were you're fat little foul mouths, and she loved them." Sam chuckled. "I don't think anyone ever accused Madelyn Westen of being polite either you know."
Nate smiled at that.
"She depended on Michael you know? And no matter how many times he let her down she always forgave him."
"Mike is what he is, Nate." Sam sighed. "A lot of the parts of him that might have kept him from being able to walk away so easy were knocked out of him by your dad."
"Yeah." Nate muttered, dropping to a bench and folding his hands. "It all goes back to dear old Dad."
"No." Sam looked back at Claire. "He's forty two.. at some point it falls on the man himself."
…...
"Jesse?" Westen stood in the door way of the weapons shed as Jesse examined the small corner that was actually full of 'shed-like' items until he came up with a long green hose.
"Hey Mike." He started rolling the long tangled mess around his arm. "How is it Fi's arsenal is in perfect form but the garden hose is in a knotted heap?"
"I need your help."
"Anything. I've already told Fiona that I'll get all the legal stuff out of the way about the will and-."
"I need a job, Jes." The spy closed his eyes.
"Ah Mike are you really going to do this like..?" He held up his arms and let them drop. "Every four years?"
"Jesse."
"You're not Counter Intelligence. You'll never be Counter Intelligence and you don't want to be Counter Intelligence!"
"I want to be home!" He yelped. "With my wife and my kids."
"Then quit." He said shaking his head back and forth.
"It's not that simple."
"It never is with you!"
"I need an agency, Jesse. I need protection. I have not spent my career doing nice clean things for nice clean people! There are people that will come after me and my family if I am not protected."
"It's the job of your agency-."
"I don't have one! I never did. No one is going to spend any time or resources protecting some rouge spy with a questionable background from-."
"Then you should have thought about that." Jesse hissed. "Seven years ago."
"What?"
"We sat at the counter in your loft and gave you a choice. Destroy or Rejoin. You picked rejoin. You went back in." Porter pointed to him. "You didn't think about Fiona or Sam or your mom. You didn't think about what was going to happen ten years down the road. It was about redeeming your reputation. So.. congratulations.. that's what you're stuck with. Your reputation."
"Jesse-."
"Now I have to go back out there and run interference between your wife and your brother's or we'll have to have Ruth's funeral tomorrow." Porter shook his head before backing out of the shed and back to Ruth with the hose trailing behind him.
…...
"Mom?" Claire poked her head in the door to her grandmother's bedroom. Fiona stood staring at the open closet.
"Where have you been?" Fiona blinked feigning ignorance.
"The boardwalk." She rolled her eyes and climbed onto the bed. Fi ignored the way that Claire searched the room with her eyes. "What are you looking for?"
"I'm not sure." She traced over the over the top shirts. "I'm just.. looking.."
"For something of Grandma's?" Her voice was soft and Fiona watched her stretch out on Madelyn's bed.
"I'm not sure." Fi repeated, watching her daughter nibble at the side of her lip before her eyes darted away.
"Where's Daddy?" She tried not to sound concerned.
"Um.." Fi lifted her shoulders. "I think he went to talk to Uncle Nate."
"What does Counter Intel mean?" She asked.
"Paper protectors." Fiona shook her head.
"Like Jesse." Claire said softly.
"Why?"
"Jesse told Uncle Sam he had to turn Daddy down for Counter Intel." Claire looked at her mom. "We could just protect Daddy's papers in the fire safe."
Fiona kept her face even, before smiling.
"That's a wonderful idea McBride. I'll pass it along."
"I could use a wonderful idea right now." Michael's voice startled her, and Claire made room for him on the bed, patting the mattress beside herself.
"I was saying you could keep your papers in the fire safe." She pointed to the closet. Michael looked at Fiona who smiled at him pointedly.
"Sure.." He said smartly, sitting down beside her. "What are you looking for?"
"Nothing." She backed up and joined them on the bed. "I was just thinking about the house. Last night Ruth and Nate got here and I hadn't even thought about where everyone should go you know? So Sam gave up his room and slept on Claire's bed and I took Claire in my room with me and no one slept in here." She looked around. "I didnt want that woman to-." She stopped short, glancing at Claire before Micael nodded slowly. "So. I started thinking about how it's not really fair to Sam and that those children shouldn't be exposed to all our things anyway. So I was thinking of moving us in here and giving your brother my room." She watched Claire finger Madelyn's bed spread sticking her fingers in the eyelets of the pillow sham. "But um.. I'd need some room.." She looked in the closet.
"You don't have to do this tonight." He breathed.
"I have to do it sometime Michael." She whispered. "There might be things Nate wants. Or something you might want to take with you?" He shook his head. "I have to pick out something for Virgil."
"Virgil."
"He was very sweet to her Michael!" She huffed, standing up and sliding some clothes out of the way. "And I know she has Christmas presents for the three little pigs back here somewhere."
Claire giggled and her father poked her with his index finger before grinning.
"There's just a lot of stuff." Fiona sighed.
"Hey Claire?" Jesse's voice made Michael's back stiffen. "Sam says your friend from school Abbey James is here.. and he thinks she needs you to rescue her from your cousin Francie."
The little girls eyes widened before she scrambled off the bed and out the door. Jesse stood there.
"Was there something else?" Fiona asked sharply, letting both men know she'd already heard about their little conversation.
"Look Mike." He sighed. "I'm sorry about the way that went down. I'm not changing my mind. I just-." He grunted uncomfortably. "Your mom just died man. We shouldn't be taking shots at each other in a shed."
Michael was about to remind him he hadn't taken any shots before he felt Fiona's hand on his leg.
"I appreciate that Jesse." She said softly. "But if you don't mind, Michael and I really just want to be alone right now."
"Sure.. that's cool, but just so you know you guys are really going to owe Sam some mojitos. He's been on Nate duty all day." He cocked his head. "And Claire's been surrounded by those cousins of hers."
He clapped his hands and backed up into the hall.
"He's right. Sam probably needs a break." Michael sighed as Fiona sat beside him on the bed.
"Claire too." Fi raised her eyebrows.
"I could put Nate and the piglets up in a hotel." He looked at her and she nodded slowly. "Could put us up in a hotel. In Paris or Mexico or something." She smiled at him. "Grab Sam and the kid. We could go to Bath have your mother come down for the week?"
"That sounds lovely." She whispered, streaching out beside him on the bed. "It also sounds a lot like running away."
"What's so wrong with running away?" He asked.
"You're good at it Michael." She breathed, soothing her harsh words with a light kiss.
"Is it still running if I take you all with me?"
"Sam might not want-."
"Sam doesn't have anything more holding him here then we do."
"Claire's school-."
"There are schools in Bath, and London and even Moscow."
"You're daughter's Russian is as bad as Sam's." His wife laughed.
"Fiona I'm serious." He spit the words out of his mouth, looking at her intently. "Jesse was my only chance at Miami." Fi looked down at the mattress. "If I'm getting out? We have to leave."
"Michael.."
"We came because they stuck me here. We stayed because my mom was here. We can go now Fi." He dropped his head to look in her eyes. "We should go now."