(Final Chapter. I hope it wasn't too bad. As usual I own nothing but my OC Helene.)
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"Well here we are! Home away from home." Benji grinned as he, Jane, Helene and Brandt got off the trolley bus at the harbor Ethan had instructed them to meet him at a week following the disarming of the Russian missile.
Jane rolled her eyes at him. "Real funny, Benji." She turned to look over her shoulder when Brandt and Helene started lagging behind.
"Hey! Come on you two! We haven't got all night!" Benji called to the couple who merely turned to smile at them in return.
"We'll catch up! You guys go ahead!" Brandt retorted, winking at the duo before turning his attention back to his wife.
Benji and Jane exchanged glances, shrugged then turned to continue on their way as if nothing had happened.
Helene chuckled. "Can you believe we're all about to go our separate ways now?" She took a brief minute to gaze around herself before looking back at Brandt.
"I know what you mean." Brandt nodded, his dark grey eyes glinting in the glow of the streetlights as people walked past them with not a care or worry in their minds.
"After everything we just went through together, it's going to be feel a little weird to be go back to our own devices isn't it?" Brandt smiled though it didn't reach his eyes as he turned to lean against the wall next to Helene.
Helene lowered her eyes. "Yeah...I never thought I'd say this after Croatia, but it was nice to be back in the field. At least for a little bit." She amended at the last second.
Brandt chuckled at that. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Even if the IMF was completely shutdown and we were running the risk of getting disavowed for almost everything we did." He folded his arms across his chest.
Helene nodded. "Yeah." She trailed off as a couple no older than their mid twenties walked by. The man had his arm wrapped around the woman and Helene saw that her belly was round poking out slightly from underneath the pink cardigan she was wearing.
"You thinking about him?" Brandt asked, noticing the couple as well. Helene sighed and looked down at her feet. "Everyday since we left to meet the Secretary." She swallowed and licked her lips. "What about you? Have you thought about him?"
Brandt barely nodded his head. "Every day and night." He straightened slightly and moved so he was standing directly in Helene's line of sight.
"Think your Mother will understand if we explain why we had to take an extended leave of absence?" He asked grinning slightly as a seagull scrawked overhead.
Helene rolled her eyes. "She wouldn't care about our reasons even if we were allowed to explain." She looked up to meet his gaze again. Brandt snickered. "Yeah you're right." He closed the distance between them a little more.
"What do you say we head over then and not keep Ethan waiting on us?" He held out his hand. Helene hesitated. "You do know why he called us over here right?" She asked, scuffing the toe of her boot on the asphalt.
Brandt's smile faded slightly. "What do you mean?"
"He probably wants to recruit us. I overheard him on the phone the last day we met together. The IMF gave him another mission and they gave him the option of assembling his own back up team." She dug her fingernails into her sides.
"I know we always go to work together, but I don't know if I can force myself to be away from my baby anymore." She frowned and stared at the gravel beneath her feet.
"It was hard enough, knowing I couldn't go back to him the night the Secretary died and we were forced to go on the run with Ethan and his team."
Brandt sighed at that. "Yeah...I don't know if I could do it either." He slowly lowered his arm. "I mean we agreed when Seth was born that our focus would be on raising him."
Helene looked up at him at this.
"I wouldn't stop you though if you decided to stay. You're a really good helper, William." She teased him a bit at the end and Brandt caught her sarcasm.
"Very funny." He shifted his weight from one foot to the next.
"I'm serious." Helene stepped forward and took his right hand. "You should stay if he asks. You're a better field agent than I am and they need you more than I do." She stroked the top of his hand.
Brandt flipped his hand around and grabbed her hand in his own. "No they don't. You and Seth are my priority now, Helene and if Ethan offers me a position, I'm turning him down. No ifs, ands or butts about it." He brought her hand up to the level of his chest.
A smile worked its way up to the tips of Helene's lips at that. "I knew there was a reason why I love you." She murmured teasing him again.
Brandt smiled and pulled her into a loving embrace.
...
"So! I hear the insurance company is refusing to pay the claim on that car you totaled, Ethan." Benji said as Will and Helene joined the others at the table Ethan was sitting at.
"Yeah something about intentional 100 meter vertical drops not being covered." Jane added. Ethan shrugged his shoulders. "Go figure. How are you two doing?" He asked nodding at Brandt and Helene.
"Fine." Helene answered for the both of them. "How about you, Jane?" She turned to face her new friend.
"Healing." Jane smiled.
"How's the leg, Ethan?" Brandt piped in. "I heard you busted it pretty good while skyfalling in that car." He snickered. Ethan rolled his eyes. "Still working." He grinned. "For your information."
Brandt chuckled.
"Uh I'm fine by the way...if anyone cares." Benji raised his hand. "I mean I'm not exactly sleep per se. You know cold sweats in the middle of the night."
Helene gave him a sympathetic look. "I know what you mean. Even when we were getting off the bus this morning I couldn't shake the feeling that...it's wrong. I mean all these people are just walking around happy and completely oblivious to the fact that we just risked our necks to make sure they didn't get vaporized." She said reflectively.
Brandt nodded his head at her. "Well if it wasn't for dumb luck-."
"Was it?" Ethan cut him off. "I mean sure we were practically unpreprared and disavowed, but the only thing that functioned properly through all that was this team." He leaned forward and leaned his elbows on the table.
"I'm still not sure how we ended up together, but I'm glad we did for more reasons than one." He smiled. One by one the others returned his smile.
"I am too." Jane agreed and Helene turned to nudge Benji in the arm.
Ethan reached into his jacket. "Your new mission...should you choose to accept them." He set four cellphones on the table.
At first no one spoke and no one moved to take a cellphone. Helene chewed on her lip and turned to exchange glances with Brandt as Jane stared at the phone directly nearest to her.
"I'm staying." Benji spoke up after a minute. "I mean it's not like any mission's going to be worse than the one we were just on, is it?" He asked. He started to laugh at his own joke until he realized that no one was laughing with him.
"Wait is it?" He repeated. This time everyone joined in.
"Seriously Benji." Ethan pushed one of the phones closer to Benji after the laughter had died down a bit.
Benji reached over and snatched the phone. "Guess I'll be seeing you guys soon." He grinned and without another word, got up and left the table.
Jane was next to follow his lead. "Agent Hunt." She brushed against his arm with the tips of her fingers as she passed him on her way out of the harbor restaurant.
"Agent Carter." Ethan nodded back. He looked back at Brandt and Helene expecting them to grab the remaining two phones, but instead they stood, exchanged glances with each other and turned to leave hand in hand.
"Wait! Guys!" Ethan called after them as Brandt started to nod to him in a farewell manner. Immediately both agents stopped walking.
"We're not taking those phones, Ethan. It's not just because you wouldn't want us there, but there's something else that requires our immediate focus." Brandt avoided Ethan's gaze as he explained himself to the Senior Agent.
"I know about your son." Ethan spoke calmly as Helene started to shoot Brandt with a questioning look. "And I know about Croatia. I pulled both your files after I left to establish some connections back in Dubai." He leaned back in his chair.
Brandt and Helene exchanged another glance with each other."You did?" Brandt asked, a bit uneasily.
"Yeah and I understand where you're coming from. I'll understand if you need to get back home to your family. Just know the positions are open for you, should you two ever decide you want to come back." He smiled and nudged the cellphones across the table towards them.
Brandt shook his head. "You don't want me on your team, Ethan. Helene maybe, but not me." Helene frowned at the sudden no confidence she heard her husband's voice. "Will, what are you saying?" She asked.
"In Croatia...I was the one assigned to protect you and your wife. It was my fault, she was killed Ethan. Mine. That's why I couldn't stay with the agency anymore and partly why I switched to being an analyst." Brandt started to shake as the truth flew from his mouth and relieved him like a breath of fresh air.
"Will, you weren't the only one responsible that night. I was the one left in charge of protecting Cassie remember? That makes me just as responsible as you are." Helene disagreed.
"You're both wrong." Ethan cut in. "It wasn't either of your jobs to protect her at all. Sure it may have been your call and your assignment, but I was the one who swore to take care of her in sickness and in health. It was in the contract you know right after we exchanged vows." He smiled.
Brandt just gaped at him. "But the body..."
"I had to do what I had to do." Ethan explained. "If she was going to be safe that meant no one could know she was still alive." He lowered his voice though he made sure that both Brandt and Helene could hear him.
Helene's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "You mean..." She started and stopped herself. "She's..." Brandt trailed off. Ethan nodded his head.
"Feel better?" He asked with a coy grin plastered to his face. Brandt scoffed disbelievingly in response.
"I don't believe this." He muttered while rubbing his hand slowly through his hair. Helene shook her head. "Son of a gun."
Ethan chuckled. "Here." He held out the phones. "Take them. I'm not saying you have to come with us right away, but when you feel like duty calls we'll just be a button press away." He settled back in his seat and waited with an expectant smile on his face.
Brandt sighed. "Well when you put it like that." He reached over and grabbed a phone nudging Ethan in the shoulder with it before walking past him to the exit of the patio.
Ethan grinned and looked up to meet Helene's wide serene smile. "We'll be seeing you, Agent Hunt." She took the last phone tucking it into her pocket before turning to follow Brandt.
Ethan smiled back at her. "Mrs. Brandt." He waited until Brandt and Helene had left before getting up from the table himself.
"I can't believe you tried to take the blame for everthing that happened on the Croatia assignment." He heard Helene's voice float across the patio.
"Well, it's my job to protect you, isn't it?" Brandt responded and Ethan smiled to himself as he saw a woman crossing the bridge to enter a late night coffee shop with a man Ethan recognized as a head authority from the IMF.
She caught his eye and recognition barely flitted across her expression before the man ushered her inside. Ethan's grin widened.
"You really think it's true? What Ethan said about Cassie?...You think she's really alive?" Helene asked as she and Brandt walked back to the bus stop together.
Brandt shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't sound like he was just making it up though. Did you see the way he smiled when he told us?" He turned to meet Helene's gaze.
Helene nodded. "Yeah..." She smiled and squeezed Brandt's hand gently in her own. Will reached to brush a strand of stray hair from her face. "Are you ready to go home, Mrs. Brandt?" He asked imitating the way Ethan had addressed her a few minutes earlier, but with an affectionate tone to his voice.
Helene smirked at him. "Your mission. Should you choose to accept it." She reached into his back pocket and pulled their temporary bus passes from his back pocket.
Brandt smiled and took the cards. "I accept."
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