A/N: I should really be working on my other stories, but this one seems to be begging for attention. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Threads
"I hate this," Peter complained, trying in vain to catch the attention of a cab. "Every year it's like this. Finally squeezed into a train at Union Square. Couldn't fall down if you were shot. Come on. It's impossible to catch a cab. Ah, thank you."
Lizzy laughed and let a group of women take the cab they'd just hailed down. "Peter," she chided, smiling at the women. "Enjoy your day. It's fashion week, Peter, embrace it."
She thought wistfully of the last fashion week she'd been to when she'd been wearing a gorgeous dress and heels. The male models had been very accommodating and had promised that they could find her an agent if she had wanted on. It had been very flattering and she'd had a lot of fun trying on all of the designer clothes. In fact, she was pretty sure she still had some of the dresses in storage.
"We're supposed to be interviewing our witness right now," Peter grumbled, oblivious to his partners' thoughts.
"Relax," she commanded, holding out a bill. She remembered fondly the last time when all she had to do was flash a bit of leg.
"That's not going to do it," Peter was muttering as a cab screeched to a halt in front of them. She shot him an 'I-told-you-so' look and climbed into the cab before him.
Peter explained their new case as they were walking into the office. The witness was an extremely pretty model by the name of Tara; she didn't hit on her since she already seemed so distressed. Once they'd finished interviewing her, Lizzy outlined her idea to Peter and they went to go see Hughes.
"I'll authorize five grand for this party," Hughes finally told them.
"Fifteen would be better," she said cheekily, but continued before Peter could cut in. "But we'll make it work. And we'll get Elizabeth to help us."
"My wife?" Peter repeated, clearly surprised at this new twist in the plan.
"She's an event planner," she reminded him. "Best in the business."
"She'll work with us on the price?" Hughes asked, looking between the two of them.
"My wife?" Peter was clearly unable to get past that little bit of information, she nudged him with her elbow, grin still fixed on her face.
"Your wife," she laughed. "His wife."
Elizabeth had been thrilled to work with them and they'd immediately gone to look through the storage areas and take things for the party. Once everything was sorted except for the venue, Elizabeth left to go finish planning the final touches and Lizzy went with Peter to see what venue he'd picked out.
"It's a loft," Peter announced, showing her the photos. "Seized in a DEA bust, fifteen hundred square feet, service elevator, it's perfect."
"Is that a chalk outline?" She demanded, staring at the photo.
"I'm sure they've cleared that up by now," he reassured her hastily. "It has everything you need."
"Yeah," she agreed sarcastically. "If we want five drunk frat buddies showing up. If we get lucky we might even get a few Goths, considering the dead body angle and all."
"Aren't you supposed to be lining up super models?" He retorted, displeased with how she'd disagreed with his idea of a venue.
"Sixty-four and counting," she announced, waving her beeping phone. "My mistake, sixty-five actually, these two are twins."
"Neal Caffrey throws a party and sixty-five super models show up," Peter grumbled.
"They'd be more if I was allowed to invite the men too," she smirked at him, but her phone beeped before she could say anything else.
"That another one of your super models?" He coughed, apparently deciding to ignore her comment.
"No, a friend of mine," she opened the message and smiled. "He's got a place we can use."
"You think your friend's place is better than mine?" He asked indignantly, crossing his arms and giving her a level stare. She smiled back at him, knowing he was going to eat his words when he saw the venue she'd managed to get hold of.
The party went as well as it could without them actually catching the right guy. She got the chance to meet the lovely Agent Cruz and spent a whole night surrounded by models while Tara hung off of his arm and tried to help them find the right man. The only down side was that she didn't get to walk into the party in her best dress and flash her sexy smile like she had last time, instead she'd contented herself with admiring the other people there and flirting shamelessly with a few of the models, even though she kept most of her attention on Tara.
"Any luck getting this thing off of me?" She questioned, waving a hand towards her bare ankle as she took a seat across from Mozzie. She'd gotten changed into one of her fanciest dresses and high heels. Admittedly, the only one who would see her in them was the man she thought of as a brother, but it still made her feel better about spending fashion week as a man.
"I'm working on it," he replied, taking a drink from his wine glass while she poured her own. "You're lucky; they have you on a two mile tether. That's a lot in New York. Remember Jimmy Dimaco. The feds had his anklet set at twenty-two feet. He had to take a shower with one foot out of the tub."
She snorted. "That's not true."
"Okay," he conceded. "Maybe thirty feet. But you have it better."
"Two miles isn't going to let me find Kate," she lamented, taking another drink of her wine. "The man with the ring was with her in California and he didn't find what he was looking for in San Diego."
"How do you know what he was looking for?" He asked curiously, leaning forward a little.
She shifted uncomfortable under his look. "Because I told Kate that I kept everything; the money, the bonds, the art, all of it, in San Diego."
"When in reality it's hidden in Portland," he nodded proudly. There was no reason to think that she might have pulled the same trick on him, he'd never visited the place where everything was hidden, but he knew where it was. "That way you would know if she betrayed you."
"Kate didn't betray me!" She cried, she knew that there was a chance Kate didn't care for her as much as she'd thought, but she honestly didn't believe that she thought so little of her that she'd betray her. "He forced her to!"
"Then why didn't she warn you that day in prison?" He demanded. For some reason, Mozzie had never really liked Kate, always thinking the worst of her, but he would help Lizzy find her again if it meant that she was happy. That didn't mean that he wasn't going to try and warn her while doing it though.
"I think she might have, but I just didn't see it," she told him thoughtfully. "As the feds got closer to finding us we began to use code to pass messages on. I think she might have left me a code. I just need to see that security tape."
"You friend at the FBI has access," Mozzie pointed out. "He's seen it."
She sighed and rubbed a hand over her head before downing the rest of her wine in a gulp. "He's not just going to hand it over."
"You could ask," he suggested weakly, knowing that there was truth in her words.
Taking a deep breath, she finished off her flirting with Cruz and entered Peter's office. Mozzie was right, she might as well ask for the tape; if he said no then she'd just have to find a new way of getting hold of it. Pasting a cheery smile on her face, she pushed the door open and smiled at Peter from where he was sat at his desk.
"Where we headed for lunch?" It had become a sort of habit to have lunch together since she couldn't really leave the offices alone.
"Going to have to take a pass," he said, grabbing his jacket and standing up. "Elizabeth wants to meet me in the park."
"Picnic," she nodded, remembering the last time she'd had the chance to have a picnic with someone she'd cared about. "That's romantic."
"Yeah," Peter agreed, sounding nervous. "Should I be worried?"
She let out a light laugh. Typical, he gets an invite to a romantic picnic and the first thing he thinks is that he should be worried. "Did you do something wrong?"
"Probably," Peter groused.
"Maybe she just wants to spend time with you," she proposed dryly. She'd not been in a relationship with a man for so long that it seemed she'd forgotten just how funny they could be when the woman did something they didn't expect. Maybe if things with Kate didn't work out she'd find herself a nice man to flirt with.
"You think?" He still seemed doubtful but her mind had passed on from his relationship problems to her own.
"Sure, she probably just misses you," she shrugged distractedly. "Before you go, I need a favour."
"What sort of favour?" He didn't say no immediately, which she took as a positive sign.
"You've seen the security tape of the last time Kate visited me in prison," she paused and then continued anxiously when he nodded. "I'd like to see it. It was the last time I saw, I just want some closure."
It wasn't a lie; if there wasn't a hidden message in the tape then it really would give her some closure and help her move on. However, if Kate really had left her a code the last time they'd seen each other, than it might help towards finding her.
"Help wrap up this case and I'll see what I can do about that tape," Peter finally decided, giving her one last glance before leaving the office to go meet up with his wife. Smiling at the thought that he hadn't said no like she'd expected, she walked out to the main office to try find either Cruz or Jones to have lunch with since she wasn't in the mood to eat alone.
It was with a lot of amusement that Lizzy watched Peter come back from his picnic, adjusting the new watch on his wrist. She held her tongue against pointing out how uncomfortable he looked wearing it and instead they got talking about the case and left to try and interview people. Unfortunately, in the place of another person to talk to, they found a dead body to examine and it had a dress stuffed in its mouth.
"Hello?" She picked up her buzzing phone and held it her ear, keeping her hand on Tara's back since the model looked like she was a word away from bolting. She was a very brave girl to come out of protective custody to help them with the case again, and Lizzy would never forgive herself if anything happened to the sweet model.
They bartered about money and things for a little longer before the guy on the phone began to get more threatening. She made sure to keep her smile fixed on her face even as she told him she wanted ten million for the dress Tara was currently wearing. If you wanted to pull off a successful con, then you had to look confident in what you were doing.
"Do you know who you're talking to?" The man demanded, sounding frustrated and angry.
"This is Steve, right?" She grinned, if there was anything that was guaranteed to annoy the man more it was to fake ignorance about his name and give him one as common as 'Steve'.
"I tried to be nice," he growled down the phone. "I tried to give you a choice."
She felt guilt stab at her when it was discovered that he'd gotten his hands on Tara. They arranged a place and time for a trade and Lizzy tried her hardest to stress the point of not having a plan. The best thing they could do is be ready to roll with anything the guy threw at them; if they had a plan, they would panic when something happened they weren't ready for.
It frustrated her to hear that she wouldn't be allowed to help as the trade as going off, but there was no way she was going to sit back idly while Tara's life was in danger. It was with these thoughts in her mind that she knocked on the van door. She was pulled inside and watched as Peter began to try strike up a bargain with the man holding Tara hostage.
"Hey, is this Steve?" She could have laughed as everyone in the van turned around to stare at her. "What's up buddy? You never called."
Thankfully, everything turned out okay, and while Tara may have a few paranoid tendencies after her rough experience, she got home safely and they caught the man behind everything. She had to restrain herself from hugging Peter when he handed over the security tape and practically skipped up the stairs to her flat where Mozzie was waiting for her.
"It was nice of your FBI friend to give you this," he mentioned once they'd sat down to watch the tape. She'd gotten changed back into one of her dresses to celebrate the end of fashion week; it was one that Mozzie had given her when she walked through the door, saying that he knew she couldn't go out and get them anymore.
She hummed and leant closer to the screen, trying to watch all of Kate's body to make sure that she didn't miss any movement. Finally, she caught the code that they'd been looking for and quickly pointed it out to Mozzie. Kate had tapped out the word 'Bottle' with her finger in Morse code.
A/N: I start back at college in a few days. Hopefully, it won't affect my update speed, but if it does I will warn you beforehand that I might have to miss a few updates while I write the chapters.