A/N: I can't wait for the end of season 1; it will mean that I can begin to change things even more. Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Book of Hours
"Please stop!" Lizzy begged, glaring at her adopted brother from across the table.
Mozzie stopped tapping his fingers against the table, but he frowned at her. "It's part of my process," he told her stubbornly. She flashed back to all the times growing up when they'd had the same argument. "Look either you taught her too well or it's just a bottle."
"It's the only thing Kate left me, there has to be a message," she wished it could have been a simple break up that Kate actually meant, it would have made things so much easier and she could have gotten on with her life without worrying about the fact Kate might be in trouble.
Her phone rang and she got called down to work before they could finish examining it, but Mozzie promised to take the bottle with him and check it over properly. The case turned out to be about a stolen bible and, after talking to the vicar, Lizzy was soon back to her apartment at Junes where she could quiz Mozzie about why anyone would steal the bible.
Peter accepted the idea that it could have been a true believer who stole the bible, so they went back to the church to talk to the vicar again. She found out that, while he was meant to be a Catholic, Peter was having a lapse of faith and that he didn't believe in miracles unless they included 'more smiting and lightning'.
Lizzy had to choke back laughter when she found out that the bible had been stolen by a homeless man called Steve. It was just ironic that after the last case, this guy would actually be names Steve. It was less funny when she discovered he'd stolen it because his dog was sick; she was a big lover of animals but dogs especially.
"We're off the case?" She asked incredulously. They were sat further down the pier and she thought absently that it was a nice view if you didn't look at the crime scene a few paces away. She hadn't been swimming in a while; she'd have to see if there was a pool within her two mile radius.
"We've been asked to step down," Peter corrected, looking put out by the thought.
They discussed the different possibilities for a while before Peter dropped his subtle hints that he wanted her to try continue the investigation. It was next to no work for her to convince him to give her his FBI jacket and she wondered if he would notice if she kept it once the case was done, she figured he probably would.
With Mozzie's help, they got the information they needed from the house and learnt that they needed to talk to Marie Fiametta. Marie looked to be quite charmed by Neal when they spoke to her and Lizzy used that to her advantage. She promised to call them if she heard anything and gave one last flirtatious hint towards Neal.
She got bad news from Mozzie, who was convinced that the bottle Kate had left was just a bottle, but after a talk with Elizabeth and Peter they managed to get a small breakthrough in the case. The only problem was that she had to go on a date with Marie. The woman was attractive but not really her type.
On the bright side, Marie was very easy to flirt with, and it wasn't too hard to drop hints that she might not be playing for the FBI's team. By the end of the night Marie was convinced that Lizzy would help her fence the bible and they agreed to meet up the next day to get things moving. She'd been a bit nervous about letting Marie pat her down, just in case she discovered anything that she shouldn't, but she seemed just as oblivious as before and in a few minutes the tracker was cut and they were driving away. Just her luck that everything would go to pot once she was away from the eyes of the FBI. She transferred the money and as soon as it was sent Marie pulled out a gun on her.
"Next time you should trust your instincts," Marie smirked, pointing the gun at her chest.
"Oh, I did," she smiled back at her, holding up the clip she'd taken from her during the pat down.
"You forgot about the one in the chamber," she retorted, levelling the gun and preparing to shoot.
Lizzy laughed, holding the bible up to cover her chest. "Did I? Are you willing to test that?" Truthfully, she'd taken the clip from the gun too so she knew she had nothing to worry about. "If you take me out it will cost you a small fortune. Why did you kill Paul?"
"He wanted the book and the money," she exclaimed angrily, looking slightly unsure.
"That's what happens when you get greedy," she chided, waving the bible temptingly. There was a small click as Marie tried to fire the gun, but Lizzy didn't even flinch. She stared down at her gun as if she couldn't believe that it hadn't worked and then glared at her.
The FBI swarmed in before she could do anything else and arrested her. In a sneaky manoeuvre, she passed the bible off to Mozzie in Peters FBI jacket. It wasn't stealing if she was planning on giving it back. Call her a sucker, but she couldn't just let Steve suffer and if he believed the bible would heal Lucy then maybe his faith would be enough to help.
She stared at the bottle one last time and then placed it down on the table with a sigh. She was just about ready to give up when she noticed that the candle revealed a map of the New York City subway. Grinning madly, she woke Mozzie up and pointed it out to him. He'd been sleeping on the couch and she was beginning to wonder if she shouldn't ask June to get him his own bed considering all the time he spent with her.
She grabbed hold of his arm and began pulling him out of the room after grabbing a bag. "You're taking me swimming to celebrate."
"I don't like swimming," he complained, but he didn't resist as he followed her out. She'd looked it up and there was a pool in her two mile radius that would be closed at that time. It would mean breaking in, but it was better that way since it meant no one would see her tracker.
She was sure Peter would have something to say about her breaking and entering, but he couldn't blame her for wanting a swim. Mozzie sat on the side of the pool with one of his conspiracy books while she swam around in her nicest bikini. The only thing missing was some men to flirt with.
She was stuck on what to do about Kate; she hated the thought that the other woman was in trouble and would try her hardest to help her out, but her feeling had changed since they'd last seen each other. The love that she had thought would last forever was already dimming slightly in her absence. Kate was a wonderful woman, but she didn't even know the truth about her, and she didn't think she could trust her enough to tell her.
Maybe it was time to start thinking of Kate as a friend and begin looking for a nice man. She didn't regret any of her relationships with other woman, but she still preferred to go on dates with men and get the chance to act like herself. If it wasn't for the tracker, she'd go out drinking and find a nice man to take home, but they'd see the tracker immediately and then questions would start flying around.
"I miss being able to be myself," she said out loud, climbing out of the pool and wrapping a towel around her shoulders.
"We can still cut your tracker and run," Mozzie offered, putting his book down to look at her. "No one will be looking for Lizzy Haversham. As far as anyone is concerned you have nothing to do with each other."
"True," she nodded. "Neal is male, two years older than me, and doesn't have a past before his eighteenth birthday."
"You, on the other hand, are a thirty-three year old woman with a wonderful brother and a clean record," he followed her into the changing rooms and sat on one of the benches as she went into a cubical to get changed. "And if anyone looked up your past they would see that there's no dad on your birth certificate and your mum died when you were eight, leaving you in the custody of your older brother."
"It is tempting," she admitted, coming out of the cubical dressed as Neal. "But I would still be looking for Kate and Peter would find me."
"You could say that you're Neal's twin sister," he suggested, locking the pool back up again after them. "That might work."
"We'll keep it as a backup plan," she agreed. "For now, I can deal with being Neal every day, as long as it means I get to be myself at night."
"You're deciding to keep yourself chained to the man," Mozzie warned her.
She smiled at him weakly, her thoughts turning to Peter and how he treated her. "I don't think this man will take advantage of that fact."
"You're beginning to trust him," he sounded scared for her, eyes flickering over her face as if he was hoping she would be joking. "You know that's a bad idea."
"I trust him not to backstab me," she allowed, smothering a yawn behind her hand. "That doesn't mean I trust him with my secrets, or yours."
"Just be careful," he gave her a worried look before leaving her at the door to Junes. She watched him leave for a second before climbing the stairs to her room and changing into her pyjamas, finally collapsing on her bed. She gave one last thought to how she hoped no one came into her room while she was sleeping, since she'd left the door unlocked, before succumbing to the oblivion of sleep.
The sound of a door opening woke her from her slumber; her alarm hadn't gone off yet, so she knew that she still had a bit longer in bed before she had to get up. It was a few seconds later that she realized the door had opened which meant someone was I her room while she was without any of her disguise. She jumped up before she could think about it and fell off of the bed in a tangle of blankets.
"Neal?" June's voice sounded hesitant and confused. A hand appeared out of nowhere and helped her to stand up, the blanket fell from her shoulders and puddled around her bare ankles. There was no point trying to deny anything or try hiding her body; the t-shirt and sweat pants she was wearing clearly showed her feminine curves and her hair was completely unpinned, running in wavy strands around her shoulders.
"June," she whispered, her eyes were almost as wide as June's as they looked at each other. The tracking anklet was visible on her leg, so she didn't even have the option of pretending that she was just one of Neal's conquests or his sister or any of the other excuses that she'd been prepared to give.
"I think you need to explain a few things," her voice was slightly chocked. Lizzy held back the irrational urge to laugh; the only people who'd ever found out her secret had been Mozzie, who had already suspected it and since she was so young at the time it didn't make a difference, and Alex, with who she'd spent the night with so she hadn't really given much of a reaction other than to quirk an eyebrow and go back to what they'd been doing, it probably helped that they'd both been a bit drunk at the time.
Lizzy nodded faintly, crossing the room to shut and lock the door before taking a seat at the table. June followed her example and sat across from her, folding her hands and waiting for her to say something.
"I don't know what to say," she blurted out, flushing red at the look June gave her in response. "Neal is one of my identities; he's my mask. No one ever looks further than him, not even the ones who know of my…profession."
"So you just decided to dress up as a man one day?" June made it sound like a question rather than a statement.
She looked down at the table and traced pictures onto the surface with her fingertips. "I was ten when I first pretended to be a boy," she admitted quietly. "Little girls don't last too long alone on the streets."
June's breath caught in her throat, but when it was clear that she wasn't going to say anything else, she reached across the table and squeezed her hand in a tight grip. "You're still welcome to stay here, and I won't tell anyone about anything," she promised sincerely; she was used to making promises like that from her time being married to Byron. "Though, if I may ask, who else knows? Anyone?"
"Just Mozzie," she searched June's face but couldn't see a hint of anything negative on her face. "He found me."
"Surely others know?" The shock was clear on her face. "You were in prison for four years."
"We have all the right friends," she smiled weakly. "No one even suspected anything."
June promised again that she wouldn't tell anyone, she also mentioned that she'd help cover for her if she needed. She didn't ask for Lizzy's real name, and told her that she thought it would be best if she didn't know too much; if she only knew her as Neal, then there was no chance she could slip up and call her something else when in company of anyone who didn't know the secret.
Mozzie wasn't pleased to hear that another person knew her true identity, but agreed that he thought June might be trustworthy. He then spent the next few hours researching all he could about her life and that of her husband. What he found must have reassured him a little because he didn't protest when Lizzy began to dress as herself when in the house – though only when she was sure there would be no guests.
A/N: This chapter was a nightmare to write. I hadn't planned on June finding out so soon, but when I'd finished writing out the episode it was less than 700 words long. It's lucky that having June in the know fits in with my ideas for the plot.