One Day Later
New York City
"Mona's going to want to know why we haven't called in for five days." Said Lucy tiredly, wrapped up in a blanket and laying down on her side of the train cabin, while Priest read a newspaper sitting on his side.
"I know." Mumbled Priest as he turned the page.
"What are we going to tell her?"
"Whatever you like. How's your eye? The bruise is gone."
"I know you're mad at me."
"I ain't."
"Yes, you are, and I'm not even being psychic."
"You're being wrong."
"You're upset, stop pretending to read that newspaper and talk to my face."
"There is a plague ravaging Scotland, it's already swept through all the places where I grew up. Every scientist and medical authority in the United Kingdom is at a complete loss at what is to be done. John English is talking about evacuation."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"That might explain why I'm upset, there's also the fact that we've wasted a week of our lives."
"Well, at least we learned something."
"What? Not to trust Angels?" asked Priest, "Or is it just the Angel of Death? You know, the one who said we had to come here."
"So, you are mad at me, then?"
"No, I'm not…. Look, just forget it."
Later
Lucy didn't care much for elevator, she never did. She could feel her stomach fill with lead as the iron cage rose through the first few floors of the Flatiron Building. It was only twenty minutes ago that Priest left her at her apartment building, ordered her to get some sleep, even clumsily offering to stay and keep her company, in an awkward display of warm-heartedness that came off as barely more tender than comedic and was instantly regreted by Priest who pt on a gruff demeanor and announced he would head to his and Sayid's apartment until nightfall.
Priest had no actual cause to order her at all, and he was likely to just shrug her 'insolence' off, that was what Lucy thought as she exited the elevator along with a few other tenants at their floor. She made her way to an office with a sign reading "", unlocked the door with her key and waltzed in.
She was instantly met with a purr and the gentle feeling of whiskers rubbing at her heel. Lucy leaned down and picked up Ingrid the cat, holding it slightly above her head and looking upon the feline's face.
"Ingrid, I missed you! Did Eel take good care of you?"
"Um, I don't speak German….."
Lucy looked to the side to see a very familiar face, yet one she least expected see there.
"To…Tony Stark?!"
The man's face twisted out of shape, like burning rubber, his entire body grew leaner and slightly taller, turning in seconds into a face she did expect to see there.
"…But I couldn't help hearing my name."
"Eel!" said Lucy as she allowed O'Brien to hug her, "You've been practicing, haven't you? You can impersonate anyone, now?"
"Eh, I'm getting better. I made myself to look like Priest yesterday. I did Sayid too, but with my pale Irish skin, it just looked freaky. Speaking of the devil, where is the old bloodsucker?"
"Back at his place, he wanted to rest."
"You look like you could do with some yourself. You look pale. Er. Much paler than usual."
"Did Kroenen do –"
"Yep, tried to kill us all five days ago. It's a good thing Priest chained he living fuck out of him."
"Yes, I suppose it is. I better start getting him under my control."
"Later. You'll want to sit in on the powwow."
"What powwow?"
"It's something Barnes heard while he was following McNeil across the country. Might b big."
--
"Where were you?" Mona demanded to know, holding a steaming cup of coffee.
"Umm." Stammered Lucy, trying to think of an appropriate story that involved as much truth as possible. She was not a terribly adept liar, and the sight of Shaun, Mona and Sayid sitting silently and staring at her in the surveillance room didn't help much.
"Why did not check in? What happened to your lap top?"
"We had to vacate our hotel."
"Why?"
"Trouble with the local cops. We had to do some breaking and entering."
"And you two left something that led the cops to you?"
"That's what I said, it was my fault."
"Dammmit. Priest should have made sure you didn't make any mistakes, he's the goddamn expert."
"Where is he?" asked Sayid.
"He said he'll be in later."
"What happened to your lap top?" asked Mona.
"We're pretty sure it self destructed when nobody entered the password in ten hours."
"If the League didn't get it, you mean."
"Well… Yes." Answered Lucy, buckling under Mona's unexpected mildly aggressive scrutiny.
"Well?" asked Mona as she took a sip of her coffee, "Don't tell me you've come empty handed."
"Well, we found out that, um, McNeil was, eh, possessed, demonically that is, when she was a little girl. She was exorcised by two Jesuit priests who shortly died after that."
For a few moments, it was as if none of the people in the room heard what she said. The silence stretched on for quite some time till Ingrid came into the room and jumped onto the table next to Sayid.
"Possessed?" asked Mona, without a hint of emotion in her voice.
"Her will, body and mind were hijacked by a –"
"I was raised Catholic, Lucy," said Mona as she set the mug down on the table, "I know what possessed is."
"Ah. Good."
"Please forgive me bluntness, Lucy, but this turned out to be a colossal waste, and we'll not talk about that anymore. Right now we have bigger fish to fry."
"Oh, really?" asked Lucy as she sat down.
"While you and Priest were doing whatever it is you were doing, we've been running surveillance around the clock, listening to and analyzing audio feed from several offices in the League's Branch here in the city, using the bugs Eel planted." Explained Sayid.
"There were three occasions on which Leiter communicated with someone referring to something as the Lick, and on one occasion; Kitty Cat Lick."
"I beg your pardon, 'Kitty Cat Lick'?"
"That was our reaction, too." Said Mona.
"At first we didn't pay much attention to it, but the Barnes passed on some of his own findings." Said Sayid, "She had briefly referred to an event occurring recently in Kansas City."
"Barns said that 'Lick' is CIA Jargon for Leak." Said Shaun, "If so, then perhaps 'Kitty Cat Lick' is a sobriquet for 'Kansas City Leak'."
"Our best guess is that this concerns classified documents pertaining to McNeil finding their way to the press."
"Who was Leiter talking to? And about what?"
"It was a telephone conversation. The bugs didn't pick the other side clear enough. Whoever it was, they had a heated argument, Leiter was accusing them of refusing to turn over a prisoner out of feeling of feminine insecurity."
"It was Josephine, probably." Said Mona, "McNeil was her girl originally. With the senator switching to Leiter's side, they must have drifted apart, and a wedge must have been driven between Josephine and Leiter."
" But these people are the intelligence moguls of the world, this behavior seems overly childish."
"I see your point. But what difference does that make?"
"I don't know; I'm not sure it does make any difference. Something doesn't seem right with this picture. So, what are we going to do?"
"Find out more, particularly about this prisoner. We've been running missing person's report in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, looking for missing journalists or reporters."
"But?"
"We're not really the best people for the job." Said Mona, "We've decided to bring this to Al-Sheikh's attention, let him tell us where to go from here. That being said, we're probably going to pack up and head for Gotham."
"Ah, I guess we're making headway." Said Lucy, "Seriosuly, though. Kitty Cat Lick?"
Latter
Lucy lifted the window pane and peered her upper half out the window. She took a deep breath of the New York night air, her eyes looking out at the lights on Broadway for a moment before looking to the side and asking,
"Huh, how can you smoke one of those things?"
Priest rolled a lit Cuban cigar in his fingers as he sat on the narrow ledge, five stories high.
"I like the flavor."
"I heard Mona gave you an earful. Well… I heard her giving you an earful. She does seem rather irritable today, doesn't she?"
"I would say so."
"But then, you did stay silent while she was talking to you and, um, stared at her chest a lot."
"What was I supposed to do? I had no idea what you'd told her."
"I pretty much left out the possession."
"And threw in a story of us fucking up a robbery. Thanks a lot."
"Well, that too."
"Do you think they suspect anything?"
"I know they know we're keeping something from them. But I doubt imaginations would run wild enough for them to think I was… you know."
Priest sighed.
"Forget about it, it's all over. Is everybody still inside?"
"Mona left. Shaun and Sayid are leaving in a few and so will I."
"I know, I'll have to take my turn at the listening post. Is Eel staying?"
"Yes."
"Hm. Well, then. Goodnight."
Lucy smiled at Priest's attempt at rudeness. She looked at him for a few moments as he puffed on his cigar before she said,
"You can't fight them all, Priest."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I know more about you than you think, Priest."
"What? You been trying to poke around my mind, again?"
"I don't need to. I know your type."
"What type is that?"
"You're your own man, Judas. You're used to sorting things out, with diplomacy at times, with intimidation, with grotesque violence. You like to think that no matter what happens, no matter how bad the odds, you can handle it all by yourself.
"But you can't. Not all the time, that's why you haven't slept in months. That's why you couldn't look me in the eye since we came back. You couldn't save me, I was taken over by something beyond your scope and you couldn't help me. The best you could do was giving me a black eye.
"You get me back to New York safe only because of kismet. If Constantine hadn't come knocking on our door, I'd still be tied to that bed."
"He didn't exactly come knocking."
"I know, he was sneaking in, and you almost killed him. So what does that tell you?"
"That's an interesting theory, Wagner. Let me guess, before you joined the opposition you were.."
"A psychology student, yes."
"Ah. Psychology. I remember a time before it. It was relaxing. I'm not entirely sure why the world had to go and get analytical. Did you know Jung was an alleged Nazi sympathizer?"
"I'm a Freudian." Lucy said, then smiled a knowing smile before retreating back in, speaking softly, knowing Priest could hear her, and that he was unwillingly hanging on to her every word.
"You can't win them all, Priest. Not by yourself, that's why you have the rest of us."
R&R
If any of these chapters seem self indulgent, please tell me so that I don't make a fool of myself.
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