Present Day

John shuffled the papers, handing them over to Talbot. "How are Foyle and Blake doing under the new arrangements?"

"About as well as Jack and Mrs. Green." Talbot shrugged, "It's an adjustment period."

John tapped his desk, "And the other things?"

"The recording is being analyzed but without a direct confession we've got nothing to give the police."

"And the pages?"

"We're still trying to locate them."

John bit back his smile, "You and Mrs. Crawley?"

Talbot reddened, "Yes. Jack gave us a lead on old files and it's been a process with many a paper cut."

"And more than a few breaks I imagine." John waved off Talbot's response, "I don't care as long as you find those pages."

"I've got news on Barrow and O'Brien."

"They've finished digging their own graves?"

Talbot nodded, "I'd suggest you throw a little fete to celebrate the end of their little goose chase. Something big enough to invite your friends over at the Met to come."

"What of Vyner? Do we invite him?"

"He's been off the force for years." Talbot snickered behind his hand, "Mismanagement of a case had them kicking him to the curb about two years after your conviction. He's been drunk off his ass since in a little dive of a flat."

"Is that you saying he's not worth the effort to destroy?"

"I think he's pretty much done that to himself between the drunken stupor and cirrhosis of the liver."

John nodded, "Have we figured out what Green did to get them on his side?"

"Not as yet but I think they're like Bricker. They'll fold under the right application of pressure." Talbot grinned, "Public humiliation might do it."

"They'd just retaliate against us."

"Unless…" Talbot chewed his lip, caught in a thought.

"Unless what Henry?"

"Unless they thought Green tossed them under the bus." Talbot shrugged, "They'd turn on him faster than a dog to vomit."

"I don't appreciate the grotesque metaphor but it's apt enough." John stood, "Then I need to talk to someone about how to plan that."

"I thought you didn't need an excuse to see Mrs. Green."

John leveled a finger at Talbot, "This is professional."

"I'm sure you two trying to find a closet to bang in at Green Incorporated'll be very professional." Talbot rolled his eyes, "I wish you luck."

John only huffed at him, grabbing his jacket off his chair to head for the lift. When the doors open he almost ran headlong into Jack, struggling with his own briefcase and files, and John hurried to catch the case before it fell. The doors whined at them but John ignored them, pulling Jack out of the line of fire and into the small lobby.

"Thank you Mr. Christian." Jack stopped, catching himself, "Sorry, it's just habit I guess."

"It's a habit best maintained in our business associations." John lowered his voice, "Though if you didn't call me that when we're not at work I'd be grateful."

"Do you want me to call you 'Dad' instead?"

John shrugged, "Only if you feel up to it."

"I've never really liked the term myself because I didn't think much of the father I had but now…" Jack shuffled the papers in his grip. "I don't mind knowing I've a father who's actually proud of me."

"I'll always be proud of you." John nodded at the files, "Those for Henry?"

"I thought Mr. Talbot might want to have a look at them before I turn them over to Mr. Foyle, officially."

"Then you're settling in nicely to your new job?"

Jack lifted a shoulder, "I liked my old job better."

"President of your own company too much or not enough?"

"At this point too much." Jack set his briefcase down and John joined him in the armchairs of the lobby outside the executive suite of offices. "Mum's been handling most of it with Mr. Foyle and they've been great but I don't think I'm at all ready for this much responsibility. Not with school and my internship."

"I'm sure your internship has lapsed under the weight of your new responsibilities."

"But I don't want it to." Jack adjusted in his seat, sitting so his knees practically touched John's. "I'd rather you were President of Green Incorporated. It'd smooth the official merger to Christian Enterprises."

"It's technically an acquisition."

"Whatever it is, I'm not ready for it just yet." Jack took a deep breath, "I've still got so much to learn and I want to do it watching you and Mr. Talbot and Mr. Foyle and Mr. Blake but I can't do that if I'm the one they're all looking to for any kind of answer."

"Then you're not enjoying your baptism by fire?"

Jack shook his head, "I know, in the moment, it was a good idea because you had the board all aligned for it but now it's drowning and I don't have the energy to fight the current anymore."

John nodded, "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you." Jack sighed, "I just couldn't tell my Mum because she's… well she's drowning a bit too and I didn't want to burden her."

"Your mother'd want to hear about it anyway." John stood, Jack joining him while shuffling all of his things in his arms. "She has a way of taking the pain of others and making it hers."

"I don't want her to take my pain." Jack shifted his gaze to the floor a moment, "I want to take some of her stress away."

"Let me do that." John went to put his hand on Jack's shoulder but stopped himself.

Jack stepped toward it, smiling at John's surprise. "You did it before I found out what we are to each other. I'd rather not ruin what we had before just because our relationship changed."

"I don't want to either. Which is why," John pointed at the files, "I'm telling you that after you finish with those files you're going to suspend your internship until we can work out this president business and arrange a time to discuss the official merger with the board."

"You don't know what a weight this pulls off my shoulders." Jack paused, "I don't want to sound like a broken record but, thank you."

"It's my pleasure." John checked that no one was around and took a deep breath. "I know you're a little old but I was wondering-"

Jack's body impacted John's, arms wrapping his torso to squeeze tight enough to threaten the oxygen supply to John's brain. He gasped for air a moment before his arms instinctively engulfed Jack as well. They broke apart after a moment, Jack pulling at his suit coat.

"My father… well, I guess he's my fake father since you're my father but he…" Jack took a deep breath, "He never liked hugging me. Always said it wasn't what men did."

"He was wrong."

"He and my granddad…" Jack snorted out his awkward laugh, "I guess I have to keep reminding my self he wasn't really my granddad either."

"He was close enough." John shrugged, "He was the closest thing I ever had to a father."

"You knew my granddad?"

"He's why I chose the name 'Christian' when I chose my new identity." John blinked to stop the moisture gathering in his eyes. "I thought the world of him and he thought the same of me."

"Is that why Green hated him?"

John blew out, shrugging, "I never could figure that one out. Alex always had everything and his father wanted the best for him. But no matter what Alex and his father butted heads like mountain goats."

"It was worse when he was dying." Jack fingered the handles on his briefcase. "He'd rail against granddad about money or business and then go out drinking or something. Always blamed him for his problems."

"Christian Green was many things, none of them perfect, but he wasn't the cause of any of Alex's problems. Those were all his own."

"That's what Mum always said." Jack fumbled his things a moment, cradling them in one arm as he extracted his mobile from his pocket. "Speak of the devil."

"She need something?"

"She's asking if I'm near you and could I ask you to call her about some import acquisition." Jack frowned, "I don't know what that's about."

"I do." John pointed to the lifts, walking backward to still talk to Jack. "Tell her I'm on my there anyway about something else and we'll talk when I arrive."

"Can do." Jack walked toward the offices and John pressed the button to call the lift to him.

Andy had the car waiting when John stepped to the curb and within ten minutes the door opened again outside Green Incorporated. John headed through the front doors, smiling at Mabel, and took the executive lift to the offices on the top floor. The bell dinged and John found himself face-to-face with Anna.

They almost collided as well but John swung her clear of the doors, extricating himself in the process, and chuckled at the sight of them. "Well, well, well Ms. Smith. If I didn't know better I'd say we should try dancing more often."

"Very funny." Anna worked herself free, "But the only dancing I want to do with you in the near future involves the horizontal mambo and since we haven't the time I'd rather you didn't tempt me."

"I think it's you tempting me." John gestured toward her office, "You texted Jack something about an import acquisition."

"Yes," Anna led him back to the office, pulling a stack of papers off a table to hand over to him.

John barely caught them, exhaling quickly at the sheer weight on his arms, and frowned at the room covered in stacks similar to the one in his hands. "What are you doing?"

"The books because apparently our accounting department, our records people, and our retained solicitors are useless."

"I've got a good accountant. Lovely guy named Pelham. Might be able to sort all this out."

"If you can get him here in the next hour I'll show you how grateful I am in a much more intimate setting." Anna teased, pointing at the papers in his hand. "Those are what I really need addressed."

"What are they?"

"Details of a merger fifteen years ago. Something about A Bricker International Imports that Alex bought and then quickly consolidated into this company but it's almost like whatever he gained from it vanished into thin air." Anna flipped through the papers all around her. "I've looked in all the records I can find and nothing."

"Are these the records Henry and Mary were looking through?" John worked the stack to hold it one handed, flipping the pages in his grip to read them better. "They're trying to locate something for me."

Anna stopped, "This wouldn't have anything to do with your revenge plot would it?"

"It might've done."

She dropped the pages in her hand, sending a draft to knock a few others to the floor. "Is that why you were already on your way here?"

"Yes." John gingerly managed to set the stack on the floor, walking over to Anna. "I do have a plan for how to do this and I'm not leaving anything to chance."

"Maybe you should just leave the whole thing." Anna sighed and put her hands on her hips. "You've already won."

"But I haven't won. The people who put me away still need to see justice."

"It might not be ours to give to them."

John frowned, "I'm not just going to sit by and trust the world'll do it."

"Maybe we should." Anna took a deep breath, "Maybe we should accept that we're making a new future on our own."

"Are you divorced yet?"

"What's that got to do with it?"

"Are you divorced yet?"

"Repeating the question's not an answer."

"Then answer me first and I'll return the favor." John waited but Anna only held her jaw tight. "I'm serious."

Anna gave a flustered sigh, "No, I'm not. Why does it matter?"

"Because how can we make a new future, together, if you're still attached by law to a man you hate?"

"We could run away together." Anna lifted her hands, "I'm not afraid to live in sin with you."

"I wouldn't want that for you and you wouldn't want it either." John shook his head, "You deserve better than life as my mistress."

"What if you were my mistress?"

John frowned, "Don't play coy."

"It's all I can play since you obviously don't want to play anything else." Anna sat down on a stack of papers taking up a cushion on the sofa in her office. "But you're not going to find your answer in revenge."

"I'm going to find something there and since I plan on getting my revenge with information I don't think we're talking about the same thing."

"You're destroying lives, John. That's revenge."

"They deserve it."

"We're not judge, jury, and executioner."

John sighed, "I didn't come here to argue with you about a moot point. It's happening and that's the end of it."

"So you don't want my opinion?"

"What I want is your help to host a party where we'll convince Barristers Barrow and O'Brien that Alex betrayed them and then turn on him so we can put him away for good." John opened his hands to her, "Is that satisfactory?"

Anna leaned back against the sofa, papers crumpling under and behind her. "You won't give it up will you?"

"I want to see justice done for Matthew Crawley. I want to see justice for myself. I want to put that bastard behind bars for what he's done to you and to Jack."

"And destroying these lives'll do it for you?"

"Can't make an omelet without breaking eggs."

Anna snorted, closing her eyes a moment as if remembering, "Alex's father used to say that all the time."

"He hated eggs."

"Always said he learned to hate eggs from watching Hitchcock movies." Anna sighed, folding her arms over her chest, "I still remember the last conversation I ever had with him like it was yesterday."

"Me too." John perched on the edge of the sofa cushion next to her. "He was an extraordinary man."

"He was."

Four Years Ago

Anna opened the door, smiling at the man motioning her over toward his chair. "Sorry you'll have to talk with me for the moment. Alex is-"

"Don't tell me." Christian Green slotted a marker in the book open on his lap. "It's one of three choices. He's either sleeping off his drinking, drinking, or drinking with a woman he wants to be screwing."

"Should I tell you which one?"

"Since you're not here wringing your hands I'll assume the first." Christian set the book on the table, adjusting his oxygen line in his nose to take a deep breath. "But none of them are what you expected when you married him, are they?"

"I don't think anyone expects to reach this point in their marriage."

"Which point is that?"

"The one where you're going to pull the plug." Anna shook her head, "I think it's past time but I just didn't have the courage to risk leaving and being on my own again."

"You mean being poor again?" Anna nodded and Christian only chuckled, "It's not courage you lack my dear but means."

"It's always been that way. Ever since I was young I've been poor so that doesn't frighten me."

"You misunderstand." Christian hissed in a breath in time with the tick on his machine. "When you're single, on your own, then you could live in a matchbox or a broom cupboard with barely enough to eat but consider yourself the resident of a palace. It's different when you've got another mouth to feed that'll make your broom cupboard a little too snug."

"Are you about to tell me I should leave Jack here?"

"If I were a lot healthier and twenty years younger I'd insist on it. But we both know that it'd be foolish to leave that boy in the hands of a man who detests his very presence."

Anna wiped at a tear in her eye, "I couldn't bear to part with him. Not when doing it'd leave him abandoned here."

"His father would've taken care of him."

"In other circumstances maybe but-"

"No," Anna stopped talking at the tone in Christian's voice, "I mean his real father would've taken care of him. Would've loved his boy with all his soul and moved heaven and earth to sacrifice for him."

Anna swallowed, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I knew John Bates when he was Jack's age and even before that. I see John Bates in that boy more everyday and it's the only time I'm grateful that my son's enough of an idiot not to notice you've called John Bates's son his for twelve years."

"I didn't have a choice. When they took John away and locked him up I needed a way to support Jack and myself. I'm so sorry."

"My dear," Christian reached a hand over, covering hers, "You've nothing to be sorry for. It's me who should be sorry."

"You?"

"I allowed that boy to treat you and Jack as terribly as he has. I allowed him to believe that behavior was alright. And I allowed him to grow into the asshole he is."

Anna snorted, "You've never been very forgiving."

"I used to be more so when I couldn't see as clearly that I left my company and my legacy to the wrong man." He took a shuddering breath, "It's why I rewrote my will."

"What?"

Christian nodded, "I left everything of mine in a trust for Jack. He'll have full access to it when he graduates school. He can access it to go to University, or get a house, or give you a place to feel safe when you decide to leave Alex."

"Why would you do this for us?"

"Because, putting aside all issues of blood, John Bates was like a son to me and his son is my grandson for all I care and I'll be damned if I don't do for John's son what I wish I'd have done for him." Christian sniffed and Anna noted the tears welling in his eyes matched hers. "He was the best man I ever knew."

She covered his hand with hers, "Me too."

They sat another minute before Christian coughed. "Unfortunately I need to send you for my son. I've got to tell him this news as well and he won't take it as well as you have."

"It's better news for me than him."

"He better get used to bad news."

Anna stood, kissing her father-in-law's forehead, "You've always been so good to me and I don't know how I'll ever thank you."

"Raise Jack right and that's thanks enough."

"I promise I will."

Present Day

John held Anna's hand, "He was the best of men."

"You're the best of men." She stroked over his hand, "That's why I don't want you seeking revenge. You'll destroy your heart and I don't want that."

"I'm not even sure I still have a heart anymore Anna."

"You do." She kissed his cheek, "Because you gave it to me."

John nodded, "I did, didn't I?"

"However," Anna thumped his hand against the sofa before standing, "If you want my help planning something to catch them out then we're going to need something public. Something Alex won't miss."

"Like what?"

"We're planning a party, John." Anna grinned, "And you're going to be dancing with me at it."

"I thought we needed to unite people against Green, not rile him up about us."

"We can kill two birds with one stone."

"Not sure we should." John grinned back at her, "But I'm all for efficiency."