"You going to be okay?" Cade asked from the doorway.
"I will."
"You sure? I can phone in sick if you want me to stick around." He offered walking over to Brody.
"I will be fine. And Cade? Thank you for everything."
"My pleasure. Besides you've listened to my problems as much as I have listened to yours." He smiled. "You have my number? Make sure you call if you ever need to talk."
"I will."
"And look after Chris for me?" Cade asked.
"Always." Brody smiled.
"Good. Well I will see you soon then." He said carefully hugging Meredith. "Take care."
"You to." Brody said pulling away.
"And get some rest." Cade added as he walked out of the door. Smiling at the muttered response from the lounge he opened the front door to see another Agent.
"Agent Pride." He greeted.
"Cade." Pride nodded. "Going somewhere?"
"Back to work. Merri is in there if you are looking for her."
"Thanks. And Cade, thanks for looking after her."
"I didn't do anything." He shrugged.
"That's not how Christopher tells it." Pride said.
"He's always seen me in a better light that I deserve." A comment earning silent agreement from Pride. "And in this case all I did was offer Merri someone to talk to."
"Sometimes that is all that is needed." Pride said.
"Yeah, but I feel like I ended up talking and sharing more than she did." The comment earning a sympathetic smile from Pride who said.
"To be fair you did take on our best interrogator."
-00-
"How you doing?" Pride asked entering the lounge where Brody was sitting.
"Apart from the boredom?"
"Yeah, apart from that." Pride smiled.
"Fine. Any news on the case?"
"Yeah. Looks like our Lieutenant Wallis accidentally stumbled on a counterfeiting operation. Four of the files on the disk he gave to your father had the serial numbers of the payrolls for four ships."
"The rest of the files?"
"No idea. Patton has had no luck understanding them, but we are thinking they are not connected. It looks like Wallis believed there was a smuggling operation going on. He copied some files he believed were related to the disk. It turns out though four of those files had information on the counterfeiting op. My guess is he never knew what he had."
"So he gets some files he shouldn't have, thinks they are something else which he passes to my father, who sends them to me?"
"Meanwhile, the breach is discovered and the person in charge orders the retrieval of the disk at all costs." Pride said. "They trace the shipment to you and you know the rest."
"Funny, if they left it alone we would never have known." Brody said.
"Fortunately we are often helped by the bad guys being dumb." Pride smiled.
"So what now?"
"Washington have taken the lead in bringing down those responsible. We have been able to charge the men who came after you." Pride said, trying to hide his frustration.
"LaSalle said you had history with the group." Brody said.
"That I do. Putting three of them away is going to feel mighty good. So how are you doing? Really."
"I'm okay."
"You want to talk about where you go?"
"Where I go?"
"When you get that distant look and drift out of conversations. We've all noticed it."
"Just revisiting some old memories."
"Memories you are ready to talk about?"
"No. But memories I can live with."
"Okay, well just remember you ever want to talk I'm here." Pride said.
"I know, thank you."
"Good. Maybe on a related note, Gibbs said to tell you he is still looking."
When Brody just nodded in response Pride knew he was going to get nothing out of her so changed topics.
"The other good news is your place will be available from tomorrow, but Christopher said you are welcome to stay here as long as you want."
"I'm looking forward to being home." Brody said.
"I thought you might. So you talk to your parents?"
"No."
"You planning to?"
"Not sure."
"Well if you want to in person tonight may be your last chance for a while. They are flying out tomorrow morning."
"You think I should?" Brody asked, genuinely wanting Pride's opinion.
"You know I think family is important and whilst I concede your family is a little…"
"Nuts? Screwed up?" Brody suggested.
"I was going to say a little more dynamic than most." Pride smiled. "One thing I did learn was they do care about you. And no matter what you think about their parenting styles none of us can argue with the results." He paused then added. "If it means anything your mother handed over all her work on the Wallis investigation."
"Really?" She asked. "I guess you were right Wallis really did just accidentally stumble on the counterfeiting. " She said sadly, seeing Pride's confusion she added. "No way would she have handed over the files if there was a real story."
"Don't you think that is a little harsh?" Pride asked. "You could try giving her the benefit of the doubt."
-00-
"Hey King." LaSalle greeted as Pride walked into Brody's cottage. "How's Brody?"
"Gone to see her parents."
"That's good. I guess."
"It is. And should the worse happen the hotel manager said he'd call me directly."
"She tell you what's bugging her?"
"No and I didn't want to push. So how is the clean up going?"
"Kitchen almost done, Sebastian is just finishing. Loretta is busy doing the bedroom, we thought Brody would appreciate it not being us going through her clothes."
"Good call."
"Lounge needs doing though."
"I'll get right on it. She seemed keen to move back tomorrow so let's make sure this place is ready."
"You think she is ready to move back?" LaSalle asked.
"I think she thinks she is." Pride replied.
"But?" LaSalle pressed sensing Pride's doubts.
"But let's keep a careful watch on her. She may have coped by herself just fine in the past but she has us now, we need to make sure she remembers that."
"Don't worry I won't let her forget." Chris smiled.
"Something on your mind?" Pride asked sensing Chris was hiding something.
"You sure she is safe?" His concern obvious.
"Now we have the disk there is no reason to go after her. Although we can't be one hundred percent sure until until whoever is behind it is behind bars."
"But you said we were dropping the investigation."
"I said we had been ordered to drop it. Right now we'll let Washington run with it, but as soon as we are back at full strength, if Washington have failed, I'll start back up again."
"We." Chris said. "We're in this together."
-The End-
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed it. There will be a sequel, which should go up in the next week.