To The Shore

by EveryDayArtist

A/N There will be a very brief, non-descriptive mention of violence and rape in this chapter near the end. Nothing triggering I hope, but it is referenced.

Chapter Six

Arthur Gray was finding himself coming closer and closer to a full-blown migraine as he exited his car and watched Lauren march up the drive, only to hesitate once she'd reached the door. The man sighed and joined her, pulling on his overcoat as Lauren looked at him somewhat sheepishly. "Don't you think you should have given him more time to cool down?"

"No." Arthur said flatly and knocked on the door.

It jerked open almost immediately and he found himself faced with Frank, whose eyes were icy as he glared at the older man. Arthur sighed as he stepped into the house. "He's not taking it well, then?"

The younger Hardy's fist moved too fast for him to track and he went sprawling as it made contact with his cheekbone. He landed heavily, feeling the wind knocked out of him as Frank grabbed his brother's arms and pulled him away before he could attempt to lash out again; Lauren was observing from a safe distance, a pained look on her face. Arthur touched his jaw gingerly, feeling a small amount of blood, and sighed. "I suppose I owe you an apology."

"Oh, you suppose do you?" Joe was livid, still paler than he should have been. "The only reason that I agreed to take time off in the first place is because you said they'd gone so far underground that we couldn't find any leads. You said that there was nothing I could do so, like an idiot, I trusted you and I left. And all this time, you knew they were active and lied to me-"

"It was in your best interest." Arthur's voice was stern as he righted himself and faced his subordinate. "Your reaction confirms it. How could I ask you to be subjective? You cannot handle interacting with his men effectively and I've taken you off the case for your own damn good."

Joe laughed bitterly and ran a hand through his short hair before falling onto the couch and allowing Frank to put an arm around his shoulders comfortingly. Lauren finally spoke up. "It's being played close to the chest, only Art and I are investigating. He knows that this is important to you-"

"No offense, McGregor," Joe bit out. "But I don't really want to have to listen to you right now."

"Tough." The young woman said, uncrossing her arms and glaring at her co-worker. "Hardy, you're not being objective here. I know this is difficult but you need to hear Art out."

"…'You know this is difficult'." He let out a shaky chuckle. "You don't have a clue."

She took a deep, steadying breath. "No, you're right. I don't understand what you went through. But I do know you're better than this."

There was a long moment as they stared at each other before she turned away and grunted, "As much as I'm loath to admit it."

"Joe." The blond turned to look at his boss, who was holding out a thick manila folder. He took it gingerly as Arthur smiled. "It's not going to explode."

"With you I can never be sure. What the hell is this?"

"The casefile."

Joe dropped it like he'd been burned and stared at it, wide-eyed. There was a long moment of silence as the young man stared down at the harmless looking pieces of paper that held so much pain and anger for him; his friends and family watching him carefully. Fenton was glad that he'd told Laura to go with Callie and Gertrude to take the kids out for ice-cream, it would have destroyed her to see her youngest son's face; the last time he'd looked so pale and wane they'd been placing the love of his life into the ground. All that the man wanted to do was draw his boy into a tight hug and take away every minute of pain that he'd been through until the happy boy he'd been came through. This was what he'd feared when Joe had first disappeared.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath Joe straightened and nodded. "…I need to be involved."

"I know." Arthur smiled. "We'll read Frank and Ms. Drew into the situation. And I promise you that as soon as this mess it cleaned up, you'll be a part of the larger investigation."

The ringing silence in the living room dragged on as Joe stared at the file and Frank stared at his little brother. Then the blonde looked up and frowned at his older brother, who nodded slowly. Nancy had been watching without comment, allowing the family to hash it out, but spoke up finally, "Agent Gray, I think we need a moment."

"Can I offer you a drink?" Fenton asked quickly, ushering the two government agents into the kitchen. They stood around the kitchen island, awkwardly looking around. Lauren asked for directions to the bathroom, making some comment about 'powdering her nose', and left the two men. Arthur wasn't sure where he stood with Fenton, in the past they'd had a sort of understanding but it had been mostly built on their shared desire to keep the boys uninvolved.

"It's my fault." He finally broke the silence. "So don't be mad at the kid. I'm the one who recruited him."

"But Joe had to make the final decision." Fenton sighed, placing the glasses of water on the counter. "And that's the only way for me to make peace with this. Joe did what he thought was right. And he kept in touch; that couldn't have been his idea."

Arthur smiled wryly. "I figured it was necessary to keep you all calm. He agreed, but that boy has the attention span of a goldfish."

Their laughter eliminated some of the tension and Fenton shook his head. "It's the same as if he'd joined the army. I understand it's his decision, but it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I agree. It's hard to handle the idea of your son out in the field; it's part of being a parent. But you understand how crucial his help has been, don't you?"

"Has it?" Fenton stared at the other man.

"Of course." Arthur smiled. "You trained him well, he's an excellent detective; his intuition is spot on. But it's more than that…" The man sighed and rubbed at his face. "He-He needs to help people. Nothing ever trumps that in his mind and while it can occasionally be problematic due to the nature of our work, more often than not it makes him a better agent. Both of your sons are incredibly selfless and you should be proud."

Fenton smiled. "I always have been."

From the hallway Lauren smiled sadly. She could, somewhat begrudgingly, admit that the men were right about her coworker; but there was something about hearing it from the older Hardy that was bittersweet. Her own father had died when she was ten so she'd never related to Joe's feelings about his parent but she'd listened anyway and found that nothing he'd told her was untrue.

"…tan my ass. After that I'm sure he'll understand."

The trainees all laughed in agreement, seated around one of the rec room tables. Joe leaned back in his chair, grinning cheekily. Rolling her eyes, Lauren ground out, "Yuck it up, Hardy."

"You're just jealous that I'm going on a mission before you." The blonde teased playfully. "Don't be hatin'."

Lauren's roommate, a pale girl with large green eyes and a frizzy mane of carrot-orange hair, pouted. "It's not fair. I thought it takes longer to get to go on missions like this."

"It does, Molly." Their last member, a dark skinned boy with glasses, grinned. "Joey's just so annoying they couldn't wait to ship him out of the country."

"Shut up, Veej."

"Hardy! McGregor!"

Leaping to attention, both young people turned to the older woman who towered over them. Agent Smith was their lead trainer and the one person on base that every single one of them was terrified of. In this situation, however, she was smiling. "McGregor, Gray wants to see you in his office. Hardy, you're meeting with your handler today. Conference room B. Go on."

They hurried off. As they walked down a quiet hallway, Joe shot the girl a curious look. "You're not mad, right?"

"Nah. You're getting the assignment because you fit the profile. It's not like you're more advanced than me."

"That's the spirit."

Lauren stopped and gave him a look. "Seriously, though; are you sure you're up for it? Most people have a lot more training beforehand."

"It's not my first undercover mission." Joe laughed. "I'll be fine. My dad didn't raise a quitter."

"Just a fool."

"I resent that." Joe grinned and punched her in the arm. "Look, the way I see it, I'll be helping people by doing this and that's all that matters."

She shook her head. "You're unbelievably optimistic, Hardy."

"And you're not enough!" He stopped and gripped her shoulders. "Seriously, McGregor, you gotta run with the hits and just do what you can. And we're both awesome at this. We're going to be going out there and saving lives. That's awesome."

In the living room, the younger people were amazed at the lack of aggression coming from the other room. They had settled around the low coffee table, deep in thought. "So we play ball with them?" Nancy asked. "I need to know what to tell my partner."

"Let's face it, Art's got five times the resources we do. And intel we need." Joe shrugged. "I don't like it much, but I think we should let him take the lead here."

"I disagree."

Joe sighed and rolled his eyes. "Shocking…"

Frank ignored him and looked to Nancy, "Are you okay with this?"

"I have to follow protocol." She sighed. "I have people to answer to now. So, yeah, this seems like the smart thing to do."

"Frank," Joe put a hand on his shoulder. "Just… I know you and Art don't see eye to eye but just put it to the side for now, okay?"

The older Hardy scowled, rubbing at his face. Then he sighed, looking up. "What do they know?"

"We've been investigating them for about a month now." Lauren spread photos out on the table; Frank, Joe, Nancy all gathering around and Arthur lounging in the corner. Fenton had excused himself and went to join his wife and daughter-in-law, deciding that is was best that someone remained out of it all. The young secret agent tapped a photo.

"This is most likely the man who was outside of your home last night, Mr. Hardy. His name is Abram Krupin and he's a hired gun who works for a man named Yemelyan Orlov, an underling of a powerful Assassins agent. Orlov is in weapons distribution; a gunrunner. When we heard he was in the country we immediately began investigating but whomever he's working with, they're good."

Arthur took that moment to walk over and look to where Joe was scanning the files. "Does he know you?"

"No. I don't think so." He rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. "I never met either of them, only saw them occasionally when they visited the compound. As far as I can tell, he was after Nancy, not Frank or I."

The redhead nodded. "It makes sense. Unless they know who Joe is, there's no reason for them to have come here unless they were following me."

Lauren blew out a breath. "All well and good, but why the hell are gunrunners stealing cars?"

"Gosh, McGregor, I hadn't thought of that." Joe deadpanned.

"Up yours, Hardy."

"Children, behave." Arthur tapped a photo. "I still think Slagel is our best bet."

Frank was pouring coffee for all the detectives, watching his brother flip through the photos thoughtfully. Joe was obviously in his element now; he had that sharp look on his face that he'd used to get when they worked cases that seemed impossible, there was nothing Joe loved more than being told he couldn't do something and then proving people wrong. The blond frowned and began tapping his fingers distractedly. "Why does he look so damn familiar…"

"How do you know these guys?"

"Like I said, I don't really." Joe mumbled. "I know of them. There's a difference. I've spent the last six years investigating and researching Assassins. My research skills are a little better than you remember, dude." He grinned but it slowly slid from his face, and he frowned as a memory began to surface.

"So, what? He's been doing all this illegal trafficking and we're only now hearing about him?"

Twenty-one year old Joe Hardy stared down at the papers in front of him and shook his head. "I cannot believe this guy's managed to hide out for so long…"

Natalie Chambers snorted into her glass from where she was lounging on the large motel bed. "Come on, squirt. We don't know everything."

"Can you please stop calling me that? I'm only three years younger than you."

Across the room, Alex Kingston chuckled and shook his head. "Alright, behave. We've got maybe twenty minutes before one of us is missed. Joey, anything to report?"

Joe shrugged blowing out a sigh and scratching irritably at the scruffy beard that covered his jaw. "I dunno. They're not really telling me stuff yet. I've barely been here and even with the background HQ gave me, I still have to earn their trust."

"Ditto." Natalie sighed herself, glaring into the empty tumbler she held loosely. "What's the point of going undercover if you can't learn anything?"

"You're both new to this. You'll understand one day that uneventful missions are the best kind." Alex walked over and sat across from Joe, giving both of his younger teammates stern looks. "So keep your heads down, you hear me?"

"Yessir." They chorused. Natalie chuckled. "Well, it's almost worth the looks we're going to get when we head back."

"What do you mean?"

Her grin widened. "Joey, we left the compound together and rented a motel room. What do you think they'll assume we were doing?"

It took him a second before his face went beet-red. "Nat!"

The older agent laughed as Alex sighed and patted Joe on the shoulder soothingly. "Just try and find out when the buy is going down. Here's a list of faces. You see any of them and you let me know right away, alright?"

"…I know where I've seen him before…"

"Who, Slagal?" Arthur leaned forward, staring at his agent. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah…" Joe started to grin. "I remember when he showed up once at the compound. He's super, super low rank-hell, he's not really even an Assassin. But he's connected to Manu Tasse."

"Tasse." Lauren's brows shot up. "Wait, the guy who calls himself Thanos-"

"-and runs arms deals and whatever the hell else you need done." Joe confirmed. "All over the net and completely anonymously, providing aid to almost every large terrorist group you can name. Or he was until-"

"-we kicked his ass and put him in maximum security prison." The woman's eyes widened. "But kept everything quiet and have had Veej-"

"-pretending to be him to lure wanted men into traps-"

"-So in theory if Veej called Slagal up and offered to help he might slip up and-"

"-give us a chance to nab him!"

"Yes!" Both agents threw themselves at the laptop, shoving at each other and Arthur had to sweep in and grab the computer before fixing his agents with a stony glare.

"McGregor, you will contact Mr. Patill and ask him to try and contact Slagal. Hardy, until we can make the contact, you can investigate your brother's friend. Perhaps we can learn something from his disappearance." He smiled at Nancy. "Agent Drew, I took the liberty of contacting your superiors on this case and let them know that you're aiding one of our agents and a consultant on a new lead. Just make sure to contact them soon."

"Consultant?" Frank looked insulted but Nancy felt a surge of adrenalin; after so many dead-ends, they finally had a plan of attack!

They were getting ready to head their separate ways when Arthur pulled Joe aside. "I just want to be clear." He tapped the folder in Joe's hands. "You can tell them as much as you want. As far as I'm concerned, they're as reliable as you to keep things quiet. But I don't want you to rush it."

"Coming from the man who's been trying to get me into therapy ever since?" Joe laughed. "Come on, Art."

"I want you to talk to someone you trust because I think you need the release." He moved his hand to grip Joe's shoulder. "You're putting up a hell of a front but it can't last. You know that."

Gazing blankly ahead, Joe smiled tightly. "You're worried I'm going to snap."

"Yes."

"And ruin the mission?"

"And get hurt!" Arthur practically growled, feeling the urge to slam the younger man's head against a wall. "You idiot…"

As he stomped off, the smile on the blonde turned genuine and Joe felt a knot untangle in his chest. It was reassuring to be surrounded by people who cared about him.

"Won't the police already have been all over this place with a fine toothed comb?" Nancy asked as they drove down the country road. "What are we hoping to find?"

"Anything." Frank drummed his fingers on the armrest of the passenger seat. "They were looking for proof of his guilt. We can look for proof of his innocence."

"I guess." The FBI agent looked into the rear-view mirror nervously.

Joe had been silent the entire trip, buried in the file Arthur had given him. Nancy didn't think it was a good idea to let him become involved in a case that obviously had such a negative impact on him. But the younger Hardy was devouring the information inside the file like a starved man; she could imagine how difficult not being kept in the loop must have been for someone like him. Frank eyed him in the rear-view mirror as well.

"So do we get to know or what?"

"Brother mine, forgive me, but the idea of calmly discussing a very traumatic event in my life is something I kind of need to work up to." Joe snorted. "Man, you would not believe the psych eval they did on me…"

Nancy gave Frank a look and he shrugged. Despite everything, Joe seemed pretty balanced, so he wasn't going to worry too much. Vocally anyway.

"Alright. So what else can you tell us about these guys?"

"Well, Manu Tasse came onto our radar a few years ago. He was this sort of shadowy online persona; some people thought that maybe he didn't exist and it was all a hoax or urban legend. In reality he's this ex-military guy with serious electronic chops." Joe smiled to himself. "A regular Wizard of Oz…"

"And Slagal works for him?"

"Yep." Joe thumbed through his file some more, face going cloudy. "I guess that means he was…"

"…He was?" Nancy pressed, looking into the mirror again. The silence stretched out for a long moment. Frank was about to twist around and confront his brother when he began to speak.

"We were investigating a very important Assassins agent—I won't say more, you don't need the details and it's an ongoing case. But I was deep undercover and worked with two other agents to bring him down from the inside. We were there for almost two years before our cover was compromised."

Frank wanted to turn, but a quick look at Nancy showed that she'd come to the same conclusion as him; if they turned they might break the mood, or spook Joe back into silence. The man faced forward and listened with an increasing feeling of dread.

"We still don't know how it happened but we were thrown into a cell and… interrogated. I-

"It was worse for Alex-even though he had a wife and kids he tried so hard to keep Nat and I safe. He said it was because we were younger. I don't know if that was really why but… It didn't last for long. They couldn't get much out of us; after all, we were trained better than that. So after a while…

"I don't remember a lot of what happened. They just… They had no use for us but the bastards didn't want to kill us right away. They started to go all out. It was hell. I remembered, for some reason, back in High School. When we'd get banged up in football and gripe about it. Said that the strain of an extra long practice was worse than anything but I think that burns… They're worse. I dunno why, even knives…

"…They raped Nat. We could hear them do it-they took her into the room next door and took turns-She screamed for us and we couldn't… It wasn't even about threatening her-It-They thought it was fun-

"It killed her. And then three days after she finally died they came in and shot Alex in the head. I still see it in my nightmares and feel his blood splattering on my face. I swear I have never been so scared in my life, I honestly thought I was going to die that night… Sometimes I wish I had. Because being alone was so terrifying and I spent every day thinking I was finally going to die and when they raided and got me out all I could think was why me? It didn't seem fair that Alex and Nat are gone and I'm not and I keep wondering, every time I close my eyes, if I'm going to wake up and be back there-"

Nancy had barely managed to pull the car off to the side of the road before Frank was yanking open the door and tumbling out to reach for the back. He slipped onto the seat, grabbing his younger brother and pulling him into a crushing embrace. Joe blinked against his shoulder, feeling strangely empty.

"You know, I haven't felt safe since. Not until I went to your place. Because it felt like, as long as you were there I couldn't be back there." He pushed his face into the older man's neck and choked back a sob. "It's so stupid because I'm the one who left but I wanted to come home so bad… I would wake up in the infirmary and still hear them asking me if they think it hurt when they shot Al and telling me how much Nat cried and-I really, really am sorry, so sorry, but I didn't even feel guilty because I was so damn happy to be home. I've missed you so much."

Frank hauled him closer with shaking hands and kissed his hair as he groaned. "No, no, I'm sorry." The words caught in his throat, "Dammit, Joe."

Nancy slipped into place on Joe's other side and calmly began to run her fingers through his hair. "I know it's hard, but we're all so glad you made it home. You know that right?"

Joe's watery laugh turned wondering. "Yeah, I know. I still hate it though."

"I can understand why." Nancy continued. "But, Joe, you know that it wasn't your fault, right? What happened to you was awful and Gray and the others just wanted to keep you safe."

Frank blinked as she gave him a pointed look and took a deep breath. "Joe?" His little brother made a noise of confirmation. "I'm proud of you. Really proud. I couldn't be this strong."

Joe made another choked noise before pushing away and wiping his eyes. "Okay, okay, enough of this. I can't take much more; I'm no good at chick-flick moments. Let's get back on the case, alright?"

Nancy smiled fondly. "Alright, for now."

"For now." Frank agreed, giving his brother one last hug. It was a little odd; neither brother was normally one for physical affection but since Joe's return they'd been doing an awful lot of hugging.

He wasn't necessarily opposed to it.