"That's the same fucking hand innit?" Roy asked quietly as he guided the car out of the Dog Track.
Her eyes flicker up and meets his in the rearview mirror "Yes"
"I get the feeling I'm missing a whole load of information here and the picture it's gonna paint ain't gonna be pretty." Ted's eyes dart between the two of them, Roy only grunts in response and leaves Rebecca to respond if she chooses to.
"Whatever you're imagining is probably not as bad as reality was" is all she is willing to say.
"Do you want me to call Beth?" Roy asks next "She's on today, can get you through A&E quietly."
"Yes thank you Roy." as the car makes another turn the wooziness returns and her stomach starts to revolt against the movement.
"Roy-o you might wanna take those turns a little easier. She's going a little wicked witch back here…" Unable to find anything else in the back of the car, Ted starts to shrug out of his jacket just in case.
Roy doesn't answer, but slows down slightly as he waits for the staff line at the hospital to be picked up.
"Yeah, it's Roy" the call is finally picked up "Can you let Beth know I'm bringing tall trouble in. She's got a fucking pen embedded in her hand."
"Tall trouble?" Ted's eyes light up at the possibility of a new nickname for Rebecca and the distraction.
"Beth call's her that, Phoebe is small trouble. They're a fucking nightmare when they all get together, I'm not looking forward to the day their calendars all line up and Keeley can join in. I don't even want to think about the day Beth meet's Sassy."
They hit a roundabout, this time Rebecca groans, she hadn't felt this nauseous since she was pregnant.
"Seriously Roy, I think we're both gonna get the boot if she boots in the boot…" Ted winced and held his jacket out just in case.
"I will aim at the back of your head and teach Phoebe to climb the trellis at your house if I throw up" Rebecca finally threatens.
"Good thing we're here then, innit?" Roy pulls in at A&E , relieved to see Beth waiting with a wheelchair.
"Seriously Rebecca, we have to stop meeting like this…" Beth grins as Rebecca lowers herself out of the car with their help.
Half an hour later, Rebecca had finally lost the fight with the nausea and vomited, her arm from the elbow down was blissfully numb and she was waiting to be taken to x-ray so they could safely remove the pen from where it should never be.
She'd also managed to discreetly text Clyde and Emily with a somewhat cryptic message.
Had to call the police to Nelson road, the Devil came for a visit
Really, it wasn't all that cryptic for two profilers but she had to be careful incase either Ted or Roy saw the message.
The two of them were hovering in their own unique ways. Roy was sitting between her and the door, glaring at anyone who walked past and dared to glance in while Ted bounced around the room, poking at everything, asking random questions about the NHS and the health system. Being a general nuisance to any staff member that came in.
Overall providing Rebecca with a lovely distraction.
"I can gag him, or sneak down to the fucking psych ward and tell them their missing patient is up here." Roy whispers in her ear at one point a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"As amusing as both of those options are, no. Do you really want to leave Beard in charge for any longer than necessary? What I'm more worried about is Keeley hasn't turned up or called either of us yet."
It takes a moment for Roy to work through what she's just said…
"She's in Camden Town for a shoot today… fuuuuuuck…"
"Are you telling me she doesn't know yet?" Rebecca really doesn't want to suffer the wrath of Keeley, although if she thought about it, as the injured party, said wrath is more likely to be pointed at Roy, Ted and Beard. She stares at Roy pointedly, she is not going to be the one to make this particular phone call. Roy in turn, looks over her shoulder at Ted.
"Hey Gaffer, can you do us a favour and call Keeley to let her know what happened." he calls out softly.
"That was mean" Rebecca whispered as Ted disappeared out the door, phone in hand.
"Maybe, but it's fucking funny"
"True"
By the time Ted gets back, having spent an unprecedented amount of time reassuring Keeley that Rebecca will be fine and no she doesn't have to come to the hospital immediately, Rebecca has been taken to x-ray leaving Roy alone in the room.
As still and silent as Roy has ever seen him, Ted stares at the younger man contemplating how to phrase the question he wants to ask.
"Now I'd never ask you to give up a confidence but I'm guessin there's a whole boatload of baggage today is gonna bring up so I need to know if there's anything I need to watch out for? Signs that she's not dealin as well with all this as she wants us to believe?" The question is subtle in a way that Roy had never seen from Ted until now.
"She'll hide away in that house of hers before letting any of us see any signs of weakness" Roy finally says after thinking long and hard about how to answer the question "so as long as she's out and about or letting people visit in the next couple of days you don't need to worry too much"
Ted nodded slowly, rearranging the pieces of the magnificently complex woman he was slowly getting to know.
"I'm guessin she's done a lot of hiding in the past,'' he mused but only got a grunt in return.
"I just wanna be her friend… you can never have too many of them on your side"
The police turned up while they were stitching up her hand. She was fortunate that Rupert had shit aim and had missed bone, tendons and blood vessels.
The interview didn't take long and it's not all that stressful until she was asked the question she dreaded and she was relieved Roy and Ted had left the room.
"Has Mr Mannion ever physically attacked you in the past?"
She clenched her jaw, she'd been thinking about how she would answer this question since they had arrived at the hospital and she still hadn't arrived at an answer until she saw the two police officers sitting in front of her with no judgement whatsoever in their gazes.
She could see empathy and curiosity, even some sympathy mixed in.
"Many many times during our marriage" she admits finally "I've made sure to not let myself be in a position where he can since I left him."
Taking a deep breath she pushed on. She had discussed this exact scenario with Clyde and Emily a year before and she'd been comfortable then with the decision she'd made and was still comfortable with it.
"Honestly, I don't want to dredge up the past, I don't want to have to deal with him at all. I'm moving on with my life and I wish he would too, so at this moment, no I'm not planning on pressing charges for anything that happened while we were married. If he doesn't cooperate and leave me the hell alone I'll do what I legally have to to protect myself but at the end of the day… I just want him out of my life."
Emily was actually on the phone with Clyde when Rebecca's text message dropped through.
15 minutes before she had in fact almost been blown up… again.
Although it had been several years since the last time, she really needed to stop that.
Meanwhile, she had a sadistic pair of serial killers to try and track down and figure out their end game.
"What about Chad? Is there any connection?" This was in fact her second call to Clyde that day, the international connections in their case were undeniable and he'd been somewhat helpful and irritating at the same time.
"No, no, nothing yet. But, um, if I had more help, say, running the London Gateway office, you'd have your answer much quicker." Some days she could appreciate Clyde's doggedness, today was not one of those days so she stuck to snark as a response.
"Yes, you should fix that."
"Well, I'm trying."
"You have always had bad timing."
"Oh, come on, Emily. Don't you miss this? Think about it."
"Yeah, I will." It was all she had been thinking about for months, truth be told. Ever since Dave had cornered her after she had been shot in California she had been thinking about it.
She loved her job, she loved her team, when she had come back from London the previous September the BAU felt like a pair of old boots. Perfectly worn in, comfortable in all the right places but there was a tiny crack in the sole that let water in.
She'd tried glueing it back together, but she knew deep in her heart there was no fixing this. The only thing she could do is buy new boots.
Emily was just about to hang up the call when her phone dinged and Clyde swore.
"Fuck, check your messages darling"
Had to call the police to Nelson road, the Devil came for a visit
"That's…" she blows her breath out through her lips "not good."
"Let me get into it, I have a feeling that's my fault. I'm flying back from Algeria as we speak, we just shut down a major hub in Oran that we think he's been using, so he'll be fuming. I didn't think he'd try to take it out on her…" he sighed and shot a message off to Sean to find out what had happened.
"Lie to yourself Clyde, but don't lie to me, we both know better. You knew damn well he'd be looking for somewhere to vent his frustration and after what he's pulled with the club ownership stake…" she rolls her eyes in frustration "We've even got people watching her at the club, how did they not pick this up?"
"Because it's not a close watch. You're the one who recommended distance…" he pauses as Sean's response drops through "Shit…"
When they hung up the phone several minutes later, Emily knew what she had to do; she just wasn't ready to admit it to anyone yet.
2 hours later she almost gets blown up again.
When Rebecca is finally released from the hospital, the sun has set and she is absolutely exhausted. All she wants to do is go home and curl up in bed with Addy.
The police have finally finished with her, she's all stitched up and has had the joy of getting a tetanus booster.
She is also unsurprised to see Ted and Roy still waiting outside the room for her. Why does she have the sinking feeling that one of them will be in her guest room overnight?
Possibly both and if the look on Beards face as they drove away is anything to go by, he'll be there as well. She's also well aware that nothing will keep Keeley away, so it's not surprising to see the younger woman sitting on her front doorstep when they arrive at her house.
She lets Keeley hug her and reassure herself that she's fine before toeing off her shoes and dropping her bag at the bottom of the staircase.
The painkillers are starting to wear off, she's exhausted and does not have it in her to deal with her friends right now. As much as she loves or is coming to love them, it's too overwhelming so without a word, she walks up the stairs and leaves them to their own devices.
Stopping in Addy's room she awkwardly scoops up the sleeping baby from her cot and once in her bedroom closes the door behind them.
The click of the lock can't be heard from downstairs but the message is clear.
In the kitchen Keeley, Ted and Roy stare at each other for long and awkward moments.
"I don't think she's coming back down" Ted finally breaks the silence.
"I'll give her some time and then go check in" Keeley starts pulling mugs out of the cupboard to make tea and coffee.
"Don't" Roy is firm "Just leave her be for tonight"
"Fuck off, after the day she's just had?" Keeley fires back immediately.
Roy sighs and contemplates how much he's willing to reveal "Look, I fucking get it, I really do but trust me, she just needs to sleep right now. If she's still like this tomorrow, all silent and shit we'll try something else but just leave her alone tonight."
Keeley opens her mouth to argue again but Ted beats her to it.
"Could you explain your thinking a bit for us Roy? I'm a little behind the bell curve on Rebecca Welton 101 and I suspect you're top of the class."
It takes both Roy and Keeley a few seconds to parse Ted's meaning.
"Nah, you want top of the fucking class, we need to bring Lauren in." he buys himself a moment with a snarky remark. "Look, I don't know how much she's told you and I don't want to… I don't know, break the fucking girl code or whatever but if we crowd her right now she'll clam up and none of us would be willing to do what it'll take to pry her open. The only person I know for sure she'd open up to is Lauren, and Keeley I get that you love her, that's fucking amazing, she needs all the people in the world that love her. But you weren't there and you don't fucking know how bad it was, I don't even know how bad it was and I was there. Lauren knows it all, and she's the one who came running on that awful fucking day, who kept Rebecca safe while she hid and rebuilt herself. I'm not saying this to hurt you, I'm saying this so you two understand that sometimes she just needs to hide for a while."
"He's right" a soft Cornish lilt came from the kitchen door. All three of them jumped in surprise to see Adrianna standing there.
"She's already grabbed Addy and the two of them will be fast asleep. I've seen it before, let her hide for tonight, process and not have to put on a brave face or a front and then she should be ready to talk in the morning."
Roy points at the Nanny silently.
"Shit like this happen a lot?" Keeley visibly bristles then deflates, she can't argue against both of them. Ted however made a connection.
"She worked from home a couple a weeks ago, and no one saw her for nearly a week."
"Like all of us she has good days and bad." Adrianna doesn't answer Ted's question, she barely answers Keeley's and that isn't missed by any of them. "And like all of us she deals with it in her own way. You wouldn't appreciate someone barging into your bedroom, waking you and possibly your 11 month old up, would you?"
"Well, no, but it'd be nice if my friends checked in on me. Like, it'd be comforting for me to know they care."
"Fucking hell Keeley, haven't you worked it out yet, before you guys came along and adopted her like the crazy extroverts you are she had Beth who's always fucking working, Lauren who lives in fucking America and me who's… well me and she still looks at us like she doesn't know what to do with us. That wankering twat of a cunt isolated her so fucking much that when she left him the only person she felt she could call wasn't even in the fucking country. The fact that you're here, that you turned up and that you're not leaving her is enough right now." Roy took a deep breath to try and stop himself yelling. Rebecca would tear him a new arsehole if he woke the baby.
A quiet ding from Ted's phone distracts them momentarily.
"Beard's outside, Imma go let him in."
Keeley still isn't convinced but she drops the subject for now, knowing she's not going to get past Roy and Adrianna. Although, it might not be a bad idea to bring Sassy into the conversation, get her take on what they should do.
Roy, Beard, Ted and Keeley raid Rebecca's wine fridge and Beard pulls a deck of cards out of his backpack, after a lot of discussion they discover the only game they all knew the basics of is Canasta.
By the time midnight rolls around they're opening a 3rd bottle and Roy and Beard are about to beat Ted and Keeley for a second time when the front door crashes open then slams closed again, they briefly see Sassy's face peer into the kitchen before she disappears followed quickly by the thumps of her running up the stairs.
Roy is the first out of his chair and stepping towards the door but the voice echoing through the house, along with the sounds of fists beating on a door cause him to stop.
"Stinky! Open this fucking door right now! Stinky!"
The four of them all looked at each other, none of them willing to interfere in the Sassy and Stinky drama that was about to occur.
Roy would do a lot for Rebecca but getting in between Sassy and anything… he liked his bollocks where they were.
"Rebecca Welton if you don't open this fucking door right now…" the thumping on the door had started to take on a melodic beat and it was clear Sassy wasn't going to move until Rebecca opened the door.
The sounds of a crying baby started to penetrate through the house but Sassy didn't let up.
"Can she beat the door down?" Beard asked the room and only got shrugs in return.
The door must have been opened as the banging stopped and the crying got louder. Rebecca couldn't be heard but it was obvious she was saying something due to Sassy's momentary silence.
"Of course I fucking came… he fucking stabbed you!"
"No I'm not going to fucking lower my voice."
"It doesn't matter who called me… I'm fucking furious, what I want to know is why aren't you?"
"Then why the fuck are you hiding in here instead of drinking and plotting revenge with your friends downstairs."
"No you're not… you're fucking hiding… you are… are too… are too… are too…"
It seems the one way argument had devolved to the level of their 13 year old selves but it finally breaks Rebecca's tenuous grip on herself.
"Of course I'm fucking angry" Rebecca finally bellowed back causing everyone downstairs to jump. "I'm furious and I want him to pay… I want him to feel every moment of pain he gave me… I want to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze until he blacks out, I want to bash his head against a wall until he bleeds, I want to twist his fingers until the bones grind together and break, I want to make him so afraid of me that he can't move, leave bruises all over his body… I want to fucking stab him, cut him off from everyone and everything he fucking loves… I want to break him over and over and over again like an eternal fucking gif!"
Silence lingers for a heartbeat before it's broken by a sob, followed by another and another, interspersed only by the still crying baby in the background. The four in the kitchen were unable to look at each other, all of them had known or suspected that Rebecca's marriage had been hell but to hear such stark words painting a visceral and nightmarish visual was something else altogether.
"Marlboro Man?" Sassy's voice eventually floats gently down "Can you pop up here for a mo?"
Ted wipes the tears he hadn't bothered to hide from his face and doesn't hesitate to head up there, unwilling to bring Sassy's wrath down on himself.
Later it will occur to Keeley that Roy was right about none of them being able to push Rebecca enough to crack her open that night.
The upstairs hall is dark except for the low light of a lamp spilling out of a doorway, bathed in the eerie glow is the heartbreaking sight of the two women on the floor, Sassy wrapped around a still sobbing Rebecca.
"Can you take the baby downstairs please, give her a bottle, a fuck load of cuddles and get her back to sleep? Also, get Keeley to go out to my car and bring Nora in, she's asleep. Just dump her on a flat surface somewhere inside." Her voice is soft and gentle.
Nodding, he steps into Rebecca's bedroom and finds Addy sitting up on the bed, red faced and still crying.
"C'mere baby" he scoops her up and tucks the blonde head under his chin "I know, Mommy and Aunt Sassy got a bit yelly, but we'll get some milk in that belly and then I'll tell you a story about Nate Shelley but first a new diaper cause you're a bit smelly…"
Sassy watches him stick his head into each room, looking for Addy's so he can change her, his gentle voice and silly rhymes soothing the baby leaving her to focus on Rebecca. Moments later he's walking back past them with a blanket and a couple of nappies in hand.
Downstairs Roy, Keeley and Beard stared at each other.
"Who called Sassy?" Keeley finally asked the other two who both shrugged.
It had actually been a worried Emily who had called Sassy, when she'd dropped her bag by the stairs Rebecca had left her phone in it. After having tried to reach her for several hours, Emily had called Sassy to fill her in and ask her if she could check on Rebecca or call someone who could. As soon as Emily uttered the word hospital, Sassy had bundled her tween into the car and taken off for Rebecca's driving the 2 hours from Chelmsford in a mild panic.
Hearing the front door open and close again, she presses a kiss to the platinum blonde head she's clutching to her chest.
"It's ok to be angry" she whispers "but don't let that rotten piece of shit control you anymore. Be angry, be sad, be whatever you need to be. Just don't be alone…" she rocked back and forth slowly. Rebecca doesn't respond but the sobs start to abate slightly.
Not long later, a half asleep Nora appears, guided by Keeley who tears up again at the sight but quickly moves the girl into a guest room and then disappears back downstairs no matter how much she wants to join them.
"I want to move on" Rebecca finally whispers "I don't want to be angry anymore, I want to be able to live my life without worrying where he's going to pop up next. I want to take Addy to the park and to the shops and to matches… I don't want to leave her with the Nanny all the time and I am so angry that I've trapped her in this house with me. I've locked us in this ivory tower and I'm terrified of us leaving."
Sassy doesn't bother to try and stop her own tears as she processes Rebecca's confession.
She'd suspected something like this had been bubbling below the surface, despite the appearance of being ok and on board with everything going on Sassy had seen the edge to Rebecca. Seen the hurt she wasn't quite able to hide and the more people Rebecca was letting in the more obvious it became.
The real Rebecca was right there desperate to get out there and live her life but so terribly afraid at the same time.
"He just turned up, how can I take her to the club if he can just waltz in any time he likes?"
That was the crux of the issue, Rupert could hurt Addy or try to take her away from Rebecca. As long as she remained here in the house, hidden away, she was safe.
It was another hour before Sassy managed to get a barely awake Rebecca up off the floor and back into bed.
"Addy's safe downstairs. You think those four will let anything happen to her? But I'll head down and check in now." She promised, on her way downstairs she quickly checked on Nora, who was fast asleep herself.
Once in the kitchen, she grabbed the open wine and took a deep drink straight from the bottle.
"Right, I've got a former patient who'll slash his tyres and key his car for 50 quid… firebomb the house for a hundred." She takes another drink as Keeley throws herself at the older woman.
"I've never been charged with destruction of property" Roy mused "Could be fun…"
Over on the lounge Beard smirked over the tiny blonde head fast asleep on his chest.
"As long as I can keep my visa I'm up for it."
"Might be best for you and Ted to be our alibis. We were all at your place for a games night or some shit." Keeley's voice was muffled from where she was still clinging on to Sassy.
From his spot by the French doors Ted stared out into the darkness, struggling to comprehend what he'd learned that day. His mind jumping from topic to topic and question to question, but one was burning more than the others.
"Why'd she push Higgins out?" He asked the room, knowing they might not be able to answer. The random question stunned them all for a moment and there was silence as all of them thought over the question, surprisingly it's Roy who manages to put the pieces together.
"They were friends, before Rebecca left twatface, or as close as Mannion would let anyone get to her. He'd get Higgins to take her out to lunch, looking back it was a distraction so he could do whatever the fuck he wanted with whoever the fuck he wanted… So in her mind, Higgins is just another one of Rupert's lackeys she needed to get out of her life. She couldn't fire him outright…" he trailed off.
"That tension is making so much more sense now" Keeley mutters more to herself than anyone else, having been witness to a number of previously baffling conversations between the two.
"If he really did that then he's just as culpable in what she's been through" Beards voice is hard. Unlike Ted he very rarely gave people a second chance. He genuinely liked Rebecca Welton and in the months that they had been in Richmond he'd managed to see under the ice queen persona she used to protect herself out in public. She was whip smart and funny as hell, their Monday dinners giving them hours of debates on all sorts of topics that occasionally left the three of them laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face. He was just beginning to grasp how precious those dinners needed to be treated.
That she felt safe enough with him and Ted to invite them into her home and trust them with her daughter baffled him slightly but also left him feeling deeply honoured. He knew what it was like to not be able to trust those around you, to be hurt so badly all you could do was hide or lash out.
The words she had screamed at Sassy drove home just how precious Rebecca's trust was and he never wanted to do anything to make her regret that trust and he could see Ted was grappling with similar thoughts.
Ted turned back to the room and stared straight at Roy "who else?"
"Who fucking else what?" Roy didn't quite catch his meaning.
"Who else is left at the club that Mannion might have his claws in?"
As Ted finishes asking the question, a realisation washes over Beard and his eyes widen in shock and he starts chuckling, causing the others to stare at him in astonishment.
"Does my face look like it's in the mood for laughing?" Roy growled at him.
"No, but then it rarely does. Coach, we don't need to worry about getting anyone else out. Rebecca's already done most of the work, she just needs to wait until the end of the season and everyone's contracts will let her legally do whatever the hell she wants with the staff."
"Huh?" Ted hadn't really read his contract, he knew Beard would have warned him if there was anything he needed to worry about.
"Oh she's good… Ted, the contracts and the only way she can get out of them? She already told us, we just didn't realise the scale she's working on!"
"Oh wow" Ted finally caught what Beard was throwing at him. Roy caught on next.
"But the only way… fuuuuuuuuuuck"
"What?" Keeley and Sassy asked at the same time.
END CHAPTER 9
123a456e: I've definitely upped Rupert's arsehole factor from cannon but he was written to be hated. As for Sassy, I'm so torn on her as well. There are parts about her character I adore but I always come back to that line from the show and cringe. I strongly felt there needed to be some lash back for it.
rmpcmfan: Hi and welcome to this little adventure! The case side of things is just getting started.