The atmosphere in the change room when Rebecca finally manages to make her way down there is jubilant.
"We're Richmond till we die, we know we are, we're sure we are, we're Richmond till we die!" Is still being sung and the team doesn't appear to be slowing down at all.
She only stays long enough to congratulate the boys and let Ted know the press is ready for him. From the back of the press room she stands proudly as Ted speaks about his struggles with anxiety and the way mental health is treated in athletics.
Rebecca makes a note to reach out to Sharon and invite her back to Richmond permanently once her current contract is finished.
The reports she gets from Liam on Edwin Akufo's dramatic and childish exit when Sam turns him down are almost unbelievable. Then she watches the security footage and makes a mental note to avoid the man as much as possible in the future.
Firing Nathan is a non-event. She arrives at the office the day after the match against Brentford to find his resignation on her desk.
She'd been so looking forward to looking him in the eye as she terminated his contract.
That night she messages the usual group about a long weekend in Majorca suggesting the same 4 days as the year before. They are all quick to accept, even Julie and Emily.
The final owners meeting of the season is a nightmare, Rupert is swanning around as though he never left. Once again it appears as though his behaviour has been swept away in the wake of his money and charm.
It's infuriating that once again he's escaped the consequences of his actions and it's only Emily's voice in the back of her mind that allows her to get through it with a modicum of composure.
"You have nothing to gain by reacting to him now. That day in your office he learned the hard way he no longer had power over you. He has no control, no influence… now you just need to hold that line. If you are too obvious in your avoidance he'll know he can still get to you. If you are too friendly he'll take that as a sign you're overcompensating and start pushing you again. Be polite but distant. Greet him, don't refer to him personally, always refer to the club. Say things like 'West Ham is looking good', detach him from them. It'll give him nothing to work with and that's the goal. Then, once you leave, find someone you can trust to let loose on, whether it's me, Ted and Beard, Keeley, Leslie. All the things you wanted to do and say to him, say about him."
Oliver is a blessing, making his way over to her and offering a friendly face. Not long later Mansour and Thomas join them and the conversation is relaxed and enjoyable.
Every now and then she feels Rupert's angry gaze on her but she forces herself not to react.
When it's over, she is shocked but delighted to find Sassy on her doorstep with plans for a raucous night out in London.
Rebecca wonders if this was something Sassy and Emily planned between them, as they're drinking champagne and getting ready, she takes Emily's advice and unloads all of the feelings the meeting had brought up. With the beginning of a nice buzz they head into Soho for dinner at Sketch and then more drinks at Ronnie Scott's. When Sassy gets them 'asked to leave' a little after 1am they stumble their way down to Empire and lose more of Rebecca's money at the Blackjack tables than she will ever admit.
Just as the sun is rising the next morning they manage to get a taxi to pick them up to take them back to Rebecca's.
Rolling her head to the side Rebecca reaches out and grabs Sassy's hand and squeezes it tightly.
"I love you."
"Love you too"
Emily was torn, she'd known Erin Strauss for 6 years and despite the contentious nature of their relationship she did respect the woman… sort of.
She knew no one would question her not turning up to Strauss' funeral, at the same time she wanted to be there for the rest of the team.
Dave had to be hurting, he'd known Strauss for several decades and she really should be there to support him. If she was reading JJ right over the phone, the entire team could use support.
Unfortunately her team was in the process of tracking a serial killer who had victims scattered across the UK, France, Belgium and the latest in Luxembourg. None of her friends back in Washington would fault her for not being there.
She faulted herself.
Emily had been absolutely firm with herself that her friends would never feel abandoned, but she had already missed Maeve's funeral and to miss Strauss'... it was one too many.
A flying visit then.
It wasn't ideal but she could ride it off as work by heading up to Boston afterwards and try to connect with some of her old contacts to confirm if either Akufo or Mannion had any active operations on the continental US.
Once the graveside service was over, Emily hugged all of her friends tightly and went back to the safe house she'd kept in DC for over two decades. Her Emily Prentiss Interpol inspector persona was shed and she donned Lauren Reynolds.
Slipping in and out of the cover was easier now, it happened quicker and more smoothly than ever.
Emily still didn't know if this was a good or a bad thing. Switching herself off shouldn't be a good thing but leaving Lauren behind was.
When she left the apartment, she slid behind the wheel of the SUV Clyde had organised and started the long and lonely drive north.
Glancing at the clock she wondered if she had the energy to go all the way there that night. It would be nearly 1am and after taking the Red eye from London she was running desperately short on sleep.
Maybe she should stop in New Haven to sleep for a couple of hours. Then she could get to Boston early in the morning and spend the day getting the lay of the land before hitting the Black Shamrock in the evening.
It turned out to be a good idea as just as she was pulling off the 91 into the Wallingford rest area her eyes were drifting close in an alarming way. It wasn't the most sensible idea, she would never hear the end of it if something happened but she needed to rest.
Really, it would be the irony of ironies if something did happen. A profiler, former CIA, former FBI currently with Interpol attacked by a serial killer in a rest stop in the middle of nowhere Connecticut.
She can hear Hotch's lecture already.
Ignoring her inner profiler, she locked the doors and crawled into the back seat.
The sleep she does get is bad. Every little sound, real or imagined wakes her whether it's a vehicle rumbling past or the wind rustling through the trees.
Around 3am she gives up and slides out of the car and to the bathroom.
Somewhat awake, she gets back behind the wheel and continues driving north. Fortunately there's a 24 hour gas station 10 minutes down the road.
The coffee is terrible but it's hot and gives her the boost she needs to keep going.
The sun is peeking over the horizon when she pulls into a seemingly random parking garage. Slipping out a side door, she walks steadily deeper into South Boston until she arrives at the apartment Lauren 'lived' out of when first making contact with Doyle.
"Thank you Lyle" she whispers under her breath as she opens the door to find it clean with a fully stocked fridge and clean linens on the bed.
Within half an hour she was showered and passed out on the bed.
That night Emily is dressed in her Lauren armour. Lauren's clothes on her body and Lauren's hair and makeup done to perfection.
Lauren's preferred pistol tucked into the back of her pants.
It doesn't take long for her to walk down to the Black Shamrock and no one pays her much attention when she slips through the front door, orders herself a whiskey and sits down in the exact same place as the first night she had met Ian Doyle.
The same stained glass window behind her, same chairs, same stains on the tabletops.
It could take days or even weeks before she made contact with anyone useful.
Three nights later, she is still sitting there sipping on the single malt whiskey that she orders as she walks in.
Another week passes before a familiar face sits down across from her.
One of Doyle's old crew who hadn't been at the villa when it was raided.
"Any particular reason you're lurking back in these parts?" Donavan places another whiskey in front of her.
Picking up the fresh drink, she takes a small sip with a smirk "of course there is. I'm trying to find out if a specific person is working in the area. I've been punishing him, he's trafficking little girls."
Donavan's eyes widen, drugs and guns he's more than happy to deal in. He'll even do the occasional hit for the right price but children is a step too far.
"I can ask around, see if any of the boys know anything…" he tries to be nonchalant but fails spectacularly and Emily knows she has him.
"Mannion, based out of the UK where I've trashed his operations. I'm looking to do the same here."
He studies her, looking for whatever Doyle had seen in the woman and honestly Donavan can't see what all the fuss was about.
"Answer something for me first…" she nods sharply, knowing what is coming next "How'd you escape when Doyle went down?"
"Because I'm better at this that he was" a feral smile came over her face "I always was and when Interpol and the Italian Police arrested me it was only because I was at the villa. They found nothing on me, never have and never will."
Donavan leaned back in his seat and took a long drink from his Guinness.
"Fair call. Come back tomorrow night, I'll see what I can find out for you."
With a sharp nod, she downs the rest of her drink and leaves.
As she slips into the darkness, the hairs at the back of neck prickle. She's being followed.
Slipping in and out of the shadows, it takes Emily several minutes to lose whoever is tailing her, ducking in and out of alleys in a bizarre seemingly random pattern that she had actually planned out years before. There were several variations depending on what she needed at the moment but she always knew which turn needed to come next.
Back in the apartment she pulled her laptop out of its hiding spot beneath the floorboards and booted it up to spend the rest of the night answering emails from her team.
They were still trying to track a serial killer.
The following night she is getting ready to leave when her phone rings.
"Lyle?" she greets curtly, he shouldn't be contacting her at all.
"Hello Darling, I have news that I don't know how you're going to take." Clyde hadn't wanted to do this over the phone but not knowing when they would both be back in London boxed him into a corner. He didn't want her to hear this from anyone else.
"Ian Doyle was killed in a prison brawl 3 nights ago. I'm staring at his body right now." he didn't equivocate, he respected her too much for that. Clyde also knew the first thing she would want to know was if he was sure.
As soon as he had received the call he had gotten on a plane to North Korea.
As for Emily, she sat frozen in silence. A part of her had always been fearful of the day Doyle escaped from prison. She knew it was not a matter of if, but when and now… she also knew it would take time before the implications truly hit her. The implications for her, for Louise… for Declan.
She was finally free of the shadow that had been hanging over her for nearly a decade.
"Thanks for letting me know." She hung up the phone and quickly packed it all away in its own little box to deal with later.
Opening up the messages Emily types a number in from memory and then sends a short and simple message.
Blue Skies
Once it was sent she deleted it off her phone and stood to make her way back to the Black Shamrock. She would deal with the full implications of this later.
Donavan wasn't there when she arrived, it was a power play. He was the one with the information that he could give or hold at his whim.
She let him play his little game, sitting in the same seat she had been occupying for over a week, keeping herself occupied by profiling the other occupants of the pub.
A little after 11pm Donavan placed a whiskey in front of her and sat himself across from her.
"Mannion pulled out of Boston over a year ago, rumour has it he's got something going on out of Wilmington North Carolina but no one round here knows exactly what. Is that the kind of information you're after?"
"That is exactly what I'm after…" Emily tilts her head to the side and studies the man, considering her next move carefully. "Any of your boys interested in heading south for a vacation? I'll make it worth their while…"
In Kwan-li-so Clyde signed the final paperwork and called for his car to take him back to the airfield.
Long ago he'd promised to keep Emily safe and signing off on Doyle being dumped in an unmarked grave felt like the closing of a bloody and painful chapter.
The book wasn't finished yet, the part of themselves that they never spoke about knew it never would. No matter how many of these people they put away, no matter how much of themselves they gave, up to and including their own lives more would always appear.
People who crave money and power, who revel in violence. Who don't care who they hurt as long as they get what they want.
The job would never truly be done.
In London Rebecca wondered if promotion was worth the sheer amount of paperwork that was crossing her desk right now.
Contract amendments needed to be signed for the players and management staff, she was giving all the admin and support staff bonus', Keeley had negotiated a very good deal to extend Bantr's sponsorship for another two years that she needed to review and sign off on.
Dubai Air was also making apologetic noises and Richard had called her a number of times to 'chat'. She ignored every single one of them.
Once the paperwork was all taken care of and as the school holidays approached she gave Higgins the last two weeks of June and first two weeks of July off and sent Adrianna on a well deserved holiday as well.
Henry Lasso arrived to spend the next 6 weeks with his father. Rebecca and Addy hosted the Lasso men for dinner a few times and the four of them spent a number of lovely days in London before Rebecca packed up and headed to France.
Her plan was to spend the next few weeks wandering the beach towns of the French and Spanish Riviera before meeting up with the girls on her Yacht.
It was the type of holiday Rebecca had always loved when she was younger. No plan, no responsibilities, wandering wherever the wind took her.
It was a little bit harder with a two year old in tow as she had to ensure nap time was taken into account.
Addy loved sitting in her stroller as they wandered the different towns, through markets, up and down ancient and new streets. Days of just the two of them on beaches and in parks.
There was no club to run, no media, no mother randomly turning up in her house.
It was blissful.
A week before the others were all supposed to arrive a tearful Keeley called her. There was just too much going on with trying to get KJPR up and running and after turning Roy down earlier in the summer she wouldn't be able to make it.
"You'd better lock me in for next summer Jones" Rebecca threatened playfully as she watched Addy searching for the perfect seashell "seriously, we'll miss you but I understand.
"I'm gutted babes, after having to tell Roy no to Marbella I was hoping to be able to fly down, spend a couple of sexy days naked with him then join you to drink and sunbathe topless."
"Well, we'll miss you being there to sexually objectify us…" Rebecca sneered at the elderly man who gave her a filthy look at her comment. "Look after yourself and we'll go for dinner when I get back."
"You bet your fabulous arse we will. Love you!"
"Love you, bye."
While they missed Keeley's presence the weekend on the yacht was relaxed and fun, for the first time in years Emily found herself relaxing despite having to keep up the Lauren persona.
Sassy cornered her a number of times to talk about the differences between pure psychology and behavioural science and each time Emily manages to get them somewhere where they won't be overheard by one of the women who doesn't know she's technically undercover.
Returning to London after 3 blissful weeks is both a relief and a let down.
Rebecca is happy to be back in their home and back into their routine but at the same time it was returning to the responsibility of the club, its players, employees and fans. There were days it felt too much. Then there was a tearful Keeley on her doorstep, sometime between them speaking the week before and Rebecca getting home Roy had broken up with her.
She pushes through the first few days back in the office, both herself and Addy struggling to get used to being back at the club several days a week.
Everything seems ok until the pundits start to give their predictions for the coming season.
Every single one of them have Richmond coming in last and being relegated again. The same pundits who are predicting West Ham to finish in the top four, if not outright win and she starts to spiral.
She thinks she's hiding it well until Ted arrives in her office after taking Henry to the airport and they start discussing said predictions
"Well, the worst part is that they've picked Rupert to finish in the top four." She doesn't even notice she'd said his name until Ted responds.
"Rupert's gonna play this year?" It is a ridiculous question and completely failed in its intention to turn her focus off her ex-husband.
"What? No." it actually takes her a moment to work out what Ted is referring to.
"Oh, so you mean West Ham?" He clarifies.
"Precisely. Everyone thinks he's better than us." Rebecca is a little baffled that the clarification is required.
"They. Everyone thinks they are better than us." He corrects her.
"Yes, that's what I said. They." Not that she requires correction, she knows exactly what she means and is a little baffled that they don't understand as well. "So, what's the plan? How are we gonna beat him?"
"Them."
"Exactly."
"Oh, boy." Ted looks at Higgins who simply shakes his head. All morning he'd been dealing with an irate Rebecca who everytime he managed to move her off the topic checked the blogs and news sites again and they were right back where they started.
"Mmm. You know, this might be a good time for us to update our roster. Put some more firepower in the team." Leslie had been going back and forth on bringing the idea up with Rebecca and Ted for several weeks. On one hand having additional top tier players wouldn't hurt. On the other hand, the budget was incredibly tight, even with the extra money from being back in the Premier League they were still recovering financially from the previous year.
"That is a great idea, Leslie. Let's put some feelers out, shall we? Ted?" Rebecca is almost manic, latching onto the idea in a worrying way.
"Well, I know Roy and Coach Beard are working on some new tactics. And, you know, the fellas we got are already gelling real nice. I think we're gonna do fine this season." Ted did not agree with this plan.
"Ted, this team doing 'just fine is a far cry from you telling me we're going to win the whole fucking thing." Did she really need to remind him of his promise to her?
"Whoa!" Leslie is stunned by this particular revelation, simply because Ted wasn't one to swear.
"Whoa, did I really say that?" It seems Ted is surprised by it as well.
"Yes, you did. Over there after the Man City loss. Just before you blasted half a litre of Pellegrino in my face." It was a moment Rebecca wouldn't easily forget and she'd sworn silently that she would pay him back for it one day. "That is the Ted Lasso I want coaching my team this season. The one who is willing to fight! Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am. You watch, from now on, I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. Except I won't die immediately after using my stinger. I plan to float and sting for the entirety of the whole season." Some days Rebecca wonders where Ted comes up with these things.
"Excellent." She lets out a sigh of relief, picks up her bag and coat and heads for the door "Right, if you'll excuse me, I have a very important lunch meeting with one Ms. Keeley Jones…"
Lunch with Keeley is a little odd. There's a strange tension in the office, the staff seem standoffish and not at all the type of people she can imagine Keeley surviving with for long.
Then her friend bursts into tears the second the door is closed and window frosted over.
"I'm so busy, I literally have to make time in my schedule to sit at my desk and cry, and now I've double booked you…"
Rebecca wraps her arms around the sobbing younger woman.
Eventually Keeley stops crying and they sit down to eat. Rebecca doesn't comment on the mascara stains on her silk shirt as Keeley pulls their lunches out of the bag Rebecca brought with her.
"Crying is the best isn't it? It's like an orgasm for the soul" she swallows a bite of her salad as Keeley chuckles in agreement.
"You know, in the last three years married to Rupert, I don't think I cried once about anything. Not even a John Lewis Christmas commercial." she comments off hand. Keeley knows better than to push for more details. While Rebecca will comment on her former husband she still doesn't react well to being questioned or pushed.
"I'm really sorry about your blouse." Keeley points her fork at the stains on Rebecca's shirt.
"What are you talking about? It's barely noticeable." Rebecca smirks as Keeley snorts.
"Oi, sucks butt that everyone's predicted Richmond to finish last, I mean what floppy cocks! You're not worried about that though, right?" Keeley worried about her friend. Rebecca had done so much to support her in the last two years. From taking a chance on a part time model who was famous for being almost famous to being the first person to sign on to KJPR and supporting her through her break up with Roy.
"No, not really." Rebecca inhales sharply "I'm a bit worried that Ted isn't worried enough."
"Yeah, but you gotta let Ted be Ted, right?" Rebecca could always rely on Keeley to see things in her own unique and clear way.
"Yes. I suppose so." Rebecca knows better than to try and let Ted be anything other than himself. "No, I'm more bothered that Rupert must just be so happy right now." It had been months since Emily and Clyde had been able to give her any type of clear indication that the case was moving forward. When she'd asked while they were in Majorca all she hadn't received was a mysterious smile and a request to be patient just a little longer.
"He's really gotten stuck in your head these days, huh?" Keeley knew how much the year of not having to have contact with him had meant to Rebecca. Now she had to see him at the monthly chairmen's meeting and despite being able to avoid interacting with him so far it was still draining.
"No! I mean, yes. But he's not stuck in the same way he used to be stuck. I mean, back then, I wanted to destroy everything that Rupert loved and owned and coveted. You know, like Left Eye from TLC when she burned all her boyfriend's trainers in the bath and ended up burning down the entire house."
"Ultimate gangster move." Keeley agrees
"Fucking legend."
END CHAPTER 17