John Dorazio ended the call and looked at the two men as they were placed in separate cars before being driven away by the Illinois State Police.
"Bill Van Dyke works out of Hill Street Station. Been there a while," he said to Meg Chander.
"Hill Street Station," She said as she searched her memory, "used to be Maxwell Street Station? Near West Side?"
John was nodding his head as before rubbing his forehead, "Near West Side and Pilsen. Precinct's right in the middle."
The two police officers looked at each other in a way that seemed to mean something, and Trish was the first to ask.
"Something we should know about Hill Street Station?"
John Dorazio explained. "It used to be called the Wickedest Police District in the World. It's mostly gentrified now, no longer a hot spot for crime or corruption."
Trish nodded her head. "So, a perfect spot to hide if you're a crooked police officer, as long as you keep a low profile."
"Which, apparently, Lieutenant Van Dyke did."
"More or less," Meg added.
John was not the only one doing the mental math. Three attacks carried out. Probably one attack that never started since James Gordon never set foot out of his house, and never gave anyone the opportunity. At least ten men participating in a coordinated strike, hoping to end any investigation before it went too far. But how far was too far?
Laurel was also ending a phone call. Helena, Sandra and Laurel had all naturally congregated together, sisters in arms who worked, part time at least, for Renee Montoya. Trish had gravitated in that direction to be closer to the two strangers currently tasked with keeping John Dorazio alive, and to be near her temporary partner. The afternoon was well underway, and sunset came early in the northern latitudes, but there was still more than enough light for everyone to see that a major development was underway in the relationship between Barbara Gordon and Detective Meg Chander.
"Kristen just finished talking to the Attorney General," she said as she watched Helena flip the sealed tube filled with brown colored water up in the air before catching it, as she had been doing for the past few minutes, "DCI is taking them. They'll be held under a sealed indictment. Attempted kidnapping, and the torture and murder of three men. To everyone else it'll look like they dropped off the face of the Earth which, if that's what actually happens to them, is fine by me."
They had found the men's badges, guns, and identification stuffed under the front seats of the van, which the State Police had confirmed was reported stolen shortly after the attack took place. None of them felt the need to remember the men's names, but John took pictures of the men, their badges, and their IDs before handing all of those things over to the ISP.
"So we know a bit more at least," Barbara said. Lt. Van Dyke had been smart about managing his assets, and the two men currently in custody swore that they didn't know the names of Van Dyke's other dirty cops, even when presented with a liquid filled glass tube at very close range.
"Swear to God! Swear to fucking GOD! Swear on my dead mother! I don't know shit!" The first man (tails, in this case) has said as the front of his pants grew increasingly wetter.
"We work in teams," heads added, "none of the teams know each other."
"The question now is what do we do with what we know? We still don't know who we can trust. Neither of these two was assigned to Hill Street. That means that Bill Van Dyke and Fredo Giancona have teams scattered across CPD, making them harder to find. Which is exactly why he set them up that way," John Dorazio said.
"But we're going to do something, right? You're not gonna just let Van Dyke walk around planning more attacks," Barbara said as she looked from John to Laurel and back again.
Laurel and John were both shaking their heads, but it was she that replied. "No, but we need to handle this properly. Van Dyke was the middle man. He can only point to Giancona."
"So the person we really need to grab is Capo Fredo Tommaso Giancona," Helena said, her pronunciation of his name signaling the origin of her native tongue.
More than one head turned towards the tall woman.
"You know him," John said.
The three sometimes employees of Paragon Security Services traded a knowing look.
"Noi lo conosciamo," Helena said simply to John in a language that Renee informed her he could understand. "Sappiamo che molte persone." {We know him. We know a lot of people.}
"Grande," John answered Helena, his surprise at hearing his parent's language displayed clearly on his face, "then maybe you know where we can find him, and how we can extract him." {Great}
Sandra began to smile but stopped when Laurel spoke.
"Alive. We need him to talk, and I sold my Ouija board."
John looked at Laurel and began to reevaluate what it was he saw: a taut body that moved with a grace more suited to some form of predator than a lawyer.
"ASA Lance, why do I get the feeling that there is more to you than meets the eye?" John asked.
Laurel was about to reply, but was preempted. "She is definitely more than just a pretty face," Sandra said playfully.
Oh please oh please... Trish thought to herself as she imagined the two (possibly three) women together.
"Let's focus on one mystery at a time," Laurel said quickly to redirect the conversation. "They know that none of their attacks succeeded. They know we grabbed this team; the guys in the second car would have told them that much. What will they do next? Try again, or go to ground?"
"They were hired to keep something quiet, but they're starting to make a lot of noise. If it were me, and it wasn't time critical, I'd let things quiet down, let everybody think it's over before trying again," John added.
"If it's time critical then there's only one reason why: they're building another device, and they need time to finish it; time, and privacy, and nobody snooping around," Trish said.
"If it's time critical for them, then it's time critical for us too," Barbara said as her eyes and Meg's locked.
"We still don't know what this is. Let's not get our thongs in a twist just yet. First things first," John said.
"You wear a thong?" Trish asked with a large smile splitting her face.
"Oh, for fuck sake."
"And the first thing you mentioned is?" Laurel asked John Dorazio, who most definitely did not wear a thong.
"Getting our hands on Freddy Giancona."
"Her name is Dr. Caitlin Snow, but I call her Elsa. It's a long story, but we go way back."
"How far back?" Jessica asked, knowing full well that barely five years ago Beth was firmly in Alice's clutches.
"Far enough that it was a pretty dark period for both of us. It sort of brought us together, and we formed a bond. A fucked up, homicidal bond. She had friends that rescued her, just like I did. I'll shoot you her contact info."
"Thanks. Right now. I need a drink and a fuck, and as it so happens I know a bar where I can get both."
Beth smiled as she answered. "Say hi to Luke for me, either before or after."
"Will do. Later."
Beth stared at the lock screen on her phone, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Almost everything Jessica had said Beth had already heard from Trish. Almost everything.
I need to see you, she thought in that way that bridged whatever distance lay between her and Aric.
It took a moment before he replied. My place or yours?
Where are you right now? she asked him.
Apartment hunting. Tell me what's going on.
Beth knew what he meant by tell me. But she wasn't sure that she wanted him in her head at the moment, not for this.
My place, she answered.
Kate was on the floor below, getting things ready for later, but she felt the connection come alive as Aric stepped into her apartment on the floor above, and her heart rate responded without a second thought.
He was wearing shorts, which told Beth that he had decided against Switzerland for his next address. Her mind was closed tight, which told Aric that something was wrong.
"Hi," he said softly as he sat down next to her. Beth's body language didn't invite physical contact, and Aric didn't attempt any. He continued to look at her as she continued to look at her hands, which he had learned early on was a sign that she was uncomfortable.
Respecting your own discomfort is not selfish, he had reminded her a few times, quoting somebody whose name he had long forgotten. Aric knew that Beth was parsing what she was feeling, trying to put it into words before she spoke.
Beth tread carefully as she began. "You know that I know that you love me. That's a given."
Aric had no idea where this conversation was going, and Beth's tightly closed mind told him not to pry. "OK."
"And you know that I'm not the jealous type, not usually," Beth said, her small steps advancing slowly towards her destination.
Aric knew that to be true as well, but a sense of foreboding was beginning to settle on him, and a feeling of deja vu. "Not usually, no."
Beth nodded, seeming pleased that she had not yet tripped a land mine. "OK."
Aric answered her nod with his own, equally happy to still be alive, but sensing a cliff ahead. "OK."
"So...this might seem like an odd question but...how many Kara's do you know?"
The nature of the approaching cliff came clearly into focus for Aric, but he confined himself to only answering the question that was asked.
"Only one, though she goes by different last names."
Beth's hands tightened in her lap, a sign that they were now at the edge of the cliff. "Does she occasionally go by a different first name?"
"I don't understand the..."
The word escaped her lips slowly. "Supergirl."
What the hell happened in New Jersey, Aric wondered. "Oh. That name."
So there it was. She'd said it, and he hadn't denied it. "Yeah. That name."
"I'm not sure what you're asking me, what you're trying to ask me."
Oh, for Christ sake, "You sent your ex girlfriend to help Jess?"
He'd introduced Beth and Kara the only time they'd met. It had been obvious to Kara that Beth was his current girlfriend. He hadn't shared anything about Kara except that she lived on the west coast but occasionally visited her cousin in New York.
"I sent a friend of mine to help Jessica, a friend with the right tool set for the job," Aric said in his defense. It hadn't occurred to him at the time that it would make any difference to anyone that he and Kara...
But he could hear it in Beth's voice when she spoke. "A friend that you dated for...how long?"
It should have dawned on him. He was such an idiot. Of course Jessica would tell her. Of course she would put it together. He said the words like he was admitting to a crime. "Five years, give or take."
"Five years," she said, spacing the words out, emphasizing each separate sound.
Aric still was not sure what he was feeling guilty about or why. He and Kara were friends now, nothing more. Or maybe it wasn't guilt that he was feeling, but the familiar sensation of a relationship as it began to turn south, towards the rocks that would eventually be its demise.
"You only met her the one time, I'm surprised you even remembered her name; how did you know she was my ex girlfriend?"
"Please. I didn't need x-ray vision to see the way she looked when you introduced me. I expected to see little pieces of her broken heart scattered on the sidewalk. She was devastated."
"She doesn't...it has nothing to do with x...never mind," Aric said.
Beth's hands were still folded tightly in her lap. It was not a good sign. "When did you break up with her?"
"She broke up with me," he answered after a brief moment as he relived the pain of that break up. "She had her reasons, and I won't go into whether I agreed with them, but it was her decision, and it was pieces of my heart that...I think you're mistaken about her. But that's beside the point."
Beth decided at that moment to rip the bandaid off quickly. "The point is your ex girlfriend is Supergirl. Can you allow for the possibility that I might be a little intimidated by that?"
For Beth, it was almost akin to admitting a major weakness, or deficiency. She had spent over twenty years learning not to be afraid of anything, and Aric knew how difficult her statement must have been for her.
"If you ask me to, then absolutely I can allow for that. It's probably a perfectly natural reaction. I won't tell you that you have nothing to worry about, or that you have no reason to feel intimidated, even though both of those things are true. Frankly, I think it's Kara that feels jealous of you."
Beth could not believe what she had just heard. "Me? Why the hell would she be jealous of me? She's Supergirl, for fuck sake."
It was like reliving it all over again, and Aric could feel his heart begin to fracture.
"She's jealous of our connection. She's immune, you know; always has been. She and I never had that, never shared that."
Beth hadn't realized that anyone or anything could be impervious to Aric's mojo. "You never connected with her?"
A shake of the head. "Never. I can't even tell when she's around. It's how she snuck up on me. How she found out...I'd been keeping it a secret, just like she had."
Secrets, and secrets, and more secrets. Beth had been there, was still there in many ways. "And she knows about me? She knows we..."
A quick nod, no deception, no guilt. Not about that, at least. "She knows some things, she assumes other things."
Beth had wondered. Now she knew. "So you still see her."
Still not a shadow of deception. "Yes. She's one of my best, and longest friends. Probably because we never..."
He stopped for a short time, and Beth could see he was struggling.
"It's hard..." he began before stopping again. Beth could see the moisture on his eyes as he fought for control, and her heart began to break for him.
"Do you know..." he said as he tried again, "I've never been in a relationship that I ended, that I chose to end? It's always been the other person who chose to end our...whatever you want to call it."
Beth smiled. "I like to call it our love affair, it's the romantic in me. It reminds me of all those black and white movies you like to watch."
Aric smiled in return, which went a ways to repairing the damage to Beth's heart. But his next words hurt.
"When we end, when our love affair is over, it'll be because you end it. That's the way it always ends."
Never gonna happen, she thought, not if I live to a million and one. But she wondered how many of Aric's old girlfriends had thought the same thing.
"They left for lots of reasons," he continued, "the ones that left because they knew deep down I was lying to them about something when I tried to pretend that I was normal, or the ones that left when they couldn't accept how abnormal I was once they got even a small glimpse, the ones that became paranoid that I was controlling their minds, the ones that worried that every argument we had would end with me turning them into a frog or something. Or the ones who got addicted to...not me...just..."
Beth knew he couldn't bring himself to say it. He was completely closed down, just like she was, but she could still predict the words he would finally speak.
"The ones that didn't love me...but loved how they felt when we were mingled together. That was all I was to them, a fix, a cascade of dopamine and oxytocin. Their drug dealer."
Beth had met Rita, even before she'd met Aric. She had heard from Rita's own lips what it had been like to feel yourself disappearing into someone else, but so addicted that you didn't care. It had been self preservation that finally drove them apart. But Rita had truly loved him, and he had loved Rita. They'd been a couple for ten years. So Beth knew it was possible, and that gave her hope for the two of them, and their future together.
"But not Kara," Beth said gently, afraid she would hurt him. His mind was sealed shut, but his emotions were completely open. She had never seen him this vulnerable before, and she felt that one false move would shatter him.
He shook his head as his eyes held hers for a moment before looking down again. "Not Kara, because she was immune. Is immune. To me. No, she left for other reasons."
Beth waited for him to explain before understanding that he had clammed up on the topic.
"Why did she leave?"
Aric took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. His eyes finally came up and met hers when he answered. "I think you should ask her that."
Kate stayed completely still as she sat on the top stair that either began or ended the route between the two top floors of the Kane Building, depending on whether you were heading down or coming up. She hadn't exactly sprinted up the flight of stairs, it had been more of a jog. She had been on the verge of making an appearance when her sister's words stopped her in her tracks.
You know that I know that you love me.
She had sat down at some point, but she couldn't remember clearly when, the majority of her brain being used to take in what Aric was saying in response to Beth's questions. When the name Kara came up, Kate hadn't needed to hear Supergirl to know who Beth was talking about.
Not only does he know her...he dated her for FIVE YEARS?
She felt vaguely angry, though she couldn't pinpoint why, except that it seemed the entire fucking world was conspiring to keep secrets from her. But her anger evaporated quickly as Aric continued to speak.
The ones that didn't love me... Kate put her hand over her mouth in the event that the sob that was welling up inside her escaped and gave her presence away. She knew very well what he was talking about; knew it from the inside out.
God, how can he and I have so much in common? she wondered.
She'd first met Kara Danvers in 2018. They had met on and off after that, more than a year, less than one, but regularly enough for their friendship to continue.
Was she dating him then? Would she have told me if she had been?
Probably not, she concluded. They had never gotten that deep into personal details. Kate had never revealed to Kara that she had figured out her secret identity. Kara had never come right out and said she knew Kate's, but the whole x-ray vision thing made the question moot.
She had never been prone to tears until Beth returned to them, but it had grown worse in the last few months, and Kate suddenly realized why. It was because of Beth, and Aric. She didn't need a mental connection to see that he was barely holding it together.
He has so much guilt. You don't know.
Grief has tentacles, she had heard said once, and guilt is just another form of grief. It was his grief reaching out, that's what she'd been feeling, what she was still feeling. They were all reaching out, the three of them, to each other.
Shit, I need to stop this. We have the thing later, Kate thought. The thing was going to be dangerous enough without her mind rewinding to the conversation that had it doing somersaults.
She began to move then, as quietly as possible, back down the stairs where she took three deep breaths, wiped her eyes, and then very noisily stomped back up again, emerging into her living room as if she had only just noticed that they had a visitor.
"Just the one of you," Kate asked, "Where's Tyler?"
"He hates apartment hunting," Aric said in a passable cheerful voice. "He stayed home."
"Well, I hate to cut your visit short, but Beth and I have to get ready."
"Ready?" Aric asked as he scanned the two identical faces, "For what?"
