Clearer with Coffee, One Hopes...
Never a Small Favor
Word Count: 4,409
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Nico/Dani (eventually); Dani/Matt (doesn't last); Mike/Fi
Spoilers: up to 1x12 of Necessary Roughness and up to... uh, 4x01 of Burn Notice, I think.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: Even with old friends, favors are never small and always have a price.
Author's Note: I gave this one another night of sleep and looked it over this morning, making sure I was okay with the way it came out. It's been kind of a busy/crazy weekend, and that always throws fic into doubt, but then it becomes clear again with some coffee in the morning...
Some Confrontations
Dani hadn't felt like this since the morning after her bachelorette party. She didn't remember how many places they'd gone to that night or how much she'd actually had, just that she felt it for almost a week afterward. It had been fun and completely worth it, a break from the whole getting married too young and because she'd gotten knocked up thing. She'd actually had it after Ray Jay was born, after Lindsay was born, but Jeanette had insisted that she get a proper party when she got her tubes tied, and that was what they did.
It was a shame the other woman was in Barcelona. She would have loved all this. Even the hiding in a warehouse part. That was just who she was.
She tried to take a deep breath and remembered. She had cracked ribs. She'd been shot. She couldn't really forget that, at least not for more than a few seconds. She started to sit up slowly, looking around. She was having trouble waking up for some reason.
"Hey, Mom. I thought you were supposed to stay still."
"I am. It just... I haven't left the cot yet, okay, Linds?" Dani asked, patting the space next to her. Her daughter sat down and leaned her head on her shoulder. Dani thought about combing through her hair, but since she had trouble lifting her arm, she settled for taking Lindsay's hand. "What's the matter?"
"I don't know. Well, I mean, we're here, and we're stuck here for who knows how long, but something seems to have changed with everyone while you've been out of it. I haven't seen Fi in a while, that quiet Micheal guy is back, and I think there's someone else around, not just Jesse-"
"Jesse?"
"Oh, you were asleep then, huh? Yeah, Jesse. I guess Micheal and the others know him somehow. They didn't say how. They don't leave him on watch alone-but they don't do that with anyone, so maybe that's not a big deal. I swear I heard someone else, though."
Dani closed her eyes for a moment. She really missed being able to breathe normally, but the alternative was a lot worse, and she was glad she was alive after the risk she'd taken. She didn't regret what she'd done, not when she looked around the room and saw actual smiles on the faces of the girls they'd rescued, but it still hurt, right thing or not.
"Help me up, will you? I think I'd better talk to Micheal and see if I can find out anything about what's going on. Have you seen Sam or Nico?"
Lindsay shook her head. "No, and even though Ray Jay has asked about TK, we haven't gotten an answer."
"Then I'll ask," Dani said, wincing as Lindsay helped her to her feet. Her whole body was sore, and she did not want to move. She smiled reassuringly at her daughter and opened the door to the other section of the warehouse.
"Oh, crap," Lindsay muttered, almost jerking Dani back. Pain almost overwhelmed her, but Xeno moved over quickly and helped her to the nearest cot.
"It's okay, Lindsay," Micheal told her. "Xeno's been cleared."
"Cleared?"
"They thought I was involved in what happened to the team. Now they know I'm not," Xeno answered. "Tomorrow I'm making pancakes."
"Really?" Lindsay asked. "'Cause those ones you made before were awesome."
"I just need enough stuff to make them for everyone," Xeno agreed with a nod. Micheal looked at the big man like he was crazy. Dani remembered her first meeting with him and smiled. He'd made her pancakes that morning, too. There was a sweetheart underneath all that muscle, not unlike his boss. Nico cared a lot more than he would ever admit.
"Where's Nico? For that matter, where are Sam and Fiona?"
"That's... a long story," Micheal began. He shook his head. "Let's just say that if all goes well, the situation with the Hawks will be resolved and all of you can go home."
"And if it doesn't go well?"
"Don't worry about it, Doctor D. The boss knows what he's doing."
Dani nodded, though she didn't find Xeno's words as reassuring as he expected or even as much as she wanted them to be. She agreed mostly for Lindsay's sake. She wanted her daughter to feel safe-and Dani did like having a familiar face like Xeno around; it was comforting-but Dani remembered the last conversation she'd had with Nico. She'd been mostly asleep at the end, but something had been off. She knew him well enough to know that-and she swore he'd kissed her forehead. That was not like Nico.
"Uh, Dani," Matt began, awkwardly clearing his throat behind her. "Would you... Can we talk? Please?"
She looked back at him and regretted it when her ribs flared up, but she forced a smile anyway. "We should talk."
"We'll give you... as much privacy as is possible," Micheal said, about as uncomfortable as Matt was at the moment. "Lindsay, you have that list of things the girls need?"
"Ray Jay and I have been working on it, with the girls, but the language thing has been a problem. Some of them really got the wrong idea when Ray Jay was helping give out the dresses. Will Fiona be back soon? I think we could really use her help," Lindsay explained, walking back with Micheal and Xeno. Dani wondered if Xeno knew any other languages, but she didn't really have time to ask him.
"I need to apologize," Matt began. "I didn't-I don't know that I'll ever understand why you did what you did, and I know I'll never like it. You put yourself in harm's way, you got hurt, and you didn't have to. These people-they could have handled it without you. I'm glad the girls are safe, but you got hurt. And I guess I'm a bad person for wishing you never had to do that."
Dani sighed. "In a way, you're acting out of-you want what's best for me, really, and you don't want to see me hurt. That's all understandable. It's just that you don't see the rest of it. The fact that you can't understand why I had to do it... Matt, this is who I am. I'm always going to be putting myself in situations that could be dangerous, at least as long as I continue helping the team. Those are big men with big tempers, and if I was the type that got scared off or backed down from that, I'd never have gotten this far. TK trashed my office once, but I just stood there and told him to do the other wall. If I hadn't done that, if I hadn't gone up to that private room, he would never have made the progress that he did. I can't always sit back in my perfect office with my perfect furniture. That only made TK mad. I connect with my patients, and sometimes that means getting in a car going a hundred seventy miles an hour or standing toe-to-toe with an angry wide receiver. Having loan sharks coming by my house. I don't back off when someone needs my help. If you can't accept that about me, then..."
"Then I should have taken the job in San Francisco?" he finished, almost managing a smile.
She nodded. "Yeah, maybe. It's not that I don't really like you or spending time with you and the chemistry between us is... well, you know, but..."
"Yeah."
"You're good. Always losing your tails."
"You managed to plant a tracker on me that isn't blocked by the jammer. That's actually impressive," Nico muttered, trying to figure out where Hayes could have put it that he wouldn't have noticed. He would have noticed any prolonged contact, and Hayes had not made any. Nor had his staff. The fact that he'd somehow pulled it off bothered Nico considerably.
"Actually, I guessed about the location you were going, as I did when I learned about Sitek. I'm sure anyone could. It's a logical progression," Hayes answered. "Why would they bring you anywhere else but here?"
Nico glanced at the building. "Someone put a house here again."
"Or they never tore it down in the first place."
Nico shook his head. He knew that Hayes would think that, same with the man who'd done so much to have Sitek's "revenge." It wasn't as hard as they would assume for him to walk on this ground again. It had not intimidated him when he walked it after leaving the hospital, and it did not bother him now. "It was burned."
"You came back? Surprising."
"The memories can conquer you or you can conquer them," Nico said, moving toward the house. He didn't see any problem with ringing the bell. Either the man was waiting inside or he would come up to stop Nico before he did. It was the next step, and he wanted it over with.
The door opened. "Careles. Long time no see. Didn't expect you to bring a friend."
"Why is it always the trainers?" Nico asked, shaking his head. The players were not as annoying as the trainers had proved to be. "And he's not a friend. Assuming you don't kill me, he's planning on it."
Hayes laughed, and the former Hawks trainer frowned. He shook his head. "You can come in, Careles, but he is not welcome. No invitation to this party."
"You're having a party?"
"Yes, and you're not the only guest. I'm sure you know the others, though. You know everyone," Reiten said, gesturing for Nico to go inside. He did, and Reiten tried to close the door after him. Hayes stuck his foot in.
"I don't think you really want to leave me out of this."
Reiten smiled slightly, an unhinged look, and Nico stepped back into the so-called businessman, knocking him against the door frame, putting his elbow straight into the man's gut and turning his other hand to catch his throat and put pressure on the artery, cutting off the air and blood supply. Hayes was still trying to recover from the unexpected attack and catch his breath, far too easy. He'd had it coming, really. Nico let him fall to the ground.
Reiten looked at him. "I thought he was supposed to kill you."
"He will when he wakes up."
"Then why let him live?"
"Not finished with him yet," Nico answered, and Reiten shut the door behind them, locking it. Whatever the former trainer was planning, Nico needed Hayes out of the way to deal with it. He couldn't be worrying about what the other man might do. "I suppose it took you this long to get the money to do all this?"
"I had some before, but I needed the Hawks to get close. If the curse hadn't happened, I would have done this six years ago."
"Why? Sitek is lying in a bed, hasn't moved, hasn't spoken. He can't ever thank you or help you again. Why are you so loyal to a man who never knew the meaning of the word?"
"Don't you ask yourself that about Pittman? Look at the way he treated us. 'Sorry, Harry, but you were too close to Donnie, and we can't take any chances.'"
"You're lucky that Pittman dealt with you and not me," Nico told him coldly. "Where are the other guests you mentioned?"
"Come, I'll show you. I think you remember the way to the viewing room, don't you?"
Nico almost stopped dead in his tracks. Reiten laughed. The sick freak had rebuilt it all, hadn't he? The maze, the funhouse, it was all underneath their feet now, and someone was stuck in it. Damn Reiten.
"What do you think, Careles? Could you survive it twice? Would you try? Are their lives worth it to you? Of course, there's always the chance they'll get themselves killed before you even get close..."
"She won't be happy, you know."
Micheal looked over at Xeno. He could pretend not to know what the other man was talking about, but he did. Santino would be angry when she found out that they hadn't told her the truth about Careles' disappearance and the threat against him, that Sam and Fiona had gone to find him, or that Hayes was with him. "Not my job to keep her happy."
"Not much gets past the doc," Xeno warned him. "She's distracted right now-Donnally's good at doing that-but once she puts together what she already knows, you'll have trouble."
"Maybe we'll have to go back to sedating her," Micheal said, looking over the list that Santino's daughter had given them. It was long, and he wasn't sure they had the kind of money they'd need to get all of it. "You have access to the same discretionary funds that your boss does?"
"Not nearly as many, but I can handle this list," Xeno agreed, taking it from him. "First, though, you want to explain why you weren't able to go with Axe and the lady."
"That's a long story."
Xeno shrugged. He folded up the list and put it in his coat. "I'm not going to say I've got time, but I agreed to stay back while they left so that I could make sure that the doc and her kids were okay. Now I've seen them. I know they're fine. You can either answer my question or I can go. I don't like leaving you short, not with all these people, but you're not the man that has earned my respect. It's been a long time, and that man never let me down. You... I don't even know you."
Micheal shrugged. The difficult part of an operation was not really the objective, but the team. If the team trusted each other-as he, Sam, and Fiona did-then the objective became the hard part, but they all counted on what the others brought to the team to get it done. This whole thing had gotten way out of hand and all because of the lack of trust between the team working it. That was largely due to Careles, who didn't seem to trust anyone. Sam was the one that trusted Careles with everything. The rest of them... Xeno was loyal to him, and Fiona liked him, but it wasn't the same without years of trust. The fractured pieces didn't have that. He was forced to stay here when he would rather be dealing with the problem, and he didn't know what he thought of Careles. Skilled, yes. Trustworthy... Maybe not. The thing was that he was just as secretive as Micheal was, and the two of them couldn't seem to share enough to break down the other's walls.
"The woman said you couldn't go. Why not?"
"Technically, I can't leave Miami."
"One of those, huh?" Xeno smiled a little. "Why not?"
"I'm on a list."
"Someone's been a bad boy," Xeno said, looking over at Donnally and Santino and shaking his head. "Thought the doc was smarter than that."
"Fiona will be disappointed if Santino's taking him back. She likes the idea of the doctor with your boss."
Xeno laughed. "She wouldn't be the only one. There's a pool going on it, how long it takes the two of them to realize it."
"Careles doesn't know about the pool?"
"Probably does."
"And he hasn't stopped it?"
Xeno shrugged. Micheal shook his head. Careles probably had his reasons for that, too, or maybe he just didn't care. It was hard to say, but sometimes these things had to be left alone unless they wanted to make it a lot worse than it was.
He looked over as the door opened and his mother walked in. She looked tired despite the fresh clothes and recent shower. They were all starting to feel the strain of this protection detail. She shut the door behind her, lighting up a cigarette. "Micheal, this was at the house for you."
"For me?" Micheal frowned, crossing over to her. He took the envelope and the cigarette, putting it out. She made a face, but he wasn't going to give it back. The warehouse was not a place where she could smoke, not with all of these people around.
"I'm going out for the stuff on this list. Can I borrow you, Mrs. Westen?"
"Me? Why?"
"Girl stuff."
"Ah, say no more," she said, going out with Xeno. Virgil stared at the door after them, and Micheal had to smile as he opened the envelope and took out the file inside it. He read over the short note that went with it, shaking his head, and slowly lifted the edge of the folder, frowning.
"Something wrong, Fi?"
She ended the call and looked over at Sam. He didn't like that look. "That was Micheal. He said someone left him a dossier. It was packaged in one of those mail envelopes but was never delivered. He opened it up and found information on Carla, Victor, Management, Simon, even the new man Vaughn that he's been dealing with."
That could be the break Mike was looking for-if they could trust it. "Does he have any idea where it came from?"
"There was a note with it, suggests it came from Careles, but it doesn't actually say so."
"Well, when we find him, we better ask. No way to tell if anything in there can be trusted when it just shows up like that. I mean, surprise messages aren't really that much out of the realm of possibility when it comes to Nico, but you'd have thought he would have told us first."
"Like he told us that he was leaving? Like he told us about Sitek? Face it, Sam, there's a lot that guy holds back. He's not really the trusting type," Fiona said, shaking her head. She stopped and took out her binoculars. "There. I can see something. It's a cabin."
Sam accepted the binoculars from her when she passed them over. "Damn. That looks like the pictures we dug up on the way here. Someone rebuilt that place, didn't they?"
"Look at the door."
He did, and then he frowned. "Is that... Hayes?"
"Well, the good news is that he's not with Careles. Bad news is he looks like he might be coming around," Fi said, moving closer. "Our boy has got to be inside."
As much as Sam didn't want to agree with that, he knew that was true, and he thought he recognized Nico's handiwork when he saw it. He wasn't sure why Nico had turned on Hayes-maybe the man had made his move or maybe he was just trying to reduce the number of threats he had to deal with. Whoever was in there was a sick man, and Nico couldn't afford to have Hayes distracting him.
Sam took out his gun as they got closer to the cabin. Hayes was still mostly out, but Sam whacked him again for good measure. They needed to keep him out, at least. "What do you think?"
"Hayes should die, and we could-" Fiona frowned as the door opened. "Go inside? And here I thought we'd have to rescue you, Careles."
"Damn, Nico, you look like hell," Sam said, taking in the torn and bloodied shirt and the disheveled hair. "Are you bleeding?"
Nico shook his head, frowning as he looked down at his sleeve. "That's not mine. Like Sitek, Reiten was nothing without the games. Even his choice of victim suggests that without a set up like this, he would never have been able to hurt anyone."
"I don't know. You look kind of... sore."
"If you got the guy, why don't we deal with Hayes and finish this thing? After all, you gave Micheal all the files he needed, didn't you?"
Nico frowned. "I didn't get anything from Hayes. And this isn't done. I just needed to make sure that Hayes wasn't going to get out while I took the next step."
"Next step? What next step?"
"Grab him, Sam. We may as well keep him where we can watch him," Nico said, and Sam made a face as he picked up Hayes' not inconsiderable weight. Fiona shook her head, and Nico didn't even seem to notice as he lead them back through the cabin. The rooms they passed through were standing empty, all but the one at the end. "Ignore him. He should live to stand trial."
"Who is he?" Sam asked, dumping Hayes in the nearest chair while Fiona dug out some wire. He didn't even want to know why she had it. He just tied one of their problems to the chair and tried to decide if the one that was bleeding was worth worrying about.
"Harry Reiten. Sitek's favorite trainer."
Fiona gave the body a kick. "No burying it this time?"
Nico looked at Fiona. "By the time I was conscious again, everyone had been paid off, the official story had been given, and only the crackpots were willing to talk about Sitek as something other than a heroic saint of football. And the mob wanted Sitek's connection to them and this sick mess kept quiet as well."
"So you kept quiet?"
"There's a value to silence, and I've never liked fighting losing battles. As similar as I might be to your friend Westen, I'm not the kind of person that goes up against a conspiracy and tries to unmask it. What purpose would it have served? Sitek would have been exposed as the monster he was, yes. The truth would have been told. I felt my time was better spent tracking down the family or friends of the victims and making some form of restitution."
"They were okay with the cover up?"
"What good would it do them to fight it? Sitek was a martyr at that point, and as a vegetable, he'd never stand trial or pay for what he'd done."
Sam knew that wasn't all there was to the story. Not by a long shot. "Did you hunt down the others that were involved?"
"As many as I could find. I monitored them, threatened them, and turned them over to the authorities for other crimes if possible," Nico said, feeling along the wall. "Where is it? It should be here... There."
"Oh, hell, Nico, tell me that isn't what I think it is."
"Live video feed from the maze under the house," Nico answered, ignoring him. "That woman, there, is the Hawks cheerleading coach, Meredith Barnes. The one next to her, the calmer one, that's TK's girlfriend, Vivica Stevens, a writer for Sports Illustrated."
"And not one of the swimsuit cover models? Hey, could she get me in on that set?"
"So... you've forgotten why we stopped talking, have you, Sam?" Nico asked, not looking away from the monitors. Fiona gave Sam a look, and he shrugged. "Reiten said everything was like it was before, but it can't be. No, even dedicated to Sitek or whatever that lunatic is, he wouldn't have made it the same. If I knew how to get through it, he'd never let me get close to it. There have to be plans around here somewhere, but even they won't be the right ones. Sitek kept them... top left drawer, false bottom. I need paper."
"Nico, sit down before you fall down. The concept of sleep mean anything to you, ever? It has to happen for everyone eventually."
"Uh, boys, I think that Stevens couldn't convince Barnes to stay still," Fiona began, pointing to the monitors. "Did he have sound for this? Anything? Can we get a warning to them?"
Nico shook his head. "That was part of the fun-at least to Sitek. He didn't want anyone warning people. That would spoil the game."
"And the game?"
"Try and get out of the funhouse alive."
Sam cursed. "Did anyone ever win this game?"
Nico nodded slowly as Fiona took out the plans from the desk. "If you can call it that. I don't even remember the last part of it, couldn't tell you how I got out of there."
"Any of the traps run on electricity? Something we can disable from here?"
"Separate generator. That was in one of the last rooms," Nico said, grabbing a paper and sketching out a rough floor plan, putting it next to the one from the desk. "This is where you start-not the room where the women are. That's in the center with some fairly nasty traps around it. This room is simple enough. Avoid the darker panels on the floor; there's a straight path to the door. Next room was one to crawl through or you'd lose your head. Third room was gas. Mostly a nuisance, but it burned like hell and made it really hard to see anything in the room after it. That was the glass-no, the glass was after that-not that the order is all that important, as I already said. Reiten would have changed the layout. He couldn't let me walk right through it."
Sam really didn't like this. "We're sure we can't convince them to stay put? At all?"
Nico shook his head. "I doubt any sort of radio communication would work down there, at least not with the world up here. There were intercoms so that you could hear the other people in the maze screaming and dying."
"Oh, gee, I'm so glad we came to help you out."
"You do at least have one advantage."
"Really?" Fiona asked, lifting up the sketch Nico had made. It wasn't even half-done, and they were looking more screwed by the minute, if they were stupid enough to go down there, which they probably were. Unfortunately. "What's that?"
"Even if he changed the order on the traps, I know what they look like. What they sound like."
No. No way. Sam shook his head. That was not even up for discussion. Not going to fly, not even going to get off the ground. "Nico, you're not going down there."
"Sam, it's the only way anyone stands a chance of coming out alive, and we all know it. I swear I'm done after this. I was actually expecting Hayes to kill me if I got past this point, but since you're here-"
"It won't happen. You're not going to die, Nico. I'm not letting that happen."
Chapter Thirteen