And It's One of Those Moments...
Certain Methods
Word Count: 2,513
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/Characters: Okay, definitely going down the Dani/Nico route, definitely some Harriet/Bud. Not sure about the Harm/Mac angle yet. But Chegwidden features heavily/centrally to the story, too.
Spoilers: Although I reference something from 1x12, I'm actually going to set this after 1x10 for Necessary Roughness. For JAG? Um... season two, definitely related to that season. Specifically "Secrets" and "Ghosts," and a lot of this won't make sense if you don't know those eps. Otherwise, the spoilers/timeline from JAG is kind of... vague.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just break things.
Summary: Direct, indirect. Legal, illegal. Military, Civilian. Every person has a different method for handling situations. Some are better than others.
Author's Note: I had to throw that one question in there... It was something Nico needed for manipulation...
In Front of the Crowd
"How are the eyes?" AJ asked, trying to take his mind off being stuck in the gridlock that was city traffic. It was always like this, but with a man out there waiting to kill them, it was even harder to be patient with it.
"There's nothing wrong with them."
"Funny, but you know that's not what I meant," AJ said, looking over at Nico. The other man was facing the window, and some might believe that he was watching the scenery go by, but Chegwidden knew better. "Can you see or not?"
"Mostly. You don't need to worry about me. I can handle what I need to do."
AJ shook his head. Stubborn bastard. "In case you missed, half the reason this is going down is because people care about you-and you care about them. You couldn't cut yourself off forever, Nico. It doesn't work that way. The people you care about are always going to be the ones that pay the price in some way, but if you think that pushing them all away is going to make them hurt any less, it won't. It doesn't even protect you. Lose sight of what you're fighting for and you lose it all."
"If we're going to discuss the value of honor and nobility and even basic humanity, that was a lesson I screwed up years ago," Nico muttered. He shook his head. "You know where I came from, what I went into, and what I am now. This isn't redemption I've been working on for the past twenty years. I have no real expectation of that. I know what I am and what I've done, and I can't take that back."
"I never said that was what you were doing," Chegwidden disagreed. He didn't have any illusions about Nico completely reforming himself. The man would always be more comfortable in the gray areas of life, would always insist that he was the bad guy even when he wasn't really one or the other. "Hell, no one seeks redemption around Marshall Pittman. I think twenty years is more than enough time to have paid that debt back-not that I feel you should have owed the bastard that in the first place."
"AJ, please don't ruin things by punching Pittman in the face."
Chegwidden had to laugh. He couldn't make any promises. He'd like to see Pittman get what had been coming to him, and it pissed him off that Osborne was forcing them to let Nico take the blame again. Granted, what he'd done with Marshall's wife might not have been his best moment, but the man had given him more years of dedicated service than AJ suspected his wife had ever been faithful, and it was well-known that Pittman had a wandering eye.
"How long do you think you'll have to wait before you tell him about you and Gabriella?"
"I'm not planning on drawing this thing out. I have no desire to make this worse than it is. All we want here is to set the next phase in motion. That means making it appear that I am isolated. Osborne will come for me if he sees me weakened, but you have a valid point about the doctor. He won't like that he can't get to her before he comes for me."
AJ nodded, turning the corner. He hated driving in the city; though he had to say, he hated cab drivers even more. "You think it might be in her best interests to stage something where he thinks he can get to her-or that he has? He knows she survived the car bomb attempt already."
Nico nodded. "He knows. And he'd spot anything at this point. Either he kills her or he can't get anywhere near her. There is no middle ground."
AJ didn't like that thought very much. He didn't doubt it, but he'd like to have a better way of protecting the woman that Nico cared about. She was too much like the judge-and if there was one thing Chegwidden refused to see happen again, it was history repeating itself. Santino was not going to die at Osborne's hands. They were going to make sure of that. Osborne had better not get to anyone else. If he killed one more person...
"There. Marshall should be up at the front there. Circle around and park. We can walk the rest of the way."
"Parking in New York City? Are you joking?"
"Doesn't your job come with any perks, AJ? What's the point of being the head of the Judge Advocate General if you don't even get special parking privileges?" Nico teased, and AJ shook his head. He had to figure that the other man tended to park wherever he wanted and pay the tickets off with Pittman's money. It made sense, and Pittman had the money to cover it. It wasn't much of a revenge, but it was something.
Chegwidden managed to find a spot and stopped the car. "You sure you're okay for the crowd?"
Nico reached for the door handle. "Yes, I'm fine. It's more or less gone now-though it will probably come back the minute Marshall reacts to what I have to tell him."
"Be careful."
"This is me, remember?"
"I repeat, Lieutenant: Be careful."
Nico walked away from Chegwidden's rental, carefully making his way through the crowd. Pittman had certainly managed to create an occasion this time, hadn't he? He did enjoy making a scene-he always had, though in recent years, he'd taken to making his scenes in other public formats-by crazy stunts in the media or social networks. This was him as he had been more like twenty years ago. The irony of that was not lost on Nico as he made his way past the outer perimeter.
These people had been paid to gather here. They weren't that excited for what Pittman had gathered them here for, but they had come and were pretending to be. There was clearly some kind of compensation involved. Nico had to wonder what they'd been promised. Money? Time on television? Both, perhaps. Or they could even be employees of the Pittman Group.
He shook his head as he got closer. He had to stop for a moment, temporarily losing his balance. He had taken the precaution of remaining close to the wall, and he used it to gather himself together again. This should pass quickly. He'd thought most of the concussion's symptoms were already gone, but apparently having the blindness lifted brought back some of the other ones, to a lesser degree. Either that, or this was just another part of his PTSD.
"Nico? Nico, are you all right?"
He grimaced. Well, that was almost perfect timing, wasn't it? He hadn't planned on her presence, though it would make this a bit easier in some ways-and a lot worse in others. "Gabriella."
"I've always liked that you called me that. Your own twist on my name," she said, smiling at him. Then she sighed. "You look terrible. What happened?"
"You didn't hear anything?"
"Since when does Marshall tell me anything? You tell me more than he does, and you may as well be stone sometimes," she went on, glancing toward the podium. "I can't believe that man. I don't know how he expects to pull it off."
"You make it sound like he's running for office."
"Oh, he'd like to, but the man has too much of a past for that," she muttered, rolling her eyes. That was something Nico already knew. Pittman liked control. He did it with his companies, but he'd do it in the government if he could. "You didn't answer me. What happened to you?"
"Car bomb."
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not," Nico said, forcing himself away from the wall. "I am not in the mood to talk about this. I need to speak to Marshall and end this finally."
"End what?" she asked, then her eyes got wide. "Nico, are you leaving him? Really? After all this time? Because-"
"I know you've been talking to a divorce lawyer. I'm not interested," he cut her off quickly. He had a feeling that Osborne was around. Not close enough to set off that other sense of his, but Nico knew he was here. Close. That much was almost guaranteed. The man was waiting. He was watching. Nico hated that feeling. He hated this sensation. He could not stand it. It made him lose focus. He was tense, edgy, too paranoid.
"I'm not doing it for you."
"It's a good thing," Nico informed her coldly. "Whatever we had was over a long time ago. We both recognize that and should not pretend otherwise. The truth is simple enough, and it is best to leave it alone."
"You can be an extremely cold bastard sometimes, Nico. Worse than Marshall."
"I always have been. You just like to forget that," Nico said almost under his breath as he cut through the crowd. If he wasn't who he was, he would never have been involved with her in the first place. He had allowed himself some false comfort in the belief that it was his feelings for her that led him back to her, but he knew now that was just a lie. It was not his feelings toward her but toward Marshall that did it. Nico had hated the man for years, chafed under the umbrage of the debt that he owed the other man, and he had done things-small ones, petty ones-over the years to get back at Pittman even as he supposedly fulfilled his obligation to him. Gabriella was only one of them. The biggest one-but then Marshall had stopped caring about her years ago. It would only anger him because his wife was a possession, and the man had never been good at sharing his toys.
"You could be gentle. Kind. Loving, even."
He gave her a look. "I never knew you were that big of a fool. What is it you want? Dirty laundry for the divorce? I am not taking sides in this thing. I want no part of it. I'm done. Now leave me alone."
"Was it all a lie, then?"
"I'll ask you the same thing," he countered, turning back to her. "Is she mine? Was she ever mine? I don't think so. I watched out for her like she was, but you tried to manipulate me with her. Don't play the wounded saint now. It never became you. You used me, and I used you, and that's where it ends."
"You're going to tell him, aren't you? Nico, don't be an idiot."
"Why? So he can't take as much from you in the divorce? This is a lot bigger than you and me, and it has to be done. You won't talk me out of it so you may as well stop talking. Now," he told her, heading up the podium stairs.
Marshall turned from talking to his assistant. "Nico. I was starting to worry about you. I heard about the bombing but never heard from you. Didn't figure they'd killed you, but you never called, either."
"Clearly I'm alive."
"And you've had a run in with the wife. I believe this is our final public appearance together. She's leaving me."
"That's for your lawyers to handle."
Pittman nodded. "We should talk, though. Let me get this thing underway, and after the fanfare has started, you can tell me whatever it is you dragged yourself here to say. You should be resting. It actually shows this time. Is that doctor all right? I believe she's become quite an asset to the team, and I would hate to lose a valuable member of the organization."
"And the five men who died are... expendable?"
"Don't get sanctimonious on me now, Nico. You've played dirty all your life. Your hands aren't going to wash clean now. You can't blame those deaths on me."
Nico glared at the other man. "Even the mob has some sense of honor. Twisted, perhaps, but nothing like yours. I've killed better men than you at the request of governments. You continue to skate by for reasons that I can't fathom."
"It must have disappointed you, going from one killing family to another."
"No more than it would disappoint you to know that Juliette isn't your daughter."
Pittman stopped short of the podium, turning around. "Exactly what are you saying, Nico? Is that tramp yours? Did you sleep with my wife?"
Nico's eyes scanned the crowd quickly. He found Chegwidden with relative ease-he would have to remind the man that the shaved head was rather a giveaway-and then Nico swallowed hard. Osborne. Now he could feel the man watching him. He was in the crowd. This was the time to do it, to do what he'd come to do. Sever all ties to the Pittman Group and Pittman in particular. Gabriella showing up was an added bonus.
A part of him was tempted to let Osborne go after either one of them, but he couldn't do that. His own personal feelings aside, neither of them really deserved that, and it would end with more innocents killed as Osborne went through their security details to get to them.
"Whatever he told you is a lie, Marshall. Nico and I were never involved."
Nico looked over at Gabriella. She was really going to try that? Now? That was dumb. It was the least strategic move that she could have made right now. He didn't understand it, but maybe she was desperate enough to think it would help.
"There is a simple way to get the answers. Check her paternity. The fact that she's an addict lends itself toward proof. You know I'm an alcoholic. Then again, so is the mother. It's just that the mother never even tried to get sober."
"Go to hell, Nico. I didn't-She's not yours. She was always Marshall's."
"I don't think he believes that right now."
"You son of a bitch," Marshall said, shaking his head. "And you, Gabby. I should have known."
Nico would have to go to Juliette next. The fall out from this would be ugly, and he owed her an explanation, even if he wasn't her father. She didn't deserve to find out like this, either. He could only hope that she didn't see the broadcast. He should have thought of her sooner.
"You can't really act all offended, Marshall. You strayed long before she did."
"But I didn't pretend that another woman's child was hers, now did I?"
"You never even deserved Juliette. You're a pathetic excuse for a human being and you never were a father to her. You shoved money at someone and told them to 'deal' with her. I've been more of a father to her over the years-even if I'm not her biological father. I took care of her," Nico said, and then smiled grimly as he added, "oh, and your wife."
That last bit was just what he needed to push Pittman over the edge.
Chapter Eleven