Say Hello, Caitlin (1/2)
DISCLAIMER: NCIS and it's characters belong to CBS and their creators. This is not for profit and I am recognizing no financial gain from this enterprise.
Title: Say Hello, Caitlin
Author: Goodisrelative
Rating: PG-13 for now anyway
Summary: This is my 3rd and final story in this arc that started with Aftershocks, then went to Say Goodbye, Kate. You definitely need to read Say Goodbye, Kate to understand this story.
Author’s Note: As stated above, this is the final story in this arc. I’ve taken Jethro and Kate to a place far from where they currently are in canon. Understand that now. This story definitely leaves canon in the dust. I wrote this pre-Twilight and obviously in this universe, it never happened. This one also sees Jethro and Caitlin together in the end (at least the end of the story, which spans many years). I refuse to have Caitlin and Jethro compromise their ethics and be forced together because we want them to be together, but they belong together in this story, at least. I have used time to mellow them both from where I left them at the end of Say Goodbye, Kate, because time has the tendency to mellow people and dull the sharp edges of pain and hurt.
Many thanks to Shannon for all her betaing throughout the series. Also to Claudia and Susan who helped beta in earlier sections. Your thoughts and encouragement were definitely appreciated! Also, thanks to Natasha and Kate for betaing this story.
And with that said, on with the story!
__________________________________________________________
Kate walked out of the hospital with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here, Katie-girl,” a decidedly male voice spoke from her car.
Kate was taken by surprise; she was too caught up in the pain and sadness of her recent decisions to care if anyone else was paying her any mind, or to pay attention to the parking lot around her.
“Malachi?” She blinked away her tears, startled to see him leaning against her car. Last she heard he had been on a deep cover mission half a world away in Iraq. He looked good; his raven hair reached his shoulders and blew free in the light breeze. His eyes were the same startling green she remembered, even if they held new shadows since the last time she saw him. Shadows were a byproduct of his business, as they once were hers.
“I came as soon as I got word,” he explained, noticing the pain and tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong? I thought your friend was out of danger.”
“Oh, he’ll be fine. The doctors all said he will make a full recovery.” Kate nodded and sighed. “I just never expected this goodbye or how much it would hurt.” Malachi had no trouble picking out the resignation in her voice, even though it was laced with pain.
“‘This goodbye?’ What is going on? What are you doing, Katie?” Malichi looked at her, surprised and confused.
“Just drive for now, Malichi. I’ll explain later. I need to get out of here, away from the city. Take me home, I’ll pack and we can go on a road trip if you have some time. I just need to get away from here,” Kate pleaded with him.
Her voice and the fact that she could barely meet his eyes shook him. Complying with her plea without question, Malachi took her keys from her hand and did as she asked. They were in the Smoky Mountains by sunset.
********************
Since Gibbs woken up in the hospital, he hadn’t seen Kate. He voiced his questions, but everyone just avoided them. Ducky had explained how she had saved his life - Gibbs knew he had to thank her for that and explain his actions - but no one would tell him where Kate was.
Anton walked in to Gibbs’ room two days after Kate had left and Gibbs had woken up. He signaled for Ducky, Abby and Tony to leave.
Gibbs asked his perpetual question. “Have you seen Kate?”
“Not in two days. Once she got word you were out of danger, she went back to NCIS and closed the case officially. She headed out with Malichi that same day.” Anton told him as he closed the door to Gibbs’ room.
“Malichi?” Gibbs questioned. That name had not been mentioned before and was not one of the eight who had worked the case.
“He is the other member of the team. He was on assignment in Iraq and just got the message. He’ll help her through this. He and Katie are close.” Anton moved over to Gibbs’ hospital bed. He chose his words carefully, knowing the conclusions Gibbs would draw and childishly wanting to hurt him as much as Gibbs had hurt Katie.
It was only then, when Anton stood right beside his bed that Gibbs could see the repressed anger in the other man’s eyes.
“You are lucky Katie cares so much for you or you’d be dead right now,” Anton stated, his easy posture belying the harshness in his voice. “And not because you were shot. I’d kill you myself, except I know it would kill her. Her problem has always been that she cares too much. She had come so far after her second time with Manning. I was sure she’d be all right. Then you had to be the macho bastard and take off your vest. It was a simple request - wear the vest until she gave you the all clear sign. Katie told you her past, or at least some of it. You knew how the case was affecting her. Knowing the fragile state she was in and how much you seemed to care for her, I didn’t think I’d have a problem in your compliance with the simple order. Even Tony didn’t need any explanations. He knew something was eating Kate and wearing the vest would help her in some way. He didn’t need any more information.” Anton started pacing, needing to work out some of his anger without killing the man in front of him. Gibbs was drugged enough to stay silent in the face of Anton’s anger.
“Damn it, Gibbs! You saw how badly she reacted to Bradley and Malcolm’s deaths! To ease her fears, to keep her sane, all you had to do was wear your stupid vest until she gave the all clear sign. But you couldn’t do that. You had to take it off and then get shot. She had to save your ass and relive her worst fears. But, you know something, you getting shot wasn’t the only consequence. While you’ve been in the hospital, she cleared the case and she cleared her desk. Her desk is empty and her letter of resignation that is sitting on your desk waiting for you.” There was a cold fury in Anton’s voice as he whipped around to face Gibbs again. At this pause Gibbs opened his mouth to defend himself, but Anton waved him silent as he raged on.
“Soon you’ll be back in the office and you’ll see the emptiness of Katie’s desk. You will understand that she is never coming back. She’s gone and she is going to stay gone. She said she couldn’t handle any of this anymore. She’ll never work in law enforcement again. Seeing you down took the last piece of her soul she had left to give. So I hope you are satisfied, Special Agent Gibbs, because you finally broke one of the best people I have ever worked with. She survived so much, but everyone has a breaking point. You were hers.” With those words said, Anton left Gibbs to himself.
Ducky was the only one in the waiting room when Anton left. He knew Jethro better than anyone else at NCIS and even he was surprised at Jethro’s reaction to Anton’s words.
Ducky walked in to find Jethro silent, in shock and in denial.
“Where is Kate?” Jethro asked Ducky once he noticed him.
“Jethro, I know Anton told you she resigned.” Ducky answered with a sigh. “She is gone.”
“No. Kate would never run.” He refused to believe it.
Abby walked in on those words. “Caitlin Todd left her letter of resignation on your desk. She left NCIS two days ago - once she was sure you were out of danger.” Her voice, for the first time in all the time Gibbs had known her, held no emotion.
“No! She’d never run,” Jethro repeated.
Abby was trying to play it cool and detached, but his denial flared her anger. “You stupid, ignorant bastard!” She spat out and then closed her eyes and regained her control. “Kate did run, in a way. But she didn’t just decide to quit. Kate told me she talked to you. She told you why she left Crack’s team. She told you that after this case she needed to find a balance, a self she could like. You and your stupid, selfish actions changed that. You drove her to leave; you and your need to be in control. So, I hope you are happy, Gibbs.” Abby was pissed; her eyes were flashing. What he had done was inexcusable and wrong. .
“Abby,” Ducky warned.
“What? You want me to sugar coat it? Well, too bad! I liked Kate. She was damn good at her job and she was fun to be around. I liked not being the only female on the team.” Abby swung towards Ducky. “He needs to understand and accept the truth.”
“I am sorry, Abby,” Gibbs stated softly.
“I’m not the one you need to apologize to. It is going to take a while for me and McGee to find her, though, so you will need to learn patience,” Abby told him, relenting in the end. Her anger had burned white hot, but it burned out as fast as it had come.
**********************
Malachi and Katie were enjoying the mountains. They hiked and drove down the Appalachians. He didn’t push Katie to tell him all that happened or what exactly was wrong. He knew she would talk to him once she worked it out on her own.
They ended their two days of travel at a small cabin in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. It was small and rustic, but it had running hot water and electricity. Kate’s first thought upon seeing it was that Gibbs would love it, but she quickly and ruthlessly killed that line of thought. She was sitting on the front porch swing watching the sun sink and leaning on Malichi when she finally spoke.
“I killed Manning - a bullet between the eyes. I set him up and took him out. Gibbs, my boss at NCIS, had taken off his vest, though, and Manning had gotten off two shots. I don’t know why Gibbs took off his vest. I had ordered them all to wear it until I gave the all-clear sign. One of Manning’s shots hit him in the chest, near the heart. He damn near died. I waited at the hospital until the doctors were sure he was out of danger, and then went to NCIS and did all the paperwork to close the case. I went through a review - for shooting Manning, but it was just a formality. When I handed Director Morrow the closed-case report, I told him I was resigning. I cleared out my desk and left my letter of resignation on Gibbs’ desk.” Kate began her tale. Then, she twisted to look Malichi in the eyes. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t handle another dead body because of me. Everyone I know is a target. I can’t lose another person or put someone in danger simply because they know me or because of something I did in the past. And I can’t handle another sniper mission.”
Malichi was worried about Katie; the woman in his arms was not one he recognized. She wasn’t a sniper, Katie-girl or Kate. The woman in his arms was haunted by a path that had chosen her. He would always be there for her, but he had no idea what, if anything, he could do to help her ease her pain or the shadows that haunted her now.
Her tears came suddenly, and he held her close as seven years of bottled up emotions came pouring out. One arm held her securely to his strong chest; the other gently stroked her hair and back. He whispered sounds of comfort and just let her cry. For now, until he finally understood what was wrong with her and what he could do to help her, holding her was all he could do. It seemed like hours to Kate, but it wasn’t long before her tears began to slow.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here, Katie. I was halfway around the world on a deep cover mission and only got the message three days ago. I came as soon as I could,” Malichi whispered, still stroking her hair.
“You’re here now, Malichi, and that is all that matters,” Katie reassured him softly. “I needed the others to deal with Manning. I need you now.” She had been so afraid that once she started crying, she’d never stop. She was afraid that the pain and emotions of years passed would simply swamp her and leave her drowning in her tears.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t work in law enforcement anymore, but law enforcement is all I have ever known. I can’t train them; the end result would be the same - my teaching would get someone killed.” Katie sighed, wiping away the last of her tears. “I need to find a version of myself I can live with. I thought I might finally find a version I actually liked, but I’m sure now that I need to settle for one I can survive with. I wish I had some ideas, but I don’t have time to think. I’m sure Gibbs will be looking for me, and Abby is a computer genius. Put her with McGee and it will only take hours to find me. I need to be on my own to find myself, Malachi.”
“Don’t worry about NCIS. I’ll call in a few favors and you’ll disappear. If you wanted, none of us would know where or who you were. You could be anyone, anywhere,” Malichi told her.
“I want you to know, Mal. Maybe someday I’ll tell the others. You’ll let them know I am okay. I just need to find myself, but I can’t let you go. You keep me grounded, Mal.” Katie smiled softly at him, and then laid her head back on his chest. She fell into an exhausted sleep listening to the steady beat of his heart.
Kate spent a week doing nothing but hiking, eating and sleeping. She never slept through the night - she hadn’t in the past either, but now she slept even less. At the end of that week, she came up with her plan.
“I am going back to law school,” she announced at 0622 hours on Sunday when she returned from her early morning hike. “I don’t care what you change my last name to, but I want my first to stay Caitlin. I wish I could go to George Washington Law, but I can’t stay in Washington, D.C. Not Harvard or Yale either. Maybe NYU or Columbia. Berkley is a possibility, but I don’t know about the West Coast.” She continued on, thinking out loud. Malachi watched her eyes get a small spark and stifled his sigh of relief. Part of the woman he knew and loved was still there. “Boston University School of Law. Boston is perfect!”
Malichi smiled at her enthusiasm. “What are you thinking of practicing?”
“Well, being a public defender or prosecutor is definitely out.” Caitlin thought a moment. “Maybe something with the AG’s office, just not criminal.”
It was lunchtime when he asked her. “Why law, Caitlin? You hated law school before.”
“Because I know law. Because it will be a small comfort. Because now it doesn’t matter what I love or hate, but what I can survive. And I don’t think I could survive cutting out law completely,” Caitlin answered as best she could.
“All right. After lunch I’ll get on the phone and make it all happen. You’ll start at BU Law in September. I’ll find you a place, too.”
“Don’t bury me too deep, Mal. I want to be able to come out if need be. You will keep me informed about them all. I need to be able to move if one of you all needs help.” Caitlin spoke suddenly, and then sighed. “I know it will make it harder, but I have to do it this way.” Her eyes pleaded with him to understand. “And I want my apartment near the Charles River and the school - not too long a ride on the T, anyway.”
“I do understand,” he told her softly, and he truly did. “And I’ll see what I can do about the apartment,” he added with a wink.
Malachi stayed with her another week at the cabin and then she stayed two weeks by herself while he finalized her disappearance and new life.
She questioned nothing - she knew Malichi had connections and she had the money.
She liked her apartment; it was near the Charles River and the paths to run. A short ride on the T and she was at school. She took her time getting to know her new neighborhood in the two months before law school started.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Title: Say Hello, Caitlin
Author: Goodisrelative
Rating: PG-13 for now anyway
Summary: This is my 3rd and final story in this arc that started with Aftershocks, then went to Say Goodbye, Kate. You definitely need to read Say Goodbye, Kate to understand this story.
Author’s Note: As stated above, this is the final story in this arc. I’ve taken Jethro and Kate to a place far from where they currently are in canon. Understand that now. This story definitely leaves canon in the dust. I wrote this pre-Twilight and obviously in this universe, it never happened. This one also sees Jethro and Caitlin together in the end (at least the end of the story, which spans many years). I refuse to have Caitlin and Jethro compromise their ethics and be forced together because we want them to be together, but they belong together in this story, at least. I have used time to mellow them both from where I left them at the end of Say Goodbye, Kate, because time has the tendency to mellow people and dull the sharp edges of pain and hurt.
Many thanks to Shannon for all her betaing throughout the series. Also to Claudia and Susan who helped beta in earlier sections. Your thoughts and encouragement were definitely appreciated! Also, thanks to Natasha and Kate for betaing this story.
And with that said, on with the story!
__________________________________________________________
Kate walked out of the hospital with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here, Katie-girl,” a decidedly male voice spoke from her car.
Kate was taken by surprise; she was too caught up in the pain and sadness of her recent decisions to care if anyone else was paying her any mind, or to pay attention to the parking lot around her.
“Malachi?” She blinked away her tears, startled to see him leaning against her car. Last she heard he had been on a deep cover mission half a world away in Iraq. He looked good; his raven hair reached his shoulders and blew free in the light breeze. His eyes were the same startling green she remembered, even if they held new shadows since the last time she saw him. Shadows were a byproduct of his business, as they once were hers.
“I came as soon as I got word,” he explained, noticing the pain and tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong? I thought your friend was out of danger.”
“Oh, he’ll be fine. The doctors all said he will make a full recovery.” Kate nodded and sighed. “I just never expected this goodbye or how much it would hurt.” Malachi had no trouble picking out the resignation in her voice, even though it was laced with pain.
“‘This goodbye?’ What is going on? What are you doing, Katie?” Malichi looked at her, surprised and confused.
“Just drive for now, Malichi. I’ll explain later. I need to get out of here, away from the city. Take me home, I’ll pack and we can go on a road trip if you have some time. I just need to get away from here,” Kate pleaded with him.
Her voice and the fact that she could barely meet his eyes shook him. Complying with her plea without question, Malachi took her keys from her hand and did as she asked. They were in the Smoky Mountains by sunset.
********************
Since Gibbs woken up in the hospital, he hadn’t seen Kate. He voiced his questions, but everyone just avoided them. Ducky had explained how she had saved his life - Gibbs knew he had to thank her for that and explain his actions - but no one would tell him where Kate was.
Anton walked in to Gibbs’ room two days after Kate had left and Gibbs had woken up. He signaled for Ducky, Abby and Tony to leave.
Gibbs asked his perpetual question. “Have you seen Kate?”
“Not in two days. Once she got word you were out of danger, she went back to NCIS and closed the case officially. She headed out with Malichi that same day.” Anton told him as he closed the door to Gibbs’ room.
“Malichi?” Gibbs questioned. That name had not been mentioned before and was not one of the eight who had worked the case.
“He is the other member of the team. He was on assignment in Iraq and just got the message. He’ll help her through this. He and Katie are close.” Anton moved over to Gibbs’ hospital bed. He chose his words carefully, knowing the conclusions Gibbs would draw and childishly wanting to hurt him as much as Gibbs had hurt Katie.
It was only then, when Anton stood right beside his bed that Gibbs could see the repressed anger in the other man’s eyes.
“You are lucky Katie cares so much for you or you’d be dead right now,” Anton stated, his easy posture belying the harshness in his voice. “And not because you were shot. I’d kill you myself, except I know it would kill her. Her problem has always been that she cares too much. She had come so far after her second time with Manning. I was sure she’d be all right. Then you had to be the macho bastard and take off your vest. It was a simple request - wear the vest until she gave you the all clear sign. Katie told you her past, or at least some of it. You knew how the case was affecting her. Knowing the fragile state she was in and how much you seemed to care for her, I didn’t think I’d have a problem in your compliance with the simple order. Even Tony didn’t need any explanations. He knew something was eating Kate and wearing the vest would help her in some way. He didn’t need any more information.” Anton started pacing, needing to work out some of his anger without killing the man in front of him. Gibbs was drugged enough to stay silent in the face of Anton’s anger.
“Damn it, Gibbs! You saw how badly she reacted to Bradley and Malcolm’s deaths! To ease her fears, to keep her sane, all you had to do was wear your stupid vest until she gave the all clear sign. But you couldn’t do that. You had to take it off and then get shot. She had to save your ass and relive her worst fears. But, you know something, you getting shot wasn’t the only consequence. While you’ve been in the hospital, she cleared the case and she cleared her desk. Her desk is empty and her letter of resignation that is sitting on your desk waiting for you.” There was a cold fury in Anton’s voice as he whipped around to face Gibbs again. At this pause Gibbs opened his mouth to defend himself, but Anton waved him silent as he raged on.
“Soon you’ll be back in the office and you’ll see the emptiness of Katie’s desk. You will understand that she is never coming back. She’s gone and she is going to stay gone. She said she couldn’t handle any of this anymore. She’ll never work in law enforcement again. Seeing you down took the last piece of her soul she had left to give. So I hope you are satisfied, Special Agent Gibbs, because you finally broke one of the best people I have ever worked with. She survived so much, but everyone has a breaking point. You were hers.” With those words said, Anton left Gibbs to himself.
Ducky was the only one in the waiting room when Anton left. He knew Jethro better than anyone else at NCIS and even he was surprised at Jethro’s reaction to Anton’s words.
Ducky walked in to find Jethro silent, in shock and in denial.
“Where is Kate?” Jethro asked Ducky once he noticed him.
“Jethro, I know Anton told you she resigned.” Ducky answered with a sigh. “She is gone.”
“No. Kate would never run.” He refused to believe it.
Abby walked in on those words. “Caitlin Todd left her letter of resignation on your desk. She left NCIS two days ago - once she was sure you were out of danger.” Her voice, for the first time in all the time Gibbs had known her, held no emotion.
“No! She’d never run,” Jethro repeated.
Abby was trying to play it cool and detached, but his denial flared her anger. “You stupid, ignorant bastard!” She spat out and then closed her eyes and regained her control. “Kate did run, in a way. But she didn’t just decide to quit. Kate told me she talked to you. She told you why she left Crack’s team. She told you that after this case she needed to find a balance, a self she could like. You and your stupid, selfish actions changed that. You drove her to leave; you and your need to be in control. So, I hope you are happy, Gibbs.” Abby was pissed; her eyes were flashing. What he had done was inexcusable and wrong. .
“Abby,” Ducky warned.
“What? You want me to sugar coat it? Well, too bad! I liked Kate. She was damn good at her job and she was fun to be around. I liked not being the only female on the team.” Abby swung towards Ducky. “He needs to understand and accept the truth.”
“I am sorry, Abby,” Gibbs stated softly.
“I’m not the one you need to apologize to. It is going to take a while for me and McGee to find her, though, so you will need to learn patience,” Abby told him, relenting in the end. Her anger had burned white hot, but it burned out as fast as it had come.
**********************
Malachi and Katie were enjoying the mountains. They hiked and drove down the Appalachians. He didn’t push Katie to tell him all that happened or what exactly was wrong. He knew she would talk to him once she worked it out on her own.
They ended their two days of travel at a small cabin in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. It was small and rustic, but it had running hot water and electricity. Kate’s first thought upon seeing it was that Gibbs would love it, but she quickly and ruthlessly killed that line of thought. She was sitting on the front porch swing watching the sun sink and leaning on Malichi when she finally spoke.
“I killed Manning - a bullet between the eyes. I set him up and took him out. Gibbs, my boss at NCIS, had taken off his vest, though, and Manning had gotten off two shots. I don’t know why Gibbs took off his vest. I had ordered them all to wear it until I gave the all-clear sign. One of Manning’s shots hit him in the chest, near the heart. He damn near died. I waited at the hospital until the doctors were sure he was out of danger, and then went to NCIS and did all the paperwork to close the case. I went through a review - for shooting Manning, but it was just a formality. When I handed Director Morrow the closed-case report, I told him I was resigning. I cleared out my desk and left my letter of resignation on Gibbs’ desk.” Kate began her tale. Then, she twisted to look Malichi in the eyes. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t handle another dead body because of me. Everyone I know is a target. I can’t lose another person or put someone in danger simply because they know me or because of something I did in the past. And I can’t handle another sniper mission.”
Malichi was worried about Katie; the woman in his arms was not one he recognized. She wasn’t a sniper, Katie-girl or Kate. The woman in his arms was haunted by a path that had chosen her. He would always be there for her, but he had no idea what, if anything, he could do to help her ease her pain or the shadows that haunted her now.
Her tears came suddenly, and he held her close as seven years of bottled up emotions came pouring out. One arm held her securely to his strong chest; the other gently stroked her hair and back. He whispered sounds of comfort and just let her cry. For now, until he finally understood what was wrong with her and what he could do to help her, holding her was all he could do. It seemed like hours to Kate, but it wasn’t long before her tears began to slow.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here, Katie. I was halfway around the world on a deep cover mission and only got the message three days ago. I came as soon as I could,” Malichi whispered, still stroking her hair.
“You’re here now, Malichi, and that is all that matters,” Katie reassured him softly. “I needed the others to deal with Manning. I need you now.” She had been so afraid that once she started crying, she’d never stop. She was afraid that the pain and emotions of years passed would simply swamp her and leave her drowning in her tears.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t work in law enforcement anymore, but law enforcement is all I have ever known. I can’t train them; the end result would be the same - my teaching would get someone killed.” Katie sighed, wiping away the last of her tears. “I need to find a version of myself I can live with. I thought I might finally find a version I actually liked, but I’m sure now that I need to settle for one I can survive with. I wish I had some ideas, but I don’t have time to think. I’m sure Gibbs will be looking for me, and Abby is a computer genius. Put her with McGee and it will only take hours to find me. I need to be on my own to find myself, Malachi.”
“Don’t worry about NCIS. I’ll call in a few favors and you’ll disappear. If you wanted, none of us would know where or who you were. You could be anyone, anywhere,” Malichi told her.
“I want you to know, Mal. Maybe someday I’ll tell the others. You’ll let them know I am okay. I just need to find myself, but I can’t let you go. You keep me grounded, Mal.” Katie smiled softly at him, and then laid her head back on his chest. She fell into an exhausted sleep listening to the steady beat of his heart.
Kate spent a week doing nothing but hiking, eating and sleeping. She never slept through the night - she hadn’t in the past either, but now she slept even less. At the end of that week, she came up with her plan.
“I am going back to law school,” she announced at 0622 hours on Sunday when she returned from her early morning hike. “I don’t care what you change my last name to, but I want my first to stay Caitlin. I wish I could go to George Washington Law, but I can’t stay in Washington, D.C. Not Harvard or Yale either. Maybe NYU or Columbia. Berkley is a possibility, but I don’t know about the West Coast.” She continued on, thinking out loud. Malachi watched her eyes get a small spark and stifled his sigh of relief. Part of the woman he knew and loved was still there. “Boston University School of Law. Boston is perfect!”
Malichi smiled at her enthusiasm. “What are you thinking of practicing?”
“Well, being a public defender or prosecutor is definitely out.” Caitlin thought a moment. “Maybe something with the AG’s office, just not criminal.”
It was lunchtime when he asked her. “Why law, Caitlin? You hated law school before.”
“Because I know law. Because it will be a small comfort. Because now it doesn’t matter what I love or hate, but what I can survive. And I don’t think I could survive cutting out law completely,” Caitlin answered as best she could.
“All right. After lunch I’ll get on the phone and make it all happen. You’ll start at BU Law in September. I’ll find you a place, too.”
“Don’t bury me too deep, Mal. I want to be able to come out if need be. You will keep me informed about them all. I need to be able to move if one of you all needs help.” Caitlin spoke suddenly, and then sighed. “I know it will make it harder, but I have to do it this way.” Her eyes pleaded with him to understand. “And I want my apartment near the Charles River and the school - not too long a ride on the T, anyway.”
“I do understand,” he told her softly, and he truly did. “And I’ll see what I can do about the apartment,” he added with a wink.
Malachi stayed with her another week at the cabin and then she stayed two weeks by herself while he finalized her disappearance and new life.
She questioned nothing - she knew Malichi had connections and she had the money.
She liked her apartment; it was near the Charles River and the paths to run. A short ride on the T and she was at school. She took her time getting to know her new neighborhood in the two months before law school started.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~