breaking rules
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG
Challenge:
Quince #23 - I won’t take no for an answer
Tropical Punch #22 - on the same page
Extras / Toppings: malt (summer challenge #334: “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” - Carl Jung), pocky chain
Word Count: 945
Story: Misfits
Summary: Stella confesses to backstabbing and she and Dennis decide to make the best of it.
Notes: pocky dance party: tango
It’s hard to tell what she was thinking but that was nothing new. The hard part was that for the first time in several years, Dennis needed to know what was going through her mind. She had betrayed and double-crossed him, used his trust to her advantage and made sure she was getting what she wanted.
He didn’t take lightly to that but what was he supposed to do now? Yell at her, be angry and walk away, tell her to handle this herself?
Of course not. This was her mess but they would have to clean it up together.
***
“You really told Jane to defect and join the enemy just to have an informant behind enemy lines?” Dennis stuttered and Stella nodded.
“I needed to make sure we nail Castellini this time and I knew you wouldn’t be all too happy if I came to you with suggestions that aren’t completely according to Cerberus protocol. I didn’t want to get you involved.”
Too later for that, she thought. The secret was out and now she needed him. She wished it could have been different. Anything was better than this.”
***
“You were breaking rules?” Dennis laughed despite himself. “And were afraid I wouldn’t agree with you? Hell, you’re crazy, woman. I was always a master at breaking rules. I would have agreed with your plan right away. It all makes sense now. Why you wanted Jane of all people on the team, everything.”
He shook his head and reached out to touch Stella’s shoulder. It was the first time in a long time he made a conscious effort to touch her and to him it felt like an attempt to show her that he was with her on this.
“Joseph shouldn’t know though.”
***
Stella laughed. “I didn’t want to tell you. Do you really think I was about to run to the man who reads instruction manuals and rulebooks at bedtime?”
“Tell me about your plan. You’ve put far more thought into this than me,” Dennis asked and Stella started talking right away, making notes on the big piece of paper between them, sketching things out so that Dennis would better understand. She had always been good at this and this was in many ways the plan she had put most thought into during her career, a multi-layered construction that spanned over several months.
***
Dennis let out an impressed whistle once Stella was done. He had never been the master tactician but he could see how much work had gone into this crafty plan that had deceived him for the greater part of the year. He knew he would have caved in sooner or later and confessed what he had in mind so someone -- probably Stella though he would never admit that out loud -- without waiting for the last minute to do so, when it was impossible to go back on the plan.
“I think we can go ahead without any modifications.”
***
“Do you want to brief the team right away? I was going to go in there alone, maybe take Kev since you’re going to fire him anyway, but now that I have more options, I won’t turn them down.”
“You won’t like this but you’re not coming along,” Dennis said with a grave tone and Stella suddenly jolted up, her eyes wide open.
“What?! This was my plan, you can’t just exclude me.”
Not after everything she had done. Dennis wouldn’t get all the lorries for this.
***
“Castellini knows you. He is your goddamn Al Capone, Stella. He can spot you in any crowd. That’s why you sent Jane in instead of fabricating a cover to go in yourself. He would smell that something was off right away. You have to stay far away from the whole operation if you want it to work. Every man of Castellini’s knows how you look.”
“So you’re going in there, do your thing, arrest him and I sit by the sidelines, completely useless?”
***
She was starting to regret telling Dennis any of this. He had a point when he said that Castellini was too familiar with her for her to go in herself but she still wanted to. She was not someone who would just wait until everything was over and then congratulate the heroes.
“No. You’ll be support. You know the mansion like nobody else. You’ve spent enough time undercover there, you know all the security cameras, probably can recall security codes, you know where to hide away. You know the habits of most of the security team.”
***
He hoped that this was enough to convince her. He wasn’t keeping her out of the action because he anted to but because it made sense and he knew that she would have to understand that. She was going to be the brain of the operation, taking a position she had never taken before and that she wasn’t comfortable with, but one that she would have far more experience with if it came to Joseph who didn’t want his wife in the field anymore.
“I want to be able to come in if anything goes wrong.”
***
It was a stupid demand and when Dennis shook his head, Stella understood perfectly. She hadn’t expected him to agree, if he had, she would have been worried if he knew anything about tactics.
“I’m going to stay behind and do the best I can. I want you to do the same. I’m trusting you with my mission.”
“And you’re going to kill me if I don’t apprehend Castellini after all the time you’ve put into it, I know.”
“Good thing we’re on the same page,” Stella smiled grimly.