One Terrorist To Another

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godfrey_icon.gif monica4_icon.gif

Scene Title One Terrorist To Another
Synopsis Monica makes Godfrey an offer he can't refuse. Well, he can, he just doesn't.
Date July 19, 2020

Rikers Island Prison


Monica went through all the hoops. She didn't even make them rush her application to come visit, although she probably could have. Perhaps just to give herself time to internally debate what she was about to do. But she never talked herself out of it and so she sits in a room with a two-way mirror, a table and a pair of chairs. She sits in one, her feet propped up on the table. She's dressed professionally, as Godfrey has often seen her. Nice, fitted suit, hair straightened, pumps with a red sole. Both of their positions in the world have changed dramatically since they last met, but at least she doesn't look too smug about it.

Yet.

What she does look… is bored. The wait hasn't been that long but for someone not used to sitting still for too long, it's an eternity. And she doubts they would appreciate her literally bouncing off the walls to pass the time. So. She's tossing her phone up in the air and catching it, a little higher each time, hoping Godfrey will get escorted in before she hits the ceiling.

Luckily, when her phone is just an inch or so short of the ceiling the door opens. She can hear the rattle of chains, before an orange suited and messy haired Godfrey steps into the room, followed by his guard. His hands and feet are chained, but that doesn’t seem to stop the brilliant smile that breaks out. “Monica!” he says just as brightly as that smile and maybe a bit too loud for the small room. Hands attempt to go out like he’d ask for a friendly hug, but the action is stopped quickly by the rigid chains that restrict his movement. It earns the chains a brief look of annoyance.

That dark look is quickly dispelled when Godfrey looks back up at his former co-worker and looks down. He ‘Ooos’ in surprised at her appearance. Far different from the last time he’d seen her.

“Mon-i-ca…” Is practically purred out after Godfrey sees her excellent suit and red pumps. “I’m pleased to see you ditched the soccer mom sweats for something far more suited to your…” he gives a little exaggerated sigh of appreciation, “Assets.“

Godfrey shuffles over to the table to sit, while he says, “I was hoping you’d come for a visit.”

"I see being locked up hasn't dimmed your… spirit very much," Monica says, her eyebrow lifting. "And don't let the outfit fool you, I can still kick your ass in this or anything." She doesn't stand for him or give him any other greeting than that. Certainly not a hug. But, not a punch either. So it's possibly a warmer greeting on the whole than last time.

Of course, Luther isn't here this time.

"Well, how could I not come see you. After everything. And it might be worth it to see you as anything less than perfectly coiffed." An image she'll treasure, no doubt. "You know," she says as she brings her feet down off the table, "I had my suspicions about you not being entirely on the up and up, but this? Honestly, I didn't see it coming. So I had to come. I had to… know."

Godfrey sits a bit taller at assessment once seated, that smug smile still on his lips, even if there is a slight narrowing of his eyes. A punch might have been almost preferable to this. “Ruffled around the edges, but still breathin’ I call that a win really.”

Shifting his arms to rest on the table, the chains he wears rattling against the metal. “What is it they say? It’s always the ones you least expect? You wouldn’t be the first, luv.” There is an upward twitch of the brow, Godfrey’s expression turning a bit more serious, even if his lips still smile.

“Fine.. fine.” Godfrey says, leaning back again heavily, as if he is caving to her, even though she hasn’t asked directly. “I confess. When I came to see you, I was truly there for an ulterior motive… my own.” He doesn’t look away or have the decency to look contrite. “Take it as you will, but I was there for the express purpose to protect and help our lovely Asi, whether she desired it or not. She was over her head…still is ‘m sure.” Godfrey spreads his hands a bit, there you have it.

“It just so happened that fate delivered me the excuse to be there. Ms. Nakamura did pull me aside and ask me to deliver the arm, her apology, and ask you to come back.” Godfrey owes her the truth in that. “I never once thought you would take it, but I had to make the offer.”

"You're stalling," Monica says, arms folding lazily on the table as she leans forward. "I don't care about what Kimiko asked you to do. I understand what she was trying to do and that you were just her messenger boy. Although, you and Jaiden could not have been more suspicious, so that's something to work on if you're planning to continue in spycraft and general mayhem and secrecy. And whatever you were trying to do to or for Asi, I suspect she can hash out with you on her own. None of that is why I'm here."

Mechanical fingers drum on the table— she got a replacement somewhere from someone and it probably isn't hard for Godfrey to guess the source— and she lifts an eyebrow as she looks him over. "I need to know about Shedda. About Adam. Whatever you've got in that pretty little head of yours. Because someone has to clean up this mess." Her, apparently. Although, with her history, it's likely she is simply unable to leave it for just anyone to do. "And I need to know how devoted to the cause you are."

She leans back there, as if to pass the baton back to him.

He doesn’t comment on her suspicions, instead focusing on what she really wanted. “You could have bloody well asked that, from the start,” Godfrey comments with a sigh.

He turns thoughtful, glancing at the nearby guard. “I can’t exactly say a lot can I? Not just because I’m here, but I didn’t mean enough to the cause to tell me much. It was ‘need to know’. They kept me in the dark with a lot. Coming to me when they needed something involving Yamagato… And they did that only one time.”

Leaning forward on the table, chains rattling, Godfrey lowers his voice, “But…” He points at the metal of the table, giving it a little tap, to indicate the prison they were sitting in. “I can say that I’m here, Miss Dawson, because I bloody well chose to be. You want a Shedda loyalist, look to Mortlock. He was always at Garza’s bloody side. I’d rather see the man hang, m’self.”

There is a small smile on his lip, that quickly fades at the corners when he sits back. “Garza saw me as a tool to be used. He used m’desire to be “special”,” He even air quotes it the best he can in cuffs, “to keep me loyal. Going so far as to wipe my memory of having an ability.”

"I understand how loyal the cause was to you," Monica says, gesturing around them as if that's the proof she needs for how valued he is, "I want to know if you're sticking with them or if you're willing to turn yourself around and do some actual good. Or, at least, stop doing harm." She stands up— she never could sit still for very long— and circles around the table to come to rest a hip against his side of it. "I don't want a loyalist, I am specifically looking for a disloyalist. Although I might have plans to see Jaiden again at some point, I have no intention of being as pleasant with him."

She looks over at him, crossing her arms and letting out a sigh. "If Yamagato hasn't come to you yet, they will. With an offer. But I am… very well acquainted with the kinds of offers Kimiko dreams up. And I'm pretty well acquainted with making bad choices, too. So I'm here to present you with an alternative. Now, I don't trust you and I'm not sure that is ever going to change, but I don't have to trust you to offer you a way out. If… well, if you want it and if you'll make use of it. I happen to have come into control of a lot of money and connections recently and I can get you out of here, give you a job— maybe not a glamorous one, but we can discuss something you won't totally hate doing— and keep you out of whatever devil's bargain Yamagato is preparing for you. Especially if you're… special."

The details of Monica's actual job have never been made very clear, but there were a lot of rumors about her when she worked with Yamagato. How she earned the arm. How she kept it.

“I have a good idea of what you did, luv,” Godfrey tells her flat out, watching her curiously after that offer. “And Kay desperately wanted me to be your replacement, since the night my ability surfaced again.” So, no, it doesn’t take much to imagine. “Honestly, I thought it would be my only option to keep me out of the hangman’s noose.”

Dark brows, a bit shaggier for the want of a good grooming, furrow thoughtfully as Godfrey considers her offer. “My loyalty to them came from Adam, but I never even bloody saw him when I joined. I even suspected that he had no bloody clue I was there. The carrot Garza wiggled in front of me kept me there, but to be honest, Shedda itself could go to bloody hell for all I care.”

Godfrey doesn’t even really look at her, his attention on the cuffs that bind him and the way his hands curl together. The act dashed away for a moment of rare honesty. “Believe it or not, luv, I originally came to this country to find the American Dream. I was a good man once, before I naively took an accounting job at Pinehurst, not realizing what was below the surface, and ended up being labeled a criminal.”

Looking up at the woman finally, Godfrey says truthfully, “I wouldn’t mind seeing if he still exists under it all. So…” he sighs out, sitting up and squaring his shoulders, “if you're serious about wanting to take me in, I’d be grateful for the chance.”

Monica lets out a sigh at that reveal, a disappointed sound rather than an embarrassed one. "I was kind of hoping you'd be able to tell me I was wrong about them." But no, the opportunity he presents is too good to pass up. "Maybe you understand why I'm willing to give you a way out. I'm no angel, either. So maybe we can find out together if there's still good left under everything we've done. And what's been done to us."

She gives him a nod at his last words. "I'm serious. So. Lawyers will be by with paperwork and, you know. Lawyer stuff. We'll get you a deal and get you out of here as soon as we can manage. After that, I can help you find an apartment and we can discuss some work. If you want me around for any meetings," she says, pulling a card out of a pocket and setting it on the table near him. "Or if you just need to talk. I'm not the best ear around, but I'm around and willing."

When she pushes off the table to stand on her feet again, she gives his arm a comforting squeeze. "I'll do what I can to keep your time in here as short as possible. In the meantime, behave."

Reaching up, Godfrey takes the card. He doesn’t even bother to mask the relief, she deserved to see it. She was after all saving him. “Thank you, Monica, truely,” he says with a genuine smile. “I shall endeavor to stay out of trouble, so that I can get off these bloody drugs and feel the sun again.” His ability had been just newly rediscovered when he took the chance of getting arrested.

Though that smile quickly turns mischievous again, at a thought, and Godfrey asks slyly, “Tell me. Is tall, dark and growly still around? I should love to meet up with that one again sometime,” He adds a suggestive lift of his brows, “It was quite… exhilarating to watch him lay out Jaiden flat out on his back like that.”

As per usual, Godfrey simply couldn’t help himself.

Monica nods firmly at the notion of getting off the drugs. Who even knows what this version is doing to them all. The last one didn't turn out to be such a good idea, after all. She also doesn't mention his relief, just a smile that turns crooked when he mentions Luther. "You always have to ruin the moment, don't you?" she says with a laugh. "He's still around. Still growly. I'll tell him he left a good impression on you. I'm sure he'll be delighted."

'Delighted' may come out a little sarcastic.

Because it is.

"Before I go. Anyone we need to talk to? Are there any arrangements we have to untangle with Yamagato?" Her head tilts a little and she's quiet for a beat. "Did you still want to work for them? Like, at a regular job, not the one Kay offered." Getting Kay and her daughter out of Yamagato is a whole other situation, one she's offered to help with, but not been taken up on yet. "I can't recommend it, obviously, and they'd probably do some PR backflips to make it look okay to the public and that might come back on you at some point. But if you wanted to… I guess what I'm saying is I'll still help you out of here, even if you decide you don't want to come work for me. I'd be happy to have you, though."

The question is a surprise. One that gets Godfrey thinking about who he’d be leaving behind at Yamagato. Of the people he’s actually learned to care about and have shown that they see him more then a criminal…. Or did.

“No,” Godfrey says suddenly, “I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ve burned enough bridges there. It wouldn’t be the same if I went back now. ” Which was kind of upsetting, though he tries not to show it. “Besides that, I’m quite intrigued by this new you and what you have going on.”

Godfrey can feel the guard moving in behind him, ready to escort him back or protect Monica from him. “Though, now that I think about it, I would like to get m’ hands on m’ baby grand piano before Marlowe decides to slag it.” Something he worried about constantly. “She was already upset when she learned I was a crime boss in my former life, I could only imagine what she thinks of me now.” For that he has the good sense to grimace.

"Alright," Monica says, a bit relieved because that does make it easier. "I think you'll enjoy what I'm getting started over there. Big plans. Real blue sky thinking." No details forthcoming, at least, not at the moment. But she gives him a crooked smile all the same. He might be avoiding trouble in here just to be jumping into it out there. But only time will tell.

She softens a bit at the mention of the piano— or maybe at the mention of Marlowe. "I'll see what I can do about the piano. As for Marlowe, well, she can forgive. Believe me. Give her time. And show her things are different now. She only gets so upset because she believes in people so much." And they so often let her down. Monica did her share of letting her friend down. She knows how it goes. "The upside is that she loves it when people turn over a new leaf and make themselves better." It's not as easy as she makes it sound, fixing yourself, but she wants him to know that she believes it can be done. Even if she's still working on it herself.

"Sorry to leave you to wallow in here," she says as she straightens up, "but you'll see me again soon enough." And the lawyers, of course. But she doesn't think they'll be as fun as she is. "Until next time?"

“Quite the optimist that one, it’s rather charming,” Godfrey says with a fondness that surprises him. “Ten years ago I would have agreed with her, but I fear I lost m’ rose colored glasses along the way. Though, it makes me wonder what sort of man I would have been, with someone like her around when the world started crashing around me.”

Standing, Godfrey sighs out through his nose, “I guess we’ll never know.”

Even shackled as he is and wearing that god-awful orange jumpsuit, Godfrey manages a gentlemanly bow. “I shall be counting the days until we see each other again, Miss Dawson.” When he straightens to follow the guard, who grabs his arm to escort him, the former liaison gives her an impish wink… just to ruin the moment again.


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