Participants:
| Scene Title | So… I'm Dealing With It But We Got A Problem |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elisabeth fills Norton in on the Alec situation. |
| Date | April 6, 2009 |
Coffee Shop near Crown Heights Police Station
Elisabeth didn't wait for Norton to get off work this morning — instead, she called his cell just as he was changing clothes into civvies and asked him to meet her somewhere out in public. A coffee shop or something. It's raining out and quite chilly, so although she'd rather walk while they talk, that's not really feasible this morning. When she gets to the coffee shop, she shakes out her umbrella outside the door and comes inside to glance around and see if Norton beat her here. Spotting his hair in a seat, she makes her way there and grins to note he's already got coffee and croissants on the table. "Either you know me far too well or you're starving," she comments to him after kissing him heatedly and then dropping into her chair.
Trask smiles softly, "I guess we have been together long enough to fall into routines?" He smiles as he kises back, "So you sounded almost chipper on the phone, is there something to get excited over?
In truth, it's the exact opposite, though Liz doesn't really want to tell him about it. "Routines are good sometimes…. they're things to be counted on when shit hits the fan," she comments. And since they're together, she can't close the table in silence, so she merely keeps her voice low. "So…. I need to tell you something and I wanted to do it out of my apartment. And if we use yours, well…." She smiles at him.
Trask raises an eyebrow, "What is it….?" He looks at you carefully trying to read you.
Oh, he reads her all right. There's chagrin, anger, even shame in her expression. She toys with her coffee cup. "So…. here's the deal. While you were dead, I met someone who reminded me a lot of you. Just… liked to watch the same movies I do, music, stuff like that. He got to be a friend, someone who helped me miss you less." She looks up at him, nibbling her lip. "Turns out, my judgment was far more impaired while you were dead than I realized." There's a grimace.
Trask raises an eyebrow, "You cheated on me?" He looks mock incensed for a moment then can't hold it and smiles softly, "Liz…I know better then to ask you to be faithful."
Rolling her eyes, Liz says mildly, "Norton, it's not about THAT part." She thpbts at him mildly. "It's about the fact that it turns out…. he's something of a not-nice guy." She's hedging, it's the first time she's ever really done that with him. "He bugged my apartment. At least from back before the rescue, I don't know how much further back than that. He has names… he knows about Phoenix…. he knows about your ties to PARIAH." Her voice is soft, apologetic. It's her fault for trusting the asshole.
Trask blinks and sits up straight at that, suddenly this has gone from amusing, to incredibly important. "I think I am going to need some details""
Yeah…. that. The sharp-eyed look he gives her, the soldier's look, that's the one she's been dreading. Elisabeth says quietly, "I did a background check on him and there were only a couple of small anomalies. I followed up as well as I could on them, but … honestly, Norton? Nothing major jumped at me. At all. I had stopped looking. Apparently, though, the very fact that I was a cop and interested in talking to him tweaked him — paranoid a bit. So he started looking into me. He says he works for someone who's willing to offer Phoenix help… for a small price. And he personally is willing to help us out for nothing." She grimaces. "Especially with tomorrow coming up, I'm scared to death that I've compromised us majorly. He's basically telling me that if we don't want their help, that's all fine — we go our separate ways, no harm, no foul. Everyone keeps their mouth shut. I've got someone checking him out again, since that all sounds too good to be true. But…"
Trask says, "Who is he…and who does he work for?" His mind is thinking, planning, plotting, knowing him as well as you do you can see it there behind his eyes."
Elisabeth blows out a breath and eyes him. "I don't know who he works for. He won't tell me anything besides 'a benefactor' — the lot of them are thieves of some kind. He gave me a bunch of information, but only because I couldn't tell anyone or run him in," she comments quietly. She sips her coffee finally. "Alec Bonder himself is a structural engineer — he's in town helping reconstruct the bridge and working on the damage in the city from the Bomb and such. And he's on the up and up in that regard. Professionally speaking, his company gets top marks across the board nationwide. He's some kind of bored genius or something, and this benefactor offered… adrenaline, maybe? I just don't know. He lives a couple of floors up from me, and he's managed to even…" she blushes. "… slap a GPS on me for however long. I found it on my badge over the weekend."
Trask blinks, the way he looks at you, he seems to just not process it. "Liz I…..I shouldn't have…." He sighs softly and looks away. "I am sorry…I…."
Elisabeth looks absolutely thoroughly confused. "For… what??"
Trask says, "For letting my own guard down, for saying things where people might be able to over hear them. For not being more careful….for…relaxing…..""
"Oh good," Liz says with a bit of a bite. "So now, in addition to feeling like a complete ass because I let him get that close to me and get something major over on me, and in addition to being scared to death that I might have compromised Teo and whoever else — because his bug picked up conversations between me and Abby that dropped about a billion freakin' names — I also have to worry about you taking responsibility for my stupidity?" She gives him the Look. He should recognize it by now, though it's been some months since she last gave it to him — it's the 'get over yourself' Look.
Trask says, "Look…we will get through this, we will figured out who he has told, and we will handle it. It's about containment at this point." He sighs softly, "It's not about whose fault it is or anything else, We are going to do this together, and we are not doing it alone. We need to call Cam…Hell…um…Teo?""
"It's possible he's not going to tell anyone. Like I said, he's offering help. And yeah… Teo's next on the list to tell. But I figured maybe I'd tell you the details first, what with … a lot of the conversations he's listened to being private ones between us and all." Elisabeth has the grace to blush a good bit there, something she rarely does. "If he's told anyone, it's pretty much… blown wide open. The only up side is that we've never even talked about Moab in my place."
Trask says, "No but either one of us could be picked up at any time over it. We need to silence him fast."
There's a slow nod, though Elisabeth looks a little… alarmed. She's not sure what he means precisely — and though she threatened Alec with the Haitian (a total bluff, being as she has no clue who the person is who steals memories), she's not sure what Norton means. He sounds… serious.
Trask says, "Taking action before talking to Teo though is unadvised, have you contacted him yet? And we will need everything you know about this guy."
Elisabeth shakes her head. "NO. The last thing you all need is to worry about this in the middle of the Moab run, right? There's no way he knows about that, Norton. I've never talked about it in my apartment, never breathed a word anywhere that he could have heard me."
Trask says, "We need to deal with this right away…putting it off won't help."
There's a pause and Elisabeth just looks at him, very seriously. "Are you saying you don't trust me to deal with it my own way? At least until you guys get back Wednesday?" Because it's already been established that she's not going — Teo asked her to stay behind and keep Abby safe before the plan was scrubbed last week. And she's already told him she's got someone looking into the guy.
Trask sighs softly, and shakes his head. "I didn't mean that Liz….I…." He sighs and looks away, "I just hate leaving loose ends. I trust you…I do."
"Then show it," Elisabeth says to him sternly, her tone hiding the hurt. His distrust is well-deserved, given what her actions have potentially wrought here, but still. "I'll handle the problem, just…. " She sighs. "Hell, I don't know, Norton. Maybe I shouldn't have told you either. I just didn't want you to wonder why I don't want you to come by my apartment before you guys take off tomorrow. I'll come to yours, if you want, but…. I don't really trust mine right now." She looks down. "If he's a threat, … well, we'll deal with that when we get there, okay?"
Trask nods, "Ok…I will make sure my apartment is swept before anything else. Liz….I…trust you to handle it." He pats your hand, "I won't say a word to anyone if that is what you want, just…let me know if there is anything I can do?
Elisabeth slips her hand into his and looks up at him, squeezing tightly. "You can do the same thing I told you to do last time — the thing that you eventually did though not without a lot of angst and grief. 'Come back.'" She smiles slightly. "I really hate that I'm not going with you."
Trask smiles, "I will….no matter how long it takes, I will be back.
There's a soft laugh. "I believe you. This time, I will not give up on you until someone shows me a body…." And then Elisabeth pauses and says quietly, "Maybe not even then." Because after all, Richard's a hundred percent CERTAIN that it was Felix's body on Staten.
Trask says, "I will always come back for you. Come Hell or High Water, nothing is going to stop me."
Elisabeth gets up, comes around the table, and kisses him in full view of whoever happens to be looking. And then she grins. "Go get some sleep, night-shift man. I'll be by after work with dinner."
Trask smiles, "I will look forward to it." He smiles and kisses back then gets up, leaving some money on the table.
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