Something Aided

Ed had just dropped Dev off at Melisa's then headed to the pub he used to frequent in the days before he had managed to pick himself up after North Africa. He parked his Lexus at the back of the building where one of the managers of the bar was supposed to park their car, got out and headed inside. The bar was booming with the boys from New Zealand pitted against South Africa on the huge flat screen in the corner and constant barking and howling from the crowd around the bar.

            "The usual, please beautiful," Ed said as he say down at the very end of the bar, in the most quiet looking corner. He knew that no one would disturb him there, and he was fine by that. The bartender was a beautiful brown-skinned girl that Ed used to confide much of his troubles in way back when. There had been a time the two of them had been like brother and sister.

            "Coming up, handsome," she said with a smile. "Long time no see -- everything alright?"

            "Not anymore," Ed answered and smiled back.

            "Looks like trouble followed you, though," she replied and put the glass of whiskey down in front of Ed, followed by another glass next to him. Ed looked to his right and saw that Elizabeth had entered the pub and gone to sit next to him.

            "Why hello there," Ed said and downed the glass of whiskey, prompting the bartender for another. Elizabeth sat down next to him and did the same -- something Ed found excessively warm to his heart.

            "Do you know that you've been followed?" Elizabeth asked as the bartender refilled both their glasses.

            Ed looked up at the TV when the crowd burst into cheers, then back down at the glass in front of him. "They fell back shortly after I dropped Devon off."

            "Think Ian's got something to do with that?"

            Ed smirked and watched the TV again. "Last I knew, the Others were not your concern," he then said and looked at her.

            "Indeed. He's a smart one."

            Ed bobbed his head and took a sip. "So to what or whom do I owe the pleasure?"

            "I just wanted to let you know that the cameras had been installed without my say so," she said in her foreign accent and took a sip too. "When I found out, you had already gone to bed. I figured that the three of you would find ways around the surveillance anyway."

            "Did we succeed?" Ed asked halfheartedly and smirked again.

            Elizabeth merely shook it off. "You may think of me as a traitor or coward, but know that I am in exactly the same predicament as you are," she then said, downed the rest of her whiskey and headed out the pub.

            "Women," Ed said as he asked for another refill. He then looked down and played with the ice in his glass, though hard at thought about what Elizabeth had said.

The next morning, JR had called Ed to tell him that he might just be losing it. Ed had gotten up quite early thanks to JR's call and headed downstairs where the other two was eating breakfast. No one said much of anything until they were alone in the library.

            "We've got a problem," Ed told Ian after Dev had gone to "explore" again.

            "Oh, more!" Ian said sarcastically and fell down onto the couch Ed stood next to. "What's up?"

            "JR's called me. Said something about losing it. I think it has something to do with that girl we found."

            Ian thought about it for a while before he got up. "I've got someone that can check it out for us?"

            "As do I," Ed said much to Ian's surprise. "I'll go to him in a bit and explain to him what's going on."

            "Hmm, he needs someone he can trust."

            "Yeah," Ed said and walked around to the magazines where he got one out and threw it onto Ian's lap. The title was clearly not important, but one of the headlines that caught his attention read: STUCK IN THE SAME BOAT?

            "What's this?" Ian asked as he read the headline that had been indented slightly by Ed's thumb.

            "An interesting story I read last night. ELIZABETH knows how to choose her reading material," Ed began, "There's some computer things for you AND a nice mixture of classic lit in between just for US."

            Ian nodded as he understood Ed's message. "I'll have a read, then."

Shortly after Scars had shoved Devon through the door of the library, he had informed them that he couldn't find much more than Ian had already been able to, then headed out to Melisa. This time he had brought his Jeep Wrangler with him as Melisa had dropped him off at his place before he returned to the mansion for their curfew. Ian had gone with Ed where he had been dropped off at the Scorpion HQ in order to finalise a couple reports that he still had to hand in form the weeks before. Ed then headed off to the same pub as the night before, where he parked in the same spot. As he got out, a tall man walked up to him.

            "I knew you'd finally get it," Ed said as Connor stopped dead a few feet away. Probably too scared to come closer due to the threats Ed had made during his time in captivity. "Mr Pieterse? Nice cover!"

            "What do you want, and why are you parking on my spot every time?" Connor said.

            "Let's go inside and talk about this like the gentlemen that we are?" Ed offered, after which Connor merely turned and marched inside.

The bartender from the day before was off, having been replaced by a rather young fellow with frizzy hair longer than Ed's. They were sitting at the far end corner, where patrons were served food as well as drinks.

            "I'm sorry about your partner," Ed began. "I thought that we would never have seen one-another again after our last little exercise."

            "Yeah well, that's all part of the job, now isn't it. And when they're all done with you, they give you a new identity and stick you in a random fucking neighbourhood more than a thousand miles from your birth country."

            "I know the feeling... sort of. As to why I called upon you. I need your help," Ed said, which caught Connor's attention and ceased his moping for a moment. "I believe that one of my friends have been friendly with Abigail?"

            "Yeah, I know. And then she's strangely found almost dead along the road a day after they were supposed to go on a date. How do you explain that, hmm?"

            "You tell me," Ed replied, "in any event, JR might be in trouble and I need you to keep an eye on him. I have no one else to trust at the moment, and seeing as you helped me --"

            "I followed orders," Connor interrupted, "The commander needed me to get you out of that chair."

            "In any event, you could have killed me. Now, I'm going to check up on JR after our meeting. I'm going to tell him that you might drop by, or even stay for a while, depending on the situation. Clear?"

            "You sound just like the commander."

            "Clear?" Ed repeated, eager to get to JR. Not that it may even be necessary to get help, but one could never be too sure nowadays.

            "Yeah yeah, I'll be around by four," Connor said, stood up and stalked off into one of the back rooms, probably to where his office was.

            Ed merely smiled, not out of any much reason other than the little bit of respect that he had for Connor. Other than the fact that they were from two very different agencies, Ed used to be a hell of a lot just like him back when they had just started out at the Agency. If given time and the correct mentorship, Ed could maybe make a decent ally out of Connor -- maybe even a friend!

            Scratch the friend part, Ed then thought with a smile as he got up and headed out in order to meet with JR.