Something Snapped

He had never seen Hugo cry as much as he had that night at his place. Ed had gone over to show some support, but wished that he never had. They may have been like brothers at the time, but knowing that Hugo would never be seeing Annarie again due to a supposed murder was just heart breaking, even for Ed, and that had probably been the point of no return for their steady decline in kinship. As Ed sat in his room, staring at old photos he had framed and hung on the wall opposite his huge mirror, he thought of how their brotherly relationship had now turned professional, and nothing more.

            "I was wondering where you went off to," Liz said as she entered his room and sat down next to him.

            Ed smiled up at her and beckoned her to scooch over. He then laid his head down on her lap. "Had a fun day?"

            Liz smiled brightly and nodded in quick succession. "I hadn't had a decent day out with a fellow girl in so long! You should see the things we bought."

            "I'm eager to see."

            "You alright?"

            Ed looked up at her, then closed his eyes. He liked laying down with his head in her lap. It felt comfortable. Simple.

            She smiled and closed her eyes too. She then lifted her hands and started to massage Ed's head. "I like the new hair," she said. "Makes you look a bit older."

            "Plus, you can do this," Ed added with a smile and opened his eyes to look at her. He saw how she had her eyes closed while she focused on his massage. He hadn't actually looked at her ever since they had returned from the Vatican, and in a way he was glad that he hadn't. The things that had transpired the past 24 hours had managed to make him think things through with a clear head, even though he blanked out and ended up having his car totalled. He finally felt that he had an opportunity to enjoy a moment with Elizabeth, without having to worry about his hormones going rapid. Ed smiled and closed his eyes again.

JR sat at the bar. He had heard Elizabeth come in, and was expecting Abigail to join him any second, which she did.

            "Hey there," she said and kissed him on the cheek, walked around the bar and grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator. "You seem down."

            "Nah, I've just been thinking."

            "About me, I hope?" Abigail said with a smile. Her expression hardened as she got no response out of JR. "Okay, look. About the other day... I'm sorry."

            Nothing.

            "Thing is, I've been extremely worried about you at the time, and having just heard that Ian was planning something big -- I don't know, my over secure gear set in and I had to be sure that you weren't going to get yourself killed."

            Again, nothing.

            Abigail sighed and shook her head.

            JR merely drank the last bit of whiskey that he and Ed loved to drink and set his glass down on the bar. He then sighed and sat back on the barstool. "I've been thinking about what you said about the others. You know, skeletons and all that."

            Abigail stood up inquisitively, then leaned back against one of the racks that housed most of the hard liquors. "About the killings?"

            "Yeah. Thing is... I had the time to get to know the Ed and Ian I had never known -- the Ed and Ian that had been hidden from me for the better part of a decade already. I figured that yeah, you're right. They probably did kill some innocent people in their lives. Hell, they probably pulled the triggers themselves, too! But I also learned one more thing. The guys that I have come to know a bit better in these past few days than ever in my life, I still love. And no matter how much they seem to border on the line of good and bad, I will always be there behind them, every step of the way. And you know what? Even if I had known what Ian had been planning -- I would probably not have told you."

            Abigail smiled, dumbfounded. She had no idea where the sudden aggressiveness had come from, and what had come over JR in the few days that they haven't been speaking. She merely stood with the last bit of beer left in her bottle, and stared at JR who stood up from the barstool and skulked out the room and down the stairs. She still stood in silence as she heard the garage door roll open.

Connor and Safu were back at Connor's pub. The older agent had managed to get a decent room together for Safu, who was playing with the girl that had started to call him dada. He might not always have liked who had been working with nowadays, but he sure felt good whenever he knew that he was he cause of someone coming home to their loved ones, and be in a safe place.

            "Thank you," Safu said as he came down the stairs where his room was located. The girl had finally been laid to rest. "I will get a room ready at Prime as soon as possible."

            "You can stay for as long as you'd like, man," Connor said and offered Safu a beer. "You do know, of course, that with your immunity down the shitter, and the Others firmly back on your asses, you're going to need a lot more protection. Ed's probably going to have to report his car stolen sometime before tomorrow night, too."

            Safu nodded. "I have to call my wife."

            "Use mine," Connor offered and put his phone down on the bar counter. He then stood up and walked out the bar entrance. For once in his life after his time with the SEALs, he felt like he may just be making a new friend. That was until a black van pulled up in front of him.

            Connor cursed and ducked back into the bar, and shut the door. Fortunately this time of the night (or early morning, rather) was extremely quiet and slow during most weekdays and no patrons had decided to visit his bar at the time.

            Safu had just gotten off the phone with his wife as he jumped up from where he sat and crossed over the counter so he could get to the revolver that Connor had told him was mounted below on the other side.

            Connor locked both the first security -, and second wooden door as he heard the doors of the van being shut. He knew that the Others would come fully prepared for more than two well-armed soldiers. He also knew that he was in no way prepared to face off against another axe, after his first face-to-face encounter with Ian. "Get to the girl!" he yelled as he ran to the other side of the bar and hit the wall right below a painting of an old World War fighter plane, which made a small compartment open up where Connor then retrieved another Magnum, put it away in the back of his pants, and the retrieved a CQBR Type 3A. He then loaded the first magazine as Safu ran up the stairs and shut his room door.

            The entrance burst open. The Others had used explosives to get the door out of the way, then barged through the hole. The initial adrenaline settled slightly as the three Others slowly made their way across the floor. Connor hid behind the far corner of his bar, where non-smoking families used to sit and enjoy a meal.

            All lights were out, which played to Connor's advantage, at least initially. He closed his eyes and said a quick silent prayer before he leaned out of cover and shot one of the three Others right in the head. Another Others agent ducked behind the counter and unleashed a barrage of suppressing blind fire while the third agent creeped closer with his axe.

            The Others agent stopped firing, which meant that he was reloading, as well as giving his buddy time to get around the corner and swing at Connor, who was ready for it.

            Connor tackled the Others agent before he could make his way around entirely, and managed to knock the axe out of his hand as both of them fell to the ground in the struggle.

            One certain thing was that Others agents was skilled in unarmed combat, and it showed as Connor hit the agent repeatedly in the face, yet he kept on struggling. Connor was about to give up and stand in order to kick the guy's face in as he remembered the other agent at the bar. He shot a glance in that direction, and saw that the barrel of the Others agent's gun was pointed directly at him.

            "Get up," the Others agent breathed calmly, his axe hanging by his side.

            Connor cursed under his breath as he stuck his hands in the air and slowly got up from the agent he had been pummeling in the face. He glanced past the agent with the gun and saw that Safu had been making his way down the stairs slowly, with the girl in hand. Connor knelt again, which caught the agent with the gun off guard, causing him to scream his order out again. Connor came up fast, hitting the firearm upwards with his right arm, and hit the agent in the face with his left elbow. As he toppled back, Connor pressed his heel against the agent below him's neck, and pressed hard down, effectively snapping it. He then rushed toward the agent with the gun, who was already starting to get up, ran up to him and kicked him square in the face. Connor then shot a glance in Safu's direction, who was peering out the hole and seeing of the coast was clear. After he had left out the hole, Connor looked back down and smiled.

            "This is for fucking up my bar, you son of a bitch," he said and snapped his neck too. Connor breathed in deeply, then looked down and saw an axe laying by his feet. He snorted, picked it up, and headed out the hole to meet up with Safu at the back where they got into the car and drove toward Prime.

Ian had just fallen into the meditative state he had known as sleep for the past five years as his phone beeped once. He turned onto his side and read the contents of the text message he had just received from Danny. He then smiled and closed his eyes. "Love you too," he said as his breathing slowly evened out.