Reckless: Season 2: Actions and Consequences: Part I - Act 4
by redmoon
Actions and Consequences: Part 1 - Act 4
“What the hell is the charge?” Logan frowned at the arrest warrant, trying to think of anything Addison had done which was actually criminal. As far as the lawyer knew, he was just monumentally useless and occasionally degrading and annoying.
“Some random charges we pulled out of a hat,” Tawnie shrugged. “Mob connections, money laundering, drug smuggling — whatever was needed to get the judge to agree. We’re not above making ‘mistakes’ to serve our ends...”
“Mistakes like ‘Oops, I thought this was real evidence. Oh well.’ Those kind of mistakes? Good to know,” Logan said suspiciously.
“Not for an actual trial,” Fischer dismissed with irritation. “We’ll have Addison killed as soon as we take him into custody—”
“What is going on!?” Logan threw the warrant onto her desk. Michael, who was sitting patiently, pretending not to hear, glanced at the document with distant interest. But Logan was busy shouting at Fischer. “Why do you care about the Watcher?”
“We care about the Slayer,” Fischer argued. “We care that she gets through this trial alive: to remain alive for a very long time. Obviously there are those —like yourself— who are interested in keeping that from happening.” She took his arm and led him away from the desk again to stand near a floor to ceiling bookshelf.
“Listen, Logan,” she said gently, as if all of a sudden privacy was again an issue. “I know you and Niki were involved. I know you don’t want her to go to prison, but I also know you don’t want her killed.”
“Are you threatening her?” Logan frowned, pulling his shoulder from Tawnie’s grasp.
She squinted at his ignorance and scowled. “Of course not!” She shook her head. “You don’t get it, do you? We’re powerful. If you weren’t so deep in this organization to begin with, I’m sure you’d be quick to toss around the word evil. It is in our best interests to see the Slayer contained: removed from the world where she can do damage to us. Sending her to jail does that for us. If we just killed her another Slayer would pop right up — like goddamn whack-a-mole. It’s not the Slayer we’re concerned with, it’s the Slayer line. If we can get Niki indicted, the first time this has ever happened in the history of the Slayer, we’ll have put the Slayer line on hold — in stasis. Do you understand how much more powerful we’ll become in her absence?”
“So what does Addison have to do with all this?” Logan asked, feeling a nervous tension building in his gut. If she was telling him this, it was because she was confident of success.
“The entire point of the Council of Watchers is to safeguard the line of Slayers. It’s their duty to make sure there’s always a Slayer out there doing her job.” Fischer slowly drew out a random book from the shelf and opened it to its inside cover, examining it as she spoke. “But just like us, they don’t give a crap about the actual Slayer — only the line matters.”
Logan was gazing into the distance. “They won’t allow her to be incarcerated.” He locked eyes with her again. “They’d kill her first, wouldn’t they?”
Tawnie nodded as if congratulating a child. “Well done,” she said sarcastically. “We’ve tried to kill Addison, but he’s going to stop at nothing to keep Niki from prison.” She closed the volume and placed it back on the shelf. “So we’ll do what we do best. Use the system—”
“He wouldn’t kill her if he didn’t think I was going to lose the case,” Logan said distantly. This caught Tawnie’s attention and she grabbed him roughly by the arm again.
“You are going to lose,” she hissed, her eyes narrowing. “You may have fucked her years ago, but don’t forget who you’re fucking with now. You are solidly in bed with us now. And you’re not the only one we can hurt—”
“I know” Logan frowned, pulling his arm away again and smoothing the creases there. “You don’t have to remind me: hostages to fortune... I get it.”
“I hope so,” Fischer forced a smile onto her face as she turned and started back towards her desk. “We’ll be watching this case, Logan, and we’ll be watching you.” She sat down across from the man in the white shirt and the blue tie. “Now, where were we?”
Logan left her office and marched straight to his own, lifting the receiver of his phone and dialing the number. After five rings, he stabbed the hook switch and disconnected. After the dial tone began again, he punched in the number for the Correctional Institute for Women on Riker’s Island.
“Aaron Shields,” he said after the woman on the other end was done speaking. There was a pause as she checked something and informed him of the results. “Then find him!”
Niki sat very quietly on the metal chair at the metal table in the small room. She was glad to be out of solitary and would just let Aaron talk.
He had a list of things to talk about, skipping through them uncertainly since most of them were odd and didn’t seem to have anything to do with the case. The more the young man read Mr. Kilpatrick’s notes, the more he began to suspect there was more going on between the two of them than a lawyer client professional relationship should allow.
He glanced up at Niki who was sitting very quietly in her chair. She was attractive enough, he decided. Most of the women here looked a lot alike in their white shirts and grey pants. They were usually a lot more sullen and unhappy to see him than he would like, but such is life. He returned his gaze to the notebook.
“He says here that the next court session is two days from now — uh, I guess he means tomorrow, since this was written yesterday — what’s today, the sixteenth?” She met his gaze with a blank stare. “...And the prosecution will be calling their star witness...” he flipped the page and frowned. “It... it doesn’t say here who that is. I guess he knows.” He looked up to her again, lowering the page. “I’m sure he’s ready. He’s a really great guy — one of the best lawyers I’ve worked with.”
Niki met his gaze and raised a skeptical eyebrow. “How many lawyers have you worked with?”
Aaron suddenly felt very uncomfortable. “Uh, a few — He says here that he thinks the prosecution is going to try and work in an expert witness to follow up their star witness. He’s got the name of someone... a medical examiner. Probably the one who did the autopsy on the Megan Brandon woman. He’s got an expert of his own—” Aaron frowned. “Uh... a cultural expert, it looks like. Weird.” He immediately glanced up, fearfully. “Uh, I mean, I’m sure Mr. Kilpatrick knows what he’s doing. He’s a really great guy—”
Niki looked down at the handcuffs which were hanging from her wrists. Solitary confinement was bad, but if this guy went on for much longer, she was going to have to—
The door opened and a guard came in, looking annoyed to have been drafted as the messenger boy. “There’s a call for you at the front desk,” he said to Shields, taking a deep breath. “And the man outside is getting really anxious to see her—” he indicated Niki who perked up with interest.
Aaron nodded. “Okay, I’ll take the call. Who’s it from, by the way?” The guard shrugged as they left the small meeting room.
Niki looked up at the three goons who were her protective detail assigned to protect her from something they wouldn’t disclose. She had questioned them constantly when she had first been placed in solitary but had begun to think even they didn’t know why she needed protecting. They were staring blanking at the rear wall as they stood like big cuts of beef by the door.
Then the door opened. Niki’s eyes widened with delight. “Addison!” she stood and raised her hands, which she suddenly realized were still cuffed.
“It’s all right,” he said, gesturing with an open hand, “don’t get up on my account.” He stopped just short of sitting down, seeing the three goons who were standing guard. “Do you think we could have a moment, please?”
The head goon gave his two subordinates a skeptical glance, then shrugged his shoulders and moved towards the door. “Two minutes,” he said gruffly. “We’ll just be outside.”
Niki nodded her appreciation and sat back down as Addison found his seat. “It’s good to see you,” Niki said warmly, looking forward to at the very least a lecture. She hadn’t been alone with him since this had all started and if anything deserved a lecture, then being on trial for murder certainly did. She could only imagine the squirming going on among the Council. This brought a smile to her face.
“Niki,” Addison began, folding his hands on the table. “I have a confession to make.” The smile slowly fell from the Slayer’s face. Addison looked at her solemnly for a long moment. “I was going to bake you a pie with a file in it.” He reached into his waistcoat and drew out a long glass syringe. “But then I realized, I can’t bake.”
There was silence for a long time as Niki’s eyes slowly moved from the syringe of fluid to its holder. With a very slow, disarming motion, Addison slipped the cover from the needle’s length, lifting it up to examine it in the light of the single barred window.
Very carefully, he tapped the bubbles from the end and depressed the plunger slightly, letting a small jet of fluid squirt out onto the table.
“What are you doing?” Niki said in a hoarse whisper.
Addison stood from his seat and held a hand out, as if he wanted her to feel at ease. “It’s okay, Knicks—”
She jumped out of her seat and backed away from Addison and the table. Her cuffed hands were raised in front of her as her father figure advanced on her. “Addison, what are you doing?” she repeated, her muscles coiling, getting ready for the fight of her life.
The old Watcher slowly came around the table, the needle held back, out of her reach, but ready to strike out like a snake if the opportunity arose. His other hand was outstretched, as if he were offering to help her from the edge of a cliff. The sight made her sick. She backed as far from the advancing menace as she could, closing her fists as tight as she could.
In one quiet instant, she closed her eyes and pulled her wrists apart, feeling the burning pain of the cuffs digging in but also feeling the chain between them give. Her eyes snapped open and she assumed a defensive crouch. “Don’t come any closer,” she advised, the feeling of betrayal replaced by growing anger. Of all the people in whom she had trusted... “Don’t you dare take another step, you son of a—”
“Knicks,” he said gently, slowly inching forward, as if herding a dangerous animal into a cage.
“Don’t call me that, you fuck,” she spat back, smacking his outstretched hand away from her. He paused for an instant, then continued forward. Bit by bit, Niki was backing away. She didn’t know what the hell was in the syringe, but this was beyond any doubt the betrayal her parents had warned her of. Her blindness to it made her all the more angry.
“Niki,” he said a little more sternly. “This is for the best. You hold the power of the Slayer. If you go to prison, that power is locked away with you. We can’t afford to let that happen.”
Niki’s eyes were now fixed solidly on the advancing syringe. “So you’re going to bust me out of here?”
Addison shook his head once. “We can’t do that. You’re in too deep. This is the only way. I’m sorry.”
Niki’s face twisted in disgust. “You’re sorry?” She demanded, straightening a little. “You’re not fucking sorry—” her eyes widened as she realized how much money he had offered to get her out on bail. “You’ve been planning this since the beginning!” She glanced around the room as if the answer had been there the whole time, staring her in the face. She turned back to him with a new look of betrayal in her eyes. “How long?”
Addison was still approaching, much more cautiously as her anger grew. “That meeting in England,” he said matter-of-factly. “They had become aware that you were being investigated and that charges were imminent.”
Niki glared with cold hatred. “So instead of attacking the system you attack me? One of your own?”
Addison made a little shrug. “You were the weakest link. The Council has unfortunately had to do this on more than one occasion,” he admitted. “For the good of the line.”
“For the good of the fucking line,” she repeated with contempt. Just then the door opened and Addison’s eyes flitted for an instant away from the Slayer. Niki gritted her teeth and lunged...
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