Reckless: Season 2: Justice - Act 4
by redmoon
Justice – Act 4
Niki and Logan sat on the Slayer’s couch, their feet among the many tiny plastic cups which still littered the floor. The kitten which Niki had affectionately named Felix clambered over her lap, making tiny swipes at her teasing hands with its tiny paws. It mewed constantly.
Logan was in shock. His khaki jacket, seared at the edges, lay soaked with water from his cold shower over the bottles on the coffee table. Niki’s own decimated leather jacket was in a heap on the kitchen table not far away. None of this mattered to Logan, however, who had just learned of the reason the Slayer had been visiting a place like the Malleus - and it wasn’t to be a good guy.
Logan had always said Addison was no help to Niki. A rule-bound buzz-kill who had disapproved of Logan and Niki’s illicit romance from the beginning, Addison had made Logan happy when he had left, only to return, the same as always. But dead?
“…Because he tried to kill you?” Logan prompted, unsatisfied with the Slayer’s report. He searched her face as she played with tiny Felix on her lap. “We’ve all tried to kill you at one point or another. There was no real harm done, was there?” She looked up at him and he held up his hands defensively. “I’m not condoning what he did- he poisoned you and if it hadn’t been for Michael…”
“Who?” Niki frowned, the kitten’s mew soon drawing her attention back.
“Never mind,” Logan dismissed. “I’m just saying… I never thought you had it in you. I mean… He was like a father to you, wasn’t he?”
Niki considered his words, slowly turning to look into his eyes. “I had a real father once. You wanna know what happened to him?”
Logan’s brown furrowed. “He died in a car accident. Along with your mom, right?”
Niki slowly looked back down at the kitten. Felix hopped over her knee and landed in the palm of her hand. It scrambled up her wrist then toppled off into her other hand, mewing again.
“When I was sixteen a man came to our house in Queens. He said he was from a special private school and that I had been considered for a scholarship. My parents let him in and he wanted to talk to me in private.” Niki swallowed. “When we were alone, he took a big book from his briefcase and told me to read it.”
“Vampyre,” Logan guessed.
Niki nodded. “I thought he was crazy. He told me to meet him just down the street after sunset and he handed me my first stake.”
“Did you?” Logan asked with raised eyebrows. “Did you meet him?”
Niki shrugged. “I didn’t know any better. If I knew who and what he was I would have never gone. But it was exciting and mysterious… I think I was attracted to the danger. I knew he was no private school rep.” She shrugged. “Who knows, maybe I was just acting out.”
“So you went to meet him…” Logan prompted.
“I brought the book and the stake, not knowing what to expect.” She dropped her gaze. “It was…” She stopped, recalling with bitterness the memory. “Not what I expected,” she finished at last.
“Did you know you were the Slayer before that night?” Logan asked softly, clearly seeing how difficult it was to recall this.
Niki shook her head. “I wasn’t. I wasn’t the Slayer until four days later. Some seer had apparently told the council I was going to be called, but was a little fuzzy on the date.” She smiled at the irony of it. “I killed my first vampire that night, by pure luck, and I never forgave Addison for it.”
The Slayer lifted the little kitten in both hands and looked it in the eyes. It mewed pitifully. “Then Addison made a mistake.” Logan frowned and waited for more. “See, apparently, in England, when the Council comes to you and tells you they’re going to take your daughter away, you just stand there and nod. Addison did his whole routine about destiny and duty and The One in Every Generation and my parents flipped.”
Logan choked back a laugh of surprise.
“They had the police come and escort him out of our house. They were about to get a restraining order against him when he came to me one night – one night after I was called… after I realized what I was, and he told me that if I cared at all about the world and the safety of innocents, that I would leave with him to fight against evil.” The Slayer paused and shrugged a little. “Those weren’t his exact words: I’m paraphrasing a little. It was eight years ago and I was kinda scared out of my mind that whole month.” She licked her lips and continued. “Anyway, I basically told him to fuck off and leave me alone.”
Logan nodded. “Proving you were still sane.”
Niki answered with a little smile. Through it she finished the tale. “Three days later my parents were both killed in a car accident. Somehow Addison had provided documents stating he was my legal guardian and I lived with him ever since. Just the way he wanted.”
Logan’s jaw dropped a little. “What are you saying?”
Niki looked back down at the kitten. Innocent, playful, completely helpless. “For the last few months I’d been having visions. In them, my parents had been telling me that we were going to be betrayed.” She looked up at the lawyer. “I thought they meant Harrison, Trent or Addison. I was even worried that it might be you…” She laughed at the irony. “But the whole time, they meant they were going to be betrayed. Then I saw them at the funeral. They looked at me, then they looked at Addison who was with me. They said they had been betrayed.”
“You think Addison killed your parents?” Logan said softly. As he thought about it, he certainly didn’t think the old Brit incapable of murder. Especially if he thought the Slayer line was in jeopardy, or if the Council had ordered it. He shook his head in amazement.
“I know he did it,” she answered, her voice cold and hard. “And now he’s paid for it. He’ll never hurt anyone again.”
Logan slowly let out a breath. His own immorality struck him just then. Not only had he gotten Niki off for a murder she had, in fact, committed, but he had got her set free and the first thing she had done was kill someone else. A terrifying though forced its way into his mind. Maybe she would have been better off in prison? Life without parole? She could certainly take care of herself in a maximum security facility, and she’d never have to worry about vampires or demons again – a job which she hated anyway. Maybe Fischer had been right all along, if even for the wrong reasons… Maybe Niki was dangerous.
Seeing her sitting there playing with the kitten he thought about all the things he had done in his life since he met her. He had killed demons and vampires and saved New York, possibly the world, from a terrible war. But how many good people had died? How many laws had been broken? He shook his head. Human justice couldn’t apply to them. Niki couldn’t be held responsible for Megan’s death. As callous or manicheistic as it sounded, maybe Niki was above the law. Maybe being the Slayer, fighting evil by nature, placed her above morality. Maybe Logan was too. Was Addison’s death a kind of justice their own little world could accept? Was it just?
Niki lifted the kitten from her lap and placed it in the large cardboard box with twenty three other kittens at the end of the coffee table. With infinite surety she turned to Logan, placing a gentle hand on the side of his cheek and they began to kiss. Was any of it just?
Rachel sat very still with her hands folded in her lap. This wasn’t something she relished doing, but it was clear Logan Kilpatrick was not the man she had married. Something had happened to him. Something, she now knew, named Niki Valtaine.
When Ms. Fischer, claiming to be Logan’s supervisor, had written the letter describing Logan’s continued infidelity, Rachel had just begun to forget about her husband’s affair. Not to say she had ever truly forgotten it, but their daily routine had begun to return to what had seemed to be normal. Hanna, at least, had noticed nothing different, spending much of her time these days at her boyfriend’s guardian’s house.
For several days after receiving the letter, Rachel had been in denial. There had obviously been some mistake on the part of Ms. Fischer, or else she had uncovered the old affair, now long over, when Logan had taken Niki on as a client. She had been sure that was the explanation, since Logan had not returned to his habits of staying out all night or leaving on mysterious business trips without any notice.
But the incident with Michael had shown her something. No matter how much he apologized, no matter how many times he said he was a fucking idiot for having cheated on her, no matter how many weekends he spent at home, laughing and smiling as if nothing had happened… he was not the same man she had married. He didn’t trust her with another man – he had proved that with Michael. Rachel was no idiot herself. She knew enough about psychology to know the anger and distrust Logan had for her relationship with Michael was just transference from his own guilt of having kept her trust while betraying her. Possibly continuing to betray her. That was why she was here, now. Back at the source.
“I’m afraid that Ms. Fischer is no longer with us,” the man in the very expensive suit said from behind the desk which, till recently, belonged to Tawnie Fischer. “I am her temporary replacement until the Senior Partners select a more permanent liaison.” The man was tall and his suit looked as though it concealed strong muscles. He had short brown hair and was clean shaven. Despite his pleasant demeanor, his features were severe and Rachel could sense he could order someone’s death with the same smile on his face. His eyes, as they looked at her, were clear and intense. “My name is Marcus Hamilton. I have personally reviewed your situation and have hired for you a private investigator; he has worked with this firm before and I trust him completely. He’ll get to the bottom of this, whatever it is.”
Rachel swallowed and stood, extending her hand. “Thank you Mr. Hamilton.” She paused as he looked at her hand, his own still clasped before him. She slowly withdrew hers. “I’d like to be able to say I’m grateful, but this is all sort of a painful business.”
Hamilton nodded his understanding. He would have liked to be able to shake her hand - gain her confidence, but he had sense when she walked in the room that she carried on her person somewhere a charm. A ward against something like him. “I imagine it is painful." He looked up from her hand to smile encouragingly. "But don’t you worry about a thing. We’ll have the truth before too long. You can bet on it.”
Quentin Travers slowly sipped the tea, closing his eyes and savoring the taste of being back in Britain again. The breath of air and the light touch on his wrist told him something new and likely uninvited had just landed on his desk. Opening his eyes and setting down the Earl Grey, he frowned at the new document.
“What’s this?” he asked picking it up and scanning the letterhead. It was an order signed by the rest of the Council of Watchers, a space left only above his typed name and the word Chairman.
“An order to all our units around the world,” the man replied rigidly. “It declares her a rogue element and sanctions her termination.”
Travers’ chair creaked slowly as he leaned back, his expression troubled. He looked at the Senior Watcher standing before him who held a pen out, waiting for Travers to take it and sign. Travers’ frown grew and he snatched the pen from the other’s hand.
“What took so bloody long?” He scribbled his signature over the line and dropped the pen back on the desk, finding his teacup again. It was good to be home again.
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