#a special muse was added to private for someone who has been gnawing at my ankles

[chipen]

okay i updated my muse list! i also added a few more muse pages to my carrd ( gojo, dabi, and izuku were added yippee ) - i haven't quite finished setting up the relations yet because im lazy but the bare bones of info are there so.. yay go team

[sinsiriuslyemo]

Hi guys!!! So, I thought maybe since it’s Friday, I would post another episode of Saving His Big, Brass Ego! Let’s see what happens when Charlie tells Rafael what really happened on that construction site! Thank you so so so much for the amazing feedback, and also a special thanks to @vintagemichelle91 for pre-reading this story and encouraging me!! It is because of you that I was struck with a burst of inspiration to finish this story!! Also, a shout out to @esparza-army for the gorgeous banner! You rock!!

Chapter Six: An Exchange of Trust

“You promised that you would explain everything,” Rafael reminded her.

“I did...and I keep my promises,” she replied. “I killed those men. I was able to get free of my restraints, and used my butterfly knife...which I had to leave behind…” He furrowed his brows and she shrugged. “It’s evidence, I couldn’t risk bringing it back here in case your friends didn’t buy my story,” she explained. “I’m not happy about it, that’s my favorite knife. Anyway, I used the knife to slit two of the men’s throats, and I shot the other...twice.”

He was staring at her with wide eyes as he let himself sink until he was sitting on the couch again, trying to process her words.

“And...how is it that you know how to…” He looked up at her, watching as she took her seat on the coffee table in front of him.

Charlie opened her mouth, taking a deep breath as she let her head lean back. How could she phrase this without sounding completely ridiculous or suspicious? Or both. She could lie, it wasn’t as though she hadn’t before, but a gnawing feeling in the back of her mind suggested that he would be able to see right through it, just like he’d seen through her lie about the woman in leather, and she needed him to trust her. Apparently that meant she would need to trust him as well.

“I’m a covert ops agent,” she said and he arched a brow.

“What, like James Bond?” he asked sarcastically.

“I work for an organization that protects the world and the citizens therein so, yeah...kind of like James Bond. But he’s fictional...and a man...I’m a woman. Have a vagina.,” she answered. “And unlike Mr. Bond’s agency, our organization is very much real.”

“Okay...what does that have to do with me?”

“I was assigned to protect you from...these threats you’ve been getting,” she answered.

“I don’t suppose you can prove this claim?”

“I can’t give you too much information about our operation, but I can tell you what I know about you,” she offered.

“That just proves you're a stalker,” he mused with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “I’m not a stalker, I promise.”

“Assuming I believe you, why would a spy agency care about protecting me?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders after a moment of silence. “I’m just an ADA, one of thousands in New York state alone.”

“Because the man that we think is behind your threats is the same man that killed a number of our agents two years ago. He almost wiped us out,” she answered. “We don’t know exactly why he’s targeted you specifically, but those cops that you put away a few months back, they worked for him. So did Gary Munson,” she added.

“The Corrections Officer from Rikers,” he mumbled. Charlie nodded her head in confirmation. “They were all killed in prison,” he added in a whisper, almost to himself. “How many others does this man have working for him?”

“We don’t know yet, hundreds. Thousands...and it could be anyone.”

“Who is he? What does he want that he needs cops and CO’s to do his bidding?”

Charlie hesitated, unsure as to how much information he could handle at once. He seemed to notice her hesitation and in true Barba form, couldn’t help but comment on it.

“You asked me to trust you and I do,” he said. “Maybe you could return the favor.”

Looking into his eyes, she nodded softly. Moving into the kitchen, she started to look through the cabinets until she found some coffee and set some to percolate.

“His name is Malcolm Gershon. He’s an ex US marine, worked for Nasa back in ‘82, then the CIA for twelve years where got pretty high to the top. He was fired and imprisoned when it was discovered that he’d been having communications with enemies overseas and in Russia. He was broken out of prison a few years later, and escaped, his whereabouts were unknown, but we think he might be in New York.”

Rafael leaned back against the cushions of her couch, one hand rubbing over his face as he took a breath.

“It’s a lot to take in,” she observed.

“So, why New York? What’s he doing here? Surely he’s afraid of being caught…”

“This is a guy who has been making connections since the 70’s from the local government all the way up to the White House. I have my own theories about our most recent election that we can discuss another time, but the point is he’s dangerous,” she answered. “Resourceful...we don’t know how he’s able to be in New York without the government noticing, but the evidence says he is. He must be keeping a low profile, which...for someone with that many friends and enemies alike is no easy task. That should tell you a bit about who we’re dealing with.”

“And where does...your...spy agency play into all this?” he asked, looking up at her. Again she paused, taking a gentle breath.

“When our organization was first founded, we worked closely with the CIA and Homeland security. We were given the assignments that were ‘too messy for a government official.’ It was before my time, by the time I was recruited we were working with them less and less, but our agency was the one who blew the whistle on Gershon. Two years ago, our old headquarters was attacked in retaliation. We had to relocate, we lost dozens of agents, staff...and our Lead Senior Agent.

“After that it was difficult for us to trust the government at all so we severed ties completely and became a private sector. No one except our agents knows who we are or what we do. As far as the government is concerned, we were disbanded. The only person outside the agency who knows we still exist is the president of the United States,” she explained.

“Okay, so…” His eyes widened as he tried to wrap his head around everything he’d just learned and he let out a breath, standing to walk towards the island that separate the kitchen and living room. “If the president were working with Gershon, then what? Couldn’t he just tell Gershon where you are so he can finish the job?”

“Optimism isn’t your suit is it?” she asked softly and he snorted. “No, he can’t. The sitting president would know how to get in touch with us if he needs to, but he only knows us as, ‘Private Operatives for special cases’. Our location and the fact that we are the same agency that once worked with the United States government are things he does not know. Nor will he ever,” she added. “If he did, we would all be killed. You would be talking to a ghost.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” he mumbled as she poured them a couple cups of coffee. “So, what’s the name of this...agency?” he asked, nodding thankfully for the coffee she handed him.

“If I told you that, I’d have to kill you,” she answered, taking some creamer out of the fridge and placing it in front of him.

He snorted softly, pouring and stirring the cream into his coffee.

“Seriously.” She broke her stoic expression with a sweet smile.

“So what now?”

“Now?” she asked. “Now, we drink our coffee. I go check out your place to make sure there isn’t any kind of surveillance that we need to worry about. Then you go to bed, and show up bright and early at the office tomorrow morning,” she answered, bringing her coffee mug up to take a careful sip.

“You should tell Fin and Carisi everything you just told me,” he suggested.

“No, we should not tell Fin and Carisi everything I just told you,” she replied. Not that she didn’t trust the two detectives; she’d read their files included in her briefing packet thoroughly, Amanda Rollins’ as well. She knew they weren’t working for Gershon, but the less people knew about her reason for being Barba’s assistant, the better.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s too dangerous, I’m not about to drag more civilians into this.”

“Civilians? They’re police officers,” he argued.

“They don't work for our agency, that makes them civilians to me,” she answered with a smile.

“So that’s it? Just act like everything's normal?” he asked incredulously.

“Yep.”

“I want to help you find this guy,” he insisted.

“You help by acting like everything’s normal--”

“I’m gonna have bruises in the morning, how am I going to explain that?” he asked, pointing to his face.

“Tell them you had really kinky sex with a fiery redhead,” she whispered loudly through a grin.

Rafael just rolled his eyes.

Carisi and Fin pulled up to the deserted construction site in New Jersey, the former sharing a look with his partner hesitantly. Taking out their guns, they exited the car and moved towards the half-constructed building. It had been two hours since Barba and Charlie said they’d escaped, but Charlie had mentioned a boss being expected. They needed to be ready for anything.

Making their way to the entrance, they took cover behind the beams on either side of the opening, silently nodding their count to three. Moving inside, they searched opposite ends of the site, coming to meet in the back center, where Fin spotted a small TV on a crate.

“There’s the TV Charlie mentioned, and the chairs they were tied to, but I don’t see any sign of there ever being dead bodies here,” Fin mused softly, lowering his weapon as he checked to floors for blood stains.

“You buy that story about the woman in leather?” Carisi asked as he searched the other half of the room.

“I don’t know...just sounded like something you might read in a comic book, but I mean shit...not like we haven’t ever come across some jokers in Halloween costumes going all vigilante on us,” the older man replied, squatting down to examine a drop on the dusty floor. Taking out a swab and bag from his pocket, he used the cotton swab to pick up a sample of the drop on the floor and bagged it.

“Got something here,” Carisi stage whispered from where the chairs were. “Charlie said the woman cut her free right?” he asked, looking up at Fin.

“Yeah, after she killed all three of the guys that took her and Barba,” Fin answered.

Carisi nodded, “Uh huh, check this out…” He shone a light on the still intact zip cuffs tied to the back of the chair. “That look like she was cut free? On the floor over there, there’s another pair of zip cuffs just like this.”

“So maybe she helped Barba slip outta his and she was sitting over there,” Fin reasoned.

“I thought so too, but look…” He shone his light to the floor in front of the chair. “You see that?” he asked.

“Foot prints.”

“Yeah, and from the size of it, they took to be a woman’s. Charlie wasn’t wearing any shoes when we got to her apartment,” Carisi said. “And these cuffs look like they’re pulled tighter, like for someone with smaller wrists.”

“Okay, so maybe the woman in leather was able to slip her out of the cuffs,” Fin offered, entertaining his witnesses statement for a moment.

“Or maybe the woman in leather doesn’t exist,” Carisi replied.

“That’s more than likely the case, so why lie about it? Avoid a murder rap?”

“Naw, they were kidnapped, any prosecutor worth their salt would call that ‘self defense.’ But still, it almost feels like…”

“Like maybe she’s hiding something?” Fin offered. “Aw man, you’re starting to sound like Amaro,” he teased.

Carisi rolled his eyes, cutting the zip cuffs off the chair and bagging them before he took the other set on the floor behind the chair Barba had been tied to.

“He said O’Dwyer hired her, which don’t get wrong, I’ve met O’Dwyer, he’s one of the good ones, but...I don’t know maybe there’s something he missed. Something about her that could explain how, with three armed men and no weapon for herself, she was able to subdue all of them without getting a scratch on her.”

They walked back to their car in silence, keeping their eyes peeled for any surprises. Once they were in the car and on their way back to Manhattan, Carisi spoke again.

“And where are the bodies? Nothing against women here, but there’s no way a woman of her size was able to discard of three dead bodies on her own.”

“Not unless someone helped her, the woman in leather? Or maybe the guys’ boss got rid of the evidence. It’s an active construction site, if he owns it he might wanna keep his nightly activities on the down low,” Fin suggested.

“Whoever it is, they’ve got Barba in their cross hairs.”

“Let’s get this stuff back to the lab, have him run touch DNA sample on the QT, I found a blood sample too, may match one of our perps. You and Rollins were looking into Charlie, right?” Fin asked.

“Yeah, and I mean, on paper, she’s clean. Hell of a resume, too. Plus if she was gonna hurt Barba, this would've been the perfect opportunity,” Carisi replied. “Even if she was doing this to gain his trust, if these people want him dead, why not just do it when she had the chance?”

“Okay, so maybe she’s clean, and the whole woman in leather story was just something that stemmed from her trauma,” the older detective offered. “Or there really is a Catwoman out there saving people.”

“Yeah...maybe,” Carisi relented.