"You're back." Alec greeted as soon as Shay walked into her apartment. He had made himself at home by sitting on her air mattress with a microwave meal in his hand, eating the pasta with a fork. Shay hesitated in the entryway for a second, taken aback, before closing the door behind her.
"What are you doing?"
"You really need some furniture in this place. It is beyond sad." Alec informed her, as if she didn't already know.
"There's no point. I'm moving out."
Alec stood up and looked at her in disbelief. "They want you to move in already?"
Shay hesistated, again questioning where her loyalties were. "Yeah."
Alec finished his meal and walked past her to the kitchen, throwing out the container and tossing the fork in the sink. Standing in front of her, his eyes shone with pride.
"I can't believe it. That was so fast."
"Apparently they still consider me family." Shay muttered, more emotion in her voice than she was prepared for. Alec sensed it immediately and placed both of his hands on her arms, the touch reminding her of that time they were intimate. Most of the time, she forgot all about it but now, when he was close enough that she could smell the aftershave on his face, she was reminded of it.
"Look, I know you might still feel tied to them, like you owe them something, but believe me you don't." Alec told her. "They're bad people, Shay."
Are they really, though? It was a question she asked herself everyday, yet she couldn't find a concrete answer. She felt like an astronomer calculating when the sun will die, or an environmentalist predicting when climate change destroys the world forever. She could form an educated guess, sure, but she couldn't ever really know. Just like she didn't really know who was good and who was evil. Who was the devil, and who was an angel.
"Do you still feel loyal to them?" Alec asked her.
"No." Her answer was automatic. She didn't let herself doubt it for a second. If he saw how conflicted she was, she'd be in jail already, no question.
"I have another question for you. And I need you to be honest, cause it's something I have suspected since the very beginning." Alec began. "Do you have any romantic history with Noah Caputo?"
Shay used the same tactic she used for the last question. A quick, confident no that held no trace of second thoughts.
Alec studied her face for sincerity and eventually decided to believe her. "I need you to tell me if anything changes. You need to keep your head in the game otherwise this will end really badly for you."
Shay knew that. He didn't need to remind her. No matter what she did, this was all going to end badly.
It wasn't until Alec left that Shay sat down on her bed and allowed herself to truly think about what he had asked. She wasn't lying when she said there was no history between her and Noah, but she wasn't exactly telling the truth either. The truth was way more complicated and couldn't be explained with just a simple yes or no.
Noah never saw her as more than a child. Shay knew that. After their moment in Cape Cod, nothing really changed except maybe Shay checked him out more. She had a crush, sure, but Noah certainly didn't. Not that she knew of anyway. Thinking about it now, Shay realized her cheeks were warm again so she went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
Soon, she would be moving into the same house as him.
Living across the hall, both of them full grown and her still attracted to him. As if her life wasn't already complicated, this made it ten times worse.
******
As Alec drove back to his apartment, he finally realized that his suspicions were correct: Shay Warner was compromised.
He and Kowalski had been weary of her since the very beginning, only staying this long because General McMullen had ordered them to give her another chance. Shay had given them a concrete list of names and confirmed that they were still in the same house, not to mention how much progress she'd made at inserting herself back in. McMullen had faith, but Mateo and Alec were about to shatter it and suggest arresting Shay and moving forward with a different tactic.
When Alec returned to the apartment, Kowalski wasn't on the couch like he had been a couple of hours ago. Alec also noticed that his bedroom door was ajar, something that had never happened before. Mateo was a private man who always kept it closed. Now, Alec was allowed his first glimpse and saw the unmade bed and the suitcase sitting on the floor in front of it, open with clothes strewn all around. His room was just as bare as Alec's and empty, which put him on high alert.
Taking out his gun and investigating the apartment, Alec found no signs of foul play. Just an empty bedroom with no wallet or keys, suggesting that Mateo left by choice.
Perturbed, Alec called General McMullen and casted her image on the fifty inch TV. She was sitting at her desk, hair tied into a bun and face wrinkled from forty-five years of life. Twenty of which were spent at the FBI.
"Good evening, Agent Wilson."
"Good evening, ma'am." Alec said with a slight nod, standing at attention in front of the camera. "I wanted to update you with the case. Agent Kowalski and I-"
"Did Kowalski return?"
Alec's brows furrowed in confusion. "No, his wallet and keys are missing so I assumed he went out to the store." Though his gut told him otherwise, he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Kowalski is gone. He sent me a message earlier today saying that he was taking himself off of the case. Frankly, I was shocked at how unprofessional it was."
"Why would he do that?" Alec asked, the shock in his system making it hard to form the right words.
"I was hoping you could tell me."
"I have no idea." Alec replied. Kowalski's sudden disappearance was weird but it's not like they had a case anyway. Alec wanted to take himself off of it as well. "Actually, General, I just got back from a meeting with Ms. Warner and she is compromised, just as expected. I believe she has more loyalties with Valerie Briggs than we thought."
"Well that's unfortunate, Wilson. I guess you'll just have to be more convincing."
"Ma'am, I've said just about everything I can think-"
"I'm sending another agent out tonight. Her name is Cristina Ramirez and I believe she has what it takes to get Shay to cooperate."
"General, I-"
The woman stared him down impatiently. "Wilson, I'm not giving up on this. I've been working for five years to get a lead like this and I'm not letting it go." She said, her words stern. "You and Ramirez will make it happen. Am I making myself clear?"
Letting out an inaudible sigh, Alec nodded. He was never one to refuse a direct order, even if it was against his better judgment.
"Good. Ramirez should be arriving at 10:00 tomorrow. Have a good night, Agent." McMullen ended the call, causing the television to turn black. Alec stared at his reflection for a moment to process, his body stiff as a board as his mind ran rampant with new information.
With another sigh, he walked over to Kowalski's room to clean it out and get it ready for the new agent.
Tomorrow morning, he'd see Shay and somehow convince her to be on his side. How, he wasn't sure yet, but he had no choice but to figure it out.
Any Chuck fans here? General McMullen was inspired by their very own General Beckman. Such a good show.
Next chapter, Alec and Noah meet. As you can probably guess, it won't go well! :D