Blue Fish
THERE WERE more questions, from the FBI and from the state’s attorney general and from the police—lather, rinse, repeat.
Jackson, Ellery, Lucy Satan, Jade, Cody, and Galen were finally allowed to be escorted home around ten o’clock that night, long after the kids Jade and Jackson had found had been taken to the local hospital and church to be fed, clothed, and tended to.
All of them fretted about the kids getting adequate treatment, adequate debriefing, adequate care after all they had undoubtedly been through, but Manning had irritably told them that sometimes, the government actually knew what the fuck it was doing and had made them go home.
Sometimes there was only so much they could do. They all knew that.
As it was, the next day was going to be a massive effort at the office as the lot of them tried to deal with the paperwork and postponed appointments that the past two—or was it three?—days had created.
Nobody, Ellery had said, nobody was going to go out of the office to do anything or talk to anybody, and none of them were to be there any earlier than ten o’clock.
One of their best moments was on the ride home, when K-Ski had texted them pictures of Isabelle Roberts, her arms around a shyly smiling Cowboy, standing in front of the iconic Disneyland gardens, each wearing a set of ears.
They’re inseparable. She’s already promised him her spare room when they get back.
Jackson told them that they were free to come home at any time, and made a mental note to ask the advocates to put a speed order on the foster care papers that would let that happen.
Then Kryzynski told him that they were going to stay two more days and sent him another picture, this one a selfie of him and Billy, their own ears perched happily on their heads, in the same spot.
The pictures were so wholesome after what had just happened, what they’d seen, heard, knew , that Jackson’s eyes stung, and he heard Ellery take a shuddering breath next to him as he peered over Jackson’s shoulder in the back seat of the Lexus.
Cody had opted to drive the minivan—alone—without Jackson, which all by itself qualified him for the job.
When they got home that night after dropping Galen off, it was to find Lance in their house, sitting on the couch with the cats, with a giant chicken casserole in the oven and a quart of ice cream in the freezer.
Jackson, Ellery, Taylor, Jade, and Cody fell upon the food like ravening wolves, while Lance explained that after Jackson had texted Dex to tell him that they’d apprehended Henry’s shooter and gotten Cowboy disentangled from any sort of witness duties, Dex had suggested—none too gently—that the lot of them had probably had a helluva day and would appreciate a gesture.
“Bobby and Reg are at John’s place,” Lance said humbly, dishing up some salad to go with the casserole. “But Henry has a key here, and….” He managed to meet their eyes. “I had some amends to make.”
“You were worried about your boy,” Jackson said kindly, but Lance shook his head.
“No. No, it was more than that. I was jealous of all the time he spends, not just with you, but doing this job. And it wasn’t fair of me. He puts up with doctors’ hours every damned day. I just….” He smiled bitterly. “Being afraid for him is something I need to get used to. It’s worth it.” He flashed them an honest smile. “I mean, it’s Henry , right? I forgot, the other night, that everybody in this room—” He gave Cody a confused glance. “Except you—I don’t know you—but everybody else here loves Henry too.”
“I love the guy,” Cody said through a mouthful of french bread. “Trust me—good people.”
Jackson chuckled weakly. “Lance Luna, Cody Gabriel. Cody Gabriel, Lance Luna. We met during that case right before Thanksgiving.”
Lance blinked. “The… the undercover policeman,” he said softly, and if Henry had told him anything about that case, odds were good Lance knew all sorts of things about Cody’s past that he could make very uncomfortable right about now.
But Lance smiled at Cody instead. “Henry thought you were brave as fuck,” he said. “I didn’t know you were taking his job while he’s out. I’m glad somebody’s got Jackson’s back.” He met Jackson’s eyes then. “He’s always— always —had ours.”
CODY LEFT shortly after that, taking the minivan, which he praised affectionately on the way out. Lance offered to give Jade a ride to the duplex and to check in on the kids on the other side while he was there. It was, he said, something Henry would probably take over when he got out of the hospital in a week.
The exhalation of relief that statement caused made him smile.
Taylor, who had been quiet and exhausted—and rightfully so, because weren’t they all—had retired almost immediately after. Ellery had given his mother a long heartfelt hug before she turned to the bedroom, and Jackson, keenly conscious of all the times in the past two days Ellery’s mother had saved his life by saying the simple words “I love you” time and time again, stepped up before she could turn away.
“A hug?” she asked, eyes wide and glossy. “Voluntarily? Oh, my darling boy, you are spoiling me!”
Jackson engulfed her, conscious that she was smaller than he was but that her spirit was mighty. “I love you, Lucy Satan,” he whispered. “Your evil plan succeeded. Well done.”
She clung to him for an extra moment and then pulled away, wiping her eyes. “You and I have some more talking to do, young man,” she said. “But for tonight I’m going to take your poor clumsy kitten to bed and take that as the win it is.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “I love you too, Jackson. We’ll work at making the words easier to say.”
And with that she scooped Lucifer up from where he was complaining loudly at her feet and stalked off to bed with dignity.
And a purring three-legged black cat who seemed absolutely besotted with her.
Lance had cleaned up before he left, so after a quick turn in the shower for each of them—and a rebandaging of Jackson’s arm, which was, given all that had befallen that day, the least of their worries—they fell into bed.
Jackson’s need to hold Ellery to his chest and simply be , alive, whole, and for this brief moment, still , was constricting his breath.
The moment they slid together in the dark, Billy Bob purring and kneading Jackson’s head, his lungs relaxed and he could get oxygen again.
“Ellery?” he said softly.
“Yeah?”
“This case was awful. It was… it was almost the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
One of the three bodies pulled out of the first disposal site had been identified as Caleb Greavy before Manning had given them permission to go home. There were three more—all of which had been discovered by Preacher at the third site after Damien had taken Retty to the nearest hospital—all of them teenaged boys.
“Me too,” Ellery said softly.
“After something that awful, hugging your mother, telling her I loved her—that’s like a no-brainer. Telling Jade the same thing—God, even texting Henry—it just… I am so grateful for all of our people. I… that thing we’re doing. The one in June?”
“The wedding thing?” Ellery said, sounding amused—and tired, but also amused.
“Yeah. I tried to make that not such a big deal today. I was talking to kids who’d been victimized, terrorized, who had seen their friend die. And one of them got so mad. He said we were important . They had to see that a happy ever after was possible. They had to see that people like them could be a family, could have a day to celebrate, could have love.”
Ellery rubbed his cheek against Jackson’s chest, and Jackson could feel the dampness of tears. “What did you say?”
Jackson smiled in the dark. “I said you weren’t a troll, for starters.”
Ellery chuckled weakly. “What else?”
“I said I was so looking forward to marrying you. God, Ellery, we see some of the worst shit. But we have so many good people in our lives. It makes dealing with the worst shit possible, you know?”
“I do,” Ellery said, and he sounded so sleepy that for a moment Jackson thought that was it. It was okay, he figured, because they would wake up like this too. They would work quietly in the office together, like they did, and they would get the grunt work that usually they hated out of the way and appreciate the paperwork for a chance to give them some peace.
Then Ellery said, “By the way, Galen wants us to hire Arizona Brooks as our third partner, and Mother would like to share the office with her when she’s in town so she can help us.”
Jackson’s eyes shot open in the dark. “I’m sorry?”
“And I think we’re renting the offices next door—Galen and Mother say you need an entire room for the PI end of the business—one to meet clients and keep computers and clothes and all that other stuff you’re currently shoving into Jade’s space.”
“But—” Jackson treasured those quiet moments they worked together in Ellery’s office.
“Apparently Galen already checked out the space. It would be right across the hall from my office, once the separating wall is broken down. You’d have the room for you and Henry and Cody and AJ, and then when it’s time for you and me to work, we’d still have our space.”
“Oh my God,” Jackson said, his mind racing. “You… you said yes to this?”
“It was the damnedest thing,” Ellery said, sounding truly lost. “I called Arizona to apologize to her for leaving her out of the loop, and the next thing I knew, she was agreeing to be a partner, and her part of the buy-in will help cover the cost of a remodel. I… I guess we’re expanding, you know? We need two more associates, by the way. And two more paralegals.”
Jackson chuckled at the mention of paralegal secretaries. “Jade will have people to boss around,” he mumbled. “And new challenges herself. She’ll be over the moon.”
His sister and Taylor and Galen and Henry and Cody and AJ and even Arizona Brooks, who had been an adversary and was now a friend.
The thought of all of them, working together, doing good—it released the final bit of tension from his chest.
“Wow,” he said, falling into sleep. “Ellery, we have so much to do.”
“And so many people to help,” Ellery said, obviously sinking into his own sleep.
“I never knew what a difference love could make in my life,” he whispered, and Ellery snuggled just a little bit closer, and then they were both clutching each other in dreams.
Good dreams, for once. For all the horrors they’d seen, for the physical discomfort in Jackson’s arm and the stupid inevitable fever growing in his bones, for the stress and fears of the day, Jackson’s demons finally gave him some peace.
Although he was well aware there would be future battles to come.
THE NEXT morning, he was the first one up, making coffee and starting a breakfast frittata even before Ellery’s mother arose. Yes, he was feverish, but he’d taken his medication without badgering from Ellery today. Too much to do. Taking care of himself had to be a no-brainer, not a struggle.
When Lucy Satan finally came out of her room, disconcertingly dressed in a classy leisure suit in winter white with dark blue accents, she had left her makeup off and was wearing her thick black hair in a disarming ponytail.
He realized that she was perhaps in her mid-fifties. Her promise to be part of their firm held teeth—she would be whipcrack smart and vigorous for many years to come.
“Coffee?” she said. “How kind.” She took her mug to the table and sat for a moment—just sat—and inhaled the steam of a giant mug of coffee with cream and raw sugar.
He was sure that for her this was like dessert in the morning.
“Jackson,” she said after a moment, as he fried the vegan sausage for the frittata. “Have you given any thought to what happened to your sister since we last spoke of that?”
Jackson fumbled the spatula, picked it up off the floor and turned the water on it while he wiped the mess up with a paper towel. “I’m sorry?”
She gave him a faint smile. “Don’t panic, young man. It’s just when she was taken away from your mother, you were a child. I know… I know your life has been such that it probably hasn’t occurred to you, but you are very much an adult now. In fact you’re an adult with a very select set of skills that might help you find some answers.”
“Oh,” he said, going back to the frittata and adding mushrooms to the sausage. “Oh wow.”
She raised her eyebrows at him, her lips turning up at the corners as though she was fully aware she had blown his mind. “Don’t freak out about it today,” she said, covering her mouth with a yawn. “Today is for quiet paperwork and takeout. And coffee.” She took a sip. “But do keep it in mind.”
He nodded dumbly, his brain racing with possibilities.
Ellery emerged from the bedroom shortly after that, wearing his own pajamas and a sweatshirt of Jackson’s. Jackson gazed at him fondly as Ellery came next to him and set the teakettle on, hiding his yawn behind his hand. He thought of all the wild changes in the firm Ellery had told him about as they’d fallen asleep the night before, and it hit him.
It could happen, he thought. He was very good at his job. After the dust settled, maybe he could give Henry some leads he could pursue while still sedentary so he wouldn’t go insane. Maybe while he and Cody were chasing around, doing a thing the three of them seemed to love a lot, Jackson could add in some inquiries of his own.
Maybe, he thought plaintively, just maybe, that one chapter of his life, the most awful, sordid, and painful one, might not have a terrible ending after all.
“What?” Ellery asked on another yawn, and carefully, so he might not burn the frittata—or burn Ellery with the frittata—he leaned forward and kissed Ellery on the cheek.
“Oh, Ellery,” he murmured, nuzzling Ellery’s temple. “We have so much to do.”