Work Text:
Mary stares down at the headline of this mornings newspaper, and her heart seizes. “No” She mumbles as she reads through the article that says that Detective Ben Wesley had been found dead at his home late last night. “No, she didn’t, she wouldn’t!” Mary says aloud, uncaring that she is at the hospital filling out her exit paperwork. Without even realizing it, she’s in her car and speeding toward the Bloom warehouse.
Her heels click on the concrete floors and up the staircase to Olivia’s office. Finding her there is both a good and a bad thing. Mary rarely does anything without a plan that went several steps head, a plan for all contingencies. But this, this had to be answered. Olivia couldn’t get away with this, not Ben.
“Mary, I didn’t expect to see you so soon. What can I do for you?” Olivia asks, slightly uneasy. “When you said you admired me for getting things done for myself. How you shouldn’t rely on others so much anymore. I didn’t realize that you would act so soon. That was you last night wasn’t it? You snuck into Ben’s trailer and poured a bottle of pento into his rum. Just like you wanted to do to Tyler.” Mary accuses, her anger showing.
“What do you care? You’re acting like you were in love with him!” Olivia rants back. “Oh my god, you were, that’s just too perfect.” Olivia laughs. “Why else would I have worn the wire?” Mary admits. “Why did you have to kill him? He was only doing his job, and they didn’t have anything on us. We were in the clear.” Mary asks, her patients waning.
“My suppliers don’t appreciate cops being involved in our business. It was him or me, and it wasn’t going to be me.” Olivia tells her. “How do you expect to not be suspected in his death?” Mary wonders. “And why would the cops just close the case now, after Ben dies during an operation?” Mary asks her real question.
“He was the only one who really knew anything, undercover operations are very compartmentalized. So by getting rid of him, the whole thing gets set back to the starting gate.” Olivia reveals. “And your suppliers are going to leave you alone now?” Mary wonders. “The Bustamante’s will have their people watching us all very closely now. So for your sake I hope that the operation does die with Ben.” Olivia states, finally admitting out loud the name of the major Cartel backing her.
“My sake? Why would they care about me?” Mary wonders. “Our fates are tied now, you’re both client and employee after what we’ve been through together.” Olivia admits with glee. “Our deal was that you left us alone, that we were done.” Mary says exasperated, she’s not scared in this moment, she’s angry, angry that yet again she isn’t the one in control. “Circumstances change.” Olivia says shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.
“You are correct, circumstances do change. And now with Ben gone there is no one to pull me back. You’re going to regret what you did last night, Olivia.” Mary tells her and leaves the office. Her heels clicking steady as her heart beat. She can hear Olivia’s laughter echoing behind her as she walks down the stairs. “Enjoy it while you can, you’ll never know when tonight will be your last.” Mary mutters under her breath.
Meanwhile in another warehouse the surveillance equipment was humming away recording everything that the bug on the hand rail at Bloom Appliances was picking up in Olivia’s office. A slumped figure slowly turned in the chair, back to face the equipment, revealing Ben who had been listening to the entire conversation.
Ever since he saw Mary with that bottle leaving Travis and Olivia’s he had been extra careful to only drink from unopened bottles and always tested everything for anything extra. He’d discovered that his booze had been tampered with, and after calling in a favour he put on a show for anyone who might have been watching.
With nowhere else to go he’d kept manning the surveillance just in case he got a break, now that their guards are down. He hadn’t been sure who’d spiked his booze, but Mary had definitely been in the running in his own mind. With his head in his hands, he heaves a deep sigh, his dog starts to wag his tail sensing his fight or flight thinking. Dragging his hands down his face, he can’t help but smile to himself.
Mary drives over to Olivia’s house. She parks a ways away and just watches the house thinking. She mulls through several options, but she can’t be sure that there won’t be collateral damage. Olivia’s daughter is an innocent. She leaves after a few hours with the stark realization that she might have to come at her head on, if she wants to be sure to only affect Olivia. Although, she thought while driving home, if she manages to get herself shot again…
Mary pulls into her driveway and slowly makes her way into her dark and empty house. She stops at Jess’s bedroom and flips on the light. She stares at the empty bed and lets the tears come. She doesn’t linger long, her anger rising again. She brushes her tears away and heads for her room. She is already pulling at her blouse and thinking mostly of her shower. As she nears the doorway she starts to notice a rhythmic thumping sound coming from her bedroom.
She’s partially tangled in her blouse as she opens the door, and she can’t help but gasp at the sight that greets her. Ben and his dog (the source of the thumping) chilling on her bed. Ben fully clothed asleep with the book from her bedside table still open on his chest, the bedside lamp still on. She finishes getting out of her blouse and takes off her heels. She pads over to the far side of the bed and takes the book off his slowly rising and falling chest. She can’t help but run her fingers through his hair, loving the bristle, and lightly scratching his scalp with her nails.
She withdraws and heads for the shower as planned. Ben’s dog briefly follows her, but returns to his master after examining the bathroom. Her mind races as the water falls over her, sluicing over her skin. She can’t decide if her plans for Olivia should remain or if she should let them go. On one hand Ben is alive. And on the other Olivia had attempted to kill him, and should have succeeded. In fact, she wondered why she hadn’t. She dried off and slipped on her nightgown.
Only the dog stirs when she emerges from the bathroom, his head perks up and his eyes follow her as she pads around the bed. She slides into the bed on the opposite side and snuggles up to Ben’s sleeping form. It doesn’t take long for Ben to relax in her direction and before long they’re both sound asleep in one another’s arms. The dog curled in a ball at the foot of the bed.