Case 037 - Aftermath

Ben left Hicks' office after getting a verbal beatdown by the commander and the captain for half an hour. It was the second stern talking to he had gotten ever since he had walked out of the secret subway tunnel with Sara Ellis. The bomb disposal had been completed efficiently and without incident. The remaining hostages were freed.

All suspects were either dead or in custody except for Jack Reacher. That mountain of muscle had managed to get away despite his attention-grabbing physique and the enormous police presence keeping an eye out for him.

Ben hadn't given the name to his superiors either. Hicks seemed to know that Ben withheld information because of the muted calls, but he accepted it.

After all, they had also interviewed Sara Ellis.

She had confirmed Ben's account of what exactly happened. And it was her insurance company that was liable for the stolen jewelry. She had no reasonable incentive to lie and hide information about someone who robbed them - even if it turned out all the stolen items were accounted for an hour after the hostages were secured and all bombs disabled.

"Update report," Hicks and Cortez ordered as they entered the situation room. Ben already picked up some slack and stood at a computer in the center to coordinate between HQ and Mumford's team. He was told to rest, but Ben already knew that he would be getting a reprimand followed by an order to go home. Helping before being put on leave was the least he could do - in his mind anyway.

"They found three bodies, DOA, in the shed's false basement. Mumford's team used the mobile fingerprint scanner. Their rapsheets classify them as notorious career criminals. Likely hired help - we have reason to believe that the fled suspect took them out to get on the crew. Preliminary examination suggests they were killed in self-defense," Ben recounted evenly. "Other than that, Mumford and his team found plans for the bricked up subway station. The suspect Ortiz who owns the place seemed to have worked on it as an assistant for the architect before he joined the army according to the timeline. I handed over the case to the FBI through the appropriate channels. It seems there were funds misappropriated at a ridiculous level - minimum eight figures back in the 90s. I found no news about it dating back to the time the construction was finished… but maybe they aren't digital yet. The FBI will look into it."

"Yeah. I've lived in LA my entire life except the years I spent in the army. I never heard about this station being constructed. Planned, maybe," Hicks chimed in with furrowed brows.

"Anything else from Mumford?" Cortez asked.

"No, they are code four and waiting for the detectives from RHD to take over the crime scene."

"Then you're off. Don't come in tomorrow. In fact, other than a written report, don't bother working for the rest of the week," Cortez sternly instructed.

Ben complied with a wry smile, forwarded the report he had typed up on a second monitor while coordinating for Mumford, and walked to his office in the SWAT HQ.

Hondo was waiting for him in front of it.

"You're a madman for doing that exchange," Hondo sincerely praised. He gave Ben a fistbump in greeting and continued, "Officer Cole did well today. I got you Tan's bodycam footage like you wanted. Are you gonna fill me in?"

"I will once it's all done," Ben countered.

"Alright, sure. Now, about that thing with Darryl," Hondo said, changing the subject and scratching the back of his head. "I was with him and his buddies when the call came for the heist. It ain't resolved fully… but I got Darryl to stop at least. I'll be there again tomorrow to make sure Old Ford can do his business in peace."

"Thanks for letting me know."

Ben gave Hondo a sincere smile and walked past him.

"No, thank you," Hondo mumbled with a thoughtful smile that turned genuine when Ben opened the door to his office.

Little Anna stormed toward her father with an excited 'DADDY!' shouted at the top of her little lungs.

Emilia, Zofia, Anna, and Sara were waiting in his office. His family had arrived not too long ago and Hondo had guided them to wait with Sara, who had an employee follow up with the investigation instead of doing it herself.

The blessings of being in management.

Peeled out of his bullet-proof vest but still not freshened up other than a splash of water to his face during a toilet break, Ben picked up his daughter and hugged her tightly.

"Are you okay daddy?"

"I am now," Ben whispered in reply and tickled his daughter with his faint stubble as he softly rubbed it into her neck. Her giggles filled the room and the detective's heart.

Zofia walked over and joined the hug. She was shaking.

Anna didn't truly understand what danger her father was in today. But his adoptive sister did. She knew how much was at stake when Ben walked into the store in exchange for three lives. She held no illusions about how quickly the man who saved her could be gone forever. Especially on a day like this.

It haunted her dreams on most days, despite all she accomplished since then. Despite how much her life had changed already compared to the days of her captivity at the White Front.

Sara remained seated next to Emilia, who both sat behind Ben's desk. Sara already had a grasp about Ben's personal life from what little she talked about with Zofia and Emilia. But her eyes still remained on the picture on Ben's desk, flicking back and forth between the framed photograph and the man holding his cute child.

The picture was of Ben giving a brilliant smile as he tried to look at his daughter riding on his shoulders at the beach. Her smile was just as wide as she held up his cap just out of his reach.

Sara admitted to herself that she deeply envied that relationship.

She had leveraged her position as the branch manager in London for her company to take over the older but slightly less profitable LA branch because she was looking for her sister. The last family member of hers she thought was still alive. A very expensive investigator had uncovered traces of that sister she had last seen as a young preteen here in Los Angeles.

And after a particularly hurtful break up back when she was still in New York, Sara had never really dated anyone again.

Her standards for a partner were elevated and twisted by the one that got away - convicted con artist and world renowned forger Neal Caffrey. Who now worked in New York at the FBI White Collar unit as a CI. From what Sara knew, Ben was pretty much the complete opposite of Neal.

A lawman turned undercover criminal compared to a criminal turned… reluctant assistant to other lawmen - mostly going undercover. The similarities and differences were enticing - and Ben had just saved her life going as far as putting himself between her and a gun dozens of times since she first saw him.

"Are you done for the day?" Emilia asked after she stood up with an annoyed huff. She was glad she didn't have to explain the mortality of her daughter's father to the young girl. But she would have still preferred not even having to consider that at all.

"I guess I am," Ben replied with a wry smile and walked over to a safe he had in his office.

A six-digit code and a fingerprint scan later, Ben put away his back-up weapon and looked at the women in the room until his eyes met Sara's.

"You owe me a drink," she asserted, primly sitting at his desk with crossed legs and a mischievous smirk on her lips. Her eyes swiveled to little Anna for a short moment and she added, "I will reluctantly allow you to serve me yourself at your home."

Emilia and Sara had been talking about their living arrangement - especially whether or not Ben and the mother of his child were still an item. Emilia knew she was on thin ice after having lied about how she met Ben, so she didn't stand between the two - if Ben was even interested.

Sara wanted to stay at Ben's place tonight not just for his company or the drinks - she wanted to feel safe. And where would she feel safe if not at the place of the man who shielded her all day and quite literally carried her out of a hostage situation?

Her security was still in the hospital, after all. Resources with a whole team taken out were spread thin and Sara prefered to put the remaining contractors on the jewelry, not herself. Plus, she wanted to be far away from that very same jewelry in case someone still had designs on them.

Ben looked at the woman in understanding, grabbed his laptop from the desk and walked ahead with Anna riding on his shoulders.

The little girl got everybody smiling from ear to ear as she greeted everyone they walked past at Metro HQ.

-----

Zofia and Emilia were playing with Anna in the backyard. Anna had asked for giant bubbles, so that was what they were currently making.

"You really would give that up for strangers?" Sara asked, and not for the first time, as the two were watching the three women play near the guest house where Emilia stayed with her daughter.

"I didn't go into the store with the expectation that I was going to die. I was reasonably sure I would get out of it alive," Ben weakly defended as he finished his food.

Zofia had prepared tarte flambée and salads to distract herself when the news about the hostage situation was still live.

"You're still an idiot," Sara countered with a sigh and sipped her wine - a left-over bottle from the many brought over by Claire.

"I can only assume those people inside the store have children of their own that they wanted to get home to at all costs. Someone had to make that possible," the detective pointed out when he was done chewing.

Sara didn't reply, but she nodded in understanding, her eyes glued on Anna.

"What's next for Detective Ben Weiss, then?"

"Well, I'm not on the case so I won't investigate where the remaining leads are going. Plus I was put on leave for the week, so I have no-"

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant in a larger time frame," Sara corrected after she properly swallowed another big sip of wine. "While walking back to the subway station, you talked about the many lettered agencies trying to recruit you. Why don't you take that offer?"

Ben picked up the beer sitting next to his plate and looked at the setting sun for a while before taking a sip.

"I can help the people of LA right now with what I'm doing. This city is my home, and I have been gone for too long," Ben began with a small sigh. "And while the offers are flattering, I don't think they really value me for my wit and my expertise. The first offers came before my name was in the news, but the FBI wanted me to stay silent about my handler going radio-silent… and never having filed my operation."

Giving Sara a short look, Ben continued, "And after I became national news, they wanted me for good PR - it was obvious. And it made sense. Yeah, I survived living with the Front and I gathered copious amounts of evidence - but that wouldn't make me a good detective or agent. I'd be used as a prop or to do grunt work for someone with a political agenda in whatever agency I would have joined. A patsy with no way up unless I claw my way up. I decided against all that, instead I'm going to keep doing a good job at the LAPD, and if I eventually feel like it is the right step, I will start helping people on a bigger scale than 'just' the streets of Los Angeles."

The insurance agency manager nodded with respect and understanding as she looked at Ben who suddenly winced a little and clutched his side after trying to fix his posture. The punch from Reacher had left a nasty bruise just under his ribs.

"The moment I saw your mansion in the picture I knew I couldn't entice you with a good salary, but are you sure you don't want to go private?" Sara suddenly asked with a crafty smile. "I'd hire you as my chief of security in an instant. It's been a while since I felt this safe."

"Sorry Sara - ask me again if they ever kick me out for bad behavior," Ben countered with a charming smile through the pain and a somewhat labored wink.

After sending Anna off to bed with her mother's help and Zofia excusing herself to not be a third wheel, the two continued to talk and drink wine for hours. Lightly buzzed and feeling adventurous, Sara loaned a bikini from Zofia and the two continued talking and drinking while floating in Ben's heated pool until well after midnight.

Seeing as she was probably suffering from the suspension bridge effect where physical arousal in high stakes situations clouded a victim's mind, thinking they had genuine feelings for someone, and of course, that Sara was totally hammered when he finally got her out of the pool, nothing happened between the two. She got a little handsy 'as paypack', but Ben decided to wait until tomorrow to see whether or not she still felt like that.

Ben had managed to place her into a guest bedroom where she fell asleep the moment he forced her under the covers with just a bathrobe on. He was a gentleman, but with how insistent she was, it would have been a disservice to himself to not help her out of the wet swimwear. Sober, she might be embarrassed tomorrow, but she wouldn't regret and he wouldn't feel guilty.

The detective walked straight to his garage to start a late load of laundry before getting into bed himself. Sara hadn't brought any fresh clothes and the drunk police officer wanted her to be comfortable in the morning.

Done loading the washing machine, Ben suddenly heard noise outside his house - the clattering of some gardening tools. The detective's mind sobered instantly. Something he trained himself to do while undercover.

He got out the tablet hanging in the garage and logged into the estate's camera feeds - until he found someone on his property who shouldn't be here.

Ben's mind was somewhat sober, but his body didn't obey him completely. The detective briskly walked toward his gun safe but he also almost walked into a countertop. Ben slapped himself to sober up some more. He was about to potentially walk into a firefight with his daughter on the property. He couldn't excuse getting it wrong.

Outside by the pool, Ben still pretended to be drunkenly walking over to the guest house until he got out his gun from under his shirt and pointed it at a palm tree on the lawn.

"I called the police, this gated community has armed security, too, they will arrive in two minutes tops. Come out with your hands above your head," Ben instructed sharply.

"I urge you to reconsider, Detective Weiss," a man said with a chuckle and walked out from behind that tree Ben was pointing a gun at.

There was something in his hand.

Ben's eyes constricted, a dead-man's switch.

But then his eyes suddenly widened again.

"You're the third hostage that was freed," the detective whispered under his breath.

"Indeed I am. As well as the rightful owner of the Baron's Bloody Diamond," the man confirmed, his smile slowly going from gleeful to manic.

"So Ortiz didn't order the heist, you did?" Ben asked, now actually sober.

"Can you imagine how long I waited? How long I needed to talk to my asshole brother to auction off the diamond and use that store to showcase it?" The man demanded, madly shaking his hand with the detonator in hand in Ben's direction. "Years! My father should have given that diamond to me! Why didn't he give it to me!?"

Ben wanted to tell the man it was because he was mad, but the detective remained silent. He hadn't managed to see whether or not the man managed to plant explosives on his property or heaven's forbid near his daughter. He should have done a better job looking through the camera feeds before going outside. But then again, he couldn't allow that men to go near his daughter even more.

"I don't have your diamond. It's in safe hands at the Police Plaza until the auction," Ben stated calmly instead of showing what he really thought about that man.

"I know! Oh god, I know," the man cursed with gritted teeth. "I had it all planned! I could have lived on an island fingering a new girl way out of my league every single day!"

The man started pacing.

"But no! I can still get my happy ending!"

Ben cringed at the wording.

"The two of us will just go to that police building together. You will pretend I'm brought in for questioning by you and then you will give me the diamond after you get it out of the vault and I will go my merry way," the man instructed with crazed eyes. "After all, I know you didn't call the cops or the security. I was inside the house! And if you don't do what I fucking want, I will release this button and little Miss Ellis and that other woman will die! And if that isn't incentive enough, we'll get your daughter out of that guest house together and tie her up with Miss Ellis! Nothing will go wrong with this plan!"

Ben's eyes turned cold. He took a deep breath and weighed his options. As much as he didn't want to lose the house, put Sara in danger or sacrifice Zofia, there was no way he would allow that man to touch Anna.

"I'll go with you and help you get the diamond - who says you won't detonate the bomb the moment you're out of my sight?"

"Because I am Jeffrey Fucking Baptiste! I never break my word!"

"That answer is not good enough," Ben coldly countered and raised his weapon - a silenced pistol, and aimed it straight at the man.

"What the fuck are you doing!?"

"You come into my house and think you can threaten my daughter? In what universe did you think I would ever let you leave this place alive?"

"I'll let go of this thing and your house goes boom!"

"Do that and I will shoot you in the stomach. I know where to place this shot to draw out your death to an agonizing thirty minutes where your stomach acid slowly fills your body cavity," Ben threatened, his gaze completely icy. "For good measure, I will shoot you right in the dick so that even if you linger on hope that the explosion will result in the EMTs coming along quick enough to save you, you will be a eunuch for the rest of your miserable life. Hell, I'll empty my magazine and make mincemeat out of your pathetic junk."

"Hey - what the fuck!?"

"Come on, Jeffrey Fucking Baptiste, give me a reason," Ben goaded and walked toward the man. Jeffrey hurriedly walked backwards, but all counter-threats died in the man's throat as he watched Ben walking forward like a grim reaper.

"I will lose Zofia, but you will lose everything," the detective continued with a growl, his weapon now trained on Jeffrey's dick. "Motherfucking coming here to threaten my child, you dickless motherfucking clown."

And then, two large arms grabbed Jeffrey from the dark, putting him into a chokehold that took his breath immediately.

Ben lunged forward to grab Jeffrey's fist and keep the dead-man's switch from going off.

"Relax. I already disarmed the explosives and put them far away. Just a radio connected to two claymores. Very basic setup, they were duds the moment he walked out of the room," a gravelly voice reassured from the shadows.

"Thank you," Ben replied with a venomous glare for the man who was desperately trying to take a breath and let go of the man's fist.

"Still want to shoot him in the dick?"

Ben broke his gaze away, took a step back, and looked up.

"No, thanks."

"Want to bring him in?"

Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"No. He dared to threaten Anna."

Jeffrey's eyes widened in panic, but the man behind him applied the full force of his gigantic biceps. A sickening snap, muffled by the mountains of muscle holding him in place, ended Jeffrey's life.

"Why are you here, Reacher?"

The man allowed Jeffrey's dead body to slink down to the floor and stepped out of the shadows. Reacher looked around the illuminated pool area as well as the guest house and large mansion. He praised with a raised brow, "Nice place."

"Thanks, my mother had good taste," Ben replied evenly, his gaze wandering toward the guest house, hoping neither Emilia and especially not Anna were awake to see what happened. None of the lights were on in the house.

"Baptiste snooped around Ortiz' house. Your SWAT friends scared him off when they searched the place. I didn't like the look in his eyes, so I followed him. Don't forget, I was inside the store when Baptiste arranged to be let go as the third hostage," Reacher explained with a small sigh.

"Why didn't you tell me about him in the tunnel?"

"Didn't know his name," the tall man excused with a careless shrug. "Plus, it was Ortiz I was after. I couldn't have known he was this deranged."

"As excuses go, that was a pretty shitty one."

"It was not my job to figure out the connection between Ortiz and the man who made him steal the diamond," Reacher countered with another shrug. Casually pointing at the corpse, he asked, "What do you want to do about this?"

"My daughter lives here. I don't want her to see this shit," Ben immediately answered and started to walk back for some gloves.

"No need to commit the felony yourself, detective," Reacher called out and picked up Jeffrey's body by the back of his shirt. Like the hundred-fifty pound man weighed nothing. "I'll put him on the street outside and give the police an anonymous tip."

Ben looked back at Reacher, considered the whole thing, and nodded in agreement.

Messing with the records for his own cameras in case they'd be checked, Ben eventually walked outside to meet the patrol that was alerted when Reacher called the body in. He excused his nosiness by pointing out that he was woken up by the blue lights flashing in his bedroom.

Jeffrey Baptiste just laid there next to his disarmed claymores, the detonator and a note saying he was the mastermind behind the heist. The horrified look in his dead eyes gave the police some pause.

Ben gave a statement to the night detective who got the case, told him that he recognized the man as the third hostage that was released earlier during the heist and left.

By the time the sun started rising, Ben had typed his full report and another mail for Hicks and Cortez to inform them about the dead 'hostage/suspect' outside his home, and fell asleep with dark rings under his eyes.

-----

[POV Sara Ellis]

A deep groan escaped her lips as she woke up when a sneaky ray of sunshine managed to find the exact angle to hit her face through the smallest crack in the blinders. Her mind was completely hazy, her mouth unpleasantly dry.

Sara managed to force open one of her eyes to look around and find out where she was - her mind couldn't provide a meaningful or reassuring answer.

Heavy though it was, she managed to look around the room with her throbbing head forcing her to take it slow and immediately focused solely on the tall glass of water that was thankfully placed on a nightstand.

'What a considerate gesture,' she inwardly thought - the first real thought she managed to complete - and propped herself up with another, more laborious groan.

Washing away the stale spit in her mouth and hydrating her body, Sara almost emptied the glass and felt the sleepiness slowly make way for a more manageable ache in her limbs and head.

Finished drinking, she slumped back into the mattress, her head cradling the pillow and a hand shielding her from the offending sun that woke her.

"I'll never drink again," she whispered to herself, but chuckled a little.

Of course she would drink again. But possibly in a little more moderation in the near future.

Slowly dragging her body up minutes later, Sara sat up in the bed just enough to get a look around the room. It was tastefully decorated, though it lacked a little color.

"Well, it is a guest room," she mumbled with a nod before she stiffened and hurriedly took a look around the bed.

Seeing that she was alone, she breathed out in relief. She wasn't in the master bedroom of the owner of the house.

Images of the last night were hazily floating around in her mind. She couldn't in good conscience deny whether or not she tried to seduce Ben or not - even less if she succeeded or not.

But then she pushed the blanket to the side and looked down at herself.

She had a satin bathrobe on. It had somehow managed to stay on during the night.

But underneath it? She was completely naked.

A small blush crept up her cheeks, but she eventually furrowed her brows.

"No, I didn't succeed," she stated in a small voice, her memories beginning to make sense. "He actually told me to try again, sober. But that rogue still enjoyed me stripping out of the wet bikini!"

An hour later, Sara cautiously looked out of the room to see if anybody else was up. She had just washed up, drunk some more water, and started to feel human again.

Walking into the kitchen while trying her best to not make a sound, she found Zofia reading a book while sipping a coffee.

"Good morning," the polish girl greeted. "Breakfast?"

"Oh, no need to trouble yourself," Sara quickly waved away.

Zofia smiled and remained seated. But she still pointed around the kitchen and indicated, "Cups are up there. Coffee machine is there. The fruits are fresh but don't take the red apples or Anna will cry. There's banana and cherry juice, cheese, peach marmalade and guacamole in the fridge if you want to eat them with the croissants. Ben also has wheat cereal over there?"

Sara just dumbly nodded and began to operate the expensive coffee machine that coincidentally was the one they used in the staff kitchen for the managers at Sterling & Bosch.

"Your clothes are in the laundry room. Ben put them in the washing machine and I hung them up earlier. Thin fabric, sunny day, should be done soon. Or I loan you clothes?"

"T-thank you, Zofia," Sara mumbled with an embarrassed smile.

"You are a welcome guest in this house. Ben likes you," Zofia waved away with a content smile.

The redhead was a much more pleasant guest than the Dunphys were at the end.

"Does he?" Sara idly asked as she waited for her hot beverage to brew.

"Yes, he opened up to you. That's rare," Zofia commented with an absentminded nod. "His smalltalk is usually very… small. Ben only talks when he feels good with someone, or he wants someone to feel good."

"Really? His smalltalk game was pretty convincing in the store?" Sara asked in curiosity.

"Did you feel good tied up in chair?" Zofia asked as she looked up from her book.

Sara hurriedly shook her head in denial.

"Did Ben talking make you feel better?"

The redhead nodded and realized Zofia's point.

"Okay~" Sara breathed out a little shyly. "Uh, how come I'm awake before Ben? I think I drank more than him? Is that a usual thing for him? Or is he already up and about with Anna?"

"No, is not normal. Ben is still deep asleep," Zofia denied with a small troubled frown. "But dead man was found outside the house. Ben talked to police for over an hour before he could finally go to bed, I think. I woke up because of the blue light and saw Ben walk back home with annoyance on his face."

"There was a dead person outside!?" Sara asked in a high pitched voice. Zofia sounded so bored - did this happen often around here?!