Chapter Text
Shortly after 8 pm three black Range Rovers drove up bringing Hector’s men, the Slow Horses, Standish, and the kids. Hector, Dima and Alexander were already meeting and exchanging information as promised.
Standish felt it was important to deliver the kids back to their mother herself and watched as the children waved and thanked her before running to greet Tamara.
-
River, Louisa, Shirley, and Marcus all stood around Catherine and glanced at Lamb, feeling quite proud of themselves.
“Well, I suppose,” said Catherine, with a wide smile, “Well done us!”
“Let’s celebrate,” said Shirley
River, Louisa, and Catherine all looked at Lamb expecting him to ruin the moment, but he had no complaints this time.
“What? I always said you weren’t COMPLETE shit,” smirked Lamb, while lighting a cigarette.
The team shared eyerolls and groans of disapproval.
“Go on then, celebrate, but then it’s BACK TO WORK on Monday.” After a moment’s hesitation he opened his wallet and pulled out some cash. Looking at all of them, he ended up choosing Louisa, handing her the cash and saying, “first round’s on me.”
River and Louisa tried convincing Catherine to join them, even if she was only able to hang out for a short while. Marcus and Shirley debated on where they should go and what type of food should be had for dinner.
“Oh, do fuck off then,” said Lamb loudly.
“Jackson!” reprimanded Catherine.
“What?” he said innocently.
“There are children! Watch your language!” she whispered while gesturing to the family.
“They’re Russians! And from a mob family, you think” –
“Jackson!” she tried again, slightly lowering her voice.
Lamb decided it was best to keep his mouth shut after that change in tone and went back to smoking his cigarette.
Catherine explained that she would have to take a raincheck on that celebration dinner as she wanted to get back to work and check to see if Alexander needed anything.
The team saw the look of frustration on Lamb’s face at the mention of Alexander and decided to leave them to it, saying their goodbyes and heading out for the night.
-
Tamara saw the Slow Horses trailing off and asked her oldest to watch the others for a second while she spoke to Catherine.
Tamara approached Catherine and Lamb took a step back, but remained watching the entire time. “Thank you for this. For keeping my children safe,” said Tamara.
Catherine just smiled softly and shook her head as if it was nothing at all. Tamara lowered her voice and asked Catherine, “Not that it matters, but I am curious?... Did you fuck my Dima?”
“What!?” Catherine glanced at Lamb, who looked curious himself “No! of course not!”
“But he tried?” … “I KNOW my Dima!” smiled Tamara.
“No… well… he made a joke, but nothing happened, really,” explained Catherine.
Tamara nodded and took off a small golden ring and gave it to Catherine. “I have nothing, but I must give you something.”
“No… honestly, you don’t need to give me anything,” stammered Catherine.
Tamara placed it in her hand. “Please! You take this and you remember, the time you were the hero, and saved my family, please.”
Catherine accepted the gifted ring, slipping it on and nodded her appreciation.
Tamara smiled and kissed Catherine on the cheek. “By the way, my Dima wasn’t joking!”
Tamara continued to look at Catherine but said to Lamb… “Neither was I, Mr. Lamb.”
Catherine wondered what that was about and looked at Jackson who went from enjoying the view to avoiding eye contact as Tamara and her kids made their exit.
“I need to talk to you. There’s some information that Ho came across and I think you should…” tried Lamb again.
“I can’t right now, Jackson. I want to check in with Alexander and make sure there’s nothing left pending, and this is all wrapped up. I’ll check in next week, yeah?” she patted his arm and just like before, she was gone again.
-
Monday morning, 6am
Catherine was startled by banging on her apartment door and slipped her robe on before walking out to check who would be disturbing her at 6am on a Monday morning. She glanced at the door and immediately recognized Jackson Lamb’s outline behind her door.
“Jackson, what do you want!?” she asked after unlatching the locks and opening the door.
“That’s a nice welcome! You could have put some feeling into it,” he replied, looking somewhat hurt by her tone, but then he couldn’t help but notice her robe.
“That’s not your usual nightgown.” He blurted out.
“You don’t know what my usual nightgown is!” she responded quickly.
“Are you going to let me in or are we going to discuss your choice of lingerie out here in the open?”
“Jackson!” she reprimanded, before opening the door to let him in.
“So? What do you want at 6 am on a Monday morning?” she tried again.
“I brought you a gift,” he mumbled while holding up the plastic bag and looking around the apartment, “are you alone?” he asked.
“Do I look like I have company?” she asked. He took the opportunity to look at this new robe and wonder about what she was wearing underneath it.
“Yes, Jackson. I’m alone, and what kind of gift is given in a plastic bag?”
“Not lingerie like that,” he responded. “It’s not lingerie, it’s a gown, and a robe. I bought it for myself, okay? It turns out that when you get actual evidence that your boss is a traitor, and confront him about it, you can end up with a very nice severance package.”
“You quit?” asked Lamb.
“Yes,” confirmed Standish.
“Then you need a job! That’s great – there’s an opening at Slough House – and I brought you these folders so that you’d know what all the idiots are up to, not that it’s important, but so that you know what’s going on when you show up tomorrow.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Come on, it wasn’t all bad. And you’ll be bored. Come back to work and you’ll laugh 86% more of the time, guaranteed!”
“86% more?”
“Well, at least 62% more, I mean, remember the time Loy got himself stuck in the elevator for 4 hours!?”
“Jackson!”
“You’ll get bored here…”
“I’ve already got another job offer.”
“For who?”
“Hector.”
“Hector? That bastard … you do NOT want to work with Hector. I’m telling you, the man is boring. I mean sure he can do the logistics of things but you’re not going to be laughing 43% more of the time.”
Catherine allowed herself a small giggle at that.
Jackson felt quite proud of that. He allowed himself for a moment to just look at her and noticed that that tattoo on her hand was nearly faded but still visible. He stood next to her so he could touch that hand with his and said, “I’m really glad you made it back okay.”
“Me too,” she said softly.
Jackson was struggling to speak. He wanted to make things right and it felt right, here with her. But you never apologize, you never admit to anything, you deny deny deny.
Catherine noticed his breathing change and his face hardened and became a bit concerned… “Jackson?” she asked before placing her hand on his chest. She could feel his heart pounding.
“Jackson, what is it?”
“I’m sorry,” he blurted out quietly, while clasping her hand on his chest with his own.
“For what?” she asked.
Jackson nodded and cleared his throat… “everything.”
Catherine released the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding and reached up to put her arms around him.
Catherine hugged him and nodded her acceptance of his apology before sniffing a bit and saying, “You took a shower?”
Jackson pulled back and replied, “Really? I come to you with I’m sorry and you come back with ‘you took a shower?’”
Catherine couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“You see,” said Jackson… “you’ll be laughing at least 27% more of the time.”
He looked at the beautiful smile on Catherine’s face before adding, “I really want to kiss you right now.”
“In fact,” he said, lowering his head to kiss her lips, her cheek, making his way down to her neck, “if it doesn’t feel good, you can just say … No or Don’t or Stop”
“Jackson” she said as she placed her hands on his shoulders.
He stopped and couldn’t help but feel disappointed at her rejection.
“No, it’s just… your beard, it … it tickles!” she explained.
“You don’t like the beard? He asked.
She reached up to caress his beard… “I like the beard.”
Come on,” he growled and grabbed her hand pulling her toward the bedroom.
The End.