Chapter Text
Wayne hops in the shower, happy to have a few minutes to himself to process and think. He didn't know if he could ever tell Dahlia the lengths he had to go to in order to get his family here, safe, together. Their family had gotten to such a bad place. Cael leaving, he and Dahlia fighting, her anger and disgust at him over what happened to poor Pete Mincey. But it wasn't Wayne's fault. He was going to run with the rest of them until Dale had to show up and kill Pete. He couldn't just leave the situation like that. They'd have never gotten out from under that. Little did he know that at the time Dahlia was in contact with a COP over her parole violation. But that's Dahlia. Act first, think later.
Wayne has always been a good person at his core. He may be a grifter, a traveler, someone who lives a life built on schemes. But he could never really hurt a fly. The situation with the real Riches, Pete... He looked at it as clean up work, not malicious acts on his own part. But he found his real dark side when he got that phone call from Quinn that he had Cael. That drove Wayne over an edge that he didn't even know he had. And he knew he had to take some serious action. He found Dale and they had a long talk. He made Dale acknowledge the threat that Quinn posed to his leadership of the camp. He came up with an idea to eliminate Quinn and return Dale to the power he thought was rightfully his own. He did it for Cael, he had to save his boy.
Dale and Wayne went to the camp and somehow managed to lure Quinn away. For all his smarts, he was right about Wayne's as well. The difference was that even while praising Wayne to Cael, he underestimated what Wayne was really capable of, and he fell right into the trap. Dale handled the gory parts. While Wayne decided this plan needed to happen, he didn't really have the stomach for the details. When it was over, Wayne reunited with Cael and had him call Dahlia, since she didn't want to take Wayne's calls. Cael told her to gather Didi and Sam and bring them to the camp. When they were all together again, Dale made a public declaration to them in front of everyone at the camp that they were always safe and welcome there, and made sure to tell everyone not to pursue them in any way. This was as much of an official vow of their safety as they would ever receive.
Wayne had the family go into hiding while he closed the Bayou Hills deal and collected the money. While he knew it was a big risk, he chose not to push Hugh out of the deal like Minkov had demanded, and took the money and ran, quitting Panco and disappearing. Despite everything, he had a soft spot for Hugh and he couldn't bring himself to screw him over, even though he knew that damn Russian wouldn't quit until he found him. He repaid Dale the money he took, plus a small cut of the Bayou Hills deal, and he was gone. The rest of that money now sat in an off-shore account that no one knew about except his family. While they could pretty much live off it indefinitely, he and Dahlia decided it would be smarter to live modestly. One, to not draw attention and two, to keep a nest egg for the kids.
Wayne hadn't decided on Chicago as their next destination with any ideas of reconnecting with his former life. He just figured since he at least had a feel for the area that it would provide them with an advantage for whatever their next move would be. And what the hell would that be anyway? He squirts some shampoo in his hair and massages his scalp, secretly hoping to stimulate his brain into coming up with ideas. He was so tapped out after everything in Louisiana that he didn't know if he would ever be able to come up with another scheme. But maybe that was alright. They could just lay low, live off the nest egg he was hiding, and have a normal, boring life. But Wayne knew in his heart this would never happen. It wasn't the money he craved. He had grown up in a Jesuit orphanage after his parents had died. He knew what it was like to have nothing. No, he craved the adventure. The danger. He told himself that he had to give up that lifestyle for his children, but a part of each of them craved it too. So they would scheme. He knew that.
But first, he knew he had to figure out what the deal was with this Mickey character. He closed his eyes and let the water wash over him, hoping to summon up memories of his brief affair. What had her name been? He could see the woman in his mind. Blue eyes, but not as bright as Cael and Mickey's, hers were more of a gray-blue. Black hair. She had been beautiful but tired. Spent. Wayne had been running weapons through a connection he had made and had sold a stash to the woman's husband. That guy was a scary son of a bitch. Wayne remember him vividly, even more so than he remembered the woman he had slept with. He had brought the guns to the guy's house, a ramshackle place if he had ever seen one. There had been a bunch of young boys there, their kids Wayne had assumed. And the wife.
She had hung back in the kitchen, watching silently, her eyes appraising Wayne. She had been too skinny, and Wayne suspected that some illicit substances may have played a part in that. But she was beautiful nonetheless. After Wayne and the husband had exchanged guns and money, Wayne made haste to get the hell out of there. As he was walking around the side of the house he heard a window open. He turned around and there she was. She motioned him over and he stepped below the window, looking up at her.
"My husband is going on a run out of town this weekend. You should come back. Saturday." She moved back in and was about to close the window.
"Wait," Wayne said. "What's your name?"
She leaned back down and smiled. "I'm Anna. Hope you come back." She shut the window and was gone.
And he did. He came back that Saturday, and the following one, and any chance that he had when her husband was away. Their relationship wasn't one of depth, but it was fun. And again, Wayne did love the danger. He loved the risk of getting caught, the thrill of it all, how every move had to be hasty and have purpose. They kept their affair up for a few months until Anna had ended things. Wayne thought about the last time he saw her. She had called him and asked him to come by. When he got there, she had been sick. He assumed she was on something, or coming down from something. In retrospect, he now wonders if it could have been morning sickness. Did she know?
"Wayne, we have to stop seeing each other. I think my husband is suspicious. He'll kill you if he finds out."
He had protested, not really out of care or affection, but out of some knee-jerk reaction. But once she had put her foot down he agreed. That was the last he had seen of her. He didn't even know their last name.
Wayne realized the first thing he would have to do would be to track Anna down. He had to assume that if this Mickey was still in this neighborhood that she would be too. Wayne knew he could get Didi to help, see if Mickey would lead them to Anna. He got out of the shower and toweled off, changing into some clothes and going downstairs to look for his daughter.
"Didi! I have a job for you. I need you to track Mickey, see if he leads you to where his family lives or to his mother. She's the key to figuring this whole thing out."
She agreed and went to look for Cael, who had been casing the house next door since he was told to lay low. He was out on the porch, pretending to be occupied with a book. Didi sat down on the stairs next to him and said, "Has that Mickey kid left the house yet?"
Cael shook his head and replied, "Not unless he went out the back way."
She nodded and just sat with him awhile, enjoying the sun's warmth on her legs. All of a sudden, she saw Mickey exit the Gallagher house and make his way in the opposite direction from where they sat. She got up and said, "Tell Dad I'm after the mark." She set out on her mission.
The first stop was a bar. She knew she couldn't follow him in there and risk getting spotted, but thankfully there was a coffee shop across the street. She went in and ordered a drink, taking a seat at a table near the window so she could keep an eye out for him. He was in there for quite some time until he finally emerged and she left the shop to continue after him. She made notes on her phone, pretending she was texting. The Alibi Room, arrive approx. 12:30pm, leave approx. 1:45pm. 1955 Trumbull Ave. The address was for a house that he stopped at. He was only in there for a few minutes when he emerged with another young man, who looked sort of like him but with lighter hair. It took her a moment to realize that the young man had also been at dinner with them, but she hadn't paid much attention to him at the time. That was going to have to change. They got into a car and Didi couldn't pursue them anymore. She looked up her new address on her phone and followed the map to find her way home.
When Didi gets back, she finds Wayne reading the newspaper in the kitchen. "Dad, I think I know how we get in. I think Mickey has a brother, he was at the dinner next door but I don't think I talked to him then. I followed Mickey to a house and he met up with this guy, I've got the address. Instead of Mickey, we can make the brother the mark and see what information I can get out of him."
Wayne is always amazed at how good his children are at this life. "That's great, Didi! I believe there were actually a few brothers. See if you can get that confirmed. I'm going to have Cael try to do some hacking to see if he can get any information through legal records to help speed this up. Focus on trying to get a last name, that will be an enormous help. Hopefully it shouldn't take too long before we have enough info to move forward one way or another."
Didi looked at Wayne and said, "You slept with the woman and don't even know her last name? Classy, Dad." She rolled her eyes and went up to her room.
Wayne yelled after her, "It was a long time ago!"
Didi changed into a bikini and decided to lay outside and work on her tan. She figured it was an easy cover to do some casing of her own. She grabbed a towel and went outside, spreading it out and laying right on the lawn. She didn't have to wait long before that same car she had seen the boys get into pulled up in front of the Gallagher house. In another stroke of luck, the young man got out of it alone, Mickey nowhere in sight. She sat up and waited until he was on the sidewalk before she called out to him. "Hey!" When he looked over, she waved and gave him a big smile.
He came over and said, "Hey, you were at dinner last night, right?"
She replied, "Yes, but we weren't properly introduced. I'm Didi."
She offered her hand and he shook it. "I'm Iggy."
Didi chatted him up, flirting and laying it on thick and he bought right into it. It wasn't long before he asked her out on a date for the next day and she accepted. Finally he said, "I have to pick up my little sister. Can I get your number?"
She took his phone and entered her number for him. When she handed it back, she gently touched his wrist and smiled. "Can't wait for tomorrow!" Before he could answer, she went back inside. She peeked out the window and saw him staring at the door thoughtfully. Hook, line and sinker, she thought to herself.