Chapter 3
A slight shift in motion woke Patterson from her sleep. She laid there for a moment with her eyes closed, reveling in her current comfortable state, then tried to get her bearings. She opened her eyes slowly and then smiled at the first sight of the day being the chiseled jawline of Tasha’s beautiful face. She was at Tasha’s apartment. In Tasha’s bed. With Tasha. She was on her stomach, her face nuzzled into Tasha’s neck, her arm over Tasha’s torso. Tasha was on her back, one arm loosely over Patterson’s arm, the other arm just above Patterson’s head, fingers loosely intertwined in Patterson’s hair. Last night they had ended up on the floor, kissing, then had moved to Tasha’s bed. The dresses had come off, but somehow their underwear had stayed on. A brief conversation had come up about not diving in all the way on the first night together, and so they had spent most of the night rolling around on Tasha’s bed, kissing, smiling, laughing. Patterson continued to lay still, listening to Tasha’s rhythmic breathing. Then she tilted her head up a bit and planted the gentlest kiss on Tasha’s cheek. Tasha stirred, and then her eyes fluttered open.
“Good morning, sleepy head”, Patterson whispered with a smile.
Tasha yawned, then turned her head slightly and smiled. “Good morning, you.”
“Sleep well?” Patterson asked.
“Yeah. Really well”, Tasha said. "You're a wonderful cuddle buddy." She flashed a slight smile. “You?”
Patterson raised her head and smiled at the compliment, nodded slightly, and then settled back down into the crook of Tasha’s neck. She laid there for a moment, her hand drawing circles on Tasha’s bare stomach, making Tasha giggle. Patterson smiled in return, and then started, “So, um…last night-“
“I had a lot of fun”, Tasha interrupted, tilting her head down to face Patterson.
Patterson stared at Tasha for a moment and then said, “Yeah. Me too.”
“And it was the right move, you know? Not, um…not going...all the way...”
“Yeah, totally”, Patterson said, nodding.
Tasha cupped Patterson’s cheek and smiled, then planted a tender kiss on Patterson’s lips. “Hi”, she breathed out.
“Hi”, Patterson breathed back, then laid her head down onto Tasha’s chest. It had been the right move last night, not moving too fast, she thought.
“So, um…”, Tasha began.
“Yeah, I guess we should maybe talk”, Patterson said.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Wait, what time is it?” Patterson asked, then looked over at the clock on Tasha’s bed stand. “Oh my God – I…er, we…we should get going. It’s almost eight.”
“Oh no”, Tasha groaned. They were late. Talking would have to wait, which was okay with her. She needed a bit of time to process, but she actually would have taken a bit of talking if it had meant being able to stay in bed a bit longer with Patterson and wake up slow. She smiled and said, “And here I wanted to make you breakfast, even though I’m not really the greatest cook.”
Patterson laughed lightly. “It’s okay. You can take me out sometime.”
“Deal”, Tasha said. She smiled and kissed Patterson again, then said, “Well, do you want to shower here? I mean, that might save a bit of ti-“ She was about to say “time” when both Patterson’s phone and Tasha’s phone went off.
Patterson looked at Tasha. That can’t be good, she thought, both phones going off at the same time. “Uh oh”, she said, then looked at her phone. It was a text from Weller.
WELLER: Get in office ASAP
Tasha looked at her phone and read out loud. “Get in office ASAP, from Weller.”
“Yep, I got it too”, Patterson said. She sat up quick, then looked around.
“Do you have a change of clothes for the office?” Tasha asked, sitting up as well.
“Yeah, I packed one just in case”, Patterson said.
Tasha smiled slyly at Patterson. “Well, aren’t you confident”, she jabbed.
Patterson smiled back, almost embarrassed. “No, it wasn’t like that. I just, you know…naturally plan ahead.” She gazed shyly at Tasha, then looked around, as if trying to figure out what to do next.
“What is it?” Tasha asked.
Patterson sighed. “We gotta move, but I could really use a shower”, she said.
“I said you can take one here”, Tasha said with a slight smile, registering that Patterson was flustered but noticing how adorable she looked when a bit panicked.
“But we need to get in the office, like now.”
“Then you better make it quick”, Tasha said lightly with a smile. Patterson smiled back and shook her head, amused but a bit flustered, and Tasha thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, um… we can take one together.” Patterson looked at her, and Tasha said, “I need a shower too, and we don’t have much time, so we need to move.” She looked at Patterson for another moment and then kissed her again. “C’mon, Patterson”, she said, getting off of the bed and taking Patterson’s hands.
Patterson stared at her for a moment and then allowed Tasha to pull her off the bed and towards the shower.
********
“Where the hell have you two been?” Weller barked. “I hit you like an hour ago.”
After getting out of bed Tasha and Patterson had fumbled through a quick shower together, both of them crammed inside the shower stall in Tasha’s bathroom. It was not the shower either of them had hoped to take for a first shower together, jumping in the water before it warmed up, hurrying through, bumping into each other. At one point Patterson was shampooing her hair and had accidentally nailed Tasha in the forehead with an elbow. Tasha had been dispensing shampoo into her hands and had dropped the bottle mid-pour onto her foot and cursed. Patterson, shampoo in her eyes, had apologizing and went to pick up the bottle but had nailed Tasha again with a head-butt on the way down. Tasha had cursing again, and Patterson had cooed another apology, then kissed Tasha’s forehead and then her lips. Tasha, not seriously hurt and laughing slightly at the ridiculousness of the whole situation, had returned the kiss, but then before it got too heated, they had gotten out of the shower, quickly dried off and had gotten dressed, applying minimal makeup, just enough to get away with. Then they had hopped in Tasha’s car. On the way over they had argued about whether or not they should enter together, Patterson worried about someone putting something together, but Tasha had said the team would be too distracted to notice, so they had run into the office together, both looking a bit disheveled but about as put together as possible, given the tight timing.
“Sorry”, Patterson said. “We were, um-“
“You guys alright?” Reade asked. “You look like you just rolled out of bed, both of you.”
“Well that was nice, Reade”, Jane said sarcastically.
“Hey, just sayin-“
“What’s going on?” Tasha interrupted, directing attention off of where they had been or what they had been doing and onto the reason they had been called in so hurriedly.
Weller glared at both Tasha and Patterson for a moment and then said, “While you two were running late this morning, Reade put together something on another tattoo.”
“Wait - Reade did?” Tasha asked, surprised.
“Yeah”, Reade said, proudly. “It’s amazing what can happen when you show up for work.”
“Alright, look”, Weller said and punched up the screen. An attractive, fair skinned woman with black hair appeared. “This is Ashley Powell. She's Scottish, been in the states for a while, and is one of the most prolific arms dealers on the eastern seaboard. We think there’s a deal about to go down between her and this woman.” Weller pulled up another image, this one of another attractive woman with dirty blonde hair, fierce green eyes, and an intense expression. “This is Liz Wells, an Irish national. We don’t have much on her, but Homeland sent over some intel. We think she served in the Irish Rangers. It’s like the Irish Army Special Forces. According to the intel, Wells’ father was in the IRA. Apparently she inherited the separation ideology. She's also got a mean streak a mile wide, and she hates the English and pretty much anyone who doesn’t support separatist ideology, even if they’re Irish. Anyway, we think Wells currently serves as a high level operative in a radical separatist group called Saoirse, which is Gaelic for ‘Victory’. Like the IRA, Saoirse's goal is for Northern Ireland to be an independent country, free from English rule.”
“Not much is known about Saoirse, but apparently they have connections all over the east coast”, Jane chimed in.
“Now, there’s a small tattoo of an Irish lyre on Jane’s lower back. In one of the clovers is a smaller tattoo of a Scottish lion. And engraved in the backbone of the lyre are a series of numbers”, Reade said.
“We decoded it based off of a Fibonacci sequence”, Weller said. “It translates to today’s date, 11am.”
“There’s a bar over in Tribeca called Molly’s. Owned by Irish ex-pats. Symbol on the door sign is a lyre", Reade said.
"Homeland says the Wells and Powell families go back. Powell’s father fought in a Scottish resistance force alongside Wells’ father, back when Wells’ father was in the IRA. Seems like working together is family tradition for these two”, Weller said. “Homeland says they’ve been expecting some kind of action from Wells soon. She’s been making moves all around the area. There’s a summit at the UN tomorrow, focusing on peace between Northern Ireland, England and mainland Ireland. Both English and Irish diplomats will be in attendance. Now, Saoirse will never consider peace to be made until England grants Northern Ireland its independence, and that may or may not ever happen. If Wells was to attack, this would be an ideal scenario, with all of these political leaders together in one place. My guess is that Powell is going to supply Wells with arms for the attack, and that the arms deal goes down today at Molly’s.”
“So we’re going in hot”, Tasha said.
“No”, Weller said. “If we’re wrong, and there’s no deal, or if they’re not there, then we risk spooking both Wells and Powell. Now, if Wells is there but Powell isn’t, then we might still stop the attack, since Powell is just the dealer, but if Powell is there but Wells is not, Wells could still secure weapons before tomorrow and carry out an attack. I want to nail them both, just to be sure we stop anything from happening.”
“Can we stake it out from the outside?” Patterson asked. “I can see if there are any street cams in the area.”
“There’s not enough time”, Weller said. “We need to get a sit rep as quick as possible.”
“So we need to go in undercover”, Jane said.
“Yeah, but there’s just one problem”, Reade said. “Molly’s is a lesbian bar.”
“What?” Tasha asked.
“Yeah”, Weller confirmed. “Powell and Wells are both lesbians, which is probably in part why they picked Molly’s. So that means Reade and I can’t enter without arousing suspicion.” He looked Tasha, Patterson and Jane. “You three will have to go in alone.”
“Wait”, Tasha said, suddenly worried. “Can’t Jane and I just go? Does Patterson need to be there?”
“Tash!” Patterson said sharply.
“What?” Tasha said. “It may not be safe, especially if we won’t have the whole team there.”
“I can handle myself”, Patterson said, righteously. Reade turned and looked at her, and then at Tasha.
“Alright, stop”, Weller said to Patterson and Tasha. “Look, I want all three of you there”, Weller said to the three women. “We need as many eyes as possible on site.” Weller paused and then said, “But eyes only. Under no circumstances are you three to engage without calling for backup. Reade and I will be right there out on the street. If you see something, holler, and we’ll come right in. Are we clear on that?”
Everyone nodded.
“Alright, let’s move”, Weller said, and the team headed for the door.