| By Chance Episode 26 |
| ** "Let's go back to bed." Rachel grinned as she watched Harvey get dressed for work. She checked the clock, still earlier than the last time they got sidetracked. "Oh no, we're not going through that again." Harvey walked back over towards the bed. "I can just picture it. Nash will see us and ask why we're late, and I'll have to tell him it's because you insisted we go back to bed." "We won't be late." Rachel smiled shamelessly at him. He was finding the opportunity hard to resist. "And it was your idea the other day." "You're going to get us in trouble," Harvey shook his finger at her, "trying to stop me from getting to work on time." "Now it's all my fault?" Rachel stood up infront of him and slowly undid his tie, "I don't remember hearing any complaints.'' Harvey kissed her, "not complaining." Just then as they walked back towards the bed, his cell phone rang. "Not going to answer that." "Maybe you should." Rachel handed him his phone and he answered. "Inspector Leek." Harvey wondered who could call with such bad timing. "Harvey, it's me, Nash. I need you and McCabe to get in here early, we've got something." Nash could easily predict that he'd find Harvey and Rachel at the same place, so he wasn't going to bother calling her as well. "We'll be right in. '' Harvey hung up the phone and looked at Rachel, "guess where we have to be?" "I'm assuming not here?" Rachel smiled as she lazily got off the bed. "Apparently, we have work to do." Harvey slid on his jacket and exited the room. ** "Thanks for joining us, you two.'' Nash smiled as Harvey and Rachel walked up the stairs together. Luckily, he was alone for the moment. "So what's up?" Rachel knew she wouldn't have to explain the situation to Nash. The look on his face said he knew. ''You two are going undercover. Antwon is getting the information now.'' Nash knew they could do the job, that's why he assigned them. "Andrew and Rachel again?'' Harvey was a little surprised Nash didn't want to give them new identities. ''Yes, you two will be doing some investing with Kyle Sampson. He's a computer genius, figures out the odds on off track betting and starts building a money pyramid. He needs some capital. Problem is, he doesn't always give back what he takes." The scheme was clear to everyone but the investors. "Okay, what do we have to do?" Rachel wasn't clear on what Nash needed them for. "Invest, trust him with some money and see what he does with it. If he's legit, there's nothing we can do. If not, we bust him." The plan was ready, all they had to do was put it in gear. ** "Hey, Cassidy. What are you doing here?" Antwon acted as if he was surprised to see her. "I do work here, you know." Cassidy was annoyed by his comment, she needed time off to focus on what to do next. "I know, but we don't see you often." Antwon was right, she was gone more than she was there. "I've needed some time off, not sure if this is what I want to do." Cassidy was beginning to think the law wasn't right for her. "Shouldn't you have thought about that first?" It didn't make sense to do something you didn't like. "I guess so." Cassidy blew him off and walked away. She didn't need to hear it from him too. ** "You're lucky we weren't late this morning." Harvey was only half serious as he sat down on the corner of Rachel's desk, but Nash wasn't someone they'd want to contend with. "He would've killed us both." "You do have a point there." Rachel wasn't thrilled with the idea of going undercover again, but this wouldn't be so bad. "What time do we leave?" "We have to go after six, we're meeting him for dinner." Nash assured Harvey that this gig wasn't as intense as the last time and wouldn't take nearly as long. "After six, huh?" Rachel grinned mischeviously at Harvey. "That gives us time." "Forget about it. There's no way." Harvey knew exactly what she had in mind, but they had work to do. It was just after lunch, so they had at least five hours before showtime. "I wasn't talking about that, I meant to go home and change.'' Rachel tried to cover, her excuse was plausible but she couldn't say she wouldn't mind seeing Harvey outside of work either. "I find that hard to believe." He chuckled, not remember the last time he had a romance like this. Harvey looked around suspiciously, checking for wandering ears, "there's always later." ** "Here's the book, Joe." Bill handed him the scrapbook, "I'm sorry that it took me so long to find it. Mary's mother sent it to me from Boston." Joe set the book down on the coffee table, "so what do you want me to do when I find her?" "Call me, of course, and then we'll go from there.'' Bill hadn't really decided how things would work out. He thought it depended on the birthmother's reaction. "Why is it so important that you find her, I mean, now?" Joe still wasn't sure why Bill wanted to find her so badly. "I need to Joe, okay?" Bill didn't want to explain, Joe wouldn't understand. "I should get going, call me as soon as you find something." Bill got up off the couch and headed towards the door, Joe followed slowly behind. "It will be soon." Joe had a hunch, and the pictures were likely to confirm it. Joe shut the door after Bill left and went back to the living room. He picked up the book and started flipping through. The pictures gave the image of someone he saw only a couple hours before. "Dammit, it's her." ** "He was flirting with you." Harvey noticed Kyle's interest in Rachel right away. He didn't take his eyes off of her all through dinner. He avoided the subject during their ride back to her house, but he was curious as to what she thought. Harvey set his jacket down on the coffee table and sat on couch. "Kyle isn't after me, it's Andrew's money he wants." Rachel laughed at the thought, he was too young for her anyways. "Are you jealous?" Rachel came back into the living room carrying two glasses of wine. "You mean you're not turned on by the twenty-two year old computer genius? The man San Francisco Magazine called The Sexy Young Millionaire?'' Harvey knew he didn't have to worry about competition, but she was an easy target for jokes. Rachel tossed the pillow next to her at him as she sat down. "He's not of my interest." Rachel had to admit, Kyle was attractive. Kyle just wasn't her type. "What is of your interest?" Harvey wondered why she didn't like Kyle, he had a friendly and outgoing personality and was reasonably handsome. He took another sip of the wine, it was Dead Red. "You." Enough had been said, Rachel had staked her claim. ** "Harvey, running a little late?" Antwon grinned as Harvey walked towards his desk. Harvey checked his watch, only thirty seconds before eight. They had cut it close. "You're normally here early." "I had some... things to do this morning." Harvey was miserably fumbling for an excuse. "Sure you did. She gracefully made her appearance five minutes before you." Antwon laughed at their lack of subtlety. "Let me guess, you overslept?" "That's one way to put it." Harvey grinned, there was no way out of this. "Can I ask you something, it's personal?" Antwon had to know, its been eating away at him. "Nothing is too personal for you to inquire about, Antwon." Harvey chuckled, if there was something Antwon wanted to know, he had ways of finding out. "Remember our talk, about the type of girls I date and the ones you date --- after we doubled?" Antwon remembered their conversation fondly. Harvey looked around to see if Rachel was nearby, "ah, the picture twins..." "Uh huh." Antwon smiled, those were the girls he was referring to. "And then your Inspector Femme Fatale walked by while I was giving you the tips." "Yeah." Harvey remembered the exact evening Antwon was referring to. "Is she one of them?" Antwon didn't want to come right out and say it, hoping Harvey would know what he was implying. "One of them?" Harvey tried to think for a moment, certainly not a picture girl, that wasn't it. "You know, like we were talking about?" His curiousity was getting to him, he just had to find out. She didn't always look the type. "Oh, I can't say." Harvey smiled, there were some details just to private too share. "Don't you even do that to me, I'll never know myself! Is she?" The suspense was driving him mad. He hadn't thought of her that way until that evening. "Sorry." Harvey walked upstairs smiling, leaving Antwon with the mystery dangling. ** "So dinner went well last night?" Nash was anxious to hear how things went with Kyle Sampson. "Yes, he told us how to invest our money for maximum profits. He's sticking to the small stuff for now. Mainly off-track betting." Harvey remembered the conversation quite well, Kyle had hit on Rachel most of the evening. "He made a few suggestions and named an amount.'' Rachel figured he would've asked for more money, but figured he wanted to start low. "So you got him to talk?" Nash wanted to be sure he was following them bit by bit. "Yeah, he wants our money as capital." Rachel knew he needed the money to keep the pyramid going. That way he could place higher bids on the winning horses. "You two will meet with him again tonight, see what you can get. I want you both in a wire." Nash wanted to hear every word, they couldn't screw this up and lose all the people's money. "Okay." Rachel and Harvey had no choice, they had to go along with it. This case wasn't as dangerous as Cardell, but it was still undercover. ** "No way... step back. I'm not even talking to you." Antwon pretended to be offended by Harvey's unwillingness to talk. "Oh come on, she'd kill me if I said anything." Harvey knew that Rachel liked to keep her personal life private. She wasn't one much for public displays of affection. He wondered how she handled Vincent. "Just a little bit of info is all I'm asking, is she?" Antwon was practically pleading with Harvey. "I'm not telling..." Harvey shook his head, "now help me pull these files up." Antwon pulled up a chair by Harvey's computer. They both searched the screen for the web page they needed. "Are you sure you created the link?" Antwon didn't see where the page could come from without a link. "I did last night, on Rachel's computer." Harvey worked on the page after they got home, well after she had gone to bed. "That explains it, you were distracted. Hey, Rachel, come here." Rachel walked towards Harvey's desk, "it's the return of lollipop twirling seductress." Antwon and Harvey both smiled. When Rachel got there, Antwon put on a more serious face. "Looks like Leek screwed up the link." "Here." Rachel typed in a code quickly and the page popped up. "Problem solved." Rachel walked back towards her own desk. "She's good." Antwon smiled, wondering what Harvey would have to say about that. "For the record, she is one." Harvey got up from his desk and headed up the stairs to take the papers to Nash. ** "You have reached the voicemail for Rachel S. McCabe, please leave your message at the tone." Joe hated the sound of the answering service. "Hello, Rachel. This is Lieutenant Joe Dominguez with the SIU, I need to talk with you about an ongoing case. Please call me at your earliest convenience. " Joe hung up the phone, this woman was impossible to reach. Nash walked up to Joe's desk, "what are you up to?" "Trying to reach the other Rachel." Joe wished he could tell Nash what was going on, maybe then he would talk. "We're back on that again?" Nash didn't want to say anything about Rachel's private life. "We'll talk later." Joe could see Rachel right downstairs, now wasn't a time to bring up the pictures. ** "Another bouquet?" Harvey looked over the flowers on Rachel's desk. More wild orchids and Gerber daisies. "From Bill, I'm guessing?" "Who else?" Rachel didn't know what to do about Bill and the flowers that he kept sending. There was no way to stop him without a risk of revealing who she was. "Maybe you should call?" Harvey thought it was time for the flowers to end and for Bill to see she was taken. "And what am I supposed to say?" Rachel didn't think there was any way around it, it would be too hard. "Tell him you're seeing someone, you appreciated the flowers but you're not interested." For Harvey, it was as simple as that. "And you think that will be the end of it, what if he knows Harvey?" That was all Rachel could think about, somehow, he knew. "Will you quit worrying about that? You think he wouldn't have said something by now?'' He didn't mean to sound so angry, but Harvey was becoming frustrated with her constant worry over Bill. He couldn't understand why she wouldn't call him and tell him to leave her alone. "I have to worry about that, Harvey. You have no idea what it's like." She considered it for a moment, his situation was completely different. "If it was your kid, you'd worry too." Rachel looked around after she realized how loudly she had said that, trying to fight back tears. "Listen, I'm sorry --- I don't know what it's like. What I do think is that, he doesn't know and he's just attracted to you." Harvey saw it to be completely possible, what guy wouldn't like Rachel? "What time do we meet Sampson tonight?" Rachel was desperate to change the subject, still hoping no one heard her comment about her child. "At seven-thirty, drinks at Mandara's." Nash had already updated him as to what their game plan was. "I'll be at your house around 7:15." Rachel wanted some time to herself, she needed to think and decide what she was going to do. "Oh." Harvey had anticipated they'd leave together and go to Mandara's, but she evidently wanted some space. He felt bad for what he said, not knowing what he'd do in that position. ** "Tell me that isn't her, Nash." Joe held out the few pictures he had, she was a dead ringer. As far as Joe was concerned, the case was already closed. He worried about how Bill would take the news, how could he not now it was her? "Joe, I don't..." Nash was finding it harder and harder to lie, especially with so much evidence in front of him. Joe wasn't going to give up easily, he had a hunch and he was right. "Why can't you just say it's her?" Joe looked at the pictures again, how could anyone not know who it was? Everything was the same, except maybe the hair. The eyes, the nose, the smile. "I can't do that, Joe." The proof was there, all Joe needed was a confirmation. Nash couldn't break her trust. "Nash, please. I am begging you... tell me I'm not crazy and that this is her." Joe knew it was, but he had to hear it from somebody else before he went to Bill. "Look, that's her with him, the father. Please." "What does he want to find her for, the birth mother?" Nash's resistance was wearing down, if he had a reason, he might talk. Nash was trying to think of a way to explain the situation to her so she wouldn't kill him when she found out he told. "All he'd tell me is that he needs to find her." Joe wasn't sure why exactly Bill had to find Cecilia's mother. "I'm sure he has a good reason, I mean, Bill wouldn't just go upsetting his daughter's life for nothing." Nash looked at the pictures again, there was no way he could deny who it was. "It's her." "Okay." Joe breathed a sigh of relief, "what should I do?" "Talk to Bill, see what he wants. Don't say a word to her about this." Nash didn't want her to get hurt, he had to know what Bill wanted. "And then we tell her?" Joe wanted to tell Rachel right away, but Nash thought it was best that they didn't. "No. You're not going to tell her anything until you absolutely have to." Nash knew how much it bothered her, and if something happened and she had to give up her daughter again --- it would kill her. ** |
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