Our Scars

Small Things

44

Small Things (Title by Ben Howard)

"Thank you so much for agreeing to this! I believe I've made a terrible mistake Nate..."

"Why don't you come in?"

To say that Jay wouldn't like Rianne's plan was a big understatement.

He had almost gone ballistics when she had told him she wanted to set up a meeting with Nate, pretend that she was beginning to doubt Jay and get a reaction out of him, see if he was offering up anything that would tell them he was involved. Her argumentation that it was really just her that Nate wanted, so maybe they had to give him that to get answers, had finally earned approval from Voight and the rest of the unit.

Jay had wanted to keep it from happening under any circumstance while everyone else thought it was probably the best approach to get some movement into this. They'd found a nexus between Marina and Nate, or Marina and Ayla in the meantime. Social media had been kind of forthcoming in that department. Turned out Marina was a high-school-friend of Ayla's. So it was more and more likely that this was connected back to the "Nate and Rianne original falling-out".

Up until now all the evidence was more than thin. Replying to the unknown number from Rianne's phone had been in vain, there never was an answer, even worse that number was no longer in service, a dead end. They needed someone to make a mistake. Jay found himself overruled.

Sitting under special supervision from his sergeant in Voight's car because he had been behaving like a petulant child ever since Rianne had sprung this on him, Jay's anxiousness was killing him.

In an attempt to raise as little suspicion as possible she had let Nate pick the place where they'd meet and he had chosen their former home, which Jay liked even less. How could they protect her if Nate chose to attack her or keep her there with him he had yelled at her. Jay's imagination of all the worst case scenarios was running wild. Her promises to be extra careful and use the arranged safe word immediately whenever she felt unsafe, had done nothing to assure him. At least being back in the loft gave them the opportunity to plant a bug and a camera. If Rianne managed to do that without getting caught.

She'd been instructed to use the basic technical gear in a crash-course by Kevin, maintaining her cool through it all as if she did this every day. Jay'd been wondering why he was more freaked out by this than she obviously was.

On her arrival at past eight in the evening Nate seemed wary of her sudden change of mind. But Rianne pulled out all the stops and really went deep on all the emotions. She told Nate about Jay's possible adulatory and drug abuse, showing one of the pictures to him. Rianne brightly painted images on how Jay seemed constantly hiding something from her and that she suspected he wasn't at all what she had thought him to be, that she was afraid he would drag her down with him. That she wished she had listened to Nate in the first place. And just like that the other Ruzek found himself back in exactly the same role that had fitted him so well until late summer: The understanding comforter and best friend in a crisis.

Next thing they knew Nate was fixing him and Rianne a stiff drink and got his smokes so that they could share them. While he rummaged through the kitchen cabinets Rianne took the chance to plant the bug under the dining table and a tiny camera device in a picture frame by pretending to look at it nostalgically.

"She's good..." Voight hummed next to him with some kind of surprised half-smile on his face as soon as they got some visual off that camera.

Jay stiffened at the image of Rianne being hauled into Nate's arms after she'd burst into tears suddenly. It was sort of a miracle she could do that as if by command. Jay didn't know if he should be impressed or terrified by her acting skills and the lies she told Nate to his face. He guessed some people only saw and heard what they wanted. He kept scanning the images they were getting off the camera in her glasses for any signs of a weapon or something just as worse. Until now it seemed that Nate ate it all up. Voight suddenly patted his arm comfortingly. He hadn't noticed that he'd been growling under his breath: