Organized Crime: Unorganized

Chapter 45

Lilly paced the floor of the hospital waiting room. Aneesa sat in the corner, watching the others as shook in fear and thoughtfulness. Lorenzo held Sadie close to his chest as she cried. Marco sat next to James, twirling the coffee cup in his hands. James sat oddly still, staring into space as he wished to have Grace back with him.
"Dear lord, please protect our friend and deliver her from this evil. She is a good person who deserves to live. Please bring her back to us" Lorenzo prayed quietly, hoping it would bring some of them comfort.
Hours later a doctor emerged from the operating theatre, blood across his scrubs. Everyone's eyes lit up with hope as the doctor stood before them and pulled off his scrub cap.
"She didn't make it" he told them.
"No!" Lilly exclaimed trying to cross the room when Marco grabbed her and pulled her into his chest as she cried and tears began to fall slowly from his own eyes. James turned away from his team as tears began rolling down his cheeks as he felt the pain of his loss all over again. He had lost her mind, and now he had lost her completely. And his heart ached for the woman that felt like home, who had healed him, his daughter and herself with her strength.

A few weeks later
Lorenzo and Marco carried Grace's coffin along with the other pal bearers. James held Abigail's hand tightly as he hid his sadness from the others. Sadie and Lilly had a firm grip on one another as they walked behind James, their tears uncontrollable, yet silent as they held onto Aneesa for support.
They all placed a rose onto the wooden box before it was lowered into the ground. They all picked up a handful of dirt and dropped it onto the box. Aneesa went first, burying the woman that she didn't know well, but who had intrigued her from the very start. Diane went next along with Marco, burying the woman that had become to feel like a daughter to him. Lorenzo went next, burying the woman that felt like a true friend- the woman that was a true friend. Sadie went next with Oliver, her eyes red and blotchy from when she had been crying the night before, missing her guide, the woman that felt like her sister. Lilly went next, her cheeks still damp as she cried for the woman that felt like a sister. Abigail went next, unable to drop the dirt on the woman that had healed her family and who felt like a mother to her. Finally, James went last. He picked up a handful of dirt before he moved to stand over the hole in the ground.
This wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to love another after losing Molly but he had. He'd found a woman so broken that all she was capable of was healing others, and she did that for him. Grace Cameron healed him. His life, his heart, his soul. And in return he glued pieces of her back together, the pieces that she didn't think she needed, the pieces that she couldn't quite fix herself. He healed her. She healed him. They healed each other. And now he was alone, because she died doing what she always did. Relying on herself to protect others. Simon Clover, Liam O'Reilly, Connor O'Reilly, Oliver Kingston, Diane Morris, Lilly Porter, Lorenzo Javier, Aneesa Nafazi, Marco Romano, Sadie Jones, Abigail Lawson and James Lawson. Twelve people she had saved. She was a hero and no one would know it. She was the hero that had his heart.
James dropped the dirt onto the coffin and whispered one final "Goodbye" as he looked at her headstone that read: Grace Cameron. Always loved, never forgotten. 06-23-1990, 10,17,2023. She was gone.
After the funeral, the team gathered in their favourite bar all with still gloomy looks of sadness across their faces.
"I found something you guys missed in Graces' apartment" James announced, pulling the piles of letters out of his jacket "I thought reading them would bring us all some sense of closure" James suggested.
"Read it. Please" Lilly pleaded, her eyes still full of tears.
"Dear Liam, I miss you. I've been thinking about what we'll do when were together again. We can have pizza for dinners every night and ice cream for dessert. We'll go to the beach and build sandcastles and we'll go swimming. And we'll be happy. I'm sorry you had to go away but it was for the best, I promise I'll explain everything one day but I needed to protect you. I'm so sorry. I love you and Connor and I miss you both so much. I love you my son. Lots of love, your mommy" James read out.
"Read another" Sadie told him.
"Dear Cor, I'm sorry you had to find out this way about everything. I didn't know that they were coming for me that day. Some days I imagined telling you, then I imagined the consequences. But, I also imagined what we could've had if you had decided to leave with me that day on the beach. We could've ran to a nonextradition country, somewhere where the boys could go to school with other kids. Somewhere were we could-" James fell silent suddenly as his eyes continued to read the page.
"What is it?" Marco asked him. James took in a deep breath before he continued.
"Somewhere were we could have another kid or even where we could get married, officially. The truth is I do want to get married and I do want to have a child of my own but, I was sent to do a job. You were my job but I stopped doing that. I fell in love with you and the boys, and I wish that you were something else, something that would make this easier. I'm sorry Cor. I love you and I hope that you can forgive me. Yours, always, Caity" James read out loud.
"I didn't know that it went that deep" Simon told them.
"She was given a ring from him, she hid his sons, how could you not know?" James argued.
"She told Clara her feelings, I was just the guy she drank with" Simon shrugged "If I had known, I wouldn't have let her stay, I would've pulled her out" Simon assured him.
"She wouldn't have gone even if you dragged her. She believed that she loved him, she wanted to be with him. Why would she tell you? You would've brought her back to reality" Marco told him.
"By the sounds of it, she needed bringing back to reality" Simon muttered before sipping his beer.
"Grace was molested as a child, then she got pregnant at 15 and had an abortion that scarred her, her whole life. She was damaged and she needed help but instead you threw her to the wolves and hoped for the best. What she needed was kindness and much to everyone's surprise O'Reilly gave it to her, he made her feel wanted when so many other just made her feel used. Gracie was a damn good agent and I don't want another bad word said about her" James ordered, taking another swig of his drink.
"I only meant that O'Reilly was always going to kill her but she couldn't see it. Grace was a damn good agent. She was a better friend though" Simon told them before he downed the rest of his drink and headed out, leaving the rest of them standing at the bar with blotty eyes and their drinks half finished.

A few weeks later
James sat under an oak tree on a bench that over looked Grace's grave. Every second without her was breaking his heart.
"I knew I'd find you here" Marco said from somewhere behind him "You always took care of him didn't you Grace?" Marco spoke to the grave as he slipped onto the bench next to James.
"I'm thinking of quitting" James admitted.
"You won't" Marco told him "She knows it to, catching the bad guys is what you do and I know that its been rough for you with her gone but, the FBI is what you do, its what she would tell you to do" Marco reminded him.
"I miss her. I remember details about her that you guys didn't even know" James told him "She liked home made cookies, she and Abi tried to make some and they nearly burnt down the apartment. She liked to dance and she sung in the shower. And she prayed before she went to sleep, she thought I was asleep but I knew she was doing it" James told him with a small laugh "I loved her. I love her. And now she's gone and I won't get to tell her that" James frowned deeply.
"She knew" Marco assured him, rising to his feet before he patted James on the shoulder "But, tell her anyway" Marco told him before he moved away.
"I love you Gracie. I'm not going to forget you and I'm not going to stop looking for O'Reilly either. I'm going to get justice for you, for the woman I love" James assured her before he kissed his hand and touched her headstone and moved to join Marco at their cars.
"Section chief Finnegan wants to talk to us" Marco told him.
"How bad do you think it is?" James asked.
"I would say someone's getting fired but I'm choosing to be hopeful" Marco told him before both men climbed into their vehicles.

"Hey boss" Lilly offered a small smile from her seat at her desk. She reminded James of a child sitting outside of the principals office, sweet, young, unhurt by the world.
"He in there?" he asked, peeking across the room into the conference room.
"We were waiting for you before we went in. Fearless leader and all that" Sadie told him.
"Whatever happens in there, I appreciate you all, I just want you all to know that" James told them, casting a glance at each one before he crossed the room with his team behind him and entered the conference room.
"Agent Lawson and your team, please come in" the team each took a seat around the table as Agent Finnegan opened a file in front of him "What happened?" he asked slowly.
"Agent Cameron was directly involved with an undercover operation three years ago. She was asked to undertake deep cover infiltration on Cormac O'Reilly, during which she found that he had two sons. In order to protect him she faked her death and theirs. He was sent to a Russian prison but he escaped and somehow found out that Grace was alive. In order to protect us she ran, which resulted-"
"Which resulted in her death and his escape!"
"He is a highly trained criminal-"
"One that had his sights set on what was between Agent Cameron's legs!" Finnegan shot back making James rise to his feet in anger.
"She did a job she was ordered to do. And because of it she fell in love with a criminal, who loved her back in return. I don't care what you do to me but you do not get to deface her memory. Gracie was a kind soul that had been hurt more than once throughout her life, by her mother, her father, the man that molested her and the teenager that got her pregnant. She deserved a better job, better friends and a better life. She didn't deserve all that pain" James told him, the anger lacing his voice as he held himself back from diving over the table and strangling the man.
"What she deserved was a team that worked faster and looked at the evidence before them" he bit back. Marco quickly stood up and touched James's arm, telling him that he would finish this for him.
"Grace was a spy for eight years. She had files hidden in her floor boards and letters hidden behind a tile in her kitchen. She was well trained, if she didn't want us to find anything then we wouldn't. The tile in the kitchen was an accident because of her dog Max, and the safe hidden in the floor was most likely done on purpose because she knew that we were on to her" Marco told him.
"Grace Cameron was an agent turned rogue. Her past, whatever that maybe, got her killed and it brought danger to you all. How am I supposed to be sure that you weren't all colluding with her?"
"Grace Cameron was a good agent and a good friend. She fought to protect us and she hid evidence to stall us because she loved us. We did our jobs with the evidence that we were given, we didn't save Grace in time-" Lilly cut herself off as tears began forming in her eyes and her voice began to tremble.
"We didn't save her in time because Grace didn't want us in danger. We tired our best with what we had" Sadie finished for her.
"You all have an odd sense of camaraderie for a group in mourning, I admire that. But, the fact of the matter is that you let her go and she did something reckless and now she is dead, someone is going to have to pay for this"
"That will be me. I don't want anything to happen to my team, I only ask that Agent Romano takes over in my absence" James told him.
"Boss, we can't allow that" Lorenzo objected.
"Its what's for the best. A good agent makes sacrifices for their team" James told him as he glared at Finnegan "This is my fight" James told them, sending them all out of the room, but before Marco left he patted James on the shoulder.
"Don't kill him" Marco smiled encouragingly before he left along with the others.