Author´s note:

I would like to thank everybody who has made it thus far, who has come along on the journey this fic has been. I started it out several years ago and bringing it to an end now makes me both giddy and a tiny bit proud. I hope you enjoyed. I very much appreciate every like and comment that I got for this over the years even though my busy life has sure kept you waiting a lot over long stretches of time, this time included. The epilogue has been in the back of my mind for a long while and as a thank you to all my readers I wanted to post it along with the last chapter, because it seemed like the last chapter and this epilogue belong together and should be read in one sitting.

Thank you so much for your support and if you liked it, if you went along this far, please let me know what you think. After all those chapters, just leave me a little line, it will be very much appreciated.

Other than that, take care everyone and thanks for sharing the joy of this fandom.

Nili

Epilogue

Come hell or high water

As the limosine rolled into the small aircraft cargo, Eli Pope could not keep a smile off his face. Ah, the memories this place brought. Months ago he had taken his own daughter here on a mission to send her away, to finally get her out of the toxic reach of the man child that held the Oval, to finally make her understand that such a man would always be a drag on her own ambitions, using his own privilege of race and sex over a formidably smart woman like her that he could not handle in any other way.

That attempt had failed, but so many other things had worked out just as he had designed them to be. Larsson was still his man, his integrity even strengthened by that spiteful daughter of his and the crisis that her mother had fabricated out of mere insanity and boredom had been thwarted without him even having to move as much as a finger. It took the skills of a master puppetteer to orchestrate things to fall into place with such neatness and he felt it was apt to congratulate himself on a job well done.

He regreted having to leave DC, but it didn´t mean he would surrender Command. Things had not gone the way he wished they would have in that regard. Maya had seen to that as had his daughter but it would not be the first time for him to rise from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix. His time would come again. They didn´t know it yet, but they were involuntarily still dancing to his tune and his alone. Just like the proverbial hydra, the self acclaimed knights of Washington´s second Camelot would find the serpent did not die without its head. Eli was positive that as long as he remained free, he would always be able to direct things just the way he wanted them to. Steer the pawns on the chessboard of politics. His daughter would one day be grateful for this he was sure. Sometimes the when the mountain won´t come to the prophet…

As the car came to a halt and he climed out, the sleek white and blue private jet had already started its engines – a clean whirr of sound promising new beginnings. He had instructed his driver to leave immediately and the limosine turned and sped off out of the hangar as he did his first step to ascend the ladder into the small aircraft. He took off his coat and sat down on the leather seat. Allowed his eyes to fall close and only opened them a minute later when the soft trickle of confusion started to enter his brain. The aircraft had made a small turn but not moved any more than that. And when the machines died down instead of revving up, his eyes snapped open.

One time…only once he had let down his guard. And that one time had been enough.

The two men standing opposite him with their guns trained at him must have been in the pilot´s cabin and he cursed himself for his senses to catch up too late. He felt his gaze turn to stone. And then she stepped out from behind the curtain that separated the passenger cabin from the pilot´s. Every step of hers the pride that he had always imagined his daughter to be. And yet…turning against her own father. Prefering the privileged over the deserving.

"Father."

He did not reply as she sat down opposite of him, predator confidence oozing from her very being in a way that despite everything made him proud. He couldn´t help it. He chuckled. "Olivia…" It sounded like a sigh.

"I remember this plane." she said icily. "Ironic, don´t you think?"

"I am not sure whether you understand the true meaning of irony, dear child." He could feel his fingers digging into the fine leather, could feel his tempers start to seethe. The ungratefulness…

"Ironic you wanted to send me away from here, claiming that I was manipulated by the man I love while it was you all along trying to keep me from messing with your own affairs. Trying to keep me from uncovering your dirty secrets."

His chuckle returned. "Don´t be dramatic, Olivia. Everybody in this town has secrets…"

"I would not test me if I were you." she said, her voice a coldness he had never heard of her. It quieted the chuckle, but not his determination.

"I am your father. Even you would not be as ungrateful to have me shot."

"I am the daughter of a father who killed a man´s child. Would you really like to test right now if you taught me right?"

He meant to leap from his seat but they were on him in a flash, two much younger men and in a second he felt the cold metal of a gun against his temple. She rose to her feet, leaned forward, slowly, menacingly, her fingertips against the surface oft he small table between them. Again, a moment to be proud of his own flesh and blood, had she not turned into this viper… "You got it wrong the last time." she said in a way that told him she was clearly relishing the moment. "It is me who is the hell…and the high water."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The last light of the day was quickly fading but as usual this was the best time to be out on the Lincoln Balcony. When the constant stream of tourists had died down to a trickle and the lights started to come out, bearing promise of things to come and closure to things that had been.

She turned as he stepped beside her, holding out a glass of wine to her with a smile. She accepted it, smiling back, and for the first time in a long while, she felt at peace.

"To us." he toasted and she accepted. "Even though I think Huck should be included in all of this. He helped us out after all. And not just with keeping the reporters silent."

She couldn´t help but grin at that. Huck was his own kind of crazy, but he had always been a true friend to trust. And hadn´t it been for Huck both her parents would still be at large. It was him who had found out how it had been possible for her father to be in on all of it. He had found out how her mother´s attempt at escaping the Brussels airport could be stopped. She had disabled her cell phone, not knowing that there was another tracker that she had been entirely unaware of. Designed in earlier years, a chip under the skin right at the back of her neck, implanted and healed months back and that she had not even been aware of or otherwise she would have clawed it out with her bare hands. Her father must have implanted that chip when he had held her captive. Drugging her so she wouldn´t notice, not even later. A chip technology that Huck had had a part in developing years ago… and that he had been able to hack. Locating Maya had been relatively easy that way once she had been spotted by Liv at the airport. Sending in special ops had only been a matter of a phone call.

"What are we going to do about Tom?" she turned and leant her elbows on the ballustrade, taking a sip of the wine. He regarded her with his back against the banister.

"Always the fixer…" his words were gentle. "He´s at a safe facility now and he´ll be the hero for yet another while. After that…"

"He killed Jerry."

Fitz replied nothing to that and his silence was enough. Her father was secured and put away more safely than in the Hole he had so long ago devised for enemies of his own. There was no question that Tom Larsson would have to play a role in the public eye for yet some time. After that…there would be ways. After all, everybody had a price.

The silence between them stretched but was not uncomfortable. When she felt the back of his fingers gently tracing her arm she did not pull back, but turned to look at him. Look at this man who had nearly broken when she had left. When she had been brought to believe that he was manipulating her while the true spider sat in her own family, spinning his silent webs.

"You nearly died…" she heard herself say, her words ringing a strange sense of deja vu.

"Yes."

"Don´t do it again."

It seemed like she was saying that thing to herself as much as him but when he looked at her with those sorrowful eyes, his "Okay", just a whisper, she leant over to him and gently touched her lips to his.

For the first time a long time, she felt safe…and maybe for the first time ever, this place truly felt like home.