THE OG AU

[conning]

[summary tk]

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[conning]

A longer silence. “That depends. Are you saying you have the solution?”

[abrightboy]

“I’m not playing your little games anymore. When you want to have a serious conversation, call me back.”

Malcolm hangs up before she can answer, slipping the phone back into his pocket before stepping over to the kitchen to press a kiss to Neal’s forehead.

“Want some more tea?” he asks, threading his fingers through Neal’s hair. “You need to stay hydrated.”

[conning]

“Please,” he says, not bothering to hide the admiration on his face. “That was hot.”

[abrightboy]

“The tea?” He crinkles his nose a little. “I can set the kettle to a lower temperature,” he offers.

[conning]

Neal laughs, then coughs, then kisses Malcolm's cheek because his breath is terrible. "You."

[abrightboy]

“Oh.” He glances down and then back up with a bashful smile. “I haven’t done anything.” He turns towards the stove, then looks back at Neal and holds up a finger. “Yet.” Then he goes to make more peppermint tea.

[conning]

"That was also hot," Neal says.

He drinks the tea, grateful for the freshness and the sharp flavor. He's not quite done with his cup when his phone starts to ring where it sits in the middle of the table. He looks to Malcolm for guidance.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm meets his gaze, then picks up the phone.

"Hello?" he says politely, like he doesn't know who it could be.

[conning]

Silence on the other end for a moment. "Stop toying with me, Bright."

Neal, for his part, is captivated.

[abrightboy]

“Why; do I owe you something?” Malcolm counters. “Do you have an answer to my question?”

[conning]

“You’re the one bargaining. Make me an offer, if you’re willing to do it.”

[abrightboy]

“You’re the one that needs it. Make me an offer. Please don’t assume it can sound too much like begging for my tastes. I could entertain a little light groveling,” he informs her stonily.

[conning]

Another fuming silence. A pause. “He’s not dead, is he. You wouldn’t care about making a deal with me if he was actually dead. You want me to leave him alone? Fine. Give me what I want and I’m gone.”

[abrightboy]

“He may yet survive. The FBI doesn’t know. Nobody knows. But the time to simply leave him alone is well past. We already offered you that chance. It’s too late. It doesn’t involve you suffering for the suffering you inflicted. Try again.”

[conning]

“You don’t care about money. He’s not around to enjoy it. I can’t give you twenty percent of nothing.”

A pause, the next words poisonous. “You want me to kill someone for you? Or give you evidence on people I’ve worked with? That I can do.”

[abrightboy]

“I don’t need you to kill people for me,” Malcolm scoffs like he’s insulted. “I know how to kill people. Your late colleague was blackmailing him. I want the so-called evidence. And I want fifty percent of the take.”

He doesn’t care about money, but he did mention wanting her to suffer.

[conning]

“Blackmail and thirty percent,” she snaps. “Or I can send the footage along to Burke and wash my hands of this whole thing. I can disappear just as well as Caffrey.”

[abrightboy]

“We’ll take the deal,” Malcolm tells her. “Call me tomorrow to see if he’s still alive. If he makes it until then, he’ll be far enough out of the woods to solve your little puzzle. We want the blackmail stuff upfront, like a deposit. Our thirty percent to follow.”

[conning]

She calls him something very rude and hangs up.

After a moment, Neal says, “She went straight to thirty and the evidence from twenty? She wants whatever this is, badly. Enough to make her careless.”

[abrightboy]

“She’s always been pressing the urgency of it,” Malcolm says. “She was quietly pushing the clock even when she was pretending to be innocent Rebecca. She’s promised it to someone already. Someone she needs something from desperately or someone she’s afraid of.”

Malcolm leans over to kiss his temple.

“Rest up. I’ll call Murdoch.”

He arranged the meeting for the next day on purpose; he saw Neal trying to walk around.

[conning]

It doesn't occur to Neal that the delay is for his sake. For the sake of planning and coordination, sure. For him? Not so much. Neal closes his eyes, basking in the kiss.

"We're going to do this. It's going to work."

[abrightboy]

“Correct,” Malcolm declares. He takes out his own phone and dials Murdoch. “We’re meeting her tomorrow.”

[conning]

Murdoch, to his credit, doesn’t miss a beat. “I’ve secured permission to work with Mr Caffrey outside of the purview of the FBI. What scenario are we running?”

[abrightboy]

“The kind where we’ll tell you where and when you can have her,” Malcolm replies.

[conning]

There’s a pause.

“Mr Bright… if you had been in pursuit of a violent, sociopathic criminal for some time with minimal support and significant obstacles, and had come close several times to securing that person only for superiors or technicalities to allow their escape, would you be satisfied with being told—unique opportunity notwithstanding—that you would be given a place and time and that you were expected to wait on the sidelines until your job had been done for you by a third party?”