Tango, of course, immediately sticks his head out the window. He was just outside, with the sun and the fresh air, and it doesn’t actually smell any different – but it’s more exciting, being in the car and also outside. He likes when the car moves and the wind blows through his fur. It feels like he is moving very fast.
But he does stick his head back in to say, “DAMIEN-PARENT… HOUSE?” He remembers it fondly, even if most of the team had been injured when they’d gone. It had been warm and full of comfortable things.
Addy had been there too. They had played in the back yard.
“TEAM.” He’s excited to see them! “ALL… TEAM?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, “That’s a nice place, right? They’ve got a pretty backyard for us to play in and we’ll be eating food together. We do this every other week actually.”
No matter how hard she tried to explain, the concept of death just wasn’t sticking with him. She understood how it could be hard to believe when she’d two people reappear after being declared dead. But she’d seen plenty more perish and stay that way. She supposed it was the only way to comes to terms with the reality od death. And she didn’t wish that upon Tango. So instead she just sighed.
“No, not quite the whole team,” her hands gripped the wheel tight as she thought of Addy, “But almost everyone.”
WHEN & WHERE: brunch at valentine residence; september 4th, 2004
WHO: beth ( @retiredmonarch )
while he had actively chosen to distance himself from the initiative, he had received news about its reformation and the subsequent breakthroughs under the new director’s leadership. he had paid the new headquarters a visit, but only once, in the past ten months; the sight, while still bare-bones at the time of his visit, had left him speechless.
“everything you, laura and keller have been doing at the bureau is incredible, beth. really. i guess all i can say is… thanks for taking a step toward making it what it should’ve been a long time ago,” he said, offering her a smile. “though, i can imagine you must be busy with rebuilding and all.”
beth never expected will to return to headquarters. there were some people, like him and zia, who were perfectly capable of making their own lives outside of the team. but beth failed in doing so the first time and she wasn’t interested in trying an failing again. it was difficult for beth to admit she had nothing else besides the bureau and the exemplars, but it was the truth. and when she really thought about it, her time at the bureau wasn’t a small accomplishment.
despite how much beth craved approval, she was never very good at taking compliments. especially not from will. she still had trouble believing them even if she knew they were well-deserved. she shrugged, “it’s not really that incredible. i’m just rebuilding what was there and letting the mutants out of their cages. it doesn’t feel like a revolution, it feels like basic decency.” she smiles in return, “busy. but in a good way. how about you? does teaching suit you the way you thought it would?”
Damien’s eyes flicker to his mother scolding Tango for trying to munch on the rosebushes and he grins widely—she had more steel in her spine than he’d ever know, and him trying to take a bite out of his mother’s roses was going to be a stern talking to in the corner. “Let’s.” There was so much that happened in a few months, personal injuries notwithstanding, and it still feels like lead in his heart. Maybe it gets easier, but Damien doesn’t know.
“Will you visit us?” Damien asks, fondness in his eyes as he looks at Beth—and there’s all that restraint he has not to tear up. “If you’re not busy with director duties, could you? The apartment, well, we finally got the guest room. Can’t imagine my life without the team.”
Beth knows it’s a little weird, but she couldn’t picture a most quintessential family barbecue if she tried. She had never been allowed into the word of the idyllic, so she had nothing to compare this occasion to. But she’d heard rumors of the love, the drama, and the feeling of being whole and she didn’t really understand what that meant until now. It wasn’t a normal family by any means, but it felt more real that any group of smiling faces she’d ever seen in advertisements or on tv.
“Of course,” she said, her voice lilting high in disbelief that he’d even ask. “You know as top dog I get to choose my own hours and I’ve chosen to get weekends off. You can expect me to show up at your door every weekend that you’ll allow me. I don’t want to go back to feeling alone. I’m doing everything in my power to make sure that never happens again, for either of us.”
“Sure, Madam Director.” He gives her a bow, too forced and formal to ever be serious, smiling all the while. Responsibility looked good on B eth somehow, the aches of the past giving way to the future that he’d hoped would greet them all. Maybe the future would come where Beth had a dinner for them all, no raw steak in sight. A man could dream after all.
“I still can’t believe the new HQ. Pictures don’t do it justice, really,” he tells her, a smile on his face. He imagined this, back then—but he hoped that it would have come priceless. “The memorials too; they’re great. They’d have loved it, you know?”
Beth laughs, a deep and hearty sound, like someone who never had a care in the world. It was easy to feel that way now. Even though her best friend, her trivia partner, and both of her former bosses were dead, Beth was moving on. She was living and enjoying herself. Because she knew Addy wouldn’t want her to be weighed down by grief. She could practically hear the other woman in her head, telling her to smile.
Beth shrugs, “I can’t take much credit. I just told the architects to make it look nice and simple.” Her face falls a little, and she looks off, her eyes getting distant, “I know but . . . let’s not talk about that now. Let’s just avoid my steak and try to get Tango to stop eating the rosebushes.”
Tango has perfected the art of the flying leap into the backseat – carefully, with his claws tucked in, and not so fast. If he had a tail, it would be wagging as hard as Ranger’s. As it is, he makes do with happy rumbling, a hulking shape taking up most of the SUV’s back seat. Ranger has to be content with a small portion off the side.
“GO WHERE,” he asks, poking his head through the gap in the front seats. He is so pleased that Beth is the director now. Thinking back, he’s not sure he ever would have pictured that possibility, but now that it is true, it seems made to be. She will be an excellent director. “WINDOW… OPEN? FOR TANGO?” It’s the best part of car rides!
Over the past three days Beth had kind of taken Tango in as her assistant / bodyguard. He was still recovering from his journey and she didn’t want him to leave her side, not even for a second, until she knew he was okay. She was still having trouble believing he was really there. But she was happy to pretend like the last ten months and the weight of his loss still weighed on her shoulders. She could just smile and act as if it never happened.
Beth slung herself into the front seat and turned the key in the ignition. the moment the car rumbled to life she pressed the button to roll down all the windows. “Of course buddy,” she said, “We’re going to Damien’s parent’s house to see the team. There’ll be lots of food there.” She pulled out of the driveway and began the short trip north.
It seems petty to point out that she still has a whole steak to go. So he does. “You have a whole steak to go,” he says, a raising an eyebrow. “Beth. I’m not letting you near the grill, and not letting you poison yourself. But, if you ask nicely, I might let you help with the salad.”
Damien keeps poking at his steak, and looking over at the rest of the team in his parents’ house. “You ever think we’d get to this, eh Director?” It’s a little teasing—she has rank now. Not just Monarch, but Director. Not that it ever mattered to him—she was Beth, and that’s what counted. “Still can’t believe the office space you got.”
He’s right, and she knows she can’t choke down the rest without completely embarrassing herself and spitting it back up into her hands at least once. So she admits defeat without saying it, “I’ll give it to Tango,” she says quickly. She’s recently started to come to terms with the fact that she doesn’t have to do all the cooking, she can play it safe by sticking to the boxed brownies. “The only begging that’ll happen today will be done by Ranger and Mango.”
“Hey, that’s Madam Director to you,” she quips in return, folding her arms over her chest and looking out over the pristine backyard as their gaggle of odd friends milled and chatted like a family on fourth of july. She laughs, throwing back her head, “I mean I’m the one who helped designed the place. I wasn’t about the sign of on the architect’s blue prints unless I had enough space for a couch and floor to ceiling windows.”
“If you could eat the whole thing without spitting it out, I’ll let you tell me it’s rare,” he tells her, crossing his arms. “And that director is my dad. He knows your grill skills first-hand.”
She shurgs, grabbing a fork and stabbing it into the hunk of meat, ripping a bite off of it without cutting into it. It is weirdly slimy but she chokes it down out of sheer defiance. Raising a fluttering hand to her lips she struggles to gulp it down at second time as it rises back up her throat. Once it’s down she opens her mouth to show that it’s gone, like a proud toddler. She knows he had a whole steak to go, but it’s a little victory.
“Yeek, nevermind. I know better than to argue with your dad. I’ve met brick walls with more give.”
“Beth, I love you. But I’m not letting you near the grill ever again, not after you somehow grilled meat raw. Maybe you’ll be supervised, but I’ll have to take it up with the Director for Grill Affairs.”
“Oh c’mon! It’s not raw! It’s rare!” she argues, despite somehow being completely wrong, “Well, that director should be a heavy hitter because I’ve been working on my ‘arguing about something pointless’ skills recently.”
she flips down the seats to the back of her bureau issued (beth issued) black suv and wipes the spare dog fur off her hands, knowing that it’s a futile attempt, the whole back of her car would be coated by the end of the day. she was practically a regular at the car wash, vacuuming out dog and mutant fur. “alright boys,” she calls to tango and ranger, “load up!”
“not to bring up work too much on the weekends, but did keller mention anything to you about tracker collars? i’m debating between collars and ships, they both seem pretty dehumanizing.”
Wednesday, September 1st, 2004. Newly rebuilt Bureau Headquarters.
Beth sat on the staircase of Tango’s memorial, the white marble statue of her friend was a poor representation. It did not have the thick black fur that she could bury her face in or the glint of curious, nearly blind eyes peeking through. Still, everytime she crossed the lawn from the parking lot to the entrance of the newly rebuilt headquarters, she rested her forehead against the stone and closed her eyes.
She was on her lunch break now, having ordered two burgers and a medium serving of fries from the local McDonalds. Usually, she preferred to eat her own cooking, but the last time she’d attempted to make burgers at Damien’s parent’s house the barbeque had caught on fire. Despite Damien’s dad’s attempts to teach her how to properly cook through red meat she always ended up with the heat on too high. So, she figured that she could give herself a pass today, since it was a special occasion. It wasn’t a particular date, or anything, but she’d just signed the orders to name a building after Tango as well. It was a lab for Laura to begin the rehabilitation program for creatures that had been kept in confinement due to their unknown origins. Instead of treating every unidentifiable organism as a potential threat, Beth had decided to give Laura supervision. After all, she trusted the woman’s judgement.
With the documents signed, it only felt right to commemorate the building’s naming by sharing the burger she’d promised Tango. She pulled one out of the white paper bag and set it on the base of the memorial before grabbing her own and unwrapping it. McDonald’s burgers were always thinner and limper than they looked in the commercial, but she couldn’t deny they tasted good. Fatty and fake, she took a bite into hers and leaned back against the statue’s base. At her feet, Ranger whined. He was a master at begging for food, and Beth was a sap. But she was able to hold out as he rested his head on her thigh and gave her very puppy dog eyes. He was growing old now, and she knew he didn’t have much time. But he was the only real piece of Addy she had left. She’d lost her two best friends that night and despite how she’d buried herself in work in an attempt to drown out the grief, it was hard not to cry at the thought of them.
The past year had been a blur. It seemed like she was in the hospital for eons. First she got the news about Addy and Tango, and through her hypothermic haze she’d almost thought that evening’s events were a terrible nightmare. But then she found herself back in America, in the room as Vincent updated Eve on HQs situation. Keller was the only person to survive the attack, and he only was able to get out because of Benji. It was a rhythm all too familiar to Beth now. Addy died for the team, Tango died for the team, and Benji died to save the bright young scientist. Beth almost considered making ‘don’t sacrifice yourself’ one of the new rules of the bureau, but she knew better. After all, that was what made her friends heroes. And the bureau was in charge of making heroes.
The memorial services passed in days. Then Vincent retired, and Eve retired. Damien returned to New York to be a private investigator and a father again. Then Edie left. And finally Will and Zia. Soon the original team was just Beth and Laura. With no one else to turn to to rebuild the bureau, Beth stepped forward. She’d always wanted to be a mother, to take care of people and protect them. She wanted to make something. As bureau director, she could remake something. She could make the bureau kind and benevolent, no longer a hand sweeping issues under the rug and using puppets as distraction. She’d seen what people could do when they cared about each other. So she resolved to take a step back from her pursuit of love, and instead chose to give her love to the world. She thought maybe one day she would find someone to love her and she could start a new family.
But she already had a family, and now she could create a system that helped mutants and aliens find their own families here on earth. The Exemplar’s legacy would be to create new teams that could learn about their power and abilities, and protect the world from real threats. She’d seen how the most unexpected people could shine under pressure so she was going to give these new recruits a chance to prove her right.
Sitting on the cool marble pedestal next to the walkway, she stared out over the construction zone. As head of the bureau she would be overseeing every building that would be rebuilt. Except for the Exemplar’s living space. It had been destroyed too. But she had no interest in bringing it back. It was not a home if it was going to be empty. She hadn’t decided what to do with the space yet, so for now it was just the cleared cement foundation. It gleamed in the sunlight, full of possibility.
Sitting there, reflecting on the work she needed to do, she finished the last bite of her burger and stuffed a few more fries in her mouth. She wiped on her hands the grease off on her black pencil skirt and sighed. Patting Ranger’s head she unwrapped the second burger and told him to go ahead. It was for Tango, but she wasn’t going to leave a burger there to rot next to the sidewalk. The gesture was purely symbolic after all. Ranger wolfed it down into two swift bites and looked up at her expectantly.
Rubbing behind his ears, she smiled down at him before reaching up to read just her new glasses on her nose. They kept falling down. In doing so she left a smudge mark on the right lens, and sighed. Beth did not notice when Ranger whipped his head to the side, his ears perking up. She was too preoccupied digging in her pocket for the glasses’ cleaner. She squinted down at her lenses, cleaning them impatiently, before sliding them on back over her nose and looking up.
Drawing in a sharp breath of disbelief she uttered the name of the creature standing before her, the last person she expected to see here, “Tango?”
“of course not, beth,” the brunet chuckled, though lightly. the gesture seemed innocent enough – to any outsider currently staring in their direction, it would seem as though he were merely reacting to a joke of hers. “i was thinking about getting him out of here – lock him in a bathroom or some room inside. shouldn’t be too hard finding one - this place looks massive.”
but then, he sighed. “to be honest, i don’t know – you’d be better off asking damien or laura how to carry out an effective stealth attack. at the end of the day, being quick and silent is key. how about we figure once it happens?”
“that’s a decent response.” if he had a glass in hand at that moment, he’d raise it to her answer. “we’ll be fine, i’m sure. we know to brace ourselves this time around.”
beth heaved a sigh of relief, forgetting about the crowd around him as she focused on the conversation. beth always had trouble being aware of her surroundings when she was in one on one conversation, it was like all the world blurred away. perhaps it was a virtue, a sign of focus, or perhaps it was just her inability to multitask. it had cost her plenty in the past, especially when speaking to zia. “oh thank god,” she muttered. “i know we’re going kinda rogue and taking matters into our own hands but i don’t think i could outright kill anyone.”
she nodded, “i’d like to say i’m good at improv but the past has proven otherwise. we’ll see how i do when the stakes are raised.” she wasn’t sure if it was the cold or her nerves, but she held her shoulders tight and braced as shivers wracked her spine. “that’s true. we’re bringing the fight to them and this time we won’t be surprised. even though we’re on unfamiliar ground i still feel like we’ve got the jump on them. i just hope this doesn’t turn out to be a trap.”
“I’m making my rounds, at least. Simple recon, that sort of thing; too bad I can’t understand a fucking lick of Russian.” He tried to breathe, let the nerves drain out of him, but he was just sneaky, not a spy. And he certainly didn’t mingle. Not with a full leather suit under a tux, at least. If they’re lucky, maybe this was just a fluke and the bad guy was in Manhattan; if not, well, he didn’t want to think about that.
“I’ll cover you when you get that thing started up,” he replied, drinking the champagne a little too quickly. “Spy or not, maybe we could get a few choreographed moves back in a fight, right? Or you think the portal’s going to just going to, you know, appear?”
“Me neither,” she sighed, “But I’ve heard so many different languages tonight already. Russian, English, German, French, even Swiss I think. It’s like rich people came from all over the world came to watch the unveiling of the world ending device, which is crazy to me.”
She placed a gentle hand on his arm, “Thank you Damien, really, I feel a lot better knowing that you’ll be here with me. In the sky I often feel so alone. Even with Edie.”
“I’m sure we’ll be able to hold our own against the human guards but if any more of those freaky creatures pour out I’m not sure we’ll be able to fend them back,” she looked around them, eyes wide and watching for any sign of suspicious behavior or drastic movement. So far all the guests seemed at ease. “I’ve only seen the foyer so far and I’m sure this castle has many many rooms. Who knows where the portal could be waiting.”
“Well, we’ve certainly been in worse places than an ice palace,” Zia chuckles, with a slight smile forming on her lips, “And warmer…” she adds only partly joking, having no true love for the cold.
“You’re right,” Zia agrees, surprised by the lack of vitriol between them as she removes the earrings, taken aback by the geniality of Beth’s advice. “I have a feeling that a missing earlobe would probably go over pretty poorly with the bureau…”
“Yeah, have they never heard of central heating? And Are they leaving the doors open for a dramatic effect? The draft is terrible,” she said, a nervous smile playing at her lips. It was funny how it was avoid insulting Zia when they were united insulting someone else.
But the jovial nature of the conversation couldn’t last, “What bureau?” scoffed Beth is disbelief, “In case you weren’t paying attention Zia, the bureau is a pile of ash ont he ground. They have bigger things to worry about right now than your appearance. Novel concept, I know.” She was lashing out because the thought of the bureau inflamed terrifying memories in her mind. She didn’t want to talk about their home and their organization in shambles, but it was worse to pretend like everything was fine.
Tango nods solemnly. It’s a good plan, because he is very good at roaring, and very loud.
He just hopes he doesn’t cause chaos inside, if he needs to alert them that way. Causing panic in a crowd of humans is a dangerous thing. He has been extensively informed of this.
“OKAY,” he agrees. “TANGO GIVE… ROAR SIGNAL. IF FIND.” Here, he pauses, tilting his head, perplexed. “WHAT IF… TEAM FIND? INSIDE? TEAM… ROAR? FOR TANGO?”
Beth was never good at plans. That was supposed to be Cesare’s forte. Or Benji’s. The thought made her stomach turn. One person she relied on was dead, the other was missing in action. So she turned to Will now or Eve. But something so simple as coming up with a signal was difficult for her.
“Yeah, we’ll roar,” she said. Beth figured that if they did find the portal they’d start working to foil the plans of the man in the mask, and that would probably cause shouting and screaming of some sort. “So listen for us.”
“Unfortunately, glitzy parties filled with creeps really seems to have become my territory,” Zia shrugs, “I’m just hoping that we won’t have to find out…should I ditch the earrings?” Zia asks, pointing to the dangling jewels that hang from her earlobes, “They’re not exactly battle-conducive but they might help with blending in…”
The conversation is surprisingly pleasant. But Beth knows that one word out of place and they’d both spiral back into their habits. “Well, at least it’s a glitzy party,” she said, halfway joking, “We could be a in a total dive but instead we get a ice palace.”
She looked at Zia, staring at the woman who’d never seemed to value her opinion before, “You don’t need them. And they aren’t worth the risk of being torn out if we get into a fight.”
