Chapter Text
"So. Whatcha thinking?" Val turns to Lucas.
"A-about what?" he stutters. He was thinking about a lot of things, really. He misses Jordan—Agent Kane, he reminds himself. He's easy to talk to.
"Kane? Reyes? 'Busy'?? I'm askin' how long you think they'll go before they tell us."
"Wh-what? I, um, don't really understand what you mean?" Lucas looks around. Riley is pretending not to listen. She has been fidgeting with her earrings since the start of the conversation. Of course, he's not gonna say anything. People don't like it when he does.
And Max… well, he's Max.
"I mean, they've been gone for hours. Jordan's been weird about it for months! Eli's bad at hidin' it, too. I dunno why they think their thing is still a secret, but…" and that's what's been bugging Lucas, really. When Eli went missing, Jo—Kane wanted to look for him. He… he worried for him.
He's never done that with the other two missing. Lucas can't help but wonder if he'd get the same treatment.
Probably not. It's all just for special little Eli Re—
And that's when Riley gets a call from Dr. Danse.
It's a fast one. Lucas counts 17 seconds of her nodding along, with the occasional "Yes?" or "Wait, how long?" interrupting whoever's talking. When she finally ends the call, there is a smile on her face that Lucas knows is fake.
"Sooo… do you guys remember the shapeshifter we caught last year?" Lucas wasn't on that mission, but looking at the faces of Val and Max…
"Oh," Val is very quiet, as if scared to disturb the silence, "He's been acting weird. For months."
"I… I don't… what?" Lucas, unfortunately, realises what she means. But… Jordan can't. He wouldn't!
"No, I don't think—" Riley begins.
"I dunno, he seems fine enough to me." Max shrugs. Max doesn’t care about Jordan.
"Well yes, but—" Riley attempts to say again.
"N-no, but… but he's not! He's—Riley, tell them!" he knows they're right.
Riley sighs.
"Lucas… remember a few weeks ago?" she says carefully, "With the Broodfather?" she looks down. Her hoop earrings become much more interesting all of a sudden. "But Val, it's—"
The Broodfather which Jordan promised not to report on? Jordan never did that before, did he?
"Broodfather? We killed it, didn't we?" Max interrupts.
"You did, and we… but if he's…" but if they're right, then… would the real Kane still like him? "I didn't wanna say anything. Because he was–he was nice! It was like he… actually cared about me." Lucas sighs.
"Doesn't sound like Kane. He only cares about saving his own sorry ass." Max notes, and Lucas really wants to punch him.
"Fine. So what now? Do we capture it? Or…" they can't. Can they?
"What now?" Val loads her gun. "Now, we find it. We find out what it did to Kane. And then we put a bullet through it's head."
Lucas gulps.