A Promise To Protect - 24. Mission - It's All About Trust

“Do you have any concerns about working with Tyler?”

“Not at all. Just as long as it’s not another test.” Zeke replies as he sits back with a challenging expression on his face.

“Everything is a test Zeke. Don’t take it so personally.” G rolls his eyes then sits forward in his seat, looking deep into Zeke’s eyes with consideration. “Are you concerned at all about him? He seems too... Lucky. I mean, it seems too convenient, doesn’t it? He disarmed someone. He just managed to keep himself out of danger until you got back. And how did he know how to hotwire a car? Do you really believe he’s who he says he is?” G asks. Zeke had been thinking about all the coincidences as well, though it was not possible that Tyler could be anyone other than the guy Zeke had rescued only months ago. It made sense for G to be questioning it though, because he hadn’t seen everything Tyler had gone through and all the times he’d made flawed decisions or been emotionally driven rather than calculating.

“I rescued him from that house. I saw him struggling to come to terms with the death of his family. Yes, he’s been lucky. And, he does think really well on his feet, but. Seeing him be so genuinely afraid of what he’s going through is just, no way he could possibly be…”

“A set-up? Decoy? Don’t think for a minute I haven’t noticed that he is a distraction to you.” G interjects quickly.

“Was a distraction.” Zeke corrects him. “Which is why I didn’t want him working here in the first place. I’m much less concerned about him now that I know that he can hold his own though. I obviously don’t have to be so worried anymore.” He felt that this was completely true to how he would treat Tyler from now on, as someone that is capable, not someone who needed his protection. Zeke would of course look out for him, but he felt confident that Tyler could manage reasonably well on his own. Zeke was actually looking forward to seeing Tyler show his initiative and demonstrate how he could handle situations.

“No offence, I’m not particularly reassured. It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve misjudged somebody, now would it?” G asks, sceptically eyeing Zeke for his reaction.

“Well, considering you’re the one that hired him. I think if he turns out to not be who he said he is, that’s on you more than it is on me. You said the other day he looked into him thoroughly, so I’m going to assume that you would be the first one to know if he was or was not somehow lying about his identity.”

“Just, keep an eye on him. And don’t get sentimental. If he isn’t who he says he is, you know how it’s going to end for him.” G tells him with a stern expression

“Sentiment goes out the window when faced with betrayal like that. If I found out he was somehow working against us, I’d get rid of him myself.” Zeke answers. Part of him genuinely believing that he would be capable, if Tyler turned out to be some very convincing trap. Because he did mean it, there would be no sentiment, no feelings of loss. He would have to of course turn off emotions and turn on logic. He could forgive and understand Tyler ‘spying’ on him under G's instruction, but plotting against him with people who murdered his family just seemed way too farfetched to be possible, but if it were the case, it wouldn’t be forgivable. He wouldn’t even have any feelings to worry about, because Tyler would immediately lose all of his credibility.

“I'll believe that when I see it.” G looks over at the door as Tyler gives a knock almost as if on cue. “Come in.” G calls. The moment Tyler walks in, Zeke could feel himself doubt his last confident statement. Dressed ready for another mission, Tyler looked more than immaculate. G could track him, but thank god he couldn’t read his thoughts to know just what Zeke was picturing. Zeke was almost embarrassed himself, by just how far from professional he’d allowed himself to feel, given that only days ago this was shut away in his brain as something he wouldn’t even let himself think about, let alone act on. Somehow the idea of being out on a mission with Tyler tonight felt like a fantasy being brought to life. The thrill of the danger, the attraction to him and the intense amount of adrenaline and focus, combined with the mystery and threat that Tyler posed all on his own, would be all the foreplay necessary for Zeke. If it went well, then his promise to Tyler of a reward, would be absolutely or Zeke wasn't sure he'd be able to function at all with this urge hanging between them without relief.

"How are you feeling this time? A bit more prepared?" Zeke asks as they head out for their second mission together.

"Well, we had our briefing together so I know we're not out to destroy each other's confidence this time at least." Tyler replies with a shrug. "And I've got a real gun."

"Try not to point it at me this time." Zeke laughs.

"You're no fun." Tyler rolls his eyes, Zeke glances at him and Tyler pokes his tongue out playfully.

"Says the one who turned me down for a nap." Zeke replies.

"Mhm, it was such a good nap." Tyler says, exaggerating his words in a sensual tone. "There's just nothing better than sleeping naked too, don't you reckon?" He knew he was being a tease and Zeke did not mind one bit, preferring this to the coldness of the last drive out and the nerves that had kept them silent on their trip home. He'd not been on a stake-out where he would at least get the entertainment of some flirting, so this should at least make it more interesting. "G was talking to you for a while before I was invited in, am I allowed to know what about?" Tyler asks, understandably curious.

"He wanted to know who to blame for the car." Zeke jokes, glazing over the truth and by the look on Tyler's face, he could tell. "I think he's intimidated by you. You've shown more initiative and skill than he expected and he doesn't like being wrong about people. He may have been trying to find a reason to not like you."

"Do you think he'd look better with his left or his right eye being replaced with a bullet?" Tyler asks with a slight smile.

"Planning a mutiny are you?" Zeke asks, trying to remain casual about it, despite the fact he was definitely listening for any signs that Tyler was being serious, just enough doubt had been planted in his mind from G.

"Don't worry, I'd use blanks. I just want to see him be the one set up to feel powerless. How can a boss get away with treating his staff like that? Even in this industry, no one should stand for that. In fact, he should be so grateful to everyone that works for him, because it seems like we're the front line, he will throw us out here to do whatever he decides for us and he will just sit in his office getting paid to traumatize people and keep his hands clean." Tyler rants.

"Tell us how you really feel." Zeke says sarcastically.

"Sure, I feel like he's using every single one of his 'employees' to settle some personal vendetta." Tyler shrugs, looking at Zeke with a smirk like 'you asked'.

"And you're not setting out to do the same thing by taking the job?" Zeke questions.

"Of course, I'd love to tear apart the gutless fuckhead that killed my family. At least I own that, what's G's position on it? Does he know these people? Is he related to the rich family that were killed first? What's his motive? Because he doesn't seem all that invested, he's just toying with people. As far as I'm concerned, if he wants someone dead, he should be out here himself." Tyler continues his rant. Zeke stays quiet, just listening with intrigue.

"G." Zeke pauses to consider whether he could actually tell Tyler anything, his small amount of doubt, overshadowed by the deep feeling of trust that he had in Tyler's innocence. "G was a long time family friend. When the murder happened, the family had left their inheritance to someone who couldn't do anything with it, they passed it onto G to set up this agency." Tyler is silent as he thinks about it all, a look on his face like he wasn't quite convinced of Zeke's explanation. "I'm planning to take over running it." Zeke announces, getting much more of a reaction this time.

"Right, so you'll be my boss?" Tyler asks, seeing the idea of this as being amusing and not at all taking this seriously. "Why would you like to take over it? How did you even get into this job?"

"And we're here." Zeke not so subtly tries to deflect but Tyler's having none of it.

"Oh, not you avoiding answering questions." He says sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

"Remember how you criticized me for not being focused on the last mission?" Zeke replies with a smile.

"Right, you gave it a whole day before you used that one against me." Tyler sighs.

"It was a good point. Probably shouldn't be flirting on a stake-out." Zeke shrugs.

"Sure, boss." Tyler smirks, not looking beside himself at Zeke though he was hoping that it was taking a lot to keep himself from responding to the clear bait Tyler was dangling in front of him. There's a long, long pause as Tyler is trying to keep his smugness from showing, though the longer Zeke says nothing, the harder it is to stop himself smiling. Then he dares to look at Zeke who is sitting smirking and staring out across at the house they were watching over. Zeke glances at him and Tyler immediately cracks and laughs the moment he sees the tormented expression to keep himself from reacting, Zeke was pulling as he held himself together.

"You're going to drive me insane." Zeke comments, shaking his head with a smile.

"At least you know my motives." Tyler shrugs innocently then sighs and undoes his seatbelt, settling in comfortably for this mission. "So, why are we at the safe house? Is G still trying to get rid of me?" Tyler sighs, nodding in the direction of the seemingly normal and unattended house.

"Nah, at this point G needs you to stick with working for him." Zeke shrugs.

"Well the tables turned there pretty fast didn't they? So who are we watching for?"

"It's going to be used as an in between house, since we're discharging 3 agents. Thanks to someone." Zeke states, looking at Tyler to see his reaction.

"Oh shit really? Well. Not going to lie, I'm not particularly sorry that they lost their jobs. That whole plan was so insanely insulting, and I don't feel at all bad about proving those jerks that I was good enough to be here and that they are the ones that panic and fumble and fuck things up." Tyler answers with a smug smile again and a shrug. Very pleased with himself tonight. "It does seem a bit stupid though, to be firing people when you're apparently trying to take down big Mr bad. Where's the logic in that? To reduce the number of people on your side when going into a war. I mean don't you just use the people that are going to be least helpful as the front line? When you think about it I'd rather have 3 guys with guns between me and the person out to kill me, because then they will at best, protect me from danger and at worst, buy me some time. Does it bother you at all, that you're getting absolutely nowhere with finding this mysterious killer? Because I really thought all the times you were at work, you'd have been actually working towards it, actually making progress." Tyler points out, bored already with the mundane task they were sent on.

"How many times have you tracked down a serial killer?" Zeke asks in a joking tone.

"Well in the what, week and a half that I've been working here, I've tracked down the same number of them as you have in how many years?" Tyler quips.

"Too many." Zeke rubs his forehead, unable to ignore the reality that Tyler was pointing out.

"Why is G the only person with his name censored by the way? Is it because he has a really boring name?" Tyler asks jokingly, trying to lighten the mood as he sees the stress and disappointment on his face from the last comment. "Because no one calls you Z, right? But your name, Zeke, is already a cool name. Secret Agent Zeke sounds cool. But I imagine that his name is like, George or Geoff. Something a little lame that just doesn't sound like an agent name so in order to try and make himself seem hip and cool, he gets everyone to call him G and he has everyone totally fooled that he's actually a badass when really his name is George and he use to be the rich couples door man or something." Tyler continues, laughing at his own imagination and the ridiculous topic change is enough to amuse Zeke and take his mind off a life time of failure in this job for just a bit.

"I've never thought about it, but now, I'm going to have a lot more trouble taking orders from Gunther." Zeke adds.

"Oh god imagine if his name is Gunther. And we're all just expected to take him seriously." Tyler laughs again. "Does he know you're coming for his job? Because I feel like I should start calling you Z all the time just to assert that power that he thinks he has, onto you every time he's around." Tyler says with a devious smile.

"Actually I do feel a little more powerful with you calling me Z." Zeke nods thoughtfully.

"The system works." Tyler smirks then squints his eyes and leans forwards a little. "So how do we know if it's a bad guy or just a regular person snooping around? Because that's someone walking up to the place right? All in black and looking like they don't want to be noticed." Tyler lowers his voice, pointing at the figure making their way around the building.

"It would be very coincidental for someone to just happen to be a regular person snooping at the one address we're watching." Zeke gets his gun ready and looks at Tyler who has a glint of excitement in his eyes that they are actually going to be doing something, grabbing his own gun.

"If you feel in danger or threatened at any point, you shoot, ok?" Zeke tells him quickly. "And preferably not in the eye, go a hand or a foot or something. Maim so we can ask questions."

"So, exactly what this genius already did last time." Tyler asks sarcastically as he points to himself.

"Your attitude really just..." Zeke groans in frustration. "Just, don't die. Because your so infuriatingly kissable when you're like this." Zeke states like he's genuinely mad that Tyler's over confident cockiness was getting to him so much, which of course only feeds Tyler's ego. "Ok, you go around the front, I'll go in the back." Zeke says, re-collecting the professional demeanour.

"I sure hope so." Tyler smirks and winks at him. Zeke leaves the comment and gets out of the car, closing the door as quietly as he could. Tyler does the same then watches the house with a determined expression, giving Zeke a nod to let him know he'd cover him while Zeke approached. His trust in Tyler's hands, Zeke crosses over to the house, standing against it and gesturing at Tyler to join him, his turn to watch for any sign that Tyler could be attacked as he moved towards the house. Head down and crouching as deeply as he could while still able to run, Tyler quickly joins Zeke against the side of the house. They don't speak, just give each other a nod then separate. Zeke goes to the back, while Tyler moves to the front, inspecting first whether he could enter through a window, they appeared to have strong security screens. Tyler runs his fingers around the edge to check for any missing or loose screws that he could use to dislodge the screen but as he'd expected from a 'safe house' they seemed properly installed. Onto the front door itself, Tyler immediately notices something that just mightn't stand out to anyone not expecting to look for abnormalities. The letter A beside the numbers of the address. Of course, this would make sense if there were another house close by with the same address number but that seemed unlikely given how much space was between this and the nearest neighbouring house. Perfectly innocuous and yet perfectly out of place. Tyler nudges the A suspiciously and has to stop himself audibly scoffing as the slight tilt now on the lettering revealed a cut out in the wood of the door. Moving the letter further to the side he finds a key placed in the door itself. Thinking it would be completely absurd of this key to be an actual key to the front door, Tyler takes it and tries anyway, absolutely disappointed in how easy this was. He pockets the key and slips inside cautiously.

There is the soft sound of a shower running in another room, why someone would break in for a shower seemed odd but last mission had been a complete hoax so at this point Tyler was prepared to believe this was yet another attempt to confuse him into making a mistake. He stays silent in the hallway, quickly looking down at the floor to see if there was anything that might alert this person to an intruder in the house. Carpet, so sound at least wouldn't be an issue as he made his way further up, no creaky floorboards of scuffable tiles, but potentially it could be hiding some kind of silent alarm or trap. As a 'safe house' it made sense, so he tip toes his way along a perfect line in the middle of the hallway, thinking anyone breaking in would stay close to the walls for protection, so it was more likely for that to be where some kind of sensor or trap might be set. The sound of the shower stops as Tyler reaches the top of the hall. To his left, there was a small hallway, at the end, a closed door with very low light coming from it. To his right was an open space, kitchenette, lounge and T.V. Tyler couldn't help thinking the boredom of this place would drive him insane very quickly and he's grateful that he'd not been sent here. Interestingly, Tyler notices there's no 'back door' so he's not sure where Zeke is and how he would get in, for that matter, how this person got in.

The door opens and Tyler steps back quickly in the hallway just before the light from the room floods him. He stands back, taking a breath to prepare himself, gun out and ready to shoot the moment he was going to be caught, because there didn't seem like any plausible way to hide that he could be confident there wouldn't be a back up trap set up. The footsteps get closer and just as soon as this figure steps into his view, only wearing underwear, Tyler launches himself at him. There's a winded sound that escapes the unsuspecting victim's mouth as the two fall to the floor, but he quickly fights back. For a moment, Tyler loses the control and is overpowered, rolled over so he is pinned against the floor, but this allows him to see the face of the person he's fighting and he's both confused and determined to take back the control and get some much needed answers.

Wyatt looks back at Tyler equally confused and sits back a little, Tyler takes the opportunity to swing his legs up, bringing his heels to the front of his shoulders then forces his legs back to the floor, taking Wyatt down with him. Tyler locks one leg over Wyatt's hips, his heel under Wyatt's leg to keep him controlled, unable to pull the same move on Tyler. Tyler leans down on him using his full body weight to keep him from being able to lift his body at all.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Tyler demands quickly and quietly, not too sure if Zeke walked in right now, who's side he would take.

"Minding my own fucking business, you should try it." Wyatt hisses, turning his head as he reaches with all his strength to try and reach Tyler's gun, which he was holding just out of reach. In the moment, Tyler is the one that is taken off guard as he sees a small scar just below Wyatt's ear. The same spot Zeke's tracking device scar was.

"Tyler, are you ok?" Zeke's voice gets both of their attention and Tyler can't help but wonder how this whole thing looked to Zeke. His ex and his current, not actually sure what to call himself but he was something to Zeke. Lying on the floor together like this. Zeke looks from Tyler to Wyatt then points his gun at Wyatt. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Zeke asks as he walks closer.

"I don't know what the hell is going on but you guys need to get out of my place." Wyatt snaps though he looks absolutely terrified and Tyler wasn't sure if it was his or Wyatt's heart he could feel racing against his chest. Probably both.

"Your place? Care to elaborate on that? Since when?" Zeke demands.

"Can you get off me. I have nothing to do with whatever is going on here. This is my house and..." Wyatt starts crying in his stress and confusion. Tyler's eyes meet Zeke's, both trying to understand what was going on.

"Wyatt, do you know who we are?" Zeke asks, stepping closer and flicking on the light to get a better look at him.

"Stalkers?" Wyatt asks in a pathetic sob, if this was an act, he was committed to it.

"Ok, what the fuck?" Tyler asks, looking at Zeke for answer.

"Keep him there, I'll find something to restrain him with." Zeke says in a reluctant tone as he starts looking around the place.

"Who the hell is he and why are you working with him?" Wyatt asks Tyler in such a strangely concerned voice that Tyler loses the only thought in his mind, that this was some elaborate act to throw them off.

"You really don't know us, do you?" He asks, feeling bad that if this was the case, then Wyatt still being pinned to the floor was pretty cruel.

"You can't trust him Ty." Wyatt whispers urgently, a look of concern passing over his face. Tyler stares into Wyatt's eyes, trying to understand this whole thing, but coming up with absolutely nothing to explain his apparent confusion about who Zeke was, but recognition of Tyler. "We're in this together, I'm on your side, remember?"