xp_logs | Marie-Ange and Kevin, West Side

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Marie-Ange confronts Kevin on some decisions he'd made and hadn't informed her about. It goes... well?

The angry summons he was expecting. After all, while Darcy and Felicia had done a good job trying to cover their searches, Colbert had the advantages of precognition, a slightly pedantic personality, and Ramsey in her pocket in order to monitor the team. The searches and intel requests he'd made didn't take a lot of time to figure out, and he walked into her office ready for whatever response.

"You called?"

"I did, and you know why." Marie-Ange had almost nothing on her desk - closed laptop, keyboard tucked away, she had even put away the ever present pens and sketchpad. "Should I summarize, or do you want to clear up what you were thinking?"

Kevin took a sip from the rye and ice he was holding. "Why don't you tell me?"

"Off the books intelligence, misleading Darcy into research projects, you went off and decimated..." Marie-Ange paused, pulled a tea bag from a mug - the only thing on her desk besides a lamp, and then continued. "four? It is still only four? Maggia gangs, none of it is documented, so we have no idea what sort of fallout will be coming. I cannot decide which of this is more infuriating."

"To be fair, I didn't do any of the decimation. That was all Christian's hires." Kevin said levelly. "The man told me he needed help to hurt the people who killed his son. I provided it."

Marie-Ange took a long sip from her mug without taking her eyes off Kevin. "You did it without telling me. You used our resources, our people, and you did it for revenge. I know what Christian wanted. I would have even approved it, but you went off on your own."

"I did. But you're wrong on one point. I didn't do it for revenge. I did it for an old friend." Kevin said. "If I had told you, would you have done it for revenge?"

"Not just revenge." Marie-Ange answered. "That is rather not my point. You do not need approval from me, but you should have shared." Another sip of tea. "I am going to back up. You could have told me, you know I would not have objected, so please explain why you did not keep me informed?"

"Because Christian came to me and not you. And, before you think it is some kind of territorial code-" He said, holding up one finger. "He knows I have no history with his son. No emotions involved. Nothing that could possibly compromise the information I'd review and pass along. Revenge is bad for business. Bad for operations. Bad for decision making."

He took a long pull. "If you're angry that I didn't talk to you about it, that's fair. I haven't seen this shop deal with losing someone on mission. So I made the decision to keep it quiet and compartmentalized."

"Not angry." Marie-Ange started. "No, I lie, yes, angry, but not in the way you think. We are small, we are personal. It is never going to be like a shop that can fully compartmentalize. All you would have had to do is say "Christian asked me for a favour, and that you were going to take lead on it." She let herself lean back in the chair, letting go of the absolutely rigid posture. "I would have even agreed with the decis... " She cut herself off. "Oh. Oh shit. This is like when someone says something and then realizes they are turning into their parent. I think I have been given this same lecture by Remy LeBeau and I did not understand it until now."

"See, I still think that Cajun bastard never existed but I wish he was here." He polished off his drink and set it aside. "You're right. I should have come to you. But... he was your friend. Or closer. It's not just operational concerns. I was trying to make it easier."

He got up and went to her sideboard. Unlike him, she didn't keep a stocked liquor cabinet but he came up with a bottle of wine, uncorked it and poured two glasses. "Christian asked me to help facilitate a war, and that's something only a few of us know what it means. It wasn't a lack of trust, I promise you. Give him this."

"I have helped destabilize countries." But Marie-Ange said it lightly. "As I said, I agree with the decision. Give him his war, and yes, my motives are partially personal. Of course they are. It is going to end up personal for you too, if it is not already." She took a long drink from the wine. "When you came back, I asked you why, and you said it was because you had to build a life in the shadows, and that you had been a spy too long not to be one. It has been, almost three years I think, why do you stay now? Have you built that life?"

"Yes." He was surprisingly open. "I've decided what is important and it has become a lodestar. You know I was ready to kill to protect you and die for this mission." He took a sip. "Baco Noir. Interesting. I would never try and take this shop aware. You've earned it, but occasionally trust me to try and make it not hurt so much."

"You are trying to distract me by knowing hybrid wines that I buy when I am bored." Marie-Ange played with the glass before taking another drink. "I am working on the trust. I trust your skills, and I trust your motivations... intentions may be the better word. Trust is not exactly the problem, I think it is comprehension. You have sixty years of this, I am not always able to follow the threads of thought."

"You can be angry at me. You're right to be. But, you can also trust me." Kevin took a sip from his glass. "I didn't expose us at all. But for fuck's sake, MA. I Know what I'm doing and I would't cut you out if it was different."

"I know you know what you are doing. You are very old." Marie-Ange tilted her glass in Kevin's direction. "Please trust that I can hear that you are taking on a favour like that without... I do not know, being upset about it, or trying to involve myself. Do you know, if you had told me I would have probably been relieved. If you were not allergic, I might have hugged you."

"Maybe. And that's why I didn't." Kevin said. "It wasn't I didn't trust you. It's just... I trained to me things earier."

Marie-Ange nodded. "What is the phrase about old dogs? It is wrong, yes? It is just all the new tricks are about having a team and people who rely on you, or worse, people you can rely on?" She finished the wine and set the glass down on her desk. "Just tell me next time. Also I am taking that meeting in New Jersey off your hands, since you are helping Christian. No one should have to do meetings in New Jersey after helping old friends."