"So is everything we do." I hear him exhale. "Look, I'm not asking for permission. I'm telling you because you deserve to know. And because I need you to do something for me."
"What?"
"Stay hidden. Stay safe. Take care of Elliot and let us handle the rest." A pause. "You've been fighting since you were eight years old. You've earned a break."
The words hit me harder than I expect. I don't know how to process them. The idea that I could stop, even temporarily. That I could choose rest over action.
Behind me, I hear Elliot's footsteps on the hardwood. He appears in the kitchen doorway, sleep-rumpled and soft, wearing one of my shirts with the sleeves rolled to his elbows.
"Who's that?" he asks quietly.
"Jagger. Give me a minute."
He nods, moves to the coffee pot, starts pouring himself a cup. Normal. Domestic. The kind of morning I never imagined having and want a thousand more of.
"There's something else," Jagger says. "Briar's been digging too. He found patterns in the data—connections between Protocol Omega and our father's death. It happened after he started asking questions about the project."
"Webb."
"Probably. We don't have proof yet. But we will." His voice is certain. "I'm going to find out what really happened, Jace. Toour father. To all the people they used and discarded. And then I'm going to destroy it."
"Just be careful."
"Always." A pause. "I'll check in when I can. Encrypted channels only. And Jace?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you found him. Elliot, I mean." His voice is uncharacteristically gentle. "You deserve something good. Don't let it go."
The line goes dead.
I stand in the kitchen, phone in hand, processing everything he said.
Elliot appears at my side, coffee cup in hand. "Everything okay?"
"Webb's been stripped of his directorship. House arrest. Assets frozen."
His breath catches. "Really?"
"Really. It's not over, but it's a start."
He sets down his cup and wraps his arms around me, pressing his face into my chest. I hold him, feel the tension slowly drain from his body.
"What about the files?" he asks, muffled against my shirt. "Moore's archive?"
"Jagger and Jinx retrieved them. They're handling the investigation from here."
He pulls back, looks up at me with a frown. "And you're okay with that?"
"I don't know." The honest answer. "But he's right. The next phase isn't my fight. It's his. And I think..." I pause, searching for words. "I think I need to let him have it."
"Because you trust him?"
"Because I'm tired." The admission surprises me. I didn't know I was going to say it until the words were out. "I've been fighting for as long as I can remember. I don't know how to stop. But maybe I need to learn."
Elliot studies my face for a long moment. Then he smiles, soft and understanding.
"We can learn together," he says. "That's what partners do."
