But That's Enough For Now, He Should Have Never Left You Broken

She was thinner than she was last time. 

He had to wonder if that was by her own choice or because the bastard was even more controlling than he thought.

A scarf was tied high upon her neck, concealing every last bit of pale skin. She wore dark sunglasses and black from head to toe, embodying the usual persona she did for ‘Renee Zadan’. It had only been a few weeks since her last update, and yet, Larry felt a pang of guilt seeing how much worse she looked now. 

The anxiety from being undercover was enough to prevent anybody from taking care of themselves. Constantly trying to maintain a façade, remember names, places, and events while somehow finding a way to sneak around to relay information back to the government was no easy feat. But it wasn’t supposed to have gone on for this long. It also didn’t help that Vladimir Laitanin was a vile man who was not exactly known for treating the women in his inner circle, few as they were, well. Sure, the prolonged period undercover would be a fantastic boost for Renee's career. However, Larry knew it was becoming too much for her. Too much for anybody, really, but she was still so new at all of this. In his eyes, she was still the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, eager junior agent he’d mentored since her graduation from Quantico. 

As she sat opposite him at the cafe booth, he could tell she was nervous, constantly looking around to make sure nobody had followed her. Despite the cold, intimidating front she was putting up, he could see she was more scared than usual. But it would be okay because, unbeknownst to her knowledge, today was the day the FBI would move in on Laitanin and his associates to take them down once and for all. A little more evidence would have been nice, but, to Larry’s gratitude, the Bureau was more than happy to remove her from the situation. By doing it this way, though, her cover would stay intact in case she ever needed to go back under. But Larry prayed to God that would never happen. If everything went well today, she would never be subjected to his abuse again.

Before Renee could even speak, he ordered a coffee and sandwich for her, wondering whether she’d had anything other than vodka in the last few days.  

Discreetly, she slid the thumb drive of information she'd collected over to his side. Larry could see her hand was shaking on the table, and he gently moved his to cover it.

“It’s okay, Walker. We had eyes on his compound. You weren't followed.”

She nodded. Larry noticed she still hadn’t taken the scarf or sunglasses off.

“I wasn’t able to get much this time.” She spoke quietly, and Larry could pick up hints of the slight accent she used as part of her cover. “B-But I think there might be something bigger coming up. He’s trusting me more now. I'll find out soon.”

Larry had offered to get her out of her cover before, but Renee had refused. She had insisted that the information she could get would make it all worth it, that she didn’t care, and that this was her job. But Renee had said this a few times now, that something big was coming, and it had never paid off. By this point, Larry had to wonder whether she was simply telling herself this because she couldn’t bear to admit that deep down, she was scared, she wanted to go home, she was at her breaking point. And the fact was, they had information, more information than they had sixteen months ago.

And that was enough.

She didn’t need to do this anymore.

When the food came, she practically wolfed it down. Larry pressed his lips together, cursing himself for letting it get this far. As she adjusted the scarf slightly, Larry saw a hint of a bruise on the skin over her neck. While she had become progressively more scared and spaced out over their last few meetings, he had yet to see any physical evidence of violence. Of course, Larry always assumed the rumours about him were true; he knew Laitanin had hurt her and that she had likely been hiding it from him lest he pull the plug on the operation. But it was one thing to think about it and another thing to see it. He started to feel sick now; he needed to know exactly what had happened.

“Take the scarf off. Please.”

Her lip twisted a little.

“Renee,” Larry sighed sadly.

Hesitantly, she did as he’d asked, revealing an array of red and purple markings over her throat. They looked recent. He could tell by how the shapes of the marks still resembled handprints. They seemed to trail further down her skin, below the collar of her shirt. Still, she wouldn’t look at him. She was giving everything to maintain her composure.

But Renee didn’t try to stop him when he gently pulled the sunglasses off her face, revealing a black eye. She looked exhausted, dark circles stark against her pale skin, eyes bloodshot from crying. He could see she was already on the verge of tears. 

“It’s okay. This isn't going to happen again because you’re coming home.”

She looked up at him, wide-eyed. “What?”

“I’ve sent the FBI in to arrest Laitanin and his people. It’s over-”

“N-No.” Renee shook her head fervidly. “No, you can’t. Not yet. Please, just give me a chance to-”

“You can’t go on like this. We have the evidence we need.”

“I-I’m telling you there's more to it this time.” Renee sounded almost manic. She was so desperate to get everything out of this, to try and make sure the sacrifice of her dignity and wellbeing was worth it. “Larry, please.” 

His eyes crinkled as he heard her voice break. She was trying to fight her tears, but he didn't want her to have to hide anymore. She needed to come home.

"You've done enough," Larry insisted gently, and she slumped her shoulders. He placed a twenty under the salt shaker on the table before holding his hand out to her. "Come on," he whispered.

After a beat, she took his hand, and he walked her out of the cafe and into a small side alley. She snivelled a little, pressing her face against his chest, arms wrapping around his waist. Tentatively, he went to hug her back, fingers tracing along the outline of her protruding ribcage, but she winced. He apologised, wondering what part of her body Laitanin hadn’t hurt. He wanted nothing more than to beat the man to a pulp and make him feel everything he had done to her tenfold.

“I know what he’s done to you,” Larry said softly. “And I’m so sorry I let it get this far. But it’s over now. I promise you he can't hurt you again-”

Larry's phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket. While keeping one hand rubbing circles on her back as she sobbed, he placed the phone to his ear. “Yeah?”

“Agent Moss, we... we’ve taken out the warehouse and found the shipments Walker had referred to.” 

Larry furrowed his brow hearing the nervousness in the agent's voice.

“Did you arrest them?”

“Everybody on the target list except… except for one of them.”

“Who?” He demanded, hoping to God it wasn’t the person that would violate the promise he had just made.

“Laitanin. I... I’m sorry, he got away from us.”