The Night Manager: Revival House

(E1, C2) Old Friends, New Problems

              Angela couldn't sleep. She lay beside her husband, Gordon, absentmindedly running her fingertips over his arm as he snored. It should have been comforting, yet all her mind could think about was the trial that was hours away. This would be Jonathan's third go at having his name cleared; the first time had been right after they had done away with Roper, and the second had been six months later with the focus on further breaking down his involvement and dissecting every part of the mission they had undergone. She had been worried she'd be discredited, Jonathan incarcerated, and Roper set free, providing he was alive and they could find him.

    She could still remember the terror, the first real look at the man behind the mask, in Roper's eyes when he had that realization that he would not be relinquished to the authorities after all, but to the men who he had unknowingly fucked over. She could still remember the glee she'd heard in Jonathan's voice before the trucks had exploded, their plan perfectly set into motion. She often wondered what the worst man in the world's final moments had been like.

    Thankfully, none of that had come to pass. She had not been discredited and while Jonathan had had to exist under a pseudonym for the time being, he had not been incarcerated. As for Roper, well, she could only hope he truly was dead. While there had been no true confirmation of his death, she doubted the men she had released him to would have spared him after such a vast monetary loss.

    With a heavy sigh, Angela rolled out of bed and pulled on her robe. If she couldn't sleep, she could at least be useful. She'd make breakfast for Gordon and Lilian, shower, dress, and prepare her notes for today. If it all went well, Jonathan would be welcome to be Jonathan once more, yet only if he so chose. Whether he would choose to do so or not was still up in the air; if there was one thing she knew about Jonathan, it was that he enjoyed being an enigma.

    They planned to meet outside the Attorney General's office at nine-thirty later this morning, more than enough time for them to catch up and go over statements made four years prior. The nerves had started to settle in and the longer she thought over everything the more concerned she became that this frivolous formality was anything but. She knew that the likelihood of them finding Jonathan to be in the wrong was slim, yet she couldn't deny that he had taken some risk that even to her had cast him into the shadows besides Roper and his ilk. Despite all of the testimonies from herself, Rob, Joel Steadman overseas, and more, they were still scrutinizing Jonathan. Perhaps rightfully so.

    After bidding a fond farewell to Gordon and four-year-old Lilian, Angela had stepped out of their ordinary suburban walk-up, her coat loose around her once more now that she had lost the last touch of baby weight. She walked along the street to the bus stop, waiting there to get on and ride to central London, her mind still going over the last time she had seen him. She'd barely made it back home from Cairo before Lilian had come into the world in a whirlwind of silence until that one single cry. She'd been beautiful, even all bruised and angry. It had been a bittersweet moment, much like the one she had six months later as she'd sat beside Jonathan in the boardroom of the River House; like saying goodbye to one life and friend and hello to another all-in-one breath.

    Jonathan had been her wild card, her ace in the hole that she had had to trust wouldn't muck everything up or throw her into the slurry worse than she already was. Thankfully, he had proven to be not only everything she had hoped for but more. He had come into her life by happenstance back in two-thousand and eleven, his affair with Sophie Alekan proving to be quite the catalyst for both of them, yet it wasn't until two-thousand and fifteen that they would actually strike up an accord. Angela still hated that Sophie's death had been what had brought them together, the shame still ever present in the back of her mind each time she sent someone undercover, including Jonathan, yet there was a melancholic beauty to the justice they had gotten for not just her but all the lives Roper had touched; including their own.