Distorted Views

When Elena found herself at the Raine household with Helen and little Ben while Aldo was out working something terrible happened. Helen and Elena were busy baking whilst Ben begged for tastes of the chocolate frosting, a car full of men rushed into the driveway. They knocked heavily on the door and the two women looked to the door.

“I‘ll get it Helen,” Elena smiles softly as she wiped her hands on a washcloth then headed towards the door. Opening the door she saw then men for what they were, thieving criminals. The men pushed their way into the modest home and one of them pinned Elena against the nearby wall.

“Well I‘ll be damned fellas look who it is. Miss Elena Fuchs and without your dear husband Viktor.”

All the men stopped to look at Elena and the man who held her rather roughly by the arm.

“Viktor has a reward for returning her to him. I say we take her and get the money,” one of them says.
“Ellie what‘s going on who are these men?” Helen questions slightly startled.
“Old friends of mine, we will be on our way,” Elena replies softly. She hoped the men would take it as a cue to leave with her.
“But Elle we‘re-”
“Helen something has come up, please stay inside and watch over Ben.”
“We should get-” one of the men starts to say but Elena cut him off.
“Do it and I will have your head served on a silver platter,” Elena snaps.

The men flinched slightly at her tone because they knew if someone other than Viktor angered her, Viktor would be sure to torture and kill that person. But what they had not known was that Viktor was dead. Elena led the men outside and her focus was on what lied ahead of her. Helen felt her stomach in knots signifying that those men had no good intentions with Elena.

Elena stopped in front of the car contemplating what was going to happen next.

“I thought Viktor was dead,” the quieter of the men states.
“Viktor, dead? That‘s ridiculous, I‘ve seen the man take plenty of bullets and never cease to stand up thereafter.”
“But they found his body in France, along with a few others. Shot to death.”
“That‘s a lie.”
“I heard he found her, that he was going to make her pay. She stands here alive can‘t you put the pieces together?”
“Who killed Viktor?!” the leader demands as he slammed Elena against the car.
“You are looking at them,” Elena retorts coldly.
“You bitch! You three go kill anyone you see in that home!”

Without much of a second thought Elena quickly disarmed her captor, shot him and the others. One was not dead and lunged at her. He toppled onto her and she shot the gun once more as she fell backwards onto the ground. His jaw a slack he rolled off of Elena holding the wound on his stomach. Elena got up onto her knees and watched as the life left his eyes. She failed to notice Aldo who left his running truck to rush at her side.

“Elle, did they hurt yew?”
“They were going to kill them. It doesn‘t matter if he‘s dead, I can‘t stop this from following me everywhere I go, there will always be someone who knew Viktor,” Elena says shakily as tears welled up in her eyes, “I am sorry I brought this to your home and scared your family. I‘ll get someone to come get the bodies.”
“Hey hold on there, its alright, it‘ll be alright,” Aldo says trying to calm Elena by putting his arms around her. Instead of calming down Elena broke away from Aldo and stood up abruptly.

“I have to go,” she counters quickly as she briskly walked towards her vehicle. Aldo followed behind her and stopped her at the door of the car. He felt the need to make her know that she wasn’t this awful person she thought she was.

“Don‘ yew think that I‘m goin‘ to let yew do this on yer own, especially when yew were protectin‘ my family,” Aldo states.
“I just killed four men in your front yard Aldo, your mother must think the worst of me and Ben; god I hope he didn‘t see anything. Look at the mess I created. I know you are just trying to be nice but this is not right, I just-” Elena rants but Aldo stopped her from speaking anymore by taking her face in his hands and kissing her on the lips. She wanted to push him away but she couldn’t because he kissed her with such feeling that she couldn’t help kissing him back. When Aldo pulled away he looked at Elena intently.

“I‘m gonna take care of yew alright.”

Elena nodded gently as she looked back at him.

“I just don‘t want you to get into any trouble because of me,” she says softly. Her eyes shifted to the new set of cars heading towards the house and she worried slightly. They were federal agents from what she could tell. Elena’s gaze then went to the bodies and then back to Aldo.
“You haven‘t been doing anything illegal lately have you?” Elena inquires. Aldo shook his head and Elena let out a sigh of relief, “Good, just keep calm, these agents are going to take into custody for questioning so please do not overreact, they are really irritable a lot of the times.”

The cars stopped and several men came out holding guns. Their leader with slicked back black hair took in the scene and his eyes landed on Elena. He narrowed his eyes at her and stalked over to demand what she was doing there.

“Elena Diaz, I see you have not lost your touch.”
“I suppose you are going to make me go with you now,” she says.
“You‘re damn right you are! This was my jurisdiction to get these criminals and as always you ruin it all. So where’s that damn Fuchs at anyways?”
“He‘s dead Melvin.”
“Don‘t call me Melvin, its Agent Polk to you Diaz,” he retorts then stops, “Did you just say Viktor Fuchs is dead?”
“What‘s the story with these goons?” she counters looking at the other men for an answer.
“They‘ve been robbing and killing a lot of people.”
“I‘ll vouch for you all getting rid of them,” Elena states.
“Who in the hell do you think you are Diaz? Sure is hell ain‘t going to make trades like your Jew Hunter father did. We have a little more class than that at the FBI,” Agent Polk sneers. Elena stiffened at the mention of her father and she balled up her hands into tight fists. Agent Polk smirked seeing that he was getting a reaction out of Elena. “Yes, Elena we all know who your father is, after all you went to our offices to gain the information in the first place, but that was years ago.”

“If it was so long ago then you-” Elena starts to respond angrily but stopped herself mid sentence to avoid saying anything that would get her in trouble.
“You what? Please do continue your statement, I‘d love to hear what you really think.”
“Its not important.”
“No I think it is, you owe me after using me to get that information,” he continues.
“I apologize for your bruised ego Agent, but I would like to live in the present not the past where you obviously prefer to reside,” she snaps.
“You were so damaged even back then, you running away because all those around you treated you like an outsider and you went to Washington in search of your real father. Manipulating anyone to get what you wanted. Acting just like the j-”
“What do you want from me Melvin?! If you want me to suffer forget it, I‘ve suffered, I‘ve made mistakes and have been punished for them time and time again. Take me into custody or whatever and do what you have to do, just stop.”

Agent Polk’s narrowed eyes softened when he saw the pure torment in Elena’s eyes.

“So you killed Viktor too?”
“I didn‘t have a choice,” Elena mutters.
“I just need a written statement about what happened for records sake and perhaps you can help sort out the other problem,” he says running a hand through his hair. Elena let out a soft almost inaudible sigh.
“Of course.”
“Men, you know what to do,” Agent Polk orders pointing to the bodies then turned to Elena, “Shall we?”

Aldo narrowed his eyes at Agent Polk and stepped between the two. He didn’t want this man talking to Elena especially when it seemed that there was some sort of history between them. Elena placed a hand on Aldo’s forearm and gave a reassuring smile.

“Go make sure your mother and Ben are alright. Don‘t let them come out either, I don‘t want them to see this. I‘ll be fine.”

Aldo bit his tongue and stared at Elena for a while trying to decipher if she was okay or not. He looked at her for a very long time until she kissed him lightly on the cheek before she walked off with Agent Polk. Agent Polk led Elena to one of the cars they arrived in and they both got in. It was silent for a while.

“You could be an agent you know.”
“I could be a lot of things but I don‘t,” Elena says softly as she began filling out the documents.
“You disappeared for a long time, Viktor had a reward out for whoever found you. Things got pretty rough for you huh?”
“The quiet before the storm and then it all went to shit. He found me like he always did.”
“I have to take you back to Washington, Elena,” Agent Polk says seriously.
“Fine, just let me go back to my Aunt‘s to gather a few things.”
“Alright.”

Once she filled out the papers Elena exited the car and went to her own vehicle. She knew what had to be done and why she had to leave to Washington. Elena walked towards the house and brought her hand up to knock on the door only to have it open.

“Aldo, I have to go away for a little while,” she says stepping into the home.
“No! Ellie yew can‘t leave us! Don‘ leave us like Momma left us, Ellie please,” Ben cries as he latched his arms around her waist.

Although Elena hadn’t known what happened to Ben’s mother, she felt her heart break upon his reaction to her announcement. Elena bent down and hugged Ben.

“Aw, Ben I‘m not leaving forever, just for a little while, I could never dream of staying away for so long.”
“Why can‘t you stay?” he questions.
“I have to go help some important people in Washington.”
“Like Mr. President?”
“Not quite darling, but very close.”
“I don‘t want yew to leave Ellie, yew make papa smile,” Ben says with tears in his eyes. Elena brought her hand up and touched Ben’s face tenderly.
“I‘ll be back, and in the meantime, I‘ll be sure to send you letters and you can practice your writing, alright? No cheating and having your papa write them for you even if his handwriting is awful, I can tell who‘s writing,” Elena warns with a teasing smile.
“Okay,” he sniffles and Elena kissed his forehead then stood back up, “An‘ yew better come back or else me and my papa will come hunt yew down.”

“Alright,” Elena smiles.

“Ben why don‘ yew help your gran for a bit?” Aldo suggests to his son.
“Alright papa.”

Once Ben left the room, Aldo stared at Elena intently.

“What aren‘t yew telling me?”
“Before I left America, I was a private investigator of sorts. They need me for a job at the agency to do some research.”
“Research for what?” Aldo questions.
“Just to help find some people. Some of the Nazis escaped fled to avoid trial, and no one seems to know where they headed. I‘m guessing South America but you know, can‘t be too sure until they give me the files. I shouldn‘t be too long,” Elena replies with a reassuring smile.

“I don‘ want yew to go lookin‘ for Nazis,” he grumbles.

“Its not like I have a choice, the agency should be putting me in jail for what I pulled back in the day,” she counters.
“And what exactly did you pull?”
“I stole some classified wartime files in order to find out more about Landa and his possible whereabouts. It wasn‘t really one of my best moments, I just wanted to prove that he wasn‘t as awful as everyone made him out to be. What a mistake that was,” Elena says muttering the last part rather disappointedly. Aldo lifted Elena’s chin and looked into her eyes.
“Alright, just promise me you‘ll be careful because Ben will go nuts if something happened to yew,” Aldo says then paused for a moment, “I‘ll go nuts if something happened to yew.”

Elena didn’t know what to say and she paused looking up at him.

“I‘m glad you came to get me in France,” she states kissing him lightly on the lips, “And I promise to be careful.”

She broke away from Aldo and grabbed her things to leave. With one last look at Aldo she left the Raine home. Aldo hated to see her leave especially when years ago his wife Daphne left him for another man. The pair were never compatible, Daphne wanted extravagance and never really wanted children.

So when Daphne became pregnant with Ben the fights were more persistent until eventually when Ben was five, she left Aldo citing that she could not live a lie any longer. It broke Aldo’s heart and he hardly smiled thereafter and was always angry. This time seeing Elena leave he felt worse but he knew she didn’t want to leave, that she had to do this job in order to make things straight.