A Means to an End
Characters: O'Reily, Keller
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Spoilers for Season 4.1. This contains dialogue from You Bet Your Life. Disclaimers: They don't belong to me. I'm just borrowing them.

"Beecher just fucked Shemin in the laundry room."

O'Reily made the announcement as he sauntered past Keller in the quad. He said it casually like he was announcing the menu in the cafeteria. Keller felt his back go up, but he ignored O'Reily and pretended to concentrate on the magazine he was pretending to read.

"Said caught'em," O'Reily added with no encouragement whatsoever. He straddled a chair across from Keller.

"So fuckin' what?"

"Just thought you'd wanna know." He used his concerned voice, but Keller knew it was all a fucking act and that O'Reily was trying to get a rise out of him.

"Right," he said as sarcastically as he could muster with his insides churning.

O'Reily shrugged, got up, and walked away.

Keller glared at his back. He forced himself not to look for Beecher. He did not want to see the just-been-fucked look on his face.

"Ah, trouble in paradise," O'Reily noted as he and Keller observed the tussle between Supreme Allah and Mondo Brown from the catwalk.

"But not enough to be of any use to us. You know what we got here, O'Reily? A fandango, and we gotta do something about it." And maybe I can use that to my advantage, Keller thought.

"Hey, I don't like being in the minority, but what can we do? Even these fucking Muslims are kowtowing to Adebisi."

"Well, we could detonate a few well-placed depth charges."

O'Reily grinned knowingly. "Whatever you need, K-boy."

Keller leaned in. "This is what we need to do. . ."

"Hey, Shemin," O'Reily greeted the prisoner, who sat alone in the far corner of the rapidly emptying cafeteria.

Shemin looked up but didn't speak. O'Reily leaned in.

"Beecher told me to have you meet him in the laundry. He wants to, uh, talk business," he whispered, winking lewdly.

Shemin nodded once and got up. O'Reily watched him walk away.

Check, he thought, smirking. It was good to have someone as reckless as Keller his side.

"Toby?"

Keller was hiding behind the row of washing machines and he heard Shemin shuffle in; heard him saying Toby's name. His first name, which made Keller grind his teeth. Who the fuck did this guy think he was using Toby's first name?

Keller had been thinking this was all a rather amusing game up until now. He felt rage coil inside him and settle in his belly. He raised a hand above the machines and signaled Shemin over without a word.

As soon as he rounded the corner, Keller grabbed one of his legs and pulled him down hard. Shemin hit the floor with a thump and lost his breath. He stared at Keller wide-eyed, unable to find the breath to speak.

"This is for fucking Beecher," Keller growled, bringing the shank down hard in an arc. His arm came down again and again and he punctuated each stab with a list of grievances. "This is for thinking you could do it again. This is for saying his name. This is for being a stupid, dumb fuck. This is for..."

"Shemin's dead," Keller announced when he found O'Reily later.

O'Reily grinned. "Checkmate."

Keller didn't really give a shit about O'Reily's big plans to take down Querns and Adebisi, but hell, if it gave him an ally, he'd go along with it. He only wanted to get rid of all the guys Beecher had fucked. And if it gave Beecher a case of the guilts because of all the bodies he left in his wake, well that was just frosting on the cake.

O'Reily was better at planning than he was. He knew how to juggle. Keller knew how to take the ball and run with it.

Querns was going to be ballistic when Shemin was found. And Adebisi was going to be out for blood. But O'Reily already had a plan in place for that. One thing he had to admire about O'Reily - he knew how to keep his hands clean and still get things done.

Now he just had to get O'Reily figure out a way to include Brown in the plan and his revenge would be complete.

At least, until Beecher fucked somebody else.