The Road to EGOT Season 02 Pt. 24

Sorry for the long wait, I was planning on having this chapter out weeks ago. This will be the last chapter I post for some time. I wanted to thank all those who have taken the time to read, vote, comment and give feedback. I have many ideas going forward and I hope that when EGOT returns you will continue to follow Duncan's adventure. Again thank you all and enjoy.

*****

I parked the car not far from the front door. The beautiful blonde next to me was obviously nervous. I reached out and held her hand doing my best to try to reassure her. She looked at me and gave me a shy smile.

"It'll be okay." I told her as convincingly as I could. She only nodded. I could almost feel her heartbeat through the palm of her hand. "Let's go." I told her as I stepped out of the Audi. I stepped out of the metallic grey rental, thinking maybe I should actually go out and buy one. My beautiful BMW was nothing but scrap metal at this point. I walked to the door and rang the doorbell. I looked around to see the blonde standing a little farther away. I was about to reach out to her when the front door opened.

"Duncan!" Ariana said sounding pleased to see me. "What are you doing here?" She asked as the cute dark haired woman wrapped her arms around me. She looked cute in a pink tank top and a pair of black shorts.

"Well..." I started and nodded behind me. Ariana pulled away from me to look further onto the driveway. She saw Jennette standing there, in a white blouse and a pair of tight blue jeans. Ariana quickly covered her gasp with the palm of her hand. She looked at Jennette and then at me.

"What's going on?" Ariana asked obviously more than a little surprised.

"She wanted to talk to you. She's a little nervous though." I told her.

"You, you know?" She asked me with her big brown eyes. I simply nodded. Jennette slowly walked towards us, clearly afraid of Ariana's reaction towards her.

"Hey Ari." Jennette said seeming very embarrassed.

"Why are you here?" Ariana asked taking a step back.

"I...I'm sorry. For..."

"Sorry! You're sorry? After all those horrible things you said! After you made me love you."

"You don't understand." Jennette tried to speak out.

"I completely understand. You were bored and wanted to use me... You got what you wanted. Coming here after all this time is just cruel."

"Ari! Please, just listen." Jennette pleaded. Ariana was having none of it. I had never seen her so angry. She was about to slam the door but I held my hand against it.

"Duncan! Please just leave." Ariana said taking her turn to plead.

"It wasn't her. It was Derek." I told her. She stopped fighting and opened the door wide.

"What?" Ariana asked looking back and forth between Jennette and I, not really sure what to think.

"Derek found out about the two of you. He had cameras in your dressing rooms." Ariana looked at me with great pain. "He told Jennette that if she didn't break up with you, that he would ruin your career." Ariana's beautiful brown eyes filled with tears.

"Is this true?" Ariana asked Jennette. The blonde simply nodded and focused on her shoes. "Why? Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want you to have to choose between your career or me. You worked so hard. I just wanted you to have everything you wanted. I wanted you to be happy." Jennette finally spoke up for herself. Ariana walked towards Jennette. The next thing we knew she had jumped into the arms of the blonde and kissed her deeply. I smiled as I watched the two beautiful young women reconnect.

"You're so fucken stupid!" Ariana said to Jennette clearly happy and smiling from ear to ear. "You would have made me happy. I missed you so damn much." Ariana said before kissing her once more.

"I missed you too. Jennette said returning the kiss." I walked towards my car and left the two women.

"Duncan!" I heard Ariana shout as I reached my door. I turned and she was heading straight for me. She held me in a vice grip. "Thank you so much!" She said as she placed her head on my chest. I looked at Jennette who was still by the door. She had a huge smile on her face and mouthed thank you to me as well.

"Go!" I told Ariana. "She's here." Ariana smiled at me before kissing me quickly. I watched her run off towards the love that she had been missing all this time. I got into my car and watched as the women walked hand in hand into Ariana's house. I turned on the engine and backed out of the driveway.

******

About an hour later, I pulled up into the parking of the federal detention building. Holcomb was waiting for me by the front door.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it." He told me as we fell into step together and entered through the gate.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world." I told him as he showed his badge to the guard who let us in.

"Seems like you're a pretty popular guy." Holcomb told me handing me a newspaper. My face was splashed on the front page with a big headline. "The Hero Of Hollywood." Written above.

"Hmmm. Good picture." I said handing him back the paper without bothering to read the article.

"I thought so. You handsome son of a bitch. You don't want to read what it says?" He asked me as we were led into a room with a solitary table in the middle.

"It's not good to read your own press. Makes you buy your own hype."

"You got plenty of that going around right now." He told me as we sat next to each other.

"It won't last." I told him as the only other door in the room opened. A guard walked in quickly followed by Derek Stamp. He was in a plain white prison outfit. His face still carried the remains of our encounter. Derek sat down in a chair across from us. He gave a disgusted look to the paper with my face on it.

"Mr Stamp, you're allowed to have your lawyer present during this conversation." Holcomb said in full FBI mode. Derek's eyes were set on me. He refused to look away from me. I held his gaze. "Mr. Stamp." Holcomb said once more.

"I don't need my lawyer Agent Holcomb. Why don't you just tell me what you want?" Derek asked clearly angry.

"In our investigation of your activities, we have seen that you were in close contact with members of the Russian mafia operating in Los Angeles."

"So?" Derek asked.

"We want your cooperation in bringing down their operations."

"Forget it!" Derek said laughing. "I help you, i'm as good as dead."

"Actually, you don't help us, you're as good as dead." Holcomb countered.

"What do you mean?" Derek asked.

"We have enough thanks to your files and testimony from Mr Bryant to hurt. We want to take a much bigger bite."

"How does this help me?"

"You help us, we will pull you out of here and take you to a much safer facility. You don't help us, we will leave you in here. They'll think you had your hand in helping us anyways." I watched Derek closely and saw his jaw tense. His attention was fully focused on me once more.

"You enjoying your 15 minutes Duncan?" He finally said.

"Not really. I've been busy trying to fix the mess you made out of this town." He smirked.

"You think it's that easy huh? You think you can just stroll on in and just change things overnight? You're a fool if you think they'll let you?"

"Who's they?" I asked him.

"Don't act like you don't know. You opened my box, you saw the ring. You're not stupid. You know there's a lot more to this town than meets the eye."

"Mr Stamp." Holcomb said trying to bring him back to the deal with the Russians.

"I'll take the deal, agent Holcomb. But only because I want to live long enough to see what they do to you Duncan."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I answered coldly.

"You don't even know what you've stepped into. They led you to me didn't they? You didn't have jackshit on me. I'm sure. I was careful." He was right but I refused to give him the satisfaction. "Stay out of their way Duncan. You got a little victory. Just take it and walk away."

"We both know I can't do that."

"We do. What we don't know is how you'll handle what's coming."

"Let them come." I said as I stood from my chair and headed for the door.

"Duncan." Derek said as my hand reached for the doorknob. "I didn't drug Eric the night of the accident." He told me with a shit eating grin. I knew he was expecting me to be surprised. I calmly looked at him and turned the knob.

"I know." I saw the smirk wipe away from his face. It was the last thing I saw before closing the door behind me and heading for the exit.

*****

After the meeting with Derek, I headed downtown towards the AON center. I parked my car in a garage around the corner and walked towards the building. As I strolled I could tell that people were looking at me, recognizing me. I had been all over the papers and on TV quite a bit as of late. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was still new to me. I walked into the lobby and took a quick right. There was an empty space that used to be a restaurant. The tables were still there but the place was pretty much abandoned.

I sat at the head of the largest table. I didn't have to wait too long. Mark and Maiara were the first to arrive. Mark was smiling ear to ear, and Maiara looked beautiful. She had recovered from the nasty knock she had taken and was looking healthy and pregnant.

"How are you Duncan?" Maiara asked me as we sat down.

"I'm great. I'm just happy that you're okay." I told her.

"I am. The baby is doing great."

"Yeah, we're having a girl." Mark said. "We just came from the doctor." We all began to talk about possible baby names when Brad and Cindy arrived. They quickly joined into the happiness of the group. Marty joined us completing the group. After the months of worry and drama, it was nice to be here once again with the people I loved the most in the world. In these moments I felt I couldn't be happier and luckier.

"What is this place?" Marty asked.

"Well it used to be a great restaurant. Owner closed the place and moved back to Tuscani."

"So it's on the market?" Brad asked clearly loving the space.

"Nope." I told him and saw the light die out in his eyes.

"It's okay. We probably couldn't afford it anyways." Cindy told him patting his hand.

"That's why I bought the place." I told them as I slid the lease across the table. "It's yours." The couple looked at each other in utter happiness.

"What? Duncan! We can't accept this. This is too much!" Cindy said with tears of joy on the verge of pouring from her eyes.

"It's the least I can do." I told them. "Besides, I need a place where I can eat for free." I joked. We took a quick tour of the restaurant. I had never seen Brad as happy as he saw the large kitchen.

"Thank you, Duncan! This place is amazing." He said as he held me in a tight embrace.

"It was the least I could do. I mean I got your last place all blown to hell."

"Very true. We're square by the way." He said laughing. We went back into the main room where the rest of the group were already decorating the place with their imaginations.

"Guys. Let's go upstairs." I told them as I led them towards the elevators and pressed the button to the top floor. When the doors opened, my friends were in awe of the space. They made their way to the floor to ceiling windows and took in the beautiful view. I smiled and stood back. "What do you guys think?" I said aloud walking around the office. "Offices here along this wall and the conference room right through here." I told them showing them my vision.

"Offices for what?" Mark asked me.

"Derek is gone. A lot of people are out there with no representation. Eventually they'll turn to someone else and that person can end up being just like he was. I can't allow that. Hollywood is in a state of flux at this moment. Someone needs to right the ship. Who better than us?" I asked them. They started looking at each other in utter disbelief.

"Duncan, you can't be serious. You want us to run an agency? We have no experience." Marty said.

"You're right. Lucky for us, we know someone who does."

"Hey boys." Kara said stepping out of the elevator.

"Kara was practically running Derek's business. She has all of the qualifications and experience necessary." I told them.

"Not only that, but there were plenty of us at Derek's agency that were not happy with the way he did things. Some very good people that are out of work. They deserve a second chance." Kara continued.

"Marty, you always said you wanted to do something and change this town. Here's your chance. Here's our chance." Marty looked at Mark who hadn't said a word.

"What do you think?" Marty asked him.

"I think i've learned to stop doubting Duncan." Mark said with a grin.

"About damn time." I told him.

"How can we afford to do this?" Marty asked.

"Oh... Well months ago I found all of Derek's hidden away money. The authorities are letting me keep a percentage of all of the assets they seized from him. So if we want to do this, we can do it and do it the best way imaginable."

"Plus with your popularity and all of the good will you garnered from bringing Stamp down, people will flock to you. They'll want to be a part of this." Mark said.

"Exactly."

"That's why you wanted Derek alive. That's why you didn't just let the russians kill him. You wanted to use his downfall as a springboard for this." He continued. I just smiled.

"So would we take 10% like all agencies do?" Marty asked.

"No. We will take 5% to keep the lights on and our salaries. The other 5% will be invested directly back into the company, effectively making our clients actual partners in the operation." I began.

"So that one person's success will be everyone's success." Kara finished my thought.

"You don't want to right the ship." Marty began. "You want to build an entirely new one."

"Are you guys in?" I asked Marty and Mark.

"You want me in this too?" Mark asked.

"Of course. You and I will be head of the creative department. We will work with other writers, producers, actors, directors and whoever the hell to create shows and movies. Instead of waiting for the studios to come up with ideas, we will do the heavy lifting for them. Marty will be the lead agent and Kara will run the business side."

"You've thought this whole thing through haven't you?" Marty asked smiling and looking incredibly interested.

"So are we doing this?" I asked.

"Hell yeah!" Marty said. "I'm in."

"Same here." Mark said.

"Great." Kara said smiling before producing a bottle of champagne. We corked it open and quickly poured each of ourselves a glass. We were in the middle of celebrating when Connor arrived.

"Oh i'm sorry. Am I interrupting?" He asked looking very apologetic. He was shaven clean and clearly had stayed away from the alcohol.

"Not at all. Everyone meet Connor Jennings." They all turned to say hi and introduce themselves. "Connor will be working with us." I finally announced. None of them looked more surprised than Connor himself.

"What? What is this?" He asked looking incredibly confused.

"Look Stamp rolled over a lot of people. You included. You deserve a second chance. You're getting it right here. We are starting up an agency. I want you to be one of our agents. You know this town. You've been around forever. You've been exonerated. People loved and trusted you once, they will again."

"I...I don't know... This is kind of out of nowhere." Connor said completely taken aback.

"Hey, i've heard how you signed Affleck and Damon before they even did Good Will Hunting. You saw just how talented they were. We could really use someone like that." Marty said. "If Derek hadn't framed you and you had still been around, maybe just maybe, the world would never have been exposed to Gigly." That brought a laugh from all of us.

"Besides, a lot of people want to see you do well." I said before pointing behind him. Ayelet Zurer was standing behind him. The look of utter joy that washed across his face was incredible. "She wants a second chance too Connor." I told him as the two took in the sight of one another. Ayelet ran to him and hugged him. We cheered as we watched them kiss.

"I missed you." Connor finally told her.

"And I you." Ayelet said as she hugged him.

"I'm in." Connor finally said. We poured both of them champagne and the festive mood continued. The elevator dinged, surprising me since I was not expecting anyone. Olivia Munn stepped into the office. Marty went over to say hi to her and they kissed. From the corner of my eye I caught a reaction from Kara as she witnessed the interaction.

"I hope you guys don't mind. I told Olivia and wanted her to come celebrate with us."

"The more the merrier!" I said jovially.

"Well i'm glad you said that. Cuz I kind of told some other people." Olivia said.

"Me too." Mark added.

"Same here." Marty said.

"How many people are we talking about?" I asked confused.

*******

A little over an hour later, the office was packed. I stood to the side and shook my head wondering how the hell this had happened. I had invited a handful of people, and now the empty office looked like a nightclub on a friday night. Food and drinks had arrived, music was playing, everyone was having an awesome time.

"Hey stranger." Someone said behind me. I turned and smiled brightly when I saw Melissa Benoist. She was dressed casually in a pair of skintight jeans and a blue top.

"How are you?" I asked as I hugged her tightly.

"I'm great. I'm so happy about what you're doing! I hope you guys are interested in signing me!" She said with a huge smile across her face.

"Well we will definitely look into it. When we actually get some desks. Some papers. Pens. You know, things most offices need." I joked.

"You'll do great." She reassured me. She kissed me on the cheek before heading off for the buffet. I shook my head wondering when the hell they had set up the buffet table. I stood back and watched the room. I smiled as I saw everyone come together. This is what I had wanted. I looked across the room and caught eyes with Scarlett. She was over the moon happy and more importantly she was with her husband and daughter. He had returned the moment he had heard about Stamp being locked up. Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears were talking in a corner just the two of them. They were having the heart to heart that they had both needed for so many years. Ashley Greene was smiling brightly and having a lively chat with Mark.

"Congratulations." Carla Gugino said as she stood next to me.

"Thanks. I'm glad to see you." I told her as I checked out my boyhood crush.

"I'm glad you're not dead." She joked.

"Me too. I found out what happened to Derek." I told her. She chewed on her lower lip. I could tell she was wondering if she really wanted to know.

"Honestly Duncan, if you had a few years ago, there would have been nothing I would have wanted to know more. But regardless of whatever happened, he made his choices and decided to be who he is. I can't keep holding on to who he was."

"You're right." I agreed with her.

"It's time to move on." She said looking out at the room filled with her peers. "It's time for all of us to move on. With you." She finished with a huge smile.

"I won't let you down."

"I know you won't." She said as she kissed my cheek. She walked away and I took the opportunity to check out her great figure once more.

"Really? Still checking out my mom?" I smiled knowing exactly who that voice belonged to.

"Not my fault she's so damn hot." I said as I held Alex in the tightest hug possible.

"You're right!" She agreed before pressing her lips against my cheek. She wasn't alone. Next to her was a young blonde with incredible green eyes and a body to die for. It didn't take long for me to remember her.