Chapter Twenty-Four

A/N: Have y'all heard the OST for the Frozen Broadway Musical yet? Because it's pretty freaking lit.

One of the most amazing things about living in Arendelle was that you could look in any direction, and you would be greeted with a picture-perfect sight.

From the bustling business sector of the downtown area, to the posh, high-class western side, to the docks in East Arendelle, and all the way to the forests in the north, Arendelle seemed to have a little something for everyone.

It was perfect, almost fairy-tale perfect, in a way.

And as Elsa looked out from the Grand Arendelle Hotel's entrance- a brightly lit half-circle with marble arches and a neatly-kept curb where cars could unload- she couldn't help but stare in awe once again realizing that this was the city that she was in charge of.

Maybe she hadn't had a hand in all of the development- the company itself, while still young, predated her by decades- but she had taken on the mantle that every ArenCorp CEO had before her: the responsibility to ensure that everywhere that anyone looked, they felt that same awe. Every decision she made shaped how Arendelle looked today, tomorrow, and every day until she passed the torch to someone else. Which, hopefully, wouldn't be for a long time.

To be a CEO was her dream since high school, and to be the CEO of ArenCorp had been her dream since college. Despite the setbacks, she was, finally, living her dream.

And if this plan didn't work, she could kiss that dream goodbye.

She fixed her eyes on the loading dock, not daring to look back at the entrance because it would seem too suspicious. It was a quiet night- she only saw one car unload and the family make their way into the hotel- and she stood with her hands behind her back, in the shadows of one of the arches, feigning confidence.

Finally, after what felt like hours, her patience was rewarded.

"I got your text, so you finally found the person behind all this?"

Elsa turned her head slightly, the only acknowledgement that she heard the person behind her. Flynn was here, and the second step of her plan could finally commence.

"Yes, I did.", she replied coldly.

"Well who is it?" Flynn said eagerly, hiding any sort of surprise or anxiousness, "I know I said I had to bow out of the investigation, but I can't help but be curious to see how this all ends."

She took a pause for dramatic effect, "I suppose you do deserve to know who it is." She hoped that he heard the disdain in the word "deserve".

"Er, well I don't know if 'deserve' is the right word, but…" Flynn paused, finally sensing the change in the air, the shifting of the tide, the tables turning, "Ms. Andersen…is everything okay?"

Just hearing him say her name made Elsa wince, it brought back memories of every demeaning, self-righteous text she ever got from him. She turned around, "How about you drop the act, Flynn?"

"I-I'm sorry?"

Elsa took a step forward, the darkness no longer masking the loathing on her face, "I know it's you."

"Excuse me?!"

"You almost had me there for a second, playing the part of my savior and convincing me to keep working with you until you found out who my 'blackmailer' was. It was the perfect plan to take you off the list of suspects and have an all-access pass into my private life."

Flynn put his hands up defensively and stepped back, "Ms. Andersen, I swear I have no idea what you're talking about."

Elsa advanced, "It's in your best interests, Flynn, to not play dumb."

"I'm not playing dumb, all I've been doing this whole time was trying to help you. You have to believe me, I'm innocent."

For a second, Elsa did almost believe him. Maybe it was the hurt look on his face, or the sinking feeling that she may have been wrong about this whole thing, but it caused her to almost let her guard down.

Almost.

"So, your idea of helping was to give me a faulty tracker? Or was it forcing me to fire Sheila? Or maybe it was making me wear this crass dress for your sick pleasure? Oh, it definitely sounds like you've been helping me very well."

"I-I don't-"

"I said drop the act." Elsa hissed as she stepped right in front of Flynn, close enough that she could see the anxiousness in his eyes from being exposed. Her fists were clenched at her side, and she glared him down like the worm he was. "The game's over, Flynn. You played all your cards, and you still couldn't get the job done. Now it's my turn, and believe me, there's going to be hell to pay."

Flynn shrunk under her gaze, hands still up, failing to keep her away. "I…" he started, but then trailed off.

With a sigh, he let his hands drop and closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, the look of innocence was replaced by a malevolent grin, the personification of his text messages throughout these past few weeks. And yet there was something else too: defeat. It was faint, but still there. He knew he had lost, but he would still take any opportunity Elsa gave him to squirm out of here.

"I wouldn't say that I couldn't get the job done. But hey, what finally gave me away?"

Anna sat, splayed out on a chair, with a rag on her face. After returning from her mission to find Elsa, she went straight to work again in the kitchen, barking out orders left and right to distract herself from everything that had happened. She expected the party to wind down soon, but apparently these snooty, rich people loved staying at hotel ballrooms way past curfew. And they also loved to eat, especially dessert.

Finally, after an eternity, the party had died down enough that she could take a much-deserved break.

Anna told her employees to go take a break before they needed to clean everything up, and they decided to spend that break in the ballroom, enjoying the fruits of their labor. They urged her to go with them, but she declined. She needed a moment to herself, to relax, and breathe, and sort through her thoughts.

And while there were many, the only ones she could really focus on were about Elsa.

On the walk back, she didn't see her in the ballroom, and though she didn't actively look for her, Anna was still curious as to where she ended up going.

Hopefully, Elsa went to confront Flynn and this thing would end overnight, putting not just Elsa's, but both their lives back on track. However, there was also the big chance that she didn't believe her, that this mess would continue on for longer than it should have. Anna didn't want to think about that, though, Elsa was smarter than that. She hoped.

Best case scenario, Elsa had cornered Flynn somewhere in the hotel, flanked by big, burly policemen ready to escort him to their car. She would use her super CEO powers of keeping a straight face and using big words to intimidate him, and he would break down and admit to everything. And then Elsa would have this big grin on her face as she said some witty one-liner and sashayed away, the tail of her dress tailing her as the painted-on fabric on her hips accented every one of her steps.

Man, she really needed to stop thinking about that dress.

Anna reasoned that accursed gown was the reason why there was an electricity- for lack of a better word- when she touched Elsa's arm. Attractive women in attractive clothing always made her a little weak in the knees, there was nothing new about that. But, the feeling came from touching her ex-girlfriend, whom she had a nasty breakup and fallout with, so…clearly there were still some questions she needed to ask herself.

And the biggest question was this: How did she feel about Elsa now?

Yeah, she told herself that helping Elsa by telling her about Flynn was to save her own job- by subsequently saving Elsa's- but…she couldn't deny that there was an underlying motivation. It was something she tried to deny, mostly because she had bigger matters to attend to, but now that the bigger matter had been attended to, there was nothing stopping her from, well, thinking.

How did she feel about Elsa?

Before she could get to work jumping down that rabbit hole, however, she felt the rag lift off her face, replaced by the upside-down expression of an equally tired brunette.

"You talk to Elsa?"

Anna nodded, a hard thing to do with her head tilted back across the chair and Hannah's face being inches away. She straightened up, and flipped herself around so she was resting forward on the back of the chair. "It wasn't easy, and I don't know if I fully convinced her or not, but I talked to her."

"How'd it go?" Hannah asked as she lifted herself on a counter.

"Could have been better, but it also could have been worse. Honestly, that was probably the least awkward, most civil conversation we've had since the breakup." She decided not to tell Hannah about the arm touch, figuring that it wasn't important. Right now, anyway.

"Elsa being civil," Hannah scoffed, "I'll believe it when I see it."

For some reason, that snide comment didn't sit right with Anna, "Wow, you really don't like her, do you?"

Hannah crossed her arms and frowned, "I don't know…I mean she was always bossy and rude, and I mean I could have forgiven that seeing as she's running like this huge, freaking company, but at the same time she didn't have to take out all her frustrations on me, you know?"

"But from what you told me about her, about who she used to be…it seems a little believable that she didn't used to be, well, such a bitch. Like maybe that Elsa's still there, but I never saw that side because she never let me see it. Again, I don't know- maybe if we ended things on better terms…"

Hannah straightened up a little, not realizing her shoulders had slouched, "But if your last memory of someone is a bad one, it really messes up how you remember them. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I do." Anna replied, remembering how anxious she felt when she first saw Elsa inside her bakery.

There was a sadness on Hannah's face that became more apparent the longer she talked, and the brunette could probably sense it, because she shook her head and hastily changed the subject, "What did Elsa say when you told her about Flynn?"

Anna bit her lip, "Well…at first she didn't believe me, and then she tried to reason that Flynn was just trying to help her, and then she actually accused me of blackmailing her, so that was fun. It was a super productive conversation."

"What?! That's insane!"

"No it's okay cause I told her off, and then I convinced her that Flynn had just been trying to keep her off his trail the whole time. Afterwards though, she just sorta walked away and that was that. Hopefully she believed me…"

"Wait, so you don't even know if she believed you?" Hannah stared at her in disbelief, "Anna, that was half of the plan!"

"I know, and I tried to make her believe me but…" Anna paused, remembering the touch, "…but she left before I could do any more convincing."

"Wait, what was that pause?"

"Hmm? What pause?"

"You know what pause." Hannah hopped off the counter and bent down to stare directly into Anna's soul, "Something else happened between you guys, didn't it? Something that kept you from doing the other fifty percent of your job."

Anna pursed her lips and tried to look at everywhere that wasn't Hannah, she didn't want to tell her friend about the touch, and the subsequent "electricity" from it, reasoning that it would be too big a of a thread to unravel right now.

"Spill it, Anna Dawson."

Instead of spilling it, Anna used a tactic that had been used on her recently and drastically changed the subject. "Have you told Rapunzel anything?"

Hannah leered at her, "Told her what?" She was going along with the subject change for now, but Anna suspected that it would be a topic of discussion in the near future. The very near future.

"You know, about Flynn."

"I think you're overestimating how close me and your roommate are."

"So…you haven't told her anything, then?"

Hannah shook her head, still not amused at her friend dodging her questions.

Anna felt momentarily relieved, this was an actual, genuine worry of hers once she figured out what Flynn had been up to. There was no telling how Rapunzel would react, and Anna wanted to make sure the timing was right before dropping the bombshell on her best friend that her boyfriend was secretly trying to sabotage her ex-girlfriend and her Fortune 500 company.

…why was Anna's life so complicated?

She let out a grateful sigh, trying not to accidentally blow any air into Hannah's still-too-close face, "That's good, I haven't had a chance to tell her yet."

"Tell me what?"

Crap.

The redhead froze, forcing her head to turn towards the source of the question, hoping that it was anyone but who she thought it was.

Unfortunately, there Rapunzel stood in front of the kitchen door, looking puzzled at the pair, who were in a precarious situation themselves: Anna sitting in a chair looking like she'd rather be anywhere else, and Hannah looming right above her demanding an answer to a swept-aside question.

"Rapunzel, hey…" Anna said, or rather those were the only words that successfully jumbled out of her mouth.

"Anna, what's going on here?"

The redhead looked at Hannah, helpless, and she thankfully got the message and let her get out of the chair. "N-nothing, we were just- just messing around. You know how stressful it is in the kitchen, gotta find some ways to keep you sane, haha…ha…"

Rapunzel looked over Anna's shoulder, and then back at Anna, confused, "I mean, I don't believe that at all, but whatever. Anyway, what do you have to tell me?"

Anna fiddled with her matted ponytail. "I have to tell you something?", she asked, feigning innocence.

"Uh, yeah, I think you do."

"I don't think that's true."

Rapunzel let out an exasperated groan, "Anna, you called me, Rapunzel. You don't call me by my full name unless something's up. Plus, I literally just heard you say that you 'haven't had a chance to tell me yet'. Well I'm here now, so whatever you have to say to me, just say it."

Anna was cornered, she had to decide what to do quickly, and she did.

There wasn't much sense in keeping up this charade any longer. Rapunzel had overheard her, and this was a "perfect" time as any to finally tell the truth. It wasn't going to be easy, though, and again there was no telling how her best friend would react, but Anna couldn't just keep her in the dark like this.

"Alright…" Anna said solemnly, "…but I think you're gonna want to sit down for this."

Elsa grinned, "I don't know if you screwed up, or just got cocky, but someone overheard you while you were discussing your 'master plan.'"

Flynn let out a chuckle, "Yeah? Who was it?"

"Do you really think I'm going to tell you?"

"Fair enough." He shrugged, "Well you've caught me, Ms. Andersen, I'm the one that's been blackmailing you this whole time. Honestly I thought you would have caught on to me a long time ago."

Elsa peered at him suspiciously, this was getting to be a bit too easy. "Really? You're giving up just like that? You're not even going to try and convince me you're innocent?"

"I mean I tried, but what's the use? You've said so yourself, the game's over, and I've played all my cards. There's nothing left to do but accept my fate." He looked up as if he remembered something, and then looked back at Elsa, the grin on his face growing even more sly than before, "So, what happens now?"

She still didn't like this, but everything was still going according to plan, so she didn't want to change things up right away. "What happens now is the police search your desk, come here to arrest you, and I finally get rid of your smug, arrogant ass forever."

"Arrest me?" Flynn laughed, "With what evidence? Just because you own this city doesn't mean you're going to abuse your power to put me away without due process."

Elsa backed away slightly and folded her arms. He did have a point, she didn't want to be known as that kind of CEO, the one who uses their power for personal gain, despite the service they could be doing for the community. Luckily, she wouldn't have to. "It's my building that they're searching, and I've already given them permission to do so. And besides, are you saying they're not going to find any proof of your wrongdoings at your desk?"

"Come on Elsa, you know better than anyone that I'm smarter than I look."

"Not smart enough, apparently." Elsa muttered, but still loud enough for Flynn to hear.

"Excuse me?" he said, visibly amused at Elsa's comment. "Let me get this straight: You're arresting me with zero proof and a hundred percent speculation, your only possible form of proof is pure hearsay, and you're having my desk checked by the police on the slight possibility that you'll find the evidence you need there. And you brought me out here, what, so you could gloat? Over a job that's not even finished?"

Flynn jabbed a finger towards Elsa, "When I got your message, I had this feeling that you finally figured out it was me, and I still came out here because I knew you would have absolutely nothing on me. I've had backup plans to my backup plans since day one, I've been twenty steps ahead of you this whole time." He took a second to let out another ridiculous laugh and run his fingers through his hair, "So, when the police come, and they can't arrest me because you've supplied them with a whole lot of nothing, I'm going to get out of here scotch free, knowing that not only did I do my job, but I got away clean."

With a disgusting amount of confidence, he sauntered over to Elsa, matching her folded-arm frown with his own arms folded and a smile from ear to ear, "You're right, Elsa, the game is over, and I've won."

Elsa didn't know how Flynn wanted her to react to his closing monologue. Maybe he wanted her to cower in fear, regret her decision to even bring him out here; or maybe he wanted her to beg for forgiveness, strike some sort of deal to put this all behind them; or maybe he wanted her to be her usual, stubborn self and storm off, leaving her scathing words unsaid, and letting him get the last laugh.

But Elsa didn't do any of that, because Flynn had played right into her trap.

Her lips curled up into a sly grin of her own, and she gestured to someone in the shadows. "Are you sure about that?"

Flynn's face immediately dropped as he looked over to where Elsa was gesturing, and from the bushes and into the light emerged her driver, Marshall, holding her phone in his hand. "Wh-what is this?", Flynn said confused.

Marshall handed Elsa her phone, and stood menacingly silent behind her. She waved the phone in front of her ex-blackmailer victoriously, "You were right, I didn't have any proof that you were the one behind all this, until now. How's it feel to be the one being spied on?"

Although his mouth was open, Flynn couldn't respond; but his eyes told Elsa that she had him right where she wanted him. Now, it was time for a little monologue of her own.

"I had to figure out how to put you away without abusing my power, and give the police an actual basis to arrest you. I couldn't give them the text messages you sent because you were too 'clever' and made sure to mask your number, and even though I knew the police could probably find a way to trace it back to you eventually, I was running out of time and didn't want to take that chance. So, I needed to get you to give me the proof I needed. Good thing you like to talk so much or else this plan might not have worked."

"Y-you can't do this." Flynn finally eked out.

"I can't? Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" Elsa said, her tone and posture shifting back into the authoritative businesswoman that she was, the one she had forgotten to be for far too long. "I am Elsa Andersen, CEO of ArenCorp, and, for at least the next few minutes, your boss. If you thought I would show you mercy for everything you've done, you are gravely mistaken. And whoever you're working for, when they contact you as you're rotting away in your jail cell, tell them I'm coming for them too."

Flashes of red and blue shone across Flynn's petrified face, and sirens pierced the quiet of the night. Elsa smiled, "Just in time. Excuse me for a second as I greet Officer Hudson and give him your confession. When we come back, I want you turned around with your hands behind your head, it makes it easier for him to put the cuffs on."

The police car stopped a few feet away from them, the only other witnesses to this chilling event, the hotel staff at the docking bay, whispered to each other trying to make sense of what was going on. Elsa took a step towards the officer, stopped, and turned around. There was something she had to do first, one last shot that she had to get in.

Walking back up to Flynn- still frozen and in shock- she whispered right into his ear, "You have ten seconds to comply, Mr. Rider."

A/N: I've been waiting to write that line for like 12 chapters now.