Title: The Silly Games We Play
Rating Usually PG, with the very occassional PG-13 update
Disclaimer You've probably read a million of these. In short, any characters that sound familiar to you are owned by people much richer than I. People with names like JJ and ABC and Bad Robot and Disney. Any characters you haven't heard of before don't. This story borrows a lot from the few details they gave of the first generation spy history. Most of that story is also obviously not mine, but a lot of the situations are. My guess is if you're reading this, you are smart enough to know the difference.
Author's Note I am a SD-1 refugee and this is a story that I have been writing there since Oct '05. I'm starting here at what I believe is a good starting point for anyone to read, however, there are about 73 chapters that preceed this one and they will be archived some day in the near future. As soon as I have that figured out I will let you know.
Because I'm restarting this time period I'm backtracking a little from where I left off. So, SD-1 refugees who have been following, let me know who you are and I can PM you when I get to new stuff. I'll post old stuff a chapter a day until I get to new stuff so I would guess by July 1 there should be new stuff for you. At that time I will go back to my two updates a week schedule.
Let me know who needs a PM. I'll start a new list right now.
Book 5, Chapter 1 What a Lovely Way
“I don’t think this is the right course of action. I don’t even think things have gotten this desperate.” He spoke impeccable Russian, a very learned man who had earned his rank. He had little to no use for the woman talking to him who would no doubt make a formidable adversary, but who had not earned her position as he had. Her very presence at a meeting she invited herself to made him angry. The fact that his subordinate did not even warn him that she would be there nearly got him killed.
“He is suspicious. He is many things, but not stupid.” She hated working with both these men. One was little more than a lapdog. He would agree with anything, especially if he thought he would be rewarded with sex afterward. The other questioned everything, especially when he knew she kept information from him. She was not inclined to tell either what she knew of the prophesy and how this plan would help the prophesy along. All either needed to know was her plan for her sister.
The contrary man looked between the woman and her companion, taken aback a little, though he had trained his features not to betray his surprise. He looked at the other man and continued their conversation. “Why have I not read this in your reports? You are to tell me of potential trouble.”
He could not answer the question, instead she did. The bearded gentleman faced her expecting her answer instead of his underling to say anything. He rarely did when she met with them. “He is gone more and more often on more and more dangerous missions. He is distancing himself and that is not good for us.”
He considered the answer. There was truth in it, but even with the attachment issue, their agent was too well trained to let his activities in the field break them up. “She is still providing intel and his missions allow her to go on missions too. I do not see that this needs to change. No, Elena. This is an unnecessary order to give and it puts her mission in danger. There is a reason we do not allow our agents to do this except in the most extreme situations. There are already signs that she is too attached, we will not help that.”
Alexei stood up and walked out of the conference room leaving Elena and Cuvee alone. Cuvee didn’t know why this was so important to Elena, but he knew it was. Though she didn’t have to, Elena said, “You answer to me and you will carry out my orders.”
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
3 Months Later
She smiled as she walked up to the security guard and asked if she was in the right building. As he confirmed her location, she took note of the gun he had in his holster. He apparently didn’t draw it very often since the gun hung higher than would be easy to draw from. She thanked him for the information, then walked inside, apparently fascinated by the pictures on the walls. Mentally, she verified that the schematics she saw were correct. The surveillance in this room didn’t matter, but knowing the five cameras were where her intel said gave her some confidence in the layout of the rest of the building. She walked to the receptionist and told her some made up fact about the painter of the cheap reprints on the wall before introducing herself as Victoria Tomilson, a reporter with an appointment to interview Dan Scarnbito. The receptionist called Mr. Scarnbito and she waited patiently for the designer.
Mr. Scarnbito, or Dan as he told her to call him, took her on a tour of the facility and she even convinced him to give her a “peek” at their new prototype. When they made it back to his office she glanced at the time. Damn, she had a class in a half hour, the tour took too long. They continued their talk as she dug through her purse making a joke about her husband saying he gets lost in it when he tries to find something. Dan said his wife’s is the same. Finally, she came up from her purse and immediately sprayed him with a drug that knocked him out.
With a flick of her wrist, Irina took the lock pick from her wig and opened his file cabinet. She was only supposed to take pictures of the blueprints of the weapon, but there wasn’t any time. Besides, she was starting to feel a little nauseous. She looked at her watch. She needed to get back to her office.
With everything in her purse, Irina began to leave the office. She walked past the prototype and decided since she’s already late, she might as well use the camera Cuvee gave her. She walked into the room and began taking pictures when she heard the alarm go off. Damn, he woke up earlier than he should have. Irina kicked her shoes off and began a sprint through some back rooms she knew about and finally to a window. She took out her grapple hook and repelled down the wall. She then climbed up the chain link fence that ran along the perimeter of the building. Once out, she sprinted again, this time to the street while taking off her wig and pieces of a mask she made. Once she blended in with a crowd, they wouldn’t be able to identify her.
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
Jack walked out of the conference room and over to his desk. He never understood why debriefs felt like they lasted longer than a mission. These back to back missions had to end. It felt like he hadn’t been at home at all this month. It wasn’t true. Between missions they usually came back to the office to debrief before sending the team back out early the next morning. Devlin promised them a break. Jack had heard that promise before, but was still optimistic that Devlin would keep his word this time.
Jack put his files away and saw Chuck Ragers walk up to him. Ragers had joined the team about a year and a half ago after Sloane had taken a long term assignment in France. Ragers and his family moved into Jack and Laura’s neighborhood and the four became fast friends. Jane Ragers had been an agent, but gave it up when they started a family. The Ragers seemed like a better fit for the team than the Sloanes were. Jack thought that Laura missed Emily every now and then, but she seemed to agree that the trade off was worth it.
“Hey Jack, going home?”
Jack had to think for a second. He should. He needs to spend some time with Laura, but it’s a school night so even if she doesn’t have papers to grade, she will have to go to bed early. He wanted to go home, her really did. But a couple months ago he had to tell her that he had to have sex with a woman on a mission and things just seemed strained between them since. He didn’t want to do it and he thought she believed that, but Laura had always been possessive of him.
Just before that mission, he went on campus to pick her up and a female student asked him directions to a building and he gave them. When she asked him if he could walk her to the building, he politely said no and excused himself. Laura then walked up to him and made a show of hanging all over him while pointedly calling him “Sweetheart”. Jack would have laughed, but Laura was a scary quiet all the way home. When they finally got into the house, Laura asked Jack how he could let that “lecherous bitch” keep flirting with him. He said that he didn’t even notice the young lady was flirting until Laura came up and started “marking her territory”. Laura was offended by the description and started arguing with him, getting more and more upset that he wasn’t taking her seriously. Finally he surprised her by pulling her to him and kissing her passionately. Finally he looked her in the eye and said “You are the only woman I could ever want. And you can mark your territory any way you want, whenever you want.”
A week later he went to Costa Rica and since then things just haven’t been same. It wasn’t the first time it happened and he had told her each time like he agreed to do. In the past she wasn’t happy about that part of his job, but she understood. He didn’t understand why things seemed so different this time. Jack considered his answer to Ragers’ question and decided he needed a drink, a real one. Not something that he would get from Frank on a work night. He took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head, “Yeah, I guess I should. I’m sure Laura’s heard we’re back and she’ll be waiting for me.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic. You need a drink first?”
Jack thought about the offer. “Probably, but not this time. I haven’t seen Laura in over a week. It will be nice to see her.”
Grady joined them. “Are you sure, Jacko? There’s been a break in at the Defense Department. Someone took off with the plans for a new ray zapper or something that you might be interested in. You find the guy, you may get to see a next gen weapon.”
Jack rolled his eyes and slumped his shoulders. Didn’t they have cops to take care of these kinds of investigations? Ragers saw his exhausted friend. “Jack, go home. Spend a good night with your wife. I’ll take care of this one. Me and Grady.”
“Hey, you can’t just speak for me like that. Can you?”
“Sure I can. Besides, he needs a good lay.” If Jack heard Ragers’ comment, he didn’t act like it as he walked out of the office.
Jack walked into the house and yelled for Laura. Of course, he finally gets a night off and Laura’s running late. Or maybe she has a night class. He hadn’t learned her schedule yet. The semester began last month and she was just getting into her routine. Maybe he could get some food together and take it to her. She said she likes to work on campus when he’s gone, since they got back early, she’s probably there. Yeah, he should do that. Jack decided to sit down first, relax a little. It had been a grueling two months. They finally had some time off. They didn’t know how long it would last, but Devlin promised at least a week. And his favorite chair just looked so comfortable. Just a couple minutes to relax and then he would get some food and take it to Laura’s office.
Jack woke up when the phone rang. He considered not answering it, but decided that if it was the CIA or Laura, he had to.
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
Irina put the blueprints in an envelope and closed it. She walked past the receptionist in her office who waved her goodbye on her way out. Sandy had learned a long time ago that Laura liked to take her own mail to the mailboxes. Sandy didn’t mind, but, she did wonder why Laura was so particular. She seemed so laid back about everything else. Oh well, it didn’t matter.
Irina walked out the door and found the particular mailbox she needed. She had never seen the person who collected the mail, but assumed that he would know to look for her package. Cuvee had never told her he didn’t receive something she sent. Before she reached the mailbox, she heard Cuvee’s voice. She looked up to see him gesture for her to follow him. They walked to a Thai restaurant and took a back table. Irina handed him the envelope and he began to look through its contents.
“You weren’t supposed to take the blueprints.”
“It was necessary. What do you want Cuvee?”
Cuvee looked her over as if he was trying to see something. “Nothing. I just got back to the states and wanted to check on you. You seemed disturbed a couple months ago after I sent you to Costa Rica. You never did tell me what happened there.”
Irina was tired of these missions from Cuvee that just begged for her to get caught. It was like he was flaunting the KGB’s ability to steal intel right under Jack’s nose. Cuvee had never gotten her to tell him what she saw, what Jack did that allowed Grady and Ragers to get the intel that both governments wanted. It was a life and death situation, that other woman would have killed any of them without Jack’s distraction. Irina allowed herself to be distracted with Jack and that Costa Rican drug whore, which allowed Ragers and Grady to get out of the country without her seeing the intel. “Why, Cuvee, I didn’t think you cared.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m under orders just like you.” Cuvee continued to look through the intel and looked up at her annoyed. “What is this? This is not what we asked for?”
“Then you should send in someone who has less of a chance of getting identified.”
“I make the assignments, not you. If you get caught we will simply extract you and give you a new assignment. You may be attached to this life, but we are not. Never forget that.”
Irina smiled at Cuvee. “If you really believed that you would have extracted me from this life a long time ago. You need me here. You need the intel that Agent Bristow provides.”
“You’re wrong Irina, you’re here at your sister’s insistence. Once certain things come to pass, it will no longer be necessary for you to be here.” Cuvee got up and left the restaurant.
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
Irina pulled up to the house and noticed the lights on inside. From a distance it looked like candle light, but she didn’t burn candles normally and definitely not before she left for work that morning. As she got closer to the house, she looked in a window and confirmed that the dining room table was lit with candlelight. She immediately began to smile as she realized that Jack was home. She approached the door and saw that he hung a bouquet of yellow roses out the door in a noose, a joke between them after she told him a year ago that she really hates flowers because they die too quickly. He didn’t do it very often, but when he did, it always made her laugh. She took the flowers and went inside.
“Jack? Jack?” He cooked? He never cooks. He was a better cook than she was, but neither spent a lot of time in the kitchen, they were always too busy. “Something smells really good.”
Jack walked out of the kitchen with a towel over his shoulder. He stared and grinned at her. After several long moments, he finally said, “Hi sweetheart.”
Irina looked at him a little suspiciously. He wasn’t acting like himself. “Jack, what’s going on?” Jack continued to look at her with a strange smile she had never seen before. “Jack! You’re scaring me.”
Jack couldn’t move, he just wanted to look at his wife, while Irina couldn’t read his face. He was obviously excited about something, and she wanted to know what.
Finally, Jack said, “Sit down Laura. Dinner will be up in a second.”
Irina did as she was told. Jack pulled her chair out for her and then went to the kitchen and started bringing out their dinner in the nice dinnerware. Finally he served their meals and sat down next to her. He took her hand and gave her a kiss. Then grinned at her some more. “I missed you. And I love you.”
Irina was still suspicious; Jack never acted like this before. “Uh, me too.” Jack continued staring at her. “Jack! What’s going on? You’re acting… strange.” When he still didn’t answer or stop grinning, she tried to act normal. “How was your mission?”
“It went well. We got the bad guy and everything.”
Irina was getting more frustrated by the second. She tried to pick at her plate aware that Jack’s eyes hadn’t left her since he walked out of the kitchen. She made another attempt at acting normal. “Well, this food is great. So much better than the bucket of chicken you usually buy when it’s your turn to cook.”
Jack continued to smile at his bride, scaring her even more. Finally he gave her a kiss and an expectant look. “Did you know?”
“Know what Jack?” Irina wasn’t sure how she managed to show so much restraint in not hitting him yet.
“Well, I got home and I was about to bring you dinner to your office and the phone rang. It was your doctor. Laura, we’re pregnant. I mean, you’re going to have the baby, but, it’s, we’re, we’re going to be parents, Laura. We’re having a baby!”
Jack’s goofy grin didn’t leave his face as Irina’s eyes rolled back and she and her chair fell to floor. As Jack reached down to pick up his now fainted wife and mother-to-be, he muttered, “I guess you didn’t know.”
Irina’s eyes fluttered open to see Jack kneeling next to her putting a cool rag on her head. Her sight was still a little blurry as she tried to get her bearings. “Jack? What happened? I had the weirdest dream.” She blinked her eyes and saw that Jack still had his goofy grin on his face. Why was she on the couch? “Oh my God. It wasn’t a dream, was it?”
Jack’s smile grew as he took her hand. “No, isn’t it wonderful? We’re going to be parents. You have a little baby something growing inside you.”
Irina was shocked. She had never felt anything like this before. She couldn’t form any words or thoughts even. Pregnant? How did that happen? She couldn’t be. She’d been careful, she took her birth control pills every day. There had to be a mistake. She’d been feeling a little nauseous recently, so she went to the doctor. That must be why he called. She realized that she couldn’t remember when her last period was, she assumed it came on time. But with her teaching and her spying she just didn’t remember. But, she couldn’t be. She looked at Jack, who was beaming and talking. A lot. She had no idea what he was saying, but, he looked so excited. How could he be excited? He didn’t know anymore about being a father than she did about being a mother. The KGB never taught her how to be an American mother. She looked at Jack and his excitement and realized that the KGB would never let her keep this child. How did this happen? She couldn’t be pregnant.
Jack stopped talking and grinned at his wife, his beautiful wife, and kissed her again. “I mean, I guess I always thought that eventually we would have a couple little rug rats, but, I hadn’t thought about when. I, I mean, I thought that one morning we would just wake up and look at each other and say ‘it’s time’. But this is so much better. I mean it’s time.” Jack unexpectedly stood up and picking up Laura with him and spun her around. Then he put her down and looked a little panicked. “That didn’t make you feel sick did it? You don’t think it hurt the baby do you?”
Irina tried to think of a response, but none came to her. Jack sat her on the couch and softly gave her a kiss. “I love you.” Irina smiled and was about to touch his cheek, when he added, “mom.” A feeling of panic ran through her before she could stop it.
Jack saw the fleeting moment of fear and took her hand. “I guess you didn’t plan this to surprise me, did you?” Irina shook her head no. He took her hand to his lips and kissed one of her fingers while his other hand gently caressed her cheek. “Hey, it’s going to be okay Laura. We have some time to get used to the idea. I was thinking that maybe I can ask to work a desk. It’ll be safer so that I can come home every night. And we can talk to Chuck and Jane. They know all about having kids. They can tell us what to do. And, and Mom will want to come and help. She might even bring Jenn. Our kids will have cousins. They live half a continent away, but they can grow up together. Maybe even Mike will finally talk to me. I was thinking that maybe we can combine our offices and the baby can take whichever one we don’t use. I think we should move yours because I have all the security stuff in mine and the baby won’t need that. But, your office is bigger, so maybe that’s better. But it doesn’t matter, I mean we don’t need to decide this right now. We have about 9 months, maybe less.”
Irina’s head was swimming. How did this happen? Why was Jack babbling about offices and bedrooms? How was she going to tell the KGB? She could always take care of it before they found out. She looked at Jack as he was apparently trying to decide what color to paint the baby’s room and debating with himself over the benefits of building an addition to the house or combining their offices.
“Jack. Jack. JACK!”
Jack stopped pacing and watched as she stood up and ran to the bathroom. He heard her vomiting and he ran to hold her hair for her. Once she finished and cleaned up they sat on the couch holding hands. “I’m sorry. I haven’t let you say much yet have I? What do you think? I mean, you’re excited, right? You do think this is a good thing. It’s right for us now, right?”
Irina looked in Jack’s eyes. He was so excited and wanted her to be. She touched his cheek. “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t had any time to process this. I hadn’t expected it. I didn’t plan on it.”
A part of her knew that she should be excited. But another part didn’t want to be. Even if the KGB let her keep this child, the reality was she couldn’t be a good agent and a mother. She wouldn’t be able to take a baby with her on missions where she had to repel off the side of a building or jump out of an airplane, or run surveillance while the child’s father had sex with a random drug princess. And yet… She looked at Jack and saw his excitement over this life. She couldn’t take that away from him. He loved this child already. And if Cuvee was right, if the KGB no longer needed her here this child might be the only thing Jack would have to remind him of her.
Jack put his arm around her. “I know, that’s what I thought at first too. The doctor called and said that he was having a hard time getting in touch with you and then he told me. And for a second, maybe more than a second, a lot more than a second, I was scared. But then I realized that you and me, we’ll be going through this together. We’ll be parents together. As long as we’re together, we can do anything. Right? We can bust people out of a Russian prison or entertain people like Arvin Sloane or anything. It’s us and we can do anything as long as we’re together.” He put his free hand on her abdomen and said, “This kid, he or she will have the best parts of both of us. Can you imagine the ass that this kid is going to kick someday?”
Irina laughed with Jack. “He’ll become the perfect agent.”
“Or she’ll be a great teacher and student of literature. Or an engineer or doctor, or something. But she’ll be perfect. Just like her mom.”
Irina put her hand on Jack’s face and maneuvered it so she could kiss him. “How do you do that? How do you make me believe in the impossible? How do you know just the right thing to calm me down?”
Jack kissed her back. “I guess I just know you. And I love you, you know. I can’t let you worry about anything, because I know that as long as we’re together we can do anything.”
Irina kissed Jack hard and laid back, pulling him down with her. He looked at her and said, “We still haven’t eaten dinner.”
“Dinner can wait. I don’t want to.” Irina said and she started to unbutton his shirt.
“Are you sure we can do this? You know with the baby? I don’t want her to see anything.”
Irina laughed, “Trust me, he’ll be okay. And he will get used to it.”
Rating Usually PG, with the very occassional PG-13 update
Disclaimer You've probably read a million of these. In short, any characters that sound familiar to you are owned by people much richer than I. People with names like JJ and ABC and Bad Robot and Disney. Any characters you haven't heard of before don't. This story borrows a lot from the few details they gave of the first generation spy history. Most of that story is also obviously not mine, but a lot of the situations are. My guess is if you're reading this, you are smart enough to know the difference.
Author's Note I am a SD-1 refugee and this is a story that I have been writing there since Oct '05. I'm starting here at what I believe is a good starting point for anyone to read, however, there are about 73 chapters that preceed this one and they will be archived some day in the near future. As soon as I have that figured out I will let you know.
Because I'm restarting this time period I'm backtracking a little from where I left off. So, SD-1 refugees who have been following, let me know who you are and I can PM you when I get to new stuff. I'll post old stuff a chapter a day until I get to new stuff so I would guess by July 1 there should be new stuff for you. At that time I will go back to my two updates a week schedule.
Let me know who needs a PM. I'll start a new list right now.
Book 5, Chapter 1 What a Lovely Way
“I don’t think this is the right course of action. I don’t even think things have gotten this desperate.” He spoke impeccable Russian, a very learned man who had earned his rank. He had little to no use for the woman talking to him who would no doubt make a formidable adversary, but who had not earned her position as he had. Her very presence at a meeting she invited herself to made him angry. The fact that his subordinate did not even warn him that she would be there nearly got him killed.
“He is suspicious. He is many things, but not stupid.” She hated working with both these men. One was little more than a lapdog. He would agree with anything, especially if he thought he would be rewarded with sex afterward. The other questioned everything, especially when he knew she kept information from him. She was not inclined to tell either what she knew of the prophesy and how this plan would help the prophesy along. All either needed to know was her plan for her sister.
The contrary man looked between the woman and her companion, taken aback a little, though he had trained his features not to betray his surprise. He looked at the other man and continued their conversation. “Why have I not read this in your reports? You are to tell me of potential trouble.”
He could not answer the question, instead she did. The bearded gentleman faced her expecting her answer instead of his underling to say anything. He rarely did when she met with them. “He is gone more and more often on more and more dangerous missions. He is distancing himself and that is not good for us.”
He considered the answer. There was truth in it, but even with the attachment issue, their agent was too well trained to let his activities in the field break them up. “She is still providing intel and his missions allow her to go on missions too. I do not see that this needs to change. No, Elena. This is an unnecessary order to give and it puts her mission in danger. There is a reason we do not allow our agents to do this except in the most extreme situations. There are already signs that she is too attached, we will not help that.”
Alexei stood up and walked out of the conference room leaving Elena and Cuvee alone. Cuvee didn’t know why this was so important to Elena, but he knew it was. Though she didn’t have to, Elena said, “You answer to me and you will carry out my orders.”
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
3 Months Later
She smiled as she walked up to the security guard and asked if she was in the right building. As he confirmed her location, she took note of the gun he had in his holster. He apparently didn’t draw it very often since the gun hung higher than would be easy to draw from. She thanked him for the information, then walked inside, apparently fascinated by the pictures on the walls. Mentally, she verified that the schematics she saw were correct. The surveillance in this room didn’t matter, but knowing the five cameras were where her intel said gave her some confidence in the layout of the rest of the building. She walked to the receptionist and told her some made up fact about the painter of the cheap reprints on the wall before introducing herself as Victoria Tomilson, a reporter with an appointment to interview Dan Scarnbito. The receptionist called Mr. Scarnbito and she waited patiently for the designer.
Mr. Scarnbito, or Dan as he told her to call him, took her on a tour of the facility and she even convinced him to give her a “peek” at their new prototype. When they made it back to his office she glanced at the time. Damn, she had a class in a half hour, the tour took too long. They continued their talk as she dug through her purse making a joke about her husband saying he gets lost in it when he tries to find something. Dan said his wife’s is the same. Finally, she came up from her purse and immediately sprayed him with a drug that knocked him out.
With a flick of her wrist, Irina took the lock pick from her wig and opened his file cabinet. She was only supposed to take pictures of the blueprints of the weapon, but there wasn’t any time. Besides, she was starting to feel a little nauseous. She looked at her watch. She needed to get back to her office.
With everything in her purse, Irina began to leave the office. She walked past the prototype and decided since she’s already late, she might as well use the camera Cuvee gave her. She walked into the room and began taking pictures when she heard the alarm go off. Damn, he woke up earlier than he should have. Irina kicked her shoes off and began a sprint through some back rooms she knew about and finally to a window. She took out her grapple hook and repelled down the wall. She then climbed up the chain link fence that ran along the perimeter of the building. Once out, she sprinted again, this time to the street while taking off her wig and pieces of a mask she made. Once she blended in with a crowd, they wouldn’t be able to identify her.
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
Jack walked out of the conference room and over to his desk. He never understood why debriefs felt like they lasted longer than a mission. These back to back missions had to end. It felt like he hadn’t been at home at all this month. It wasn’t true. Between missions they usually came back to the office to debrief before sending the team back out early the next morning. Devlin promised them a break. Jack had heard that promise before, but was still optimistic that Devlin would keep his word this time.
Jack put his files away and saw Chuck Ragers walk up to him. Ragers had joined the team about a year and a half ago after Sloane had taken a long term assignment in France. Ragers and his family moved into Jack and Laura’s neighborhood and the four became fast friends. Jane Ragers had been an agent, but gave it up when they started a family. The Ragers seemed like a better fit for the team than the Sloanes were. Jack thought that Laura missed Emily every now and then, but she seemed to agree that the trade off was worth it.
“Hey Jack, going home?”
Jack had to think for a second. He should. He needs to spend some time with Laura, but it’s a school night so even if she doesn’t have papers to grade, she will have to go to bed early. He wanted to go home, her really did. But a couple months ago he had to tell her that he had to have sex with a woman on a mission and things just seemed strained between them since. He didn’t want to do it and he thought she believed that, but Laura had always been possessive of him.
Just before that mission, he went on campus to pick her up and a female student asked him directions to a building and he gave them. When she asked him if he could walk her to the building, he politely said no and excused himself. Laura then walked up to him and made a show of hanging all over him while pointedly calling him “Sweetheart”. Jack would have laughed, but Laura was a scary quiet all the way home. When they finally got into the house, Laura asked Jack how he could let that “lecherous bitch” keep flirting with him. He said that he didn’t even notice the young lady was flirting until Laura came up and started “marking her territory”. Laura was offended by the description and started arguing with him, getting more and more upset that he wasn’t taking her seriously. Finally he surprised her by pulling her to him and kissing her passionately. Finally he looked her in the eye and said “You are the only woman I could ever want. And you can mark your territory any way you want, whenever you want.”
A week later he went to Costa Rica and since then things just haven’t been same. It wasn’t the first time it happened and he had told her each time like he agreed to do. In the past she wasn’t happy about that part of his job, but she understood. He didn’t understand why things seemed so different this time. Jack considered his answer to Ragers’ question and decided he needed a drink, a real one. Not something that he would get from Frank on a work night. He took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head, “Yeah, I guess I should. I’m sure Laura’s heard we’re back and she’ll be waiting for me.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic. You need a drink first?”
Jack thought about the offer. “Probably, but not this time. I haven’t seen Laura in over a week. It will be nice to see her.”
Grady joined them. “Are you sure, Jacko? There’s been a break in at the Defense Department. Someone took off with the plans for a new ray zapper or something that you might be interested in. You find the guy, you may get to see a next gen weapon.”
Jack rolled his eyes and slumped his shoulders. Didn’t they have cops to take care of these kinds of investigations? Ragers saw his exhausted friend. “Jack, go home. Spend a good night with your wife. I’ll take care of this one. Me and Grady.”
“Hey, you can’t just speak for me like that. Can you?”
“Sure I can. Besides, he needs a good lay.” If Jack heard Ragers’ comment, he didn’t act like it as he walked out of the office.
Jack walked into the house and yelled for Laura. Of course, he finally gets a night off and Laura’s running late. Or maybe she has a night class. He hadn’t learned her schedule yet. The semester began last month and she was just getting into her routine. Maybe he could get some food together and take it to her. She said she likes to work on campus when he’s gone, since they got back early, she’s probably there. Yeah, he should do that. Jack decided to sit down first, relax a little. It had been a grueling two months. They finally had some time off. They didn’t know how long it would last, but Devlin promised at least a week. And his favorite chair just looked so comfortable. Just a couple minutes to relax and then he would get some food and take it to Laura’s office.
Jack woke up when the phone rang. He considered not answering it, but decided that if it was the CIA or Laura, he had to.
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
Irina put the blueprints in an envelope and closed it. She walked past the receptionist in her office who waved her goodbye on her way out. Sandy had learned a long time ago that Laura liked to take her own mail to the mailboxes. Sandy didn’t mind, but, she did wonder why Laura was so particular. She seemed so laid back about everything else. Oh well, it didn’t matter.
Irina walked out the door and found the particular mailbox she needed. She had never seen the person who collected the mail, but assumed that he would know to look for her package. Cuvee had never told her he didn’t receive something she sent. Before she reached the mailbox, she heard Cuvee’s voice. She looked up to see him gesture for her to follow him. They walked to a Thai restaurant and took a back table. Irina handed him the envelope and he began to look through its contents.
“You weren’t supposed to take the blueprints.”
“It was necessary. What do you want Cuvee?”
Cuvee looked her over as if he was trying to see something. “Nothing. I just got back to the states and wanted to check on you. You seemed disturbed a couple months ago after I sent you to Costa Rica. You never did tell me what happened there.”
Irina was tired of these missions from Cuvee that just begged for her to get caught. It was like he was flaunting the KGB’s ability to steal intel right under Jack’s nose. Cuvee had never gotten her to tell him what she saw, what Jack did that allowed Grady and Ragers to get the intel that both governments wanted. It was a life and death situation, that other woman would have killed any of them without Jack’s distraction. Irina allowed herself to be distracted with Jack and that Costa Rican drug whore, which allowed Ragers and Grady to get out of the country without her seeing the intel. “Why, Cuvee, I didn’t think you cared.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m under orders just like you.” Cuvee continued to look through the intel and looked up at her annoyed. “What is this? This is not what we asked for?”
“Then you should send in someone who has less of a chance of getting identified.”
“I make the assignments, not you. If you get caught we will simply extract you and give you a new assignment. You may be attached to this life, but we are not. Never forget that.”
Irina smiled at Cuvee. “If you really believed that you would have extracted me from this life a long time ago. You need me here. You need the intel that Agent Bristow provides.”
“You’re wrong Irina, you’re here at your sister’s insistence. Once certain things come to pass, it will no longer be necessary for you to be here.” Cuvee got up and left the restaurant.
<O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O><O>
Irina pulled up to the house and noticed the lights on inside. From a distance it looked like candle light, but she didn’t burn candles normally and definitely not before she left for work that morning. As she got closer to the house, she looked in a window and confirmed that the dining room table was lit with candlelight. She immediately began to smile as she realized that Jack was home. She approached the door and saw that he hung a bouquet of yellow roses out the door in a noose, a joke between them after she told him a year ago that she really hates flowers because they die too quickly. He didn’t do it very often, but when he did, it always made her laugh. She took the flowers and went inside.
“Jack? Jack?” He cooked? He never cooks. He was a better cook than she was, but neither spent a lot of time in the kitchen, they were always too busy. “Something smells really good.”
Jack walked out of the kitchen with a towel over his shoulder. He stared and grinned at her. After several long moments, he finally said, “Hi sweetheart.”
Irina looked at him a little suspiciously. He wasn’t acting like himself. “Jack, what’s going on?” Jack continued to look at her with a strange smile she had never seen before. “Jack! You’re scaring me.”
Jack couldn’t move, he just wanted to look at his wife, while Irina couldn’t read his face. He was obviously excited about something, and she wanted to know what.
Finally, Jack said, “Sit down Laura. Dinner will be up in a second.”
Irina did as she was told. Jack pulled her chair out for her and then went to the kitchen and started bringing out their dinner in the nice dinnerware. Finally he served their meals and sat down next to her. He took her hand and gave her a kiss. Then grinned at her some more. “I missed you. And I love you.”
Irina was still suspicious; Jack never acted like this before. “Uh, me too.” Jack continued staring at her. “Jack! What’s going on? You’re acting… strange.” When he still didn’t answer or stop grinning, she tried to act normal. “How was your mission?”
“It went well. We got the bad guy and everything.”
Irina was getting more frustrated by the second. She tried to pick at her plate aware that Jack’s eyes hadn’t left her since he walked out of the kitchen. She made another attempt at acting normal. “Well, this food is great. So much better than the bucket of chicken you usually buy when it’s your turn to cook.”
Jack continued to smile at his bride, scaring her even more. Finally he gave her a kiss and an expectant look. “Did you know?”
“Know what Jack?” Irina wasn’t sure how she managed to show so much restraint in not hitting him yet.
“Well, I got home and I was about to bring you dinner to your office and the phone rang. It was your doctor. Laura, we’re pregnant. I mean, you’re going to have the baby, but, it’s, we’re, we’re going to be parents, Laura. We’re having a baby!”
Jack’s goofy grin didn’t leave his face as Irina’s eyes rolled back and she and her chair fell to floor. As Jack reached down to pick up his now fainted wife and mother-to-be, he muttered, “I guess you didn’t know.”
Irina’s eyes fluttered open to see Jack kneeling next to her putting a cool rag on her head. Her sight was still a little blurry as she tried to get her bearings. “Jack? What happened? I had the weirdest dream.” She blinked her eyes and saw that Jack still had his goofy grin on his face. Why was she on the couch? “Oh my God. It wasn’t a dream, was it?”
Jack’s smile grew as he took her hand. “No, isn’t it wonderful? We’re going to be parents. You have a little baby something growing inside you.”
Irina was shocked. She had never felt anything like this before. She couldn’t form any words or thoughts even. Pregnant? How did that happen? She couldn’t be. She’d been careful, she took her birth control pills every day. There had to be a mistake. She’d been feeling a little nauseous recently, so she went to the doctor. That must be why he called. She realized that she couldn’t remember when her last period was, she assumed it came on time. But with her teaching and her spying she just didn’t remember. But, she couldn’t be. She looked at Jack, who was beaming and talking. A lot. She had no idea what he was saying, but, he looked so excited. How could he be excited? He didn’t know anymore about being a father than she did about being a mother. The KGB never taught her how to be an American mother. She looked at Jack and his excitement and realized that the KGB would never let her keep this child. How did this happen? She couldn’t be pregnant.
Jack stopped talking and grinned at his wife, his beautiful wife, and kissed her again. “I mean, I guess I always thought that eventually we would have a couple little rug rats, but, I hadn’t thought about when. I, I mean, I thought that one morning we would just wake up and look at each other and say ‘it’s time’. But this is so much better. I mean it’s time.” Jack unexpectedly stood up and picking up Laura with him and spun her around. Then he put her down and looked a little panicked. “That didn’t make you feel sick did it? You don’t think it hurt the baby do you?”
Irina tried to think of a response, but none came to her. Jack sat her on the couch and softly gave her a kiss. “I love you.” Irina smiled and was about to touch his cheek, when he added, “mom.” A feeling of panic ran through her before she could stop it.
Jack saw the fleeting moment of fear and took her hand. “I guess you didn’t plan this to surprise me, did you?” Irina shook her head no. He took her hand to his lips and kissed one of her fingers while his other hand gently caressed her cheek. “Hey, it’s going to be okay Laura. We have some time to get used to the idea. I was thinking that maybe I can ask to work a desk. It’ll be safer so that I can come home every night. And we can talk to Chuck and Jane. They know all about having kids. They can tell us what to do. And, and Mom will want to come and help. She might even bring Jenn. Our kids will have cousins. They live half a continent away, but they can grow up together. Maybe even Mike will finally talk to me. I was thinking that maybe we can combine our offices and the baby can take whichever one we don’t use. I think we should move yours because I have all the security stuff in mine and the baby won’t need that. But, your office is bigger, so maybe that’s better. But it doesn’t matter, I mean we don’t need to decide this right now. We have about 9 months, maybe less.”
Irina’s head was swimming. How did this happen? Why was Jack babbling about offices and bedrooms? How was she going to tell the KGB? She could always take care of it before they found out. She looked at Jack as he was apparently trying to decide what color to paint the baby’s room and debating with himself over the benefits of building an addition to the house or combining their offices.
“Jack. Jack. JACK!”
Jack stopped pacing and watched as she stood up and ran to the bathroom. He heard her vomiting and he ran to hold her hair for her. Once she finished and cleaned up they sat on the couch holding hands. “I’m sorry. I haven’t let you say much yet have I? What do you think? I mean, you’re excited, right? You do think this is a good thing. It’s right for us now, right?”
Irina looked in Jack’s eyes. He was so excited and wanted her to be. She touched his cheek. “I honestly don’t know. I haven’t had any time to process this. I hadn’t expected it. I didn’t plan on it.”
A part of her knew that she should be excited. But another part didn’t want to be. Even if the KGB let her keep this child, the reality was she couldn’t be a good agent and a mother. She wouldn’t be able to take a baby with her on missions where she had to repel off the side of a building or jump out of an airplane, or run surveillance while the child’s father had sex with a random drug princess. And yet… She looked at Jack and saw his excitement over this life. She couldn’t take that away from him. He loved this child already. And if Cuvee was right, if the KGB no longer needed her here this child might be the only thing Jack would have to remind him of her.
Jack put his arm around her. “I know, that’s what I thought at first too. The doctor called and said that he was having a hard time getting in touch with you and then he told me. And for a second, maybe more than a second, a lot more than a second, I was scared. But then I realized that you and me, we’ll be going through this together. We’ll be parents together. As long as we’re together, we can do anything. Right? We can bust people out of a Russian prison or entertain people like Arvin Sloane or anything. It’s us and we can do anything as long as we’re together.” He put his free hand on her abdomen and said, “This kid, he or she will have the best parts of both of us. Can you imagine the ass that this kid is going to kick someday?”
Irina laughed with Jack. “He’ll become the perfect agent.”
“Or she’ll be a great teacher and student of literature. Or an engineer or doctor, or something. But she’ll be perfect. Just like her mom.”
Irina put her hand on Jack’s face and maneuvered it so she could kiss him. “How do you do that? How do you make me believe in the impossible? How do you know just the right thing to calm me down?”
Jack kissed her back. “I guess I just know you. And I love you, you know. I can’t let you worry about anything, because I know that as long as we’re together we can do anything.”
Irina kissed Jack hard and laid back, pulling him down with her. He looked at her and said, “We still haven’t eaten dinner.”
“Dinner can wait. I don’t want to.” Irina said and she started to unbutton his shirt.
“Are you sure we can do this? You know with the baby? I don’t want her to see anything.”
Irina laughed, “Trust me, he’ll be okay. And he will get used to it.”
LOL, and i finally printed it to read... Gosh, what a biiiiiggggg one you wrote