Rescued?

[neverwrongagent]

When the posters went up showing the two members of the Marine sniper team who'd gone missing, Carrie Mathison stood and stared at them. She didn't see two Marines in their uniforms, though, she saw only one of them half dressed on a rooftop looking up at the blanket of stars. She saw a sweet smile from a man who was too far from home and was trying to hold onto his humanity. Every time she passed the posters, even if she didn't turn to look, she was as aware of them as if someone had reached out and grabbed her. Months went by and the sensation never weakened.

Then came word that they'd been found, that two Marines had been found in neighboring camps. Both men were in rough shape: dehydrated, beaten and demoralized. One was worse than the other, but first reports didn't make it clear which it was and Carrie held her breath until she knew that Brody was in better physical shape. Not that she asked or spoke to anyone about knowing him. The moment she said a word, they'd pull her out of it all and that wasn't happening.

The men were kept apart while they were cleaned up. Carrie read both files, but it was Brody's she kept going over and over in her head. She knew every detail of what they'd found out so far. On the outside it probably seemed cruel to interrogate the men so soon, but the sooner they got it done, the better. These men were headed home, at least for a while, and it would be harder to get solid information from them when they were there.

It wasn't until minutes before she walked into the room that Carrie knew for sure which man she was going to debrief. She was ready to bounce out of her skin by the time she walked in, a feeling that vanished immediately when she saw him. "Sergeant Brody? I'm Carrie Mathison. I'm here to ask you some questions."

Comments

[neverwrongagent]

The man she liked, that she respected, suddenly became her new best friend. She was a good enough human being that she felt bad about it, but that didn't change the fact that Nazir was the only target that mattered. Nothing could hide the flutter of surprise, though.

She kept her hand on his cheek, caressing softly. "Really? Nazir? Wow." She licked her lips, taking a moment to even out what she knew was a shakier voice than she wanted. "When?"

And then, with her next question, she suddenly felt like she was on firmer ground, bolstered by what was a genuine interest in him despite his worries. "Did he-- Was he part of your questioning?" And torture?

[posterboymarine]

He nodded. "Not long ago. Can't be more specific. Hard to tell time in the dark."

[neverwrongagent]

She shifted a little closer, her hand moving down to his shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting manner. She nodded slightly. "Well, what did he ask you? What did he want to know?" Because in many ways the questions were more important than the answers. By now what Brody knew just wasn't up to date, but those questions would be so telling.

She looked around for a second, then gestured to a bench against a wall, but still close to the fountain. "Do you want to sit down?"

[posterboymarine]

Brody nodded. Sitting down would be good. He waited until they were sitting to speak again. "He didn't ask me anything. He was kind to me."

[neverwrongagent]

That would have probably been more troubling if she didn't already know about the attempt to gaslight him with Walker's non-death. Still, it told her a lot about how he'd been treated and she flared with a potent mix of anger and pain for him. Her knee brushed against his as she leaned in so she didn't have to raise her voice much past a whisper. "That's a potent weapon in the right setting."

The irony wasn't lost on her at all.

[posterboymarine]

He frowned deeply at the implication. "I'm not... I'm not a terrorist. I'm not like that."

[neverwrongagent]

His answer surprised her almost as much as his statement about Nazir. "I didn't say you were." She shook her head. "They did horrible things to you. Being kind was a way to get more information from you." She reached to put a hand on his leg, then stopped. "And that's going to make it hard for you to know who to trust now. I can tell you again that I was already your friend before all this, but you have to make up your own mind if you can trust me."

[posterboymarine]

He exhaled again, looking away. "When no one else was, he was kind to me. Then he..." Brody swallowed hard. "Then Tom died."

[neverwrongagent]

That put her at least one point ahead of a notorious terrorist, which was good. She felt a little less shitty about how eager she was for info on Nazir. "Only he didn't die. That was a lie." She sat back for a moment, thinking. "I wonder what he told Walker about it."

[posterboymarine]

He couldn't even think about that. He shook his head. "Maybe you should ask him." Except he didn't want anyone to ask Tom about anything. He needed him to be dead.

[neverwrongagent]

She snorted softly. "That's going to have to be someone else's job." She finally put her hand on his leg. "Getting you through this part of things is my job and that's what I'm going to do."

[posterboymarine]

He glanced at her hand. "How? By being kind to me?" He shook his head before she could answer.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, feeling the sun on his skin. "They never did take care of my hands. They wanted me to remember."

[neverwrongagent]

She didn't pull her hand away, but she did have the good grace to look abashed. "By being honest with you. There are going to be times I have to ask you things, that I need to know. And I'll try to get things for you that will make it better for you. Things that you need, not that someone else thinks you do." Like getting him outside even though it made everyone else so nervous.

She moved her hand to his, her fingers light on the areas that weren't so badly hurt. "What did they want you to remember?"

[posterboymarine]

He ignored her question in favor of asking his own. "How long will I be here? I'd like to go back to my unit."

Not that he wasn't going to answer her question, he just wanted to know how long he had to do it.

[neverwrongagent]

She frowned deeply, knowing that he needed that answer for many reasons, but unsure what she should say. "I don't know. As soon as we can, but after my questions, someone is going to send down a second list of them." And then there would be the press, because rescued POWs were news.

[posterboymarine]

He gave a disgruntled sigh and didn't look at her. "They wanted me to remember what'd I done. As if I could forget."

[neverwrongagent]

That didn't make a whole lot of sense to her as from what she remembered, Brody had a solid if unremarkable military career. Nothing he'd been involved in was that different from any other soldier. "What did they think you'd done?"

[posterboymarine]

"Not think. Know." They knew because they'd made him do it. Nazir had. It was why he knew Walker was dead. But could he tell her that?

If he ever wanted to go, and knowing that Tom was alive, he didn't really have much choice. But what would they do to him for it. He'd acted as an enemy combatant. Did it matter?

"Tom was dead. Because I made him that way."

[neverwrongagent]

She was so surprised by what he said that she sat back and stared at him for a second, and that was with already imagining something not unlike what he was suggesting. Her reaction only lasted for a moment, then she was back with him, shaking her head slowly. "But you didn't. It was a lie. A lie they talked you into believing."

A lie he believed because doing anything less probably meant the tables would be turned. At least she really hoped so.

[posterboymarine]

He just shook his head. "It wasn't a lie, Carrie. I killed him. Nazir watched me do it. Held me while I cried afterward."

[neverwrongagent]

She wasn't entirely sure what to say to him. Partly that was because her mind was already spinning ahead to what Nazir's end result would be to using this one Marine that way. To using two of them.

She managed to shake that off and give Brody her whole attention. "It was a well crafted lie, Nick. Well enough that he talked you into doing something awful, but it was still a lie. You didn't kill your friend. And Nazir was't being kind."

[posterboymarine]

"He. Was. Dead!" Brody stood quickly, pulling away from her and getting some space. He couldn't, wouldn't look at her. It was all too hard to process.

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie let him go. He wasn't going to get far, after all, and he'd been locked up for a long time. Just being able to move around when he was upset had to be a real change for him. So she let him have his space. She also let him have a little time to think.

"Tell me why you did it?" Her voice was gentle, almost tender. "Why did you kill him?"

[posterboymarine]

"To save myself." He spun on her, angry now. "I did it to live another day."

[neverwrongagent]

She let that hang in the air for a long moment. "That's right. And you did live. You're here and you're free." She licked her lips. "And so is he. Now we have to figure out why. Can you help me?"