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

[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?"

[posterboymarine]

He groaned. "If I do, can I go home?"

[neverwrongagent]

She opened her mouth to say of course, he could, then she exhaled slowly. "I'll do everything in my power to get you there." She shrugged. "I know if we don't get those answers, it's going to be a lot harder. Not just because the people I work with really like to have answers, but because they aren't going to understand the choice you made any other way."

[posterboymarine]

He exhaled hard, then shrugged, his resignation obvious in every bit of his body. "Fine."

[neverwrongagent]

Well, that was something, not much, but something. She didn't go chasing after him, instead she shifted over on the bench and made more room for him to come back. "We don't have to start right away. Being out here is meant to be a break."

[posterboymarine]

He nodded and, very slowly, made his way back over to the bench. He sat down next to her and put his head in his hands. "Can I get some sleep first?"

[neverwrongagent]

She hesitated for a moment, then reached over to lightly caress his hair. If they didn't have the past they did, she wouldn't have touched him in quite that way. "Yeah. We'll find you a room with a big bed. Something soft."

[posterboymarine]

He leaned into her touch. She was going to have to answer a lot of questions about why she was so physical with him. But, at the moment, he didn't really care. The idea of a big, soft bed was tempting.

[neverwrongagent]

She had a reputation for going off script, she'd just play that up, say it was what she intuited he needed. That wasn't far off. She petted him for a while, then sighed softly. "If I'm going to pull that off, we'll need to get back."

She licked her lips. She was going to have to report what she'd learned, but she wasn't sure how or when she wanted to do that. The only person she really trusted wasn't around to bounce plans off.

[posterboymarine]

He nodded and pulled away, standing up slowly. He hurt all over and he was exhausted. "I just want to sleep." And never wake up. But he couldn't say that. They'd never let him out of their sight, until he'd been rung dry, if he did.

[neverwrongagent]

She'd pick up on that desperation fairly quickly if he kept that line of thinking. She might not always recognize the signs of it in herself, but she could see it in others. "Let's get back, then. Get you settled." There were going to be more rounds of interrogation, but they weren't going to keep up the torture and not let him sleep.

She guided him to his feet and back to the room where they'd started. She left him there with a guard outside the room while she scrambled to find a space. In the end, she managed to get a back office cleared out and a bed dragged in. The only reason she got away with it was because she somehow managed to make it sound like an emergency. What that emergency was supposed to be she was deliberately vague about.

The room was dark by the time they reached it, obscuring the chair she'd set in a corner. The double bed was right in the middle of the room, though.

[posterboymarine]

When she came back to get him, he had his forehead on the table in front of him, his eyes closed. He wasn't asleep. He was just listening.

She had to lead him, much like a zombie, into the room. Chances are he wouldn't have noticed the chair if it were broad daylight. So he certainly didn't notice anything but the bed, right before he collapsed onto it.

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie winced at the weight of over six foot of Marine, even a thin one, hitting that bed. It was makeshift at best. She knelt next to it and got his boots off him, then covered him with the thin blanket they'd scrounged. "I'll be here when you wake up. I won't leave you alone in this."

[posterboymarine]

He just nodded, then pulled the blanket up over him. He unconsciously curled into the fetal position, clinging to the blanket like a lifeline.

He was asleep moments later.

[neverwrongagent]

Because sitting still with nothing to do was a sure road to disaster, Carrie had the files she'd been working on brought in. She sat with a small lap in the chair and read through them over and over while he slept. Adding what she knew now to what they'd already uncovered made her brain swim.

[posterboymarine]

He slept dreamlessly for a few hours. Then the twitching and the whimpering started. He pulled in tighter, he kicked out, he was generally combative in his sleep. It was anything but restful, by this point.