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]

She snorted softly. She didn't believe that bit for a second. Then she sobered. "The human mind can conflate the most amazing things, contrary to all exterior logic. We're all capable of it to some extent." Not that she imagined either of them would go to that kind of extreme, but she wasn't naive enough to think it wasn't possible.

[posterboymarine]

Perhaps she was right, that neither of them would do that, but who really knew. He'd beaten his friend, he believed until recently, to death. In an attempt to live a little longer himself.

"What else do you want to know?"

[neverwrongagent]

What he'd done was survived. There were limits to what you could expect a person to endure before they snapped. "I want to know everything because I never know what might connect to something else. Any detail, no matter how small could be important."

She reached for his hand again, fingers moving over his. "I also want to know what more I can do for you. Short of turning back time."

[posterboymarine]

"I've told you everything." He hadn't. But he wasn't going to go back now. He shrugged, then looked at their hands. "What you can do, or what you can do?"

[neverwrongagent]

She let the first part go. Even if he wasn't actively hiding anything, they hadn't gotten close to everything he could tell her. She shrugged, smiling with that same almost embarrassed expression. "Either. Both."

[posterboymarine]

He looked at their hands again, then sighed softly. "Can I get a little time alone? Out here?"

[neverwrongagent]

She glance around, looking at one spotter but not the others, then shrugged. "I can give you a little time, but I can't really leave. They made me sign all kinds of papers saying I'd keep track of you."

[posterboymarine]

He looked around. "Where am I going to go?"

[neverwrongagent]

"You ask that like they actually thought it through." Mostly they wanted to be in control. All anyone expected him to want was to go home. "I can give you fifteen minutes." All of which time he'd be observed from afar. "I'd be right outside the gate."

It was a bad idea, really, and she didn't want to do it, but she knew the best way to get him to open up was to get him to bond more with her. Giving him something he wanted was a step in that direction

[posterboymarine]

He nodded. "Thank you." Then he turned back to the water. He would spend the entire time just moving his hand through that water. But he would also spend it pretending he was really alone.

He believed his own lie for well that by the time she returned, he was silently sobbing.

[neverwrongagent]

She came up behind him quietly, slowing when she realized he was crying. So she didn't startle him any more than she had to, Carrie came around to the other side of the fountain so he could see her approach if he looked up. "Nick? I'm back." She licked her lips. "I'm back for you."

[posterboymarine]

He looked up at her and wiped his eyes. "Thank you." He rubbed his face and looked down again. "What has Walker said?"

[neverwrongagent]

She wanted very much to wipe away his tears, but she didn't want to intrude. Not at the moment, anyway. "I don't know. I only saw the initial stuff about his release." Her focus had been on Brody, not Walker and after licking her lips, she admitted that. "I focused on your condition, on how you were."

[posterboymarine]

He looked hard at her, confusion crossing his eyes. "Why?"

[neverwrongagent]

She blinked up at him, smiling slightly. "Because I know you. I liked you." She finally reached up to touch his cheek. "Wanted to see for myself that you were in one piece."

[posterboymarine]

The way she said that, liked him made him frown. It was so past tense that he didn't know what to do with it. Still, she might not have meant it that way.

He leaned into her touch and sighed softly. Maybe he would feel better if he told her. "I met Nazir."

[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."