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]

"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.

[neverwrongagent]

After a few hours, Carrie drifted off herself, files spread over her lap. She came awake quickly when he started vocalizing. His nightmares came as no surprise to her and she allowed herself a few minutes to watch him clinically. Them his thrashing became too much for her. Not worried about how the files fell, she went to kneel beside the bed.

"Nick?"


"NICK

[posterboymarine]

At the sound of his name, he jerked awake, flailing out as he sat up. He didn't connect with her, nor really see her for a few moments, as he tried to figure out what where he was.

Then he saw her and broke down, sagging back down to the mattress and weeping.

[neverwrongagent]

She wouldn't have blamed him if he had connected. When he started crying, she moved to him immediately. She climbed into the bed with him and wrapped her arms around him. Let one person question her on comforting a traumatized hero.

She didn't tell him it would all be okay. She just held onto him and let him take what he could from the fact that she'd kept her word and was there with him.

[posterboymarine]

He pressed close to her, tightening his arms around her and just cried. It was all he could do. He was just too broken down to care about appearance. She was familiar. She was safe.

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie let him hold on tightly, finally whispering gentle nonsense so he had something else to hold onto. The words didn't amount to much more than she was there and she would be there whenever he wanted. It was a bold promise in many ways, but she found she meant it. Every moment seeing him so broken reminded her forcefully of the man she'd met.

[posterboymarine]

She was so solid, so real, and exactly what he needed. But being so close had an added effect of reminding his body of their previous connection. His hands clenched at her a little harder and he buried his face in her neck. He was ashamed of his body's reaction to her.

[neverwrongagent]

She was so focused on the mental that it took her a long moment to realize the physical. She knew that it was all about wanting to feel alive, to be convinced that the now was real, rather than any particular appeal she might have. Running a hand down his side to his hip so she could pull him a little closer, she kissed his temple. "I remember, too. It's good to remember that, to feel it."

[posterboymarine]

Her response confused him and he almost pulled away. But her hand was so warm on his hip and she was so close. And she smelled so nice compared to where he'd been.

All he could do was whimper helplessly.