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]

Carrie laughed a little bitterly. "Some days I'm not sure it was real." She caressed his cheek lightly, pleased with the smile even though she wished it were more certain. "We're in this together, right? The rooftop kids."

It was a silly thing to say given how serious everything around them was, but she couldn't shake that feeling of a bond with him.

[posterboymarine]

He briefly leaned into the touch. "Together." He sounded more sure than he looked. Which had the potential to be a very bad thing. "Your handlers are going to be looking for you, aren't they?"

[neverwrongagent]

"Fuck them." She'd long since accepted that her handlers didn't like much of anything that she did. If she thought she was on the right track, they were barely on her radar. Right now all she cared about was him--who he was and what he could do rated pretty equally. "They'll figure it out eventually and then I'll explain." Or not, because she will have foiled some plan and all will be clear.

[posterboymarine]

He smiled at her curse, then smirked. "Fair enough." With a sigh, he laid his head against her shoulder and closed his eyes.

[neverwrongagent]

They sat in their oasis for as long as they could get away with, longer than either of their handlers were happy with. He ended up spending one more night in the makeshift bedroom before she could make a convincing enough case for moving both men to rooms on opposite sides of a near by residence they had used to house visiting analysts. She argued hard that both men needed to feel more comfortable in order to give the most information.

The place was patrolled, but it had real windows that opened onto a central patio work am even larger fountain. Carrie got Brody settled in his room, then had to leave him alone until after dinner when she knocked on an interior door covered in his side by a heavy hanging.

[posterboymarine]

Brody did not particular enjoy the last of his time in his cell and was very relived when he was relocated. He took his dinner in his room, looking out the window. He was still looking out that window when the knock came on the hidden door.

It took him a few moments to locate it, then he got it open with a look of confusion. Until he saw her. Then he smiled.

[neverwrongagent]

She leaned against the door frame and waggled her fingers at him. "Hey there, big boy, got time for a visit from your neighbor?" She brought her other hand out from behind her to show that she'd brought to cold beers. "I have party favors."

She was relieved to see him greet her with a smile, once he finally found her. The strain of an extra night in the holding cell had been obvious.

[posterboymarine]

He eyed the beers with obvious delight. "Party favors? You brought nectar of the gods." He ushered her in. "Welcome to my humble abode." Once he got the door closed, he held his hand out for a beer. "I have you to thank for the view?"

[neverwrongagent]

She handed him his beer and went to look out the window in question, nodding slightly at the view of the slowly darkening garden. "Didn't see much point in getting you out of one closed space only to shove you in another one." It wasn't going to do anyone any good if he stayed shut down.

She turned back to him. "It's not as good as the rooftop, but we can go out later and at least see a few stars."

[posterboymarine]

She kept bringing up their shared past and it made him smile. He joined her at the window as he took a drink. "We can? I'd like that a lot." Not that he really trusted the freedom. They still wanted stuff from him, even her.

[neverwrongagent]

Reminding him of the past might have been manipulative, but the truth of it was that she'd held onto those memories, too. Whatever she wanted from him operationally, she also wanted to at least maintain a connection with him. "Won't be able to test all the surfaces, but I'm sure we'll make due."

She frowned a little, shifting gears in an unexpected direction. "How are you healing?" When she'd had him naked, she hadn't really been able to tell and it wasn't like they showed her every medical check.

[posterboymarine]

He moved closer to her, brushing against her very lightly. The connection was important. At her question, he shrugged. "They say most of it is going to scar, went too long untreated."

After another drink, he licked his lips and signed. "I hear women find scars attractive."

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie knew it was partly because of her chosen profession, where she dealt with all sorts of people who wore scars inside and out, but she had never understood why anyone would find scars disgusting or unattractive. Maybe she'd worn her own for so long that she understood them. "They're a part of you, Nick, and I like you."

She shifted a little so that she could rub her hand over his lower back without being seen from outside. "The option is having you back with them or not having you back. It's not a hard choice at all."

[posterboymarine]

"I wonder if it will really be that easy." He sighed again, then moved away from the window. He was aware that the window was exposed, that anyone could be watching. He didn't really feel like being on display to his hosts.

Perching on the edge of the bed, he drained his beer in two swallows. Then he laid back and patted the bed next to him. "might as well make yourself comfortable. Unless you have someplace to be."

[neverwrongagent]

There were sheers over the window, enough to give them a touch of privacy without obscuring the view in an emergency, and she pulled them partly shut. She took a seat next to him, tucking her beer bottle under the bed and out of the way. "I do, somewhere very important." She leaned back on the bed, spreading her arms out and groaning. "I've been trying to get here for hours."

[posterboymarine]

He glanced over at her and grinned. "And here I thought you'd forgotten about me." He shifted onto his side and watched her. "I hope I haven't been causing you too much trouble."

[neverwrongagent]

She snorted. "You make an impression on a girl, Gunny." She turned to face him, reaching to caress his hair. "You haven't caused me any trouble. Reynolds, the guy who came in with Walker? He's giving me fits. Bosses back home? Highly annoying." She rubbed a thumb over his cheek. "You're a walk in the fucking park."

[posterboymarine]

He moved with her touch, happy to be lulled by it. It felt good to be touched and he'd missed her more than he wanted to admit during the previous night.

"How long can you stay?"

[neverwrongagent]

She glanced past him at the connecting door, then grinned. "I'll have to be up early, but I'm yours until then." She chose her words carefully, shivering slightly when the force of them hit her. She wasn't kidding or playing.

[posterboymarine]

This got another smile from him and relaxed visibly. "I'm glad." And he was very much glad, both for the immediate meaning and for the deeper one.

He shifted closer to her, now touching her back. "Nights are hard."

[neverwrongagent]

She nodded, her lips pursing slightly. "They are. Worse when it gets quiet." She glanced at the window. It would get quiet in that house. "Enough things are hard now. I don't want this to be harder than it has to be."

[posterboymarine]

"Is that the only reason you are doing this?" He suspected that it wasn't. But he needed to hear that. He needed to hear that he was not just the job as much as he needed to breath.

[neverwrongagent]

She turned on her side slightly and moved forward to kiss him. The contact wasn't forceful or pushy in any way. Instead it was tender, almost regretful. "I like you, Nick." She caressed his jaw, slowly. "If I could wave my hand and get you all the way out of this, I would."

She licked her lips and looked down. "Even when that means I'd probably never see you again."

[posterboymarine]

He sank into that contact with a groan. It was enough to convince him that he was more than the job. With a weighed sigh, he pulled her into his arms and just held her.

It felt good, holding her, having someone real in her arms. It made a lot of things much better. Including this round of, albeit improved, captivity.

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie went into his arms easily, curling up small against him with one arm around his waist so she could rub his back. All those months staring at his photo had put him in a place in her mind that she hadn't completely understood. Having him there, real, was making it clearer. She hadn't lied to him and she had no intention of it, but the way that opened her up to him was getting scary.

He wasn't hers. He had a wife and family at home and the Marine Corps breathing down her neck about him. And she sucked at being anyone's anything. Right there, in that moment, she could almost feel all that disappear.