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]

"Seems thin. But okay." He was easy, when it came to her. Maybe a little too easy. "I'm going to need my shirt back."

From downstairs drifted Saul's voice. "Carrie... Let's go!"

[neverwrongagent]

She glanced down. "But it fits me so well." Grinning at her victory, she stripped off the shirt and tossed it at him before heading for her closet. At the same time, she called back down to Saul. "Yeah, yeah, coming. Hold your horses."

[posterboymarine]

"This is a bad idea." Of course, he was still getting dressed. So he was still in. After he was dressed he went up behind her and kissed her shoulder. "I should probably not go downstairs without you, should I."

[neverwrongagent]

She turned half toward him so she could kiss him back. "It would make for an interesting conversation. Might be worth it for you to get to see Saul sputter." She shimmied into a pair of jeans, half jumping to get them up over her still sweat dampened hips. "And it's a horrible idea because I don't want to share you, but maybe this will end up giving us more freedom."

She riffled through her shirts with one hand as she fished out a bra with the other. Once she had both items on and shoes on her feet, she looked up at him with a bright smile. "Show time?"

[posterboymarine]

Fully dressed himself, he nodded. "Let's do this." He let her go down first and tried to get his best smile painted on. He had a little practice, so he might have even been convincing.

Saul was... surprised was a good word. And he did sputter a little before looking at Carrie with a raised eyebrow.

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie shrugged, grinning slightly. "Found him in my closet, thought I'd feed him and try on his clothes." And fuck his brains out, but that didn't need to be stated out loud. It made Saul twitch when she said things like that. "I thought he might have something to contribute."

[posterboymarine]

For Brody's part, he just shrugged sheepishly, then offered Saul his hand. The older man shook it, still not at all sure about the situation.

So he decided to pretend that Brody was part of the scenery and talk to Carrie. "If you think he can help, I'm willing to see. But he doesn't have clearance and you know that. So he is need to know."

If Brody was upset by being talked about like he wasn't there, he didn't let on. He was a Marine. He was used to being a tool, acknowledged only when needed and otherwise ignored.

[neverwrongagent]

There were ways around the clearances and Brody already knew more than Saul about some things, but there was no way to tell him that. "He'll be a better judge of Walker than just about anyone." She glanced at Brody, then touched his arm. "But you will probably end up sitting around a lot. We'll find you the good magazines."

[posterboymarine]

Saul watched the way Carrie touched Brody and rolled his eyes a little. He was going to need to have a talk with his protege, she was pushing it more than usual.

Brody, for his part, just nodded. "I'll need to use the phone. And if you give me a magazine more than six months old, I'm leaving."

[neverwrongagent]

The point of the touch was to reassure Brody and show Saul she was committed to this. "You can call when we get there, but the best I can promise is about four months." She gestured to the door, "Let's go boys, we have work to do."

[posterboymarine]

Saul lead the way and Brody brought up the rear, a piece of pizza in his hand. He came up behind Carrie and whispered in her ear. "You're driving." It was the perfect excuse to come back and finish what they'd started.

[neverwrongagent]

She pulled her keys out, jingling slightly to tell him she'd heard. Then she told Saul that they'd meet him at the office. She didn't think he really wanted to sit in a car with them, not when they might be all touchy feely or something. Any briefing he was going to give her would just have to wait. She knew he'd have plenty to say about all kinds of things.

Once they were in the car and on the road, she glanced over at him. "I'm sorry."

[posterboymarine]

He'd finished his slice by the time she spoke and he gave her a soft smile. "These doesn't strike me as something you would have planned. So you don't need to apologize." He leaned over and kissed her shoulder, then settled back in the seat.

While she drove, following Saul, Brody slipped into operational mode. He should have been jumpy, as he usually was in public these days, but having her nearby relaxed him enough that he was able to focus. He was going to have to hold on to that effect to get through the next few hours, when he was likely to be left to his own devices.

From the lead car, Saul just shook his head. Plenty to say did not even begin to describe the lecture she was going to get once the Marine was out of earshot. Carrie did crazy things, but this was out there, even for her. They still hadn't verified that Brody wasn't involved in whatever Walker was up to and this could all go terribly wrong. Yes, lecture would be coming soon.

[neverwrongagent]

She made an unpleasant noise. "If I was going to do some kind of scheming to get you into the fold, I would have had better timing. I'm all squirmy still." She ran a hand down his arm, then shifted gears toward work as best she could. She'd be doing better if they'd had even ten more minutes before Saul showed up. Nothing focused her better than good sex. As it was, her mind was split between trying to figure out what could have changed and working on strategies to integrate the narrative she and Brody had worked out in early days back in country.

And then there was Saul. It was one thing to cover up with she knew about Brody over there, where there was a really good reason, but now, when things were more up in the air? She was going to have to keep trying to find a justification on that one. How Saul approached her about Brody at all would dictate some of that.

Getting him into the building took a little while, most of which time, she bounced by his side like a kid waiting for a present.

[posterboymarine]

Once they were through security, Brody was directed to a chair by Saul. He was not given a magazine. And he was left alone, sort of. He was being watched.

Saul took Carrie with him into an empty briefing room and glared at her. "What the fuck do you think you are doing?"

[neverwrongagent]

"Screwing a married Marine, what does it look like?" She fired back as aggressively as she dared, taking on the blame for as many non-clearance issues as she could. "Said I had a man in the closet."

She shrugged. "We just reconnected. Not like it's been going on all this time." Technically true.


OOC: Icon keywords? "I give headaches."

[posterboymarine]

Saul shook his head. "You aren't just screwing a married Marine. You are screwing a married POW and potential terrorist."

[neverwrongagent]

Her eyes narrowed at him and she shook her head slowly. "He's not that. We know--" She glanced back over at Brody. Nothing that had come out in all her hours of interrogation had changed her mind that Nazir wanted to turn him, but hadn't, not really. Doing something awful to survive was one thing, or thinking that you had, but that wasn't all it took. "What do you know that I don't?"

[posterboymarine]

Pointing out toward where Brody sat, Saul lowered his voice. "We know that Walker has been trying to contact him, but his wife keeps being the one to answer the phone. We know that Walker has been to Brody's house."

Now he pointed at Carrie. "And you are fucking him."

[neverwrongagent]

That brought her up short and she stared at Saul while she tried to put things in place. What she didn't do was look to where Brody sat. Walker wanting to see Brody could mean that he wanted to understand why Brody hadn't followed the plan, why he had deviated so far from what Nazir wanted. Or it could mean that Walker was ready for the next step and Brody was hesitating.

Or it could mean Walker wanted to know what the fuck Brody had meant in trying to beat him to death. "Yeah, I'm fucking him. I was there, remember." She shook her head again. "What else do we know?"

[posterboymarine]

"Nothing. That's why we are here. Walker's been active today. They think he has a meet. He's outside the Brody place, now." Before Carrie could ask. "Yes, we have a car on him. No, he's not doing anything."

[neverwrongagent]

"The meet isn't with Brody." Because Brody had been with her for hours and wasn't going anywhere near home for a while. And since Carrie had been following him, not the other way around, it was unlikely that he'd set her up as an alibi. Not impossible, but not likely. "Guess it's a good thing we have him here, then. We can ask him about it and put them together if we have to."

Just like after they were rescued, except for the very real possibility that the whole story would come out now.

[posterboymarine]

Saul nodded. She had a point. "Fine. We'll try it your way."

[neverwrongagent]

She exhaled slowly. Telling Brody was going to suck and it was going to be tricky as hell where they were. If she was right about him, he'd probably see the possibilities pretty quickly. And if she was wrong, he'd go along with her plan anyway, because what other choice did he have? "You want to explain it to him or do you trust me to?"

[posterboymarine]

Saul thought about it, then nodded. "You have the relationship with him. You tell him. Let's see how he responds."