This is spying. Isn't it FUN?

[neverwrongagent]

Brody attending the meeting Walker had so casually mentioned turned into a three ring circus. More than one person involved was convinced the whole thing was a wild goose chase, including Carrie occasionally. If she hadn't seen Walker as up close and personal as she had when they were first rescued, she could have been convinced. Maybe sending Brody to a regular meeting for returning vets who were also Muslim was just a kind of fuck you from a man who felt he'd been betrayed by a brother soldier. Or it could be something much more sinister. The problem was, no one could really figure out what that sinister was supposed to be. Carrie continued to maintain that Brody had no idea what was going on.

The questions Brody faced right after the meeting ranged from if he knew any of the people there already to how was he planning to overthrow the US government. When the questions headed that way a majority of the time, Carrie called foul and got Brody out of there. With full understanding of the irony involved, they had decided that the cover that would work best with his family was that he was working with other vets on integrating back into the world. Carrie would have felt a lot worse about that if it was just being used to cover up them fucking around. She still felt pretty shitty about it given how much stress it was putting on him.

They took their own cars back to her place. She got there before him and immediately opened a fresh bottle of wine, leaving a full glass on the counter for him, then she went upstairs to change into something decidedly less official looking.

Comments

[posterboymarine]

His family mostly buying the cover, since he'd been having such a hard time anyway. But the meeting, that meeting was very close to being a deal breaker. And the interrogation afterward... He almost walked away and never came back.

Only Carrie kept him there. Only the fact that he knew he would lose her if he left kept him there. And it made him follow her home.

He sat in his car for a few minutes after he got there, slightly torn about what he was doing. Then he was going inside, where he found the glass of wine waiting for him.

He took a few sips, then checked the fridge, to see if that situation had improved, or if they would be ordering out.

[neverwrongagent]

Only because she'd anticipated his arrival was there anything resembling food. There were two decent sized steaks, fixings for salads and fresh green beans. Somewhere in a cabinet there was also rice mix. For Carrie, it was positively extravagant. There was even a box of fancy cookies on the counter. She'd already dipped into those.

She came down wearing loose drawstring pants and a tank top, looking significantly less stressed than she felt. She refilled her wine, leaning against the counter with a groan.

[posterboymarine]

Spying the food, he started plotting how to cook it. He was still plotting, and only sipping his wine, when she came down and groaned. He closed the fridge and straightened, smiling weakly at her.

"I want you to know I didn't enjoy that."

[neverwrongagent]

"No? And here I was planning a get away vacation of nothing but?" She slapped her forehead. "Oh, fuck, you already had one of those didn't you? Guess we'll have to go to Disney." She put her glass down and went to wrap her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry, Nick. I stopped it as quickly as I could." She was probably going to pay for putting an end to it as it was, but she was good with that.

[posterboymarine]

He hugged her back, laying his cheek against her hair. "I know you tried. I just feel like I'm being used. Not by you, but by your bosses."

[neverwrongagent]

She exhaled deeply. "That's because you are." And by her, to a lesser extent, but at least she was trying to mitigate that. She rubbed his back slowly. "Maybe I should have told them everything when I first learned it, maybe they wouldn't be looking at you so closely now."

[posterboymarine]

"And maybe if you had, I'd still be rotting over there. At least, here, I'm not as worried about getting blown up." Which was a lie. He was still very worried about being blown up. It just wasn't a rational fear here.

"Doesn't matter now, anyhow. I know they are going to use me there's nothing left. And I'm probably not going to get a whole lot out of it."

[neverwrongagent]

She knew as well as he did that if there was anything to this, they might all still get blown up. It wasn't what he needed to hear at the moment, though, so she shifted direction. "The faster we can figure out what's going on, the faster we can get you out of it all."

She looked up at him. "This isn't what I'd hoped for us that first night you came over."

[posterboymarine]

He nodded. "I know it wasn't. But it's what we have." That he hated just about every moment of it, except when they were alone, just made it harder to accept.

With a low sigh, he finished his wine, then brushed his fingers over her cheek. "I don't want to talk about that anymore tonight."

[neverwrongagent]

She leaned into the touch with a soft smile. She was more than happy to forget about all of it in favor of being close. They always did so much better when they were just them, with nothing else around them. "I will talk about anything you want. Or nothing at all."

[posterboymarine]

"I think we should talk about how you want me to cook those steaks. That sounds like a good idea." Continuing to hug her, he nuzzled into her hair.

"Then I think we should go upstairs."

[neverwrongagent]

She laughed brightly, her hand sliding lower to grab his ass. "Upstairs is the best part of that." She turned to kiss his jaw, then pulled back slowly because she knew if they didn't let go soon, those steaks wouldn't get cooked at all. "Medium rare, if you would? Spices are over the stove." She cleared her throat. "Those I have. Honest."

[posterboymarine]

He actually laughed when she pulled away. "I didn't say I would cook now. I just said we should talk about it." Then he pulled her back to him, actually kissing her this time.

[neverwrongagent]

After a couple days with no forward motion on much of anything, Carrie's bruises had blossomed and then started to fade. Saul was still seriously unhappy with her, enough that Carrie was getting jumpy being around him. And a jumpy Carrie was no good to anyone. The idea of going somewhere to be truly alone sounded better and better with every passing moment. She could only think of one safe place with no bugs.

She told Brody to pack for as many days as he thought he could get away, even if it was only one. They'd leave from her place.

[posterboymarine]

He managed to swing two nights away and packed accordingly. Then he kissed his wife and kids goodbye before going off to run away with his... he didn't even know what to call Carrie, really.

Still, he was going. And he was glare for the chance to get away.

[neverwrongagent]

She didn't tell him where they were going, just that he should rest on the drive if he could. They'd be stopping once for food, but after that they would be off the grid until they had to get back. She hoped he'd believe her about that, but she understood if he wouldn't after finding out about her house being bugged.

They got to the cabin around lunchtime and she sat in the car for a moment, looking around at the familiar landscape.

[posterboymarine]

He didn't just rest on the drive, he slept, not even waking when they stopped for food. When they were apart, he slept horribly, so by the time she called him, he was past exhausted.

He was slow to wake this time they stopped, too, and he was still blinking hard when he saw her. "Where are we?"

[neverwrongagent]

"A little slice of heaven?" She pointed to cabin and sort of waved down to the dock. "Belongs to my family. We'd come up here weekends in the summers when I was a kid." Maggie brought her kids sometimes, but not as often as their dad had brought them. "And it's all ours for the next two days. Just us."

[posterboymarine]

He lifted an eyebrow. "Just us or just 'us'?" Still, he climbed out of the car and took a look around. "Nice place."

[neverwrongagent]

She climbed out and came around to stand beside him with her hand on the small of his back. "You. Me. Some loud birds in the morning. The occasional fox." She leaned against his arm. "We both need the break."

[posterboymarine]

He smiled down at her, then pulled her into a hug. "You picked a good place. There's even water." She had to remember that he enjoyed the water, so this was perfect.

[neverwrongagent]

She sighed in relief, settling into his arms happily. There was water,there was nature, and one night she was going to take him out to see the stars. "And we can light a fire, curl up under a blanket together, forget the world exists." Because that was what she wanted--a few hours to turn off her brain.

[posterboymarine]

She was saying all the right things and he whimpered softly. "Sounds perfect. Can we just stay?"

[neverwrongagent]

She groaned. "God, sounds good, doesn't it? Let's see if you still want anything to do with me after being alone with me for real." It would be the first time since the night they met that they'd be really alone.

She started pulling him toward the cabin. "Let me show you around some?"

[posterboymarine]

He let her pull him, laughing softly. "How far do you think we'll get before someone gets naked?" His nap had done wonders for his mood, and the scenery was helping a lot, too.