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]

He leaned into the touch. "Okay." Then he straightened. "Show me your favorite spot."

[neverwrongagent]

"I can do that." She took his hand again so she could lead him through a barely visible trail that branched off the path they were on. It led through the woods to a clearing just off the lake. It wasn't bit, but the canopy of trees cleared just enough to show sky.

She stood in the middle of it, looking up. "This is why I knew where that rooftop was."

[posterboymarine]

He joined her and looked up, smiling. "I can see that." He untied the blanket and laid it out, then flopped down on it. He was still very much on edge and off kilter, but he was determined to try.

[neverwrongagent]

She laid down next to him, her head by his shoulder, and took his hand. "It's your turn to talk to me, you know. I've been rambling all night and I have a feeling that isn't doing us any good." She leaned over and kissed his shoulder. "Talk about anything."

[posterboymarine]

He got an arm around her but didn't start talking for a few more minutes. He needed to find a safe topic. Safe for her, yes, but, more importantly, safe for him.

Finally, he started talking to her about why he'd decided to join the Marines in the first place, but how he had wanted to finish college and become a teacher.

[neverwrongagent]

As he talked, she shifted so her chin rested on his chest and she could watch him. It wasn't what she'd expected, but it was exactly the kind of thing she needed to hear. This was a huge part of the man she'd met, the one she knew was still in there and that she wanted to protect. "You could still do that?"

[posterboymarine]

"I'd have to serve out my enlistment term." And he still wasn't sure he could do that. But if he medicaled out, he wouldn't get those benefits.

[neverwrongagent]

She didn't want him to go back in. She really didn't think it would be any good for him. "People make do." It wasn't fair, of course, given everything he'd been through, but if they talked about fair they'd ruin the moment pretty quickly.

[posterboymarine]

He shrugged. Sure, people made do. But they hadn't been tortured and held prisoner. There wasn't much hope for people like him, when it came down to brass tacks. After all, felons didn't have that much luck surviving in the real world, and they were responsible for their incarceration.

Shivering a little, he pulled her closer. "Maybe."

[neverwrongagent]

She could feel him setting up the walls at her comment, the walls she knew he thought of as the broken parts. This was the first thing he'd talked to her about that was outside what had happened to him. "I could help you study."

[posterboymarine]

He was so lost in his own head in that moment that it took a bit for her comment to penetrate. He glanced at her in surprise. "With your busy schedule?"

[neverwrongagent]

She shrugged slightly. "I'd find the time." She'd try anyway if he took the step because anything else could be considered abandoning him again. "Could be fun." She kissed him. "It's a nice way to spend time together."

[posterboymarine]

"When you put it like that..." He kissed her forehead. "Maybe I'll look into it." It was the best he could do, the best he could commit to.

"Not sure what I would teach, though. Maybe history."

[neverwrongagent]

She grinned. "I'd actually be some help with that." She didn't really expect he'd have gone for physics or something, but history was something they could talk about. She rested her chin back on his chest and let her eyes close while she pictured it. The worst part was how easily the image came to her.

[posterboymarine]

Of course, he could picture it just as easily, something he hadn't been able to picture with Jess since even before his last deployment. She was an accountant, he was not. She seemed to care as much about history as he did about numbers. Which was to say, very little. When they'd married, when they'd been in love, she'd supported his dream, even accepting his wish to enlist to support them and get money for school.

Now, he had no idea what Jess thought he should do. He didn't even know how to ask the question. Except that he could easily talk about it with Carrie.

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie was quiet for a long moment, then she exhaled slowly. Thinking about what she'd do after the CIA usually involved horrible images of getting kicked out if they found out about her mental health issues so she didn't think on it too much. Still, she did think about it. "Always figured if I gave it all up, I'd teach, too. I know enough languages to be useless at just about anything else." She shrugged a little. "Would be a good way to help bring people together."

[posterboymarine]

He smiled softly at her. "How many languages do you know?"

[neverwrongagent]

"Three fluently. Arabic, Farsi, and English." She shook her head. "Right there I'm pretty much only good for teaching or spying. And I can swear in a handful of others. Russian. Italian." She grinned. "Don't ask."

[posterboymarine]

He grinned right back at her. "I'm afraid to." His fingers ran over her hair. "You could translate, privately."

[neverwrongagent]

She shifted so he could pet her more easily, groaning happily. "I could, but I'd probably end up poking into things that way." She shrugged. "It gets in your blood. Plus, I'm just nosy that way."

[posterboymarine]

"And you think that would be better if you were teaching?" He kept petting her, his eyes half closed as he started imagining a life with her. "How are you with kids?"

[neverwrongagent]

She watched him for a moment, then closed her own eyes so she could picture it, too. It was frightening how easy it was. "I have nieces, two of them, and they adore me." She laughed lightly, even though it was true. "I've always done pretty well with kids."

[posterboymarine]

He smirked slightly. "Well, that would help if you decided to teach kids." He left out the implied or deal with his.

[neverwrongagent]

Teaching kids wasn't really what she was thinking, but she knew where he was heading with the question. If they ever made anything of whatever it was they were doing, she would have to deal with his kids. They hadn't talked about them really at all. "I like kids."

[posterboymarine]

"That's good." He kissed her hair, then pulled her a little closer. "Not that I believe, for an instant, that you'd quit the company."