We all fall down

[neverwrongagent]

Carrie would remember the next few days as some of the best of her life. She was living with a man she was more comfortable with than she could have imagined, working together for a common goal. Even the visit with his kids went well. She gave him most of Saturday with just them, showing up at dinner time with pizza and cookies. They played board games and chased around her little house until it was time for him to take them back. Then it all went to hell.

They finally found evidence that Walker had met someone on one of his random seeming runs around the District. Before they could act on it, a series of small bombs took out three Metro buses as they approached the city center. A half dozen people were killed, twice that were injured. Had it been one bomb, it would have been bad enough, but three in a concert was particularly frightening for the city. It also put CIA on high alert. The work they'd been doing before was nothing compared to the sudden anger and frustration everyone showed. Plenty of people looked at Brody, and Carrie, as though they'd done something wrong. Brody should have come forward sooner. Carrie shouldn't have trusted him so much. Maybe if they'd come up for air this wouldn't have happened.

Carrie though all that and more, although she never really blamed Brody. At least, not any more than she blamed any of them for missing it. They'd messed up, not gotten to the answer fast enough. For her, everything else fell away. The work was everything and she spent as many hours as she was allowed at work. She had to be shoehorned out of the building to go home and rest, but when she was there she didn't sleep. She only ate when someone put food in front of her. This was the Carrie Brody had never seen, that her family worried about, that Carrie held on a tight leash.

She paced her dining platform, looking at the notes and schedules she had posted to her wall, sure she was still missing something crucial. She had music playing, the kind of jazz that normally settled her, but it wasn't doing shit and she could feel her skin start to crawl, but she had to work, had to figure out where they'd gone wrong.

Comments

[posterboymarine]

He didn't need her to sit still. He just needed her to eat and drink. As long as she kept doing that, he would let her work.

When she got up, he went to get more food. Then he stood next to her, holding the plate in her direction, as he looked at her new notes. Fully expecting her to eat because it was in front of her, he pointed something else out for her on the wall.

[neverwrongagent]

Routine was a marvelous thing. She took the plate and ate, at least for a little while. Then she jumped to grab something off her wall that matched something on his map. Things got brighter for a moment, then she wasn't sure. With the plate still in her hand, she started pacing again. It was like watching a caged animal.

[posterboymarine]

He took the plate from her on a pass and handed her the wine as she came back by. Then he returned to his maps to see what she had changed. Then he leaned back in the chair, in thought, absently finishing the bits of lamb.

[neverwrongagent]

The changes she made were vivid to her, subtle at best to most others. Still, there were changes being made, connections that made things clearer. There was some piece of information they just didn't have yet that was crucial. Someone or something that wasn't in the picture yet. When the glass of wine was empty, she stared at it. "Need to bug Walker. Bug his house. His car. His...dick, I don't know."

[posterboymarine]

Brody had to agree with that. "So, let's get him bugged. I can get him out of the house, if you can get someone in." He plucked the glass from her hand, then took it and squeezed so she'd look at him.

[neverwrongagent]

The solid contact got her attention for a long enough for her to look at him. "To bug his dick?" It was nearly a serious question. "That would be awkward." For a moment she was back, that flash of humor, then she was gone again, looking at the maps.

[posterboymarine]

"No. Not bugging his dick." He rolled his eyes at her, even though she wasn't looking. "But his house. It's a start." He squeezed her hand again. "Come here a minute. I want to show you something."

[neverwrongagent]

She was already preparing the pitch to Saul when he pulled at her. She turned and looked up at him, eyes big. "What?" She looked around him as if she could spot it. "Did I miss something else?

[posterboymarine]

He cupped her cheek and kissed her softly. "You need a change of scenery. We're going to go for a run, then come back and look at this again. No arguing."

[neverwrongagent]

The kiss made her moan as though he'd thrown her down on the bed and ravaged her. Then he was gone again and she whimpered. "I don't argue." And she didn't really, not with him.

[posterboymarine]

He smiled. "I know you don't, baby. WIll you come run with me?"

[neverwrongagent]

She nodded, then looked down at herself. "Have to change. Can't run in this." She was in the same clothes she'd gone to work in, including high heeled boots.

[posterboymarine]

He grinned. "Both of us have to change. Let's go do that." He kept hold of her hand, leading her upstairs.

When they reached the landing, he pulled her into a deep kiss. Maybe the running could wait a few minutes.

[neverwrongagent]

Kissing him was always on point, so she went with that over going to change. Her arms went around his neck so she could hold on tightly. Her mind didn't clear the way it normally did when they kissed, she was too distracted for that, but it did stop racing for a moment.

[posterboymarine]

They were getting somewhere with the kissing, so he kept at it as he started to walk backward toward the bed. AT the halfway point, he kicked his shoes off and started unfastening his pants. Maybe she would get the hint, a little.

[neverwrongagent]

Much like eating when the plate was put in her hand, there were certain things that were automatic when she was given the push. She felt what his hands were doing and started tugging at his shirt to get it off. She was going to have to sit down to take off her boots, so she decided to get his clothes off first.

[posterboymarine]

Once he was naked, he helped her with her shirt. Then it was time for her to sit down. He knelt in front of her to take her boots off, then pulled her pants down.

He kept one hand on her side as he worked, keeping that contact so she stayed with him. Then she was naked and he kissed her thigh. "Lay back, babe."

[neverwrongagent]

She flopped back onto the bed with a whimper. He might not know it, but he was doing everything right. Of course, any shrink she'd ever known would be livid that she was leaving her illness untreated with anything but booze and sex. She stretched her hands up over her head and arched toward him. "This isn't running."

[posterboymarine]

"This is warming up." He urged her legs apart and started to lap at her, working slowly to build her up.

[neverwrongagent]

She made a softly affirmative noise, as though she understood, then she got lost in the sensation. He was good at it and he knew her body. Moaning loudly, she arched toward him. "Getting warm." She shifted slightly, wordlessly begging him for more.

[posterboymarine]

He added a pair of fingers to what he was doing with his mouth. She was more articulate and acknowledging of him now that the maps and clothes were gone. He was going to have to remember this.

[neverwrongagent]

She told him how good it felt to have him touch her, how much she wanted more. Then she started telling him what she was going to do to him when he was done. It wasn't that coherent, but it was creative. It also might not be strictly physically possible in the order she suggested. The closer she got, the more scattered her suggestion were.

[posterboymarine]

He laughed against her, letting her feel his pleasure with her. Then he started to push her actively toward her release.

[neverwrongagent]

It wasn't much longer before she practically leapt over the edge. She screamed his name, pounding on the bed to punctuate her pleasure. Normally after a release that strong, she would collapse in a heap. This time before the waves of pleasure had faded, she was grabbing for him.

[posterboymarine]

He went to her in a rush, his lips mashing against hers as dragged them both fulling up onto the bed. She hyperactive state was a little contagious and he was as ready to be inside her as she was to have him there.