neverwrongagent | We all fall down

Entry tags:

brody,
rp

We all fall down

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nothing really happened until Saul got there and he was always the last there. Carrie thought he planned it that way because he hated waiting for anyone else. He didn't like repeating himself or missing anything. For her part, she wasn't any happier about the new faces than Brody was. Too many variables, too many agencies. And watching him pace wasn't doing her mind any favors.

Saul finally strode in and looked around the room. His gaze slowed over Carrie and even more over Brody. "All right, what do we know?"

Brody gave Saul a nod, then grabbed a map and laid it over the biggest table. Before speaking, he marked off the bombing locations and the meeting point Walker had picked. It was outside the radius formed by the explosions, which meant it had not been searched in the aftermath.

When Brody started speaking, he was looking at Saul, but addressing Carrie. The phone conversation had been short, but it had been heavy with information. He dispassionately described the argument he'd had, which had involved collateral damage and pointless showmanship. That Walker was willing to claim any sort of ownership, much less enough that he was upset with Brody for not appreciating it spoke to the other man's confidence in his mission and that he could bring Brody over to it.

Clearly, even now, Walker thought of Brody as an ally, which meant that Brody was being watched better than he would have liked. Walker knew he was getting back up to fighting weight and he believed that it was so that he could join his former partner in jihad. Brody knew that saying any of that put him right back in the suspected terrorist crosshairs, but there just wasn't time to fuck around.

"So, all that being said, he wants to have a chat, to see if I'm with him. And if I'm not, he's not going to let me walk out of there alive." Brody knew those were the rules of engagement. That was the business they were all in.

Carrie listened to every word, but she could follow him half asleep with her eyes closed. She was more focused on the others in the room and how they were taking his news. Most of the people who'd worked closest with him since just before the bombing had built up some respect for him. Saul still wasn't sure, but Carrie thought that had more to do with her than anything rational. Then there were the guys who'd brought him in on this in first place. She didn't real care what they thought.

It was the FBI who worried her. They hadn't liked any of this from the start and she could see they were looking for any excuse to put an end to it. If they were responsible for any part of protecting Brody, it could end badly.

Saul nodded slowly. "Then you'll have to be with him, won't you?"

He looked at Carrie, to gauge her reaction as he answered. "الحمد لله رب العالمين*"

He looked around the room after his statement, looking for those that would be a problem for him.

* Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds

It took Saul a moment to adjust his reaction from surprise to acceptance. Brody's answer was the right one, the one that would get them somewhere, but both he and Carrie could see that it didn't sit well with the Feebs. He caught Carrie's gaze and within an instant, knew she'd spotted the same issue. Of course, one of their analysts was translating the Arabic, so that was a fairly obvious sign of fail on their part.

The next step was setting up a reliable system for tracking Brody and Walker's meet. They wasted a good half hour with the FBI insisting that Brody be treated like an enemy combatant, not that they said it quite that way. Finally Saul, who would have loved nothing more than to have the Marine out of his protege's life, put a stop to that. They'd committed to him, he was their play. What he couldn't control, unfortunately, was that most of the on the ground would would be the FBI.

The one thing Carrie wanted to do, that she thought she wasn't going to be able to for a while, was touch Brody. Even the smallest contact would help.

While they were trying decide if they just wanted to get him killed, he drifted over to Carrie. When he reached her, he took her hand and slipped her out of the room for a moment. Once they were out of view, he kissed her softly. "If I'd told you, you never would have come. You never would have agreed. I'm sorry."

She felt like she was sneaking out on a bad family fight, which pleased her no end. She stayed close after the kiss, holding his hand tightly. "It's our best play. It's what we have." She touched his cheek. "I think your back up is criminally negligent, but we're in this together."

She frowned. "This is my life." She meant her work, of course, but she meant him, too.

He kissed her again, then pulled her back into the room before anyone came looking for them.

Then it was back to work.

Brody picked up his close overwatch and spent a long time looking them over before speaking. To say that they got a lecture about how he expected his ass to be covered was an understatement. He even went so far as to raise his voice when someone contradicted him.

With a growl, he spun on the room, his voice pitched to speak to all of them. "I'm truly glad that half the people in this room are not taking this shit seriously. I am about to walk out there and do your fucking jobs for you and the best anyone can give me for overwatch are these three mickey mouse operators. If you feds cannot handle this, I will walk in there on my own and play this my way. I am not some fucking desk jockey who has no idea which way the wind blows. And neither is Walker. We are both trained operators and he's going to smell you fuckers like you've been out rolling in the shit."

Saul would never admit that he was impressed or pleased with Brody's little rant, but it gave him some hope for their operation. He did take the time to do another sweep of their group. At least one of the FBI, the youngest one, seemed to take it all in. Maybe he'd be useful. Watching Carrie was a little less settling. He didn't think the others could see it the way he did, but her pride in Brody showed clearly.

She stepped up and started directing traffic, getting people moving. The time for conversation was over.

Brody spotted the kid, too, and he went to him and took him aside. They had a few private words and when Brody seemed satisfied, he left the room.

Now that he was in operational mode, not a single one of the people in that room mattered anymore. He had a job to get done.

For Carrie it was different. She could be as clinical as she needed, but her operational mode was more fluid and empathic. She felt her way through things which was going to make this more difficult for her. She knew she'd be quicker to anger and she worked to keep that under control. Let Saul be the bad guy, she needed better emotions.

She made a point to touch base with a couple of her people, working to get them firmly on what she thought of as their side.

For anyone watching on Walker's end, Brody went through the motions of shaking a tail. He knew he didn't actually have one, that everyone had gone ahead to get set up.

He parked on the street and walked into the park, checking his surroundings as he went. He wanted as few surprises as he could get away with. And that included some mugger trying to rob him.

Seeing that he'd beat Walker to the rendezvous, he settled on the bench and sighed softly.

The one thing Carrie couldn't do on this op was go anywhere near where Brody was. Walker knew her. He had to believe that Brody was well away from her and any of her people. Living together might not have been the best idea where that was concerned. Relying on spotters had her so jumpy the guy on the camera had to tell her to sit still so she wouldn't screw up his recording.

Walker came up behind Brody, dressed for a run and looking like he'd gotten a few miles in.

Brody heard him coming and turned to face him as he approached. He stood and regarded the other man, waiting a long time to speak.

"Did you have to do it at midday? Really?"

Walker shrugged, looking unconcerned. He'd healed up, too, and looked stronger. And then there was the sense of determination in his eyes. "Hard to pay proper attention late at night, when you're sleepy."

Brody looked around, then back at Walker. "Fair enough. You definitely got everyone's attention." In a show of trust, Brody sat back down, making room for Walker to sit next to him.

"So, what do you want me to do?"

Walker knelt in front of him first, going through the motions of stretching. Mostly that was the way to get a quick look behind them. Then he plopped down beside Brody. "It's not about what I want. We're soldiers, do what we're told." He glanced over. "Time to follow orders."

Brody exhaled slowly. "I think you got more orders than I did, brother."

Knowing that there were at least two people who spoke Arabic watching them, he switched over. "بعد انفصالهما لنا، وكان يعامل مثل فطر. كنا قد التقطت قبل أن يصل عائدا الى لي."

(*After they split us, I was treated like a mushroom. We were picked up before they got back to me.)

"أوامرك بدأت بشكل جيد قبل الألغام." There was the very slightest edge to Walker's voice, way less than he deserved to have for being nearly beaten to death by his teammate. He shrugged slightly and his tone eased. "We'll play the cliche, play into their expectation."

(*Your orders started well before mine.)

Brody had to think back. There had to be something he'd missed. Or something he couldn't remember, thanks to repeated head trauma. But he kept coming up blank. Could he tell Walker that? Would the other man give him any hint at all?

All he could do was try.

"شقيق، وتعلمون ما حدث لنا. كنت أعرف أن تعليماتي كانت ذات طابع مستمر. عليك أن تعرف أن شيئا من هذا القبيل لا يذهب دون أثر. على الرغم من كل ذلك، لا يزال لدي الثغرات التي ليست سوى الضباب."

Brody shrugged again, then bowed his head slightly to show one of the scars near the base of his skull. Walker had not, after all, been there for every blow, just as Brody had not for Walker.

(*Brother, you know what happened to us. You know that my instruction was of a more continuous nature. You have to know that something like that does not go without effect. Despite it all, I still have gaps that are nothing but fog.)

All Walker had meant was that he hadn't known that beating was coming, the one Brody thought had been a killing. It was still something that Walker's handlers were using to convey Brody's seriousness to Walker. He looked at Brody's injuries without emotion. "تحتاج الرسالة إلى أن يكون أكثر وضوحا وتحديدا. لقد كانت دائما سلاح أكثر دقة."

(*The message needs to be clearer, more specific. You have always been the more precise weapon.)

Brody thought for another few moments, then nodded. "Than that's what we do." Now he had to trust that Walker had been given instructions.

"في شكل ما هو الدرس التالي؟ وقد تم اتخاذ قرار؟ لا أستطيع القيام بدوري من تحت صخرة. أقول لهم وأنا على استعداد للدخول من البرد."

(*In what form is the next lesson? Has a decision been made? I cannot play my part from under a rock. Tell them I am ready to come in from the cold.

"Then that's what we do." Walker stood and looked down at Brody for a long moment. "يومين. الفجر. حيث اتخذنا من القافلة مع الماعز." He stretched again, careful not to touch Brody in anyway, then was gone, jogging off into the woods.

(*Two days. Dawn. Where we took out the caravan with the goats.)

Brody nodded, then watched Walker go. He stayed in his seat for a long time, then walked back to his car. He didn't immediately go back to the safe house, instead driving around for an hour to throw off any followers.

He then took the time to eat breakfast at a dinner and find a mosque. Since he was quite sure he was being watched, and would be for a few more days, he decided to put on the show.

He did not pray, but he sat in silence and paid his respects. Only after all of that had been done did he check in.

His choices brought on a whole new round of discussion of just who Brody belonged to. In large part, Carrie stayed out of the conversation because the answer she could give wasn't going to go over well. And then there was the useless speculation of just what the next target was going to be. Carrie was of the opinion it was an assassination, but there wasn't enough evidence for that yet.

When she finally saw him again, she smiled gently. "I like hearing the poetry better."

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