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

Brody nodded again. "I will be sure to do that." He knew better than to ask if they would meet again. That was not even remotely important. He lifted his eyebrows to question if there was anything else.

Matthews didn't say another word. In fact, he barely acknowledged Brody again as he moved away. His job was done and there was nothing more to say. He went the other direction from the statue.

In the van, Carrie quickly ordered up people to follow him. She wanted every piece of the puzzle she could put together. And then she wanted a few minutes alone with her Marine so she could make sure he was still together.

Brody watched Matthews go, still having never gotten the man's name. Not that he expected to, really. He sighed softly, then set off toward the statute. As he approached, he scanned his surroundings, looking for the shadows he knew he had to have, from both sides.

When he reached the piece of art, he looked around the area before approaching.

Tucked against the inside of one elbow was a flat little sd card. On the tape, a mark Walker routinely used to indicate something had been checked out signaled that was the right object and not a random geocache.

Carrie was still shouting orders, getting the right people going in the right direction. She shot Saul a look and he nodded slightly. They'd find a minute for her to see her asset. And then he smiled. They were getting somewhere.

Brody pocketed the SD card, then made his way out of the park. Again, he drove around for awhile before heading back to the hotel he'd been staying at. He really didn't want to get mobbed, like he would have at the safe house, and he really, really needed a drink.

Because she knew exactly where he was heading, Carrie got there not long after he did. She came in a back door of the hotel, her hair covered by the hood of her sweatshirt that also helped obscure her slender figure. She knocked lightly on his hotel door, but couldn't stand still while she waited. Instead she rocked slightly from leg to leg, looking up and down the hall as if she expected someone to jump out at her any moment.

He had a beer in his hand as he opened the door. When he recognized her, he rubbed his face, then stepped back to let her in. He didn't trust himself to touch her until the door was closed and the beer gone. He was still a little too on edge to really be safe.

Carrie came in and headed across the room so he could have the distance he clearly wanted. Given that she was practically bouncing, excited by their progress, she thought he probably wasn't at all ready for her. Still, he needed to know how well he'd done. "He's a banker. Ties everywhere. Moves money for Al Qaeda." He was a bad man, in other words.

He nodded once, then returned his focus to his beer. After the can was empty, he sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. "You want to see what's on the card, don't you."

She made a little noise and nodded. "More than I can say." She came over and sat on the bed beside him. "But I need to know you're okay." She knew it was the right thing to say, what he probably needed to hear, but she also meant it. Operationally and personally. She put her hand on his knee. "You did well."

He looked at her hand and sighed softly. "I'll be fine. When this is all over." He couldn't really promise anything past that. He did touch her hand lightly before withdrawing. He wasn't trying to push her away, to make her feel unwanted, but he needed that wall up for a little while longer. Otherwise he was going to back out of the whole thing.

She was surprised by the tiny flair of hurt even though she understood why he was holding back. She rubbed his leg for just a moment, then shifted slightly so it was more about talking to him than being with him. "People were throwing a lot of theories around when we figured out who he is. Name's Matthews. Did you know him at all?"

She didn't think he had, given how he reacted, but she had to ask. He was a pretty good liar when he needed to be.

He was not completely happy with the loss of contact, but he had forced it. He rubbed his head as she asked her question. "Nope. Never seen him before. If he's a banker, that would be why. I've no use for bankers."

He pulled the card out of his pocket. "This will be bad. And if you want the people behind it, I'll probably have to go through with it. I'm probably sealing my own fate here. You know that, right?"

She frowned at him, not at all sure what he meant. She hadn't fully shifted gears to addressing his issues, though and she struggled a moment internally to do so while she took the card from him and shoved it in her pocket. "How far do you think we're going to let things go? We aren't going to let them hurt anyone else." Besides him.

"You're still serving your country. Just like you were over there, just like you were when you kept secrets here."

Brody sighed again. "I know. But if you want to cut off the head, it's going to take more than one job. This is a test, of me."

Carrie came over and knelt in front of him, her hands on his knees. "And you'll pass the test because you aren't going in there alone, not really." She swallowed hard at how true that was, even if he didn't feel it in the moment. "We'll get through this."

He looked down at her and nodded slightly. He didn't believe it yet, but he trusted her. With a very low whimper he touched her hair.

"Do you have a little time? "

She shifted up so she could kiss his hand, then back down to put her head on his knee. "That's why I'm here. Anyone can pick up the disk." She was there for him. To manage him, to take care of him. Those were two goals that luckily went hand in hand. "I have time."

He cupped her cheek, then leaned down to kiss her hair. "I need you. But I need you to not ask any questions, okay?"

Carrie not asking questions was like the sun not rising. Because it was for him, she nodded her head slowly. "If that's what you need." She shifteda little closer. "I came here to be with you."

He pulled her up into his lap and kissed her hard. He was not near as gentle as he normally was. There was a hard edge in the contact.

It only took her a moment to adjust. She'd had more than her share of hard sex as an answer to the tensions of life. She could give him that. The only question was did he want her to fight back or surrender. For safety's sake, she tried surrender first, leaning against him and letting him control the intensity.

Surrender was what he needed. He needed to be in control of something again. He shifted and pressed her to the bed with a low groan, then started pulling on her clothes.

She went back onto the bed with a soft whimper. Moving to help him undress her was second nature. As she twisted, she caressed him when she could. The truth was she needed him, too, however she could get him.

He finally took a few moments and just kissed her. The touch was still not tender, but it was needy, hungry. While the contact was not as tender as they normally were together, even when it was hot and heavy, it also was no where near the level of the night he bruised her so badly. It was an almost dispassionate in between.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject