Hey, guys! First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the good reception I got from my first Limitless Fic "(Becca) You're My Angel"! Though I didn't get the reviews I wanted, someone at least once a week favorites it!
Anyway, so this has been going through my head for a little bit now (at least 45 minutes in my memory) and I was thinking on Ike/Jason and Rachel got together. At first, I liked the idea when he said "Plus Brian's sister is really cute; I've been thinking about asking her out." But then they…really jumped the gun, and no, Brian was not overreacting. Not in the least.
So, I decided to remedy that in my imagination with this story. I'm not sure if anyone will read this, but I guess it's worth a shot.
Some of the scenes have been altered slightly to make it a better story.
I do not own Limitless or any of the characters. If I did, Brian and Rebecca would have a slightly faster development
Set during "Sands, Agent of Morra."
Roll film!
"I can hear you moving around in there, Finch," Ike said after knocking for the counted 20th time, "You know the knock is just for curtsy." On any other night, he would be able to put up with Brian's tardiness, but it was almost midnight, when he was usually home watching Dc's Legends of Tomorrow and he was really tired, and wanted to get this case wrapped up as soon as possible; Brian could help him do that.
The door opened.
"Hi, I'm Rachel; Brian's not here right now."
Ike couldn't resist the smile that automatically formed on his mouth.
He hadn't been expecting Rachel to answer the door, but he wasn't disappointed. He had just been thinking about her a few days earlier, and was trying to get the guts to get her number…after he asked Brian's permission, of course.
"Yeah…I remember."
He looked at her through the open door. She was wearing a grey oversized graphic tee shirt and had her nerdy glasses on and her blonde hair bounced as she tilted her head. Man, she was adorable.
He snapped himself out of his thoughts.
"I'm sort of supposed to check."
There was a pause as Rachel hesitated.
"Oh...yeah…come on in." she laughed nervously and swung the door open.
Ike walked in and saw Brian's apartment empty, save Rachel standing on the wooden tile floor.
"Brian and I were just hanging out; he went…to get a pizza; I'm sure he'll be back soon."
Ike turned around to see Rachel hugging the door from behind rocking it back and forth with an awkward smile on her face. He smiled back and resisted the urge to ask her for her number right then and there.
The ringing of his cell phone saved him. He pulled it quickly out of his black coat pocket and answered it.
"I'm sorry; just one second. Hello?"
"You've got a Brian update for me?" Even Rebecca sounded tired.
"No, I'm at his place right now; his sister said he went to…" he looked at Rachel and she gave him a quick toothy grin. Too quick. He suddenly wondered if went to go get a pizza at all. But he didn't know otherwise. "…go get some pizza."
"Well, call me as soon as he gets back." Rebecca hung up as did Ike. So now he had to stay…with Brian's sister. The night might not turn out to be so bad after all.
"They, uh…want me to stay here until he gets back. Is that okay?" he looked for any signs of discomfort from the youngest Finch.
Rachel responded by closing the door.
An awkward strain filled the air.
"I guess, we're uh…hanging out."
Rachel nodded and Ike didn't know how to translate it.
"So…which one are you?"
"Excuse me?" Ike felt perplexed.
"Brian said there were two men assigned to him. He called them 'Mike' and 'Ike'. Which one are you?"
"Oh," he smiled, "Ike. Though my real name is Jason."
"Jason." Rachel nodded as if thinking it over, "It suits you." she walked over to the couch and sat down. Jason sat down next to her. Both were silent for a few minutes. He could sense her discomfort of being in the same room with a man that she didn't know. How could he break the ice?
"So…you close to Brian?" he cringed at how dumb the question.
Rachel nodded.
"As close as a brother and sister can get."
Another moment of silence passed between them.
Both started to talk at once then stopped and laughed awkwardly.
"You first," Jason said.
"No, go ahead." Rachel grabbed a nearby pillow and seemed suddenly interested in the pattern.
"No, you go ahead."
Rachel gave him a look.
"Okay, I'll go first. Um…so are you in college or anything?" he saw the opportunity to make an estimate of her age. He was interested in her, but she looked a little on the young side. He just wanted to know how much younger.
"Um, I was but I graduated with a BA in music."
"Music? You thinking about starting a band like you brother did?"
"I was but kind of lost interest."
"Ah…" he nodded.
"Did you go directly to Quantico after graduating from high school?" Rachel tilted her head in his direction.
"Pretty much; it's what I've always wanted to do with my life. My dad's a retired agent himself."
"That's nice."
"What were you going to ask me before I asked you about college?"
Rachel blinked as if she forgot. Then her eyes lit up as if she remembered.
"Oh. I was going to ask what Mike's real name is."
Jason laughed.
"Well, it's Richard, though I've almost forgotten because Brian calls him 'Mike' so often." (A/N: I'll give kudos to anyone who gets the connection between Mike and Ike's real names.)
Rachel laughed back.
"Yeah, Brian's weird that way. He used to call me Speedy."
Jason's eyebrows shot up in amusement.
"Speedy? Why?"
Rachel laughed.
"I don't know; he just did. Maybe I was a fast runner as a kid."
Ike chuckled and told her about a time when Brian requested gummy worms in the middle of the day during an assignment.
"You ever watch that series Fringe?" Ike asked.
Rachel shook her head.
"It always creeped me out; but Brian watched every episode while it was running."
"Well there's this guy called Walter; he's a brilliant scientist but he always gives these weird requests, such as gummy worms or coconut cake. It would be out of the blue, totally unrelated to the situation but he would always ask for stuff like that. Brian just reminds me of that guy."
Rachel smiled and Ike could tell that she was warming up to him.
Just keep up the conversation with her, Jay.
"So what do you do in your spare time?" Rachel asked.
"Nothing much. I'm usually pretty tired when I get off of work so I usually watch TV until I fall asleep."
"No…girls?" Rachel smiled shyly.
"No," Jason smiled roguishly, "I just haven't met the right one…yet."
Rachel blinked and looked away and Jason knew in that moment he had been too obvious.
Real smooth, Ike. You just blew it like a bomb.
He realized how late it was as he felt a yawn coming. He covered his mouth just as his phone rang.
"Hello?" he got up and walked to the other end of the couch.
"Brian's not home yet?" Rebecca was sounding agitated.
"No, not yet."
He heard her sigh over the other end of the phone.
"He can't be too much longer; let me know when he gets back."
"Yeah, I'll keep you posted." he hung.
"Rebecca again?" Rachel asked as Jason sat back down next to her.
"Yeah, I told her we haven't heard from him."
"My brother do this to you guys a lot?" Rachel played with her fingers, "Just… disappear?"
"Occasionally."
Rachel's phone suddenly vibrated.
"Is that him?"
"I don't think so…" Rachel said thoughtfully picking up the phone.
Maybe it's her boyfriend. Jason tried to push the thought out of his head, though it would make sense that Rachel would be taken. She was too attractive to stay single for too long.
Rachel suddenly threw down the phone in disgust.
Jason took the opportunity to ask without asking if she had a boyfriend.
"So is that your boyfriend or…"
"It's Brian." she said, "He said he…ran into a girl while getting pizza; he's probably going to be a while."
Jason didn't mind that per se, because he wanted to spend time with Rachel.
"Well, Rebecca said I should stay here until I see him."
"He must be pretty important to you guys, huh?" Rachel looked at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Definitely." Jason agreed, though he could never explain to her why. Unless if he wanted to kill her which he most certainly did not.
"You must be pretty important too, considering you're assigned to him," Rachel waved a hand in his direction.
"Well, uh…I'm not that important," Jason laughed dryly. The reason he was assigned to Brian was because he had made the wrong person mad in his last work environment. "No…I just…it's just my job to protect him."
"Well, it's important to me." Rachel laughed and looked away again. She liked to do that a lot. For the first time, Jason felt proud to be Brian's body guard. Not that he didn't come to like the guy, he just felt a real sense of pride knowing that it was so important to his sister. How could he seem more important to her?
"Well…I-I did take a bullet…once."
Rachel looked intrigued.
"Seriously?"
He nodded.
Rachel leaned forward.
"You took a bullet to save my brother's life?"
The thought to say, "That's pretty much how it went" was suddenly pretty tempting, but Jason resisted. If he wanted to get anywhere with Rachel, he had to be honest with her from the start.
He gave a short laugh.
"Um, no; it was for my partner Mike-er-Richard. We were on our way to get something for Brian when the place got robbed. I just reacted when someone pulled a gun out on Richard and jumped in front of him. I took a bullet, just not for Brian."
Rachel smiled.
"Well, at least you didn't lie to me."
"Well, yeah, that would've be pretty stupid considering you're directly connected to the guy who could tell you for sure if I did it or not."
Rachel laughed.
"Yeah, that would have been pretty stupid."
Jason laughed.
"I mean, can you imagine if I did and you were just casually talking to Brian about it one day?"
Rachel laughed again.
"That would be pretty bad."
"Yeah, no kidding; he'd probably be thinking I was making moves on you by trying to sound more heroic than I actually was."
Rachel's laughter died down when he gave the example and blushed. Jason immediately regretted his remark.
Well aren't you as smooth as Bruce Wayne? He thought to himself sarcastically.
After a few more minutes of awkward silence, Rachel spoke softly at first.
"I wouldn't cast away your act of saving Richard as 'not heroic'; just because it wasn't for my brother doesn't mean it's not heroic; it takes a big heart to be able to jump in front of a bullet like that."
Jason gave her a small smile.
"I'm just doing what I was trained to do."
She made eye contact and they locked gazes for a few minutes.
Jason pulled himself away from her before something happened that he would regret.
"So…" Rachel coughed, "What kind of shows do you like to watch? You said you like to watch TV before you go to sleep."
Jason smiled.
"I'm kind of a comic book nerd."
"Really?" Rachel again looked intrigued.
"Yeah, Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, all of those sort of shows."
His new friend smiled.
"So do I."
"Really?"
"Uh, huh. Brian and I sometimes get together to watch them. When we don't, we text throughout the episodes."
Jason smiled.
"You don't say. I need to catch up on last week's Legends of Tomorrow. Did you see it?"
Rachel shook her head.
"No; I was out with a friend. Brian said it was good and it was about Russia."
"Brian's got On Demand. You want to watch it now?" he felt that if they kept talking, they would end up doing something they wouldn't like in the end.
"Uh…sure." Rachel tucked a strand of warm blonde hair behind her ear. Jason had the feeling that he would have a hard time focusing on the episode.
Only 5 minutes in, she started looking tired.
"Ray reminds me so much of Brian," Rachel laughed, "I mean look at him; he's in a Russian prison and he has a big
"If you need to get into something comfortable, Brian won't care if you get into a pair of his sweats. The only articles of clothing he deems sacred is his Skrillex shirt and his nerdy reindeer sweater; don't ask me why."
Halfway through the episode they laughed at one of the characters.
"Ray reminds me so much of Brian," Rachel laughed, "I mean look at him; he's in a Russian prison and he has a big smile on his face; nothing can get this guy down."
Jason laughed.
"I can see what you mean."
By the time the episode ended, Rachel was asleep and Jason was exhausted.
He decided to take up Rachel's offer and found some oversized sweats. Brian obviously wouldn't be back till morning.
Once he was dressed he hung up his suit on the doorknob of Brian's wardrobe and went to go check on Rachel.
She had completely slumped over on the couch in a deep sleep. He carefully took the glasses off of her face, folded them up and set them on the end table by the couch.
He walked back into Brian's room and dug through his closet until he found a spare blanket which he used to cover his sister.
She stirred slightly as he draped the blanket over her shoulders. He smiled. She was adorable and amazing. He was going to have to get her number in the morning.
Exhausted he stretched out on Brian's bed hoping he wouldn't mind…
Brain walked through his apartment door with his backpack slung over his shoulder.
Why oh why had Sands punched him so hard? If Brian didn't know any better, he'd think Sands enjoyed punching him, forget the fact he had just saved his son's life!
As he dropped his backpack by the barstool, he saw someone lying on his couch from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to see Rachel sleeping curled up under a blanket she must've found in his closet. She was still here. Poor Rache. She must've been up all night waiting for him to return home.
He heard movement in his room and Brian felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Who was in his room? Brian instinctively grabbed the nearest thing-a screwdriver on the counter-and crept quietly towards his bedroom. He peeked in to see nobody, but heard the water running in his bathroom. So the thief decided to be sanitary and wash his hands, eh? Well, it might be the last thing he would ever do.
Brian quietly moved into his bed but was careful to stay out of sight of the bathroom.
What he saw surprised him.
"Ike?" the man was just slinging his tie over his neck to tie it around his white shirt collar.
"Oh, Brian; good you're back. You had us worried."
Brian looked into his once-empty hamper to see his pair of grey sweats and navy blue tee shirt. He didn't wear those two nights ago…
"You spent the night here?"
"Yeah, Rebecca sent me to get you for a case and you weren't home; Rachel told me you went to get a pizza, found a girl and…what happened to your eye?"
Brian thought quick, but was trying to get pass how Ike so familiarly used his sister's name.
"Turns out that girl wanted to mug me; I swear she was some sort of ninja! I spent most of the night in the ER, but nothing's too wrong with me. Onto more important matters: you spent the night here?"
"I was told to wait until you got home; you never did and Rachel said you wouldn't mind if I wore some of your clothes as long as your Skrillex shirt and one of your sweaters remained untouched."
Well, Rachel wasn't wrong. And Ike has spent the entire night in the same apartment with her. Brian suddenly felt a surge of big-brotherly-protectiveness over Rachel. What had gone on between the two last night? He just might use that screwdriver after all.
"So…you spent the entire night…in my apartment…with Rachel…who offered you my clothes. Why?"
"Because she didn't want me to sleep in my suit." Ike looked a bit perplexed.
Hah! He thought he could fool him! Brian hadn't been blind to the way he had been looking at his sister for the last few months.
"Okay….how else did you," he cleared his throat, "Sleep?"
"On your bed. I would have slept on the couch but Rachel was there so…I hope you don't mind."
Brian blinked. He slept on the bed because Rachel was on the couch? He decided to get a little more blunt.
"So…nothing happened between the two of you last night?"
It seem to suddenly dawn on Ike why he was asking these questions. He blushed deeply.
"Oh, Brian, you don't think we…I mean that I…with Rachel? No, no, I would never do that. I just met her! Besides, I would have to think that would put a strain in our work relationship, don't you think?"
Brian believed the man and felt embarrassed, no matter how much it made sense at first that something like that would have happened.
"But, Brian," Ike leaned forward and looked into the next room to where Rachel was sleeping, "Would you mind…if I asked your sister for her number? She's an amazing woman and I would like to get to know her better. Would that be too weird? Would that also put a strain on our relationship?"
Brian felt his eyes widen and he dug the screwdriver into his coat pocket. Ike and Rachel? Together? Now that would be a little weird! He would be calling her in the middle of the day, asking tips on what Rachel would like for gifts and dates, Rachel might even kiss him on the cheek in Brian presence! So, yeah, it would a little weird. Only at first.
Ike was a great guy. He was sweet, and, though bottom of his class at Quantico, was an intelligent guy overall. He would treat her well. But was he good enough for Rachel?
The better question probably was, "Could Rachel do worse?" That was rhetorical, because, yes, she could. He inwardly shuddered at her druggie, control-freak boyfriend in her junior year of high school.
Okay, maybe Ike wasn't so bad. If Rachel could accept the fact she couldn't know everything about his job, who was he to stand in the way of a good relationship?
"Alright, Ike. Would it be weird? Yes, maybe at first. But go ahead. If she likes you, how can I say no?"
Ike smiled.
"Thanks, Brian."
"Hey, no problem," Brian slapped him on the shoulder with a smile. It disappeared as he squeezed it, "But if you break her heart for no good reason, just remember that I'm the smartest person in the world for 12 hours. Besides, I know a guy who now owes me a favor." he smiled as he thought of Sands.
Ike blinked.
"You…know a guy?"
"I know a guy." Brian nodded.
Ike nodded.
"Fair enough."
"Alright, now who's starving. 'Cause I am. Never did get that pizza last night. The ninja girl stole that, too."
Ike laughed behind him and followed Brian to the kitchen.
As quietly as they could, the two men made breakfast for both themselves and Rachel.
Brian smiled for a moment as Ike served breakfast to his sister then let it fade as he saw him for just a moment as his future brother-in-law.
Better not think of him that way, Finch, he thought to himself as he poured a glass of orange juice, or else it'll be weird for the next six months!
Okay. That was THE longest one-shot I had ever written. Took me almost three days and was WAY longer than I wanted to be but wanted to integrate the scenes just right! If anyone didn't get Legends of Tomorrow, that's fine, but, for those who did, I DO think Ray's a little like Brian in the sense of his usual sunshine-and-lollipops attitude. I also made the episode they were watching that particular episode because it was the one that premiered the Thursday before the Limitless episode that took place in this story.
Anyway, please review and comment, but please no foul language and/or character bashing.
