April 10th, 1964
It was Anderson's birthday, and of course, he had spies over. As much that could come of course (and as much who wanted to come). The party was being held in the living room. It wasn't a tacky affair, which would be unlike Roger. There was no confetti, no birthday hats, no streamers, no balloons. None of that. Instead, there were golden ribbons curling around the arches (doorways) of the apartment, a delicate white tablecloth with golden edges on the table, the best china set out, and a custom red velvet cake complete with 32 candles sitting in the middle of it all.
A fellow MI6 agent, David, handed Roger an envelope.
"Please don't tell me Graham is really giving me an assignment on my birthday," said Roger scornfully. "This wouldn't be the first time, either."
"No, Roger. You're always the optimist. This is Jasper's card. He couldn't come, so he told me to give it to you instead."
"Oh. Thank you, David."
"Always a pleasure to see you, Roger." David walked away to talk to Gwenda (the receptionist Roger joked with in London).
Kate walked up to Roger to scold him for not sitting at the table- "It's so shameful Roger, you usually pride yourself on punctuality, but when it's only a few minutes 'till you have to blow the candles on your cake, and you're not even there!"
"Oh, Kate. I've just gotten a card from Jasper."
"Well, open it! I'd love to see how Jasper's doing. Or at least, what his card says."
"He's always such an entertaining man," sighed Roger. "But he's always been the most.. carefree of all of us [the agents]." He carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the card.
"Congrats on your wedding happening sometime in the future! You always acted like the old man of the group, it's time you got married. I know Kate will soften you up. You two are so crazy in love; I can sense it with my best friend intuition. Tell her I said hello. Oh, and today's your birthday. Have a happy 32nd, chum.
P.S. I better be included on the wedding guest list."
When she finished reading the card, Kate had a few tears of laughter coming out of her eyes. "Of course he'll be on the list, won't he, dear?"
"…Of course. Now, it's time for me to extinguish the burning pastry, isn't it?"
"Oh hush, it isn't that bad. Afterwards, you can open the gifts."
"Oh, joy to the world."
Roger went over to the dining room table, where a crowd had gathered. He sat down in front of the cake and they started "Happy Birthday". When they finished, he took a deep breath and blew at the candles. A few wouldn't go out, and Roger was rapidly losing breath. Finally, a few of the guys helped him out, and Kate handed him his gift. It was a simple gift, a golden cigarette case engraved with K/R. Inside though, there was a hidden panel which had a photo of the both of them, and the words "Kate and Roger Anderson." It was something that was just Roger's style. And it had both of their last names as Anderson. Roger's fingers traced over their names, his finger lingering on Kate's. He smiled broadly and put his hands on her face, caressing it for a moment, and then bringing their lips together in a passionate kiss. Neither wanted it to end, but there was a room full of people who came to celebrate a birthday. Roger broke off the kiss, and David, among others, whistled. (A few of the girls invited also gave Roger congratulating winks.) Roger didn't even bother to give them a stern look.
Other gifts included cuff links, and Russian books. But none compared to Kate's. Spies caught up, old flames reignited (briefly, most of them), friends made. Everyone left the party with promises to call each other, and with light hearts.
April 11th, 1964
"Hi, Kate! And Roger."
"How did you.." Kate was surprised by Jasper's entrance.
"I remember good ol' Roger mentioning his birthday was a day after his." He winked. "I had to speed up my, er, case, to get here though. It wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be.." He gestured at his broken nose. He thrust his gift at Kate. "Open it," he encouraged.
"Is it a gun?"
"Oh, that would be a good gift for one-half of the swingin' sixties spying power couple wouldn't it? But no. Open it."
"Swingin' sixties-" Kate stopped herself. This was just usual Jasper. "Nevermind." She rattled the box and then pulled the top off. Nestled inside within tissue paper was a pair of earrings. She raised her eyebrows at Jasper. "Earrings."
"Ah, ah, not just any earrings. Push the sapphire," he instructed. Kate pushed on the main sapphire of the earring, and a sharp point suddenly protruded out of the end of the earring. Kate was amazed.
"I told you, they're not just any old pair! Wait, don't touch that," warned Jasper, when he noticed Kate was about to test the sharpness of the point. "It's covered in poison."
"Poisonous earrings? Well, at least I can be rest assured my future wife will never be unarmed," muttered Roger.
"And you have me to thank," laughed Jasper. "If you ever use it, tell me. I wasn't sure how much poison they put on it. It either kills, or turns a person unconscious."
"You're not sure?" asked an incredulous Kate.
"Just be sure the person you try it out on is someone you can have dead. You don't want to accidentally kill someone you need alive."
"Well, Jasper," said Kate, examining the earrings, "at least it's a beautiful piece of jewelry. Thank you." She kissed his cheek.
Jasper touched the cheek Kate kissed. "It was no problem," he smiled. [Don't worry, Jasper thinks that Kate is beautiful and all (and likes it when she kisses his cheek), but he's not going to try to take her or anything. It's kind of a friendly love triangle, like the one Jack had with Nine and Rose. Jasper, like Jack, respects his friend's boundaries.] Jasper looked around the room. "Am I early, or late?" The apartment was virtually empty, except for Kate and Roger.
Kate checked her watch (from Valentine's Day!). "Oh, about three hours early."
"Well. I guess we can catch up, then," replied Jasper, plopping himself onto the couch. "I bet you'll want to know about my assignment.
Graham had a job just for me. He said, literally, that I was "the perfect man for the job", because it would be easy for me to "make friends" with my target, Andrew Lilson. He wasn't doing anything big- yet. He was mostly a talker. Always said he was going to do this and that. But they were just words. Lately though, he began to get a little bit more serious. He wanted to smuggle guns and jewels, the like. He also planned to take more action. He already had a following of people who supported his plan, partly because of his smooth-talking. I was supposed to start as a supporter, schmooze a bit, and get on his good side. Which, surprisingly, wasn't too hard. The hard part came a few days ago. I was supposed to take him and his guards out, then bring in a team to confiscate the merchandise. What happened was that a surprise party was being thrown the same night we were supposed to do the ambush, and things ended up getting a little messy. Some of the supporters are in the hospital, some are in jail. Andrew went the same way, but he tried to put up a fight by shooting us, and then later throwing jewels and punches at us. He hit me a few times with some rubies, and his elbow slammed into my nose.
That's the short version. What about the two of you? Have you had any adventures?" He winked.
"Not the kind you may be thinking about," laughed Kate, shoving him lightly with her shoulder. "We went to my parent's house with my sister and her guy, and that was it. Besides the party yesterday, of course. Oh, and we're getting married sometime in the fall. The date is yet to be decided, and yes, you're invited."
"I knew I would be invited. I just have that relationship with Roger. Am I right, ol' chum?"
"I was debating on whether or not you could come. In the end, I just let Kate choose," said Roger spitefully. "I'm joking, Jasper. Of course you would be. But if it were my choice, I would have you chained up away from the other party guests." His eyes twinkled.
"When did it happen? The last time I saw the both of you was in Feburary, when we had that escapade with Itala."
"The proposal?" Jasper nodded. "You take a stab at it."
"Valentine's Day?" guessed Jasper. Kate nodded. "That's cheesy. But also not cheesy. Cliché, but romantic. Hmm." He shrugged. "I suppose he bought you some expensive diamond ring, did he? We never knew how he got so rich. I'm barely paid every two missions!"
"I haven't been paid anything yet, to tell the truth," replied Kate. "And the ring was his mothers." She waved her hand at him.
"Ah." Jasper looked at his watch. "It's still about two hours until the party. Does anyone have an idea of what we could talk about? Or even better, anything we can do?"