A/N - So I loved this movie. Mostly, I just love Brandt. Benji annoys me a bit, funny though he is, so I got to thinking, what if Benji's character was replaced by an old love interest of Brandt's to spice things up? This is what I came up with. It follows the story of Ghost Protocol, mostly from Eve Dunne's POV, and sometimes Brandt's with a bit of background in there to bring her to life. I wrote this from the middle, my favourite scene in MI:GP was the "I'll catch you" scene, that's where my angst for Brandt started, I could just see a love scene playing around those words whispered. After that chapter was written, I just felt inspired to finish the rest, hope it makes sense - if not, well, I'm not a spy, I don't really know how this all works. It's angsty, people likely don't behave this way in life or death situations... or do they? Who knows. But it's been playing out in my mind for days, I had to get it out, good story or not LOL … Hope you enjoy it. Allow me to introduce Eve Dunne. MI:GP how it should have been, IMHO ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol or any of the characters. Eve is my own spin on a better Benji. I have used a lot of the script to follow the movie, but added my own. Don't sue me. It's just a little fun with the characters.
Rated T for the Chapters 2 (trigger warnings for sexual assault / attempted rape) and Chapter 7
RUSSIA – present day
How had everything gone so wrong in such little time? I took a moment to reflect on this as I sat in the unmarked van outside the Russian Prison. With the flick of a switch I opened one of the doors inside the maximum security wing. The occupant left the confines of his room. As the guard approached, I muttered... "Let's give you a few friends to play with." I hit a few more buttons and all the doors in the wing opened.
Time to cause some chaos.
Jane was slugging her way through the sewers. I heard her voice come over the coms. "I'm in position. Move to phase two." I complied, and music started blaring out the speakers signalling to our target that we were here for him.
"What are you doing?" I muttered as Ethan refused to go in the direction he was supposed to. I stifled a sigh, just like when we worked together, as stubborn as ever. Ethan... go to the extraction point. Jane tried to reassure me that he knew what he was doing. I settled in, a stubborness of my coming over me as he casually leaned against the guard rail. "Ok, we're gonna wait? We're gonna wait."Fine.
Through the monitors I saw his patience starting to give, he raised a fist to the camera, I saw the anger behind his dark eyes. "OK fine!" I sighed, and opened the door. He blew me a kiss through the monitor, dammit it all to hell. "You just screwed the whole thing up, on purpose." Just like Ethan.
Minutes later he was on the run, a straggler with him. I blew an exasperated sigh out my lips, conversing with Jane. "We have a passenger." That was if they made it to the extraction point alive. Ethan was yelling at the camera...
"Open all of them!" He instructed. I did so, and watched as a sea of prisoners washed out into the walkways. Ethan and his passenger were gone. I moved into the driver seat of the van and waited for them.
The Russian was confused, not understanding why he was suddenly in a van with obviously American occupants. He spoke in Russian to Ethan, calling him Sergei. He believed Ethan to be Russian. Of course he did, they all do, that's what we do.
"I don't mean to bring up the elephant in the room, but what's with the big hairy Russian?" It was the first time I'd spoken, I waited to hear Ethan's response.
"Eve?!" Ethan looked back at me then, realisation hitting him. "How is it you're here?" I looked in the rear vision mirror at him, my eyes meeting his, it was a fair question. I hadn't been in the field for over a year. Not since... Korea. Ethan had been the one sent to get me out, when negotiations failed. But the damage had been done. I couldn't play the field, fear gripping at my heart, and IMF had dutifully put me into a communications position, behind the scenes, where I could serve out my days. They wouldn't just toss me aside, but I wasn't useful to them either. Ethan knew this and the look was plain.
"I don't know... I got called in a week ago for this mission with Carter. We were told to get you out, whatever it took. Crazy right?!" I half laughed because it was true, I wondered at my ability to work in the field again after being out for over a year. But here I was, hand selected it seemed, for this mission.
Jane and Ethan exchanged pleasantries. "You mind telling me what you were doing in a Russian prison?" She asked.
"You mind telling me why you broke me out?" He countered.
"This wasn't a rescue mission?" Jane frowned.
"Well let me put it this way... if the Secretary wanted me out of there, and pulled her..." He pointed at me, "... from what was essentially field retirement. It must be pretty bad out here." Ethan concluded.
I had to agree. If the Secretary wanted me on this job, to reunite with Ethan. It could only mean one thing. There was something big happening, something we were completely in the dark about.
Jane spoke of her last mission with Agent Hanaway. We'd lost a file, an important one, and he was dead because of it. Shot by an assassin. The file in the wind. "It was my op," Jane said. "I put him in the field. And she left him alive just enough for me to see him die." I cringed at the thought, there was an unspoken regret, an anguish there in her voice, Hanaway had been more to her than colleague.
As the contents of the file were revealed, Ethan had a few points for us to consider. Our person of interest, Cobalt, had just risen to the top of the most wanted list. We waited for our next mission. I wondered at why I was here. Why had I been called back to duty? Surely there were others out there who were more suited?
KOREA – 2 years ago
We were on a chopper, flying low over the forests of South Korea. I lay on the floor of the chopper, beaten and defeated. Ethan next to me, a hand on my back as I coughed, a burning sensation going through my lungs, ribs, and down my back. Every part of me ached, I was so cold, so bruised.
Ethan's eyes met mine, concerned, an unspoken question hiding behind those brown orbs. Was I all right? I tried to answer. My lip was swollen, as was my eye. I didn't trust myself to speak, didn't know if I could. My throat burned from the hours, no weeks, of screaming. I pushed it to the back of my mind, I couldn't think about it. I was here, rescued... Ethan, my colleague, my friend, had gotten me out when I had thought there was no hope. I had given up on retriEvel, resigned to my fate. This understanding passed from my eyes, the hopelessness fading, and Ethan recognised the look, he'd been there himself. He nodded silently at me, brushing my hair out of my eyes.
"You're safe now."
I nodded, a sob wracked from my mouth as I turned on to my side, looking out the open side of the chopper at the trees flying past. Safe. What was that? I clung to Ethan's hand, he squeezed it back.
"Thank you." I whispered. He nodded, then leaned forward to look me in the eyes. A sadness passed across the surface. Something had happened. Something while I was in that torture pit in Korea. I sought answers from him, but he simply shook his head. "You won't be seeing me again Eve." I knew then it was serious, but we were landing, and suddenly I was taken from him, wheeled quickly into the nearby hospital to be examined. I watched as Ethan's silhouette faded from view, a lone figure, his hand raised in a final farewell.
RUSSIA – Present Day
Now here we were. Together again. I watched as he walked away from the graffiti covered wall and waited for the inevitable hiss and burn as the message he'd just received from IMF self-destructed. When it didn't happen, Ethan turned and punched the phone. I chuckled. He hadn't changed.
"We're going into the Kremlin." He said at Jane's questioning.
"Huh, that's funny." I said. "I thought you said we were going into the Kremlin!" Ethan smirked. With a sigh, I felt a great foreboding fall down on me like a heavy curtain. The Kremlin.