He was in the middle of a Godforsaken war, why did he have to meet the woman who would change the monster he had become to the man he should have been? He was supposed to be cold and emotionless, a mask to be sure, but it allowed him to do his job for his country. A job that he had been groomed to do since he was a child running on the streets of Mexico. Twenty years, numerous injuries, scars and nightmares and here he was reeling from just one look over the shoulder of the most beautiful creature he had ever met: his downfall.
He was trying to blend in as a young twenty-something, dancing the night away and not getting involved in a rather large drug deal in the back of the club. He was in Cabo San Lucas, it was easy for him to blend in, Spanish was his primary language after all and he could blend in as both a local and an out-of-town student. It was an easy job and he was feeling settled into his role, enough so to be a little complacent and even enjoy himself.
He was pleasantly drunk and decided to go to the dance floor for a little bump and grind. What could it hurt?
He'd found a few partners but nothing really to get his full attention until he noticed a rather tiny girl near him who looked like she might be in trouble. The man she had been dancing with had gotten a little more handsy than was strictly appropriate and the girl was trying to push him away with little success. She was tensing and ready to do something drastic and it was then that Cassian decided to step in. He grabbed the male by the collar and slurred something threatening to him in Spanish.
The man blanched and dropped his groping hands. He held them up in surrender and fell back through the crowd. The girl's shoulders slumped and then she stood straighter and looked over her shoulder at him.
It was her eyes that caught him. Emerald green, tired and so old but in a face that was barely old enough to be in the club.
Somehow he managed to mouth, "You okay?" Even though he felt dumbstruck. She finally smiled in relief and mouthed, "Thank you,"
He really thought that that was going to be the end of their interaction but she held out her hand and inclined her head towards an exit in a "Do you want to go somewhere?" gesture.
He took her hand and followed her out of the club, not caring where they went.
It wasn't until later that he found out that the drug deal that he was supposed to have witnessed had gone so bad that everyone had been killed in a shootout between the buyer and the seller. That would have been him had he been there.
The girl had saved his life and she didn't even know it.
A week together was all they had. They fit as much love as humanly possible into that time, knowing that they would probably never meet again. Cassian Jeron Andor was a different man for that week. He was tender, loving and happy. He laughed more than he had in twenty years and he recorded as much of their time together as he could so that when he was alone again he would be able to survive the harshness of his life for a few years more.
When they said goodbye he didn't see her off. She left early in the morning, while he was still asleep. She was bad at goodbyes, he knew that early on but it didn't hurt any less when he reached for her in his bed only to find her gone. Everything she'd moved into his apartment from her hotel room was gone, save for her perfume bottle.
It was mostly empty anyway, she wouldn't have needed it but when things got too difficult he would pull the stopper and take a deep breath. Tears would spike his eyes and he would let himself grieve for a while before shutting everything down.
He survived Cabo for a few weeks more, completed his assignment and was moved back to the States for a short time until he was sent on another assignment.
Cassian was sent to Southern California investigating a gang that had ties to a terrorist organization. First and foremost was actually their drug running. People were dying of what seemed to a normal drug overdose on the outside but within law enforcement the victims were dying from "a bad batch" and the CIA was convinced that it was actually a trial run of a chemical weapon.
Cassian knew that this assignment was going to be more dangerous than some of his other assignments and he was hoping that he wouldn't have to "dispose" of very many people this time. Every death was taking its toll on him and he wasn't sure his sanity could handle much more.
Galen Erso was his target.
Officially he was supposed to help him escape the gang and get to a U.S. Attorney who was going to us his testimony in order to take down the gang. There were a few other steps of course but the only thing that Cassian had to worry about was keeping himself and Galen alive long enough to make it to the safe house.
Unofficially Cassian's job was to kill Galen Erso before the chemical weapon was completed and make it look like the gang had killed Galen, finding him a liability or no longer useful. The details didn't matter. He didn't have much sympathy for Galen, he was a chemist who was creating drugs that addicted people and when it was asked of him he was creating a weapon that could do endless damage and leave behind an extraordinary amount of carnage. He deserved whatever he got. Cassian was just getting tired of the murder, lies and intrigue. Twenty years of teetering on the edge of the law, always so close to being what his family had reviled. First it was to survive and then it was because he owed his country and his government. He had no one to protect except those who couldn't protect themselves and if he died doing it, well he would be buried in an unmarked grave but he would go to it knowing he did some good.
This cavalier attitude served him well until he moved into his temporary residence and ran into a woman he had been trying to forget for two years.