Disclaimer: The following story are the events of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, with the slight difference that Skye is there. (If you don't know her yet, allow me to refer you to my story Dunn and Dusted). So if you're not into that, don't proceed. I just thought that if Benji gets two tickets to the opera – which he does – he would obviously take her along, thus changing what's to come, and I need this version as backstory for my next story. (By the way, regardless of how you feel about this, you might wanna stay tuned for that one.) Since I assume that anyone who ends up here knows the movie by heart anyway I skipped the scenes that wouldn't change and instead chose to fill in the gaps. Still, some scenes remain very similar, but I would really appreciate it if you gave it a chance. What concerns dialogue I stuck to the movie for reference as closely as possible, if I missed any mistakes I apologise.
A huge thanks to Ellster for helping me with basically everything.
Cheers.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
"He was on the plane?" Skye asked for the second time.
"Yes," Benji said smiling.
"While it took off?"
"I'm telling you, he was. He held on to the door until I got it open."
Skye leaned back in her chair. "You're messing with me."
Benji laughed happily. "I swear, I'm not."
Skye shook her head and turned to the bar. "You know what, I'll get the drinks in. By the time I'm through that queue Brandt is gonna be here."
"Okay," Benji said. She had been gone for not even a minute, when Brandt entered. The chief analyst spotted Benji and made his way to the table. He didn't even let Benji say hello before he launched into a rapid explanation of what had happened at the hearing. The Brit just sat there, stunned, and listened.
"So we need to infiltrate the CIA," he murmured.
"I wouldn't call it infiltrating if they offer us a job, but yes, that's what it comes down to. We can't tell this to anyone. Ethan needs our help. The less people know, the better."
Benji nodded gravely.
"Not Skye either," Brandt made sure. "For Ethan's safety, and her own as well."
Benji looked at the tabletop, but nodded again.
"So," Skye suddenly came up behind them and put the drinks in front of them. "Did they make you secretary then and there or do we have to hold our congrats until it's official?"
Brandt didn't believe in sugar-coating things. "We got shut down."
Benji looked up at Skye. She looked as if someone had ripped the floor away from under her feet. Slowly she sat down. "Are you serious?"
"We're in the CIA now."
"Just like that?" Skye asked, flustered.
"No more IMF," Benji murmured.
"What about the others?" Skye wanted to know.
"I'm supposed to bring all of them in." The analyst reached for his drink.
"Even Ethan?"
"I can't reach him," Brandt said.
"We can do this," Benji said, trying to sound reassuring.
Skye hesitated, then drank half of her vodka tonic in one go. "What are we gonna do?"
Brandt shrugged. "Join the CIA."
"I mean, it's the same thing, just a little more official," Benji said.
Skye looked at him as if he had suggested to rob a bank. "It's not the same." She looked to Brandt for help.
"Field work is field work," the analyst said and drank.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Your record is impressive, Agent Holt."
Skye didn't know how she had ended up here. The fact that Director Alan Hunley himself had requested to speak to her personally for her official interview didn't improve her mood in the slightest. It was supposed to be a compliment, an honour even, but at IMF, especially since she'd gotten to know Brandt better, they had spent the past year hating on Hunley and his thought-to-be-hollow threats of shutting them down. She couldn't believe this was really happening.
"Thank you," she heard herself reply in a flat voice.
Hunley leafed through a file, pretending to read. "A lot of protection jobs. Close collaboration with the Witness Protection Programme."
"That is correct, sir."
"You started out in Extractions. Kept going back to it between missions. You're really good at it."
"I prefer the field work, sir," Skye said firmly.
"I would like to make you an offer, Agent Holt. The position of Head of Extractions is open at the moment."
Skye blinked, waiting for him to finish.
"Think about it. A leading position at Langley. As a woman at that."
"What's that supposed to mean, sir?" Skye asked.
"Think it over. I expect an answer by the end of the week. You may go now."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Skye was fuming. "What a fucking prick."
"Maybe you should try and calm down a bit," Benji suggested carefully.
"Who does he think he is?!" she went on, undeterred. "Takes away all of our jobs, putting agents – putting every ongoing mission at risk! People are dying out there right now because there's no one to back them up, because IMF doesn't exist any more! It's Ghost Protocol all over again, just worse. And Hunley knows exactly what he's doing and isn't even ashamed. I don't know why we're going along with this."
"Well..." for a moment Benji looked like he was about to say something. Then he shrugged and repeated Brandt's words. "Field work is field work." It sounded foreign, coming from him.
"Oh, yes?" Skye said. "Except he didn't offer me field work. He offered me Extractions."
"What?"
"I've seen CIA exits, they're sloppy, and at the same time full of regulations that don't apply to us. They're lacking our means, it's a completely different MO. I have no desire to be part of that, no matter how salvageable I am." She took a deep breath and tried to break through her rage. "What did he offer you?"
"Computer analyst," Benji admitted.
Skye huffed full of bitterness. "See. They don't trust us. They pretend they take us on as 'valuable additions' to their oh-so-great agency, but really they just want us off the road. Put us in an office so that we're neatly out of the way. I can't believe they're thinking we're gonna do this. I talked to Luther earlier, he didn't even show up for the interview."
"Actually," Benji began and braced himself, "I took him up on the offer."
Skye paused. She was quiet for so long that Benji got uncomfortable. "You took the job?"
"Yes." He looked into her eyes, trying to see if she was mad. But she just looked surprised. Utterly surprised. Dumbstruck.
"But... why?"
Benji shrugged. "It's..." He looked thoughtful. Then he looked directly at Skye. "It's stability. It means staying in one place for once. Being able to make plans for next week. Fixed work hours. Time to be with you."
Skye wasn't prepared for this. "But you love the field."
Benji looked sheepish as he pushed his hands into his pockets. "I also love you."
Skye didn't know what to say.
It was twenty past two in the morning and Skye was still awake. She was thinking. Thinking and thinking and thinking and hating herself for every single one of her thoughts. Still they kept her awake. Hunley's words kept revolving around in her head. Back to a desk job. She'd just known that would happen. Why had she let them talk her out of leaving? Hadn't she sworn to herself that no one, especially not a man, would ever keep her from doing the thing she loved?
To her right, Benji sighed in his sleep and rolled onto his side.
Right. That had been before Benji had come along. Skye's gaze broke loose from the ceiling that was dimly illuminated by the lights of the city below, and turned her head to look at him. The ruffles in his shirt over his back. His calm breathing, the only movement visible. She could have stretched out her hand and touched his hair.
Skye felt like she was about to cry when she turned away from him.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Benji cheerfully unlocked the door to his flat, somehow managing to do this without letting go of the Chinese food he'd picked up on the way home. That would surely cheer Skye up. If there was one thing she could not withstand, it was spring rolls. Grinning at the thought, he finally stepped through the door, only to be met with the unexpected sight of his girlfriend's jacket hanging in its place. Then his grin grew only wider. It wouldn't have been the first time that they had the same idea. He stepped inside, kicked off his shoes, dropped the keys and the food on the table and went into the bedroom, where he'd heard her rummaging.
Benji stopped short in the door frame.
"What are you doing?"
Skye hurled around, which was more than discomforting. Usually she heard everything, and he hadn't exactly tried to enter his own apartment silently. Still she seemed surprised at him coming home early. More than that, she looked awfully – caught.
"Skye?" he asked, a bit of an alarmed edge in his voice when saw that she was emptying her drawer. She'd never had much at his place, but over the months a few things had gathered up in each other's flat after all, so Benji had cleared her a space. Now everything had wandered into the small black sports bag that set on the bed, and Skye had been about to put one last shirt inside before his appearance had caused her to freeze in mid-movement.
"I -" she started, but broke off again. Her face tensed. Then, with one quick gesture, she slammed the shirt into the bag and zipped it shut before she slung it over her shoulder.
"Skye, what's going on?" Benji still hadn't moved from his position in the door, a slight feeling of horror washing over him that made his voice tremble although nothing had happened yet.
She slowly took the few steps that lay between them until she stood close enough to have to look up in order to meet his eyes. "I can't do this, Benji."
He was about to say something but she immediately cut him off.
"I can't go back to a desk job just like that. That's not – I just can't. I've talked to Luther. He's still in town, but he's all set for the Caribbean. He's offered me to come with him."
A million things to say rushed through Benji's head, but all of them wanting to be said at once he ended up speechless. She looked as if she might add something, but then pushed past him without another word. He noticed that she tried to avoid looking at him directly.
"Skye, wait!" He finally snapped out of it and rushed after her when she was already close to the front door. He grabbed her wrist, which made her not only stop, but also turn around to him. "Please."
"I have to, Benji."
"Why? Why do you think you have to run off like this?"
"Because I don't want to sit behind a desk for ever! The IMF is gone and it's not gonna come back. I don't know how you can stand this, but I can't. I want the field work. And that's not going to happen if I stay."
"But isn't this a bit – impetuous?"
"Do you think this is easy for me?" She attempted to get free, but Benji held on to her.
"Doesn't this mean anything to you?"
"Doesn't field work mean anything to you? I don't understand, Benji. You love the field, what was all the stuff about finally being out there about if you throw it away like this?"
"This – this is important to me."
"Why?" she asked, desperate to understand. "What is so important about working for the CIA? What's so great about Hunley that you give everything up?"
Benji was dying to tell her. Everything in him screamed to just say it. "What – because – sometimes you just have to make sacrifices."
She shook her head. "Sacrifices for what, Benji?"
He was running out of things to say, and also getting increasingly desperate.
"You know, I thought this was what we were all about," she picked up again, more softly than before. "That we don't have to lie to each other about what we do. But I'm not buying this, there's something you're not telling me."
Again, he didn't have an answer. He felt like a fish, opening and closing his mouth again. His grip softened, but she didn't pull her hand away.
"I've been thinking," Skye said. "Look... maybe we just don't work out, actually being in the same place all the time."
"What?" he breathed.
"Think about it, we've been apart for weeks on end when we were away on missions and now were crammed together for the first time..."
Benji could feel that she didn't believe this herself. "Crammed together, that's nonsense. Of course we work out."
"Not if you won't talk to me."
He needed to steer away from the topic or he would cave this moment. "Why are you even so mad about a bit of paper work? It's not like you owe anyone to stay in the field."
Skye's eyes narrowed dangerously. She got her arm free for a second, then Benji had already caught her again, realising the grave mistake he'd made.
"Skye, please, I'm sorry," he begged, and looked into her eyes. Those lovely brown eyes that turned green sometimes. "Please don't go."
There was something in her glance, and he was almost sure he saw tears welling up in her eyes. Her jaw trembled for an instant when she said, her voice quiet but surprisingly firm, "Let go of me, Benji."
He opened his mouth, but again no words were coming out. Their eyes were still locked, and when he reluctantly loosened the grip on her wrist, his were swimming as well. She ripped her hand away before he'd entirely let go, and it hurt him more than anything. Skye quickly turned away, grabbed her jacket, and with the slam of the door, tears ran down his cheeks.
