A/N: This is just a wee ficlet that I did after watching 8.01. I can't believe Malcolm is leaving! But anyway, this is Malcolm's thoughts (in my humble opinion), as he walks away from Harry's office. Hope you like it!
!!!SPOILERS!!! For 8.01 especially, with a few hints of previous storylines.
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Malcolm looked between his team, no, his old team, and the elevator doors. None of them knew he was leaving. Hell, until he said it neither did he. He knew that he should say goodbye. Maybe give them a hug – especially Jo; they had become quite close as they toiled together in the Grid to help the others in the field. At the start, Malcolm had hated how her head seemed to hover just above his right ear during operations, breathing in and out against his cheek. Malcolm liked his space, almost as much as he liked order. He had even gone so far as to start angling his chair just so, forcing her to stand farther back, or, even better, to go back to her own desk and help from there. It wasn't until she was no longer around, after the Redbacks, that he realised that he missed it. He would miss it again.
Lucas was smiling slightly as Malcolm left Harry's office; and Malcolm couldn't help but wonder what he was saying to the two women. Not so long ago, he had believed Lucas to be dead, and yet he had spent the last year working with him. Lucas had seen so much, suffered so many things, and yet he still managed to come into work each and every day and fight the never ending fight that they faced. He was slowly stitching his soul back together, day by day. But each time a case struck too close from home, Malcolm could see part of that stitching unravel. He was afraid that if he stayed much longer, he might see a time when Lucas couldn't hold those threads together anymore. He was afraid that he might have to say yet another goodbye.
Glancing back at the ever-shrinking team of Section D, Malcolm could just see the retreating back of Ros as she walked away. He knew that with Ros there, everyone on the Grid would be fine. She did a lot more for the team than she realised. She was also much more like Connie than she realised. He had seen it, day by day, week by week, after Connie had returned to the Grid. Little similarities that had gone unnoticed by the rest of the team. He had loved to watch the pair as they worked, each adamant that they were the better spy, the most important. It hadn't been until Ros had left that he understood that Connie saw her as something of a protégé. However, they had one big difference. While Connie had placed her allegiance with an ideal, and a country, Ros placed her allegiance only in people. Harry had that allegiance, as did her team. Malcolm had no misconceptions that Ros would have the same fate as Connie, if for no other reason than because Ros was far too original for that.
Slowing slightly, Malcolm hesitated. He spun slightly towards the three, then turned instead and walked thoughtfully through the doors of the elevators. As the doors closed, he could see Harry; drink in hand, clearly a million miles away inside his own head. Despite all that had happened, he wasn't worried about Harry. They might not know or believe it right now, but Malcolm knew that Harry had Ruth, and Ruth had Harry. They would be okay, no matter what. They would survive. They all would, himself included. It was what they had been trained to do, at all costs.
Malcolm hated goodbyes, but as he walked down the corridor, he knew that if he didn't leave now the job would slowly consume him, eating him up bit by bit. And as he walked, he knew that it was time to start reading all those books he had bought, and never found the time to read. First though, he was going to say 'Hello' to a little boy, and teach him how to play Backgammon. Without mastering the laws of probability, of course.
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So, what did you think?
