I Only Have Eyes For You

kellylover

It was much later than Maxwell Smart expected it to be when he returned to his apartment. It had been a long day, to say the least. It began with his wife mistakenly kissing King Charles of Coronia good morning rather than himself, which was trying enough. But after the emotional exhaustion he suffered throughout the afternoon and the physical exertion that came with the evening, Max found himself very, very tired as he drove home from the Coronian embassy.

That afternoon, Max had stupidly decided to test 99's faithfulness. He was worried, with how often 99 was mistaking King Charles for him, that perhaps she wasn't as unswerving as he had hoped. So, after lunch, he took off his wedding ring, put on his Coronian accent, and did his best to seduce his wife.

At first, it seemed like all of his worries had been for nothing. 99 seemed to be pushing him very decidedly away. But suddenly, things took a turn for the worse. Suddenly, rather than him trying to seduce her, 99 was coming on full-force to him. They spent a bit of time on the couch, where 99 all but groped him, but it wasn't long before she darted off to change into something more comfortable and invited him to follow her to her bedroom.

When 99 left him sitting there on the couch, Max felt more helpless, more alone than even when she had run off to marry Victor Royale. With Royale, an opportunity had been taken away. But this afternoon, as far as Max could tell, he had his chance with 99 but had failed to make her happy. So rather than continue with the charade, Max sat pathetically on the couch and drank the rest of the champagne alone, contemplating how their young marriage had already failed.

Of course, it was useless to deny that they had started out rough. Not only had their engagement been somewhat forced and their wedding all but ruined by KAOS and Dr. Madre, but because of their haste in marrying one another, they had to wait to go on their honeymoon. So rather than spending his first few days as a married man in his wife's arms somewhere in the Caribbean, Max was sent on a wild goose chase, so he thought, in Hong Kong.

He could have faced that with no problem, for 99 easily fit into the role of dutiful and concerned wife upon his return, and nothing made him happier than to see her face when she greeted him home or to see her wearing nothing but his bathrobe. Trouble came, unfortunately, in their first disagreement over hiring a maid. But even after tensely discussing it in bed his first night back, Max found it almost impossible to fire the friendly, admittedly attractive, Ingrid. And, since 99 wanted the maid anyway, she simply chuckled at his incompetence and allowed her to stay on.

Max couldn't be too mad at her for that, since he couldn't bring himself to dismiss Ingrid. But trouble for the newly-weds didn't stop there.

Their second fight, though still relatively small, had come in the form of a solid berating for bringing company to dinner without giving her fair warning. Though she forgave him when Max later explained that he was simply so proud to call her his wife, that he couldn't help but want to show her off to the whole world, at the time, Max had been quite frightened of his young bride's wrath. And, despite having been poisoned by their neighbors, the dinner had been something of a success. Both Max and 99 had been glad with the way they presented themselves to the chief, glad to have reassured him that allowing them to get married had not been a mistake. That he had made them immeasurably happy and that he would always have their gratitude for championing their cause.

Luckily, though that first month had been somewhat rough, by that time they had been given a chance to honeymoon at last. But, wanting their destination to be a surprise, Max left clues around the house that, rather than honeymooning in the Caribbean, they would be spending their vacation in Pittsburg.

99's elation, when Max told her the truth as she began to pack the night before they were to depart, had exceeded Max's expectations. They had spent the night periodically making love and falling asleep in one another's arms. And when 99 winked and whispered that this was but a taste of what their honeymoon would hold, Max had to pinch himself to be sure he wasn't dreaming.

But the next morning, just as they were readying themselves to leave, Max received a notice from the Navy that he was being called in for active duty and that he had to report the next day. After trying, unsuccessfully, to convince the chief to use his influence to get Max out of it, the disappointed couple tried to make the most of their evening together. And while Max and the chief uncovered KAOS's sinister plot and tried to stop it, 99 had quickly and easily handled the matter herself.

Max was too proud for words when he learned that 99 had immediately spotted the fake Jose Vargas and had him arrested. It was good work like that, he was convinced, that would continue to show the chief that allowing the two of them to get married was not a mistake and that they would never let each other come before the security of their nation.

And then, finally, after 99 finished her jury duty, they were able to go on their honeymoon. Though Max's surprise had been ruined, nothing could stop their excitement at having two whole weeks alone together in the Caribbean. So they packed their bags, booked a flight, and headed on their way.

They had considered themselves lucky when they had gotten aboard the plane without a phone call from the chief assigning them to some last minute case. They arrived, checked in to their hotel, and even managed to have a whole week of bliss before trouble came. They spent that glorious week lazing around in bed or on the beach or leisurely shopping and dining in fine restaurants.

But after a week of relative inactivity, Max and 99 decided that they simply had to do something more. So the next day they woke up, got around, and decided to go sailing. As they got aboard their rented boat and sailed out to sea, they immediately felt relieved to be doing something again. It seemed as though their spy training had made it difficult for them to simply relax for an extended period of time.

However, they found too much excitement when their boat exploded and their lifeboat deflated, stranding them on an island with no food or shelter. Luckily, thanks to their training, they knew exactly what to do and got right to it. 99 started building a shelter while Max searched for food. And while their honeymoon had certainly taken an unsuspected turn, they were still alone together and that was all that mattered.

They had two whole days where they were left to their own devices to find food and shelter. They were slowly making their way around the island before they were captured by Siegfried and thrown into an unexpected assignment. Siegfried had been planning on stealing the sixth fleet, but with unexpected help from the chief, they were able to stop him from completing his task. And while the last thing they had ever wished for their honeymoon was to have Siegfried, Shtarker, and the chief along, they couldn't help but laugh at their situation. They had to concede that their lives would, most likely, continue on like this until they retired from fieldwork. So rather than complain, they had to shrug and let it go.

But even after their honeymoon went awry, the chief had a new assignment that could only be handled by 99, and so she was sent away for a week. Max was more than a little upset by that, since he felt as though he had spent more of his married life away from his wife than with her. But he remembered their gratitude to the chief and tried to just accept it instead. And on just the second day that he was spending alone, he got dragged into another assignment himself. So as he busied himself with that, he hardly had time to miss 99, though he did desperately.

When 99 came home early and Max had his hands full, quite literally, with Dr. Canyon, he was simultaneously filled with elation and fear. The last time he had a woman staying at his apartment under his protection, though it had been three years ago, 99 had been more than a little jealous. Now that they were married, he dreaded her reaction when she realized what was going on. Especially when Dr. Canyon became visible again, Max got really nervous. But he couldn't be nervous for long, because it only took a few moments before 99 did find out, and her reaction couldn't have been worse.

Of course, eventually 99 learned the truth of the matter and felt bad for her behavior. But Max found that he couldn't seem to control his jealousy either. His first moment of insecurity came when he and 99 made their theater debuts in The Horrors of Hemlock House. After a somewhat stressful day rehearsing with Emilio Pedechefsky, Max and 99 lay in bed reading over their parts, trying to memorize their lines.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry you heard that," 99 read aloud, "because now I must shoot you, too!" She pretended to shoot him then, raising her hand in an imitation of a pistol and said, "Bang!" Playing along, Max grabbed at his chest and groaned loudly before falling limp. 99 giggled and then looked back at the script.

"Max," she whispered, poking him, "I need you to read for Gregory."

"But, 99," he protested, eyes still closed, "I'm supposed to be dead."

"I know that, but Gregory enters and I can't play both parts."

"Who's Gregory?" Max asked, sitting back up and looking at his script.

"I don't know. We never got this far when we were rehearsing with Pedechefsky," 99 commented and then fell silent as she read, just as Max was reading, that Gregory, Lady Fanny's lover, took her into his arms and kissed her passionately just before the scene ended.

After a moment's pause Max said softly, "It looks like Gregory and Lady Fanny are lovers."

99 swallowed and then met his eyes. "It's just acting, Max. It doesn't mean anything at all." He gave her a weak smile.

"Of course it doesn't," he replied. He smiled a bit wider then, and looked back at his script. "My Lady, I heard a shot! Good grief!" he recited dramatically.

"Yes," 99 said, going back to her own script. "I had to kill him. He overheard me kill his Lordship, and I was afraid he would find out about us."

"Well, I'll hide him behind the couch and then tonight we'll put him in the car and I'll shove him over the cliff," Max answered her.

"Oh, good!" 99 exclaimed and paused while they imagined Gregory pulling aside Mannering's body. In that moment of silence Max shifted, easing himself between 99 and her script, until he was above her. "And now there's nothing to stand between us and happiness," she finished quietly and Max's lips met her own in a passionate kiss. When they pulled breathlessly apart a few moments later, 99 looked up at her husband and breathed, "I love you, Max. It's just acting."

"I know," he answered quietly, though he still felt anxious about the thought of 99 kissing another man. So he pressed his lips against her collarbone, threw aside their copies of The Horrors of Hemlock House, and did his best to reassure himself that 99 would never look at another man.

But the next day, as they hung around the stage while the rest of the company broke for lunch and agreed to meet back with enough time to prepare for opening night, Max couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach that reared its ugly head when 99 kissed that other actor. She tried to reassure him before the play that night, but because they were so busy, Max was never really soothed.

His problem became even worse a few weeks later when they found themselves captured and facing execution. It was then that 99 asked for a last kiss, not from him, but from their captor. But as he leaned in to kiss her, Max saw red and easily knocked him out. Of course, 99 explained that she was wearing her knock out lipstick, but it still bothered him to see her kissing another man.

The following few months went by in something of a blur. They traveled to Mexico after the Tequila Mockingbird, stopped Chuck Cramer from blowing up another space center, and had to put the chief under investigation for carrying on with a woman much younger than him. Then they became involved with trying to protect King Charles from rotten, ruthless Rupert of Rathskeller. And as Max finished the champagne and sulked over his ruined marriage, King Charles entered the apartment. Max learned then that 99 had known about his trick the whole time and that she had been teaching him a lesson. But after he decided to turn the joke back on to her, he realized that his lesson was well deserved, and so he let it go. He told her that it was all a trick. And just as they were making up, King Charles once again came between them.

But now Max was entering his apartment, coming back from defeating Rupert and saving King Charles, and he knew it was time that they sat down and worked through the tough patches of the past five months.

When he opened the door to his apartment, he saw 99 in her pajamas, who had obviously been pacing the floor, look quickly over in his direction. "Oh, thank goodness!" 99 exclaimed, and met him in the doorway, throwing her arms around him. "I was worried sick, Max." He hugged her back until she drew back and hit his arm saying, "Why didn't you call me?"

Max flinched and blinked before he answered, "I'm sorry, 99, I didn't really have much of a chance."

"I was afraid something had happened to you," she repeated.

"I'm okay, 99. It's just, as soon as I rescued King Charles I had to call the chief and he had me take King Charles to a hotel and then by the time I had a chance to call, I could go home and so I just jumped in the car," he tried to explain.

"Oh, Max, I'm just glad you're alright." She hugged him again and when she pulled back she said, "You look exhausted, Max. Why don't you just go on upstairs and go to bed."

"No, 99, I'm not ready for bed yet. I think we should talk about some things," he told her, taking her hand and leading her to the couch.

99 blinked and nodded. "Okay, Max," she quietly agreed as they sat down still holding each other's hands. "What do you want to talk about?"

After a beat, Max looked at her and said, "I'm sorry about this afternoon."

"Oh, Max, I'm sorry, too," she quickly added.

"It was just silly," Max continued. "I was jealous. I thought that maybe you were falling in love with King Charles and –"

"That's ridiculous, Max!" she exclaimed. "I love you! I married you! I could never love someone else!" After another moment of silence she said, "You're not the only one who's been jealous lately either, Max."

Max looked up at her. "What do you mean, 99?"

"I mean, what about Ingrid, Max? Or Dr. Canyon?"

"I'm sorry, 99," he began, "but you have to know that I love you. Honest."

99 cupped his face with her free hand. "I know it's not been easy lately, Max. We're just gonna have to make more time for each other."

He turned his head and kissed her hand where it rested against his cheek. "I guess being spies and being married is harder than we thought it would be."

She smiled at him. "Oh, I don't know about that, Max. We knew it would be hard. I just don't think we knew it would be hard this way."

He smiled back at her. "You're right, 99," he said before he kissed her gently.

"This is it, you know, Max," she started when they pulled apart. "We're in this together."

"I know."

"I meant it, Max, when I said I'd always love you. No matter what."

"Me too, 99. No matter what may happen on an assignment or anything, I'll always love you."

They kissed again, then, slowly and tenderly. And when they pulled apart, 99 buried her head in the crook of Max's neck and breathed in his scent.

"You should go to bed, Max. You're exhausted," she mumbled into his skin.

"Only if you come with me," he mumbled back. So she stood up and led him upstairs, helped him undress, sent him to brush his teeth, and finally crawled into bed with him. And as he fell asleep with his arms wrapped around his wife, he knew they could weather any storm that came their way.

Fin.

Author's Note: I sincerely apologize for the extremely long delay in updating my Get Smart series. I realize it's been almost fourteen months since I began this endeavor and I haven't even gotten through the fourth season yet. What started out as being busy has recently morphed into a quarter-life crisis, so it will probably be some time before I can begin again. I wanted to finish this one, however, because it was all done except for the last scene. So here it is, finally finished. I will update as soon as I can, but I have no idea when that might be. I hope you all are still enjoying my work. But if you are or if you aren't, I'd love to hear from you in a review all the same.

And, as always, Viva Smart!