Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita, and make no profit from this work of fiction.
I wrote this awhile ago as a Past/Present/Future sort of thing but then I never did the future part and I figured I should just post it, lol
Nikita was a giant pain in his ass.
She was- stubborn, and argumentative and he really, really could not stand the air of entitlement she projected in every scenario, every training exercise. She alienated her peers and didn't care-
And she was easily the best recruit they had ever seen. She learned the op tech, she learned weapons, and even was correcting her instructors on better procedures, better mission plans. She and that pipsqueak from Tech would sit, hunched over during lunch and plan out new tech for missions. Who did that?
"Birkhoff your circuitry is to complex. An agent needs to be able to disable the bomb in the fifteen seconds."
"Well, Nikki, complex is more efficient if I actually want the bomb to explode because one day we will have remote detonators the size of a credit card. Or by mobile phone with the satellites the Ruskies have going up."
"Who the hell calls them Ruskies? And your last name, Birkhoff, is Romanian-"
His presence at their table obviously startles them and Birkhoff immediately lowers his head and slinks off back towards the lab. Nikita is obviously upset their argument isn't over, but he has no doubt that she would slink off towards his room after lights out to resume their conversation. The last time they had searched his room, the little dweeb had created some sort of sound filtering system and he had obviously messed with the locks on his door-
Percy and Amanda said he had promise. Michael just hated him.
"Michael what do I owe this rare pleasure?"
"You beat my long-distance shooting record today and I want a rematch."
Her eyes positively twinkled at the thought of leaving the complex. She scooted closer to him on the bench and held her hand out, "Why, I do accept your proposal to get your ass beaten by me." Her sweats were still sweaty and her hair was a mess, but she stood up straighter with confidence. Challenges didn't phase her at all- the last recruit he'd brought to the gun range with had crumbled under the pressure. She didn't even flinch. He admired that in a woman- in a recruit.
His dangerous thoughts would not leave him, even after she beat him and proceeded to dance around the gun range, overly arrogant about the whole situation.
"I won't tell anyone I beat you if you take me the ocean and buy me popcorn." Nikita proposed, obviously not wanting to head back to Division just yet. He had no doubt that she was considering a career at Division, but her obvious distain for its headquarters were a considerable factor in her promotion.
Just as he was about to say yes, she vaulted across the hood of the car and slid into the driver's seat. Swearing underneath his breath, he jumped into the passenger seat and watched, amused as she drove them to the nearest beach, used his wallet to buy popcorn and then dipped her feet in as the tide was leaving.
"I should be very upset with you, Nikita."
"But you aren't for some reason, Very puzzling Mr.-"
He holds a finger to her lips to quiet her before grabbing some of the popcorn. Michael had no doubt she was going to be an agent by the end of the year.
Michael was a giant pain in her ass.
They had been on missions before, of course. She knew that he had illict, crazy-romantic thoughts for her (thanks to that weird neurotoxin in Bangladesh). The problem was that she and Michael were Percy's two best agents, and if they were to- 'cross that line' (as Michael liked to say) they would both be cancelled. Which was more than likely true, but she couldn't just turn off the feelings.
She knew she was their best female operative. The new recruits were babies, children maybe, they would take years of training and they wouldn't be half the agent she was. All attempts at helping them had failed and even Nerd had advanced higher in their blatant failures. Regardless, she couldn't have Michael and she had accepted that.
But as, friends, it was nice to have missions with Michael. Pretending to date Birkhoff was hard enough, but she knew Michael would have her back if things went wrong. They had a certain camaraderie when playing a couple, well-thought out cues for any situation. Especially the gross womanizing perverts who liked staring at her crotch. The mark had been moving Michael away from her kill zone and she needed to take action before his guards caught on.
"Oh Chad, look at this boat, it's simply precious!" Nikita as Sally chimed in, interrupting Michael and the mark's conversation. She ran her foot across the back of his ankle and his well-timed flinch indicated that he knew his men were in the bushes two clicks behind them.
Thankfully her underwear looked like a bikini and that St. Tropez was just another vacation getaway.
"Sally, dear, we're men, talking about our business. Run. Along."
"But you promised me sightseeing, and then I was going to do that thing you like so much. I'm sorry, Mr. Business but my husband promised me not to work during our vacation and I am holding him to it. Call his office we'll be back on Thursday at the latest."
Thursday was their signal for division agents were en route and that she was planning on taking the fat bastard down. He rolled his eyes at her and sighed before taking out his gun and killing two of the men in the trees. She knocked out the mark before shooting the other two men in the trees and dragging him onto his boat.
"This was not part of the plan, Nikita."
"Well, we're stealing this boat so get used to it."
He was so stubborn. She pressed in closer to him and gave her his best mischievous smile. The thing with Michael was that he always gave in if you put enough pressure on him. Besides there were 12 armed men back at the Marina and ten more at his complex down the road.
"One day that look will not faze me at all."
"I doubt it." She gives him a quick peck on the lips before he can stop her, and she floors the boat towards their extraction point down the coastline.
People don't remember that in the age of Nikita there was also an age of Birkhoff.
The antiquated old hacks working in Division's "tech" program couldn't code in DOS. And that was 6 years ago. He updated security personally, he knew every wire, every circuit- Division was a well-oiled machine because of him. Just him.
They couldn't even hire people to assist him. He lived Division. Breathed Division. So he spent all of his time there- who cared. He knew Division. He knew Amanda's weakness (not that he was allowed to speak of it). He knew that one Pretty Boy Michael was creeping into Nikita's room late at night.
He was there for exactly one hour and he never left with any sign of sex, his hair was the same, his suit was the same and there was no way the two of them only had sex for 40 minutes. Something was going down, and he knew better than to cross Nikita.
Today however, they had been in there for over three hours. Dinner had been eaten, Mountain Dew had been consumed- he even did a random diagnostic on the new computers coming in from Utah. From HQ, to the truck that was currently at a truck stop in Jersey.
Nikita had been activated, but she was still staying at Division most nights- something about a boy, blah blah blah. So his curiosity got the best of him and maybe he snuck over towards her quarters.
"Michael- I have no place being here anymore- holding on to memories of my abduction, of us- I need windows. I need to be able to go outside and see the sunlight, and if you're not getting the metaphor than I really do need to leave."
"I don't want you to leave." He had never seen Michael so close to- tears? Batman cried?
"But you're not stopping me. Goodbye, Michael." He'd seen Nikki kiss Michael of course, they'd been on more ops than he could remember and Michael was always insisting they be partnered up.
He almost felt bad. He loved Nikki like a sister and Michael was- the guy she brought home from college that you secretly hacked into his computer and downloaded a bunch of viruses. Then keyed his car and got him to stay away from your sister.
Michael stormed off down the hallway and Nikki flew past with her precious wall of trinkets in a box.
"Oh, hey Nerd."
"Finally fleeing the nest, Nikki?"
"I wish you could go outside, Birkhoff. Breathe the fresh air. Someday when you do get out, I'll make sure I'm there with you so you remember who we work for. What we do."
Birkhoff didn't think of it as weird at the time, Nik was always spewing out the inner peace, zen crap. Two weeks later her tracker was removed and he was trying to track her down from only god knows where, Percy was furious and Michael was- tense. Very tense. All of the goddamn time.
Nikita didn't just leave Division. She left him too.
Nikita was impossible. But combined with Michael they were both impossible.
She knew partners were close, but whatever the two of them had was past that. They had a shorthand, a longhand, they knew how to take down a guy with one look. He would trip him, allowing Nikita ample opportunity to smack the guy with something lying around. Michael would give chase, Nikita would take him down from behind.
Or some variation of the two.
And they got along amazingly well. Most of the time.
Alex had been there for the past hour just watching them go at it. She wasn't sure if they were going to come to blows or not, but whatever they were really arguing about must be something big. They had both been yelling, then stripping and now they were duking it out old-school.
"This is not up for discussion." Alex mocked, narrating their little battle.
"But Nikita, Division is my life. My purpose."
"Michael, I value my freedom."
"We can do real good together Nikita. I love you."
"I love you too."
Alex made the appropriate kissy face noises, and practically jumped when someone approached her from behind. The instincts kicking in, she had their head between her hands, ready to dislocate from the spine-
"Chill out Girl Wonder. I come in Peace."
Alex was tempted to give his neck a good crack, but Nikita and Michael were glaring her down. "Fine." She muttered.
"We weren't arguing about Division, smartass. We were arguing about Seymour." Michael smirked, tossing a clean towel to Nikita. "And she likes to think she can beat me, but we both know that's not true."
"You won't be saying that tonight, Sweetie." Nikita mocked. Michael's eyes went wide and he bit his lip before ushering her to go over her latest mission ops.
"And to think I missed their witty banter. Let's get started, I've got a truck of pilfered electronics and Amanda's little nerd girl is probably on to me now."