Disclaimer: I do NOT own Covert Affairs... Although if I could Eyal, that'd be great ;)
"We really should stop meeting like this." Eyal told Annie as he struggled to undo the rope around his wrists.
"Yea yea, I'm guessing you're here for the same info?" Annie inquired as she freed herself from the bindings. She had been in captivity for hours before his tied up body was thrown into the room. The CIA agent had snickered a great deal at his displeased expression. Noticing he was still in his binds, she sent a triumphant smile at him only for him to do the same seconds later.
"You guess correct Annie." He did a quick search of the room they were locked in and made note of the exits and the windows. He then did a sweep of her person, his eyes doing a quick once over as he smirked. Annie's eyes narrowed at his smirk.
"Stop staring, we gotta get outta here and get the damn information." She growled, already subconsciously linking them up as partners for the op. Eyal noticed this and simply shook his head at her action. "I'd guess we have about ten minutes or so based off what those Russians were saying." Eyal nodded and moved towards the window.
"Two stories up, think you could make it if we jumped?" Eyal paused. He was using 'we' also. The Mossad agent shook his head and went back to the issue at hand.
Annie sidled up next to him and peered out the window as well. She quirked a lip and nodded. She'd get bruised but she'd get out. "Could you?" She shot back.
He chuckled, still the same feisty Annie Walker he had met time and time before. "Yes. I could." He paused once more. "We need a weapon of some kind. I'm sure they had guards down there."
Annie nodded and easily moved across the room, picking up a large pipe. "I'm ready." She smiled at him and he once more chuckled. He was thinking more along the lines of a gun but, as there seemed to be none in sight, pipes would have to do.
"Let's go." He smashed the sealed window and the two bound out of the room and into the soft snow bank below. "Thank god it snowed today." Annie simply nodded, stood up a bit shaky, and brushed herself off.
The two set off in silence towards the exit, keeping to the shadows of the rapidly fading day. A few minutes after escape, they heard a yell in Russian signalling they were missing. Their pace increased and the quickly took out the two hulking guards who'd been busy looking for the two escapees. Their backs had been turned at the wrong moment. After discarding the pipes, they left the encampment and continued on walking into the wilderness where the guards could not pursue as it had silently slid into night, the moon barely lighting up a dusky path for the two agents.
An hour passed when he noticed it, her shivering. Her lips were heading on a pale blue tinge that didn't bode well for the two.
It was the dead of winter.
In Russia.
At night.
He had to get her somewhere warm. And fast. Another hour passed, however, before they came upon a barn. He tugged her numb form into the building with ease, feeling his own limbs numbing over from the cold. They had to warm up or they'd possibly die. They most certainly couldn't survive the night. After dropping her into a pile of musky smelling hay, he left to search the rest of the ice barn for wood. Eyal found a pile located in the back, covered in a tarp to keep the snow off. He grabbed a large armful and marched back into the dank enclosure.
His training allowed him to quickly build a fire, as he waited for it to gain heat, he went to retrieve the silent woman above. She was unconscious when he pulled her into his arms. "This isn't good." He noted as he took in her stiff fingers and blue lips. Hypothermia was setting in. Her breathing was shallow and her pulse was low. He had to warm her up. Now.
He quickly and carefully maneuvered his way over to the fire where he proceeded to remove all of her wet clothes, which was practically all of them save her her under-items, and placed them to dry beside the fire. Step One: Remove wet clothing. Step Two: Bring near heat, not direct heat however. Step Three: Shield from cold. Step Four: Share body heat. Eyal stripped down into his dry boxers and undershirt and pulled her flush against him. He made sure she wasn't in the direct line of the fire so not to cause any damage to her freezing limbs, a sudden rush of heat against possibly frost-bitten limbs could cause severe damage. Step Five: Cover with blankets. He had found horse blankets in a random stall as he had built the fire and he made no hesitation to pull those over them. They were heavy, coarse, and musty smelling, but they were warm and dry.
He blew hot air onto the hand he held in his own, careful not to rub them until she had started to shiver; a good sign. She was finally making motions to signify she was alive rather than laying there stiff and still. Slowly her whole body started to shiver and quake, and he opted then to move her nearer to the heat now that the worst had past. Her lips regained their pink flush and her extremities lost their stiffness. She curled up closer to the body heat as she slipped from unconsciousness to a easy sleep. He checked her pulse and did a quick once over, finding her recuperating enough to be out of the danger zone. He gave a relieved smile and placed a warm kiss to her temple.
The faint few rays of darkness were slowly easing away and giving into the even fainter rays of light just as he allowed himself to close his eyes and drift to sleep for a few hours.
When he woke up it was to Annie sighing contently in her peaceful sleep, all color returned to her body and the shivering subsided to nothing. The embers of the warm fire were smoldering, maintaining a slow burning heat, the entire barn had been heated by the fire. Thank god whoever was smart enough to make this barn resistant to the outside weather and able to retain heat. He sat up and the blankets fell from his body. Both his movement and the blankets falling awoke the blond CIA operative.
"Where are we?" She darted into conciousness as soon as she realized their state of undress and the strange surroundings. Moving into the barn last night was lost from her thoughts, another symptom of hypothermia, memory loss and confusion.
"We are in a barn. Some miles away from the Russian camp. I kept you warm as you had become hypothermic." Eyal told her as he moved towards the fire, a sole blanket wrapped around his form as he pushed the flames back into existence. "You were unconcious, blue, and stiff. Not to mention your breathing was almost non-existent, and your pulse rate was extremely slow."
Annie nodded at the logic and felt herself relax. They were safe. They were alive. He'd kept her from dying from hypothermia. He'd only kept them warm. He'd taken care of her.
Annie smiled. After she assured herself they were in no danger, she took no slow motion to glance over at the highly-trained Mossad operative, the blanket had fallen as he worked to bring the fire back to life. Her eyes roved up his body in the same fashion she had done back in Switzerland almost a full year ago.
He felt her eyes on him and smirked. "I take it you enjoy the color red."
Annie immediatly flushed and ducked under the blanket, covering her bright red matching undercloths. "Pervert."
"So says the woman staring at this man as though he were meat." Eyal snickered as she huffed and wrapped the blankets around her. "I like the color by the way Annie."
Her eyes widened and the blush she had fought down, returned.
"But as much fun as teasing you is, we must get dressed and bring the information back to our agencies." Eyal announced. Annie nodded and felt at her ear, a stud with a minichip embeded in it still rested in its place.
"So, where'd you keep your chip hidden?" Annie asked as she stood up and let the blanket drop, logic told her it was something he'd already seen, and held. she moved over to her clothes and pulled on the warmth-retaining winter pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a thick knit sweater, and her heavy furred winter boots.
"My pants button. Yours is your earing, yes?" Annie nodded and moved towards the fire as he got dressed in winter pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a woolen jacket, and his own hiking boots. "Let us get moving, we have several hours of travel before we hit the road. We must move quick." Annie once more nodded and stood up. The two quickly and silently left the barn, unsure of the possibility of any surrounding enemies.
For several hours the two traveled in a companionable silence. "Third times the charm eh Eyal?" Annie, of course, broke the silence.
"What do you mean?"
"This is the third time we've ran into each other and for once, you're not trying to steal the data from me."
Eyal shrugged at this and Annie laughed.
"You owe me a martini by the way, extra dirty, since you skipped out last time." Annie joked, illuding to the mission in Paris where he had stolen her memory card and been captured.
Eyal chuckled warmly at that just as they reached the side of the road.
They walked along the road, talking about meaningless, pointless, personal things such as their favorite food, Annies is chocolate and Eyals is shakshouka*, until a car passed by. They fed the elderly man their story of being lost in the wilderness and in desperate need of a ride back to town. The man replied in Russian that he'd be more then happy to give them a ride as he was headed that way himself. They smiled and slid into the backseat.
The car ride was silent as the old man hummed to himself until they reached the airport where Annie and Eyal parted with thanks.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye once more Annie." Eyal lowered his head slightly.
"Yea, I guess so. Uhm, til next time?" Annie couldn't help the hopeful twinge that worked its way into her voice. Three times she had run into the Mossad agent, three times they had worked together, three times they had learnt more about each other. She enjoyed his company, she'd be honest about that. And Annie was pretty sure he enjoyed hers as well, he'd never admit that.
"Til next time Ms. Annie Walker." He placed a kiss on her temple and disappeared into the crowd.
*shakshouka= from the Hebrew word leshakshek meaning "to shake", is a spiced egg and tomato dish. Usually eaten as breakfast or lunch. It's VERY tasty ^.^
Uhm. I hope everyone enjoyed this ^.^ I love Eyals character (I love practically everything Oded Fehr) and I loved the episode, Good Advices. Haha. Eyal/Annie3
~Ju