Chaos of the Heart: Chapter 2: The Tailspin
After their breakup, Rick suffers persistent insomnia and spends all night, every night, tossing and turning, his mind gripped and torn by the traumatic loss of the woman he thinks of as his one true love, the blue-eyed golden-haired beauty who had fallen hard off the pedestal on which he had placed her. Fatigue from lack of sleep causes dark circles to form under his eyes, his face to sag, his eyes to go dull. And, too tired in the mornings to shave, he lets his beard grow. He routinely forgets to shower, wears wrinkled suits, loosely tied ties, mismatched socks, and shirts unbuttoned so far that his undershirt can be seen below his unshaven neck. Lavender-scented no more, he goes feral, exuding a manly sweaty smell. Rick violates the ODS Team's dress code repeatedly and severely. His disheveled appearance reflects his mental deterioration.
His teammates try everything to help him out. Warm milk. Boring books. Tedious documentaries. Intense workouts. Many a night one or other of his teammates falls asleep first, while Rick spends the night pacing, staring vacantly, and worshipping his honey-skinned double-crossing goddess. No matter what Billy, Casey, or Michael suggest to remedy his affliction, or how hard he tries, Rick does not improve. He seems to be in an uncontrollable downward spiral heading straight for a fiery crash. Petrified they will kick him off the team, Rick finally tells them what he knows they want to hear. He is over Adele and he hates her with a white-hot burning passion. He lies. White-hot burning passion, true. Hate, false. But Michael, Billy, and Casey buy Rick's story, because it makes sense, they all hate Adele for what she has done. Michael relents and allows Rick to stay on the team.
Eventually the team is scheduled to return to headquarters. Even though Rick is a complete wreck, Michael cannot delay their return anymore. The fact that they had encouraged Rick to take a chance on love pricks their consciences, and bolsters their empathy for him and his predicament. And furthermore, just as none of the ODS team would ever leave an injured teammate on the battlefield, so they could not abandon their newest teammate, injured on the battlefield of love. Therefore, even before the team arrives in Langley, they put together, and start implementing, a plan of action to conceal Rick's problem, to heal his love damage, to recover his abilities, and, just as importantly, to protect his and the ODS team's reputation.
Before their return, Michael starts planting rumors through his primary contact in the agency's gossip-mill, Fay. The rumor is - as spread by Fay - that Rick, free of Adele's clutches, is now an insatiable womanizer and parties hard every night. Rick routinely comes to work hung-over, terribly hung-over, quite the worse for wear as everyone will plainly see, but despite this, his prowess as a spy is unmatched. The ODS team has never had a better recruit! This is the message they send out for all the ears at the agency to hear, especially Adele's.
Casey starts his role next, initiating a dalliance with Doris. "Doris likes a lap-sized man," points out Casey when he volunteers, and he's the same height as Rick. "She hasn't much lap," he says, reminding them he's proven he can handle tight spaces, for long durations. He laughs and counters his teammates surprise and disgust with a ready quip, telling them they should not knock cougars until they've tried them. Casey begins working remotely to attract Doris attention and keep her off Rick's back.
Billy is assigned to shadow Rick. Every second Rick will be outside the ODS office is a hazard. At any moment, without warning, Rick might cross paths with Adele. In his current state of mind, or rather, lack thereof, this would spell disaster. He is in no condition to interact with her. Not a word. Not a glance. They all knew he'd be undone in an instant. They think, because he hates her. He knows, because he is enchanted by her. Therefore, Billy is to accompany Rick everywhere, keeping an eye out, and running interference. When Rick is within view of Adele, he is to stare intently at his cell-phone, leering, as if one of his pretended conquests were sexting him and blurting out random obscenities as though he had Tourette's syndrome. If necessary, Billy will grab Rick's elbow and steer him, to keep him from walking into walls.
As to Adele, well, after her frantic efforts to land a new boyfriend sputtered out, she is forced to face how much she desires her sweet Rick. She is alarmed by a disturbing discovery. It turns out that she, a young but battle-hardened and seasoned spy originally hired as a field agent, one who had vaulted quickly into the upper echelons of the agency because she was always willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, had broken a cardinal rule of spies, the one cardinal rule that should not be broken, an error that would appall Higgins and anyone else who found it out: never fall in love with your asset. Sometime, somehow, while she was seducing and using naïve sweet Rick – when or how this happened, she could not quite pinpoint – sometime, somehow, while she was busy prying the ODS's secrets out of him, he had softly, stealthily, and very, very gently, stolen her heart. She couldn't believe it! The naughty, darling thief.
To learn news of Rick, she discreetly pours over every detail of the agency's communications with the ODS team. She hopes to find some sign, some evidence, that Rick might take her back. She does not find it. Quite the opposite. She discovers that Rick appears to be doing very well, he appears to have forgotten her, moved on, and turned into a cad. So horrified is she at herself for her odious treatment of him, she renounces all men. All men! Sweet Rick was the only one for her, and he is gone. The new Rick, as portrayed in the ubiquitous rumors, is a bad Rick. He is sweet no more. She blames herself. She is a monster! She is a monster who created a monster! She decides she deserves to be perpetually unhappy and to die alone.
To prevent men from hitting on her, Adele takes to dressing very modestly, in high-necked blouses, in subdued colors, applying no makeup, rolling up her long blond hair into a neat bun. She never smiles. Carrying a somber briefcase and wearing sensible shoes, she looks like an old-maid librarian. She behaves like a nun. Higgins is pleased with her studiousness and, believing himself her beloved mentor, takes an interest in her career and encourages her newfound work ethic.
As the moment of the ODS team's impending return to headquarters draws ever nearer, the intensity with which Rick and Adele fret and agonize and despair over each other increases exponentially.