PARTNERS
No way will I ever forget what happened that day. No, I cannot tell you. It isn't a secret; it's just that my way of putting things behind me is to try and forget them. I am afraid that precludes constantly talking about it and reminiscing, prompting people to shower me with their sympathy. It is kind of them, but receiving sympathy simply makes me remember even more the events that prompted the reaction. To me that inhibits the healing process. I prefer to simply forget, and pretend that I am completely normal.
All right, we are shaped by our past, but I believe we are also shaped by our present. The more people treat me as completely normal, the more I am likely to become so. Having a partner as good as mine has made that particular process so much more painless.
A good partner will be willing to listen if you need to talk, will not expect you to talk if for some reason, you cannot. They will do all in their power to help you if you need it but without any judgment. My partner has been an absolute lifesaver at times, especially when some of the bad memories return. He comes across sometimes as a little glib, wisecracking, is that the term people use here in America? But Napoleon is a serious, deeply caring person, who is dedicated to his role at UNCLE. Not just that, he is dedicated to the welfare of his partner, namely; me.
I was very surprised to find that I was paired up with the CEA to be honest. I expected the Russian to get partnered with Solo. They are friends after all. They were friends from the first moment Illya walked inside the building. Napoleon held out a hand and warmly welcomed him when there were some who would otherwise have given the newcomer a rather frosty welcome. Many of us expected them to be partnered, but in the end, Illya Kuryakin was put with April Dancer. The first and so far, the only female field operative. As I can gather, they get on really well together too.
April told me the other day how different her partner is in private than in public. To everyone else he is `the scary Russian', but to April he is as devoted a partner as Napoleon is to me. She says he is kind and attentive, thoughtful but not in any way condescending. She says he treats her in every way as an equal; something which I know for a fact that she had been a little worried about. Yes, on the whole I think that both April and I have fallen on our feet. Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are the two top operatives in this place. The CEA and the deputy CEA.
I can see Mister Waverly putting the four of us together sometime soon when an appropriate case comes up that will use four operatives. We are all so close in types and approaches to our work, despite our vastly different backgrounds, that we could all switch partners, and everything would still all work out well, I think. Perhaps Napoleon and April? Nah…I think I was right the first time. The likely successful change in that other universe would have been a Solo/Kuryakin partnership, and a Slate (that's me if you hadn't guessed) and April partnership.
Still, Napoleon is my best mate, and I wouldn't change that for anything. The first time he caught me cowering under a thick blanket with a pair of headphones (that were incidentally, not attached to anything), he was rather worried. He was wondering how a grown man could react like a young child at the sound of a little thunder. I reminded him that I had grown up in London during the blitz, and his active imagination told him the rest without my having to be more explicit. Now, he always tries to make sure that whenever a storm is due, we are busy doing something that is guaranteed to divert my attention from the noise. He has tried just about everything I think, from women to tiddlywinks.
I suppose we all have our weaknesses. I can only think of one weakness possessed by my partner; women of course. My weakness is my memories of the blitz, hiding in the bomb shelter with mum, the noise carrying on overhead. I will never forget the sound when the bomb hit our house, and the combined strength of all of us there in the shelter to get the door open afterwards, as it had been wedged closed by a pile of fallen masonry and timber. There I go, I said I wouldn't talk about it. That's me, a typical Brit, just yacking.
Anyway, getting back to the point, my partnership with Napoleon is about the best thing that has happened to me. After I got hurt the other day, the first time I had ever woken up in medical, I found my partner sitting, bleary-eyed in the hard-plastic chair by my bedside, watching me. His grin of delight when he saw I was awake was so warm that at first I couldn't quite believe that it was intended for me, but it was. During the nine hours that I had spent apparently unconscious, he had refused to leave my side, even becoming defensive and angry when the duty nurse tried to make him leave me. That is, I think, what I treasure about our partnership more than anything else. The fact that I know that I can rely on Napoleon completely to be there for me whatever happens, just as he knows I am there for him.
The only thing we ever argue about is the driving. Both of us like to be the one to drive. In terms of skills, neither is any better than the other, but I have always said, I will say it again, that Napoleon Solo, however excellent an agent he may be, has absolutely no sense of direction…and his map reading skills are pathetic for a grown man. Whenever he is driving, we almost always end up getting lost. I have tried giving him directions, but he ignores me and goes his own way…so I have vowed that the only time I will ever let him drive me anywhere is when I am unconscious! At first, he did try to pull rank on me over it, reminding me that my sense of direction is no better than his own.
Alright, I admit it. I only know east is east by looking at the sun every morning, but at least I can read a map.
As the partner of Napoleon Solo I have been shot at, captured, beaten, locked up and tortured by THRUSH, I have been driven out of my hotel room by my amorous partner and made to sleep in hotel lounges, twice in the car and once in a bathtub. I have also been lost and hungry thanks to his lack of map-reading skills, but I have also had the most exciting life, and the very best friend I could have ever known.
Napoleon Solo.