Annie woke with a start. Fireworks are going off over the water near the horizon. The pyrotechnics are eerily similar to the explosion in her dream.
"The Olympics are this coming Summer. They are celebrating the lighting of the first torch." Eyal whispers into her ear as he smoothes her hair.
"It's beautiful." She calms notably at his words and soft touch. A few minutes pass before she asks, "Have you ever wondered how different your life could be if one simple insignificant choice in your life had been different?"
He looks at her and knows the dream she has just had. He had it himself routinely after he quit Mossad. "You're wondering what would have happened if I had caught that ferry."
"How did you…" she trails off. The look in his eyes is knowing, and she realizes that he knows because he has been there, because they have shared so much, because she has become him. "How does your 'what if' end?"
"At first it was Kanaan or Cardinal depending on the night." He takes a deep breath. "But in time, after we kept working together, I realized something. We were still working together. We had always worked together whether it was part of the job or not, sometimes when it directly contradicted our jobs." He turns slightly so he can look directly into her eyes. "Neshama, look at the improbability of us, our friendship. Whatever has happened between us is the product of so much more than a compromised brush pass. I have no doubt that if the current had not brought us together in Zurich it would have been another time and place. Then 'what if' became quite an intriguing concept."
"How does it end now?"
"Why don't you come inside with me and find out?" He sits up and offers her his hand.
She accepts it tentatively. "I'm not sure I'm ready to find out."
"That's the beauty of 'what if'. It can end any way you want."
"What if I'm not sure how I want it to end yet?"
"Did some very wise and very attractive man once give you some very good advice?"
She laughs and nudges his shoulder with hers once they are standing. "Let's see where the river takes us."
They walk into the boat's cabin hand in hand.
A/N: Ok, it's over. I'm not sure that I love it, but it wasn't going to stop nagging at my brain until I got it out there. Don't worry… I'll go back to Next Tuesday now…
