First off, major thanks go out to Thugs4Less for numerous helps from giving me someone to bounce ideas off of to helping majorly on the technical side, to Thugs4less alsogoes all credit for the Trans-D and the Mitsi Katana. Thanks tons.
Chapter 3: Good Turns
My job that night was supposed to be easy.
It turned out to be a bloody mind fuck!
The dancing was mildly fun, the flirting and gossiping was easy. The whole thing was easy; he was easy, too easy to entice, unsatisfyingly easy to lead a merry dance. I was disgusted in him, I wanted a challenge and it was far from that. The whole thing was just not what I expected which made me start to wonder what I did expect these days.
"You really are quite a lovely woman." James Bauer said as he let me into his apartment, the grin on his face meant, I was sure, to be alluring and charming but it only made him look a stupid fool, at least to me. The man made my skin crawl but I lowered my head a little, blushed appropriately and looked at him through my eyelashes. I was an old pro at this. "Make yourself at home, I'll go and get out of this tux and put some champagne on ice."
"Thank you." I smiled then and let myself into his living room and wondered around the room, my heeled shoes soon discarded as I walked carefully around the room on the balls of my feel. The feeling of my Trans-D in it's holster strapped to my thigh was very comforting as I tried to figure what the man had done to be put on Bella's most wanted list. It must have been something good for Ioan to be put on the job; he was one of the top three assassins that Bella had waiting at her fingertips.
Expensive art was hung on the walls; there were photographs dotted around the place and his plush furniture and carpet looked expensive. But then he could afford it; he was one of those men who had never known a day of hardship in his life, well his last day was not going to be easy on him that was for sure. There was however, nothing to indicate why he was about to die, no reason that I could figure out from his personal belongings.
I wish that I had made Ioan fill me in more before I said yes to this absurd mission. I was in a dress that made moving harder then I would have liked and I didn't know the ins and outs of this man. Fuck!
What sounded like a strangled yelp caught my attention and I spun round to face the door, if that was Ioan, he was joining this party early. I had come from one of the room in the hallway, which one through…had it just been James stumbling over something? Questions ran through my head as I decided my next best course of action.
"James?" I called out softly, I could at least rule out if Ioan was here or not just by his reply.
"How can I help?" He poked his head back through the doorway so that I could see him.
"Can you point me in the direction of you bathroom?" So Ioan hadn't joined us early and from the lack of his formal clothes he had just been in his bedroom changing. So if it hadn't been Ioan, who had it been? He didn't appear to be in obvious pain although his smile was a little tighter then it had been all evening. Had it been him or someone else?
"Second door down on the left. Take your time; I'll go get that Champagne I promised." He smiled as I walked past him into the hallway and turned toward the door that would be the bathroom. I let myself in and locked the door before hiking up the skirt of the dress to reveal the Trans-D and it's synth-skin holster. So many macho types like carrying around Wang-Liu designs but nothing beat a Trans-D for wetwork. Did he get all of his guest drunk, I wondered, before he tried to seduce them and entice them into cheating on their husbands or other halves?
I took the Popper, as they were called in the business, let my skirts drip to the floor once more and rotated my wrist. I unlocked the door again and peered out, he wasn't in the hallway, the bedroom had to be close by, and that whimpering yelp had come from there, I was nearly sure of it.
'One foot in front of the other girl. Look like you're curious.' I told myself as I carefully walked down the hall, the hand my Popper was in behind my back, my other hand in front of me, reaching for the door handle. I was trained for this.
My hand closed around it and the door slowly opened and I let myself in. Tonight was supposed to be easy, an easy job where I just played a role that I had played a hundred times before. Someone else complicated things, made my job harder and made it harder for Ioan to get his mark.
There was a large double bed in the middle of the room, the sheets made out of what looked like silk and the headboard out of caramel leather. The carpet on the floor was made of plush material in a stone grey and felt incredibly soft against my stockinged feet. I moved slowly around the room to the wardrobe, opening it quietly but found there was nothing but clothes in it. I moved over to the side of the bed and knelt down, lifting the fringing on the bed to find that no one was underneath it either, just some shoes.
"Fuck!" I breathed as I stood up again and took a deep breath as I let my eyes scan the room again. This was not good for my nerves. There was only one place that anyone could hide left in the room, the closet and damn if I was going to be ghosted because I hadn't checked it out. That would just have gone beyond stupid in my books.
I moved carefully, slowly, my own breathing coming practically to as I reached for the handle of the door and readied my weapon before slowly opening the door. Nothing…there was nothing at all. I gritted my teeth and replaced the Trans-D once more; I wasn't going to need it. Hell, I was getting jumpy in my old age.
I closed the closet door again and moved to the window. Ground floor apartments were great to get in and out of quickly and safely. Ioan would probably pick a lower window. The bedroom window faced the back of the apartment out, into the communal garden that was obviously landscaped and maintained by a professional, there was no way I could ever see the man I was with getting his hands dirty gardening.
This plan of Ioan's was too loose and I was only realizing it after I was in the deep end. The only thing I knew for sure was that he said he would leave the ball some ten minutes after I had left and I knew for damn sure that he saw me leaving. The only guarantee I had to my survival was strapped around my leg.
I heard the door open to the room and James walk in but I pretended that I hadn't. A literature major wouldn't recognize the noises that I did. "Rebecca?" I made myself jump a little at his voice and turned round; my hand placed suitably over my heart as I gave him what I hoped looked like a relieved smile.
"You gave me a fright." I breathed managing a nervous sort of laugh.
"What are you doing in here?" He asked as I moved toward him as if to leave the room.
"Just having a look around. The garden must be lovely during the summer." I stopped at his side.
"It is." He answered, a touch of longing and sadness entering his voice.
"Shall we?" I motioned to the door and he nodded, opening it wide so that I could walk through. I ducked my head under his arm and walked back out into the hallway, making my way back to the living room, feeling his eyes on my lower back the whole time.
An open bottle of champagne was in an ice bucket and two beautifully crafted champagne flutes were sitting on the table next to it. At least this guy knew not to try cheep and tacky when he was wooing. I took a seat on the couch as classical music lightly drifted from a sound system that I couldn't see.
"Now that the taps can no longer hear us I think that you and I have something to talk about don't we?" He poured two glasses of champagne rather casually, handing one glass to me and giving me a level look.
"Taps?" I looked at him innocently, a look I had perfected before I had even tried running away from foster care.
"You belong to Bella Greendale. Your so-called husband is one of her assassins; he's been hunting me for months now. I came to the realization tonight that I wasn't going to be able to stop the inevitable. I have been trying unsuccessfully for years." James said calmly, his tone was level and his hand wasn't shaking on the steam of his champagne flute.
"I belong to no one." I replied, watching him sip his champagne.
"Did he pick you up off the street or are you really his wife?" He asked me, his tone nor his demeanor ever changing.
"I'm a friend." I replied before I had fully thought through the consequences of my actions. "Now what? You wait for him to arrive like you know he will and then hold me as ransom for your life?" I knew that I could draw my Popper and put a round between his eyes before he could blink. Unless he was a damn sight faster then I gave him credit for. I could already hear the popping sound that gave Trans-D's their nicknames as a Mushroom Round ripped a fist-sized hole in his head.
"He'll only come for me again later. I told you, this is inevitable. Bella Greendale has had her eye on me for a very long time. I'm surprised she hasn't had me killed sooner." James shook his head.
"Why would she want you dead?" I asked him, putting the champagne flute down on the table next to the couch. He looked at the glass then at me.
"That's a good champagne, I don't kill people, there would be no harm in drinking it." He said with a sigh. "But I should have known that I would be drinking alone. I don't blame you, no one who has had their foot in the underground world that we have been immersed in would drink with me either." He shook his head sadly.
"You aren't going to tell me why my friend is hunting you are you?" I looked at him and wondered if I would be so calm knowing that my death could walk through the door into the living room at any time. Part of me respected him for his lack of panic or outward signs of fear. Knowing I was going to die would seriously fuck with my mind I was sure.
"No, if you haven't been told its probably for a good reason." He looked me straight in the face as he reached into the pocket of his jacket that was laying on the edge of the couch. I stiffened and my hand started to make its way down my leg, preparing to pull out my weapon if I deemed it necessary. "Would you send this for me?" He held an unsealed envelope out to me. I took it and looked at it doubtfully, it was already stamped and addressed.
"Why do you think I will?" I asked turning it over and over again in my hands.
"Read it, check it out, put it through decoders and then if you are satisfied please send it." James shrugged and finished his drink as the door swung inward and Ioan walked in. "Good evening assassin." He put the flute down on the table next to mine and stood up as I did the same, the letter still firmly grasped in my hand as we turned around.
"Jack." Ioan said beckoning to me to move to his side. I gave James one more apprising look before moving around the couch to Ioan's side only pausing long enough to slip my feet back into my black heels. "Our ride is outside." He said to me his eyes not moving from his mark.
"Don't play with this one." I said quietly before leaving the room and going outside to the waiting Mitsi Katana. He had obviously taken the time to swap from the aero-lim that we had used to go to the black and white to the one that was sitting at the curb waiting for me.
I climbed in, folding the letter enough so that it fit unseen in my small black bag and then composed myself. The ride home was not going to be an easy one for me. Ioan would be on a high that I understand but I would barely be able to look at him until he came out of the shower. I could hardly look at myself under the same circumstances. I didn't even know if I would even let him stay, something in James' dignity had stayed with me and I wasn't sure if it would leave me right away.
-- -- -
"You're worse then a girl, get out of the fucking shower so I can get in!" I yelled through the door an hour or so after we had got home. I must have pounded damn hard on the door too because I left a small dent and the side of my hand started to throb slightly. I had stripped out of the black dress and heels as soon as I had walked in the door and had been wondering around in my slip ever since. Ioan beat me to the fucking shower.
"Just open the door and join me." His voice drifted through the sound of running water and the rustle of the shower curtain.
"You're a horny bastard. Get out of the shower." I yelled again, turning away from the door and walking perhaps half the length of the corridor before I felt wet arms encircle me from behind and lift me off my feet.
"I'll give you horny bastard." Ioan said as he carried me back down the hall and into the bathroom before I managed to wriggle out of his grasp. He never got to close the door though, in three deft moves, he was out of the bathroom and in the corridor on his ass. I slammed the door promptly in his amused looking face before stripping down and climbing into the still running shower.
My first reaction was to jump out again and then turn the cold up but I made myself stand under the punishingly hot spray and watched as my skin turned quickly pink. I ducked my head under, letting my hair get soaked by the spray before grabbing the bar of soap and my loufa and started scrubbing. I scrubbed every inch of my skin that I could reach until the water almost felt cold against the most attacked areas.
I poured a good sized dollop of shampoo into the palm of my hand before attacking my hair with the same fervor that I had attacked my body. This was my routine. I came back from a kill, no matter what part I had in it and cleaned away the skin I had been in, like I could erase it from my whole being by scrubbing a layer of epidermis away.
It was just so fucked up!
I wondered if Ioan had notice the sheets of paper that had been firmly in my grasp when I had left James Bauer's apartment that I appeared not to have when he got into his Mitsi Katana. If he had notice, he hadn't said anything. I wondered if he would have had he known. It didn't matter anyway, the letter was now safely locked in a vault that only I knew about.
Some five minutes later, my skin pink not only from the heat of the water but the scrubbing it had received and my hair slicked back because of the water I stepped out of the shower and onto the tiled floor. The reflection I caught of myself in the mirror was almost shocking. Standing there in my birthday suit I looked hell of a lot younger then I felt, maybe, I even looked my age.
I was slim, my breasts just round protrusions before the flat of my stomach. My legs were long and lean, all muscle, no fat. It was the same with my arms; you could see the slight rounding of well toned muscles as they hung relaxed at my sides. My face was pale tonight, not it's usual light golden color that seemed to have stuck since I was about twelve years old.
My hair looked almost black in it's waterlogged state and was plastered against the skin of my neck and around my face. The tiny holes where my piercing would be replaced looked even whiter then my skin if it were possible and my eyes stared at myself wide eyed and green in shock.
It was almost like looking at a stranger. I shuddered once, a shudder that ran from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes before I turned away from my reflection without a backward glance and reached out, pulling my tarry bathrobe from the back of the door and wrapping it around my body.
I made sure the shower had turned itself off with my leaving and then opened the door and walked out into the hallway, making a bee-line for my room but was stopped by the sight of Ioan before I even reached it. I sighed and changed direction, following him into the kitchen.
"Boxers do not constitute being dressed." I said as I leaned on the kitchen door frame and raised both my eyebrows at him as he poured hot water into two mugs. Peppermint Tea in mine and a strong coffee in his. The smells poured out over the tops of the mugs and mixed in a way that I didn't find unpleasant.
"A bathrobe isn't exactly dressed either Jack." He replied with a shrug as he handed the mug to me and I wrapped my hands around it. "Nice little move you pulled on me there."
"Aikido. You always underestimate me; it makes it hella easy to kick your ass. Anyway, you know I don't like to share my shower." I glared at him but there was familiar friendliness to our banter that took the sting out of the insults that we often threw at one another. "Prick." I growled under my breath as I took a sip of the hot water and let the taste of the peppermint infusion roll over my tongue and down the back of my throat.
"You know you love me." He grinned as he moved toward me, stopping when he was beside me long enough to bend down and let his lips brush my pulse point on my neck before moving off again and along the hall to the living room.
I growled and after a moment's deliberation followed him down the hall only to find him sitting on my couch watching the fucking television. I growled low in my throat and put my mug down with enough force to make a little of the liquid inside spill over the lip.
"How the hell can you always pretend that you didn't kill someone? How the hell do you go about thinking about sex and fucking seduction right after you've erased a life?" I yelled at him and he turned and looked at me with a slight look of shock on his face. I had never yelled at him over that before but something in me had snapped as I watched him watching the fucking tube like nothing had happened.
"It's our job Jack. Killing is what we're good at. You either accept it and forget about the other shit attached or you do what you do and hate yourself even while you feel that tug to find your next victim. Talents like ours would go to waste if we weren't assassins or we'd end up in slam just like your good friend Riddick." He shrugged. "Get over it."
"You get fucking over it. I'm going to bed." I snapped and stalked back down the hallway, slamming my door as I entered my bedroom and threw myself on my bed. Oblivion reached down for me and for once I let myself be taken by the darkness of a dreamless sleep.