A/N: I accidently posted the wrong chap before! Guess that's what happens when I post at 4am. So here's the next chapter. Hope you like it. Might be a little M if you count criminal activity... I am really bad at ratings.
I do not own the Big Bang Theory.
He kicked and lashed out at the body above him before he opened his eyes. The hand was firm over his mouth and he instinctively wanted to scream.
"Shhhh." It was the softest whisper he ever heard and it was only audible to him because of his Vulcan hearing. It was her. He opened his eyes.
She had a hint of panic and pleading in her expression as she held the index finger of her other hand vertically blocking her lips. She was begging for full compliance and absolute silence. He was sure they just might be about to die.
He nodded to indicate he understood. When she released him she handed over a scribbled note.
Gather your things. Leave the tent and wake the others. No sound.
He followed her example. Quickly shoving on his pants and the long sleeve shirt, he packed and abandoned his shelter. She had already moved into Leonard's tent and Penny was already also silently mobile outside. They gave one another a worried glance before going to wake Howard and Bernadette and Amy and Raj.
Still, the camp was silent.
It took four minutes for them all to emerge dressed and paranoid. Each looking in every direction to see the threat. Christine approached the nucleolus of the group and handed each person one firearm and one more bag as she divided up the supplies. The food had been taken down and divvied between them as well, but none could eat at this moment. They knew something was up. They knew the threat was everywhere.
Christine pulled the tents up from their stakes and silently smashed them together before dousing them with some chemical that dissolved them into a puddle. It suddenly made sense to Amy; a spy studying chemistry hadn't quite worked itself out in her head until that moment. She was covering their tracks and she was good at it.
Christine lined everyone up and took the lead.
They naturally followed her, hyper aware of her stance. She slightly crouched at the knees while generally remained erect. Her gaze would sweep back to them enough where they could see that she used her eyes to change the focus of her vision more than her neck. Suddenly they became aware of a new type of focus in their own peripheral vision.
The trail was heavily wooded, difficult to navigate through the large patches of briar brush and large logs necessary to step over.
Every instinct in Leonard's body wanted to run as far as fast as he could from whatever threat they were attempting to outpace. But as the pure silence of the group continued he became aware of how that would be a fatal mistake. In this terrain, it is sound that is the enemy. The trees were too compact to easily line up shots. The trails too narrow yet visibly clear for several yards ahead to sneak up and attack. So the only real method of detection an assailant would have would be to stock you, follow you to a more open area where they could still take cover. And they could only do that through the music of your footsteps, your talking, your breath.
When the realization hit him he channeled the few yoga classes he too with Penny to calm the pace of his breath so it passed seamlessly in and out of him, drawing no extraneous noise. And he began to acrobatically place each step, carefully thinking it through ahead of time so as to not disturb the fallen leaves and branches below.
This same realization hit each party member sporadically through the first forty minutes of the hike. Penny was the first to understand. She understood the moment she opened her eyes and took in Christine's expression. When she would hunt with her father she would have to tread as lightly as her body could take her, afraid to scare off the deer. But she knew that this time last night was not a dream, it was real and they were all being hunted. She prayed that Christine would not have to make use of her weapon today, she couldn't handle the idea of another person in a body bag. But she did note that she felt safer this morning as she trailed Christine and Sheldon, who seemed to trust her implicitly.
Sheldon watched each sway of her hips as she moved in front of them and admired her dually. First, it was her obvious attributes. She was curvy, agile, stunning really. And even in this fearful state he would take the chance if she presented it to snake an arm around her and drag her off caveman style. He needed and craved her in every way. He wanted her body, he wanted to Vulcan mind meld to her, he wanted her to hold him and tell him it was ok. Because the second way he admired her was in the care she took. Yesterday he saw her in spy mode but he was not able to really just watch her. Now he could. He studied her like an anthropologist watching a huntress stalk unseen prey. And that is just how she held herself. They were the targets, they were the ones in potential mortal danger, yet she was on the hunt. A comment his father made on football crossed his mind. The best defensive player is the one who stocks the opponent and not the ball.
The others were watching her too. They adopted every change in posture Christine displayed. When she would hold out her right arm to the side they naturally slowed. When she held her hand straight up it meant to freeze. And when her head twitched in a direction, each head behind her twitched into a slightly different one from all the rest. Every angle of the compass was covered.
They could see her listening. They could feel the focus of her ears as one of them slightly snapped a twig and she immediately categorized it in terms of 'natural', 'us', or 'them'. With even more purpose each step was taken.
It had been well over an hour as their slow wade through the dense forest began to reveal a sudden clearing ahead. Some of the group were relieved, they could get out of the forest! And some were afraid, the road ahead was clear but that meant anyone in the woods could easily spot them and they would have no cover.
Christine's stance turned into a low standing crawl. She was bent in a crouch, still moving foot forward step by step at a time. The moment her height lowered, so did the rest.
They neared the clearing and plainly saw that the road was raised above their current path. They would hit a four foot embankment before they could climb higher to the paved way. On the other side of it was a parking area for picnickers. Two vehichles were parked. One, an ancient Oldsmobile. The other a fairly new Dodge Caravan. The owners of the vehicles were talking to one another.
Christine displayed the signal to stop and turned to point at each of them, and then to a spot along the embankment. They instantly set to their assigned places and she pressed herself to the side, low enough to avoid line of sight from anyone nearby.
Again, she hushed them silently before holding her hands out in front of them. Remain here. It read.
She casually stood up and dusted off the rump of her pants. She climbed the embankment, making to fix her hair by running her fingers through the locks. She wasn't vain. It was a social tool as she turned on a friendly but reserved smile to the mother from the caravan and talking with the elderly couple from the Oldsmobile. She pegged it. Grandparents. Good, because she would feel bad about this next part otherwise. She walked past her.
"Oh! Excuse me miss!" The mother called from beside her post at the Oldsmobile's window. "You dropped this." And indeed, Christine had dropped her granola bar. She went back to retrieve it, standing next to the woman in front of the car window.
"Oh, thank you! I would have starved on the trail otherwise, I think I know where I am going but maybe you could tell me. Do you have any idea where the Carob pass starts?" making stuff up, that's how we do it.
The grandfather made to look as if he knew what he was talking about and pointed toward the direction which would take her behind the caravan. Good, shaves a few moves off her plan.
"Oh great, thanks! Have a good day." She gave a thankful smirk to the three and a tiny wave to the baby in the carrier on the mother's back. She really loved kids, but this was no time to ogle the cuteness.
Walking around the caravan to get out of sight, she opened the opposite door and signaled to the group to load in. She had pick pocketed the keys while speaking to the mom.
She noticed Sheldon begin to take the hint and climb out nonchalantly, as though he too was a simple hiker coming off a trail. As the group began the move she went back over to the car.
"Didn't find it eh?" the mother asked. She knew her father was talking out of his ass.
"Nope, but I do think I remember hearing something about a hotspring I might like to check out. Do you guys know of it? Are you guys from around here?"
"Oh yes, we have lived in the area our whole lives. In fact, my father held a county seat…." Sheesh, this guy made it too easy. She learned all about them in the few minutes it took him to finish. By now everyone should be loaded in.
"Wow." Fake fascination. "Sorry to interrupt this, but I really gotta pee. Is there a bathroom in that building over there?" She made to look as if urgently examining it.
"Oh yes. Hey daddy lets get moving. The picnic is getting cold. Here hun come with me, I gotta get this one's diaper changed in there anyhow." The young mother ushered her to the bathhouse while making polite conversation. Once inside Christine went into a stall and quieted, sneaking out of it when the mother preoccupied herself with cooing to her baby.
She ran back to the car, starting it with the remote and jetted out of there like a bat of hell. But only after tossing two stacks of her cash into the Oldsmobile.
-T—B—B—T—
A mile down the road Christine pulled over and switched the plates out for the ones that were extras she took from the old car. It would hold them for a little while.
"There are all sorts of illegality occurring in this vehicle at the moment. It is stolen, there are only seven seats so Bernadette is without a safety harness or proper area to rest her tush and now we have illegal plates." Sheldon observed, but with little emotion in the comment.
"Don't lecture me Sheldon. I am doing what I have to." Christine was purely on defense. She isn't proud of herself either, but he doesn't need to rub it in.
"I wasn't lecturing you. I was simply trying to determine how long my prison sentence will be."
She gave him a death glare from the corner of her eye. "Even if we did get pulled over by the authorities I would get us out of it." Her voice was stern; no one would question it, except Sheldon.
"How?"
"Undercover cop."
"Undercover cop?"
"Yes, it is one of my established aliases. I had to use it last time I ran into the law."
"Just exactly how long have you been doing this?" Penny had to ask. They have gotten like zero detail from her so far.
"Twenty five years."
"Since you were three?" Penny was horrified. What was this? Some sort of super soldier breeding and training program?
"Yes. My father was a spy. He unknowingly endangered me as part of his cover toward the end of the Cold War. Had I not been so intelligent at a young age I wouldn't have picked up on all the secrets and the lies. Had I been older I would have seen what figuring out the puzzles in the newspaper for daddy would have led to." She shut her mouth. She was saying nothing more on her father.
Silence followed. Again, Raj was the one to speak. His selective mutism now seemed permanently knocked away.
"Were they following us?"
"Not the whole time. We lost them. There was definitely someone who followed our trail to the cars. I scouted early this morning and saw the evidence. When I returned I couldn't be sure at first if the steps I was hearing were hunters or hunters. But after a half hour into the hike I could tell the difference in the cadence. But I must commend you all. After some time you hardly made a peep."
"So why did we have to remain silent?" Leonard was beyond tense at this point. He was clinging to the inhaler Christine packed for him like a lifeline.
"Just because those hunters were not a threat did not mean one was not out there lurking. Number one lesson in your spy training: the threat is everywhere."
-T—B—B—T—
Christine had let everyone out at the nearest gas station so they could wash up in the restrooms and purchase gas for the rest of the drive.
It was going better than she expected. She never had to care for seven other people before. Sure, there had been those two agents she got out. And the child of a diplomat she oversaw for fourteen days until the assassin was apprehended. But seven adults totally in need of guidance were daunting. She realized last night she would have to teach them what she knew, and she hated to think that because of her they would have to become like her. She hadn't forgiven her father for it. She doubted if they would forgive her either.
She put on the radio as they continued the drive north along the 101 coastal highway.
"So is no one going to bring up that Sheldon and Christine were going at it like rabid freshman when they got home from their date?" Howard had avoided the discussion so far but really, he saw the reaction Sheldon's body had to her.
"Howard, please do not disrespect my girlfriend by discussing our sex life."
"Wait. Girlfriend? Sex life? Since when do you have a sex life Sheldon?"
"Since meeting Christine." Honestly, wasn't this obvious?
"Anyhow. How was the date?" Penny steered the conversation to a more pleasant tone. "Did you like the zoo?"
"Are you kidding? It was the greatest date ever. I got to take a great train ride, see my first west coast sunrise, feed a giraffe, pet a lion, ride an elephant with Sheldon latched to my back and finish off the night telling Sheldon I love him."
"Dude she said it first!" Raj was stunned. Last time he hung out with Christine alone she had said she is the total opposite of Penny, a two- if that.
"Actually, we said it together."
"Awwww." Raj, Amy, Penny and Bernadette let out simultaneous mews of affection.
"So have you and Amy done it yet Raj?" Sheldon was shocked at Christine's bold question.
Amy answered. "Not yet. But I do believe with the events of late that my sexual hang ups pale in comparison. Perhaps I can move on." She wiggled her eyebrows at Raj who squeaked out in excitement.
"Aww, look at us all. All grown up, in love, running for our lives. Its like a screwed up fairy tale." Leonard mocked his friends. They were seriously talking about their love lives at a time like this.
Penny pursed her lips. "Oh knock it off Leonard. Christine is trying to let us chill out a little. Take the opportunity."
Familiar geek talked filled the rest of the ride.
-T—B—B—T—
"A beach house?" Penny was all excitement. When Christine said 'safe house' her mind instantly reverted to some rundown apartment building or a guarded rural area. But this was a regular suburban home in a gated community along the Carpinteria coast, just a few miles south of Santa Barbara.
"Yep. One of my aliases is totally loaded." Christine began unloading her share of the baggage once they got inside the garage. She would have to stake out the place in a quick once over before she could let them in.
"Ok, so I realized that we are sorta running for our lives. But I am gonna get to enjoy this right?"
"I owe you at least that much." Christine answered before closing the door from the garage behind her.
Inside, she held her gun at the ready. She checked every room, under every bed, in every empty closet. The cabinets were examined in the kitchen. The walls pounded here and there to check for any alterations someone could have made in her absence. It was safe.
Each couple was shown to their bedrooms and Christine gathered them in the hall.
"This here is the main closet. I have a variety of clothes of just about every size in here. So help yourself. If we need anything else we can go shopping for it. If you go for a walk on the beach go in pairs and argue with your friend if anyone passes you. It will draw attention away from who you could be if you aren't visibly trying to act incognito." With that, she and Sheldon made way to the master suite.
"Out of curiosity, was this the mystery beach house in your post-apocalyptic plans?"
She nodded. "I'm glad you read them."
"I will admit that the purple section had me wondering if there was something drastically different about you."
"And what conclusions did you come up with?"
"Either time travel or alien. Somehow spy seemed more outlandish."
"Only you could think that."
Sheldon held his head in his hands and hit the bed. The weariness was finally setting in. His whole life was changing and he was totally out of control of it. And it wasn't even just the running, the spy games, the aliases or the danger. It was mostly that he was now a man who no longer cringed at human contact. He no longer withheld handshakes or avoided kisses. He would seek them out. He wanted flesh, flesh and more of it. He wanted her. Just her. And nothing more.
"Thinking about me again aren't you?" Christine's voice took on a seductive tone as she rounded to Sheldon's side of the bed.
"How can you tell?" He still couldn't peek out from his hands covering his eyes.
"The physical evidence speaks for itself."
He looked down his body. Yes, indeed it did.
She climbed on top of him, straddling his lap and pulling away his hands so she could properly kiss him.
"We have about twenty minutes we can make out before I have to make dinner for you and then go see my contact. Let's make them count."
He flipped her over and pinned her to the bed running his hands over every surface of skin he could find. She wasted no time whipping off his shirt throwing it indiscriminately to a table lamp on the other side of the room. He did much the same.
She trailed her nails delicately over the spread of his shoulders as he steadily planted kiss after sweeping kiss along her jaw, clavicle, décolleté. He kissed down through the valley between her breasts before hitting her bra line, then traced along the fleshy line of the cups in one direction, then the other. Her whole chest with heaving in labored inhalations and gaspy exhaling moans. When he got to the scar above her left breast he asked. "What was this from?" before returning his tender onslaught to her throat.
"Stab wound, Pakinstan." She stammered out between his small nips at the junction between her neck and shoulder.
He appreciatively trailed down her, sucking at the fabric of her bra that sheerly covered her nipples. She begged like a puppy in little squeely moans. But he wasn't giving into her that easy. He let his nose trace along her skin as he slid down her torso to her bellybutton and trailed more kisses side to side. "And this one?" he licked the edge of the faded scar on her left side torso at the small of her waist.
"Superficial bullet wound. I was 16. First time I got hit, had to repair it myself."
He was concerned at that and his gaze moved to her eyes. She was staring down at him in purse ecstacy.
"The first time?"
Why was he harping on this? "I have been shot four times. That one there, one on my hip and twice on my right shoulder. But none were very serious, obviously."
He ground his face into the space between her fleshy mounds and sighed. He was used to being demanding of his friends, but not of her... but this he really needed. "I want you to give this up."
She sighed, resigned to the fact that no more hanky panky would be taking place today. She ran her fingers through his hair. He really was worried about her. He wasn't the weapon expert (though he could shoot with great accuracy) and he wasn't the most physically strong man in the world, but he wanted to defend her and to keep her safe.
"I want to too Sheldon. I have had many plans over the years to get out of this but its very complex. I am almost a peace maker- mortal enemy groups have ganged up on me before. I know too much. I have too much they want. The only way out is to either kill them all or buy off the leaders. Either route is fraught with direct peril. I would most likely die trying to end this than of keep fighting the just sporadic battles as I run."
He sighed and tried to fight it. But he knew Christine could feel the tear fall onto her bare skin. "Will there ever be a time we can escape?"
"We?"
"I am not leaving you alone in this. This is my choice."
She pulled him up to her face and repositioned them from lying across the bed to lying correctly on the pillows. Facing him, she caressed his cheek.
"I can't say for sure. I can tell you what I want. I want a normal life. A nine to five. Kids. Money problems. Access to only one car. I don't want to give up my crazy side. I still want to try everything I can, keep the personality I have filtered out of myself from my time with you. You keep me honest with who I am because I never wanted to be false with you."
"But I have to still figure out how to get it. I won't rest until I do, Sheldon. I will be putting things in the works tonight that will put me at great risk, probably all of us. But it might be the only way through. And now that I have you, I will take that chance, if it is what you want from me."
"It is."
-T—B—B—T—
She hadn't shared a meal with him since she was eleven and about to leave for college.
"My dear Soliloquy." He greeted her kindly at the bar top.
"I assume you got my full message then." She sat next to him looking straight ahead. She ordered a shrimp cocktail and sent the bartender back to his duty.
"Yes. You are quite clever to have left the television running. But then, you always were cleaver." He was referring to when he inevitably checked her apartment. He always kept track of who was after her. Usually he beat them to the punch but even the ones that slip through the cracks are found out eventually. And then he would always come, and check, and see if it finally happened or if his training paid off and she escaped relatively unscathed. When he saw the security monitor on the TV still left on he knew for sure she had made it out, no one else would have left a clue like that.
This was the next appointed rendezvous, a small dive bar in Ventura. He knew the locations of all her safe houses but he rarely ever came to any of them unless as an after the fact check. His presence could draw more trouble.
"They used my friends as leverage. This never happened before." Her order came, she popped a shrimp in her mouth and continued to watch the screen behind the bar.
"Never happened to you. For now they must stay in your care."
"I know." She hoped that soon they could be able to return to their lives.
"So you want out then. For good?"
"You know I do."
"Because of the physicist?"
"He is the catalyst for the push now. But even if I hadn't wanted this most of my life I would give it up in a second for him."
"It will be risky, for both of us. But I will do what I can. I will approach Oppenheimer first and put a dummy target up. We should test ourselves against a strong force. If the worse should happen, hopefully that will give us time to move on. I will go tonight."
"Thank you." She would have kissed his cheek, she wanted to. But it could not happen. This was her contact, her handler in the public sphere of a world she hated. And he was just some man at the bar mindlessly commenting on the game or perhaps hitting on her. Never what he really was.
She waited in the parking lot to see him drive off in the opposite direction before she began her drive home to Sheldon. He would be asleep when she got there but at least she could spend the night with him asleep at her side.
She hardly knew what she had set in motion tonight could mean for tomorrow.