And here is finally chapter 14! :D
Have fun :)
Chapter 14: After The First Cuppa
They basically never saw each other after that first cuppa. Nigel sometimes saw them both, or one of them leaving his house, but they were both either away or in the room he had given to them. Every week, he received a payment for the room, but they never spoke to each other again. But Nigel knew that they were nice and trustworthy. Besides that, the British head quarters had send him a couple of letters containing the basic info and his suspicions were confirmed. They really were agents, just like him. Their mission was top secret and Nigel somehow got the feeling that they both were in a higher rank than he was. But Nigel didn't really care about those things. He used his free time on the exact same way as before and he never used that room anyway. But he got curious, what was exactly their mission? How long would it precisely last?
They seemed a happy couple, every time Nigel saw them, they were smiling and holding each others hand. But they never really spoke with each other in the open. He figured they probably hadn't much to say to each other. One thing caught his eye though, the woman seemed to get slowly out of shape. She seemed to become thicker and she wasn't going away with her husband as often as she used to. One time, after the man had left his house, Nigel decided to pay the girl a little visited. He figured she would be lonely, alone in the room with her friend away... He knew how it was to be an agent, to never really have contact with anyone and most of the time being alone finishing almost impossible to solve problems. He softly knocked on the door and a sweet voice he didn't hear often called him in. He slowly opened the door and curiously opened the door.
The room was cleaner than it had ever been. It seemed happier, though that was probably because of all the small decorations that had been placed into the room. He knew that had to be the hand of a woman, because men never really were that keen on those useless attributes. Especially men with little time, like agents, often kept their room very basic and kept everything in perfect order. But a woman, she needs everything nice and happy looking. And to be honest, Nigel kind of liked all those British decorations. He smiled at the little flag that was hanging in the room and then looked at the girl who was sitting on the bed and smiled at him with a wide smile. "Hello, sir." She said in her soft and sweet voice.
Nigel nodded and invited himself to sit in the chair opposite of the bed. "Euhm... Everything alright?" Nigel asked with a little hesitance sounding through in his voice. He never was one to get nervous for a talk, he always was the one using sass talk on the villains to get them even more annoyed. But now that he had to talk to his guest, he felt kind of nervous. He didn't know why, he had talked to so many girls before and he wasn't even interested in her. The girl nodded as reply. "It's great, everything is great." And Nigel knew immediately that she wasn't allowed to say much more. Head Quarters had always been very strict with the codes. You were not even allowed to tell someone which buss station you were taking to get from the supermarket to the house. Not that the agents really followed the code, no, most of them used to make fun of the, by paranoia fed, rules and codes. Except for the ones who were clear and obvious, the dangerous ones. The ones that helped you remain undercover, safe, alive.
She softly pushed a cup of tea in his hands with a small smile. He returned a smile and a silent 'Thank you'. The girl nodded. He hadn't asked for the tea, but it was a welcome surprise, making it easier to start up a conversation. It wasn't for then, when she sat down, that he really saw the difference. She seemed to be thicker, rounder and somewhat heavier. But not that kind of heavier that one gets from training less. No, this was a kind of getting heavier Nigel had only seen by women... Pregnant women. He stared for a couple of moments at her belly, totally unaware of the fact that he was being impolite. She smiled a little and nodded. "Yes. I am." She says softly answering his unasked question.
"So that's why you aren't joining your friend as much as you used to..." Nigel stated silently and the woman nodded. "Yes, though he is not my friend. He is my husband." She smiled softly and sweetly at him and showed him the wedding ring. Not by holding her hand out for him to look at it, she showed it by softly moving her finger more on the cup so that it became more visible. That kind of body language was used a lot in the secret agency. Body language could save your life more than once.
Nigel nodded and made sure to not glance too long at the ring, though long enough to evaluate it. It was a simple, clean, golden ring. One diamond on top of it sparkled in the fluorescent light of the lights of the room and it was apparent that the ring had been cleaned a lot. Nigel smiled a little, he knew that indicated a happy marriage. A woman that held proudly on to her ring, did the same to her man. He then glanced at her belly again. He was kind of curious whether they were or weren't going to stay in his house while the pregnancy and more importantly, if they would stay here with the baby too.
The woman looked at Nigel. "I don't know how much longer my husband needs to stay here..." She said then, in a rather silent voice. "But I hope, I sincerely hope, that you don't mind us staying with you as long as he needs." She asked him with an insecure smile and a small blush. Nigel could tell that she kind of felt ashamed for asking him that favor, but he didn't see it as anything to be ashamed of. "Of course, please stay." He replied with a smile. "Take all the time you both need." He said with a nod and the woman smiled suddenly wider than he had ever see her do before. It made clear to him how much pressure the thought of having no place to stay with a baby on the way gave her.
"Well, I think I better head out then." He said with as he got up from the chair with a smile to the girl. She nodded. "Thank you for your visit, sir." She said sincere. Nigel smiled and shook his head a little. "My pleasure." He said before placing his hand on the doorknob and left the room.
I hope you're still liking this story :)