VI

What's Love Got to do with It?

"Thai food. Hope that's ok with you."

Jay dropped the bag of food down on Kay's new desk and began to dig in. "I am starved…" he muttered, picking up one of the boxes and tearing into it.

"Isn't there a break room somewhere you could be eating that?" Kay said, not looking up from his work.

"We're working, right? It's a working dinner. C'mon Kay, while its hot."

Kay half-heartedly swallowed a few bites before turning his full attention back to the Dlrow file in front of him. Jay scowled. "You know I didn't say anything when you went back on duty today about an hour after you got ripped to pieces by a windshield, but you gotta at least eat dinner, man! We're gonna be fightin' off the Dlrow – you need your energy!"

More to appease his partner than out of actual hunger, Kay put down the Dlrow file and began to eat. "Waste of time anyway," he said. "I already know all there is to know about the Dlrow – and knowing that, I know there's nothing to be done until they make the first move."

"Hey, you know maybe they'll just call off this whole invasion of Earth thing. I mean, you got your girl, we got one of their spacecraft – "

"The Dlrow don't give up that easily, slick. If anything, failure just makes them angrier." Kay poked at his food. "My only consolation is that Elizabeth is safe. As safe as she can be for now."

Jay didn't say anything but knew there was probably more to this story than Kay was letting on. The worn lines on his partner's face spoke of sadness in the past, and they were more pronounced now than ever. He understood; hell, loneliness was part of the job description of an MiB agent. He knew what it was to dream about people who had once loved you but now had no recollection of it whatsoever. Silently, he was grateful that his mother had died long before he joined MiB; the prospect of your own mother not knowing your face was probably one of the most painful things a human being could experience. However, he knew there were still a lot of things he didn't understand as well as Kay did – especially things like marriage and divorce.

"C'mon."

"Where we going now?"

"I told Elizabeth we'd go and check up on her tonight."

Jay smiled as they both stood up to leave. "You know, I think there's still something there between you and your lady – "

"Jay, are you coming or not?"

"Right behind you, chief. Let's go.

Elizabeth stood at the bathroom mirror, dabbing the last bits of water off her forehead after washing her face. She was beginning to feel human again. The drugs having finally worn off, she had had a little time to look around the room and think about things. The place wasn't half bad. It was warm and clean, its only crime being that it was, after all, sort of a cell. She had shaken this off, consoling herself with the thought that Kevin wouldn't ever put her in danger, no matter whether he was a mysterious secret agent or a mail man. His story, oddly enough, seemed to be sinking in pretty well with her. It made sense in a strange sort of way. It would explain Kevin's constant fascination with the cosmos and his distant nature.

Life had been good for them as teenagers, though they were complete opposites. Kevin had been a sci-fi fanatic, a hobby Elizabeth could never understand nor explain. He was good-natured though, and endearing in his own semi-geeky way. For dates he had always taken her to see the newest science fiction film, something she went along with as best her patience would let her, only because he seemed to enjoy it so damn much. She enjoyed art and botany, something he could only enjoy in a passing nature, but they had gotten along perfectly. They could always make each other laugh.

Living in a small town like they did, news of Kevin's car accident and apparent death had spread rapidly. Elizabeth had felt like the whole world had been pulled from underneath her. She remembered vividly watching as the crane pulled Kevin's mangled old pick up truck out of the water, depositing it gently on the sand, minus its driver. The river was dredged but turned up nothing. No one was surprised. It had been a particularly rainy season and the current was fast. Little hope remained of ever retrieving the body. The police had discovered disrupted dirt near the scene of the accident and had ruled out suicide as a possible cause. However, even before that Elizabeth knew suicide hadn't been the cause. Perhaps she would never know the cause. It didn't matter too much anyway; Kevin was gone, and she was alone.

She had cried so hard it hurt. Her parents had tried to console her with comforting sayings like, "He's in a better place," "He would want you to be happy," and all the things people say to you when they don't know what else to say. In time, the emotional wounds healed as well as they ever could and she had gone on to college and graduate school, eventually opening her own nursery in the small town she and Kevin had grown up in. Though the rest of the town believed she had never gotten married because she had never gotten over Kevin's death, this was untrue; she had almost gotten married a couple of times. They never came to fruition, mostly because she felt her life was already as fulfilled as it ever could be, what with her nursery and her artwork, and had opted to stay a bachelorette. She occasionally went out on dates but never let the relationship progress very far. Her life was just fine without a man, thank you very much.

Of course, this had been before Kevin showed up on her doorstep one bright September morning. The story of a thirty-five year long coma was a bit far-fetched even to her mind, which had been fanaticizing something like this since the night of Kevin's death. She again found that she didn't care about the cause. Kevin was back, and that was all that mattered.

Some called it a whirlwind romance, which looking back on it, she supposed it was. It was like they had never been apart; they picked up right where they had left off, thirty-five years earlier.  She had taken him to all their old childhood haunts to show them how they had changed or how they hadn't. They went to plays and museums and on vacations together, but even then she could tell that there was more to Kevin than met the eye.

This became more and more apparent as their marriage progressed. She would come home from work at night to find Kevin sitting on the front porch, staring into space, having been there for hours. When she'd called his name, he'd looked at her like he was a million miles away. Sometimes she would ask him what he had been thinking about, to which he would always reply in a confused tone, "I don't know."

Sometimes he would do strange things, or talk in a strange way that no one, save a police officer, would speak. She began to get more and more worried when his little "space-out" sessions began to extend on into evening. At times, they would be watching the nightly news and she would glance over to him only to find him staring blindly at the curtains. She would gently remind him that it was the TV he should be staring at, but it unnerved her. Elizabeth tried her best to be patient with him; after all, he'd been out cold for thirty five years. He seemed to be so clueless about so many things. And he drove like a maniac.

Eventually, things started to become undone. Arguments became more frequent. So did long evenings spent at the nursery, checking and re-checking things simply so she didn't have to go home. Talking became exhausting and futile with Kevin. Evenings out weren't fun anymore. Even living together became a chore. Elizabeth pleaded with Kevin to seek out some professional help, someone who could help him cope with losing that many years of his life. He refused. Cutting, hurtful words were hurled at each other, angry tears shed. Neither one wanted to see their marriage fall apart but that's exactly what it was doing, and it was getting worse every day. She loved him more than anyone else on earth, but Kevin's frustrations became more than she could bear and she filed for divorce shortly after their fourth wedding anniversary.

Everyone in the town was shocked. Kevin looked devastated when she handed him the papers, more hurt than she had even seen on a human being. Deep in her gut, though, Elizabeth knew she was doing the right thing. This is how it had to be.

That is, until he had showed up today. Suddenly he didn't seem like the distant, confusing man she'd left behind in the divorce; he was, in essence, everything that she'd imagined a middle-aged Kevin should be: confident, smart, and on top of things.

Elizabeth was interrupted from her thoughts by a quick knock on her door. "Come in!" she called as she smoothed out her blouse. Kay entered with a smile to greet her, with Jay right behind him.

"Mrs. Reston, nice to meet you finally! I'm Jay," he said warmly, shaking her hand.

"Hi Jay, you can call me Elizabeth. Come on in, sit down."

"We brought you some food," Kay said, handing her their leftover Thai as they all sat down.

"Oh thanks! I'm famished," Elizabeth said, tearing into the food. "They sent down a meal a little while ago, but it didn't look edible."

"Probably wasn't. Not for humans, anyway. So how're you feeling? Any better?"

Jay stared at his partner in amazement. He was smiling. Broadly. And he actually sounded…happy.

"Yeah, I feel fine now. How about you? How's your head?" Elizabeth reached out and touched Kay's forehead; this time he let her. He'd forgotten how soft her touch was.

"Fine, its fine," he said, not taking his eyes off her and grinning stupidly. "Just fine."

Kay and Elizabeth looked like they could continue staring at one another for another millennia, so Jay cleared his throat loudly. "Excuse us, Elizabeth, but we need to get going." He grinned. "Lotta work to do. Savin' the world and all." He made his way towards the door, only to see that Kay wasn't following. "You comin'?"

"You go on. I'll see you later, slick."

Jay looked at Kay strangely. "Can I talk to you out in the hallway for a second?" Kay followed Jay out into the hallway, shutting the door behind them. Jay put his hands on his hips. "Man, what are you doing?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. Does your face hurt?"

"Why?"

"Because I've never seen you smile that much. Look, you're the one who's always going on about not getting emotionally involved, and as your partner I gotta tell you, you gettin' emotionally involved."

"Look son, I was checking up on her to see if she was all right. She's had a trying day."

"Bullshit. I know what those looks you're giving her mean, I'm not stupid. When a man looks at a women like that, the last thing that look means is, 'Gee are you all right after almost being kidnapped by an alien?'."

"You don't know the first thing – "

"The hell I don't. You're not the only one to have lost someone you love, you know that. I know exactly what it feels like. But I also know that there's too much risk here." He sighed. "Look, I'm only telling you this because I don't want to see you get hurt. I know you missed your girl while you were away from her. Anyone would. And I know how hard it must be to be next to her and not feel and talk and look at her in that way."

"That's where you're wrong," Kay said darkly, looking Jay directly in the eye. "You have no idea how hard it is."

Jay looked away, defeated. "I just…don't want to see you doing something now that you'll regret later, that's all."

Kay stared bullets at Jay for a moment, not speaking a word. Jay fumbled with his coat buttons, not wanting to look his partner in the eye. Kay whispered in a fierce tone, "Earlier today you wanted to know 'what was with my attitude.' This is why. Its because you make smartass comments when you don't know the first thing about what you're talking about. You've been in this game eight years, and I would have thought you'd grown up by now."

This did it. Jay looked up with a fiery gaze. "Kay, I'm telling you this as your friend."

"You're not my friend, junior. Never have been, never will be."

The words stung deeply but Jay fought to keep his cool. "Fine," he said crisply. "I guess this is where we part company, huh? From now on we work together, period. Partners. Only because we have to be."

"Sounds good to me."

Without a second glace, Jay strode with a furious pace as fast as his legs could carry him away from the holding wing. Kay watched him go, then slid back inside the door, trying hard to ignore the memory of Jay's hurt face. "What's the matter?" Elizabeth asked from the couch where she was finishing up her dinner.

"Nothing," he whispered, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Just a bit of business."

"Come sit with me," she said, patting a spot next to her. He did. "Now tell me. What's the matter?"

"My partner. He just…he means well, but well…"

"Well what?"

"I don't know. I probably shouldn't have said what I just said." He sighed. "I'm just sort of…worried about this case, you know what I mean?"

"Do all your cases get you this worked up?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because…well…" He looked up at her. "Because this one centers around you. I have a lot more to lose this time." Kay turned his gaze towards the floor. "You wanna know something I've never told anyone before?" he asked softly.

"Yeah, I do," Elizabeth answered, placing a hand on his arm.

"When I…when I'm working on a case, and it involves some sort of alien species taking over the Earth or destroying it, I found a long time ago that doing it just for that reason wasn't enough."

"What do you mean?"

"When you live in the city, and you're all alone, and no one knows you and no one cares…you get to wondering if maybe it's even worth it to save the Earth. You see all the bad things in life. You see all the low-lives, all the crime, all the greed…and you get to wondering why you care so much. You start to wonder what you're even fighting for. What are you risking your life for? A bunch of criminals? Thieves? Greedy, selfish humans who don't give a damn whether you live or die? No, that doesn't give you much to fight for. But I figured out a way to care."

"How's that?"

"I think about you. I think about you, and your family, and your town, and how if I don't stop this invasion, it might very well mean the death of you and everyone you care about. When I'm fighting, I'm thinking, 'I'm doing this for Elizabeth. I can't let her down.' Then, and only then, can I fight."

Elizabeth smiled and wondered how many billions of lives had been saved simply because the man sitting there cared about her. She kissed him gently on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered. "That may be the best compliment anyone has ever gotten."

Kay smiled and touched her cheek. "God, I missed you Liz," he murmured.

"I missed you too," she whispered.

Kay leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. To his surprise, she returned in kind, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him closer. He touched her gingerly, as if not quite sure if this was really happening or if he had fallen asleep at his desk again and was dreaming. But when Elizabeth switched off the lights and began to loosen his tie, he knew that, dream or not, there wasn't anyplace on earth he'd rather be.