The car came to a stop, and in the passenger seat my stomach lurched.
"I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"That's the loss of blood from yesterday talking."
Pause.
"Do you really think I should be doing this?" I said, looking over at the man behind the wheel whom I had come to trust with very scared eyes and an uncertain heart. My hand was gripping the seat belt and I had never been so frightened of anything in my life, not even a melee in which myself and my partner had both been wounded.
Weiss nodded. "You've gotta have closure, right?"
I was still staring.
"You don't have much time," he said, reaching over and undoing my seat belt for me. "I'll be here when you get back."
I nodded more to myself than to him and stepped out of the car. The first distance was slow, but I forced myself to at least pretend I was confident as I crossed the street and entered the LAX international terminal. It was light with mid-day traffic but nothing spectacular. Nothing to distract me from the penetrating task at hand.
I walked over to check the video screens and get the necessary flight information. It only took me a minute to pick out the flight that was leaving in twenty minutes for London. With a resigned sigh I turned and headed for the escalator that ferried me upstairs and then I located where I had to go next. This was it; I was really doing this. Once I got to the gate there wasn't any turning back.
With that in mind I started walking down the concourse. If not now, when, right? Something like that.
*Love I hope you won't be late
You know how much I hate to wait
Believe, my heart is in your hands
And our life is like a song*
The memories all started to come together in my mind. The way Michael could communicate with just a look exactly what he was thinking and feeling. He always seemed to be right there when I needed someone to turn to. The many nights I sat up and cried over him and whatever it was I must have done wrong. How we fought side by side time and time again (okay, twice) and always seemed to pull through. How he could never tell me he loved me when I loved him. The way he said my name, like it had its own special meaning, its own special place and purpose in the world, in his world…
"Brittany. I was hoping you'd come."
Jarred out of my thoughts I looked up and over and there he was. I froze for a second. I was standing in the middle of the concourse and there he was next to me with all of his luggage. Shouldn't he be across the room waiting for a plane? Or on the plane, actually? I stared at Michael, who just gave me time to process it.
"I thought you were leaving."
"Vaughan called about half an hour ago. Since we've confirmed the presence of Code Fives in the U.S., Pearse wants someone to survey the spread. It was going to be him until about two weeks ago … but now he's changed his mind." Watching the shocked look on my face turn to amazement, he repeated, "I'm staying. I don't know for how long but I'm staying."
*When you sing along
Baby, let it go
Believe me, believe me
I would wait forever and more
For that open door
Believe me, believe me*
Feeling a rush of emotion I didn't know what to do with, I looked back at him. "Am I dreaming?" I had to ask.
Michael reached out and took my hand, squeezing reassuringly as he'd often done. "You tell me."
I hesitated just a moment, then launched myself into his arms. Feeling the strength of his embrace, his steady, almost metronomic, heartbeat, and the familiar tingling sensation as he kissed my forehead, I knew all the stress and the insecurity was running out of me. I knew it wasn't perfect but we would work on that. I was just relieved we had a second chance and I was going to take it.
Everything I had thought had just been destroyed, and I couldn't feel happier.
*Life is more than we can know
And faith is something we could show
I would love, I would lie
I would give, I would die
'Cause our life is like a song*
As we pulled away, he chuckled. "I knew you'd be happy … but you've surprised me yet again."
I was able to smile. "So what happens now?"
"CIB's still got me on their payroll and they're covering my expenses. I just have to get to work. I may have to borrow some of your resources." Looking over at me, "But I doubt that's what you were really talking about."
"Actually, it was … but yeah." I laughed. "My brain is … it's completely shot right now."
Michael smiled. "You're unique, you know?"
"Right." I rolled my eyes.
"No, I'm serious." Yet we were laughing anyway.
*When you sing along
Baby, let it go
Believe me, believe me
I would wait forever and more
For that open door
Believe me, believe me*
"Right, now moving on…" Michael regained his composure first. "Since I'm going to be here a while, there's something I wanted to ask you."
"If you can borrow my gadgets? They're not mine, you know, they're Lex's."
"That wasn't it." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Would you like to go out and have dinner with me sometime?"
I didn't have to think. "I've been waiting a long time to say yes."
"You can stop waiting." Another pause. "I suppose we should get the hell out of here and get on with it, then."
"Yeah, I think you're right."
*Sometimes we draw the line
And people remain where they don't belong
It's so easy to say what you need
Sometimes it just goes away*
All the stress of the last more than a month had soon become a mockery as we walked from the airport terminal out across the street to where Michael had parked the CTU car with the keys safely stored for one of our agents to pick up later. He found the CIA's security compartment, stored his luggage, and unlocked the car. Thankfully my blood was out of the passenger seat, and the passenger door, and the passenger carpet … you get the idea. There'd been a relatively small but steady bleeding incident.
"I should probably go back and get started," Michael said. "So I'll pick you up from work tonight?"
"Fine with me. Do you want me to make…"
"…No, leave the arrangements up to me. And there's something else I forgot to tell you."
"What is it now, Mike?" I said, suspicious already.
Michael closed the already short distance between us and kissed me. It was the kiss I'd been waiting for since I'd gotten hooked on 80's films and become convinced I was going to run off with Andrew McCarthy. "I'm falling in love with you," he told me, and we left it on that note. There's no better note to leave it on.
*When you sing along
Baby, let it go
Believe me, believe me
I would wait forever and more
For that open door
Believe me, believe me*
"I owe you one, Eric," I said as I climbed back into the car.
"You do not."
"Oh, yes I do. Turns out he's been assigned to stay and slay for a bit."
"You serious?"
"Yeah."
"There's more of those blood-sucking bastards?"
"Um … maybe."
"Damn."
"And he finally said it."
"Really?"
"Well, not it exactly, but…"
"I don't care, do you know how lucky you are to even get an approximation of that?"
I felt a laughing fit coming on. "Yeah, I know."
"I think we're all existing in your own lucid dream or something."
"Can we just get on with it?" I said, laughing again anyway. "You know, world to save, people to drive crazy…"
Weiss smirked devilishly at me as he gunned the engine. "You know, this is just the beginning."