6. Watching her
Leave
He stood against the railing as he calmly watched her walk away from him and
into the airplane. The tunnel going to the airplane. Whatever it was, she was
walking away.
And immediately, even though he had promised himself that he wouldn't, that he
couldn't, that he needed to get sleep this time, he felt the familiar
hold of fear grab onto him and slowly crystallize around his heart.
From this moment on, he had no way of initiating contact with her. It didn't
matter that this mission was simple. It didn't matter that she would be back,
if the mission went perfectly, by midnight.
All that mattered was he couldn't see her.
He couldn't protect her.
And he was finally starting to realize what people meant when they claimed he
had too much of a personal interest in his asset.
A voice fizzled into his ear. "Dude, if you keep staring at the spot she used
to be, you're going to start a fire."
He jumped but then quickly regained control of himself, not moving at all but
to say "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You don't know what i'm talking about? Oh my Lod, Michael, are you
seriously thinking that I'll believe that sh*t? You know EXACTLY what i'm
talking about.
But just in case you don't, let me clear this up for you. You love her. You are
protective of her. She's on the plane and not within calling distance.
Therefore you will not sleep tonight. You will toss and turn and worry until
you can't take it anymore and end up calling me at 3 in the morning only to say
something completely idiotic like "did I wake you up?" because
of COURSE you will have woken me up... I"M not in love with anybody! And
even if i WAS, I'd still go to sleep at night becuase i'm NOT neurotic. But
will you care? Will that or this change your mind? No. And that my
friend, is what I'm talking about."
Michael adjusted his ear-piece. "Did you take any breaths at all during
that spiel, Eric?"
"No."
"I thought so. Don't worry about me, Eric. Of course I'm going to be
worried. This mission was penned by me. If it doesn't work, it'll be my head.
I'm not going to call you."
"Sure. Right. Okay. I'll be waiting for your call. Actually, I won't. I'll
be sleeping. But I'll be expecting it anyway."
As the click told him that the conversation was over, he couldn't help thinking
how much he wanted to be able to convince himself.
~:~
So far, so good.
He had come back from the airport, hadn't thought about Sydney the whole time.
The Kings had taken up about 2 minutes of the ride back.
It was 6:00 already so she had to have landed. She must be in costume getting
ready to enter the building. Only 12 more hours until it was a satisfactory
time to call Weiss and gloat the he hadn't called him during the night.
But he had to sleep first.
And he knew he would lose even as he was cheering himself on.
Already, he was having visions about mistakes, was mentally reviewing his
countermission letter by letter. He didn't have photographic memory. It had
memorized itself because he had read it about 40 times.
Looking for mistakes.
But now... for some reason, he was sure that there was one. Because there
always had to be one. Every murder committed is done with at least 14 mistakes.
If the murderer can think of 7, he/she is a genius.
He didn't feel like a genius.
In his head, he saw Sydney caught, trapped, gunned down maybe.
He went over to the wine cabinet like he always did; corks a glass. Just enough
to elevate his mood. Not enough to get drunk. That would not be an advisable
mood to be in should help be needed.
~:~
By the time he clambered into bed, he had been praying for sleep to come to him
for 10 minutes. During the time he washed his face and brushed his teeth, the
only words that rolled around his head were "God, please let me sleep
tonight."
He doesn't mind being awake.
He minds the worry.
~:~
He did finally fall asleep.
But not for long.
The dreams were about to start.
The End
"The Beginning"?????????
Why is it the end?
1) It seems fitting that the story would start from the moment Sydney leaves
and he realizes the problem that is between the two of them and tries to
alleviate it and that it would end with her leaving him yet again.
2) I'm not the writer for this story anyway... inspiration has left me and I'm
afraid that I have disappointed this story greatly with this last chapter.
3) This story goes backwards so there really is no ending... anywhere is good.
sorry~
Hope if entertained you at least mildly in the beginning chapters (I actually
loved the first one and the rest until this one were okay)
-jenn
hmmm... just read it over again and the beginning is okay... the ending just
sucked. Which is, actually, an awful way to end a story but oh well~
